The pictures speak for themselves! Check out how happy Becca was to be playing with her grandparents!
She loves her Grandpa Battle!
She also thinks her Grandpa Mattson is pretty special too! She loves him very much!:
Grandma Mattson feeds Becca her favorite thing: Ni Ni! (that’s “milk” in Chinese!) She loves it when you say: “Do you want a ni ni?”
Grandma Battle plays with Becca and they have lots of fun together! Becca loves to hold your hands and walk!:
Today we woke up at 4:00AM, and needed to be downstairs in time to leave by 5:30AM on the bus for the Guangzhou airport. Our first flight was from Guangzhou to Tokyo. We had 18 babies on the plane with us. All of them were so good! The only sad part was that when we landed in Tokyo, some of the families that we had spent the last two weeks or more with would be catching a different connecting flight from there. Everyone in our group was so nice to hang out with! We will remember those friends we made on this trip for the rest of our lives. I am hoping that we can have a reunion someday.
From Tokyo, we caught a flight to Detroit. This was the longest flight. I think it was about 11 hours or more. Becca was such a trooper during all of the flights! I was amazed! She rarely fussed. In fact, she probably fussed less than Mom and Dad did! I told Sarah that she was probably thinking, “Is this America? Am I now gonna spend my whole life flying around in a hollow tube way up in the air?”
The neatest thing happened on the flight from Tokyo to Detroit. We had 3 babies on the row across from us that were from Korea. They were being escorted home to their new adoptive Moms and Dads. They were so good! They slept most of the way. I was in awe of the ladies who were escorting them, and how good they were at feeding and changing and calming 3 babies all at one time. I wish we could have seen the faces of the new Moms and Dads when they met their new babies for the first time. It brought back memories to me of our Gotcha Day. There is nothing in the whole world to compare to that feeling!
This timezone change thing is so funny! The time we landed in Detroit was before the time we took off from Tokyo 🙂 ! That is so strange!
Another neat thing about this flight was that the moment we landed in Detroit, Becca became a US citizen! Thank God for the government making it easy for adopted orphans to become citzens! Here is a picture of the moment Becca became a citizen:
We will receive a certificate documenting this moment in the mail in about 2 months!
The last flight was from Detroit to Houston. We had a longer layover than planned due to our plane having maintenance problems. I was so tired at this point that when I stood up I was sort of dizzy!
The flight home to Houston was great! It was so good to know that this was our last flight! We arrived in Houston about 1-1 1/2 hours later than planned. When we came down the hall into the Baggage area, both sets of Becca’s new grandparents were waiting with faces beaming and cameras in hand! It was Houston Gotcha Day!
Below is a picture of Houston Gotcha Day!
It is so good to be home! The biggest challenge though lays ahead from what we hear: getting Becca used to the new time zone that is 14 hours behind China! In other words when its night in Houston its day in Becca’s former homeland. Needless to say, her clock is totally turned around! Hopefully her little body clock will learn to adjust soon! Pray for us! See ya again soon!
Today, we went to the US Consulate on Shamian Island in Guangzhou for the taking of the oath that certifies the truthfulness of all of our adoption paperwork. The wonderful thing about this is that this will enable Becca to get her visa to the USA, and also make it so that the moment the wheels of the plane touch the soil of the United States of America, our sweet baby Becca becomes a US citizen.
When we arrived there at the Consulate, the wait was long in a very small and crowded room. We were so packed in there, that one of the waiting mothers in our group fainted from the heat. Good thing we had several nurses and a surgeon in our travel group!
Later a representative of the US government issued the oath to us, and to tell you the truth, though the oath was short, it was a holy moment! Tears flowed down my face as we exited and it dawned on me the immensity of what just happened in that split second of time. Right then and there, Sarah and I had officially in the eyes of the USA become the parents of a beautiful little one named Rebecca Catherine Jiayi Battle. Though we have never experienced a biological birth together, something awesome was born in that room: the blessed reality of a new era graciously given to us by the Lord to parent this sweet little girl. What an awesome moment! One I will never forget! Sorry no pictures today! They would not allow us to photograph anything in the Consulate. God bless! Photos of Houston Gotcha tomorrow! Tonight our bags are out the door by 9PM for the bellmen. Tomorrow at 5AM we leave for the Guangzhou Airport. See ya tomorrow!
