And now the real adventures begins…

So much has happened since my last post on July 10, the day we arrived back in the States. Suffering from jetlag, we all went to sleep early that night and when we awoke the next morning something amazing happened. With the dawn of the new day in a country half way around the world from where this little girl’s journey began… Chloe must have sensed she was truly home. The morning started with the usual routine of Ted getting her up and ready for the day. Shortly thereafter Chloe was sitting on floor and as I approached she raised her arms in the air towards me as if to say “pick me up”. I happily obliged. Believe it or not, that was the end of her grieving. I still to this day cannot believe it happened so quickly, so matter-of-fact. Not only that, but the same morning she accepted me as her mom, she also lovingly accepted her big sister, her grandfather and her great-grandmother. From that moment on she readily came to me as if it was something she has done every day of her life.

It has only gotten better from there. Chloe is a fabulous, happy little girl with an incredible personality. When I pick her up the first thing she does is pucker her lips and lean in for a kiss. She does the same for her daddy and her big sister. Unfortunately, she also puckers her lips for the dog, but we are working on that one. She has learned how to blow kisses, how to wave “good bye”, and how to say “ah oh”. She is in aw of her big sister, who she follows around to the best of her ability. She loves to play with any toy that makes music so she can bop to the beat. At times she will be scooting across the floor (she doesn’t crawl) and singing a precious little song as only she could do. Her favorite items in the world are her pink blankets and her purple koala. She likes when people talk to her because it’s an opportunity for her to show off that huge smile and nose crinkle to everyone she meets. She likes to lay her head on my chest and suck her thumb when she snuggles. She loves to splash in the tub. She has mastered pulling herself up on just about anything (including the dog) so she can stand. She loves to giggle and laugh out loud.

I could go on and on. Can you tell how in love we are with this child? Skylar and Chloe are the loves of our lives. I couldn’t write a story with this spectacular outcome… it would seem too unrealistic even for a fairytale. Now the real adventures begins… the adventures of our forever family.

I wanted to thank everyone that has followed along on this adventure. Your love and support has been overwhelming. Chloe (and even Skylar) has received gifts and well wishes from family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and even casual acquaintances on the soccer field. Aunt Laura and Uncle Alan went out of their way to throw our family a wonderful “Welcome Home Chloe” party. (We love you guys!) Thank you everyone!

We Are Home

We have arrived home with our little American citizen, Chloe. She spent the entire time in immigrations flirting with the officers. Why does that not surprise me?

Skylar has been great with her little sister and Chloe seems interested in what she is doing. I will post more in a day or two along with some photos, but tonight my internal clock is way off. Time to go to bed and hopefully get back on PacNW time.

It sure is good to be home. Cheers!!

My Letter to Chloe

My dear little panda bear,

Today is our last day in China. Tomorrow morning we board a plane and head to your new home where your sister, grandpa, and great-grandma are all anxiously waiting to meet you.

These last ten days we’ve spent with you in China have been amazing. You are by far one of the happiest babies in the group. You have a beautiful smile that you share with anyone who will take the time to greet you. You have one of those smiles that encompass your entire face and even your eyes light up with joy. This morning we were playing copycat and you blew me your first kiss from across the breakfast table. I will always remember that moment.

I will also always remember our goofy “conversations”. You like to say “ah da” and if I repeat it back to you we can go on and on for minutes with some very intellectual and stimulating conversations.

Chloe, I can’t properly put into words how grateful I am and just how lucky I feel to have you in my life. I know it sounds trite to say that I loved you from the moment I saw your picture, but it is so very true. How could I not? You are loved beyond measure by us and I hope you sense that.

I want you to know that your birth mother also loved you. While we do not know who she is, we can tell you were very loved by where she took you so you would be safe. Your birth mother also placed a red thread around your neck to wish you special luck and good fortunes. China is a very complex place and she was not able to keep you, but she made a decision that would keep you safe and would allow you to find us, your forever family.

I promise to love you and keep you safe. I promise to be there to tuck you into bed each night and to read you your bedtime stories. I promise to always support you and to be on the sidelines cheering you on with whatever you do. I promise to be overly protective, to annoy you sometimes and to probably embarrass you in front of your friends at least once or twice. I promise to bring you and your jie jie (older sister) back to China when you are older so we can all experience this fascinating place together as a forever family.

Forever, with love, your ma ma

"An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break." - Ancient Chinese Proverb

Long Distance Friendships Realized and The Red Sofa

The wait for Chloe was a long one but it was not a lonely journey. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we made many friends during the 2.5 year wait. As soon as our paperwork was sent to China we discovered Yahoo Group communities. First I joined a group for all families that were with our adoption agency that had a “dossier to China” date during the month of December 05 or January 06. We got to know each other and passed the time by chatting, participating in postcard exchanges, secret pal match-ups and even an online baby shower. We all shared in the joy as the families with the earlier logged-in dates received their referrals and traveled to China to meet their daughters. We also gained knowledge from their experiences while in China.

