Here Are The Pictures!

Nathan and Daddy and Mommy at the Office of Foreign Adoptions.

After his bath.



More pics of Nathan and Daddy.

Together Day!!!

Our Together Day was wonderful! It was very hectic also. We landed in Chongqing (pronounced Chong ching) at 2:30 and met our guide Mei (May). She immediately showed us to a waiting van and said we were in a hurry. It takes several days to get a passport and Nathan’s is due to come back on Monday the same day we leave Chongqing. Mei wanted to get it done early so we can get the passport back on Friday to avoid any delays. So we head to the Office of Foreign Affairs to do the adoption paperwork. She has already filed most of the paperwork for us.

While enroute to the building of Foreign Affairs, Mei tells us that she spoke on the phone with the orphanage and they said Nathan and the orphanage workers should be in Chongqing about 4:00pm. It’s around 3:15 when we get to the office. Mei is rushing us so Ron and I are busily trying to load cameras and gather documents. We go up to the Office of Foreign Affairs and there is total chaos going on. About four couples have just received their daughters and there is much crying and excitement. A couple of other little girls are waiting for their new families. Ron and Mei have started the paperwork and it is too much for me to resist so I start getting video of all the little girls and their families.

As I pan around the room I come to a group of people sitting on the couch. The baby with them is standing on the floor holding onto the coffee table and is hidden behind a large plant. I move so that I can get a better view of the baby and as I look through the camera I recognize him. I say something inane like, “Wait a minute! That’s Nathan!” When I lower the camera and stare at him to be sure the people with him recognize us from our photos. They start nodding and gesturing wildly to us. Ron and Mei turn and see him and I tell him, “That’s Nathan!” Ron says, “Yeah, it is! He was hiding behind a plant!”

Mrs. Wei who is the supervisor of the nannies is the orphanage brings Nathan to me and puts him in my arms. I spring leaks like a sprinkler hose. Nathan immediately grabs a big handful of my hair. He hugs me very tight and hides his face. He is being shy and it’s very sweet. He gnaws on my shoulder and it’s evident he is teething. He also has a ton of hair! I thought he would be bald. Even Mei was surprised by this.

He is avoiding looking at Ron and I which is okay. We were content to let him get used to us. I guess Mrs. Wei and the two men with her were anxious for him to accept us so they get right in his face and start clapping and shouting excitedly “Guang Guang! Guang Guang!” (Guang was his Chinese name.) This makes him turn the other way so they tickle and poke him and keep shouting excitedly to him in Chinese. I am sure Mrs. Wei was telling him that we are his parents. Nathan doesn’t seem to be bothered by this loud, rough, affection and from what I have observed it is a normal interaction between babies and adults here. It was, however, stressing me out so I ask Ron if he wants to hold him.

Ron takes Nathan and within a couple of minutes they are the best of buddies. Nathan gives us a smile. He seems fascinated with Ron’s face. The pictures are a few minutes after they met. He has been a Daddy’s boy since.

We finish the paperwork, and the three of us get thumb printed and have a photo taken together. Then Mei informs us that Nathan is officially ours. That’s it! I thought we would have to go before a judge and do the interviews but she said that was the old way. We had to register his new name and so now even in China he is officially Nathan Kael Weatherly and we are officially parents. Hurray! The Office of Foreign Affairs hands us a Certificate of Adoption in a nice folder with our first family photo in it. They congratulate us and seem very happy. They also gave us a gift which I need to photograph because it is hard to describe.

We leave around 4:30pm and have to go check into our hotel. Nathan is from the country and rarely left the orphanage so he is afraid of the traffic and the honking. He is not at all happy to be back in a van and starts crying but I hold him and he lays his head on my chest. He is asleep by the time we reach the hotel. He wakes up about 45 minutes later when we are trying to get him ready to go meet Mei in the lobby. He cries when he wakes up in the strange room and sees us but settles down when we pick him up.

At dinner he fussed a bit but was pretty quiet. He likes the teething toys we brought for him. After dinner we went back to the room and let him play for a while which he enjoyed. Then we gave him a bath and he did very well. There was minimal crying and he became fascinated by the water and didn’t want to get out. Daddy got soaked!

