Day 3-Nanning's People Park

Just a quick post....we spent most of the afternoon in the hotel room while Siena napped.  We then decided to head up the road and visit the Nanning People Park.  It is an enormous park with ponds full of carp that people feed.  The sign said there were more than 160,000 carp in the ponds which after seeing them swarm like piranhas when the fish food is thrown to them I now believe.  Siena loved watching them come up to the surface.  We did a lot of walking through the park to try and tire her out.  The park is absolutely gorgeous and had tons of activities like renting boats, Ferris wheels and children's rides.  We mostly just walked and people watched, although we also got a lot of stares. 

We then just headed over to the little market and grabbed some water and ice teas.  We discovered that Siena has quite a sweet tooth and loves juice boxes that have green tea in them.  She recognized them today while at Wal-Mart.  It is interesting to learn her likes and dislikes and new discoveries. 

Minwah, our guide/translator/traveling nurse, translated some of the paperwork for us today.  The paperwork was just filled out on Sunday so it was quite recent and it said she likes to dance, sweets, a good party, being outside and playing with children.  She doesn't like dolls, is scared of the dark and is quite cranky when first waking up.  My kind of girl!  Bring on the Match Box cars, woo-hoo!

Tomorrow we are headed on a bus excursion to a mountain near Nanning that is also supposed to have a beautiful park. 

#End

Day 3 - Nanning - shopping

Today was fairly low-key - too bad Siena picked today to be a bit out of sorts.  We had a bit of time until we departed for shopping, so we decided to give Siena a bath.  She does not like the bath, but we tried to make it fun by having her pour water from a bottle onto herself.  This worked great until we got to her head.  We then proceeded to get her dressed and downstairs for breakfast.  We had given her a few cheerios in the room to tide her over as it seemed as though she was hungry.  At breakfast, she was very fidgety and almost everything we gave her, she would chew and then spit back up for our pleasure.  So, having had enough of that, we walked her around the hotel lobby - holding her hand.  Our group all took the bus to go shopping at Wal-Mart.  This store was literally 4 floors in a large mall and has moving ramps (escalators) that you can bring shopping carts down - pretty cool - they have little cleats on them so the carriages won't roll as well as impulse buy items alongside like at checkout.  It was a pretty interesting place.  It has all the usual Wal-Mart stuff, but then it has lots of foodstuff as well.  Again, we were amazed at how diverse the Chinese diet is.  All sorts of items that would never find their way into a US Wal-Mart.  Can't ever imagine even trying dehydrated squid in a resealable bag - kind of like squid jerky.  Then we next next door to a large department store and sought out the coveted "squeaky shoes" on the 6th floor.  We got a few pairs so that Siena can have them as she grows.  We also learned that you can take the squeaker out when the noise has you going crazy.  Siena was a bit cranky and all over the place emotionally today.  Laughing and jumping in one moment and then crying and whining the next.  Hard to blame her, but it did make this shopping trip a bit interesting for these first time parents.  Many more to follow I am sure.   Back to the hotel and nap time.  So, a few moments to update the blog.  This photo is of Siena on a bike they had in the department store - she absolutely loved it. 

J

Day Two

Day 2 with Siena started out very busy.  We had to meet the bus at 8:30a.m. to go back to the Social Welfare Institute (SWI) to finalize the adoption.  We were there about an hour where we were interviewed about our intentions to adopt, put our thumb print across all of our signatures and they took a footprint of Siena's and stamped it on the paperwork.  The process was kind of neat but the building was not air conditioned and all of us were extremely hot. 

We then got back on the bus (which does have AC!) and went to the Notarization Office to get our paperwork notarized.  We were back at the hotel by 11:30a.m. and Siena was sacked out.  We put her down for a nap thinking she would wake up shortly because she was hungry but she slept until almost 3p.m. and we had to wake her up.  We had snacks and played with her and met up with some of our travel group buddies. 

Siena responds very well to food, music, the other babies and light up toys.  She really came out of her shell this afternoon and started to dance to some music and would "yell" in delight when she saw her friends Ivy and Kiana.  It was fun to watch. 