As it got closer to the time when we’d receive our referral, those of us with a January 12, 2006 logged-in date also formed our own Yahoo group. These are the people I am in China with right now. Of all the people traveling to China at the same time, there were 13 families who went to the Guangxi province. We feel very fortunate to have had such wonderful families in our Guangxi travel group. We all received our children at the same time, we participated in tours and several group meals together, and we had the opportunity to sit and chat at length with most everyone in this group. They are all truly remarkable people and I know I will keep in touch with many of them. It will be fascinating to see pictures as their children grow and I hope that someday I will get the opportunity to see some of them again.

One of the traditions for adopting families that stay at the White Swan hotel is to get photograph of all the children in the travel group sitting on the “red sofa”. Here is a picture of the 13 children from our travel group.

And here is a picture of four (out of the five) girls from the Guiping Social Welfare Institute.

Another tradition at the White Swan is the (very non P.C. but still priceless) adoption Barbie Doll. It is an honest to goodness (Caucasian) Mattel Barbie doll holding a Chinese baby inside a box with caption that reads “Going Home”. The back of the box says “This souvenir is presented by Mattel (HK) Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China.” You can not purchase these dolls anywhere. They are a limited edition given ONLY to adopting families. This is the 6th edition of the doll.

I had to include this picture today. Chloe was sitting on the floor playing with her toys. Next thing I knew she had her legs straight out in front of her, her head was laying on the ground, her thumb was in her mouth and she was sound asleep. She stayed like that for about 30 minutes. Then she sat up and kept on playing. Can you tell that she is feeling more and more secure around us?

Power Shopping and Blessings

Today was my day to shop. I went with three other girls and we paid a guide to take us shopping at all of the non-tourist stores. It was wonderful. All we had to do was tell her what we wanted buy and she would take us to the proper stores. We’d then pick out what we wanted and she did all of the negotiating. I bought so many things that I need to buy an extra suitcase tomorrow to get everything home. The prices were fantastic, but on the flip side I realized just how badly I was taken when I shopped a few days earlier in Guangzhou. (Fortunately I got good prices when I was shopping on my own in Nanning, but that is not a big tourist city either so that probably helped.) I sure wish I had my camera with me because we went to one market place that reminded me of something out of an Indian Jones movie. Wow!

Later on in the day we took Chloe to a Buddhist temple and the three of us were blessed by a monk. (Thankfully, I did have my camera for this excursion.) The temple was fascinating and the blessing was a cool experience. I figure as new parents again we need all the help we can get.

Chloe had a great day today, however last night she experienced some night terrors. It was so hard to sit by helplessly while she screamed. Ted had to hold her and rock her into a sound sleep and then she was fine the rest of the night. When she awoke the next morning she was fine. She has been a happy baby since a few hours after our gotcha moment, but every single day she gets happier and more content. What a joy to watch.

Chen Family Temple

I'm sitting in our hotel room on the 26th floor, having a cup of tea and I can still hear the soft sound of Chinese wind instrument being played on the street below. It is such a beautiful sound.

Today we went to the Chen Family Temple. The most recognizable Chen family member that you may know is Jackie Chen. This was by far the best tour we have been on this entire trip. The art work inside the temple was magnificent. There were carnings on everything imaginable - granite stones, wood, ivory, cinnabar, and even olive pits. One room had the most breathtaking embroidery that I have ever seen. It was as if I was looking at a photograph and not stitches of thread.

As you can see from the photo, Chloe was not as impressed with the temple as we were. We also managed to do some shopping today, but I plan to do the power shopping tomorrow.

I don't have much to write about tonight because I think this whole experience has finally caught up with me and I'm exhausted. It's nothing that a good nights sleep won't cure. I would however like to take a moment and say "thank you" to all of you that have posted comments. Your kind words have been so encouraging. When we return home I plan to print this blog with all of my posts and your comments and create a book for Chloe. Someday she can read the book and see how wonderful this journey was for us.

A Change of Scenery and Even More Progress

Chloe took her fist airplane ride today and she did remarkably well. She is such a happy baby. We’ve discovered that if there is motion, any kind of motion, she will say “ohhhhhhhhhh” so that the vibration of the movement makes a funny sound coming out of her mouth. She does this on bus ride, stroller rides, a bounce on daddy’s knee and even airplanes.

We are now in Guangzhou on Shamian Island. The island is like its own little world. There is very little car traffic and there are many more shops and restaurants to visit here as opposed to Nanning. The only thing we don’t care for is the bartering. I so dislike to barter. We were joking today that we feel like we are in Puerto Vallarta because if you pass by a shop they are trying to entice you to come into their store. Once inside nothing has a price on it. They tell you a price, you offer them 60% of what they said, they say no and ask for something higher then 60%, you counter offer, they say no, you start to walk out, they change their mind. See I’ve been here less then a day and I already have this down to a science… but I still dislike doing it.

