Ningxia - Day 2

Tuesday 6:45pm

Hello!  Today was not quite as busy as yesterday.  We went to the notary office this morning which only took about an hour or so.  We have to go back later tomorrow to make sure the paperwork is translated correctly.  We signed a bunch of papers and then we went to the park.

Saiya didnt really like the park very much.  She was clinging to me the entire time.  The guide said it was because she was never outside at the orphanage.  Hopefully with time and some encouragement from her cousins she will come to love being outside.  She does not do very well in open spaces, its almost like she is afraid she will get lost.  We walked by a small child riding on her dad's shoulders and we thought maybe Saiya would want to try.  So we put her up on Chris's shoulders and she sat there for about 5 seconds and then started crying.  Oh, how the world changed!  After that, he was evil incarnate!  Every time he went near her, she would cry!  Poor kid.  Such a mean daddy!

We found a rather large play ground and I thought that with other kids around she might be interested in playing on the swings or slides.  We wandered around there and tried a few things, but most of the time she was all pouty faced.  You would have thought we were trying to kill her when we attempted the slide.  Oh, man, can she scream!  LOL  Poor kid.  We tried the swings, and she did ok there, but we might have to shelve our play set plans until she comes around to the idea of playing outside.

So, the orphanage didnt give us any clothes for her but what she was wearing.  She had these white shoes with bright red hearts on the toes.  These shoes are so... "ungodly" as Chris put it.  I looked at her shoes and her poor toes were so scrunched up in them, but every time we took them off of her in the hotel room, she would go and put them back on.  LOL  She LOVES those shoes.  So, today, after the park, we went to the department store to get some baby shampoo, baby wipes, and yes, new shoes.  OMG!  The new shoes are about an INCH bigger than the ones she was cramming her foot into!  As soon as we put them on her, she was all smiles and tap dancing!  I can only imagine how log she has been wearing the other ones, and probably through no fault of the orphanage...  she absolutely loves those ugly shoes!

As you can see from most of the pictures, she doesnt go anywhere without Yoshi.  Yoshi has a twin we sent in a care package back in March.  As soon as she saw Yoshi at the adoption meeting at the orphanage, she has clung to him.  he is never too far from her side, he even colors with her!  She is doing so great!  She is starting to pick up a little english here and there.  She understands alot of what we say, even though we speak chinglish to her most of the time.  We dont really have any commuication problems with her.  She is great about dressing herself, keeping herself entertained, and going potty by herself.  :)  We really can't wait to get home so she can meet her cousins and get into a normal routine.  But other than that, we are all doing great!

Adoption DAY!!

Today is Monday 8:40pm

This morning we actually managed to sleep til a reasonable hour.  We were supposed to meet our guide at 8:50 in the hotel lobby, and we were awake at 6am to get stuff ready.  Of course we were nervous and excited and anxious as we drove the very short ten minutes to the orphanage.  When we got to the orphanage, we were led into a conference room where they brought our daughter.  She was a little shy at first, but warmed right up to me.  Chris is still working on it, but she's coming around.  She was a definite favorite at the orphanage as everyone came to say good bye to her.

We filled out lots of paperwork and then headed to the photo center so that we could take an adoption application photo.  After that, we headed to the government office where we filled out more paperwork and received our adoption certificate.  I guess she is finally ours!

After the government office, we headed back to the hotel for a short break.  We had just enough time to have something to eat, have saiya examined by our traveling physician, and give her a bath (which she stood there and cried for the whole time) and attempt to put her down for a nap, which she wasnt having any part of.

After that, we headed back out to the passport application place and took more pictures for the passport application.  Then it was off to the bank where we conveted our US dollars into Yuan for the adoption expenses.  We headed immediately from one bank to another where we paid the adotion fees and a number of other fees and then we headed to yet another bank where we paid for the adoption registration.

