It was so nice landing in DFW. Actually the flight from San Francisco to here seemed like a breeze. Both kids slept and I sat there in a stupor thinking about how life will never be the same.
We arrived the baggage claim to the welcome signs of the Brent, Corrie, Lily and Ethan Kern who were so kind to come pick us all up in two cars. We had to put a claim on a bag that we lost somewhere around Hong Kong. But the good news is that it was located and it is in transit. They say they're going to deliver it to our home thankfully.
Emily seems to be right at home and very comfortable with her new surroundings.
Maria is putting her to bed right now and it's been pretty consistent since we've had her of her putting up a fight of going to bed. We let her cry it out and she's usually gone within minutes.
There's a great deal of adjustment for this little girl and us, for that matter.
In regards to Emily being a citizen, we were told that she becomes one at the moment we had the immigration officer stamp her passport. We got a guy that doesn't seem to do it very often and he was very nervous. In fact, he did some stamps, a few signatures and said go on through, I'll finish this all up later.
I still have a few pics I want to post regarding the location that Emily was originally found. However, there on the other PC and I'll have to do that later.
It's been fun sharing our trip with everyone via this blog and I hope you've been able to get a good taste and experience of what we went through. It's certainly a trip to remember, in more ways than one. There will be a day that Emily will want to know every detail of this trip. And maybe, even yet, a trip of her own to Tianjin, China.
On the way home from the airport today, Brent Kern was asking something I was already thinking about regarding the blog. The fact that I seemed to be picking up some of the ways the Chinese speak English, always in the present tense.
Well, I knew that there were some serious typos and incoherent thoughts when posting some late nights and I was inclined to go back and correct them. However, thought later that if I did that it might take away from the essence of the moment. There's no doubt I've got a writer's problem of typing before I think and it's not unusual for me to put double words or different spelling of the same word, etc. Maybe some day I can go back to 6th grade grammar.
In the meantime, I'm going to go with it being late nights and preoccupation.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Home, sweet Texas!
Hi all -
Well, the long flights are over and we are back at the Snyder household in Texas! Everyone is happy to be back and maybe even happier to not have had a meal consisting of rice or noodles. Monica, Tony and Ana Karina welcomed us back with yummy enchilada pie!
Transition to the States has been easy for Emily. She has decided that the kitchen floor is one of her favorite spots in the house. She crawls in there and lies on her back as if she was doing the backstroke and giggles away! Needless to say, she seems to be very much at home! She is enjoying herself playing with Andrew's toys and even more exciting, she is crawling around looking for Johnny and yelling "ba ba".... which I can't remember if we told you, but it means daddy!
It's been a great trip and an incredible experience. Look forward to more stories from these guys!
-ana
Well, the long flights are over and we are back at the Snyder household in Texas! Everyone is happy to be back and maybe even happier to not have had a meal consisting of rice or noodles. Monica, Tony and Ana Karina welcomed us back with yummy enchilada pie!
Transition to the States has been easy for Emily. She has decided that the kitchen floor is one of her favorite spots in the house. She crawls in there and lies on her back as if she was doing the backstroke and giggles away! Needless to say, she seems to be very much at home! She is enjoying herself playing with Andrew's toys and even more exciting, she is crawling around looking for Johnny and yelling "ba ba".... which I can't remember if we told you, but it means daddy!
It's been a great trip and an incredible experience. Look forward to more stories from these guys!
-ana
We're Home!!
Just a quick note saying we're home safe. I'll update more in the next hour or so on how our day went.
So happy to return to familiar surroundings.
So happy to return to familiar surroundings.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Last Day - Returning Home
Well, mission accomplished. Today we went, along with probably 50-75 other families, to the U.S. Consulate and gave our oath that the information we supplied was true and thereby, received a single entry USA travel visa for Emily on her Chinese passport. Her Chinese passport is under her name given at the orphanage, Wei Ming Su. After 45 days, we should receive her certificate of citizenship for the U.S.A. and with that apply for her social security card and U.S. passport. All of this under her new name Emily Mei Snyder.
Today was quite quick and painless, aside from the bus ride over there and herding everyone up 5 stories.
We took it easy today and we're all packed ready to come home. We're actually waking up in the morning 5 a.m. local time, eating breakfast and leaving for the airport around 7 a.m. We're taking a flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then to San Francisco (this is the rough leg), and finally back to DFW, arriving around 4 p.m. CST. So, while you're sleeping tonight, we'll be on a jet plane. And man, do I ever hope we're sleeping too.
I want to remind you of the photos I uploaded yesterday at http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder. There are over 2000 for this trip alone. Also, you might be interested to know that we had around 500 different people to view the blog with over 1300 different visits altogether. So that averages over 2 visits to the blog per person (computer). We realize there are many households that have more than one person reading.
Also, I want to thank everyone for posting comments. We had fun keeping in touch with you by this means and really appreciate the encouragement given.
I'm sure I will give an update upon our return home.
There's a couple of stories that I've wanted to convey to you in the blog along the way and I, for whatever reason, keep forgetting to post it at the time. Anyway, at this point, I can only remember one of them and think it's a little amusing.
The other day when we had to take Emily, along with other adopted children, to the clinic for the routine exam in applying for the visa, we were waiting outside the clinic for a moment and an adopted young boy, with his new parents had pulled up the zipper on his jacket and the folds of the skin on his neck had become stuck in the zipper. Well, as you can imagine, there was a little panic, not much, but a little. It's not every day you get your skin stuck in a zipper. Anyway, in it all several of us came over to offer some assistance and in it all and me trying to offer a calm word to the situation blurted out, "oh, it's probably worse than it looks." The adopting mother stopped, turned and just looked at me. I did not immediately realize what I had actually done in saying completely opposite of what I had intended on saying. Well, to say the least, after all of the humiliation had passed, we had a good laugh about it. Oh, and the boy was fine, without a scratch.
Seeing as though we're getting up early, I better get to sleep.
Today was quite quick and painless, aside from the bus ride over there and herding everyone up 5 stories.
We took it easy today and we're all packed ready to come home. We're actually waking up in the morning 5 a.m. local time, eating breakfast and leaving for the airport around 7 a.m. We're taking a flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then to San Francisco (this is the rough leg), and finally back to DFW, arriving around 4 p.m. CST. So, while you're sleeping tonight, we'll be on a jet plane. And man, do I ever hope we're sleeping too.
I want to remind you of the photos I uploaded yesterday at http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder. There are over 2000 for this trip alone. Also, you might be interested to know that we had around 500 different people to view the blog with over 1300 different visits altogether. So that averages over 2 visits to the blog per person (computer). We realize there are many households that have more than one person reading.
Also, I want to thank everyone for posting comments. We had fun keeping in touch with you by this means and really appreciate the encouragement given.
I'm sure I will give an update upon our return home.
There's a couple of stories that I've wanted to convey to you in the blog along the way and I, for whatever reason, keep forgetting to post it at the time. Anyway, at this point, I can only remember one of them and think it's a little amusing.
The other day when we had to take Emily, along with other adopted children, to the clinic for the routine exam in applying for the visa, we were waiting outside the clinic for a moment and an adopted young boy, with his new parents had pulled up the zipper on his jacket and the folds of the skin on his neck had become stuck in the zipper. Well, as you can imagine, there was a little panic, not much, but a little. It's not every day you get your skin stuck in a zipper. Anyway, in it all several of us came over to offer some assistance and in it all and me trying to offer a calm word to the situation blurted out, "oh, it's probably worse than it looks." The adopting mother stopped, turned and just looked at me. I did not immediately realize what I had actually done in saying completely opposite of what I had intended on saying. Well, to say the least, after all of the humiliation had passed, we had a good laugh about it. Oh, and the boy was fine, without a scratch.
Seeing as though we're getting up early, I better get to sleep.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Posted by Beatriz
Thoughts on China
This trip to China has been a real eye opener. It isn't at all what we had imagined. In fact it's much better, well in general. I've been very pleased to see that the people of China have indeed entered the modern world. They seem to have the things they need. The stores are very well stocked with all kinds of merchandise, plenty of food and all the everyday necesities. There are literally thousands of enormous apartment buildings where we are told the workers live in one and two bedroom apartments. No need for more space since they only have one child per couple.
From what we have seen, the Chinese seem to be very loving parents, and many of them have expressed surprise and a bit of sadness when I mention that I now have 6 grandchildren. Chinese grandparents apparently can only hope for a maximum of 2, one on each side. But there are so, so many people, that I can't imagine what it would be like if they didn't have the one child policy.
