We are so thankful - she is amazing!

Hey all,

This is the Aldridge family of 6! She's an absolute doll!

Today began with a minor panic over copies of the passport photos - thanks friends for your efforts there - we ended up solving it here.

After breakfast we went to the office of civil affairs to get MeiLi and do paperwork. (We are three families doing all this together - one family from Omaha and another from South Dakota.) When we arrived we started, the kids were not there yet, so we started paperwork - which was finalizing the adoption. It was all signatures and fingerprints on papers in Chinese -we could have been agreeing to anything - there was generally no English translation.

The kids showed up kind of suddenly - we were fully in it. At 5, MeiLi was the oldest of the three, the others 4 & a half and 3 & a half. She was absolutely incredible! She seemed to have the best grasp on what was going on and so came to us easily. She knew us from her family photo book and within minutes was playing "where's mama? where's baba? where's Qiaoqiao?" games with us. She was even consoling the other girls and enjoying blowing bubbles and playing with her polly pocket dolls.

Our Holt leader for the in-province part of the trip even said, "I've never seen a child do so well."

She let her friend play with her toys to help make her feel better.

We left there to go to another office (this one a storefront) to get her passport photo and a family passport photo - and have ours re-done. From there, we went to a notary. Upon notarization, it is my understanding that the Chinese adoption is final - she is ours. The only backing out is our choice, from that time we have 24 hours. I don't see it happening.

On the bus, Meili had a great time pointing with mama at things out the window. She also got her family photo book out of her backpack to show the other two girls that she has a dog now! It was too cute.

We came back to the hotel and then decided to go out for lunch. She was just perfect. She has no problem being carried by any of the 5 of us, and loves to hold hands and sit in our laps. We were on our own with Allie and Jenna translating in a Chinese only place. We ordered apple juice for the kids - which turned out to be more like an adult cider drink - but MeiLi chugged 2 of them!

We returned to the hotel and split up to our rooms. It didn't take long for one of the other families to show up with their kid having difficulty - but being around MeiLi calmed her down. Afterwards we went to their room for a while - and MeiLi began to have some difficulty. A few hours later (after a couple episodes of sleeping and crying), a Holt staff member showed up. We asked her what was the issue. She said that she wanted to go swimming in the pool. She had never been swimming before.

Off to the pool as a family - we all had a blast. She was laughing and giggling and splashing and kicking and having a great time. On return to the room, she was doing great - totally satisfied. Both other families showed up, we hung out in the room for a while - the kids together are a total hoot - and we all went to the pool again. Everybody had a great time. Well, maybe not so much the staff and other swimmers - we create quite a racket - but we had fun.

She is such a doll. She loves to sing and dance! We had sent her a music cd a couple of months ago with a songbook, and she knows every song in it! Her two little friends know a couple of the songs, and it is absolutely adorable to hear them sing and sing.

She is the most gracious, generous, helpful little girl. When the other girls were sad, she would share her toys to help them feel better; when she had a snack, she gave some to each of us; when she was sad, she let us hold her and comfort her - she didn't push us away. She's so darling.

After dinner we are all getting very tired - including MeiLi. She's cute, adorable and fun - and it REALLY helps that Allie and Jenna can talk to her. I am so thankful they took Mandarin.

We are well, but tired after day that opened with stress but ended with wonderful satisfaction. Thanks so much for your prayers and support.

Too excited!

This is Allie (with bits from the rest of the family)...just wanted to share a few thoughts. (9 more hours till we meet her!!)

First of all, praise God for everything that has happened on our journey so far! Thank You for MeiLi's life, and for all of the doors that have been opened for us to get to her.

We have all been journaling like crazy (and, of course, blogging as well) - It will be interesting once we get her to go back and read what we said about preparing ourselves for it.

We are trying not to have unrealistic expectations - trying to grasp an idea of what ShiQiao is about to go through and to let her transition without pushing expectations on her. However, we ARE expecting God to do huge things. We already know He will do huge things in her life, and it will be in His timing. What we are expecting now, and praying for, is that He will move in our lives - giving us grace and patience and faith.

A couple of things that we found out today - first, that the pictures we have received of MeiLi were not taken at the orphanage, but actually at the day school that the children attend. This is interesting because now we dont really know anything about the place she's been living.
Second, the 2 other girls (also being adopted tomorrow by the 2 other families traveling with us) already know her! We hope that this will make the transition a little bit easier because the 3 of them will be able to continue seeing each other every day for the rest of the trip.

MeiLi -

We already love you so much. We cannot wait to be your family. We bought you some gifts today! We went to the Chinese Walmart (which was very different from the American Walmart) and bought you some coloring books, and stickers, and bubbles, and bilingual fairy tale books to help us learn some more Chinese and you to learn some English.
Our family is very close. We are all very good friends, and we cannot wait to share that with you. I am happy to share mom and dad with you, because they will be so good to you. Someday your sisters will tell you all about the things that mom and dad did for you before they even met you!
We have been praying for you every day. In fact, all of our friends have been praying for you too! We have prayed that God will prepare your heart so that you can see that we love you and are not going to hurt you or leave you.
We think you are so beautiful, and we love you so much. (We all had to take sleeping pills in order to sleep tonight cause we're so excited!!!)
We have all written things to you that we will give you when you are older. I just wanted to write a little bit on your blog to say we love you and we can't wait to meet you.

Why are we here again?

Thanks to all for your kind birthday wishes. After breakfast we started the day with our first step in the adoption process here - an orientation meeting (why are we here again? Oh yeah). We met up with the Holt staff and other families who are here adopting. There are 6 families here - 22 people (and a 7th who must have adopted before, as they are going straight to their provence. We received information about the culture and people of China, the process over the next 2 weeks, and the children we are about to adopt.

