Merry Christmas!!

It's hard to believe we have been home almost 2 weeks!  Emily is doing very well and her adjustment to our family has been simply amazing!  We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday and Emily enjoyed seeing her Grammy and ye ye Pa and ye ye Poppy (her great-grandpa).  We're just so happy she is HERE!!! 

We had a really busy last week.  We made a trip out to Cincinnati to the International Adoption Clinic and Emily had a thorough 4 hour exam, 3 shots, 1 TB shot, blood work (11 tubes!!), and a chest x-ray.  Poor girl!!!  She was a trooper though, and did really well.  Her big brother Seth went along, and made the trip much more bearable for her. To complicate things, as soon as we pulled into the parking garage and got out, my husband, John doubled over in pain!  He managed to keep it together for the lengthy day and even insisted on driving home.  It was a loonngg ride home though as he was in pain, and Emily was running a fever and throwing up...ugh!!  His sweet brother and wife met us and took John to the ER where they determined he had kidney stones.  OUCH!!  We're happy to say that everyone is all better now!

On the car ride home, Emily was playing with my iPad and came across pictures of her foster parents.  We held our breath as we waited for her reaction.  To our amazement, she became very excited and yelled for Seth to look at the pictures with her!!  She was so happy to see the photos, and now every other day or so, we look at them and wave.  It's so sweet!  I am constantly amazed at how well she processes everything.  We are sooooo blessed!!!!

Well, I know you all have been waiting for more pictures, so here they are!!  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Love to you all!!

Emily with her great grandpa, Poppy

Emily with her Pa

Love her eyes!!!!!

 

Ready for church!

My favorite!!!!  Love my family!!!!!

Stir fry, anyone?

Emily's first time in the snow!

This is fun!!!

I have the best dad ever!

HOME SWEET HOME!!

After a marathon trip, we are HOME!!!  In all actuality, Emily did very well for such a long day!  Our flight from Hong Kong left on time and 15 1/2 hours later we touched down in Newark.  Emily slept about 4 hours of the flight, and stayed in her seat very well.  We played with lots of stickers and she used my iPad for the majority of the trip watching Kai-lan videos and the song apps I had downloaded.  Thankfully, there was an outlet plug between our seats, and we were able to keep it charged up the entire time.  She only really cried at the end and a sweet stewardess came and talked to her in Chinese which calmed her down. 

Then it was off to the long line at Customs and Immigration.  China definitely does this better than the US!!  It was a long wait getting through the line with a toddler who was simply tired of being confined, but we made it.  We then had to go through security again which was another 1/2 hour wait.  Ugh!  Thank goodness we had a longer layover so we didn't have to worry about missing our connecting flight.  By this point, she was asleep.  We were all starting to feel the effects of no sleep though as it was really 3 AM in the morning to us when we had landed.

Emily slept the entire last hour in the airport and the entire flight until we touched down in Pittsburgh.  She was an exhausted little girl!

Heidi, my sister-in-law met us at the airport!  It felt so good to see family and be close to home!!!  Emily waved her little US flag as we walked through the airport!  Not surprisingly, Emily was NOT happy with her car seat on the way home and again the iPad came to the rescue somewhat! Thank you Heidi!!! We Love You!!!

When we got to our road, we were all saying, "Yay!!  We are almost to Emily's house,  look for Emily's house!"  When we pulled in to our driveway, I couldn't help but well up with tears.  SHE WAS HOME!!!!!!   She was amazed at the beautiful starry night and pointed to the sky as we walked into our house.  She grinned and walked from room to room checking everything out and was so happy!!  It was so fun watching her see everything that she had seen in pictures.  She pointed to all of her pictures we had hanging up in our house and loved her new room.  It was an awesome end to a long day!! 

She has slept very well the last 2 nights, and we have all gotten back on US time pretty quickly.  Still feeling tired, but not nearly as bad as I expected......at least not yet!!  We want to thank everyone again for your thoughts and prayers. We felt every single one and our trip could not have gone more smoothly.  It was an amazing journey and we are so blessed to have our sweet Emily HOME!!!!

Love you all!!!!!

Our last breakfast in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Airport. 

Seeing the stars!!

Playing with her new toys the next morning!

Happy girl!!  Nicole Cable~ this picture is for you  :)!

She loved being outside and playing on the grass!

Love this sweet girl!!!!

Hong Kong!

We made it to Hong Kong!  Our driver picked us up at 4:30 with a really nice van.  The boys thought it was cool that the steering wheel was on the right hand side!  It took our driver, Daniel, 3 hours to get us to Hong Kong.  The traffic was absolutely crazy.  Just bumper to bumper the whole way until we went through customs and immigration.  Emily slept about half the way and woke up really upset.  It only took about 5 minutes though to calm her down with some graham cracker type sticks.  She then sang songs with the iPad the rest of the way.  Thank goodness for our iPad!!  She gets fussy when she knows we are packing and leaving.  I can't blame her.  What a brave little girl she has been!  Please keep praying for her!! 

Randi, we went by Ba'on and waved hello to Abigail and Jennifer!!!  We can't wait to read your blog in a few months welcoming them home!!

