Wai

Papa Ray asked me this question. Something along the lines of does Autumn say "wai" or does she understand when we say "wai", (pronounced "way")? I hadn't heard that before but now I hear it a lot. It's amazing what you don't hear until someone points it out to you. I found out it's what some Chinese say when they answer the phone and can be used as a greeting. Especially when speaking Cantonese. Could be wrong about some of that so don't quote me. But Autumn seemed to know what it was. She looked amused when she was playing with her toy cell phone and I picked up mine and pretended to answer and said "wai." She then too said "wai." And then we went back and forth like we were talking and it was pretty funny. Now I often hear wai when I hear some people answer the phone. Kudos to Papa Ray! Last night we went to a restaurant that I heard served Italian food. It did indeed serve that and more like steak and some Chinese dishes. It was very nice inside but pretty pricey compared to the other food we have eaten here at restaurants. The service was good and it was interesting because you always had someone standing close by to attend to you. I know there were at least six people that attended to our table of seven. I had some spaghetti and it was very good. As good as I've had actually. Other people had lasagna and Angi had Milan Pizza. She said hers was very good also. Even though it was pricey for what we've gotten accustomed to it was not bad compared to what it would have been at home. At Olive Garden we would have paid a good deal more. Of course we didn't get all you can eat salad and bread either. I finally had my first beer and decided to go with the Chinese beer, (cheers Uncle Dave!), since I received much ribbing for drinking Corona last time we were here. Tonight we had a group dinner at the Thai restaurant called Cow and Bridge. It was good even though I don't care for Thai food. I just had a rice dish which suited me fine and sampled a little bit of what Angi ordered. It's a little crazy there though because they charge you for everything. There seems to be a napkin shortage here or something because we were charged for four packs of little moist towelettes. They also charge for napkins. It's in the menu... Not my thing. We also got some ice cream at McDonalds today while out shopping and it was good. To get into this McDonald's you had to go up an escalator. Not in a mall but it was in the second floor of this building. The McDonald's took up a couple of floors and we sat on the second floor. Autumn had a Happy Meal and ate it all up. Well tomorrow is the consulate appointment and we get a "red couch" picture taken of the kids and another one of the group so I need to get some rest.

Goodnight...

- Ric

Foreigners Caught in Torrential Rains and Electrifying Lightning at Safari Park...

Yes, if an article was done on yesterday's event that would be the title. We started off the 'dry' morning with the sun peaking out at us. Great day for a trip to the Safari Zoo! …Or so it seemed. Little did we know Old Man Thunder had big plans for us. The Safari Zoo is owned by a wealthy man in Guangzhou and it is very nice, reminds me of our zoos. The kids were fascinated. We saw several pandas in exhibits like you would find at the Atlanta Zoo. Very nice, a definite step up from our previous zoo experience in Anhui a couple of years ago. We went on a safari train ride, seeing deer, yak, wilde beast (sp?), elephants, giraffe, goats and other antelope type critters, plus lions, tigers, and bears…Oh my! As we were driving through it started raining, then pouring. We were lucky the shelter was free o f crowds when they dropped us off. Then it really started getting wet. Then two other trains dropped off and everyone tried to squeeze into the shelter area. Connie was upset with the young people. She said they should leave since we have children and babies, but they pushed right into us and even tried to get passed us. After several minutes this rain storm passed. During the rainy season they come on and off. While this one was now finished, the rains were far from over. Connie, our guide, sends us on our way to see the pandas on our own so families could take their time and see what they want. We just had to meet back at set place in say 1 hour.
While on our way back, I decided we should buy one more umbrella (that way we had two: one for AL and one for Autumn). Mistake. Mistake. Mistake. This is what separated us from the others. We did meet up with Connie, who pointed in a direction and said go back to the bus. She didn’t come with us since she was waiting for other families. My first thought was “and how do we get back???” then my second thought was “she is pointing in this direction maybe it’s just straight ahead.” So I didn’t ask and we just went. Soon we realized we were catching up to no one and Connie was not coming up behind us. By this time, it was really raining once again. Thank goodness for our many umbrellas now, and soon we found a small shelter with at least 4 other people huddled under it. Then the bottom fell out. Wow! Serious rain flying at us in sheets. Crashing, bone chilling lightning zapping something nearby. We were soaked. By the time we were able to get out of there my sandals were so wet they were stretching out, so I had to take them off and run in the rain with Autumn bare foot. We never found Connie, but some nice young man who spoke some English talked us into walking through a store to the exit on the other side. I kept telling him I didn’t remember seeing the store when we came in, but in the end we tried it. Ta’ Da’! We made it. She had said go to the blue bus. Well now I had to laugh because there were 5 blue buses. But soon the driver was out waving us over. Once on board we had to wait for one other family, then it was a not so fun water soaked 40 minute drive back to the hotel. Where once there we stripped the girl of their wet clothes, dried them off and put clean dry clothes on, then threw them on the bed with a thick blanket on top to warm them up. They were quite happy with this. :-)
Angi

There's No Place Like Guangzhou...

