Stone Forest Photos

Yeah yeah, I know. These were taken on Wednesday! Honestly though, Katie was sick Thursday, then Friday we flew to Guangzhou, and it's now Saturday. :)

The Stone Forest is China's 4th best "treasure" and the Great Wall is one of the top 3 (I think #1). It was one of the places I most wanted to visit while in Yunnan, and I am thrilled that we had the chance to go. I wish we had the time to do the other 2 places - Minority Village and some Park (Green Lake park?). Our guide did not want to take us to the Minority Village, and our hotel was not near the Green Lake park. Of course with Katie being sick, it was not easy to do much of anything.

I guess it all means that when we come back at some point, we have more to see!

Medical Exam and Paperwork

That was all we did today...well and go shopping at Carrefour (much like Walmart). It's very interesting how they have their store set up. Instead of being spread out on one level, it's multi-levels with escalator ramps for the carts. You start at street level and go down. Our guide here helped us find a few items we specifically wanted, such as a Children's CD with the song "Little Rabbit" that Katie has been trying to sing. The Nannies at the orphanage told us the name of the song. Katie really seemed to enjoy listening to it.

The Medical Exam went well, it was a little chaotic but I'm told it is normally like that. Katie weighed in at 20.4 pounds there with a 17 inch head circumference. The interesting part was when we were having her physical exam done the doctor was listening to her heart. He asked, "Operation?" and when we said No he went back to listening. Listened hard again, then asked "Operation?" and again we said no. He called another doctor over to listen, and she asked "Operation?" and when we said no, she listened REALLY hard. Something was said, and while we were not able to get it translated it sounded like "maybe little" is what she heard for the heart defect. So, it sounds like her PDA might have closed and they were hearing the valve regurgitation. I'm looking forward to having her evaluated at home by our doctor though.

Since she has had a fever we had to disclose that, and the doctors wanted to know all about her recent illnesses. We also had to show them the medicines the orphanage doctors gave us. Luckily her temp there was normal there.

The nurse we are traveling with suggested that Katie might be allergic to the American formula, and we are beginning to think that may be it. It would produce lots of coughing and lots of mucous which is what we have been seeing lately. Good news is that she has kept down more than she did yesterday! Moving in the right direction, but she still does not feel good at all. I am hoping that she will be up to going shopping with the group tomorrow. Otherwise I guess Dh will spend the morning in the hotel room with her.

Pictures to follow....I'm slow I know. Funny story, when I was loading up the camera bag for our flight to Guangzhou I found our point and shoot camera! LOL Guess we did not lose it after all. See, what happened was, when we boarded the plane for Kunming I had trouble getting the camera bag under the seat, so I took things out of the side pockets (where the point and shoot camera was). I stuck them in my coat pocket, and thought I had zipped the pockets closed. We got to our hotel in Kunming and started filling out paperwork (there is LOTS of paperwork for adoptions), and I asked Dh to take a photo with the point and shoot. He asked where it was, I told him in the camera bag. He looked and did not see it, so he asked where else. I told him "OH my coat pocket." It was not there. I never checked the camera bag again. Oh well. We could have had more photos of Katie as it was easier to tote around (like to restaurants and such). It's all good though. We have it now. :)

We're in Guangzhou

Finally. We crashed last night, it was a busy day and a little stressful. That first plane ride with a baby is hard, particularly when you are all crammed in together and your baby has been sick and you have NO idea how they will react to flying. Did I mention that there was no leg room? I think with this particular 737 plane they added 2 rows of economy seats. Dh's knees were touching the seat in front of him, Katie was about 3 inches from the back of the seat in front of Dh....and it was sitting up and not laid back.

Katie is feeling better. The orphanage doctors were pleased with how she was doing, but did not like the cough or runny nose (neither did we). I had decided to start the anti-biotic the ped had given us as soon as we got to Guangzhou (adverse reactions on the plane were not something I wanted to deal with). The orphanage doctors gave us some amoxicillin and a decogestant. We started that instead.

Our hotel is the Asia International Hotel in Guangzhou, and the "breakfast buffet" (which I need to get to as it's 7:45am here) is on the 45th floor. Yes...45th. We are staying on the 33rd, and it's REALLY high up.

We have our medical exam this morning, then we're going shopping for drinks and such (and boy do I need them...about to pay 35RMB for evian water through the hotel bar....that's about $5 for about 20 ounces of water). If I can hold out the water bottles run about 2.60RMB in the grocery store. Okay, I know the .60 liter cokes are 2.60RMB (that's umm....about $0.30 per .60L Coke). That should tell you how desparate I am if I'm willing to pay 35RMB for a 20 ounce bottle of Evian! LOL

When we have our break this afternoon, I will work on photos. :)

Hotel Bound

Katie has been a little sick, and we chose to stay in the hotel yesterday (no photos all day can you believe it?). We did go to the orphanage yesterday afternoon to visit the doctors there to get her checked out - cough, runny nose, fever, and some vomiting. We were concerned because she rejected us feeding her for almost 2 days, and the nurse traveling with us agreed that she appeared dehydrated.

They gave her a shot, handed us some meds, and gave her a 4 ounce bottle of what she is used to. We got the bottle (she's super picky about things like that), and the guide had the hotel make the "egg milk" like she is used to as well for us. She also ate quite a bit of congee last night as well. She kept 12 ounces down yesterday, fever broke, she smiled and danced for us. Her cough is much better, still there, but better. She slept well last night. The orphanage docs wanted us to bring her back Friday morning for another check since we are flying to Guangzhou tonight.

We were chastised greatly for not enough layers so I am making sure she has plenty today. ;)

I will try to take more photos today, it's been a little hard with how she's feeling and how she is still rejecting me. Although she did prefer me over the orphanage director and doctors. She smiles at the other females in our travel group, and plays with them. Which means that it's not all females she is rejecting, just me. Which means she knows there is something special about me and it is related to her attachment to her foster mom. If Dh is not around, she will accept me and let me care for her. So there is that.

Today is "relax" day according to the guide, so we check out around 3pm, catch our 5:45 PM flight to Guangzhou (about 1.5-2 hour plane ride). Get into Guangzhou hopefully with enough time to get her some food before we fall asleep.

