First day in Guangzhou

We had a great first day in Guangzhou. It's definitely not so smoggy anymore, and it's much warmer - about 75 degrees. Lovely, Carolyn says!!

Max did not want to sleep last night, and was happily gurgling to himself until about 11:30, but then slept until 7:30. He is truly a great sleeper. In fact, more and more I realize how lucky I am to have Max do so well. We noticed it when we went down to breakfast.

As soon as we stepped off the elevator, we saw other American families with Chinese babies. The hotel is known to host these families as we're all waiting for the last step with the American Embassy. We were definitely seated in the "American" section of the restaurant, literally surrounded by other adopting families. Now Car and I have felt a little isolated since Chongqing, so both of us, the social butterlflies that we are, are greeting our neighbors, trying to make small talk. But looking around, we realize that most of these families seem as shocked as the babies they are adopting. Some of the babies haven't eaten in a few days, and of course, the new parents are really worried, and it showed. I hope it will all smooth out for them. We'll definitely keep track of them over the next few days.

We did meet one Dad from San Francisco who we briefly saw in Chongqing. He has little Wei Wei, a girl from Max's orphanage. He and his wife adopted a baby girl four years ago, and are back for #2. He is traveling on his own this time, and it was great to talk with him. I'm sure we'll be talking with him some more; we want to keep track of the kids since they come from the same area.

Cordelia, our new guide, met us at 10:00, and we walked around Guangzhou (yes!) . It was so great! We walked through busy local streets, where vendors were selling crazy things like live scorpions, snake skins and other obscurities. Then we reached the Pearl Market, and yes, we supported the local economy once again. Cordelia also took us to a small bead shop, who were really happy we stopped by! :) While the hotel is on a small island, and seems almost tropical, you walk onto the mainland and you're in the middle of a busy shopping scene and vendors. Really great contrast. Cordelia suggested a great place to get a foot massage. Again, just want to do our part in supporting the local economy. $10 for 70 minutes - we can live with that. :)Max had a great day. He sat in a high chair, he is grabbing for more things, and is getting more comfortable by the day. He loves to be outside, walking, and can sleep in the greatest of noises; in fact, he prefers that to his quiet crib. Car is walking him through the hotel as I write this. We're putting a lot of steps on the pedometer!!

Made it to Guangzhou

Getting our beauty rest before our first airplane ride...

We said good-bye to Michael, our guide.

We traveled quite in style today. For some reason (I credit the cuteness factor of the baby) we got upgraded to first class. That made the trip so much more enjoyable :). This picture was taken before Max decided to throw up all over Mommy during take-off!

Off to Guangzhou

It's 1:00 PM on Friday, and today is our last day in Chongqing City. Michael is picking us up in a few hours to go to the airport, and fly to Guangzhou. Guangzhou is about 100 miles north of Hong Kong, so it will be quite warm there; Car will certainly appreciate that! Before we take off, we'll also receive Max' Chinese passport, which we'll obviously need to travel with him.

As much as Chongqing was the Chinese part of the adoption process, Guangzhou is the American part. There, we'll need to meet with the American Embassy, be interviewed, have a medical exam, get his American travel documents, etc. We'll apply for him to be an American citizen, so basically he'll only be Chinese for about a week.

We'll be met by another guide, Cordelia, who will shepard us through this process. I have been so impressed with the guides we have had so far. They are very caring, and responsive, and basically make themselves available to you at all times. It's very reassuring to know you have someone to call in case things go wrong.

Car noticed (quite shockingly) that we haven't really spent any money in Chongqing. "Jess, we haven't shopped!" We're told that Guangzhou is quite the shopping central and I think Car is ready to experience the vendors again. The questions is, are the vendors ready for Carolyn?? :)

We'll be staying at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou (http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/), which is supposed to be quite nice. It's where all the American families stay who are adopting babies. It'll be nice to meet some other people who are going through the same process.

We have Saturday and Sunday to tool around a little, then we'll be in appointments Monday through Wednesday. We'll fly back to Beijing on Wednesday night, meet our first guide Charlotte again, and fly back to the States on Thursday. I'm looking forward to seeing Charlotte. She usually only gets to see families BEFORE they adopt - not many of them come back to Beijing.

More from Guangzhou!!

