Monday, March 31, 2008
Family Reunion Day March 31,2008
The post you have all been waiting for. Once again I am late but morning seems to be my best opportunity to post. Yesterday was another long day. We left the hotel at 9:40 and went directly to the office of civil affairs. When we walked in Luke Bo Bo was sitting on the couch. I went up to him saying his name and he just kind of looked at me and looked around at all the strangers coming in the room looking for their children. I think he went into overload mode and shut down while all the action was taking place. All four kids reacted differently to the reunion. One cried off and on all day, two seemed all geared up to play with their new toys and Luke just observed. That reaction did not last long as we finally heard him speak some Chinese when his friends got ahead of him outside. He yelled "Hey!" and then something we could not decipher. Then he answered two of John's questions in Chinese, one involving the bathroom (I don't need to go) and another involving a toy balloon. John said "Zhege shi balloon" (this is a balloon) and he answered "bu shi, pua pua" (it is not, it's a pua pua).
The day was spent going from one office to another, signing, fingerprinting, photos and by 5:30 it was all done and Luke was legally our son.
It did not take long once we got back to the hotel to get a glimpse at Bo Bo's personality. He is very physical and curious about anything electronic.
When we got to our hotel room he immediately went over to the computer and turned it on and started moving the mouse around. He then managed to get a hold of the flip video and turned it on to watch video of himself. He gives us hugs and calls John,"Ba Ba" and knows that I am Mama. He's a great eater! We took him to dinner in the hotel and I ordered him congee with meat as the report says he eats congee everyday. We also ordered noodles and vegetables and shrimp dumplings. When I set the congee in front of him he immediately moved it to the side and went for the shrimp dumplings. He loved them! He even used large chopsticks with some success. I think as far as motor coordination he is not too far behind Lily but he is behind in other areas. He is talking a lot now and John is able to communicate to some degree. I find that pantomimes work well for me. He has a naughty side and likes to test what he can get away with. He will do something and then look for a response and he laughs when he knows you do not want him to do that. He giggles when you tickle his tummy and tolerates hugs and kisses well.
He and Lily are on totally different times....Luke stays up until 10:30 (really 8:30 Urumqi time) while Lily passed out on us by 7 last night. but luckily they both woke up at the same time this morning. Lily was so tired I just had to carry her to dinner and let her sleep on my lap while we ate. So far Lily is dealing well with jealousy issues. She is sweet to Luke and gave him her ballon when his popped.
Today we hope to get to a Walmart equivalent and I'll let the kids get some more toys. I can see Luke playing with cars or building things. He loves the magna doodle and quickly learned how to make the picture disappear.
Time to get ready for breakfast. The staff thought we were all so funny yesterday as all four families were the only ones eating at 7am (5am Urumqi time) I don't think we will ever get our times down. I miss my soft bed! This bed is so hard that if I lay on my side, the seams in my pjs painfully indent in my skin. What is with the hard beds?
The day was spent going from one office to another, signing, fingerprinting, photos and by 5:30 it was all done and Luke was legally our son.
It did not take long once we got back to the hotel to get a glimpse at Bo Bo's personality. He is very physical and curious about anything electronic.
When we got to our hotel room he immediately went over to the computer and turned it on and started moving the mouse around. He then managed to get a hold of the flip video and turned it on to watch video of himself. He gives us hugs and calls John,"Ba Ba" and knows that I am Mama. He's a great eater! We took him to dinner in the hotel and I ordered him congee with meat as the report says he eats congee everyday. We also ordered noodles and vegetables and shrimp dumplings. When I set the congee in front of him he immediately moved it to the side and went for the shrimp dumplings. He loved them! He even used large chopsticks with some success. I think as far as motor coordination he is not too far behind Lily but he is behind in other areas. He is talking a lot now and John is able to communicate to some degree. I find that pantomimes work well for me. He has a naughty side and likes to test what he can get away with. He will do something and then look for a response and he laughs when he knows you do not want him to do that. He giggles when you tickle his tummy and tolerates hugs and kisses well.
He and Lily are on totally different times....Luke stays up until 10:30 (really 8:30 Urumqi time) while Lily passed out on us by 7 last night. but luckily they both woke up at the same time this morning. Lily was so tired I just had to carry her to dinner and let her sleep on my lap while we ate. So far Lily is dealing well with jealousy issues. She is sweet to Luke and gave him her ballon when his popped.
Today we hope to get to a Walmart equivalent and I'll let the kids get some more toys. I can see Luke playing with cars or building things. He loves the magna doodle and quickly learned how to make the picture disappear.