I will try not to forget photos today. I do have a LOT of photos from Wednesday when we visited the Stone Forest. Gorgeous there, and so much to photograph. :)

Great Wall photos - FINALLY

It's only been a few days since we went to the Great Wall, but I finally had some time to sit and work with them. The Great Wall was just so amazing that I wanted to try and show that in some of the photos. It was also VERY cold, and what better way to show that than by cross processing. :)

Hope you enjoy these.

Normal kind of shots of Great Wall





Better watch that step guys!!



Between the rather steep stairs was some rather steep inclines. Literally you were walking up the hill at a huge angle to the ground. If you saw it from the side it was hilarious, at least to me...or that could very easily have been sleep deprivation mixing with thiner air making me giddy.



The steep stairs (what the guys were standing at the top of). What made these worse is that one step might be 1-2 feet tall, while the next was 6 inches. Hard to find your rhythm climbing those.


We made it to the top like conquering heroes...winded heroes.



This is us with one of the families we traveled to Yunnan with. We're really having a great time with everyone.

The Boys at Home

They went to see a Christmas Parade with their cousins. Uncle S was in the parade, so I'm sure they had a great time. The baby in the photo is about 4 months older than Katie. Samuel and the other young boy are 1 month apart. JM is the oldest. Yes, my Mom has 4 grandsons and 1 granddaughter!





Visiting with Great-Grandma.


Christmas Decorations in Grandma's hometown. ;)



It was a warmer day, so they went to a park to play instead of Chuck E. Cheeses (which I believe is up for Tuesday's adventure...dang this whole 13 hours difference is HARD).






Yes, I know I'm up at a 5:40 AM in China. We spent the evening in the room, and I laid down and fell asleep around 8pm after taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon. Katie has been sleeping MORE than I have. :)

Photos from Tuesday

At the temple the guide bought us each some incense to burn for "Good Fortune" for our family. Dh and I decided to burn it for "Good Fortune" for Katie's birth parents, her foster parents, and for her.




The temple was so pretty and peaceful. Katie loved looking all around and would point to a tree or a turtle and make a baby noise. In the photo of me with Katie, if you look closely (yes I know it's not exposed correctly, and I don't really care to play too much with it right now), Katie is smiling HUGE. Of course she's looking at Daddy, but hey...she's smiling IN my arms. ;)




How she looked at me from Dh's arms most of the day.



She was doing her little mouth pucker, blow air in and out thing, which is something she plays with us. With Dh she gives him a HUGE smile when he does it back, if not a giggle. I might get a little grin. But hey, at least she'll play with me from Dh's arms!

BEAUTIFUL GIRL!!! Daddy's Girl. :) Notice the hair thingie? She didn't bother it at all, all day long!!!!! Thanks Beth G.!!



Her sort of smile for me. Notice she is in front of Dh. ;)

Dh is the man!

No really he is. Katie will have nothing to do with me if given a choice. In fact she turns her head and refuses to look at me now. The first day she liked me, would stare at me, smile at me, etc. Tuesday she cried upon waking up, then attached to Dh. If I held her, she would cry unless I was walking around. I did a lot of walking around yesterday.

By the end of the day she was smiling at me and making faces at me...from Dh's lap. If he brought her close to me, she would cry. If Dh left the room (like to go to the bathroom) she would cry. It's not a true "I'm hurting cry." But more of a whine. Sort of like "I don't like you and I'm going to whine until I get my way." I am forcing her to spend some time in my arms, but I do not expect smiles or looks while she is there.

I know she was very attached to her foster Mom, so this is not surprising to me. Nor am I upset by it. Although the turning her head away from me sometimes hurts. I know she is angry with me because she misses her "Ma-mom" a lot. I'm trying to become her "Ma-mom" and she doesn't want to give me that affection yet. I have no doubt that she will, but for now, she's very angry with me.

She's slept a lot tonight, hopefully that will help her with the adjustments. She's also not drinking much (and yes, we tried a sippy type cup and an open top cup). She drank about 12 ounces total Tuesday, and the day we got her she did not drink anything for us. She's eating great though, so we are giving her as much congee as she will take (it's very liquidy).

Photos and posts will be a little slow as I'm trying to only get on the computer while she is sleeping so that I can be there to interact with her and hopefully make headway into being accepted. I was trying to be the one to do the feedings, but after her not drinking anything for almost 24 hours, we decided if Dh could get her to drink, then by all means he could give her the bottle. She will accept it from him. From me, she bats it away, shakes her head no, cries at me, and then reaches for Dh.

We went to a temple today, and then a tea ceremony. I carried Katie around the temple (she loves to be carried and be outside), and Dh had her in the van and the tea ceremony (we were sitting and she screams in my lap when I sit down). After that it was time for the room. Our guide had to take our adoption certificate back to Civil Affairs as it had a mistake on it (they forgot to put our nationality on it in Chinese...which is why I didn't catch it). Then, after they fixed that, the guide was REALLY studying it and found that they put us down as only having 1 child prior to Katie, so he had to take it back and fix that as well.

Lunch and dinner were on our own, so we decided as a group to eat Pizza Hut. Pizza has never tasted so incredibly good in my life! While we like the food here, after a few days I was craving something more normal to myself. We ate the Western Style buffet Monday night and it still had at least half Chinese dishes. Which was fine, but not quite what we were expecting.

Our Sleeping Beauty

We don't really have any photos from the time we got her until we put her to bed. We spent too much time just soaking in the glory that is Katie. Okay, honestly, she ran us ragged! Our travel companions were laughing at dinner because we had half the table cleared off in front of us. She's quick, loves to grab things she is not supposed to have, and then grunt when displeased we took it away. She loves to shake her head no at me, especially when I put a bottle in front of her. The wrong kind of bottle mind you. We've tried 3 with 4 different kinds of nipples.

Okay...photos

Pretty self explanatory I hope. Katie was not happy when handed to me, but she calmed down fairly quickly (about 10 minutes?). Then I opened up some Cheerios, and she showed her "Princess Royalty" side and demanded more and more.

The lady in the first photo was the one who showed me that she could dance, walk, make faces, and such. Katie makes AWESOME eye contact. For example, when crying this evening because I was holding her and not Dh, she would look up at me with her sad eyes and stare at me. Then, her eyes would drift shut, and she'd open them and look at me...and THEN look away.