Say it with me. "There's no place like Guangzhou..." Yes, not quite home but getting closer. The location that we are staying is very quiet and not very crowded. Compared to the places we've been so far. And since we are staying at the same location and hotel we were at with Anna Lin our surroundings are very familiar and feel like an old friend. We know where everything is at that we need and don't feel handicapped when getting around. The trip here did not start off so good though. We got to the airport in Hangzhou ready to move on and it was very rainy. We checked our luggage and waited at the gate we were supposed to be at. Then the bottom dropped out and it was a torrential downpour. We were thinking that's it, our flight will be delayed. It still looked like a go until the last minute when we heard an announcement that said "flight xxxx has been delayed due to aircraft delay, please see the customer service desk for meal box." Uh oh, that doesn't sound promising. So I went up to the desk to find out what the deal was and sure enough, they handed me some food and a bottle of water. No information about the flight though. So everyone sat down to eat white rice, some pork looking thing, shrimp (whole), and lettuce? Oh, and something that Angi said were potatoes. Finally they posted our new departure time as 9:50 PM and that's what it ended up being. It was initially supposed to leave at 6:40 PM. We waited for about 5 hours total in the airport, with the kids. Not fun. Luckily Alex, Michelle, and Lei were there too so we were able to comiserate together. The flight was successful,(obviously), and we got into Gaungzhou and checked into our hotel around 1:00 AM. Needless to say we were VERY TIRED! We have a nice big suite though so we can't complain now. The kids have some room to get around on rainy days, which is probably going to be everyday, and we are comfortable. Autumn had her medical examination this morning which was crazy with a lot of families doing the same thing but it went well. As I sit here typing this Anna Lin and Aumn are eating ice cream cones. And life is good. We had lunch at Lucy's which serves some western style food like burgers, fries, and quesadillas. I had a cheesburger and fries which although not quite a Steak N Shake burger it was good. Everyday with Autumn is better. The language barrier is nto a problem and she is very easy going but very sneaky. The boys (ZSN) will have to be fast to keep up with her. She is very shy and quiet when out and about with strangers but in the room she will get animated. I have some video of her and Anna Lin chasing each other around acting like monsters giggling like mad the whole time. Oh, interesting thing with the plane ride. This was a domestic flight in China and the movie they showed was "Alvin and the Chipmunks." It was in English with Chinese subtitles. I thought that was an interseting choice. Well, that's your news update for now...

zài jiàn ！


- Ric

Duck Feet

What Ric didn't tell you was that he didn't try the duck feet! Claws and all. But none of us did. It was from the feet that I knew what the meat was, since they were webbed. :-) The experience was a fun one and for the most part the food was good. I especially enjoyed the tomato soup, which was a broth with tomato pieces. There were fried pumpkin sticks which the girls loved too. Some small barely smashed fried potatoes, that I'm sure Ric, the meat & potato man enjoyed. We think we ordered some ribs, but not sure that is what it was. Most everyone enjoyed that, but I passed after trying some of it. I can't explain the taste of the sauce but it was too strong for me. There was some gelatinous small dumplings if you were skilled enough with the chopsticks to grab one. Slippery little devils. I was able to get a few at first, but in the end maybe my hands were getting tired and I just couldn't get anymore. The duck was good. Not sure how it was cooked, but it was fried. It didn't seem roasted but who knows. Definately marinated in some sauce, very brown. Anna Lin and Lei really enjoyed the legs. There was a lemon soup, like a warm liquid lemon jello. I passed after a taste. Too sweet for me. The potato noodles were very good. We had these in Jinhua too as Ric said. They served these last. But we all wished they would have been first. They looked clear which is interesting when you think of potatoes. But I wonder if they are really their sweet potatoes, since the noodles are almost a clear gold color. I saw and tried some sweet potatoes at our breakfast buffet. The color seems similar, but who knows. Tien, go any ideas????

Fun time. We have enjoyed being able to visit and spend time with the Hanna's. They are very nice people. It is nice not to be alone here.