Time to get ready for breakfast. The staff thought we were all so funny yesterday as all four families were the only ones eating at 7am (5am Urumqi time) I don't think we will ever get our times down. I miss my soft bed! This bed is so hard that if I lay on my side, the seams in my pjs painfully indent in my skin. What is with the hard beds?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thanks for the comments
Hey, just wanted to say a thanks to all the email we are getting, we love hearing from you: Lisa and Jada, Susan and Chuck, Eric, Dawn and Terry, sister Sue (Aunt Sue)...we will keep you posted.
We are in Urumqi!
I missed a day of posting but it was one long day and I'll try to post twice today to make up for it. We had our bags ready by 6am and left for the airport around 6:30. Our flight left at 8:45 and we arrived in Urumqi at 12:50. Lily slept for about 30 mins on the flight and was going strong the rest of the time, I wish I could say the same for her parents. It really helped to have ViVi for Lily to play with. Becky was great at giving the kids stuff to do on the airplane. They had a laptop with a cartoon DVD and it was funny to watch other passengers sneaking peaks of what the kids were watching. We met our local guide Wendy and made our way to our hotel the Hoi Tak. It is located right in the center of this huge city. The city looks different from other Chinese cities we have been to. Not sure at this point how to describe it, I think there is more space between the buildings, roads are not as narrow and more trees. We did see some interesting hillside dwellings that appear to back right into the hills. Our hotel is ultra modern and it took us some time to figure out how to make things work. Everything is run off one master control panel, the lights, the AC, the TV and DVD and it took us awhile to even discover the panel. Lily pointed to a box on the top shelf of the closet and asked me what it was. I had to explain that it was a gas mask. She was very interested in the picture of the adult with a gas mask on helping the child put on one. We are not in Springfield anymore.
While the Dad's took the kids swimming, the Mom's struggled to do the paperwork. The four of us met in Elsie's room and I think she had her heater turned up to 100 degrees. (meanwhile we are running the AC in our room) Elsie told us exactly what to put down as all the paperwork is in Chinese. We finally finished up around 5:30. We had run out of snacks at this point and needed a grocery store. Elsie and Wendy took us over to a shopping center. When you walk in you think you are in Macy's, the typical make-up counters are everywhere but in the basement is a full scale grocery store with live fish and turtle tanks. It always amazes me the number of employees in these places. I think realistically it was one employee per customer. I remember many times covering an entire Walmart with no help in site. We bought some snacks and headed back to the hotel. We were so tired at this point that room service was the only option. Lily fell asleep around 8 and had a restful night, thank goodness. John and I also caught up on some missing sleep, although the bed is made out of a sheet of plywood. I had time yesterday to unpack the suitcases and get the gifts ready for today.
It's about 6am and breakfast starts at 7. We leave for the civil affairs office at 9:40 to meet the kids. Urumqi is on the same time zone as Beijing but being so far West the sun does not come up until 8-9 so the people here have adjusted their time to coincide with the daylight. Normal work day starts at 10am, so we are meeting the kids bright and early. It will be a very hectic day. After our 2 hour "harmony time" with the kids (yes, we have 2 whole hours to bond before the adoption) we eat a quick lunch at the local KFC and then have two more stops to get the adoption finalized and send off for Luke's passport. There is no backing out at this point, not that we would no matter what but here we are all four families getting special needs children who are 3-5 years old, we've never met them, traveled halfway across the world to get them and in a few short hours they are legally our children. Am I excited? you bet. Am I scared? You bet! I see why the Chinese are so confused by our desire to adopt these children. Sometimes you just have to forge ahead and do what you think it right.
Lily is very excited to meet Luke and we are bringing lots of activities to keep them busy while we wade through the paperwork.
More later........
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Saturday continued
Well, I made it down to the pool just in time to see Daddy and Lily drying off. The pool was a little cool so it did not take Lily long to have enough. John said even the hot tub was around 90 degrees. Lily seemed satisfied just to have the experience. She took a nice hot bath and is now peacefully sleeping, let's hope it lasts until around 5am.
I forgot to mention earlier a funny experience while dining. Mr. Meng brought out two small bottles of what he called, "white wine" and he wanted John to try it. John took a small sip and told me it basically tasted like grain alcohol(baijiu). According to the label it was 56% alcohol (some wine) Mr. Meng started the toasting and each round it was he and John drinking the "wine." At one point they asked me through Mr. Wong if it was ok for John to be drinking so much. I said as long as we were not
driving it was ok with me. The sips they took were very small and the bottles were probably about 1/2 pint. John felt no effect but they kept a close watch on him and marveled at his ability. We thought it was kind of funny. In Petter Hesssler's book "River Town" he describes having the same experience. Evidently the Chinese have a low threshold for alcohol, not sure of the scientific evidence to support that.