My two favorite things about Shamian Island are the hotel and the Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks!!! (Hey, you try having instant Nestle’s coffee every morning for eight days straight and I bet you too would be craving a good cup of coffee.) It looks exactly like the Starbucks at home. The hotel is also very nice. Now this truly is a five-star hotel. We have a suite here and we are glad we do. One room has become Chloe’s play room. We’ve discovered that she doesn’t crawl… she scoots along on her bottom to get were she wants to go.

Chloe now smiles at everyone that is willing to pay attention to her. She crinkles up her nose when giving someone her special BIG smile. I even got to hold her today several times and for a while there was very little fussing. This evening I held her and fed her a bottle. She’d drink for about 30 seconds, then stop and cry but she would start drinking again. We made it through the entire bottle together. Ya!!!

Today we had Chloe’s picture taken for her visa and we also did the “medical exam” (I use the term very loosely) for the visa. The exam is done at a clinic for children being adopted. We spent more time shuffling from room to room then we did for the exams. The important part is that she passed. She is 18.74 pounds, and 30.32 inches long. After this we only have one more piece of the adoption to complete and that involves the U.S. Consulate. I sure hope everything goes smoothly there. The only part I worry about is a silly address mistake made by the State Department of Immigrations. I have no idea how or why they did it, but somewhere along the line they have us living in a different city but all of my supporting documents have the correct city. Every items they sent us arrived at our address because the street and zip code were correct so I never noticed the city blunder until just last month. With my luck it will be earth shattering (a.k.a. adoption stopping).

The Kindness of Children

This morning at breakfast three little Chinese girls and their American father, mother and grandmother were walking around to each table where newly adopted children were seated. Two of the girls were eight year old twins that were adopted from this province when they were 10 months old and other girl was their older sister (via adoption). These girls were handing each child a large, beautiful Gund stuffed animal lovey. As the girls were doing so, their father was explaining why. The family has returned to China for a heritage visit. In preparation for this journey the three girls had been raising money for the last year-and-a-half to buy several of these loveys so that they can deliver them to two orphanages. Since the girls themselves had been given a similar item by their parents many years ago and they still went to bed every night with these very precious loveys, they decided that they also wanted all the children that were in the restaurant that morning who just found their forever families to have one also.

The girls’ grandmother stood back and watch everything take place. I walked up to talk to her and as she fought back her tears she expressed how proud she was of them and wonderful it was to see so many orphans with their forever families.

Next to the experience we had Monday when Chloe was placed in our arms for the first time, this has to be the most moving experience of this trip. These girls worked to raise their OWN money so they could give something special to the children in the orphanages. And it was so touching that they also wanted the lucky little girls who found their new homes to have a lovey also so they can feel safe and secure was too emotional for words.

Here is a picture of the three very sweet girls with Chloe and Ted.

Today we were given Chloe’s Chinese passport. Tomorrow morning we head to Guangzhou for the last leg of our journey. We will be there until July 10 in order to complete the process of Chloe becoming a U.S. citizen and so we can obtain her American travel visa.

Chloe is Amazing

I know that every parent gushes over how cute and smart their child is, but Ted and I are astounded at how much Chloe is like Skylar. From her personality to her smile to her friendly nature… this is what Skylar was like four years ago. (Only Skylar never sat there and sucked on her own toes. My goodness this child is limber!) We complained at how long the wait was to get our child and kept wishing the process would speed up. But I have to say that there is a reason for everything in this world and our long, long wait for a referral was for a reason. This **is** our daughter. We had to wait so long because she wasn’t born yet.

We saw some local sites today, but we were apparently also quite the sight. While walking in the park a group of teenagers passed by us and one girl said “Hello, nice to meet you.” When we replied in kind the teenagers laughed as if they were excited to get a response. Shortly there after an elderly Chinese lady stopped us to talk. Her English was very good. She asked us if this was our daughter and where she was from. She told us Chloe is very lucky and we told her that we are the lucky ones. She wanted to know what we thought of China and we told her we liked it very much. How can we not? The people have been very friendly to us. China is very different from any other country I have been to, but it’s the people that make the country interesting. There is also thousands of year of traditions here and while the cities are evolving they are pound of there heritage.

We took a picture of Chloe with the dragon today. A Chinese lady came up to us with her baby and wanted us to take a picture with Chloe. Apparently this happens a lot.

This is a picture of our guide, Michael. We would be completely lost without him. He has been amazing. Saying he's our guide doesn't accurately capture everything he does for us and our group.

We think we have a better idea of why Chloe is not warming up to me as quickly as I would like. She doesn’t want ANY woman to hold her and in many cases touch her. When you compare how she response with other women to how she responds with me, heck, I’m her best friend. She will let me kiss her on the cheek, and she fed me Cheerios today so there is definitely even more progress. We simply think she is really grieving the loss of her foster mom and we are going to have to give her time.