Angi

Eat Where the Locals Eat

OK, Ric here. I'm finally going to break down and post something here. Everyone who knows me is aware that I didn't start eating Chinese food until a few years ago. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy and that's not going to change. However I must say I have been challenged on our trips to China to "eat where the locals eat." I have been told that's the best food. I must say that the best rice I have ever eaten is right here in China. That said, eating rice is not really branching out much when it comes to food. Although on our last trip to China I really did eat what the locals eat especially when our driver brought some food that he had bought at a street market. I wouldn't have tasted it except that my lovely wife gave me that, "do not embarrass us in front of the guide", look. So I tried and although I was not pleased I did try. Sooo, when we went to visit Autumn's orphanage on Tuesday I told my wife before we left, "If they take us to lunch at a local restaurant I will do my best to not embarrass us." We indeed went to lunch at a local eatery after the tour and visit with our guide Wendy and our driver along with two people from the orphanage. This place I was told by Wendy only serves food from the local farmers. So there you go! I was definitely going to eat where the locals eat. Have I said that enough? Man, they brought out the food. At least 10 dishes or more. All served in bowls put out on a lazy susan for us to spin around to the one we wanted to eat. We had chicken, beef and potatoes, Chinese potato noodles (not making that up it's what our guide told us), and stuff I have never seen before but it was all very tasty. I even ate the whole meal with chopsticks. We enjoyed it very much. So tonight we went out to eat with another couple staying here at the hotel, (Alex and Michelle), and their newly adopted son (Lei). I told Alex on the way there that I didn't branch out much on eating so don't feel insulted if I don't eat everything put in front of me. Well again I was surprised. It was a similar type of restaurant to the one in Jinhua by the orphanage and it was very nice. Other than Alex almost getting us involved in an International incident it was a good evening out. Actually, when trying to order the food there was much confusion and we had no less than 6 of the wait staff hanging out around Alex trying to figure out what we were trying to order. A nice man who spoke very good English came to our rescue and the International incident was averted. We had about 8 different dishes served to us and most were very good. Although we didn't have a clue what some of them were we tried them anyway, well most of them, and we went away with full stomachs. I know a couple of guys at work who would have enjoyed this meal very much! Not a bad deal either when it came to paying the check. Well, time to go to bed and get some zzzzz's. By the way, my new daughter is smiling at me now and today I got her to smile for some pictures and now she is posing. We're in trouble I can see it now... Tomorrow off to Guangzhou!

- Ric

Is Benjamin in this picture?

Saw where one of our mom-to-be's didn't see their sweetie in our pics. I haven't posted all of them, though there are not many more. I will put those on our Jinhua group later since I'm having trouble doing that right now.

OK now. Let me try to remember everything... The children's program director (short guy) said for Jin Cong (Shannon's sweetie) that she now is aware of strangers and gets upset by them easily. This of course is all normal for her age, and thus one reason why we just can't seem to get a picture with a smile from this girl. (I say this last sentence. :-) However, I saw with my own eyes that she smiles. They love her to death, as they do all the kiddos. He picked her up and she just smiled and giggled. But she wasn't happy to see us. Our guide said this was the best SWI she has ever seen. Definately the best in ZheJiang. The children's director/manager (can't remember his definate position) also said that he was heart broken when Jin Mei left and shed a tear after she left. Post that on the group ladies please, in case I forget. I believe that is Chris's little girl. He said he plans to work hard to put more up for international adoption. They really want them to go to the U.S. and other countries to have good opportunities and education. (If I said that before, forgive me.)

Ideas of things to bring as a gift/donation...clothes. Even though they don't mention that as a need from when I checked several months ago, seeing what these kids were wearing and what Autumn came to us in I say bring clothes for these kiddos. Some simple cotton dresses for the girls, shirts, shorts, shoes even. I gave them a bag of socks, panties (both still in the bag), and some shirts along with shorts. They did mention when I had the Our Chinese Daughter's Foundation contact them that they need cleft lip/palate bottles and powdered milk/formula. Shannon and I sent a big box of bottles with the OCDF people when they went to Beijing and then they mailed it from there. Lynn at OCDF said someone is going over their basically monthly, so it can be easy to send donated items as long as you get them to their Illinois office before they leave.

By the way, Autumn writes out numbers 1 to 10 and imitates what I write. She saw me write Hi Yo and then wrote it under what I wrote. (I was writing phonetically things she was saying.) :-) And I mean nice, neat, small writing. She writes smaller than Anna Lin does, who just finished Kindergarten. But she also does it like it was a daily exercise. Not a bad thing, just quite repetitive. Anna Lin did something similar, but it was kinda like basic Chinese characters. (If I've already said this just ignore it. It has taken me three tries to get this out. Not having good server connection today as far as blogger is concerned. )

By the way Cynthia asked about the blog. I see my blog fine. However, Michelle said she had a problem in Shanghai. SHouldn't have a problem in Guangzhou, where we go tomorrow. :-D

One last comment. The dress Jin Ming is in is what Autumn came to us in. Also, I heard him call her Ming Ming.

Angi

A Free Day...and don't drink the water...

