Newsflash - not Emma related

Jonah got his drivers license today... We are very proud.  He did amazing.

In China itinerary

9/4 - Check into Holiday Inn Downtown Beijing and relax

9/5 and 9/6 - Tour of Beijing (last time this included Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace and Great Wall. we are hoping to see Olympic venues like the Birds Nest/Water Cube etc. {SEAN BDAY}

9/7 - Fly from Beijing to Zhengzhou and check into the Crown Plaza Hotel in Zhengzhou

9/8 - Meet Emma Faith in person and receive her into our family!!!!!!!!!! Rest of day is paperwork, registration, notary, photo's etc.

9/9 and 9/10 - Spend time with Emma, free time in Zhengzhou

9/11 - Receive notary docs and keep spending time with family

9/12 - {JONAH BDAY} Receive Emma passport

9/13 - Fly to Guangzhou and check into the White Swan hotel

9/14 and 9/15 - Enjoy Guangzhou and the Mid Autumn Festival or "Moon Festival" and continue to bond as a family

9/16 - Get Emma her visa and physical

9/17 - US Consulate Appointment

9/18 - Oath at US Consulate (receive Emma's visa packet)

9/19 - Fly to Tokyo and then back to the other itinerary posted

Packing

So... this is what it looks like when your perfect wife packs for China... the hard case on the left should be open, sorry. It has toys and gifts for the orphanage that some wonderful people donated.

Travel info

Well I thought it might be interesting for folks to know our itinerary:

Sep 3, Leave DFW at 10:15 am, arrive in Minneapolois at 12:49 pm (2 1/2 hour flight)
Sep 3, Leave MSP at 3:00 pm, arrive in Tokyo at 5:25 pm (12 1/2 hour flight)
Sep 4, Leave Tokyo at 6:35 pm, arrive in Beijing at 9:35 pm (4 hour flight)

We will be in Beijing for a couple days and I will put another post with in China itinerary later.

Sep 6, My birthday!
Sep 8, Get Emma!
Sep 12, Jonah birthday!

Sep 19, Leave Guangzhou at 8:20 am, arrive in Tokyo at 1:55 pm (4 1/2 hour flight)
Sep 19, Leave Tokyo at 4:15 pm, arrive in Detroit at 2:45 pm (11 1/2 hour flight)
Sep 19, Leave Detroit at 7:11 pm, arrive in DFW at 9:01 pm (3 hour flight)

New pictures!

We just got a couple new pictures from our agency!

Packing for real

Olympics are finally over so the really important stuff with China can happen.  We got our final travel packet and the final itinerary.  It has been such a long process this time but the reality is we are leaving in just ten days.  Suitcases are being filled and we are getting things organized for the long plane ride. 

Jeremy starts his second year at UTA tomorrow and will be staying home to care for the home and pets while taking classes and working.  The rest of us will bring Emma home.  Finally home, we will do our best to post updates and pictures, please pray for our family.  Specifically we ask for prayer in following areas: Emma's transition, Lily"s adjustment.  Everyones health and energy level.  Communication with Emma. Obviously finances!!!

Getting closer!

We are getting excited, just a couple weeks to go.  Still preparing the girls room and packing for the trip. Watching the olympics has been a great way to enjoy China and help pass the time before we go.

This is first post using "e-mail" so we will be able to put updates online via e-mail while on the trip.

Sean

More pics of the girls room

Travel information

Today we bought the plane tickets. We will be leaving Sept 3 and coming home with Emma Faith on Sep 19 2008!

Pics of girls room

So... this is the great letters we found at Hobby Lobby, Melissa is looking for fabric to glue onto each letter, we have EMMA as well, then she wants to hang each name above the girls bed.

Just trying to keep up with the times

So, let me first explain the situation. We kept www.joyshine.net/lily up and running for years and it served the purpose well... but I have to face reality, I am not keeping it up to date.

In the mid 2000's everyone began changing over to blogs to publish the type of content that we want to publish. Basically upates about our family and pictures about our life growing together.

To be completely candid with you, I don't like blogs... I just really don't like them. Now Melissa spends half of her life reading blogs so I think she is probably sold on the idea. I am normally a guy that is fine with change... career, house, city, state, country I can roll with the change. But blogs just have not done it for me. I am more interested in the content and not really the "container" or the vehicle. Yes, I have owned a few porche's and my wife is beautiful so it is not that I don't have an appreciation for those things but when it comes to content on the internet I have avoided blogging entirely.

Well, now I am posting and am going to go see if picasa will upload photo's as easy as it looks so while we are in China we will be able to easily put updates and pictures online.

Thanks for reading!