flight to Yin Chuan

Today we took a flight from Beijing to Yin Chuan.  All 3 families left the hotel at 9 am, all of us are going to different areas to receive our children.  We had the latest flight at 1:35 pm.  We were going to meet our facilitator, Cindy, at the airport.  Our paperwork had the flight at 1:55 as did Cindy, Dion our guide in Beijing had the flight at 1:35.  Well the flight was at 1:35!!!  Cindy got there as we were boarding the plane.  Needless to say we were panicked.  We asked a the guy sitting across from us if we could borrow his phone, he didn't speak english, but he did give me his phone.  Called Dion and he found Cindy in the security check point.  Dion called the phone of the guy across from us and he gave me the phone, very nice people here in China.   Cindy found us very easily as Linda was the only one with blonde hair, we both kind of stuck out as the only 2 americans out of 150 people on the plane.  It was strange when we got up to walk to the bathroom on the plane and everyone looked up at us. We made it to the city and our hotel in about 30 minutes.  They had a crib set up in our room before we arrived. 
13 hours from now we will be on our way to the orphanage. We have a long day tomorrow, 9 am at the orphanage and then pictures and paperwork.  We will try to post tomorrow but we can't promise it.     
 
Thank you again for all of you prayers.

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Great Wall

Hi everyone.  Today we went to the Great Wall, WOW!!!!  What an amazing place.  Linda made it part way up, Steve, Joe and myself made it up to the 4th tower.  This section is very steep but the views were wonderful.  We stopped by the Olympic stadiums the water cube and birds nest for a few pictures.  Then it was on to the Summer Palace where we walked up more steps.  For dinner we went for a Peking Duck dinner.  Linda is not feeling very well tonight, I think it is being tired and a little motion sickness, any of you who have been in Beijing traffic will understand.
 
36 hours until we meet Sarah!!!  

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Our first full day in China

We went to the Temple of Heaven,  Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City today.  China is a beautiful country.  We are eating real Chinese food, big difference from what we get at home.  we also went to the Pearl market, what an experience.  Very exhausting day.  The 2 other families we are with are very nice and we have been having a great time with them.  Our guide Dion is great.  Traffic hear is 10 times worse than in New York City.
 
Linda had her first experience with a "Squatty Potty" today.  This was the topic at lunch with the 4 women.
 
 

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We're in Beijing!

Hi everyone!  We are here safe and sound but exhausted.  The flight was long but uneventful which is good.  Fourteen hours on a plane is a long time.  The temp outside the plane over parts of the trip was -97 F!  Scary! 
After getting to the airport we meet up with two other families, both from PA.  We will be touring with them tomorrow. After a one hour bus trip to the hotel we walked down the street with our guide and had some real Chinese food.
No pictures today...........must sleep as we have been up longer than I can even figure out. 

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No Small Feat

Meeting the packing requirements is no small feat.  Try putting a pharmacy, some small toys, clothes for Sarah is various sizes and weather types and clothes for us for multiple weather types and laptop, video camera and digital camera, etc, etc in two checked suitcases which must weigh less than 44 lbs and two carry ones less than 11 lbs!

Itinerary

1/27/2010   - Fly to Beijing - Departure 12.15 pm - (13 hrs 45 minutes)

1/28/2010   - Arrive in Beijing, our guide will meet us and take us to the King Wing Hot Spring Hotel.

1/29/2010   - Visit the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Shopping at the Pearl Market if time allows.  See the Chaoyang Acrobat Show

1/30/2010   - Visit the Great Wall, drive past the Bird's Nest on the way to visit the Fangshan orphanage an orphan training center that is part of our agency.  Peking Duck dinner.

1/31/2010   - Fly from Beijing to Yinchuan with our guide.  Our guide will take us to check in at the Haiyue Jianguo Hotel.  Try to sleep..........rrrrrrrrrrrrright!

2/1/2010     - 9:00 am  - pick up Sarah at Civil Affairs Office!!!!!!!!
                     2:00 pm  - complete paperwork
                     shopping for supplies

2/2/2010     - Tour city and get acquainted Sarah

2/3/2010     - Visit orphanage Sarah was at before she went into foster care.

2/4/2010     - Tour city.

2/5/2010     -  Pick up paperwork and Sarah's passport.  Fly to Guangzhou.  Guide will meet us and take us to the White Swan Hotel.

2/6/2010     - Sarah gets medical check-up, TB test, visa photo and visa paperwork.

2/7/2010     - Tour Guangzhou

2/8/2010     - Medical to check Tb test results.

2/9/2010     - US Consulate appointment

2/10/2010   - Take oath at Consulate

2/11/2010   - Pick up Sarah's visa

2/12/2010   - Fly from Guangzhou to Beijing.   Depart Beijing for home.  Arrive at Newark  5:35 pm.
                     

Counting down

Twelve days until we get to hold our daughter!

