Friday, January 1, 2010

Day #1 in Hong Kong











Hi everyone, we have finished our first full day (new year's day) in Hong Kong. We arrived in Hong Kong last night an hour before the new year and by the time we were through customs and immigration, the hotel shuttles had stopped running. So we end up taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel. The taxi was a tad bigger than a smart car and we had our four big suitcases plus my long legs (ok, you can stop laughing now)... it was funny though. The bags were hanging halfway out of the trunk of the taxi with a bungee cord holding the trunk lid down. We kept looking back making sure the luggage wasn't flying out of the back of the car everytime the driver would take off as if we were at a drag strip. After all that, the taxi died at the foot of the driveway of the hotel, so we walked from there. The driver kept saying... "I so sorry, me call my friend". Needless to say, we were just glad to be at the hotel. Here's some pictures from our day around the hotel (there is an outlet mall connected, so we had somewhere to hang out). From the ironing board picture, you can tell they didn't have me in mind when making it. In Valerie's shoe picture, I think she wanted to click them together and start saying "there's no place like home"...ha! We're having a great time and miss everyone... especially you Camden; can't wait to see you, we love you. Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, Camden... they were playing "somewhere over the rainbow" in our hotel elevator and we thought of you.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A little history




We began looking into adoption during the Fall of 2007. In January of '08, our friend Amy let us know of an adoption agency in Alabama (Villa Hope, who we would totally recommend to anyone considering adoption) that had the paper work of a chinese girl, Gong Pingqiao; which was about to be sent back to China. In a matter of only a few hours, Valerie had gotten in contact with the agency and Gong Pingqiao (soon to be Imerie) was "on hold" for us pending our approval with the adoption process. We have been able to keep in touch with the orphanage and her foster family with letters and sending pictures. I've included a few pictures of her from the past two years. Imerie was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate. "Love without Boundaries" did the operation on her lip, which is the before and after picture. The older picture is with her foster family at the playground. I can't wait to see a smile on that face.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Meet our daughter










Hello, I would like you to meet our beautiful daughter, Imerie. On Dec 30th, 2009, my wife Valerie and I will be traveling to Nanning, China to meet her and bring her home. Born on May 18th, 2006 she was abandoned and found, one day old, at the front gate of a school. She spent her first two years in an orphanage, then was taken in by a loving foster family where she still lives. These pictures are from her 3rd birthday party at her foster family's home.