So sweet! First night in a crib... Xi'an China May 12, 2009

This is the peaceful look we can't wait to see and are praying for ... when she is awake! Right now she has moments like this where she forgets where she is, who she is, and lets loose and plays with us and the kids and trusts her heart to open up and let us in. Please keep praying for longer moments of peace joy and love that happen more and more often for Hope!

Last day in Beijing.... Ride through the Hutong Village

Oh this will forever be etched in my mind... the sounds, sights and smells of the Hutong. The sweet faces of the children playing and coming home from school in their uniforms. All the bikes with multiple passengers driving around, and the heavy and thick hot air filled with the sents of Chinese cooking, sweat, dirt, coal, and the odors that bathrooms produce all at the same time. Amazing how many people live in these one room homes with no plumming or bathrooms. They share a public bath house and toilets(remember no throne). Can you imagine doing the potty & bath thing with little ones in the middle of winter when the temps can be below 20 below zero! Oh the things we take for granted!!! We don't have to boil water every time we want a drink. The little things.... Oh how I will know how to pray for the wonderful people of China after our trip. Thank you Lord for the privilege to go and spend time in Hope's homeland. We all loved it and did not want to come home! China & it's people are amazing!

Well here we are leaving Beijing and heading to Xi'an City in Shaanxi Province on May 10(Mothers Day) to get Hope!

So we boarded Air China flight from Beijing at 10:30 am and literally were the only americans and non Asian people on the flight... so strange when all the flight instructions come at you in Chinese first and then in English... Hope the plane never goes down or anything... who in their right mind would want to stick around and translate for the 6 white guys!!!

And then a few hours later after the 2 hour flight we went to the city government building and just walked in the hallway to find three families waiting out in the hall for the "big cheese" Chinese Government official to show up so we could go into the room we were supposed to have our children brought to us in. But because he was late we were stuck in the hall... and who should we see but little Hope standing in a back hall with the orphanage staff. Well they saw and recognized us too and brought her out to us as we all went "oooh and aaahhh... there she is!" Well the picture shows you better than I can explain...

safely home!

Hi everyone! We are so thankful to be back in the good ol USA!!! Our trip was amazing and we will post many more pics for those of you who we may not have the privilege of seeing anytime soon.

Thank you everyone for all of the prayers support you gave us. It was definately felt!!!!! Thank you!!! We had such peace, safety, good health, good times and travels and adventures!

Love you all and again thanks for posting back and we'll be in touch soon!

Hope is doing a little better every day here. She sure loves her sisters and brother! Hannah even has fed her breakfast(congee-chineses rice dish like oatmeal that a dear sweet wonderful friend made for us!-) changed her diaper and dressed Hope the past two mornings for mommy! That is such a blessing and praise God! She is attaching to the rest of us gradually-yippee!!! Mommy is really really excited about this happening--she can get a tiny little break here and there. Oh am I thankful for those moments!

Love,

Kelly and family

This is our Chinese family picture with the kids dressed in traditional Chinese dress. Will this be a Christmas photo?

The Red Couch Photo is a tradition among adoption families. Everyone who adopts a Chinese child has to spend the last week in Guangzhou because that is where the US Consolate is. And they almost always stay at the White Swan Hotel which is a beautiful 5 star hotel. Anyway- they have these red couches in the lobby and it has become a tradition to have the adopted kids dress in traditional chinese dresses for the photo. Can you see how many of the kids are suffering from seperation anxiety for the photo? Lots of crying

Can you tell that we are the only Americans on the plane? All the black hair...which one does not belong?

Hope plays by the pool with the kids. We love to see her smile!

The kids getting on the plane to get Hope!

Hey Everyone,

Here are pictures of the Forbidden City that we did not get to send last week. The Forbidden City is where the Emporer's lived with there concubines. There were so many rooms in the palace compound that if a child was born and stayed in a different room every night it would take until he was 27 years old to sleep in all the rooms. Its HUGE!

The Emporer's always had 3,000 concubines. Each one had a number. Every night the emporer would pick a piece of wood with a number on it and that would decide which concubine he would spend the night with. Half way through the guided tour Thomas raised his hand and asked what a concubine was. Everyone laughed. I told him we would have a talk later. Once I told him he understood right away. He said, "Like Esther in the Bible right." The kids smart.

posted by Cris

Hey everyone!
You are probably wondering why we have not published a post since we have been in Guangzhou. Let's just say that a certain entity has blocked blogspot in our region because not everyone has been positive. Enough said. So our sister-in-law (Amy Accurso) is posting our blogs for us.

