Ella Bettina XiaoFeng Tadjiki

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has given me what I asked for." 1 Samuel 1:27

Today we welcomed Ella Bettina XiaoFeng Tadjiki into our family. As I sit in front of the computer, Ella is sitting on my lap, Maya is pushing Cheerios into Ella's mouth (which she clearly wants, even though she is receiving them passively), Cyrus is begging to walk with her (one of the first things Ella did was to take Cyrus by the hand and walk around the room with him while we watched, eyes wide and jaws on the floor) and Jasper is punching himself in hopes that he will make Ella laugh.

It will, once she warms up.

Let me start at the beginning. First we were late to the "gotcha" meeting because Robert found a shirt at a store that he really liked, but he needed me to see it before he bought it. It is white silk in traditional Chinese mandarin style and looks great on him. So he bought it, pulled it on and he and I, plus Cyrus and Kellie, raced to meet the rest of our travel group to go get our babies. The drive to the government office was about 15 minutes. When we got there we went upstairs to a room with several couples, some with children, waiting for their babies. We were told that our baby was in the building, but Molly and Joe's had not arrived yet, so we had to wait (!). So we sat and waited.

Just a few minutes later our agency rep, Jocelyn, told us it was time to receive our baby. We looked over at the door and saw a woman walking in, holding the hand of a baby girl who was toddling toward us. It was Ella. She was wearing new pink and white clothes and absurd pink plastic shoes. Tears came to my eyes when I saw her walking ... it wasn't how I had imagined it, yet it was amazing and wonderful.

While Ella was walking in, Robert was frantically showing Joe how to use our camcorder, which lucky for me left the way clear for me to pick her up and hold her.

Ella has not made a sound yet. Initially, at the government office, she seemed calm and interested in everything around her. She loved a sucker I brought her and slobbered it all over her hands and clothes. She even shared it with me. She was holding it out, and impulsively I leaned in and licked it, to see what she would do. She stared at me at first, then she thrust the sucker towards me for another lick. We played that game for a long time. When Cyrus reached a hand, as I said before, she reached back and they walked around together. We found out from the orphanage official that Ella had a special bond with one of the other children at the orphanage, a 4 year old boy who played with her and cared for her. Clearly, Ella was meant to have older brothers.

We were able to talk for a long time to the orphanage official (through our agency rep who interpreted). She said Ella is quiet and easy going, but quite active. She said once Ella managed to climb up onto a chair and sit on it.

Ella has a cold which they said she just got today. Her nose is runny and her breathing is noisy, but otherwise she seems quite healthy. Her cleft lip has a notch that I imagine will need to be surgically fixed at some point. She is wearing clothes labeled 3-6 months in size, but they are a little tight around the legs.

She fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel, and had a good nap while Jasper and Maya ooed and ahhhed and had to be forcibly kept away from the crib. When she woke up, she woke without a sound, but Cyrus was right there to report to me that she was awake.

The boys are having a hard time with her name. They keep saying Emma. Maya hasn't had that problem.

We chose her name when we decided we needed to name her after Elizabeth in the Bible. But Elizabeth was too long. We decided on Ella as a shortened version, but then we also loved Bettina, the Spanish version of Elizabeth. We decided to combine them and go ahead and give her two middle names, Bettina and her Chinese name, XiaoFeng.

Robert and I are exhausted but thrilled. Ella is also tired and a little sick, but she continues to be very interested in everything around her. We also discovered that she LOVES Cheerios, one at a time, put in her mouth for her (already a little princess!).

There is more, I'm sure, but it is time to end this and take care of my little girl.

Love to you all,
Stephanie

We Made It!

We are in China! Here are some photos of our journey.

Robert insisted that I include the photo of the scary cat picture that is on the wall in the Redmond airport. He thinks you all should petition that the picture be replaced with something a little nicer ... maybe a scroll or something.

Thanks to those of you who have been praying for us, especially for Jasper's and my health. Jasper had two pretty bad stomach aches in the two days before we left ... fortunately a kind nurse at COPA got us some meds for him just a few hours before we got on the plane, and actually he has been fine since we left. I was also having some stomach trouble before we left, but I did okay on the trip .... was able to help with the kids and also get plenty of sleep, and managed to eat some.