We then let him play for a while. He crawls very fast and will pull himself up but there is no walking yet. He loves to spin circles on the carpet and laughs like he has invented a great game. He got a little fussy about 9:30 which is his normal bedtime so we put him in his crib and he went right to sleep.

Then an exhausted but happy Mommy and Daddy put themselves to bed about 11:00pm after figuring out how we are going to do his formula in the morning. I woke around 3:00 am and couldn’t go back to sleep again. It’s almost six and I don’t know when he will be waking up. Maybe I should go get a shower now.

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life!

The Forbidden City and Great Wall of China

What a great day we had! There are too many awesome pictures to post here so I'm just highlighting our day. We first went to the Forbidden City which surprised us with how massive it is. It is huge! It is amazing to be inside buildings that were built two hundred years before the US became a country. Everything was fascinating.

We also enjoy seeing life on the streets of Beijing. Bicycles are everywhere! Just getting from point A to B is really a hair-raising adventure. They have very nice roads here so that made traveling more pleasant. The smog is still awful and you can see it in some of our pictures but we got a chance to get outside the city today.

The highlight of our day was The Great Wall of China. It is indescribable! We made the very long hike to the top. Tom bowed out about half way. I'm sure he's been up there before. The views are incredible! We had a beautiful day with no wind and it was very pleasant. I especially enjoyed seeing a blue sky when we got there.

There were several things we found very entertaining One was the hand rails which sometimes are only big enough for two year olds. There were also camels along the way. We don't know why. There were quite a few Chinese people climbing the wall in business suits and some women were in heels. It was a serious hike! We had jello legs coming down.

To finish off our day, Tom took us to a nice restaurant for Peking duck. Beijing used to be Peking so it is their specialty. It was excellent -- nothing like I've seen in the US. With every meal we have they serve us three different meats, two vegetables, rice, soup, and watermelon. It is so much food --way more than we could eat. All of our meals have been excellent.

Tomorrow is our big day! We leave here in the morning and will get to Chongqing in the afternoon. We will get Nathan about an hour after we arrive. Whoo-hoo! We are excited and nervous. I hope we will be able to sleep well.

Our day in Beijing

My day started super early because I kept waking up all night. I finally gave in and got up. I kept smelling a strong charcoal odor. It turns out they use coal for heating here so there is a strong smell to go with it.

The beds here are very unlike those in the US. They are super-hard by our regular hotel standards. It's almost like sleeping on just a box spring only they don't bounce! It didn't bother me to sleep on them though. We like a firm bed anyway. This hotel as very cosy down comforters to sleep under. Ron has been out like a hibernating bear all night.

We are supposed to go down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. I saw them setting out dinner last night and it looked very good. In the restaurants here the server dress very fancy. I want to get a picture of them while we are out.

One thing that has really surprised me so far is how tall everyone is. I mean they aren't tall by U.S. standards but they are taller than us! Most of the women seem to be about 5'5 and the men aroun 5'8. I feel slightly cheated by this. I came halfway across the world and I'm still shorter than everyone! It doesn't really bother me - I find it very amusing.

I asked Tom if he had trouble getting around our accents. He said just a little but he is very fluent. I've been trying to speak slowly for him. Ron told him yesterday while we were waiting for our room, "We'll just hang out here. It's no biggie." I could see frowning trying to decipher what was just said to him. hee hee We will have to watch our Okie talk.

Today we get to walk on the Great Wall of China! I'm so excited!

We are in Beijing!

It was a long day of traveling but we are here! The city is not nearly as crowded as I thought it would be but Tom, our guide says that tomorrow when we visit the Forbidden City it will be very crowded. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant and it was wonderful! Ron is already asleep. I'm not far behind him.


Next to me on the plane was Li You who is a professor at Georgia Tech. His family lives in China and he is going home for a visit. He makes this flight several times a year. Yikes! Our flight was overbooked and there wasn't an empty seat. Other than being so long, it was fine. We had an uneventful flight to Chicago from OKC. Li You was very friendly and asked us all about our trip. He was very excited to hear about our adoption. He stayed with us as we got through customs and was going to take us home if our guide wasn't there. He gave us his emai address and wants to see picturs of Nathan.









When we got to our hotel room we couldn't get any of the lights to come on. We had to have it explained that our door card has to be inserted into a slot before the lights will work. I've never seen this before but I found it ingenious.

Travel Day!

