Interview at the Civil Affairs Office

Tuesday, June 18 (Day 3 in China)

We started the day by meeting Lily in our hotel lobby at 9:15.  This was the day we would have an interview at the civil affairs office.  I had this really intimidating scenario built up in my mind.  I imagined us going before a judge, defending why we would be good parents for this precious girl.  It was nothing of the sort.  They were full of smiles, and all that they asked us was if we would ever abandon our daughter.  We said no, and that was that.  In another interview, they asked us why we chose to adopt from China.  Bo explained that we love the Chinese culture, and had a strong desire to adopt.  We couldn't say what we really wanted to say out of fear of offending them....that she needed us.  You could take one look at her and see that she needed us to rescue her from the life she would have here in China.  We also couldn't say that the Lord led us here.  We had to choose our words wisely.

After returning to our hotel, we wanted to try some of the Chinese cuisine at our hotel.  Bo ordered the fried rice, which was delicious.  I ordered shrimp wonton soup, and spring rolls.  I like the American version of these foods more, but it was pretty good.  We also ordered Chinese tea, and Coca-Cola.  Coca-Cola sounds the same in Mandarin as in English, so they always seem to understand that!

 

 

 

 

We love reading all of the emails and facebook messages from you!! We are so blessed knowing you are praying for us. 

We truly feel your prayers. Thank you!!

 

Gotcha Day!!

Monday was here....the day we had prayed for since we had decided to adopt.  We woke up with such anticipation and excitement!!

We were told by the Guangzhou airport that our luggage would be delivered to our hotel Monday morning.  Monday morning came and went and still no luggage.  Thank the Lord Caroline's made it on our flight.  I had a really cute outfit all picked out to wear for Gotcha....but oh well.  There were more important things on my mind.

We met Lily in the hotel lobby at 2:00.  Caroline's orphanage is five hours away, so we knew she had been traveling most of the morning from her orphanage in Huazhou to where we were in Guangzhou.  That seemed like such a long trip for a baby girl who had never been outside the walls of her orphanage.

 

 

One last photo before leaving our hotel.

 



 On our way to meet our daughter!!!!

 

We walked into the building where our meeting would take place.  The room was already filled with other children meeting their forever families.  There were so many emotions in that room! There were a lot of smiles, laughter, and tears.  Our guide showed us where to have a seat, so we anxiously went to where she told us to.  I noticed a curtain leading to another room, and realized that all of the children were waiting in that room.  I couldn't believe our Caroline was in there!!! Everything was happening so fast, and we were frantically trying to get our cameras ready.  And then....out comes Caroline!!

 

 

Here's another orphan meeting her forever family!

 

Mommy's in love!

 

So is Daddy!

 

Our baby girl!!

Here we are with the director of Caroline's orphanage in Huazhou,

along with one of Caroline's nannies. They are holding gifts we presented to them.  Thanks Aimee at Cat's on Main for putting these together.  They were perfect! Part of the adoption fees include a donation to your child's orphanage.  I'm holding a booklet stating that we have taken care of that donation.

 

We were absolutely thrilled!! She was so beautiful, and she was ours! Our most recent update stated that she only weighed 13 pounds.  We honestly thought that must be a mistake because she is 14 months old.  The moment we saw her, we knew they had been right.  She was so tiny! We needed to get some pounds on this little girl, and fast!

 

 

 

Our baby girl, all dressed in her pretty pink jammies, covered in baby lotion. 

You'll be seeing a lot of pink sweet girl!

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Lord for bringing us on this journey.

 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and fautless is this:

 to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

James 1:27

First Day in Guangzhou (Gwon-jo) :)

After meeting our guide Sunday morning, she took us to our driver.  We'll have the same guide and driver for the duration of our stay.  Took us to our hotel...and WOW!! This hotel is absolutely amazing.  When we first started our adoption process, I couldn't wait to stay in the legendary White Swan Hotel.  This is a hotel where most adopting families stay during their time in Guangzhou,  however, it is under a major renovation so that was not an option for us.  Our agency booked our stay here at The Garden, and I have no complaints.  It's a 5 star hotel, and their service is impeccable.  After Lily brought us to our room, I immediately needed a nap.  I stayed while Lily and Bo took a quick stroll to Starbucks (right across the street from our hotel).  I woke up at 8:30 am, and I honestly felt like I had slept all day.  I was up and ready to go!

Bo and I had lunch at Starbucks, and ordered a coke at McDonalds.  We met Lily in our hotel lobby at 2:00, and took a cab to Walmart.  This was an adventure! Our guide is so sweet, but there is a bit of a language barrier.  I told her a few of the things we were needing while still waiting for our luggage to arrive.  I asked her where I could find mousse, gel.....any type of product for my hair (I was using lots of hand gestures while telling her what I was looking for).  My hair is naturally curly, and the humidity here is brutal.  She took me to the shower cap section!!!! I also told her that we need deodorant, and I was gesturing what that was.  It was hilarious! Finally, I asked her where razors were and this took some time to explain.  I finally found a razor, but it's NOTHING like our razors in the US.  I managed to find a tank top, and some flip flops, etc. to get me by.  I was also asking about little swimmers for Caroline to wear in the pool under her bathing suit.  They don't have those here! So...we're making do with what we have.

