More Pics!

What day is it?

It is so easy to lose track of time here! We always seem to be asking each other "What day is it?! It is hard to believe it has already been one whole week since Gotcha Day! Kaelin is getting more and more of a personality as the days go by! She truly is a wonderful baby with such an amazing disposition! She is beautiful, happy, curious, healthy (after a round of Zithromax for an ear infection), and of course smart! She amazes us every day with everything she does! She even has such an adorable little sense of humor too! She thinks everything is funny and always has a smile for us!
We visited a gorgeous park yesterday and got to interact with many of the people there. The people of Hunan are so incredibly friendly and polite to us! They love to have there picture taken with us! How cute are the ones with the little boys with the slit crotch pants! We carry around a translated card with us to explain why we are here. When the people read it and understand that we are adopting this little baby girl we are holding they show such gratitude and shake our hands and say thank you! Today we are going to the silk embroidery factory and then going to a restaraunt for dinner tonight near our hotel. I typed this entire post with li'l Miss octopus arms in my lap!

Pictures!

WAL-MART!

You have to see it to believe it! I will post more later!

Kaelin Bing Wen is Officially Ours!

What a big day yesterday was! Kaelin Bing Wen is officially our daughter! We spent half the day at the hot and humid Civil Affairs office doing more paperwork and taking care of different fees. We just couldn't be more excited about our new baby girl! After we got back to the hotel Gary and Bing and I ventured out in search of diapers, wipes, formula as we did not go to the Chinese Walmart as planned yesterday. We were out of everything! The market was about a 10 minute walk and we were stared at the entire way! I guess it's not an everyday thing to see an American couple with a Chinese baby walking down the sidewalk in Changsha! Not to mention how Gary stands out a bit being 6'3! We totally had to guess and go by pictures on the packages because, naturally, everything was Chinese! Today we are going to Walmart to get some more things for Bing! I will write more later!

More of our Beautiful Girl!

WE GOT THE HAPPIEST BABY! Kaelin Bing Wen is an absolute delight! We are just amazed with her, too! She is sitting, crawling, smiling, and babbling up a storm! Everything about her is beyond perfect! We had the most incredible day yesterday! After arriving in Changsha we barely had enough time to get unpacked a little, get our diaper bag packed and then we were on our way to get our Baby Bing! The bus ride alone was quite an adventure! There are NO traffic laws in Changsha! There are 10 million people in this city and they are all out and about! There were at least 3 instances where it's a miracle we weren't involved in a serious accident! When we arrived at the Civil Affairs office, the babies were already there waiting for us! We walked in and took an elevator up to a conference room and when we walked in all of the babies were right there! Since we hadn't had any updates on Bing it was actually hard to pick her out, but Gary and I spotted her after a quick scan! We knew that dark eyed little one sitting in her nanny's lap was our Baby Bing! It was very chaotic to say the least as before we could be given the babies we had to do more paperwork! Once that was done, Micheal, our guide from GW started naming families! We were the 4th family to be called and all at once she was placed into my waiting arms! Talk about love at first sight! Gary and I can't even begin to put into words how we felt at that moment after waiting for sooo long! We just stood with our precious daughter and bonded instantly! We just can't believe how much we loved this beautiful baby we had just met! Honestly it was no different than the moment you see your baby after giving birth, only this pregnancy lasted over 3 years! By now it was so hot in the room that everyone was just dripping with sweat! It was seriously about 105 degrees in that room! After we all recieved our sweet bundles of baby goodness, we were able to meet with the orphanage director and our baby's nanny. We asked some questions while Michael, our guide, translated. Then we were given the most priceless gifts! They included Bing's original finding clothing, a small red gift bag filled with her finding ad and a beautiful handmade chop (stamp) with Bing's name engraved on it! We also recieved back the cameras we had sent in the two care packages all completely used up, I can't wait to get the photos developed! We also got back her lovey we had slept with and sent and another suffed bear along with a beautiful baby blanket! We are truly grateful to Chenzhou CWI and the love and care that they have given our precious daughter! They are a Half the Sky orphanage and, wow, it really makes a difference! Baby Bing is living proof!
After about 2 hrs we all loaded back on the bus and took the death defying drive back to our hotel! Bing fell asleep on Gary's shoulder about 2 minutes into the trip, so cute! We couldn't wait to get her back to our room and take her all in! Aside from more paperwork, we have been in our room just loving on and being totally mezmorized by our new little miracle, Kaelin Bing Wen!! This morning we will do more paperwork and then we will go shopping for some things for Bing!
Finally, We would like to say how much we love our five kids waiting back home! Justin, Marie, Adam, Sarah, and Marcus, we can't wait for you to meet your new adorable baby sister! We miss you and WE LOVE YOU! Mom and Dad xo

We Have Baby Bing!!!!

It has been a very long and hot hot hot day! But we are absolutely in love and Kaelin Bing Wen Allen is perfect in every way! She is a happy, bouncy, beautiful baby! I will post more later!

We Made it to Guangzhou!

Right now we are at the Hotel Novotel Baiyun at the airport in Guangzhou waiting for our flight to Changsha in the morning! We have been flying for over 18 hrs, but we are not that tired because we slept on the plane a lot and it is really daytime for us! Here are a few photos to tide you over until we get our precious little Baby Bing! OMG, We will be holding her in just 14 1/2 hrs!

Bon Voyage'

This will be my last post from home! My next post will be from China! We are beyond thrilled that this is finally happening! We are packed and ready to go! Thank you to all of our friends and family for all of your well wishes and support! We couldn't have gotten through all of this without you! Since we will be getting Baby Bing just a couple of hours after we arrive in Changsha, I will post pics as soon as it is humanly possible! What a whirlwind it will be! See you in China!
Love,
:)Di and Gary

Slight change in our Itinerary!

We were just given a "slight" change in our Itinerary! We will be meeting our beautiful daughter on the 10th not the 11th! That is the same day we arrive in Changsha! No sooner do we get to our hotel, our whole group (10 families) has to go to the civil affairs office to get our babies! We will have just enough time to freshen up a bit and make a bottle for Baby Bing! That is if our plane arrives in Changsha on time!
PS. Are you happy now, Rachel's mommy? Heehee! THREE MORE DAYS UNTIL WE ARE CHINA BOUND! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!