Family Day more photos 1

Family Day

Family Day

Probably all we need to say is, "Wow…what a day." We'll add a little more, skipping the mundane for the bigger stuff, and then we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Though as a warning. . .China blocks direct access to Blogspot, Facebook, Verizon, and many other sites. So, we are emailing this with photo attachments, not knowing whether or not the text and photos are coming in correctly.)

This morning we met in a hotel conference room to fill out all sorts of paper work.  We also got a lesson on preparing a milk-rice bottle, bathing the babies, and a few other tips.  We took a tour of our new surroundings, including the Vegas-style mall that exists beneath the hotel, did some brief grocery shopping in a huge and rather interesting store. We could not believe all the unusual things sold in this grocery store. A fish even jumped out of his tank and landed a foot or so from Ted.

We had time for a quick lunch (we thought Pizza Hut sounded quick and basic enough--they serve some odd and wacky looking items at Chinese Pizza Huts!).

Our group of now six families met in the hotel lobby at 2:00 p.m. to walk over to the Municipality Office for Adoption building next door.  We were told that the babies may already be there, but that they would bring them out to us one baby at a time.  That wasn't exactly how it played out.

A few of us didn't fit into the first elevator ride up to the offices, and as we were waiting for the second elevator, up walked a Nanny with a baby who we immediately recognized as being the baby of the couple waiting with us.  We said, "That's your baby!"  We were very teary, watching the reality sink in that they were having a baby, and so were we!

Once on the upper floor of the building, we emerged from the elevator to a room full of babies!  Without a moment's hesitation, they started handing babies to everyone.  It was controlled chaos. We met at 2:00 in the hotel lobby, and by 2:10 we had our baby in our arms.

The rest of the day was spent sitting and playing with and being with Orli.  We took turns taking naps, (Orli wasn't interested).  We went to the congee restaurant and ordered a bowl (to go) for Orli--she ate 4 bites and that was it.  She wasn't so interested in her formula, sticky rice, or anything else that we tried. But now, after a bath, she is sleeping so sweetly in her footy pajamas. J

Our group leader tells us that there are three kinds of babies: Happy Baby, Crying Baby, and Serious Baby. So far, we are pretty certain that we got the Serious variety (with definite moments of happiness) but we already thought that from her earlier pictures.

We're exhausted both emotionally and physically. We'll try to figure out a way to post videos, but they may have to wait until our return.

Happy Birthday to Howley!

Good night.
C&T

Hong Kong to Chongqing

This morning we slept in--no major tossing and turning until after 6 a.m.

We joined the entire group downstairs in our hotel for breakfast.  Half of us had a pretty good appetite.  The other half not so much, because they were going directly to the airport and getting on an airplane to fly to Nanchang, where they met their babies this afternoon!  We won't meet Orli until tomorrow afternoon.

As I type this, we are on Air China flight #420 to Chongqing!  Tomorrow morning we wake up in a new city in mainland China.

But first, our last day in Hong Kong.  Pretty laid back.  Ted figured out how to download and post video to our blog.  If you didn't notice, we posted our first one below.  It took some major work to get it to work, but it was a winner!  Tomorrow we will hopefully post video of Orli!

We did a little more shopping in Kowloon, we ate lunch at Genki Sushi, and we toured the East Asian Sports Games festival that happened to be in the plaza outside of our hotel.  You have never seen jump ropers like the jump ropers we saw today!

Then it was onto a bus, to the airport, and here I sit, typing from row 25 seats A and B.  We land in about an hour, and after we get to the hotel we'll write more.

******************
Time for part two.

Anita (Wang Sam) met us at the Chongqing airport, and via bus we all came to our hotel (more about that in a minute).  She is very cute, and gave us the low-down for the entire week.  During the bus ride, she went over all of the items included in individual packets that she had prepared for us.  She got to the part about our name tags, and showed us that there was Chinese on that backside.  The Chinese is for the benefit of all of the locals who will stop us, and it says that we are adopting this little girl, and that we love her very much and promise to take very good care of her.  Those were the first tears that came to my eyes.