One of the best parts of today was at SWI one of the orphanage nannies was there and was willing to take questions.  While we were standing in line waiting for our interview she was standing next to us and talking with Siena.  She kept calling her "Lei Lei" which we have now found out is her nickname that the nannies and foster mom used  with her.  She had also brought us some more of Siena's belongings and a photo album of pictures of the outside of the orphanage, her playing and with her foster mom.    Many of these photos we have never seen before.  Siena responded very well to the nanny and loves her photo album.  She keeps flipping through the pictures. 

Tomorrow is shopping day!  What this means is we get on a bus at 10a.m. bound for Walmart.  I am not the biggest Walmart fan but I am very curious to see what one in China looks like as well as stock up on supplies like water and snacks. 

#End

Gotcha Day!

Well today was the big day.  We spent a lot of the morning preparing paperwork for the adoption process and at 3p.m. we boarded a chartered bus that took us to the Social Welfare Institute Office.  There were many adoptions happening but it turns out none of the 5 babies for our group were there yet.  So they put us in a hot room and we had to wear our masks.  We had decorated ours a bit to try and make them look less scary. 

We didn't actually end up waiting too long and within a few minutes all of the babies were in the room and were handed over to their parents.  It was very surreal.  Siena screamed the loudest and actually got all of the others screaming along with her.  Boy, does she have a set of lungs!  She seemed more comfortable going to Justin and after a good 15 minutes of screaming she sacked out in his arms.  We then had our family picture taken for the adoption process (without the masks) and then got back on the bus to the hotel.  We were back in the lobby by 4:30p.m. 

We then filled out more paperwork for her passport and finalizing the adoption and then headed to dinner.  Siena ate a ton which is a good sign.  We gave her a bath which she HATED and now fell asleep on top of Justin.  I am hoping that she stays asleep for awhile.  It has been a long day for all of us!

The other cool thing about our Gotcha Day is that on June 1st, China celebrates Children's Day.  It is a designated holiday for all primary schools.  There is a great park 2 blocks from our hotel (The People's Park) and there were tons of activities and ceremonies going on there this morning.  We walked down and got balloons for all of the kids.  I defiantly looked like a spectacle carrying 7 Hello Kitty balloon's down the street while trying to dodge the caravan of bikes and mopeds headed towards me. 

Also, all of the care package items that we had sent to Siena were returned to us including the three cameras.  I am hoping we can get those developed while in Nanning.  I am anxious to see them. 

We will post more tomorrow and more pictures.  Unfortunately our camera had the great timing of having the battery die 5 minutes before we met Siena.  Luckily we have two professional photographers in our travel group and they promise to share their photos with us. 

Nanning

After a 3+ hour flight from Beijing, we arrived in Nanning in Guangxi province.  The first thing we noticed here is the humidity.  It is warm like Beijing but super humid, very tropical with palm trees, etc.  Nanning is a thriving, growing city of 6+ million.  It is amazing how much construction is going on here.  We have checked into the Majestic hotel and have met up with one of the other 2 couples in our group.  We had dinner at a local restaurant where there were tons of choices of food.  We decided to play it safe and stick with rice, dumplings and noodles rather than try the gelatinous pork blood and chicken feet.  Tomorrow we have a meeting with our facilitator to go over the program and then we meet Siena in the afternoon!   More to follow soon!

J

Ming Tombs

Also visited the Ming Tombs today a bit south of the where we saw the Great Wall at Badaling.  While it was pretty cool to drop down over 100' underground to go see these excavated tombs that were built around 1400 and then excavated in 1956, it was tough to compare to the Great Wall.  While we expected to see some very ornate art and sculpture, it is basically just a mausoleum made out of stone.  What is pretty cool is the location as it is located deep into some rural countryside just outside of Beijing and gave us a better feel for this area outside of a bustling city with gridlock traffic.  There are cherry trees and many roadside farmers selling fresh produce nearby.  Having hiked several miles with some serious elevation changes, we were excited to get back to the hotel for some food/drink and to sit down.  After enduring some pretty tough Beijing traffic and some narrow escapes from other vehicles, we made it back to our hotel for tea time and sat back to relax.  When we pulled in to get dropped off, there was a pretty ritzy wedding going on with many of the hotels limousines queued up with the bridge/groom and wedding party.  The local security were giving our driver a hard time about him dropping us off at the front door, and the heated exchange in Chinese was pretty interesting.  Our driver was pretty convincing though and he delivered us to the door.  Tomorrow we leave for Nanning in the south, about a 3 hour flight and the location where we will finally meet our daughter on June 1. 