When we got back from our shopping trip, Bo and I toured the hotel.  They have a beautiful pool area, and a gorgeous garden.  They also have a gym, so Bo was happy to see that!

We then came back to our hotel room and got settled in.  I went to bed at 5:30pm, knowing Monday was going to be full of excitement!!!!

 

 

 

 

One of the many interesting things we saw in Walmart.

 

 

Our sweet guide, Lily.

 

Caroline's make-shift closet!!

Traveling to China....12,000 Miles Later!

We arrived at LAX at 9:30 pm (Pacific Time), and it was pretty overwhelming (no celeb sightings by the way).  Apparently it is a very old airport, with a lot of add-ons to the building.  It was hard for us to navigate to where we were supposed to be.  After realizing that because we were flying international, we were supposed to be in a completely separate building outside of the main airport (Tom Bradley Terminal) we were on a mission to find this terminal, and fast!.  We managed to make it there, and our next airline to board was China Southern.  We thought we had plenty of time before boarding the plane, but everyone kept telling us to hurry....and that we were going to miss the plane.  PANIC time!! This could really NOT be happening!!  A rep came out of nowhere and asked if we were looking for China Southern (we say she was our guardian angel).  She walked us to where we needed to go, we made it through security, and we were finally boarding the airline.  Whew!!!!

About to board China Southern!

 

Yay! Bo finding our seats!

 

Bo and I have never seen a jet this big.  We had close to 600 passengers on board. China Southern's service was outstanding!  From the yummy dinner, snacks, televisions on the back of each seat with a lot of movie, music, game options (we kept saying how much Brin and Savy would've LOVED that!), a warm rolled up cloth to wash your face after the long flight, a group chinese yoga stretching routine (that even Bo participated in) it was a great flight.  It was a VERY long flight, however.  It was about 14 hours.  I woke up from a nap during the flight, and it honestly felt like we should almost be in China.  Wishful thinking! Bo said we were halfway there!  They served us breakfast at about 3:00 am (China time).  The choices were an omelet, or congee (steamed rice, shrimp, etc.).  We opted for the omelet.  We landed an hour earlier than expected, and were full of excitement. 

We went through a very quick walk through customs, and off to baggage claim we went.  We waited, and waited, and waited....and no sign of our luggage.  Most of the other passengers had cleared out after getting theirs, and after seeing the same suitcases passing by, I knew it wasn't a good sign.  We started talking to another passenger waiting for his (come to find out he's from Sarasota....small world!).  Then we spotted Caroline's suitcase coming around the corner.  Praise the Lord!! All of her food, bottles, medications, bibs, toys, books, diapers, clothes, etc. were packed ever so thoughtfully into that suitcase. When ours never showed, I was surprisingly calm.  Must've been all the prayers. We just had to laugh about it!

After going to customer service at the airport to report our lost luggage, they assured us that it would be delivered to our hotel the next morning.  We then started to walk out to find our guide, and saw our names, Robert and Candice Conerly on a sign.  We were finally able to meet our guide, Lily.  She is as nice as can be.  I had asked some other moms on a private China Facebook group that I'm a part of if they had every used her before, and I had heard some wonderful things about her.  They have all proven to be true!!

I'll update later today about our first full day in China.  We are here!!!!! Praise God!

Our Day in Tampa!

Well....It's 5:30 in the afternoon on Friday and we're still here in Tampa!

Thursday was a busy day finalizing lists, packing, etc.  Our weight limit for our luggage in China is 44lbs.  We started weighing our luggage at home (while holding my breath!), and they were of course over the weight limit.  We started with Caroline's suitcase.  We realized that a lot of the food we packed for Caroline weighed A LOT, and we could always go to Walmart in China if we needed to. So most of that was taken out. Now we were down to 43 lbs.  Then we moved on to ours.  We really tried to pack light to begin with, so we had no idea where to begin.  We narrowed it down to necessities, and magically made it to 44 lbs.!

My mom and stepfather helped us out by driving us over to Tampa last night.  After a great dinner at P.F. Chang's with them, and Brin and Savy, they dropped us off at our hotel.  We will miss the kids soooooo much! Two weeks is a long time to be away from them.  I know they'll be in very good hands with our families, but please pray for them while we're away. 

We wanted to be over here close to the airport because we had an early Friday morning flight.  Our hotel shuttle brought us to the airport at 6:00 this morning.  We started to have our luggage checked, and the baggage clerk took a look at our boarding pass.  It's never a good sign when you get the look he gave us.  He said our flight was delayed, and there was no way we were going to be able to make our connecting flight in Detroit.  My thoughts were, "Please Lord, our trip can't be starting like this."  We went to the ticket counter and the clerk told us we'd now be flying to LA, but we wouldn't be flying out until tonight! I began to panic inside....wondering about contacting our guide who is scheduled to meet us in Beijing, our hotel, and would this postpone our "Gotcha Day" to meet Caroline.  We were originally scheduled to arrive in China around 9:30 Saturday night.  Now we are arriving at 5:30 Sunday morning China time.  We coordinated with our agency... And they've taken care of all the details. Praise God!