It has also been a surprise to see that in an atheist society such as this one, many people still practice Buddahism. We actually visited a temple called the "Flower Pagoda" where people were burning incense and I guess were praying for "good luck and prosperity", which seem to be a bit of an obsession here in China.
On the other hand, yesterday we walked through what I call the real "China Town". Boy what an experience! It was a big long narrow street with all sorts of little shops on either side, with people selling whatever they could get their hands on. I can't even begin to describe it, so maybe you can get an idea from the photographs that will be posted. Suffice it to say that it not only tainted the good image that I had of this country, but it also ruined my supper!
Well, pictures speak louder than words, so if you look at them, you will see many beautiful and not so beautiful things in China, but if anyone asks me whether or not it was worth coming here, I would answer, "of course." It's always worth a trip to see how the rest of the world lives. The Chinese people are extremely friendly and curious about foreigners. They seem to be content with the way their country is developing, and are always comparing life today with what life was like 20 or 30 years ago in China. Of course I assume that we've seen the better side of China. Hopefully the other side isn't as bad as we think. But who knows, there so many people!!
This trip to China has been a real eye opener. It isn't at all what we had imagined. In fact it's much better, well in general. I've been very pleased to see that the people of China have indeed entered the modern world. They seem to have the things they need. The stores are very well stocked with all kinds of merchandise, plenty of food and all the everyday necesities. There are literally thousands of enormous apartment buildings where we are told the workers live in one and two bedroom apartments. No need for more space since they only have one child per couple.
From what we have seen, the Chinese seem to be very loving parents, and many of them have expressed surprise and a bit of sadness when I mention that I now have 6 grandchildren. Chinese grandparents apparently can only hope for a maximum of 2, one on each side. But there are so, so many people, that I can't imagine what it would be like if they didn't have the one child policy.
It has also been a surprise to see that in an atheist society such as this one, many people still practice Buddahism. We actually visited a temple called the "Flower Pagoda" where people were burning incense and I guess were praying for "good luck and prosperity", which seem to be a bit of an obsession here in China.
On the other hand, yesterday we walked through what I call the real "China Town". Boy what an experience! It was a big long narrow street with all sorts of little shops on either side, with people selling whatever they could get their hands on. I can't even begin to describe it, so maybe you can get an idea from the photographs that will be posted. Suffice it to say that it not only tainted the good image that I had of this country, but it also ruined my supper!
Well, pictures speak louder than words, so if you look at them, you will see many beautiful and not so beautiful things in China, but if anyone asks me whether or not it was worth coming here, I would answer, "of course." It's always worth a trip to see how the rest of the world lives. The Chinese people are extremely friendly and curious about foreigners. They seem to be content with the way their country is developing, and are always comparing life today with what life was like 20 or 30 years ago in China. Of course I assume that we've seen the better side of China. Hopefully the other side isn't as bad as we think. But who knows, there so many people!!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Guangzhou Zoo
I forgot to post the pic from the other day in which the adopting families traditionally take here at the White Swan called "the Red Couch" photo.
We visited the zoo today and had a special treat visiting the lions. There was one lion roaring and rather loud too. We could hear from across the park. I had recorded it, but the recording is broken up. I think I will still post a clip so you can get the idea.On our return from the zoo, we got word from the consulate that all of our paperwork is in order and we're good for the signing tomorrow.
This afternoon we bought our lunch at the deli just outside the hotel and brought it back to our room since it was a little chilly outside.
After having our usual coffee, we walked around a park area, allowed Andrew to play with Emily looking on. Then stopped at a restaurant near the hotel called "Lucy's" which had very good authentic food for a reasonable price. We found that we had to pull our our yuan together and still had to throw in $15 US dollars to pay our bill since this restaurant didn't take credit card.On our way home, we stopped by a JC Muran Chef restaurant in which, I think I mentioned, has all the tanks in front for you to choose your dinner entree. I suggest those with weak stomach not look at these. I particularly found the water beetle of interest. Along with that is the sandworm, snakes and frogs.
I am in the midst of uploading all of Ana's pics she has taken since last Wednesday. They are quite nice. And though there are many, they are certainly worth going through each and everyone one of them. We have mixed in ones that we have taken. So, when you see a bad shot, you may understand. : )
China Town in China Town?
If you can imagine going to China Town of an actual China Town, we did it. Today, we went to what they call the Pearl Market and did a little shopping. We had taken a taxi there and opted to walk back. On the walk, what we saw, ugh. We went through the Chinese herb section and saw things like dried lizard on a stick, dehydrated seahorses, thousands of them. Apparently this is considered an aphrodisiac. And as if we had seen enough, there was an open shop with three large trays, each having a different variety of scorpions in them. These were thousands of live scorpions being served up to the interested buyer and funneled into a jar. These things were on display in such a way that a child could accidentally fall into or place their hand into the batch. What a sight.
On our way back, we did our usual Starbucks stop, did a little souvenir shopping, picked up laundry at a local shop and then back to the room.
This evening we spent probably 45 minutes going from restaurant to restaurant trying to decide what place wouldn't turn our stomach. The first place outside our hotel had seafood and really I should call it "see" food, because everything that was being served was out front in fish tanks or buckets. Things like shark, eel, turtle and things that I don't want to describe. My attention focused on one container on the floor in which I had to look closer thinking it was small turtles, but then realizing that it was large water beetles swimming around. As you can imagine, we opted to come back to the hotel and decided on the restaurant that we normally eat our breakfast at.
We're back now and all are in bed and I'm heading that way. Very tired.
Today, Emily has become noticeably more comfortable with molding into our family. She was instigating teasing and playfulness on most every occasion. She was actually searching ME out on most occasions to get my attention and tease with me.
It was a most interesting day. The river that our hotel is situated on, "the Pearl", is lit up tonight with every shop and tree shining all it's lights. Why on a Tuesday night, we don't know. It wasn't like it last night.
We had a funny misunderstanding the other night. Each night the staff comes to the rooms to provide an extra service. Well, the first time we experienced it, we were in the room and they knocked. Ana answered the door and they stated what they were here for. Ana turned and told us that there were hear to give us the "$10 dollar service". We all looked at each other and later discovered what they were trying to tell us was the "turn down service". We had a good laugh. The service was to remove the bed covers, place a towel at the foot of each bed with slippers and put chocolates at the head of the bed in a persimmon looking container. They probably did some other things that we weren't aware of.
Before we called it a night, Ana, Andrew and I went up to the 27th floor and looked out over the river. Ana got some shots and I shot some video. It likened to the Vegas strip.
I forgot to mention that around noon today, all the adopting families in our group got together for what they call the "red couch" photo. It's just us all gathering with the kids for a photo to remember the occasion by.
Goodnight and good day.
On our way back, we did our usual Starbucks stop, did a little souvenir shopping, picked up laundry at a local shop and then back to the room.
This evening we spent probably 45 minutes going from restaurant to restaurant trying to decide what place wouldn't turn our stomach. The first place outside our hotel had seafood and really I should call it "see" food, because everything that was being served was out front in fish tanks or buckets. Things like shark, eel, turtle and things that I don't want to describe. My attention focused on one container on the floor in which I had to look closer thinking it was small turtles, but then realizing that it was large water beetles swimming around. As you can imagine, we opted to come back to the hotel and decided on the restaurant that we normally eat our breakfast at.
We're back now and all are in bed and I'm heading that way. Very tired.
Today, Emily has become noticeably more comfortable with molding into our family. She was instigating teasing and playfulness on most every occasion. She was actually searching ME out on most occasions to get my attention and tease with me.
It was a most interesting day. The river that our hotel is situated on, "the Pearl", is lit up tonight with every shop and tree shining all it's lights. Why on a Tuesday night, we don't know. It wasn't like it last night.
We had a funny misunderstanding the other night. Each night the staff comes to the rooms to provide an extra service. Well, the first time we experienced it, we were in the room and they knocked. Ana answered the door and they stated what they were here for. Ana turned and told us that there were hear to give us the "$10 dollar service". We all looked at each other and later discovered what they were trying to tell us was the "turn down service". We had a good laugh. The service was to remove the bed covers, place a towel at the foot of each bed with slippers and put chocolates at the head of the bed in a persimmon looking container. They probably did some other things that we weren't aware of.
