Yesterday afternoon, we went to Wu Mart, which is something similar to a Kroger or Publix back home. This was our first experience leaving Zach with a babysitter (Glen and Lynda) and was somewhat heartbreaking to do, but he adapted well. Wu Mart is just a couple of blocks from the hotel so we went on foot. Along the way, we stopped at Starbucks for a few minutes, as we were craving a "taste of home". There was a bit of a language barrier in Starbucks but they understood our orders and our drinks tasted just like they do in the states.






Wu Mart was an experience. People were just darting and weaving through the aisles, making navigating difficult. Also, all of the product labels were at least mostly in Chinese, making determining exactly what you are looking at with any degree of certainty difficult. We muddled through and were able to get what we needed however. We did have a comical moment trying to find diapers, involving Julia pantomiming patting herself on the butt. We never were able to have a meeting of the minds in that instant but found diapers on our own.






We went to the Summer Palace yesterday, where some of the emperors and empresses would stay during the warm months. There was one Empress in particular that they refer to as the Dragon Lady, who would make very good use of the palace. The grounds of the Summer Palace are something to see. There is much beauty and a lot of history there. We were approached and stared at by many of the locals, some having us pose with them for pictures. One of the activities at the Summer Palace is a number of the elderly who have artistic talents come to the park to practice their crafts. One man was doing calligraphy on the ground using a wet sponge on a stick. He wrote several messages in English for us, including "Safe Trip" and "My Son Lives in USA" which was very meaningful for us, obviously. We ran into a woman with her granddaughter in a stroller that we talked to briefly. She gave her granddaughter and Zach these strips of pressed seaweed that were similar in consistency to a fruit rollup. Zach liked them, so we may have to see if we can find them stateside. Our trip to the Summer Palace concluded with a ride on the Dragon Boats on Kungming Lake. It was a very nice day.








Zachary has been a dream so far. He has been sleeping like a log and eating anything that is put before him. He will basically eat until you stop the food from coming. What few meltdowns he has had have been pretty brief and easy to manage. Today, we returned to the Civil Affairs office and signed some additional paperwork. After doing so, on the Chinese side of things, he officially became our son. After that, we had to journey on to the Office of the Notary to do some additional paperwork. This involved a lot of waiting in a very hot conference room which Zach did not enjoy as it was quite boring. The key to keeping him from melting down was keeping him moving. We took turns walking with him, orbiting the conference room. There was another couple in the room from Holland who were adopting a 3 year old boy so we spent some time talking with them. Once we were done there, our final stop of the day was at the local Homeland Security outpost where Zach was photographed for his passport. This concluded the paperwork that has to be completed for the Beijing portion of our journey.

Zach has some tendencies that are reminiscent of a Border Collie. He seems to like having a "job" of some sort and if one is not given to him he will assign himself something. His latest kick is putting things inside other things and taking them back out. So right now, small empty boxes and small items like plastic bottle caps are among his favorite toys along with his ever-present little yellow car. I am just amazed at how quickly he is picking up English words. We are not sure if he yet really knows his name, but he is parroting words and sounds. Also, at some point, someone has taught him to do "high fives" because he has that down to an art. Matt discovered that by accident by raising his hand up and receiving a high five. We have now also taught him to fist bump.

We are both exhilarated but somewhat tired. The time change has not been terrible, but by the time the evening rolls around here, we are all ready for bed. Zach is very mobile, so keeping him in check and out of trouble is quite an undertaking. Matt mentioned that he knows how it is now to be a sheepdog, trying to keep the one under your watch in a safe place, away from dangerous situations and be willing to throw down in their defense if called upon to do so. Matt is writing this post while Zach and Julia are snoozing.

Here are some of the pictures from Summer Palace.





All of this for one special boy!

Hello from Georgia! This is Camille writing...and I know I am not very entertaining...Julia got all the creativity! Anyway, wanted to share that I talked to her via Skype this evening, and had a great conversation. Zachary showed off a little too! He is so smart! He started the conversation with "HI".

Julia said he is very independent, he wants to do everything for himself. She said he is very pleasant and easy going, but is all BOY (I think thats a good thing!). He seems uninterested in the stuffed bear that they had sent him a couple months ago in a care package...unlike his mama on that note, but is more like our cousin Peter and probably his Daddy as well, because he loves cars and things that move! He played peek-a-boo with Daddy while the girls and I watched. Matt even weighed him in at approximately 22 pounds while we were talking. Zachary is intrigued with the telephone, so they were going to start the day shopping for a toy phone. One thing is for sure, if they keep buying toys, he is going to love shopping!!!

