NI HAO! (I think...)

Greetings from China!!

I would say hello in chinese, but turns out they speak Cantonese here, so I might as well not know any Mandarin. (yes, Caelyn speaks Cantonese as well). However, everyone is taught Mandarin at school, so we may still be able to communicate a little.

So, yeah! we're in China! :)) Its very cold here. And we aren't all that jet-lagged, except that we go to bed and wake up early every night. We havent done much yet, just looked around the shops and ate at restraunts and such. Our hotel is huge! and its soo pretty! Its in the middle of the downtown GuangZhou area. Carli and I are in our own room, and my parents are in the other. Caelyn will stay with my parents because she needs to attatch to them before us. I cant access my blog here because certain websites are blocked (including Facebook). China is a very secure (or should I say insanely strict) country. However, I can access email (obviously) and can update my blog that way.

I know you guys care about us, so here are some prayer requests:
1) So far I've noticed we are all exhausted and my parents especially are stressed. Which makes us less patient with each other. Please pray that we would love each other; be compassionate, selfless, and sensitive.
2) For Caelyn. :)) She is leaving everything she knows and loves to stay with us- foreigners.
We keep looking at this from her perspective: You know how Chinese speak English. The majority of them sound hilarious- you know mixing the "l" with the "r" etc, etc, etc. Well, we sound just as weird speaking Chinese, so when we try we'll sound like idiots. Its like you leaving your home, country, etc and living with people attempting to speak English, but for the most part speaking gibberish. Its a scary thought.
Anyways, so just pray that God would give her peace, and somehow allow us to accurately relay our good intentions and love for her. I know she'll be scared and we only want to help her.
We will meet her tomorrow, Monday here. On Tuesday afternoon she will legally become part of our family. There are an astounding 42 children getting adopted before the Chinese New Year (Feb 14), so our process will take a little longer due to waits and lines. Please pray that the stress will not be overwhelming and we'll be able to appreciate our time with Caelyn in her homeland.
3) PRAISE. God has been so good to us thus far! We have had minimal complications- and with all those airports- thats amazing! Everything has worked out so smoothly! Glory be to God!

I am making a list called "You know you're in China if...". When it is complete I will put it on here. :))

In Him,
   Chelsey :))

P.S. visit my mom's website for PICTURES: www.caelynyibennett.shutterfly.com

Counting Blessings

We've made it! This is actually happening! Right now I am sitting inside a nice (small) hotel room, looking out on downtown HongKong! Right in front of us is a building thats built to look upside down...weird...

This trip has been long, yet ideal. We had our first (and believe me it was minor) complication last night with our transfer from the airport to our hotel, but other than that, it has been so obvious that God is guiding us through all of the lines, waits, delays, etc to meet Caelyn... so yes! This is really happening!We decided last night that to keep us aware of God's presence, we'll say "blessings" when we see God's hand in something, or something is better than we expected. Keep us in your prayers though, because I know this trip will not be perfect the whole time. Pray that even when we experience some turbulence (sorry, I've been on airplanes for the past 26 hours) that we would rest assured in God's eminent presence in our lives and appreciate all that he has done for us!

I began thinking last night that this would never stop feeling surreal. I have been looking forward to this for so long that I'm not quite sure how to finally accept that its here. Well, I know these things- everything is written in Chinese, everyone looks Chinese, and the air is extremely smoggy (though not as bad as Chongqing). Yes. This is happening.   :D Now its time to get excited.

We got into our hotel just past 12am (China time). Carli had too much energy, and the rest of us were drained- not too patient. But we made it! Some of us have this thing- no sleeping on anything moving. So I didn't sleep for 2 days and the weariness was catching up with me.

We appreciate your prayers! We are so close to meeting Caelyn! Thanks!


In Him,
    Chelsey :))

P.S. Carli keeps saying "welcome to the future!" because we are 14 hours ahead of what we're used to. :))

Bye Bye Bama...

We are packed, the suitcases have been tied into big black trash bags (its pouring right now), and the house is clean and ready for us when we come home! I can't explain how excited we are! Though right now the stress is hitting home. My mom and dad are currently trying to figure out the carry-on situation and where to put our uber-importante paperwork. When we get to GuongZhou on Saturday, our guide Rebecca will pick us up and we will hand over our paperwork. (sigh) Then we begin the 2 week long process in China, and will meet Caelyn on Monday! I hope to be able to update this blog, but I'm not sure if that will happen. We'll see. :)

Please keep us in your prayers! Pray for safe and stress free travels! Well, we're leaving now! My mom is litterally calling me to leave. oops- now dad too!!!

In Him,
   Chelsey :)

experiment picture

Once again, this is an experiment to see if I can email pictures to blogspot through email.

