She's Here!

Hello Family!

We are back in our hotel.  Natalie has been with us for 4 hours now and everything is going very well.  She cried herself to sleep in her Nanny's arms while we talked with her and a representative from the orphanage.  We were then able to take her to the hotel, Brad carried her.  When she woke up, she, of course, began to cry because she did not know us, but she quieted down quickly.  When Brad tried to put her in the bed she immediately reached up for me, and that made me feel good.  She then proceeded to "size" us up and down for a good two hours.  Those are the pictures of her in the bed.  We then stood her up.  She just stood there for the longest time staring at us, then began to dance in place to Chinese music on the TV.  I mixed up her formula and she drank most of the bottle.  we then decided to go for a walk-she about walked my feet off!  But as soon as she was tired, she reached up to me to be picked up.

She is doing very well.  Tomorrow we go back to the provincial affairs office for the interview and more papers to sign, and then she will officially be ours!  The Nanny said she is a "very independent and stubborn child", and I can already see that.  She is a hefty little girl.  She is not small!  And she is already catching on to things quickly.  I am working with sign language at the same time using the english word to communicate-just the basics right now like, "eat", "all done", "walk", "drink".  As we do more things we will include bath, diaper, sleep, etc.

My poor husband now has whatever I had on Saturday-sick as a dog!  I hope we do not pass it on to natalie.

I would write more, but Brad is now asleep, which he needs, and natalie is wide awake, so I will need to get going.

I will leave the computer on for a couple more hours if anyone wishes to skype us. I hope she sleeps well tonight, because we need to leave the hotel at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Love, Liz

PS:  Babs-brad is not sure if you understood that you can email us!  Infact I think he would very much appreciate hearing from his parents.  It has been a rough couple of lonely days and getting emails from back home has been a tremendous blessing!

Today is the Day God Planned : That You Would Be a Mommy!

1.8:2010: This is Lisa, Liz's friend, and blog coach. :) I have been thinking of Liz and Brad all day as I'm sure all of her friends and family have.

So I wanted to post a special note -- to ask for prayer today for them.

• pray that God give them the comfort of knowing--confidently--that they will know exactly what to do for their Natalie Rose--no matter what it is she needs.
• pray for a smooth transistion for little Natalie Rose. This day will be so traumatic--although a blessing for her.
• pray that Natalie Rose is not frightened and if so, easily comforted. Although her tears are a healthy sign of her ability to bond, it is so terribly hard on the mom and dad's hearts to see their little one hurting so. 

Liz: This is it! It's the day! It's here! You're not dreaming about it anymore. You're not talking about it, or planning for it! It's here. Today, is the day you dreamed all those many years ago. The day you prayed so deeply for. The day you will be a Mommy! This is the day, God will place in your arms, the most amazing little girl, that will forever transform your lives in ways that are too amazing for us to begin to understand or even dream of. The little girl he chose for you and Brad, from the beginning. And oh what an amazing Mommy you'll be! This is truly a miraculous day--and I am so honored to know you and have a front row seat on God's miracle, God's plan for you and your beautiful family.

I'd like to close by encouraging family and friends to leave comments here. Once you leave a comment--it is immediately emailed to Liz and Brad in China. These comments and messages of love and support will bring an amazing amount of comfort and warmth to them--half way around the world.

Beijing Day 2

Tienanmen Square

Tienanmen Square!

Inside the Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City (this is where the emperor and all this family resided. He had some 3,000 wives, so likely there were close to 15,000 wives and children living here! Fasinating!)

Inside the Forbidden City--even in frigid temps visitors swarm to this historical site.

This morning we went to a christian worship service for foreigners. It was very much like the "contemporary" services back home. Our guide also gave us some information about religions in China. There are 5 legal religions in China: Taoism (natural order of the universe), Buddhism (which has been in China for 2000 years), Islam (which you find mainly in western china), Catholic (has been in China since the 16th century), and christian. (Don't you find it interesting that they consider Catholics and Christianity to be separate?) 80% of chinese have no religion, but they do have two philosophies-Taoism and Confucianism. Taoism is a balance between humans and nature. Confucianism is finding balance between human nature and society. Our guide says that anyone in China, except for the military, may choose a religion. She says things are much better today. She can remember as a little girl you could not even speak about religion, but now you can have a religion.

This afternoon we went to Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. I didn't find the Square as impressive as the Chinese find it. It is just a big open space that holds 500,000 people. It was guarded alot like the White House-but we have more security in DC than they did. In no way did I feel "uncomfortable". Now the Forbidden City was overwhelming! Just like everything else here in Beijing, it was HUGE and just kept going and going. The pictures will not do it justice! It was well worth being in frigid temperatures to see. Infact, it was when we were leaving the Forbidden City that it hit me-"I am in China"! I am no longer looking at pictures-I am actually here!
We have spent the last two days getting to know the other families and have enjoyed each minute. Most of us will be adopting children around the age of 2, and two families will be adopting 7 year olds. They are all wonderful and supportive people. We will miss them the next 5 days. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we will fly out the Jiangsu Province to meet our Natalie. I wonder what she is like? Tomorrow Brad and I will be parents-I wonder how we will handle it?