Enough of my notes and on to Picture time! Enjoy!!

Hello and greetings from Zachary's nap time hour(s)! We have already had an eventful day! The "Zach-attack" never occured last night! OMG, No way?! Yes, Way! We anticipated a night of comforting a confused, sad, angry (insert adjective) Little Zachary. But, to our surprise, he never got out of bed once he zonked out around 6PM. He never ate a dinner so at the very least we expected him to wake up hungry. Matt and I woke up at 4:30AM with a little sleepy eyed Zachary quietly laying on his back looking around in his crib. Matt and I began singing to him as he quietly watched our performance. 
 
For Zachary's early breakfast meal he drank one bottle of a mixture of formula and rice cereal & 1/2 a banana. He loves to eat and would continue to eat as long as food is in front of him. Take away the food and he becomes satisfied. Now we know! His first meal with us we just kept feeding and feeding him expecting him to push away or close his mouth! Lynda pointed out possibly his food had been some what rationed so he maybe used to eating until the food ends.
 
Zachary feel asleep against Matt while Julia was doing her hair. What a site to see- my two Miller men cuddled up together - a perfect combination~ like peanut butter & jelly, Bread & butter, chicken & waffles :) It's a "God thing" because he fits perfectly with us!
 
OUR SON HAD A BM!!! We failed to take a picture of his diaper. But, we would like to share with you the gory details. Matt smelled it first. And, if you know that my husband has little olfactory senses then you will know how serious this is! When Julia picked Zachary up out of his crib he had a look on his face that we suspected was a "OMG, I pooped my pants" kinda look! Somehow our brilliant son managed to poop a good cup size of goo and managed NOT to get a single drop on his little hiney! Yes, it is true! We only used the sanitary wipe for good measure not because of well... I'm sure you get the idea.
 
For Zachary's second breakfast our family of 5 went down stairs to the hotel buffett. All the staff & guests watched us with curiosity. One waiter took our table as his "special project" because he was never far from Zachary. Our son loved his scrambled eggs, noodles, watermelon & apple juice! At one point we were concerned he would have a melt down when his Daddy (out of need) took away the large metal spoon from Zachary's tight grip. Zach was pounding the table, tossing food off the spoon and making a mess~ He is like his Mommy, he likes to play with his food! Back to the story, When Matt was taking back the spoon Zachary had a facial expression that appeared to be a the beginnings of a wail to put a fire engine's sirens to shame boiling up from the very depths of his soul... But, our brilliant son swallowed the meltdown back down thanks to quick hiding of the spoon combined with distraction with food and other matters at hand. Not a peep came out of his mouth.
 
This morning, we went to the Beijing Civil Affairs office to be interviewed as part of the adoption. When we walked in, workers were gathered in the lobby for an exercise session that appeared to me a strange blend between Tai Chi and Riverdance. The interview was conducted in Mandarin, but our trusty guide Michael was there to translate for us. We were asked about household income, how long we had been married, if we had other children, and if we like Zachary (to which we answered, "We LOVE him! He is our pride and joy!"). We answered all of the questions and apparently we passed muster. So, yet another piece to completing the adoption puzzle has fallen into place.
 
We just got him up from a nap. This afternoon, we plan to have Glen and Lynda watch him for awhile and we are going to go check out the Wu Mart and surrounding stores to see what we can see. We appreciate everyone's comments. We can't express how much it means to us to have so many friends and family following our journey. We feel your love on the other side of the world!

First night with Zach was pretty good. Zach slept heavily and pretty much the whole night. We were waiting for a "Zach Attack" that never occurred. We woke up this morning around 3 am and found him laying quietly in his crib. We sang songs for awhile, ranging from nursery rhymes (including the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Row Row Row your boat (which we did in round) to Journey ("Lights" and "Don't Stop Believin'") to Metallica ("Enter Sandman"). Julia took a shower and Matt kept an eye on Z. It is 4 am now and we just changed and are feeding him right now because we are all up. We were very surprised to find that his diaper was very wet but he had not cried or anything to let us know. He is a chow hound. We just fed him some banana and dragon fruit (something local to China, similar to kiwi fruit). He is now coming close to emptying a bottle. And that basically sums up our morning so far. Later this morning we will be going to pay the orphanage fee. After that, we are going to see if Lynda will watch Zach for awhile while we go to Wu Mart (which is kind of like a super Kroger). Stay tuned for more...

Sunday, April 10th, "Gotcha Day!"

As I type this post our son is fast asleep rolled over on his side with his pacifier in one hand and toy car in the other. What a beautiful little boy, we are all so blessed!

