Monday June 30: a brand new Day*

Has finally arrived...and boy, what a day it has been!

I'm writing this at almost 8pm China time, 8am EST. Georgia is finally asleep. She never napped, and ooooh boy!!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The day started off with mom and I waking up around 5am. I was torn between excitement and nervous anticipation...and that laced with a bit of fear. How was Qian Ya - soon to be miss Georgia Grace Qianya Day going to react? I knew that she might cry and scream. It would be a perfectly normal reaction. In her eyes we don't look right, we don't sound right...you name it! The adults in our family may have been anticipating this day for the past 2, almost 3 years....but she hasn't. She was perfectly content with her life just as it was, thankyouverymuch.

But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. We had breakfast around 6:30 am and came back to the hotel room to kill time...and somewhere in there I managed to get hold of Royce on the Skype and talk to him. He, Steve and Thomas had an eventful day themselves, but that's a post for another time. ;) At last, it was time to go. The ride to the Civil affairs office was not quite an hour, I think...and we families were just about hyper with excitement. Veronica once more stressed what our children's reactions might be...and how the screaming and crying was normal, and she reassured us that eventually our children would feel our love and grow to trust us... it might not happen in one or two days...it might take quite awhile, but it would happen.



This is the Civil Affairs office. As I followed the group, I just had no idea of what was in store. When we got in past the main doors, we could hear many voices. Ours was not the only group receiving their children this day...there were a large group of families from Sweden, at least one Australian family (waves at Penelope) and who knows what other nationalities... and there were the sounds of babies crying.



My heart did a flip-flop when I saw this sign. Yes, this really was real..and not some crazy thing I imagined. (You would think being in China itself would have made it seem real, but I do have a vivid imagination...)



Another view, this time inside the office itself. Here I had to present my passport to prove I was the parent of this particular child. Actually, at this point I am still not the legal parent.... I basically signed a 24hr temporary custody agreement. See, China adoption law requires a "24 hour harmonious period" - which gives prospective adoptive parents a chance to observe the child and be 100 percent sure that everything is okay (within reason) and that they want to proceed with the adoption. Then, after that is concluded, the parents either adopt the child -- or go home childless (unless the Chinese officials and the prospective parents agree there is a good reason not to proceed -- like an child that has a previously undisclosed special need or something)

It was a mass of confusion... babies crying (not our groups yet, they weren't due for another 10 minutes or so...) moms and dads crying, etc. There really wasn't a dry eye in the house. Many parents were crying tears of joy, of course...this was a long awaited and much anticipated and worked for dream come true. But some parents were crying in sympathy with the clearly confused and upset children. There was just so much overwhelming emotion in the room its impossible to describe unless you have been there and lived through it yourself.

And then I saw her.

I recognized her even with her back turned toward me. She was wearing a pink shirt, a white dress and a pair of squeaky sandals. Standing and holding someone's hand... I am not sure if it was her nanny or the director or what... I only had eyes for her, And when Veronica pointed to me...and whomever it was turned her to face me... our eyes met....

And she screwed up her face and began to wail. Loud, unconsolable sobs. Well Veronica and the officials talked to her in Mandarin...reasurring her, or trying to. And for my part, since I honestly was prepared to get just such a reaction, I held her despite her struggles to get away and kept patting her back and saying "Wp aye nee Qian Ya. Wo aye nee. Mama aye nee Qian Ya. Mama aye nee Qian Ya."


*The Brand New Day is similar to what we said in our announcement when Thomas was born, it seemed appropriate to repeat it here for his sister.

***to be continued tommorrow sometime... I am writing this at 9:21pm China time... Georgia finally fell asleep at 8pm...and I turned off the lights, which also killed the circcuit the laptop is plugged into. The battery is down to 20% and I don't want to push my luck and lose this.

Still June 29th

Let's see....after the last entry I wrote our group walked to a local bank to change our money for the in-province fees. i think it took a little bit longer than Veronica was expecting....but eventually we got it done.

After that, we hit a community store to buy snacks and drinks.... I wasn't thinking as clearly as one of our travelmates who bought juices and other snacks their toddler might want to eat. I do have some toddler "puffs" snacks..but not much else... and no juice. Our travel mate offered to send her husband tommorrow..if he and she are willing, I may take them up on that.

Then we came back to the hotel....many of us felt uncomfortable carrying that much money on us, so we utilized the hotel's safe deposit boxes.

After that we went out as a group to dinner. More walking (again down the steep hill, which of course meant we'd have to go back up the steep hill. Veronica called it a "barbeque" type place, but it wasn't barbeque as Americans think of it.... it was very peppery/spicy food. Mom didn't enjoy it as much as I did...so she was really looking forward to the snickers we bought at the community store -- as well as a chance to kick off her shoes and read her Nora Roberts book.

Sunday June 29: arrival in Nanjing

Today is the day we flew to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. Nanjing: "Nan"=south and "Jing" = capital, so it litterally means "south capital. ("Bei"=north, so "Beijing"=north capital.)

We needed to wake up at 4am this morning because the bellboy was going to pick up our bags at about 4:45am. We needed to grab a quick breakfast at the hotel's buffet, then be ready to checkout and leave by 5:50am. Our plane was due to take off around 7:20am.



