We're Home Safe And Sound!

Just a quick post to let you all know we have made it home safe and sound! Our flight actually left early (AMEN!) and we arrived in SF about 20 minutes early. We had another passanger needing medical assistance on our flight home (what is it with us and the medical issues on our international flights?) so we had to wait on the plane again once we landed before we could get off. We breezed through immigration and customs, had lunch with mom and Charlie, and were home by 2:30 this afternoon. We were welcomed to a beautifully decorated garage door from the doctors and girls at my office and a refrigerator full of food (thanks mom!). Kennedi has only slept about an hour on the plane (she's having fun playing with all the toys and finally being able to run around at home so who needs sleep!). I slept maybe 30 minutes on the plane so when we got home Katelyn and myself fell asleep for about 3 hours. We made ourselves get up and went and had dinner to pass some time. Of course we ran into people we knew there and they were all excited to see Kennedi. Now it's about 8:30pm and we've been up for about 28 hours (for the most part) and are going to get ready for bed. :) Love you all!

Signing Off From Hong Kong and HEADING HOME!

The day has finally come! The day we have to ride 12 hours on an airplane home! I wish I could be like Dorothy and just click my heels 3 times and be there! When we arrive in SF it will be midnight here, talk about an all day adventure! Oh well, we are all excited this morning and are ready to come home! See you in sunny California!
Love and Blessings,
Mark, Tina, Katelyn, Bradley, and Kennedi!

Hong Kong Disneyland

Winnie The Pooh
Goofy was being extra "goofy" today
Chip and Dale were dancing with us
Having fun on the carosel (spelling??)

On the Hong Kong Express-taking a trip around the park
Timon
Having fun in the liki tikis
Minnie Mouse
Mickey Mouse
At the hotel waiting to go to Disney this morning
Outside our hotel
Look how beautiful it is here!
Outside our hotel this morning

Today was a fun day. We spent most of the day at Disneyland. We actually planned on spending all day there but by 5:30 we decided to call it a day, we are all exhausted. The kids opted to go swimming again at the hotel pool and skip the fireworks at Disneyland. That's where they all are now. We did enjoy our time at Disney and had fun riding the rides and seeing the characters but we are all ready to head for home. Kennedi said she is ready to go home too! Tomorrow morning at 9am (which will be 6pm Thurs. night for you) we head over to the airport and check in for our flight. Our flight will leave at 12:30pm here which will be 9:30pm on Thurs. for you but the Perna's flight leaves at 11:45am so we are going to just head over to the airport with them and then we'll just wait for our flight. We land in San Francisco at 9:35am Friday morning and my mom and Charlie are picking us up there. That will be 12:35am Saturday morning China time so I'm most positive we will all be wiped out! It's going to take some time for us to get used to the time thing again but we'll be glad to be in our own beds at home! :)

Cannot wait to see you all soon, I've got someone for you to meet!

We've Made It To Hong Kong!

Best of Buds! We waited for the rest of the gang as they rode Space Mountain
Having fun on Winnie The Pooh
We're here!
Jael, Kennedi, Katelyn and Bradley outside the park entrance
Bradley just kept saying "it looks like home"!
The kids saying hello to Goofy
Trisha and Bradley on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

Early to rise this morning, we loaded the bus at 6am to head for the airport. Once there we said our goodbyes and headed to our gate for our 8:25 flight. Our flight only lasted about 40 minutes and we were in Hong Kong. We caught a cab and was at the Disney Resort in no time! Unfortunately they would not let us check in once we arrived because they are completely booked and check in is at 3pm. Good news is they are having a special on park enterance-buy 1 day, get the 2nd day FREE! So we headed to the park to pass some time. We rode a few rides and had lunch then a show. By that time we were all tired and decided to head back to the hotel to check in. We all checked in and are now resting in our rooms. In a bit we'll head out for dinner and then tomorrow we'll spend all day at Disney! Hong Kong is beautiful! It reminds me of much like Hawaii with it's rolling mountains and trees and greenery everywhere. It was misty this morning but has now cleared up and probably high 60s or low 70s-very nice! Tomorrow will post some more pictures from Disney and our last day of our 2 week trip! :) Love you all!

