big bird

here's our 'ride' for the next 11 hours. thankfully, kevin had called ahead and reserved our seats, so we were in the bulk-head. nice! well, it still was a looooooong flight, but at least we had a little more leg room and no one reclining back in our laps! we saw 4 movies, ate some mildly-scary-chinese stuff and slept for a total of about 30 minutes. ouch! it was fun walking around and meeting more of the families, but the most fun part of the trip was at 5:30pm china-time; we landed! going thru customs was a breeze and our agecny's "guides" were there to meet us right away. we got on a bus and they explained what our itinerary would be for the next two days then checked us into our hotel. we've now been up for over 24 hours and of course, now that we're here, we're wide awake!

send-off party!

as we were driving down our street on the way to the airport, there stood our neighbors amy and sleepy-head son, steven. TOO CUTE!

rise and shine!

today's the day! we're on our way, little miss myah!
our good friends, the stitzels-who will be leaving for russia any day to adopt their 2 kids-came and got us at 6:15 this morning. by the way, for those of you who are wondering, we slept totally fine last nite and even hit the snooze button once! by the way, no-it STILL hasn't "hit me" yet! we're leaving TODAY and i still am calm. anyway, we flew from phx to san fran-and as you can see in this picture, our agency sent every family Tshirts so we could spot eachother in the airports. it was so fun! we found another couple from chandler in the phx airport right off the bat, thanx to the shirts. once we landed in CA we started seeing more blue shirts. there were 10 families total on the flight from CA to beijing.

our last date...

well, this is it-the last date nite as we know it-at least without having a babysitter or bringing myah with us! we went to a movie and then to PF Changs; ha! like we won't be getting enuf chinese food for the next two weeks! well, here we go-we've been married over 9 years now and this is our kick-off to parenthood, wooo-hooo!

an OSU surprise shower!

(march 22nd) today, angie, my friend/roommate from my OSU days came over to see us before we left...well, up she pulled in her little mini-cooper and it was full of gifts. my college friends had secretly been planning a 'virtual shower' for me and had sent everything here to angie! i totally did not see that one coming! it was awesome! you guys are FANTASTIC! thanks soooooooo much! i love you guys! GO POKES!

the conference call

last week, our agency and all FORTY-THREE people of our 'travel group' had a conference call. kevin and i went to the stitzel's house (we don't have high-speed internet still) so we could watch it on the internet as well as participate in the call. it was an informative two-hour call with a Q&A time at the end. during the initial 'roll call' at the beginning of the call, kevin and i looked over at eachother and we were both choked up! and that was just the roll call! it was pretty emotional listening to everyone's introduction of themselves, where they were from, what province their baby is in and what her/his new name is. (for those of you that know me well, you know that kevin had to do the introductions for us, cuz there was a lump as big as a baseball in my throat!)

checking the weight...

on the in-country flights while in china, our weight allowance is only 44 pounds, so we're having to pack LIGHT and check each suitcase with the scale. most of our weight will be the meds for myah (they tell you to take a lot of medications, anticipating any illnesses) as well as clothes (in 2 different sizes), snacks, bottles, and you got it, PINK HAIR BOWS! kevin and i decided that we're only taking 4 outfits a piece for us and only 2 pair of shoes. hmmm. let's see if i can stick to that!

baby laundry!

okay, all you moms out there, you have to admit that the first time you washed your baby's clothes before he/she arrived, it was FUN! i told kevin this was probably the first and last time i can say i really enjoyed doing laundry, hee.hee.

ONC Shower

(sunday, march 5th) today was such a fun day...my awesome friends from church (orangewood nazarene) threw me a BEAUTIFUL shower. it was at the gorgeous home of one of my friends who lives on a golf course. there were white-table-clothed round tables with neat aisan centerpieces all in the grass and chinese paper lanterns and market umbrellas and food galore around her pool. i remember thinking while i was sitting down to eat, "man! i feel like i'm at some posh resort eating at a fancy luncheon!" the ladies of the church were so generous and once again, i'm going to be writing thank you's for weeks to come! the food, the fellowship, the friendship and the gorgeous weather made this day absolutely wonderful, but the group prayer we had at the end of the shower made it PERFECT! thank you ladies for all the work you put into making this day so special! i'm going to miss ALL of you SO much!!!! (above: the fun hosts, renee and judie)

Must Stay Busy...

(january 2006) call me crazy, but i needed something that would occupy my time while waiting on that referral. well, training for a half-marathon did just that! kevin and i trained for the PF Chang's Rock N Roll half marathon back in 2004, but three days before the race, my doctor told me that i could do it as long as i kept my heart rate below 140. (due to a fertility procedure) WHAT?! i couldn't even walk 13 miles and keep my HR that low! so, kevin ran it as i watched...not fun at all when you've done all the training! so this year, i decided i needed to "check that box" and get one of these under my belt. so, off i ran. i'm glad i did it, but i can't really say i enjoyed it. from now on, i'll be totally satisfied with getting my exercise by chasing a little one around!