We're on our way home

We're on our way home!

We survived the first leg of our trip, and right now we are in the Tokyo airport!  After a very early morning wake-up call, we flew out of Guangzhou, China at 9:00 a.m. and are connecting through Japan.

The past two days have been simultaneously long and a whirlwind.  On Wednesday we took our oath at the US Consulate.  On Thursday we toured around a bit on our own.

Although we were discouraged from leaving the island of Shamian, where our hotel was, we had island fever, so we disobeyed.  We took a ferry across the Pearl River, and it was a highly different experience.  On Shamian Island, every fourth person is carrying a baby that they are adopting.  Everyone is preparing their final paperwork for Citizenship and Immigration.  Once we stepped foot off the other side of the bridge, it was like they had never seen Westerners before.  The stares were thick, and everyone was a little dumbfounded by the Chinese baby in our arms.

On Thursday afternoon we received Orli's visa.  Outside of that, all we needed to do was get on the plane, which we are rather happy to say that we did.

The flight from China to Japan was…interesting.  Although this was actually Orli's second flight of the trip, the first one was short and she slept most of the way.  This one offered us a bit more chance to be the annoying couple on the plane with the screeching baby.  :)  With the generous help of  the two Chinese women behind us and one Japanese couple, Orli's crying was cut short, and like I said, we survived.  We were also in good company, since there were a few other adopted (and crying) babies on this flight.

Now it's time for the big leg home--10 hours from Tokyo to Los Angeles.  But for now, Orli is sitting in a large leather chair in the Admiral's Lounge, surrounded by businessmen who seem to be talking about very important things, and working on their laptops.   Meanwhile, she is working on her stacking cups and chewing on her stuffed monkey--but she does look very distinguished in the big leather chair,  :)

So as you read this (assuming you're not up at midnight), we are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.  Thank you so much for joining us on this rather incredible journey of ours.  We'll continue to update the blog on a sporadic basis as our lives begin to take shape in Sunny Southern California.

Lots of love and blessings from Corey, Ted, and Orli Jia-Mei.

Guangzhou Picture Day

Guangzhou
Tuesday December 1

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary!  We got lots of good wishes from the other families in our group, and the common question was, "Would you have imagined that 18 years later you'd be in China doing this?"  In every way, shape and form, "this" would have been pretty hard to imagine.  :)

After our physical examinations yesterday, our guides collected all of our paperwork.  On our behalf, they filed everything with the US Consulate.  This morning we got the call--everything was acceptable in the eyes of the US government, and we received approval to bring Miss Orli HOME!

We taught Orli how to clap, and she actually knows how to do it at appropriate times.  This would be one of those times…Yaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!!

Tomorrow we will go to the Consulate with her and take "an oath."  We actually have no idea what we are promising, but we do know that at the end, we will have a visa for Orli so that we can board that plane in 3 days…  Have to say, we are definitely ready to get home.

After our call of congratulations, we convinced Orli to take her very first nap today!!!  This was big-time folks.  Girl just refuses to nap, unless she is in her carrier against one of our chests.  But today, it was actually fairly painless to get her to nap for a bit.  There is hope.

Unfortunately, we interrupted her nap to dress her up in her new Chinese silk outfit, and we headed downstairs for the infamous Red Couch photos.  We took pictures of just the babies, all lined up.  We took pictures of each family.  We took pictures of all the babies from our specific region, and then just the ones from our orphanage and town.  All together, it was a pretty hectic and hilarious hour.  I don't think there was a moment when at least one baby wasn't in total breakdown.  And yet, we did get some really cute photos.  :)

The rest of the day was very relaxed.  It was nice to have a day with not too much to do.  We are getting a bit run ragged, so we opted out an optional river cruise.  We're looking forward to an early bed time and a good, solid night's sleep.