It's Katie Day!!!!

Okay, actually, for us it has already passed. We have her and are so very in love. She doesn't look much different from the last set of photos we have of her, and she is tiny. I was expecting quite a bit larger (like almost to 18 month clothes). The 9 month onesies still fit her, but are a little snug.

She dances, sings, imitates people, makes all sorts of sounds and faces, and walks. She has smiled for us, and giggles at having her head upside down. She loved the bumps in the road. She prefers Dh over me. Greatly prefers him, but she will go to me.

Now, for the GREAT news. It wouldn't be our adoption trip with out some sort of snafu involving an airplane...right? I dropped my point and shoot camera on the plane. It has been lost. Now, I have my other cameras, but since I shoot in RAW format, I have to get them to jpeg format. Which means that I opened Photoshop, realized I did not have the raw support files for the camera installed on the laptop, and had to go hunt down that file.

Bad news...it is going to be a little bit before I can get the photos on here. Especially with little miss ACTIVE around. LOL

Our Beijing Whirlwind tour

After waking up at 3:30am and after chatting with kids on IM, we headed out with our guide Rosa to see Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. We had an interesting taxi drive. Rosa and Dh were calm, but I was not sure we'd survive there a few times. I have learned just to close my eyes and miraculously we seem to avoid all collisions.

The square is HUUUUUGE and the architecture around it was breathtaking. I loved the statues and monuments (yes I have photos). I smiled at the countdown clock for the Olympics (got our photo made with it). Then we went on to The Forbidden City. We could literally have spent hours there, so interesting. Dh and I especially like historical places, and Dh is one of the plaque readers at all museums anyway, so he was enthralled. Our guides was great and explained everything she could of what we were seeing. Where the emporers lived, where their wives lived, and just imagining daily life in there was fascinating. Yes I have lots of photos. Just need to find time to get them downloaded.

It was very cold though, and the smog in Beijing was especially bad to me this day. As the climate is cold and dry I'm drying out. It reminds me a lot of Tucson's aridness. I think I'm having a bit of allergic reactions to the pollutants in the air as well (not sure which), but I start to cough and then feel like I'm choking so I start to gag...it's not a pretty site. I'm learning to carry something to drink with me at all times, have Halls drops to suck on, and walk as quickly as I can inside the building or to the bus.

Okay, after finishing our touring, we met up with the group at the church service and I had my first experience with squatty potties...I survived and I did not get my close wet at all. Major accomplishment right?

After we were all on the bus together we proceeded to the Jade factory and saw the most amazing jade carvings. We also spend a lot of money there, and the prices were not great but the jade jewelry was beautiful. We bought a bracelet for me to wear and then to pass on to Katie later. They are meant to be snug going on, and they measured the size of bracelet I needed according to my wrist. My hand is larger, and two bracelets they put on were a little small and I ended up with bruises from trying to get them off. They finally listened and got me a bigger one. I still can not get it off because the hand hurts too much. Oh well, it's gorgeous.

From the Jade factory we headed to lunch, which was also at the Cloisonnes Factory. Simply amazing to see how that is done. Lunch was great...shopping was fun (only got some beautiful silk fabric for someone back home and for myself). Lunch was really really great. Yummy.

Finally, on to the Great Wall. We were told "easy side or difficult side" and being the insane people we are...we did the difficult side with Lia's parents (see blog list to the right). We made it to the the big station at the top (but not the VERY top), so we are only "little heroes" at this point. I have many photos, and I hope they turn out as breathtaking as what we saw. I also have photos showing the sheer DROP off down the steps. I think the steps were more like a ladder and the steep inclines. Glad I am somewhat active normally so we could do it...even if I wanted to stop part way up. LOL

After the Great Wall, it was time for our Peking Duck Dinner. I was not hungry yet, but Dh said it was all yummy again.

Back to the hotel, up at 4am, catching the bus to the airport at 5:30, and I think our flight leaves around 7:30 to fly to Kunming and today we get Katie.

It's FINALLY Katie Day!!!

Pictures from the journey

The last family photo without Katie:

our luggage at LAX ticketing, right by the open doors and street...not super safe, so no sleeping:

Our plane...Finally our 747 plane to Beijing!

The Journey, in Carla's words

*Do you have a better title for this post? Add it to your comments!*

Where to start? I guess from the VERY beginning of Thursday December 6th, 2007. The day that will forever be etched into my mind as the longest day of my life!

We had trouble sleeping and kept getting up as things we meant to do popped into our head. I believe it was around 1:30 AM when Samuel, who was sleeping with us, started giggling during his sleep. It was so cute and precious. Luckily, it helped us relax and we both fell asleep around 2AM. The alarm went off at 5AM. 3 hours of sleep, but knowing the long flight ahead of us (14 hours to Beijing from Washington D.C.), we were not concerned. We get to the airport at 6, the board is showing the flight is on time. 6:30, the ticketing agent arrives and tells us the flight has been cancelled. She works her magic, tells us that we've been re-booked for the same flights just leaving Friday December 7th, arriving 3:30PM in Beijing on Saturday December 8th. NO! We'd miss the touring, isn't there other flights we can get on?

They look, supervisor gets involved, and we are re-booked on a flight path that goes through Denver to LA to China with an airline change to China Air in LA for a "red-eye" flight to Beijing. We'd get into Beijing at 5:20AM, in enough time to join the group for touring.
We go home with the kids (and my Mom) after eating breakfast out, and we clean. We prepare again for "leaving" and head out at 12:30PM for the airport. We have no problems getting on our flight to Denver. We thought that the cancelled flight was our "snafu" for this portion of the Adoption journey. We were excited to be on our way, finally.

We get to Denver, and find our gate. Denver's Airport I must say is quite nice. We had a scheduled lay-over of roughly 3 hours, so we had plenty of time to explore and eat. We even showed the Customer Service people for United our boarding pass for China Air and asked about possible upgrades to the assignments. They were not able to do anything (duh!). We were sitting there, waiting to board our flight.

Our scheduled 7:40PM departure slipped to 7:56 then to 8:10 then to
8:26 then to 8:49 and then a few minutes later to 8:56...because LA was adjusting their air traffic flow due to high winds. Our almost 3 hour layover in LAX was slipping away. It was now 7:20ish and there was an announcement made.