What does, “da daâ€? mean in Chinese? Babies say it all the time here and it means, “playâ€?, and that’s exactly what we did today. Incidentally, if you’re wondering, “babaâ€? is Daddy in Chinese and not “Dada,â€? although I have found myself answering to both. We ate breakfast at Café More where we are staying in the Dong Fang Hotel. This hotel is huge, and every morning we have had breakfast at their free buffet! The buffet also is huge with both Western and Eastern foods. I have enjoyed an omelet and sausages quite a bit while here! We found out also while here that Baby Becca likes Ho Fen! Ho Fen is a noodle dish that was available every morning on the buffet! Becca loves to be hand-fed noodles and to suck them into her mouth like a vacuum cleaner! 🙂 What a riot this girl is! She also likes eggs anyway they come, and she likes Congee. Congee is a Chinese staple. It is the same consistency as oatmeal and most of the time I believe it’s made from rice. I think also it can be made from other things as well. My favorite congee had beef and egg in it. It sort of tasted like my Grandma Margree’s Chicken and Dumplings. Anyway, back to Becca! She will eat just about anything you give her! She’s an eating machine! Her profile said that most issues with her can be solved with food. They are so right! She is such a good and healthy eater! Thank God for that!
After breakfast, we had to wait for two hours in our room while our paperwork was being filed with the US Consulate by our guides in Guangzhou, Amy and Lineker (Thank God for these two! They have worked tirelessly to help make everything go so smooth for us all, and they do this all the time! Wow! We salute our guides, Amy and Lineker(Guangzhou) and Sherry(Beijing and Wuhan) and Eric(Wuhan)!) They needed one of us to wait by the phone in case there were any problems with our paperwork. No problems, Praise the Lord!
We spent the morning and afternoon with baby, playing and eating and sleeping. I also spent some time running errands getting necessities at the store for us and baby, and let Sarah wait by the phone in the room for the first hour of the 2 hour waiting period. Sarah spent of that time after I got back in the playroom with her little princess!
We ate take-out lunch from McDonald’s near the hotel, and got our group picture made in the afternoon with all of the babies from the Wuhan, Hubei group and their families. Nine families in all! What a group! We have had a great time, and we will miss them all!
(We also have spent time with the nine families who adopted from two other provinces as well. Everyone has been a joy to be around and will be missed!)
Below is that group photo!:
Here is a photo of all of the Hubei Babies!:
Here is a close up of our Becca with some of her other buddies from Hubei!:
Here is a group photo of the Nanjing group:
After the photo session, most of us went to a Thai Restaurant here in Guangzhou called The Banana Leaf for dinner. The food was very good, and a little spicy. We had jasmine tea with the meal and that helped put out some of the fire brought on by the spices. Below is a photo of Becca in her “ready to eat� pose at the Banana Leaf!:
Here she is eating Cheerios with chopsticks!:
Here is Becca smiling for the camera!:
Tomorrow, we go to the US Consulate for our swearing-in ceremony for Becca’s travel visa and her trip home! Wow! Time has flown by! Sarah and I were saying that in part we are going to miss China, but at the same time, it will be good to be home again! God bless all of you! See ya tomorrow!
We went to Shamian Island today to shop! Shamian Island is the famous place in Guangzhou where many adoptive parents and international visitors go to shop for China Souvenirs. We had a great time buying clothes for Becca and some other great souvenirs! One awesome thing that happened for “Baba� (that’s me!) was that on the way to Shamian Island, Becca fell asleep in my arms! One of the daddies who had biological children already, Rich Haske, had told me before, “Just wait until she falls asleep in your arms! There is nothing like it in all the world!� He was right! Boy, I wish that I could describe the new type of love, the father-for-daughter love, which I am now experiencing. It is something beyond mere words. When she fell asleep in my arms, I began to think of what an awesome trust our Heavenly Father places into our hands when He gives us the responsibility of raising a new little one and watching them grow and learn from our example. The awesome magnitude of that trust hit me in that moment, and also on the other side of the coin, the awesome blessing of that trust. WOW God! Thank you for the blessing of fatherhood! May my life as “Baba� and “Mama� Sarah’s life serve as a Godly example to our daughter that she can look at and follow into the good and perfect plan that You have for her in her future! The fact that God would bless me with such a beautiful little girl is just another trophy of His grace and mercy being bestowed on me in my life! Below is a picture of Becca asleep in my arms.