Anyway, we are now in Guangzhou which is a lot like Hong Kong. Lots of lights and very busy. It is a city of 10 million (again roughly the size of Chicago). We are on Shamain Island which used to be a British trading port so all the buildings are very English looking but everyone is Chinese. It is really beautiful. The food is a little strange. Last night we went out to dinner and found a lot of interesting things on the menu like; Fried Intestines, Cooked Goose Hand (which was a goose foot), Fried Pigs Neck, Prawn Heads (Shrimp Heads). There were 7 pages of menu items but we could not find one thing we could handle. So Kelly and I came up with the brilliant idea of telling the waitress that we were vegetarians for a day and then made our orders. The noodles and veggie spring rolls were delicious. Hannah ordered plain steamed white rice. Thomas was relieved that he has a nut allergy and could not eat anything on the menu. He had instant Mac and Cheese that we brought from the states. Now Grandpa Rich on the other hand thought it was great. He had a hard time cutting the list down on which of the "interesting things" he would try. So he settled on a giant bowl of "interesting things" that had 6 or 7 different things that I would not eat in it. He liked it so much that he wanted to go back again tonight. He was out voted.


Our little Hope girl has been challenging. It has become apparrent to us that her medical needs are only part of the struggles she is facing. That poor little girl is so scared and insecure. She finds it very difficult to trust anyone. The irony is that she needs love more than anything else, but because of her emotional scars she trys to push everyone away. Given the fact that she had a birth defective face for the first year and a half of her life she was probably NOT the favorite child at the orphanage. And then she has been moved around a few times which has left her feeling like the caregivers in her life keep abandoning her. Her defense mechanism is to push people away. For the first week she would only cry or scream when anyone comes close to her besides Kelly. She swats and kicks at the kids. I (Cris) will offer her food and she turns away but then will take the same piece of food from Kelly. It is almost like she is trying to be unlovable.

The kids and I have had some great talks. Our spiritual lesson is that Christ loves us unconditionally even when we are unlovable. "But God showed His great love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38 &39)

It has been so amazing to see how Hannah, Thomas and Rachel have been showing the love of Christ to Hope. We all agreed that this was our opportunity to love someone the way Christ loves us. And they really do love her despite how she treats them. They have been so patient and sooo loving it puts tears in my eyes. And with huge payoff. Everyday we see a little more trust, a little more openess. Even moments of love. Today she let me feed her. Before she went to bed she reached out to each one of the kids for them to kiss her. And I must say Grandpa Rich has been great too. He was able to feed her two days ago when she was not even coming near me. And of course Kelly has been absolutely amazing in giving of herself to that little girl.

I know that without Christ in our lives this whole process would be a huge disappointment. But instead God has made it rich. Keep praying for us! Can't wait to see you all!

posted by Cris

From Amy: Sorry that this doesn't look as good as when Cris and Kelly do it, but I've never blogged before... I may have it figured out by the time they return home. Thanks to the Nelson's for trusting me with such an important task.

Hope teaches us a few things.

Hope shocked us all by picking up a pair of chopsticks and eating with them. I don't know why we were so surprised- she is Chinese.

Hope is still VERY cautious around everyone. She still likes mom best and NEEDS to be within CLOSE eyesight at all times or we have a major meltdown. At times she forgets about her fears and losens up enough to have some fun but she is quick to return to her timid self. Quite like riding on an emotional rollercoaster that leaves me really tired at the end of the day. Please pray for her emotions, trust, and ease with her new family and life. Pray for her momma too-that she has loads of patience, love, and mercy to handle these rollercoaster moments all day long.

She did let Cris hold her briefly for the first time yesterday--HUGE-- breakthrough! And today while I was in the same room doing something else Cris got to change her diaper for the first time and Hannah put her clothes on!!!! But like I said these moments are fleeting at best. We're just trying to give her the space she needs and build trust. Right now at this moment she is taking a nap in her crib for the first time. She cried for about a half hour and fell asleep. Of course I was in the room packing while she cried--have to always be in sight remember... Her big sis Rachel is on the bed napping next to the crib right now too. Rachie was so excited to be able to be next to her new little sister without getting hit or kicked by her! Hey gotta get your chances to be near and enjoy her when you can... even if she is asleep!