Here is our group, getting ready to board our plane. The ride itself was quite uneventful and nice, taking about 1hr 40 minutes, give or take.





We landed at Nanjing airport about 9:15am. Here I am standing under the sign that says "Welcome to Nanjing". The light washed it out a bit when one of our group took a picture of me under the sign, but I was able to get a good picture of the sign itself.

The drive to the hotel was a little over an hour. Today is mostly a "rest and recover" day.... we are going to go as a group to the bank to exchange our money to pay for the in-province fees. (Due in Yuan), and later go to a local grocery store for snacks, bottled water, etc. I also believe the group will go to a local place tonight to have dinner as a group.

Then tommorrow is the day we meet our children! I'm sitting here, typing on this blog and looking at a wallet sized photo of our daughter and wondering... what will her reaction be to me/us? We're told some children cry or even scream. Some withdrawl and refuse to interact. These are perfectly understandable and normal reactions... because we look so very different from Chinese people.

But I also know that Georgia Grace Qianya Day is a fearless little girl who HAS seen caucasian people before -- when some of her friends and orphanage sisters were adopted... so maybe she will not be so afraid.

Whatever her reaction.... I hope in time she will come to realize we have so much love to give her and that she learns to trust us.

Saturday, June 28: more touring

Today's touring day included Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
Again, this was a busy day, and there was a lot of information to take in, and there was just so much it is really hard to remember it all.

Our guide told us her English name is Veronica. Her Chinese name is Quen Yue. She said she was born in Beijing and has lived here for 30 years....but darned if I can believe she is at least 30 years old, she seems so much younger... and she's such an energetic dynamo! (And also very sweet and organized!)



Our adoption agency has a large enough group traveling now that for these tours we were split into three groups - each led by a guide: Veronica, Michael, and Grace. Veronica led our group. Here we are across the street from Tiananmen square for a group photo.



As we walked through Tiananmen square, we passed the tomb of Chairman Mao Tse Tung. I'm actually a bit surprised we didn't go into it and see him inside his crystal tomb. I actually thought that might be a bit interesting, although I suppose it would be a bit disrespectful if we had gone in and taken pictures of him! :)



After Tiananmen Square, we went to the Forbidden City...which was the home of the imperial family, as well as the place where the emperor or empress met with officials, foreign dignitaries, etc. All of the parts of the city had specific names, but I couldn't take it all in. By this point my feet were sore, and we hadnt even stopped for lunch!

We had a chinese style lunch at a friendship store, where we were encouraged to shop for gifts...although Veronica did warn us that in-China flights strictly limit weight of checked in bags, so it would be best not to buy heavy or bulky things. I did get one or two small, lightweight things..... because I couldn't resist...but I didnt go crazy... I plan on doing the bulk of my shopping in Jiangsu and Guangzhou.

After lunch, we got back in the bus to ride to the attraction many of us wanted to see most of all - the Great Wall. It was very hazy and even rained a bit....and a lot of the scenery was covered in mist and fog. And the wall was....absolutely breathtaking, astounding, awe-inspiring. See for yourself:



Mom and I really wanted to climb to that tower you see at the top of the hill...but there were many, many steps...and they were uneven in size and it was quite steep. We didn't make it all the way to that tower, but I'd say we made it at least two-thirds of the way there. On the way up, we saw a long chain with many locks hanging from it. Some couples get married at the wall itself, and many will place a lock (engraved with their names) - on the chain, in the hopes that their marriage will be as long as the Great Wall.



And for our colleagues at Carroll County Public library and Prince George's County Memorial Library system (as well as BCPL)... here is Sneaks the cat at the Great Wall in China.



And here mom and I are...yes, wearing our 2008 summer reading T shirts!



Finally, for your general amusement, I present this sign - actually posted on one of the tower areas along the Great Wall.



Tommorrow our various groups fly out from Beijing to our childrens' provinces. There we will receive our child, register the adoption, and do some more touring in the province. Another family (the Heller's) and mom and I will also be visiting our daughter's orphanage while in their province.

Friday, June 27 touring

Today's touring was an "extra" day - arranged through Delight Travel and not Great Wall. On the agenda was a visit to the Beijing zoo panda house, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. Our tour guide's name was Wang Jin Feng, but he also used the english name "Jerry".

Let me start off by saying that Jerry told us a lot of stories, and gave us a LOT of information, but I don't know how much of it "stuck" with me as I write this in the evening -- my legs and feet sore from all the walking we did. I plan on reading about these places more at some point -- the touring was so much like a lightning fast crash-course in Chinese history and culture. It was really too much to take in in just one day.



The picture is fairly self-explanatory. The gentleman in the center of the photo is Jerry. He's 26 years old, and the third of four children, all boys. The reason his family had 4 boys is they had them before the one-child policy went into effect.

We saw quite a few pandas, and some really up close thanks to a combination of plexiglass and a zoom lens. ;)





After the panda house, we went to the Summer Palace. The Emperor Qianlong had the palace built for his mother's 60th birthday in 1750. Two stone lions flank either side of the entrance gate. We were told one was always male and one female to represent the Emperor and the Empress. Jerry asked us which was which. One person guessed correctly, but it was just a guess on their part, they weren't sure how you could tell which was which.



