Gotcha Day!!

We had 2 posts from this day- and what an incredible day it was!!

One last road to travel...

One last way to go...

One more day to forever...

just to let you know...

The wait is finally over..

the journey now is through...

And now this comes to let you know...

Dreams really do come true.- unknown

We are up really early, too excited to sleep. Kenli should be leaving her orphanage soon to begin her journey to us. To everyone following this journal, please say an extra prayer for Kenli today. I can't even begin to imagine how overwhelming this day will be for her. She is facing a 4 hr ride even though she most likely hasn't been outside of the orphanage since 2 days old or ever been in a car.The sights will too much for her to process as she looks out the window. New sounds and smells will overtake her; then she will be handed off to complete strangers who look and sound like no one she has ever been around before. I truely can't imagine how hard this day will be for her. While we have spent the past 2 years, thinking about, praying for, and longing to hold her- the same doesn't hold true for her. And while we know that she is headed to a wonderful home where she will be loved and held and never again be cold, hungry, or lonely, she will only know overwhelming fear of these complete strangers. We ask that you pray that we will be able to comfort her in her times of distress, And that she will quickly bond to her forever family, realizing how much she is truely loved. We speak daily of what a miracle and blessing this child really is. We have waited for her for 2 and 1/2 years and now... today will become a reality. Matthew 17:20 says "If you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed... nothing shall be impossible to you." Today that will evident as we start a new journey. Thanks to everyone for your love and support, Kenli has the biggest fan club of anyone I know. Only 5 hrs to"Gotcha Day". Love, Amy

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Then a later post:

Life is not measured in the number of breaths you take- but in the moments that take your breath away... Today was breath taking!!! What an amazing journey this has been.We arrived at the civil affairs office before the babies. When they walked in, we recogonized Kenli right away. She took one good look around and began to cry, then cried harder and harder until they had to take her into the hall to attempt to calm her down because she was upsetting all the other babies. All this BEFORE we got her, and things went downhill from there. After they handed her off to us, she was unconsolable. Thrashing her head, arching her back, snot bubbles and all. It was horrible to not be able to comfort her in any way. This continued on the bus all the way back to the hotel. But once we got back to the hotel and took a few layers of clothes off, she began to calm down. I know everyone's prayers were working because within about 30 mins, she was happy and giggling. We have had an amazing day with Kenli, she seems to be bonding well to both of us and will reach for us to hold her. She can walk quite well and has made about 20 laps around the hotel hallway and had a trip to the hotel playroom. She has wavy hair and lots of it. She had her first bath and did quite well with that. She doesn't seem to care too much for her bottles, but ate half of a bannana and some rice congee. We didn't get that many pictures from today, we are having some trouble with our camera, but we did get everything on video. I know everyone is waiting to see more pictures and hopefully that will happen tomorrow. I can tell you that she is beautiful. The day ended with fireworks outside our hotel room window. We aren't sure what the fireworks were originally scheduled for, but as we videoed Kenli watching them, we told her it was all of China celebrating her gotcha day with us. At least that is what it felt like for us. To all of the families still waiting, know that while the wait is incredibly hard, it is all worth it in the end. All children come for God, for the some the journey home just takes a little longer. We know that Kenli is the one God has been planning to be our daughter and his timing is perfect.

Ms. Wu, the assistant orphanage director, handed us our dream.

Kenli still speaks of Ms. Wu and always says her name when she sees her in a picture. It is comforting to know that her first home holds happy memories for her.

First bath

Getting to know Baba

Today, two years later, I still find it hard to put this day into words. It is truely unexplainable to anyone who hasn't experienced it. This is probably why I feel such a strong bond to our travel group, our extended "spicy family". They lived this day with us, they felt what we felt, and cried as we cried. While we were strangers just a few months before this day, on October 29th, 2007, we became and always will be family.

On this day, our journey with Kenli began. She continues to amaze us every day. She is truely a blessing to us and everyone she comes in contact with.