Before we called it a night, Ana, Andrew and I went up to the 27th floor and looked out over the river. Ana got some shots and I shot some video. It likened to the Vegas strip.
I forgot to mention that around noon today, all the adopting families in our group got together for what they call the "red couch" photo. It's just us all gathering with the kids for a photo to remember the occasion by.
Goodnight and good day.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Made in China
I guess I didn't have such an original idea regarding the t-shirt. They sell them in almost every shop. So, apparently, no offense taken over here.
ge ge means big brother.
Monday, Feb 25th - The Homestretch
Good morning. It's strange knowing that we're ending our day just as the majority of you all are beginning yours.
We had a busy day today, first starting with all of the documentation this morning at 10 a.m. with 6 other families and our guide helping us fill out the paperwork in applying for our child's visa to the U.S.A. After getting together about 20 documents, pulling together fees...$400 for the visa and 468 rmb for the medical exam, we were done in about almost 2 hours.
Afterwards, Beatriz, Anamaria, Andrew and I went down the street from the hotel and sat out on the patio of Lucy's Bar and had a burger. It's been overcast and misting since yesterday, with the temperature in the 60s. A little cool for my blood, but still moderate and least not windy. We brought back a sandwich for Maria Marcela who stayed behind allowing Emily to nap.
At 2:30, we all headed down to get Emily's visa photo taken and then to the medical clinic for routine examinations required upon requesting travel visas. Emily did great with the exception of a little crying when he probed her ears. We were surprised when he examamined her to have seen bruising on her tailbone and a bright red spidery blotch on her right rear shoulder blade. We didn't understand how we missed it before, but also realized that we didn't really do a thorough lookover on her either since we've had her. We're anxious to get more details on this to determine the seriousness of it.
On our walk back from the clinic, we stopped for a Starbucks coffee break. Emily is definately becoming more playful with me and warming as each day passes. I believe she's realizing that we not only do not pose a threat to her but that we're most certainly tending to her needs. She seems to really be reaching a comfort level with us. I should say me. She had that with Maria from the get go.
We did a little walking around and stopped in some shops. Every store offers laundry service very inexpensively, but it appears that they may send it all to one or two laundrys.
I want to interject here before I keep forgetting, and mention an expression that Andrew was using back in Tianjin where we were experiencing all the fireworks. I believe it came up today and he mentioned it again. Anyway, he says fireworks for fireworks, but as for firecrackers, he has an interesting way of pronouncing them as...firecratchers. The cuteness of it is beyond how I can explain it, if you can imagine.
This evening, we decided to order in for pizza, so we got a thin crust grilled chicken and onion from Papa John's. It was terrific and the even better news was that Andrew ate 2 full slices. So, it would seem that his appetite is on the mend and nearly back to normal after nearly 4 days of misery.
When we sit around and chat, our conversation seems to inevitably center or come back to the fact of amazement that we're here in China. A country that none of us thought we'd ever be in or go to. We all agreed though, travel to a foreign land is such an invaluable education that can never compare to a classroom or video.
I'm adding a few pics tonight from yesterday and today. First is Andrew with a few of his fans. You can tell how thrilled he is. The next is us at the buddhist pogoda. The scene with the waterfall is our hotel lobby area. Ana and Beatriz while we're out strolling around the neighborhood and then finally heading into the Starbucks.
I haven't been able to copy Ana's pics over yet, but there are many. I hope to have them soon. I will post the few that Maria Marcela has taken on Flickr right now.
Until tomorrow...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
What am I thinking?...
I can't believe I signed off without saying anything about Emily.
She is doing great and becoming more and more attached to mama. She is warming up to the idea that I'm around, but she's making it very clear that she's not turning over any warm fuzzies to me any time soon. That's alright though. I'm patient in this department for some unknown reason, but I'm fine with it. At least for now. I feel compelled to not force the issue.
I am taking advantage of opportunities to pick her up. Some are good, some are...well, not so good. As long as she knows she's got Maria there as her option, it's "I can't get away from this guy fast enough."
She let's me feed her. She's always got an open mouth.
It would be interesting to know how she was treated in order to define her actions now.
Anyway, there's plenty of time for the rest.
To give you a little bit on her. It's hard to tell the seriousness of her condition. She is able to crawl, but she is largely dependant on the use of her arms and she goes about as if her legs are lifeless, however, she is able to stand next to something as long as she can lean against it. Ana and Maria Marcela have stood her up, holding her arms and she's taken steps, so there's something there definately. She may, in addition to her scoliosis, be malnourished. The way she eats anything put in front of her and the way she guards her food, makes us think she rarely had a full belly, so to speak.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we had come across some caligraphy with names and their meanings. And believe it or not, the name Emily means the same as Mei in Chinese, "beautiful". Maria Marcela had no idea of that when she picked the names. She just knew she liked them.
Ok, now I really need to get into bed.
More later.
She is doing great and becoming more and more attached to mama. She is warming up to the idea that I'm around, but she's making it very clear that she's not turning over any warm fuzzies to me any time soon. That's alright though. I'm patient in this department for some unknown reason, but I'm fine with it. At least for now. I feel compelled to not force the issue.
I am taking advantage of opportunities to pick her up. Some are good, some are...well, not so good. As long as she knows she's got Maria there as her option, it's "I can't get away from this guy fast enough."
She let's me feed her. She's always got an open mouth.
It would be interesting to know how she was treated in order to define her actions now.
Anyway, there's plenty of time for the rest.
To give you a little bit on her. It's hard to tell the seriousness of her condition. She is able to crawl, but she is largely dependant on the use of her arms and she goes about as if her legs are lifeless, however, she is able to stand next to something as long as she can lean against it. Ana and Maria Marcela have stood her up, holding her arms and she's taken steps, so there's something there definately. She may, in addition to her scoliosis, be malnourished. The way she eats anything put in front of her and the way she guards her food, makes us think she rarely had a full belly, so to speak.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we had come across some caligraphy with names and their meanings. And believe it or not, the name Emily means the same as Mei in Chinese, "beautiful". Maria Marcela had no idea of that when she picked the names. She just knew she liked them.
Ok, now I really need to get into bed.
More later.
Guangzhou!!
Let me first say that Andrew is better. Since waking up Friday morning from food poisoning, it's taken him this long to be semi back to normal. He's still not 100% and doesn't have his appetite back, but at least he's holding food down.
He was pretty much out of it all day Friday and most of the day Saturday. Which, if you know me, I couldn't really think about much else with him ailing like he was.
As for everything else, I last left off writing Thursday with me and Anamaria making a trip to the town Emily was found...a city southwest of Tianjin about 20 miles called Jinxing, I may have that spelling wrong. Anyway, we supposedly located the actual address and the coal storage room she was found near. Sadly, when we were inquiring, the residence thought we were asking about babies that had been left there more recently, one of which did not make it.
We learned that the residents themselves did not discover Emily, but it was a passerby that took her to the local police. And from the newspaper notice that was placed asking for whom would claim to be her parents, she was taken to the orphanage the same day she was found. Of course her birth day of 1/19/06 is an estimate given by the attending physician.
I took my video camera so I don't have any stills, however Ana does and I hope to have those uploaded to Flickr over the next day along with all the other pics since last Wednesday/Thursday to now.
The day after was our day to hop a Southern China airline and fly to Guangzhou, we recognize it more by the name of Canton. Speaking of which, you probably already know, but Beijing used to have the name as we knew Peking. Anyway, the flight was good and yet miserable, at least for Andrew and us feeling terrible for him. He managed the flight without losing his guts though, which was good. That morning was the last time he was to have lost it.
The flight was 2 hours and 45 minutes, but not before we checked in over an hour early and waiting on the plane before takeoff another 30-45 minutes.
We arrived Guangzhou and obtained our luggage all fine. There was one sad point of the flight that we're still trying to recover from though...they confiscated our bottle of scotch at the security check point in Tianjin. Gloom and despair and agony on me...oh oh!
I'm hoping you all can discern when I'm using candor in my posts and when not, otherwise we've got a problem. :)
As for Guangzhou, the warmer climate was very welcoming, probably in the mid 70s when we arrived. Also, the hotel with a tremendous amount of amenities that we Western folk are used to. We're so spoiled, it's ridiculous. The hotel room is interestingly smaller than what we had in Tianjing, but the choices of food and also...get this...this hotel is grand central station for all adopting families in China. There is a secondary choice of hotel around the corner for those who wish to have it. Otherwise, this is it, since all babies have to receive their visa in this city at the American consulate.