This one is the female, the Empress. You can tell because under her paw is a playing cub, symbolizing the wish for happy, healthy children.



This one is the male, for the emperor. The ball under his paw was a symbol of power and domination over everything since all of the power rested with the emperor.



There was just so much to take pictures of! Like this stone, which is called the "God of Longevity" because it supposedly looks like an old man holding a peach and it is considered good luck and a fortunate thing to live a long life.



It is also good fortune to have your photo taken in front of the stone of the god of longevity...so even though mom and I are camera shy, we had our picture taken with it.



This is the famous marble boat. It was build at the west end of Kunming lake by the dowager empress Cixi...and built with money meant for the Chinese navy.

An interesting tidbit... Jerry said that Cixi (pronounced like "Sushi") was not a beautiful woman...but she was very charming. She also was very powerful...which is why she is also known by another name: Dragon Lady Cixi. But still, after going on and on about how unattractive she was... you would think Jerry might realize how it might not seem as a compliment to hold a picture postcard of Cixi next to someone and tell her "Looks like her sister!" (Which he honestly did do to mom.) To which mom replied "You wanna be fired?"

At dinner tonight, mom got some of her own back, and lived up to her new nickname "Dragon mom"... we had to fill out a comment card for our dinner and mom put Jerry's name, phone # and email address! (lol)



At the end of our summer palace tour, we took a dragon boat back because it exited close to a gate where the bus driver could pick us up...the other option was to walk the long corridor (I forget how many meters it was) to a different gate where the driver could also pick us up,but it seemed very far and our group knew we'd be doing a lot more walking that day and the next..so we opted for the boat.



Our last stop was the Temple of Heaven. China, being a largely agrarian society (and it still is in some areas, even though it is also quite modern) it was the Emperor's duty to pray for good harvests.


I took way more pictures than I blogged here, but its taken about 30 minutes to write all of this!! Next up tommorrow: more touring: The Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square!

The Flight to Beijing

Our flight: United Airlines 0897. Nonstop from Dulles to Beijing.

The flight itself was scheduled to leave about 12:30pm, and we arrived at the airport about 10am. Royce and Thomas dropped us off at baggage check in...then had to leave. The whine and pounding from nearby construction was getting to Thomas, and too a quick goodbye seemed easiest for all involved.

Oh, it was so very hard to leave my big boy! Don't get me wrong, I will miss Royce too, but he is an adult, and can fully understand all of the whys of it. :)

Well, we were able to board the plane straight away. Our seats were 38H and J, which were an asile and center of row seat, respectively. Also in the row was a very kind lady who had the windowseat. She was/is a student, and was returning to China to visit her parents.

The departure from Dulles was delayed by almost 2 hours. The reason? The heat of the day had caused the fuel of the aircrat to expand and flow into an overflow tank. This itself was not an issue until the overflow tank itself overflowed, causing fuel to drip out onto the tarmack. Wheee!

Eventually, the fuel was drained off into other tanks and we were allowed to lealo. There really isn't any other words to describe the flight itself other than --- LONG!
And economy seating is...well, cramped. Mom and I managed to doze a little bit, but never for very long, and never deeply. Please understand, these are not complaints, I'm just trying to saw how it was!

But there were some cool things too -- in between movies, a screen would come up and show us various statistics about the trip: how long we had been in the air, what our current groundspeed was, etc. And a gps map type display, showing where our aircraft was at the time. Being away from the window, we really couldn't see much and the windows were kept shaded and the cabin dim to enourage people to sleep so they would be more acclimated to Beijng time. (Which is about 12 hrs ahead of US eastcoast time.) And our carryon bags went into a compartment overhead which made them difficult to get to... even so, I do regret not getting at least one picture of the ice as we flew over the north pole. Or the mountains in the siberian region as we flew over Soviet airspace. Sorry! I'll try not to slack off on the pictures in the future!

When at last we landed, we were able to find our bags fairly quickly, and made our way to the exit where our guide Veronica met us. She took us to an area to sit, as there was another family she was waiting for whos plane was due in about a half hour after ours.

An hour and a half later Veronica sent us to the hotel without the other family. There was no sign of them...and we weren't sure if they were having luggage issues, or had perhaps changed flights, or.....? Poor Veronica was very apologetic...but mom and I were not upset with her...just dead-dog tired, hungry, and wanting to be anywhere other than the airport!

Everyone at our hotel has been so kind and polite! Talk about your quality customer service! Mom and I had dinner here at the hotel and then crashed.... I'm writing this post at 2pm EST time, making it 2am Beijing time. My sense of time is completely messed up! After I finish this post, I'm going to try and sleep more... we have a full day of touring we arranged with Delight Travel, and I believe a peking duck dinner this evening. I hope to have at least a small sampling of pictures with the next post.

And the reason I created this blog, rather than posting on our original adoption blog? Well, I'm not sure exactly why, but I cant connect to the adoption blog at blogsome...or Livejournal.