Test Post

This is a test to see if I can successfully post to the blog from an email.  I hope this works as this is how I will be updating the blogger to keep everyone informed where we are at in our journey.
 
 

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Leaving on a jet plane

Our flight to Beijing is booked and the flight from Beijing to Newark with Sarah sitting between us has also been booked!  WooooooHoooooooooooooo!

Shower

Thank you to all of the people that planned, work at and attended our shower/celebration to .  It was a great day and made our dreams of bringing Sarah home seem real.  Everyone was so generous with their beautiful gifts.  I will post more pictures once I have them.

 

Good news!

We leave for Beijing on Jan 27, 2010!  We meet Sarah on Feb 1, 2010!!!  Consulate Appointment in Guangzhou Feb 9, 2010.  Return home Feb 12, 2010.

Must start packing!

Updated Photos

Finally!  Updated photos and a smile!

The funniest thing is Guy said she is not getting a cellphone until she is much older and he didn't think I should have bought her the toy cellphone!  Hey Dad, can I borrow the car?

Map of China

Yinchuan, also know as Phoenix City, is the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.  It is located in northern China and along the Yellow River.  The region is mostly dry with cold winters, coldest in January, and short hot summers.  We will also be traveling to Beijing, in the Northeast and Guangzhou in Southern China.

Care Package to Sarah and Foster Family

We purchased a care package to be sent to Sarah Elizabeth using Red Thread care packages, a service based in China that will put together a package and send it to your waiting child.  This morning we received an email with pictures showing what is being sent.  We purchased a package that includes a letter translated into Chinese from us to the orphanage director , caregivers and Sarah's foster family.  It also includes a doll, a blanket, a pair of pj's, a camera with a note to use up all of the film and give it to us when we get there and candy for the caregivers/foster family.  We also included a soft album with 6 photos of ourselves (that should give Sarah something to laugh at), the cats and Sarah's bedroom.  Sarah should be receiving the package in a few days. Maybe she will recognize us as the funny people in the book when we finally meet her.

We wish Sarah could have received it this morning.  Christmas morning was hard with a child half the way around the world but receiving the email this morning put a smile on both of our faces.  Merry Christmas Sarah!  And thank you to all the people that have been and are taking care of our daughter!

Christmas picture

I dressed up Sarah's picture in a holiday outfit using Paint Shop Pro.  We don't even have her home yet and I'm putting her in silly outfits!

Christmas Eve Eve miracle

At 2:12 PM today we received a call from Elena at Living Hope Adoption Agency. 
Elena - Hello, Is this Linda?
Me - Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss?
Elena - This is Elena at Living Hope  (we have caller id, I already knew)
Me - Yesssssssssssssssssssssssss?
Elena - I'm calling with an early Christmas present.   Your Travel Authorization is here so we will shot for traveling on Jan 13th if that is okay with you.
Me - tears running down face and covered in goose bumps and jumping up and down.  Yes, Yes, Yes!  Thank you, Merry Christmas and I have no idea what else I said! 

But we're going to China!  WooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooo!

The agency requested a Consulate Appointment but we won't know until Monday when that will be but in all likelyhood we should be holding Sarah by January 18th!  Next week we should have a better idea of our whole itinerary.

Shots

We went to get our vaccines to travel today.  OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! and OUCH!  Three shots each for both of us...and one big shot to the pocketbook....over $1200 dollars.  They hurt and the bill really hurt and of course insurance doesn't pay for it.  Plus all the small needles have been allocated for H1N1 vaccine so they were big needles.  I got mine first and thank goodness because when I saw Guy get his I saw just how long the needles were and how deep the needle goes into the muscle.  That explains why he looked nervous when I was getting mine.  Guy even flinched with the last shot which really did hurt.  We were both really sore all day.  And one out of 25 people get a fever and I got a fever.  Well, still better than getting typhoid, Hep A, tetanus, whooping couph or diptheria.   

LOA

Our signed Letter of Acceptance should be in China now.  Travel Authorization should be coming sometime after Monday and once we have our TA and we request a Consulate Appointment, we will know our intinerary and what day we will meet Sarah.

A Learning Experience

Some of what we have learned:

Diapers come in sizes like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 not weigh categories??????
There are too many different brands of diaper rash ointments.
You lose sleep when your child is half way around the world waiting for you.
You will worry before you have your child and for the rest of your life.
Children must get into way too many things because there are soooooooooooo many safety devices.
Parents need their sleep so they have the energy to worry some more.
You can get morning sickness and nausea when you are adopting.
There are so many things you will do for your child that you would not normally do. (like fly half way around the world to a place where you do not know the language)
Parenthood changes everything.
Preparing for a child is exciting but exhausting.
Parenthood changes everything.
There is a lot we don't know.

More Pictures

We just can't stop looking at her and can't wait to hold her!