Final Post!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is hard to believe but it is Tuesday and this is going to be our last post as we will be leaving for home tomorrow. As many of you know this has been an incredible journey over the past 2 years and the Lord has been so faithful throughout. Now we get to come home and start all over learning to be parents of a 1 year old as well as getting back into the joy of parenting Noah and Abbey. Last night we went on a riverboat cruise for 2 hours. We were stuck in traffic and we almost missed our boat, but our guide suggested that we walk the rest of the way which we did and we just made it in time. On the way there as we were sitting in traffic, Hannah was getting really fussy and I was thinking that we had made a mistake by going, but boy was I wrong. It turned out to be a beautiful night and we had a wonderful time visiting with each other as well as the others on the trip. We also had the opportunity to see the Beauty of Guangzhou at night time. One other benefit was that we felt a nice breeze which is not a real frequent occurrence here.
Hannah is doing much better at sitting in her high chair at breakfast and even is enjoying picking her food up by herself and making a mess of herself. Her breakfast of choice has been Fiber cereal and prunes that Mommy and Daddy cut up for her. She eats the prunes and the fiber cereal much better than Mommy or Daddy would. Praise the Lord her stomach seems to be doing much better. After breakfast we went out for some last minute shopping for some keep sakes and had a real nice time with our friends Doug and Terri and their daughter Brianna who is in one of the pictures that we posted with Hannah.
The one picture that we sent is of all the girls that were adopted on this trip and the other one is of all the families and there children that are on the trip with us as a part of A Helping Hand Adoption Agency.
This afternoon we are going to the US consolate office for Hannah to take her oath and become a United States Citizen. Tommorrow morning we will fly to Hong Kong and from there to Chicago and onto Columbus. We are scheduled to arrive home to Columbus just before Midnight on Wednesday night. If you would please be praying for us on the journey we would appreciate it.
It has truly been a priviledge and an honor to share our adoption journey with you all, and we praise the Lord for your prayers and support. This adoption has been a miracle from the beginning and we give God all of the Glory for it. We are now leaning on Him for His Grace to sustain us as we continue to walk this life out. As the Lord lays things on your heart to follow Him Trust in Him and continue to seek His face He is Faithful. .
May God Bless You All,
Love
Jason, Julie, Noah, Abbey and Hannah

Hannah is one step closer to be US citizen

Hi Everyone. Sorry, but picture wise it has been somewhat of a boring day. (so I included a great picture of Jason modeling the hotel's shower cap/Noah and Abbey, does Daddy look silly or what?) We had to stay in our hotel room for part of the day, as our guide Alison was at the consulate taking our paperwork before them. It was alittle nerve racking waiting and hoping they didn't have any questions about our paperwork. Today we have group pictures at 3:30, then we will have Pizza Hut delivered to our room at 4:30. The riverboat starts at 6:00 tonight, so I will try and take some good pictures of that to post tomorrow. You should have seen the pizza menu-tuna fish pizza, crab suck(what is that?). We ordered the great american classic-Pepperoni and cheese! Hannah took a nap this morning and is napping again. She plays when we lay her down and then falls asleep. We are learning that she is like all the girls in our family-she needs her sleep. We gave her a sippy cup today and she was drinking out of it well. She got alittle fiesty with me when I tried to help her as with most one year olds-they like to do things themselves. I was packing up some things today(so it's not so overwhelming Wednesday) and looked at all the medicines we brought and none of them have the seal off. We haven't had to use any. Thank God for keeping little Hannah healthy!She likes prunes, too. We think that, along with some bran cereal this morning has been helping with her belly issues. Jason just brought mcdonalds, so I better eat before Hannah wakes up. Thanks for the prayers. We miss you and can't wait to be home in a few days.

Chinese Church, Lucy's, and SHOPPING......