We are just waiting for Hopes passport later today(hopefully) so we can actually fly to Guangzhou tomorrow morning at 9:50am. Leaving the hotel at 7:30am-- another early day for us all! Hope's Chinese passport photo should be hysterical and a great memory cuz she is screaming her head off during the photo shoot. Can't wait to see her tonsils... don't know how the chinese government will recognize her by her open mouth but oh well! So we are just packing packing packing again to get ready for the next province we are headed to. We are headed for the White Swan Hotel in Guanzhou where it is supposed to be very humid, warm and tropical- I am hoping!!(Cris & Grandpa Rich are not so excited about the heat and hot!) We've been told to be prepared to sweat through 2 shirts a day cuz its so humid. I'll let you know how it is tomorrow. Been rainy all week here in Xi'an for us and hard to do anything with all of us Nelson's to cart around, but we are making the most of it and still doing as much sight seeing of Hopes home province as possible.

Going to go pack now... Pray for safe travels and good flying for Hope and her first flight on an airplane tomorrow morning. Talk to you all later! And thanks for all your comments... it has been so great to hear from all of you each day. We miss you all and can't wait to be stateside again soon.

Tea Time

Everyone is getting into drinking Chinese tea - even Rachel who likes a lot of sugar in it.

Chinese Noodles

Hand made Chinese rice noodles. Mmmmmm...

Terra Cotta Kids

Hannah, Thomas & Rachel pose as Terra Cotta Soldiers. Rachel was too afraid to put her head only in the neck. Hope...forget about it. The kids got to make clay Terra Cotta soldeirs.

What did we do today?

Today was an amazingly busy day to say the least. We never seem to stop some days. This was one. We got up and had our usual yummy they call it here "western"breakfast buffet, but it really is quite Chinese... chinese dumplings, chinese noodles, rice, congee(Hope's favorite by the way--RC better find this stuff for us in chinese shops...)chinese spicy soups, sushi, and then the usual eggs and fruit and breads. One really interresting & very chinese fruit is the 'dragon fruit' kinda tastes like a kiwi... all our kiddos love this!

After our breakfast we headed out on our bus to the Terra Cotta Warriors museum. This was awesome to see. In the 1970's some farmer was digging a well and came across a soldier's head(clay head from the warriors) and then the excavation process and museum began to what we now saw today. It is now known as the 8th wonder of the world - These statues are from the "Qin"Dynasty- (sounds like chin) from the year 221BC! Amazing to think that these statues were here during Old Testament times.

China's first emperor Qinshihuang, believed that life under the ground after death was a continuation of life on earth, therefore he constructed a huge mausoleum & 10,000 soldiers to protect himself in the "next life" after his death. (Of course we know that hope in horses and chariots are a vain hope but our hope is in the Lord -Psalms) But the artistry was amazing in that no two soldiers have the same facial features or facial expression. They even were all uniquely hand painted with bright colors and were found this colorful way, until three days after excavation when the air made all the paint come off and now they are the plain clay color that we recognize them for. And the shear size of the project was astounding as it took 38 years to build using 10% of the population of that time.

Here are a few pics of some of the amazing things we saw today from Jingfang (Hope's) province of Shaanxi. We are so blessed to be able to experience her culture and history.

Squatter Potty

Thomas is modeling the Chinese squatter toilet which has no "throne" to sit on. Yes girls and boys are the same. Hey where's the toilet paper? In China it's BYOTP!

The Other Wall

This is the "other" wall in China. This is the Xi'an City wall that was actually built before the Great Wall. It was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1368AD and is the most preserved wall in China. It completely encompasses the original city limits of Xi'an in a big square and it is 9 miles around the border. You can actually walk on top of the wall all the way around but it takes 3 1/2 hours. This is the cradle of Chinese civilization. They say that Xi'an is the roots and the trunk of China's civilization and Beijing is just a leaf.

The local people are very proud of their history. Hope has a really neat culture and a proud heritage. We are blessed to be able to experience her homeland!

Girls on the Wall

At left -Rachel looking over the Xi'an City Wall. At right - Kelly and hope walking on the City Wall.

Great Wall

This is from last week at the Great Wall.

Say Cheese!

99% of the time Hope has this expression on her face. So it is a real treat when we get a smile. We think she looks cute either way!

You learn well Grasshopper...

Hannah practicing her karate kicks in the temple square.

Quiet Flower

Hope is still very quiet - true to her Chinese name. The picture on the right is Hannah's contribution to the blog. She took the picture with her camera loaned to her from Ms. Ridens. Thanks Michelle!

Pose with an American

Here are some of the people who asked to be photgraphed with us. We have enjoyed meeting the wonderful people in China!

First Family Picture

Since at least one of Kelly's hands is attached to Hope and she is not able to type, Cris will do the next few posts for her. (Even though it says posted by Kelly at the bottom. I can't figure out how to change the setting.)

This is our first family picture that includes Hope! We are at the "famous" Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an. Xi'an is considered a "small" city in China because it only has 9 million people - roughly the size of Chicago.

