Day 6

Hi Everyone,
We miss our kids at home and in college so much. We love you guys more than you know!

Brooklyn did wonderful last night. She went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 6:30. She has had a great day so far. We just got back from the embroidery factory. It was really neat. They hand embroidery everything there. Changsha is known for their beautiful embroideries. We are leaving in 2 hours for Brooklyn's orphanage. We are very nervous about going, but we feel we really need to do this. We hope to see her finding place and see some of her caretakers and thank them for taking such wonderful care of her. It is a 1 1/2 hour drive each way in a taxi. I have heard that will be an adventure in itself. WE should have some wonderful pictures when we get back. Hopefully we can put them on tonight when we get back.

Have a great day at school Brady and Bryce. Brittany keep grandma company(have fun shopping). Brandon have a great day in St. Louis(run hard) Mom, hope you had a good trip. We love you all!

p.s. we did not make it to riverboat cruise last night. Brooklyn had some bathroom issues. Oh well, the joys of parenthood.

Day 5

Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening,

I wanted to cover everyone from around the world following our blog (You know my brother and his darling wife live in the Neatherlands). Well, Brooklyn spoiled us a little the night before last, sleeping through the night. Last night was a little different. It was different in two ways. First, she woke up from 2 a.m. until 4 a.m. screaming and would only be comforted by us walking her around the room. We could not sit down. Now, that brings me to #2. Scott was amazing and walked her around and around and around the room. He has never and I repeat never did this with his other four children!!! And he loved every minute of it. O.k. in fairness, he is on vacation for two weeks and doesn't have to get up and go to work in the morning. She finally went to sleep at 4 and slept until 9:00(so not too bad).

Today, we went to Hunan Province Museum. It was very interesting. Scott took lots of vidoe for Brooklyn to have when she is older. We found out a lot about her home province.

She is amazing us everyday with her personality. She laughs a lot and loves to be held. She is becoming a little mommy's girl, but she still likes her daddy. She finally had her first bottle of formula today. Which made us feel much better. She does not like riding on the bus to places. The minute we board she cries and we have to comfort her by holding her and giving her a bib to chew on(they do this in the orphanage). We are going on a boat cruise tonight of the city and we will eat dinner on the boat. So we will add boat pictures tomorrow.

I wanted to tell you the quick story about the day we got Brooklyn. All 10 families get to the civil affairs building to pick up our babies. When we pull in, we see nannies carrying a lot of babies. We all try and spot our baby(we did not see Brooklyn) We go to the 3rd floor and we walk into a big room and all the babies are with their nannies. We quickly count and there are only 9 babies in the room and we knew right away Brooklyn was not there(all of those 9 babies were from the same orphanage and Brooklyn came from a different one). We tried to stay calm(at least I did) and video everyone elses special moment. We ask our guide where she is and she said "just late, don't worry" Well, later was 20 minutes!!!!! Someone finally spotted a baby and nanny coming in the building, we thought that has to be her. It was and Scott filmed them coming off the elevator and into the room. As soon as we saw her, we knew it was Brooklyn!!!! That is how we first met Brooklyn.

Enjoy the pictures today, we will have much more tomorrow. We are going to try and visit her orphanage tomorrow. That will be very emotional! Love you all!

p.s. we can now view our blog, keep the messages coming. Thanks for all of your great comments and e-mails and prayers!!!! Also, the first two pictures are in the playroom in our hotel. She loves it!

Day 4

Hello everyone, this is Scott doing the blog for day 4. Just so that everyone knows for some reason we have not been able to access our journey to brooklyn website while we are in China. So this means that we have not been able to view any of the comments that you have sent. Brandon said there is a lot and we can't wait to read them when we get back. Please keep them coming though. Also, if anyone wants to talk with us please e-mail at: slbrown1980@aol.com. We are getting our e-mail just fine.