Here is Becca smiling at one of the lady salesmen in a shop there!
She also had other admirers as well:
Here is Princess Rebecca “Cinderella” Catherine Jiayi Battle trying on her slipper for her dedication service coming soon at The Lord’s Glory Church!:
Becca loves Mama!:
One thing about Becca that you’ll notice right away: she loves people and people love her! Life for her is just one big fun time! May she always have a life full of the Joy of the Lord! We can’t wait for this coming Sunday when we can take her to church for her first service at The Lord’s Glory Church! We also cannot wait for her to meet her grandparents!
Blessings to all who have written us! Wow! The love you have shown us via e-mail overwhelms us! It’s so awesome that our little one has so many people that care about her! Thanks again for everything! See ya tomorrow!
I close with another family photo:
We love all of you! See ya tomorrow!
Today, we went to get baby’s visa photo and medical check done. She made the decision from the moment the medical checkup began, that she did not like that place or the nurses or the doctors. She cried and cried and cried. Bless her heart! We did find out that she was, as of now, 19.5 lbs. with clothes on and 71cm. long. What a little bitty precious petite darling she is. She checked out A-OK! Praise the Lord! We thank everyone for their prayers.
After the medical exam, we all went to a tea house where they taught us the history of Chinese tea, and explained how to tell a quality teapot from a cheap one! Interestingly, a teapot from China that is a quality one is made from clay, and the more it is used, the darker the teapot gets. Our guide said that a person can actually make money in China by drinking tea because the more he uses a teapot, the higher its value goes up! A teapot is an investment similar in China to a good antique! Just a bit of Chinese trivia there!
After that, we went home and ordered in delivery from Danny’s Bagel, a great restaurant that only delivers. It is located here in Guangzhou and is owned by an American man. The food is a taste of home and is a comfort to people like us who have been away from the USA for a short while! We ordered Mac and Cheese and Chicken Quesadillas and a Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich! Becca loved the Mac and Cheese! This kid can eat! For the first time in Becca’s history with us, she actually refused food this morning at breakfast! This was a first! We wondered when she would get full, and today, for the first time she did! She is such a joy to have as a child, and is a very happy baby and a healthy eater! Thank God for this!
Pictures of medical check and tea house below!
Nurses Check Rebecca’s Head Circumference:
Nurses Check Rebecca’s Height and Weight:
Entrance to Guangzhou Tea House:
Waitress Serves Samples of Various Chinese Tea:
Happy Family Photo:
Becca Meets Bird!:
See ya tomorrow!
God bless!
Today, we went to the Guangzhou Folk Art Museum. It was contained in the one of the oldest buildings in Guangzhou. When we went in, the entrance opened up into a courtyard containing many covered patio rooms with ancient pieces of art throughout. From there we went to a six-story mall called the Guangzhou Friendship Store. It was a government owned mall, where bargaining was not generally allowed. The top floor was all baby stuff! Due to high prices, we did not buy anything here. However we did go downstairs to the Grocery Store there and buy formula and water and diapers and coke and baby food, etc… This grocery store was a little more expensive than Carrefour, China’s version of Wal-Mart. It compared more with Kroger or HEB. Still pretty inexpensive by American standards though, I think.
Baby was a trooper. She shopped cheerfully until we all dropped! We came home and she slept for several hours. She was exhausted from her busy day of shopping and sightseeing, and I think we were a little bit too! She was bored at the Museum. So bored that she slept! Ha! Ha! We can tell she’s not an art buff, at least not at this age! Then again, Daddy is not much of one either! Like father like daughter!
Below are some pictures of our day at the museum. Blessings to all who read our journal!
Ancient Furniture at Guangzhou Folk Art Museum:
Ancient Bed in the days of the Emperors I think!:
Becca says: “My, museums are so boring. I don’t think I can hold my head up any longer!�:
“Yep! I was right!”:
God bless every one of you! Thanks for your prayers for us! God is good!
See ya tomorrow!
Today was one of the first slow days we have had in a while. I filled out lots of paperwork for the adoption for about four hours, while Sarah and Rebecca played for hours on end, and had some mother-daughter bonding time. Becca loves to play dress-up with pretty hats and jewelry, even at one year old!
Below are some pictures of her personal fashion show!
Just thought ya might get a kick out of those photos!