I know I mentioned the awful traffic earlier but another interesting point are the crosswalks. There are the typical white painted lines on the streets and they appear to be typical "safe" crossing zones. Don't believe it for a minute! Pedestrians do not have the right of way and it made me wonder why they even designate a spot to cross. I decided it is so the cars have a target to shoot for. You basically walk out one lane at a time and pause in the middle while bikes, buses, cars and scooters zoom around on all sides. So far I have not observed a single accident but it makes my heart pound just knowing I need to get to the other side.
Tomorrow is our flight to Urumqi. Our bags need to be ready to go at 6am and we leave for the airport at 6:30am. It is about a 4 hour flight. We are told we will meet Luke on Monday morning so we will have tomorrow afternoon to get settled in. I can tell Miss Lily is getting very excited to meet her new brother. We have talked extensively about what might happen and how Luke might feel and react. For a 4 year old Lily shows great empathy for others and how they might feel. She can't wait to get out all the toys I brought for her and Luke to play with together.
We have talked to Elsie our CHI guide and explained how much we wish to visit the orphanage and get the chance to meet Luke's foster Mother or at least have questions answered about his life up to this point. Elsie says it is a call the orphanage director makes but she will make the plea. The three other families traveling with us feel the same way and all four of our kids are within a year of each other and probably know each other from the orphanage preschool.
Time for bed so we are ready to make an early start. Next stop Urumqi or Wulumuqi (as the Chinese call it)
I forgot to mention earlier a funny experience while dining. Mr. Meng brought out two small bottles of what he called, "white wine" and he wanted John to try it. John took a small sip and told me it basically tasted like grain alcohol(baijiu). According to the label it was 56% alcohol (some wine) Mr. Meng started the toasting and each round it was he and John drinking the "wine." At one point they asked me through Mr. Wong if it was ok for John to be drinking so much. I said as long as we were not
driving it was ok with me. The sips they took were very small and the bottles were probably about 1/2 pint. John felt no effect but they kept a close watch on him and marveled at his ability. We thought it was kind of funny. In Petter Hesssler's book "River Town" he describes having the same experience. Evidently the Chinese have a low threshold for alcohol, not sure of the scientific evidence to support that.
I know I mentioned the awful traffic earlier but another interesting point are the crosswalks. There are the typical white painted lines on the streets and they appear to be typical "safe" crossing zones. Don't believe it for a minute! Pedestrians do not have the right of way and it made me wonder why they even designate a spot to cross. I decided it is so the cars have a target to shoot for. You basically walk out one lane at a time and pause in the middle while bikes, buses, cars and scooters zoom around on all sides. So far I have not observed a single accident but it makes my heart pound just knowing I need to get to the other side.
Tomorrow is our flight to Urumqi. Our bags need to be ready to go at 6am and we leave for the airport at 6:30am. It is about a 4 hour flight. We are told we will meet Luke on Monday morning so we will have tomorrow afternoon to get settled in. I can tell Miss Lily is getting very excited to meet her new brother. We have talked extensively about what might happen and how Luke might feel and react. For a 4 year old Lily shows great empathy for others and how they might feel. She can't wait to get out all the toys I brought for her and Luke to play with together.
We have talked to Elsie our CHI guide and explained how much we wish to visit the orphanage and get the chance to meet Luke's foster Mother or at least have questions answered about his life up to this point. Elsie says it is a call the orphanage director makes but she will make the plea. The three other families traveling with us feel the same way and all four of our kids are within a year of each other and probably know each other from the orphanage preschool.
Time for bed so we are ready to make an early start. Next stop Urumqi or Wulumuqi (as the Chinese call it)
A day at the market
Greetings, it is our last day in Beijing! We met up with our professor friends, Meng Lei and Sun Li around 9am. They had taken the train over yesterday (about a 5 hour ride) and John had tea with them down in the lobby of the hotel last night. They arrived with a friend, Mr. Wong who could speak English to help us translate. Mr. Wong has a doctorate degree as a medical doctor and works for a pharmaceutical company. He brought along the company driver to take us around Beijing. The traffic is awful and I think the driver just continued driving around while we shopped. We went to a large open market, and I mean large. There is a photo of John and Lily at the market. It was kind of like a flea market with open booths and lots of people selling everything from Jade to Buddha. Mr. Meng has also brought along friends who are experts in telling the fake from the real. I think they had visions that we were there to buy some world treasures when all we really wanted were some inexpensive gifts to bring to Lily's classmates and friends. We did find such a booth and as I picked out what I wanted, Mr. Wong talked to the proprietor and Mrs. Wong did the bargaining, yes, it took three of us to get it. I ended up getting fancy chopsticks, handpainted for all of Lily's classmates and at 40RMB for 20 pair (a little over $5). Lily meanwhile was getting sleepy. That is what happends when you insist on getting up at 1am! Only Mommy would do and to top it off about 3" of her legs were exposed while I was carrying her and you would have thought I was a very bad mother for letting that skin show. I think the general size of the crowd and all the cigarette smoke was much more detrimental to her health, but that was not the general consensus. Lily did announce while we were walking the market that she did not see people spitting like I had told her. Of course I could hear it going on all around us. She decided she needed to be one of the locals and did her best to spit on the sidewalk several times.
