Shamian Island

Today we were supposed to go the Zoo but the weather has really bad with lots of really loud thunderstorms.  We went to Shamian Island instead and did a little shopping and walking around.  The area is colonial European arcitecture and was very beautiful.  I didn't find shopping there fun because the shop owners were very over zealous about their merchandise.  I did however find Ivy a pretty silk dress and one for her baby doll.  We ate lunch at a restaurant that had a little bit of everything on the menu.  The walls of the place were covered in pictures of American movie stars.

This is a popular spot for a photo op for newly adopted children.  Ivy would have nothing with these statues and I will spare you the horror of the picture we ended up with.

We went to dinner with another family tonight to a noodle house.  It was delicious and you could watch them hand making the noodles.  Nothing was in English so ordering was an adventure!  We hit the jack pot and liked everything we ordered.  Ivy and Anna Grace are only a month apart.  Anna Grace's family lives in Kentucky and we hope to keep in touch so the girls can be life long friends.

We have to get up early early tomorrow morning for our Consulate Appointment.  Pray all the paperwork goes smoothly!  If the weather is nice then we will also go to the Zoo tomorrow and on a River Boat Cruise of the Pearl River.  We are so close to be headed home.  I have been a little homesick the last two days.  I just cannot wait to hold all three of my children at once.

Rejoice

Rejoice in the Lord always!

A little Vino while you wait

Our medical appointment today started with her Visa picture.  As you can tell she didn't say cheese.

The whole medical appointment went better than we expected.  She's such an intelligent little girl and keeps surprising us.  I felt like I had to convince the doctor that I was a baby nurse and knew how to take care of her needs.  The worst part was when they took her away for the blood draw.  I tried my best to hold it together but she lost it and I lost it.  I couldn't stand to hear her screaming " Mama, Mama" in the room.  Brandon calmed me down and a few minutes later she was back in my arms - she calmed down almost immediately.  I can now understand why they have this in the lobby of the building! It is a stressful place!  

Wine Vending Machine in lobby

$13 - $40 per glass

We went to the local supermarket and bought some more snacks and waters.  I let her pick out some treats and my girl picked out some koala cookies and oreos.  I think she will fit in just fine in our house.  Then we came back to the room and had noodles for lunch.  She is such a happy and playful girl in our room.  

Ivy is taking a nap now and Brandon is in the meeting room filling out her Visa application form.  After her nap we plan on taking a stroll in the beautiful gardens of the hotel.  Tonight we are going to a local Mexican restaurant with three other families and our guide.  Tomorrow our guide is going to take us shopping and I think to a noodle house for dinner.  Ivy will love that.  So far noodles have been her favorite thing to eat.  We won't get our TB results back until Monday afternoon.  Pray we get no call, No call means good news!

Travels with a Toddler

Ivy woke up in a sweet mood this morning and we headed down to breakfast. Then we went back to  our room to quickly finish packing.  Ivy was not very happy about us packing up our room and had a mini melt down.  We then took a 30 minute van ride to the airport.  Well let me tell you girlfriend did not like the airport.  Security just plain stunk and it was a traumatic experience.  She completely came apart when they frisked us.  Then I could not get her to calm down for about 15 minutes.  Everyone was just staring at us.  I felt like yelling at them to help me out people - talk to her and tell her it's okay. I eventually got her calmed down and she was a complete doll baby on the flight.  I can't imagine what is going on in my scared little girl's head. 

We made it the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou.  It is AMAZING! I will take some pictures with my camera tomorrow.  Tonight we ventured out by ourselves and ate at a little hole in the wall Chinese place.  We ordered three different things.  Two dishes were delicious, one we could have done without.  Then we walked to the seven eleven and bought ice cream for dessert.  We have been given strict instructions by the Chinese people to not give our child cold things!  They even heat up the children's water.  We have been scolded once or maybe twice for giving her cold water.  Guess we are just rule breakers.  She loves cold water from my bottle and she sure did love her first ice cream!

Tomorrow is Ivy's medical appointment at the clinic.  She has to get clearance saying she is healthy enough to travel home.  I fully expect a melt down tomorrow because they will need to draw blood for her TB test.  All children over 2 have to get this done and they will take her in another room from me to get her blood.  Um yeah, that should go over great.

Tonight she took an extra long bath.  She loves playing in the bathtub.  She had never taken a bath before this week.  At her orphanage they got rinsed off.  We are really glad to be on the last leg of our trip and closer to being home with the boys.  We miss them so much.  I couldn't help but feel sad to be leaving Hohhot behind.  I wish so much I could thank Ivy's birth mother for giving her a chance at life. 