We got back to the hotel just as Saiya was about to zonk out in the car.  We put her down in the room, but she was fighting sleep.  Poor Chris was out before she was.  She has trouble going to sleep in the pack-n-play that we have, but when she fell asleep on the bed, I moved her.  She is really a great girl!  So brave and just kind of goes with the flow of things.  The only time we saw tears of any kind were when I tried to give her a bath.  Maybe that is when it finally hit her that she is going home with us.  Other than that, she is curious about everything and constantly taking in her surroundings.  She is very expressive and definitely has a mind of her own.  A true stubborn streak too!!

Off to bed for me, more to come tomorrow.  My laptop finally has power thanks to the nice hotel people lending us a power converter (ours was a piece of crap that didnt work)!  YAY!

Here in Ningxia

Sunday 8:30pm

We arrived in Ningxia around 5:45pm this evening.  We met our guide who was a little surprised at our lack of luggage and young age.  According to him "You can always tell an adoption family, because they have the most luggage".  Hahaha!  Not us.  We have one checked bag each.  His name is Tony and he is the same guide the last family (who came in Late July) had.  He seems nice enough, talks really fast and I get the feeling that we are being rushed from place to place, although that can just be me having trouble giving up control and him being efficient.

We checked into the hotel and had a nice dinner at the "Western" restaurant downstairs, which strangely enough has more chinese food than western food.  When we got to our room, we realized that the lights weren't working, so we headed downstairs to the front desk to ask how we could get them to work.  Poor girls, nice as can be, had no idea what we were asking.  After several minutes of us playing charades, with me frantically pointing to the lights over head and then making a switch out of my hand and shaking my head "no", and them trying to repeat what they thought we were asking in chinese, we finally handed them the guide's phone number so that he could translate.  It was very comical!  Apparently, the lights only work when the room key is inserted into a little slot on the wall.  Interesting idea to save on energy and such, but there are no signs or labels to tell you that is what you are supposed to do.  So, at least the girls downstairs will have an interesting story to tell...  bet they were thinking... "Ugh!  More Silly Americans!"  HAHAHAHA!

Train Trip to Guangzhou

Today is Sunday.  12:00pm

We woke up early this morning to catch an early train to Guangzhou.  The train left Hong Kong at 7:30am this morning (which is sunday).  I loved taking the train into china.  I strongly believe that is one of the best ways to see the country!  The mountains are beautiful and I loved the stark contrast between the big city of Hong Kong and the smaller town feel of the areas we were passing through.  It is a shame that we cannot take a train all the way to Ningxia.  I bet the country would be beautiful!.

We are still not sleeping well.  Yesterday we were a little dumb and ended up taking a long nap after lunch.  We went out for dinner and managed to see more of Hong Kong, but by the time we got back to the hotel, we were wide awake.  We knew we would be up early this morning, so we went to be about 10:30pm last night.  We have both been wide awake since about 3am this morning.  I can only hope that we can sleep better once we get to Ningxia.

Tomorrow we get to meet our girl!!  We are so excited!

Good Morning From Hong Kong

Saturday  9:00am

Hello from Hong Kong!!  After a very long, bumpy flight, we made it safe and sound to our hotel last night around 10pm.  The hotel is nice, the staff is awesome... but the beds are hard as ROCKS!  Hahaha!  I comtemplated sleeping on the floor last night because the bed was so hard.  Poor Chris was so exhausted because he didnt sleep much on the plane that I dont think he noticed.  We had three seats on the plane between the two of us, so I got quite a bit of sleep on the plane.  The flight went by very quickly and getting around Hong Kong is easy.

This morning we went out for breakfast and wandered around Kowloon Park for about an hour.  Even though it is only about 9am here, the temperature is stifling!  It is very hot and humid and is supposed to rain later this afternoon.  I loved touring the park and watching all the people doing Tai Chi.  It was very neat.  But, the temperature sent us seeking airconditioning and a nice cold shower.  We will be going out again this afternoon for lunch.  I am very ready for some authentic Chinese food!

Tomorrow we are off to Yinchuan.  Hopefully the internet there will be free, as we have to pay for it here in Hong Kong.

Our love to everyone back home!