OK. I was going to give up but now I will try again. This is my third time writing this. Each time before I've done something that erases everything I type. Now I am not hitting any keys beyond the letters. But I type very fast and try to self correct as I go. So maybe I'm hitting a certain secret combination erase thingy that I don't know about. But for YOU, I will try again. :-)

Yay! Yay! We had a free day! No business to do, no guide, just us and where ever our feet can take us to. Nice! We started off with a Skype talk with the boys and family, then a chat with my brother, his lovely wife Kelly, and one of my most wonderful nieces, Nicole. Anna Lin just LOVES her Aunt Kelly and cousin Nicole (cousin Sarah Ann was in bed. She loves her too!). Skype is the way to go people, for you heading off to China. Talk computer to computer for free. You can chat, you can talk through the microphones, or add a webcam and you can really kick it up a notch! What a great way to start the day, hearing the voices of those we love and seeing their faces. Though Dawn had to troubleshoot her webcam, so we hope to see our boys' wonderful faces today. We hear that Noah is like a bass-maniac catching them right and left. Zak has commandeered Uncle Bob's golf cart. Spencer and his cousin Nick are the four-wheel renegades! I believe they said Spencer crashed, which is just another reason why we are not in a hurry for him to get his driving permit. ;-) Oh we miss you guys so much!

After this it was a walk around the lake here in Hangzhou, which is just a walk across from the hotel. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I love parks and man this one is beautiful. It was a cloudy day, but like where we live a cloudy day is a blessing in the summer. The weather was so nice, with a little breeze. It was just the right thing for energetic kids. Michelle and Alex went with us with their new son Paul Lei. He's a hoot. A male Anna Lin kicked up a notch. :-) His dad is really bonding with him, messing around with him, rough housing a little, and racing him here and there. Makes me smile. I have three boys and I really do love boys. Love my girls too, don't get me wrong. We found Pizza Hut and had the American Special. Yes that is what it was called, pepperoni pizza. It was good. They put us upstairs in a room by ourselves. Notice a pattern here... Maybe the down stairs didn't have room for us. But we were the only ones upstairs... Still it was nice.

After that a walk back to the hotel, some R & R. We found the Monkey King on the TV. We were so excited. Autumn doesn't seem interested in the TV, which is fine by us. But Anna Lin and Ric were in heaven. OK, maybe Ric wasn't in heaven but he was excited. I later went to the grocery store with Michelle and her family, with Autumn in tow. She's my shadow. Got the essentials: instant noodles that come in a bowl with folded up fork, Lay's potato chips for Ric, a 12 pack of water, and one Milk Tea for me to try. I like chai tea lattes, cold or hot, and this reminded me of one. Tried it this morning...well let's just say it's not the same and I'll be hitting the Starbucks later. :-) Not terrible though. Some people look at us like crazy (beyond the fact that everyone looks at us period!) because we buy so much water. But there is a reason for that. One that I forgot when we first arrived and brushed my teeth. Then I remembered and thought, "Oh, that was just a little. No big thing." Well I'm only getting bottled water from this point on. Let's just say Imodium is a good thing to bring along just in case... Cause dealing with stomach issues, on top of sleep deprivation and adoption paperwork is not fun.

However, we are now set with water and all is fine with the world. Autumn is doing well. We're getting closer each day. Can't remember if I already posted this (since I have had to rewrite three times now...) But yesterday she surprised us by writing out the numbers 1 to 10. Wow! This was unexpected. I don't mean the Chinese number characters, but the Arabic numbers that we use. (Did you know they were Arabic?) I can't wait to find out what else this little girl has up her sleeve.

Angi

A Farmers Life...

Wendy said, "People think our farmers are poor, but they live in these big houses." Houses? Houses? Where are the houses she is talking about? I had asked her if anyone owned a house in China since all I had seen looked like housing buildings. Apparently these buildings on the outskirts of town, which would be equivalent to an small appartment building, were really houses. Close by, if not in the front or back yard are their fields. Wendy said they will rent out rooms to people when they have space. Usually the whole family lives there. We saw rice fields where they were planting rice now to be harvested in October. We saw grape fields, lotus fields, some corn, and other things I just cannot remember at the moment. Sometimes farmers were plowing with a water buffalo, sometimes they used a hand driven tractor. How they managed it in the mud and water is beyond me. They have to have strong arms and legs to hold it steady. It was nice to see the country side. We saw this on our trip to Jinhua and on the train from Shanghai to Hangzhou.

I even saw kudzoo!!!!! Yes, it does the same thing there, which is where it is from. Kudzoo is a vine planted in the south during the depression times I believe, to help with erosion. It is called the plant that ate the south, since it grows rampant taking over anything in its path. We also saw lots of laundry and laundry rooms on top of some of the houses. It's the little square building right on top that looks like a look out room or something. No uses dryers. Everyone hanges out their clothes.