We hope all of you are doing great.  We miss you all, and will see many of you very soon!

xo-c and t

our entire group

All the babies in our travel group

The girls and boys of Chongqing

Guangzhou Sunday & Monday

Guangzhou Sunday & Monday
November 29 & 30th

With an early morning, we didn't blog last night, so you get a double dose here.

Sunday:  After breakfast, we met as a group (all 15 families) and went out on a few tours.

We first went to see a 5th century Buddhist temple, Six Banyan Temple.  We walked around the grounds, saw all of the amazing architecture and sculpture, including a very tall pagoda tower in the center of the courtyard, and then all of the babies were blessed by a monk!

From the temple we were off to The Guangdong Folk Arts Museum.  This large complex is an example of traditional architecture for Guangdong Province, and houses a huge collection of arts, including furniture, pottery, carved ivory and jade, paintings, and more.  In case you are ever here, I definitely don't recommend the squat toilets at this facility…

Then we went to a government owned and run shop that sold local crafts.  We mostly hung out at the interesting little market across the street, where we bought (and ate) locally baked almond cookies! 

We had a big group dinner at a Thai restaurant.  It was very delicious, but when the bill came with 20 items on it, we were surprised to find out that they even charged for the napkins on the table…  Hmmm…

Monday:  The morning started out with big stuff.  All 15 families traipsed to the local clinic to get physical exams for the babies.  They need to be examined as part of the immigration process for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.  It was quite perfunctory, and hardly extensive, but we did get Orli's new height (71 cm) and weight (8 kilos), and she turned her head properly when squeaked in the ear with a squeaky toy.

The clinic was an experience.  We walked right through to a back room, where we all waited together, but the front room was standing room only, filled with locals who seemed to be there for a variety of reasons.  It was pretty much a mad house.

We also had Visa photos done for each of the babies.  Orli cried the whole time, and it was amazing that the photo turned out as decently as it actually did.

In the afternoon we had a little time to shop on our own.  Our hotel is surrounded by little stores, all selling similar wares.  We bought Orli a pair of Chinese silk pajamas, and tomorrow we will take what is now the infamous "red couch" photos that all of the families take when they stay at the White Swan in Guangzhou.

Later in the afternoon we went as a group to the wholesale jewelry market.  This place was totally mind-blowing.  It was a huge mall-like complex, with hundreds of stores selling every kind of jewelry and jewelry supply items you can think of.  There was one store that specialized solely in Lapis.  The entire store was blue.

Our main target as a group was the pearl market.  We bought Orli a strand of pearls that we will probably give to her for her Bat Mitzvah.   She tried them on today and liked them so much that we had to pry them from her hands.  Of course, she is equally excited by a plastic Kleenex wrapper…

When we got back to our hotel room this afternoon, there was a brand new Barbie doll on the bed.  It is a bea-u-ti-ful, tall, blonde American-looking Barbie, holding a small Chinese baby.  :)  Mattel Hong Kong gifts these to all of the adoptive families who stay at the White Swan.  I tried to find someone who got a bea-u-ti-ful brunette Mama, but apparently all Americans must be blonde.  Orli didn't care, she was clawing at the box to get to that doll.  She probably wants to trade me in for a more "American looking" new mother.  :)

We went to dinner with a couple from our group, Kelly and Jay, and their new daughter Jia Lan.  Jia and Orli are one day apart and are both Chongqing Girls from the same orphanage.  They get along really well and like to hold hands and share all sorts of germs with one another.  :)  Dinner was…well…hectic.  Orli wasn't too thrilled to be there, and didn't display the best in good manners.  If there hadn't been a baby at every third table we'd have been outta there.  But this whole area seems to be geared towards all the Americans who are here with their new children--we all pass through Guangzhou to complete the final hurdle of paperwork and exams necessary to go home.  At least we were in good and compassionate company.

That's it for now.  We are both totally worn out, even though Orli seems to have a second wind.  That's about predictable for her at this point.  We're looking forward to getting her on a normal schedule when we get home!

lots o pearls