J

Great Wall

Wow!  Another busy day sightseeing in Beijing.  We shared a van today with another couple to tour the Great Wall at Badaling and the Ming Tombs.  The ride to the Great Wall really gave us a sense of how big a city Beijing is.  Today was in the 90's, but pretty windy which cooled it down some.  The Great Wall is really something to see - pictures don't do the job to describe how awesome it is.  We spent about 2 hours climbing up and down the wall and in some parts it was a challenge to walk up it due to how steep it is, never mind what they must have had to go through to actually build it.  It was VERY crowded and at times you really had to push your way through especially when you come to some of the narrow passageways that everyone has to go through. They say the wall stretches for some 8,000+ miles - that is about as far as we flew from Boston to Beijing.  Really unbelievable the scope of such a project.  At Badaling, the wall is approximately 25' tall and 16' wide in most places and was a heavily fortified section for protection of Beijing.  Not only is it a very popular destination for foreign tourists, but for the Chinese.  I would estimate that at least 80% of the tourists were of Chinese descent.  It was funny how many times our group was asked to pose for pictures with people from China as a novelty.  

J

Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Pork Chips?

We had a busy but great day today.  The weather was perfect, mid-80's, sunny and breezy.  This morning seemed like it was a little smoggy but by early afternoon there was bright clear sky. 

We walked from our hotel to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Both are spectacular and it is hard to imagine how they were constructed.  The Forbidden City is a great example of imperial architecture and has over 800 buildings and 8,700 rooms.  Needless to say we didn't see them all. 

We then took a cab over to the Summer Palace which also gave us a great view of Beijing as we traveled through it.  Our cab driver was very nice, he didn't speak more than 2 words of English but he tried to give us a tour.  The only thing we understood that he pointed out was the Beijing TV Tower.  It was kind of funny but we enjoyed him and his efforts. 

The Summer Palace was my favorite and a definite must see.  It is a huge royal garden that was built in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother's birthday.  What a gift!  We spent most of the afternoon wandering the grounds and the palace.  This is also where we decided to get "lunch".  The selection was limited.  The most popular item was a microwaved hot dog on a stick which we both decided we were going to pass on.  We decided to get a snack of Lay's potato chips and bottled green ice tea.  Well we didn't realize that the potato chips were pork flavored until after we opened them.  Since I am not someone who ever passes on any sort of chip I gave them a whirl.  Needless to say, they were not good!  We both ate 2 and threw them away. 

We headed back to our hotel and had "Afternoon Tea" in the lobby of our hotel complete with cucumber sandwiches and scones.  Quite yummy!

Tomorrow we are off to The Great Wall!

First experiences

Now that we are a bit more coherent from sleep, thought I would jot down a few more details from the flight/arrival.  We flew a 777 which was 3 seats x3 x3.  We were fortunate to have a 3 seat row to ourselves which was nice to spread out.  There were tons of empty business class seats, but we could not talk our way into those.  Another couple traveling with us was not only on the same flight, but sitting right behind us  - So the 3 of them (including 5 year old daughter) and us were able to talk about plans and what to expect, etc.  When we arrived at the airport, some health inspectors boarded the plane and had infrared tempature guns that they shot at everyone's forehead on the plane.  Once we got the all clear that no one was "infected" we were allowed to get off the plane.  Once outside we had to go through another health screening station and show some health related paperwork that we filled out.  There was also an infrared camera station where they were essentially screening people again as they approached this station.  Then through customs (which was easy).  Our luggage arrived pretty quickly (shorter than it does at Logan, but that is not saying much).  We had arranged to have a hotel limo waiting for us at the airport so that we could make it easy on ourselves - what a nice surprise to slide into a BMW 750il for the ride.  The traffic was moderate, but everyone drove pretty safely (not necessarily what you would imagine).  We arrived at the peninsula hotel and were impressed with how nice it is.  Marble everything and very modern amenities.  The staff was excellent and other than the mattress being very firm, pretty similar to other upscale hotels in the west.  The streets here are very clean with flowers everywhere.  I am not sure if it is leftover from the Olympics or not, but a step up from a cleanliness factor from other major cities we have been to (at least what we have seen so far).  We ended up going to a local restaurant after a nap at the hotel and were able to get a few dishes that were up our alley:  Spicy chicken with peanuts, Taiwan style fried noodles, steamed pork dumpling and some Chinese beer to wash it down.  We were amazed to only pay about $18 for all of that.   We paid almost the same for a couple of large waters and some M&Ms from an adjacent convenience store. 

