Day 6 – 10/13/09 – She’s Officially Ours!

The first order of business today was to go to the Civil Affairs Office and do more paperwork.  After we finished, the government officials declared Jacinda to be officially our child!!!  So now she's stuck with us forever!

 

After that, we did a little shopping at the Whacko Market ….. that's really the name!  It's sort of like a Wal-Mart, a little of everything.

 

For the afternoon, we stayed around our room for a while and played and got to know each other a little.  Jacinda took a really long nap!

 

After the marathon nap, we decided to venture out to Wal-Mart.  That was an experience, to say the least.  Wal-Marts here are just as disgusting as in the States!!!!  But we got a few necessities, so it was worth it.

 

We're finding that going out makes Jacinda really overwhelmed.  She's probably never been to a store before yesterday.  She's probably only ever been to a hospital.  So our adventure to Wal-Mart was a little too much for her (and us!).

 

So tonight, we had Pizza Hut delivered to our room.  Her first taste of pizza!

 

I have to tell you all that I'm a big wimp.  Since it's fall here, the government dictates that the air conditioning be turned off in the hotels.  So our room right now is at 80 degrees.  It's been raining out all day and our window is open, so it's nice and humid in here, too.  I miss my A/C!!!!!!  It's close to 90 in the next place we're headed.  If we don't have A/C there, I'm not sure what I'll do.  Find somewhere to buy a really big fan, I guess!!!

 

Tomorrow, we have a tour of an embroidery factory planned.  That's about it.  There's a bowling alley in our hotel, so we might check that out.  We're basically hanging out here until Friday, which is when her Chinese passport will be ready.   We have no more paperwork to do until we get to the next place on Saturday.

Day 5 – 10/12/09 – We’ve got her!!!!

So we arrived in Changsha in the Hunan province around 11 am this morning.  The plan was to check in to our hotel, then leave at 3 for the Civil Affairs office to pick up Jacinda.  When we got into the car to head to the hotel, our guide tells us there has been a change of plans and that Jacinda will be brought to our hotel room around 1 pm!!!!!  So we get to the hotel and unpack a few things and then wait.  And wait some more.

 

Jacinda Kai-Li Wolfe arrived at our hotel around 2 pm this afternoon.  Kai-Li is a name we heard here and we just love it.  It means beautiful and victorious.  Pronunciation .... Kai rhymes with pie and Li is pronounced Lee.

 

So she got here and she was NOT a happy camper.  At all.  She was screaming.  Apparently, she'd been screaming most of the day.  She settled down fairly quickly, though.  She has taken to me (Sherry) more than Aaron, but that's very typical.  There's going to be an adjustment time as she grieves the loss of her foster family.

 

This evening has been good.  No screaming, but a few sad tears.  We took a walk around the hotel and then came back to the room and had room service for dinner.  We played with Jacinda, and we got our first smiles and even laughs!  She took a bath and then went to sleep.  Tomorrow, we go to the Civil Affairs office to do paperwork.  Then, we'll get to go to a large market to get her some clothes, bottles, and other stuff.  Of course all the clothes we brought are too big.  She's 21 months old and barely 20 pounds.  The 12 month clothes we brought are too big!  She's a tiny little thing.  We don't know what to do with a small child!  Luke was 20 pounds when he was 6 months old!!!!!

 

A weird thing …… our hotel is in the middle of downtown Changsha.  Every so often, fireworks are set off right outside our hotel!  It's happened 4 or 5 times since it's gotten dark!

 

(Thanks to everyone who has posted comments on Facebook.  We're able to see them in our emails.  We can't get to Facebook, though, to respond.  But we are reading them and we really appreciate them!!!)

Day 4 – 10/11/09 – Last Day in Beijing

Busy day today.  This morning, we had our adoption agency's Orientation meeting.  The best thing about the meeting is that we got some updated information about Jacinda.  The picture above was in our package!  It's not the greatest picture, but it will have to hold you over until tomorrow!

 

Then we had lunch with all the families from our agency.  Then we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Today was the last day of a big celebration here, so there were hundreds of thousands people there and it was raining.  So it was a little crazy!!!!

 

We're SO glad we took a few days to spend in Beijing.  It's an incredible city and we have seen so many things that we wouldn't have been able to if we had not arrived early.  But now we are ready to get on with the adoption stuff and meet our girl!

 

Tonight, we need to pack our suitcases because we leave at 5:50 am tomorrow morning for the Beijing Airport to head to Changsha, which is where we'll get Jacinda!!!  Our next post will have pictures of us with Jacinda, so stay tuned!  Oh, and I think we've finally decided on a middle name, but you'll have to wait to hear it ……. We're about 99% decided, so we're leaving ourselves a little room to change our minds.  Again.

Day 3 – 10/10/09 – Beijing

Today was pretty uneventful.  This morning, we went to a place called the Summer Palace, which was a summer resort for an empress.  The place is huge and we walked several miles.  It was beautiful, though.  There were gardens and galleries and gorgeous buildings.

 

After that, we came back to a shopping mall near our hotel and had Pizza Hut for lunch.  I (Sherry) have been hit pretty hard with jet lag, so I took a nap this afternoon.  I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

 

This evening, we're taking it easy and just hanging out at our hotel.

