Finally Home!!!

Hello from Grandville MI!!!!
Holy Smokes, you have no idea how awesome it is to say that.  As of last night at 11pm, we will always be a family of 5!!!  What an emotional days of traveling home is was.  We left China Wednesday morning - we started off the day in the lobby waiting for our guide.  Oops, something happened with her alarm and it didn't go off.  We were about to just leave for the airport but thank GOD Jeffrey had the front desk ring her room.  She felt terrible but we were off to the airport.  When we went to check in to our Beijing flight, the airline said 3 Hawley's didn't have any reservations...  Um, remember when I said a few blog post back that the Hawley's should not be traveling internationally?  Well, the pattern seems to have returned.  We were able to get on the next flight to Beijing and able to make our connection.  We had an hour delay on the Beijing flight to Detroit.  Good grief!!  Megan did ok on each flight.  She slept quite a bit on the long flight from Beijing but she was restless and kept crying out in her sleep.  Jeffrey slept about 10 minutes and I managed to get a few hours at most because Megan took up her seat and most of mine while she slept.  Finally in Detroit Megan was officially checked in as a US citizen by a rather crabby man but he did manage to say Congratulations.  Nice, huh?  Now we just need to get to Grand Rapids...  well, again things are not going to go smoothly.  1st we were delayed due to no cabin crew...  Then we were delayed due to no pilots.  Seriously!!!!  Then once we got down the jet way and the power goes out on the plane...  yep, what a day of travel.  We arrived in GR about 10 minutes late but we were finally HOME!!!!

We were greeted by my awesome family of my mom & dad, brother Mark, sister Nina and Jack & Emma, sister Bridget and brother in law Nick, Collin and Vivian!!!  AND, the 2 most amazing boys I could ever ask for - Jacob and Alex.  It was so awesome to see and hug them. The boys were emotional that we were home, but to finally have their sister home took the prize.

We drove home as a family of 5 - so weird but welcomed!!!  We drove down into our drive way colored with pictures and words with bright colored calk!!  Even some arrows to the front door in case we forgot the way!  Ha!!  Inside  - Holy Smokes - was a sea of balloons, a welcome home sign made by my awesome niece Emma, a crap load of cookies, flowers, food, and candy.  Thanks to all of my family for such a great welcome home surprise! Amazing still almost 12 hours later.  The boys couldn't stop playing with Megan and showing her all her new stuff.  She was in 7th heaven with everything.  We had to tell the boys to head to bed around 1:30 am but they didn't want to leave Megan.  The love her so much!!!  Megan even let Jacob hold his hand and pick her up shortly after we got home.  He quickly told Jeffrey that he beat him as it took Megan 3 days to do those things with her Papa.

Megan slept from 2am - 6 am which was shocking but she didn't go down without a fight.  Poor poopsie.  Not sure how she'd do in her big girl bed, Papa volunteered to settle in with our little chestnut.  I checked in on them at 4 and Megan was sleeping sideways and Jeffrey was all crammed up against the side rail.  See, she takes up a lot of room for a 21 lb little 2yr old.

We will see how the rest of the day goes from here sleep wise.  Megan has her 1st doctor appointment today at 3 pm.  She still has terrible amount of junk in her chest even after being on an antibiotic since we got her.  Any who, it's a crap shoot from here as to how long the jet lag lasts.  Hopefully, we will beat it very soon. 

As always keep us in your prayers!  Thank you so all the love and support each of you have given us. 

Coming home!!!!

I will make this short and sweet!!! Come tomorrow am (Wednesday in China) we will be on our way HOME!!!! Back to the boys, my sweet Lily, our home, our bed, our laundry facilities, our kitchen, our cars, less traffic, less hustle and bustle, far less spitting and hacking going on, less staring, BBQ pizza at Uccellos... Can you tell we've been gone 15 days!??!?!?!!??!?!

It will be a long marathon getting home. We leave the hotel at 5:50am Wednesday (that's 5:50pm, Tuesday in Michigan) and are due to arrive in Grand Rapids Wednesday night at 10:50pm. That's a whopping 29 hours of airports and airplanes!

