Jonah's Journey Home

Jonah is home at last!! 1/23/09

2009-01-28T11:05:00.007-05:00

After a very long 14 hour flight, we are finally home!! We got through customs at the Chicago Airport just in time to make our flight home. Jonah did very good on the plane ride home considering it was so long and not being able to crawl for that long was tough on him. He slept on and off for the entire flight, this time making sure he woke up for every meal and snack that was served. He flew four times in the last week we were in China, I think he is ready to retire his wings for a while. We were met at the airport by the kids and Grandparents. Everyone was so excited to see him! The kids each held him in their lap before strapping him into his car seat for his first ride home. Let's say that he was not too fond of the car seat and cried all the way to the house. In China they don't use car seats, they just hold the babies in their laps. This was the first of many new experiences that he will have with us. We walked in the door around 10:oo pm and the kids were still very much awake and excited to finally get to play with their new little brother. We got our first family photo under a sign that the kids made for us while we were gone. Now it was time to get all the kids to sleep after a very long day. Jonah fell asleep a little after 11:00, but to my surprise he was up at 2:00 am and wanted to play for several hours before finally going back to bed at 6:oo am. This whole jet lag thing is harder on babies and parents than I had anticipated. We are now on day 5 after our return and he still likes to play at night, but now it is only two hours or so. I guess he is still on "China time" and probably will be for a couple of more weeks. But we are hanging in there and enjoying every minute with our new addition to the family. His big sister is such a big help to her tired mom. She helps dress Jonah and feed him his cereal and bottle. She even keeps him out of trouble when I'm trying to get dinner started. His big brother has showed him that it's fun to brush your teeth and take a bath. He even tried to teach him how to hang from the kitchen table when I wasn't looking. Jonah is such a cutie and full of personality! I can't believe how well he is fitting into our family. It must be a "God thing," how else could this amazing little boy be given to us.

US Consulate Appointment 1/22/09

2009-01-20T22:27:00.006-05:00

Thursday we have our appointment with the US Consulate. We have to stand in front of the officials and take an oath on behalf of Jonah's citizenship. We also will receive his official US visa to enter the United States.

We took our last group photo with the families today, since two of the families fly out this evening. Many of the children dressed in their new Chinese outfits. Jonah is sporting his dragon outfit. We were lucky to spend two weeks with these wonderful families and will miss them when we go our separate ways. We hope to keep in touch through our blog pages. Maybe even have a reunion someday.

Today we are packing our stuff to get ready to return home!!! We hope it all fits in the suitcase. We leave the hotel early Friday morning to drive to the airport and then fly to Shanghai where we have a six hour lay-over. Half of the group will be with us at the airport, so the kids should have lots of time to play together. After a 14 hour flight from Shanghai, we land in Chicago and then finally home. The Grandparents and kids will be at the airport to greet us. What a homecoming Jonah will have!!!

Thanks for following our journey to bring Jonah home. Check back from time to time for an update on the kids and how Jonah is adjusting to family life. You can also follow the blog and see how the treatment of Jonah's clubfoot is progressing.

Museum 1/21/09

2009-01-20T22:14:00.005-05:00

Wednesday our guides Rosa & Maggie are going to the US Consulate to deliver and review our paperwork with the officials. Tomorrow we have our appointment with the US Consulate. We will be happy when all this paperwork is done! We are so ready to enjoy our three kids together and watch them grow. We are missing our kids at home so much and can't wait to see them on Friday. We can't thank the Grandparents enough for watching them these last couple of weeks. I think our children will always remember spending that special time with them.

After lunch we went to visit a Folk Art Museum. Our favorite exhibit was the hand woven silk pictures. The detail was absolutely amazing.

That evening we went to a Thai family style restaurant with all the families. The Asian staff entertained us with American singing and dancing. It was a little scary for Jonah, but he calmed down when daddy held him.

Medical Exam 1/20/09

2009-01-20T21:50:00.003-05:00

Tuesday Jonah had his medical exam. He got a clean bill of health to travel on Friday! He weighs 22 lbs. and is 29 inches tall. Jonah was not happy with his exam, but he made it through o.k. with lots of snuggles from us.

After the exam we did some more shopping and met up with the group at Lucy's for lunch on the patio. The weather has been beautiful this week with the temperatures in the 70's. After lunch, we took a group photo with all the children together. Jonah is the only boy adopted in our group. He is sitting on the far left in the photo.

Yuntai Gardens 1/19/09

2009-01-19T02:27:00.003-05:00

Monday we visited the Yuntai Gardens. This was a botanical garden filled with beautiful red roses and other exotic flowers and plants. Jonah slept through the entire walk through the gardens. We got to enjoy some quiet time together and hike up the stairs to the look-out point.

I hate to say it, but we ate lunch at a McDonald's. Guangzhou is a very westernized city, so you can find McDonald's, Pizza Hut, & KFC around every corner. Jonah had his first Happy Meal that came with a toy that spoke in Chinese. After lunch, we enjoyed a long walk around town with some other families. Jonah got a nice nap with his belly full of chicken nuggets and french fries.

