Forbidden No More

Here we are at an overlook over the Forbidden city in Beijing. The city was the dwelling of the Emperor and was "forbidden" (hence the name) to people except officials and servants of the emperor. It was an unbelievable complex of rooms, temples, dwellings. We had a beautiful time in Beijing on Saturday as we traveled to a park overlooking the city so that we could see the entire city. Then we went shopping at the "Pearl Market" where they had everything you could ever imagine for sale. There were some genuine (wink, wink) Rolex watches, DVD's, North Face Jackets, etc. The authentic thing that we did have was some freshwater pearls that were at a great price. We bought some pearls to give to the girls when they get older. It was fun. Especially the wild taxi rides through the city. We now are making the transition from tourist to parents as we left on a plane to go to Chongqing on Saturday night. We arrived at the Marriot hotel which is a 5 star hotel in the city. Chongqing is a vast and beautiful city, situated on the river. It is classified as the world's largest city, at 30 million people. We learned another fun fact as the city's name can be translated as "Double Happiness", as the emperor in the 12th century named it such as he was celebrating two acts of happiness that was bestowed upon him. Of course, we know the real reason, as Lily and Kate are our Double Happiness. We know that they will be traveling tomorrow for 9 hours on a bus before we get them. Pray for their safety as they travel and that their transition will be smooth. Have a good night (or evening).

They are really treating us like royalty here

Well, you have to do something to pass the time.... Anyway, today we began to learn about Lily and Kate's heritage. We saw the Forbidden city, Tian'amen Square, the Great Wall and we ate Peking Duck. Phil and I have been all over the world, but sight seeing here is so different. We are learning about the heritage of half of our soon-to-be family. It is an amazing feeling. I am falling in love with the Chinese people and culture in a way I could not have predicted. I physically feel the Lord preparing my heart to love these little girls with a mother's heart. It is an intimate and deep transformation that I thought I had already gone through. I am once again amazed at the priviledge Phil and I have in forming our family through adoption. We find ourselves not talking as much about it to each other because there are no words for the depth of these emotions. Glances that we make at each other when we see a Chinese baby or a tight squeeze of the other's hand when we see a sweet elderly Chinese woman communicate more than our words can begin to tell as we experience this awesome journey together.
Tomorrow...we fly to Chongquing, the province of our daughters!

Visiting orphanages

Yesterday we visited 2 private orphanages run by some new friends of ours. What an encouragement it was for us. Both groups have a vision for helping children live full lives prior to adoption while also reaching out to the community. It was great for us to see good models of stewardship to these children and their country. All of the kids had special needs of some kind that were provided for in wonderful ways. It really reminded me of why we are here on this journey. Even after we get Lily and Kate, there is so much work to do for the other children. There were so many sweet faces longing for a family. It was heartbreaking and inspirational at the same time. I wish you all could have seen it. You would have loved to play in the playroom with all the kids! It was truly an honor for us to be there...a gift given to us at a perfect time.

Scorpions for dinner anyone?

With support crew bringing up the rear

On a slow plane to China

We have arrived in Beijing :)

We arrived yesterday after a 13 hour flight from Newark. We walked around like zombies the rest of the night in downtown Beijing. But it was beautiful! Everyone is so friendly and the markets were fun! We love it so far. We finally went to sleep only to wake up at 5 am from jetlag. This marked a historic event that has never happened before...all the Nobles (me (Jennifer) and my parents) were dressed and ready to go by 7am! Phil and his family is always up at the crack of dawn anyway. So, even though it takes 1300 miles and jetlag to get the night loving Nobles up on time...it can be done! We don't have a translator or tour guide during this leg of the trip which is really fun and adventurous since we don't speak the language. Last night we slurped noodles at a local resturant. We weren't sure what we had ordered, but ate what came out. This puts a whole new meaning into saying the blessing before meals. This morning we ate congie (a soupy rice dish) for the first time. This is likely what our girls eat daily. It is hard to believe that we are so close to them now. Of course, as we walk the streets we look at all the women and wonder which ones our daughters will look like as they grow up and when we see little girls we wonder if this is what they look like now.
Today we will visit 3 local orphanages run by private companies. I absolutely cannot wait! I'm sure it will be emotional. I always am emotional visiting orphanages, but it is so personal to me now. I tear up just thinking about it...oh no. Can i handle this day?! Stay tuned...

Our Probable Itinerary

Sept 12 Fly to Newark, NJ and spend the night
Sept 13 Fly on Continental from Newark to Beijing. Arrive in Beijing at 150pm on Sept 14. We will be staying at the Wangfujing Grand Hotel in Beijing for 3 nights. After checking in the hotel, we will probably eat dinner and walk around
Sept 15 Visit some orphanages and foster homes
Sept 16 Tour to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square, and hopefully eat Peking Duck!
Sept 17 More shopping and sightseeing before flying to Chongqing in the evening. We are staying at the Marriott hotel in Chongqing.
Sept 18 Prepare to become united with Lily and Kate. Hope there is a Walmart!!
Sept 19 Gotcha Day!!! This is the day we will become a forever family with Lily and Kate. In the morning we will travel to the Civil Affairs Building.
Sept 20-22 Attach to our daughters, change diapers, look at them as they look at us, shop, and sightsee.
Sept 23 Receive our daughters passport and travel to Guangzhou to stay at the White Swan Hotel.
Sept 24 We will have our medical appointment to examine our children. Don't you think Jennifer will have done that already???
Sept 24-25 Work on more paperwork and change more diapers and do some sightseeing.
Sept 26 This is the day we have our consulate appointment at the US consulate.
Sept 27 We will have our swearing ceremony. Not sure what we will be swearing about but probably the cause will be all the many diapers.
Sept 28 Depart back to the US and Home sweet Home in Birmingham that evening. We will post our arrival time on this website for those of you who would like to meet Lily and Kate at the airport.
Sept 29 - until further notice Change diapers

Getting Ready

Here is a picture of our nursery that now has TWO cribs in it. It includes also a painting given to us by our great friends, the Eddins Family.

