the final countdown

Well I actually slept last night. Not a full night's sleep but 6 hours jet lagged and expecting a baby is pretty good.

It is 8:30 am on Monday.

Baby day.

 Breakfast was crazy. There were three families down there with us and we are all freaking out. Jitters today. Jittery excitement is felt all around. We are all over analyzing what we should wear, how many nannies will be with the girls, and how we are all going to get pictures of everything. Another father and I have video cameras and little tripods so we are thinking we will set up the cameras in the room to shoot the entire thing. We are already talking about trading still cameras for each family's event. This wild ride just got crazier!

We are now waiting to go down at 8:50 for a meeting with our guide.I assume we will be back in our rooms by 11:00 am to then sit tight for 3 hours! 

UGH! 

3 Hours!!!

And then it will be 2:00 pm and we will board our bus and go.

Guangzhou

Wow! What a day. 

Honestly. 

Really. 

What. A. Day.

We are in Guangzhou right now which is probably the single unifying city of all Chinese adoptions. Some people use Beijing as a port city. Some people use Hong King. Most people travel to one of China's provinces to adopt their children and then EVERYONE comes to Guangzhou to finalize things from a US immigration standpoint. We, however, were referred a baby from Guangdong Province (Guangzhou is the capital city for that province) so we will spend our ENTIRE trip here. 

We said farewell to our new CCAI friends who are traveling to Nanchang and Changsa today and boarded a train at 1 pm from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. The train station was a little crazy. We checked most of our bags through but once we went through ticket control, we then had to go through security before passport control. Security was, well, not very secure. We put our bags through the x-ray machine and then had to walk through a metal detector. However, both of us were wearing money belts loaded with more cash than I have ever had on my body....EVER. I didn't want to take the belts off and put them through the x-ray and since the metal detector didn't seem to be staffed by security, I decided to walk around it and not through it. No one noticed.

Passport control took a while but by 1:05 pm we were all on the train and we were pulling out of the station. 2 hours later we disembarked in GZ and went through a very thorough passport control to enter China.

Once we had our bags, we met our guide Jason who brought us to the bus and handed us our CCAI Group 1751 Schedule for the 10 days that we are here. We have 6 families in our group and 5 of us are adopting from Yangxi and one family is adopting a 10 year old girl from another Guangdong city. He told us that he spoke to the Yangxi director and said our girls were doing well but that they had never been in a car so we should expect the possibility of car sick kids. He then told the parents of the 10 year old child that she was very shy and didn't like strangers so they would have to be patient. Later most of us confessed that when we heard that we nearly cried on the bus.

Just take a moment to think about this. My nearly 10 year old daughter is going to see a peer adopted into another culture, race and language. If you are reading this, and you have a 10 year old, think about what they know. Think about who they are already at 10. And think about what kind of change that might be for a young lady. And lastly, I will leave you with this... we learned that she is the very last of her friends at the orphanage to find a forever family. I want so much for all this to go well for them. All of them.

We are staying at the China Hotel - a Marriott. The place is crawling with adoptive families and their new babies. And each time I see a new family I think, holy shit that is going to be me tomorrow! Our guide told us that CCAI has recently switched from the White Swan to the China Hotel because the WS is scheduled to close next month...for a YEAR! I hadn't heard a year but that is what Jason said.

Word to the wise.  

The China Hotel does have connecting rooms. We struggled with what kind of room set up to book for my family of 5 soon to be 6. I didn't want my older kids sleeping down the hall and while the Marriott here has 2 bedroom suites, they are incredibly expensive. And in addition to that, while they sleep 5, they only offer amenities for 2 people. So our party of 5 would have to pay for 3 extra breakfasts each day and 3 extra memberships to the executive level. So I got cheap. I yanked our plans for the more comfortable, but going to screw with my bank account 2 bedroom suite and booked a 1 bedroom suite and a standard room directly across the hall. And you may ask, why across the hall? Why didn't you ask for connecting? Well, we called CCAI and they contacted their reps who confirmed that this particular hotel does not have connecting rooms. I then called Marriott who put me on hold (twice) to confirm with the property directly about the number of connecting rooms they had. The answer was always NONE.