It's not just the adopting families though. This hotel is a 5 star hotel that would rate very close to what we may experience in the states, so there are many travelers coming through here for business and leisure. The hotel sits on, what they say, an island. Somehow the Pearl River meanders around it. It's quite a large river that looks to be a quarter mile or more across.
We got checked in and came back down for dinner in which they were offering a grand buffet for $40 per person. We weren't that hungry, so we opted to order off the menu. This buffet though, it had it...caviar, every kind of seafood, and I mean every kind. For a person that isn't that familiar with eating things like sea cucumbers, oysters, things I've never seen before, it kind of disrupted my appetite. There were all types of breads, meats, etc. The restaurant faced the river with the whole wall being all glass.
Our hotel is 28 floors high with maybe 150 rooms per floor. I would say that the majority of the visitors were adopting families.
Every place we've stayed, the breakfast has been included, so you can imagine how we're taking advantage of chowing down during this meal.
This morning, after breakfast, we went on a group tour and visited a buddhist monastery not far from the hotel. It had a pagoda about 9 stories high in which it was originally built around 500 a.d. They offered to have the monks bless the children. Some did, we declined. As we entered, they offered incense sticks to light and burn. It was apparent that many come to pay tribute or homage to buddha. I'm not really clear on whether they see buddha as a god. At least now I'm not. Previous to today, I thought they did, but I was told today that is not necessarily the case. Either way, let's just say I'm not racing the embrace the religion. But then again, I'll have to claim ignorance to a large degree.
After we left there, we went to an artist's venue in which we watched painting with hand and fingernail, no brush...very interesting and very talented. We bought a few things and bring them home to show you. We also have pics so you can see online soon.
Finally, a little shopping. Mostly arts and crafts. Then back to the hotel. We grabbed lunch at a deli that is out back of the hotel and yet connected. The breads were tremendous. I just bought several simply because they looked beautiful. They were tasty as well. We bought sandwiches and drinks.
This afternoon, we came back, allowed Emily to take a nap while Andrew, Ana and I scouted out the hotel and it's shops. The shops had all the local treasures...silk, jade, ivory and porcelain items. A cigar humidor was selling Havana Cuban cigars. All over the lobby are carvings, either statues or furniture.
Upon Emily waking, we all went around the corner a couple of blocks to a...you guessed it...a Starbucks for caffeine fix. It's been drizzling all day, so it's somewhat gloomy, but it puts a different feel to our trip since we haven't seen rain while we've been in China. Walking the streets with the mist somewhat reminds us of a London town or maybe even Key West with a little bit of British feel.
We came back and met up with a group to all eat at a local Thai restaurant. Yes, it was difficult again in the ordering and trying to discern what we wanted and what we finally got. It didn't seem to matter that we had huge menus with the pictures, because where we thought we were ordering a nice dish of chicken...we got chicken, but it was refrigerator cold. It was intended to be just that, but it wasn't what we had envisioned.
So far I've batted 1000 with ordering a Heineken. Beatriz folded the menu and said, "you guys order, I'm washing my hands of it." I think she might be involved with the ordering the next time given what we ended up with. It really wasn't bad. We did enjoy dinner. It's just amusing when you have this picture of something and it's quite different.
Upon leaving, a couple was leaving behind us that had just adopted a 13 year old girl, her name is Bing Bing, that we had noticed upon going in. This girl was very cheerful and all smiles. Unfortunately, she is a burn victim with face disfigured...I can't even describe, and fingers missing also due to the fire. It's amazing to feel the happiness of this child finding herself a family, a home and someone to love her. I found myself looking through her scars and seeing a beautiful person that has found hope in a new life.
I have not said this before, but I will say it now. We have heard and we continue to hear the commendations, the accolades, the whatever, of what it means to adopt a child and the supposed saving of a child from a situation, but I believe it works out in many ways the reverse of the adopting family being the ones saved. Yes the child needs a home, needs a family to love them, but too, the adopting family needs a means to give that home and show that love. Now, you may be asking what do I mean...what do we need to be saved from. I believe giving the orphan a home, even though it's monumental and paramount, still only points to a grander plan. We are shortsighted to believe that these orphans wouldn't be cared for and tended to if it weren't for an adopting family.
I don't mention this to limit or reduce what people are doing, but to just say this...God's grace is despite what we might be. And I can only begin to hope of being a part of that and there be a minuscule of that outward expression shine through me. I'm a very selfish person. I'm sure lots can attest to that...about me, that is.
Let me just say, if I may, in all this...we ARE blessed and very thankful for a Creator that shows more mercy on us than we show on each other. Any demonstration of good, I believe to be a gift and we are merely the conveyence.
I don't wish to offend anybody with any of this. I'm just feeling a little emotional right now and rather than erasing all of this and starting over, I'm going to take a chance that you understand what I'm saying and how I'm feeling about all of this.
Before I dig myself a deeper hole, I better call it night. It's getting late and tomorrow I'm preparing all the papers for the consulate visit on Wednesday.
Please ask me if something doesn't make sense in what I'm saying. It's been enough to be misunderstood here in China just ordering dinner, let alone the off-chance of troubling someone with what I've written.
I hope not to go another 2 days before writing again. Also, I am trying to talk Beatriz in to posting. Maybe I'll remind her tomorrow.
Love to all.
He was pretty much out of it all day Friday and most of the day Saturday. Which, if you know me, I couldn't really think about much else with him ailing like he was.
As for everything else, I last left off writing Thursday with me and Anamaria making a trip to the town Emily was found...a city southwest of Tianjin about 20 miles called Jinxing, I may have that spelling wrong. Anyway, we supposedly located the actual address and the coal storage room she was found near. Sadly, when we were inquiring, the residence thought we were asking about babies that had been left there more recently, one of which did not make it.
We learned that the residents themselves did not discover Emily, but it was a passerby that took her to the local police. And from the newspaper notice that was placed asking for whom would claim to be her parents, she was taken to the orphanage the same day she was found. Of course her birth day of 1/19/06 is an estimate given by the attending physician.
I took my video camera so I don't have any stills, however Ana does and I hope to have those uploaded to Flickr over the next day along with all the other pics since last Wednesday/Thursday to now.
The day after was our day to hop a Southern China airline and fly to Guangzhou, we recognize it more by the name of Canton. Speaking of which, you probably already know, but Beijing used to have the name as we knew Peking. Anyway, the flight was good and yet miserable, at least for Andrew and us feeling terrible for him. He managed the flight without losing his guts though, which was good. That morning was the last time he was to have lost it.
The flight was 2 hours and 45 minutes, but not before we checked in over an hour early and waiting on the plane before takeoff another 30-45 minutes.
We arrived Guangzhou and obtained our luggage all fine. There was one sad point of the flight that we're still trying to recover from though...they confiscated our bottle of scotch at the security check point in Tianjin. Gloom and despair and agony on me...oh oh!
I'm hoping you all can discern when I'm using candor in my posts and when not, otherwise we've got a problem. :)
As for Guangzhou, the warmer climate was very welcoming, probably in the mid 70s when we arrived. Also, the hotel with a tremendous amount of amenities that we Western folk are used to. We're so spoiled, it's ridiculous. The hotel room is interestingly smaller than what we had in Tianjing, but the choices of food and also...get this...this hotel is grand central station for all adopting families in China. There is a secondary choice of hotel around the corner for those who wish to have it. Otherwise, this is it, since all babies have to receive their visa in this city at the American consulate.
It's not just the adopting families though. This hotel is a 5 star hotel that would rate very close to what we may experience in the states, so there are many travelers coming through here for business and leisure. The hotel sits on, what they say, an island. Somehow the Pearl River meanders around it. It's quite a large river that looks to be a quarter mile or more across.
We got checked in and came back down for dinner in which they were offering a grand buffet for $40 per person. We weren't that hungry, so we opted to order off the menu. This buffet though, it had it...caviar, every kind of seafood, and I mean every kind. For a person that isn't that familiar with eating things like sea cucumbers, oysters, things I've never seen before, it kind of disrupted my appetite. There were all types of breads, meats, etc. The restaurant faced the river with the whole wall being all glass.
Our hotel is 28 floors high with maybe 150 rooms per floor. I would say that the majority of the visitors were adopting families.
Every place we've stayed, the breakfast has been included, so you can imagine how we're taking advantage of chowing down during this meal.
