Packing for home!

The day is here! Angie is out shopping one more time, Bailey is 30 mins. into a great nap full of panda chasing and a Ba Ba is Blogging and packing. The time we have had in China has been great but we miss our boy and family and friends. Today we say good by to good new friends and the birth home of our little Bailey but we hope to return when she is older. The friends we have made are VERY special to us and we all pledge to get the kids together every few years. It is very hard to write about the experience that we had. Words are truly empty when so much of what we are feeling is and flowing moment to moment. It is already hard to look back imagine our life pre-Bailey. We can see her so clearly at home in the pool, camping, tea time and with all of you! You all have been in our thoughts and prays and to my dear family and friends who have taken care of our little man Thanks is not a big enough word! Time to end our blog from China but not our thoughts of this wonderful place. Please pray for the Chinese people. May we be at peace here and around the world...

Bailey LiAng Blackwell

I do not have words~but I will try! We have had trouble again getting on the blog but we think we are good now. The day started around 4:00am on Monday August 2, 2010 and was long and hot and raw and alive and beautiful. We traveled two hours by plane to Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province, China. Our group of seven family stepped off the bus at our Hotel and were told we would have to wait a little longer because the orphanage wanted to feed the babies and change them into new clothes for us~and surprisingly we did not riot but collectedly said ahhhhh. We went to our rooms, grabbed our cameras and diaper bags (that we had pack over four years ago) and went to try to eat lunch and wait. Then to the lobby we gathered FULL, (hearts, eyes ) ready for the moment. The drivers in China make the rules and there are few if any crosswalks so we stepped into the four lanes of traffic to the other side of the street as if we were invincible-maybe we were. We took a short walk down the street into an office building and crammed into a very small HOT elevator to the 26th floor, also very HOT-did I mention it was HOT. We turned right out of the elevator and right down a dark hall into a big, open, clean, HOT room with benches around the walls with windows above them with grand views of the city. (there were two A/C's in the room but they did little to cool any more than a four-by-four area around them) We sat, we paced, took pictures, and had to indure another hour of waiting.

The Gotcha moment.....


Today is Wednesday the 4th and we have had our little Bailey for two days of bliss...but it started on the 2nd with lots of crying~ Bailey and us. Our guide and Bethany worker told us "they are here," and headed out of the room. We grabbed our video gear and they started into the room with seven beautiful baby girls and with one especially beautiful baby!!! We are not just saying that, she really is the most beautiful one!!!! in all of China!!! Angie was sofly squealing "where is she, where is she" but old (eagle eye) Ba Ba(Chinese for Daddy) spotted her fairly quickly. They sat her on a bench with another baby and she cried loudly!!! The first name was called, not us, then the second name, not us again, then the name "Blackwell" was called and Angie, as beautiful as I have ever seen her, took our daughter into her arms forever... Kisses were given and more crying and more kissing and more~

The paper work, official family picture, and most of the last fees paid took most of the next two hours in the HOT room. Ba Ba walked a sad, mad, and screaming Bailey about five miles in the HOT room while Ma Ma did what had to be done-and it was over... we got the little red book that told the world what God and we already knew...she is a Blackwell!

It's Christmas Eve!!!!!

16 hours from now we will meet our daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had a prayer and sharing time tonight with the families in our group and someone said it's like Christmas Eve and we agree. Tonight in our prayer time, people shared about their road here to China, and some of the stories were heartbreaking, encouraging and all around amazing. We "blamed" Steven Curtis Chapman for his influence in our lives and for his impact which led us on this road(and for the long wait---because he did influence so many people to adopt from China).
We had a great day of seeing what pre-modern China looked like, seeing the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and we lost a mother in law in T Square (she was finally found with our great search parties). By the way, Dave says T Square is huge. Actually Beijing is HUGE, really huge. There are over 16 million people here and we saw them all today + the 16 million other tourists that are here.
It's time for packing and sleep (if we can). We have to be in the lobby at 5:00 am local time to leave for our flight to Nanchang. KEEP PRAYING!!!
Tomorrow we will have lots of pictures of the most beautiful girl you have ever seen!!!!!!!
Love you all, mean it,
Dave and Angie