First Trip to the Doctor and Mall

April 6, 2012
Well she didn't sleep as good last night and she had a fever this morning!!!  She was pretty happy but we knew she didn't fell good.  She had been pulling on her ear even while we were in China so I suspected she may have an ear infection.  So on our way to get some new shoes we stopped by the doctor's office to get her ears checked and we were correct, she did have an ear infection.  So we got an antibiotic and hopefully she we will be better soon!!!!

From there we headed up to the mall to get some new shoes!  She loved her stroller and did great trying on shoes.  We hit the jackpot and got new keds, sandals and her first pair of Tom's, they are so cute!!!!  We also did a little more shopping, the weather is going to cool back off so we needed some "spring" clothes not just summer!!!  While we were in one store wearing our new shirts a couple ask about them.  As we started telling them about Emery they had several questions, the husband even talked to Tony for a few minutes about adoption and we have them the blog address.  It was AWESOME!  We love telling people about her and our journey!!!!

We ventured down to see the Easter Bunny and she was ok with him as long as Allie sat and held her beside him.  She didn't want to sit in his lap at all but she would sit beside him.  The line to buy pictures was really long so we didn't get any there!  We hope to go in Columbia tomorrow and see another bunny!

Then it was bath and bed time for her!!!  I think about about sums up our day! 

Love,
Renee

First Full Day in Her Forever Home

April 5, 2012

Today was a great first full day home in her forever home!!!!  She slept all night.  She got up about 6am and wanted her bottle.  Then she was ready to play awhile!  We let the kids stay home with us all today and they have played and played!  Emery has LOVED Conner today!  He has made her laugh all day.  And he read her a book!  Too sweet!!!!  He Daddy pushed her in her little pink bug to our cul-de-sac and let her play outside with them!  She took a great nap, and the kids couldn't wait for her to get up.  They wanted to wake her up! LOL!!! I bet that will change soon!!!

We have had lots of call and visitors which has been great!!!  We have been so blessed by so many!

She acts like she has been with us forever, which has been great!!!!

This afternoon we took her to pick Allie up from dance and so she got to meet all our dance friends.  Blaine wanted us to bring her by his work to meet everyone and then she went with us to Allie's ball practice.  She loved all those girls!  And she got a really nice surprise, her very on Bandits (Allie's ball team) t-shirt!  It is so cute, it has Baby Bandit on the front and My Sister #16 on the back.  We are so blessed to have a great softball family!!!!!  I will post pictures of her wearing it in Knoxville next weekend! 

After ball it was bath and bed time! 

Life is GREAT at the Click house!!!!

Love,
Renee

Ready for Home

April 4, 2012
We got up and ready to go early.  Of course we couldn't sleep and I was worried we would over sleep so we got ready and our plan was to check out, head to the airport and then get some breakfast before we left.  While Emery and I were waiting for Tony to check out and American man came up and was talking to me.  He preceded to tell me that our flight was going to be delayed until about 5:30 this afternoon instead of 11:10 this morning!  Well I just started to cry!  I was devastated.  I was so ready to get home.  He did stay there was a chance that it may leave at 12:30.  That I could deal with, but not 5:30pm.  The flight was delayed because there had been storms in Texas yesterday and flights had been grounded and our plane wouldn't be here until then.  Tony, being optimistic, said well lets go on to the airport and see whats going on.  Jeff, Amy and Luke were suppose to be on that flight with us too.  So we all get to the airport and sure enough it is delayed until 5:30pm.  They are at one ticket agent and we are at another.  Well I start crying again.  Right there with the ticket agent.  I'm holding Emery and I am boo hooing!  I am SO ready to get home.  All I could think was that we were going to have to sit there for 6 extra hours and then miss our connection and not be able to get home until the next day!  DEVASTATED!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I got Tony to get me on face book and get the prayer warriors on it.  We needed another plane to get us home!  And boy did they come through for us!  Tony stood at that ticket agent for over an hour.  Jeff and Amy's agent had given them a few options but none of them were very good.  There were going to be several connections and just not a good option other than waiting!  But our guy just kept typing, running off and talking to people and coming back.  He even told me to take Emery and just leave Tony at the desk.  His English wasn't very good and he wasn't giving Tony any info, just typing and running off.  I was just chasing Miss Priss around.  Jeff, Amy and Luke had gone to eat and were waiting on us to finish up and come eat.  Finally after over an hour he came running past me and gave us a thumbs up and was smiling.  So I walked back up to see what was happening and God had answered our prayers!  He was able to book us on another airline, Cathey Pacific, direct to Chicago and we would still be able to make our connection.  Talk about happy momma, this was one happy momma!!!!!!!!  He said we must hurry, come on.  He grabbed our carry on bag and took off to the CP ticket desk.  He even told Tony that they were better than United and that we would be very happy!  I think I could have flown with luggage to get home.  He talked to them and got everything set up.  While that was going on I had to go find our friends and let them know about that flight and see if they could get on it.  But they decided they didn't have time!  So again I had to say good buy to our friends.  But we were off to the gate.  I tried Skyping with the kids to let them know that we were going to make it home on time.  I hated the thought that the might have to go to bed thinking we weren't going to be home on time!  But of course I couldn't get them.  So I tried Beth and got her! Yep you guessed it,  was crying again!  I was so happy to really be going home!!!!!!!!!!!  So she assured me that she would get in touch with the kids and let them know! 