Baotou

Today we made a 2.5 hour drive to Baotou.  Ivy was so awesome on the whole trip there and back.  She has spent the first two years of her life in the Baotou Social Welfare Institute.  Today was a hard day on all of us.  Ivy was very quiet when we got to the orphanage.  We wanted to visit the orphanage to gather any information about her life before we knew her to share with her later in life.  We know so little and cherish any little bit of history we can find.  Her nannies were very excited to see her and all wanted to hold her.  She let them hold her but quickly wanted back to her mama.  I can't even begin to tell you what this did for my heart.  I am so glad that she finds me as her comfort.  We found out also that Ivy was part of the Half the Sky program - which is some of the best news!  This means she had a consistent trained caregiver that responded to her needs.  It was the same caregiver we saw in all the videos we received before our travels to bring her home.  We received a baby book she made for Ivy with monthly updates and tons of baby photos.  This is so special and we cannot thank this organization enough.  Most international adoptive families will never have something this precious.  We also believe we owe them for how sweet this girl is.

http://halfthesky.org/en

We also visited Ivy's finding spot.  In China, it is illegal to give your child up for adoption, so many families abandon their children in public places in hopes that they will be found very shortly after.  I will not be sharing these photos.  This is her story and we need to respect her privacy.

Tomorrow morning we fly out to Guangzhou.  The US Consulate is located in Guangzhou which is at the the opposite side of the country.  We will be there for the next week to get her Visa to get out of the country.

She loves to be held and kissed.

She is happiest when I am holding her.

She loves to put her face against mine and lets out a big sigh.

At night she falls alseep needing to hold my hand.

Inner Mongolia

  
This morning we went to the local police station to get Ivy's Chinese passport.  After we got that accomplished we went to the Inner Mongolia Cultural museum.  They had dinosaur fossils, and lots of artifacts about the Mongolian people.  Ivy rode in her toddler carrier for the first time today and loved it!  She would cry every time I tried to take her out.  She also loves her sunglasses and wore them through most of the museum.  Girlfriend knows what she likes and will let you know if she isn't happy.  She will only let me hold her but she loves playing with Brandon and is always checking to make sure he is still with us.  Ivy doesn't like her hands to be dirty.  She will stop mid snack and want her hands to be wiped.  She also loves shoes - if I take off her shoes within five minutes she has found them again and puts them back on.  She does everything in a very dainty way from eating to walking.  She loves goldfish snacks and it takes her 3 bites to eat each and every goldfish!  I just can't seem to get enough of her and can't believe she is mine!
  Hohhot has been a totally different experience than Beijing.  Hardly anyone speaks English and it makes things interesting.  Ordering food has been a little difficult.  I wish I was recording Brandon yesterday ordering room service.  The guy kept hanging up on him because he only spoke mandarin.  They don't understand English and they certainly don't understand country english!  It is very rare to see Americans here in Inner Mongolia, so we get lots of stares and they don't understand why we have a Chinese baby.  People are constantly taking our picture and we even saw a man taking a video of us at the museum today.  Today a man asked the guide if I was Russian.  
  Tomorrow we will drive to Baotou to visit the orphanage.  It is about a 2.5 hour drive, so please pray for us to have safe travels.  The traffic here is crazy and we don't have car seats.  The other two couples also want to visit the orphanage so thankfully, we will be sharing a van.  I imagine tomorrow will be the hardest day on our trip.  I can't imagine what sweet Ivy will think when we go back.  I pray she won't think we are taking her back and that she will be happy to leave with us.  We think it is important to visit where she has lived the last two years and tell them how thankful we are.  It is going to be an emotional day to see all the children we cannot take home with us. Adoption is such a beautiful and wonderful thing but the truth is my daughter has come from a broken place to become ours.  I cannot thank God enough for placing adoption on our hearts and leading us to her.  Though it has been a hard journey it has been nothing but amazing and made our relationship with Christ stronger with each step.

Local Mall in Hohhot

Our hotel is surrounded by a very poor area

Our beautiful hotel lobby.  Our agency has a special agreement with the hotel for a discounted rate.

My Little Movie Star

We had to stuff tissues in the front of her shoes.  Her feet are a lot smaller than the measurements they sent us. 

She lights up when her "Baba" plays with her

Orphan No More

We officially adopted Ivy into our family today.  So blessed we are to have this sweet girl in our lives.  She has been nothing but amazing since she came into our arms.  We are so humbled to be chosen as her parents.

Gotcha Day

 Ivy Elizabeth is so beautiful and sweet.  Thank you God for choosing us to be her parents.  She is taking a nap now so I thought I better use my time and update everyone quickly.  We will sign the paperwork to officially adopt her in the morning with Civil Affairs.  She has given us a few smiles which have melted my heart.  Ivy has eaten everything we offered her.  She let me stroke her face while she laid in the crib and fell asleep.  Thank you for all your prayers!  We really felt them and God gave us such a peaceful feeling today.  Today begins a story of redemption.  Thanking God for his Grace.  Pray we have a good first night and help us be there for her as she grieves the loss of everything she has known.

Baby Moon

Today was another beautiful day in Beijing with not too much Smog.  The day was filled with authentic Chinese food, lots of sites, and squatty potties!  Michelle Obama visited the Forbidden City yesterday and that's whey we went today instead.  What was the first lady wearing has been a hot topic on the news.

