What You've All Been Waiting For

This was one crazy, busy, wonderful day.  We left our hotel at 4:45 a.m., landed in Nanchang at 9:50 a.m. and arrived at the hotel at 10:45ish to a waiting baby.  It was crazy fast and really actually fairly smooth.  We watched her across from the lobby as we waited for our guide to check us in and then went to the back room to meet her.  She was handed to me almost immediately and made no peep.  When she started to cry just a little they said she was hungry as her last bottle was at 7:00 a.m., gave us some formula (for us to pay for later), some papers and our guide told us to go to our room.  We had to leave in less than two hours for our first of the three adoption appointments for today.  Now I want to give you details, etc. but I know at this time you are so not interested...and I only have a few minutes to spend at the computer at a time.  She is quite content with Daddy, but I am not content to not be staring at or holding her.

So here is our absolutely amazing, beautiful, fantastic, and wonderful new baby girl...Sweet Pea:

Pretty sad and mellow that first hour.  She quietly waited while Daddy prepped her bottle.

Facetiming with the kids back home so they could meet baby sister.  She wasn't too fond of the bottle, but loved the cheerios.

Waiting for our first appointment

Still pretty solemn, but we did get our first smile by tickling her tummy like the Orphanage Director did while we were waiting for our interview.  She has the most adorable giggle ever!

Room service congee and a new toy. 

Then an hour of fantastically happy play time.  She'd giggle and we'd giggle.

It was the best day ever.  Oh, we just all adore her. 

Maybe tomorrow or sooner if she sleeps well and I don't, I'll post some more details...but I'm sure these pictures will tide you over.  Who wouldn't love staring at that sweet face?*

*By the way, I actually held her the majority of the time, but somehow I seemed to like the pictures I took of the day better than my other choices... 

** More pictures from our first day together can be found in a follow-up blog post here.
 

Last Day in Beijing

Oh my feet!  We had an excellent day, but 3 days of walking is enough for me.  Good thing tomorrow is fly, then meet our daughter (in the hotel), then take it slow as we get to know each other.  I know I should be anxious or excited or a whole mix of things, but mostly I just feel peace.  Finally she will be in our arms.  How ever it all plays out doesn't matter; there are too many possible scenarios to guess and worry about, so why bother.  We will find our stride in time.  I am just so happy and content to be finally at the start of our journey together.  I may play a different tune tomorrow, but today I feel more peace and contentment about our daughter than I've felt this whole, long process.  While I believe we are Plan B, C, or even D for our daughter, I feel complete confidence that we are the perfect Plan D for each other (hmmm, she is plan A for us...but hopefully you understand what I mean without all the appropriate caveats).

So no profound blog post...and no energy to do my photos from today justice.  So you get one photo and a quick run down of our day.  (This is mostly for my good friend in Colorado and for helping me remember.)

Tienanmen Square first, then a walk through the Forbidden City.  We must have been moving pretty slow because towards the end he really rushed us through the Royal Garden...which is where I would have loved to have spent the whole time.

Poor Oak was a little anxious when I would lag behind taking pictures, but I always had someone from the group in my sight...even if I did have to run to keep up occasionally.  It wasn't too risky since everyone in the city was going the same direction.

Then we took a Hutong Tour.  I had to google that before I came, but I know the rest of you know what that is.  No?  Well, we rode in rickshaws around the old part of Beijing and stopped at one person's home.  Our guide was named "Potato," but he told us we could call him "Spud" if we like.  At some point I will post pictures of the home, it was very interesting.  Oak purchased a painting of the Chinese characters of Sweet Pea's Chinese name.  It was fascinating to watch and Huckleberry said it was the coolest thing he had seen in China.  I guess Tienanmen Square didn't make much of an impression. 

Then we went to a Chinese restaurant (not on our agency map, but arranged by our guide) and had the best meal we'd had so far.  It even included a tomato and egg dish I remembered from my last trip to Beijing 15 years ago.  It still tasted just as delicious.  I had our guide write the name down in Chinese so we can order it in Nanchang.  So excited about that!  Sure we want to experiment and explore, but I also want to fill up.


