…And faith becomes sight

After 5 years and 3 months to the day we got our Audrey! It all happened really fast, but it was a good day for the Fuqua’s! Other than some mosquito bites on her face she is perfectly healthy. She has been very curious and she likes playing with toys. I still don’t think she has realized what has happened to her yet. We anticipate some grieving by her at some point, so please pray for her. There was a time tonight where she had kind of a scared look on her face. We found out she likes to be held when she is upset and we are happy to oblige!

Right after we got her today she took her first trip to this 12 story shopping center sort of thing. It was quite an experience, but we got some needed baby items while there like formula, diapers, etc. so it was good. Looking forward to everyone meeting her! We will take and send more photos later.

We get Audrey today!!!!

Last night we flew out of Beijing into Guangzhou China. Our guide Peter (not the same one as before) was there to meet us at the airport. We were very tired so went to bed. It is now Wednesday morning here and we are glad to be here. The hotel is much nicer here than our one in Beijing. The best part about today is that we get to get Audrey in about 7 hours! It still does not seem real, but it will soon! We will get her 2:00 p.m. here so it will be 1:00 a.m. Wednesday Kentucky time. We will post some pics as soon as we can!

A Day in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

We spent the morning of Tuesday, October 12 in China checking out of
our hotel and touring Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We had our
own personal guide who picked us up, opened the doors for us, bought our
lunch at Pizza Hut in Beijing, and of course showed us all the sites of
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The amount of patriotism to
country that you can see by the Chinese people is amazing especially
seeing them in a place like this. The place was packed and Peter our guide
said it was not that busy. I am so glad he was with us. The Forbidden City
is where the Chinese emperors used to live. I had no idea how large this
place was, it is unbelievable. We walked for what seemed like 2 miles and
we did not even get to the end.

Sightseeing in Beijing

Today (Monday, October 10), after a day of much needed rest, we went to tour the Great Wall of China.  Our guide, Peter, took us to the JuYong Pass portion of the wall.  All I can say is that it was awesome!  Petersaid the wall is about 4,000 miles long.  I think seeing the wall today made it hit home that we are really in China!  :-)  We were not in good enough shape to climb all the way up either side, but we did go about halfway up one side.  The stairs are extremely steep, so I was very thankful for the handrails.  We had Subway for lunch (ahhh...the comfortsof home), and then came back to our hotel to rest.

Tomorrow, we will tour the Forbidden City and see some other sights closer
to the downtown area.  Our flight for Guangzhou leaves tomorrow (Tuesday,
October 11) at 6:00 p.m.  We will arrive in Guangzhou about 9:00 p.m.
(that's Tuesday 8:00 a.m. KY time).  Then, on Wednesday, we will receive
our little girl!  We are not sure of the time yet or whether we will go to
her or if they will bring her to us.

The jetlag has been MUCH harder to get over than we had imagined.  We ask
for and are grateful for your continued prayers.  We want to be strong and
healthy when we receive Audrey!

 

We made it!

We made it to Beijing! The plane rides were long, but we survived. There have been quite a few adventures already and we may post more about that later. Paige and I are both experiencing some health issues already so please keep praying for us!

A few more changes... but they are good!

We received word last night that some of the dates we do things have changed. We are still leaving Nashville October 7 and returning October 22, but some of the dates we do things in between have changed. The biggest change is that we now get Audrey 2 days earlier! Now we will get her on October 11. I updated our itinerary that I posted 3-4 posts ago to reflect our new schedule. The one downfall is that after traveling for nearly 24 hours and getting to Beijing at midnight their time, now we have to get up the next morning and go sightseeing. We are looking forward to the great wall, but not on 4-5 hours sleep after traveling for 24 hours! We will make it though and we are thankful to get Audrey sooner.

Nesting

I've heard lots of people talk about their "nesting" process during pregnancy.  Our nesting has been on fast forward!  We've been spending a crazy amount of time in Audrey's room trying to put away all of the wonderful gifts we've received for her.  I've also been doing an insane amount of laundry, both for Audrey and to prepare for our trip to China.  Even though it has been and currently is very stressful, it's also been a lot of fun doing this together.  There are still some unknowns that can not be known until we receive our daughter, so I'm resting in the knowledge that our adoption is all God's design.  He will give us the wisdom to answer any question or overcome any challenge that should arise.  He's carried us this far, and I know that He will never leave us.   As always, He is so very good!