We have to leave for the airport in two hours! We decided not to go to bed last night so that we will be able to sleep on the plane. I am hoping it was a wise decision. I guess we will find out soon enough. I hope we haven't forgotten anything.

My brother Jack is driving us to the airport. What a sweetie to get up so doggone early! I am feeling so sad about leaving all of our dogs and cats here although I know my Mom will take good care of them. They are going to be so upset with us.

I've had a tune from My Fair Lady going through my head all day and had to make up my own words to go with it.

"I'm going to China in the morning!
Ding dong, the bells are going to chime!
So dogs come and kiss me!
Say how you'll miss me!
But get me to the airport on time!"

For anyone who didn't know I AM one of those people who sing show tunes all the time!

Almost there!

Ron is getting all his copies and his paperwork in order. There is so much of it! We have to carry around $6000 cash with us to China because we can't use money orders and we have a lot of fees to pay while we are there. Not only does it have to be cash but it has to be new, crisp bills or China will not accept them. We have spent a couple of weeks going from bank to bank examining their bills and picking out the best ones. People have been surprisingly gracious about us showing up asking to see what is in their money drawer. :) We have about 90% of what we need. Tomorrow will be our last-ditch effort to get the remainder. It feels ridiculous to be carrying around this much cash with us!

This is Nathan's suitcase. He is about one tenth our size but he needs his own suitcase and Ron and I are sharing. I'm still not sure we are bringing enough stuff for him. I still have to fit the snacks in here! We have one day left to get everything in order! Ron didn't think I was listening to him and he informed me he would pack his gun in his carryon. That makes for an interesting mental picture of us at the airport, doesn't it?

Packing!

We are finally packing! This has proved to be more difficult than I expected. We have a weight limit we have to abide by. This is fine for Ron and I but who knew that babies would be so hard to pack for? They need a lot of stuff! I'm not even going overboard with clothes and haven't packed any toys. I am trying to prioritize the items. The above document is our travel approval which reads "Notice of Coming to China for Adoption". Maybe its because of the verbage or the green heart and the red official seal but I find this document so interesting.

Our Itinerary!

We received our itinerary today. My comments are in blue.

Nov 10th -- Leave Oklahoma City to fly to Chicago. Then fly from Chicago to Beijing. (We lose a day because of the time zone)

Nov 11th -- Arrive iat Beijing at 1605. Stay in Wang Fu Jing Grand Hotel. (We stay in Beijing a couple of nights to rest and to adjust to the time zone change. China is 13 hours ahead of us so their daytime is our nightime).

Nov 12th -- Visit the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. (Yea!)

Nov 13th -- Fly to Chongqing. Meet the baby in the afternoon. Stay at the Hilton Hotel.
(It amazes me how "meet the baby" is settled in there between the flight and the hotel as if we were stopping off at a restaurant to eat! The comment should have fireworks and the hallelujah chorus playing in the background!)

Nov 14th -- Registration and notarization (Adoption paperwork)

Nov 15th -- thru
Nov 19th -- Sightseeing (It is common for China to require adopting parents to spend several days with their child before they let them continue on to complete the adoption. They feel this gives new parents time to be absolutely certain about their decisions. In the meantime, we will sightsee and shop and spend a lot of time bonding with little Nathan.)

Nov 20th -- Get passport. Fly to Guangzhou. Medical check and take visa photo. Stay at White Swan Hotel. (Looks like a long day to me. Guangzhou is where the American Embassy is located and we must get Nathan's visa there.)

Nov 21st -- Visa appointment at 9:00am.

Nov 22nd -- Get Visa.

Nov 23rd -- Leave China. Fly to Hong Kong. Fly from Hong Kong to Chicago then to Oklahoma City.

Nov 23rd -- Arrive in OKC at 5:00pm. (We will gain back the 13 hours we lost).

We go home on Thanksgiving Day. I think it will be the most memorable Thanksgiving Day ever!

Plane tickets and Money

We received our plane tickets today! Now everything feels real and we still have over two weeks of waiting! I went shopping yesterday and had to resist the urge to buy the cute outfits I saw. It would be so easy to spend tons of money but I will wait until China when he is with us so we can try things on.