First, I want to mention that we miss our kids so much! While we have been gone this has happened with our kids: Brandon is already being recruited for "Teach for America" which is a prestigious 2 year paid teaching position that will also pay for his continuing education. Unbelievable. Brittany just won her Special Olympic State Softball Tourney and scored a run and had a hit. Brady just named team captain (along with Parker Settle) of his CG Middle School Team in cross country. Bryce had 4 sacks in the backfield in his last football game. We have missed alot already and we still have 10 days to go. But, as you will read in the following paragraphs, Brooklyn is worth it and I know our kids agree 100%.

Brooklyn is as beautiful as her mom Laurie! I was worried about when the nannies handed her over on how she would react. She reacted by screaming! She was obviously close with her nannies and loved them. It took her about 15 minutes to settle down. After that she has gotten used to us more by the minute. She is not scared of me at all and likes either one of us to hold her. She loves being held! She smiles easily and so far the only word she says sounds like "mom" (at least we think so).

Brooklyn is also walking. She only does this when she wants to! So far she has walked 3 different times on her own in the 24 hours we have had her. The farthest was about 10 steps. Brooklyn is very alert and has great fine motor skills. She can stack cups and her grip is strong. So far her favorite toy is a toy telephone we got at Meier. She won't hardly let go of it. She is a picky eater. We have not gotten her formula the way she likes it so she has been eating bananas and cheerios and lots of juices. We just got back from McDonalds and she loved her fries (we know she is a Brown now!) and pieces of my quarter pounder!

Brooklyn slept through the night her first time. She went to bed about 9pm got up at 6:30 the next morning. Brooklyn has 8 teeth already! She likes to put a blanket in her mouth when sleeping or upset. We were told today that this a common custom in China. Similar to American babies sucking there thumbs. She is little and petite. Laurie says she wears 9 month clothes (she is 13 months old). Laurie and I cannot believe how good of a decision this was. We are very happy and so is Brooklyn.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and we will try and update more each day. One more thing, we would like to thank both grandma's and Darla for taking care of our kids.

Thank you,
Scott

We have her!

Welcome Brooklyn Ru Le Brown!! What an emotional day. I will explain about our whole day later, but I wanted to post pictures before the kids went to school. Brooklyn cried when they first handed her to me, but has calmed down now and is doing great. She fell asleep right before we got back to the hotel. Scott is off doing paper work and I thought I would get pictures out while she is sleeping. We think she is absolutely beautiful and we recognized her right away. Enjoy the pictures, I will post more later. Love you all! Gloria, she is wearing the outfit you bought for her. We sent her a care package to her orphanage and they received it and put her in one of the outfits Gloria (my Einstein buddy)got for her.

Day 3 Forbidden City

Good Morning to you good evening for us. Just a quick update. Another long tired day. We left at 9:00 a.m. and went to a Christian church service for english speaking people. You had to have a passport to get in. After that we went to the jade factory where they make all kinds of things out of jade. We didn't buy anything. Next after lunch it was to the Forbidden City and Tiennamen square. It was very interesting. We did a lot of walking so it was kind of tiring. Tomorrow our guide told us to be down in the lobby by 5:40 a.m. for our plane ride to Brooklyns province. It is about a two hour plane ride. We should have her by Monday afternoon. I can't believe it is almost time. I am kind of glad all the sightseeing is over and we can now get our little girl. Next time we blog you will get to see all the pictures of Brooklyn. We love you all!

Day 2 Great Wall

What a day!!! We got up early this morning and left for the Great Wall of China at 8:00 a.m. It was probably the most imazing this we have ever witnessed. It is 4,500 miles long and was built thousands of years ago. Picture would never do it justice. After the wall we went to lunch. Then it was off to the Summer Palace. That is where the emperor spent her vacation. Next, was the pearl factory. This is the real stuff. After that we went to the silk factory. They had some beautiful things there. And it was all real silk and they showed how it is all made by hand. We did have to buy a few things there and a couple at the pearl factory also. Then last but not least we had our duck dinner. Needless to say Scott and I are having a little trouble with the Chinese food. But the western buffet breakfast is to dye for. I am now eating low-fat peanut butter and crackers that I brought from home in our room. We are exhausted and ready for bed. It is now 8:00 p.m. and another day closer to Brooklyn!! We love and miss you all! Enjoy a few pictures!