Please keep us in your prayers for a safe flight home and that Megan does well each leg of our journey. Also, keep our adoption buddies in your prayers as they all venture home tomorrow and Thursday. They are all such a great group of people that we will miss dearly.

Enjoy your day and we hope to have your meet Megan very soon. One of our friends told us the jet lag coming back is absolutely terrible, especially for kids... I seriously about cried when they told us that. If you can add a few extra prayers that the jet lag isn't so bad, especially for Megan, we'd appreciate it so much!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Visa Appointment Day!!

We had Megan's visa appointment this morning at the US Consulate. It was a pretty straightforward process. We had to give an oath on behalf of Megan that all of the documentation and information was accurate and true. Then we had a one on one "interview" with a consulate employee who pretty reviews all of our documents necessary to immigrate the little one out of China into the good ole US of A! Everything was in order and he said there is a 99% chance that we'll get her visa tomorrow (Tuesday) by 3:00pm. We are hoping that we don't fall into the 1% category because we have an 8:00am flight on Wednesday and it would be a very bad situation if we were delayed. We are so ready to be home! When we arrive into Detroit and go through immigration, once they approve her paperwork, she will officially be a US citizen! Yay!!

The rest of the day was very low key again. The weather was dreary and it rained/misted most of the day. That made it too chilly to go swimming and no fun to go check out the park. We did take a walk and looked through a few shops. We had snacks for lunch and ate at McDonalds again. We really weren't feeling too daring to go out on our own to find something else. At this stage in the journey, we're playing it pretty conservative as far as food goes.

Miss Megan loves her new "squeaker" shoes and stomped all over the hotel room to make them squeak. She's so darn adorable! She's starting to understand her manners, too. When she wants something, instead of pointing and grunting, we make her point, grunt, then say please. Of course it comes out as "PLAHHH!" in quite an angry, impatient way, but hey, she's a work in progress. :)

We're hoping tomorrow is our final full day in China and we begin the journey home!

 

Sunday aka 3 days left!!!

Hello again!  3 more days people!!!!  We are so looking forward to being home but not looking forward to the long flights home but we neeeeeeeeeeeeed to be home.



Today we made a trip to Shamian Island - a very popular island of shopping, restaurants and parks.  It was hotter than all get out (not complaining but just stating fact) but we managed to see quite a bit of the island.  We bought Megan a pair of squeaker shoes - a must have for Chinese children.  : )  One of the "must do's" while shopping is to bargain.  You never pay the price listed. This was quite entertaining.  No matter what price you say, the shopkeeper acts like you're robbing them.  "Oh no, I make no money at that price!"   We really enjoyed it.  Jeffrey pulled a Pawn Stars line when bargaining with one shopkeeper.  We talked her down from 190 to 145, but we really wanted to see if we could get to 140 (about $23.00).  She spoke very good English and she thought she had us at 145.  Jeffrey smiled and said to me, "I really like her!"  and paused for the effect, then said, "Let's pay her the 140!!"  She laughed at us and said, "OK, OK, you got me, 140".  What a riot!



After the island we spent some time in the pool.  My girl loves the pool!!  However, only when Papa is holding her.  She's very content to just let him carry her around in the pool, sometimes splashing, sometimes just checking everything out.  : )

Tonight we went to dinner at a local restaurant with a big group of our travel families and had to quickly pick up our chop sticks techniques we learned in Beijing.  We love eating with them.  What an adventure.  ha!!



It's a quick post for today.  We have to get Ms. Crabby Pants in bed.  She woke up from her afternoon nap in quite a mood.  She's currently sitting with her legs under the crib.  I wonder if she'll do this in her room at home with her bed.



Did I mention that we really miss home??  WE REALLY REALLY DO!!! : )

The countdown has begun!

We are now into countdown mode!!!!  4 more nights and we are on our way home.  It feels as if we have been in China forever.  We are more than ready to get home and back to a routine that fits our family.



