Would anybody like to meet our son?

Final picture as a family of three...


I have lots to share about our day, but I'll skip to the good stuff. You can hear about how we spent our morning and see those pictures another time. I know you're all waiting for a big introduction. :)

It is with happy and full hearts that we introduce you to our new son and brother Luke LeGuang.


He is so much fun! He was making us giggle from the start. Can you follow his eye gaze in the above picture? What do you think he's after?


If you said Hope's bow, you're correct! He snatched that thing and promptly put it on his own head. It was the funniest thing.


We couldn't be happier! My whole family is sound asleep and I need to head that way too. Tomorrow we head back to the Civil Affairs building to complete our adoption registration and promise to never mistreat or abandon our new sweet boy.

Please continue to pray for our family as Luke figures us out. Pray for Hope as she wants so badly to help and do everything for Luke. She's taking her big sister responsibilities very seriously. Pray for health for all four of us. Luke seems to have a bit of a cough. Please continue to pray that the remaining days of this process continue to go smoothly. And finally, please say a special prayer or two for Luke's birth parents, to whom we are forever grateful for the blessing of this sweet boy.

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Goodbye Beijing. Hello Nanjing

We just wanted to let everyone know we made it to Jiangsu!!! Yesterday was an adventure we didn't plan on, but we are here now so I can breathe easy again. We were up early again an had time to stroll around our hotel and take pictures a bit before meeting our driver at 10:00. That's when the adventure began. We were supposed to have an English speaking driver who was going to get us to the airport and help us as far as security. Well, our driver spoke no English, didn't know from which airport we were supposed to depart, and when we did get to the airport, he just dropped us at the door and we were on our own. Holy cow! Trying to get things figured out was comical I'm sure for everyone on the outside, but we were nervous. We thought there was one good Samaritan who was going to help us but when he started begging for a tip we sent him on his way. Somewhere in the mix I lost my coat in the car or airport too. UGH

Rant done.

Hope and Ron take on the Beijing airport with confidence.


We arrived safely at the gate with about an hour to spare.


Goodbye Beijing





Our flight to Jiangsu was quick and easy. We had a pretty good chicken noodle lunch en route, too.

Hello Jiangsu


Next period of anxiousness was waiting for our luggage. I think our bags were the last off the plane. It was so funny to see Ron's face light up when our final suitcase came off the belt. Such relief.

Our guide sent someone else to meet us at the airport because she was working with a heritage trip family. It didn't matter who came. I was just happy to see someone holding a sign with our name on it. Again, relief.

So, we made it to our hotel safely close to 4:00 or so. We met Nancy and got checked in. First order of business was walking some of our laundry down the street. After a few sweaty days in Beijing we need some clean clothes. We also went to a market close by to get some water.

We had a little time to sit down with Nancy to get some f the particulars for tomorrow ironed out and then we went next door for a quick dinner at Pizza Hut (of all places).

Now it is Monday morning at about 6:30. Hopes first words today at 5:00 were, "I can't wait to go meet Luke today." :)

We are pretty excited. We are going to go down for breakfast and then I'm going I do some nesting in our room to get ready for Luke's arrival. TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!

Here are a couple of pics from this morning Hope took out our hotel window.





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Hope

I want to dedicate a post to our special daughter. She has traveled so well! I can't even begin to tell you how she has impressed us thus far on this journey.


She has embraced new experiences (tours, food, people), overcome fears (flying, racing the elevator doors), and accepted challenges (physical endurance) all with grace and a smile. Her spirit is absolutely precious and to watch her soak up the beauty and depth of her home culture with such wonder has been our absolute privilege! What a gift she is.


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Disclaimer

We leave for the airport in about an hour. Would you believe we woke up to blue sky in Beijing this morning? It is so pretty. We were thinking that it would be a pretty day to hike the wall, but it is so HOT. It's hard to know what is better. The wall on a sunny day so you can appreciate the views, or the wall on a day like we had where visibility was very low, but we didn't have the sun beaming down on us either.

Now for some important words of caution. Hahaha...

We are getting excited since our gotcha day is tomorrow. We understand that the material contained in future posts will include adorable pictures, sentimental language, and content that may elicit emotional responses.

USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN VIEWING THIS CONTENT!!

There have been reports of serious side affects and possible addictive behavior. Some of the reported side affects include but are not limited to restlessness, watery eyes, and shortness of breath.

Read further at your own risk.

We love you! Prayer requests for us today...

* that our travel is smooth uneventful
* that our health continues to be good
* that the lord is preparing our hearts to meet our little boy
* that God's hand is on our son/brother as his world is about to be turned upside down


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Beijing Day 3 - Part II

This afternoon we decided to venture out on our own with a taxi. We headed to the Hard Rock Café. We had intended to go for lunch earlier, but the restaurant had been closed for a wedding. Apparently this happens often because if you look at the schedule on their website, "They are Tying the Knot" is on the calendar regularly. At any rate, they opened the doors to the public at 3:00. We arrived at about 3:30 and had a very nice meal.















After our meal, we took a taxi back to our hotel and napped for a couple hours. It was glorious. :)

We'd purchased tickets to the "Legend of Kung Fu" shoe earlier in the day. The show started at 7:30 so we thought if we headed down to the lobby looking for a taxi an hour ahead of time we'd be in good shape. Well, it's a good thing we planned ahead, because apparently trying to get a taxi during the 6:00 hour in Beijing is next to impossible. We were finally able to make it happen and we arrived at the show with plenty of time. We had decided to leave the camera at the hotel because we knew photography wouldn't be allowed during the performance. We didn't count on some of the before and after shots being available. We just snapped a couple with Ron's iPod.





The show was very entertaining and the athletic ability of the performers was phenomenal. You all know how observant Hope is and how she processes things with such sensitivity. Well, the story of this young boy, Chun Yi being left at the monastery to study the Buddhist way of life, etc. was not missed. We had a few tears when Hope was processing the future of Chun Yi bring without his mother/family. When it was all said and done and once we finagled Beijing taxis at night trying to get a ride home, we all decided that we enjoyed the show very much.

Time to SLEEP! Our ride to the airport will be here to meet us at 10:00 tomorrow morning.

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Beijing Day 3 - Slow Day

This is what goes on in our room at about 3:30am when a certain young lady wakes up. You can see she is still in her clothes from yesterday. When we got back to the room last night we tried everything to wake her for a bit of dinner and to get her pj's on, but she was having none of it. So sleep in her clothes she did.





This is what it looks like at breakfast time in our hotel restaurant. Hope has done awesome with meals. She has tried everything, and liked most of it. I think her favorite this morning was the soup.











We walked down to the "Silk Street Market" and did a tiny bit of shopping. We know not to buy too much here in Beijing and we don't want to weigh down our luggage, but we got a couple things. At any rate, we stopped for a quick bite to eat and. This gentleman outside out window drew quite a crowd. It was rather comical watching people watch him.


Well, we are off to find a taxi. Hopefully I'll have another update tonight.

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Great Wall Hike

Here is a google maps picture of our hike on the Great Wall. You can see the wall and three of the towers we hiked to.



Start of our Great Wall trek was 40.43101 N 116.55765 E

Cable chair lift up to Wall 40.43254 N 116.56390 E

Hike on the wall to 40.43568 N 116.56187 E

Our hotel is Jinglun located at 39.90752 N 116.44799 E

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Location:40.43101,116.55765