Hey Everyone. Hannah slept pretty good last night. She had one hour of crying at about 10:00. We are thinking she is still having stomach issues, and her nose started running as well. The breakfast at this hotel is amazing! We have definately eaten very well here. Jason even ate squid or octopus the other night. I wouldn't touch it! We went to a chinese church service this morning. It was so neat to be singing Matt Redman's"The Heart of Worship"in China.During the week I have been thinking about all Hannah's first things, first plane ride, first french fries......, but it really special thinking it was her first church service. She was enjoying the music and eating her snacks. The pastor spoke in chinese and another lady interpreted. Next, we went to Lucy's bar, where an american menu was served. I ordered a hamburger, and Jason ordered chicken enchilatas. His meal was soooooo spicy hot, it set both our mouths on fire. Hannah napped at Lucy's. We then had a few hours to shop. The shops were very neat and we were able to get Hannah some tradtional outfits and squeaky shoes. You can try and offer a lower price and the store workers will go back and forth with you. It was very interesting. I let Jason do all that. We got some really great deals. We are back at the hotel now and Jason and Hannah are taking a walk. She really like being out of the room where she can see all the people. That little munchkin is showing some of her true colors now and she has quite the temper. We are also learning that she likes being in her crib at naptime better than us carrying her! She is crawling and scooting all over the hotel room floor now. She will take a few steps for us and we think she will be walking on her own soon. In one of the pictures, she is wearing a hat her Uncle Michael and Aunt MiMi gave her. We also wanted to wish Dad and Mom Pierce a Happy Anniversary. We are sorry we can't be there to celebrate with you, but are so thankful for your many years together! Thanks for the prayer everyone. Tomorrow we get to go on a river boat cruise. Hope Hannah likes it! We love you Noah and Abbey!

Hannah is 21 Pounds

We arrived in Guangzhou last night at around 8:00PM. Thanks for your prayers - Hannah did very well on the plane ride. There was one point in time though when she was standing on Julie's lap and she pulled the man behind her's newspaper out of his hands. He was gracious with her. We all were pretty worn out when we arrived at the hotel and Hannah had a hard time getting to sleep because she had a nap on the way back from the airport. She thought it was play time at 10:00PM - Mommy and Daddy knowing that we had to get up at 5:30 were not as much into playing as Hannah was.
Thank God she went to sleep at 10:30 and everyone slept well the rest of the night. At 8:00 we were back on the road to get Hannah's Visa picture taken and her medical examination. It was very rainy this morning and the medical exam office was very crowded so we very thankful to have that appointment taken care of. As you saw in the heading, Thank the Lord everything went well with her exam and Hannah weights 21 pounds. She is a great eater. She even tried her first Mcdonald's french fry today with catsup. ( As you can see in one the pictures she enjoyed it)
We turned in all of our important paperwork this afternoon to our Helping Hand Guide Allison who will take the paperwork to the US Consulate office on Monday. Please be praying that everything goes well at that meeting. These are the meetings that finalyze her paperwork and prepare us to fly out on Wednesday. As we mentioned in the last couple of posts Hannah continues to show us more and more daily. She has been much more active at times, she is taking a couple of steps with assistance and is jibbering alot more - She even said Da da a couple of times . She is also clapping her hands and giving us kisses at times (sometimes with a bite with it). Thanks again for all of your prayers and encouragement. It is truly only by God's grace and your support and encouragement that we are here and able to bring Hannah home. May the Lord Bless You!!!!!!!!!!
Love Jason, Julie & Hannah
P.S. Guangzhou must be much more of a tourist town than Nanning, the hotel is very beautiful and we have a Mcdonalds and Starbucks right next door. As we write this post we are enjoying a Carmel Frappacinno. See Ya Soon.

Hannah is coming out of her shell

Well we thought we had time for a short post today while we pack up for our trip - I guess I should say Julie Packs up for our trip, she is such a servant and keeps us organized in that area. We just got back from doing some very important paperwork for our meeting with the US consulate next week. Paperwork is very stressful for me, and I will be excited to have that meeting out of the way and everything finalyzed next week. God has been so graceful and compassionate throughout every aspect of this trip and I give Him the Glory for that. I was realizing that as I prayed this morning, how it is so much a gift of His Mercy and Grace that we are able to be here to adopt Hannah. His Love for us is amazing!!!!!!!
Here are some photos that we took this morning. Hannah is starting to show us each and every day how much more that she can do. Today while we were in the meeting she was sitting with Julie on the floor and started crawling with the other girls. She is even pulling herself up and trying to take some steps. She is a real sweetheart. I keep telling her that besides her mother and sister she is the cutest girl ever. Noah is my tough Guy. We Love you all , have a Blessed day. Talk to you as soon as we can. May the Lord Bless you.
Jason, Julie & Hannah
PS : Thanks for your prayers, all of the girls are healthy at this time.