Tomorrow and we're off to China!

We had a wonderful lunch with my sister and her boyfriend and we have been cleaning the house like crazy.  We are just now settling down and relaxing a little bit before we head off to Chris's parents's house for dinner.  Its nice that we have been eating at other people's houses for the last two days, less dishes and leftovers to leave behind!  Haha!  Thank you to everyone who helped us get through this week.  There were moments when we both thought we were going to lose our minds.  :)

We are as ready as we are ever going to be, and I know once we get on that plane, things will calm down significantly.  We are very excited and can't wait to meet our daughter.  We have everything packed and ready to go, all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the trip!

My next post will hopefully be from China (provided we have internet access and such at the hotel).

The Day After Tomorrow

We are leaving for China the day after tomorrow.  We have our final travel plans from the travel agency for our hotel and flights from Hong Kong and we are all packed and ready to go!  We are officially in panic mode.  Chris is nervous about the plane trips there and back and I am terrified of taking charge of a little girl!  So, between the two of us, we have the whole trip covered!  HAHA!

Tomorrow is going to be a day of cleaning the house and getting it all ready for while we are gone.  We went shopping a little bit for my sister so that she has some food to eat while we are away.  It feels like we are going to be gone forever, even though we are really only gone for a little over two weeks.

Its going to be a busy two days!

Travel Meeting Today

Today was my last day of work and we had our travel meeting.  I managed to finish all of my projects early, so I kind of snuck out a little early.  The travel meeting went well.  We had most of the paperwork all organized and ready to go.  I had to print a few things that we needed, but other than that, I think we are good.  CAWLI said they sent us a travel package in the mail that has our travel approval and such in it.  We should be receiving it by monday at the latest.  Lillian answered all of our questions about the guides, gifts, and tipping, so I think we are good for now.  After we hung up the phone, we both had to take a deep breath and try hard not to panic!  It is all coming together now and we are very excited and anxious and nervous.  Lillian also gave us some advice about how to handle meeting our daughter for the first time.  We are nervous, but I know that things will all work out.

I still have not heard from Lily at the travel agency about how much we are supposed to pay her.  She is supposed to be booking our flights from Hong Kong and the hotels we are staying in during our time in Hong Kong.  I meant to call her today, but time just got away from me.  I will have to call her tomorrow and see where we are with travel arrangements.

5 Days before we leave.  Chris is still not packed.  That would drive me crazy!  I told him if he ends up with nothing to wear in China, I'm sure I can find a skirt or two of Saiya's that he could try.  HAHAHA!

Travel Confusion and Only a Week Left!

We have exactly one week before we leave for China.  The past few days have been interesting.  I guess we were a little confused about the travel arrangements for China.  According to our agency, they only planned travel for us within mainland China, which does not include Hong Kong.  That means that hotels in Hong Kong and the flight from Hong Kong to Yinchuan had to be set up through an outside travel agency.  We are working with that travel agency, but I was under the assumption that the check we sent CAWLI for travel costs included those things.  I was wrong.  Oops!  So we will have to make arrangements to pay for those things directly to the travel agency that is working with CAWLI.  It’s not a big deal except that we will not have as much money as we thought we would have left over at the end of our trip.

On a happier note, I get these weird moments where I am absolutely THRILLED to be a mother!  Every now and then it just hits me.  We are really looking forward to traveling to China next week!  We got a few e-mails from some of the other families who will be traveling with us.  One of the families is traveling through Hong Kong as well, so hopefully we will be able to meet up with them while we are there before we head to the province.  Each one of the families is going to a different province.  It is strange that only one of the families has adopted before (and this is their first child from China).  The physician that CAWLI is sending to China will be traveling to Ningxia with us.  We are happy about that!  So far, our child is the oldest and I’m almost certain that we are the youngest parents traveling.  Funny how things work out.