I'm glad I've spent the last 9 months reading lots of other adoptive parents' blogs, otherwise we would have been a little nervous going through customs!  Because Hong Kong is a separate country we had to go through customs just like you would going into Canada.  Well, our van driver pulled up and they reviewed our passports at immigration.  Then we went through to customs.  At that point, our driver opened the doors on both sides and a lady came running toward our van with a mask on!  She had a gun shaped device that she aimed at each of our heads and you could hear the click....if I didn't know that it was going to happen and had warned the boys, we would have been freaking out!  They were checking our temperature.  But, they could certainly handle that a little better!!

Our driver was very interested in learning about Emily and just shook his head when he learned Emily had been abandoned.  He was from Hong Kong.  He told us we now had a wonderful "Merry Christmas present."  We couldn't agree more!!

We checked into the Sky City Marriott which is beautiful!! We went up to the executive floor lounge and had some hors d'ourves and soda.  We then gave Emily a bath, which she loves, and are getting ready for bed.  Our flight leaves tomorrow at 11:25.  Please keep praying for us and for the long trip ahead. 

Consulate Appointment and Pearl River Cruise

We met Aron this morning and went for our Consulate Appointment, the LAST piece of this long paperwork process!!

We took an oath for our US government that our paperwork was accurate, and then waited as they reviewed our documents.  Aron will go back tomorrow to pick up Emily's visa after 3:30 and we can leave!! 

We will be picked up at our hotel and taken by van to Hong Kong, which is about a 3 hour trip depending on traffic.  After staying overnight, we will then fly out of Hong Kong at 11:30 AM and have a 15 1/2 hr flight back to Newark.  Once Emily's little feet touch ground in Newark she will officially be a US Citizen!  We have a 4 hour layover there and then fly to Pittsburgh.  We will arrive in Pittsburgh around 7:30 PM Thursday night.  Please keep us in your prayers.  That will be a very long day!!  Heidi, my sister-in-law will pick us up at the airport.  Thank you Heidi!!!  We are happy we won't have to drive home ourselves as we will be very tired by that point!  That will also be the first time little Emily will be strapped into a car seat since they do not use them in China at all.

After our consulate appointment, Aron dropped us back off at our hotel and we headed to Tekila, a Mexican restaurant, for lunch.  It was really good!

In our hotel lobby





 We just hung out in our hotel in the afternoon.  John and I started to get things packed back up.

This little girl can run my ipad better than me!  She loves Ni Hao Kai-lan videos and any musical apps.  She loves singing "Wheels on the bus", "Old MacDonald", Jingle Bells", and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!"  We can't wait for you all to hear her sweet voice!

In the evening, we met Aron and our friends, the Harrison's to go on the Pearl River Cruise.  It was really nice. I had read good and bad things about going, but we had a really nice time, and are very glad we went!  The lights were beautiful! They served a buffet supper and it was crazy.  Everyone rushed to the buffet and there was no order or lines....just a free for all and the food was gone in just a few minutes.  It was so funny!  

Yes, this is a Chicken Head!  Gross!!

And, yes, this is our friend Andy EATING a chicken head!  YUCK!!!!!!  We were all laughing!

Canton Tower~ the third tallest building in Asia. 

Entertained by a clown and balloons!

I think everyone on the boat gave our family and the Harrison's their balloons. So once we were back in out hotel room that means in the Dunkle family........BALLOON FIGHT!  Hopefully there wasn't anyone trying to sleep in the adjacent rooms!  There was lots of squealing going on!  Lots of fun to end another good day! 

We are all ready to go home though.  We can't wait to sleep in our own beds, and have normal food.  But nothing will be normal for Emily, so although we are excited to head home, we know it will be a difficult transition for Emily.  And none of us are looking forward to the jet leg!  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone soon.  We will just play it all by ear, and see how Emily is adjusting.  Thank you again for your prayers. We all appreciate them so much!  I probably won't post in Hong Kong, because we won't be there very long, so my next post will probably be from home.  Please pray for our travels and health.  The boys and now Emily are all battling some minor colds, and being congested on the flights won't be fun.  Next post....PA!!!  (Yeah!!! That sounds good!!)

Medical check and Shaiman Island

This is the view out of our hotel window

We went back to the medical office to have Emily's TB test checked.  Everything was fine for all 3 families with our agency.  Aron then took us to the market district where we walked around seeing the fish, frogs, and pets for sale as well as an area where herbs were sold for medicine.  

Building codes must be a little different here in China!!

Turtle soup?  Aron told us they are used for pets, but that turtle soup and snake soup is very popular. 

These were bags and bags of different herbs.

We then walked from the market district over to Shaiman Island.  Several years ago, the Island was the hub for adoptions.  Everyone stayed at the White Swan hotel, and the medical checks were done on the Island.  It's very quiet and pretty.  The architecture is all European there, so it makes beautiful backdrops for wedding photos and model shoots. 

There are numerous bronze statues all over the island as well.  Emily loved this one and "talked" to all of the children in the line!  It was really cute!





After our trip to the Island, we came back and played on the outdoor playground and in the indoor playroom. 

We were all tired that night after walking and playing all day!