But I just couldn't believe those elaborate houses! I'd love to see inside one.
-Angi

Back Tracking - Aerial Views

Arrgggh! I wrote this whole thing and then lost it. It does auto save, but doggone it, it saved right after I lost it. Don't what button I pushed on this crazy laptop, but blip! It was gone! So you may not get the meat out of this one, but I'll try again.

I am posting some aerial pictures both of us took while flying across Alaska and the Eastern European/Asian continent. Very cool for us. One picture that is part land, part water is over Russia. I especially love the rivers, like veins racing across the land, sometimes dark bluish and sometime brown. But when you get around Alaska they are silver from the ice. Very cool. I love the clouds too, fiels of fluffy marshmellows at times. Anna Lin said she would love to run across the clouds. Me too sweetie! If we were like the Monkey King we could bounced on and throughout them, even riding as a skateboard. :-) The pictures are when we are almost leaving Alaska since I could not get to the window for the line of sight seers waiting for a view. We were second to the last row of seats on the plane, so is was here we got our view.

We were lucky to sit by a motley crew of people. Sitting in our fourth seat in our section was a young radiologist from China, who I really thought was a student. Poor guy, he looked so young. He was probably getting frustrated with me, but couldn't speak as well as some others. In front of us were some girls who he talked with. We got a chance to chat with them on the 'second' round of flying out of Chicago before boarding our plane. Anna Lin was enchanted by the girls, all lovely young and educated. She even took out her pony-tail to have her hair down long like one of the girls. One lady was a PhD student in Educational Research. We talked the most and her English was excellent. It was through her that I realized the young man was a doctor not a student. We chatted for a good while once about children's literature with her seat-mate who was from the states doing a study abroad. In China they do not read for personal pleasure when they are young because they are studying to pass exams to get into schools and such. (They do try to read a lot while learning English, but she has mainly read like American Literature stuff.) Education is very important there. It makes sense. You have towns that are considered small, which have 4 millions people. In order to get good jobs you have to be well educationed and have an edge other others. Learning English is one of the best ways to do this. I cannot imagine competing with so many for a job. It is mind-blowing. They were amazed, and have been others that Anna Lin can speak so well in English after almost 2 years with us. The orphanage staff, and our guides, were also blown away from this. The children's ed program director said he would work hard to put more children up for the international adoption. He said 30 kids have been adopted by U.S. families. I think he saw in Anna Lin where Autumn would be in two years and was a amazed. Of course all kids are different, but Autumn said, or repeated her first English words yesterday with meaning. Repeating to just repeat is one thing, but repeating with understanding is another. I was pointing out they each had their own pinky bears. "Anna Lin's pinky bear." "Jin Qiu's pinky bear." (We are slowly introducing Autumn to her name, mainly by letting Anna Lin call her that. We'll start more soon, just wanted her to get use to us." Anyway, after I said the second statement she said, "Jin Qiu's pinky bear" and nodded her head, then repeated it. Wow! What a kid!

Boy, I really got off the subject of my aerial views. But those who know would be disappointed if I actually stayed on track. :-)

By the way, the last picture was taken inside the plane by Ric himself. It was taken over part of Russia by the Sea of Okhotsk (Google it). Now figure out our flight path from Chicago. Just had to include it. :-D
-Angi

Even more pictures...

Whose the mama of the little boy in the lunch time picture wearing the black shirt? I can't remember, but I was told that he makes sure to sit by Autumn especially on days they have shrimp. She does not like shrimp, so will give hers to him. :-) They say you will be there in about a month to bring him home.

Angi

More pictures...