Final Travel Arrangements from CAWLI

We received our final cost assessment for our trip to China.  Our agency has arranged everything from the flights to and from Ningxia to the train trip back to Hong Kong when all is said and done.  We really appreciate them making all the arrangements for us.  I will be sending the check for the travel costs to the agency today.  Hopefully we will have our travel meeting sometime this week.  We also received a finalized itinerary (posted below).  We have 10 days to go until we leave for China!!  One week of work for both of us (and for Chris, it’s a short week!).

As the day we leave approaches, we are getting more and more anxious, nervous, terrified, and thrilled!  It’s a rollercoaster of emotion but overall, we couldn’t be happier and really look forward to meeting our daughter in China!  I can only hope that she is as excited as we are.  We are the only family in our group that is going to Ningxia.  There are four families traveling to China in our group, but we will not meet up with the rest of the families until we arrive in Guangzhou because we are skipping Beijing and opting to go through Hong Kong.

DATE DAY           EVENT DETAILS


27-Aug Fri           Arrive in HK Marco Polo Hotel

28-Aug Sat           free

29-Aug Sun           fly for Yin Chuan

30-Aug Mon          Adoption process full day with guide Meeting you child in orphanage!

31-Aug Tue           Adoption process full day with guide Notary

1-Sep Wed           Half day sightseeing

2-Sep Thu           Free on own

3-Sep Fri           Morning free on own. Meet guide at airport and transfer to hotel Guangzhou

4-Sep Sat           Visa physical for your child

5-Sep Sun           Free

6-Sep Mon          Get physical examination results

7-Sep Tue           Visa interview, Around 9:30am US Consulate In Guangzhou

8-Sep Wed           Oath Ceremony, half day sightseeing Liu Rong Temple

9-Sep Thu           receive visa Train to HK

10-Sep Fri           Free

11-Sep Sat           Fly back home

Hard to Stay Focused

We have 17 days before we leave for China.  We are super excited and really wondering where the beginning of this month went.  Work is slow at the moment and its hard to stay focused on work.  I spend lots of time staring at pictures of Saiya and checking my e-mail to see if the agency has e-mailed me about our travel arrangements.  We still have not had our travel meeting and we do not know the exact amount of travel costs for in-china yet.  We have a tentative itinerary, but that’s it.

Working the weekends helps the time go by faster.  I re-packed my bag again and added some things in there for Saiya.  Right now my bag weighs exactly 40 pounds, so nothing else can go in there.  Chris is on his own!  Haha!  I also managed to pack an extra set of pj’s and a comfortable outfit for the plane ride to Guangzhou and then home in Chris’s carry-on.  I also have an extra outfit in there just in case she spills something on her clothes.  I would hate for her to have to sit there for 20+ hours with juice all over her.

Not long now!!

A Busy Month for Sure!

I can’t believe we are four days into August already!  This leaves us about three weeks before take-off!  The days fly by, but the nights are slow.  This month, there is a lot going on.  My dad is leaving for Asia next Friday, my mother is coming home from a 3 ½ week vacation in New Hampshire, my niece and nephew fly home from Louisiana today, and of course, we leave for China on the 26^th.  We are still making a list of things we want to buy for the trip to China.  Last weekend I took some Tylenol PM to see how well it would put me to sleep.  I was shocked at how sleepy it made me.  I guess we wont have any problems sleeping on the plane.  I got Chris some more Xanax from the pharmacy, so he should be set with his “happy pills”.  Other than that, we are trying to get/keep the house clean before we leave.  My bag is packed, although I have to stuff some jeans I bought for Saiya in there in case it is a little cool in Ningxia.   Sometime in the next few days or so, we should get a finalized price list and itinerary from the agency as well as have our Travel Meeting.

One of the families who went to China on July 29^th was kind enough to take pictures of our girl for us.  She is a cutie!  In almost all of the pictures she is all scrunchy-faced and pouty!  I can’t help but think about how much she looks like me when I was little.  I used to scrunch up my face and pout like that too!!  If you didnt know my husband (and thought that I married an Asian person), she could very easily pass for my biological daughter.  Sorry, Chris, nothing we can do to make her look like you!