We got back to the hotel and we planned, just Oak, Huckleberry and I, to go to the Summer Palace.  Our guide wrote down the name so we could take a taxi.  It would be about an hour ride.  However, when we went downstairs the hotel staff said the Summer Palace closed at 5 and we might not make it in time.  So after a few pointing at map and time questions we ended up taking a taxi to the Temple of Heaven.  We had an awesome time.  However, while when we got there some of the main attractions in the park were open, by the time we'd explored and decided which part to pay more to see (Oak and Huckleberry didn't want to walk through EVERYTHING, and I can't say I blamed them) the attractions, like the actual Temple were closed.  It was okay, though.  The grounds were beautiful and we saw several different musical performances.  Plus it was a real joy to be able to stop and take pictures on my own timing!  Looking forward to Nanchang for that reason, too...though the real reason for going outweighs that by a long shot!


So I should...and will...tell you about how we got back to the hotel, but lets just say it was a grand adventure and we did make it by 8:00 p.m.  Now we are finishing packing...very quickly...and then off to sleep.  We meet our travel group at 4:30 a.m. (yes, China time) in order to fly to Jiangxi Province!  Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
 

The Great Wall Plus Some

Okay, I'll admit it.  I am completely exhausted.  I don't think it is jetlag so much as I climbed this today.

Though I declined the invitation to go further after awhile, Oak and Huckleberry went on for a little bit longer.  

But before we went to the Great Wall of China we had breakfast and facetimed with the kids back home (where the first question they asked was "where is baby sister?" and the second statement was "we went to the MALL today!"  Then we went to a Cloisonne factory.  It was fascinating to see how it was made and there was some really beautiful things...none of which we purchased.

Then we went to the Great Wall of China.  Personally I was hoping for the section of the wall that has the sky lift and toboggan, but no this part required all leg power.  I am pretty sure it is different from the part I had visited before, so that was nice.  It really is an impressive wonder.  We chose to climb the "steeper but less popular side."  Since we made it back safe, I am glad we were able to avoid crowds.

Though the popular side didn't look all that more gentle!  But one man from our travel group did go up both for a ways and agreed with the description.

We were pretty hot and tired by the end, so we bought some drinks and Huckleberry picked out his postcards and we sat for a little bit with others waiting for the time to load the air conditioned bus.

Then we went to a Jade Store to have lunch.  The food was very good, the information about Jade was very interesting, and everything was very pretty.  Again no purchase.

Now at this point I was so ready to go back to the hotel, but we had one more stop to make.  It was nice to visit the home of the 2008 Olympics, but I think I would have been equally as happy creating this photo in Photoshop.

It might actually have turned out a better photograph that way...
Then we had one more 1/2 hour to get back to the hotel.  Some of these roads and buildings are starting to seem familiar.  

It is so very different from the Beijing I visited 15 years ago.  Maybe because the area is different or maybe because it has just changed that much.  

Our guide filled us in on a lot of Chinese history ancient and current as we traveled around in our bus today.  Often he started a phrase when talking about current culture with 10-15 years ago it was very different.  He has also taught us 6 Chinese words.  We get two more words tomorrow.

Finally we were back at the hotel.  It was only a little after 5 and we wanted dinner.  We checked out the Chinese restaurant in the hotel but decided to take the walk to the other restaurant we'd already been to (similar menu at half the prices...)   It turned out fine and great, but I was not sure we would be able to cross the street.  The street light was broken AND the local flea market was just ending so there were people, cars, buses, bikes, and even dogs everywhere.  On the way back it seemed empty in comparison.  

But we made it across eventually, had a tasty dinner of snow peas, stone pot chicken, steamed rice, and the dumplings we liked before.  Our tea was bitter fairly quickly, but we enjoyed trying out one more flavor.

Then we stopped at the grocery to get a few more cokes, some chips and cookies, and laundry soap and headed back to our room.  Oak and Huckleberry went swimming and I looked at my pictures from the day.  Now it is 9:00 p.m. and we are about to turn in.  Tomorrow we tour until 2:00 p.m. with our agency and if we can sustain any energy I'm still hoping to squeeze in the Summer Palace in the late afternoon.  But we'll see.  It is more important we feel rested and healthy when we meet our new daughter the day after tomorrow!!!!!!
 

Pictures from Today, our Friday May 4th

Today started with a bang, literally.  The power cord plugging in the warmers at breakfast exploded and started a mini fire.  Don't worry, it didn't interrupt breakfast, everyone just went around it to grab their food.  It also thankfully did not spread.

Then we went to the grocery store.  

We bought water and coke.

Huckleberry loved it. So many different fruits he had never seen, but his favorite thing was the dried dandelions in the tea section.