Autumn and friends singing

A Looooong Day

Wow, today was a long one. Though I believe one family is not back yet from their trip so I should stop complaining. Today we drove to Jinhua City. This small city holds 4 million. ...4 million. Ric told Wendy our guide, who happens to be from Jinhua, that 4 million is not small from where we come from. :-) I was quiet surprised. I had been told it was a small rural town. Maybe in this part of the world it is. It seemed quite the big city to us. They have a Wal-Mart that is completely underground, except the entrance. ;-) We didn't go in that. We went to apply for the passport only to be met by the man in charge of Children's Department who is very nice. It is so obvious how much he cares for the kids. Autumn calls him uncle along with the other kids. Well he had just finished with the paperwork for us, so we were free to go to the orphanage. Autumn's orphanage is brand new. Everyone moved from the inner city to a subburb area newly developed with government buildings. Her's is a SWI, Social Welfare Institute and includes the elderly and handicap. I know at least three very large buildings were a part of it. The kids are in one building, elderly in another, and so on. Then they have a building that is almost like a recreation center. It even has a library! We went to the kids building and met her friends who she has grown up with. Yes, all you Jinhua families I saw all your kiddos and they are happy kids. Saw all of them smile if not even laugh at times. We even have a video of the kids singing. If Ric cannot post it, we will email it to you. They were in the lesson room, then went off to the dining room to eat lunch. Autumn would go sit in her place in whatever room we were visiting. After this we went to lunch. Didn't realize we were doing that. It was a nice surprise. The food was good and I was sooo glad we had a separate room for us to eat in. I can only take so much staring being the only people in the town with big noses. :-) We had shrimp kabobs. Let me just say that taking them off the skewer, pulling the legs, beheading it and shelling it isn't the normal way to eat these little guys. I look over at Wendy one time and she bit the head off, nicely spit it on the plate, then proceeded to shell and de-tail it with her teeth. Interesting... No I didn't summon the courage to change my way of doing it. However, I did try cooked pumkin pieces, the spicy watermellon rinds, the potatoe noodles (very good!), the vegetable stuff spring rolls, and the great roasted chicken. Very good and all homecooked from local produce.

After this we headed home, sleeping on and off for our 2.5 hours drive. Anna Lin is having a time adjusting to the time difference especially in the afternoons. She'll go to to sleep but something will wake her up and she just cries. She wants to sleep so bad. (Note the sleep while coloring picture with the previous blog :-) She still has some of that cold she had right before we left. So glad we went to the doctor and that I brought cough syrup. (Traveling families...bring a variety of medicines for a variety of things cause you just don't know what you'll get at any point in the process.) Autumn is doing well. SHe was a little shocked when she woke up this morning but quickly rebounded. She was quiet all of the way to Jinhua. Wendy had told her that is where we were going. She sat on my lap the whole way. When the children's program manager came into the car he tried to get her to go to him and she stayed put with me after giving him a quick hug. He fussed at her about it, good-heartedly. :-) This man has a sense of humor, laughing and joking a lot with the kids. She was a little gloomy on the way home and soon fell asleep. Since then all has been well. We're seeing more smiles and she continues to follow me around at times, slowly warming up to Ric. Ric was messing with two of her panda bears and she ended up taking all of her stuff off the bed he was on then moving it to the one I was on. It was funny. She is in bed now with Anna Lin giggling. And that is where I'm heading now as well.
Angi

Meeting Miss Autumn

Yes, we made it here. We had a guide pick us up in Shanghai and get us to the train station for Hangzhou. They would not let her into the train waiting area, so we were on our own there but it wasn't that bad. It was Sunday and there were many people there by our standards, but not many by their standards. Shanghai has about 18 million people. Yeah, million... Hard to comprehend but you get the idea as you are looking around driving by everyone. We rode the 'bullet' train to Hangzhou where another guide picked us up. Yeah! Like to see that sign with our name on it and know we are going in the right direction.

Needless to say we were exhausted but we forced ourselves to stay up so we didn't wake up at 2 am, wide awake, ready to go. We met Michelle and Alex who are in the same hotel with their new son, just a few doors down from us. Then just got comfortable and hit the hay in order to be ready for meeting Autumn Monday morning.

We did good sleeping. I didn't wake up fully until 5 am. Ric said he woke up earlier but just didn't get up. (Like he is doing now...) It's 5:37 am here in China. 9 am we were ready to head for the Civil Affairs office. There were two children waiting there already for their new families from the same orphanage as Lei, Michelle and Alex's new son. We arrived early to do paperwork, which was a good thing since there was a lot. Soon after Miss Autumn came. We'll post pictures later since Ric is in charge of that and I don't know where all his gadgets are. (And the room is dark...) They introduced us and I put her on my lap, giving her some yogurt covered raisins. (Big hit!) Anna Lin was beside me the whole time and did very well. She just jabbered away to Autumn as she does anyone. :-) We saw smiles and even a laugh from Autumn while at the office. But then as Ric said, who could not be around Anna Lin without at least one smile and laugh.

