December 17, 2002 update.  We received two new pictures and the following updated information:

-----------------------------

October 12, 2004

we interrupt the journal to add some pictures that we had not scanned and had gotten while we were in China... not sure why we never added them but this seemed like the most appropriate spot...

okay, back to the normal sequence of events in the journal

------------------------------

FROM CCAI:

Chu, Ben Yan, born on 5/30/01. The physical information was taken on the 11th of December and the pictures were taken around the same time. We received the pictures via e-mail; therefore, we do not have hard copies at this time. Once we receive the hard copies we will send them to you.  Please respond to this message via phone or email stating that you have received this information! If you have additional questions about this information, please contact our office.  Thank you!

Height: 77 cm (30") Weight: 11 kg (24.2 lbs) Chest Cir: 45.5 cm Head Cir: 44 cm  Feet: 11 cm (4.3") HepB: negative Teeth: 16
Sitting?: Yes  Standing?: Yes  Walking?: Yes, if you hold her hands Speaking?: No
How long has the child lived in the orphanage? 18 months

December 20, 2002 update.  Today we received some new information from CCAI, a development report for Lily from the Chuzhou orphanage by a caregiver named Bin Ming Hui.  You can read the whole thing by opening this document.  It describes her personality the musical toys she enjoys and what her schedule is and how talkative she is.  We are elated!  You can also see the original document (un-translated) by opening this document.

December 21, 2002 we went to the TFWAC holiday get together at the Dorothy Oven Park and it was really wonderful, there were dozens of beautiful asian children (95% girls) in attendance with lots of happy parents.  Tallahassee is blessed with many asian children.  We did not take many pictures but we did get a couple shots of Jeremy that we wanted to share because you can see how big he is right before we are going to get his sister Lily!

and, here is a picture of Jonah this past week tending the fire for us, and just to show Lily later in life what her brother Jonah was doing while waiting for her... painting the fence! 

December 28, 2002.  We went out last night and splurged on a couple items to complete Lily's bed and we wanted to share the results, this is her completed crib:

January 9, 2003 update.  Great news... On Tuesday January 7th we received our preliminary itinerary via e-mail and today we received the confirmations and our passports back from the travel agency.  So, here is what it looks like we will be doing:

•     January 16 or 17 - Drive from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and either spend the night or drive early in the morning depending on if we find a good deal on a hotel in Jax.  We then leave Jax at 7:30 in the morning on January 17 on a flight to Chicago.
•     January 17 - Depart Chicago at 11:50 for a 14 hour flight to Beijing with no stops.  We arrive at 3:35 pm (China time) on January 18th.  China is all in the same time zone (there is a factoid for you).
•     January 18 - We will arrive in Beijing and our local guide will take us to the Gloria Plaza Hotel http://www.gphbeijing.com/ at 2 Jianguomennan Avenue in Beijing.  Give us a call at tel# 10-6515-8855 and ask for us until the 20th!
•     January 19 - We will be climbing the Great Wall of China, it was built 2600 years ago and one of the two man-made structures seen by naked eye when Neil Armstrong was in space.  We will also visit the Ming Tombs which was the burial place of thirteen emperors and their families of the Ming Dynasty.
•     January 20 - Tour the Forbidden City.  This complex, the largest imperial palace ever built in the world, features more than 800 buildings with over 9,000 rooms, resplendent golden-glazed roofs, red lacquered pillars and vermilion walls.  Sightseeing also covers Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven.  Beijing's local cuisine "Roast-Duck Dinner" will be served in the evening and followed by Acrobatic Show.
•     January 21 - We leave on China Eastern Airlines for Hefei, we leave at 10:30 and arrive in Hefei at 12:15 which is where Lily is waiting for us.
•     January  21-28 - This will be the time we stay in Hefei, our hotel is the Grand Park Zenith Hotel, (which was bought by sofitel in 2006 we think... the old website got overtaken by an adult site... we are so sorry if anyone clicked that link, here is the new company page which is the same hotel)http://www.sofitel.com/sofitel/fichehotel/gb/sof/5118/fiche_hotel.shtml you can call us at 011 86 55 12216688 and on the 22nd we meet Lily and according to China law she will legally be our daughter by the end of the day on the 22nd.  The 23rd will be a shopping day and getting to just spend time with Lily.  On the 24th we can go to a museum, but we will probably just hang with Lily.  The 25th is a day of rest, 26th is a tour of a local orphanage, the 27th we receive our notarized adoption documents and passport for Lily.
•     January 28 - Leave for Guangzhou and check into the White Swan hotel (call us at 011 86 20 81886968) http://www.guangzhou-hotels-travel.com/white_swan.htm 
•     January 29 - Lily gets her visa photo and physical and prepare for the consulate appointment. 
•     January 30/31 - We visit the consulate and complete everything else necessary to get on the plane and come home, we fly to Hong Kong on January 31st.
•     January 31 - Stay in Hong Kong at the Regal Airport Hotel http://www.hotels-in-hong-kong.com/kowloon-hotels/regal-airport/hotel.htm Call us at: ( 852 ) 2736-0922
•     February 1 - Fly from Hong Kong at 11:35 am and arrive in Chicago at 11:40 am, then we fly from Chicago at 2:30 p.m. for Jax arriving at 5:55 p.m. and drive home hoping to arrive in Tallahassee by 9:30 or 10:00 at night on Feb 1st.   WHEW, that is what we know, we are going to have a conference call Friday January 10th to talk with the travel group and the agency to discuss the trip and answer any questions.  More to come!

