It's Official!

***I just realized that one of my last posts did not get sent from China. I wrote this the two days before we left -- Thursday night, May 6th. It has the long-awaited red couch photos that everyone has been asking me about.

We've had some questions about the other babies, too. In the red couch photo from left to right are very outgoing and active Josie, 9 months, who always kicks her legs and waves her arms (her birthday is four days after Abigail's); very happy and social Porter, 18 months who always liked wave at us and visit Abigail (his cleft lip will be repaired in the United States); Abigail, 9 months and smart Erin, 22 months, who had already learned to say please and shook her finger 'no' in China (wearing the traditional outfit from her province in Inner Mongolia). One of the hardest parts of the trip is leaving families and their babies with whom you've formed a bond.

We are home now and things are going pretty well. I'll have to post more about that and our flights which Abigail and Natalie handled really well later -- still unpacking and trying to get organized tonight. (Delayed from planned organization by Abigail, who woke at midnight and thought it was daytime. She's back to sleep now.)





Thursday, May 6th

After loading 3 tour buses of American adoptive families from the White Swan Hotel, we arrived at the U.S. Consulate to sign papers and take the group oath. The appointment we feared we would miss has now come and gone without any more snags.

All efforts are on finishing shopping and packing as we leave out at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Somehow we gain a day and arrive in Louisville 8:30 p.m. Saturday night.

Yesterday morning we took our red couch photos, another sign that it is almost time to go home. Every travel group who stays at the White Swan gets their children together on the red couch for a group photograph which is not as easy as it seems. Abigail was all smiles in the beginning (of course, this is the photo I posted) but by the end she was wailing and in tears -- no morning nap and too many camera flashes! With Natalie's travel group, we had to get 13 babies to sit still on the couch -- no easy feat!

Natalie loved getting all dolled up like her sister. Jack, a very outgoing salesperson in a local shop, set us up with matching outfits and even dug and dug in a bag of shoes until he found some big enough for Natalie. The shops specialize in baby sizes.

Later that afternoon we visited the Six Banyan Temple where a chanting monk blessed the babies as all the families kneeled. Abigail was big-eyed watching with curiousity.

Natalie was eager to light incense and bowed three times for what the Chinese consider their three lives -- the past, the present and the future. She also tried and tried to throw a coin into the urn so she could make a wish. She got a little boost by getting on her dad's shoulders.

I just tried to get a decent picture of Flat Stanley in front of the temple, because I knew the kindergarten at my school was depending on me. The bad news is that I forgot to take Flat Stanley with me for the optimum photo shoot -- the Great Wall. Well, at least I got a photo in China.

We stopped by the government store which we were told would have quality souvenirs, but didn't see anything very different from what's in the souvenir stores outside our hotel. Abigail who used to just keeping to herself is getting very alert and was reaching out toward the shelves in this store. She did get a hold of a box of chopsticks which were wood, thank goodness.

We told our guide that the girls (the big sisters) love noodles so she drove us way across the city to a Noodle Factory. The girls got to watch them make long noodles, dumplings, etc.

The bad news was that we had to dish out and then eat the long, slippery noodles with chopsticks -- no forks. They did help us dish them out as soon as they saw how inept we were at this. Near the end of our meal they finally brought us a ladle for dipping out noodles. The noodles were very thick and doughy, but tasty.

But what made the biggest impression was the heat. By the end of the meal, we were all sweating profusely and even noticed Chinese people fanning themselves. When we got there the restaurant was empty, but by the end of our meal it was full. Helen explained that on the first few hot days of the season, the air conditioning is not working well yet. We all left overheated and with whiny, sweaty babies. Of course, Abigail did eat her whole bowl of steamed egg.

Tonight Helen called in an order to Papa John's for us and pizza never tasted so good.

Now we are preparing for the trip home. When we brought Natalie home, she slept on all the flights except the one from Cincinnati to Evansville, which was so short it didn't matter. But we think Abigail is going to be a different story. On our hour-long flight to Guangzhou from Nanchang, she wanted to be on her feet with me holding her up and looking around. She did not even want to sit down. She is much the same way on the buses -- very alert, wants to stand or reach for things. If she does get tired, she can't get comfortable and arches her back and cries.

We're working on strategies for the flight home. We hear the 7-Eleven across the street has goldfish crackers and meltaways, baby snacks. I'm going to pick up a few new baby toys at the shops. We'll need a few more ideas. We'll only be on the planes for a total of 18 hours!!

Ready for takeoff?

Well, not really. But we've got to get there. Cause we are about to exit China!!

Easier said than done, though. Once we leave the hotel at 7 a.m., we will spend about 25 hours in airports or on planes before we arrive in Louisville.

First we fly Guangzhou to Beijing, which will take about three hours flying time. Then the big hop, Beijing to Chicago, will take 13 hours. Then Chicago to Louisville will take about an hour.

Add in the couple of hours early we have to arrive at the first airport, plus layovers and we will spend more than full day acting like a much less cool version of George Clooney in "Up in the Air." (with a seven-year-old and a baby).