Next we were off for a long leisurely lunch. Mr. Meng had reserved a room at a restaurant known for Peking Duck. There were a total of 10 of us in a little room. Soon in walked a cook with a fish still wiggling on a string, he wanted to make sure we approved of our dinner before they cooked it. I was expecting to see a duck walk in next, but I guess he was already on the chopping block. Soon dishes of food started to arrive and didn't stop. There was an interesting assortment and I tried not to ask too many questions. Lily did focus on one particular plate and I asked Mr. Wong what is was. The interpretation was "lung of cow." We passed on that plate. Lily ate well of the vegetables and egg and I tried to be as daring as possible and really didn't eat anything that tasted bad. Traditional Chinese food is very different from Springfield style cashew chicken. Everyone helps themselves from the main plate with the chopsticks they are using, but I tried hard to not think about the germ factor. We were probably the sickest ones there with our colds so I hope they didn't catch it from us. Lily was the star of the show with Mr. Meng. She started giving him high 5s and he would pretend that she was hurting his hand and he would blow on it and make faces and of course that was all the encouragement Lily needed. Lily did sing a song in Chinese for the group and they seemed pleased. Lily also had another first, she successfully used the squatty potty. This is good coming from a girl who is very particular about her potties. When we had to use the restroom at the restaurant they pointed down a long narrow hallway. We actually had to cross outside in an alley to the potty. Once Lily had the technique down she actually enjoyed it, similar to peeing in the backyard (which she does on occasion if we are not watching).
Ok, Daddy and Lily are down in the pool so I need to catch up. I'll post more later.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Sightseeing Experience
Today we signed up for an extra tour and traveled with about 27 other CHIers first to a HutongHutong in Chinese means alleyway and the hutongs are an example of old Chinese architecture, when homes were encapsulated by walls and contained courtyards and extended families lived together. At one time there were over 6000 hutongs in Beijing but most have been destroyed to make way for the high rises. Recently the government has made an effort to preserve some of the remaining hutongs. We rode in rickshaws through the narrow streets and alleys in the neighborhood committee of "Liu Yin Jie." Lily enjoyed the ride in the rickshaw. We went to the local drum tower of this Hutong. The drum tower was used to let the people know what time it was. We climbed nearly straight up into the tower and watched a drumming demonstration. You would definitely know what time it was after hearing that.
Our rickshaws next took us to a kindergarten. We got to observe the children during their morning play time. Lily just watched wide eyed. I think it was probably amazing to her that there were so many children her size who looked a lot like her. She did get to try out the playground area. Next we took the rickshaws once again to a personal home for lunch. The house was part of a Hutong and the hostess told us she and her brother and a sister and her father all lived there. The house was over 150 years old and her family had lived there over 40 years. We ate in two rooms and were served several dishes; sticky rice, potatoes, dumplings, several vegetable dishes, meatballs. Lily actually ate pretty well but spent much of the time encouraging the family dog over to her side. The family also had a cat and when Lily had to use their restroom, we found a very large bird in a cage.
After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven. I don't think China knows what ADA is because many of these attractions are not user friendly if you have a 3 year old in a stroller! We did a lot of walking and I did a lot of carrying a very sleepy Lily. I must say she has been a trooper through it all. It started to drizzle rain on us at this point and the walk-ways and stairs became very slippery (no hand rails of course) but we made it safely back on the bus. Lily actually fell fast asleep during this part of the tour and I don't know what makes a sleeping child heavier than an awake one but I swear there is a difference!
We are now in our room drinking hot tea and trying to warm up a bit. Lily made the transition back into bed quiet easily and is fast asleep. While my coughing has improved John's suspected allergies have turned into a full fledged cold. It's a stuffed up in his head and so he has now taken a hot bath and is resting. We are supposed to be ready to head to the acrobats in an hour but I'm thinking we need a bit more time to recoup from a busy day. We still have plenty of time to sight see in the days ahead. Monday is our family reunion day where we will finally meet Luke. I've decided to strike "gotcha day" off my vocabulary. I think family reunion day sounds much more warm and fuzzy.
I will have John download the photos from today later but wanted to jot this down while it was still fresh in my mind.
Our rickshaws next took us to a kindergarten. We got to observe the children during their morning play time. Lily just watched wide eyed. I think it was probably amazing to her that there were so many children her size who looked a lot like her. She did get to try out the playground area. Next we took the rickshaws once again to a personal home for lunch. The house was part of a Hutong and the hostess told us she and her brother and a sister and her father all lived there. The house was over 150 years old and her family had lived there over 40 years. We ate in two rooms and were served several dishes; sticky rice, potatoes, dumplings, several vegetable dishes, meatballs. Lily actually ate pretty well but spent much of the time encouraging the family dog over to her side. The family also had a cat and when Lily had to use their restroom, we found a very large bird in a cage.
