For Stephe

Sorry about the lapse in time.....

I had trouble posting photos while in China and did not update this as I should since I used the Yahoo group for updates. Now we have been home for a month and I realized that I should update this. It will be a little at a time. These are a couple of photos from our first few days together......more to come. Soon....I promise!

: )

Some Photos from Yesterday

One more night....

until I get to hold my sweet Vivian! Okay, I am not sure if it is adjusting to the time or just plain excitement, but it is 5am and I am wide awake!! I slept better last night than the night before. The beds are very firm and low! (not too bad-unless you really like a soft bed) Yesterday we toured Beijing. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, a silk factory, saw an acrobatic show, Hutong tour and had a couple of fabulous meals! It was a busy 12 hours of touring and we were all exhausted by the end. Any of you that are members of our Yahoo group know all the details as told by my husband....I will not even try to give you details-he is a professional writer and kicks my butt in that area. I am so glad that I have him to help me document all the details for Vivian to see and hear about when she is older. We are travelling with 18 other families currently. So we are a very large group and make quite an impression when we are out and about in China. Today we are driving a little over 2 hours to get to the Great Wall and stopping on the way at a jade factory. We are also scheduled to visit the Sacred Way (the entrance to the tombs), but may skip that portion as we have some small children in our group and yesterdays tour really wore them out. I think the touring actually wore out most of us "big kids" also!! Our flight leaves Beijing at 7:20 tomorrow morning....so early night for us tonight. Peter just reminded me that we have 36 hours left until Vivian! I am going to go now-but feel free to ask any questions that you have and Peter and I will try to answer them. It is kind of surreal to think that our last day as a couple before we are parents will be spent walking on the Great Wall! It is an awesome thought and we could not be more excited!!

PS- I am working with Peter on the chopstick thing and he isn't as bad as he says he is! : )

We leave tomorrow!

I wanted to do a post each day this week counting down to the day we leave.....as you can tell I did not get a chance to do that. I was so busy this week and can't tell you anything that I did except pack, repack, and finish up at work. I guess that is enough to keep me busy. People keep asking me if I am ready. I feel silly saying "not really" after having over a 2 year wait and we thought it would be under a year, but it is true. I can also tell you that if I had another month to wait I could still say "not really". I will be preparing for the trip until I walk out the door and then continue when we get back. If I got every detail done that I feel might need to be done I would have either drove my husband crazy or had to be on medication for my anxiety. I prioritized what needed to be done and paced myself. During the "hard" months of waiting I did not get a lot accomplished. My heart would not let me and I had to preserve my strength for when I needed it. I can tell you that the month between referral and travel is the shortest and longest all at the same time. There is more paperwork than I thought there would be. I will end my ramblings now so I can get ready for church and will try to write one more time before we are in China. I will be updating the yahoo group daily while in China and might post here also if I can.

So, Am I ready?!

Ready enough!!! Let's go to China!!

Our Travel Itinerary....

4/7 Leave Portland, Maine and arrive in California

4/8 Hang out in California

4/9 Leave the U.S. for Beijing

4/10 Arrive in Beijing. Go to the Holiday Inn Downtown. Free time

4/11 Beijing Tour

4/12 Beijing Tour

4/13 Leave Beijing for Chongqing. Go to the Golden Resources Hotel. Receive your babies today in the hotel at 17:30. YEA!!!!!

4/14 At 9:30 fill out the adoption registration forms that will be needed for the afternoon. At 2:00 pm, walk to the registration office to complete Adoption Registration and Notarization.

4/15 In the morning walk to nearby by shopping for baby supplies. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/16 In the morning a half-day city tour to the Chongqing Zoo to see the panda. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/17 Rest & half-day city tours to the old town – CiQiKou. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/18 Rest & half-day city tour to Chao Tian Men, where the 2 rivers meet, and to the People’s Hall. Waiting for your child’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

4/19 Receive your child’s adoption registration certificate and notary paperwork this morning. Receive your child’s passport this afternoon. Rest and start packing. Group picture in the hotel.