Tonight we are planning on eating at the People's Cafe. A cafe we scoped out during our afternoon walk. The weather is so nice in the evening, we are hoping to get all the families together and eat outside on the patio.

Shopping at Ershadao Island 1/18/09

2009-01-19T02:08:00.006-05:00

Sunday we headed to Ershadao Island to do some shopping. We found some silk Chinese outfits for the kids and we were very excited to find a Starbucks Coffee shop to chill out at after shopping all morning. Jonah was ready to get out of his baby carrier and stretch his legs and enjoy some apple juice and gold fish crackers (his favorite snack).

Back at the hotel, some of the parents headed to a conference room to take part in a two hour "paper party." This is where all the paperwork for Jonah's US visa was filled out. I stayed back at the room with Jonah and attempted to give him a bath. Let's just say this, taking a bath is not one of his favorite things to do.

That night we ate at an Italian restaurant with two other families and their children. We love Chinese food, but it was nice to have a change of pace and enjoy some food that reminded us of home. After dinner, we let the children get together in a hotel room and play. Jonah has made friends with a little girl his same age. They were speed crawling around the room racing each other and giggling the whole way.

Fly to Guangzhou 1/17/09

2009-01-19T01:48:00.004-05:00

Saturday we flew to Guangzhou, our last stop in China before heading home. Jonah did awesome on his first flight, just a little crying on the take off & landing. We had an extra seat beside us and he slept the whole 1 hour flight (he even slept through the meal & he doesn't like to miss a meal)!

We landed after a short flight and met some other families at the baggage claim. After being on our own all last week it was nice to be reunited with the rest of the families again. It was neat to finally meet everyone's child and hear about their Gotcha Day.

We are staying at the Asia International Hotel. A very nice hotel with a revolving restaurant on the top 45 th floor that overlooks the entire city.

Guangzhou is the home of the United States Consulate. This is where we pick up Jonah's US visa.

Temple & Musuem 1/16/09

2009-01-16T02:24:00.002-05:00

Friday we get Jonah's Chinese passport so we can fly with him to Guangzhou tomorrow. Jonah is becoming more playful everyday and showing us his cute personality. He is now pulling himself up and walking around his crib. He holds onto the side of the crib when he walks. I think he feels a little off centered when walking because of his right club foot. We have a feeling he will be walking all over as soon as he gets comfortable on his foot.

We visited two temples today. The Buddhist and Taoism Temple. We learned something very interesting today. Jonah is from a minority group called Hani and this group believes in Christianity.

We then went to the Minority Museum. Here we got to explore artifacts passed down from the Hani minority group. Such things as costumes, head dressings, jewelry, painting, and art. It was a neat feeling learning about Jonah's heritage today. We are grateful to our guide for him sharing his knowledge with us. He is searching the bookstores today to try and find us a book on the Hani minority group. We want to pass this information onto Jonah when he gets old enough to understand and has questions about where he came from. We feel the more we learn about his heritage the closer we become to him.

Stone Forest & Farm 1/15/09

2009-01-16T01:33:00.004-05:00

Thursday we traveled by free way to Stone Forest. This natural monument is located less than two hours from Kaiyuan City (Yunnan Province), the city where Jonah's orphanage was located. The long drive gave us a chance to see what the country side would have looked like by his orphanage. When we arrived at Stone Forest we were amazed at the size of these rock formations, it's like nothing we have ever seen before. We climbed to the highest point to get a panoramic view of the area. Jonah likes traveling in his hip carrier and being out doors. He is always looking up at the sky. I guess he didn't see the sky very much in the orphanage. Good thing his Aunt gave him a pair of sunglasses for Christmas. On the way up we touched special rocks that are believed to bring good fortune, longevity, happy marriage, and good health (we touched Jonah's foot to this rock so it will be healed).

On the way back to Kunming we stopped at a local restaurant and enjoyed a very tasty meal. We have become pretty good at using chop sticks. We then visited a small farming village. There were children running all around and they ran up to get a closer look at us and Jonah. One of the families was preparing lots of food for a wedding. Corn is there major crop and they use water buffalo to harvest the fields.

Grandview Park & Tea House 1/14/09

2009-01-16T00:48:00.002-05:00

Wednesday we received public record documents of Jonah's abandonment and some other important notarized adoption documents.

Today we took Jonah to the Grand View Park. The park was centered around a lake and was brightly decorated for the Chinese New Year which occurs on January 25. After the park, we visited the Yunnan Hongpu Tea Co., LTD. We sat in a special room and participated in tea tasting. We tried the Yunnan famous Puer Tea that was aged for eight years. Jonah tried the Stemma Tea (Sleeping Beauty) he loved it and had a nice nap from it. Our guide Jerry took us to a local noodle house. The appetizer began with fried bumble bees. Needless to say, we passed on the bees and enjoyed the main course which was a big bowl of boiling broth and we added things like various non-identified meats, egg, vegetables, plants, and flowers. The broth was boiling hot so that it could cook the thinly sliced meats and egg. Jonah played it safe and ate a big bowl of rice noodles and gold fish.