We visited Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City.  Our guide has been amazing here in Beijing.  She taught us a lot about Chinese history.  The Forbidden City was huge and very crowded.  She said it is crowded every day.  Brandon almost got in trouble through the security checkpoint- he had his knife his backpack.  Luckily he played dumb.  Afterwards we went on a Hutong tour.  We rode in a rickshaw through the Hutong area and were able to stop at a local family's house.  We went inside their house and visited.  The house was over 200 years old.  She had some beautiful decorations but also had a Santa Claus banner hanging which I thought was a little bizarre.

We had lunch at a small Chinese restaurant and everything on the menu was in Chinese.  We let our guide order for us and it was delicious.  Brandon really wanted to see the Birds Nest from the Beijing Olympics so we went there today also.

We went to a local bank to exchange a large amount of money.  They have guards at the door with giant batons with spikes!  It was quite scary and looked like it would hurt.

Tomorrow morning we fly out to Hohhot.  I have loved our time in Beijing but so ready to be closer to Ivy!  It has been really nice to get over jet lag and spend time with just Brandon.  Getting to visit the capital of the country has given us a better understanding of China but I am so ready to get my girl.  Seeing all the little ones here just reminds me more of how my heart aches to get my child.  Only two more nights in the orphanage!

Great Wall of China

We had an amazing day at the Great Wall.  We rode the scary chair lift up and rode this crazy toboggan ride down.

Toboggan Ride Down

                                     

Travel Day one

  It is one in the morning here and it already can't sleep.  We crashed in our beds at 7pm.  We flew yesterday with United into Beijing.  Our flights were smooth minus the last twenty minutes.  I have never gotten sick flying and almost had the joy of that first yesterday.  We each had tv's with on demand choices.  Brandon got caught up watching some of the Oscar nominate films.  While I watched some movies I had already seen but knew I loved.  I was needing light hearted.  The food was alright.  I do have to say I loved the snack( thanks United for the gelato!!).  I didn't like the breakfast they served at the end and probably shouldn't have ate it.  But I didn't know when I would be offered food again!
Our flight came in an hour early.  Customs was easy breezy. Then since we were so early we beat our guide by a few minutes.  In true Heidi fashion I started to panic.  In true Brandon fashion he was calm as ever and told me to cool it.  Our guide "Heidi" showed up a few minutes later with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me.  She had brought her five year old son with her Ethan.  The drive to the hotel took about 40 minutes.  Traffic in Beijing is crazy!  We are very lucky because there is not as much smog expected this weekend.  It was apparently very bad the last two weeks.  You do see a lot of folks wearing their masks around.  I was also really happy that our driver for the weekend has seat belts! Thank You!
We are staying at the Inner Mongolia Grand in Beijing.  The Beijing portion of the trip I had to book on my own.  Our agency takes care of all the booking in Ivy's providential city and consulate city.  So I found a guide who has booked everything for us. Talk about stepping out into faith. But God has certainly been on our side on this trip.
The hotel is very nice.  We cannot figure out the ac unit in room. Every time we try to turn it on it gets to be about 100 degrees or whatever 28 c is.  It sure is hot! So we got the staff to bring us a fan.  And I don't think any of the staff speak English. So that was an adventure itself.  Only disappointing thing is there is no wifi in our room.  So we have to go to the lobby.    I will try to post our pictures tonight from my real camera.  We just have been scared to try and charge it and not blow it up.  We did get the cell phones charged.  Our plans changed a little and we are going to the Great Wall today instead of tomorrow.  Michelle Obama is visiting Beijing today and our guide is worried they will close the forbidden city when she is here.  Thank you for covering us in your prayers.  Please continue to pray for Ivy as her whole world is about to change.  I am feeling so at peace now being in Ivy's home country.  Three more nights in the orphanage and then forever Ivy Elizabeth Setchel.

 

Blackbird Fly

(Un)Adopted

As we are getting very close to our travel dates I cannot help but be sad.  I have had multiple people tell me how "lucky" Ivy is.  Let us be honest.  Orphans, even adopted orphans are not lucky.  Our family is the lucky ones to be her forever family.

•  Most of them have been abandoned and spend their lives in orphanages.
• They will never know their birth families 

 The orphanage is the only place Ivy will have ever known.  We fully expect her to grieve the loss of her nannies and old life.  Adoption is a beautiful thing but comes from a BROKEN path.  

Ivy's orphanage houses around 200 children.  We will only be bringing home ONE of them. 

•  The children that do not get adopted will age out of orphanages by ages 13-16.  What does it mean to age out?  They are put on the street with $20 dollars and no where to go.
•  Most unadopted become trapped in a lifestyle of exploitation.
• Most don't even know how to prepare themselves a meal or have shelter post orphanage.

  I know that not everyone is called to adopt.  So here is how you can help (un)adopted children. The (un)adopted program helps teach these teenagers life skills and basic tools for survival. 

Examples of these skills: sewing, farming, construction, baking, and even skills to help them attend a University.  

Please consider going this link and see how you can make a difference. http://unadopted.org/ 

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

EVERY CHILD DESERVES A FAMILY