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."