This morning, after breakfast, we went on a group tour and visited a buddhist monastery not far from the hotel. It had a pagoda about 9 stories high in which it was originally built around 500 a.d. They offered to have the monks bless the children. Some did, we declined. As we entered, they offered incense sticks to light and burn. It was apparent that many come to pay tribute or homage to buddha. I'm not really clear on whether they see buddha as a god. At least now I'm not. Previous to today, I thought they did, but I was told today that is not necessarily the case. Either way, let's just say I'm not racing the embrace the religion. But then again, I'll have to claim ignorance to a large degree.
After we left there, we went to an artist's venue in which we watched painting with hand and fingernail, no brush...very interesting and very talented. We bought a few things and bring them home to show you. We also have pics so you can see online soon.
Finally, a little shopping. Mostly arts and crafts. Then back to the hotel. We grabbed lunch at a deli that is out back of the hotel and yet connected. The breads were tremendous. I just bought several simply because they looked beautiful. They were tasty as well. We bought sandwiches and drinks.
This afternoon, we came back, allowed Emily to take a nap while Andrew, Ana and I scouted out the hotel and it's shops. The shops had all the local treasures...silk, jade, ivory and porcelain items. A cigar humidor was selling Havana Cuban cigars. All over the lobby are carvings, either statues or furniture.
Upon Emily waking, we all went around the corner a couple of blocks to a...you guessed it...a Starbucks for caffeine fix. It's been drizzling all day, so it's somewhat gloomy, but it puts a different feel to our trip since we haven't seen rain while we've been in China. Walking the streets with the mist somewhat reminds us of a London town or maybe even Key West with a little bit of British feel.
We came back and met up with a group to all eat at a local Thai restaurant. Yes, it was difficult again in the ordering and trying to discern what we wanted and what we finally got. It didn't seem to matter that we had huge menus with the pictures, because where we thought we were ordering a nice dish of chicken...we got chicken, but it was refrigerator cold. It was intended to be just that, but it wasn't what we had envisioned.
So far I've batted 1000 with ordering a Heineken. Beatriz folded the menu and said, "you guys order, I'm washing my hands of it." I think she might be involved with the ordering the next time given what we ended up with. It really wasn't bad. We did enjoy dinner. It's just amusing when you have this picture of something and it's quite different.
Upon leaving, a couple was leaving behind us that had just adopted a 13 year old girl, her name is Bing Bing, that we had noticed upon going in. This girl was very cheerful and all smiles. Unfortunately, she is a burn victim with face disfigured...I can't even describe, and fingers missing also due to the fire. It's amazing to feel the happiness of this child finding herself a family, a home and someone to love her. I found myself looking through her scars and seeing a beautiful person that has found hope in a new life.
I have not said this before, but I will say it now. We have heard and we continue to hear the commendations, the accolades, the whatever, of what it means to adopt a child and the supposed saving of a child from a situation, but I believe it works out in many ways the reverse of the adopting family being the ones saved. Yes the child needs a home, needs a family to love them, but too, the adopting family needs a means to give that home and show that love. Now, you may be asking what do I mean...what do we need to be saved from. I believe giving the orphan a home, even though it's monumental and paramount, still only points to a grander plan. We are shortsighted to believe that these orphans wouldn't be cared for and tended to if it weren't for an adopting family.
I don't mention this to limit or reduce what people are doing, but to just say this...God's grace is despite what we might be. And I can only begin to hope of being a part of that and there be a minuscule of that outward expression shine through me. I'm a very selfish person. I'm sure lots can attest to that...about me, that is.
Let me just say, if I may, in all this...we ARE blessed and very thankful for a Creator that shows more mercy on us than we show on each other. Any demonstration of good, I believe to be a gift and we are merely the conveyence.
I don't wish to offend anybody with any of this. I'm just feeling a little emotional right now and rather than erasing all of this and starting over, I'm going to take a chance that you understand what I'm saying and how I'm feeling about all of this.
Before I dig myself a deeper hole, I better call it night. It's getting late and tomorrow I'm preparing all the papers for the consulate visit on Wednesday.
Please ask me if something doesn't make sense in what I'm saying. It's been enough to be misunderstood here in China just ordering dinner, let alone the off-chance of troubling someone with what I've written.
I hope not to go another 2 days before writing again. Also, I am trying to talk Beatriz in to posting. Maybe I'll remind her tomorrow.
Love to all.
Back Online!!!
Just a quick note...I'm currently bringing everything up to date. Stay tuned over the next few minutes.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Ana's post - lost in the crowd
Hi all -
Yesterday we went to ancient culture street - much like Faneuil Hall in Boston. Lot's of street vendors and little shops selling all kinds of traditional chinese things like scroll paper and brushes, tea kettles, toys and jade carvings. Yesterday was the Lantern festival, the last day of the two week new year celebration so we got lucky and had a chance to see a parade while down at culture street. On top of that I really got a chance to experience some interactions with local folks. I made my way to the front of the crowd to take pictures of the parade and when some chinese folks saw that I wasn't really able to see, they made people move so I could get up to the front. Then one guy in particular basically cleared a path for me and made me walk THROUGH the parade and up to the front. I ended up getting swept away among the crowd and lost the rest of the group for about an hour. It was really neat to be in the square in the middle of all that. There were other press photographers there to cover the event and I don't really know if people thought I was also press, but they kept looking at me and were very happy and willing to have their pictures taken.
People here are quite fascinated by us and are very friendly towards us. They rattle off all kinds of things in chinese as if we understood the language and when we look at them with blank stares not understanding a word, they just keep talking and maybe point and signal. It's been quite an experience making ourselves understood. We've been to the grocery store a few times and somehow or other we make it through all these adventures without a word of english. I've been trying to work on my chinese but truthfully it's been hard. This morning Wendy our guide helped me with some pronunciations so maybe I will attempt a few sentences this afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes later.
Laughing
There have been a few requests of seeing Emily in a happier state. I'm attaching a video I think you'll enjoy.
I'm getting ready to leave for her birthtown, but wanted to post this before going.
Andrew woke up this morning with the Emporer's revenge. No telling where he got it. Had a belly ache upon waking up and and followed with a couple of incidents that accompany the poisoning.
He seems to be ok.
I'm getting ready to leave for her birthtown, but wanted to post this before going.
Andrew woke up this morning with the Emporer's revenge. No telling where he got it. Had a belly ache upon waking up and and followed with a couple of incidents that accompany the poisoning.
He seems to be ok.
Tomorrow
I'm just adding the last of the pics (to Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/johnnysnyder) that Anamaria took the first couple of days of our trip, before I go to bed. It's around 11:15 p.m. Thursday night and we're finishing up a day of the New Year's celebration. Ok, maybe you're tired of reading that in the blog, but let me tell you...the whole evening, this city has been having a barrage of fireworks going off. I'm saying, it sounds and feels like bombs and gunfire are going off all around us. We've been watching out our window the whole night and, EVERYWHERE, are fireworks going off. These are the ones we always go to see on the 4th of July that the city sponsors. We've had them exploding maybe 50 yards from our window. Andrew, Anamaria and I went up to the top of our hotel hoping to find a better lookout over the city and voila...on the 27th floor, the administration offices of the hotel, we found, if you can imagine a women's bathroom with a bay window view on 2 sides. This is not a bathroom you would need to take a magazine or newspaper to read with you. Usually it's a CEO that gets this kind of space with a view.
Anyway, I was going to mention. Tomorrow will be a special day since I am traveling outside the city about an hour and a half to visit the residence in which Emily was originally found. Should be interesting. I'll post the original notice text about her being found. Until then...goodnight.
Anyway, I was going to mention. Tomorrow will be a special day since I am traveling outside the city about an hour and a half to visit the residence in which Emily was originally found. Should be interesting. I'll post the original notice text about her being found. Until then...goodnight.
Maria Marcela's Post - Thursday, Feb. 21st
I wanted to write an update on Emily. She is adjusting pretty well. She bonded with me from the first moment she saw me as if I had been her mommy all along. It is a great feeling. She is really cute and a sweetheart. Very cuddly and likes to be held all the time of course. Today we noticed a big change. We think she is starting to feel more confortable with us and was laughing a lot more. I found her weak ticking spot and she was loving it. Her favorite thing to do is eat. I have never seen a child that enjoys eating like her. She is not picky at all and has a big appetite. She also likes to be out. She uses a short Chinese word to say she wants outside. Very cute. When we go out we put her in the stroller and she can spend a long time there looking around.