Walmart, Pearls and a Small Bit of Progress

Today was shopping day for us. We first went to Walmart… yes, I’m serious. Walmart here is two stories tall and it is in a shopping mall area. We went there to buy diapers, wipes, and various other items for the baby and for us. It is the strangest thing walking around and seeing familiar items that we’d buy in the U.S. but now with Chinese packaging – Coke, Crest Toothpaste, Listerine, Pampers, Huggies wipes. It was a hoot.

After Walmart we went to the Nike store to buy us each a shirt. Let’s just say the clothing sizes in China are VERY different from the sizes in the U.S. The people working in the store were fascinated by Chloe but they knew no English (except for “XXL”). Fortunately our guide was kind enough to give each family a badge that we could wear around our neck when we went out that contains a note written in Chinese explaining where were are from and that we are adopting a Chinese baby. It came in very handy. People were interested in us and they were very nice. One lady on the street wanted to know why we chose China and if we would bring Chloe back to China someday.

While waiting for all of the other families to finish their shopping we sat outside and ate a McDonalds’ ice cream cone. Chloe loved this! She would let me put the ice cream on her tongue and she kept asking for more. I also experienced more progress on this shopping trip. Chloe discovered that she liked to play and pull at my hair. I was just happy that she was taking any interest in me at all. She also played a game with me where she’d put her hand up to my mouth and see if I’d kiss it. I still can’t hold her, but at least there wasn’t tears when I smiled at her today.

While Chloe (and daddy) napped I went shopping for pearls. I wanted to get something that came from the Guangxi province and pearls are one of the items from here. The prices for items like pearls in China are wonderful. I ended up buying both Skylar and Chloe presents for their 16 and 18 birthdays. Of course I bought something for me too. The ladies behind the counter were so nice to us. I only went to the store with one other family and between the three of us we had five people helping us. I just had to take their picture before we left.

This evening ended with a party in one of the adopting family’s room. Most everyone from our travel group was there. It was very nice to relax and to get the children together to play.

Chloe is Officially Our Child - According to China

We have now completed the Chinese portion of the adoption and Chloe is officially our daughter according to the Chinese government. Today we had two appointments to make this a reality.

Our first appointment was back at the Civil Affairs Office. So, all climbed back onto a bus for the jaw-clenching ride. The appointment began with the interview process. Each family had to be interviewed one family at a time. The types of questions that were asked were “How was the baby last night?”… “Do we know how to take care of a baby?”… “Are we happy with this baby?”… “Why did we choose to adopt from China?”… “Do we promise to love her and never hurt her?” During the interview Chloe was just smiling and playing. It was adorable.

After all families were interviewed we moved back into the room where we received our babies yesterday. A government official gave a speech and then called each family up one at a time to give us our adoption registration. As each family walked up to get their registration the Director from that orphanage also came up and gave the family a gift and a packet of pictures of the child back at the orphanage. In our case the gift was a handmade Chinese bag that was made in the city where Chloe is from. As for those pictures, they are priceless. There is one photo that must have been taken the day she was taken to the orphanage. Other photos are of Chloe playing in the orphanage and there is even some photos that we think are of her home city. The city photos have some captions written in Chinese and we need to get them translated.

Once we all received our adoption registration the government official made one final speech telling us that we are now the parents of our little girls and congratulations. Then we paid all of the fees associated with the orphanage. I have never been so happy to part with money in my entire life.

Next we all loaded back onto the bus for the drive to the Notary Office. Again each family had a short interview; this time with the Notary. These were questions such as “What do you do for a living?”… “What year were you married?”… and once again “Do we promise to love her and never hurt her?” Then we were done.

All-in-all, the appointments took us just under four hours. Chloe was a trooper during this whole time but again she remained in Ted’s arms and not mine. When we returned to the hotel we had lunch with several other families. Chloe ate some rice and even a tiny bit of egg drop soup. (At breakfast this morning she chowed down about half a bowl of congee.) Then we went back to the room for a nap.

Chloe is eating well and she loves to play. Ba Ba (daddy) will make a tower out of the stacking cups and she will knock it over. She doesn’t seem to like things neatly put together and it is her mission to turn order into chaos when it comes to toys. She is absolutely beautiful. She smiles and giggles a lot. She even started singing again today. She likes to suck her thumb. She sure loves her daddy. Sometimes when he holds her she will rest her head against his chest. It is so precious! Ted still can’t leave the room without her erupting into the biggest tears I have ever seen.

Now to the difficult part… at least for me. Chloe LOVES her daddy. She still won’t let me even hold her. I can’t give her a bottle and I couldn’t spoon feed her at lunch today. Occasionally she will let me place a Cheerio in her mouth, but most times when I try and will stop me and take it out of my hand and do it herself. While we were at the appointments today she would at least smile at me. Now after nap this has all changed. She will be completely fine sitting by daddy until she looks up at me. If I smile at her she beings to cry those big tears and she reaches for daddy. She wants absolutely nothing to do with me. This rejection is heartbreaking for me.

