Welcome to Emmaline Anne Ding's adoption website. This blog details our family's adoption of this beautiful little girl from China in 2005. While the focus of the blog is to record our trip to China, you can also find more about her adoption by clicking on the links to the right.

We're getting ready!

Well, three more days and we get on an airplane to pick up the newest addition to our family, Emmaline Anne. She'll be a few days shy of 9 months old when we get her. In the travel group are Lois and myself, our two boys, and Lois' brother Tim.

This journal will from hereon serve as a diary for our little journey. We'll be leaving on Thursday Oct. 27 and plan to return on Wednesday, Nov. 9. According to our itinerary, we meet and pick up Emmaline in Guangzhou, China (she's from a smaller town in the same province called Gaozhou) on Oct. 31. We then spend the remainder of our time there doing paperwork and sight-seeing.

We'd appreciate your prayers, especially with regards to:

1. Pray for remaining preparations including packing our luggage and confirming all travel logistics.
2. Please pray for everyone to remain healthy before and on the trip. Traveling to (and dining in) China has been known to produce, shall we say, unfavorable intestinal experiences. The boys have been nursing mild runny noses over the past two days as well.
3. Pray for great mercies in our travels, esp. as the 14-hour flights to & from China will wear heavily on the children and on us adults as well.
4. Pray for Emmaline: that she would adapt to our little family quickly and pleasantly.
5. Pray for we adults to have stamina and energy to care for 3 kids: 2 active boys in a foreign land and 1 little girl in a foreign family.

Again, we plan on posting updates & photos on our blog as the days progress. Thank you for your prayers and fellowship on this wonderful journey.