Haungpu River Cruise

Look at all the people! This is just a normal Sunday afternoon. It's absolutely unbelievable how many people live here. China's top 5,000 wealthiest live in this area on the river. There is such a mixture of wealth and poverty here.

A Palace in Shanghai

Today we did a little touring. This palace was built by a son for his parents. The rock was all brought in and is significant because only the wealthy were able to do such things.

We made it to Shanghai China

We arrived at the Jianguo Hotel at 5:30pm after our looooooooonng flight to China. Everything went as planned. Today is a free day, meaning no guide so we will just explore the area close to the hotel. We will be here for 5 days before we get on the train headed for Jiangsu. We will meet our little guy in Jiangsu's capital city Nanjing on Oct. 22nd. Stay tuned as we will update when possible. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
Tom & Heather

We received a little update on Andrew

Our little guy has grown.
weight = 14.5Kg (32lbs)
height = 91cm (35.8 in)
head circumference = 50cm
feet = 13.5cm
chest = 52cm

Our feathery friends

We have been enjoying some new visitors on our lakeshore this summer. They were here 2 years ago but we missed them last year. We are glad to have them back!

Travel Invitation

Here we come Andrew! On September 10, 2008 we received word from our agency that our travel to China to pick up Andrew has been approved. Since then we have purchased our tickets to and from China. We will be leaving October 16th and returning on November 1st. We will spend the first 6 days in Shanghai and then travel by train to Nanjing where we will meet Andrew on October 22nd. We will be there for 8 days and then travel by air to Guangzhou where we wrap up our stay in China. Our in country travel has yet to be confirmed so those details may change. We would also like to work in a visit to the orphanage if possible.

It's a special day! ~ We received our LOA

Today our agency called to tell us that our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) will arrive by UPS on Friday. It is basically official paperwork stating that we have officially been accepted as Andrew's parents and if we want to proceed we need to sign the documents and return them. We will do that with honor. In a few weeks we will receive our travel arrangements and then travel a couple of weeks after that. We hope to travel in September or early October. We are so excited to meet Andrew and finally hold him in our arms. So, on August 7, 2006, we held Leah in our arms for the first time and on August 7, 2008, we got news that our LOA is here. August 7th is a special day for the Porter's. Praising God from whom all blessings flow!