"If you are connecting internationally in LAX your ticket has been re-booked and your bags are going to be on that flight. Go to gate 42, check in, and get your new boarding pass."
Okay, snafu #2? That flight was scheduled to leave at 8:05PM, and as we approached 8:05, it totally changed to St. Louis! ACK. We were reassured that we would be boarding soon and bound for LAX. Great.

We boarded at 8:15, scheduled new take off was 8:30. Got on the plane, backed up from the gate and had to sit. LA had moved us back again...15 minutes. FINALLY left at 8:45. The plane was a 737-300 and there were maybe 24 people on board. The plane had been delayed out of Des Moisne I believe, due to something, and it was 5 hours late. Most of those passengers had found other flights.

We get to LAX at 10 something PM, our flight is leaving at 12:40 AM, and when we ask how to get to that flight we learn that we have to leave the United terminal (#7) and go to the street and catch the "A" bus and get off at Terminal #2 and then go to the gate. We had to leave the secured area to do this. As it was nearing midnight, and a Thursday night, I figured it would not be a huge problem. Found out that Thursday night around midnight is one of the most popular international flying days. I guess so as it took us around 30-45 minutes to get through security. We walk into the terminal, and it's packed. There were a minimum of 4 747 flights taking off from this terminal. The terminal is on the small side, one bathroom with 10 stalls. When there were close to 600-800 people there. Stinky, and dirty, and oh so warm due to the amount of people there. Kids were crying (tired). Moms weere cranky (tired, hot, and whining kids). We walk up to the gate, hand them the boarding pass we had gotten from United and said that we were told to check in with the gate and this number on the ticket is the e-ticket number and for them to look it up.

Okay, remember I had given it to the Customer Service person? They didn't question it. They didn't notice it. There were 2 words written on the boarding pass "Paper Required." We've never encountered this before, and the supervisor at our original airport had assured us that it was all we needed, and that number written on it could be looked up for something...the paper? It was now around 12:10am and people were crowding the podium trying to get their tickets and checked in. The gate agents took care of them, ignored us somewhat, but would work on our situation between other people.

Around 12:15 we were told "here are your options. You pay for a brand new ticket and try to get refunded on this one booked through United, or you can go back to the ticketing counter for United at Terminal 7 and get a paper ticket to back this up." The flight was leaving at 12:40. It was 12:15. We had 25 minutes to leave the terminal, catch the bus, get to terminal 7, get to ticketing, explain our situation, print the ticket, then catch the bus again to Terminal 2, go through security, and get back to the gate. It was NOT an option. They would not budge. Everyone started boarding around 12:30. I started crying.

A supervisor called United, asked them to give them something (paper ticket promise...I was crying and not paying too close of attention).

At 12:35 we were told if we could get United to give us an e-ticket we could board. We had confirmed seats on the FULL flight, they showed us as passengers booked on the flight...we just did not have the paper ticket that was required. It is this paper ticket that China Air sends in for payment from United. United would not give us the e-ticket. China Air would not let us board. They closed the plane, and pushed off from the gate. I cried some more.

Dh called United back to work on alternate arrangements. China Air got our luggage to their ticketing area for us to pick up. China Air reps who felt sorry for me because I was sobbing worked on finding us reservations for the next fastest flight to Beijing. It was United to San Francisco and then San Francisco to Beijing. Dh got it confirmed.

It was scheduled to arrive at 3:32PM December 8th.

Yes. The same time as the flight we had originally be re-booked for flying through Dulles. We could have done the waiting at home. So, it was now roughly 1:30am. We get to China Air ticketing and pick up our baggage. We walk outside, catch the bus to go to Terminal 7. It took about 15 minutes by the way. We walk in and United counters are closed. We see one United person on her way out, she recognizes that we look like crap and lost, and asks if she can help us. We tell her our story, I tear up again (evidently crying is not over yet). She turns around, walks us to the ticket counter and verifies our reservations, gets us on Economy Plus for the flight to San Francisco, prints up boarding passes for us (the actual ticket looking ones). Gives us meal vouchers, and offers a hotel room as the security is closed, we can not check luggage, AND the terminal is closed. We were stuck in the ticketing area. As it was now 2AM, our flight left at 6:50 AM to San Francisco, we really did not have enough time to get to hotel, sleep, and get back. I was terrified we'd not wake up in time.

Thus, we sat. In the ticketing area. From 2AM until they re-opened at 4AM to check luggage. Security opened at 4:30AM. These are Pacific Times, and not our original time zone. At this point we'd been awake for 25.5 hours. Straight. "In transit" from the first attempted flight for 24 hours, and "in transit" from our 2:30 departure for 18 hours. We still were not even to the airport from which to leave for Beijing!

We finally get to our gate for the San Francisco flight. I'm staggering around. I swear I felt the building wobble, but Dh assured me it was not. I could not really walk straight. I could not think straight. At 5am, I called my friend to post our update, and Dh talked to the Customer Service agents to see about upgrading our flight to Beijing seats to Economy Plus. We were willing to pay the extra $109 a person for them. But after hearing what we had gone through (add 30 minutes to all above times), she did it for free.

Back at the San Francisco flight gate, we bought neck pillows and Cinnabon. I was too tired to eat. I forced myself to stay awake as I knew I would not be waking up quickly once I did sleep. I made it to my seat. I faintly remember bumps as we taxied to the runway, and I sort of vaguely remember the seat tilting backwards as we took off. I woke up when the fasten seat belts light came on for our descent. A little over 1 hour nap. Refreshed me enough to make it through the
2.5 hour layover in San Francisco, and onto the Beijing Flight.

After our experience with China Air, I asked the gate agent to VERIFY that the ticket would work as soon as I saw her. Which was LONG before the hour prior to departure. I still not take an easy breath, or believe it was going to happen until I saw the machine accept our boarding pass. I was never so happy to see a plane seat in my life!

Ended up that the flight was not full, and Dh and I had 3 of the Economy Plus seats to ourselves. Delightful. The crew was wonderful, the pilots were great. Just a super smooth...LONG...flight. Alaska looked very different than I had pictured, less white snow/ice areas. Russia was beautiful with its snow and mountains and then the plains. Finally, we were flying over China. BEAUTIFUL. Of that 12 hour flight, I think we slept 8-9 hours. We finally arrived around 3:45PM. Checked in, saw some of the beautiful city with crazy drivers (which I've been told are better than in the province), and met up with the group for dinner. It was wonderful to see them, to finally meet them. 2 of our group are still not here, but should be in tomorrow evening.
Our guides are super sweet and are taking us to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City while the rest of the group is at the church service.