We are Parents... Again

This is surreal. What a day it has been. At 3:00 PM we all met the other 12 families in the lobby and waited for our guide to tell us it was time to board the bus for the short ride to the Civil Affairs office. The mood on the bus was tense and our guide tried to use some dry humor to ease the anticipation. While he got a few chuckles that was about it. After another harrowing ride in the Nanning traffic where there seems to be no rules to the road we arrived, filed off the bus and headed to the fourth floor.

We entered the stifling hot room that contained nothing but a podium and several flags. We all stood along the walls of the room and got ourselves ready for what was about to come. The wait was short. First a lady from the Civil Affairs Office gave a speech at the podium. Of course I can’t remember a word she said. By now we could see the “aunties” in the hallway with the babies so we were trying to catch a glimpse of Chloe.

The first set of children that entered the room were from our orphanage, Guiping. We were the third family to get our baby. They called out Chloe’s Chinese name, Jin Yu Yu, and that is how we knew it was our turn… and our baby for that matter. Oh my goodness! She was beautiful. A gentleman handed Chloe to me. At first she was fine. He said to her “ma ma” and pointed to me and then he walked away. That is when the state of things changed. Chloe cried and screamed. We did everything to calm her down but nothing worked. This went on for an eternity. We were not alone. Several other families had similar situations.

While Chloe cried while in Ted’s arms, she screamed while in mine. We quickly assessed that she was more comfortable with Ted than me, so he basically held her the rest of the time. We handed her toys and lovies. We made her a bottle and we changed her diaper hoping this would help, but it barely had an impact. We had to take a picture for the CCAA office and then we could leave. As soon as we arrived on the first floor of the building everything changed. I have no idea why. She not only stopped crying she was giggling at Ted.

We road the bus back to the hotel and Chloe was doing much better. A few tiny tears, but now they seemed to come more from the fact that she was exhausted. The poor little thing not only sobbed non-stop for over an hour, but before that she had a taken a four hour bus ride from the orphanage to the Civil Affairs Office. To top it off she was also teething.

Once in the hotel she was curious about her surroundings. She checked out the water fountain in the lobby and the garden area near the restaurant. When we arrived to the room Chloe warmed up even more. We pulled out a bunch of toys that we brought for her. She enjoyed the stacking cups, the teething rattle but her favorite toy was a little Baby Einstein “radio” that played classical music and lights would flash to the melody. We gave her a bitter teething biscuit which she enjoyed but she ended up wearing more then she ate. So we moved on to the ritual that I personally think could actually be the catalyst for ending wars and promoting world peace… the sharing of the Cheerios. She LOVED them! She let both of us feed them to her. She fed them to herself. And we even found another use for the stacking cups. It was also while eating Cheeios that Chloe did one of the most amazing things… she started to sing a song. We have no idea what it was but she was signing.

Ba Ba (Daddy) played peek-a-boo with her but it turned into hide-and-seek. She was sitting on the bed and he was on the floor. He’d duck down and pop back up which made her giggle. But then when ba ba would duck down again, she would lean over the edge of the bed and look for him. When she found him she’d giggle even more.

Remember how I said that Chloe took to Ted more than me. Well, we had evidence of this when Ted would attempt to leave the room because she would start to cry. If I left she was fine. Ted can’t go anywhere without her.

We gave her a quick bath (which she disliked) and then another bottle. Then she laid down on the bed with ba ba and fell asleep. After a short while she woke up and began to play a game with Ted. She was lying on her back and she would look away from Ted for about 30 seconds. Then she would turn to look at him to see if he was still staring at her. When she saw that he was in fact still watching her she got this gigantic smile on her face. This went on and on.

This evening we finished all of the paperwork to complete the Chinese portion of the adoption. We have to go meet with government officials tomorrow for an interview and to make the adoption official. We will let you know how that goes in our next post.

The Dragon Slayer and Peoples Park

Yesterday on the phone Skylar asked me if we have seen a dragon yet. She told me that when I saw a dragon that I needed to take a picture of it and bring it home. Then, just to be certain that she was perfectly clear she said, “Bring home the PICTURE of the dragon, not the dragon.” So now it seems wherever we go we are looking for dragons. Today we found one in Peoples Park.

Peoples Park is this oasis in the middle of Nanning. We are walking on the busy, dirty streets of Nanning, passing by tiny shops. Then, when you turn into this huge park tucked behind the shops and buildings it as if the city just disappears.

There is gigantic koi pond in the center of the park. On this Sunday morning, families can be seen riding small boats on the pond or sitting on the edge feeding the koi. Also along the perimeter of the pond you will find musicians and singers, most of which were performing together in small bands. Some were playing violins; some were playing traditional Chinese instruments. Other people were practicing their tai chi under the cool shade of the large banyan trees. There were carnival-style games and in one section of the park called “Happy Time” there were even carnival rides including a large Ferris wheel. Throughout the park people can be seen strolling along while their children ate ice cream bars or chased after silly mylar balloons shaped like a dog which was even weighted so it even looked as if you were taking your (mylar) dog for a walk. Elderly gentleman sat at tables and played mahjong while smoking a cigarette.

