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.

Off to Guanzhou! Having web issues, so we'll post later tonight. Things are going well.

Day 3 Part II

Hello,

We seemed to have turned a big corner with Kate!! After our traumatic afternoon with the screaming and the spectacle at the lunch hour (mind you the other families thanked John for sticking up for them- Xiulan is difficult on everyone) I decided something had to be done to get Kate accepting me. So after our two hour nap I asked John to leave us alone. I knew Kate would be hungry after the nap. when she woke up she was screaming looking all over for John. I showead her a banana and she stopped crying immediately. She tried to eat the banana with the peel on it So we sat down peeled the banana and I fed the first half to her whlie she sat on my lap, the second while she sat on the bed. She actually started smiling. Next I changed her, which has been a struggle since Sunday. But I got her changed by myself it took two of us previously to hold her down. She's really strong!!!

Next we got down on the floor and played. She loves Patty cake and a few other items in the room that act as toys. We were really enjoying ech other so we then went down to the restaurant for dinner(John was hiding out in the lobby waiting for my signal). I was able to coax Kate, well more like force her into a high chairwith the help of two waitstaff. Kate just really likes to be held all the time. It's ironic because I remember working so hard with Jack to avoid this exact behaviour. So this need to be held make high chairs and strollers next to impossible without a total meltdown.

Finally Kate settled into the chair distracted by the food I had brought over from the buffet. She was eating up a storm. Mind you this feisty girl eats like a champ AND feeds herself. So even though I realize that food should not be a reward I was so elated that we were having such a nice time and Kate was not looking around in a panic for John that I brought over a piece of lemon cake layered with whipped cream. I cut the cake into small pieces and fed her a piece and she grunted for more. So I moved the plate in front of and she proceeded to put her whole face into the cake. The people next to us (the chinese stare at us constantly) laughed outloud and Kate relished the attention.

Down below in the lobby John was able to watch us and I signaled that I thought it was OK to come up and join us. When he came up Kate was elated and of course with some crying and outstretched arms indicated that she wanted up and out and in his arms. But John gave her a firm no, and a few of his noodles and she seemed to be OK. After dinner we really needed to get to Walmart for a few things which meant the stroller!! Ugh - after the days experience with the stroller we almost bagged the idea. But We forged ahead and forced he in kicking and screaming.

She yelled and cried for about 50 yards and then stopped. We made sure that only I interacted with her. John stayed behind the stroller at all times. She was great at wal-mart no crying just smiling. When we got back to the hotel I stayed in the lobby and john went to the room and picked up his computer and then headed to the busines center to catch up on work. Kate and I went up to the room to prepare for bed and she was delighful. I actually had her laughing while changing her diaper. After playing for a while and feeding Kate some milk I turned out all the lights. I lied down with her for less than 10 minutes and she was out and I moved her to the crib. Phew!!

I think we MAY have turned the corner and John can get some rest. Tomorrow John plans to get out of the room ahead of and Kate and I and we'll meet him for breakfast and see how she does.

It was a difficult day today, so John's earlier commentary was a justifiably tarnished. He really did have it tough and was my usual superhero to the rescue. So on a positive note the park we went to was actually very beautiful and in between all the crying from Kate and bossing from Xiulan I tried to enjoy the Thai and Tibet temples, the gorgeous gardens, mountainous backdrop, and the serene lake. It was a beautiful place and my new friend Celine (one of the adopting parents)and I road on a zip line across a huge lake to get to the Tibetan Temple. We laughed a lot. We sort of can't believe we have FINALLY come to China and what a crazy experience this truly is!

Day 3 with Kate

Greetings from Kunming again!

Kate is resting comfortably in her crib, so I’ve got a few minutes to type this post for you to read Tuesday morning.

We just got back from a tourist trip to an “Ethnic Village” with the other two couples and our escort Xiulan, or as I like to call her Edna from The Incredibles movie. More on that in a minute.

This Ethnic village features all the different ethnic groups from the country, each with their own pavilion. (Imagine that… A place to see the other ethnic groups. Just think if we had this in the States? “And on your left is the Irish pavilion… don’t get too close or they’ll get you drunk. Now, say Hola to the Hispanic pavilion!” The comedic value would be just too much.)

Anyway, the place was kind of like Disney World where you can see the entire country in one place, though without Mickey and Minnie for the kids. Instead there was a bunch of old people who stare at you when you walk by, say something that is invariably derogatory to you in Chinese, and want to come and hold your child. I’ll take Mickey and Minnie any day.

All humor aside, it was pretty cool and we got some good pictures of the different groups. Oh, and Jen rode on a zip line. Now that’s something you don’t see every day!

Note: if you’ve made it this far in the blog, I will buy you a beer when I get back.

Now back to the reason why we’re on this trip: Kate!

We’re really having a tough go on our third day with her. She still doesn’t like to be held by anyone but me/John, and isn’t very fond of the stroller, so I/John get to carry her around all day. Xiulan/Edna can’t believe that I’m carrying her around all the time, and says that all the men in the hotel are calling me a Chinese housewife. I suppose I’ve been called worse.