Our day started somewhere around 4:30am when we couldn't pretend to sleep any longer. Officially our day started at 9 am this morning when we met Michael, our guide, in our hotel lobby for "Gotcha" Day. We were headed North to our sons orphanage! We expected the car ride to take one hour of drive time. However, before we knew it our van was pulling up to the orphanage gate. The orphanage was very nice. And, it was tucked away in a neighborhood area with a lot of locals milling about doing their weekend shopping & socializing. We enjoyed watching the sites from our van window.


This is Michael, our guide.

Surprising to us, we were the ONLY family there to pick up its child! We were ushered into a large waiting room/ conference room. We had various paperwork to sign & one document required our finger print, in red ink, over our signatures. Not much longer Yu Jian Dong and his Nanny arrived. She was carrying him facing outwards towards us. And, she immediately knelt on her knees holding Jian between her legs. Julia followed their movements and knelt on her knees facing Jian & his Nanny. Jian & Julia both had tears in their eyes but neither said a word initially to each other. We just stared at each other. The Nanny pointed at Julia and said, "Mommy" and repeated it several times. He was hesitant but not fearful. And, the Nanny said something like "1,2,3 Jump to Mommy" and she picked him up and landed him in front of Julia. Julia held him in her arms, on her knees and stroked his back in a comforting way. Jian began to cry, Julia stood up & rocked him while speaking softly. Matt came over and the two of us comforted, talked to & rocked Jian. At some point the Nanny left the room & we did not see her again. However, there was a representative who answered questions regarding his eating, sleeping, playtime habits. We were back in our van approximately 45 minutes later headed back to our hotel.

First Sight and Nannie



Mommy!



Daddy!

Forever Family





Isn't He Beautiful!

During the van ride Zachary had tears in his eyes, but never truly cried. Eventually he feel asleep in Julia's arms. Back in our hotel room, we undressed Zachary (who was burning up in his 2 layers of long johns & sweats.)and began just quietly talking to him. He pushed out his bottom lip in the form or a pout and THEN it happened- the most heart wrenching cry - a cry of deep confusion & sadness that came from the depths of his soul...before long all three of us were crying. But we did our best to reassure him- rock him, rub his back, sing songs...eventually we gave him a bottle, which started his lunch and his attitude quickly changed to happiness & his personality came out! He ate and ate and ate! His first meal with us was steamed white rice, looong Japanese noodles, fruit, vegetables& yogurt! He seemed to have a bottomless stomach and everything he ate he loved!



After lunch we giggled and played. He has the most beautiful smile and a laugh that warms our hearts. He absolutely loves the little toy truck and the book with all the pictures of our family in it! He has already mimicked his new American Name several times and has said Momma, Daddy & Bop-bop. He is brilliant!! We can't wait to see more of his personality shine through.

We had an appointment to make with our guide Michael at 2PM so the fun had to end. But, we dressed Zachary back into half of the clothes the orphanage gave us, strapped him into the umbrella stroller and headed for a short 5 minute walk to have our family picture taken and passport photos taken. We hope to get a copy of our fist "official" family portrait. We will find that out tomorrow.





Tonight we are eating Papa John's Pizza! Yes!! It tastes just like home!
Tomorrow we are told we will be meeting at 9:30am to have our visa paperwork completed. We will be seeing his Nanny again. We think the meeting should take 3 hours. Then we will be back to our hotel for another nap no doubt. Currently it appears Zachary is already down for the count. He finally fell asleep around 5ish and he is giving no indications of waking up- but, come around 3am that story might change. Mom (Lynda) has already given us instructions on how to prepare the bottle and what to do when and if he wakes up. Mom & Dad (Glen & Lynda) have been so helpful during this trip. We have relied on them for basic help (Like taking lead on solving solutions) to confusing issues (boiling water for sanitizing the baby items, making bottles, lifting dirty bottom out of diapers- you know, the really difficult tasks that we are learning under fire :) We could not have done this trip as easily with out them!!

Time to get some sleep before our possible 3AM Zach-attack wake up call!

We were up until around 3 AM last night unpacking, talking, and just marveling at actually being in China after years of anticipation. We were both starving when we got to the room. Thankfully the hotel has 24 hour room service. The employees here at the hotel speak very little English so it is at times a bit of a comedy of errors being understood. After being passed around to several employees they finally sent a person up to our room so we could point on the menu at the items we wanted to oder. We each ended up getting a hot dog and french fries. We suspect that cost us $15 but the price sheet for the mini bar says a single coke costs $20 so we are hoping for the best when we see our bill. The bed in the room is lower to the ground than we are used to and is quite hard, but we both slept like rocks last night.