Finally it was time for that 14 1/2 hour flight!  Cathey Pacific was great!  They were really nice and friendly.  There seemed to be more room on the flight, the food was good and the service was awesome.  Emery did really good.  She slept about the first 2 hours and then woke up, ate and played around a little.  I gave her some benedryl and she finally sent to sleep and slept about the last 4 hours or so.  Finally we were in Chicago!  It was so nice to be on American soil!  We made it through all the check points, we had to claim our luggage and then recheck it, go through immigration with Emery, declare what we had bought, there was a lot to do there.  I was a bit stressed about making our next flight.  We originally had a 4 hour layover but we were later leaving Hong Kong so we only had about 2 1/2 hours to do everything.  While we were waiting on our luggage a TSA

The flight was only about 1 1/2 hours.  The close we got the more butterflies I had!  I could not wait to see our kiddos!  Once we could see the ground and the captain announced we were approaching Tony and I both started crying!  We were so happy to FINALLY be home!  After we landed and turned the phone on we had a message from Beth telling us that the kids were at the gate waiting, music to our ears!  I was so thankful that she was able to get them through security and that we would get to see them first!  We had to wait on the tar mack for our carry on bag and we would see them in the window waving at us!  Yep we are still crying!  As we walked out there they were!  Those were the best hugs!  Many tears of joy from us all!!!!!  Emery just took them all in for a few minutes and then went right to Allie!  She was a happy girl!  Emery was so happy, she was smiling and jabbering.  The boys loved on her and she was fine with it!  We were ready to see all our family and friends waiting in their "Emery" shirts.  As we rounded the corner camera flashes started and so did the tears.  Happy tears!  Emery took it all in and it was like she knew it was all about her!  She smiled, gave kisses, went to almost anyone who wanted her.  We could not have ask for her to be any better.  I had another friend/ former co-worker there to take pictures for us.  I wanted to be sure we captured every minute and I didn't want to have to worry about it!  It was such a relief!  As we stood around talking, Tony checked on our luggage and it was till in customs in Chicago and they would have to deliver it tomorrow.  I could have cared less, I was so happy to be home.  Then Beth told me that the ticket counter really didn't want to let the kids back through security.  I had left her all the info I had been given all the times I had called to check on it and with some convincing they finally agreed to let them through.  We stopped by to show Emery off and thank them for letting them back.  I had really wanted them to be the first ones to get to see her since they didn't get to go with us!  Again, God is good!  All the time!

We were so blessed by so many family and friends coming out to welcome us home!  It was the perfect end to a wonderful journey to our precious Asian princess!

We came home to a clean house thanks to my mother-in-law and a manicured yard and dinner thanks to Paw-paw (my stepdad).  It was so nice to be home and have real food again!!!!!!!!

Now let the next chapter begin!  We are looking forward to sharing her with everyone!

Hugs and love to you all!!!!!
Renee

Shamian Island, Visa, Photos and Heading to Hong Kong

April 3, 2012
Today was a long day, as is most of our days here!  We started out with breakfast, which is the yummiest meal of the day for me!  Our hotel has a great breakfast, its huge and beautiful!  So after breakfast we headed to Shamian Island.  This is where the White Swan hotel is.  That's the hotel where all the adopting families use to stay and it is under renovation. When you stayed at that hotel you received a Barbie doll mom with a Chinese baby!  Precious!! but they don't make them anymore.  We did get to see one and it is so sweet, I would love one!  We made an offer but the man wanted to keep it as a souvenir! :(  We will get on eBay and try to find one when we get home!  We couldn't even go inside the hotel to take pictures but we did get to shop and shop and shop!   We got several gifts and souvenirs to keep for us!  It was BEAUTIFUL out there!  It was like Charleston or Savannah.  Every pretty, beautiful park, very quaint and lots of shops!  I wish we could have stayed out there!  There were photo shoots going on out there, and those women were beautiful! 