So much to my surprise, we have a 1 bedroom suite with a standard room CONNECTED. We have a huge living room, 1 bedroom with a king and 1 bedroom with two full sized beds and 2.5 bathrooms. Honestly we could not be more comfortable and we did it for a reasonable price! I am so so so happy!

So. Tomorrow. 

2:30 we get our girls.

2:00 we hop on the bus from the hotel and we drive to the civil affairs office. 

And before I say goodnight, I need to send a huge congratulations to my friend Whitney who welcomed a baby girl into the world yesterday. Life is good.

Entrance to our 1 bedroom suite. There is a 1/2 bath off this hallway.

Entrance into living room

Living room

 

 

Bedroom in suite

  

Bathroom in suite

 

  

Bathroom in suite

1/2 bath off hallway

From bedroom into bathroom of standard room

Bedroom in standard room

Long day in Hong Kong!

I've never been so tired in my life. Between the heat, the jet lag, and the touring around Hong Kong I seriously think I might collapse. It is almost 7:00 pm here and I rested my eyes for only 30 minutes today determined to kick this time zone adjustment before we get Cici on Monday. I mean really, if I have to wait 5 years for a baby, I should at least be well rested when she is placed in my arms.

This morning the whole family popped out of bed at 5:30 am. I'd been up since 4:30 desperately trying to will my body back to sleep but it was a no go. I only had 4 hours of sleep but between the time change and the sheer excitement about being here, I was up. SJ and I went to the gym, showered, and gathered the troops for breakfast around 7:30. We met some of the other families in our group down at the enormous only in Asia breakfast buffet. I really like this group and feel fortunate we've gotten to travel with so many people. Debbie and I were thrilled to add Julie to our travel group after CCAI released their travel network for our travel group. But there is another couple here too who had a 7/6 LID and has a daughter matched from Yangxi.  They are lovely people from Florida. There are two other travel groups with us here in Hong Kong - 1 group going to Nan Chang and the other to Changsa. They fly out tomorrow while us Guangdong families take the train. The Nan Chang families all receive their children tomorrow. We supposedly are going to get Cici on Monday. In our group of 4 Yangxi, Guangdong families Cici's friends will be Katie, Livi, and Ava! All are within a month of each other. Livi is joining an older sister from China while Katie and Ava will be their parents' first child.


After breakfast the group of 47 people (!) met int the lobby to hop on our tour bus with our guide Matthew to tour Hong Kong Island. We drove up to Victoria Peak, down to Aberdeen to see a fishing village by fishing boat, then onto Stanley to see the beaches and hit a market (we drove by Jackie Chan's huge house). We finished up the day at 2:30 back in Kowloon for a late Dim Sum. It was so much fun. I will say though that the winding roads up the mountainous terrain on Hong Kong Island in a large bus had me feeling motion sickness more than once. And then to step out into the unbearable mid-day heat was pretty tough on this jet lagged lady!

After lunch, my mom, Debbie, Ann and I went to my mother's favorite pearl shop here in HK and we all walked away with a bag of something! I got a very long strand of pearls that I intend to wear for a while but then have restrung for my two girls. I'm thinking maybe 8th grade graduation or something. We'll see. I doubt this will be our last pearl shopping excurision.

SJ and I are downstairs in the lobby trying to caffinate up ourselves and sugar-up SweetPea to get us as far into tonight without dropping. Buddy is a lost cause and is going to be in trouble tonight when he wakes up at 1 am and everyone else is asleep. If he wakes me up, I swear he'll never get another allowance!

So here are some pictures from today...........

View from Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island

Debbie and I on Victoria Peak. Debbie and I have been chatting for nearly 5 years and we met for the first time this morning! AND our girls are coming from the same orphanage and are only 5 days apart!

SweetPea and her new friend N. N's family and we flew together from Detroit! Both are 9 and finally getting their baby sisters!

 

SweetPea, N and Buddy on Victoria Peak.

Lots of little foos adorned the lookout area.

Daddy and his two - soon to be three kids!

One of our final pictures as a family of four!

Next stop after Victoria Peak was Aberdeen to see a fishing village. We rode these boats around the harbor to see HK fishing life.

Not in focus but I really like the picture...

Some of our CCAI group.

This is an enormous floating restaurant!

And Matthew said when we went around back and saw the kitchens we'd understand why we were not eating lunch here!

