Greetings from the Azalea City. Wait. Greetings to the Azalea city? We went to a beautiful garden today and look what we saw!! Julianna loves to be outdoors. She looks at everything and makes vocalizations. She has not said any words. This has been her favorite mode of travel...

Aways with mommy; she still will not go to daddy. This has resulted in very sore arms, wrists, back, legs... We got her a stroller this afternoon and she fortunately took to it. Some of the children in the group are very resistant to anything except being carried.

I honestly cannot decide if things are better or worse. She is definitely more interactive and no longer in shock, but this means that she is also more opinionated and unbelievably vocal. Ear drum rattling screams. It is also difficult to figure out what she wants. Yesterday she could not be without her sippy cup. Today, she was ambivalent about the cup, but had an absolute meltdown over a benedryl bottle. She will not take a bottle. We have tried three different bottles, including one that the orphanage gave us with a pre-cut nipple. It even had the formula mix in it on the day we got her. We also tried a sippy cup, which worked for someone in the group. She will eat most any table food and has been drinking water, apple juice and pedialyte. She likes noodles. We got her a noodle cup from the local 7-11. It was sort of a ramen noodle thing--freeze dried, just add water and enjoy. The label is entirely in chinese and we were picking up different cups, trying to guess the ingredients by the pictures on the top. We tried to find chicken, but ended up getting seafood--squid and octopus. We discovered this when I was stirring the cup and up comes an octopus tendril. Yuck. She ate the noodles. Didn't give her the tendril.

The White Swan has a very beautiful waterfall and Koi pond. Julianna loves to look at the fish. This is probably the most expressive photo we have of her so far.

We are progressing in the "baby bodily fluids I have worn" category. We now have, vomit, urine, and mucous (for all you non-medicals, that is snot. Lots and lots of snot. Who knew something so small could produce such a prodigious amount of mucous). Julianna has a full blown cold. We stayed home most of the day while daddy went to the Six Banyan Trees temple. He might give you a rundown on that later. It was kind of nice to have a laid back day. I was able to straighten out the hotel room and relax. Julianna continues to be more interactive and playful. She does not play with us, but all in good time. We have learned that she will drink out of a glass. We learned this pretty much by accident; she did the "I want that sound" when one of us was drinking and we gave it a shot. It is a messy affair, but at least it is some liquid in her mouth. She is doing a bit better drinking from the sippy cup as well.

I typed this post once, so if it starts sounding familar, just skip it. I'm not sure what happened to the first attempt and the blogger buttons are all in chinese. I cannot figure out how to change that or even why.

Yesterday was a much better day. We fed her three times and we found crackers she would eat. There is less fussiness about everything and she even played. She played with a car yesterday morning and then with crayons and stacking cups yesterday afternoon. Up until then, she would just hold the stacking cups, but she actually stacked them!!

She has pretty much decided that the sippy cup is her comfort item. She likes to hold it and will occasionally lift it to her face and check the supply. She had not been drinking it, except for the one morning. Mostly just holding the cup to her tummy and patting it. Yesterday afternoon, she brought it to her face, checked the level, and then drank it down. This was right before we went to the group dinner and we did not have any more. We got to the restaurant and one of the guys at the table ordered beer, sort of a apple juice colored beer, and here comes the "I want that" sound. Fortunately, the waiters bought chips with the drinks and she was content with that.

Julianna is becoming more interested in the world around her. She likes to look at everything and we have not yet figured out the best way to get her in the carrier so she is content. We took a walk yesterday and looked at the fish in the pond. We got a new sound out of her, sort of a "what is that", with lilting on the end. She pointed at the fish as well. She likes being outside and looking at everything.

She still will not go to Phillip, but at least is no longing upset with him being nearby.

Phillip's luggage is physically in China. We hope to have it before today's outing.

We received Julianna's weight and height from her physical. She is 21 pounds and 30 inches. She fits pretty well into 12 month size clothes. We have only tried one of the dresses I made and it was too big. But she wore it like a trooper. Unfortunately, that was serious meltdown day and we do not have any photographs.