Something really special that happened for me, Daddy or in Chinese as Rebecca calls me, “Baba,� happened this evening. I was playing with her and she grabbed my finger and held on tight for quite a long time while she played. She then looked up and gave me the biggest smile which I captured on film. It was a moment I will never forget. It prompted me to thinking about the origins of love. Just where is love born? From the experience I have been through as a new adoptive daddy, I can confidently say that love is not biologically born. No, instead love is something born in the heart. It can happen in the heart of any parent, biological or adoptive. It is not dependent on similar genetics or similar heritage. Its origins can simply be summed up in the words of 1 John 4:8: “God is love.� So, in summation, if you are considering adoption, and are worried about whether or not you will be able to love a child that is not biologically born to you, fear not. Don’t believe that lie! I can testify to the fact that my love for this baby is just as strong or stronger than I could have ever dreamed! It goes beyond words! Thank God for His direction in our life as He led us so lovingly down this road called adoption into the arms of a waiting child who to us and to Him is extraordinarily precious! It could be that those of you who are reading this could have a pair of arms waiting for you that will one day reach up and grab your finger and call you, “Baba!� or “Mama!� Anyway, before I lose it emotionally here, I’m going to sign off with tears flowing! See ya tomorrow!
Below is the picture of the moment I mentioned.
Good morning Wuhan!
We started the day early getting up at 5:00AM to get our bags and our bodies ready for a long day containing two very monumental tasks. First, we went back to the Hubei Center for Intercountry Adoption to pick up the all-important red leather folder containing Becca’s official adoption certificate! Below is a picture with the notary who is a very important official in China, unlike in America, where a notary just has to pay a fee and have very little training to become one. Also pictured here are Sherry, our national guide for the first two-thirds of our trip, and Eric, our local guide in Wuhan. We also received our baby’s Chinese Passport.
After this, we went to the Wuhan Airport to go on baby Becca’s first flight! She did marvelously, and was a clown! She very much enjoyed playing with Annabelle, Rich and Michelle Haske’s adopted baby. God has made it so easy on us! I hear so many people’s horror stories about parenting, and the difficult times they have with their babies. We have had very few upsetting episodes so far. Our baby has such an easy personality, and is so flexible and easy-going! She loves to just have fun! Everything is a big laugh! She also has no problem getting along with other children. Anyway, there I go bragging again! Pardon my papa syndrome! 🙂 It peeks its way through at such unpredictable moments, but God has been so good to us, and we just can’t help but shout it from the rooftops! Below is a picture of our cutie’s first flight to Guangzhou:
As you can see, she had a great time! From there, we took a 45 minute bus ride to DongFang Hotel in Guangzhou. Our guide, Amy, is very sweet! We should have a picture of her sometime soon! The DongFang Hotel is huge! It has two lobbies, a shopping mall, and three or four restaurants. There is also a McDonald’s in the complex, where Rebecca enjoyed her first Happy Meal. Our room here is very spacious with lots of room for baby to run!
Pictures of room tomorrow!
One prayer request: Pray for an easy doctor’s appointment for Rebecca as she goes for the customary routine checkup, before being allowed to leave China with us to the USA. The appointment is on Monday. Thanks for your prayers and support!
God bless!
Today the group threw all of the March birthday babies a birthday party! Rebecca had such a good time! She blew out the candles on the cake, had cake for the first time, and the first birthday gift she got was a bunch of baby barettes for her hair and toys! It was a blast! Below are some pictures of the happy baby on her birthday! That is the one word I could use that would describe her most accurately: HAPPY! She loves life and lives it very happily! She wakes up happy! She eats happy! She plays happy! Only two times she is fussy: when she’s hungry and when she’s tired! She also doesn’t like being away from Mama for very long! If Mama goes out of the room, she looks around, and after a certain amount of time, she sounds the alarm! 🙂 It’s getting to where she understands though that when Mama leaves, it’s not forever, and she’s not leaving for long, and not leaving her behind. She really loves Mama! When she wants her, she yells: Mama!!!!!
I do have one claim to fame though: I was the first to make her laugh! And she has started calling me by two different names: Daddy and Baba! Baba in Chinese means Daddy! I love it! Call me Daddy, sweetie pie, and you have me wrapped around your little bitty finger!
More photos below! See ya tomorrow!