We got to the hotel and were all dumbstruck.  This is one hell of a hotel.  It is absolutely beautiful, and looking out our panoramic windows we feel like we're in Manhattan.  Chongqing is a huge and modern city--Ted read that it is actually the largest metropolitan area in the world (32 million people).  I think the entire city is outside of our hotel window--a steady stream of honking traffic, neon lights on all the sky scrapers, blaring opera coming from somewhere, a fountain on the grounds that reminds me of the Bellagio, and. a. stunning. room.

So here comes the part about the second tears for the evening.  We walk into the room, and as soon as we get over how amazing it is, we see the crib next to our bed.  Aaahhhh..the second tears of plenty to come in the next 24 hours.  I see Ted has put the stuffed monkey toy we brought (remember the one Buffy?) in her crib on the pillow.

So here's the part you are waiting for.  Tomorrow we wake up, have breakfast (unless we become the ones without an appetite) and meet all together to fill out some paperwork.  Then in the afternoon we walk to the Vegas-style sky scraper next door, and we will finally meet Orli!!!

Since that is what we are all waiting for, I'll just say good night for now from us, and good morning to you.

Thanks again for following us along our journey.  I think it's about to get really, really exciting tomorrow!

xo-c and t

Saturday in Hong Kong

Well, other than waking up at 5:30 this morning, I think we did enough go-go-going to earn our exhaustion.

This morning we had breakfast in our hotel.  Members of a Japanese band and their groupies were there (OK, we don‘t really know if they were in a band, but Hong Kong is so fashion forward that they appeared to be famous.)  There were a lot of other Japanese tourists… and then there was us.  “Us” consisted of about 14 couples from all across America, and we were all more than easy to spot.  It became pretty obvious that if we saw an American couple, they must be with our adoption group.  And so they all were.

After eating and schmoozing a little, we all got on a bus and started touring Hong Kong with our guide, Matthew.  We first went to Victoria Peak, where we enjoyed beautiful but very chilly, on-high views of all of Hong Kong and its surrounding waters.

We also toured Aberdeen fishing village, where we rode in a Sampan boat for an up-close tour of the local fishermen’s house boats and the South side of Hong Kong Island.

Then it was back on the bus, and then off again at a fancy jewelry factory and store where very few of us actually bought anything.  However, the jewelry factory was not a total loss.  I accidentally left my glasses in the bus, and therefore had my sunglasses on, and Ben, one of the salesmen said to me, “I know where you’re from!”  I said, “Huh?” and he said “I know where you’re from--it’s CANADA, right?  He seemed rather surprised  to find out I was from California, and then he said he had thought I was Celine Dion.  He was disappointed, but probably not as disappointed as when I didn’t buy any fancy jewelry.

One last stop on our tour was Stanley Market--an outdoor marketplace with a gazillion stalls filled to the brim with all the stuff you never knew you needed.  I bought a genuine and 100% pashmina scarf, which for 7 dollars I’m assuming wasn’t so genuine or so 100%, but hey--it will keep my neck warm in Chongqing!

From shopping, we went to eating.  As a group. We had lunch at a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant.  We sat with all of the couples who are going to the same region of China as we are, and it was nice to talk to everyone whom we will be with for the next 2 weeks.  There are three of us who were matched with babies from the same orphanage.

Our afternoon was spent at the second fitting for Ted’s suit (which is a beautiful suit), walking around the shopping area, people-watching on the plaza  by our  hotel, and then dinner--Thai food.  Then we were off to see this “amazing laser light show” that started at 8 p.m.  Music came from everywhere, and then the skyscrapers across the harbor began to light up.  It wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped, so we decided to go check out an interesting looking Asian foods store, where we were tempted to put one of everything into a bag to bring home to Miss Meredith.

We’ll do a bit more sight-seeing in Hong Kong tomorrow--maybe a museum and maybe a bit more shopping.  Then in the afternoon we head to the airport to fly to Chongqing, where on Monday we will meet our Orli!

I think it is getting less surreal by the day.

Friday in Hong Kong

First, Melatonin is the BEST!  We slept (on-and-off) the entire night, but ended up getting enough sleep that we made it through the whole day without a nap.  By tomorrow, we should be fully acclimated to our new time zone.