All the children in the group have the two fist issue. They all like to hold something in each fist at all times. They are all gradually loosing the trait. Julianna will sometimes still do it. She mostly does it with food and will break a cracker in half so that she has part in each hand if she only has one. This is her with a cracker in each hand. She was sitting facing me, leaning against my chest. She would eat off the cracker in the hand she was facing and when she would flip her head, she would eat off the other cracker. It was very cute.

Good morning everyone. Thanks for all your comments. It is encouraging to know that there are people back home who love us and are praying for us.

We forgot to mention in the drama of yesterday that Julianna is officially ours. Part of yesterday's outing was a swing by the Civil Affairs Office to get our "red books", which is the official adoption certificate. We applied for her visa as well. The only paperwork left is pretty much with the American government. We have to visit the US Consulate once we have her passport and visa, which is sometime next week. The next several days are all tourist outings. The orphanage visit has been moved to Tuesday rather than this Friday as originally scheduled.

Now for the updates. Phillip is still without luggage. Fortunately we had packed some clothes in the carry on "just in case". We have sent stuff to the laundry once, so he may wear the same stuff, but at least it is clean. We bought him a straight razor and shaving cream, so he has lost the rugged outdoors man look. The airline automated message says the luggage has been located and is being delivered.

I'm not sure where we would buy congee in Mobile. There is a recipe somewhere in the stacks of papers from the adoption agency. Might could also find one online. It is a slow cooking affair, if someone (hint, hint grandma) wants to try making it.

Con Gee: Rice congee is a type of rice porridge that is eaten in many Asian countries. The word congee derives from the Tamil word kanji. In some cultures, congee is eaten primarily as a breakfast food, while in others, it is eaten as a substitute for rice in other meals.

So, it's gruel. After tasting it I guess you could also call it Nas Tee. But it's about the only thing we can get Julianna to eat. She will not take her formula.

We made the mistake today of going with the group to what Kelly called a "women and children department store" or something like that. What it was, was Times Square asian style. The store itself was on the third floor of a building with several different stores that sold everything a Chinese person could need. We spent all of five minutes in the children's department before Julianna started making her customary sound (uhh, uhh); which we interpreted as hunger, seeing as how the last congee she had was at breakfast. She had turned down her bottle of formula, naturally.

So, off we went to find sustenance. Among all the stores were a couple of McDonalds, a Pizza Hut, a KFC, and hundreds of booths selling fried duck heads and whatnot. Our first stop was a little grocery on the first floor of the children's store building. The one thing they didn't have wast the cornstarch crackers the other (read: perfect) children in our group adore. The helpful lady took my hand signals to mean our baby was teething and presented us a box of what looked like long skinny crackers. We also bought a box that really was long skinny crackers. More on the fake crackers in a minute. Anyway, once in Julianna's hands, she made an elaborate point of dropping the crackers to the street in disgust.

So we thought we could find some congee or noodles (she loved the noodles at the restaurant last night), and we went by all the booths looking. Apparently this is one of the cultures that only eats congee for breakfast.

Ok, how about good old McDonald's? we got some chicken mcnuggets and managed to slip a piece the size of a lima bean into her mouth. Mom and dad had to eat the rest.

So, we found the old standby, the steamed bun we thought was her comfort food (she was holding one when we first got her) at a 7-11 on the far edge of "asian times square" but we never even got it out of the bag before she turned her head from it. By now the "uhh uhh" was real crying, and it was time to get on the bus to come back to the hotel. We never should have gone in the first place.

I'm sitting here in the dark now, wondering how in the world a kid can survive on breakfast alone.

Freshly bathed and with her first dress on (ever).

Julianna slept all night in fer crib. We had one middle of the night awakening, but she went back to sleep after a little holding. Right now she is sucking back a sippy cup of apple juice, which thrills us to no end because she has refused every bottle we have offered. Yesterday she ate congee, two steamed rolls, rice and noodles. Funny thing about the rolls. She was clinging to one when we got her and would not let it go. Phillip saw one on the breakfast bar yesterday and brought it to the table. I fed her the congee, then she had this meltdown—crying, making her "I want that noise", just having a fit. Never pointed at the roll. We gave it to her out of desperation and she immediately calmed down and started nibbling on it. I think that is part of the difficulty. We never know what it is that she wants when she cries. We just hand her everything in sight until one of them works.

