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Four years ago we entered a sweltering hot room with 8 other families to have our lives changed forever. Babies were screaming and all of us parents, grandparents and siblings were desperately trying to pick out the new addition to our lives based on photos that were months old. We were looking at all the children and then the nanny holding Nadia pointed to me with Nadia’s hand and I could hear her saying, “Mama! Mama!” I thought I was going to faint right there.  It was agony waiting to hear our name called so we could go forward to meet her. Here is our Gotcha Day video for those who haven’t seen it (or would like to see it again).

Sweet Nadia we love you so much! You are such a delight and so much fun to have around. You say the funniest stuff and so often I wish I had a permanent recording going because I can’t remember it all. You love to dance and make up songs. You love to take photos and now to also stage videos. You are eager to learn and have a memory that shocks me most days. You can be incredibly strong-willed, but I think it will serve you well later in life mixed with your sweetness. You have become such a good big sister to Amelie. You try to teach her things and I hope they are all good since she tries to imitate every single thing you do. It’s a delight when you say things like, “She just said this or that for the first time. Isn’t that great?” I love that when we told you that we would buy you a Batman and Superman t-shirt you immediately asked if Amelie could have one of each too – “so that we can match.” Right now you love all superheroes and Batman most of all. You want to fight for justice like they do; I hope that fire continues to burn in you and God uses you in an amazing way.

As I watch you grow and learn more about the world, I am so grateful that God saw fit to make you a part of our family.

The Chinese like to have little children and babies all bundled up. The day we got Amelie was no exception. This is how she was dressed on Gotcha Day.

Layer 1 – sweater and socks

Layer 2 – topped with winter PJ’s.

Layer 3 – Topped with snow pants, boots and a lined jacket.

And we were expected to bring a winter coat and hat for her to take her back to the hotel, which of course we did so the ladies wouldn’t come after us

We leave for the airport in 90 minutes. We have a 3 hour flight to Korea, then a 2 hour layover, then a 11 hour flight to LAX, then a 3 hour layover. Then a 2.5 hour flight to DFW.

That is a lot of travel time and we are grateful for your prayers. Specifically:

• For Mike’s ear to stop hurting so bad.
• That I wouldn’t cough so much since that is what aggravates the pain in my side.
• That both girls sleep on the planes.
• That no one pukes or has any other sickness.

Thanks for all your support during this adventure.

Click the photo above to see the whole album. Amelie having pizza for the first time – she loved it!

This is going to be the fastest typed post in the East because I am tired and we need to get to bed because we leave the hotel at 10:30 am to head for home. We have almost everything packed except the toys and the toiletries so I am feeling like I will sleep well tonight. Praying that Amelie sleeps all night! We got up and headed down to breakfast and then decided we better head to the island to finish our shopping while I was feeling good from all the medicine. We headed to “Jade’s Place” to get a chop with Amelie’s name and “Michaels Place” to pick up some gifts I had on my list that I didn’t get on Tuesday. We saw a family from our travel group (the Nielands) and posed for a quick photo since they were headed to Hong Kong in the afternoon.

We had lunch at the Deli at the White Swan and then went back across the bridge to our hotel so Amelie could have a nap. At 3:45 her and I headed down to the lobby to wait for Grace to show up with the children’s visas and our brown envelopes for immigration in America. After that the Hameloths said they were going to get Pizza Hut so we decided to have a pizza party (reminded me of Nanchang with our 1st travel group). That sounded great to us and we went down to the club level to eat. Here is Logan and the girls playing “ring around the rosie”.

And here is a photo of us with the Hameloths. We traveled the paperwork and matching road together so it was very fun to get to spend our week in Guangzhou together getting to know them in person.