We left the Island and went back to the hotel.  I had to finish up packing and get everything ready for our trip to Hong Kong and then home.  Tony had to go buy us another suitcase to get everything home.  We had received a really thick photo album from the orphanage and we had lots of paperwork that I took that we didn't need and we really wanted to check as much as possible and not have to carry so much on the plane since we had her with us.  So we got packed and then it was time to get pictures of the group, families and babies.  The group and families went pretty good!  Jason and Maggie had a red rug they put on the steps for us to take pictures of the babies.  So just imagine trying to get 11 babies to sit on this rug and not try to get up, hit, fall over, run away, etc.....  It was hilarious!  We did get a few pictures but they are "crazy".  But what great memories we have.  We are so excited to be getting ready to go home but we are a little sad to be leaving our friends. 

 I love my squeek shoes!!!

 Daddy and his new baby girl!

 Avery and Emery on the move!!!!

 All 10 familes and 11 babies!!!!

 Too funny!  Trying to get 11 babies to all sit and look at the camera, yea right!!!!

I think she is saying "Praise the Lord" I have a forever family!!!!!!

We got Emery's clothes changed and ready to go.  We were suppose to take the train to Hong Kong but Jason convinced us that getting a van to take us was much better.  It was a little more expensive but totally worth it.  The van would pick us up at the hotel and deliver us to our hotel in Hong Kong.  If we took the train we would have to have gotten a taxi to take us onto our hotel.  So the van was better.  So the time came, Jason returned with Emery's visa.  Amy, Jeff and Luke were also going in a van to Hong Kong, so he got us our brown envelope and her visa and it was time to say good buy!  Our friends, Julie, Sudie and Trisha and Jason were all there to tell us good buy.  We were the first families to leave.  Then it was time to tell Jason and Maggie our guides good buy!  They have been great!  They led us through everything.  The van arrived and we were off to Hong Kong for one more sleep and then home.  It was about 3 hours away.  Emery did great riding and even took a little nap.  Hong Kong is separate from China so we had to go through customs to get in, it was really weird!  Then after we got through customs we went through another check point where they opened our door and a lady stuck a "radar gun" looking thing and pointed it at us.  She as checking our temperature.  Our driver said that if you have a fever they make you go to the clinic.  CRAZY!!!!!!!!  Once we got through there we were off to our hotel.  We are staying at the Airport Regal hotel.  This way we will only have to walk over to the airport in the morning.  I had packed our stuff so that we only had to get in one suitcase and then we wwould be ready to go in the morning.  We are so excited to be coming home.  I feel like a child ready for Christmas!!!!!!!

After we got checked in we were all hungry so we went to a restaurant in the hotel, o my goodness it was expensive and they food wasn't that great!  At this point we don't even care, we just want to eat, sleep and go home!!!!

Hopefully the next update will be from home!!!!!!!!!!!!  We can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!!

Hugs and love!  Last sleep!!!!!!!

 Outside our window right before we left!!!!

 Packed and ready to go!!!!  One more sleep and we are headed home!!!

 Trisha, Avery, Emery and myself!  We are getting ready to leave!  She has my beads and trying to get them out of her hand!!!

 This is Jason and Maggie our guides!  They were great!!!!!

Consulate and Touring

April 2, 2012
Today was great!  We had our consulate appointment this morning!  I was a nervous wreck!  I was so worried they were going to ask us something that we wouldn't answer correctly and then have more questions but it was nothing like that at all!  First they wouldn't let Jason, our guide, go in with us but we were all able to go in as a group!  So we all waited and they did a roll call on all the families there!  All 10 of our families and some other families from other agencies were there!  It was a pretty small area that we were all in but there were a few toys in there to play with!  When we reached the top floor and saw the American flag we both smiled and commented how happy we were to see that!  We are very thankful to be living in America!  Anyway so we do our roll call and then we all take our Oath as a group.  The lady read it and we just repeated it!  No big deal!  Then each family was called to the window one by one.  My heart was pounding when w went up but it was no big deal they just looked at our paperwork that we had prepared for them and our passports and that was it.  They didn't ask us anything at all!  It was great!  Then we were finished!  Jason will return tomorrow to pick up the kids visas!