After the meeting we had lunch together. There were 2 of our little band with birthday's on the 16th (the other being a grandmother in a family from Chicago). The Holt staff ordered a cake for us (though Chinese tradition is noodles, for longevity - which I would take as well).

After lunch we headed off as a group of a tour of Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City. It was a bright, sunny, hot day in Beijing - so this was a bright sunny hot tour. I've also become accustomed to the pace of 1 guide and the 5 of us, not one guide and the 22 of us - so things slowed down a bit. There are also 20m people in Beijing, and they all decided to visit the Forbidden City with us.

It wasn't quite that bad. You can't really capture the size and grandure of this place in photography because it is broken up by so many courtyards. I mean, first you go through the Tianman Square gate (which you think is the gate to the city), but your just in a walled courtyard - then a false gate and courtyard to entrap attacking enemies - then you start to get into the place. After a series of gates and courtyards you start to get to the main areas in the center. It's all very huge and confusing.

The thing that was the most surprising to me was the area where the emperor lived. I mean, it was kind of small and cramped, not big and grand like I thought an emperor would have. It was probably a lot better than the average commoner, but still, it wasn't much.

After the tour we went to another silk factory - one of the Holt staff me the best deal, a beer for 5 RMB. That's less than a buck. We chatted a couple of guys who were in a group from Norway who had arrived by train across Russia and Mongolia. What an adventure.

After we got back and took group pics, Allie wanted to find the hospital where MeiLi had surgery - so we went to the concierge to ask - and it turned out not to be that far away. She, Emmi and I hired a cab (now we're breaking out on our own again - the driver was not English speaking - so we just had Allie to translate). After a false start and a lot of confusion we eventually found it and took pics so MeiLi would have them later. The driver was really, really nice and helpful - an hour riding around in his car cost about $5. We ordered pizza for my birthday dinner, and found another cake in our room - don't know if it was the hotel, Lotus, Holt or one of you, but thanks just the same.

We started packing, but not very seriously, we leave for Changchun this morning - tomorrow we get her.

Love your comments

Nihao, beautiful friends,

Just a note to say how much your comments mean to us. Even if you just say "Hi!" it is wonderful. As Doug said, We are so immersed in non-American culture, language, food, smells, etc. that little touches of home mean a lot. (That's why he's enjoying his omelets so much!) So please continue to drop us a line when you can - either email, Facebook or this blog. We LOVE it and cherish it!

Bless you guys!
Love,
C

uh, there's a wall there

Hey,

Today's post is a day of pics at the wall. Carolyn did some research before we came - and we took a risk - we arranged some of our tours ourselves - not going through Holt/Lotus - and also decided to arrange some of them when we got here. This one she arranged on the internet - another agency. Our guide, Jenny, turned out to be the best yet - she had an excellent command of English - could even do subtle humor - she was fun, funny, adorable. We had a great time.

We went to the 'ruined' or 'ancient' Badaling section of the wall (for low traffic)- not much restoration here - so the wall is in most places pretty much as was in 1300 with weathering of course.

Some of these areas are have a lot of traffic - like going to a theme park - with cable cars up and tobaggan rides down - we saw maybe 20-25 other people today. This was just as we had hoped - great weather, great guide, great time.
D

This is the wall across the valley from where we climbed - you cannot go up there.

These pics are in the second guard tower up.

Daddy, I dropped my passport . . .

. . . over there

On Our Own!

After 5 days of tour guides, on Thursday we decided to give it a go on our own in the afternoon. We hit the streets of Beijing!!! We walked (and walked and walked). Haven't gone to Snack Street yet (for you Beijing veterans) - NOT looking forward to seeing scorpions-on-a-stick. Have a new respect for Bill, since both our guides have  been quite emphatic about not eating there - ha!

Walked down Pedestrian (or Walking) Street - like Times Square at night, as Doug said. Found a Roasted Duck place to eat. One of our guides' recommendations. So yeah, now we've had the famous Peking Duck! Very yummy but very greasy. Found a Chinese Arts and Crafts mall - SO FUN! I love to shop, so this was a blast. Found a few treasures!

We walked the entire length of the street, coming out on the opposite end, a few more blocks and there was Tiananmen Square!! We walked all the way around the perimeter, people-watching and taking pictures of each building on each side. The south end is the mausoleum for Chairman Mao. It was closed because it was late in the day. One of the funnest things we did, at Jenna's idea, was take a "Where's Waldo" picture. Doug and the girls went into the crowd and I took a picture. You have to find them in the crowd!  We were brave and even split up for the picture.

We feel very safe here. The people here are truly gentle-spirited. They just want peace, and they literally yield their place rather than get upset or demand their way. I'm humbled. The children are so happy here - I have only seen 1 mother use harshness with her child, and it was a beggar woman sending her child to beg from us. Heart-breaking.

All for now - gotta go get ready - today is our hike on the Great Wall!! After an exquisite breakfast, we meet our guide at 8am!!
C

I'll add to Carolyn's post.

Forgive me for enjoying it - but breakfast here was both western and Asian, and so having an omlet and a crepe (not like home, better than I would make at home) was really fun.

And we spent the AM at the Summer Palace - a guided tour.  Our guide, Louis, was very friendly, informative and fun.  The palace is really a collection of palaces, courtyards, a man made lake and hill (it took a million years for a million men to move the dirt from the lake to the hill, well, not really, but you get the idea - everything here is on a grand scale, including this.)  We climbed the hill a bit where there was a pavillion with people singing and playing instruments and dancing.  They invited the girls into the the dance.   We crossed the lake on a dragon boat as well.

On the way back we had the guide drive us through part of the Olympic park - by the "Bird's nest". 
D