After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven. I don't think China knows what ADA is because many of these attractions are not user friendly if you have a 3 year old in a stroller! We did a lot of walking and I did a lot of carrying a very sleepy Lily. I must say she has been a trooper through it all. It started to drizzle rain on us at this point and the walk-ways and stairs became very slippery (no hand rails of course) but we made it safely back on the bus. Lily actually fell fast asleep during this part of the tour and I don't know what makes a sleeping child heavier than an awake one but I swear there is a difference!
We are now in our room drinking hot tea and trying to warm up a bit. Lily made the transition back into bed quiet easily and is fast asleep. While my coughing has improved John's suspected allergies have turned into a full fledged cold. It's a stuffed up in his head and so he has now taken a hot bath and is resting. We are supposed to be ready to head to the acrobats in an hour but I'm thinking we need a bit more time to recoup from a busy day. We still have plenty of time to sight see in the days ahead. Monday is our family reunion day where we will finally meet Luke. I've decided to strike "gotcha day" off my vocabulary. I think family reunion day sounds much more warm and fuzzy.
I will have John download the photos from today later but wanted to jot this down while it was still fresh in my mind.
We Made It!
After a very long plane ride with very little sleep for any of us, we are here in Beijing. John now has a full blown cold and my bronchitis is clearing up so we are basically both worn out. Miss Lily is full steam ahead! We quickly met up with Kim and Steve from Missouri and Becky and Antonio and Vivi from Chicago. Lily and Vivi hit it off from the start! It was very helpful to have both of them on the same flight so they could have some play time together. I took a picture of the back of their heads while they were working intently on play-dough masterpieces.
We arrived in Beijing 30 mins ahead of schedule. We also picked the first day that Beijing opened the new terminal in preparation for the Olympics. It seemed to take forever to get through immigration. The man would look at your passport and then look at you and back and forth until he was satisfied it was really you. He even made me take Lily's fingers out of her mouth so he could see her full face. (Those fingers make a great disguise!)
We met up with our CHI guide Elsie and off we went to the hotel, the Wangfujing. We stayed up long enough to hike over to the closest C-store for some bottled water and bowls of dried noodles. By 7pm Miss Lily was fast asleep and we were not far behind. At 2am however, she was up and ready to roll. We managed to keep her occupied with Chinese tv and DVDs until breakfast at 6:30am. We are heading out to tour all day so I'll post more later. Just wanted to let everyone know we are safe and sound.
We arrived in Beijing 30 mins ahead of schedule. We also picked the first day that Beijing opened the new terminal in preparation for the Olympics. It seemed to take forever to get through immigration. The man would look at your passport and then look at you and back and forth until he was satisfied it was really you. He even made me take Lily's fingers out of her mouth so he could see her full face. (Those fingers make a great disguise!)
We met up with our CHI guide Elsie and off we went to the hotel, the Wangfujing. We stayed up long enough to hike over to the closest C-store for some bottled water and bowls of dried noodles. By 7pm Miss Lily was fast asleep and we were not far behind. At 2am however, she was up and ready to roll. We managed to keep her occupied with Chinese tv and DVDs until breakfast at 6:30am. We are heading out to tour all day so I'll post more later. Just wanted to let everyone know we are safe and sound.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Ready to Go!
It looks like we are finally ready to head to China! The suitcases are getting full and we have checked and rechecked the paperwork. We will be leaving the house at 4am to catch our 6am flight to Chicago. We will actually get to Beijing Thursday afternoon China time (2am our time) so you won't hear from me for awhile. We will post when we make it safe to China. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Minor set back
Well I went to my family physician today and she diagnosed bronchitis in my lungs. I am now on antibiotics in case it is bacterial and also prednisone and a strong cough medicine. I'm glad I went now instead to waiting it out all weekend. I should feel much better by the time we leave. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed that Miss Lily and John do not get this. I'm looking forward to a good nights sleep.
We are going out for Vietnamese food tonight with the family who is hosting Yue Jia while we are gone. I did an inspection there the other day and it all looked really good except for the pork knuckles!
We are going out for Vietnamese food tonight with the family who is hosting Yue Jia while we are gone. I did an inspection there the other day and it all looked really good except for the pork knuckles!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Itinerary arrives!
This afternoon I got the email I had been waiting for, our itinerary.
March 27th arrive in Beijing, stay at Wangfujing hotel over looking forbidden city
March 28- Temple of heaven in the morning, lunch at Dai Jia Cun rst. and Hutong tour and Chinese acrobat show in the afternoon.