We spent the day walking all over Kowloon--at the southern tip of Hong Kong.  The strange thing is that it really doesn’t feel all that much like we are in a foreign country.  Our thought is that we’ve had so many trips to China Towns in Los Angeles and  San Francisco that it kinda feels the same.

We started the day off with an adventurous restaurant where we were the only gringos.  We asked if they served breakfast, and they said yes.  But when we saw what everyone else was eating for breakfast we noticed it wasn’t exactly our idea of a first meal of the day--bowls of noodles with lots of interesting looking meats and seafoods, and all sorts of other unidentifiable platefuls.  We did find some less scary items.

Then we were off to explore.  We stopped along the route at Sam the Tailors where Ted was fitted for a custom suit.

Then we took the Metro to another area of Kowloon to see the Goldfish Markets.  Goldfish are considered lucky in Hong Kong.  Bags and tanks, and more bags and tanks of goldfish  fill the stores several blocks long.  This isn’t to mention the turtles, lizards and bunnies (all for pets, not for consumption).  In light of our blog name, we found it only fitting to visit the Goldfish Row.

Lunch was in a Cantonese locals’ restaurant.  It was delicious, and we recognized at least everything on our own plates, even if our neighbors’ choices seemed a little less familiar.

We visited a department store that had floors for sculpture, paintings, shmatas, calligraphy, and tea!  No purchases, but interesting to see.

A brief moment back at the hotel allowed us to recharge, and then we were off once again.  Ted had his first fitting for his suit.  Then we were haggled off the street to go to eat dinner at an Indian restaurant, which was pretty good.

Lots of people line the streets and sidewalks, and every few seconds someone is offering a flyer for 50% off something, or a deal on something else.  Jan, you will be so happy to hear that I have not yet purchased the “copy” Uggs that I saw--they were only like $40!!!  But they did have the Uggs label!  We were offered “copy” watches and handbags too.

OK, that was our day today.  Oh yeah--we saw a lot of other American-looking couples  (we’re thinking they are with our agency) checking into the hotel tonight.  We’ll meet them in the lobby tomorrow morning and we all go together on several tours.

That’s all the news for tonight.

Shabbat Shalom!

We arrived!

Thursday night, 9:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. in California)
We arrived in Hong Kong this evening, safe and sound. Would you believe that outside our hotel window is an enormous Christmas display! Who knew!

The flights were long, but Cathay Pacific felt like our own private jet (thanks for spoiling us Steve).







We’re looking forward to exploring on our own tomorrow before the rest of our group arrives.


Time to shower and try to sleep so we can adjust to our new time zone.
T&C

We're On Our Way!

It's a bit hard for us to believe, but we are finally getting ready to go.  Both visas are in hand, the suitcases are open (but of course still empty), and we're checking off items on our packing list. We leave next week and our itinerary looks something like this:

11/18         
Leave the U.S. for Hong Kong.

11/19          
Arrive in Hong Kong and enjoy exploring Hong Kong on our own.

11/20          
Meet our group of four other families and tour Hong Kong.

11/22          
Fly from Hong Kong to Chongqing.
Fill out the adoption registration forms that will be needed the next day.

11/23
In the afternoon, walk to the registration office to receive Orli!!!

11/24
Rest and relax in the morning.    
At 14:00 walk to the registration office to complete Adoption Registration and Notarization.

11/25          
At 9:30 optional half-day city tour to the Chongqing Zoo to see the panda.
Waiting for Orli’s adoption paperwork to be processed.

11/26
At 9:30 optional half-day tour to the old town – CiQiKou.

11/27          
Receive Orli’s adoption registration certificate and notary paperwork. 

Rest and start packing.
Receive Orli’s passport this afternoon. 
Group picture in the hotel lobby at 16:00.

11/28          
Fly from Chongqing to Guangzhou.

           

11/29          
Rest day. Optional tours in Guangzhou.

11/30          
Orli’s visa physical and visa photo taken today.

Meeting today to prepare paperwork for consulate appointment.

12/1            
U.S. Consulate appointment and our 18^th anniversary!

           

12/2
Go to the U.S. Consulate to take the oath in the afternoon.

           

12/3            
Go to the U.S. Consulate to receive Orli’s visa packet

12/4            
Bring Orli home.

12/5            
Let the enormity of this four year journey really hit us.


xo - c&t