Day Four

I took some pictures of the sunset yesterday. The fact that we could actually see the sun was big news at breakfast this morning. This is the view from our hotel room. We're on the 31st floor, but you wouldn't know it because it's been so smoggy that we haven't been able to see anything. We are all looking forward to taking some deep breaths back home. :)

Today was sort of a mixed bag. The Little Emperor still was not feeling very well this morning, and he was very cranky. He is sleeping a lot, probably because of his cold but also because there is just so much to get used to! So, he had a 2 hour nap after breakfast. But we are finding out that he LOVES to go out, so our little outings are ones that he really enjoys. In fact, all we need to do is press the elevator button, and he calms right down. It's very cute.

So today we went to City Hall and the Three Gorges Museum. Chongqing is known to be the entrance to the Yantzee River, third largest in the world. A few years back, the Chinese decided to build a dam in an area where three gorges merged. This is now a very famous area, not only because of its previous beauty, but also because it was one of the biggest building projects in China for a while. The flooding of these gorges dislocated about 1 million people. Lots of interesting facts about this project - I think I actually read about it in National Geographic a while back.

Then we drove to where the Yantzee enters Chongqing. Max fell asleep in the car, so Car had her picture taken on her own. Another lovely, clear day in Chongqing!! :)

The afternoon went a lot better. Max took a big nap when we got back, and was feeling a lot better later in the day.

Tomorrow, we're in the hotel until about 4:00 PM, then we're off to the aiport to fly to Gungzhou. We'll get there around 8:00, and Cordelia will meet us there. We are staying at the White Swan Hotel, which, I guess, is where all the American families who are adopting babies stay. Car and I are both looking forward to it as we've met several families who will be at the White Swan when we'll be there. Also, we might not stand out as much as we do here - it'll be nice to be a little more anonymous. We shall see.

Here are some more pics! Lots of hugs from Chongqing!

Tiger Exhibit? What Tiger Exhibit!

Every day brings new adventures and today did not disappoint. First of all, Max had another good night last night, sleeping from 7 until about 5:30. His cold got a little worse last night, so we gave him some Motrin, which seemed to work its magic. When he woke this morning, he had 101 degree fever, and he wasn't feeling so great. So more Motrin, and another 2 hour nap. When he woke up again he was happier, so we went to breakfast.

After breakfast, Max was still feeling o.k. by then and his fever was down, so we did what any American family would do - we went to Wal Mart!! :) It was, of course, huge!! We went there to buy more diapers, more formula, some more outfits (now that we know what size he is), and chocolate. Basic survival gear :).

Afterwards, Max was still doing great, so Michael took us to the Chongqing Zoo, which is known for its panda exhibition. The Chinese are very proud of their pandas - it is their national animal, much like the American eagle is ours. At the panda exhibit, people were very excited about the pandas hanging around - it was almost like Shamu at Sea World. Parents waving, kids excited. It was cute. It was obvious that they felt very proud to have these animals.

Did you know that there are only about 800 pandas left in the world? They eat over 40 pounds of bamboo, and are actually not very social animals. They like to be left alone. Pandas give birth to one or two panda cubs, which are the size of a mouse at birth. Pandas live to be about 20 years old when they are in captivity, 25-30 years when they are in the wild. (That was for all you students out there!!)

We then proceeded to the tiger exhibit. But people weren't really paying attention to the tigers. We seemed to be more of the exhibit than the tigers! Chinese are very curious. Older Chinese women, in particular, have no qualms about coming up to you, check on your baby to see if he is dressed right, talk with you, approve or disapprove, etc. And that's just what happened.

One woman started examining Max (who was sleeping at the time), and, whum, we were surrounded by a dozen curious people. It can get a little weird to be the center of attraction and people tugging at you, tugging at Max, and talking to you. As Americans, we are not used to being so up close and personal with strangers. However, people here do not have these social boundaries or rules - they will come right up to you and interact, no matter if you speak their language or not. I have yet to meet an unfriendly Chinese person! That's what makes these scenes so sweet. They are all so positive, optimistic, and hopeful. But I was grateful that I had put a hat on Max!

So after all of that excitement, it was back to the hotel, eat some lunch and another nap, this time for Mom and Max!!

What adventure will we have tomorrow??

Day Two

First of all, thank you to all of you for reading this blog. The response has been overwhelming, much like this entire process. We won't be able to respond to all the comments (both here and the emails), but know that we are reading everyone, and love hearing from our families and friends half a world away. They mean so much, so please keep writing to us.