March 29-Meet and tour with Meng Lei and Sun Li, two music professors from Qing Dao
March 30-Fly to Urumqi, stay at the five star hotel Hoi Tak
March 31-Meet LUKE in the morning, adoption done in the afternoon
April 1-Free day
April 2-sightseeing Museum
April 3-sightseeing, local market
April 4-Get our papers back
April 5-Fly to Guangzhou and stay at the White Swan hotel
April 6-free day(meaning shopping of course)
April 7-Medical exam for Luke (Lily will be happy it is not for her)
April 8-Consulate appt-farewell dinner
April 9-go to consulate in the morning, get visa in the afternoon
April 10-Long journey home!
Our guide for the journey is Children's Hope international employee Elsie.
There will be our family and three others traveling to each of the three cities together. There are 24 families in all but everyone splits up and goes to the province where their child is waiting after Beijing and then we all meet up again in GZ. Our four families (the female half anyway) have been emailing like crazy the past few days comparing information.
ok, now I just have to get to feeling better so I can get it all done. John will do his packing the morning we get ready to leave, he is only responsible for himself. I have been the hunter and gatherer for the trip, buying all those cute little bottles of this and that and picking out gifts for guides and officials and aunties.
One more day of work to get through. It is going quickly.
March 27th arrive in Beijing, stay at Wangfujing hotel over looking forbidden city
March 28- Temple of heaven in the morning, lunch at Dai Jia Cun rst. and Hutong tour and Chinese acrobat show in the afternoon.
March 29-Meet and tour with Meng Lei and Sun Li, two music professors from Qing Dao
March 30-Fly to Urumqi, stay at the five star hotel Hoi Tak
March 31-Meet LUKE in the morning, adoption done in the afternoon
April 1-Free day
April 2-sightseeing Museum
April 3-sightseeing, local market
April 4-Get our papers back
April 5-Fly to Guangzhou and stay at the White Swan hotel
April 6-free day(meaning shopping of course)
April 7-Medical exam for Luke (Lily will be happy it is not for her)
April 8-Consulate appt-farewell dinner
April 9-go to consulate in the morning, get visa in the afternoon
April 10-Long journey home!
Our guide for the journey is Children's Hope international employee Elsie.
There will be our family and three others traveling to each of the three cities together. There are 24 families in all but everyone splits up and goes to the province where their child is waiting after Beijing and then we all meet up again in GZ. Our four families (the female half anyway) have been emailing like crazy the past few days comparing information.
ok, now I just have to get to feeling better so I can get it all done. John will do his packing the morning we get ready to leave, he is only responsible for himself. I have been the hunter and gatherer for the trip, buying all those cute little bottles of this and that and picking out gifts for guides and officials and aunties.
One more day of work to get through. It is going quickly.
Can't Sleep
So, what does one do when they can't sleep (due to fits of coughing) at 2:30am?, why they get up and drink some hot Chai tea and blog.......yes, I have managed to catch a cold of sorts, so far just a tight chest and nagging cough. I have been trying to stay healthy but I think the stress of it all has caught up. My fear as I told John is that after coughing my way through the flight, the Chinese will pull me to the side to make sure I am not bringing something dreadful like TB into the country. I remember another adoptive parent telling me it happened to her because she was having allergy issues and the passengers reported that she did a lot of coughing on the plane.Like I don't have enough to worry about!
Today is the day when we will get our final travel plans, including where we will be staying. We will also get that final big bill covering all lodging and in country travel. I'm sure it will be a bit more expensive this go around with Lily included and the fact that the kids are older and that flights are priced by age. I am just anxious to get the final details of where we will be staying.
Lily has been showing signs of anxiety. She had a full blown melt down last week, the kind where you can't understand a word she is saying, it is just "Na, Na, Na" over and over and a look of "you can't understand what I am feeling." Finally after trying to hold her and comfort her she calmed down enough to tell me she was scared to go to China. You have to think of what must be going through her head at this point. She knows she is from China and she knows we are going back to China. I asked her if she was afraid Mommy and Daddy were going to leave her in China and she shook her head yes. I assured her that we would never leave her side for a moment while in China and to think of this as a vacation. She had such a good time on our trip to Disney World that she insisted we needed to stay and live at the hotel we were staying at. I told her China would be like that too, wonderful hotels, a room to share with Mommy and Daddy and a new brother too. She seemed to digest that information and the melt down was over.
