WELCOME HOME MAKAILA MEI

Reaching for more toys

Beautiful Smile

Loves to Laugh and Play and she has such a Great Laugh

Happy Baby!!!

Makaila's first night's sleep in her Pack-n-Play

Makaila's first nap in her crib

Yard Decorations which were just BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Well, we are finally home.  Arrived home on Saturday, July 24th around 8:30 or so. 

Makaila has been doing well so far.  Every day gets better and better.  We are all trying to get over jet lag.  It was great getting off the plane and seeing family.  I was SOOO Happy to see my family. 

As we drove home and turned the corner we were welcomed to beautiful decorations on the lawn done by great friends of ours, Kathy and Gene.  Thank you both so very much for the decorations.  WE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT ALL!!!!

Our plan for the blog is to try to update it maybe weekly but there are no guarantees.  I know everyone is anxious to see pictures so we will do our best to post as often as we can.  Unfortunately, it won't be everyday like we did in China.

Enjoy the pictures. 

Love to all,
Dennis, Lisa, Makaila Mei and Callie

The Last Night in China!

Well it is here! Tonight will be our last night in China. We fly out at 9:20 PM tomorrow and head to L.A. in the good 'ol U.S.A. and then on to Tampa where we arrive early Saturday morning We are so looking forward to getting back to a stable environment and not to mention normal food, drinks, water, showers, brushing teeth, and being able to talk to other people. And of course we can't wait to see our loved ones and to introduce Makaila to them.

Here is an update on the last several days:

We went to the zoo on Tuesday and enjoyed walking around and seeing the animals. The highlight of course was getting to see a Panda. On Wednesday morning, I (Dennis) had to go to the consulate to re-fill out a form and get it notarized. We found out there that they had changed the swearing in date to that same day which was a day early. So, we went back to the hotel and got everybody else together and headed back to the consulate. The swear-in was a little chaotic - there were over 80 families with lots of crying babies so it was hard to hear what we were supposed to be saying. No matter though, as soon as we set foot in L.A., Makaila will become a U.S. citizen. Yay!

Today, we went in search of the Pearl "factory" with 2 other families. We go into 2 separate cabs and ended up at 2 different places. We were with one couple and we could not find the factory. No English speaking people around that we could ask either. oh well, no pearls for us. We got a lot of good shopping done back at the hotel area though and have got Makaila many gifts from here for future years. Tonight our travel group all gathered in the lobby for the "red couch" pictures. It was fun if a little chaotic and hopefully we got some good shots.

So tomorrow it will be "fun" to see if we can get everything into our suitcases and keep the weight low enough. We will see... Well I think I will join my sleeping beauties in a bit but will try to upload some pictures before I do. Check later for them out on the Picasa site.

Love you all and SEE YA SOON!
Dennis, Lisa and Makaila

Makaila playing video

Here is the video I promised of Makaila playing "on her own" with only a little interaction from us - at least compared to what has been required up to this point. Today she continued to be in a good mood and it was a really nice day. Until now that is, I just put her in the crib and she is having a fit. Oh well.... It can't all be easy :). Sorry if the quality isn't great, I had to lower it to be able to upload the video.

Enjoy!
Love, Dennis, Lisa and Makaila

All is well and the Zoo in the morning

First off, we did not have time to make or take calls this evening and most likely not in the morning either. But don't worry all is well here. We used the little time we had this evening to call our doctor at home to just ask some question about Makaila's diet and some minor skin issues. Everything seems normal and we do not have any concerns at this time. Oh, and we used Skype at about 2 cents a minute to call the doctor's phone - it worked great. Tomorrow, we are planning to head to the local zoo in the morning so we have to be up early and of course to bed early this evening so i don't have time to upload any media but should be able to tomorrow.

Today was a pretty good day. We started by sleeping in a little and then just spent the rest of the day resting and taking some strolls outside. Makaila seems to be adjusting well to our new environment now and also seemed to be feeling well. She ate A LOT and was the most content she has been since she joined us. It was fun to watch her play more or less on her own and to not have to pay constant attention to her. I have some video of her playing that I will post tomorrow.

Only 4 more days here and then it's coming home time. Yay!

Loves ya all,
Dennis, Lisa and Makaila

Update from the White Swan

Ok, we have had a couple days here now at the White Swan and Guangzhou and want to let you know how it is going. We really do like it here much better than the other places we have stayed because it is a little more accommodating to Americans and is a really nice hotel and area. Of course having a Starbucks just one block away helps too. A lot of the people here speak a little better English and are used to adoptive parents being here.

The hotel is very nice and has a great breakfast buffet that is included in our stay that has very close to American style food. The hotel is located on an "island" in Guangzhou and is separated from the normal city life. Is is kind of an oasis in the area. The streets around the hotel are like parks and people come here to enjoy the scenery and relax on the weekend. There are many small souvenir shops so we are having fun exploring and shopping.

We decided to buy a stroller to make things easier and found a nice one that we got pretty cheap. You can bargain with all the vendors here and they seem to enjoy it. We also got Makaila a nice little red dress to wear for the red couch photo and we got her some "squeaky" shoes too.