Well, that's it for now - will send an update later after we have seen some sights, etc.

 

J

We Made It!

Well, we made it to Beijing. We started with Adam picking us up at 5:45 AM EST (thanks Adam) and we landed at Beijing at 1:50PM their time, which is actually 1:50AM EST. Long flight, but actually not that bad. We had remotes at our seats and we could choose from many movies to watch, so it helped pass the time. The hotel we are staying at (The Peninsula) is very nice and we have yet to explore outside our room as we both layed down to relax and slept for few hours. At any rate, it is 9PM here and it is time to get something fun to eat!

Talk with you soon!

The night before the Trip!

Here we are - putting the last few items into our suitcases - we have been very careful to only add what is needed to keep the weight down. The plan is to do periodic laundy so we don't have to pack too much - that and wear the same clothes. We are traveling with a mini-pharmacy and hoping we won't need most of it.

Hard to believe we are finally leaving to get our little girl Siena. It has been a long time and now we are here. Everything seems to be organized and we are ready to go. Check back in with you from China!

J

Masks!

We were waiting for one last appointment and we received it! The Guangxi Civil Affairs has confirmed our appointment for us to meet/receive Siena on Monday, June 1st .

The Civil Affairs requires that when we go to meet our daughter, everybody (including the facilitator) must wear a mask. I hope we don't frighten her!

Travel Date!

The US Consulate has responded and confirmed the US Consulate appointment date for us. It is June 10th, 2009-we didn’t get our first choice of June 9th.

We plan to arrive in Nanning on Sunday, May 31st and meet Siena on Monday (June 1st) and do the adoption paperwork with the provincial authorities the following days.

Our Consulate appointment is June 10th in Guangzhou. We will be taking the oath and getting Siena's US Visa in the US consulate on the afternoon of June 11th .

We plan on traveling a few days ahead of time and will be contacting the travel agency tomorrow to figure out our flights and hotels. Woo-hoo!

Travel Approvals!

Finally our travel approval is here!!! Our agency has requested June 9th for the appointment date at the US consulate in Guangzhou. If this date is granted we will be leaving around the last week of May and arriving into Nanning on Sunday, May 31st.

The Alliance for Children should hear back from the Consulate in a couple of days and let us know as soon as it is confirmed.

Second Care Package

We decided to send a second package to Siena while we wait for our travel approval. We contacted Ann at Red Thread China and once again she didn't disappoint. We decided to send her a summer outfit, and book. For her caregivers we added some spicy peanuts, a letter and another camera. We are hoping that they take tons of pictures of Siena and that we are able to get the cameras returned when we get to China. Keep your fingers crossed!

What's up with this swine flu (H1N1) already?

Getting frustrated watching the world blow this flu out of proportion. I certainly understand protecting everyone (especially babies) from coming down with it, but we live with other flus all the time and still manage to function. Obviously, we are a bit more frustrated as we are awaiting our Travel Approval in order to schedule our trip. Let's hope they mail them with words of caution. I thought the 3 year wait was bad. . .

JL

Red Thread Update

We received updated information this morning about Siena from Ann at Red Thread China. In our care package we asked a few questions and here are the answers!

Email from Ann:

Dear Deborah:
Below are answers to your questions:

1.Yu lei use both bottle and cup ,but most of time ,she use cup.

2.Yu lei can say "a yi hao(hello ,nanny!) ,ji ji(chicken) gou gou(dog) ,yang yang ,ect"She loves to say "yue yue (sounds like yeah).

3.Yu lei loves to go to lots of people or fun places (like streets ,shops or park), she also likes outside activities, she loves to watch song and dance TV programs.