It seem so odd to write Day Two - don't worry, we won't keep this up forever, but it is so fun to share with all of you all that we're experiencing.

Max slept through the night, from 8-6:30, and we spent the morning going down to breakfast, walking (of course), playing on our bellies (something he definitely needs), and nursing his cold. He is eating well, napping/sleeping well, pooping (almost had to evacuate the room!!), and loves reading books. It was a really nice morning!

Remember the Pomp and Circumstance that was missing from yesterday's Gotcha Day? Well, we experienced it today. At 1:30 Michael picked us up to go back to the Civil Affairs office, where we would get our "Red Folder". The owner of the orphanage and Max's caretaker were there as well to sign the rest of some papers. Max was sleeping the whole time. To be honest, I didn't quite understand what this day meant - a lot gets lost in the translation and my brain seems to be only working at about a 50% capacity (once gain, thank God for Car!!). But there I was, up at the podium with the Director of the Civil Affairs Office, taking an oath. Then I had to put a red finger print on documents I had signed the day before, and even take one of Max's fingers and put his fingerprint on his name. Basically, Max is now officially mine, according to the Chinese government. Good thing, 'cause I'm not giving him back!! :) Notice anything unusual about the American flag? We didn't have the heart to tell them...

So now what happens is that we wait for his Chinese passport and notary papers to come in on Friday. Once we have these, we'll head down to Guangzhou, where we'll deal with the American side of the adoption process.

Max is now sleeping for the night. We ended up giving him some meds for his cough. Let's see how this night might go. Good night, everyone!

Finally!!

Wow, it's been so long since I've wanted to write this blog entry. We are sitting in our dark hotel room with last minute NEw Year fireworks going off in the distance, and there is a baby sleeping in the cribnext to my bed. What an amzing day.

It all started out with meeting Michael to sign some papers, exchange mucho dinero, and go to the bank to make the $$ transfer to the orphanage. Then we had to wait. Car and I played cards... we never play cards, but today we did.

Then, at 1:30, Michael picked us up again and we drove about 20 minutes to the Civil Affairs Burea, went to the 8th floor, stepped out of the elevator, and there they were, the owner of the orphanage, the care-taker and Max, waiting for us in the lobby. In my mind, I had imagined it to be so much more ceremonial, but it was very simple. No crying baby, no drama as I'm reaching for the baby, no sobbing care-taker. It was all very cordial, and happy and efficient.

We all sat down in this lobby (we were the only ones adopting at that time), and started talking to the owner and the care-taker. It turns out that they had had a long ride on the train, and that Max has a slight cold. I put Car in charge of taking pictures/videos, and we had made a list of questions to ask the care-taker. Since we had Michael there to translate, all the questioning went great. We found out basic things, like how he was abandoned, who gave him his Chinese name (the owner: his name means "strength"), his medical history (no allergies, has received all of his shots, his schedule, etc. We got out "family picture" taken, the director got her picture taken with Max, and that was it! THe whole thing took about 40 minutes.

"So, Jess, what'd you do today?" "Oh, I got a baby... how about you?"

We went to the hotel, undressed the Little Dude, and gave him a bath. Not his favorite thing, but he took it all in. Then we walked and walked and walked, up the room, down the room, up the room, down the room. He did not like it when I sat down. Once he fell asleep in my arms did I sit down, and we had some quiet time. When he woke up, we walked some more. He's fascinated by the mirrors in our room, so that kept us entertained for a while. By this time, Car had fallen asleep (she has been working really hard keeping me afloat!!), so we had some more quiet time, which was just fine by me.

By 6:00 Car and I were quite hungry, so we got ready for our first outing. Diaper change: check. Bottle: check. Toy: check. Baby sling: check!! In fact, once Max was in the sling, he came alive. It was so cute. He became a lot more interactive, and relaxed a little (his little body had been so stiff up to this point). We went down to the restaurant, and Max began to charm the entire wait staff, who, of course, quite rightfully so, ooohed and aaaahed all over him!! It was great. We went back upstairs, Max took a bottle, another diaper change, read some books, and now he's sleeping.

So here I sit, in a dark room with my best friend and my baby sleeping!! It doesn't get much better than this!

But let's wait to see what our night will be like. :)
I am ready.

Enjoy some pictures!