 

 

Garden Hotel

Not that it matters much, but just thought I'd let yall know that we are no longer staying in the White Swan in GuongZhou, we are now staying at the Garden Hotel. It is closer to the city, but it's views are of the city, not a lake. Also, the rooms are bigger! :) Which we like- but not any more expensive- which we like! :) Here is a pic of our new hotel. It is one of the few 5-star hotels in China:

In Him,
   Chelsey :)

Shutterfly

While in China, we are  unsure whether we will be able to access blogspot, facebook, etc, so my mom has created yet another online way of communication. :) Now we have a website centered around our photos. My mom plans on updating that daily (or whenever possible) while we are in China.If you click on the title of this post: "Shutterfly", it should take you directly to the website. If not, here is the address: http://caelynyibennett.shutterfly.com/

As my mom was showing me the site, she very excitedly explained that there is an intro, she has her first journal entry, and "if you click on the little albums, it opens it and pictures are revealed!" :) Gotta love her.

We appreciate your prayers as we are nearing our departure date. Just 4 more days and we are China bound! :)

In Him,
   Chelsey :)

Experiment

This is an experiment to see if I can email a post directly to my blog with out having to go to my blog. This will make it possible for me to update my blog in China if Blogspot is blocked.

In Him,

    Chelsey :)

More pics

Here are some more pictures that Laurie sent us. These were pictures that were in Avery's (her daughter- in the denim jacket) photo album. She scanned the pictures and sent them to us.


Caelyn is front and left. :) Making the face.
Caelyn is on the right (her hand is in front of her face). The sweet thing about this picture is that all four of these girls are either already home in America or on their way! :) Avery lives in Texas by the way, but we hope to keep her and Caelyn in touch.
You can barely see Caelyn in this one. Her head is right behind Avery's hood.
Caelyn is in the back row on the far left.
In this one, if you can see it clearly enough, Caelyn is in the front, on the ground second to the left (green jacket).

In Him,
Chelsey :)

Tickets and Pics!

My mom has been in constant communication with our Travel Agent for the past 3 days. We have finally decided to travel Delta and leave from Atlanta. What this means is that we will be driving to Atlanta Wednesday, January 20 (after school), staying in a hotel overnight, leaving from Atlanta at 7:30 am, Thursday January 21. Our itinerary (which we dont have yet) requires us to be in China on Saturday January 23, which is why we will be arriving in China on Friday late at night (which is good for jet lag!) Here are our Flight details:

Atlanta, GA -> Minneapolis, MI
Minneapolis, MI -> Tokyo
Tokyo -> HongKong
HongKong -> 2 hr train ride over to GuangDong
TOTAL: (about) 26 hours... (Not including time-change....)

So- with a 14 hour time difference, leaving Atlanta on Thursday the 21, will put us in Guangdong, China on Friday the 22. Thats a lot of earth to cover! :)

As you can see we are all very excited! We have recieved a few more pictures of Caelyn as well from Laurie (which are not on this computer, I will upload them later). We have multiple websites that my mom is trying out because we are not sure if Blogger will be available in China. Because of their government, many websites are blocked- Facebook is one (so we will not be updating our statuses for a while). I will also post the addresses to those sites.

Please PRAY for
1) school work to get done while we are in China. I am already losing what minimal motivation I had in school, simply because I have so much else that I could be doing (and would rather be doing- speaking of which I have to read 100 pages of 1066 by tomorrow...) I will be missing almost 2 weeks of school- which is a lot of work- especially Junior year at Westminster!! I will be writing my huge thesis/semester paper while in China... (though it is on adoption...)

2) Travel. I travel well. I've done it alot. However, I don't know how my family will handle having 14 hours of jet lag. I know its part of Travel, but we will be meeting Caelyn on Monday, January 25th, and none of us want to be "out of it".

3)And finally, we have 3 great praises!
First, thank God for providing some financial help! Some friends of ours have given us a BUNCH of skymiles! There were enough to cover all four of our tickets (round trip)! Caelyn's will be the only one we have to cover. How wonderful is that! Thank you Brian and thank you God! :D
Secondly we are meeting Caelyn on my mom's 45th birthday! How neat is that!? My mom loves telling people that (and tears up every time). We realized yeterday it was her "birth"day. haha
Lastly- we had a shower for Caelyn yesterday! I can't tell you how blessed we are to have so many gracious friends! It was a tremendous blessing! Caelyn has clothes for the next year ad toys for life! haha. Thank you everyone who helped out, came, or gave anything. We truly appreciate all of it! She's gonna be so excited!


Thanks!
In Him,
Chelsey :)

Consulate Appointment

Just an update on our travel dates: Karla was able to get a copy of the Travel Approval document, which apparently was enough to apply for a consulate appointment- our next step. When we receive our appointment to meet with the Chinese Consulate, we will plan our trip around that date. Right now, it is looking like our appointment will be on the 1st or 3rd of February, which would put us at leaving in less than three weeks. :) This is very exciting! Can't wait to see how God works this out!

Please pray for my family. We are under a whole lot of stress. That's all I can say as now my mom has called me to take the dog out. Please pray that we would feel God's eminent presence and be filled with his peace.

Thanks.

In Him,
Chelsey :)