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