Autumn sat on my lap basically the whole time, taking everything in. She only spoke when spoken too by our guide and the orphanage staff. She is very quiet. She is very skinny, with long fingers and feet that show her body wants to be taller than it is. Hopefully we can fatten this cutie up. The SWI person, maybe assistant director did most of the talking. Very nice man. He gave us some pictures of her, including one when she was a baby, then one when she was a toddler. He said she is not picky, does school with her pre-kindergarten class in the orphanage. She knows about 20 Chinese characters he said. I'm pretty sure this is true. She knew how to handle a book and pointed to the characters then would say whatever it was, (I'm assuming this of course, since I do not know what she is saying. :-) We left the office without a problem. She told the orphanage people goodbye, no problem. Went and changed her dress, got passport pictures done and our family picture for the paperwork. That was just the three of us and AL wasn't happy about that. But she's over it now. Then we shopped at the grocery store, an experience that has to be a post by itself, and came back to the hotel. We gave her the pink teddy bear, and her Chinese Barbie, then I brought out the different clothes for the bears and the Barbies. (Anna Lin has a pink Build A Bear too and a Chinese Barbie.((Thanks to Grandma Lois!!!)) These things were a big hit, along with eating noodles and chocolate covered pretzel sticks from the grocery store. Later I took them for a swim with Michelle and Lei. Autumn was scared of the pool but eventually warmed up and let me hold her in it. It was at least 4' deep at the shallow end. We put Anna Lin in a life saver ring like Lei and those two were all over the place.

Autumn did well. She is very quiet until she is comfortable where she is at, which unfortunately is going to be a while before that truly happens. She does talk. Once she was comfortable in our room she started talking (softly). She tried to speak with Anna Lin and figured out that she does not understand her either, like us. Anna Lin still doesn't completely understand that Autumn doesn't understand her. She was hiding behind one of the beds when I came into the room once. She said she was playing hide and seek with Autumn. Anna Lin, "I told her to count and I would hide." :-) I then told Anna Lin that Autumn just didn't understand what she is saying like she doesn't understand what Autumn or anyone else is saying, except Ni Hao (hello), Xia Xia (thanks), and good bye which I do not know how to spell (Tie Jian?). She is a good eater, eating almost 4 dumplings we ordered from the hotel, very cooperative. She's just a sweet little thing. She has come out of her shell a little and is quite industrious (sp?) and busy. She is a 'bag lady' like her sister, and many other orphans. She had a bag all filled with doll stuff carrying it around with her Dora croc shoes. By the end of the night she was following me around like that. I think she thought we would be leaving (probably to go to a real home not an itsy bitsy room). Finally when it was time for bed we were able to sit those things down. She is soooo very easy going. Thank you Lord!

Well I need to go for now. Maybe I will eventually be able to write more. We are really just exausted and trying to keep up with these two girls. We are leaving for the Orphanage in two hours to get her passport done in the town and visit her home.

Angi

Well we left and now we're back...

Oh it all started out soooo well. Flights were running on time. We board our plane, sitting anxiously waiting to take off. And we waited. And we waited. Two hours later after watching two thunderstorms pass, we take off only to have a bird sucked into our one of the engines while taking off. Sure enough that becomes a problem and we have to circle the skies for almost 2 hours dumping fuel (Yes, in the air) since we were filled up so much. Then we get back to the airport to be told the soonest they can do another flight is the next morning. :-( Thankfully they put us up in a hotel (which Anna Lin thinks is the greatest experience ever!) and gave us food vouchers. So at least we will get some sleep tonight. Yeah! And try again tomorrow.

Now I'm off to soak in a nice hot bath, then succumb to ZZZZZZZ's.

Angi

House of Insanity...

Yes, that is where I live right now. If you have called I'm not answering because I'm running around packing here and there, last minute stuff, weighing our bags (I step on the scales holding our luggage. :-), hoping to tackle final paper organization by 10 pm, which is when we are suppose to go to bed being that we are leaving our house at 5 am. There should be a law against leaving that early! I am desperately seeking task completion, but there is no end in sight as of yet.

Thank goodness there is a reason for this madness! :-D
Angi

Our Itinerary

Day 1: Depart for Chicago 7:20 am, leave for Shanghai 10:30 am.
Day 2: Arrive in Shanghai at 1:55 pm, catch train to Hangzhou.
Day 3: Arrive Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province from Shanghai by train. Transfer to hotel
Day 4: Free Day. (Our day to explore.)
Day 5: The family will go to civil Affairs meet child and sign agreement.
Day 6: The family will go to Civil Affairs for registration and Notary.
Day 7: One day trip to Jin Hua. See Jin Hua SWI. and apply passport.
Back to Hangzhou in the afternoon. Around 2.5 hours one way.
Day 8: Half day tour to West Lake.
Day 9: Take passport in the afternoon.
Hangzhou, Zhejiang-Guangzhou, Guangdong Province at 6:40pm. Transfer to hotel.
Day 10: Medical and take visa photo.
Day 11: Safari park with other CHI families.
Day 12: Visa appointment at 10:00 at U.S. Consulate.
Day 13: Take visa in the afternoon.
Day 14: Guangzhou-Shanghai Pu Dong airport (09:35-11:50), then Shanghai to Chicago and then home about 9:11 pm.

Five Days To Go!!!!