We have been quite an attraction for the locals that constantly stop to see her and wonder why she doesn’t look like the rest of us. Our guide explains them that she is adopted and people have a positive reaction and appreciate that we have come to take her home.
Today we had the chance to visit a local Chinese market. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of people since today was the last day of the two week new year celebration. As I write there are a lot of fireworks going on outside all over the city. This has been going on for a couple of hours and may continue through the night. We may not get to bed until who knows when.
Andrew continues to be a target for the “paparazzi” He is quite sick of it and hides his face as much as he can. We still have another week and a half of our visit in China. On Friday we should get Emily’s Chinese passport. We leave for Guangzhou Saturday where we will get the USA visa for Emily.
Free Day - 15th of First Month
Today, we ventured out on the last day of the Chinese Holiday...what a treasure. This is the 15th day of the first month marking the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration (full moon).
We took a taxi to a place called Culture Street. Let me just say it was a mass of people. We did a little shopping and purchased some items to bring back home. Andrew got a little kite and a spinning toy that makes a very loud hum when it spins. It's the same thing that's used in exhibitions like the acrobatic show. We stood there watching this guy demonstrating and crouds of people were gathering around to what we thought they were there to watch the guy demonstrating the toy. After we left, our guide explained to us that the crowd was there to watch Andrew sitting on my shoulders.
I have good news to report that we have some shots of Emily smiling, even laughing. So, don't despair, as you were skepticle and realized her seriousness, so did we.
It is truly amazing how she is finding such comfort and refuge in Maria Marcela. She is just a few steps from me now laughing at Andrew putting on a show in the bath tub.
I wish you all could experience walking through the markets as we did here today.
We stayed for about 2-3 hours and went to a famous restaurant that was built in the mid 1800's. Afterward, went across the street for a Starbuck's.
We came back to the hotel and walked the river side. I'm telling you, I needed I nice big fat cigar just to get some fresher air in my lungs. We opted for a scotch back at the room. Where Beijing was somewhat clear, this town has probably a one mile visibility due to the smog.
I'll be adding some of today's photos later.
We took a taxi to a place called Culture Street. Let me just say it was a mass of people. We did a little shopping and purchased some items to bring back home. Andrew got a little kite and a spinning toy that makes a very loud hum when it spins. It's the same thing that's used in exhibitions like the acrobatic show. We stood there watching this guy demonstrating and crouds of people were gathering around to what we thought they were there to watch the guy demonstrating the toy. After we left, our guide explained to us that the crowd was there to watch Andrew sitting on my shoulders.
I have good news to report that we have some shots of Emily smiling, even laughing. So, don't despair, as you were skepticle and realized her seriousness, so did we.
It is truly amazing how she is finding such comfort and refuge in Maria Marcela. She is just a few steps from me now laughing at Andrew putting on a show in the bath tub.
I wish you all could experience walking through the markets as we did here today.
We stayed for about 2-3 hours and went to a famous restaurant that was built in the mid 1800's. Afterward, went across the street for a Starbuck's.
We came back to the hotel and walked the river side. I'm telling you, I needed I nice big fat cigar just to get some fresher air in my lungs. We opted for a scotch back at the room. Where Beijing was somewhat clear, this town has probably a one mile visibility due to the smog.
I'll be adding some of today's photos later.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Adoption Complete...Partially Anyway
We're getting ready for bed and just wanted to end the day by posting that according to the People's Republic of China, the adoption is final and Wei Ming Su is now Emily Mei Snyder.
Today, we went back to the orphanage and met with the director in which we paid the "mandatory" donation fee of $3000 in US dollars in which the cash had to be in new and perfect condition. Also, an announcement fee of 960 rmb (yuan) was paid. We're not really sure how the announcement is served and for what purpose. It was not explained to us, but we weren't really interested either at this point to ask. The director then gave us a goody bag which contained a certificate finalizing the adoption, a little painted figurine of a boy made of mud, and most important, a journal for Emily. The journal is written in Chinese and we'll need to have it translated. Also, there was a record of her immunizations and a little red silk banner with the orphanage emblem.
After we left, we stopped by the notary office to verify our information that is being submitted for Emily's passport. She will be issued a Chinese passport under her Chinese name and will be using this to travel back home with us. We should be getting this either Friday or Saturday.
We stopped by another market to pick up some things. I was able to get a microphone headset to use on the computer. We've been able to use Skype on the internet to call back to the states at only 2 cents a minute. It's been very convenient.
We stayed in tonight, I uploaded some more of the pics that Ana has taken, not even half. And we ordered in pizza again.
Everyone's in bed and I'm about to call it a night. I can barely keep my eyes open. Tomorrow is the last day of the Chinese new year celebration. We'll be probably going around and do a little shopping.
We've arranged for use of one of the wedding cars on Friday to go out and visit the community/residence in which Emily was found. We learned that it's about an hour or so outside of the city.
No pics for the blog tonight, they're on Ana's camera and I'm too tired to copy them over.
Be sure and check out flickr. The link is below. I'll continue to post until we have every pic that was taken on our trip.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnysnyder
More later. Goodnight, or should I say good morning?
Today, we went back to the orphanage and met with the director in which we paid the "mandatory" donation fee of $3000 in US dollars in which the cash had to be in new and perfect condition. Also, an announcement fee of 960 rmb (yuan) was paid. We're not really sure how the announcement is served and for what purpose. It was not explained to us, but we weren't really interested either at this point to ask. The director then gave us a goody bag which contained a certificate finalizing the adoption, a little painted figurine of a boy made of mud, and most important, a journal for Emily. The journal is written in Chinese and we'll need to have it translated. Also, there was a record of her immunizations and a little red silk banner with the orphanage emblem.
After we left, we stopped by the notary office to verify our information that is being submitted for Emily's passport. She will be issued a Chinese passport under her Chinese name and will be using this to travel back home with us. We should be getting this either Friday or Saturday.
We stopped by another market to pick up some things. I was able to get a microphone headset to use on the computer. We've been able to use Skype on the internet to call back to the states at only 2 cents a minute. It's been very convenient.
We stayed in tonight, I uploaded some more of the pics that Ana has taken, not even half. And we ordered in pizza again.
Everyone's in bed and I'm about to call it a night. I can barely keep my eyes open. Tomorrow is the last day of the Chinese new year celebration. We'll be probably going around and do a little shopping.
We've arranged for use of one of the wedding cars on Friday to go out and visit the community/residence in which Emily was found. We learned that it's about an hour or so outside of the city.
No pics for the blog tonight, they're on Ana's camera and I'm too tired to copy them over.
Be sure and check out flickr. The link is below. I'll continue to post until we have every pic that was taken on our trip.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnysnyder
More later. Goodnight, or should I say good morning?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
After Breakfast
We had a great breakfast and we're back at the rooms. It's terrific that we have adjoining rooms. Anyway, we're going to start having all of us posting to the blog because I'd like for you to get more than just my perspective of what's been going on.
In the meantime, here's a shot of Andrew being a typical brother.
Wednesday, February 20 - Start of Day
I figure I'll post before you all go to bed and we're just waking up.
We all were able to sleep through the night and IT WAS GREAT! Can you sense my enthusiasm?
We all got up around 7:30 a.m. local time. And I manage to pull Emily out of her crib. Yes, she cried, but she's warming up to me. I gave her a bottle and moved her around without incident. Mommy is taking a shower and Emily's sitting on the bed with it just her and me in the room. She's calling out to mama "baw baw" which means she wants to be held, but by mama only.
Today, we have a free morning until 2 p.m. So, we'll take it easy and I'll try and post all of Anamaria's pics to flickr.
This afternoon, we go back to the orphanage and meet with the director. Should be our last visit, with the exception of getting Emily's passport on Friday.
The comment was made more than once yesterday by several. "now that we have our kids, let's go home." Well, it's not like that. Hard to believe we have yet another week and a half here.
We can't wait to show off the new addition.
We all were able to sleep through the night and IT WAS GREAT! Can you sense my enthusiasm?
We all got up around 7:30 a.m. local time. And I manage to pull Emily out of her crib. Yes, she cried, but she's warming up to me. I gave her a bottle and moved her around without incident. Mommy is taking a shower and Emily's sitting on the bed with it just her and me in the room. She's calling out to mama "baw baw" which means she wants to be held, but by mama only.
