We're home

Greetings from home,

One last post for everyone who followed the blog while we were away...

We're home now and all settled in. Kate's finally on the right time zone and is sleeping through the night. She's no longer the vampire up all night and sleeping during the day, and Jen is quite happy about that.

Kate has gotten comfortable with her new surroundings, and is really taking a liking to Cito. As expected, she follows him around where ever he goes. She's also close to walking and has almost walked across the bedroom unassisted.

Here are some recent pictures we took with Kate after we got home. Hope you like them.

Thanks to everyone for reading this over the last few weeks.

JR

Travel day

Today's the big travel day with our 25 different flights that will ultimately get us back to Dulles Wednesday night.

I'll have some new pictures posted in a couple days once we get settled .

Thanks to everyone who's read, watched and posted comments to the blog.

It's finally done.

Our Last Night in China

Before I go on to sum up the rest of our trip, let me just add that despite all the fun we have had with the Xiulan/Edna comparison, Xuilan much like Edna, in the end, was a lifesaver. Her relationships with just about everybody in Kunming allowed us to overcome many obstacles. And she was a true lifesaver for Selene and baby Jada coming around to administer suppositories for Jada(sorry to gross you out), but this was stressful for the family, and without Xiulan it could have been even more so. She was also always ready with the right snack for the babies when they got fussy on the sightseeing tours. And she really made me laugh sometimes, especially when she was haggling with the check-in agent at the Kunming airport about the excess baggage fees when she looked back at me and said in all serious, "Argh!!! I should have brought her a box of chocolates and this would have been so much easier".

Even she and John became good friends near the end and perhaps a little competitive. Not everyone wanted to do the full climb at Dragon's Gate. Even Xiulan said she was going to stay behind for the last leg, but when John said I'm going to give it a shot, guess who joined in? It was a fun climb and she had never done it before. Not too bad for 69 years of age. She attributes her stamina to the Chinese diet of course.

So enough of the Kunming portion....

Where did we leave off last? Ah yes, after filling out three different versions of a notarized vaccination affidavit for Kate before leaving the states, it was determined that I accidentally reversed the Chinese name of Kate, which made the correct form null and void. This meant I had to travel to the American consulate and fill out a new form in front of the notary there in order to have Kate's Visa processed. I had hoped I would not have to make a trip there until the swearing in ceremony today, but Gus had a similar problem, so we went together. Our new guide Peter Pei accompanied us, and the American there was very nice. When I handed the form to the notary she asked how everything was going. And then she said I bet this isn't the first affidavit you had notarized is it? I write this because the paper work has been ridiculous. I have re-done just about every form since I arrived. It seems that no one knows which ones are correct, which have expired, or exactly how they have to be filled out. I'm not sure why we just didn't do a lot of it one time in China, rather than trying to figure it out in the states and then have to redo half of them here. It was even worse for Selene since her husband couldn't travel. As a result she had about triple the amount of documents to complete, AND has more to do when she gets back. The good news is by Monday afternoon we were all approved for baby Visas. So we went and celebrated on a boat cruise, babies on board as well. The cruise ship was nothing special, the food not so good, but all the babies were great on board too, and it was BYOB so who needs food anyway!!!

Our down time here has been mostly spent walking around the multitude of tourist shops operated by very aggressive sales people luring you in from the street. The other families were celebrities with the shop keepers. Especially Jackie ( Selene's mother), John and I would walk into a shop and the shop owner would always ask us where Kate was from. When we indicated Kunming they immediately asked if we knew Jackie? We had a lot of laughs about that at dinner. We told Jackie and Selene they were celebrities here, and had I known that Jackie was such a keen bargainer I would have given her a list and allowance and told her to have at it.

Today, our final day in Guangzhou, was a leisurely morning. In the afternoon the Kunming cousins all dressed up in matching Chinese dresses, selected of course by Selene and Jackie, (I had to buy one when I saw Jada's). We then took the requisite "red couch" photo in the lobby lounge at the hotel, before heading off to the American consulate for the swearing in ceremony and receipt of the baby visas. Everything went smoothly, and upon entry to the U.S. Kate will immediately be an American citizen - WE ARE DONE!!! All the families had to take an oath as part of the swearing in ceremony. I of course have no idea what I said and could barely get the words out because of all the tears of joy!!!!!