Hey y'all, Daddy here. Today we went to the Adoption Registry Center to finalize the Chinese portion of the adoption. The building was very nice inside, with glossy floors and discreet lighting. We got our official family photo, paid our fees, and signed a lot of different papers. One intruiging thing about the paperwork here is that they recycle paper–I mean pages of paper. One of our pages had what looked to be an excel spreadsheet printed on the back. It was in chinese of course so I had no idea what it was. One other couple had a hispanic family's names, dates and occupations on the back. Just one of the quirks about the Chinese government I guess.

Baby news... we got Julianna in the crib just now. A small victory for the new parents. She has been clinging to Sherry like a baby koala all day. I mean all day. Mommy's training has paid off for the most part—months of holding Andi makes for good strong holding arms—but today was just too much.

Kelly, our guide, took us all to dinner at a Cantonese restaurant down the street. They were displaying their wares in the lobby which would put most of you readers off your appetite real quick. We're talking live things in tanks, sharks and eels and stuff. And bugs and worms. And dried shark fins in a display case like they were fine china. Kelly, of course, ordered pork, beef and chicken for us all. She is very wise. It was the best chinese food I've ever had. And cheap. It will be hard to go back to the Super Buffet and feel like I'm getting what I paid for.

Julianna snores.

This is from last night. She has been clinging to the rabbit. She gave the brush up when the turn down service brought chocolates in a plastic box. She took it straight from the lady's hand and would not give it up. I finally got it away from her in her sleep.

It's been a rough trip so far. Phillip's luggage is still lost. I have two pairs of pants covered in vomit. Julianna will not take a bottle. She's had pedialyte, which I hope comes out of khaki pants. I'm also trying to master typing with a toddler in my lap. We did expect it to be tough and we know it will get better and that one day all will be forgotten. But it still makes the day long.

Thanks for all your comments and prayers. We can't wait for all of you to see her.

We went down to the Civil Affairs Office at 1030 this morning to get our babies. There are 12 families in our group, although not all from our orphanage. The orphanages brought them in and the girls from Maoming were adorable. They were all dressed the same and walked in like a little train, each holding the jacket of the one in front of them. I tried to get a photo, but so did the eleven other families. Julianna's orphanage brought two girls. They wisked them in and all I got was a photo of the back of one of the nannies.

Here are a couple of photos. There are more photos and one of the other daddies made a video of the whole day and has promised everyone a copy. I'm having trouble with the blogger, so more photos to come.

Hello everyone. We are finally here. It was a very, very long trip. We spent four hours or so in Dallas and missed the flight to China on Friday night. We then spent almost 24 hours in LAX waiting for the next flight out. But, in the end, we are here and we will be going to get Julianna in about two hours. All that time in LAX pretty much eliminated any time spent here fretting.

The end is in sight. We were out doing last minute shopping this morning and began discussing what it "feels" like to be a parent. Since we did a special needs adoption, we have know for about four months that we would be adopting Julianna and have had her picture to stare at. We even call her our child and consider ourselves to be her parents. But it has not really impacted our lives. There is a small amount of inconvenience related to the safety latches on the cabinets and drawers, but for the most part, our lives go on as if nothing had ever happened. It made me think about Christianity, how we go around saying we are Christian, but does it impact our lives? We can have the "inconvenience" of going to Church, but does our faith change our daily routine? Are we striving to live our lives in a manner that glorifies God? Or do we put up the pictures on Sunday and go back to regular life on Monday?

Tomorrow is the big day. We are mostly packed. Now we just wait. We have an afternoon flight, which means half a day of staring at our watches.