We'll meet back up with them for lunch, go to the Great Wall and the Jade Factory. We missed the Pearl Factory (so everyone is going to have to make do with pearls from Guangzhou instead...Cheri has agreed to help me pick out good ones).

Total travel time, from when we got up to when we landed in Beijing.
3:45PM is 1:45am Saturday to us, so, 48 hours minus 3 hours 15 minutes. Or roughly 45 hours. On roughly 9-10 hours of sleep.
From first attempted flight - 43.5 hours.
From 2nd attempt that actually left - 37.5 hours

It took us - 3 booked flights to Beijing to actually get here. We visited 5 airports. We had a total of 8 flight reservations made for this trip, only 4 of which we actually went on. We spent so many hours WAITING in the airports that I lost count.

I have a new respect for people on The Amazing Race. I am not a good candidate for that show. When I have not slept, my coherency is shot.

I will do a "what we learned on this trip" post soon. #1 - if it says "paper required" make sure you have that paper!! A close 2nd is when you drink lots of water, expect multiple trips to the bathroom during each flight...even the 2 hour ones. 3rd, Ear planes DO work. 4,
that neck pillow is a must have. Period.

Goodnight all...my hard bed is calling my name. This room is starting to move like LAX was moving that early morning...was it only yesterday? I have photos, but I'll add them later. I think. I do not look too..umm...pretty in them. ;)

From Beijing!

Carla can't access Blogger from Beijing (yet) but they're in China and SAFE! From Carla:

We made it here around 3:45pm Beijing time, which made for roughly 45 hours of travel time. We won. We have the longest "to China" flight than anyone else. Working on the blog post, but talk about obstacles. You would NOT have been wanting to travel with us yesterday. Or Thursday...or whenever the heck it was.

We did get upgraded, we were going to pay the $109 each, but when she heard our story, she did it for free. There were PLENTY of seats available on that Beijing flight, hoping for the same on the way home so we can upgrade to Economy Plus again.We managed to sleep some, in fact, on the LAX to San Fran flight we were both asleep before we left the gate. First sleep in 28 hours at that point. The $17 neck pillows were worth it. More than worth it.

Slept quite a bit on the Beijing flight, arrived quite alert and caught up with the group for dinner. We're skipping the church service in the morning and one of the guides is taking us to Tienanmen Square and Forbidden City. Then we'll catch up with the group at lunch, and then go to the Great Wall.

THANKS for the good thoughts everyone!!!! We're HERE, it's beautiful and HUGE and one big game of chicken on the roads. Glad I'm not driving.

Update from Carla

I just spoke with Carla. They're at LAX and weren't allowed to board the China Air flight because United forgot to print out paper tickets. They were confirmed on the China Air flight but without the paper tickets, China Air wouldn't allow them to board.

Since they had their luggage and couldn't enter the gate area, they were stuck in the seats outside ticketing all night. The airline offered to put them up in a hotel but they would've only had a couple of hours and were afraid they wouldn't wake up in time.

They're now scheduled on flight UA 889 LAX to San Francisco and San Francisco to Beijing, arriving in Beijing at 3:35pm on the 8th. Per the United site, the flight number from LAX to SFO is UA 1152 which then connects to the UA 889 flight to Beijing.

As we were saying goodbye, the United Customer Service people were arriving and Carla was off to beg for an upgrade so they could get some sleep on the flight.

I'll keep you posted!

or maybe not!

It wouldn't be our adoption trip if something didn't go wrong. Our flight this morning to Dulles was canceled. Yes. CANCELED.

So, we are home again.

For another 3-4 hours, then we will try it again. This time flying to Denver then to LA and then on to Beijing. 36 hours without a bed. Arriving in Beijing around 5am on Saturday with a FULL day of sightseeing to do.

Doesn't that sound more like our adoption trip? We make it the hardest possible on ourselves. Okay, our 2nd option for flying was wait until tomorrow and get into Beijing on Saturday late afternoon/early evening and MISS all of the touring on Saturday. We really did not want that either.

Oh well. Gives me time to check up on friends getting referrals, friends having babies, and friends having tests run. :)

and we're OFF!!!

Yes, boys and girls, we are on our way. I've only been a little panicked, and a little over the top with planning and trying to make sure everything was done. I've been talking on the phone with 2 of my travel buddies, and since I'm all about full disclosure, I am going to tell you a few things we thought of...last minute...you know so you can be better prepared.

You take antibiotics to China, if you are female and have a reaction to those antibiotics, you might want to consider some meds for that as well.

You have cash for the adoption, travelers checks, and credit cards packed and ready to go. What about spending money for the airports? You know, LUNCH....drinks...Susan B. Anthony coins for the bathroom doors? (Okay, while in college there was this cartoon in the women's restroom. It depicted a couple of women frantically trying to go to the bathroom in this public place...they were "pay to enter doors" and it only took a Susan B. Anthony coin. I still chuckle to think of it today...and believe it or not, I could NOT find it on the internet.)

I know there were others, but I can not think of them now!

Other packing trials and tribulations included trying to decide if dish detergent to wash bottles or hand sanitizer or my hair smoothing stuff was the least important. My hair lost, so frizzy hair in China it is!

We spread out our clothing between all the luggage, that way, if one bag was misplaced along the way we had some clothes to last. I did not relish the thought of being in the same outfit, day after day after day until I could get somewhere to buy one.

Looking up our hotels, we have a bowling alley in one. Is it crazy of me to think, "Oh wouldn't that be fun to do with new travel mates? Go bowling, make a fool of myself, and perhaps become the laughing stock of the group?" I'm up for it.

What I'm NOT up for is bed. I have to get up in less than 5 hours. It is not going to be pretty. But waiting in my bed is my little Samuel. I should go cuddle with him some more. I read him The Kissing Hand tonight and kissed his hand and he kissed mine. JM was not really into it, but I gave him a big smooch on his cheek and told them both if you start feeling lonely and missing Mommy, put your hand on your cheek and think "Mommy loves you. Mommy loves you. Mommy loves you." Because I do. I love them so much and I'm going to miss them a TON.

