CHINA!!

Well, sorry for the long intermission; we've been extremely busy, up until today (Monday 8/22).  Believe it or not, our free time has finally been replenished since we met our sweet little angel, Emma.  In addition to our busy schedule, we were blocked from blogging and are using another family's iPad to send this. Since we're borrowing another family's iPad we also won't be able post pictures with this post but will do so once we learn how.

Let's backtrack just a bit to Friday when we arrived in Beijing.  Following our our 12-hour flight, we met Ling Ling, our escort, who took us to our hotel (Novatel) around 11:30 pm Friday night (8:30 am Thursday, Portland time).  We finally fell asleep around 1:30 am, and were requested to be down in the lobby at 8:30 am ready to climb the Great Wall. 

Our Holt representative Les was absolutely amazing.  He has lived in Beijing for the past 5 years, and in Hong Kong since 1989.  He knew everything about the culture and places and people.  We definitely had the "behind the scenes" tour.  Jerry was our tour guide who took us to the Great Wall as well as Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden city.  Jerry sure took a liking to James and was very impressed that he had climbed the steep part of the Great Wall.  It was truly an awe inspiring sight as we approached in our bus, but an even more amazing view after climbing nearly 500 steps to the first landing.  The steps were anywhere from three inches to 20 inches in height; needless to say, we used the hand rail some of the way.

Once we succeeded in climbing the Great Wall, we ventured to one of the oldest villages in Beijing--Hutong Lane.  The location of this village is in very high demand, although, as we took a rickshaw ride throughout the village, we certainly found out that it is also one of the most impoverished places in Beijing.  Truly amazing, a very small house in u vvthis village (roughly 500 square feet) is worth 1 million US dollars--location, location, location.  We had the priveledged opportunity to visit one of these houses as a family welcomed us in to share their home and their experiences i?in the village.

Now these two excursions took the better part of our first day in Beijing.  With little sleep that first night and a 15 hour time difference, we found our pillows Friday night to be purely luxurious!  So, as you see, our free time was nearly nil.

Our second full day in Beijing (Saturday) began once again with an early morning breakfast (6:45 am), followed by an orientation of what to expect the next several days.  After a lunch with several other families in this adoption process, we were out the hotel doors;  our destinations, Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City.  As we marched through The Square towards The Forbidden City, the temperature being 88 degrees, felt like it was over 100, as Tiananmen Square naturally absorbs the heat.  The Forbidden City was truly remarkable;  all the materials assembled in 11 years and then built in three years by nearly one million people.  As we traveled through the temple doors, there was another "city" that we walked upon, then another and another, until we reached the Emporer's palace.

We departed The Forbidden City, it appears one day too early as the Duke Blue Devils were in China to play the Chineses Junior Olympic team and were at the city as well.  We then journeyed to The Silk Factory where we experienced the whole process of making all sorts of silk products.  Of course we had to purchase an authentic silk dress for out little angel.

Sunday morning began with yet another early "rise and shine."  The excitement was building as this was the day, even a matter of hours, that we would meet the final member of our family--EMMA!!!!!  Our flight to Nanchang was about two hours long; it couldn't end fast enough.  We met Lisa, our Holt escort, and traveled for half an hour to our hotel, The Galactic International Peace Hotel.  We had only a few minutes to check in to our rooms before Emma would be joining us; time to wrap a few gifts for the caretakers and the orphanage director.  As we were scrambling to wrap the final gift, we heard down the hallway that Emma was around the corner.  I can't convey in words the emotions running through our hearts; for Hong and James and myself, as well as for our family that made this journey with us, and for the caregivers who were handing Emma to us that had been with her for a year.  As with any new child coming into a parents' life, this experience can be very emotional--our emotions were on overdrive as it has been a long five years.  This wait, although extremely long, brought our little angel to us; SHE is the one that is OUR daughter!  We communicated with the caregivers and the orphanage director through our Holt escort, Lisa.  When they handed Emma off to Hong, she immediately comforted herself.  With her big head of hair and an inquisitive look in her eyes, she rested her head against Hong's heart.  What an unbelievable moment that was shared by our family--my parents, Hong's dad, brother, and sister, and of course our wonderful son James.  Emma wasn't quite sure about "the handoff" from one family member to another, but within a second she found a comforting shoulder to lean on.  WHAT AN ABSOLUTE ANGEL SHE IS!!!!!!! Emma immediately grabbed the attention of our whole family from that first moment on. After a few minutes it felt as if even she too knew "this is my family." We were advised not to overwhelm her with too many people but Emma seemed comfortable with the 8 person entourage we brought with us to welcome her. She took all the love and attention that she was receiving like a rockstar and loved every second of it. We spent some time "oohing" and "aahing" over her and then big brother James suggested we take her swimming. Daddy and James took her in the pool and after a short swim she sat in Hong's lap and watched all the activity in the pool which she LOVED! We think she's a people watcher like her mama :)