Buddy and Daddy

    

Our boat driver...

 

When we got off the boats there were people putting paper into large barrels of fire and someone was setting off firecrackers. We went over to see what was going on and it appears to be a celebration with an ancestral offering. Matthew told us that while today is August 13th on the western calendar but it is July 13th on the Chinese calendar which is a day they believe ghosts come back. So paper offerings were lit on fire to send up to their ancestors and food was put out for them.

   

 

 

We are here!

We landed in HK an hour early which was great! The flight was over 14 hours long which is hard for adults to wrap their brains around, nevermind kids. Buddy kept asking how much longer and I would have to quote it in movie time segements. We were about 8 hours away from arrival and he asked how much longer and I just replied "4 movies". The kids fell asleep shortly thereafter and we had to wake them for landing. They are such good travelers!

I didn't sleep much and am currently in the lobby of the Regal Kowloon having my second large beer of the evening trying to get myself sleepy enough to crash for the night.

We have a pretty big group of CCAI families along with us. We will have a tour tomorrow of HK Island with our awesome guide Matthew and then have Dim Sum in the afternoon.

Mom and I may be pearl shopping tomorrow. F.U.N!

Will check in tomorrow afternoon with some pictures I hope!!!

xo
from Hong Kong

We are off!

Airport antics

 

Well, we are at Logan! Never had an easier time waking up at 5:00 am. It was very hard to say goodbye to Parker the puppy dog. He's in good hands though. Our dog/house sitter is wonderful. 

The only issue to resolve now is seating. We have no seat assignments for any of our legs and we are hoping they can put us all together. Cross your fingers for us! 

Xoxo
SPY
 

Tomorrow. Tomorrow. I love you. Tomorrow. You're only a day away!

Well it seems the time has come. After 5 years of waiting it is definitely surreal to be boarding a plane to go to China to get our daughter.

We leave for China tomorrow and return on 8/26. The whole family is going and my mother is coming as well to help us with the older kids. We will travel to Hong Kong where we will stay for a few days and then we travel to the capital city of her province. Our itinerary is as follows:

8/11 Depart Boston
8/12 Arrive Hong Kong
8/14 Depart Hong Kong by train to Guangzhou, China
8/15 We meet Cici and take her home with us
8/23 or 8/24 we Leave for Hong Kong
8/26 Depart HK for Boston

We are so thankful for our dog/house sitter who will be taking care of our furry friends while we are away.

Today will be a hectic day. Lots of last minute details to button up before we head out. I will try to check in on Thursday from the airport(s)!

Typhoid made me do it.

Yesterday morning while trying to get my son out the door in time for camp armed with a packed lunch, slathered with sunscreen, and stocked with appropriate gear for swimming, running, jumping and climbing trees, I was on the phone in a heated conversation with a medical office regarding the typhoid shot for my kids. I was also unfortunately trying to take out the garbage as Tuesday is garbage day here. And if you could see the amount of Amazon boxes and product packaging that has accumulated around the house as we prepare for new babe, you'd know getting most, if not all, of it out the door to the curb was important from a fire safety standpoint.


Not that I am sleeping, but when I awake with a start I think perhaps I must have been asleep at one point. The panic was a result of realizing I must have thrown out an unpacked Amazon box that had bottles and other small baby set up items. We are a divided household when it comes to breaking down boxes. My other half is very keen to flatten anything and store it away, preferably in the garbage. I however take the lazy easy approach and just bring the damn boxes to the curb. Hey, someone may want to use them. Yes, I am hiding behind the very thin veil of recycling and reusing. Did it work? Not sure.


I called our pediatrician last week to ask if we could talk about medications to bring to China for SweetPea and Buddy in case they come down with something. The conversation went so off the rails that it was really hard to get back to the actual request and by yesterday I realized, in fact, we never really did get back to the point of the original phone call. Amidst her asking me what kind of medicine I'd want for what kind of illnesses we might encounter and me trying really hard not to say what I wanted to, which was, "you're the doctor lady, you tell me", she also asked if I had been looking on the internet to figure out what I wanted. I felt like I was at McDonalds with no menu. How am I supposed to know what to ask for?? And before we could get to the fact that, yes the kids may get strep throat or an ear infection while in China and yes, I would like to be able to give them medicine we bring from the States, she sort of went into full panic mode of quizzing me on whether they've had all their shots. It is always an interesting scenario when the doctor gets worked up but the parent is still calm. I think it was just about this point in the conversation when we stepped off the rails and veered down a prickly path. She then said "what about typhoid?". Now  you should know that in November, yes LAST November, I called their office asking about the shots needed for China and in my notes from that conversation - because I am just that kind of person who can track down notes from a phone call made last November- I noted that they were unsure of the typhoid shot and I needed to consult a travel doc.