Today, we have a free morning until 2 p.m. So, we'll take it easy and I'll try and post all of Anamaria's pics to flickr.
This afternoon, we go back to the orphanage and meet with the director. Should be our last visit, with the exception of getting Emily's passport on Friday.
The comment was made more than once yesterday by several. "now that we have our kids, let's go home." Well, it's not like that. Hard to believe we have yet another week and a half here.
We can't wait to show off the new addition.
Photo, Photos and More Photos
We're getting ready to go to bed, but thought I'd give a last update for the day.
We took a taxi across town in search of western food and found a TGI Fridays. It was good to have familiar food once again. Even though the whole staff had trouble understanding what we wanted even though we pointed to the menu. We probably had about 4-5 servers trying to take our order...amusing.
After that we walked next door into a 5 star hotel (China's standard, that is) and procurred the assistance of the concierge with getting us a taxi and giving the driver directions to a Starbucks. We went to a central shopping area, of which we're sure to return again, and enjoyed a coffee. Afterwards, we returned to the room in which the kids took baths.
Emily seems to be warming up to the idea of joining a new family. And we discovered her being ticklish around her neck. She and Andrew are behind me snoozing away. We've had to allow Emily to cry a bit in her crib before she realizes nobody is coming to her rescue. She finally resorts to lying down and going to sleep.
Anyway, I wanted to say, that I'm going to start uploading every photo that we've taken to Flickr. But I'll probably still put highlight pics in my blog posts. Otherwise, my barrage of text would become boring.
There are hundreds of photos that Anamaria has shot and I hope to load those up in the morning. That means it will be Tuesday night for you all.
I believe you can either click on the title up above or the link below and it will take you there.
We took a taxi across town in search of western food and found a TGI Fridays. It was good to have familiar food once again. Even though the whole staff had trouble understanding what we wanted even though we pointed to the menu. We probably had about 4-5 servers trying to take our order...amusing.
After that we walked next door into a 5 star hotel (China's standard, that is) and procurred the assistance of the concierge with getting us a taxi and giving the driver directions to a Starbucks. We went to a central shopping area, of which we're sure to return again, and enjoyed a coffee. Afterwards, we returned to the room in which the kids took baths.
Emily seems to be warming up to the idea of joining a new family. And we discovered her being ticklish around her neck. She and Andrew are behind me snoozing away. We've had to allow Emily to cry a bit in her crib before she realizes nobody is coming to her rescue. She finally resorts to lying down and going to sleep.
Anyway, I wanted to say, that I'm going to start uploading every photo that we've taken to Flickr. But I'll probably still put highlight pics in my blog posts. Otherwise, my barrage of text would become boring.
There are hundreds of photos that Anamaria has shot and I hope to load those up in the morning. That means it will be Tuesday night for you all.
I believe you can either click on the title up above or the link below and it will take you there.
| www.flickr.com |
Monday, February 18, 2008
Day 2 with Emily - Tuesday, February 19th 2008
Since I was brief with yesterday's happenings, I'll try to fill in some of what happened. I may repeat myself since, again, I can't even view our own blog once I post due to filtering on the internet here in China.
I might have mentioned that we have transported around in 3 shiny red Mazda 6's. If any of you have seen the movie "Italian Job" with Marky Mark featuring the 3 mini coopers driving through town. That was us. Apparently red is a lucky color here in China, along with the number 8. They use these cars ordinarily for weddings. So you can just imagine us streaming and weaving through town, with everyone giving way to us. Of course, driving here is kind of like driving in Rome. You just plow through and don't make eye contact. As soon as you make eye contact, it's almost as if you're relinquishing your right to go first.
Anyway, last night we ordered in for Pizza and Coke. It was a welcome treat since the new hotel we're in serves only tradional Chinese cuisine. And yes, it gets old quick. A phenomona occured when Andrew asked to go to bed on his own. Maria had a difficult time getting Emily to sleep and we found that the same trick I used on Andrew of rocking in the stroller worked on her. I was able to later transfer her to the crib. We had a little surprise around 1:30 a.m. when Emily woke up and needed to potty. We didn't realize that she seems to be in the midst of being potty trained and gave us an opportunity to take her, but didn't seize the moment. She proceeded to grace us. Anyway, after the mess, all went back to bed and got up this morning for an early breakfast since we had paperwork and to assure the government we wanted to keep her.
We went to a government building to write and sign explanation as to why we wanted her and to insure that we would not abandon her. With reluctance, we agreed...just kidding.
Again we hopped in to our wedding caravan and proceeded with the "China Job" at hand. Last night I had to exchange money over to RMB or Yuan, in order to pay fees for today. The exchange is about the same as it is for the French and Swiss franc...about 7 to the US dollar. So I divied up the money according the fees and placed each in it's appropriate and distinguishing envelope in order to pay when we were called upon. First was the registration fee (830 rmb - $119), Emily's Chinese passport (250 rmb - $35) and the notary fee (2240 rmb - $320). After the government registration, we went across town for the notary services.
We're now back in our hotel room, which is very nice, however, we're in the midst of so much construction, we can't really walk anywhere. Emily will be put down for her nap in a few moments.
Introducing Emily Mei
I'm attaching a video clip. Unfortunately, I caught them just after Emily reached for Maria Marcela and clung to her. It was very emotional. We were told that 90% of the time, the children have trouble going to the adopting parents. Amazingly, all 3 of our families in our group were received very well and the children took great. However, there was a family in there when we arrived and the child did have difficulty.
We're very fortunate. We're back at our hotel now and have had lunch. She has a very healthy appetite.
You will notice in the video that Emily has a red dot on her forehead and stars pasted on her ears. We were told that they were symbolic of showing how cute the child is.
Emily is still a little hesitant about me, but at least she embraces Maria now and she has big smiles and laughs when Andrew does his usual thing in front of her.
I'll have more later.
We're very fortunate. We're back at our hotel now and have had lunch. She has a very healthy appetite.
You will notice in the video that Emily has a red dot on her forehead and stars pasted on her ears. We were told that they were symbolic of showing how cute the child is.
Emily is still a little hesitant about me, but at least she embraces Maria now and she has big smiles and laughs when Andrew does his usual thing in front of her.
I'll have more later.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
End of Day February 17th - Arrival to Tianjin
We were able to sleep in this morning, solely to Andrew sleeping until 6:30 a.m. Very nice.
Bringing us up to date, we were able to visit the Great Wall, north of Beijing about an hour, or at least only a portion of the over 5,000 miles of it. I may have that number wrong. Also, we visited a Jade factory, drove by the Olympic Stadium and then finished it off having dinner at the truest of all restaurants serving Peking Duck.
Andrew fell asleep in his chair midway through dinner. This trip has been quite taxing on him, or should I say that he's actually been soaking up every aspect of it and it's just worn him out.
Today we were able to enjoy a leisure breakfast and left Beijing around 11 a.m., but not before arranging to purchase a camel's hair blanket from the hotel for $20.
We arrived Tainjin around 2 p.m. in which there was an immense amount of construction going on all over the city. This appears to put the "the Big Dig" of Boston to shame. Nonetheless, our hotel is an oasis amidst all the chaos.
On the ride over, our new guide, Wendy, gave us instructions on what we could be met with over the next few days. We found out that our little girl has actually been in foster care directed by the orphanage. A bit of information we thought would have been nice to know, not changing anything, but it will be good for the child, given the home she is in is positive.
Wendy taught us some Chinese words, expressions and a kid's song on our trip over. We were traveling with two other couples from our original group to Tianjin. I failed to mention that, in Beijing, there were about 7 couples that were going to different regions to pickup their child.
We're being told that the first day, two or three can be difficult with the child accepting us and dealing with the separation from her foster family. We're quite anxious.
Anyway, tonight, after having a final meeting with our guide about preparation for tomorrow, when we finally get to meet Emily, we tried to relax. I can't say how successful we were in accomplishing that, but we went down to dinner and it took our mind off a little. The restaurant in the hotel here put us in a private room, closed the door and served us. If I had't ordered a bottle of Merlot, our dinner would have been only $17 for 5 of us. However, somehow, the bottle cost us $50. Not a big deal, but truly interesting in how all of it played out.