Jonah is becoming more comfortable with us everyday. He crawls to us and wants to be picked up. He is a speed crawler and gets all over the hotel room and gets into everything just like a 17 month old should. He is now smiling when he sees us and when he looks at his sister and brother's picture. He likes to be held upside down and tickled (he will fit into our family just fine). He has an adorable laugh that brings joy to our heart.

Shopping in Kunming 1/13/09

2009-01-15T06:19:00.002-05:00

Tuesday was laundry and shopping day to get baby supplies and snacks for the week. Jerry, our guide walked with us to a store in down town Kunming. It was about a mile walk to the store and on the way we saw people in the town square doing Tai Chi and dancing. When we arrived at the store we couldn't believe the size of it. It was enormous, three stories high and the size of six Wal-Marts. With clean clothes and the refrigerator stocked we are now ready for another week in China.

Gotcha Day 1/12/09

2009-01-15T04:50:00.005-05:00

Monday morning is Gotcha Day!!! We are very excited because today we get to go meet our little boy Jonah. He is with the President of the orphanage at the Civil Affairs Office in Kunming waiting for us to come. The only way I know to describe the feeling both of us had is to compare this day to the day we gave birth to our two other children. The drive there was very quiet, as we both were too anxious to talk. When we got to the building where Jonah was, we walked in the door and saw him sitting on a woman's lap. As soon as she saw us she handed Jonah to me and at that point I had tears in my eyes. We just couldn't believe this moment was really happening. Jonah didn't cry when we held him, he just looked at us like he was studying our faces. He even fell asleep in my arms as we finalized the paperwork. We then had to wake him up to get a our first family photo taken. Then off we went back to the hotel with Jonah, he did good on the car ride. When we got to the hotel, Jonah sat on his blanket and played with some toys we had packed for him and enjoyed some gold fish and cheerios for the first time. For that first day he continued to check us out and stared at us with his beautiful dark brown eyes. We snuggled him a lot, but also tried to give him his space to take in all the new things around him.

Sight Seeing in Beijing 1/11/09

2009-01-15T03:55:00.007-05:00

Sunday we began with church at 0930 at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, (Must have a passport to enter). Wow, what a great service, we were moved by the band and the message. We have never heard "Amazing Grace" sung so loudly and with such conviction. This was a great experience and is recommended for all to visit if you come to Beijing. We returned to the hotel and checked out, the luggage was sent to the airport and we headed off to eat lunch. Lunch was very good, we had some Peking Duck and other Chinese food. After lunch we headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was very cold outside. The Tiananmen Square is a nice wide open space with lots of people around. We headed inside to the Forbidden City to look around. The Forbidden City has 9999 rooms inside and many building to look at. Then we headed to the Birds Nest & Water Cube where the 2008 Olympic Games were held. Also, very cold most people stayed on the bus and I ran out to get a picture. Very unique and creative looking buildings. Next we were off to the airport and hurried to our flight. At this point, we left the guide and were on our own. On the plane we were two of four Americans. It's an odd feeling being half way around the world. We landed in Kunming after our three hour flight. Jerry, our guide met us at the gate and took us to the Bank Hotel in Kunming. Off to bed we went because tomorrow is "Gotcha Day," the day we have been waiting for over two years. Tomorrow we meet Jonah! The

Sight Seeing in Beijing 1/10/09

2009-01-14T01:53:00.011-05:00

Saturday we began our sight seeing tour of Beijing. Our guides Rosa and Maggie were very knowledgeable of the Chinese culture and the history of China. Our tour began at the Summer Palace. This was a very interesting place where the Emperors lived during the summer months. They would travel from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace and enjoy life by the lake. The buildings were beautifully designed and constructed, every little detail was considered. It is amazing how much work went into these buildings. The next stop was the Jade factory. We were shown how to distinguish between the different qualities of Jade, the harder the Jade the higher the quality. Kristen purchased a bracelet from the factory. Next, we stopped for lunch and enjoyed some Chinese food and more shopping. The last stop of the day was the Great Wall of China at Badaling. The Great Wall was very steep and the weather was very cold. We could not feel our fingers or toes after the climb. After the climb we drank a cup of coffee at the shop and enjoyed the company of our travel mates. We also had a group picture done at the Great Wall and enjoyed the ride back to the hotel in a nice warm bus.

Flying to Beijing 1/9/09

2009-01-13T01:25:00.007-05:00

Our journey to get Jonah began with a 14 hr flight from the United States to Beijing. This was a very long flight which tested the bravest of fliers. After landing in Beijing on Friday at 7pm, we journeyed through customs and collected our bags. The guide was waiting for us as we exited baggage claim. Here we met with most of the other special need families that were adopting from China. What a great group of people. Very tried from the flight but you could still see the excitement on their faces. The baggage was loaded on the bus and off to the Best Western - Premier in Beijing. A very nice hotel with comfortable beds and internet service to be able to connect to the family back home with Skype. At the front desk a Panda Phone was waiting to connect us to the rest of the world. We settled in for the night to finally get some sleep. At this point we had not slept in 27 hrs and were very tired from flying. Of course our sleep was cut short and we were up at 0300 and still on EST.