Our other adventure for the day was “crossing the street” that you saw in our post yesterday. Are you laughing? I’m not kidding. When crossing the street in China everyone basically has to fend for themselves. Yes, there are stop lights and cross walks but I’m not really sure why. People walk in between cars and scooters and will stand in the middle of the street until they have a big enough opening to walk between the next set of MOVING vehicle. It is not for the faint of heart.

We basically had a great day today… until we found out that the orphanage fee went up $500 and our agency didn’t tell us until today. Oh ya… and now we have to pay the money in Chinese yuan. Sounds simple until you realize that you are only allowed to convert $100 USD at the hotel per day, and we need to have the money by Tuesday. I guess instead of focusing on the small stuff I should just remember that after waiting 34 months we are going to have our daughter in less then 24 hours!

We are in Nanning

It has been a journey, but we are finally sitting in our hotel room in Nanning. Other than being a bit jet-lagged, we are doing well. Our journey started out with a drive to the airport in a limo. We made arrangements for a Towncar to take us to the airport so we could say our good-byes to Skylar at home. What showed up in front of our house was a long, black stretch limo. That was an interesting way to start things off. The trip only got better from there. We had Business Class tickets for the flights to China so this meant we got into all of the *short* lines at the airport. The short line at the ticket counter. The super short line at the security check. Once in the terminal we waited for our flight in the NW Club room. We also got early boarding where we were served beverages and handed newspapers while we waited for take-off. And those were just all of the perks BEFORE the plane left the ground. I am very glad we paid a few hundred dollars more for the upgraded tickets. Listen, this journey is emotional enough both because of what we left behind and because of why we are going.

The flight to Japan was smooth (once they removed the luggage for the passenger that checked-in bags but never boarded the flight) and is sure didn't seem like we were in the air for 10 hours. Once we arrived in Japan we found out that our flight to Guangzhou, China had been cancelled. The NW representatives were greeting all Guangzhou passengers as we got off the plane. They gave us tickets on a different flight with Japan Airline and walked us all to the proper place so we wouldn't miss the flight. They were wonderful.

We made it Guangzhou... and so did our bags thankfully. By the time we finished clearing customs it was after 11:00 PM in China. We made our way to the airport hotel and this is where we got our first lesson that we need to be careful. As we walked to the airport hotel a shuttle driver offered to give us a ride. He told us it would 380 yuan. We initially agreed until our jet-lagged brains finally kicked in and realized that he wanted to charge us over $50 for a ride that was going to take less than 5 minutes.

We spent the night in Guangzhou and then caught a 9:50 AM flight to Nanning. And here we are. We haven't had time see much yet. We spent the day getting settled in our room, adjusting to the time and ordering food by pointing to pictures on menu. And no, I didn't choose the dish that had the chicken head on the plate... and I also passed on the ox shin, turtle soup, ostrich and crocodile. The picture you see with this post is from our hotel room. The air quality is bad and the humidity is even worse. I won't even go into how they drive here on this post. I will save that for later, after I actually try to cross a street. Yikes!

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We are Heading to the Airport

We are packed! The red bag is 35.5 pounds and the green bag is 40.5. We are under the China requirement of 44 pounds per bag. Thank goodness! Now we are off. In less than an hour we are heading to the airport and leaving for China. This is bitter sweet. We are excited to go and bring home our daughter, Chloe, but was are also sad to be leaving Skylar for 14 days!! Uggg. I know she is great hands. I can't thank my dad and grandmother enough for coming here to take care of Skylar. Family is wonderful!!! Next post will be from China (hopefully)!

A Baby Shower!!

Today my coworkers threw a baby shower for me! I’m not used to people making a fuss. It was VERY nice. I received lots of wonderful gifts for Chloe (and even some gifts for Skylar, the soon-to-be big sister). Chloe received many adorable outfits, shoes and hats, the cutest little pair of Vans that I’ve ever seen, baby bibs and two beautiful baby blankets. One of the blankets was a hand-made quilt made specifically for Chloe. I’m at a loss for words.

Thank you everyone!!

Father’s Day

I walked into the family room tonight to find my husband and my daughter sitting next to each other on the couch watching Episode One of the Star Wars Trilogy. (My daughter has this fascination with Princess Leia. To heck with the Disney princesses, Skylar wants to be Princess Leia Organa for Halloween.) Skylar is sitting there with this big silly grin on her face and “daddy” wasn’t watching the movie so much as he was watching her. I just stood there and stared at the pair of them.

I am truly blessed. I have a beautiful, intelligent little girl, another one on the way and a loving husband. One of the gifts Skylar gave daddy today was a picture of the two of them holding up a trout they just caught together. She decorated the frame with seashells, colored rocks and wavy blue ribbon to represent the water. She also gave daddy a card that she made herself at pre-school which had a beautiful little poem about a child walking in her daddy’s footsteps. The gift and the card definitely moved Ted.