4/20 Leave Chongqing for Guangzhou. Go to the Victory Hotel.

4/21 Have your child’s visa physical and visa photo taken today.

4/22 Today is your Consulate appointment.

4/23 U.S. Consulate to take the oath in the afternoon.

4/24 Fly Guangzhou to Hong Kong and then LAX

4/25-4/26 Rest, relax, hang out in California

4/27 leave California at night

4/28 Arrive in Portland. Delta flight 4459 arriving at 12:12pm

We are going to Beijing!!!

Beijing Summer Palace

That is the big news! We thought that we were going to fly into Hong Kong as our port city, but we are flying into Beijing and need to be there on April 10th!! We received our Consulate Appointment! It will be April 22nd (My friend Staci's Birthday) and then the swearing in ceremony is the 23rd and we can leave China on the 24th. Flying back we are going to spend a couple of days on the west coast with Vivian's Aunt Bunni and Monkey Joe! We do not have our complete itinerary yet, but when we do I will be posting it here and on the Yahoo group. Our agency plans for a 2 day tour of Beijing and then we fly to Vivian's province on the 12th of April. The next day, Sunday April 13th is the day we will finally get to meet our precious daughter!!!

New Photos

These photos were taken the first week of March 2008. We can't wait to be able to hold her and take care of her. We also received an update that gave us new measurements and a littel more information about what she is doing and not doing. She can sit, but not stand, crawl or walk. She still has zero teeth and is still eating like a champ. She is sleeping in a crib by herself according to the report. I had heard that they share cribs with 1 or 2 other babies so, I am not sure about this information. We are really excited about traveling to go get her and can't believe we have to wait a few more weeks!

Travel Approval and Baby Shower and Random Thoughts

We got our TA today!!!!! Yea!!! After speaking with our agency, it looks like we will leave around the 10th of April! Only 3 weeks until we are on a plane headed to China to meet our daughter!! While I was at work today my coworkers gave me a surprise baby shower . To say that I was surprised is an understatement! It was wonderful! There was food, friends and gifts-much better than the careplans that I should have been looking over at work. One person took pictures for me and I will post them after I receive them. I am not sure why, but I always feel odd having a party in my honor. The afternoon was really fun and a much needed break. The gifts are wonderful and I will post some pictures later. Everybody has been so nice over the past 2 weeks and their generosity is a bit overwhelming. Perfect strangers to friends and aquaintances have all amazed me with their well wishes and interest in our adoption. Adopting internationally is different than being pregnant...I didn't have to have my belly rubbed, nobody commented or asked how I was feeling on a particular day, and I did not have strangers ask me about when I was due or give me random advice. I could choose who I would share the information with and could not share if I didn't want to. After we bring Vivian home, I am going to get the strangers talking to me and asking questions. There will be times that I will be out with my daughter and have people stare at us, maybe even have them wonder if she is my daughter or not. This will also be strange to me, as I know that Vivian is my daughter and can't imagine any other child being my daughter. I guess what I am rambling on about...is this- I am truly lucky and blessed to have such great friends and to be able to be a mommy to Vivian. I am off to bed as it will be an early morning for me since I still have work to do before clinical starts.

Weekend

It is now Saturday night, and I am starting to not like weekends as much as I should. We have tracking information for our visas to get back to us, but FedEx doesn't deliver Saturdays or Sundays. I think our agency is expecting TAs early in the week, but are closed and I can't check with them until Monday. I am currently trying to get things washed and packed and organized. It is a slower process than I thought it would be. It is probably because I am excited and nervous and want to travel NOW!!! If the guess-timates are correct we will leave for China Wednesday April 2nd (my grandmother's birthday). This means exactly 4 weeks from Referral to travel...which is pretty good. I am off to clean a little more and pack some more and organize some more...I think it is called nesting!