Lily says the cutest, sweetest things sometimes. While Lily, Yue Jia and I were in the car yesterday Lily said, "I miss my real Mom." Since she has said this before I knew right where she was going with it, but Yue Jia interpreted it to mean that Lily missed her birth Mom. I took the bait and said, "Lily, where is your real Mom right now?" Yue Jia asked her, "did you dream about her?" to which Lily replied, "no, she's sitting right in front of me driving the car!" I love being referred to as her "real Mom." Lily has quite the imagination and often refers to her imaginary Mom and Dad and big brother. She likes to tell funny stories about them that mirror image something from our family and then she laughs and laughs. I've never referred to myself as her "real Mom," that is totally a Lily expression. I often wondered if her "imaginary Mom" was really referrencing her birth Mom, but one day Lily told me she had three Mom's, "one in China, one imaginary Mom and you Mom!" I guess it takes three Mom's to raise one little girl.
Well, my tea is gone and I think I'll try to get a little sleep before another work day begins. Work has been very hectic this week. I had to close a restaurant and spend a lot of time with them on education and inspections before they were allowed to reopen. I will not be able to reach my inspection goal by the end of the week and feel bad leaving anything undone. It is not the end of the world and I'll just have to pick up where I left off when I get back in May. My co-workers are great and even though we are short three employees, not one of them has complained about me leaving and stressing them out with more more work and three new employees to train starting next Monday. Ok, the only one who has complained is my boss, but he says it in a joking manner. More later after we get our final travel plans this afternoon.
Today is the day when we will get our final travel plans, including where we will be staying. We will also get that final big bill covering all lodging and in country travel. I'm sure it will be a bit more expensive this go around with Lily included and the fact that the kids are older and that flights are priced by age. I am just anxious to get the final details of where we will be staying.
Lily has been showing signs of anxiety. She had a full blown melt down last week, the kind where you can't understand a word she is saying, it is just "Na, Na, Na" over and over and a look of "you can't understand what I am feeling." Finally after trying to hold her and comfort her she calmed down enough to tell me she was scared to go to China. You have to think of what must be going through her head at this point. She knows she is from China and she knows we are going back to China. I asked her if she was afraid Mommy and Daddy were going to leave her in China and she shook her head yes. I assured her that we would never leave her side for a moment while in China and to think of this as a vacation. She had such a good time on our trip to Disney World that she insisted we needed to stay and live at the hotel we were staying at. I told her China would be like that too, wonderful hotels, a room to share with Mommy and Daddy and a new brother too. She seemed to digest that information and the melt down was over.
Lily says the cutest, sweetest things sometimes. While Lily, Yue Jia and I were in the car yesterday Lily said, "I miss my real Mom." Since she has said this before I knew right where she was going with it, but Yue Jia interpreted it to mean that Lily missed her birth Mom. I took the bait and said, "Lily, where is your real Mom right now?" Yue Jia asked her, "did you dream about her?" to which Lily replied, "no, she's sitting right in front of me driving the car!" I love being referred to as her "real Mom." Lily has quite the imagination and often refers to her imaginary Mom and Dad and big brother. She likes to tell funny stories about them that mirror image something from our family and then she laughs and laughs. I've never referred to myself as her "real Mom," that is totally a Lily expression. I often wondered if her "imaginary Mom" was really referrencing her birth Mom, but one day Lily told me she had three Mom's, "one in China, one imaginary Mom and you Mom!" I guess it takes three Mom's to raise one little girl.
Well, my tea is gone and I think I'll try to get a little sleep before another work day begins. Work has been very hectic this week. I had to close a restaurant and spend a lot of time with them on education and inspections before they were allowed to reopen. I will not be able to reach my inspection goal by the end of the week and feel bad leaving anything undone. It is not the end of the world and I'll just have to pick up where I left off when I get back in May. My co-workers are great and even though we are short three employees, not one of them has complained about me leaving and stressing them out with more more work and three new employees to train starting next Monday. Ok, the only one who has complained is my boss, but he says it in a joking manner. More later after we get our final travel plans this afternoon.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
More photos of Luke appear...
Here is another photo of a much younger Luke. In all Kelsey emailed me 25 photos from 2006. Priceless photos from an earlier time. His pouty full lips give him away in the photos.
I've made yet another run to Walmart for trip supplies. I have a feeling our two suitcases are not going to be enough. Our neighbor, Ross Bebout has vounteered to take us to the airport and pick us up, saving us the parking fee for 15 days. It did not seem to phase him to know that our flight leaves at 6am!
We had another birthday celebration for Logan and Lily on Friday night and John's sister Kim and her friend Michelle joined us too. It was a great meal at Fuji's Japanese Steakhouse. I had just inspected them on Tuesday and gave them a clean bill of health. Lily was not too crazy about the flames shooting up off the grill, in fact she hid under the table for that part, but we all enjoyed the food. John's Mom bought the kids a trampoline. Ok, I have heard all the horror stories, but we did get a large one (13x14) with padding all around and high netting on all sides. Lily gets on the big trampolines at gymnastics and loves it. Now our backyard is completely full. It is a kid's dream with a tree house, sandbox, swingset and trampoline. The netting around the trampoline locks and with our 6' privacy fence I don't think we will have problems with other kids getting on it when we are not around.