This afternoon we didsome touring.  We went to the Buddhist Temple.  It was pretty neat, but there were lots of "beggers" on the streets there.  Jason advised us of this and told us to just walk on by that if we gave to one they would all come running!  So we did just that, we walked right by and went on to the temple!  It was fine for us to take pictures of  any and everything.  So we did.  I wanted to get as much info for Emery one day as I could.   We got pictures of the people worshiping the "Gods" there!  It was very different but it was ok.  They had incense burning everywhere which was terrible!  There were trays at each Buddha for people to leave offerings.  There were peanuts on a lot of the trays so we ask Jason about that and he said that after a couple marries they believe if they go and leave peanuts that it will let him have a baby, but also  specifically a baby boy!  From there we went to the Old Chen House (also known as Provincial Folk Art Museum).  There they had some really pretty things on display and the flowers everywhere were beautiful.  They had displays of hand painted porcelain, ivory, furniture, hand needle work and much more.  As we were leaving there was this lady staring at me and Emery.  She was walking in front of us but kept turning around looking as us really mean, not a nice look.  Finally after about 5 times I threw my hands up in the air and said "what, what do you want", at that point I think she knew I had had enough and she moved on! LOL!!!!  I am over the rudeness here.  I now it's just their culture but we are over it!  We are ready for polite southern people again!  Then we went to the Gangdong art & Craft Shopping Center.  I thought we were going to a shopping center but it was really just one big room with different things in it.  You could but everything China there!  We got a few things, I bought Emery a Chinese dress and cute Chinese squeak shoes, a stamp with her name on it, things like that! 

Finally we headed back tothe hotel!  We were tired and ready for dinner and bed.  Emery has been a trooper today!  She went with the flow and did great!  We are so blessed.

Hugs and love,
Renee

Sunday, April 1st- Pearl Market

Today was another great day with our daughter! We had a good breakfast and then had her visa photo made! It was great, they did it right here in the hotel! Then we all loaded up and went for her physical. We felt like cattle! Lol! It wasn't too bad! One of the doctors actually told her some things to do in Chinese and she followed his direction, he seemed impressed! We were too! She is a very smart girl! They determined that she was perfect! We already knew this! There were 3 different stations we went to, weight and height, ENT and general surgeon! All was fine, they looked at her scar and "checked" her out! Then she fell asleep on the way back to the hotel and took a great nap! I had to meet with our guides and dod paperwork for tomorrow! Jason and Maggie are awesome, we get a daily itinerary of what we are going and when! It's great! After all the paperwork we were off to the pearl market for a little retail therapy! Just what every girl needs! And boys too! Lol! We felt pretty successful there!  We got the girls necklaces,Mommy a few goodies and a few surprise!  Then we came back to the hotel and they were going for a group dinner, but it was Cantonese and I didn't think I would like it ver much so we stayed in and ordered pizza! Our friends Jeff, Amy and Luke came over and we had dinner and the kids played! It was a nice evening! Then it was bath and bed time for Emery! She and her daddy are both sleeping as I'm typing!

Tomorrow we go for our Consulate appointment in the morning and in the afternoon we are hoping to go to Shamian(sp) Island tomorrow afternoon for a little more retail therapy! Then Tuesday her visa will be picked up and we will be in our way to Hong Kong! I can't believe we are this close to coming home, but boy are we ready!

Thanks for all the prayers! I will keep updating, please keep commenting and keep us connected there!

Hugs and love to all,
Renee

 We are just waiting our turn!!!!

 She didn't really care for all those people checking her out!

 These are pictures of her forms because they won't give them to us!!!

 Kisses for Daddy!!!

 Just looking out the window at all the cars and people!!!

 Selling fresh fruit on the streets!  We didn't try any!!  But it did look good!

 Pearl Market!!!

 This is inside the building, there  were hundresd of different stores in there!  It was crazy!!!!  I think it was like going to market!!!

 Picking pearls!!!!

 We are all listening and watching!!!!!

 After you pick your pearls they string and double knot them right there!!!!

 Stringing them up!!!!

 Ms. Sudie showing off her new pearls!  They were beautiful!!!

 Jason and Tony and their girls!  Avery and Emery!!!!

 Finished shopping and ready to go back to the hotel!

 Just laughing on our way back to the hotel!

 Ahhh......Dinner!!!!

 Kisses for Mommy!!!!

Sweet silly girl ready for bed!!!!