We take off on our first leg at 10 a.m. Saturday, but because we cross back over the international date line, we arrive Louisville at about 8:30 Saturday night

Oh well, we can't wait. Not for all that time in the planes, but to be home! It will be heaven to see our family, our dog, our home -- with Abigail no less. Woohoo!

Not to mention how wonderful it will be to have drinks with ice!

In the meantime, we had one last group meal with our 4-family travel group tonight. One of those families will be on the plane with us tomorrow. The other two are flying a different route on a different airline.

Oh well, I need to go help Allison pack. It is getting late and there's still much to do.

Looking forward to seeing you all back in the U.S.A.

Girls, Pearls, Malls and Markets

 

Today was a pretty neat day. As you may have already read, we have been assured that our missing Visa 37 -- I still don't even know what that is, to be honest -- is now waiting for us at the Consulate here in Guangzhou.

Hooray! We can proceed on our journey back home to the U.S. as a family of four with big sister (jie jie) and little sister (mei mei)!!

And yep, the four babies in our travel group all did well at the medical examination that is required for their entrance into the U.S.

After coming "home" from the medical exam and taking a nap, we headed out to a huge shopping mall. Unlike malls in American, this one doesn't spread out, it goes up. I think somebody said it had eight floors. We visited a couple of stores there: pearls, CDs and luggage. The women in the group REALLY liked the pearl store. Natalie stood by at a counter full of sparkly beads where she got the workers to string her a little bracelet.

We then walked back to the hotel, probably about a mile's distance, and went through the heart of the Qing Ping market, which is famous as the place in China you can buy just about any kind of exotic natural product, be it animal or plant, alive or dead.

In the market you can buy dogs, cats, birds, fish, roots, herbs, spices and even a few pretty crazy things. Helen repeated several times that the animals for sale were for pets. The dogs were dolled up with bows and fancy collars.

Our last trip to China we were highly discouraged from visiting the Qing Ping market due to a couple of SARS cases still lingering in Guangzhou. According to an old saying, the Cantonese will eat anything that flies, except airplanes and anything with four legs, as long as it's not a table. Protein is hard to come by here.

We saw two different guys with what they claimed were tiger paws for sale. They didn't look fake. As a matter of fact, they looked pretty gross. Who knows.

Also for sale, live scorpions for scorpion soup (is supposed to be very good as a way to get "heat out of the body," according to our guide) as well as snake skins, rare worm roots (good for the lungs, says Helen) and just about anything else you can think of. Ginseng by the bale. Dried sea horses as far as the eye can see.

Abigail sat upright in her stroller taking it all in as we went through the bustling market. Natalie asked our guide Helen very specific questions about which of the foods for sale she liked to eat. She was really working hard at figuring it all out.

We got back to the hotel, cleaned up a bit and all went out to eat at a Thai place on the island called the Cow and Bridge with the other families in our group. Very good food, and young Abigail devoured an entire bowl of chicken congee even after slurping down a whole bottle. We chose to use chopsticks for the entire meal even when forks were sitting right there on the table.

Natalie and Abigail were both angels today. Even through all the shopping, walking and the waiting at the medical exam, they were real troopers -- no baby tears or whining. People continue to comment on how constantly happy and content young Abigail is. Allison and I just keep knocking on wood.

Tomorrow we take the infamous red couch pictures with all the babies in our group. Then in the afternoon it's off to the Six Banyan Temple and the government store for "authentic" souvenirs.

Thanks to everyone at home who offered to help us with our paperwork ordeal. All of our efforts paid off! We'll be coming home soon!!

The Eagle has landed!

Very good news!! Helen got a phone call about a half hour ago from the U.S. Consulate here in Guangzhou, and they report that they have possession of our "Visa 37" approval! (I still want to see it to believe it, but I feel relieved enough to have hugged Helen - doug)

This wonderful news came on our return trip from the medical clinic, where all the babies in our group passed their exams wth flying colors.
Getting there was a small adventure as we had to walk to the other side of the island, which is completely torn up with construction. At one point, we had to walk over a thin board that was covering a trench, and I honestly didn't think the board would hold us. I heard it crack when I walked over it.

Anyway, we are on lunch/nap break before more activities this afternoon.
Just wanted to share the wondeful news. Thank you everyone for your offers of assistance and prayers. We were truly worried that we weren't going to get to head home on time.

Now, Lord willing as my mother used to say, we are just days away from a big trip home.

Tomorrow we go the Consulate. If we don't post before then, we will let you all know how that goes.

Better in Guangzhou

Our paperwork problem has not been solved as it is still the weekend in the U.S. But we arrived in the paradise of Guangzhou this afternoon where our new coordinator who also goes by the name Helen reassures us that our problem has happened to families before and gotten fixed in time to go home as planned. She reassured us that our adoption agency will be able to fix it.

She should know she deals with the Consulate all the time. She even went to one of the Consulate member's houses in the middle of the night to get a family out of the country for a family emergency. We are starting to feel better.

