October 19, 2010 My patience are being tested today. Delayed flight home.

Today we were getting ready to go, up at 3:30 this morning. The phone rang at 0400 to let us know that the flight was delayed… by 26 hours. So, then the new plan was for the entire passenger manifest to take off at 8:55 tomorrow morning with American Airlines instead of 6:55 am this morning. I was so disappointed for the delay because I have been here for 28 days, and I miss my family, friends, and dogs.

Next, apparently our hotel is booked tonight so we had to move to a hotel that is closer to the airport, but not anywhere near as nice. Furthermore, it is more expensive than most 4 star and 5 star hotels we have been in. When we got to the new hotel, they wanted to charge us an extra 200 RMB for a baby’s bed, and it is a sub-par pack and play playpen. Finally, the lady at the front desk had better judgment and decided that we didn’t need to pay the extra charge for the bed.
After all of this, I then found out through my own means that the Chinese government won’t let American Airlines fly two flights in one day out of here, so our second plan is now nixed. At $2 a minute, I am on the phone with American Airlines in the United States trying to make sure we have seats for the 6:55 am flight.  The impolite woman on the phone behaved as if I was ignorant, because I didn't know that when they canceled the 8:55 flight, the airline automatically rerouted passengers to the 6:55 am flight. How was I supposed to find that out? How was I to even know that they had cancelled the 8:55 flight since they did not notify me! American Airlines didn’t text me like it is set up to do. What if I was not as resourceful as I am? I could have missed my flight and been here ANOTHER DAY! I’m so annoyed!  I have had to find my own way through this maze in a foreign country with a 2 year old, and this American woman is so uncaring,  and even so unprofessional. I will deal with that when I get home, for sure.

Well, now we have our first class tickets reassigned. We ordered these seats in mid September and I was going to be very agitated if they had given our seats away. I don’t want to fly home in the economy section  with a 2 year old, cramped on a flight that is now likely to be full due to the cancellation of this morning’s flight. Kai could not take that for 12.5 hours, and neither could I.

Here we are with nothing to do but just wait. It has been such a chaotic day. I fervently hope nothing else comes up. Please, I can’t take any more stress on right now.

Both my boys are napping now. They are so cute!

October 18, 2010

Up at 0630!! We have a big day of last minute shopping to get done. We went on the subway to do some shopping and I was super thirsty for some reason. Roger saw a grocery store but it was underground down a flight of stairs, so I told him to go down and I would wait with the baby. First, a lady came over to me and said something I did not understand while tapping on my shoulder. Then she walked away. Then she came back and said something again. The 3 others came over and were speaking to me in Chinese and I did not understand them. I finally said, “I don’t understand you”. When she persisted, I said a bit louder, “If you don’t speak English, I won’t be able to understand you.” At that point a young girl came up to me and asked if I was okay. I asked her to translate for me. The lady was asking where this child’s Chinese parents were. Through translation, the young girls explained to this woman that he was adopted. She was asking very personal questions and the young girl was embarrassed to ask them.

Finally, the young girl expressed that she was very grateful to us for adopting a Chinese child and stated that she knows that he would have a better life with us. She stayed with us on our shopping spree for almost 2 hours. She was 27 years old and reminded me of my friend Clarissa. She was not thrilled to be 27 and not married!

She actually lived in Pennsylvania for 3 years getting a chemistry degree. She says she is still Americanized and it has been hard getting used to this culture again. When she came back to China after living in the US, someone asked her if she was in a foreign country. She was shocked and said, “Yes, how can you tell?” They said she was smiling all the time and gave people personal space. It was so funny because it is so true!

We had another interesting encounter today as well. We saw a lady that was from the US, but now lives in China somewhat near Tibet. She is adopting a young boy from Beijing. She was so sweet to Kai and was speaking to him in Mandarin. She was informative about the language. I wish she was our guide throughout the entire stay because if she was, we would be speaking Mandarin!

Kai was in such a good mood tonight on Skype with his Nai Nai! He heard her voice and was saying Nai Nai! Nai Nai!!! It was so cute how he would touch the screen to touch her face. He will even kiss the computer! He has not even been in the same room with these people and he already loves them so much! I can’t wait for my family to see him in person and touch him and hold him! He is so lovable and he loves to make people smile.

Well, off to bed now. We have to get up at 3:30 to meet our car at 4:30 AM. We are finally packed and ready. I am so thankful we will be in first class. I will need to entertain this kiddo on the flight to keep the paying passengers from hearing a fussy baby. I think Kai knows something big is going to happen because he is so excited and active. He saw us packing and he knows after a train ride and two flights under his belt what that means. He is my little world traveler!

October 17^th, 2010 In Beijing!

I love my routine of talking on Skype and then eating breakfast! Although I am so sick of buffets!!! If I never see another one, it will be okay! I haven’t been able to talk on Skype for a few days. Seems like the internet is messed up or nobody is on. I was missing my family and friends! I can’t wait to look at my blog (I cannot see it here in China) and Facebook (can’t see that either!)

Today we walked all over town! We figured out the subway system, it is quite easy. We went to a teeny bopper mall that probably had about a million people in it! Roger and I were commenting on how it was busier than the day after Thanksgiving in America. It was crazy! We were out walking around for about 6 hours! I love being able to do what I want when I want! I don’t have to entertain anyone but my family. I don’t have to put on a fake smile or anything! Sometimes it is hard for me to be social all the time. Especially for 28 days in a row! Don’t get me wrong, I loved all of my guides and they taught me well. I can do it all now thanks to them!

I am so thrilled that we have only one real day until we leave!!!! We will soon be home with our loving friends and family! I can’t wait to hug my twin sister! It’s going be big Jules, so look out!!!! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

 Getting dressed with daddy! Cute tummy!

  Kai taking a picture of his ayi Julie on Skype!

Kai bundeled up for his long walk! Brrrr!

October 16, 2010 Off to Beijing!

We have an early flight this morning! We took some cute pictures with the sunglasses that my friend Lisa bought him! Then, we ate quickly and then we were off! I’m pretty excited about this Beijing trip because it is the last leg of our 28 day trip!

We arrive to the airport and get checked in with no problems! Kai was excellent on this flight. We sat on the plane a good 35 minutes after we were supposed to take off, but Kai was still entertained. He fell asleep on daddy in the middle of the flight and continued to sleep until we landed. Whew.

We do not have a guide for this part of the trip, and guess what? I don’t care!!!! I have been here so long that I feel like we can manage without any issues. Every day we walk around even if it is a new province, and we are not worried at all. We are picking up some of the language and I definitely know how to walk with this crowd! I am happy that we have no restrictions on time or activities. I want to do something or nothing and not have to feel obligated to do anything at any specific time. It is all about my child and my husband now.

In the beginning of our trip I did not love Beijing, but now, it’s different somehow. Maybe it is because the familiarity of this place since we have been here, maybe because it’s the end of our trip, maybe I am so confident that I can do anything now that we have our son in our arms. I know now that I can do anything. Anything that I want, I just have to go for it. I am so happy with my life.   

 This is the local apartment movers... on a BIKE!

 Kai looking cute in his new tee shirt, diaper, long socks, and awesome sunglasses from Lisa!

It is hard for the sunglasses to stay on his little nose! 

October 15, 2010 Panda Breeding and Research Center

Kai slept well last night in the ‘pack-n-play’ bed we have in our room. It took housekeeping 35 minutes to bring it to us last night because they had to “fix it”. This is a 4 star hotel, yet they only have 2 baby beds! Kai was breathing 60 times a minute for a long time. It seems a bit fast to me, but his color was good. He sure does sweat a lot. I’m not as worried about that because my friend Brenda, who has a little Hunan spicy girl, told me once that she sweats too.

I love watching this baby sleep. He is so beautiful. He has beautiful long eyelashes. He has full lips that do not quite come together in the center when he sleeps. He has great hair too. It is so black, I love it! It is so weird to me that he is finally mine. I still touch him and think to myself, this is not a doll, he is mine! I love to touch his little arm and hand while he is sleeping.

This morning we went to breakfast and it was mediocre. We were in a bit of a hurry anyway. I went to run the shower and we got light straw colored water coming out. I made sure that Roger knew to keep his mouth closed. Last thing we need is to get sick after being here for 24 days with no issues what so ever.

We were pretty excited because we are going to the Panda Research and Breeding Center. This leg of our trip added quite a bit to the trip, so we were hoping for the best. We get there and it was pretty good, just not what we expected. Kai was asleep during our visit to the Safari Park in Guangzhou, when we looked at the pandas. This time we made sure he stayed awake. We did get to see two month old pandas. They were sleeping and you could not take pictures of them, but they were so cute! I loved being able to talk to Kai and tell him about the little babies who were obviously dreaming.

I wanted to stay at the park all day, but I don’t think our guide had that in mind since we only spent less than 2 hours there. I am really into research. I love zoology. This is my kind of trip, but I want to know what they are researching and how their research is going. I was not able to get that deep into it. Basically, we just looked at pandas. We had already looked at pandas in Guangzhou - this was not the experience that I read about on their website. Next time, I would go without a guide. I don’t like feeling constrained about time.

After we finished at the park, our driver and guide dropped us off at a Sichuan restaurant where we had some real Sichuan food. It was pretty good - a bit spicy, but this is how I like it. We went walking around with the baby a bit later and found some interesting shops and multiple food vendors. These vendors cook off the back of their bikes! We decided we would be adventurous and try some kind of skewered meat that they cooked in front of us. Then the meat was brushed with wet red spice (possible oil based) that has pepper seed in it, and it was then dusted with some sort of dry red spice that was HOT! It was so good though! I think they made it less spicy since we were Caucasian. We also picked up some French fry looking potatoes that were spicy also, but not too bad. Some bites were pretty hot. Kai insisted on having a few bites and it was so funny to see the face he made when eating the spicy food. Even his eyes watered! He was even asking for more. I called him my Sichuan baby!

So, we were worried about the reception here in Chengdu, but I have to say that it has been the warmest so far. People on the street smile and talk to him all the time! When we were eating the spicy food on the street, we saw a pretty 30 something petite woman with her cute ~6-7 year old daughter. They stopped in front of us and she was pointing at Kai, then Roger and I. She had a smile on her face the whole time. She told her daughter to say Nihao to Kai. When she saw us smiling back at her, she told her daughter to say Hello to us! The cute happy little girl said loudly waving her hand “hallo!”  It was so cute! I could tell that she was happy we adopted Kai. We are glad we adopted this little guy too!

Photographs of the street food vendor and the HOT food

Bicycle street food vendor!

We are still not sure what we ate!

Dad, hurry! My mouth is on fire!

Photographs from the Panda Breeding and Research Center in Chengdu

October 14, 2010 Visa/Chengdu

Last night I placed Kai in his crib with a bottle. He is always good at going to sleep so long as he gets his bottle. I could feel him looking at me, so I rolled over and his little hand was between the slats. I touched his hand and he gripped my finger until he fell asleep. It was so heartwarming. What a sweet ending to a hard day.

This morning we ate breakfast with some other families. Many families are here now because they have adopted from this province, Guangdong. This is their first week with their children, and it is interesting to see how timid some of them are. Kai was much quieter than he is now, but he was never timid at all. He was easy to entertain and please. Now he expects more and more of us, and we have to keep him busy! I see some of the behaviors of the new parents, and it reminds me of the yahoo groups I belong to. I just go with the flow.

We are starting to pack our bags because we will be on our way to our next destination, Chengdu. We finish packing and take Kai down to the famous red couch for photos. He was adorable! We checked out of the hotel at 2 PM to get our visa and a brown envelope that is only allowed to be opened by customs when we return to the states. We arrive at 2:30 and have to drive around for 30 minutes because the packages were not ready until 3:00. Kai only got a small nap, and he has grown more inpatient with riding in cars.

After we get the visa and brown envelope, we go to the airport to catch our flight that is supposed to take off at 5:30. We were just in the weight limit of 20 kg per ticket for checked baggage. We were able to keep our stroller and check it in at the gate. Thank goodness, because we have heavy carryon bags! I am glad they don’t weigh those! We grab a quick dinner and waste time while waiting for our flight, only to find out that it is delayed until 6:30 PM.

We start to board at 6:05 PM on a fully booked flight, and Kai is very well behaved. Finally, around 7:25, we get permission to take off. Poor Kai! He does not like confined spaces, and neither do his parents. We had to break out all the toys and snacks before we even left the ground. Kai did not want his seat belt on at all. He started to fuss a bit so I just took it off him. I am not sure that he would even survive if we had some sort of accident and my weight was behind him. Anyhow, he did really well for his first flight and if it is any indication of how he will be on the flight home, then we are going to have to keep him really busy. UGH!

Finally, we land in Chengdu, Sichuan around 9:40 PM, well over an hour late. We are picked up from the airport by our guide, Susie, and it is another 40-50 minutes to the hotel. Thank goodness Kai fell asleep on me on the way to our hotel.

Chengdu looks different then the other places we have been. Neon lights light up bridges and overpasses. Neon lights are everywhere. The housing looks similar to Changsha.

Our guide Susie said that from January until now, only 58 adoptions have taken place in Sichuan. She also stated that Hunan probably has 58 adoptions in 2 weeks. That is probably a bit dramatic, but only 58 adoptions in the past 10 months, which seems so low. In other words, we are going to look out of place here. We are used to it by now. :)  

                                                  Red couch picture

                      Checking out the huge birdcage at the White Swan Hotel

October 13, 2010 - Oath day.

Today is a special day for us. Today we take our oath at the US consulate. The morning started off well. Kai was in a great mood. Breakfast was awesome. I am so glad we moved! After breakfast, Roger had to get some business done and I was growing impatient! We talked on skype with family and finally I got to talk to my sweet friend, Clarissa! I am so homesick! It was so good to finally talk to her.

We went out for lunch with our guide at a Taiwanese restaurant around 12:30. Usually we have had an outing and returned for a nap by now. I sat Kai in the highchair and before we could order, Kai tugged on my shirt. When I looked down at him, I thought he wanted a hug and before I knew it, his eyes closed and he was out! Poor baby! He slept on Roger for the entire lunch.

Unfortunately, he did not get to finish that nap because we had to get downstairs for a bus load of people to go to the swearing in ceremony. After the ceremony was complete, we got back on the bus to return home. It was absolutely the worst ride home. Kai wanted to stand and get off our laps to play on the ground while we were driving and I wouldn’t allow it. Well, that was a 20 minute cry all the way home. It was a tired cry, not an obstinate cry. Our guide wanted to make him feel better and I had to tell him that I could handle it. Other people do not need to be taking my child from me when he is crying. If Kai didn’t want me, I would know. He is overly sensitive today because he is exhausted.

This was not the end of the crying though. After we got home around 4:45 PM, he cried almost any time anyone would tell him no. I told him he needed to put his grumpy mood to bed tonight and not wake up with it again. He smiled. It is easy to change his mood with food and toys, but I don’t think it is a good idea to do it all the time, or I am reinforcing that behavior. I know one thing; he is going to bed early tonight!

Tomorrow we get Kai’s visa, and then we will be on our way to Chengdu. We will be home in 6 more days! I cannot wait!

Kai is upset here because he was told by Ike that he shouldn't be playing with our camera. Very sensitive today. Poor guy! Notice the beer in the background? Could have used a few more!