This morning was a bit emotional for me.  The internet connection has been terrible here in Guangzhou and we haven't been able to see the boys for but a few seconds before the connection is lost.  Well, this morning I saw the boys and bawled.  Luckily the connection was lost and I was able to regain my composure when I finally got a good connection back.  They are doing so well!!  We have been so blessed with some awesome family and friends that have helped the boys out.  The best sitter ever: Jennifer.  She watched the boys for us for 5 yrs while I was working full time and now 5 yrs later she is with them again while we are in China.  My sister, Nina, for taking the boys on the weekends, coordinating baseball games and just being there for the boys for any support they needed even though Jennifer was with them.  The boys coaches /wives and our friends (Craig & Christy HIll and Mick & Barb Puhar) have been such a blessing with picking up the boys for each game.  I am not sure what we would have done without them.  Not sure how we can ever thank each of them enough.



Keeping it emotional, I am still so amazed at how lucky and blessed we have been since we got here.  Not only am I so grateful for our daughter and to have her in our arms (we just can't stop kissing that little chestnut) but grateful that we have met and bonded with some of the best people. We have traveled every step of the way with Michael, Brandi, Maddox and now Max and they are awesome!!  The have been great adoption and travel buddies but they have also been such a great source of comfort, positive energy and laughs.  I am not sure we could have made it as far as we did without them.  Last night we were able to meet up with Jeff and Charika and their new son, too.  They just became 1st time parents to a 2yr old little dude and they are pros now!  Outside of our original travel group we met up with Meghan, Corey and their new little 2yr old daughter - they are from Traverse City.  Also, we met Elizabeth & Edward - they are from Grand Haven.  They brought their 5 yr old they adopted a yr ago and adopted his best friend from the orphanage this time.  How awesome is that????  They have a 15 yr old and a 12 yr old at home in MI.



It has been a quiet day.  Today was the first day that we didn't have to be up by a certain time for any adoption appointment or tour.  It is amazing just how bad we needed a day like today.  Breakfast when we wanted, a brief walk to a beautiful park (Megan decided to start falling asleep and I didn't want her to nap just yet so we could give her a good nap after lunch), a quick dip in the pool until it started raining.  Megan's not hip on getting her face wet (such a Princess!) so we tried waiting it out for a bit to see if the rain would clear but it began to rain harder.  Back to the room we went only to have it turn sunny by the time we changed out of our suits.  Go figure!  Jeffrey had a meeting to go over US Consulate paperwork for Megan.  We need all our ducks in a row so we can immigrate this little beauty out of this country.  



Thank you to all of you at home.  Your love and support is overwhelming!!

We are bad parents-we haven't taken 1 photo of our girl today but below are a few from the last few days. 

this guy's cell phone was massive!!! 

Delayed blogpost

Sorry for the delay.  Yesterday (Thursday for us) was a pretty stressful day with travel. More on that in a bit.  We started off the day going to see the place where Megan was abandoned.  It was about a 30 minute drive from the hotel.  When we got there the hospital was completely demolished.  : (  Our guide John said that when the government wants to expand, they expand and will demolish everything they need to.  What is the real bummer is that the hospital was still standing a month ago...  Ugh, I wish we could have seen it and taken pictures.  I think this will be one of the questions she asks when she gets older but what can you do?  We have plenty of pictures of the rubble...



Next on the schedule was heading to Guangzhou.  Things started out rough with yet another flight delay.  Geesh, it seems to be they Hawley way to travel internationally.  The Jinan airport was fairly new but when we were ready to get on board the plane we had to get on a bus.  We thought, ok it will take us to the jet way.  Ummmmmm nope.  It took us out on the tarmac and let us off by our plane.  It wasn't bad until a big 'ol jet pulled up right next to us with its engines going!  This somehow doesn't seem safe but what do I know?



Megan did great on her plane ride until we had to descend and and she was beyond tired.  She screamed and screamed...  I felt terrible but she'd throw a bigger fit if Jeffrey or I even touched her.  Luckily her cry isn't loud and Michael behind us said that he could hear her but it wasn't bad at all.  However, the lady a row behind us on the opposite side kept standing up staring at us.  Even while we were landing!!!!!!!!!



Any who, 2 hours late getting in and then trying to get settled into a new hotel was our limit for the  3 of us and we had to be up and ready by 9 for Megan's medical apt.



Our Friday morning has gone very well.  All three hotels we have stayed at do a great job with breakfast.  We eat french toast, eggs, bacon, croissants and hash browns.  We do not starve in the morning.