The next day was spent finalizing the adoption, notorizing documents and applying for Emma's passport. Both places "interviewed" us asking questions such as why we wanted to adopt from China, if we already had a son why did we want another child, how would she be cared for and ended with promises to never abandon Emma and that we would take good care of her. Both offices were filled with families adopting beautiful babies and it warmed our hearts to know that so many babies were going "home" to loving families.

The thing that truly stole our hearts was seeing how much James loves his baby sister. Emma seemed enamored with him at first sight as well. He is such a loving big brother and just dotes on her every sound. He is constantly making sure she is okay and every peep she makes he is right there making sure she is happy. He is the first one to ask if he can help make her bottle or help change her diaper (I'm curious to see how long that lasts :) and if he can hold her. Emma loves her big brother too and tracks his voice whenever she hears him talking and his hand was the first one she held. She has been entertained with many yo-yo performances and loves listening to him read to her.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma's birthday is August 11th and she turned one yesterday!  James wanted to bake a birthday cake for her to celebrate.  Here are some pictures of the proud big brother (Daddy & Mommy too! :) baking Emma's cake. 

Sorry I'm still learning how to use this site so I'm not sure how to reposition pictures yet - anyone know how or have any suggestions? :)  Don't worry, we will be sure to celebrate her AND her first birthday when we return home in September :)


It's hard to believe that in only 5 days we will be boarding the plane to bring her home and in 9 days we'll get to finally meet her and hold her.  We are soooo excited.  Here's a peek at our itinerary.

Wednesday, August 17th - leave for China
Thursday, August 18th - arrive in Beijing (after 13 plus hours of flying - can you say jet lag?)
Friday August 19th - Tour of Great Wall & Hutong Lane
Saturday, August 20th - Orientation and tour of Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City

Sunday, August 21st - fly to Nanchang and at 4:30 WE GET EMMA!!  We can't wait to love all over her! :) From this point on Emma stays with us for the entire trip and she is ours!! :)  We will spend about a week in Nanchang completing adoption paperwork, applying for Emma's passport and doing more sightseeing.  After about a week we fly to Guangzhou where we will spend another week applying for Emma's VISA to enter the US and more sightseeing.

Thanks again everyone for your well wishes and support.  We can not wait to meet our little angel and are just besides ourselves with excitement!  We will be updating our blog during our trip and posting pictures so stay tuned...

OUR WAIT IS FINALLY OVER!!

Hello family and friends,

We are soooo excited to share with you our wonderful news.  After a looong 5 years of waiting we've FINALLY received the anxiously awaited call from Holt saying we've been matched with our little girl.  Meet Baby Emma!  Her Chinese name is Feng Ge Yang.  We are going to combine both names and her name will be Emma Geyang Hanson.  Baby Emma was born on August 11, 2010 and is a healthy, beautiful baby.

The reports we've received say that she was found abandoned at the gates of the People's Hospital in the Jiangxi province when she was a day old.  This sounds very sad but we are thankful that her birth parents knew that they couldn't provide for her so they were smart enough to leave her on the doorsteps of a hospital where she was able to get the care they couldn't give her.  We feel blessed and are thankful to them for giving us the opportunity we wouldn't otherwise have to have a daughter.  She is currently staying in and being cared for in an orphanage in the Jiangxi Province.  Our pediatrician has reviewed her medical records and confirmed that she is a healthy little girl.

Baby Emma is an active, happy baby. She loves music and will respond to interaction with laughs and smiles.  She also loves to play with other kids.  Sounds like a beautiful, healthy, happy little girl that will fit right in with our loud, crazy family, don't you think? :)

We've completed our pre-travel paperwork and are waiting for our travel approval from China to arrive.  Once we receive that we can begin the fun part of booking our flights, hotels, and scheduling appointments to meet with the Consulate for finalizing the adoption in China .  Right now our estimated travel date is mid-August.  We are so excited bring our little angel home.

That's all the details for now but through this blog we will keep you all updated as we begin this exciting phase of our journey.  Many of you know what a long journey this has been for us and we thank you all so much for your love and support!  We feel so blessed to have such a loving, supportive circle of family and friends to share this with!