Wow! We are in the eye of the packing/nesting storm right now. OK...at least I AM! :-) Today we shopped, shopped, shopped. Lots of things to get to make sure all goes well. What a fun day for Ric to spend his Father's Day, eh? Hey, he got to have brunch at Cracker Barrell, so he was happy. I had checked the weather in Hangzhou, the provincal capital for Autumn and it was a lot cooler than I thought: 70's to 80 degrees and rainy. So we needed a jacket and some pants, or capri's since SC doesn't sell pants in June and I couldn't find them on the clearance racks. Then Anna Lin and I hit the shoe section for some tennis shoes after we figured her size from some measurement we previous received. Well next thing you know we're walking out of Target with two pairs of matching shoes for Anna Lin and her new little sis, along with Dora Croc-type shoes for Autumn. We picked up some Dora night time pull-ups, just in bed wetting is a problem. (Didn't plan on that happening last time either. Luckily another lady there (Kelly) shared with us because she had brought too many.) Then there the fun things like the little containers of Play-Do, the coloring books, the new CD player for Autumn that is similar to Anna Lin's (AL), and bubbles. AL really wanted to get into that coloring book. I told her that would have to wait for when we are in China, for possible rainy days and all. I had already bought several sticker books (duplicate), a magnetic princess dress up tin (very thin, the clothes are magnets than go on the metal 'paper doll...also duplicate.), several similar blank notebooks with gel pens to write, scribble, and drawn. (Anna Lin who was 4 when we adopted her LOVED these.) The pink build-a-bears are ready to be packed along with a few outfits, including the latest hula one. Grandma Lois said two Chinese Barbies are in the mail, so they will go too, along with several outfits and accessories. Must have toys!!! Learned that lesson last time. We had brought few, but definately not enough. Thank heaven for the Monkey King on the TV. We watched so much of the show that Ric and I fell in love with it. He's hoping it still airs.

Am I done packing some of you ask???? Well...I'm almost done with Autumn. The washer and dryer have been working overtime, since I am determined to have this done by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. I just want spend my last day before China in some state of peace, even if it is a nervous/excited state of peace.

-Angi

One Week Left...

Can you believe it???? Only one week left. Our flight is scheduled to leave at 7:20 am next Friday. Things are moving into place. I am getting more accomplished finally. We had a change of plans related to the time we are gone, but we have adjusted what we needed to and that is under control now. I will be doubly busy next Wednesday & Thursday, and Friday morning, but that's OK. The end result is what matters.

We've finished last minute luggage/book bag buying. The girls each now have a book bag on rollers. This will be their carry on, filled with lots of things to keep them busy. Oh, but I still need to buy another CD player for Autumn to listen to music if she wants. And some good snacks. That will be a must for when we meet her. I do have some mini-tootsie pops to take and gum. I have to make a list of last minute things to buy. As you can tell I never did get to making my lists. I worked at my new school Monday and Tuesday. They had gotten lots of great books in at the end of the year and they needed all that fun processing that school libraries require. By the end of the first day I felt at home there. I'm going from elementary to middle school, so things should be quite interesting. The library is huge and has a beautiful wall of windows over looking a pond. So those two days working put me a little behind as far as getting ready and making those lists.

However, today was a day of great accomplishments, wiring of money, bank runs, phone calls to this person, that place, and the other thingy, trip to the pool for Anna Lin, mom's taxi service for Spencer, an over-nighter for Noah, etc., etc., etc. Zak was gracious to let Anna Lin sit with him while he played his racing game. It was hilarious to listen to. She was just yapping away (and Zak (17) is not a big talker). At one point he was ready to start a new race and Anna Lin said said with all of her six-year old sincerity, "I hope this one is good and you win it Zak." This occurred while I washed all Autumn's clothes and matching dresses I bought for our two girls. There is only one set of exact matching dresses and matching pj's (pink satin, ruffles, and lady bugs--I could not resist!). I am more of a 'same but different' kind of mom. So several dresses that are the same style but different colors or patterns. Now that the clothes are all washed and folded the packing can begin. I think we've decided each of us will check on piece of luggage and then have our carry on bag. So, this weekend will be the practice run to see if we can get all that we need in these three pieces of luggage. Shouldn't be a problem. We used the laundry service last time and did just fine taking five outfits total (which included the one we left in). That's what we are shooting for this time. The biggest issue is where to put all the 'activity things' I have bought over the past six months to keep the girls busy. It can't be anywhere Anna Lin will spot. She is soooooo nosey and persistent. It should be interesting to see if I can pull it off without General Anna Lin discovering my strategy or stash location!

Angi

Spencer's Confirmation

OK. So this happened a month ago... However, I didn't have the blog up and running then. I just have to show off this hansome guy. Spencer made it through all the classes, service projects, and retreats for confirmation. Way to go Spence!!!! We are proud of you!

-Angi