So early this spring SJ and I went to our travel doc for lots of shots and lectures about how to be safe while traveling to countries like China.  We asked about the typhoid shot for the kids and the answer was that since they were still young they were not likely to be adventurous eaters and the shot was, in her opinion, optional for them. A month later I went with SweetPea to her annual appointment and spoke with her ped- the panicky one I described above- and there was a shrug. A, well, if you want to but it's not totally needed shrug. A few weeks after that I went with Ben to his annual and saw a different doc and asked the same question only to get the same response. So considering the lack of enthusiasm from the medical professionals that our children needed the shot, and my children's extreme dislike for injections, we decided not to do it.


Then all hell broke loose with panicky pedi last week who derailed our phone call to hang up on me and make a personal call to HER travel doctor to see if she could get us an appointment in short order. About 10 minutes later a panicky travel doc admin called me and I had to talk HER off the ledge. In fact I believe I said these words "Listen, since I am the parent and I am not panicking, could we please have everyone else calm down?!?"


She takes my info. Books an appointment for Buddy for the following Wednesday (today) at 4:30 pm. I tell her I pick him up from camp at 4:00 and will scoot as fast as I can over to their office. We make an appointment for SweetPea on Monday b/c she is still at sleepaway camp. The problem is that this vaccine takes 10 days to become effective so SweetPea will have a lower immunity than Buddy which sucks. And this is why I am pissed at my pediatrician who completely dropped the ball!


Then Monday afternoon I get a message from the travel doc administrator telling me that they would like to have us come in at 4:00 because she is afraid we might be late, and because they don't get overtime, if we were even 5 minutes late, they would cancel our appointment. I reminded her that Buddy doesn't get out of camp until 4:00 (and comes by boat so I can't grab him early) so I could not get to an appointment at that time. She basically shrugged her shoulders and said that I had better move his appointment to Monday with his sister. I told her I'd call her back Tuesday morning.


So in the midst of getting Buddy and the garbage needed baby supplies out the door, I was on the phone with the travel doc office speaking to a new admin who was confirming the whole won't stay an extra 5 minutes due to lack of overtime story. Before I let her rebook Buddy for the following Monday, I said the following: "So just to be clear, you are canceling my 4:30 appointment on the hunch that I might be 5-10 minutes late and your medical professionals (might have to strike that last word) will not stay 5 minutes past closing to give an 8 year old a typhoid vaccine because you would not make overtime on those 5 minutes? And that you would rather have him get a shot too close to travel to be 100% effective because you would not make overtime on 5 minutes?" And she replied, "Yes, that is correct." I wanted to call her a loser. But I didn't.


Now, I could have kept him home from camp today to get to this appointment on time but last night was his first camp sleepover. All the kids were invited to stay the night on the island in tents and do the whole campfire singing songs thing. So to not have him go to camp today would have meant not letting him do his very first camp overnight. And since they are on an ISLAND (which this woman was well aware of) I can't go get him early. I am trying very hard to keep everyone's life normal as we hurtle closer to the day when everything changes. I am trying to allow my big kids to do all the big kid things they want and not have to get yanked around and miss things on account of their little sister. So he will get the shot on Monday with SweetPea and I will tell the medical people (after the shots are administered) where they can shove it.


I got home from dropping him off at camp really worked up and placed a phone call to my pediatrician asking for a call back from a nurse since panicky pedi was not in on Tuesdays. When the nurse called back I let her know I wanted amoxicillen prescribed for both kids and scabies cream prescribed (kind of required for this trip) for the baby. She started to give me the run around but I had had it and told her we were not going to have this conversation that she was simply going to call everything in to CVS. By the end of the call she realized there was no wiggle room with me on any of these issues and said everything should be ready on Wednesday.


Now, about those bottles...