First Day in Beijing

Summer Palace. A place for the emperor's family to get out of the city--they made a man made lake.

Summer Palace, it's a beautiful retreat for the mperor!

We don't know wwhat the name of this bird is--but our guide tells us it means good luck!

Summer Palace-emperor's home.

Great Wall! Unfortunately I got sick so we couldn't climb and had to take a cab back to the hotel. But it was an amazing sight indeed. VERY, VERY COLD!

A view of the Great Wall of China/

Today we went to the Emperor's Summer Palace, the Jade Factory and The Great Wall. The temperature was 32 degrees, but the wind chill had to be in the negative digits-it was COLD. We got to see more of Beijing as we traveled and the city just never seems to end. It is positively, absolutely HUGE!
We learned several things about China from our tour guide. There are 56 nationalities (55 of those being minorities). Their most important symbol, the one we see at the Chinese restaurants during the Chinese new year, means happiness. If they have clothes to wear, a roof over their heads, food to eat, family and work, then they are happy. Their favorite color is red-for example their national flag is red. The color red has a dual meaning. One, they believe the color red scares off evil spirits, and two, red stands for happiness/good luck. You see red everywhere you go. All the electric signs in "Beijing" are in red. Brides wear red on their wedding day. The family name is the most important name and always comes first. Wives do not take their husbands name, because it is more important to honor their family. In other words, if we did the same thing, I would be referred to as Rohrer, Ann Elizabeth. Jade is considered to be more precious than diamonds and gold. It is "shiny", it is hard but yet can be shaped. These characteristics represent the Chinese people and how they view themselves.
On adoption: It has only been within the last 20 years that the Chinese government began to allow foreigners to adopt their children. Up until that time they felt that the children would have been abandoned twice. First by their parents and then by their government. They slowly began to change their view and recognized that the most important thing for their children was to give them parents and a family. Everyone who has asked us why we visit China are so excited to know that one of their children will be getting a family very soon! As Americans we could learn from this attitude!

At the Hotel at BWI

My Mom and Dad dropped us off at the hotel at BWI at 9:30 this evening. I already miss home. Going into the unknown.....so scary. I woke up at 2 AM last night having a panic attack. I had to go open a window. WON'T BE ABLE TO DO THAT ON THE AIRPLANE! My heart won't stop pounding!

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed or sent cards before we left, telling us you will be praying for us. IT MEANS SO MUCH!!!!! Next blog, hopefully, will be in Beijing!

Natalies Room! Ready for our precious girl!

We can not wait to see our little girl sleeping in this room! Just a few more nights and we're off!

The Christmas rush is over. We were blessed to have been able to be home with our families. But my heart and thoughts were in China. There are so many emotions that we are going thru-mainly fear of the unknown. But just as when we started this process 17 months ago, we believe that everything is in God's hands and His timing.

For a long time now I have wished for a dream of Natalie-something to comfort me, and the Lord blessed me with a dream Christmas Eve night. For many weeks now I have not been able to remember my dreams (which is very unusual for me), but this dream is clear as day-even now. My BIGGEST fear is for my poor child. Even as we welcome her into our arms on January 10, I know that it will be the scariest and worst time for her. Her nanny will put her into my arms-but she will not know me or Brad. We will look strange, talk in a strange language, and then whisk her away from everything she has ever known in her small comfortable world. Just thinking about it breaks my heart! I have pondered over and over again on how I will react to her on that day. I have prayed for God to help me discern just how to handle that moment, as to not traumatize her. My dream was His answer. I dreamt of me sitting down in front of Natalie and showing her the toys we will be bringing, and playing with her. As the dream progresses, she looks up at me and stretches her arms out toward me, allowing me to pick her up. Then I woke up. In those few moments after waking I felt at peace. Acceptance: isn't that what we all want and crave from family and friends, not just as children but all thru our lives? Isn't that what our God does for us not once but many many times throughout our lives: sits patiently with us until we stretch out our arms to accept Him?

Prayer requests:
As I write this post I ask everyone who reads this to please pray for us on January 9 as you head to bed, because that will be the morning of January 10 for us and "Gotcha Day". The power of prayer, right? Also prayers for right now: We don't know how Natalie is doing-the orphanage has chosen to be silent until the day of adoption-we are as worried as any parents who do not know what is going on in their child's life. Just as you would pray for the health of an unborn child, so too Natalie needs our prayers for her health, as do all the children of the families traveling with us to China.