Last Post from Guangzhou, China!

Our China Doll!
The Salvador Family with our guide Amy
These 3 families (including us) all went to different Provinces to get our children. The other 13 families all went to the same Province together. The lady in the back traveled here by herself and the little girl she adopted is always throwing a fit and that's what she was doing for the picture! :)
The 3 Salvadors with Jael Perna
This is the other 13 families that all went to the same Province (all adopting "healthy" children)
Look at the cute babies!
Jael and Kennedi

We are now officially a family of 5! Today it was offical according to the United States. We all went to the US Consulate this afternoon to be sworn in and pick up Kennedi's passport and visa. The swearing in was very neat! There were 54 families from the US adopting Chinese children and we all were sworn in together. We are now free to go home with Kennedi! I still look at her and cannot believe she is OURS! She is now leaving a life and a country that she has only known but will not remember much of. Luckily we have taken a lot of pictures and video and she will one day be able to look at them and remember where she is from. Katelyn and Bradley have been great on this trip. Many times there has not been much for them to do but they have not complained. Tomorrow though we fly out early for Hong Kong Disneyland! They are all excited about this part of our trip! Our flight leaves tomorrow morning around 8:30 and we have to be loaded on the bus at 6am. The flight is only about 45 minutes which is nice and then we will be off to their Disneyland Resort! The Perna's are also going with us which will be a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone who has posted comments or emailed. It has helped us feel closer to home and still connected to you all! This journey has been so wonderful and much more than we could have ever hoped for! God has truely blessed us with the most perfect little girl for our family and we couldn't be happier! So for now, so long from China. We will post again tomorrow and Thursday from Hong Kong so stay tuned for some pictures from Disney!

The kids doing a newscast! :)

Day Shopping at Shaiman Island

Bradley wanted me to take a picture of him by the 7-11 sign!
The Goodyear Blimp!
The parks at Shaiman had statues like these everywhere!
Bradley with his Chinese Drum
Kennedi trying the drum out
Here's more of the statues
This was a school house. You could hear the kids inside studying and singing
School kids out for "P.E."
Waterfall inside the White Swan Hotel-White Swan is famous for adopting families staying there and is right next to these shops.
Playing in the park
Aren't we cute!

I didn't think today would be a big picture taking day and I almost didn't take my camera shopping but boy am I glad I did! This is just a sample of the pictures I took today. The kids had a great time. There was a playground there for the school kids that the kids were able to play on. They were glad to be able to play after spending 10 days not doing much "playing". We also purchased tons of stuff-cheap! We found an olympics store which was great and then another store named Jenny's Place where we bought most of our souveniers at. Everyone is very friendly and at Jenny's they gave the kids free things but man do they try to sell, sell, sell! They say things like "oh, you need this" or "you should get this", "don't you want one of these"! Bradley got a hat to go with his Emperor suit (I'll have to take a picture tomorrow of him!) and his Chinese drum. Kennedi wanted a Olympics pen and a panda coin purse. Katelyn got a bracelet and coin purse. We had a great time but we were ready to get on the bus about 1 hour into it and they gave us 3 hours to shop!

Tomorrow we have a group picture at 10:30. Katelyn and Kennedi both got Chinese dresses today that they are going to wear and Bradley is going to wear his Emperor's Suit! Then at 3:00 we head to the US Consulate to swear under oath that we are adopting Kennedi and promise never to abandon her. Then we will get her visa and this process is complete! We leave early Wednesday morning for our flight to Hong Kong!

Will post one last time from Guangzhou tomorrow night and then will post again from Hong Kong! For now, we're off to bed! :)