January 15, 2003.  Well... today was my last day at work until we have Lily in our family.  Lot's of friends from the Capitol threw Melissa and I a baby shower today and we wanted to share some of the photo's from the event.  It was such a blessing to us and many of our practical needs were met along with some fun toys and clothes.  Thanks to everyone for coming and caring.  Tomorrow we leave for Jacksonville on our first part of the journey!

January 16, 2003 update 10:00 p.m. We are in the holiday inn at Jacksonville airport and we will be waking up at 5:30 in the morning to get to the airport by 6:30 and head to Chicago at 7:30. We had a nice time in Jax where we lived from 1991-1996. As we entered the city we listened to FM88.1 the radio station both Melissa and I were able to DJ at back in the day. Our buddy Roger Henderson was on the air so we gave him a call and got to speak with him and Merry Rachel as well, our buddy from when we used to minister to the teen's and on the radio. Roger surprised us by pausing our conversation and then telling Jacksonville the good news that the Johnson family was going to China to adopt Lily and he wished us the very best and blessed our trip. Our friends Tina, Benny Ray and Kayla came to the hotel and we got to spend time swimming and having dinner together. A wonderful start to our trip. Good night!

January 18, 2003 update 7:17 a.m. EST/8:18 p.m. China time.  We are in the Gloria Plaza Hotel in Beijing China!  Woohoo, everyone is tired from the long flight.  Tomorrow we are going to be waking up early, getting breakfast at 7:30 and meeting our group at 8:30 in the lobby to take a tour of Beijing.  I will try to get pictures and an update posted tomorrow night (China time).

    You can enjoy in five minutes what took us two days!  Click Here for a movie in Windows media player 9 format... you may need to upgrade your player and if you are on a slow connection be patient!

