First Blog

I am starting this blog as a way for friends and family to keep up with us.  The last year has been an exciting and challenging one for me personally and for our family.  The highlight, without a doubt, has been finally bringing Mei Li home.

This journey started with a simple telephone call to an adoption agency in Atlanta nearly four years ago.  Kerry and I already had Kellen at that time.  Our efforts for another child had not worked out well and it was time to try something different.  The agency, One World, connected us with a wonderful case worker named Julia.  Her guidance over this entire process would prove to be amazing throughout the long and difficult process.

With the adoption process nearly over at this point (we only have a post placement study remaining) it is a wonder that any children ever get adopted.  This process crawls into every part of your private life.  Financial, social, and medical histories are all fair game.

After jumping through hoops, loops and other obstacle courses we finally left for China on June 21st 2010.  My Mother-In-Law, Louise, decided to travel with us.  In her words this was really her only chance to travel to China, a place that she had always wanted to go.  Louise would prove to be an amazing traveler and very helpful during the trip.

We decided to be tourists in Beijing for three days prior to "Gotcha" day when the Chinese Government would hand over Mei.  Beijing is quite simply amazing.  It is a city of nearly 18 million people.  An Australia man that we met said that the entire country of Australia only has about 20 million people.  We were pretty blown away.  While we were there we did get to see the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the Forbidden City.  We were also introduced to the Chinese method of capitalism.  This involves taking you to a silk or jade factory during your tour so that you can appreciate the goods and of course spend some money.  My favorite line was was, "We guarantee quality and price".  What this really means is that we are giving you the shaft on anything that you purchase and there isn't anything you can do about it.

Outside of the Forbidden City





Forbidden City

     From Beijing we flew south to another huge Chinese city, Huangzhou.  I had never even heard of Huangzhou prior to visiting China.  What I know now is that Huangzhou is actually quite nice and beautiful.  The city sits next to a lake and "national park" of sorts.  Lots of green rolling hills and water. 

On June 28th the Chinese government presented Mei to us.  At this point the trip became quite challenging.  We went into what I call escape from China mode.  This involved gaining a passport for Mei (a process that usually takes a month), a full medical exam, a trip to the US consulate in Guangzhou, and numerous other Chinese bureaucratic processes.  Add to this a 2 year old, who is trying to adjust to us, who does not speak any English and who likes to act 2 on a regular basis.  To say the least, we were stretched to our emotional limits during the rest of the trip.

Difficulties aside, she did have us charmed pretty quickly...

Through all of this, Kellen proved to be an amazing traveller.  He was quite popular in China and he really enjoyed the trip.

Once we arrived home the real bonding and adjusting was able to start and take place.  Mei has adapted to everything the USA has thrown at her so far.  We will be enjoying our first Christmas with her in a few days and our six month anniversary of Gotcha day.  She loves crafts, coloring, Dora the Explorer, her bike, and spending time with her brother and cousins.

We look forward to making the rounds in the next few years so that everyone can meet Mei and Kellen too.  She is going to get to meet her California cousins in just a few weeks and take her first trip to Disneyland.  We can hardly wait.