Our China Doll

Welcome to " Our China Doll" Journal

After more than 2 years of paperwork, stress, obstacles, and lengthening delays, we are on our way. On our way to Aubrey, who waits unaware that her life is about to change. At 3 years old we wonder how ready she will be for her journey around the world to a life full of hope and love, as part of a new family that will cherish her, to a place she can truly call home.

We will be flying into Beijing Sept. 14 at 9:30pm. Beijing and all of China will be celebrating the Autumn Lunar Festival - second only to the Chinese New Year. We may be greeted with fireworks and mooncakes, however after smashing through 11 time zones in 18 hours on an international flight, I doubt we will be in any shape for partaking in the festivities.

We will post nightly to show you all the wonders we see on our trip. The first leg will be sight seeing in Beijing. Tiannamen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, and of course the Great Wall are a few of the places listed on our itinerary. After 3 days in Beijing we travel south to Guangdong province and the famous White Swan Hotel to await our meeting with Civil Affairs, and the reason for this whirlwind... Aubrey.

What we know about Aubrey:

She was found at 2 months of age on at gate No. 20 Shaxi Road, Shawan. She was fostered temporarily in Shawan before she was delivered to Shenzhen City's orphanage.

Her birthday was determined to be Aug. 2, 2005.

She is reported to be shy and quiet, but having a ready smile.

She is fond of reading books and listening to music.

Her report also states she is sometimes obstinate and impatient ( she will fit right in).

Her favorite things are being outdoors, eating fruit and playing with toy cars.

The name given to her is Shen JianHua.

JianHua literally translates to "Chinese Sword".

Her last name Shen translates to "difficult, or late".

(thanks to Yani for the translations - we were way off with our pin yin, thinking JianHua meant beautiful flower.)

We will be meeting Aubrey on Sept. 18 in Guangzhou. Please keep us in your prayers that we have a safe trip and the adoption process goes smoothly.

First Sign

All throughout this journey we have found ourselves being guided along the way. There has been so much synchronicity involved that it may seem a bit uncanny. I see in my mind the little old cement pylons, found all along Route 20 from Fremont to Toledo, each time we have another sign. With each sign the miles of distance left marked on the pylon grows smaller as we approach the end of this fascinating excursion.

Three years ago Dave asked me "If you could have anything in the world, what would it be?" My response was "you can't give me what I want most, but it would be a little girl".

It took another 6 months before Dave asked me this question "if you had a little girl, what would you name her?" I was on the computer at the time, I looked up and said "Aubrey". Dave looked shocked, then he asked "how did you come up with that name?" I told him "I read it in a book years ago, the little girl in the story was named Aubrey and I fell in love with her character." Dave then asked me to get up from the computer, he had something to show me. He pulled up his i-Tunes screen to show me a song he downloaded that morning. There it was, a little known song from the early seventies by the group Bread, titled "Aubrey".

I got chills as I listened to the words of this song for the first time. The lyrics that most caught my attention were "and I'd go a million times around the world just to say, she had been mine, for a day". Indeed, we will go around the world for her, but for life, not just a day.

We both took a deep breath and decided we were being given a push. This was the first sign of many along this serendipitous trek through the three stages of international adoption.