Gotcha Day! - a day late :-(

Sorry for the belated post. The hotel we are staying in has internet, but it's not wifi nor is it prominently displayed. I actually only found out about it while going through some drawers looking for clothes.

Anyhoo, Gotcha Day has come and gone! We flew out of Beijing Airport around 7:30 and arrived in Harbin about 9:30. We were met by our local guide "Katherine" and our driver, Mr. Soon and off we went! Much to our surprise, we were being taken directly to the Adoption Center! Denise didn't have the gifts ready and we were totally unprepared for that opportunity! Our original plan was to fly into Harbin, check into the hotel, and in the afternoon go to the Adoption Center. It's nice to see consistency in the driving throughout China. Our driver was actually honking @the police to get out of his way! Harbin is a rather rough neck of the woods, quite a bit of trash on the streets, many people selling produce and foods on the streets from the back of their bikes. It's times like this we truly miss good old Elyria, OH.

So Denise hastily puts the gift bags together for the Director and nannies, in the back of the van. We hustle into the Adoption Center to find out what's going on. I have to be honest, from this point on the whole thing is kind of a blur. It's like signing paperwork for buying a car, and a house, and, I don't know, refinancing your house all @the same time! We were in a confernece type room w/our guide and the Director of the the Adoption Center comes in, a lady by the name of "Susan". She speaks some English, but uses our guide for the sticky parts. A lot of  "don't worry, no problem" throughout the process. They actually had us shut our camera down because they would be putting together an album for us to pick up later in the week. Just a lot of stuff going on and this "crazy boy" shows up!

This picture is actually from our hotel room later on in the day. Again, it is impossible to put into words what transpired @that point in time. He came in w/his nannies, turned out to actually be his teachers, and it's just a whirlwind! Questions in Mandarin, roughly translated, the teachers going over his likes and dislikes. We sign some paperwork, take some pictures, and we're off! Kind of a trial run, I guess. "Here take him out for a test drive, see how he handles, and let us know tomorrow if you are interested!" From the adoption center we headed back to the hotel, our guide left her phone number if we had any issues and that was it! Now we have this small person staying w/us, entrusting his well being to us completely and we don't even speak ihis language.

Well, it's too cold out (about 40 degrees) to take any kind of lengthy walk. Fortunately there is the staple of American fast food down the street from our hotel. Here is little man getting his first taste of McDonalds:

Yes, we are happy to announce that Denise was able to train Nate in the fine art of fry dunking in ketchup! Also, he is not a huge fan of their hamburgers (which is actually a good thing, since their diets don't consist of a lot of meet, evidently).

And across from the McDonalds what do we have? You know it, none other than Sam Walton's contribution to the reduction of small business, Wal-Mart! A vertical one @that!

This isn't the picture for it, this one was taking out of the window of a high speed van, but you get the gist. We're actually @Wal-Mart looking for a hoodie or fleece for me because I had failed to pack one for the trip and things have been a might bit chilly for a North Face jacket and short sleeves. However, Nate had other plans! He's able to let Denise know that he has to go potty, but it's almost instantaneous. Know mind you, the standard here for children is layers, regardless of outside temparature. When we picked up Nate he had on, in order from inside to out, pajamas, a pair of quilted-type overalls, lightweight snow pants, a sweater, and a winter jacket! The "accident" (#1) nailed the pajamas, overalls, and snow pants. So it was a quick stop @ Wal-Mart and back to the hotel to change and get cleaned up and off to bed w/a book a Ma-Ma

One more day!

Denise was feeling better today, just tired from not getting much sleep and eating less. We had breakfast in our hotel for the last time and hooked up w/our families @0915 to take the bus to church. This was the Beijing International Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational gathering of English only speaking individuals. Due to government restrictions they are only able to gather w/people who are foreigners. It was incredible to be thousands of miles away from home and yet here were this people singing praises and offering prayers to our God! What a mixture of cultures and ethnicities!

After church we went to a jade factory where they gave us a (brief)history of jade and its role in the Chinese culture. We purchased a jade amulet which I am to wear (close to my heart) until we feel Nate is old enough to "carry on". We were looking @pig amulets because that coincided w/the year he was born. But none of the amulets were appealing, many were childlike which would be good for now, but not when he is older.