After breakfast, we met Shiyan, Bethany Christian's In-country Adoption Director.  She's with us until we fly out next week (only 6 more nights!!).  We went to have Megan's medical examination done for travel.  The little chestnut did great up to the point of her blood draw.  This was not fun as Kelly started heading into the room where they do the draw and the nurses stopped her at the door.  It's not a very good feeling hearing her cry and you can't even hold her to help her.  :(  After she came out of that sobbing, she let her Papa hold her for awhile.  This was a first as usually she's all about Mama.



On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off at Carrefour store.  This is a French version of Wal-Mart in China.  Go figure!  We grabbed some bottled water and snacks to get us through the week.  The little angel just sat in the cart, taking it all in.



Megan has such a great personality.  One of her favorite things to do is look at the book we had sent her that has a picture of Jacob, Alex, Mommy & Papa, and of course, Lily.  She flips through the thing all of the time.  She does a cute little surprise face every time she gets to Lily.  She points and laughs and says, "gou" (dog in Chinese).  We say "Lily" and she says "La La".



The afternoon will be pretty quiet so there probably won't be another post.  We'll probably go check out the pool and kid's playground.  We're looking forward to reuniting with our Beijing tour friends, Jeff and Charica.  They are due in this afternoon and we can't wait to hear how their last five days have been.



: )

 Megan's finding spot

 she's a safety girl!! 

 who falls asleep with their shoes in hand???

Finally!!!!! 

Wednesday!

Wednesday!

Today was our final full day in Jinan City, the place where Megan has lived her whole life.  This morning, Michael and I (Jeffrey) went to visit the Jinan Children's Welfare Center.  We were able to see where Megan had play time and played with her classmates.  We also learned that she was actually staying with a volunteer family in an apartment attached to the main orphanage building.  This is where she slept and had her meals.  She slept in a tiny bed with a red Telly-Tubby.  I met the father of the volunteer family and he was very gracious and smiled greatly when we spoke of Megan.  They called her "Li zi" which means chestnut.  It was very cute how all of the caretakers were asking where she was.  And then they had to explain to all of the children that I was Li zi's Baba.  :)  It was quite extraordinary and I could have easily taken a couple of sisters home for Megan right there.  They said please bring her back when she was older.



Kelly stayed back at the hotel while I visited the orphanage.  We didn't want to confuse her with bringing her back there. Little Miss Megan was quite a pistol for her and her stubbornness is going to be that pretty little girl's downfall.  After a morning nap, she was much improved.  I guess a princess needs her sleep.



In the afternoon we visited Black Tiger Spring where the city's natural springs are located.  The city of Jinan is known as the City of Springs.  They are located right in the middle of the city.  Many people come there every day to fill water jugs.  It's pretty fascinating how all of these people come and hang out at the springs.  We even saw a pool off to the side for people to play in so they would stay out of the springs that people were filling their water jugs in.



After the springs, we walked through "Old Street" that was one of the oldest parts of the city.  It was very crowded with vendors and people and a bit stinky!  After "Old Street" we walked along Daming Lake.  There were several people having wedding photos taken as it was a very beautiful area.



That about wraps of today's events.  The little chestnut is now sleeping quietly and her Mama and Baba are getting tired, too.

Megan's foster Father

Megan's bed

Megan having a moment to herself... 

totally ready!!

Low key day

Greetings! 1st night with Megan went much better than we expected. Although she went to bed crying, it was just for a few minutes and she was out. She slept all night and we had to wake her at 8 for breakfast. She was happy and ate a boat load! Especially watermelon. I think she may give Jacob a good run for the money when we get home. She eats everything I put in front of her which is something unheard of for our kids.

We spent a few hours at the museum with our friends Brandi, Michael, Maddox and their new son Max. They too are transitioning well and we're so happy for them. We can't wait to hear all about our other friends Jeff & Charika on how things are going with their 1st son. After the museum we came back to the hotel. Megan spent some one on one time with her Papa while I snoozed. Megan will let Jeffrey do just about anything for her with the exception of hold her hand while walking (she thinks it's a big game with Jeffrey) and she cries when he holds her. It breaks my heart but I know it is only for a couple of days. Megan isn't used to having males around her but this is very common for orphans.