Now it's almost 7:00, and we're getting ready to board our five hour flight to LAX.  Maybe we'll see some celebs while we're there!

We'll be leaving here at 7:30, arriving in LA 12:30 our time... 9:30 LA time. Jet lag.... Bring it! Whatever it takes us to get our Caroline!

Please pray for a safe flight!

More About our Daughter....

 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:18

Ji Wen Ying

 

Soon to be

 

~Caroline Aubrey Ying Conerly~

 

Here are some things we know about our daughter~



 

• Her birthday is March 23rd, 2012
• Her orphanage is the Social Welfare Institute of Huazhou City
• She wakes up at 6:00, and she naps from 11:00-1:00
• She eats at 6:00, 10:00, 2:00, 6:00
• Her bed time is 9:00
• She's a deep sleeper
• She has a good appetite, and eats milk mince (?), and loves steamed bread
• She's quiet
• She has a ready smile
• She's close to her nannies
• Her favorite activities are to play with her nannies and loves colorful toys

 

This is all we know about our Caroline.  We know very little....but can't wait to fill in those empty pages with what we learn about her once she is OURS! We are about to meet a baby girl who has never known a mommy, she's never known a daddy, she's never known a big brother, and she's never known a big sister.  Very, very soon, she will have all four!!!

 

I must be honest, I am thrilled with excitement, but I am also nervous about the unknown.  I am a planner, and I like to be in control.  I can't help but wonder if Caroline will connect with us, or if we'll connect with her.  Will she mourn for her caregivers, and all she's known for her short life? How will Brin and Savy be during this transition? Will I be able to take care of her needs, and still be able to stay on top of their needs, activities, etc. Bo and I had a long talk about all of this last night.  Once again, he proved to be the wisest person I know by saying, "Anything worthwhile is not going to be easy.  This is going to be hard, and yet it's going to change our lives far beyond what we could imagine."

 

The book I read that I still credit with us deciding to pursue adoption is Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman.  I read it before obeying HIS call to adopt 2 1/2 years ago, and I picked it up again to read this past weekend.  It was a relief reading this again being on the other side of all the paperwork, fingerprints, financial obligations, home studies, background checks, waiting for DTC, LID, Referral, PA, LOA, TA....knowing that all of that was complete, and now we're within days of boarding the plane to meet her for the first time.  It was also a relief to read it again knowing she went through the same feelings and fears that I'm feeling.  This is a quote that touched me:

 

"A person who lives in faith must proceed on incomplete evidence, trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse." Philip Yancey

 

We can't wait to meet you, Caroline.  ~Mommy and Daddy

 

Packing, Planning, Praying!

School's Out!! We have survived a vveerryy busy end to another wonderful school year.  Between baseball, a dance recital, awards assemblies, honors breakfasts, parent night, swim practice, meeting AR goals, Mother's Day, Brin's 10th birthday, church musical, musical retreat, field trips, etc., etc.,etc.,......We've survived!! And that's only for my children.  Not to mention finishing out the school year for my students that I teach.  I know all of my teacher friends can relate.  It's busy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Thank. You.  Lord.~  We've made it to sweet summer time!!

This is just a hint of what we have accomplished/still need to accomplish this week:

• Peds check up appt in Sarasota for Brin and Savy
• Made appt for Caroline to meet with our ped once we're back from China
• Walmart shopping spree with 5 page list
• Bought some more clothes for our little fashionista!
• Ordered "Nanny" gifts at Cat's on Main for Caroline's orphanage
• Bought more luggage
• Pack for Caroline
• Pack Brin for CentriKid church camp
• Pack Brin and Savy for Nonni's and Grammy and Papa's
• Pack for us to be away for two weeks in China!!!!
• Early morning and evening swim team practice for kids
• Translation apps for our phones
• Pick up precautionary meds from CVS for Bo, Caroline, and me (praying we don't need them!)
• Set up medical insurance for Caroline
• Buy last minute items at Target (food pouches, snacks, etc.)
• Download movies to watch on the plane
• Plan on what books to bring for the trip
• Blog stalking for last minute ideas on places to see, etc. while on our trip
• Visit with Kelly and Tony on what to bring/not to bring
• Send Bo to Hobby Lobby (he's going to LOVE this....LOL!) to buy travel ribbon for our luggage so we can be spotted by other adopting families in airports and in China
• Praying without ceasing!!

It's hard for me to think about leaving the kids for two weeks.  I know they will be in good hands, and will have so much fun at camp and with family.  We are savoring every moment we have with them until we leave for our trip of a lifetime!!




This is the photo I took of Bo and the kids at Chili's the night we told them about starting our "journey" of adoption. 
Savy was in kindergarten, and Brin was in first grade.



This is the photo I took last Sunday at Chili's.  I can't believe how much the kids have grown. Brin is now going into 4th grade, and Savy is going into 3rd. So hard to believe!! They've been praying for their sister since before she was born.