I will probably have more to say about the last 2 days, but truthfully tomorrow morning, I'm certain we will be engulfed in accepting our new little girl into our lives. We will have the opportunity of having her in our hotel with us until Saturday before we all fly down to Guangzhou, where we do the final paperwork. In Tainjin, we apply for her passport, pay some fees, place an official announcement in the local paper and submit paperwork to the orphanage and local government. From what I understand, they allow us to bring her with us immediately and give us 24 hours to decide for certain whether we wish to keep her. I don't remember the hospital in Plano giving us that option with Andrew.
There will be more tomorrow and obviously some very important photos to post, but until then, here's some shots over the past few days.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Once again, Andrew wakes up at 3 a.m. and I set him up to watch Wiggles on my computer. We're all wide awake now. This just ain't right.
Anyway, as for yesterday, we would not have figured to have a celebrity among us. You wouldn't believe the attention Andrew received. People wanting to pick him up, take their picture with him. Of all things, a couple of teenage boys stopping us, taking a photo, or 2, maybe 3 and saying "he's so beautiful". Funny, more people over here can tell he's a boy than they can in the states.
We had quite a full day that we couldn't have asked for better. It got chilly as the day went, but we started out with a great gourmet buffet breakfast. I had 2 double espressos...yikes. We left around 9 a.m. for Teinnamin Square and Forbidden City. It's huge. I'm adding a photo of us before entering the main gate. This took us until lunch in which we ate at a traditional chinese restaurant. 2 tables, about 10 to a table, about 12 different dishes.
After lunch, we visited a silk factory, purchased a silk comforter and cover. Then went on an hour and half rickshaw ride through a rural area. To our surprise, we visited a typical residence of a retired couple. Sat in a circle and chatted, with a translator, of course.
As if we didn't have enough of a full day...exhausted, btw, we went directly to see the Chinese Acrobatics show....amazing. And as I believe I mentioned, Andrew collapsed on me midway despite all the noise.
Afterwards we came home, grabbed some dinner and came to bed.
Today, we're planning to visit the Great Wall. Tomorrow, we load up and drive out to Tianjian and settle in to another hotel before we go to pick up Emily at the orphanage on Monday. The whole time, I thought we were picking her up today. I don't know where I got that idea.
BTW, I'm still trying to figure out this whole formatting of the blogger. Sorry for the spattering of pics and text. It's obvious that the pics lay out opposite of the way I insert.
Anyway, as for yesterday, we would not have figured to have a celebrity among us. You wouldn't believe the attention Andrew received. People wanting to pick him up, take their picture with him. Of all things, a couple of teenage boys stopping us, taking a photo, or 2, maybe 3 and saying "he's so beautiful". Funny, more people over here can tell he's a boy than they can in the states.
We had quite a full day that we couldn't have asked for better. It got chilly as the day went, but we started out with a great gourmet buffet breakfast. I had 2 double espressos...yikes. We left around 9 a.m. for Teinnamin Square and Forbidden City. It's huge. I'm adding a photo of us before entering the main gate. This took us until lunch in which we ate at a traditional chinese restaurant. 2 tables, about 10 to a table, about 12 different dishes.
After lunch, we visited a silk factory, purchased a silk comforter and cover. Then went on an hour and half rickshaw ride through a rural area. To our surprise, we visited a typical residence of a retired couple. Sat in a circle and chatted, with a translator, of course.
As if we didn't have enough of a full day...exhausted, btw, we went directly to see the Chinese Acrobatics show....amazing. And as I believe I mentioned, Andrew collapsed on me midway despite all the noise.
Afterwards we came home, grabbed some dinner and came to bed.
Today, we're planning to visit the Great Wall. Tomorrow, we load up and drive out to Tianjian and settle in to another hotel before we go to pick up Emily at the orphanage on Monday. The whole time, I thought we were picking her up today. I don't know where I got that idea.
BTW, I'm still trying to figure out this whole formatting of the blogger. Sorry for the spattering of pics and text. It's obvious that the pics lay out opposite of the way I insert.
End of Day, Friday, Feb. 15
Whew! We are exhausted. We just got home from seeing the Chinese Acrobat's show. Andrew crashed in my lap midway through it.
We're going to grab dinner even though we feel like we seriously need to go to bed, regardless of it only being a little after 7 p.m.
Will post today's happenings in a little bit. I figure since it's only 5 a.m. there, nobody's reading anything anyway. Our body clock is sooo messed up.
We're going to grab dinner even though we feel like we seriously need to go to bed, regardless of it only being a little after 7 p.m.
Will post today's happenings in a little bit. I figure since it's only 5 a.m. there, nobody's reading anything anyway. Our body clock is sooo messed up.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Andrew - A rare moment of snoozing
Andrew slept a couple of times on the flight. A rarity since he found please in using the seat as somewhat of a slide to entertain himself.
We had to ask a couple of people to shuffle seats since they didn't put us together on a flight of nearly 600 people. Ugh!
Anamaria and Beatriz
Anamaria and Beatriz as we join up with other adopting families at the Beijing Int'l. airport. We were waiting over 1-2 hours for another family from Wyoming that didn't show. We hope to hear about what happened today.
Link to our Hotel
We're quite pleased with our accomodations: Here's a link,
http://www.novotel.com/novotel/fichehotel/gb/nov/3115/fiche_hotel.shtml
http://www.novotel.com/novotel/fichehotel/gb/nov/3115/fiche_hotel.shtml
Breakfast
Breakfast was terrific. French restaurant here is going to take care of us well. We seem to be received well, but the staff is a bit reserved on how to take us. We feel that we're made to be a bit of a specticle. And of course Andrew's curiousity keeps everyone's attention on him.
The breakfast was buffet style...everything we wanted, waffles, crepes, eggs, bamboo shoots w/mushrooms, double espresso, juices. Last night, even though it was buffet as well, I chose a beef tenderloin and the woman just told me to go sit down. I took it that it wasn't being mean, just direct and to get the point across.
I'm attaching a couple photos.
Interestingly, I can post to this blog, but I am unable to navigate and view the page. You all will have to be my eyes and tell me if something doesn't look right. BTW, with all that we're taking in, I may not be all that coherant in my postings...so please pardon.
The breakfast was buffet style...everything we wanted, waffles, crepes, eggs, bamboo shoots w/mushrooms, double espresso, juices. Last night, even though it was buffet as well, I chose a beef tenderloin and the woman just told me to go sit down. I took it that it wasn't being mean, just direct and to get the point across.
I'm attaching a couple photos.
Interestingly, I can post to this blog, but I am unable to navigate and view the page. You all will have to be my eyes and tell me if something doesn't look right. BTW, with all that we're taking in, I may not be all that coherant in my postings...so please pardon.
Arrived Beijing
Just a quick note to say that we arrived Thursday, 2/14 around 3:30 p.m. local time after crossing the international date line. So as went to bed to end that day, it was just starting for you. I believe we're about 14 hours ahead of Texas time (CST).
We're staying at the Novotel Peace Hotel in Beijing with plans to tour Tiananmen Square and Forgidden City tomorrow, then the Great Wall day after.
We're on the 13th floor, no superstitions here, thankfully. However, I thought US hotels didn't have a 13th.
Just wanted to let you know we're safe and the travel went as well as could be expected. In other words, no major complications. Maybe an inconvenience here or there.
Beijing is quite accommodating to English speak.
Will update you more later.
As you can tell, I wrote the above yesterday and am just now posting it...
Well, all woke up at 3 a.m. local time and can't sleep anymore. We're bouncing off the walls. Apparently we went to sleep earlier than we originally thought.
It's now 5:15 a.m. and we're getting ready for a 6 a.m. breakfast. Did you ever hear of us being up and ready to go at that time?
We're touring today and hope to post photos and updates tonight.
Talk to you soon.
We're staying at the Novotel Peace Hotel in Beijing with plans to tour Tiananmen Square and Forgidden City tomorrow, then the Great Wall day after.
We're on the 13th floor, no superstitions here, thankfully. However, I thought US hotels didn't have a 13th.
Just wanted to let you know we're safe and the travel went as well as could be expected. In other words, no major complications. Maybe an inconvenience here or there.
Beijing is quite accommodating to English speak.
Will update you more later.
As you can tell, I wrote the above yesterday and am just now posting it...
Well, all woke up at 3 a.m. local time and can't sleep anymore. We're bouncing off the walls. Apparently we went to sleep earlier than we originally thought.
It's now 5:15 a.m. and we're getting ready for a 6 a.m. breakfast. Did you ever hear of us being up and ready to go at that time?
We're touring today and hope to post photos and updates tonight.
Talk to you soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