 

Tomorrow, we have a pretty full day.  We have our adoption agency's Orientation meeting after breakfast.  Then we have lunch with other families from the agency and then a tour of The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  Then we have to pack because we leave very early Monday morning for Jacinda's province.

Day 2 – 10/9/09 – Beijing

We had a verrrrrrry interesting day.

 

First, we have to tell you about the traffic here.  Lane markings are merely suggestions, as are traffic lights.  There are cars, bikes, scooters, mopeds, etc.  It's a complete free-for-all.  Crossing the street is an adventure.  When we need to cross the street, we get behind people who look like they know what they're doing and we just follow and hope for the best!

 

Second, Starbucks are everywhere!  Even at the Great Wall!!!!!

 

Third, China is MUCH different than I expected.  Well, we've never been to a Communist country, so I'm not sure we had any idea what to expect.  Beijing is a very modern city … lots of people are everywhere.  From what we hear, 99% of China is not like Beijing.

 

Fourth, you can't drink the water here.  We have to brush our teeth with bottled water, which is kind of a pain.  Apparently the water is clean enough that you can shower in it, though.  I think that's weird.

 

My dad has a business contact in Hong Kong, Mark.  He arranged for his friend in Beijing, Sun (pronounced Soon) to take us around Beijing.  So he shows up at our hotel this morning with a driver.  They took us to the Great Wall.  It is truly amazing.  We climbed part of it.  Then we went to the Olympic Park.  We got to go inside the Bird's Nest.  We walked through the plaza and saw the Cube and the Indoor Stadium.  I'm really glad we went there!

 

This is where it gets interesting.  Sun took us to a Chinese restaurant.  Now, I'm sure you've all heard that Chinese food in China is much different than Chinese food in America.  That's definitely true.  On the menu, there were seriously hundreds of choices.  Sun ended up ordering for us.  Besides some shrimp that we ate, we don't have a clue what the rest of it was.  Honestly, no idea.  Plus, the restaurant didn't have air conditioning, so I was hot and hungry, and didn't know what I was eating.  It might be better that we didn't know, actually!

 

Then we were scheduled to meet Mark for dinner.  He comes to our hotel and tells us he's taking us to a Peking Duck restaurant (uh-oh).  Being the good guests we were, we smiled and said that would be great.  We told him we'd never tried duck, but we were willing to.  There ended up being 7 of us and we had a private room.  This was a good thing because in the main dining room, there was a very loud show going on.  Again, one of the other people ordered for all of us.  You see where this is going, right? When the food came out, it was put on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so we could all share. I have never seen so much food in my life.  Besides the duck, again, no clue what we were eating.  The duck wasn't bad.  They showed us how to put it in a little tortilla-like pancake and fold it up and eat it.  I'm not sure I'd order duck again, but it was pretty good.

 

Needless to say, I think we'll be finding some American food tomorrow!!!!!!  Our plan for tomorrow is to eat a leisurely breakfast at our hotel – fabulous buffet, by the way.  Then we might do some shopping, or sightseeing.  We want to take it easy because the next day is when all the fun starts!!!!

 

Day 1 – 10/8/09 – Beijing

(The dates may not match up since we're 12 hours ahead, but I'm writing this at the end of the date in the title of the post.  Sorry if that's confusing.)

Our flight from Norfolk to Newark was very bumpy the entire time.  Fortunately, it was a pretty short flight.  I (Sherry) am not a great flyer, but we survived, except for the claw marks in Aaron's leg!!!

 

We then had over 4 hours to kill in the Newark airport.  We found some internet access and watched a few TV shows.

 

Our flight to Beijing was fairly uneventful.  We each had video screens on the seat backs in front of us, so we could choose movies and TV shows to watch.  The guy next to me watched all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies with Chinese subtitles!

 

We made it to our hotel in downtown Beijing.  Beijing is HUGE.  The people have been nice so far.  There is a lot of smoking here, so it's strange to smell cigarette smoke in the hotel lobby.

 

Our plan for tomorrow is to go see the Great Wall and the Olympics buildings.

2 days .........

2 days until we leave.  I can't believe it's really time to go.  The packing insanity continues.  The picture above is what our guest bed looked like yesterday.  We have since packed 1 suitcase, and we have 2 more to go, plus our carry-ons.  We have just a few last minute things to get done.

Several people have asked if Luke is going with us.  He is not.  There are several reasons for this:
1.  China is quarantining people for fever or flu-like symptoms (swine flu exposure).  The State Department has warned that China may separate children from their parents and give the kids medical treatment without parental permission.  Aaron and I both would end up in a Chinese prison if this happened!!!
2.  Luke does not sleep well when we travel.
3.  He has a great place to stay while we are gone, so we feel comfortable leaving him ..... well, as comfortable as we can!  We're really going to miss the little guy!  We have Skype all set up and we've practiced.  So hopefully we can see him and talk him a lot while we're gone.

Our flight leaves Norfolk at 6:10 am Wednesday morning.  We're pretty much ready!

Things you can pray for (if you're the praying type):
1.  Safe traveling (Sherry is not a great flyer.)
2.  Good health for all of us
3.  Jacinda's adjustment.  She is likely to have a very hard time with this.

We'll be updating this blog while we're gone, so stay tuned!!!!!!!