I don't think I mentioned it before but China is very picky about the condition of money and we have to travel with loads of cash. Ron had a great idea for putting the bills in a coupon organizer which works very well. He has taken up the habit of putting bills in heavy books and stacking them so they become nice and flat. I think he has money stashed all over the house. If that gives anyone who knows where we live the idea of breaking in, just remember we are heavily armed and we have killer attack Shelties. :)

Other than gathering more currency we are pretty much set to go! Nothing to do but wait.

Busy Bees

Our flights are booked and paid for! (Ouch!) We haven't reserved our seats but I'll work on that tomorrow. We went this morning and got re-fingerprinted. We have no idea how the update works. I spent a little time this evening going through some baby clothes. It looks like I have a good amount to take with me. It is fun to browse through them. We need to buy him a winter coat to take with us but other than that, we are good.

Update on Nathan

We finally got an update on Nathan's size! Be prepared because he is pretty tiny for his age compared to American babies.

Height: 29.25 inches
Weight: 16.5 pounds
Head: 17.09 inches
Chest: 16.97 inches
Foot: 4.10 inches
Teeth: four (two upper and two lower)

Travel Approval

We have our travel approval! Our case worker called us this morning. What this means is that our case worker can now schedule our consulate appointment and we can schedule our travel. It looks like we will be able to leave around November 10th. We are very excited, of course and will keep you posted as we get more information.

News!

We heard from Virginia today. She said that the CCAA has located our file and that everything is approved. (I guess it was lost!) Virginia said our travel approval should be sent from China soon. This is great news. As soon as we get our travel approval, she can make an appointment for us at the US Consulate in China and we can travel!

Garage Sale Success!

We had our garage sale the last two days and it was so much work! My Mom was great! She stayed and worked the entire time for two days. A few of our neighbors saw we were having it and called us saying they had things to throw in so we were constantly dragging new things in and pricing them. It was very hectic and we are just exhausted but we are pleased with how well it went.

I made a sign reading that the proceeds were going toward our adoption and put a picture of Nathan on it. I met quite a few people who have been touched by adoption in some way.

The most memorable was a couple who adopted a girl from China in 1994. They were one of the first families to adopt internationally from China. We talked for a while and I realized how much the process has changed since then. Some things go more smoothly and some do not.

A man came to my garage sale and got very excited to see the sign. He and his wife brought home their son from Russia last Tuesday. He stayed and talked a LONG time. He was so excited, he ran home to get his son so he could bring him back and show him off. Isn't that sweet?

Thank you so much to our friends who contributed items for our sale!

Birthdays

Nathan is fourteen months old today. We are still waiting for travel approval and I don't know why it is taking so very long. We are hoping it will be today! I wish we could receive an update on him.

My Mom's dog Skye had her puppies last night while she was here at our home. It is so fun having new little lives around. These puppies will still be here for Nathan to play with when he comes home.

I just realized that when we go to China, Mom will have TEN dogs at her house!

Update

For anyone who is tracking our progress, we still are waiting for Travel Approval (TA) but our case worker said she saw something with our name on it and it is being worked on. I feel better that at least our dossier is not lost somewhere!

Virginia said a lot of people are inquiring about traveling in October so CWA is checking into getting the guides and the hotels they would need. I am glad they are already thinking this way since I intend to make an issue of it when we get our TA.

I got a call from my brother James in Iraq yesterday. They are letting him go early and he should be home by the end of the week! I am planning a barbeque on Sunday to celebrate.

Developing Patience

More pictures of Nathan's Room! We still haven't received word on our travel approval yet but we are staying positive. Every delay is a blow and I will admit that I am not always the most patient person. I have, however, seen many times in our lives how God has allowed us to be disappointed so that we will wait for what He has planned for us. Sometimes when I feel like despairing I remember how very blessed we have been in our lives. It is not hard to trust God when you believe that He wants you to be happy and blessed. Ron's answer to every harship is always, "Hmmm...we must be getting ready to get blessed."

In the meantime we will get as much work finished around the house as possible. Yesterday we started leveling the lawn which is not a fun venture. I will attempt to get several trees planted this fall. The harsh summer proved to be tough on our yard.


Here are more pictures of Nathan's room. The baby quilt is what we based the room's theme upon. The dresser is an antique we repaired and painted.











My friend Lauren painted a piggy bank for Nathan. She painted a little ladybug on his backside which I think is adorable. The little ladybug family was made by Jennifer and Garridy her son for the baby shower. I love spending time in Nathan's Baby Room.