My favorite part was the telephone booths every block or so.  If we still had them in the United States I wouldn't have had to cave and get a cell phone a few months ago.

I feel pretty conspicuous with my giant camera around my neck, but Oak and Huckleberry blended right in.

After the grocery we successfully talked to the kids on facetime.  SnapDragon wanted us to show him the whole room with the camera and asked us to stop so he could see the picture on the wall better.  We mostly saw him and the top of Sunflower's hair...she didn't quite get the concept of keeping her face in view.  They both seemed pretty excited to be at our house with Aunt Hannah.

Then we did meet with the other families in our travel group and we went to the bank to wire money.  Well, actually we met them at the bank since they left without us.  (Our China rep counted 6 families and left...but there were apparently 7 families going.  But the bank was on our little map and we found it on our own.  She never realized she'd left us behind.)

  It was a long and hot time (if the bank had air conditioning it was set to 85 F) but we are relieved to be done with that now.  We also got to know our travel mates quite a bit better in that time.  I enjoyed hearing many of their stories on how they came to this moment in time about to meet their new child.  So very exciting!

I was politely asked not to take pictures in the bank, but I snapped this one before it was translated (others took pictures with their cells, but no one had noticed that).  You can pretty much assume this is what Huckleberry is doing during all of our appointments in the next few weeks.

Then we just had enough time for lunch before heading out to the acrobat show so we headed to the one Chinese restaurant listed on the map our agency gave us.  Many, many fast food places were listed too.

Our First Pot of Tea in China...kind of a Jasmine Flavor

Oak trying out his character translation app on his iPod.  Seemed to match what the menu said.

The pork dish we ordered had really good sticky rolls with it and it all tasted a bit like cinnamon.  The texture was not something I'd had before, but it tasted great.  So did the walnut salad and the kung pao chicken (though that was a bit spicy for me.)

 But my favorite dish we ordered were the dumpling peking style.  I'm really not sure what was in them...seemed like maybe egg and green onions?...whatever it was it was really good, and a whole giant platter for $6 US.  You can probably find them for less, but our guide said, "we'd rather save your health than your money!"

In the restaurant; It was a very nice, beautiful restaurant.

Standing outside the restaurant before our walk back to meet our group.

Then we took the nice air-conditioned cushy bus to the theater for the acrobat show.  It was really pretty amazing.  There was no flash photography and we were pretty far in the back, but I do have some photos to share.

See!  I'm in China, too!

He just kept adding chair after chair. 

The woman next to me was getting pretty nervous...as was I.

But he was pretty amazing and did NOT fall!

This was one of my favorite acts.  They danced around and were thrown and lifted high and dropped...all with this stack of bowls never falling.  Sometimes they held the stack of bowls with their feet, but it was incredible.  All the acts were great.

Can you imagine the upper body strength and coordination!

I'm not sure if I can explain this act, but it was impressive.  The wheels spun individually and together in a circle.  This guy walked on the outside and at one point was blindfolded and at another point he jumped rope!

Maybe this picture give you a little better idea of what was happening.

This act started with one person riding a motorcycle in a circle in a giant ball.  Then they added one motorcycle after another.  Until at this point there are 5 going in a ring and two are at the bottom waiting to join them at just the right moment.

The 7 motorcyclists and the wire ball they were riding around in!

The costumes for the final bow were absolutely gorgeous!

Then we came back, ate a little bit for dinner, and fidgetted with internet for quite some time.  For the moment it is up and I can post.  Tomorrow we get to see the Great Wall of China.  I am hoping I'll fit in a little better taking pictures at an actual tourist attraction.

So I don't expect to be able to give all the boring details about every day, or even have time to sort and upload pictures each day, but today it worked out.  And I'm glad because I wanted to remember every moment of this trip.
 

Friday May 4th

I'm waiting for my husband to finish showering so we can facetime (the Mac equivalent of skype) with the kids.  I thought about starting without him and realized that just might be a bit awkward.

We all found the hard beds not hard to sleep in at all, though Huckleberry stated he had to think a little more when turning over.  Huckleberry slept 8:15-5:00 a.m. and Oak and I woke up for a little bit around 2:30 a.m. but were able to get back to sleep until about 6:00 a.m.  That is more sleep than I've had in any one night in the last four months, so I think we should be good to go.  Our acrobatic show isn't until 5:00 p.m. so our guide thinks if we want to go over to the Summer Palace on our own and meet them at the theater there is time after our orientation.  We'll see if we are feeling adventurous or just want a nap.