I will update when I can tomorrow/Friday. With photos.

Twas the Night before China Adoption Trip

The Night Before Adoption!

Twas the night before leaving
when all through the house
not a creature was stirring,
including my spouse.
The luggage was packed
and repacked with care
in hope that our daughter
would soon find us there.
No child was nestled
or snug in our bed,
she slept that night
in her orphanage bed.

And Mama in her kerchief
with luggage in sight
had just settled our brains
for a long sleepless night.

When out on the lawn
there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed
to see what was the matter.

Away to the window
I flew like a flash,
tore open the shutter,
and threw up the sash.

The sun on the grass
and the newly formed dew
gave promise of morning
time to bid our adieu.

When, what to my wondering
eyes should appear,
but a yellow airport taxi
and our friends we hold dear.

With a little old driver,
so lively and pip,
I new in a moment
we started our trip.

More rapid than eagles,
to our cities we came,
and we whistled and shouted
and called them by name:

Albuquerque! Dallas! Phoenix ! LA!
Hong Kong! Beijing! Guangzhou today!

From the Great wall of China
To the Province of Guandong
Now Dash Away! Dash Away! Dash Away ALL!

Like treasure from heaven
in our arms they did place
our precious new daughter
tears fell from our face.

So up to the hotel room
with our child we flew
our new bundle of joy
“We have presents for you.”

And then, in a twinkling,
I heard from the door
“Paperwork to do!”
I heard myself “MORE?”

Like rain from the heavens
when hurricanes fly
Tears just like raindrops
fell from our eyes.

We bathed her and dressed her
from her head to her toe.
With ribbons and dresses
and a giant hair bow.

A bundle of clothes we had
that were to big or to small
We sent to the orphanage
to be shared by them all.

Her eyes- how they twinkled!
Her dimples, how merry!
Her cheeks were like roses,
my nose red as a cherry!

Her beautiful smile
was drawn up like a bow,
and both of her parents
seemed to give off a glow.

A stamp of her foot
and a print from our thumb
made a family of us
the adoption was done!

Passport! and Visa!
then the Consulate Visit.
Our paperwork done?
Afraid that it isn’t.

A wink of an eye
and a twist of a head
soon gave me to know
We had nothing to dread.

He spoke a few words,
went straight through our work
double checked our documents
then turned with a jerk.
He wanted to know
“was this the daughter we chose”
and giving a nod,
up from his desk he arose.

They gave the approval
and we gave a loud whistle,
And away we all flew
like the down of a thistle.

They heard us exclaim,
both me and my wife:
“Blessings to all and to all a good life!”

Dedicated to my daughter Dashalani

Jack Hilton

Adoption Itinerary

December 6th – December 19th

Thursday, Dec. 6 Depart for Beijing

Friday, Dec. 7 Arrive in Beijing

Saturday, Dec. 8 Beijing Sight-Seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden
City & The Summer Palace (Lunch & Dinner Included)

Sunday, Dec. 9 Church service & The Great Wall (Lunch & Beijing Duck
Dinner Included)

Monday, Dec. 10 Early morning flight to Kunming
Afternoon – Meet Katelyn XiaoLan!!

Tuesday, Dec. 11 Morning-Civil Affairs Appointment

December 12-13 Sight-seeing, & Shopping

Friday, Dec. 14 Pick up Passport and Flight to Guangzhou

Saturday, Dec. 15 Medical Appointment and Filling out Consulate Forms

Sunday, Dec. 16 Church and Shopping

Monday, Dec. 17 Consulate Appointment 11:00am

Tuesday, Dec. 18 Pick up Child’s Visa

Wednesday, Dec. 19 Morning Flight to Beijing Depart from Beijing


OH MY GOSH IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!

9 years ago.

9 years ago Dh and I went out to eat, and we nervously headed to the hospital to check in for an early induction the next morning. I had the next to last room on the maternity ward, in the room across from the University of Arizona room. Somehow, during labor I did not think I would handle seeing a clock that said "Bear Down!" on it. Bear Down is Univ. of Arizona's fight song name.

Right around 9pm they applied a gel of some sort, and I had an allergic reaction. Basically I had some major contractions, and labor started. JM's heart decelled, the nurses rushed into the room, I got my IV, was not allowed drinks of any kind, the nurses called my doc, and then when I was stable I had my own 2 private nurses with the doctor sleeping down the hall. I remember that my doc told me she had been in the middle of reading her daughter a bedtime story. Awww.

I labored through the night, and JM did great. I had a weird pattern of labor where I would have 2 contractions then skip one. Before they started pitocin (in an effort to stop that "skipping"), I made them start the epidural. Pitocin never stopped the skipping.

Around 8am on December 4th, I was told to start pushing. 2.5 hours later, after various attempts to deliver JM, his heart rate dropped again and a stat c-section was called for. I was put to sleep, JM was born, and Dh said that it is true they can go from decision to birth in 2.5-3 minutes. Guess I'm glad to know that.

The rest of December 4th is a little bit of a blur as I recovered from the general anesthesia. Happy 9th Birthday JM!!! I love my baby still. He's the greatest kid, even if Mom is not cool anymore.

JM was an 8 pound 2 ounce baby boy who was 21.5 inches long and a 15.5 inch head. His shoulders were actually wider than his rather large head!

I can't seem to find any of his hospital photos (trust me, they weren't super great). Here's one from about 3-4 months old. He loved sticking his tongue out at us.


Here he is when he was around Katie's age. *sniff*


Okay, this was actually taken Thanksgiving Day 1998. I laugh at this now as I can not believe I actually ever looked like that!!!

His most recent photos is up on the top of the blog...isn't he handsome?

The internet went down

It is not supposed to do that. What a scary little bit while it was down. No email. No connection to my friends online. No instant lookup of missing addresses for friends we can not seem to find addresses for. No ability to check on my travel mates and their blogs.

We are still waiting on our in country itinerary, and tomorrow is our travel meeting via phone conference. The agency has warned us that it could take up to 2 hours. 2 hours?! How am I going to keep the kids quiet that long?

There are 6 SN families leaving between 12/6 and 12/8. It will be interesting to meet them all.