One thing that really irritated me during this whole adoption process was seeing pregnant teenagers. It would just set off something in my brain. To combat this, I decided to memorize Psalms 73. The purpose was to remind me not to envy them. But I realized that I was turning it into an accusation against God—I would recite the part about swift judgement and the psalmists commentary on living pure yet still suffering and puff myself up and say "that's right, they deserve swift punishment and I deserve better because I do the right things". Yet I would miss the part about God's mercy, about His constant presence and guidance. I was asking for Him to be merciful to me, while at the same time, sitting on a hill like Jonah, I was waiting to see the fire reign down from heaven. I forgot the more important verses, the ones that say no one is righteous, that all have fallen short and that everything I have is a gift from God. Even His patience during my stupidity.

Richard J. Mouw wrote a book called Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport. There is a chapter called "Not a Stranger" in which he recounts a story of a Dutch Calvinist congregation facing a tragedy. They tell the minister trying to encourage them "No stranger did this to us". They realized that God was sovereign and in control of what they were facing. They were like Paul, perplexed, but not in despair.

It is easy to think of God as distant and not involved. It is easy to think of Him as a Celestial Santa Claus—leave your wish list and He will grant it, if you are nice. It is hard to think of Him as sovereign; as concerned with my holiness and not my happiness. It is hard to trust that the difficult parts of the journey are for my good and ultimately (and most importantly), for His glory. God knew when Julianna was born that we would be her family. He also knew that a snow storm in Memphis would delay our LOA returning to our agency. It is easy to thank Him for the birth, hard to thank Him for the snow.

The reality of going to China has finaly kicked in and we vacillate between excitement and fear. We are going to be parents!!

I've found the jump drive, but we are out of printer ink. The "go to China" pile grows daily. The suitcases are out of the attic. Now I just need my paking list.

Today was serious work day around the house. We had a bunch of little projects we wanted to get done before we leave. We did a fair job of finishing. It did, however, keep us from watching tennis.

Today we went to the travel medicine clinic and got shots. Also a prescription for traveler's diarrhea, if we are so unfortunate as to contract it. Remember that five page packing list? I saved it to a jump drive and now I'm not completely sure where the jump drive is. Haven't reached panic mode quite yet and still have the 3 page excel one that I could borrow, but I spent a lot of time on that and now I get to spend a lot of time looking for it.

Tonight is the very last night we will spend in our house alone. Tomorrow the relatives begin to descend and then we go to China and return with a permanent addition. To celebrate, we cleaned the bathrooms, because, tomorrow the relatives will begin to descend.

We have our itinerary!! Our Gotcha Day will be 4/2/07. We will be visiting her orphanage on 4/6/07. Wow!

I realized today how little we know about parenting. We had received two tubes of toddler toothpaste as shower gifts. They had this very cute bear and duck on the box. Who knew toddlers needed their own toothpaste? But worse yet, the cute bear and duck are from a book series, one I have never heard of. Yikes. Our poor kid would have been using the fluoridated toothpaste with no cute bear...

We have not heard anything from our travel advisor in two days. It is strangely frightening. Somehow seeing an email about nothing made us feel like we are not forgotten.

We tried the new courts last night. Very nice. The tennis world has turned to Miami. I learned this morning that the Nasdaq-100 is now the Sony Ericson Open. Strange.

One more of Sarah. The blanket was a shower gift. I love the green and pink ladybugs.

Today our paper tickets for the international portion of our travel arrived. Not much else happened. Hopefully we will get an itinerary soon with our Gotcha Day on it. Right now the agency is saying 4/1 or 4/2.

In the tennis world, Raphael Nadal won the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells. Federer was knocked out in his first match. They now move to Miami for the Nasdaq-100. Our favorite courts have been completely refinished. They are now the blue/green combination the US Open has gone to. Should make it a lot easier to see the lines. Hopefully there will be an open court tonight and we can try the new surface.

This one pretty much speaks for itself.

I packed Julianna's stuff today. Sarah was kind enough to supervise my progress. It's a good thing that we are flying straight to Guangzhou. If we were going to Beijing, we would only be allowed one checked bag a peice and her stuff pretty much fills one suitcase. Yes, I do realize that I can buy stuff in China.

From the irony files, Julianna's information sheet said she liked to sleep with a towel. We have a photo of her in a Hello Kitty bib. We came upon a Hello Kitty towel and thought it would be perfect for her. For all you Douglas Adams fans, our child will now be traveling with a towel. Don't Panic.