This is also causing great frustration with Xiulan/Edna who thought she could take Kate in the stroller away from us, and try to “break” her from her hysterical crying. Fifteen minutes later we could still hear her screams from about 50 yards away and it was too much for Jen so she went and got her. Of course when she arrived, the requisite group of old people had surrounded Xiulan/Edna and were taking turns holding Kate. So I got to carry Kate for the rest of the day. My arms are going to be HUGE after this trip!

Needless to say we’re getting a bit tired of Xiulan/Edna telling us what to do with Kate and how to treat her. She’s
very old-school with children, and reminds me of the Edna character in the movie The Incredibles. You should really rent the movie. Sixty nine years old, short in stature, huge glasses, and super tough as nails. (Heck, she rode her bike to the hotel today with a load of laundry on it! Imagine your own grandmother doing that?) She literally tells the group what to do at all times, and today at lunch I had enough of her, so when she told us to put Kate in the stroller to feed her I said no pretty sternly. I think she got the picture that we’ll do what we want with Kate.

(Now if I recall correctly, we went through this crying experience with Cito, as have most parents, and it was just as trying on our collective patience and our abilities back then as it is today. How soon we forget.)

All right, I’m sure everyone who’s made it this far in the blog is asleep or is invariably saying something derogatory to me/John in English and just wants it to end.

Until tomorrow!

Thanks for reading

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from the day we got Kate.

Here's the first one we arrived in the room:

Here's Jen holding her for the first time:

Happy Jen with Kate and two fingers in her mouth:

Here's the princess in her girly-girl dress all ready to head out on Tuesday:

Some random guy holding Kate:

We have her!

Greetings again from Kunming,

Where to begin... oh yeah, we have Kate!

We all met in the lobby of the hotel yesterday, and were driven to what we think was an administration office in a very interesting part of town about 10 minutes from the hotel. I don't know where to begin, other than it was a surreal experience.

We were driven through some alley ways, complete with storefronts offering hanging chickens ready to cook, and pulled into an apartment complex straight from the 1950s. None of us were sure what to expect next, so we just followed the orders of our handlers who told us to climb the stairs to the second floor and go into an office. Up we went and turned the corner into the room and there were 3 babies all in a row on a couch each with someone from the orphanage holding them.

All three families were silent and didn't know what to do next. The three babies were sitting on the couch oblivious to what was happening, and our handler Xiulan (shoe-lan) said Reed, and pointed to Kate.

The person from the orphanage stood up and handed Kate to Jen while I was snapping pictures left and right.

Again, the only way to describe it is surreal.

Jen was holding Kate for some time while Xiulan was looking her over for any illness, rashes or bruises. Kate does have a minor rash on her right cheek, and no one's sure what it is until we get her to a doctor.

Then I got a chance to hold her and I've forgotten what it's like to hold a 10 month old baby compared to carrying Cito. She's light as air, and she was very comfortable with me holding her. The one interesting thing we noticed is that she must have been around men in her foster home, because she didn't like Jen holding her and only wanted me to hold her. She would go into quite a fit when Jen would try and pick her up, but when I held her she was quiet.

Anyway, I think we were at this office for 30 minutes before it was time to go back to the hotel, where we had some lunch, and Kate took a nap (and so did we for 3 hours). I was holding her the whole time through lunch and when it was time for a nap she didn't like being put down and went berserk, so she fell asleep on my chest.

We met the group again for dinner where Xiulan brought us to a restaurant where we had some fantastic food that's nothing like the restaurants back home. I think my cholesterol shot up a few points.

After dinner we went for a walk a few blocks down from the hotel to a big square where we watched about 30 people in a huge circle who were dancing to some music. It was like a community dance where any one could join in and follow along. Believe me I was tempted but Jen held me back.

Then a really weird thing happened. While Jen and I were watching the dancing, some people started coming up to us talking to Kate and I assume were saying how cute she was (we couldn't understand what they were saying, but a lot of the women were cooing over her), and then they started grabbing at her to take her out of the stroller. All of a sudden there were at least 20 people surrounding us all wanting to talk to us and look at her. I should have charged admission, but I started to get a little nervous about the spectacle we were causing and Kate was going a bit bonkers, so we moved on. Maybe the had never seen a western couple with a baby before?

Kate slept through the night, again after falling asleep on my chest, and this morning we met the other two groups for a ride back to the administration office where we signed some more papers to make the adoption official. Kate was crawling all over the place and I think she'll be walking in no time.

We then drove to what I think was passport office where she had her picture taken and started the paperwork to allow her to leave the country.

We're back at the hotel now, and Kate's asleep in the room. We don't have web access in our room, so I'm in the business center typing this and I forgot my camera to upload the pictures. I'll do that in the next post.

Some observations:
- Driving here is total (and I mean TOTAL) chaos. Electric donkeys and bicycles rule the road and cars are secondary.
- Bike helmets aren't a thought here when riding a bike, and the bikes are used for utility. Nothing fancy, just transportation from one point to the next.
- No kiddie car seats. Kate was in my arms for any of the trips we've done in the car.
- It's very warm, so we've dressed Kate in some light clothes and let her roam around in bare feet. Everyone we've seen says she must be cold and needs shoes, while she's sweating profusely. Go figure.
- The people here are very nice, though they stare at us quite a bit.

