She's in our arms!!

Wow! What a day! Brandon and I have forgotten the energy it takes to have a four year old!!
Our appointment with the Civil Affairs office wasnt until 12:30 so we met our guide at 12, exchanged all of the money we needed and then headed over to the office. When we got there, we filled out all of our paper work that was needed.
Then we waited... There were two other families adopting from Shanghai Childrens Welfare Institute so we were all nervously chit-chatting away. The other families had already paid but we hadn't so Brandon left the room with our Guide, MingMing to do so. That was when the other two families children came in so I was able to video for them.  Then when brandon came back, MingMing said Run Run was coming and Brandon said he heard her talking in the hall when they were headed back.
She came running into the room towards me saying, Mama,Mama! and then went right past me to see everything that was going on in the room.  All three families had gift bags and she wanted to know what was in them! :) So we got out the toys we had brought her and she came over to us...to get the toys. haha. But the her caregiver took the toys until she said Ni Hao and gave us a minute of her time. She was so inquizitive and talkative. It was so adorable!!
Her caregiver and the orphanage gave us a bag of gifts which included a seal/stamp of her chinese name, a flash drive with all of the pics they have of her, a photo book, and the gold bangles and pennant that she was found with, I was hoping she would get these and she did!! What a great symbol of the love her parents have for her.
When her caregiver was leaving, she started crying...It broke our hearts because she was calling out "mama". But MingMing told us the children call all of the workers mama. When Brandon got her a snack and MingMing told her how much we loved her, she stopped crying and was fine.
We left the Civil Affairs office and headed to the grocery store.  She wasnt too happy about the seatbelt..I wonder how she'll like the car seat at home. haha We let her pick out what she liked to eat. Fruits, noodles and some cookies. Then when Brandon got 2 packs of Coke, our guide told us she said, "Thats so much soda!"  when we got back to the hotel, she told MingMing that she was tired, (she missed her nap) BUT when we got up to the room, there was so much excitment she was NOT going to sleep. 
We played with all of her toys, tried on all of her shoes and her coat.  She ate and ate and ate and drank and drank and drank. They say that this is normal because at the orphanage they never get more, just enough. Then the three of us went to the lobby to try to get some help ordering pizza. RunRun and I went exploring while Brandon was getting help. When we came around the corner and Run Run saw Brandon, she yelled "BaBa!!" (which is what she calls him) and went running to him. My heart melted!! 
Its funny though to see Chinese people look at us like we kidnapped her or something. Its hilarious!
After the pizza ordeal, we went back to the room and tried to get her into the bathtub. She wasnt having it. But she did agree to a sink bath so we did a sink bath with her feet only in the sink. Then we coaxed her into sitting in the sink.  Then when we couldn't get all the soap out of her hair, we finally got her into the bathtub and she loved it!!  About 45 minutes in the tub! Brandon and she played while I took a shower. When she came in and saw me in the shower, she insisted in getting in too. Bath # 2. Then when we were done, she wanted to get into the bath tub again. bath #3!!  At this point, we were saying, "Whatever makes her happy!!"
We finally got to SKYPE the boys and they got to see RunRun. She was a bit confused about her brothers IN the computer but they were so happy and she was laughing and talking to them in Chinese. She is quite the talker! It's like she has four years worth of stuff to fill us in on! She doesnt care that we dont know what she is saying.  She is so funny!
We thought bed time would be a breeze but....we were wrong! We were trying everything! But she is so funny! She wears diapers but everytime she is wet, she will try to take her diaper off so we have to change her. This happened 4 times in about 30 minutes. She most likely hasnt slept in a bed before so she kept getting up and jumping around, falling on us and laughing her cute little face off!!  She really is a happy little girl! She hasnt cried once. But she does have a temper. If we say something she doesn't like... you can see it on her face. I think we are going to have our hands full.
Finally, we shut off all the lights and Brandon held her and sang to her until she fell asleep. This took about 45 minutes.
Our journey has started! It is going to be challenging but so worth it!
Thank you, God for your faithfulness and blessings to our family!

Shanghai Nights and KFC

We made it to Shanghai!! We chose to take the High speed Train instead of the airplane so we could see the countryside. WOW there is alot of poverty on the country side. But it was very interesting to see. One of the most interesting things we saw was farmers using handtools to farm the land. I am not sure if it was because of what they were growing or not but it was neat to see. Of course we would only see it for a brief second because the high speed train travels at 320 miles per hour. It was so fast! Alot of my pics didn't turn out because of the speed. Another thing is there will be no more pics while we are in Shanghai due to the fact that they dont have Wi-Fi at the hotel... only cable hook up. All of our pics are on my IPad. :( So sorry!!  But as soon as we get to Hong Kong, I will post all of the pics we take of us meeting Run Run for the first time.
We asked our guide, Jack, about Zheng Yi Run's name. He said it is pronounced Cheng Yi Wren. We thought this was funny because now she can be our little birdie (wren) and her English name is Liberty (li-BIRD-ty) haha.
We had a great meal tonight. We found a KFC. Although it took us a long time to order, those mashed potatoes were the best I have ever had!!  We need a Monicals's pizza or some Texas Roadhouse Fed-Ex'ed to us! We were starving today. Once we get Run Run, maybe she can order for us! Brandon actually has been doing great speaking Chinese when needed, like tonight. He said to the KFC girl, in Chinese, "Excuse me, Can I ask, do you speak english?" She smiled and went to get another girl who spoke English. As we were waiting for our food, we were brought back to the days of Hardee's when all the girls would scream their orders back to the cooks. It was so loud and then adding the Chinese language to the situation made it even funnier. It is such a harsh, loud language. And you wanna talk about line-jumping!! These people would for sure get kicked out of Six Flags. Everyone just cuts and pushes you out of their way. And no one goes off!! I told B that I will probably blow at least once before we leave. I was already run over by a wheel chair. Needless to say, we are having a good time and realize it is just cultural differences that we are not used to.
Tomorrow is the big day!! Our appointment got pushed back to 12:30 though. We have all of our gifts and money ready. We have her bag packed with toys, stickerbooks, sippy cup and snacks. We are nervous but excited to start the next part of our lives with her as a part of our family! As of tomorrow, the Myers will be a family of FIVE! Love you all and keep the prayers coming! I can feel them!

