Photos

We drove by her finding spot in Nanyang City, which was at the main gate of the city hospital. We didn't get out to look closer, there were so many people everywhere and parking was insane.

So Far...

Life with little Kaylah has been wonderful! Until she developed a little fever yesterday.... Then the grumpies appeared and we saw a side we hadn't before. She's doing better now, and is sleeping hard. We are glad we brought along the children's Tylenol and Vivian, our guide, checked in with us yesterday when she brought by Kaylah's passport. She has been bonding with Mike and myself pretty good. She is slowly showing a return of affection and continues to call us Mama and Baba. She lets me rock her now when she's sleepy... Before I would just lay her on the bed on her belly and she would fall asleep. It may also be because she wasn't feeling too good, but I certainly loved holding her tight and hummed a lullaby...what a great mommy moment ;) !!
She also has an understanding a few words of english words and phrases and knows how to throw items away when we ask her too. Although she mostly loves giving trash to Baba, and runs and giggles when she has something in her hands that she shouldn't.
She had her first taste of pizza the other day... And loved every bite. When we feed her something she likes, she goes "mmmmmmmmmm" and shakes her head no when she doesn't. She also started to sign for food yesterday and smacked her lips together when she was hungry! Progress! And she has started to repeat some words after Mike and I have said. She's a smart little cookie!!
We leave this morning to travel to Guangzhou and will be there through aug 12, then it's off to Hong Kong for two days. We will be doing a lot of things in Guangzhou and will be posting more frequently. Getting our family on a semi decent schedule has proven to be more important than fighting with the Internet here. But we love you all and I will post a few more photos to keep your smiles going strong ;) !!
Huge hugs from China!!!

The Day Has FINALLY Come...

...and Krissie and Mike are having Internet issues.  :(  So, this is Katie here, and at the request of the Murphy's, we'll get some pictures and comments up on the blog for all to see until their technical difficulties are cleared up.  ENJOY!


From Krystal:

She's such a blessing! Even the officials said that she was destined to be with us! The couldn't believe how happy she was today and how she was asking us to pick her up! 

We can't stop looking at her, her little personality is shining through and she is such a little comedian!!!

Huge hugs!!!

 In the hotel lobby just minutes before we left to meet Kaylah.

Picture of the moment.  This is the orphanage director, she and another caretaker traveled
about 4 hours from Nanyang City to bring Kaylah to us.

Here, Kaylah was showing me her photo album of us, she knew we were Mama and Baba,
and whispered as I pointed out each of us in the book.

This girl loves her some goldfish crackers!!!!!! And she loves the butterfly finger puppet!

 

AND THAT SMILE!!!

In Less than 6 hours...

We will meet our daughter!! We made it safely to the Henan province and this hotel is soooo much nicer than the last one!
Mike and I have been awake for hours... He's only awake because I've been rushing around gathering things to take with us when we leave the hotel at 10am to MEET our little girl!! Those wacky butterflies are back in my belly and I'm fighting back the happy tears! I need to post more photos but it's going to have to wait until after we meet our little one! And I'm thinking that Gotcha Day pictures may outweigh any other photos! ;) huge hugs from China!!!!

Photos ;)

Trying to figure out the best way to post photos... I'm just gonna slap them all up!!!! These were some of my favorites I took yesterday!

The Tourist Days...

It's been HOT and HUMID. I haven't been a "sweaty mess" (as Mike said yesterday) like this in a long time. The forbidden city was breathtaking! The amount of work that went into the construction of this amazing place is just unbelievable. And it was all designed for one person. Just plain wild! I need to upload some photos and will try that this evening, the jet lag has been kicking my butt! I slept yesterday afternoon and evening and now, wide awake at 2am. We got to ride on a traditional ricksha yesterday and we toured the older part of Shanghai. We were also welcomed to visit a nice gentleman who showed us around his house and garden. Our guide, George has been a lot of fun and he's very informative. You can tell that he loves his job and enjoys teaching us about his country and culture. We were able to connect with my Mom, Dad and little Ray thru Skype and we can't seem to connect to Facebook here in Shanghai no matter what we try to do.