So far Huckleberry has been a real trouper.  He has NEVER stayed up until 3:30 a.m. before...not even past midnight before.  But he kept going...a little slow, but with willingness and patience.  We are glad he came.  On the plane played his DS, watched a few movies, and ate all his food.  Now he is writing his journal entry for yesterday for his humanities homework.  (His teachers all gave him reasonable and interesting assignments to make up for him missing 2 1/2 weeks of school.  Everyone was very excited for this opportunity for him...except for maybe Robotics since he'll miss the competition next week.)

Well, off to try and connect with my babies at home, breakfast in the breakfast buffet, a trip to the grocery, our adoption orientation...and then we'll see from there.  Hope you have a great day!
 

We're Here

We made it to our hotel, at dinner in the cafe out of sleepiness, and now Huckleberry is crashed and we are following shortly behind.  Our hope is that now that we've been awake for 20 odd hours we'll sleep great tonight and be on track to follow Beijing's hours in the morning.  

Nothing really to report about the plane ride.  It went smoothly.  No trouble with check-in or seats.  They fed us lots of food and drinks (the free safe for kids kind) and had the new nifty control your own TV screen.  Even though I had good conversations with Oak and my new friend from near us and watched some TV and one movie...it was really just a long, long, long flight.  I really feel for my friend who had another 4 hours of travel ahead of her before settling into her hotel.

We have met two families from our agency travel group so far.  They seem nice...if a bit tired.  Tomorrow we meet the rest and hopefully we'll all be rested.

I do miss my kids and we hope to be able to talk to them via facetime in the morning.  I guess I'd better try and go to sleep.  I am really tired, but the bed really is quite hard.  I don't mean to complain, but it cracks me up every time I sit down because in my sleepy state I keep thinking I'd missed the bed and hit the floor it is just that hard.

Sleep Well!
 

Tomorrow

We leave tomorrow!  Our flight takes off at 2:00 p.m. PST and a mere 11 hours later we arrive in Beijing...4:00 p.m. Thursday, May 3rd.  Really quite a sweet travel deal...plus two families from my agency's group will be on our flight and a lady I met on-line who lives only 45 minutes away from us.  She was gracious enough to have us over for dinner last Friday even in the midst of some crazy planning so I know I like her.

I thought some of you would like to have an idea of what we are doing when.  China is 15 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, but I'm going to make you do that math.  (Or as my husband insists, PST is -7 gmt and China is +8 gmt, making it a total of 15 hours difference.)

May 3, 2012 Arrive in Beijing. Stay at Chang’an Grand Hotel.

May 4, 2012 Orientation meeting at 10:00 a.m. 

       Acrobatic show in the afternoon. (We might skip the show to   

see the Summer Palace on our own...we'll see how we feel.)

May 5, 2012 Visit Great Wall, Cloisonne Factory & Bird’s Nest. 

May 6, 2012 Visit Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Hutong Tour. 

May 7, 2012 Fly (7:25-9:50) to Nanchang. 

Stay at Galactic International Hotel. 

Receive Sweet Pea around noon at the hotel. Adoption registration in the afternoon.

May 8, 2012  Free Day, Maybe Mt. Lushan or Orphanage

May 9, 2012  Visit Teng Wang Pavilion.

May 10, 2012 Visit Jiangxi Provincial Museum or People’s Park.

May 11, 2012 Receive all the documents. Fly to Guangzhou. 

                  China Hotel – Marriott pickup.

May 12, 2012 Medical exam for Sweet Pea in the morning.

May 13, 2012 Visit Guangzhou Folk Art Museum and Haixin Plaza.  (I don't know what these are...we might just go to the zoo.)

May 14, 2012 Visa appointment.

May 15, 2012 Pick up visa in the afternoon.

May 16, 2012 Depart Guangzhou @ 8:30 a.m.

It seems like a pretty tight and busy schedule.  Of course after we have Sweet Pea we may just end up sitting around the hotel and getting to know her.  Our agency's travel group has 10 other families traveling with us, but in Nanchang we will be the only family from our agency.  I am looking forward to getting to know them a little, but we also expect we'll enjoy being quiet as a family.  

Oh my goodness!  Tomorrow this time we will be over half way to Beijing!  We really thought this day would never come...