And food! Besides the nice breakfast buffet and Starbucks, there is a little restaurant a block from the hotel called Lucy's that serves "American" food. I got a Chicken Alfredo the first time there and it was very good. Lisa had a chicken sandwich and it was good also. We still miss being able to have things like salads though.

As far as the adoption process goes, Early our first day here, we walked a few blocks to the medical examination clinic for Makaila's checkup. We were hoping to get more information about her health but that was not to be. We were told she weighed 15.5 lbs and that everything was ok but did not get a copy of the report. From what we saw, they were not very thorough with the exam.

That afternoon, we met with our guide so that he could assist us in getting all the paperwork filled out and gathered that the U.S. consulate requires for Makaila's visa. It was a grueling process and we found out during it that one of the forms we had filled out and got notarized in the U.S. was "not the right form" (even though it was the one the agency sent us to fill out). Because of this, one of us will have to go to the consulate on Wednesday to do the form over and get it notarized there.

Then on Thursday afternoon, all 3 of us go to the consulate for Makaila's swearing in process. unfortunately, we can not even take a camera for this so we will have no photos for it. We will get her visa sometime Friday afternoon and then we leave for home Friday night! We CAN NOT Wait to get back to our stable environment.

The rest of the time is "free" time and we are just going to relax and explore the area during that time. We are planning on visiting the Guangzhou zoo on Tuesday though so we can see the Pandas there.

I have posted more pictures on the Picasaweb site and here is a special treat from our wait at the Nanchang airport which I think everyone will enjoy.

Love from Dennis, Lisa and Makaila!
Can't wait to see you all again.

Pictures from Nanchang

Sorry we have been behind in getting some pictures out there but someone has been consuming most of our time...

I have posted pictures from when we were leaving Beijing to a couple of days before we left Nanchang. The last one was just before we got sick so there are not many more pictures of Nanchang. I will try to get pictures from the last few days up tomorrow evening and maybe even a short video.

The pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Hertzler

White Swan - Guangzho

We are here safe and sound at the White Swan, however, our plane was 2 hours late so we did not get to the hotel until almost midnight. We must be up early because Makaila's medical checkup is in the morning so we are off to bed. More to follow tomorrow.

Night!

Blah...

Well unfortunately, the last day has not been much fun for us. First it was Makaila that had some stomach "issues" (Yuk!) and then me and finally Lisa. Some kind of nasty stomach virus we think and we mean nasty. Lisa was up all night and was recovering in bed today so it fell to me to take care of Makaila. Thankfully, she is starting to warm up to me and it was not a problem. I am now good at changing diapers, a skill I was always wanting to learn (not!).

Tomorrow we fly to Guanzhou for the last leg of our journey. We are staying at a very nice hotel there called the White Swan which hosts most families doing an adoption in China since everyone has to go to the U.S. consulate which is close to there. And there is a nice clinic there available to us and supposedly more Americanized food. Time to get some sleep but here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of days.

Gotcha!

The last 2 days have been an absolute whirlwind for us. We had been told originaly that we would fly to the Province where we would get Makaila on the 11th and then get her on the 12th. Saturday they informed us we would get her the next day (the 11th) instead!

Well the whirlwind did not stop us from getting our precious baby Makaila Mei. She is as adorable as we knew she would be when we first saw her picture. She did not fall in love with us immediatly as you will see in the video, but we sure love her. It is a good thing for the babies to cry when you first get them because that means they have attached to someone and they will be able to do it again.

Well, she has already attached to her new mommy and can't STAND to be without her. Daddy still has some work to do to win over her heart, but I have no doubt she will come arround. I'll just keep showering her with love.

I have thrown a video together of the highlights of the day's events with the real highlight being Makaila of course. Enjoy!

Lot's of love from the new family of four!
Dennis, Lisa, Makaila, and Callie.

To Nanchung Jiangxi

We are soon off to the airport to fly to Nanchung. The excitement is building!

We got up early this morning realizing... this is it, we are finally going to become parents after waiting over 4.5 years.  So many emotions to put into words right now and to be able to type it out is difficult as when I type... my eyes fill up with Tears of Happiness.

Love to all,
Dennis and Lisa

Day 3 - Beijing tour 2

It's been another great day touring the sights of Beijing. It was so exhilerating to climb the great wall and since we waited for this for so long, we made sure we went to the top as far as they would let us go.

Besides the Great wall, today we went to the Olympic village, a jade factory, and the Ming Tombs. It was a little wet in the morning but that did not dampen our spirits. I will see if I can get some pictures up yet tonight and I did fix the problem where I did not make yesterday's pictures public. You should be able to see them now and I added some captions.

We spent this evening re-packing our bags because early in the morning we fly to Makaila's province! Oh and we had McDonald's for dinner! REAL American food :).

Gota get up at 5 so good night!

(Hmmm, I wonder what might happen tomorrow afternoon?)

Day 2 - Beijing Tour 0ne

Well it has been a long but very interesting day. We visited Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and took in an accrobatics show. And of course the always entertaining meal times. It is late and we are tired so this will be quick...

