The Long Journey Home

Sorry.  I fell off on the blogging at the very end of the trip and when I got home.  The last day (November 27) in Guangzhou was quiet.  We did not get out for a look around the city.  We went instead to a high end mall (called a "Friendship Store") across from our hotel (the Garden Hotel) and walked around with the stroller to try to induce Charlotte to take a nap.  I went and got Bizzy pizza from the nearby Pizza Hut (she was ready for western food by the time we were in Guangzhou) and all of us coffee from Costa.  Connie picked up Charlotte's US visa and other paperwork from the consulate and dropped it off with us at the hotel.  Then we laid low in the hotel room and got ready for the long trip home.

November 28, our travel day home, was a LOOOONNNGGG day.   We got up at 5:00 am or so Guangzhou time so that we could be out the hotel door at 6:00.  Connie and Lin took us to the airport, about a 45 minute drive.  It took us a while to pass through security and Chinese customs.  Before the flight, we talked with a family from Kentucky who had adopted a Chinese boy with a slight disability and shared two of our flights home.  Our 4-hour flight left Guangzhou at 9:15 en route to Tokyo, where we arrived at 2:10 Tokyo time (an hour ahead).  Charlotte wasn’t particularly happy on this flight, and did not nap more than a few minutes.  In Tokyo, we got to pass through Japanese security (apparently they don’t trust the Chinese) and then had a 3 hour or so wait.  I found crackers and a McDonald's vanilla milkshake for Charlotte.  Bizzy found Haagen-Dazs ice cream.  And I found some sushi (can’t stop in Japan without eating sushi).  Maura wasn’t hungry.  The Kentucky couple told us about the extended family and friends would be there to meet them when they got home.  We took off from Tokyo at about 6:00 pm bound for Chicago, a 11+ hour flight.  Not long after takeoff, Charlotte became unhappy and it was very hard to keep her from crying.  We could distract her momentarily but in general she screamed.  The burden of the crying fell heaviest on Maura – Charlotte had bonded to her, so she screamed when she was in Bizzy’s or my lap and was slightly more content in Maura's lap.  The airplane dimmed the lights and we thought we had her asleep, then they turned on the lights and rang a bell because we hit turbulence, and she started screaming again.  We were the people you turn and stare at on the airplane when a kid won’t stop crying.  We tried to take Betsy Segal's advice – remember that this too shall pass.  I walked her around the plane for a while – that helped a little, or at least changed up the routine.  Finally, after about 2.5 to 3 hours of more or less non-stop crying, she fell asleep.  It was momentary fitful sleep (an hour or less) for me and pretty much none for Maura and Bizzy, and Charlotte woke and fussed some more, but at least the full-on crying jag didn’t last the whole flight like it has for some people.

We arrived in Chicago O'Hare at about 2:30 pm on November 28, having left Tokyo at 6:00 pm on November 28.  We were pretty disoriented from the travel and time change.  We went through US customs.  I was a little concerned about whether some tea we bought would make it through (it did).  We waited a solid hour or so for the Homeland Security people to process our paperwork.  The Kentucky family were there too – they were nervous because they had a tighter connection to make than we did.  When they finally let us out of customs, Charlotte was officially a US citizen.  Yay!  We had to pick up our checked baggage and transfer to a different terminal with all of our bags (not easy) and re-check our bags and go through US customs again at the other terminal.  Finally, after 4 pm, we were able to settle in near our gate for the last flight to Boston, which took off after 6:00 pm.  That flight (2.5 hours) seemed very short by comparison to the first two.  We landed in Boston at 9:30, got our bags, and were picked up by our friend Jessica Pollak, who had also dropped us off two weeks earlier (I should say, a really good friend!).  Jessica drove us home, somehow conversing with us through our babbling incoherence.  Our doggies Rupert and Daisy were ecstatic to see us - Charlotte was understandably afraid of them (we’re not sure if she’s ever seen dogs before) but eventually they calmed down and we got everyone to sleep after midnight.

I think it ended up being a 32 or 33-hour day, with nearly 18 hours of flying time.  Anyone who saw me and talked to me the next couple of days can attest to the effects!