Ethnic Park - Bed and Bath time

It is Thursday afternoon here in Nanning and we have already had a full day. For those of you who know Julie and how she normally functions in the morning you may be surprised to hear that she was up and dressed before 6:00am. That is exciting for me, but I am not sure if it will continue when we get home or not. For some reason even after being here for a week our bodies still have a difficult time adjusting. It seems like we sleep really well until about midnight and then it is restless sleep from then on. Either way it is a good way to get started early. When Hannah woke up this morning she just sat up and looked for us but without crying. It seems like she is getting more used to us each day. She is starting to put her arms out to show us when she wants to go to one or the other of us, and seems to be more playful and free to laugh more often. She is however still having some problems with her stomach. If you could be still praying for that we would appreciate it. Other that that she is a very pleasant and sweet little girl who likes to laugh out loud - Just like her sister. We had the pleasure of talking to Noah and Abbey on the phone today, it was a real joy to us to hear their voice and to know that they are having a great time with their grandparents. Hannah also enjoyed hearing their voices. Please be praying for Kaylee and Lydia - two of the little girls that were also adopted from Hannah's orphanage as they have been started on Antibiotics for Bronchitis. This morning we went to a local Museum and Ethnic park to learn about the minority people of China. It was really interesting to learn about their cultures and to see some of the ancient artifacts that have been collected. It was a very beautiful park , we had the opportunity to see several couples getting their wedding photos in the park. Tonight we are having a group dinner at 6:00 PM and then tomorrow we will be finishing up some paperwork and flying to Guangzhou in the evening. I just want to end by seeing if anyone noticed Hannah is already suporting her hometown team!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hannah Says Go Bucks. We may not being able to post tomorrow as we will be packing up and flying at around 6:00 tommorrow. We will post as soon as we are able to. Thanks for all of the prayers and encouragement through the emails. We miss and Love you all. May God Bless You.

Green Hill Park

From midnight to 3:00am we bonded with Hannah as we paced back and forth this very small hotel room. And, although it sounds like a rough night, we think we saw some great signs of Hannah bonding to us. At one point when we laid her down in her crib, she sat straight up without crying and would look to make sure we were in the bed next to her. She would open her eyes and then start falling asleep. She kept repeating this and we were worried she was going to fall backwards and hit her head. This morning we had a doctor from the hotel look at Hannah and try to give us ideas to help her have a bowel movement. This is common with the changes to all the babies. She told us Hannah looked very healthy and told us to try bannanas and pears to help her. Today we went to Green Hills Park. It was very beautiful, and VERY hot and humid outside. There was a nine story tower that Jason and Hannah climbed. They made it to the very top! It showed an incredible view of the city. There were tons of fish in the water wanting to be fed. We gave Hannah some fish food to throw and she wanted to eat it. We bribed her with some bannana puffs and she gave up the fish food. Next we went to a minority restaurant where the food was great! We saw a show there performed by the Maio(Sorry if we misspelled that Jody)people. It was really neat! We also bought a love ball which is a special tradition here in this province. They sing back and forth to each other to find their true love.They throw the love ball to the one who answers and who they think will be their special one. We went swimming today, too. Hannah cried alittle and splashed alittle. We are seeing her little personality coming out. She throws things when she is mad. She tossed her bottle across the bed 3 times last night. She is so sweet and we can't stop kissing her little cheeks. Noah and Abbey, Hannah can't wait to meet you. She loves watching the children we've come in contact with. I'll end this on a personal note, Hannah's bowel problems are being solved as I write this. Thank God for that!