Since Megan seemed to love her bath yesterday we figured in trying the pool. Boy she sure looked adorable in her suit. She loved the pool. Jeffrey was in the water and we stayed in a 3 inch water area. She played with Jeffrey splashing around. When I walked away to get towels Jeffrey managed to get her all the way in the water. I turned around and they were walking back and forth and she wasn't crying!!! She loved it.

We went to the local store for some diapers for Jeffrey to take to the orphanage tomorrow. As much as i'd love to see it, I am staying back with Megan. We both discussed that it would be far too confusing to Megan right now. It will be great to be able to she her when she gets older where she came from.

Any who, we are off to bed. Megan cried herself to sleep again. We hope this doesn't last much longer because it's so sad to hear her cry.

We miss the boys and Lily terrible and wish we were home. Only half was there... 

Greetings! 1st night with Megan went much better than we expected. Although she went to bed crying, it was just for a few minutes and she was out. She slept all night and we had to wake her at 8 for breakfast. She was happy and ate a boat load! Especially watermelon. I think she may give Jacob a good run for the money when we get home. She eats everything I put in front of her which is something unheard of for our kids.

We spent a few hours at the museum with our friends Brandi, Michael, Maddox and their new son Max. They too are transitioning well and we're so happy for them. We can't wait to hear all about our other friends Jeff & Charika on how things are going with their 1st son. After the museum we came back to the hotel. Megan spent some one on one time with her Papa while I snoozed. Megan will let Jeffrey do just about anything for her with the exception of hold her hand while walking (she thinks it's a big game with Jeffrey) and she cries when he holds her. It breaks my heart but I know it is only for a couple of days. Megan isn't used to having males around her but this is very common for orphans.

Since Megan seemed to love her bath yesterday we figured in trying the pool. Boy she sure looked adorable in her suit. She loved the pool. Jeffrey was in the water and we stayed in a 3 inch water area. She played with Jeffrey splashing around. When I walked away to get towels Jeffrey managed to get her all the way in the water. I turned around and they were walking back and forth and she wasn't crying!!! She loved it.

We went to the local store for some diapers for Jeffrey to take to the orphanage tomorrow. As much as i'd love to see it, I am staying back with Megan. We both discussed that it would be far too confusing to Megan right now. It will be great to be able to she her when she gets older where she came from.

Any who, we are off to bed. Megan cried herself to sleep again. We hope this doesn't last much longer because it's so sad to hear her cry.

We miss the boys and Lily terrible and wish we were home. Only half was there...

When someone is tired she goes and sits by her crib. Funny because when we put her in it she screams.

Pool time!

Bath time w/ Papa

One less orphan tonight

Hello! There is one less orphan in the world tonight! Megan arrived to our room at 10:12 this morning. 18 mins ahead of schedule. She's already started off on the right foot in our family. Ha! There were no tears from anyone when she arrived She laughed, played with her toys, ate some Cheerios and even handed out some kisses. We texted Jacob a picture of his new sister while he is at Cedar Point and his response back "she's beautiful". We facetimed Alex and he cried and cried when he saw Megan which made me start crying. I really wished the boys were here to meet her.

It was a very busy day completing the China end of her adoption and getting her passport. We are glad that we only have to do this once! Good grief!

We arrived back at the hotel and ordered room service. Megan had French fries and French toast. 1st meal don't judge. ; )

Things we know about Ms M: She Is so stinkin adorable. she is sassy. she has so many funny faces when she does things. she loved her bath and didn't want to get out. she doesn't like to share. she knows the word "mine". She knows touching Papa's phone is naughty but will turn and bat her eyes and flash an adorable smile. She hated her flip flops when we 1st put them on but when we got back to the hotel she carried them around. She has a terrible cough and junk coming out her nose a color I haven't ever seen before. She hates her antibiotic and spits it out (the next 10 days should be interesting). That's all we know about her so far. : )

Thank you for all the love and prayers! 

Hello! Today was a bittersweet day. Bitter because we had to say good bye to Jeff & Charica as they fly off to their province to get their little boy. We are so excited for them to become 1st time parents. Michael, Brandi, Maddox, Jeffrey and I loaded onto the bullet train to Jinan where we will get out children. The sweet part of the day! The bullet train was nerve racking and fun. So many people waiting to get on but once loaded it was a very fast and smooth ride.