Bad News

I have some bad news. Last Friday we were told that even if our travel approval arrived soon, we still would not be able to travel to China to get Nathan because there are no appointments open at the American Consulate in China until November. What this means is we cannot go get Nathan until November.

This was a terrible blow to us and we were bitterly disappointed but we are trying not to let ourselves stay down about it. We will never get back those two months of Nathan's life that he will spend without us but we know that when we get him, it will cease to matter.

The one thing we will find the most helpful is finally having a time frame. The not knowing is one of the hardest things to endure -- harder than waiting. Our agency is positive November will work for us so that gives us a goal. In the meantime, we will work on projects that we didn't think we would finish before Nathan came home.

Shower of Blessings

Yesterday, I was honored by my friends with a shower for baby Nathan who is "on the way" although we need to go get him!

It was a beautiful shower full of lovely details! I have such artistic friends! I didn't get pictures of all who were there. Mom and Jennell came with me and we had such a good time.

Thank you Jan, Lou, Dawna, Lauren and Jennifer for all of your hard work and creativity!

I received so many lovely gifts at the shower and by friends and family who couldn't be there. It is wonderful to have so many people waiting to celebrate Nathan's homecoming with us.

We Finished Nathan's Room!

Nathan's room is ready for him to move in! Now we just need for the travel approval to hurry up and get here! The crib set has a theme of lambs, bunnies, and birds so we painted them throughout the room as well.


I was unable to load very many photos so I'll post more later.
Ron made the wall unit which has great storage. I bought wooden bins and painted them the same colors as the walls. We decided to customize the theme a bit by adding our dogs into the mix. Under the tree are Liberty and Ranger. Sergeant Major is chasing a lamb. Trigger is chasing a bunny.



Ron is taking a break and imagining Nathan playing in his new room.

Another Photo

We received the orginal photos of Nathan that were sent to our adoption agency. In the full size photo you can see how tiny his little hands are but he is lost inside his outfit so we cannot tell what size he is.


We also received this photo with the red background. He does not look happy in this shot!

Nathan's Birthday!

Today is Nathan's first birthday. We could not be there to share it with him but we have ordered a cake to be delivered to his orphanage for him. It's nice there is a service available that will do that for us. We had a celebration here at home for him with lots of good wishes for him. Our thoughts are on how different next year will be for his second birthday. We are still waiting for our travel approval and the sooner we get it, the better.




We didn't need to eat all that cake so we shared it with our dogs and Mom's dogs who are having a play day at our house. They have no idea what the cake is for but they really enjoyed it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Pre-Approval!

We received the phone call on July 6th that China gave us their preapproval (PA) to adopt Yang Fu Guang! This makes it official that China has accepted our offer to adopt him. Virginia thought it would take a couple of months to get the PA but it is one month to the day that we first saw him and said that we wanted him for our own.

Now we have to wait for our travel approval (TA) . Virginia estimated that this would take another three months, however, since we have had our dossier in China for such a long time, she stated it could be sooner. We are hoping for sooner of course! As soon as we get our TA, our agency will schedule our travel and we will be off to get him! We need to start packing!

In the meantime we are decorating Nathan's room. Ron finished building the shelf unit and it looks great! I have already filled it partially. We still need to finish our decorating but this is the quilt on which we are basing our theme.

What happens now.

This is another picture of our little man. I told Ron that since his outfit matches the original baby's room, we could just leave him in the pink room. I probably don't need to write that we are painting a room blue and green. I will try to explain what happens in the process now. I admit that I find it very confusing myself.

If someone was just starting the process and chose a baby from the waiting list, it would take five months for to be able to get him. We have had a dossier in China since December so we should be farther along in the process. Just how far along depends on how much time it takes them to find our dossier since it is mixed in with the people who went the regular referral route. From the time they locate our dossier and give the "okay" for us to adopt him, we will then have to wait for travel approval. Right now travel approval is averaging about 45 days. After travel approval, our agency books our travel arrangements and we leave in about two weeks.

To summarize, if they found and approved our dossier today it would still be a couple of months before we travel. That is unless, God has other plans which is not unusual. I hope this explains why we are so vague when people ask us when we are going to get our little boy.

Pray with us that we will not have to wait long and that God will give us patience while we wait.