2 yrs ago today- Changsha

In honor of this week's trip now memory lane, I pulled out our old website's CD and will add that day's post here:
Today we flew to Changsha, capitol of Hunan. We left he hotel at 5:30 am and arrived in Changsha at 10:00. The Dolton hotel is beautiful- and what a site to open the hotel room door and see a crib!!! It almost doesn't seem real. We walked today to a local supermarket and bought formula and rice cereal that Kenli has been eating. We also found a McDonald's that is about a 20 min walk from the hotel. They had fried pies-- in pineapple and green pea flavor.. but Mcdonald's fries are good anywhere. There are alot of street vendors in the area, including one that was selling ducks (that were still quacking). I asked Ira to buy the ducks so we could set them free- but that didn't go over very well. We went to dinner at local resturant to try out traditional, spicy, Hunan food- our last dinner without Kenli. We are apparently very interesting to the local people. Michelle says there are not very many Americans in this area. Two little boys walked up to Ira and said something in Chinese... my interpretation was " did you see that giant"!! The local people in this area don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, they have their own special dialect, so even our guide sometimes has a hard time communicating. We leave the hotel at 9:30 in the morning to go to the civil affairs building. We are scheduled to get Kenli at 10:30 am and will post pictures as soon as we can. Love, Amy and Ira

Arriving at the Changsha airport

A crib in our room!!!

View from our hotel room window on the 31st floor.

local street vendors

Poor ducks!

meat dept at supermarket

Forgot to add our breakfast menu: Green bean porridge, rice congee, steamed eggs, potato mash porridge, steamed asparagus, sushi, sauteed spagetthi, and had a goldfish swimming in a bowl beside the spagetthi. Interesting!

Our first day in China- 2 yrs ago

We arrived in China really late- about 6 hrs later than planned. We were stuck in Tokyo for what seemed like forever because the Beijing airport was closed due to smog. That was the worst part of the travel for me- this close to my final destination- and waiting once again!! But we finally arrived after about 28hrs of travel, and had a full day ahead in Beijing. We went first to Tinamen Square; This is a shot of the official count down to the 2008 Olympics: Us in front of Tinamen Square

A group photo in front of The Forbidden City

This is Michelle, our guide, she was so incredible. She took such great care of us, and made our trip so much easier. She did a wonderful job!

This is the "love tree", inside the Forbidden City. Legendary for married couples to be photographed beneath its entwined limbs.

My first experience with a squatty potty

Ira indulged me for this photo

Our first glimpse of the Great Wall:

And the climb begins:

Funny- but oh so true!

The fall colors were amazing

Adding our lock to many others who had come before us.( another famous Chinese tradition)

Pro0f that we made it to the top-- Ira kept saying "Amy do you need to stop- your face is getting really red"

A truely amazing day. China is a beautiful country with so much history. The next day we were scheduled to fly to Changsha, Hunan-- one step closer to Kenli.

2 yrs ago..

Has it really been two years??

On October 25, 2007, we boarded a Northwest airliner, and flew around the world. Starting the greatest adventure of our lives, to gather in our arms the best gift ever.

What great timing, leaving for China on my birthday, and the grand opening of the Crackel Barrel in our home town. Nothing like a huge plate of gravy and biscuits to start this great day!

I still can't believe its been two years- amazing!!

How great is this??

some bloggin' backlog

Cedar making a huge mess with some weaning formula


This past Sunday, we went to the pumpkin patch for a gathering with some friends, Here Elli Lu found her pumpkin:

This little one also had to come home with us because "it was lonely"

Enjoying the petting zoo
























Hiding between hay bales

Kenli is now three years old and celebrated her birthday with a fun filled week. She had cupcakes at Trinity Tots, ice cream at Preschool, dinner with family

at Ming Dynasty, a trip to Chucky Cheese with Mama and Baba, and a party with friends at Wee Bounce. (baba called it the "Kenli-palozza week"). She had her 3 yr well check and is now 31.5 pounds and 38 inches tall -- Just one more inch and we are headed to the slidewinder ride at Dollywood!! She had her first dental cleaning and did great, what a big girl she is getting to be. Last year at this time when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she responded "a Pumpkin". This year it is a toss up between a butterfly and a helicopter. I see some type of flying in our future.

We have a new temporary resident at our house. "Cedar" came to live with us when was 2 wks old and be staying with us until spring time when he is old enough (and hopefully smart enough) to go back into the great outdoors. He is now 11 wks old and almost weaned. No more night time feedings thankfully!! He has been lots of fun and he really really loves Kenli's "Aunt Ashe". He gets so excited when she comes over to play!!