“I love birthdays! Bring on the cake!”:
First Birthday Present!:
Smiling Baby! AKA “She smiled at me! I love my baby daughter!”:
More tomorrow! Check back again soon! Thanks for looking, and thanks to all for your encouraging e-mails and comments! Such a blessing to have so many caring friends!
God bless!
See ya tomorrow!
We had a fun day today visiting a park on the Yangtze River. It was beautiful! Rebecca was admired by many of the local townspeople! You can see her below interacting with a little boy there at the park. People came up to us and asked to have their picture made with her. I think she enjoyed it very much, and I know we did! Any chance we get to show her off is a good one!
Little boy and Rebecca!:
Every day we spend with our new baby girl is so full of fun and adventure! She is so full of life and curiosity about everything! I love seeing her smile, and when she laughs, it comes straight from the belly, and makes everyone around her who hears smile and laugh as well! I want to tell all of you who are following us on our journey about something funny that she does (Pardon the proud papa syndrome showing through here!). She is definitely a a leader and not a follower. How do I know? One sign is a game she invented herself. She will say something in baby talk like: “OOOOOOHHHHHWAAAA!” very happily and then wait for you to copy her. Once you say it just like her, she moves on to another cute baby phrase. When you copy her, she brightens up, giggles, and loves leading everyone who will follow in a baby talk cheer!
Anyway, just a moment of proud papa syndrome! She is so cute!
Here are some more pictures of our little princess from Hubei!:
Isn’t she sweet?:
Baby eats good!:
Stay Tuned! More soon!
I just had to be honest and tell you guys the story about what happened with us as new parents last night! We went to bed around 10 to 10:30 last night, and we were awakened after midnight by our daughter crying loudly. We thought “Oh, No problem. We’ll just comfort her like we did the other night until she drifts back off to sleep.” Finally after 5 “owwwwwwwwers”, oops I mean hours, it finally dawned on us to ask her in Chinese “Ni e ma?” which means, “Are you hungry?” She immediately stopped crying and her eyes brightened up, and she smiled really big and cooed! It was as if she was saying, “Whew! Finally somebody around here gets the picture! What took ya so long?” Well, we fed her, and she drifted off to sleep around 5AM! If only we had thought of this 5 “owwwwwers” earlier!
Needless to say, we stayed home and skipped the outing to the museum today! Mommy, Daddy, and Baby, had to rest!
We did do something different today though, we took Becca out in our rented stroller thorugh the streets of downtown Wuhan for a walk. She slept the whole time! (I wonder why?? 🙂 ) We did get one thumbs up from a grandma concerning the way she was dressed. Let me explain. It’s very common for the elderly to critique the new parents in Chinese culture on whether they have dressed their babies warm enough or not. Cultural rules dictate that no matter the weather, you must bundle that baby in about four or more layers of clothing! We did not bundle her in that many layers but we did take her coat with her and laid it over as a blanket in the stroller. This seemed to pass the test with at least the one grandma that stopped us to have a look, and make sure baby was OK. That made us feel good that she approved!
Anyway, the bellman told us that KFC was short 15 minute walk from the hotel. We know its there, but we never found it! Ended up going back to the hotel restaurant instead. The restaurant here in the White Rose Hotel is very good! Has western food as well as Chinese. The breakfast is great too! A buffet!
Anyway, I digress! Point of story: NO KFC, but the high sign from the grandma made it all worth it!
More pictures below as promised!
Enjoy!
See ya soon!
Leaving hotel for stroller ride already fast asleep:
Playing in Hotel Room in Wuhan:
Today was the day that we officially became Rebecca’s Mommy and Daddy! We began the day going back to the Hubei Intercountry Center for Adoption for our interview before the adoption was to be finalized. They asked questions like: “Do you believe this is the same baby that you received 24 hours ago?” and “After the time you have spent with her, are you still sure that you want to go through with this and be her parents?” (Of course, I’m paraphrasing.) The interview was done through an interpreter. After the questions, we signed the adoption legal contract, and they put the fingerprint from our right index finger over our signatures. They then put Rebecca’s footprint on the document’s reverse side. She got to sign off on it with her approval as well! We then took our first family photo! We will have copy of this on the web later! This photo will be on our official adoption certificate which will be given to us later on in a beautiful red folder!
Tomorrow, we head to the Notary to have another interview and hear a speech before receiving the baby’s passport and the adoption certificate in the red folder. At least I believe this is what’s going to happen. My brain has been mush since becoming a Daddy! All I think about is Becca, Becca, Becca!