Chopsticks!

The kids have embraced the Chinese culture and insist on eating their meals with chopsticks. The Chinese people have been wonderful to us! We are stopped constantly by locals asking if they can take our pictures or better yet take a picture with us. Of course we are flattered and love to do it and meet the people. Today I had to laugh because Hannah was having her picture taken by one group, Thomas by another and Grandpa Rich by another. I told Grandpa that its either because he is so good looking or because he is so tall. Our guide told us that Rachel looks like the dolls that the Chinese have - so everyone wants their little kids to meet her. At first the kids were a little taken back by the attention (especially when a woman wanted to touch Hannahs hair and after doing so kissed her) but now they appreciate the attention and have fun meeting these wonderful people. This is exactly why we brought them with us. So they could experience Hope's culture and be part of the whole process. Priceless!

Kelly & Hope (Jing Fang)

Kelly and Hope (Jing Fang). We found out today what Hope's Chinese name means. And it fits her perfectly. Our Chinese national guide told us that Jing means quiet or delicate, and Fang means flower or aroma of flower. Her personality so far has definately been a "delicate & quiet flower".

Hold On!

This is Kelly falling asleep from shear exhaustion and Hope (not willing to part with her) just holding onto her finger for an hour or so.

Tienamin Square

What an iconic view! Behind us is of course the giant pictue of Chairman Mao. Right above his picture in the doorway of the pagoda is where Mao declared communism for China in 1949 - changing the course of history.

Nelsons at the Great Wall 5/8/09

The Great Wall of China was AMAZING! Parts were so steep that I thought we would lose at least one family member to a fall and other family members to a heart attack! It was a lot of work but we made it to the top without injury. Literally breath taking!

May 11th, 2009

Nee How! (That is supposed to mean hello although I am sure it is spelled wrong.)

Cris is going to be a guest blog writer today because Kelly is not able to make it to the computer. I'll explain more at in a minute.

Anyway, yesterday (May 10th) was the day we got to meet hope and bring her into our family! Gods timing of our getting Hope was really special because the it was Mothers Day! Our busy day was suppoesed to get started at 4:30AM when we were to get our wake up call but Kelly and I were up at 2:30AM (part jet lag, part nerves) so Kelly and I prayed and read scripture together on the floor of the bathroom (we didn't want to wake everyone else). It was a good way to start a very special day.

When it was time to go we got the Nelson entourage together (Cris, Kelly, Hannah, Thomas, Rachel and Grandpa Rich) and left Beijing for Xi'an which is in the Chinese province of Shaanxi where Hope is from. On the way to the airport we all surprised Kelly with Mothers day cards.

After getting into Xi'an we had a quick lunch and then had our guide bring us to the government affairs building. The kids were pretty excited. Hannah expressed that she was really nervous and Thomas said "Dad - I have butterflys in my stomach!" It was cool to see them so excited!

Then it was kind of surreal. We walked out of the elevator on the 6th floor of the government building and while we were still in the hallway, the orphanage staff came walking up with this little girl that looked a lot like the pictures of this little Chinese girl we have all over our house. Sure enough it was Hope! Her foster mother was not there but she was being held by one of the orphanage staff women that knew her pretty well. Once Jing Fang (Hope) got the idea that she was supposed to go with these weird white people she kind of freaked. She didn't stop crying for a long time and while I was standing there filming I was really wondering what we had just gotten ourselves into!

But Kelly was awesome. She was so loving and so patient that eventually Hope settled down. Although she wanted nothing to do with the rest of us Nelson's. That was a little hard for the kids to understand. I told them that we have been making a place for Hope in our hearts for nearly 3 years but this is the first time Hope has heard about those plans. We need to give her some time to get used to us.

So today (May 11th) we spent the day going back and forth to different government buildings and signing papers that I could not read. But Hope has definately warmed up to Kelly. In fact Hope cannot be apart from Kelly for even a second (or we go back to the freaking out thing.) Today Kelly was so exhausted that she fell asleep on the couch while Hope stood next to her and held her hand just watching her.

She did warm up to the kids a little as they all played a little game of kickball in our room and we were priveledged enough to see her smile. Well actually I didnt see it because I was in the bathroom but they showed me pictures!

So thats the gist of it. Sorry no pictures to post yet. We have lots of pictures taken just not downloaded yet. See you tomorrow!

Saturday May 8, 2009 in Beijing!!