This morning, we woke up at 7:15 and met Glen and Lynda for breakfast. The hotel's breakfast buffet is, in a word, amazing. It is very similar to the type of breakfast buffet they have on cruise ships. There was a mix of western and Asian breakfast options, including omlettes, rolls, dumplings, fried rice, congee, bacon, sausage, cereal, juice, vegetables, etc. Today was a designated free day so we decided to go for a walk around the area of the hotel. The Chinese people are very warm, with most greeting us with a nod of the head or “Ni Hao!” which is Chinese for hello. In the immediate area of the hotel we found an outdoor public fitness area with a variety of exercise equipment. When we happened upon this at first we thought it was a playground for children and then we realized that no, this was for adults as there were such things as rudimentary elliptical machines and the like with adults exercising away. We also found a western style shopping mall, restaurants, and retail stores. One of the striking things in our experience so far has been not how different everything is here, but how similar. There is a strong western influence in Beijing, at least what we have seen of the city so far.

A Local Resturant!!



Some differences we have noted are that pedestrians need to exercise exceptional care as you definitely do not have the right of way here. Workers at most businesses do not have a name on their ID badge. Instead they typically have a number along with their job title. It has been interesting seeing western restaurants and products available as easily as they are over here. We made a stop at a grocery store and bought 2 gallons of spring water as we have been warned not to drink the water over here.

After a short break back in our hotel we met in the lobby to enjoy ham & swiss sandwiches, french fries, coke , Heineken beer & lovely pots of Jasmine Tea! Lynda and Julia enjoyed their first tea service in China! All they were missing were their fancy tea hats! A tea-for-one pot of tea cost about $10 (for one pot). And, the waitress infused the tea leaves three times for Julia but Lynda reached her limit at 2 pots. We are a bit surprised to find out how expensive tea is over here!

Local Tea Room

On our way back to our rooms we perused the gift shops, picked up some post cards, purchased 12 stamps (for a little less than $1 each). We had a conversation with one Chinese Gentleman employee who told us he taught himself English. He was quite the character explaining something about not hesitating when considering any purchases and three legged frogs are unusual thus lucky. Through our conversation with this man we learned that one amongst us is blessed with an unnatural ability to interpret broken English...Lynda is our own personal “Chinese Whisperer” – like the horse whisperer or the dog whisperer... Where Julia heard “I like to touch my toes, bend my knees, where long sleeves & I like vests” Lynda heard “I taught myself English by learning individual words like, pants, shoes, vests, arms, etc.” Or, When Julia heard “Large group of people exercising at one time causes earthquake” Lynda heard “when America dropped bomb years ago it weakened the ground”. Or, when Julia heard, “good for body turn green.” Lynda heard “Jade is a great stone to wear because it heals your body from the inside and in turn wearing Jade is good for the stone because over time your body oils will smooth out the Jade for a softer/prettier stone.”

Now, Lynda's interpretation prowess did not occur until after she had her 7 hours of rest & four cups of coffee. I know this because the very first conversation she had with a local she swears the dude on the phone asked her “What kind of Dachshund do you have?” but we found out later that was our guide Michael asking “Are you the family here for the adoption?”

Speaking of the adoption, we will be meeting with our guide at 9AM in the hotel lobby tomorrow (Sunday morning in China, Saturday night in the States). I doubt we will get much sleep tonight. Tomorrow is the culmination of over 6 years of prayer. Our dreams of being parents are becoming a reality. Praise The Lord! And, the angels sing “Halleluiah, Amen!” God is good!




At the mall!
Chinese Brides

Public Exercise Equipment

We are safely in Beijing! The plane ride over was obviously very long. We were pleased by the selections of free movies (and free wine/beer) ... Kings Speech, Space Battleship Yamato, The Tourist, Gulliver Travels and much much more). Our seats reclined just enough so our foreheads were not knocking into the seat in front but not at all enough to get comfortable.

Once we arrived at our destination we waited for almost two hours for our guide to pick us up. Needless to say we were confused, exhausted & agitated. We had no yuan to make a phone call so luckily Dad took charge and found some English speaking Chinese girls, working at a tour desk, who allowed him to use their desk phone to call our guide- the mix up was that our guide had our old itinerary which had our flight landing one hour before it actually did.

Here are the confused Americans, weary from travel and anxious to assume horizontal posture...


We ended up on a small bus with 2 other families who had been picked up at a different terminal. One of them originates from Texas. Both families are here to adopt their daughters and they will leave Sunday to fly to their prospective families. The ride to our hotel was surprising to us all- at night at least, the roads, buildings, green exit signs, digital information boards over the interstate all looked like home. They are even driving on the same side of the street. We were expecting vastly different sites and today was not the day we would experience much except fatigue.

We got checked into our hotel with the help of our friendly guide. Our room is very pretty. The bed is much lower to the ground than what we are used to back home. And there are only a handful of hangers to hang our small wardrobe. Matt and I just ate our room service hotdogs and french fries and it was delicious. I would go as far as to say it was as good as the yummy New York hotdogs we indulged in a few years ago. We think the total for our two hot dog platters comes out to be $15. Lets hope we arent mistaken. The room mini bar has single cokes for $20 each so we will stay away from those. Here's a few pictures of our room. Notice the playpen bed waiting on our son!! We are set up and ready for Zachary's arrival!









We were told tonight we would be leaving for the orphanage at 9am Sunday! We cant wait! We are the only family from our agency staying in Beijing so we are excited to meet other families (from other agencies) who will be going to our Gotcha Day too! Exciting times!!

As we write this, we are sitting in the Seattle/Tacoma airport right next to the Duty Free store< which has Julia salivating like a rabid wharf rat at the sight of Clinique, Lancome, and other notorious brands. I pulled her out rapidly as i saw our money dwindling by the twinkle in her eyes. What a long strange day it has been already. We got up at 0500 and set about taking bags downstairs. Dad arrived at 0600 and took us to the airport. We arrived at around 0710. We cleared TSA around 0800 and we got scanned by the new full-body scanners. Matt ended up having his left arm felt up after they thought they saw something in the scan. After TSA, we went to Popeyes Chicken for breakfast and during that time, Glen and Lynda arrived. We got on the plane around 1015 and left the ground in Atlanta at 1053. We had a pretty uneventful flight until we were over Montana. At that point the head stewardess got on the PA system asking for any medical personnel to report to the back of the plane. Matt went to help and ended up helping take care of a girl who was having a panic attack and had gotten overheated. Matt ended up talking to the pilot who wanted his advice about whether to divert to the nearest airport or continue on to Seattle. The girl was stable so Matt advised to continue on, which we did. Long story short, the girl was fine and we got 10,000 Delta Skymiles given to us for Matt's efforts. So, now we wait for the next phase of the journey. More when we reach Beijing!

Adoption Update

A few days ago we made final payment for inter-China travel (hotels, airfare, excursions, etc.). Our next goal is to make sure we have all our paperwork organized & make plenty of copies!! And, we are beginning the arduous task of packing! We are only able to carry 44 pounds each. Which we are finding difficult because we are bringing snacks (for us and Zachary), clothes/toys for Zachary, and a few gifts (and packaging)for very special guides/officials. My hope is that Matt will allow me to use some of his suitcase for my makeup and hair products! LOL!! I know, I know, I need to pick the necessities but it is so hard for me to do! :))

Wanted to make you aware that our little Nacho has made his show business debut. Check the first 30 seconds of the video below (after the advertisement) and see Nacho in his little clown outfit.


The Giant vs Cobra-WCW Heavyweight title by TSteck160

Well, actually, it is not Nacho...but it could be a long-lost brother or cousin...or something...

Earlier this week two of my good friends Monica & Tricia hosted us a baby shower. We got to show off Zachary's room to our friends (and my Mother & sister). The invitation read "The room is ready, the time is near. A new little boy will soon be here!"

And, Yes he will! :)) we can hardly stand ourselves! Thank you to all our family and friends for helping us celebrate this very special time in our lives!

Here are a few of the beautiful decorations Monica & Tricia created for us...


In all the excitement, we forgot to take a group picture. However, there were more cameras there and I can't wait to see the pictures and get them scrapbooked for Zachary's baby album!

We have been so busy! And, there's still a laundry list of things for us to accomplish before we leave for China! Aunt Camille (Julia's sister) spent the night after the shower and created vinyl cut letters for Zachary's wall! She is simply amazing at the things she creates with her Cricut! Thank you Camie! We LOVE the wall quote & can't wait to sing the nursery rhyme with Zachary! "Twinkle, twinkle, Litte Star..."

Also, my (Julia) Mother & Father gifted us the rocking chair that they used to rock my sister & me. It has very special meaning for our family and I am beyond words with emotion that it now sits in my son's room! I will forever cherish this rocking chair!

Also, here are a few updated pictures of Zachary's room...