3 more days

We had a great weekend, but I didn't sleep much (well at night). I'm battling some insomnia as everytime I lay down I start thinking...3 more days. In 1 week I'll have Katie. 3 more days to soak in as much of my boys as possible to last me for 2 weeks. I'm going to miss Samuel's snuggles, his sitting on my lap and playing with my hair. I'm going to miss JM's aloofness, his "entering the phase of life where it's not cool to have Mom give me a hug anymore."

My boys. I know they are going through their own emotions regarding what is going to happen in 3 days. JM is excited, but a little nervous. Samuel is clingy and already missing me. Thank goodness they have some of the best grandparents on the planet, people who love them as much as I do, and who will keep them so busy that I probably won't hear from them every day. Even if I do hear from them, they will not want to talk very much. I know this from previous experiences of leaving them with the grandparents.

So, 3 more days and we'll be on our way. 1 more week and we'll have Katie. 3.5 more weeks and we'll be home. I'm looking forward to being home. To having this trip behind us all, so we can start settling into being a family of 5.

Those wondering how we're doing on our "list"

Christmas cards are ready to be mailed, to about half the list.
Our bags are packed.
Laundry is caught up, and the boys are going to be packed tomorrow.
Kitchen is clean
Dining room is clean
Christmas shopping is basically done
Decorations are up

Slowly we are getting there, things are being crossed off the list.

As we get closer and closer...

I think about Katie's foster Mom. She knows by now that Katie is being adopted, and she knows that she has to return her to the Kunming orphanage by this coming weekend. It's a festival time in Kunming, which runs 5th-9th, so I'm not sure when Katie will be brought to the orphanage.

I think about how sad her foster mom probably feels, as I know Katie has bonded with her and loves to be held. From everything we've read in Katie's referral information, it sounds like she is well loved (and a little spoiled). I think of how this foster mom is probably holding Katie and not wanting to put her down. How she's trying to give Katie enough hugs to last a lifetime. How she is dreading the day that I am counting so anxiously toward. I wish I had a way to communicate with her, to tell her that I already love Katie so much. That we will make sure she gets all the medical care she could ever need. That we will encourage her to reach her greatest potential and follow her dreams, whatever they may be. I want to tell her that we will do everything we can to make sure she is happy. I wish we could have a photo to show Katie later of her foster family, or a photo of her home, or anything that will help show her where she was for close to a year of her life.

My heart aches for her foster mom. Just like it aches for the man and woman who welcomed Katie to this world. I think of them, what they must wonder about her. I wish I could tell them that she is going to be okay, that we will love her just as much as they loved her. I hope that they know she is doing good health wise.

Then I think of Katie, how in just 8 short days her entire world will have been turned upside down. She will be removed from her foster parents care 3-5 days prior to our getting to Kunming, in fact, I guess she could already be there. She will grieve for them. Will there be an Ayi there to comfort her? Will she start bonding to that Ayi? Then, when she has gone through some of that terrible grief, she will be brought to the Civil Affairs building and handed over to us. Two strange looking people, who do not speak her language, who smell funny, look funny, eat funny things, and who are not in any way familiar to her. How scared she will be, and I feel so badly that she will go through this. I would do anything in my power to take that fear, that hurt, that loneliness away from her. All we will be able to do is hold her and love her.

This time of excitement, of anxiousness, is a time of great loss in Katie's life. Everything I feel is tempered by these thoughts.

5 more days

I woke up this morning with the thought "5 more days!" racing through my mind. It caused all sorts of reactions. Anxiousness, nervousness, and a little bit of nausea. It was 7am after all, after I didn't get to bed until 2am due to insomnia from thinking "less than a week!" I managed to go back to sleep. Dreamed again about going to China. Dreamed again about something bad happening to the boys.

5 more days.

My to do list seems longer than it should. Having to make concrete plans for Christmas before the month of December even started was hard (we have meals planned, families informed and thinking about when to come down, and presents pretty much bought...which remdinds me that I need to finish up Dh).

I got one gift early. My wonderful Sister in Law came up with a plan that allows the boys to be able to meet us at the airport. She changed her flight plans to fly here, so my in-laws will bring the boys up on the Wednesday to meet us at the airport, late at night.

Guangzhou December 15-19

Unfortunately, the forecasts only go out 15 days, so all I have is one day for Guangzhou...

December 15 - High 74.

ahhhh....warm weather! I am just not good with cold weather, I really am not. I've heard that despite the warmth, we should dress Katie in long sleeves and long pants in Guangzhou. I guess we will, but perhaps I will take a couple of the short sleeve outfits that have sweaters with them. They are really cute, so perhaps it will work.

Off to pack some now...or rather UNPACK so I can re-pack.

Kunming - Dec 10-15

Monday Dec 10 - High 46 (I thought Kunming was supposed to be TEMPERATE CLIMATE!)
Tuesday Dec 11 - High 48 (is it the beginning of a heat wave?)
Wednesday Dec 12 - High 51 (by jove it's getting warmer!!)
Thursday Dec 13 - High 56 (ooh, jacket weather!)
Friday Dec 14 - High 58
Saturday Dec 15 - High 57

Okay, we'll probably travel to Guangzhou on Saturday the 15th. Kunming is definitely warmer than Beijing, thank goodness!! But it's still going to be chilly. I had packed Katie some short sleeve shirts, and for some reason I'm thinking that is not going to work. We got some great sweatsuit kind of outfits for baby gifts already, and I'm beginning to think we'll be taking those with us! They are size 18 months, and honestly I think she'll still be in 12 months until around Jan/Feb. I just don't know, guess I'll be repacking for sure now!

Beijing - Dec 7-9

December 7: High of 42
December 8: High of 38
December 9: High of 35 real feel of 33

We get in around 3:20pm on December 7th. On the 8th we'll be touring Beijing, on the 9th we'll probably end up on the Great Wall...in freezing temps. I'm so not good with the cold. I'll have my camera in hand, hopefully my finger won't freeze up and hopefully I can take some photos.

It's going to feel like 33 degrees on the Great Wall. Oh my word. Hat, scarf, coat, silk long johns, gloves....I wonder if it will be enough? It's going to have to be!

6 more days

Packing lists. Overflowing suitcases. Packing again and again....and OH MY GOSH where is it all going to fit?!

