One Year Later

I am writing one more entry in honor of Ellie's 2nd birthday and our one year anniversary with her. As you can see from the photos to the right, Ellie is a bright, beautiful girl who has settled with ease right into the Eisenberg family. She and Audrey love to play under the stairs and color together. Nathan can always get her to laugh. She loves music and books and is unbelievably flexible - she can lay flat out in the full splits! Watching her change and blossom over the past year has been an unspeakable joy. Thank you all for your prayers and support over the years; our family has been blessed.

Ellie has her Visa!

After more than two years since we first started the paperwork, we can now say that all the paperwork is finished. This afternoon, we went to the American Consulate and received Ellie's Visa to immigrate to the United States. Once we pass through immigration and customs at DFW ariport, she will officially be a U.S. citizen.

Thank you to everyone who has been following our journey and for all of the prayers, emails, and other support along the way. We will see you all very soon!

Site Seeing

When you look at these pictures, start at the bottom and work your way up to go chronologically. We started our trip in Beijing seeing Tiananmen Square with the famous picture of Chairman Mao. This led us into the Forbidden City where the Ming and Qing dynasties had their palaces from 1421 to 1924.

We included the picture of the tiny car to show how different traffic is here. I am truly shocked that I haven't seen an accident yet. Our guide told us that there is no word for excuse me here, and you can tell when you are in a crowd or a traffic merge. Pedestrians, motorcycles, bikes, buses... come within inches of each other regularly.

The next picture is of one of the Olympic Stadiums being built for 2008.

Next, you see the Great Wall which we made it to the top of with our friends from Dallas, The Nelsons.

Next, you see us arriving at the airport in Guangzhou which is where we have been for the past 11 days.

All the rest of the pictures are taken in Guangzhou, you see a typical looking apartment building. Apparently very few people live in single family dwellings here. There are some schools right by our hotel and it is fun to see the kids march/dance in unison. The picture on the bus that we spent so much time on is of our guide Rui as she passes out our official adoption papers. The next sideways picture is of the 9 story high tower at the Six Banyan Trees Temple which we climbed ducking through the stairwells all the way. Above that is at the same temple where all of our babies received a blessing from a monk. The top picture was taken at an unbelievably colorful garden. We included the picture of Suzy with the Chinese lady because whenever we went off of the Shamian Island where we are staying, we wore these badges around our neck that explained in Chinese where we were from and that we planned to be loving parents to our adopted daughters. Inevitably, the response would be a thumbs up with a big smile. They also wanted to touch the babies which we were told is because they think the girls have good luck.

Telling Day

We spent the day yesterday traveling to our friends' orphanage. Ours is not open to the public and is a 5 hr drive. The people were very friendly and caring - even taking us out to a nice lunch. The outside of the orphanage was well maintained as was the inside. The best word for the inside though was sterile. Walking into the room with all of the cribs was when the reality of the babies' long days hit. It was the middle of the day and all the babies (about 10) were lying on boards - not mattresses. It was totally silent even though the babies were all awake. There were more special needs babies than we expected, too. The play room had a hard floor and no toys - just walkers. When we were outside, we caught the attention of some 5 year old boys through an open upstairs window. They were precious - calling out to us and laughing. They especially reacted to Toby's clown-like dances. I just hope that the adoption process speeds back up so that more of these kids will find homes.

Best Friends in China

Having Matt and Patty here with us in China has made all the difference. We rarely go 5 minutes without a good belly laugh. For an idea of Matt's sense of humor and to see more of our trip, visit there website at Mayaiscominghome.blogspot.com.

Not only have they kept us in stitches, but Matt has been a God-send as a pediatrician right here with us when concerns have arisen. It is going to be hard to go back to regular life without them to keep us laughing as they live in Wisconsin. We will definitely have to get Ellie and her first friend Maya back together over the years.

More Milestones

Ellie’s hands are usually posed gracefully out to her sides with the palms up – even when she is “crawling”. To get around, she sits on her rear and pulls her self along with her feet all the while with her hands in the air. It is quite impressive – try it sometime! Last night, she stole a cookie from her friend Maya and turned and quickly scooted away. She also claps – a lot. It is obvious that her hands were her favorite play things in the orphanage.

Today Ellie started rolling back to stomach and back again. Now we have seen her do everything that I would expect a 12 mo old to do plus more. Ellie's non-stop eating is paying off in thigh rolls. She has definitely packed on the lbs. in the one week we've had her! She has a little cough and runny nose but otherwise still doing great.

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary, and we can't think of a better way to celebrate than to be living in the moment like we have been able to do here appreciating the little blessings in life.

Peek-a-boo

Well Ellie’s sweet bedtime rooting has moved to our faces. Now when we lie down with her, she sucks on our cheeks, mouth or even nose – little messy but very sweet. We keep trying to slide a pacifier in, but she will have nothing to do with that. I have included some pictures of Ellie sleeping and smiling during a game of peek-a-boo. Today, Ellie has started being able to get from tummy to sitting independently. I also included a picture of beautiful Audrey at her first ever dance recital yesterday. Thanks Cheyenne for the fancy hair! We can't wait to watch the video.