Everything else has to be told to me at least three or four times before it sinks in. Must be something in the air!!! Ha! Ha! Many of the other parents have expressed experiencing these same symptoms! What a wonderful illness! I pray I never recover!
Pictures below!
Enjoy!
Photo with the Orphanage Director Li:
Smiling Baby with Happy Daddy:
Today was Gotcha Day, and wait until you see what a beautiful baby we have. We went to the Hubei Center for Intercountry Adoption Affairs at 2:30PM. After we got off the bus, everyone was escorted into the main waiting area where there were lots of couches. All of us anxious new parents armed with photo and video cameras sat down on these couches as we awaited the arrival of the moment we had all be waiting for: our gotcha moment!
As we sat down, we heard cries in the other room, and knew that on the other side of that wall was our baby! One mother got so anxious when her baby’s name was called only for the purpose of doing paperwork, that she rushed past the orphanage director and other officials, and grabbed her baby from the nannies who were in the other room keeping the babies quiet and occupied until their moment came! The anxious mama then had to hand her back to prevent possible mutiny from the rest of us, because everyone then got this “let’s go get ’em” look in their eye! 🙂 Do ya blame us!
Our name was the first called after paperwork was finished! We wasted no time, and ran excited to get our baby yelling, “That’s us!”
She is just adorable! An answer to eight years of prayer! God really knows how to knock your socks off! For those of you who awaiting DTC or I-171 or Referral or are anywhere in the process of international adoption, when you begin the journey, you think you know what Gotcha Day will be like! Multiply the feeling you imagine by millions, and you barely touch the surface of the amazing moment! It’s all worth it!
Just look below at what God has done!
She the prettiest baby in the whole group! Pardon the understandable prejudice! After all, she’s ours!
Grandmas and Grandpas we can’t to introduce her to you in person!
Sorry this post took so long to materialize, but we have been a busy Mommy and Daddy the last couple of days!
Here are the Gotcha Day Photos!
Sign we saw upon entering the Waiting Area on Gotcha Day!:
“That’s us!”
Our family photo!:
On bus after Gotcha:
Happy Mama with her sleepy baby!:
More soon! Isn’t she just beautiful!
We went to church this morning at the church designated for foreigners only called Beijing International Christian Fellowship. The service was wonderful and the worship was really refreshing. The pastor preached about “Private Sins” and his focus this week was on the two sins mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount of anger and lust. After this very compassionately delivered and hard-hitting message, we all took communion together as a congregation. They sang many vineyard style songs, and it brought tears to my eyes worshipping as I thought upon the fact that He had blessed me with a little girl that is so precious to Him, and He trusted me to parent such a wonderful gem from Him. The timing of having church the day before Gotcha Day could not have been any better planned. I could not think of any better thing to do in response to this blessing we are about to receive than to take communion and worship our baby’s Creator and her Father in heaven, Daddy God!
Here are some photos from the church service:
After church we went to lunch at a restaurant that served a traditional Chinese “family style” meal. After lunch, we went shopping at the Jade Market where they showed us how Jade was made.
Then, we went off to the Great Wall to spend the afternoon hiking this wonder of the world! Sarah and I hiked to what I believe was the second plateau! Boy, was that hard! The stairway went pretty much straight up and the stairs were built in all different sizes! It was difficult, but when we got to that second plateau, it was all worth it! Man, what a view!
Here we are at the Great Wall:
Here is a picture of the hill we climbed on the Great Wall:
On the way to the wall, Sarah opened her Bible and it opened to the verse in Psalm 18:29 that says:
“For by you I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall.”
Wow! What timing! It not only brought to my mind the fact that He gave us the strength to climb that monstrous hill at the Great Wall, but also He is faithful who called us to parent Rebecca Catherine Jiayi Battle, and He also will equip us and teach us all along the way how to effectively scale the seemingly sometimes insurmountable wall of what right now is the unknowns of our coming era of parenting her together!
God is good and always on time!
Tomorrow, we get up at 4:30AM to leave and head to breakfast by 5:40AM so that we can be on the bus by 6:20AM to go to the airport and fly to Wuhan. The babies arrive at 3! Tomorrow is Gotcha Day!
Rebecca Catherine Jiayi Battle in Hubei here we come! We love you so much already and can’t wait to hold you in our arms for the very first time, and tell you we are your Mommy and Daddy, and we will always love you!