6 days, 6 more days and then we leave. eeeeeek!!!

Thoughts of others still waiting

As much as I rejoice in my own news, I know there are others out there who have been waiting and waiting for news on their own paperwork. I know of someone who has been waiting ever so long on her LOA, and it's been 5 months waiting now. My heart breaks for her. She got her referral in June, never dreaming that she would not have her daughter home by Christmas. I pray that she gets her LOA very soon.

I know of others who are stuck waiting on their NSN referral, and it looks like it is going to be 4 more years. 4 more years of waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Knowing all the time that something can happen in the program, in their lives, at any time.

Waiting is tough. Waiting is hard. It doesn't matter what stage you are waiting on, it's hard. I will say that waiting for TA was not as bad as waiting for LOA, and that waiting for the CA was not as bad as waiting for TA. The wait for the referral was not as bad as the wait for LOA. That wait, that extended wait for LOA was incredibly hard.

The processing of paperwork sometimes makes no sense, no sense at all. It's incredibly hard to get answers as to where your paperwork is. It's hard and there are days when you feel like it will never happen. Like there will be some big snafu and you will never get to bring your daughter home, you will forever be sentenced to the land of limbo where you watch others leave and come home, leave and come home, leave and come home repeatedly while your daughter...your beautiful daughter just gets older and older.

All of those still waiting, know, my heart goes out to you. I hope that you all get the news you are hoping to hear very soon.

We got it!!!

We are leaving on 12/6 and right now scheduled to come back with the group on 12/19. We were planning on an extra day to go to Hong Kong Disney, but not sure if we are going to do that or not now.

We're coming Katie!!!!!!

Less than 2 weeks and she'll be in my arms!!!!

We are still waiting on that CA

It's been over 48 hours and we've not heard on our Consulate Appointment. The anxiety levels are indeed going up. We are looking at flights, watching the prices inch up and up. We are worried about not getting the appointment we want. We are worried we will have to be in China for Christmas.

Average time listed by the Consulate is 3-5 days, the agency says they typically hear in 2-3 days. Thursday is 3 days. Oh please let us hear in 3 days. Not sure how much longer I can exist in this limbo land of "are we leaving on 12/6 or not."

If we do leave on 12/6, do you realize that is 7 days away? 7 DAYS! 1 week! So short, yet so very long as well. I have plenty to keep me busy, but nothing I particularly want to do. Like cleaning. I've bathrooms to scrub, floors to vacuum, floors to mop, mountains of laundry to do, suitcases to finish packing, and lists to make! I know it will all get done, but sometimes, looking at the length of my list I wonder how.

Katelyn XiaoLan

reposting so this is on top! :)



Referral photo, one of the first we saw. Her stats are:

Name: Xi Xiao Lan (Western Morning Orchid)
Birthdate: August 1, 2006
Currently in Yunnan Province, Kunming CWI, fostered in Anning



The one where we exclaimed over her hair! Isn't it adorable just standing STRAIGHT up on end? We estimate that she is 4 months old in this photo.



The frown. Oh the frown breaks my heart. This is an updated photo that we got, she is 10.5 months in this photo. She is in foster care, thus she has darker skin from being outside quite a bit. I love the little "spout" on top of her head, and the building she is in was helped in building by the Yunnan Kids International group. It's the community center in Anning where a good portion of the Kunming CWI children are fostered.



Still frowning. I think it's because she wanted a doll to play. Dh thinks it's because she wants someone to play soccer with her. All I know is that I love her and think she is the CUTEST BABY EVER!!!! (Okay, she ties with her brothers)

Those Prayers Worked!!!

We got TA today, and the agency is working to get us a Consulate Appointment so that we can leave on 12/6. We're hoping they can get it. If not, then we'll leave on 12/13 with the NSN group. Still need prayers they can get us the CA for 12/6 departure.

We're going to get Katie really soon!!! We're leaving no later than 12/13...which is 2.5 weeks away!!!

When it rains it pours!

On Wednesday afternoon, I started cleaning. Which isn't surprising given my holiday coming up, and right in the middle of a load of laundry the dryer stopped working. Just stopped. So, being the great wife I am, I called Dh and asked for what else besides resetting the breaker, checking to see if it's plugged in, turning the knob some more, and such. He said to check the gfi outlet, so I unplugged 2 items and reset it. I knew, from previous experience, that I needed to replug in Dh's charger for his tools. I didn't plug the other item back in because I didn't think what it could be.

I should have thought.

It was the plug for the deep freezer. You know, the one that was about 1/3 full. With frozen meals for when Katie came home. With meat for our meals NOW. With our lunches. Yeah, that deep freezer.

So, I guess in a sub-conscious way I was helping myself stay busy as I now have the joy of throwing out that stuff, re buying food, and cooking even more freezer meals than I already had. Yes, I guess I did ask for this when I asked what I could to do to stay busy didn't I?

Movies, did someone say movies?

We found ourselves back at Target today returning some Christmas decorations, and buying more. I caved, I really did, I got the 3 spiral trees. I put the white mini-lights on the big tree (one more set that I need Dh's help with), and even Dh agrees that it's beginning to look like Christmas! Anyway, back to my point, while at Target I took JM and we looked through the movies section (I'm looking for Mighty Ducks for the kids). We found some movies, movies that brought me back to my childhood days.

Think back to the classics from your childhood. What are some of the titles that you think of?

The Goonies?
E.T.?
Annie?
Gremlins?
The Princess Bride?

You know THOSE movies. Well, we couldn't resist the $9.44 movies, and ended up with The Goonies and Gremlins. I think that since we have a few days weeks to wait until we travel to China, we can watch some good old classics. Heh. Tonight, we curled up on the couch and watched The Goonies. It was a really cute movie, with a little bit of language. JM really liked it, and Samuel even sort of liked it. I think we will see it creep into the van movie box soon. That is where all the favorites end up, in the van to watch on trips.

The decorations are up, the lights are hung outside, we ended up not looking like the Griswald's house so Dh is happy, and we are left with only the boxes to shove back in the attic. The house needs cleaning, and the dryer is broke. I guess, after a wonderful 4 days of having Dh home, it's back to reality tomorrow. A reality that will hopefully hold our Travel Authorization. Please. Oh please....