We are in China! 8 1/2 hours until we pick up Jinnae!!

Hi Everyone!

It is 2:00 am here on Thursday. Rick and I just got to Jinnae's province of Jiangxi and settled into our hotel about a hour ago. It is very nice. We pick up Jinnae at the Civil Services office at 10:30 am today. We are so excited!! Hopefully, we can get some sleep tonight. Our guide/interpreter Kelly is awesome. She is so helpful and good.

It has been a long day of flights. We have been on three different planes and have hardly slept at all. There was a lot turbulence from Chicago to Beijing and a rough landing in Beijing. Everyone around us was using their little white bags (barf bags) during landing. It was pretty gross. Rick almost lost it too. I had so many drugs in me nothing was going anywhere! I thought the big planes were supposed to be smoother. We hope our trip home is better.

Tomorrow we hope to have a lot of pictures to post of our sweet pea, Jinnae. Can't wait!!

Exact Travel Dates

We now have our flights set and our exact travel dates. We will be flying out of Grand Rapids, to Chicago, to Beijing to Nanchang on Tuesday, April 22. After all that traveling and crossing the international date line we hope to get a short night's rest before picking up Jinnae on Thursday, April 24 at 9:30 am. Yay!! Can't wait!! Going crazy with excitement!!

We will be returning to Grand Rapids around 9:00 pm on Friday, May 9.

Please pray that these long flights 15+ hours will be good to Rick and I and that neither of us will get sick. Flying in a tube, way high in the air, is not my favorite activity. I will do anything for our baby girl though. We'll keep you posted.

New Travel Date!!! Praise the Lord!

The ten percent chance of going to China before May 15 happened!! Praise the Lord! Thank you for all your prayers.
We will leave for China on Monday, April 21 and pick up Jinnae on Thursday, April 24 at 9:30 am. Yay!!
We will be flying into Hong Kong instead of Beijing due to the trade fair. We will then fly directly to Jinnae's province, Jiangxi. We will be returning just before Mother's Day. We are so excited!!!
Rick will be bringing his laptop so we will keep this blog going with updates while we are there.

Baby Shower Given by Mom and Sister Sally

I had a third baby shower given by my mom and sister on Friday night. What an exciting week it has been with three baby showers. Jinnae has everything she needs including two car seats! We are so thankful. The only needed items left are bottles and a baby monitor. Of course there are many wants left. :)

I was so happy that I remembered to bring my camera just to find out that I forgot to put the memory stick back in it! It was in my computer at home! Thanks Shelby for taking pictures and letting me borrow your memory stick to put a few pictures here. Many friends and family will e-mail me their pics to put in Jinnae's book later.

The baby shower was beautiful. The decorations were all pink and brown just like Jinnae's room. The devotion was beautiful. My sister gave the devotion on the best advice she could give me on rearing Jinnae. The best advice is to always trust in the Almighty God. Even when times are difficult, God will wrap his arms around Rick, Jinnae and I and help us through.

My brother then sang a beautiful song about trusting in God. The devotion and song were so moving, I am so thankful and appreciative for such a loving family.

My nieghbor growing up, Pam, made a beautiful layered Jell-0 that looked like a rocking horse. It was delicious. Of course, there was chocolate. My mom made chocolate candies for each table, my sister made chocolate dipped cookies (strawberries too) and there was a delicious chocolate cake which said, Welcome Jinnae to the U.S.A! There also were sandwiches, salads, and tons of other food.

My mom's good friend, Mary, (who knew me since I was born and babysat me sometimes growing up) made Jinnae a beautiful blanket.

Once again I was so overwhelmed and thankful for everyone who came and gave gifts to Jinnae. There were about 50 people.

The night was wonderful and I am thankful to everyone who made it so special.

Surprise Baby Shower by the Fourth and Fifth Graders!!

On Wednesday at 10:15 am, I walked into the fourth grade to teach them Language Arts and was greeted by a SURPRISE! Then my fifth graders came walking in shouting SURPRISE! too. I was definitely shocked and surprised!! When I looked around there were 41 smiling student faces, about 10 happy parents, teachers, a table full of beautiful cupcakes that said, Baby, with punch, and another table full of gifts for Jinnae.

I was so overwhelmed and thankful for the generosity. I started to cry after opening the gifts. The baby shower was such a kind and loving thing to do. My car's trunk and entire backseat were full of gifts. I cried again on the way home because I was so touched that my students and their parents were so kind to Rick, Jinnae and I.

My students had kept this secret since the Friday before. They did a great job - I was clueless. When I look back, I couldn't figure out why the fifth graders were so chatty during writing that day - now I know why - they were so excited about their surprise for me after recess.

My friend Lisa, asked me to cover her recess duty that morning because she said, she needed to meet with a parent about a math question. I really didn't want to cover her duty because I was going to work on report cards - but I said I would. I had parents hiding and the principal watching me go outside so they could sneak in. They did well - I didn't notice anything. It was a fun morning! Thank you students, parents and staff!!

Travel Date!

Rick and I will be leaving to China on May 15, 2008 to pick up Jinnae. Yea!

We are ready! Thank you for all your prayers, we will be holding Jinnae soon!

Jinnae's room complete

Rick has worked so hard this past week on Jinnae's room. It is now complete except for the curtains. My mom is sewing them right now. Notice the daisy and Imagine sign on the wall? Rick made those too. He is so gifted.

I came home from the store yesterday and wondered where Rick was. I looked for him in the normal places: garage, backyard, lazy boy, computer room, looking in the fridge and finally found him in Jinnae's room. He was whistling and making Jinnae's bed. He was being so careful and tying perfect bows on the bumper.

He is going to be the best dad ever.