At Denver airport;)

We are at DIA and Mike takes a moment to ponder about the adventure we are about to begin. I actually slept in today longer than Mike.... A little known fact that I am an early bird, and he sleeps in like a grizzly bear! So many thoughts and feelings are running through my mind. Feels like we just can't get there fast enough, we have waited so long... Just a few days separates us from meeting our little Kaylah. Days. DAYS!! How freiken exciting is that!!!???

Here we GO!

Well, tomorrow we board our planes to get to China. Amazing.
I just can't believe it's finally happening. Hold on little Kaylah, we are coming as fast as we can!

Most recent photo of Kaylah

Mike and I will be blogging as much as we possibly can throughout our trip! We will try to update through facebook as well. We are planning on using Skype and facetime as well ;)
MANY many MANY thanks for all of the amazing support and love and friendships!!! We couldn't have done this without you all!
Huge Hugs!
Krissie & Mike

TImeline of events while in China

7/25            Leave U.S. for Beijing.  Please check your tickets for specific information.

7/26            Arrive in Beijing 

7/27            Tour Beijing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong Tour, and optional acrobatics show

7/28            Tour Beijing: Great Wall 

7/29            Depart Beijing for Zhengzhou 

7/30            Today you will receive your child!  Congratulations! Receive Kaylah in the morning at the registration office.

7/31            Take a bus to the registration office to complete the Adoption Registration in the morning. 

8/1            In the afternoon you will travel to Nanyang to apply for your child’s passport 

8/2            Rest or tour. Receive your notary documents in the afternoon.

8/3            Receive child passports. 

8/4            Leave Zhengzhou for Guangzhou 

8/5            Sunday.  Free day in Guangzhou.

8/6            Take bus to clinic to complete your child’s visa physical and visa photo taken this morning.

8/7            Meet with CCAI representatives to prepare paperwork for the Consulate appointment

8/8            If your child is over two you will meet with your CCAI representative to have the Tuberculosis test checked at the clinic. If necessary have the chest x-ray taken.  You will travel by bus or taxi to clinic to complete this test. 

8/9            Today is your Consulate appointment.  

8/10           Receive your child’s visa packet 

8/11            Free day, on own. 

8/12            Depart Guangzhou for Hong Kong.           

8/13            Free day, on own.

8/14            Depart Hong Kong for US!!

Consulate Appointment and Gotcha Date!

Here we GO!
Consulate appointment scheduled for 8/9/12 and our Gotcha date is scheduled for Monday, July 30, 2012!!! So exciting!
SOOO many lists to start making!
SOOOOOO exciting!!!!!

TA!!!!!

Well, the time has COME! We received our Travel Approval from China today to go bring our little Kaylah home! We are waiting on our agency to get our Consulate appointment date but are hoping that we can leave on July 25th for Beijing :) We will be there for 3 days and will then travel to the Henan province to meet her!
Cannot believe that it's only TWO weeks and TWO days away! We will keep you all posted and Mike and I are so excited that we will be leaving soon to meet our little Diva!
Take one more thing off our checklist!

Happy Birthday Kaylah

Today is Kaylah's 3rd birthday in China. We may celebrate a little tomorrow with a small cake. And my heart has been aching for a new photo since April.
Got one today! Along with an update! And we now know that she got our care package, it's the blue box in the back! OOOH how happy that makes Mama and Baba!
We are patiently waiting for our official TA (Travel Approval) from China and hope that we will be traveling in a few weeks to bring her home!

Here's what the update said:

"ZiYue can say ‘it is my stuff or I want to sleep or I do not want to go’ etc, when she has new cloth on, she will ask ‘am I pretty?”. She loves to have her hair combed and likes to have many ponytails on her hair and then she looks very cute. She remembers to put her stuff back in place. After drink, she puts her cup or bottle into the kitchen. If she wants to use bathroom, she will call mom. When she sees other people’s chicks come to her yard, she will kick them out. After she wakes up, she can get off her bed and does not need any help. She watches door and will call mom if someone shows up. She is sweet and takes care of her younger foster sister and brother. When she sees cars, she will put brother or sister’s walker to a safe place; if they cry, she will ask mom to feed them or take one of them outside to play."