That's all for now. I'll have the pictures posted later today.

Thanks for reading.

Greetings from Kunming

We are in Kunming now. Our flight through Beijing was seamless.The international terminal in Beijing was impressive. An architectural marvel. Extremely clean and efficient. All the airpprts are very quiet and there is traditional chinese instrumental music playing in the background. As soon as we went outside though the air quality was noticeably unhealthy. People commented about that to me before travelling and it really is noticeably different than in the states.I imagine over the next week we will experience a lot of interesting cultural differences. In fact this already started. We have noticed that it is typical for Chinese people to cut in front of you in line. This happened to us twice in the airport. Then while on board the flight from Beijing to Kunming I walked to the back of the plane to use the restroom. I was at the end of the line when 2 different people put their hand on my shoulder and turned me to the side and stepped in front of me I finally decided I could wait until we landed.

When we arrived in Kunming and debaorded the plane the air was noticeably fresher here and it was a joy to walk into bagggae claim and hear our names being shouted across the hall by our local escort and coordinator Xiulan(pronounced shoe-lon). We retrieved our bags and were escorted to our hotel. It was easy. The city is large with 1.8 million residents and quite westernized.It was a livevly Saturday night in the city with lots of young people on electric scooters. All of whom were helmetless. Xiulan referred to them as electronic donkeys. Very dangerous but very convenient.

The hotel is actually four star and is far nicer than we anticipated. The room is decorated very traditionally with asian flair. Very expensive furnishings linens and draperies. But the beds leave nuch to be desired, very hard. We think its box spring only. Nevertheless we slept. Of course we are still up very early.
As I guessed we will meet Kate later this morning instead of tomorrow. We are nervous. Especially me. Xiulan who is very nice but very straight forward and very much business said "tomorrow we examine the baby, you know we must see the baby first before finalizing.You never know with these adoptions". These were not exactly reassuring words for me to hear, especially when sleep deprived.

The whole thing is a little nerve- wracking. Xiulan explained that she will examine the baby herself to make sure there is nothing funny. Whatever this means? Despite her very frank and a tad bit gruff nature (she was described by people to us as a bulldozer and the desription is fitting) you definitley know that Xiulan is in your corner. And you do NOT want to mess with her. So the plan is to meet Xiulan in the lobby at 9:30 this morning to go and pick up Kate.

There are two other American families adopting and staying in the hotel as well, we will meet them this morning and travel all together to the adoption office in Kunming to meet the babies.

So more to follow!

Hello from Beijing

We're here in Beijing after a uneventful 14 hour flight. We watched 3 movies, and I watched some of Long Way Round on my Ipod.
I think we got 45 minutes of sleep, and are now waiting to get on the next flight to Kunming at 6:55 pm local time. It's a 3.5 hour flight and in theory someone will be there to take us to the hotel.

Apologies for the brevity, but we're exhausted, and I'm typing this on my blackberry so I'm not feeling that wordy today.

I'll post another tomorrow after we get settled and will try to post some pictures as well.

As always, thanks for reading.

JR

And now we leave....

Today is the big day. We're finally getting on the 12:30 flight to Beijing, so things are a bit frantic this morning as we do last minute packing, prep work for Cito's sitters for the next two weeks, and get Cito to school.

Have I mentioned Jen's been carrying the whole family through this process? She has been a non-stop dynamo over the last few weeks with this, and Cito and I are in awe. She's in her "meeting planner" mode and this is just another event she has to prep for, albeit a 3 and a half year event, and I'm just the hired help (which is certainly my usual role).

It's finally stopped raining in NoVA today, so that's one less thing to worry about. It's 82 and mostly cloudy in Beijing, and 82 and clear in Kunming. Apparently Kunming is the "City of Eternal Spring", so it's 70-80s during the day every day which is very nice indeed. Nice enough to ride bike. Hmmm....I wonder if...nah don't want to risk getting hit by a car in a foreign country.

Gotta run for now, and I don't expect to put up another post until Saturday, so things will be quiet for a while.

Have a good (and dry) weekend and thanks for reading.

JR

We're going....no we're not

Here's what's happened today:

11:00 am: Agency reports China closing all adoptions for 2 months due to swine flue excitement.
12:00 pm: Translator says we're going regardless.

Who to believe?

We're packing our bags and getting on the flight this Friday come hell or high water.

The fun continues...

First post

Greetings,

After some excitement last week around the H1N1 virus, it appears we're still on schedule to leave this Friday from Dulles to Beijing but we're continuing to watch some China adoption sites for any new information. Since last week's media-fueled hysteria appears to have died down for now we're cautiously optimistic that things will go our way.

In the end, worst case is we have to either reschedule the flights or we get quarantined while we're in China.

Fun options, eh?

Kate's room is also taking shape. The dresser was moved from Cito's room to hers yesterday, the crib is set up, and piles of clothes are being prepped for packing later this week. Jen spent most of the day washing clothes so things will be nice and clean for her.

Thanks for reading.