4.She is potty trained, adults have to help her with her pants.

5.She loves to eat fruits, such as orange, banana, ect. she also loves to eat cookies, bread and candies.

6.She still needs nap. Sometimes when she cries when she rolls over (turn over), adults need to pat her on her back.

7.Hua yu lei is attached her foster mom very much.

8.Her current health is quite good.

9.She is an easy going and good baby.

Have a wonderful day,love,Ann

Updated info on Siena!

We contacted http://www.redthreadchina.com/ yesturday to try and send a care package to Siena and see if we could get updated information. Ann at redthreadchina is a miracle worker and not only did she get us updated mearsurements, but also gave us 5 new photos of her! Our care package is due to arrive to her in the next 2 days. Below is the email from Ann that we received this morning:

Dear Deborah and Justin:
Attached are some hua yu lei`s update pictures and your package picture ,below is yu lei`s update measurement:

Height:75cm
weight :10kg
head :45.5cm
chest :48cm
teeth:6
feet:12

Yu lei weill get your package in next two days ! I will let you know when yu lei gets your package!

You are very lucky ,yu lei looks very pretty ,she has beautiful eyes ,I love her eyelash very much ,they look like curcle like doll eyes !!! Have a wonderful day,love,Ann

Meet Siena Yu Lei Leland

We have finally decided on a first name! After much debate, arm wrestling and a coin toss Siena it is! We have both really liked the name for several years now and we were lucky enough to be able to travel to Tuscany and visit Siena in 2002. It is a great city and we have many fond memories of our trip.

Siena Yu Lei Leland, woo-hoo!

China Program Update-AFC Email

Dear all,
5 Alliance families received their referrals for the month of April. These 5 little girls are from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and range in age from 16 months to two and a half years. Congratulations to these families!

The cutoff date for this batch of referrals was March 8th, 2006. Our next log in date is March 24th, 2006.

Have a great weekend!
Lin Jing

Meet Hua Yu Lei!

We went to the Alliance for Children this morning and got to see pictures and get some medical information. Her name is Hua Yu Lei and she was born 11/3/07.

The name given from the orphanage is Hua Yu Lei. Hua is the surname. Yu Lei somewhat translates into raining flower bud. Our translator said it was a beautiful name in Chinese but it doesn’t translate well into English. We will probably give her a name but we haven't decided on what it is yet. You would think that after four years of waiting for her we would have figured this part out already!

She is at the First Social Welfare Institute of Yulin in the Guangxi Province. We will have a specialist in the area of international adoption review her medical history in more detail, but so far she seems quite healthy.

According to the translation from the original referral she has dark hair, rosy skin and cries very loudly! She was moved into foster care 9/18/08 and is developing very well in all aspects. She gets very excited when seeing food which is great. She will fit right into our family very well.

At the time of the report she had just turned one. She had one tooth and was starting to take steps with the support of an adult.

REFERRAL!!!

We got the call from our agency today that our referral has arrived! Her name is Hua Yu Lei and we are seeking the translation. Tomorrow we go to the agency to pick up the package/photos, etc. More to follow. . .

3 years, 4 weeks and 1 day from our LID!

One more referral day?

We are hearing through the Rumor Queen that the latest batch of referrals are through March 8th. We are the 9th, argh!

China Program Update-AFC Email

Dear ALL,
The CCAA has matched families with a log in date up to March 2, 2006 with their children. So it will be three years’ wait in March for the March 06 LIDs.

Alliance did receive two referrals for our waiting families. One is expedited family and one is a family who had put their dossier on hold. Both little girls are from Jiangxi.

Our next log in date is March 9, 2006.

The CCAA has finished reviewing dossiers with LID up to March, 2007.

Best wishes for this year of ox,
Lin Jing

China Program Update-AFC Email

Dear All,
Happy New Year!
The CCAA has matched families with a log in date up to February 28, 2006 with their children for the January of 2009. Alliance did not receive referrals for our waiting families. Our next log in date is March 9, 2006. (this is us!)

The CCAA has reviewed dossiers with LID up to February 28, 2007.
We wish we could get some good news to share at the beginning of the New Year. But we are sorry that so far we haven’t had any yet.

Best wishes for 2009,
Lin Jing