Day 3: Tianemen Square, Forbidden City, & Acrobats

Today we started with a tour of Tianemen Square, which is where the above picture was taken. The area is a historical place in Chinese history. The below picture is the count down to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.


The next pictures are from the Forbidden City. The architectural work was amazing, as you can see from the pictures.

Tonight we went to the Chinese Acrobats. It was an amazing show as you can see from a few pictures.

Day 1 & 2: Travel

Ted and I flew out early Wed. morning (Nov.28) from Nashville to Minneapolis, to Tokyo, and then Beijing, China. We meet up with 6 adoptive families for the flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo, which was very long, 12 hours. We felt as if we were packed like sardines. Our total travel was 18 hours, but with the time change it took us into the next day. We actually arrived in Beijing around 9:30 PM on Nov. 29th. FTIA (our agency) had a coordinator, Genie, waiting for us, where we loaded our luggage and then off to the hotel, Zhaolong Hotel . We are very tired, but excited that we are only 4 days from Gotcha Day (the day we get Leanne).

Leanne's 100 Wishes Quilt

“To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a “Bai Jia Bei”, or “100 Good Wishes Quilt”. It is custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.”

Well, I finally completed Leanne’s quilt. I even took the leftover material and made a small doll quilt, which I will be taking to China. Thank you to all who contributed material and a thoughtful wish. I thought it was fitting that the last piece of material I attached said, “And God said, it was good”.

How It All Began.....

We were blessed in August 2002 with the birth of our son, Samuel Ethan. In April 2005 God led us to the decision to begin the process of adopting an infant girl from China. After many months of paperchasing by Stacy, our dossier(paperwork) was sent to China from Families Thru International Adoption(our adoption agency) before Thanksgiving 2005. The dossier was logged in(LID) at CCAA on November 30th, 2005. How ironic that we will be in China on the two year anniversary of this date.

It has been a very long wait to receive our referral picture, but the Lord timed it all perfectly. On October 2nd, we received our first pictures of Leanne. Her Chinese name is Chen Yuan Zhe. She was born on 1/15/07 in Chenzhou City, Hunan province.

7 months old

9 months old