After the jade factory was a lunch that really wasn't too bad. They serve family style w/the lazy susan in the middle and then a bunch of dishes that they offer for you to try. The plates are quite small, however, about the size of a saucer. This helps to keep you from pigging out. We both gave the chopsticks a dance, pretty tricky, but I could see where, w/practice, you could get the hang of them.

Starting to feel like a cruise now! After this we did that, and then ate, and did some of this, and eat some more. Following lunch was our trek to the Great Wall. Denise decided to pop off a couple of pics along the way. I think she's fascinated by the people on bikes.

I'll keep it short and sweet tonight, we have to be in the lobby @0600 tomorrow to catch our flight to Harbin where we will finally get to meet this charming young man!

Day One - Beijing

It's our first full day in Beijing, Saturday, April 17. We didn't sleep too bad, I think we got up around 3:30 a.m., decided that was a little too early and went back to bed until about 6:00. Denise was feeling pretty punky, she woke up w/a headache (probably caffeine withdrawal). We met up w/some couples @the hotel's restaurant for a buffett breakfast, baked beans included!

At 8:30 all the families met in the lobby for our bus ride to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. LOTS of people! They are very particular about photographs and video taping certain individuals (military, police, etc) The weather started out quite brisk and overcast. It's hard to put into words the atmosphere here. While we are excited about being in China to adopt our son, as most of you know, we are not world travellers, nor is that our forte. We don't do well w/changes, we like order in our lives, and this is all the complete opposite! But we keep telling ourselves why we are here and the good Lord is following along with us!

Denise is a real trooper inspite of all that is going on! Montezuma's Revenge is in full effect but she still manages to walk along on our tour and chat w/the other families. The Forbidden City is really something else, all the history and architecture that is displayed is truly amazing. We pass through Tiananmen gate (pictured behind us), and walk along following our guide w/her blue flag. In a country this large, with so many people, it's the only way to stay on target. Many other tourist groups are present all flying varieties of flags. I will post several other pictures to convey just the mass of humanity that come to this place. I asked Sherry, our guide, if she knew approximately how many domestic visitors travel here. She wasn't sure, but she knew the total during peak season is around 250,000 per DAY!

There was one building where the emperor used to sit and hear the trials and tribulations of the people. It was open only on a few sides and there was actually nothing in it (furniture, decoration)anymore, but the people so believe in the history that it was almost a mosh pit to go up and see it. At one point, Denise and I were just laughing because you have this mass of people that you're being carried along with!

Unfortunately the day didn't end so well. After the Forbidden City tour, and two VERY brave visits to the local bathrooms, Denise was just spent. We asked one of our guides if we could go back to the hotel as she just wasn't doing well at all. I think it's a combination of nerves, jet lag, lack of nutrition, motion-sickness (all driving is herky-jerky which she doesn't do well with)! So he was nice enough to hail a taxi for us and told them where we were staying. The rest of the day she spent in bed :-(

She's taken some Pepto, keeping up on her liquids, and also a broad spectrum anti-viral. Here's hoping she's feeling better tomorrow. We're to go to a local church service and then to the Great Wall!

We're here!

Well, as others have reported, I am unable to log into our blog account to post, so I’m trying to go through email. I’ve tried it before w/just a sentence or two and it seems to work. I’m not sure about the pictures though. We left Cleveland @7:30 on 4/15 (after leaving the battery charger for the camera @home and also thinking we lost Denise’s cell phone. We had a worker @one of the kiosks call her number and her purse vibrated!), arrived in Newark, NJ, no problems. Walked around for a while, had lunch, and took off for Beijing @12:20pm. Good seats for an international trip, not first class, but the first row in coach w/a little extra leg room! Continental has a snazzy audio/video setup for watching movies and whatnot. For our row they had individual LCD screens which rotated up from underneath your seat and locked in front of you to view. I got to watch WALL-E and Denise started watching a movie w/Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker. This is probably 5 hours into a 15 hour flight. Our section conks out w/no audio or video. The system just keeps rebooting. So, Denise slept (some), I read a book and watched Meet the Robinsons on my laptop. We made it into Beijing on time as well, about 14:00 on Friday 4/16.