January 19, 2003 update 8:01 p.m. China time.  This was our first full day in Beijing and we started out with breakfast in the Hotel which was very nice, we had not yet met everyone in our travel group so this was the first time we got to see everyone.  We met in the lobby at 8:30 a.m. and boarded the bus for the Summer Palace.  It was beautiful but very cold!  Since it is so hot in our hotel we asked about electric bills, our guide told us that everyone has to pay a fee for the coldest three months.  I think it was 1200 yuan ($150.00) and you could use as much heat as you want, there is no difference in your fee dependent on usage.  We also learned alot about the culture and we will share more after our return.  After the Summer Palace we went to a pearl factory and then lunch.  We had dumplings and it was excellent.  After lunch we visited Tiananmen Square which can hold one million people according to the local literature.  Then we went to the Forbidden City which is MUCH larger than we expected.  After walking for a long time we were shown a map by the tour guide and discovered we had barely covered 1/5 of the travel.  After coming back to the hotel (after our bus driver got a police ticket and three points off of his drivers license, and we saw a couple taxi-drivers fighting it out in the middle of the street) our family stuffed in a cab to visit a local bookstore, it was four stories high and absolutely huge.  On the way back the cab driver would not allow all of us back in the cab so our guide took a separate cab and we were all alone.  Jeremy thought it was cool to be able to speak in a language that not many people understood including our cab driver.  I was not quite as thrilled, but we made it back to the hotel in time to rest a few minutes before our big dinner.  OI, it was duck night... out comes a duck with the bill that the waitress carves at the table, a good carver is supposed to be able to carve 180 pieces of meat from a duck.  By the way, Jeremy happily ate the pig feet, duck wing and a bunch of other nasty stuff.  Jonah stuck to the rice.  We are all extremely tired but had a great day.  

Beijing, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City

January 20, 2003 update 4:55 a.m. China time.  Jet lag, jet lag... I slept an hour longer today... 3:00 a.m. Melissa says she is going to sleep in Jeremy's room tonight if I can't stay asleep :)  Me and Jonah suffer from jet lag while Melissa and Jeremy seem to be able to adjust pretty easily.  I am editing yesterday's video and hopefully will post tonight which means you guys could see it Monday morning.

January 20, 2003 update 9:30 p.m. China time.  OI, we are tired, climbing the Great Wall is MUCH harder than we expected, the stairs are ridiculously steep and no two steps seem to be the same size, so you are climbing up one step that is 16 inches and the next one will be four.  We added pictures on the pictures page, tomorrow we fly to Hefei early in the morning and Wednesday morning "China time" we will meet Lily!  We are praying there will be a way to get on the Internet there, I have been quite spoiled here in Beijing.  There is broadband in the room and it was just as fast as home.

Great Wall, Ming Tombs and Sacred Way

January 21, 2003 update 11:55 p.m. China time.  Double OI, we are really tired, we were supposed to arrive in Hefei at 12:30 but due to delays etc. we did not arrive until 6:30, we arrived at the hotel at 6:50, had a meeting from 7:30-8:00 then went to dinner... take a look at the pictures we just put on the pictures page.  Jonah said he felt like a little king when the waitress put the napkin in his lap and took care of everything.  Coming from the airport to the hotel was pretty sad, this is a very poor area of China and you definitely thank God for the lives He has blessed us with.  The hotel is ridiculous, in the most beautiful sense.  It is incredibly posh and does not fit in to the landscape at all, but we are so thankful that while we are here we can focus on Lily and not worry about living conditions etc.  The place is a palace and we put some pictures up to give you an idea.  Tomorrow is the big day, Chu Ben Yan should be arriving sometime before noon and we hope to post pictures of Lily Grace Johnson tomorrow night.  Today was Melissa's birthday and the hotel brought her a cake and a nice card... very posh.  High speed internet in the room for no charge.  I am a happy guy, this should allow us to post lots of pictures and video.  Good night!

Leaving Beijing for Hefei!

      &         

January 22, 2003 update 8:30 p.m. China time.  /b>What a day!  Here are lots of pictures and as you can see Lily is absolutely incredible!  This morning we woke up at 6:00 a.m. and anxiously awaited the 9:30 time that we were supposed to meet in the hotel meeting room with the other parents to receive the babies and complete adoption paperwork.  We walked in and immediately saw a little pink snowsuit walking around... our Lily!  As you can see by the photos she was not too thrilled to meet us, but after only a short while she calmed down, sat in our arms and we began to get to know each other.  Melissa held Lily while I completed the paperwork.  The boys were amazing, they were perfect helpers and have continued to be all day.  We are just putting Lily down to bed right now, she has been so perfect I just can't express it in words, thank God we got a lot of video and we look forward to sharing it with everyone.  For now, pictures!