And besides the swearing in ceremony Kate took three steps on her own - she is ready to go, and so are we. Can't wait to see you Jack!!!!

Lots more stories to come when we see all of you in person.

Hope you have enjoyed the blog. More pictures to come on the weekend, we (mostly me - John's the organized one) have got to get packing now - no time to download!

Great Strides

Back when we started the adoption process in 1975 (or something like that), we were told to expect the child to be behind in their development compared to a similarly aged child from the US.

So when we finally picked up Kate last week, we were looking for any issues with how she responded to us (beyond the screaming/crying/etc we wrote about at the beginning of the blog), and how she interacted with other people. At 10 months old, we were mentally comparing her to how we remembered Jack's behavior at the same age.

Now that we've gotten to know her pretty well over the last two weeks, I think the short video below taken this morning in the hotel's kiddie center answered most of our questions.



Jack is going to really get a run for his money when Kate shows up on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading (and watching).
JR

Your request

Hi,

Thanks to everyone who's been posting their comments to the blog so far. You folks are too kind.

It seems my post about Edna seemed to make some people laugh and want to see pictures of her. Well, here she is.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Here's the real one with some random tourist at the Dragon's Gate outside Kunming after climbing 5 miles of steps.

And to ensure the proper credit is given, Jennifer was the one who came up with the name, not me.

Some more pictures

Here are some pictures of the last few days.


At the Ethnic Village outside Kunming




Kate and her buddy Jada from Woodbridge, VA




Bath time in the sink!



Post bath fun:



Temple of 500 Buddahs on the way back from Dragon's Gate




At the Dr. Sun-Yat Sen memorial hall in Guangzhou:




And the requisite bike shot. He will carry 12 water jugs on his bike after getting them refilled. I am a wimpy bike rider.

Hello from Guangzhou!

It’s been a few days since our last post, and quite a bit has happened. We finally left Kunming on Friday for an easy flight to Guangzhou, and as usual it was quite a production with 3 families unloading their suitcases at the terminal entrance. The porters were visibly drooling when they saw us arrive.

Xiulan/Edna shepherded us through the check-in for Jen, Kate and I and she successfully persuaded the attendant to not charge us the overweight baggage fee (we were 5kg over). When we got to the security check point where they look over our passports and inspect our carry-on luggage, the person inspecting our papers found a mistake and wouldn’t let us proceed. In the chaos of the check in, one of the other family’s names was on Kate’s ticket and the inspector wouldn’t let us pass since it didn’t match Kate’s passport. Xiulan/Edna stormed to the front of the line and smooth talked the inspector explaining it was a mistake and it’s OK to let us pass. Unbelievably the inspector let us in.

That would never happen in the States.

The flight was pretty easy, with Kate crawling all over Jen and I, and eating some of the noodles from the dinner. Hopefully it was a good prep for next week’s flights to Beijing and DC.

We landed without incident, collected our bags in the chaos of Guangzhou airport, and met our next handler Peter Pei. A bundle of energy, Peter led us on a controlled sprint through the terminal to a waiting van where we threw the suitcases from all three families in and sped off for a 40 minute drive to the White Swan hotel. Once we were out of the airport Peter explained the reason for the sprint. It was very important that the van wait no more than 5 minutes in front of the baggage claim area or we would be charged. He was trying to save us money. It must have been quite a sight to see 6 adults, pulling 3 infants and 10 suitcases at such high speed through the airport.

Kunming, in the southern central part of the country, is called the City of Eternal spring, where the weather is a steady 70-75 degrees with very mild humidity. Guangzhou is in the south eastern part of China, and I believe it’s called the City of Eternal Humidity.

As soon as we exited the terminal, my shirt soaked through with sweat. I thought: this is going to be a fun 5 days!

We arrived at the White Swan hotel, with images of the Kunming Hotel in our minds as what to expect: a haze of cigarette smoke and stink greeting us as we entered the lobby with a weak air conditioner attempting to cool us off.

We were pleasantly wrong.