Another slow day on the adoption front. It felt strange. Since we received our TA, the travel advisor at our agency has sent 4-8 emails a day with information or items needing responses. Today there was very little. Just waiting. For those of you concerned about my paltry packing list, it has now expanded to five type-written pages. Not an Excel file, but at least more extensive than the original. I can see how it will be helpful to mark things off as they are packed and not be rushing around at the last moment hoping the laptop cords are packed. I still may be a little freaked out on the day we fly out, but maybe less so.

Not a lot happened today. I officially let the office know I would be gone in April and called the Travel Medicine Clinic to set up appointments. Phillip's bosses signed off on his vacation time yesterday. It seems like we have flurries of activity followed by more waiting.

Here are two more photographs of the room. On the left is her rocking chair, with two stuffed animals and framed bugs. Notice the ladybug. On the right is her bookshelf with her ladybug purse.

Hello readers, this is Phil talking. I just wanted to say that we have our plane tickets and dates for travel to China to pick up Julianna. We'll be leaving on March 30th and the Airport Party will be April 14th at 9AM—so ya'll come on out!

Sheesh, I sound like I'm doing a radio remote broadcast from Palmer's Toyota don't I? Anyhoo, them's the dates. For the airline geeks out there, I'll be recording the Airlines, tail numbers and types of plane we'll be flying on. Probably won't blog about that, but you can email me. Crossing my fingers for a 747.

Now then, what else.... let's see....well I guess that's the problem with blogging, if you do it every day there isn't much to say. Don't forget to pray for us and especially for Julianna. Thanky!

The room is finally finished. Here are a couple of photographs. I have more, but I'm having trouble getting them loaded. The one on the left is the crib with the bedskirt that took way too long to make. The cross above the bed says "For this child I have prayed" 1 Sam 1:27. It is probably one of the most precious gifts we received. On the right is the quilt made by my grandmother and the dolls made by Phillip's mother. Sarah is there too. She is my first baby. When we went in the room this morning, she crawled out from under the crib. I think she has taken over the room.

Our consulate appointment has been confirmed. We should have final travel dates by the end of the day, or at least by the end of tomorrow. Let the countdown begin.

Still no final travel plans. Still haven't finished the room either. I'm beginning to feel like I'm painting the Sistine Chapel.

Now that we are almost to the end, it is much easier to reflect on the lessons we have learned over the last year. I think the most important lesson was the mercy of God. He has been merciful during our pity parties. He has been merciful during our expeditions down the wrong roads. He has been merciful to forgive us. We have received compassion, patience and mercy and are profoundly grateful.

We are still waiting for the consulate to confirm our appointment so that we can have definite travel dates. Our pastor gave a sermon yesterday about the sovereignty of God--how God in His infinite wisdom will have you where He wants you and when He wants you. The pastor talked about the perfect timing of God, how He had Esther become queen at the perfect time to save the displaced Jews from Haman and how He had Christ come at the right time to be the Savior. It was a great sermon and it makes the wait a little easier to think of it as the perfect timing of God. There is a link on the sidebar to our church, where you can find a link to the sermons. I highly recommend it.

While I worked on curtains yesterday, Phillip started baby proofing the house. It is a little strange. We have cats and the only thing we worry about them getting into is the house plants. We have had baby gates up since we moved to this house, but their sole purpose was to keep the cats out of certain rooms. We have crystal vases on bottom shelves and cleaning liquids on top of the counter in the laundry room. Our entire storage plan has to be re-thought. Which is driving the cats crazy because we keep changing their house.

I'm still working on the room. It is almost done. I finished the curtains today and now only have the bedskirt for the crib left. I've started working on a packing list in earnest. I had started one, on a 4x6 notepad, small print, one and a half columns. Then I found one on the internet, Excel file, 3 and a quarter pages. Whoa. I seriously underestimated the potential meticulous detail of packing lists. Anyone know how to use Excel?

Today we worked on the paperwork for the next part of this adventure. Paperwork seems to define everything about adoption. We have a tentative travel date. Our agency stresses that it is tentative, with bold type and underlining, just in case we weren't paying attention. I think they have also said it about six times. Hopefully we will get confirmation of our consulate appointment early next week and can have a definite travel date.