Hannah "Ting Ting" is officially ours

Today was another adventurous day in Nanning. We laid Hannah down at 8:30 last night and Thank the Lord she did not wake up until 6;30 this morning. When she woke up and was drinking her bottle she looked at us as if to say " you are still here" . She is a real thinker.... We had 2 important meetings today for the adoption. The first of which was with the Notary and the second was with the Orphanage directors wife and the civil Affairs office. At the end of these meetings we received our official Adoption papers. Thank the Lord she is now officially our little daughter. The rest of the paper work that we will do next week is for the United States government to get Hannah's Passport and Visa to come home to the USA. When we had our meeting with the orphanage directors wife she told us that Hannah was called Ting Ting at the orphanage and that she liked to ride the rodeo. Just kidding, there were 4 little rocking horses and she told us that the girls like to ride on them. When we put the girls down on the horses we found out that she was not kidding and the girls went to town rocking back and forth and having a ball. Hannah began to come out of her shell after that . We went to Wal Mart ( which by the way is the nicest wallmart that I have ever seen , with 2 stories) and Julie was able to get Hannah to smile and even belly laugh a little bit. The Ladies said that shopping must make her happy. She also had her first bath with us today and we are realizing that althouth she laughed several times today there were many crying times too. We think that we are making progress, but continue to need God's wisdom to know how to love and care for Hannah. By the way Hannah is eating really well for us. She had Congee which is a local version of Cream of wheat , and a smashed up bannana for breakfast. Noah and Abbey - Hannah really likes hugs and kisses and being tickled so you will have alot of fun with her. May God Bless you all. Thanks
Jason , Julie & Hannah

Gotcha Day

Well, Thank the Lord, as we are typing this update Hannah is in Julie's arms. This morning we all got together to finish some final paperwork that needed to be done before we could get Hannah. Then at 4:00 we went to the Civil Affairs office and shortly after we arrived the Nannies brought the babies into the room. Julie was able to pick out Hannah when she saw her. Thank you all for praying because Hannah went right to Julie and was very calm during our time at the Civil Affairs office. She played with her toys and ate snacks. The Nannies were all very nice and we were provided some of her formula to get us started. We have had a couple of melt downs since that time, but in General Hannah has done very well today. She has been through alot and you can see her thinking as she is trying to process everything. We have seen one smile !!!!!! There is a learning curve for parents again, as we are trying to remember how to make bottles and figure out what Hannah's schedule is. Please continue to pray for us as we ask God for guidance of how to love Hannah and help her to know that we are going to take care of her. We have attached a couple of pictures to let you see our precious new daughter. Noah and Abbey we have been telling Hannah about you, and showing her pictures of you. We miss you both and Love you. By the way we found out today that the package that we sent to Hannah a month ago did get to her because we received the camera that was in the package from the Nanny. We are anxious to get them processed. We Love you all , May God Bless you.
Jason, Julie & Hannah

Great Wall and 1 step closer to Hannah.....

Sorry, we were unable to update everyone last night, we couldn't get the computer to work in our room, but we are back in business today. We arrived in Beijing last night after a very long flight. We somewhat adjusted to the time change with the help of some benadryl and an early wakeup of around 3:00 AM. We met some of the other families this morning at breakfast and then we headed off to the Great Wall of China. It was raining and very hazy so some of our pictures did not turn out as well as we would have liked. It was still an incredible site to see, it looked as if the steps of the wall were climbing up into the clouds. We bought a poncho this morning and the only colors that they had were bright pink and purple, thankfully Julie agreed to wear the poncho and let me have the jacket. It was a very difficult climb and we really don't know how high it goes , because you couldn't see the top. The Clouds were so thick , and after each section we climbed there was another steep section. As you can probably tell, we didn't make it to the top. After the Great Wall, we left on a 3 hour flight( A 3 hour tour) to Nanning- the capital of Guangxi. Our hotel here is called the Majestic and is Amazing. When we walked into the room they already had a crib set up and the reality is setting in that our baby will be sleeping in it tomorrow night. We pray that she is sleeping tomorrow night !!!!!! We found out that we will not be getting Hannah until about 4:00 in the afternoon (4:00AM at home) so if you could please pray for us and the babies before you go to bed tonight we would appreciate it. We Miss you all especially Noah and Abbey. Have a Blessed day. We will update you soon. Hopefully with pictures of Hannah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
Jason & Julie

Packing and Ready to go !!!!!!!!

We received our plane tickets in the mail on Thursday along with our visas and other important paperwork that we needed prior to traveling. We will arrive in Beijing, China on Saturday afternoon - which is Friday morning at 0455. The kids are counting down the days for us to go and are very excited to spend time with their grandparents. We think that we will be getting Hannah sometime on Monday ( which will be Sunday night American time). We could really use your prayers for this time as we pray that Hannah will have the peace of God to trust us as her new parents. May God's peace be upon you.
Jason & Julie