We got to LA 40 minutes ahead of schedule .... it is always nice not to be in the air as long as you had planned to! We met up with Kellie and Connie, zero problems there, and we have really been enjoying catching up with them and getting to know Connie as a young woman now instead of the nine year old she was the last time we saw her. Both Kellie and Connie have been wonderful travel companions .... so great with the kids, and very easy going and fun.

We arrived in Guangzhou this morning at 6 am. Absolutely zero problems with luggage and customs, yay! Got to our hotel, and those of you who know Robert well will be surprised to hear (big sarcasm here) that he got us a GREAT deal on our hotel rooms. The Tadjikis are staying in a very large suite with a separate bedroom and also a special section for the crib. The room even comes with a nice computer. Also the bed is soft, which is a much bigger deal than you might think. The Chinese like to sleep on boards.

We just had lunch with the one other family in our small "travel group." Funny enough, we ate Thai food. They are a couple named Molly and Joe, from Kansas, adopting their first daughter. Their two boys are with family in New York State. They are super nice and also useful, since Molly once lived in China for three years and has some Mandarin! :-)

Tomorrow at 2 pm our time we go get our daughter. Molly and Joe are also getting a little girl with a repaired cleft lip, about the same age as Xiao Feng. Please pray that everything goes smoothly for both families.

Much love to all of you, and much thankfulness to our Lord for his smoothing the way for us!

Stephanie

Laptops Are Packed!

As many of you know, we are taking 20 laptops to China to donate to orphans there ... we will hand them over to the artists we work with on May 12, and we are really looking forward to a great reunion with them. The laptops are for older orphans to learn computer skills, so that when they must leave the orphanage they have a better chance of getting a job. More later on our time with the artists ... and on the laptops.

Here is a photo of Cyrus and Maya with just some of our suitcases!

Ready To Go!

With two days left until we go, Robert and I are both exhausted and ready to get on that plane, if only to get away from the craziness of getting everything in order before we go. My head is constantly busy thinking of things to do, things to pack, things to buy ... then I think something innocuous like "Gotta get her car seat in the van" and I start crying like a baby (while driving down the expressway, I know, not good) just thinking about when we put her in that car seat, she will be home. She will be ours.

Enough tears .... here are some recent photos of our other three children. They are so precious. Mostly. You know how it is.

Check out the map below

With nine days left until we leave (ya hoo!) I am spending wayyy too much time on this blog! The latest is a map showing where in China we will be and where our daughter is from .... I put it all the way on the bottom of the page, underneath all our posts, so scroll down and take a look if you're interested.

Our Itinerary

We bought our tickets! We will be flying out of Redmond (thank goodness) to LA on May 5 at 610 pm. We will fly straight from LA to Guangzhou, which is a huge blessing since we thought we would have a layover in Tokyo, adding hours to our trip. We will stay in Guangzhou the whole time we are in China, another huge blessing.

Returning home ... we have our consulate appointment on May 17, and on the 18th we leave Guangzhou at 9 pm, and arrive in LA on the same day at 650 pm (gotta love that time change). We are staying the night in LA, which Robert says is prudent, and he is right, but boy I know from experience that I will just want to get HOME! Anyway ... like I said, he is right. We will leave LA at 9-ish the morning of the 19th, and get into Redmond (straight from LA to Redmond! I love that! No Portland stop!) at 1145 am. This is a Saturday ... and we would love it if people want to meet us at the airport on our return. Having that crowd welcome Maya home is one of my favorite memories of her adoption trip. There is nothing like seeing a bunch of familiar, loving faces after such a long trip so far away from home.

Tomorrow it will be one month until we leave .... and the countdown really begins.

May 8 is the day!

Our agency got us the appointment with the US Consulate we were hoping for on May 17. They said that Gotcha Day (as it is referred to in the adoptive community) will be May 8. We will probably arrive in Guangzhou (the city we will stay in) early in the morning on the 7th. Robert is researching and buying tickets right now .... so soon I will be able to post our itinerary.

Unbelievably, it seems we will be able to fly from Redmond to LA and then to Guangzhou .... which is pretty ideal.

We'll keep you posted!