My little Tomboy is usually not too far from her daddy’s side. They could be watching grass show (that is what Skyar calls golf on TV), or maybe warming up by passing the soccer ball before her soccer class, or even building robots and other cool stuff out of Legos. And Ted is always right there for her… and for me for that matter. Yes, I am truly blessed. I can’t wait to see what Father’s Day is like next year.

Posting Comments Made Easier

I've changed the setting for posting comments. I didn't realize I had the restrictions set up the way I did. So please feel free to post your comments.

Cheers!

The Timeline is Almost Complete

Today we found out that we'll be meeting Chloe Yuyu for the first time on Monday, June 30 at 2:30 PM. Wow, this is starting to feel real! After waiting for so long it's hard to let my guard down... but this is REALLY going to happen.

Now I can concentrate on some items at home that need some serious attention. I have a pre-school graduation to attend, a post-placement medical exams to schedule, details for Skylar's 5th birthday party to work out and plans to make for co-hosting my friend's baby shower. These will all fall into place. Heck, I'm great at project planning and multi tasking! Don't believe me? Stop by and I'll show you all of my spreadsheets outlining the details and timelines for this adoption.

Ah, it will be a wonderful day when I can highlight the Adoption folder on my computer, right click and select "delete". Now that is what I call therapy.

More Details About Our Travel Plans

After everything that has happened in the last week, I didn't want to post actual travel info until we were 100% certain it was a sure thing. So here are the cliff notes version of our travel plans:

• We leave home on Thursday, June 26.
• We have to spend one night in Guangzhou before we make it to Nanning on Saturday, June 28.
• We will be meeting Chloe in Nanning on either Sunday, June 29 or Monday, June 30. Theses details are still being worked out.
• We stay in Nanning for a few days while the Chinese portion of the adoption process is completed.
• We leave Nanning on Saturday, July 5 and fly to Guangzhou. This is where we go to the American Consulate and complete the U.S. required paperwork.
• We head home on Thursday, July 10. Because of the time difference we will actually arrive home on July 10 just 25 minutes after our Guangzhou departure. (I sure hope the flight home with an 11-month old feels like a 25-minute flights. Haa-haa-haa.)

I am ecstatic that we will be home for Skylar's 5th birthday. I'm also very happy that I get to keep the promise that her little sister will be at her birthday. Now I just have to figure out how to celebrate her birthday. This jet-lagged super mom is buying a store-bought cake this year. Ummm, well maybe.

We FINALLY have our Consulate Appointment

We know we are leaving for China on or around June 26. Thank goodness this has finally been taken care of.

**I will add more to this post later today.**

When are we going to China?

That’s the million dollar question. Well, it won’t be June 12th… and it won’t be June 19th. Will it be June 26? Maybe… maybe not. So what in the world happened? That's the TWO-million dollar question. All we know is that our adoption agency has not gotten the U.S. Consulate appointments for all of their 23+ families and none of us can leave for China until we have our appointment dates set.

Is this unusual/unexpected/upsetting? Yes to all of the above. More so when we know that other families who signed-up with several other adoption agencies have already received their Consulate appointments and have their airline tickets in hand. We are among the last groups in the U.S. waiting for permission to leave.

Those that know me know I’m a planner and I’m a risk manager. So when I asked the agency today if I would make it China before my “Approval to Adopt” from the State Department expires in September you can just imagine how shocked I must have been when I was told:
"I think that September is pretty far off right now for that to be a consideration, but I am not completely ruling it out. Anything is possible as you know, but I would say that is probably not a very highly probable outcome. I would say that would probably be a worst-case scenario."

Where was the reassuring "oh, don't be silly" statement? Why did it have to include the "... but I am not completely ruling it out" fear inducing phrase?!

A fellow “waiting” mom asked me today “What is harder… pregnancy and childbirth or adoption?” Gee, I didn't even have to stop and think about that one... it's adoption by a mile! Of course this will all be worth it, but as you are going through the "labor pains" you still can't resist the urge to scream.

I honestly have to say that adoption is not for the faint of heart. We started this process 1,008 days ago on Sept 1, 2005. Now I sit here with a picture of our beautiful little daughter’s face and I have no idea when I will meet her. I’ve made many promises to Skylar during this journey about when her sister would be home. Surely she’d be home before Skylar’s 4th birthday. Wrong. Well, surely she’d be home before Christmas 2007. Wrong again. With a May 2 referral we felt confident that Chloe would be home before Skylar’s 5th birthday so I made yet another promise. Silly, silly me.

Where in China are we going?

When we go to China we are going to spend most of our time in south-west China (Nanning city in the autonomous region of Guangxi) and south-east China (Guangzhou city in the province of Guangdong). For those who are interested, here is some information about China and the areas where we will be going.