Now Denise is a woman possessed. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, we tried to take as much of our house w/us as we could! And she was bound and determined to make sure our luggage came along w/us! So we go through China’s customs, get on board the shuttle to take us to the baggage claim. All bags accounted for, excellent! Hmm…where’s our contact for AWAA? We wait for a little while, then I suggest we use a pay phone and call the number listed for our contact here in Beijing (Sherry). My wife goes one better. She asks one of the porter type people if they would call the number since her cell is useless. Nice enough guy, calls, gets in touch w/Sherry and lets Denise talk w/her. They aren’t allowed into the passenger areas at all, she was waiting outside. So now we have this MASS of people going out the airport and there’s all kinds of signs for passengers and whatnot. We finally hook up w/Sherry and two other families that came in out of Chicago. One family is from Pittsburgh and the other from a suburb of South Bend, IN.

Yes all the craziness you hear about Chinese traffic is true! We get into a van and we’re OFF!! Honking, swerving, his doing it all! Sherry is going over what to do when we get to the hotel, exchange some money, the basic itinerary, etc. All the while “Dale Earnhardt Jr.” is speeding us through rush hour traffic. We did manage to see a few of the obligatory “man on bicycle carrying large items”. Made it to the hotel, got checked in, went to our room (no squatty potty here thank you so much), then went out on the town w/the couple from Pittsburgh to buy….water. Yep, keep that H20 acomin’. We split off from the other couple afterwards and went across the street from our hotel to….Pizza Hut! We were the token American couple, can’t speak a lick of Mandarin, poor server trying to make out what in the world we are talking about if the iced tea is brewed or just mixed.

Denise is now justifiably crashed in bed and I’m signing off. Tomorrow is sight seeing w/Tiananmen Square and some other touristy stuff! Thanks for reading and following along w/us!

Here is the disarray we find our "office" in during our paper gathering for all the travel documents that are needed. Each document needs several copies. There are also copies of our visas, credit cards, Nathaniel's documents, and all other sorts of necessities! Denise has been feverishly working to get our whole house packed into two suitcases, two carry ons, and a backpack! What a feat!

Actually she has been doing fantastic getting things notarized, picking up last minute items, and keeping the house in order. She had her tetanus shot today and we visited w/Nate's (future)pediatrician, Dr. Wu. How excited we were when we heard about this doctor. Someone Nate could confide in and feel a little safer around since they would look like him! Needless to say, Dr. Wu is female and, quite, caucassian. Her husband was born in Maryland, but has Taiwainese heritage. Ah well, one can dream! Here are a few more snaps of Nate's "finished" room, complete w/little airplanes, compliments of his godmother:

Two more days

Well, things are getting quite hectic here in Elyria, OH as we come round the home stretch of getting ready for our travels! We received our travel documents from AWAA (our adoption agency, forever entombed herein as AWAA) today. Basically it shakes out kinda like this:

Thursday, April 15 - Fly from Cleveland to Newark, NJ (0730 departure), leave for Beijing @1210, arrive in Beijing Friday April 16 @1350! Lunch will be served, yeehaw!

Saturday April 17, Sunday April 18 - Sightseeing in Beijing

Monday April 19 - Fly to Heilongjang, pick up Nate in the p.m. This known as GOTCHA DAY!

Tuesday April 20 - Civil Affairs Appointment, sounds intriguing.

Wednesday April 21, Thursday April 22 - Sightseeing and shopping in Nate's hometown of Daqing City

Friday April 23 - Fly to Guangzhou for Consulate appointment and paperwork

Saturday April 24 - Child's medical exam (ouch!)

Sunday April 25 - Consulate paperwork

Monday April 26 - Consulate appointment in a.m.

Tuesday April 27 - Consulate Oath-Taking Ceremony (be sure to return it!)

Wednesday April 28 - Pick up Nate's visa

Thursday April 29-Saturday May 1 - Free days in Guanzhou

Sunday May 2 - Depart from Guangzhou/Shanghai @1545, arrive in Cleveland @2217 on, um, Sunday May2 (isn't time travel wonderful)!

There that wasn't so bad, now was it? :-p

That can't be him

During the course of our relaying information back and forth w/Ann and redthreadchina.com, we were able to get some updated pictures of Ze. Now bear in mind, this is the little guy we've been chasing for about 3 months:













And this is the young man that we were greeted with in an email:


Man is he getting BIG! The information we picked up from Ann put him at about 3 feet and 34 pounds. She included his shoe size of 17 (?) but if you try and break that down from metric to english, he has 6 inch feet! Seems to make more sense if we make that a European 17 size shoe which translates to about a 2 here in the US.