We arrived at the our new hotel and I may not want to leave this place. It is soooooooo nice! We are on the 23rd floor overlooking the busy street.

Tomorrow is THE BIG DAY!!!! We will receive Megan in our hotel room around 10:30am. We are so very ready!! We ask that you say a prayer for us that Megan's transition goes well and that all our legal doc/appointments get processed without any issues. Thank you!










- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Seriously another awesome day

Another Great Day!

It's been another exhausting, yet fantastic day in China. We started out walking through most of Tiananmen Square. Talk about an enormous area. It's almost unreal. Being a Saturday it was fairly crowded. Our tour guide, Tom, said "if we get separated, just keep heading north, we will find you." Maybe that was his nice way of saying "don't get separated". Luckily nobody got lost. We marched north, past the famous portrait of Chairman Mao and went into the Forbidden City. This area was massive. The original throne of the Emperor is still in one of the buildings. It was very cool. It took us two hours to walk the whole way from Tiananmen Square all the way through the Forbidden City.

Next stop were the rickshaws to take us on a Hutong Tour. We thought riding in a van through the crazy traffic was dangerous. Try it in a little rickshaw. It's amazing they don't have a fatality at every corner. It's almost indescribable. The Hutong area is the oldest area of Beijing, predating the Forbidden City. Our tour guide's name was Potato. He told us it was his English name, not his Chinese name. We're not sure who told him Potato was an English name, but maybe he's seen Papa Grande pitch for the Tigers and just liked the name. The Hutong area is a mix of a hip bar scene (frequented by tourist and college kids at night) and a very old neighborhood. We ate lunch at a family's house. This was the best food we have had, yet. The owner of the house actually live upstairs and is a former chef. He started a very small restaurant (2 tables) in the main floor of the house. It was phenomenal. We're getting better and better with chopsticks at every meal so if we have you over for dinner in the future, be prepared. :)

We had some downtime between the morning touring and the acrobatic show in the afternoon so we strolled down the main street near our hotel with Jeff & Charica. The highlight of the walk was stutter stepping in front of a very large bus. They seriously seem to aim for pedestrians. Unreal. We visited Wu Mart (catchy name, huh?) to see what a Chinese version of Wal-Mart looks like. They pretty much had it all. The coolest part was that it was three stories tall, with escalators that you pushed your shopping cart on.

The acrobatic show was great. It started with a guy stacking about 10 chairs a good 20 feet high. He of course did a bunch of amazing balancing feats up there. It was very scary to watch. One of the middle acts was a group juggling straw hats while doing crazy acrobatics. It was great. The final act consisted of 8 motorcycles spinning in a steel ball. We still don't know how they did it.

Our great group!

The emperor's garden in the Forbidden City

This photo needs no description!!!

Lunch

Love from Beijing!

PS less than 48hr and we will have a daughter!!!

An amazing day!

Hi again! What a day today has been. Amazing!! 1st stop today was to a cloisonne factory. They showed us how they make this beautiful art. It takes many days to lay the small copper pieces on to the vase or plate, then 7 layers of paint to color it and then buffers to finish the art. Just crazy that it takes so long to make one piece and it is all done by hand.

Next stop, THE GREAT WALL!!!!! OMG, words cannot express the greatness of this wall. We climbed a section of it and one would think that this should be easy... ummmmm nooooo!!! The steps were very uneven in size and very steep. It was amazing how many friends you meet at the Great Wall while you are suffering to climb all those steps. Coming down was just as hard. Holy smokes! I am so not a heights person so this was very overwhelming. Jeffrey, Michael, Jeff and Charica all made it to the top. Brandi, Maddox, and I made it about half way.

Third stop was to a Jade factory and lunch. Jade is a big industry here and it is also a great craft that takes a lot of patience to make.

Last stop was the Olympic village. What a huge space this is. It must have been one awesome Olympics down there. We walked past the Birds nest, the Water cube, and where the main Olympic torch was lit. By the end of this stop we are all so dang pooped and ready to get back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and then a Chinese acrobatic show in the evening.

Nighty-Night to us and Good Morning to you!



It was a long way to the top!!