I’ll have more entries later on how things are going here at home, and reflections on the trip to China, but that’s enough for this post.

Visa Interview at the US Consulate

This morning (Monday) Connie and Lin (our driver) took Maura, Charlotte and me over to the US Consulate for our visa interview. Bizzy stayed at the hotel for a little down time. We went through security and waited with about 10 other families who had appointments at the same time. They asked us all to take an oath that the information we provided was truthful, then they called us up to a window one by one to ask us questions, but mainly just to make sure we are who we say we are. We were up to that task. Our visa will be ready tomorrow afternoon. This will allow Charlotte to travel to the US. She will become a US citizen when we land in Chicago on Wednesday.

We laid low for the rest of today but hope to get out and see the city a little bit tomorrow, our last full day in China.

Charlotte is a beautiful, wonderful little girl with a big personality. Maura, Bizzy and I feel very lucky to have her. She has an infectious laugh and a great smile. She loves to interact with people, with sly smiles and laughs. She loves to play peekaboo and is a good mimic. She has a lot to say in the form of baby talk, but we think she understands some basic Chinese based on her reactions to our guides and other Chinese people. She is mischievous and curious, pulling things off of tables and out of bags, and taking delight when she is caught in the act. She falls when she tries to walk too fast, but mostly gets up laughing. We love her.

Charlotte's Physical and Giant Pandas

We arrived in Guangzhou on Friday night. Guangzhou (formerly known in the West as Canton) is a city of 9 million in the south of China. The US government has a consulate here and this is where American families adopting Chinese orphans come to obtain American visas for their new children, the last paperwork step before they can go home. In Hangzhou and Wenzhou (and to a lesser extent Beijing) we didn't see many westerners. The adoptive families in China during these two weeks were all over the country finalizing the adoption process in the provinces where their children are from. But they all come together in Guangzhou.

We are staying at the Garden Hotel, a huge, grand hotel. This seems to be where most of the adoptive families are staying. They used to all stay at the White Swan hotel on Shamian Island on the Pearl River, but the White Swan is closed for renovations. We heard tales of the grandeur of the White Swan from our friends who adopted from China, but our guide Connie says that the Garden Hotel is even more grand. We have a large suite (helpful when you have a baby), including what Maura calls "the best shower EVER."

On Saturday morning, Charlotte had her "visa physical," a prerequisite for obtaining a US visa. All the adoptive families and their children gathered in the hotel lobby and were transported to a building where they were given physicals. It was chaotic and crowded. Neither Charlotte nor the other children enjoyed being poked and prodded. Connie helped us review and finalize our paperwork for the visa interview on Monday morning.

We returned to the hotel and tried to put Charlotte down for a nap but she just would not do it. Too much excitement. We walked the neighborhood around the hotel and found a store with a stylish winter coat for Bizzy. We also found a Costa coffee shop with chocolate twists, bringing back great memories of our stay with the Platts in St. Andrews this summer. Finally, we had an eat and run (Charlotte meltdown) dinner at a Malaysian restaurant near the hotel, then called it a night.

On Sunday, we woke up and had another sumptuous breakfast at the hotel (great buffet) then Connie and our driver picked us up and took us to the Xiangjiang Safari Park, a zoo/animal park on the outskirts of Guangzhou. It is similar to Disney's Animal Kingdom and Busch Gardens in Tampa, except with more emphasis on the animals and fewer rides. We started with a safari ride through an open area that included tigers, lions, elephants, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, ostriches and many other animals from around the world. Then we did a walking tour of the rest of the park, where we saw many of the same animals and others (meerkats, gibbons, lemurs, koalas, flamingos). These animals were in enclosures but it was possible to get quite close and get good pictures. Then the highlight of the day - we saw the park's ten giant pandas. The giant panda is native to remote parts of China, and is endangered. There are only about 2000 or so giant pandas left in the world. The Chinese place great emphasis on saving the giant panda, there are a few dozen reserves in the country and they have devoted a lot of scientists to the cause.