We conquered th Great Wall!

Today is day 3 in Beijing. It is very cold and windy here today.  We are getting to see so much but we are so tired! :) We both agree that we can catch up on sleep Sunday night so we did all we could today.
Today we visited a Jade factory. Here they take the stone and create all kinds of beautiful items. Necklaces, statues, earrings, and Family heirlooms. We purchased one of the family heirlooms. It is so cool! I truly love all of the history behind everything in  China. As our guide says, " In China, There is a reason for everything."
We then traveled to The Great Wall..... AND WE CONQUERED IT! We went as far up as we were allowed. 2872 steps to the top and back down. Umm, yes my legs are sore!! We agreed there should be a medal given to those who make it to the top! (I got a sweatshirt! Haha)
As we were climbing, I would think, "I can't make it to the top" but then I would see someone older walking down so I had to keep going! We were so glad when we reached the top. What beautiful scenery!
We traveled to the Olympic City and saw the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the 2008 Olympics. It was really neat to see it for real. But not a lot to do except take pictures.
After freezing our tails off taking pics, we went to the largest Tea House in Beijing for a tea tasting. B was a good sport about it since he really doesn't like tea. We tried, Jasmine, Olong (black dragon), Pu'er (pure), and fruit tea. Pu'er is supposed to be the most valuable because it is only found in China and it is rare. We didn't like it. We bought some fruit tea. Yummy! It will be good hot or cold!
After that we went to the Chinese acrobat show. AMAZING! Just when we were amazed by something, it would get even better.
Now we are back in our room for a much needed night in the hotel. We are beat!
We leave for Shanghai tomorrow on the Bullet Train. Excited for the new adventure and to see the countryside of China.

We are famous!

It is day 2 here in Beijing,China. We had an incredibly busy day but we are loving every minute of it! Today we had breakfast at the hotel and actually had some good "American"stuff.  Then it was off the Tinenaman Square but we were not allowed "on" the square because there are some governmental meetings going on and the government buildings are right next to the square. Then it was into the Forbidden City. So cool! Who knew this place went on and on forever? So much history and tradition to learn about. Our guide, Jack, is filled with tons of information. We are so lucky to have such a great guide!
After the Forbidden City, Brandon agreed to go out on a limb and have lunch with a local Chinese family, in their home, cooked by the mother. Now THAT 'S authentic Chinese living! She taught us how to make Chinese dumplings. Oh how delicious !!
We then took a Rickshaw tour of the Hunan (?) alleys. This is the older neighborhoods of Beijing. Made us really realize how "over the top" us Americans live. There were 3 generations in a 3bedroom home.
We also visited the Temple of Heaven. So interesting to learn about these places.
Then we had the famous Peking Duck dinner which B and I didn't enjoy so much but we tried. The last item on the agenda was the Red Theater and the Kung Fu show. This was really fun to watch. Some incredibly talented people!
Tonight we definitely will sleep well!
PS. I said we were famous because we had two different people come up and want to take their picture with us because we were American. It was funny!

We made it!!

Well we made it! We are in China! The flight was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  We sat next to a man who lives in the US but is originally from China. After talking for a bit, we shared that we were headed to China to adopt a little girl. He was so grateful for this and praised us for our decision. We explained that we are really the ones who are lucky. We get to get to have Run Run as a part of our family.
When we got to Beijing, we met our guide, Jack, he is super nice and full of knowledge about Beijing. He told us that one day for lunch he wants to take us to the home of an authentic Chinese family and they will make us "real" Chinese food. I agreed but Brandon is nervous. :) It will be a once in a lifetime experience!  Tonight we were on our own so we walked down the main strip where our hotel is and found a huge indoor mall. Not too exciting because all of the stores are the same ones we have in the US. But we ate at Pizza Hut. Interestingly, Pizza Hut here is a higher end restaurant. I tried a peach hot tea from a recommendation from our guide. It was so good!!
So far the city is really cool and I cannot wait to see what is in store for tomorrow....
PS The only negative is the smog and the matresses are so hard...Wheres my Sleep Comfort?? :)

The cherry on top!

As we are preparing to leave this morning, I checked in on our little Zoey. She is the little one we had to pass up adopting this past summer. She is the other little one in China who holds a piece of my heart.
 Zoey not having a forever family has always been the one little splinter in the wonderful joyous event of adopting Run Run.
But once again, God is so good...ALL of the time! We found out this morning that Zoey has been matched with her forever family! I didn't want to start my crying fest this early in the journey but the flood gates have opened before I have even left my house.
I praise God today for all of His wondrous plans that I cannot see. I love you,Lord!!

We are ready to go!!

Its time to travel and there is a huge snow storm going on. We have everything packed and ready to go. Now we are just hoping that our flight will not be cancelled. There are so many emotions going through our heads. Fear, anxiousness, joy, excitement and every other emotion one could feel!

We have had so many prayers and blessings from so many people! We are so lucky to have so many people that already love our little Run Run! The next time we post, we are hoping we will be in Beijing! :)