Lamentations 3:31-33: For man is not cast off by the LORD forever, though he brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willing bring grief or affliction to the sons of men.

I wore this sock to work today. Wore the pair, actually. Phillip says my sock looks dingy. Notice the ladybug, which is the symbol of good luck in China, and has been become the symbol of the China Adoption Community. One of the nurses pointed it out to me right after I got found out that our TA had arrived!! Yes, it has arrived and we can finally see the end of the road, we can start our preparations in earnest for going to China to adopt our precious Julianna Claire. To celebrate we ate Chinese and bought three new outfits.

This is my favorite photograph of Julianna.

I have been dragging my feet about posting again, hoping that I could post exciting news about our TA arriving and us frantically making arrangements to travel to China, but no, just more waiting. I may break the fabric moratorium and buy more. My favorite fabric store has new spring fabrics.

I am reading through Luke and read the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touches the hem of Jesus' cloak. I find that story amusing because the account in Matthew says "she suffered under the care of many doctors". Ouch.

Looking out the window.

Sometime in the last year our associate pastor gave a sermon on Genesis 22, which is the story of Abraham taking Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice. He pointed out a part of the story that I had not realized--the journey to the place of sacrifice was three days. So, for three days, Abraham walked on, with all his doubts and concerns. Three days to think, this can't be right, God cannot want me to sacrifice the child of promise, surely I misunderstood. Yet he walked on. When it seemed wrong, when hope seemed lost, he got up everyday and walked on.

Wednesday was the official one year anniversary of our adoption journey--one year since we did the first part of the paperchase. Looking back, I've spent more time on the side of the road whining and complaining than I have walking on, but I have never forgotten this sermon and it has given me great encouragement. Walking on.

We continue to wait for the TA. The room is almost complete and the clothes are all washed. We have diapers and sippy cups and pretty much everything else a toddler could need. I have put travel wipes into the diaper bag and have started a pile of "this needs to go with us to China". The wait, however, is exhausting. Every day we awaken with the hope that, maybe today, the TA will come and every day we are disappointed. I was reminded this morning of the father in the parable of the prodigal son, how every day he looked out his window for his son. And waited, and waited. Did he ever want to skip a day? Did he want to give up completely? Did he plan the party he eventually gave when his son did return? What amazing faith and perseverance. What amazing love.

We continue to wait for our TA. We had another shower and now are pretty much set for the baby. It was great fun and the hostess did a fantastic job. Her two year old helped me open my gifts and I think that may have been the best part. She was so excited about tearing into the packages. We could barely get the gifts out before she was pulling out the tissue paper of another one. She is very close in age to our little one and we hope they will be great friends. Her parents certainly are.

We had a guest preacher two weeks ago and part of his sermon was about the timing of God. He used Psalms 84 as his text "Blessed are those whose strength is in you; who have set their hearts on a pilgramage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength til each appears before God in Zion". His sermon was about going through difficult times (Baca), yet finding water in the desert to get you through (springs, pools). It was a good reminder that God has not left us alone on this pilgramage, even though it seems like a barren desert.

Happy Chinese New Year. We went to a CNY parade today and this is some of our loot. Yes, it is a week late and yes the cups do say Mardi Gras on them. One of the intriguing things of the Gulf Coast is that every little town between Texas and Florida celebrates Mardi Gras. The public schools are out. There are parades. Thus, last week the dragons were for Carnival and today they were for CNY. And like every parade in this region, there were throws--beads, cups, candy and moon pies.

The parade is sponsored by a local adoption agency that does international adoption, including China. The "floats" are mostly strollers and wagons, with a few families making elaborate rides, including a very pretty pagoda. The children wear native dress and all of the countries this agency works in come, so there are children from Russia wishing you happy new year.

We are quickly approaching the end of the waiting journey. We received our LOA last week. The travel approval will be next. We are hoping that March will see us in China.

Yesterday my co-workers had a shower for us. It was lady-bugs everywhere. I had a great time.