Charlotte enjoyed her day at the park, though I think she was paying more attention to the people than the animals. To avoid another meltdown, we got pizzas for dinner from a Pizza Hut near the hotel.

Tomorrow we have the visa interview, then we hope to see a little more of the city.

Waiting for the Passport in Hangzhou

It is now Saturday night in Guangzhou. It has been hard to blog the past few days because of schedule and occasional lack of Internet access. Here I will talk about the last couple of days in Hangzhou.

Thursday was a low key day. We had no paperwork obligations and the weather was rainy so Derek left us alone to explore the city. We went for a walk in the morning, stopping in a mall to buy some baby clothes, then in a Carrefour for some food that Charlotte likes. We had lunch in a noodle shop that we enjoyed earlier in the week. We tried to keep Charlotte covered at all times to avoid a reprimand from the "fashion police" - as Betsy Segal had warned us, older Chinese women will walk up to you and scold you when they see your child insufficiently bundled up. Charlotte's pants would often slide up her legs a little as we carried her walking around, and we would get stares or gestures or reprimands. One woman walked up to me holding Charlotte and pulled her pant legs down and tucked them in her socks, tut-tutting in Chinese all the time.

That evening we went out to dinner at a restaurant that Derek recommended. It was a comical experience, in retrospect. It was pouring rain, and while the restaurant was only a couple of blocks away we had trouble finding it. We walked in dripping wet, and found that it was a little more upscale than we expected. Charlotte was in no mood to sit still. The waiters spoke no English, and left us with menus and what appeared to me to be a teapot and teacups. I poured out and tasted warm water. We then decided that it must be a hand washing device (no napkins at the table) and watched other tables for some indication of what to do, which never came. We ordered our meals with pointing and gesturing, but they looked at us funny, probably because we ordered only meat dishes (we absentmindedly assumed we would get noodles or rice and veggies with the meals). We communicated our drink order with great difficulty. Then Charlotte melted down, we wolfed down our meals, paid our bill and left. It was still pouring rain. During the walk back to the hotel, an older lady approached us and started talking animatedly. She was one of the fashion police but kind hearted- she offered her umbrella and walked us back to the hotel. It was a nice connection with a local, even though we could not understand a word she said.

On Friday morning, Derek and Jiang picked us up and gave us a tour of the major sights of Hangzhou. It was still rainy. We started with the Lingyin Si, a Buddhist temple in the hills near West Lake. It is a very peaceful place, with a forested entrance and many old and interesting Buddhist sculptures carved into rocks along the pathway. The path led to a set of large pagodas with massive and ornate Buddhist statues, in front of which people were worshipping and burning incense. The temple is an active monetary. We saw monks moving about. Next we went to the Six Harmonies Pagoda, a 200 foot tall structure nearly 1000 years old that offers a commanding view of the Qiantang River. We had a delicious lunch downtown including scallion pancakes and orange prawns, then a little shopping, then a walk around parts of West Lake,which is regarded as one of the most picturesque areas in all of China. We saw a peacock, walked through a garden with a pond full of huge "goldfish" (essentially koi). Derek was a great guide, explaining the cultural significance of all of the sights and describing ancient legends.

Finally we picked up Charlotte's Chinese passport and headed for the airport.

Hangzhou was a very enjoyable city to stay in. It is important in Chinese history (was the national capital during the Song Dynasty) and is in the center of the booming Chinese economy. On the south side of the river practically an entire new city (though part of Hangzhou) has sprung up in the last 15-20 years. But it felt to us like a friendly, manageable city. This probably had a lot to do with Derek, who was a great guide.

Friday night we had a 2 hour flight south to Guangzhou, where we are staying at the luxurious Garden Hotel. More on our experiences here in the next post.

P.S. - Amy and Priscilla, we saw your messages about Pete, but not until we we were heading out of Beijing. Sorry to have missed him, but Maura agrees that June would have loved it.

Hangzhou to Wenzhou and Back

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It is Thursday afternoon here and not surprisingly there is almost no indication of the US holiday (though we did see one little sign in a store).