We are on our way!!!!!!

"Warp speed, Scotty". If Captain Kirk was here, that is what he would say. Because, we have received our travel approval from China and we received our US consulate appointment date. So, there is nothing holding us back from travel. Except, of course, for the 10 million things we have to do before we leave. Here are the details: On Monday we received a phone call from our agency that our Travel Approvals arrived. We were shocked and delighted. Then Karla, our agency facilitator, told us that we should receive confirmation of our consulate appt in the next few days. She called us and told us that we have an appt at the US consulate in Guangzhou on Sept 26. So, guess what? We will be home before Lily and Kate's 1st birthday on October 5. Praise the Lord for His answers to specific prayers. We will celebrate their birthdays as a family.
It looks like we will be flying from Bham on Sept 12 or 13 and arriving in Beijing on Sept 14. On Sept 18 or 19, our daughters will be placed in our arms for the 1st time. I get chill bumps just thinking about it. Then we will spend a little more than a week with them before we return back to Birmingham on September 28. Yeah!!!
Be in prayer for us with all of the remaining details as we have a lot to do before we can leave. Pray for our hearts, our marriage, our daughters, and the Lord's protection and provision for all of our needs. We are grateful to receive encouragement from so many of you. We have felt loved. Lily and Kate, see you in a few weeks!!!

Waiting for our travel date

We are, not so patiently, waiting to hear when we can go get the girls. China has to approve our travel then we will get an appointment with the Consultate in China. As soon as we know this date, we will scurry to get our plane tickets. And off we go! We are praying to get them before their first birthday, October 5. We've got a lot to do in the interim - like change the nursery for two babies instead of one, buy cute little matching outfits and figure out which are the best twin strollers and twin accesories. We are having a blast showing off the pictures. They get more beautiful to us everyday. It is truly amazing how much you can love someone you have never met!

Where are Lily and Kate now? An entire map of China is on the left. Look for the city of Chongqing.(Look below the word CHINA, and slightly to the right) The right picture is a picture of the Chongqing municipality. Lily and Kate's orphange is in the city of Youyang, which is in the Southeast part of the Chongqing municipality. It is approximately 10 hours away from the city of Chongqing.

More information

Our girls Chinese names are You Fu Xin and You Fu Jing. They were born on October 5 (a day before my birthday!) It appears that they are very healthy and have been well taken care of. They are at the Youyang Social Welfare Institute in the Chongqing Municipality of China. Based on the limited information that I can find on the web (too bad I can't read Chinese), it appears to be more of a rural city. The orphanage is only a few years old and adoptions have only been occurring for a few years from this location. We will be staying in the large city of Chongqing and they will bring the girls to our hotel. Can't imagine what a tearful and crazy day that will be. Our prayer and hope is that we will be able to travel to become a family before October 5 so pray that along with us. It appears that there is a temporary slow down in China to receive consulate appointments. October is not a good time to travel to China due to many reasons. Plus, we want to go get our girls now!! We will be traveling with a few more families from our agency and look forward to a wonderful experience.

What are we going to name them?

Since Baby A and Baby B might cause teasing somewhere down the line, we have to come up with something different to name them. We were planning on naming our baby Lily Kate after Jennifer's best friend of 17 years (affectionately called "My Sweet Lily"). We now planning on dividing the name into Lily and Kate. We would like to honor our Lord who gave us this blessing by giving the middle names of Gabrielle (God is my strength) and Isabella (consecrated to God). So their names will most likely be...
Lily Gabrielle and Kate Isabella. :)

We received our referrals!!

"Praise be to the Lord for his abundant blessings". Jennifer and I saw for the first time today pictures of our beautiful daughters. We received the call at 11:55am from Karla at Lifeline and left work immediately to travel to Lifeline. We were handed pictures of our daughters and were blown away to realize that we would be parents to twins. We are so grateful to our heavenly Father who has entrusted two wonderful gifts to us. We will post more information soon (once we decide on names!). Thanks to each of you who have prayed for us and supported us.

Twins!!!! 

Aren't they beautiful?? 

You Fu Jing

You Fu Xin

Still waiting

Referrals from China are being sent in the next few days. Families in the group ahead of us will receive the picture of their new daughter or son. There was a chance that we could have been included in this latest group but our agency informed us to expect to receive our referral towards the end of July. We are slightly disappointed but trust in God's timing. Our little girl is not in this group and will be in the next group. We will enjoy the extra month to prepare our home and be as prepared as possible. We will spend our time finishing our basement. Jennifer's dad and mom came over for a few days to help us lay tile in our basement bathroom and begin work on a suspended ceiling. We still have a lot to do to finish it. Continue to pray with us for our daugther, Lily Kate. We are praying that she will be loved and cherished by Chinese workers and family members. And finally, next month, we will get a picture and see for the first time the face of our daughter.