We still plan to make lots of phone calls tomorrow night (Mon. a.m. in U.S.) to make sure this gets settled. We'll call the Louisville CIS, National Visa Center, USCIS Customer Service line and even Mitch McConnell and Ed Whitfield if we need to do so.

Shamian Island is Guangzhou really does feel like paradise compared to where we've been. It's like Florida with its weather and palm trees. The island was built when the European Consulate was located there. All the buildings have an European influence. The island is calm and peaceful even though there is some construction going on to prepare for the Asian Games in November. Best thing yet, motorcycles and motorbikes have been forbidden to prepare for the games. There are very few cars on the island. We can walk around the island's park, stores and restaurants safely.

Also comforting is the large number of families here at our hotel adopting from China also. Everyone wants to stop and look at each other's babies and compare stories.

We even ate an the American restaurant tonight called Lucy's. As soon as Natalie sat down, she said, "I'm eating some meat!" She ordered a hamburger which was rather large and ate every single bite.

Natalie seems very at home here. She wants to know what we did here when we adopted here. It is good for her to be in the province where she was born.

So we're happy to be back here, but still on pins and needles about this visa revision that needs to be sent from Louisville. We're hoping for the best.

We'll send more photos tomorrow.

Stuck in China?

We got a call from our adoption agency's China office tonight (Saturday) at 8 p.m. that the U.S. Consulate does not have our revised visa approval from the Louisville Citizenship and Immigration Services office that was approved 3-30-10.

This means that if Louisville does not send this paperwork by May 5th in China that we will not get to go to our consulate appointment or leave China as planned on May 8th.

Seeing how it is Saturday morning back home that leaves very few days to get this worked out. The other problem is that the Louisville CIS is one of those offices where they can contact you, but you are not supposed to contact them.

FTIA did get the name of a contact person with the Louisville CIS. Her name is Jennifer Hendrix. The agency and I have already left voice mails and e-mails for her, but she won't be in until Monday probably.

I have used whitepages.com to try to get a home phone number. Only one Jennifer Hendrix appears, but when I call her number it says it is disconnected.

So if anyone out there, especially our journalism friends and Louisville friends, know of a Jennifer Hendrix or anyone else who works for the Louisville CIS, contact numbers, etc. Any help would greatly be appreciated. She appears to be the only way we are leaving China on time.

We will continue e-mailing and calling all appropriate parties, but thought that there might be someone out there reading this who could help.

Pray that we get this resolved and get to come home on time.

14 Things That Remind You That You are Definitely in China

Doug says, "How many posed pictures are people going to want to see?" -- which has made me venture off in a new direction.

14 Things That Remind Us That We are Definitely In China

1. Toddlers in split pants squatting on the sidewalks. Shoes off at the door has a whole new meaning.

2. When inquiring about a restroom you make sure to ask, "Western toilet or squatty potty?" See photo above. (Natalie and I performed a balancing act one afternoon as I helped her master the squat over the hole in the ground. The theatre had only squatty potties. The line of 20 women using multiple stalls had disappeared in the time it took us to master this one use.)

3. In the restroom the guide checks, "Did you bring your own paper?" (Yes, we remembered to do this. Thank goodness, she only offered one tiny square to those who forgot.)

4. Every time you order a drink, you make sure to ask for no ice. (The water in China is not safe for us to drink.)

5. You throw away multiple toothbrushes that you accidentally stick under the faucet because it's a habit, and you momentarily forgot that the water in China is not safe. (Luckily, the hotels supply new toothbrushes, and bottled water, daily.)

6. You long for a seatbelt, a car seat, some sort of safety device as you whizz around through traffic in the semi-rundown van in which the driver constantly swerves and hits the horn. If there is a blockage in the traffic, it is OK. He will quickly pull into oncoming traffic to get around it.

7. Cars never stop as they pull out into traffic. They only blast their horn as some sort of warning of "Watch out, here I come". We saw an old man riding a bike with no horn. He had a metal pot in a basket and he was beating on it with a stick.)

8. Elevators/small spaces seem to encourage some kind of game -- "How many people can fit?"

9. You think it is foggy, but then notice that the sky is not hazy after a rain. The rainfall clears the pollution for awhile. The sun finally appears to be shining.

10. You remind yourself that you are playing life or death Frogger every time you cross the street.

11. Firecrackers. The folks here love their firecrackers. The other day at a nice restaurant the wedding party set off a brick of firecrackers outside the restaurant to scare away evil spirits and bad luck. Today is May Day, or Chinese Labour Day, and it sounds like a war zone even from the 15th floor. Not popping ... roaring explosions. Lots of them.

12. You go to check Facebook, or Google, or some other favorite Web site ... and you get nothing. "This site not available."

13. Double dipping is OK, even encouraged. We still aren't used to this,and we try to avoid it. But when you eat in China, everybody serves themselves out of the same dishes and pots , using the chopsticks that they are eating with. And you have to do it a lot, cause the plates they give you to eat on are tiny. Even when you know the people you are eating with, it just isn't something that comes naturally to germ-phobe Americans.

14. Next time you order chicken or any meat, you learn to ask if the head and feet are included.