Article 5 notice!!!

Yeay!!! We received notice from our agency today that our Article 5 was picked up today! What great news!!! Now, we wait for our official Travel Approval from China. This should be roughly (I say this loosely)1-3 weeks, then our agency will give us a few dates for our consulate appointment to choose from and then we travel to bring Kaylah home a few weeks after we choose! I'm so excited and when I look over to the right at our milestones.... It's so hard to believe that there are sooo many things we've done and amazes me that there are only a few remaining! Needless to say, that those remaining are the best ones yet!!!!!!! We are hoping to travel the last week in July and that would give us a gotcha day on July 30th! But, we could also be traveling in the first week of August. WEEKS AWAY.... It's getting so close! I can't wait to hold that little Diva in my arms!!!!

Cabled! And waiting on Article 5!

We couldn't be happier! We were cabled and NVC (national visa center) approved! Now, we patiently wait for our Article 5 and our official travel dates to go bring our little Diva home! Things are moving so fast! We could very well be traveling in a few short weeks to bring Kaylah home!
Our Colorado shower went wonderful and I still need to upload some pictures! It was an amazing turnout and we loved seeing everyone who showed up for support! We got lots of great goodies for Kaylah and are sooo looking forward to bringing her home. We have so much AMAING suppoirt from family and friends, it really means the world to Mike and me!

Kaylah's Room Progress

Nougat and Me.... he wanted to help put her bed together

Mike attaching wheels to the bed base.

Mike helping me hang her curtains.
These are blackout curtains from
Pottery Barn Kids. WELL worth the
investment!

The tree that I traced and painted onto her bedroom wall. This was a really fun project and we really like the way it turned out! It was a lot of fun to use an overhead projector, chalk and paints!

Look Ma- NO GREY hairs! Putting the bed together
was fun and easy with Mike!

Her quilt comforter ....still need pillows and wall art!

This bed ROCKS. It pulls out into a Queen for Kaylah
when she gets older! and the drawers GLIDE out.... sooo nice!
We love you IKEA!

i800 approval

Good GOOD news! Our immigration officer has processed our i800 paperwork. A HUGE milestone! Everyone has been asking... when will you guys be traveling???
Our agency has estimated it will be about 5-7 days for our NVC (National Visa Center) letter, 2 weeks for Article 5 and then about 2-4 for the travel approval.  Once we have travel approval in hand families typically leave for China about 10-21 days later.  Overall it seems we may be leaving for China sometime around the end of July up till the middle of August. Looks up to heaven, c'mon Gramma Shyler, start shuffling some paperwork up there! Last time my Mom asked for her help and we got our LOA in 19 days. ;) I know she's smiling down on us right now. I'd figure I'd ask, it can't hurt!
Our Colorado toddler shower is this Sunday and we are looking forward to seeing our friends and family out here! Such a great support system!

Kaylah's East Coast Toddler Shower: We've Been Sprinkled!

Well, the trip was a success. It was a long day flying into Erie, Pa  and an even LONGER day flying home last Sunday. This is me... one ANXIOUS Mama who cannot wait to get her arms around her little Diva!

This is my Dad, Ray Sr. He's really anxious to be a Grandpa again! Kaylah is just gonna love him!

This is my little brother, Ray Jr. He's SO excited about being an Uncle again! 

 This is my Mom, Christine.... who is as OOOBER excited as me about bringing little Kaylah home as soon as we possibly can!

Carly, Cindy and Breanna.

 A CUTE little outfit for Kaylah.

Lots of fun goodies to open with everyone!

 LOVe this little purse from my friend, Melissa. It's SOOO going to China with us... I can't wait to see little Kaylah carrying it around filling it with goodies!