Happy Birthday, Rebecca! Today is our baby’s first birthday! How we wish we could be there with her, and we long for March 7th like you wouldn’t believe! There are several babies from Jiayu with March birthdays, so plans are underway for a big birthday party for them after Gotcha Day!
We went to breakfast this morning to find in line many of our AWAA buddies that we have already gotten to know over the last year via the internet! It’s so nice to have the rest of the group finally here!
Part of today, we spent shopping. In our case, we bought some gifts for Rebecca, and so that they will remain surprising, we will not give them away here in detail! May the reader understand.
We also saw many sights today, and did alot of walking! We could not go to Tianamen Square because it was closed to tourists due to a huge government meeting being held nearby there.
We did see the legendary Forbidden City of the Chinese Emperors. This was a city only occupied by the emperors and their family and officials. How far any official could go into the Forbidden City and where they resided in it depended solely upon what their rank was in the empire.
Here is a picture of the front area and buildings in the front half of the Forbidden City:
Next after this we went to shop some places and to eat lunch at a simple, yet elegant, Western and Chinese Buffet. Here is a picture of this elegant place. The food was wonderful too! Fellowshipping with those from our AWAA family was awesomely refreshing!
Sherry Fan, our guide, who is only a teen herself, was so knowledgeable about all of the sights. She knows almost everything about the sights we saw today, both important facts and fun trivia! She is always so cheerful and helpful! We thank God for her!
Here is a picture of Sarah with Sherry:
After eating, we shopped some more and then went to tour the Emperor’s Summer Palace. Beautiful place! The lake on the property was iced over! We hiked for many miles around this enormous piece of choice land. Many buildings on it were ornately decorated with handpainted and carved artwork dating back thousands of years.
Here are some pictures of this enormously beautiful palace!
Us at Summer Palace by iced-over lake:
One of many art-covered gazebos in the Summer Palace! These are hand-painted! Can you imagine how long it took the artist just to paint one of the tiles in this gazebo?
After seeing the Summer Palace, we went to dinner for a beautiful traditional Chinese meal at a very ornately decorated restaurant! Everyone ate using chopsticks as we sat around a huge table with an enormous lazy susan in the middle filled with various Chinese dishes. Using our chopsticks we grabbed what we wanted to eat from the lazy susan and ate it off a very small plate. The waiters and waitresses were dressed in ancient traditional Chinese outfits.
Here are some pictures of this beautiful restaurant:
Hope you enjoyed today’s post! This was a very eventful and memorable way to spend our baby’s first birthday. If only she were here to see it all with us! Only 2 more days, Rebecca, and we gotcha forever! Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
Today was a free day while we awaited the arrival of the rest of the group.
It was a fairly relaxing settling in kinda day.
For lunch today, we had Pizza Hut, and it was a full meal for two with drinks for only about 9 US dollars. What a difference in price between Pizza Hut in the states and Pizza Hut here in China! They also have KFC everywhere! We probably will give that a try sometime during the trip!
Later today, we visited Beijing’s version of Wal-Mart called “Carrefour”, less than a block from our hotel, and picked up some essentials. This place is huge! It has two stories with food and other groceries downstairs, and everything else you can imagine upstairs. One of the things we picked up was a pair of matching sock hats! It is windy and a bit cold! We thought these might come in handy, and they look pretty cool too! 🙂
Anyway, enjoy the pics from this fairly slow day! See ya tomorrow!
Lunch at Nice Pizza Hut in Beijing! This place looks a lot nicer than the one in America, and it was alot cheaper too!:
Buying essentials at Beijing’s version of Wal-Mart called “Carrefour”:
We are here! Praise the Lord! We slept well last night! Beijing is much prettier than we even expected! The hotel we are staying in is very nice! It is called the Radisson SAS (not sure what SAS stands for! 🙂 )! It is decorated in Scandinavian IKEA decor! The bed is just right and sleeps very comfortably! We have highspeed internet in the room, so updating you on our journey is very easy to do!
Before we tell you more about how things have gone so far, I just want to take a moment and thank everyone for their prayers and support!
Mom and Dad Battle and Mattson, it means so much to us to have parents who have prayed us through on this journey, and have been 100% supportive all of the way through it! We could not have made it to China without you and your prayers!