It looks like another busy week as the countdown goes on.......
Friday, March 7, 2008
What a coincidence!
Ok, try this one on. I get email from a woman named Kelsey Milliken who says she found my blog as a link on someone elses blog and she has traveled to Urumqi two times and has pictures of Luke Tian Bo as a little guy, how cool is that?
she sent one today and it certainly does look like his round little cheeks. She has more photos saved on disks. What a wonderful surprise to see this part of his life. Makes me kind of sad too knowing that I wasn't there for him. See what you think.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
More Birthday Photos
Just wanted to add a couple more photos from Lily's birthday at home. School was cancelled all day so Lily got to play out in the snow with Yue Jia. Today, even though she is already 4 she is bringing healthy snacks to school and wearing her "birthday girl" pin. She told me today it feels good to be "big."
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Happy Birthday Lily!
today is the official birthday for Miss Lily. She woke up at 6 and started in on her presents. She got a princess activity book with over 500 stickers (a busy book for time on the airplane), a Hannah Montana wig, a microphone with stand and speakers, a doctors dress up kit and a cheer leader puppet. Lily also woke up to the surprise of 6" of snow and no school until 1pm! (she gets out when they call off school at the university) Public schools are out today so she and Yue Jia are in the process of putting on layers to go outside sledding. Looks like Mom is the only one going to work today (boohoo)
We had a Chuck E.Cheese party for Lily and friends on Saturday and I've posted a few photos from that. For some reason Lily kind of freaked out when Chuck E. appeared. This coming from a girl who hugged every Disney character while we were in Disney World at Christmas. Maybe it is because I refer to Chuck E as "the big rat."
We had a Chuck E.Cheese party for Lily and friends on Saturday and I've posted a few photos from that. For some reason Lily kind of freaked out when Chuck E. appeared. This coming from a girl who hugged every Disney character while we were in Disney World at Christmas. Maybe it is because I refer to Chuck E as "the big rat."
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Travel Dates are set, hopefully!
As long as Darren at AAA can get us the flights we have decided to leave on Wednesday March 26 so we will arrive in Beijing on the 27th. We will have all day on the 27th and 28th to sightsee. Children's hope has a planned tour on the 27th to go to the Temple of Heaven in the morning, lunch at Dai Jia Cun Restaurant, Hutong Tour and Chinese Acrobat show in the afternoon. A whole day of tourning and lunch for $60/adult and $40/child, sounds like a good deal to me.
On Saturday we hope our professor friends from Qingdao University will take the train over and go with us sightseeing. John wants to go to the Great Wall again as he thinks he can climb more stairs this time, HA.
Sunday the 30th our four families will fly to Xinjiang and get settled in and on Monday the 31st, we meet our new son for the first time. The adoption is finalized on April 1st. I asked our exchange student Yue Jia if there was an significance to April 1 in China, and she said, "you mean foolish day?" Oh just great! It means the same thing there. She assured me it was borrowed from Western culture and not a Chinese original.
I'm now in the hunting and gathering mode for the trip. I've had the suitcases out and every once in awhile I'll toss something in. I feel like we are pretty well organized at this point. We should get our visas back this week and our brand new money came into the bank yesterday. In China they are very picky about the condition of our money, it must be in pristine condition, no ink marks, no creases. We were able to order brand new $100 this time around.
We should be flying back to the US on the 10th of April. If we leave early on the 10th, we may even make it back late on the 10th (gain 13 hours) It is a very long trip and I'm hoping our two 4 year olds will be sleepy on the way back. More posting to come.....
On Saturday we hope our professor friends from Qingdao University will take the train over and go with us sightseeing. John wants to go to the Great Wall again as he thinks he can climb more stairs this time, HA.
Sunday the 30th our four families will fly to Xinjiang and get settled in and on Monday the 31st, we meet our new son for the first time. The adoption is finalized on April 1st. I asked our exchange student Yue Jia if there was an significance to April 1 in China, and she said, "you mean foolish day?" Oh just great! It means the same thing there. She assured me it was borrowed from Western culture and not a Chinese original.
I'm now in the hunting and gathering mode for the trip. I've had the suitcases out and every once in awhile I'll toss something in. I feel like we are pretty well organized at this point. We should get our visas back this week and our brand new money came into the bank yesterday. In China they are very picky about the condition of our money, it must be in pristine condition, no ink marks, no creases. We were able to order brand new $100 this time around.
We should be flying back to the US on the 10th of April. If we leave early on the 10th, we may even make it back late on the 10th (gain 13 hours) It is a very long trip and I'm hoping our two 4 year olds will be sleepy on the way back. More posting to come.....
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