The People’s Republic of China
Population = 1,321,851,888 (in comparison to the U.S. with a population of 301,139,947)

Area = 9,596,960 km2 (in comparison to the U.S. with an area of 9,631,418 km2)
Ancient China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest humans in China date from 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and ancient China is the source of such major inventions as paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

The People's Republic of China has administrative control over twenty-two provinces (and considers Taiwan to be its twenty-third province). There are also five autonomous regions (Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Tibet); four municipalities (Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin); and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau).

Guangxi Autonomous Region – Population 49,250,000
Guangxi borders with Vietnam, has a short coastline on the Gulf of Tonkin, and has a mountainous terrain. It was given provincial level status during the Yuan Dynasty and in 1949 was designated as one of China's four minority autonomous regions. The capital city is Nanning. Another famous city in Guangxi is Guilin which is located along the banks of the Li River and has long been renowned for its unique scenery

Nanning City – Population 6,480,000
[This is where we will meet our daughter for the first time.] Nanning is located 100 miles from the border with Vietnam and is a very green city because of its abundance of lush tropical foliage. It sits on the north bank of the Yong River which is the main southern tributary of the Xi River and is situated in a hilly basin with elevations between 70 and 500 m above sea-level. Qingxiu Mountain dominates the southern part of town.

Nanning's climate is sub-tropical and monsoonal with more the 51 inches of annual precipitation. The average annual temperature is 71°F. It is also frost-free for all but 3 or 4 days a year and it never snows in Nanning.

Guangdong Province – Population 113,040,000
Guangdong Province is on the southern coast of China. As of 2005, it is the most populous province in China with 83 million permanent residents and 30 million migrants who lived in the province for at least six months. The provincial capital is Guangzhou is one of the most important cities in China.

Guangdong is the country's richest province with the highest total GDP among all provinces. Its nominal GDP for 2007 3.06 trillion yuan (US $422 billion). Guangdong contributes approximately 12.5% of national economic output.

Guangzhou City – Population (Metro) 9,754,600+
[Guangzhou is where we will get Chloe’s U.S. visa.] Guangzhou city is also known by an older English-language name, Canton. It is a port on the Pearl River, navigable to the South China Sea, and is located about 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong. Guangzhou has a humid climate, and flowers bloom there all year round; hence its name as the City of Flowers. It is the largest and most flourishing industrial and foreign trade center in south China.

Guangzhou is a famous historical city. As recorded in historical documents, in the year 214 B.C. a wall was constructed at Panyu. Panyu Town is regarded as the starting point where Guangzhou developed into a big city. In 226 A.D. Panyu was made the capital city of Guangzhou.

We Have Travel Approval!!!

I'm in shock and now offically in full panic mode because... WE HAVE TRAVEL APPROVAL (TA). Holy c-r-a-p... we could be travling as early as June 12. I never saw that one coming! I thought we wouldn't leave until at least June 19. We won't know our exact travel date until we have the date for the U.S. Consulate Appointment which we'll find out in the next couple of days. OMG! I've been waiting over 2.5 years for this and now I have less then 2.5 weeks and I'm just not ready. Yikes!!

Still Waiting...

I thought the waiting was over. Oh, how wrong could I be. We are still waiting for our Travel Approval (TA) and then our Consulate Appointment (CA). We can't make our travel plans until these items are done and they are completely out of our control. Other folks (with different adoption agencies) already have their TAs, CAs and their airline tickets. And here we wait. The wait is even harder now that we have Chloe's picture.

Tick-tock-tick-tock...

Referral Acceptance is on it's way

Well, we signed all of the referral acceptance papers and mailed them back to the adoption agency. We’ve also talked to a doctor at the UW that specializes in adoption medicine. She reviewed all of Chloe’s medical reports and told us that Chloe is a healthy little girl. In December at 5.5 months of age, Chloe was 17.16 pounds and 16.15 inches. This is wonderful news!

We still don’t know yet when we’ll travel to China. First we have to receive our Travel Approval (TA) from the Chinese government which will hopefully arrive by the first week of June.

We’d like to thank everyone for their emails and well wishes. Your friendship means the world to us!

Cheers!

Introducing Chloe Yu Yu

We received the call today, and we are on the way to becoming the very proud parents to a beautiful little girl. Her given name is Jin Yu Yu. (Jin is the surname.) She is currently just under 10 months old and is located in the Guangxi Province at the Guiping SWI (orphanage). We are beyond excited!! I will post more information as soon as we receive the offical paperwork from our adoption agency in a few days.

Cheers!

Change

Acknowledgement… Acceptance… Action… Gratitude...

May 2, 1997

Is it finally our turn?

We started the adoption process on September 1, 2005. On January 12, 2006 our paperwork was logged in China and we’ve now been (patiently?) waiting for twenty-eight months. Is our wait finally over?

We've been told that the “referral packages” from China are in the mail and on the way to the adoption agencies. A package should arrive at our agency in a few days and then we’ll know for sure if we’ve been matched with Chloe.

I hope it is finally our turn.