To Bethany Dena: we can’t thank you enough for the beautiful banner you made for Rebecca & for the beautiful song in Latin that you sang to us Tuesday before we left! Sarah and I are so proud of you and the stand you are taking for Jesus!
To all of our loved ones and church family: Wow! What can we say? We are so blessed to have you all in our lives! Rebecca will be surrounded by people who already love her, though they have not even seen her yet!
We will have one person who will be our guide the whole time! Her name is Sherry! She is so sweet and very knowledgeable! Ask her anything, and she can either give you the answer or find out the answer! Thank God for her! We will have a picture of her later for you!
Later on today, I will be going downstairs to make some final preps on our documentation that we will need to have in Wuhan.
Also later, we will go to Carrefour, China’s version of Wal-Mart, across the street from our hotel. It is huge! It is two stories high, and has food on one floor and everything else on the other.
Our hotel is full of European businessmen and women! At breakfast, we heard languages spoken that were from all over Europe.
Anyway, it is so nice to have a free day before the whirlwind schedule begins. Tomorrow at 8:30AM, we leave for a day of touring the sights!
Keep us in your prayers!
Enjoy the pictures!
Until tomorrow, God bless!
Love,
Brandon & Sarah
Our hotel room in Beijing:
View of Downtown Beijing from our hotel room:
More soon!
Stay tuned!
Click below to E-mail us! We check it daily! We would love to hear from you! Also feel free to leave your comments by clicking the word comments below any post.
We love each and everyone of you! Thank you for following along with us on our China journey to Rebecca!
More soon!
God bless!
Love,
Brandon and Sarah
Ni hao! (“Helloâ€?) As I am writing this we are 9 1/2 hours away from Tokyo. We will catch our final flight to Beijing from there. They estimate that we will arrive in Tokyo at about 3:30PM Tokyo time! We have already had an awesome time! Everyone loves to hear about our adoption when we meet them! We have shown Rebecca’s picture to everyone we meet! It’s so much fun to watch people’s faces light up when they see how sweet looking and precious she is! We forgetfully keep asking people with much anticipation and wallet in hand: “Have I shown you the picture of our new baby we are adopting from China? (Due to our convenient memory loss, we have shown her picture twice to many people! 🙂 ) Her name is Rebecca and she is the most beautiful baby in the world!â€? Maybe our forgetfulness is simply due to the fact that we have had little sleep today (Yeah right! I don’t expect anyone would believe that for a second! 🙂 ).
While waiting to get on the plane in Houston, we met a man who had a daughter who has adopted from the Ukraine, and is in the process of adopting from China! Wow! What a God-ordained moment! His eyes beamed as he showed us pictures and bragged about his adopted grandchild! 🙂
In Minneapolis, we met two pastors who were heading to Indonesia via Tokyo for a pastor’s conference! Wow! Another God-ordained divine appointment, and guess what? The Senior Pastor was also a native Houstonian! He lived there when he was a young adult about 30 years ago! We also met a serviceman who was heading to South Korea for a tour of duty there. God bless our US Servicemen!
Another neat thing happened in Minneapolis! As we were in line to have our passports checked before boarding, the ticket agent who was checking ID’s found out we were adopting (My I wonder how? 🙂 ). She then congratulated us and said she was waiting for her referral to come from China soon too! She was so happy for us and we were elated for her as well! Another God-ordained moment on our journey!
Our rowmate on the flight to Tokyo is so nice! Her name is Wei. She is from Shanghai originally and now lives in the USA. She is going to visit her father there. She also thought Rebecca was so beautiful (Doesn’t everyone?!?) She has been teaching us how to say important things in Chinese like:
1. Are you hungry? – ni e ma
2. Milk bottle (or baby bottle) – nai ping
3. Thank you – xie xie (pronounced “Shay Shay�)
4. You’re welcome. – bu yong xie
5. Little Baby – ying er
6. I love you! – Wo ai ni!
Well class, that’s our lesson for today 🙂 !
Enjoy the pictures! We may not look very presentable but keep in mind, we’ve been in a hollow silver tube going 500 miles an hour at 30000 feet! This will give you sympathetic feelings for our situation and the way we look! 🙂
See ya online tomorrow!
Gotta get some sleep!
Our rowmate on the flight to Tokyo named Wei!:
Brandon on flight to Tokyo:
Sarah in Tokyo Airport:
