We have him, and he has us....forever and ever

Our guide said it was the best transition he has seen.

We went to the civil affairs building. Crazy hot. !4th floor of a run down building. Officials in t-shirts and flip flops. There was a Spanish family there waiting for their baby. We watched their family moment and then waited...and waited. So hot you couldn't think straight. Tired fussy Zoe.

Then he came in and went staight to Jeff and said, "Baba!" He tried to give Zoe a stuffed animal and wasn't terribly interested in me, but was friendly enough. He LOVES the ipad and has already figured out all of our pre-school games and puzzles. He is so smart, so energetic, and we couldn't have asked for more. He is teeny tiny. Don't think our clothes will fit. Zoe finally feel asleep towards the end and hasn't woken up yet. Sort of worried about sleep tonight. Guide is out buying us snacks. Room service dinner and then the pool if Zoe wakes up and Jeff can stay up. He's dozing while playing with Yu Yu. We say his name so badly he doesn't understand us. He repeats everything we say in English, no mistakes and is excited by everything. Love him.

We need more toys.

Morning of Family Day

We meet the guide in about 2 hours. And then head to the civil affairs building around 2:30, so by the time you wake up, we will be a family of four. There may not be so much blogging after that. I'm truthfully not sure what will happen.

We should be out shopping right now. We wanted to, but got lost in the tunnels under the street and since Zoe is insisting on being carried, we just cant make it far. If we were home, I would drag her walking, or shove her screaming in the stroller, but here....well, people are already staring and I think they think we just adopted her. I don't want people on the street thinking I'm taking a Chinese child and then treating her badly. So we carry....Oh Lordy, we carry. Old ladies on the street stop us, point at Zoe and then point at the ground, as if to tell us to make her walk. I did put her down in front of one, and sure enough Zoe was mighty confused by all the commotion and started to fall to the ground. I just can't put her through much more, because we are asking so much of her already. She will ride in the stroller, but screams and thrashes for about the first 3 minutes. We usually try to get that over with while we aren't being watched, but you can't go far because there are so many stairs. My great hope is that she will see her brother walking and follow him. She is fascinated by other kids.

Here's some pictures:

Just some pictures from travel day

Ahhh....Sweet Luxury!

We are at the Sheraton, and it is awe-some! Swank-diggity, even.

We woke up at the ridiculous hour of 2am. All of us. Wide awake. We killed time in the room until about 5am. Zoe and I played with soapy water in the sink and Jeff watched a really bad movie on HBO. At 5 we couldn't take the lack of A/C anymore, so we just went outside where it was cooler and waited until breakfast. Now I feel bad bad-mouthing the Ramada because the staff was so nice, but there is just no comparison between the two hotels. Even the surrounding areas are a world apart. This is a very, very nice area and we didn't mind walking down the street at 10pm to go find some drinks. The lights on the river are gorgeous. The shops are lit up. and I can't wait to get up in the morning and go to Wal-Mart down the street.

At around noon our guide called us and said we could move to the Sheraton. They arranged and taxi and somehow pre-paid for it. Once here, we took a little walk to a place called Highlands Coffee, a little coffee shop run by an ex-pat American. He was super nice and told us he sees about 1 adoptive family a month from the Sheraton. We had Panini's and cheese cake with flavored teas and mixed fruity drinks for Zoe. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. Zoe fell asleep on me on the sofa there, and we carried her back and took the opportunity for a nap. 7 hours later...

Yup, we are still messed up time wise, but my plan is to stay up really late and try to get Zoe back down around 2am. If we can get a few more hours in before breakfast, maybe we can start the day normally. And we need to be normal tomorrow because.....

WE MEET ETHAN YUYU TOMORROW!!

Our guide got here around 9pm. We met him in the lobby and got a quick run down of the next few days. We weren't supposed to meet Yu Yu until Monday, and I'm a little disappointed I won't have more time to prepare. We've been in survival mode so far and I was hoping for more relaxing and a bit of shopping. I still need to change money, do some shopping, get my gifts ready, and I was hoping to have a mini-language lesson with our guide. But you have to be flexible on adoption trips and it will all work out, I'm sure.

I like our guide very much. He took a 26 hour train ride to get here, and we feel bad complaining about our 14 hour long flight. He said he will try to speak little Chinese to our son, but encourage him to interact with us, so he won't bond to him right away. I didn't think about that, but am glad he did. It certainly makes sense.

I have to play with a silly little girl right now. She needs some food and cuddles right now.

Oh my goodness, I'm going to have 2 kids tomorrow. Oh dear. Scared and excited!

More adventure...

I'm not really complaing, just telling you about our day...
The morning was awesome. We all woke up around 5am. We had a great breakfast, a short walk in the garden, and then chilled in the room until it was time to go. Jeff watched Roadhouse on the movie channel.

At the airport we were stars of the boarding gate. Zoe was showing off and making friends. With her social delays/ autism, she really has no concept of personal space or social boundaries. She stares, points, and touches strangers, so we are constantly telling her "no" when she gets started, but (and here is where I make a sweeping racial generalization) Chinese people are nice to children. Language barrier and all, people are mostly very nice to her and try to engage her. I am grateful. The flight to Guiyang was nice and short. No one cared that we didn't make Zoe wear her seatbelt, and that made the flight so much nicer for everyone.

In Guiyang, we have seen 2 other white people so far. They were at our original hotel, the Sheraton. Here is where it gets interesting: someone booked the wrong dates for our stay and the Sheraton is out of rooms. We don't have a guide until tomorrow, but we had his number and called him anyway. Our agency uses their own guides and they don't come to this province very often, so I think they are actually flying him in to meet us tomorrow. While we waited in the very hot lobby with a very fussy Zoe, our guide, and a travel coordinator somewhere else in China worked on new plans for us. I have no idea who he was or what his connection is to our agency, but some incredibly nice man who spoke no English came and took us to our new hotel, the Ramada, which is pronounced locally like the Islamic holiday. We loaded everything back up in a taxi and trekked across town. The Ramada is kind of a dump. Small room, dirty floors, construction noise, and no hot water. No. Hot. Water! But they do have free internet! They also have condoms in a bedside mini-bar type thing, but since we had to take cold showers...

Anyway, the very good news is that the bed is comfy and Zoe crawled in about an hour ago and fell asleep immediately. We are officially on local time!

No pictures today, but maybe tomorrow. I'm going to eat some Ramen we got at the store down the street, watch some Hulu on my nifty internet connection and call it a night!

We are in China.

It was a rough start, but we are here and hopefully everything will get better when we all get some sleep. I thought I was so smart booking a flight after midnight. I thought we'd all sleep on the first part of the flight and get to Seoul at 4am ready to GO! But Zoe had other plans. I spent most of the long flight holding her at the back of the plane trying to get her to sleep. My biceps are crying about now. I'm sure we were the family that everyone dreads on a 14 hour flight, but the people closest to us were very, very nice. And the flight attendants did everything they could. Zoe is just a very, very bad sleeper. She's also a terrible mess when she's sleepy and I didn't anticipate how that would play out on a flight.

Then there was the 5 hour layover in Seoul, followed by the 3.5 hour flight to Guangzhou. The second flight was better. Zoe was terribly bored and fussy, but manageable. The best decision of my flight plans so far was picking our hotel in Guangzhou. We are actually AT the Guangzhou airport. We walked out of customs (no one batted an eye at us), out the door, and across the street to our hotel. Zoe fell asleep hard about 30 minutes before we landed, and so I held her from that point until we got to the hotel room. Did I mention she's almost 50lbs now? But, I didn't even want to risk putting her in the stroller. In the room, I put her on the floor, then later moved her to the bed and she has been solidly out since then. So far that would be about 9 hours and counting. The problem is its 10pm here and I expect her to wake up soon. I'm certainly wide awake after a six hour nap, and Jeff is still zonked as well.

Aside from the sleepy badness, we are here. We are in China. We are 4 days from meeting our son (plenty of time to adjust!) and I have figured out how to use our vpn, so yeah, internet!!! After I post this, I'm going to go watch Netflix. Cool, right? My camera has barely been out of my purse, but here's what I got so far.

The luggage shot.

Just got to the room

Night view from our hotel. That's the airport.

About 5 minutes ago

Update: Zoe is up and happy! Singing, chatting, and wanting a bath....weird, but whaever! We're going to walk back to the airport and see if McDonalds is open

still testing

still testing

Testing

testing

Today's the Day!

We head to the airport in about 14 hours. Jeff has to go to work. The nanny will come to play with Zoe, and I will finish up....everything. Our clothes are packed and by the door. We still have toiletries, electronics, and trip entertainment stuff to pack. It doesn't seem like we still have that much to do, but my written out list is still scary.

I was so hoping for another update on Yu Yu. I know our agency asks for one before travel, but even if it comes today, it won't do much good. His clothes are packed and they're not getting unpacked! We'll just buy more in China if we need to. We have a lot of free time in Guiyang, and our hotel is next to Wal-Mart, so Yeah!

In fact:

View Larger Map

Look in the upper right corner. See the tall building with the blue cone on top? That's our hotel. Now look on the other side of the river, and across the street. See that open grassy rectangle? That's a park. Underneath that park is the Wal-mart. An underground Wal-mart! I expect we'll spend lots of time there! I've also heard there's a mall close by with a ToysRUs and an American ex-pat coffee shop. Somehow, I think we're going to be just fine.

The Itinerary

7/27 Flight leaves at 00:30! Kind of exited about the late flight. Hoping for lots of sleep!
7/28 Long layover in Seoul. Fly to Guangzhou. Stop to rest.
7/29 Fly to Guiyang!
7/30 free day
7/31 free day
8/1 Meet Yu Yu!
8/2 Adoption becomes final
8/3 free day
8/4 Pick up documents and Yu Yu's passport
8/5 Fly to Guangzhou
8/6 Medical exam and TB test
8/7 free day
8/8 Read TB test
8/9 Consulate appt.
8/10 Pick up Visa
8/11 Go Home!!

The internet is an amazing place!

Remember way back when someone toured the CCAA and took a picture of our file? They then found us on the internet so they could send us that picture? Amazing, right? Well, as I was surfing one night I found a guy who teaches English in our son's hometown. He regularly visits the orphanage and it turns out his home is about 20 minutes from here. I pass it on the way to Zoe's therapy! It really IS a small world! He was kind enough to send me these pictures of Yu Yu's hometown. Or, home-city I guess I should say.