Hello Everyone!
Sorry I haven't been able to write yet. But we have done two weeks worth of things in a matter of three days! And we lost a day because of travel. Not only did we fly from Chicago to Beijing which is exhuasting just by itself, but the next day we went to the Great Wall of China at 8:30 am and hiked around all day and today we went to Tianamin Square and the Forbidden City! Woo! We can't believe we are in China! We are actually here and going to get Hope tomorrow afternoon! Please pray for us and Hope. She is going to be so frightened and sad. Please pray for the transition for her and that she will know how much we love her and care for her and that she can trust us, her new forever family!

We are getting used to the time change... we wake up at 5am now instead of 2am so thats a huge improvement. Cris only got 3 hours of sleep the first 48 hours. He was a real trooper though and never complained about being tired.

Well enough on the lack of sleep. God is just getting us ready for the change we are about to go through with having a new daughter that is 2 years old and grieving the absence of her foster mother, her homeland, and familiar sights, sounds, tastes and smells to a new family that looks funny, sounds funny and talks funny! Poor thing!

She is in for a big shock tomorrow when she is in our arms and is our new little girl. We have a 8:30 am flight out of Beijing in the morning and we will arrive 2 hours later and head to Xi'an city, in Shaanxi Province where we will meet our daughter and have her with us at 3:00 in the after noon. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!


I better get to bed now, since I have to get a wake up call at 4:30 in the morning.

I will definately try my best to post tomorrow and upload all the wonderful pictures of our daughters homeland that we have had the wonderful priviledge of getting to see.

Love you all!

Kelly

Good night from Beijing

China Travel Itinerary May 6- May 21 2009

Day 1 May 6, 2009 Depart Chicago 12:45pm

Day 2 May 7, 2009 Arrive Beijing China 3:15pm
REST. Novotel Peace Hotel

Day 3 May 8, 2009 Great Wall of China Tour

Day 4 May 9, 2009 Holt International Orientation meeting am/ Holt lunch Forbidden City tour

Day 5 May 10, 2009 HAPPY MOTHERS DAY--- GOTCHA DAY--- Fly to Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, 8:30am Hopefully later that day, get HOPE DANIELLE!! Hyatt Xi'an Hotel

Day 6 May 11, 2009 Getting to know Hope more and more

Day 7 May 12, 2009 More loving on Hope

Day 8 May 13, 2009 Terracotta Soldiers Tour

Day 9 May 14, 2009 More Getting to Hang with Hope while we wait for her passport

Day 10 May 15, 2009 Fly to Guangzhou First flight with Hope -White Swan Hotel here we come

Day 11 May 16, 2009 Hope's first Doctor appointment/physical with us

Day 12 May 17, 2009

Day 13, May 18, 2009

Day 14, May 19, 2009 Consulate appointment for Hope's visa

Day 15, May 20, 2009 Get Hope's visa and catch train to Hong Kong 8:15pm Arrive 10:15pm Hong Kong, Stay at

Day 16 May 21, 2009 AMERICA here we come!!!! Depart Hong Kong 12:35pm

Day 17 STILL May 21, 2009 arrive in Chicago at 2:45pm!!! WOO HOO!! USA!!!!

Three to go!

Hi everyone! We are trying to get the last of our packing done before we go to bed. Hope we can do it. It would be such a great feeling to be totally ready before our heads hit the pillow in a few hours.

What a beautiful day today was. Praising God for the sunshine, and warm weather and His amazing love, grace and mercy and the blessings we all are surrounded with especially evident in spring.

Almost here now!

Bye for now!

Getting ready for travel to FINALLY get Hope Danielle!!!

Well, we are finally getting bags packed and papers in order for travel! YIPPEE!!!! 4 more days to go! We are so excited! NO pig(swine flu) is going to stop us from bringing our little girl home!

We have really felt a heavy burden of spiritual attack especially these last few weeks as we got our travel dates. My grandpa is near death in Florida, my mom had heart surgery(again), and Cris is under an amazing amount of stress because his karate tournament is on May 9th. Oh, yes, we will be 7000 miles away on the other side of the world... how does this work you ask? God is so good, as He provided an amazing staff & 100's of volunteers at National Karate that will do an awesome job running the event while we are getting our little daughter. THANKYOU everyone!!! You are making this possible for us to do together as a family.

I am so thankful that I was able to see my grandpa twice in the last month in florida. We had a blessed time together. God of course allowed me to see Him, due to our paperwork getting "lost" in China. Otherwise I would have missed these chances for travel and the memories with him. Even though he was extrememly ill,our time together will always be remembered by me and treasured. My mom is with him right now, at his side...

Well, God is good all the time & we can't wait to post once we are in China! Beijing here we come! It is a 14 hour flight out of Chicago so I'll try to post once we get there.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick... not much longer!

In His hands,

Kelly

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