We have had Charlotte since Monday and we are having a great time getting to know her. She is a sweet baby with a great disposition. She is 16 months old and healthy, sleeps very well, and likes to laugh and have fun. She walks and wants to run! She has had only a few moments of crabbiness that pass quickly - she has been very tolerant considering that she has a little cold and is totally out of her routine. She got handed off to some strange people that she does not know (us) and we have all had to sit in offices and complete paperwork. We are very lucky to have her.

On Tuesday we went back to the Civil Affairs Office and completed the paperwork making the adoption official. There was a little ceremony and the Zhejiang provincial official in charge shook our hands. There were two other adopting families there at the same time. One was a family from Pennsylvania adopting a disabled boy, their 8th adoptee and their 12th child. Another was a family from Ohio adopting a little boy. We are likely to see them all again in Guangzhou, where all US families adopting Chinese orphans go to complete the US citizenship paperwork.

That afternoon our guide Derek and our driver Jiang drove us from Hangzhou to Wenzhou. Wenzhou is a city of about a million people (I think) on the coast of Zhejiang province. It was a four hour drive on a 4 lane highway winding in around and through (many tunnels) steep, sudden mountains. Chinese drivers seem quite aggressive, but Jiang was more than up to the task! We arrived in Wenzhou in the early evening.

The next morning we went to the local passport office and applied for Charlotte's Chinese passport, with Derek's able assistance. We will pick up the passport back in Hangzhou on Friday. Then we went to visit the orphanage where Charlotte came from. The building is institutional but clean and they are pretty up to date with their equipment. The caregivers (nannies) are simply extraordinary. They do a very good job - professional but loving and caring. Their bond with the children was something to behold. We met Charlotte's playmates, a couple of whom are also about to be adopted. Many children there, however, are disabled and will never be adopted. It was heartbreaking to see them, but at least they are well taken care of there.

Then we drove back to Hangzhou, where we will wait to pick up the passport on Friday. Derek was going to give us a tour of Hangzhou's sights today (Thursday) but it is rainy so we deferred that until better weather tomorrow.

Again, Happy Turkey Day to everyone!

We Meet Charlotte!

This morning Derek and our driver took us to the Civil Affairs Building. We walked up some stairs and into a conference room and there we met our little baby! She was there with a couple of nannies from the orphanage, who drove her four hours from Wenzhou this morning. She is a sweet little girl who was very attached to her nannies but also seems to have taken to us very quickly. She laughs and smiles very easily. She enjoyed taking a walk around Hangzhou and fun eating and playing with noodles when we stopped for lunch.

We filled out a lot of forms with Derek's able assistance. It was quite a scene, with several other families and little Chinese children going through the same process. There is more Chinese government paperwork over the course of this week, including a trip to Wenzhou, culminating in a Chinese passport that allows her to go with us to Guangzhou and start on the US paperwork. Tuesday and Wednesday will be pretty packed taking care of different paperwork tasks and traveling. If we don't post again before Thursday, that's why.

Arrival in Hangzhou

It is Monday morning. We arrived Sunday afternoon in Hangzhou after a 2 hour flight from Beijing. Hangzhou is on the central coast of China just south if Shanghai. It is the capital of Zhejiang province so it is where we begin our Chinese government paperwork. And most importantly it is where we meet Charlotte later today!

Hangzhou is a city of 7 million people. Even though it is huge it seems noticeably smaller than Beijing. Downtown is situated between the Qiantang River and West Lake. The lake looks beautiful - a picture postcard scene. Our guide in this city is Derek. He has gotten us situated and will help us on our paperwork.

A couple of more thoughts on Beijing. We visited Olympic Park and saw the outside of the "Bird's Nest" stadium (where Usain Bolt did his magic in 2008) and the "Water Cube" (where Michael Phelps did his). It was evident from talking to Helena that the Chinese took great pride in those Games. Also, Helena spoke a lot about the Chinese reverence for ancestors and elders, which is a tenet of Confucianism. She thought that the Confucius philosophy has been unfortunately forgotten in the Chinese drive to modernize, but she hopes it is coming back.

The next time I post we should have our baby!