I am down loading about 80 of the over 300 pictures we took to the Picasa site but I am too tired to caption them right now even though I really want too - maybe I'll work on it in the morning. We are off to bed - I am sure we will communicate more tomorrow.

Love from China

Oh, by the way, keep the comments comming - we love them.

Day 1 - Beijing

We spent the first full day in Beijing by just roaming the streets around the hotel and trying to shake off the effects of the jet lag. We confirmed that our most difficult task will be finding food that we like or even coffee for that matter. There are supposed to be Starbucks here dang it - but we can't find any and the hotel "coffee" is something else - we are not sure what. The free breakfast buffet did have some recognizable food and we did get a decent breakfast (no coffee though - did I mention that?). Lunch and dinner were more problematic however. We went to KFC for lunch and find out how to order some chicken nuggets with the help of a nice little Canadian boy. We drink half our drinks before we realized they had ice in them and that is a no no for us. Hope the stomachs stay strong! We tried the hotel resturant for dinner and with over 100 selections in the menu, we still had a hard time finding something that sounded any where near good. Had to get the help of the manager who knew some English to help us order "steamed rice" for Lisa. I tried the "Stir fried noodles with beef" which was not too bad.

We also meet a another family here to adopt their little girl who will be touring Beijing with us - Kelly, David and family were very nice indeed. Can't wait to meet thier little Ava.

In the morning we meet with our guide Sim to start our tour of Beijing. We will see the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square among other things. Hopefully, he will also guide us to some better food - and Coffee!

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Hertzler

Travel To Beijing Video

Here is a video we put together of the travel to Beijing.

Beijing!

We are here! It was a LOOOONG flight but we are here safe in Beijing. the flights were pretty uneventful but both Lisa and I were trying to get in trouble with our cameras. First I got yelled at by security while we were in the TSA line at J.F.K. when I was taking a video of Aunt Terry and Aunt Donna up an a balcony and then Lisa got yelled at on the China Air flight for taking pictures on the plane. Oh well no harm done and they did not confiscate our cameras.

I have uploaded the Beijing Travel pics onto Picasa at this address:  http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Hertzler

I am still working on uploading the videos...

Tomorrow, we browse the area arround the hotel and try to recover from the jet lag. What time is it anyway?

This is it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up at 3:30 A.M. getting very last minute stuff done and off we go...
WooooHooooo!!!!

We love you all and can't wait to get home with Makaila Mei.  Hugs and kisses to our first born "Callie".  We will be home soon sweet puppy!!!  Take good care of your mema and pepa and give them Lots of kisses.  They love that!!! :-)  Tell them that mommy and daddy love them very much and thank them from the bottom of their heart for all that they do for us.  Stay Healthy and Happy and we will be home soon with their newest Granddaughter!!

To my sisters and their families... Love you all very much.  Stay Healthy and Happy and we will be home soon with your niece/cousin!!!

Love you all lots,
Dennis, Lisa, Callie and Makaila Mei

Packing and Paperwork...

OK, it's official, I really don't like packing.  Don't get me wrong I am SUPER excited and cannot wait to leave tomorrow BUT... ugggg, so over the packing.  So, I've decided, whatever I forgot at home, I don't need it or I'll try to get it in China. 

Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of weeks of preparing for our travels.  Enjoy!!!

Callie is a little over the packing thing too!! :-)  Sleepy puppy!

Now everything has moved from the baby's room into the guest room with all of our stuff and EVERYTHING has been placed in ziplock bags.  After a load of laundry is finished, it will all be packed in suitcases.

Itinerary and Four More Sleeps!!!!!!! Wooohoooooooo

Here is a list of where we will be and when we will be there...

ITINERARY Group:   127A

DAY ACTIVITIES
__________________________________________________

                                                              Morning                              Afternoon


Leave (July 6)                               11:15 A.M.
Arrive in Beijing (July 7)                                                           6:20 P.M.
1. (July 8) family arrivals

2. (July 9) Great Walls

3. ( July 10) Forbidden City

4. (July 11) go to the province

5. (July 12) Meet your child /legal process (Gotcha Day)          Paperwork

6. (July 13)

7. (July 14) orphanage visit (tentative)

8. (July 15)

9. (July 16 ) obtain legal doc

10.(July 17）fly to Guangzhou

11. (July 18) local sightseeing

12. (July 19) medical

13. (July 20)

14. (July 21)
Consulate appointment:               9:30 A.M.

15. (July 22)

16. (July 23) obtain visa (hopefully before 5:00 P.M.)
Leave for Airport at 7:00 P.M.
and take off around 9:00 P.M.

17. (July 24) Home!                          7:31 A.M.

Hotels:

Beijing: http://www.huaduhotelbeijing.cn/?gclid=COzFqs3ux6ICFQHGsgodkhBk5w

Nanchang: http://www.agoda.com/asia/china/nanchang/jiangxi_hotel.html

Guanzghou: http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/index.php

We have been packing, cleaning, shopping, grooming puppy, EVERYTHING!!!!

With love,
Dennis, Lisa and Callie (and Makaila Mei too)