Monkeys!

It's 7:30 PM on Tuesday here now and we are doing well. We went to bed last night at 7 or 8 and woke up this morning around 5:15AM. It's been a long day! We spent the morning relaxing and playing in our room. We went to a large and beautiful park with the largest Buddhist temple in Guizhou. The park had a lake with people swimming in it. It was 33 degrees out this morning. Crazy! There were tons of people exercising, doing Tai chi, walking, playing badminton, and staring at us! The Buddhist temple is amazing and beautiful.



Then, we took a walk down to where the Monkeys are! What fun! They jump around on the trees and the people feed them. It was a bit crazy, but very fun. Emma loved it.



We've spent most of the afternoon and evening in our room. This afternoon is the first time Emma came back to her room without crying. We distracted her with the room key! She was pretty sullen this morning. We're pretty sure she was doing some grieving. She kept her coat on in the room all morning and wanted to make sure she wore "her shoes" rather than the ones we brought for her. She definitely gets it. She is doing remarkably well, considering the circumstances. We are learning a lot and soothing her needs is getting quicker. She went to bed quickly last night. We learned from her foster family that she often cries for a bit before bed, so that made us feel better.



We're thankful for another great day with Emma. She is a fun, creative, smart little girl. We know that she and the boys will get along great! We still have too many days left here, but trying to enjoy every experience.

We finally meet!

It's February 18th and we have our daughter! We are tired after a good but long day but wanted to send a quick update. All is going well. We have decided to keep Emma as our daughter's name as it has been her name for over 2 years and we thought it would make the transition easier. So, Katelyn is Emma. Sorry for the confusion! Emma is the sweetest little girl with a wonderful smile and a great laugh. What fun we are having taking care of her dollies, doing hair and painting fingernails. She doesn't like coming into our hotel room, but once in, she settles down with a little Dora the Explorer video which her amazing foster family sent.



So, thank you for your prayers. We are blessed in so many unexpected ways. We can't wait to tell you more in the days to come!

We're in China!

We made it! The flight was relatively uneventful, until we were 20 minutes from landing in Tokyo and I started to feel nauseous and couldn't stop crying! I guess I should come to expect a bit of an emotional roller coaster for a while. I feel bad for the sweet man sitting next to me (and my poor husband too!). We survived. Thankfully when we landed, the nausea went away and I pulled it together. The lovely couple that we were sitting next to have 3 adopted children, so that was a fun connection to make. Now it's midnight and we're headed to bed. Tomorrow we fly to Guiyang where we will meet Katelyn on Monday. Finally! Thanks for your prayers!

Tomorrow!

We get to leave in just over 12 hours and we can't wait! We are sad to leave our boys, but they are in good hands with my amazing parents. Today we celebrated Matthew's 8th birthday along with a wonderful Valentine's Day. Our luggage is packed and at it's 44 pound limit. I hope our scale isn't off by much or we will be paying the price. We have secured a friend's DVD player along with loads of magazines and books for the ride over. I assume we won't have that luxury on the ride home! Right now, I'm looking forward to sleeping!

Please pray:
- That our trip would be uneventful and all luggage would arrive in good shape
- That we all remain healthy
- That Katelyn will adjust quickly in the days to come
- That we will adjust quickly to having a toddler
- That the boys would have a great time being obedient and easy to care for!

Thanks for our prayers, thoughts and notes. We hope to keep the blog updated regularly and should be able to check e-mail as well.

3 Weeks!

We have official dates! We will be leaving for China on February 15th and will be meeting Katelyn on February 18th! We will be home on February 29th. We are so excited!

Travel approval!

We received our travel approval yesterday which means that now our agency can request a consulate appointment. Once we get the consulate appointment (which is when the adoption becomes official in China) then we can figure out the date we leave. It may be as early as February 15.

We move back to MN in the next month and will be living in a temporary townhome in Eden Prairie. They boys are going back to their former school and are very much looking forward to that. It will be good to be back.

Please pray that our house sells quickly and that our little Katelyn is safe, healthy, and ready to meet us. We have an exciting month ahead! Thanks for joining us in this adventure!

Name meaning

We received the translation of Katelyn's Chinese name today and I find it quite intriguing. Her name Qian, is considered her family name, and it is actually a nickname for the province where she is from, Guizhou. The name "Yun" means Share and the name "Nan" means Evergreen Trees. The reason that this is interesting is that Justin's family has been in the forestry business for 2 generations and continues to harvest trees and provide a sustainable forest in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan. We will keep Yun Nan as Katelyn's middle name.