Another group shot. The Chinese restaurant was amazing! The food was spectacular and the company couldn't have been any better!  The staff was so friendly and were so excited that we were adopting a little one from China. They were teaching us Mandarin and were always saying, "OH she's such a lucky little girl!!"

All the loot we ended up with! And LOTS AND LOTS of squishes of fabric for Kaylah's Quilt! Working on taking pics of those! And we still need more! Please consider sending us some fabric and a good wish! We would love to include everyone and anyone who wants to participate!

Call out for "SQUISHES"

Dear Family and Friends: While we are waiting for the arrival of our daughter, we are working on a project with which we need your assistance. We are creating a "100 Good Wishes Quilt." 

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or "100 Good Wishes Quilt." It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the family and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. We ask that you please participate in this project. We love the idea of welcoming our daughter into our home with a quilt that represents the good wishes for her from our family and friends.

HERE IS WHAT WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO DO: 1. Choose any 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from a piece of clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to have a design and color that you like. 2. Cut one (1) 9" square from the fabric. 3. On a sheet of paper or notecard, put a small piece of the fabric and include your "good wish note." Please include why you chose the fabric and your name and address. The fabric will be used to make a quilt, and the notes will be placed in a photo album which we will give to our daughter when she is older. 

IDEAS FOR SELECTING FABRIC SQUARES: * Select a fabric that is meaningful to you. * 100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better. * If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than one good wish note and pieces of fabric. In China, these quilts were originally made from the garments of family and friends surrounding the child with luck and good wishes. 

IDEAS FOR GOOD WISHES NOTE: What would you wish for an infant to have in her life? Some ideas are good health, perseverance, success, love, and a sense of humor. Use that as a guide for your good wish note. 

To see what we mean, please check out these websites with beautiful examples of these quilts: 

http://www.originalquilts.com/100_good_wishes_quilts.htm
Please take a few minutes from your busy schedules to help us create this very special keepsake. The miracle of this adoption has been helped and nurtured by so many of you and this will be so incredibly meaningful for us as well as our new arrival! 

If you would like to participate, please e-mail me at krissiem72@yahoo.com and I will send you our address. 

Thank you!
Krystal and Mike Murphy

Sending out Visa application

Here we go! Sending out Kaylah's Visa application tomorrow to CCAI. Things are just trucking along! We hope to travel now by July to bring her home. I've been dreaming that we travel the last week in June.
I've never been a Mama before. And honestly, I'm a little freaked out. I know things will come "naturally" and that motherly instincts are supposably going to kick in while we are in China.
But she's going to be 3in July.
SO much to wonder about.
So much to WONDER about.
So MUCH to wonder about.

I got the tree done in Kaylah's room. And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect. but it's certainly FUN! And a BIG TIME "YEAY" for Lowe's selling small jars of latex paint that you have have tinted into ANY color you want! I'm sure someday, she's going to want us to paint over this. But for the next few years, I hope she enjoys it as much as I do.
Bedroom furniture will be shopped for in about 3 weeks. I'm heading to Pennsylvania in a few weeks for Kaylah's East Coast Toddler Shower that's going to be held on May 19th. I can't wait to see my many friends and family members and enjoy the celebration of bringing her home.
We'll also be having a Toddler shower here in Colorado for friends and family here. That is scheduled for June 10th. Fun times!!!! WE are so excited!

Can anyone say.... 19 day LOA?!!!!!!

Ohmyheavens!
*breathes into a paper bag*
We got notice that our "Letter Seeking Confirmation of Adopter" (LOA) is ready to sign! HOLY COW! u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e
19 days from our Pre-Approval <<--- almost UNHEARD of getting it that FAST!
Mike and I will be traveling to China to bring home Kaylah in aprrox 10-14 weeks!
That COULD mean we could get her by her birthday on July 7th.
It COULD happen.
It WILL happen.
I'm gonna be a Mama this summer!
Mike's gonna be a Baba!
*breathes into the paper bag*