The website pictures of the White Swan don’t do it any justice. We walked in, our bags were all sorted by the porters and we were greeted with a cool wave of AC and a huge welcoming lobby. Peter checked us in and we were led to the room. Again, a wave of AC swept over us as we entered to find a crib all set (with a bumper, the other one did not have a bumper and Kate woke up regularly as she rolls about often hitting her head on the rails), two twin beds (hard as rocks just like Kunming… what is it with the Chinese and their beds?), a fully stocked mini-bar, and a great view of the city. It was as if we’d been sleeping in tents for a week with no showers, and walked into the Ritz Carlton. Now this is more like it!

On Saturday morning we people watched during the abundant buffet breakfast (included in the room rate – what a deal). This hotel is adoption central. There were dozens of other families from all over the world eating breakfast with their new additions. Some young like Kate, some as old as nine. Some brought their entire families for the trip. Some were back for their second or third adoption.

Our first and only appointment for the day was a doctor’s checkup for Kate. Keep in mind that the mothers in our group were extremely nervous about the doctor’s visit. A fever discovered at the hospital could result in quarantine, and keep us in China indefinitely! So we all followed our U.S. pediatrician’s advice and gave the babies infant Motrin the night before and an hour before the doctor’s appointment to keep any potential fever either hidden or at bay. Ella and Jada, the other two infants in our group, had been coughing all week with runny noses so we were all on pins and needles about the medical visit. We had a 10 minute walk to the clinic and after three different nurses checked Kate and the other babies over, they were all deemed healthy and fit for adoption. Here’s a difference between China and the States: Normally our doctors use an instrument to look into your ear for any infections. Our doctor? He eyeballed it. He turned Kate’s head to the side looked in her ear from a foot away and said “OK, next baby.” Huh? And then they took Kate’s temperature under the arm. What happened to the fun of the rectal thermometer?

While sitting in the waiting room for the other kids to be examined, Jen talked to a couple from Oklahoma in Guangzhou for their second special needs adoption. And they brought their first adoptee, a girl, and their biological daughter with them. Unreal.

Once the doctor’s visits were complete, we were free for the rest of the day. Jen, Kate and I walked around the area near the hotel for some time and got some lunch at a local outdoor café. Kate fell asleep in her stroller, so Jen and I lingered there for some time just decompressing from the stress of Kunming. It was nice to have the time to ourselves. The hotel is on an island, we’re surrounded by the Pearl River, and there are dozens of buildings from the 1800s during the British colony days, so it was pretty cool looking at the history.

We met up with Peter and the rest of the group later in the afternoon to get the consulate paper work organized. Peter would then take our documents and submit them prior to our appointment on Monday. I played with Kate on the couches in the lobby while Jen handled the hard stuff.

We went back to the outdoor café for dinner, and walked around again. As expected, we were stared at by the locals but not nearly as much as Kunming. Guess the people here are used to seeing westerners with Chinese babies.

Today, Sunday, we took a tour bus around the city. We visited a Buddhist temple, an opera hall dedicated to Dr. Sun-Yat Sen, the founder of modern China, and Carrefour’s for some diapers and other paraphernalia for Kate. We finished the afternoon at the pool (very nice with exquisite gardens all around). Kate loved the pool splashed around and her diaper soaked up half the pool’s water. She’s napping comfortably right now.

Kate is a lot of fun, and actually reminds us a lot of Jack in temperament. She’s come a long way since last Sunday. She’s attached to Jen as well as me, sits nicely in the stroller, waves, and shakes her head vigorously for no. Our biggest challenge is getting her to drink formula since she prefers juice. She’s very curious and observant, and responds well to NO. She seems to like to be with other children. We observed this in the Mattel sponsored playroom at the hotel equipped with loads of baby toys, plush carpeting and a flat screen TV. Mattel provides each adopting family at the hotel with a blond Barbie doll carrying an Asian baby in her arms and we found one on our bed as a welcome gift when we checked in.

I think this covers almost everything we’ve done in the last few days. Tomorrow Jen heads to the consulate to address an incorrect document in our packet, and then tomorrow night we’re taking a dinner tour boat around the city.

There are so many any other stories to tell we could write a book on this blog. We’ve met people from all over the world, and we really admire the families who have adopted the older children with special needs. Everyone has a unique story about his or her experience before arriving in Guangzhou to finalize the adoption at the American consulate. But we all shared the same feeling when arriving at the White Swan hotel. It was like reentering civilization, and a great relief that we are a few more days closer to getting home. We really miss Jack, and can’t wait to see him!!

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading as usual.