We are here!

Hi everyone,

Well we made it safe and sound. It was a long flight. The good thing is that we got an exit seat when we got to Chicago, so it was much better for Scott. We are really tired, it is about 6 in the evening and we just got to the hotel. We have a busy day tomorrow. We are meeting in the lobby at 8:00 a.m. and wont be back until the evening. We will check back in tomorrow! We love you kids!
Here is Scott and I at the airport.

We are off!!!!

Well, the day has come. We are leaving for the airport in about an hour. I will post again when we get to China. I love you all!!!

Itinerary!!!

Well, we have received our itinerary so everyone can follow along with what we are doing each day in China.

Thursday, August 16: Depart for Beijing from Chicago
Friday, August 17: Arrive in Beijing(they are 12 or 13 hours ahead of us)
Saturday, August 18: Beijing sight-seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, &
Summer Palace
Sunday, August 19: Church service & Great Wall(And a Beijing Duck Dinner)
Monday, August 20: Morning flight to Changsha GOTCHA DAY! We meet Brooklyn in
the afternoon. She will be with us the rest of the time!
Tuesday, August 21: Civil Affairs Appointment to make her officially ours!
August 22-23: Paper work, Sight-seeing and Shopping
Friday, August 24: Afternoon flight to Guangzhou(where the US Embassy is)
August 25-26: Fill out Consulate Forms & Brooklyns medical exam
Monday, August 27: Consulate Appointment at 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday, August 28: Pick up Brooklyn's visa
Wednesday, August 29: All the paperwork is finished. We are free to do whatever we
want.
Thursday, August 30: Leave from Hong Kong to come home, at last!!! Meet us at the
airport at 9:00 p.m. United Airlines flight 7622 from
Chicago(our flight home will take us 24 hours)

There you have it, it won't be long now! We really are bringing our little girl home! Please pray for us and thank you for your support!

Travel Plans

Well, we finally have our travel plans. We leave Indy at 10:46 a.m. on August 16th and arrive in Chicago at 10:59(time change). We leave at 12:40 for Beijing and arrive at 3:00p.m.(which is 3:00 a.m. our time). Coming home is not as good. We leave Guangzhou on August 30th and fly to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong at 11:45 a.m. to San Francisco at 9:17 a.m. then to Chicago at 4:49 p.m. Then we arrive home at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday. It will be a long trip home about 24 hours to get home(with all the time changes). But it is all worth it! We should get more details this week on what we will be doing everyday. As soon as I do I will post it.

TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it is official, we received our TA (travel approval) today!!! We are leaving for China on August 16th. We will get all the details next week. Needless to say, we are thrilled. Three more weeks and we will be holding our daughter, finally!!!!!!!!!! As soon as I get all the information I will post it. Thanks for all your prayers. Brooklyn here we come!!!!!

LOA!!!!

We just got the call that our LOA has arrived!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who don't know what that is, it is our letter of approval. It is a letter from China telling us they have reviewed our dossier and all our paperwork is in order and we can adopt Brooklyn. We will sign that tomorrow and send it back to our agency. They will fed-ex it to China on Friday. Now we wait of our TA(travel approval). It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks and then we will be in the air to pick up Brooklyn. I am thinking it will be the end of August! Thank you everyone for their prayers. It won't be long now!

Special Friends

Well, the baby showers are all over and they were amazing! We have such wonderful friends and I can never thank them enough for all they have done for our family. We have everything possible for our little Brooklyn. Now we are just waiting on our final approval so we can go pick her up. It should come any day and then we will travel in 4 to 6 weeks after that. Please pray for quick travel so we can bring her home to the family that already loves her so much. Brooklyn's room is almost ready as you can see in the pictures. Now we just need her in her bed! Thank you again to all my special friends. We love you!!!!

Brittany's Graduation

Brittany has officially graduated. She had a wonderful open house! Thanks to everyone that made her day special! We are blessed with such a wonderful family and friends!!!!