Pictures from the Orphanage

These pictures are the result of a gift from our friends in Louisville, Brad & Holly Clark, who decided to send Anna Kate a birthday cake for her first birthday in China. Holly made the arrangements with a lady who does this service in China. On her birthday, the cake arrived along with a camera. The day we recieved Anna Kate, the nanny gave us the camera to take back home. We just got the pictures developed today and were so happy to see these wonderful pictures that were taken on that very important day. These pictures give us all another piece of the puzzle of her past for which we are very grateful. One of the pictures has a picture of Taia, who was adopted by one of the other families in our group. We will send those pics to her family for them to enjoy as well. Thanks again Brad and Holly for your thoughtful and very special gift that we will cherish for a lifetime.

Anna Kate Comes Home ...

Well, we are finally home after about 22 hours of traveling. When we arrived in Detroit (the first US landing), Anna Kate officially became a full fledged american citizen. We were greeted at the airport by some of our dear friends from church holding a big beautiful sign with signatures and greetings from our lifegroup class members. They also took us home and to our surprise, had another sign inside our home along with a nice warm home cooked dinner waiting for us to devour. They also collected numerous diapers and baby wipes from our class members and also informed us that dinners have been scheduled to arrive over the course of the next several days. We are so thankful for the good, dear friends that have shown such support over the course of our adoption journey. You guys are awesome !!! Anna Kate is doin' great as she is getting acquainted with all of her new surroundings. She is even beginning to understand some english. She knows "kiss" and "clap hands"and says "a dog" when she sees Nadia. She loves to be held and talked to. She is very observant and loves to go around the house pointing at things and loves it when we tell her what everything is. She also is a very good eater and one of her favorite foods is cooked brocolli. She is getting adjusted to her sleeping schedule, although she seems to always wake up around 2 am and wants to play. More pics coming soon.

Arrived in Guangzhou

We got into Guangzhou on Friday and have been busy getting Anna Kate her physical exam and visa pictures. Everyone is doing great. We all miss Nanchang a lot. We really enjoyed the sites and sounds and food of that fast paced city that had a mix of old and new China. The people are great here and we feel very welcomed where ever we go. Anna Kate is doing great. She is now used to everyone in our family and enjoys being held by all of us. Her personality is very out going. She loves to explore everything around her and is very curious about many things. She loves to play and laugh and just have plain simple fun. Maylee is a wonderful big sister and enjoys playing with her new sister very much. Maylee also is enjoying all the different foods and the different sight seeing activities. She is an excellent traveler. We all have been very healthy throughout our trip and hope it continues for the next few days. We miss everyone and we are all looking forward to coming home. Talk to you all real soon.

More Pics

Still in Nancheng

We have been very busy with our guide Sissy the past few days. She is from this province and is very knowledgable about this area. We went to a beautiiful park on Tuesday where people of all ages were exercizing, dancing and playing games. Everyone wanted to challenge Andrew, the American, in a game of badmitton. It was fun to watch. Yesterday we went to a 1200 year old village about 1 hour from our hotel. It was a site to see! Fresh meat hanging and vegetables everywhere. The people were actual descendants of the original family that found the area. They were very curious to us westerners walk the streets of their village. The Chinese people are very courteous and friendly to all of us.
Anna Kate is learning to give us kisses. She enjoys playing on the bed with all the family. She likes to crawl and pull herself up each of us. Each day her cute little personality reveals itself more and more. She has a real sense of humor and knows exactly what she wants (she is our little spicey girl).
The traffic here is very confusing. Even the Beijing folks don't drive here because it is too crazy. New York City traffic is nothing compared to this stuff. Bikes, mopeds, motorcycles, taxis, and buses all share the same road. Drivers turn directly into on coming traffic all the time. Tonite we are all going to the worlds largest ferris wheel. It is 60 stories tall! We are also going to see a musical water fountain light show along Yangze River.
Tomorrow we will be flying to Guangzhou for the final leg of our journey. We will be there for 6 nights. We will update our blog in a few days. Hope you are doing well.

For the Crowley Family - PHF Tile

Finally....A Family of 6

Hello Everyone; The last 2 days have been a bit of a whirlwind. Yesterday we got up in Beijing, went to the airport, flew to Jiangshi province, went to the hotel and checked in. Filled with anticipation, about an hour after checking into our hotel we were finally able to meet our sweet little bundle. When Anna Kate was first placed in Donna's arms she began to cry because she sensed something new. Shortly after, we took our baby up to the room and fed her, she then fell asleep in Donna's arms. She is such a sweet adorable little girl and we are so blessed to have her in our family. We have all been touched in our hearts by this girl and we so looking forward to seeing more of her sweet personality. Jaci enjoys holding her also and taking care of her. Maylee is always trying to see what toy that Anna Kate really enjoys. She is very patient with her. Today we did a few of the legalities that have to be done here in China. We now have the afternoon off to rest and realx a bit. Talk to you all real soon.

Arrived in Beijing

Hello Everyone;
We finally arrived in Beijing after 22+ hours of traveling. Upon arriving in Beijing, we were met by our driver from the Philip Hayden Foundation. We have been here for two days and are so glad we decided to make this stop a part of our trip. What an amazing place this is. We have all been moved by the love and compassion this place shows. Yesterday we spent all day playing with all the children. We first visited the critically ill children, most of them have severe heart conditions or other major problems. The Nanny's take such good care of them. We were able to hold the dear babies and comfort them. We were all very moved by this experience. Leah, our guide, then took us to the other homes on the campus. Each home has about 6 nannies each that work 12 hour shifts. The children in these other homes range in ages. One home may be 12-24 months. the next 2-3 year old, then the next house would have older children. It was so much fun playing with the children. When we went into one of the homes, two little boys about 2 years old each, walked right up to Walt and Andrew and wanted to be held. We held them, talked to them, and they adopted us as their buddies for the day! They didn't want us to put them down. When we did, they came right back over and sat in our laps for the entire time. Maylee especially enjoyed playing with a precious little girl with a brain tumor. The little girl taught her a Chinese song hand clapping game. Jacquelyn adored holding all of the sweet babies. Donna's heart was touched by a little boy, Jamison, who was severely burned from an accident, that also resulted in him becoming blind. He was very patient teaching Donna how to count in chinese. He was an excellent thumb wrestler. We as a family are forever changed by this experience with these children. Each personality was so unique and their zeal for life is absolutely inspiring. This afternoon we will travel back to Beijing to meet up with our adoption group. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

'Twas the Night Before We Leave for China

Okay- time to take our little doggie, Nadia, to the boarding kennel. Jaci and I arrive there and take her back to her area. The young man that checked us in and took us back to her area displayed some very unpleasant behavior toward his own dog that was back in the boarding area. We immediately felt very uncomfortable, and when we left, about half way home, we decided to go back and get Nadia out of that place. Now we have nowhere to board her and we are to board a plane in about 12 hours. We come home STRESSED OUT and Donna calls to the Lord in desparation to help us. We then start thinking, who can we call to help us out. Donna calls Kathleen Jones and Jaci calls her dear friends in Chicago, Stephen and Ingrid. Kathleen prays with Donna and immediately goes into action trying to locate people she knows that may be able to help us out, as well as offering to take Nadia even though she has a cat. Then while we are all sitting in the living room. wondering what to do next, our dear friend from church, Julie Welch and her little sweet daughter, Maggie, shows up on our doorstep. In her hands are individually sealed baggies, stuffed with sweet goodies and treats for us to take on the plane. She also included a number of sealed envelopes, with letters for us to open the different days we are there. After telling her of our situation, she immediately responded, "We'll take Nadia". She said her dad loves little dogs and he would love to help out. She called him and he agreed. This may not seem like a big deal to most of you that read this, but when you are looking at a trip to China, merely hours from now, and not having a place to keep your dog, believe me, this is big. Our dear friends, Stephen and Ingrid were already looking to book a flight to Jackson, get Nadia and the necessary vacciene required, and fly her back to Chicago to stay with them for the entire time. Can you believe that! We are a rich family, certainly not because of our bank account, but because of friends like the friends I just mentioned. And we have many more friends just like that!! Thank you Kathleen for your prayers and action(and husband Tim, for taking us to the airport), Thank you Stephen and Ingrid for your eager willingness to help us out, Thank you Julie for your "We'll do it" attitude, and Thank you Charles for your love for little doggies. Thank you Lord and please bless our wonderful friends.Praise the Lord for His goodness to us.

Travel Intinery

Feb 3rd- 8:55 AM Leave Jackson,MS. to Detroit to Tokyo to Beijing (22 Hours)
Feb 4th Visit the Phillip Hayden Foundation (see link below right)
Feb 6th - Travel to Beijing Traders Hotel to meet up with other families
Feb 7th- Tour Great Wall, Tian An Men Square, and Olympic Village
Feb 8th- Up at 6 am. Have Breakfast. Fly to Nacheng Province, bus to Civil Affairs Office.
Feb 8th (evening)- GOTCHA DAY ****Meet Anna Kate for the first time. Check into the Galactic Peace International Hotel.
Feb 9th- Civil Affairs for notary and registration.
Feb 10th- Visit People's Park
Feb 11th- Visit the countryside (real, authentic China)
Feb 12th- Visit Tengwang Pavilion
Feb 13th- Visit Badashanren Museum then fly south to Guangzhou Province
Feb 14th- Get photo for visa, child medical exam, fill out consulate forms.
Feb 15th- Attend Church service, visit Guangzhou Zoo.
Feb 16th- Shop at pearl and jade wholesale markets.
Feb 17th- Visit more of Guangzhou, Take children on red couch picture.
Feb 18th- Visit US consulate for ceremony. Anna Kate becomes US citizen!!!
Feb 19th- Leave China for US.
Feb 19th- Arrive at Jackson, MS. around 4:40 pm.

The visas arrived yesterday and airline tickets have been purchased for travel Feb3 - 18th. Time to pack!

We did receive our invitation to travel to China. We are planning to leave two days earlier to visit the Phillip Hayden Foundation, an outreach to China orphans and love on the kids and visit with the staff. We are really looking forward to our visit to China and receiving our little girl. We plan to stay at the PH Foundation for 2 days then meet up with our travel group, back in Beijing, to begin our adoption journey. We will post our intinery as soon as it is finalized.