Benjamin!!!!!

We flew from Beijing to Changsha in Hunan this morning. We left our hotel at the bottom crack of dawn to head for the airport. Thank gosh we did, as there was a problem with one of our ticketss. One of the passport numbers had been switched, and the ticket agent wouldn't honor the ticket. Our guide got it straightened out quickly, but it still kind of put us on edge for a few minutes. Clearing security was almost easier than ut is at home, and no one batted an eye at any of Christopher's pump supplies or such. We flew on China Southern airline to Changsha - if you're ever travelling in China, I can't recommend them enough. The staff are wonderful, and coach class actually has legroom! It was a 2 hour flight, and we were all a bit anxious, as we still didn't know when we would be meeting Benjamin. We arrived in Chnagsha a bit early, and met our guide for this part of the trip. Her name is Celia, and she is very nice. She has more planning OCD than I do, so I'm happy. She brought us to the hotel, and got us settled in. We have 2 adjoining rooms, so quite a bit of space to spread out in. Both rooms have what the Chinese would call 2 double beds. There's no chance of either of us sharing them - they're like twin beds with an extra inch of 2. Celia arranged for the banker to come to our room, rather than exchanging money at the bank early in the morning. I would not want that man's job. He's got a pouch with him with thousands of dollars and yuan with hom. I get nervous with more than $50 in my wallet...... Celia brought Brian, Christopher, and I to the provincial office to get Benjamin. We got there before him, and spent about 10 minutes with our hearts pounding out of our chests. He came with the orphanage director, and 2 of the nannies, but not with his foster family. He was sad initally, but doing OK. He wanted nothing to do with toys, snacks, or drinks. Brian got to spend a while asking questions of the orphanage director. We will not get to meetbhis foster family, which is depressing. We found out he is very afraid of strangers, which will make this a bit difficult. He loves to be moving and looking at things. As soon as I would sit down, he would cry. If I was walking, things were OK. We did get to take some pictures with the orphanage director and nannies for him to have later. We came back to the hotel, and that was when he realized he was staying with us. He cried for a few straight hours. He finally settled down when Brian got out his iPad woth the panda game that you touch the panda and it spins, sings, repeats what you said, etc. he was much happier after that, and was then willing to sit with Brian. They played on the floor for a while, and he would finally have a drink. He is completely Daddy's boy, and wants nothing to do with me. He's gotten to where I can be near him, but God forbid I touch him :). My existance is tolerated, but not OK right now. Hopefully that will change soon. A lot of kids pick one parent and reject the other, but it doesn't really make it feel better right now. Brian got him to eat some rice for dinner, and drink some water. He doesn't do sippy cups, and we have no small glasses. It's on the shopping list for tomorrow. He is tiny - more than we thought from the info they gave us. I brought 12 month clothes, and shoukd have brought 6-9 month. I'll have to buy some pants tomorrow that fit better. Everying hangs off of him by a few inches. He's sound asleep in his crib right now. Hopefully tomorrow continues to go well, and he starts to warm up to Christopher and I a bit. Christopher has been a trooper so far, but doesn't really get why his baby brother doesn't want to play with him yet. Keep praying for all of us - we could use it! Sorry for the lack of pictures - I'm typing on an iPad, and it will not let me do photos. Brian is out like a light, and he's the technological genius to figure out adding photos from his laptop. I'll work on it tomorrow.

Last Day in Beijing

We started this morning early to go out to the Great Wall.  The jetlag seems to be getting better, as most of got a relatively good night's sleep.  Dad still gets up at the crack of dawn to go visit the local McDonalds for coffee, but I'm not sure that counts as different :)

We left the hotel with Steve and Cindy (the other couple from our agency) and Sylvia (our local guide).  We first went to a jade factory, where they show you how the jade carvings are done.  It's certainly a ton of work for something so small, but they are beautiful.  Christopher really liked a giant pirate ship comploetely carved of jade, and really wanted to bring it home.  Somehow I don't think it would meet the weight restrictions for checked baggage.  At $60,000, it might not meet the restrictions for our checking account either.....

We left there, and went to the Great Wall.  It was absolutely amazing.  Something you've read about your whole life, but what you've read doesn't begin to describe it.  It felt so unreal to walk on something so old, and to think about how much work went in to building it.  Mom and Dad climbed a short ways to the first tower, but the stairs are so uneven and steep that Mom didn't dare go any higher with her knees being so bad.  It was a good thing she didn't.  The climb got steeper and steeper to get to the second tower.  Christopher did amazing, and climbed the whole thing!  He and Brian went up into the tower itself, and he was the subject of a Chinese photo shoot :)  So many tourists there wanted a picture of the little blond American boy who climbed the wall!  I think that down might have been harder than up - by the time you're headed back down, your legs just felt like Jello.  So worth it though!

Yes, the hike down is truly this steep.  I had heart failure with Christopher coming down that he would miss a step, but no one did.

We left the Great Wall, and headed for the Summer Palace.  It was honestly one of the most beautiful places any of us had ever been.  We've seen pictures of it before, but real life was more impressive.  The day was overcast, and our guide told us it was better on a sunny day, but the trade off was less heat and humidity.  Given how hot yesterday was, we'll take the cooler weather :)  Christopher really liked the ride in the dragon boat across Kunming Lake, but was really getting tired of everyone wanting to touch him and take his picture.  He is pretty shy, and it was tough for him.

We're leaving in a few minutes for the airport to fly to Benjamin's provnice.  Keep us in your thoughts today, and if you can spare some prayers, pray he does well with this transition.  We're so excited to see him, but he has no idea we're coming.  We'll try and update with pictures of him tonight, but the power cord for our wireless router actually caught fire, so we're limited to hotel wireless.  If it works well, I'll post some pictures tonight.

Beijing - Day 2

We ended up with a slight change of plans for today.  We were originally supposed to go to the Great Wall today, but the other couple staying with us arrived really late last night.  Instead of having then go on only 4 hours sleep, our guide decided to have us go to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven today instead.  It actually worked out really well, as it gave us more free time in the morning to let Christopher go swimming, dawdle over breakfast, look for every fish in the koi pond, and actually get a nap before we left.

The Forbidden City was absolutely amazing.   There are so many buildings to it, and it's so huge.  Christopher was a trooper, and did awesome walking through most of it.  It takes about 2-3 hours to walk through the whole thing, so we were all impressed that he made it through.  There were a million people there today - trying to stay with everyone else was a project. 

 One of the many cool buildings there

 Somehow, the only family picture we got for the day :)

 Everyone at the gardens inside the hotel.  There are some huge koi ponds there, and Christopher is fascinated by them.

 One of the many dragons and lions we took pictures of.  Christopher will have pictures of every dragon and lion in China before we leave.

Brian and Christopher at one of the gates.

Once we finished going through the Forbidden City, our guide warned us about the exit from there.  There are tons of beggars, and people selling things.  Her quote was "they're pushy, and they have knives.  Don't touch anything and keep walking"  Brian was looking forward to seeing if he could defend himself with a metal spork, but it wasn't all that bad. 

We went from there to one of the tea houses for a tea ceremony.  It was fun, and there were some really neat varieties of tea we'd never tried before.  We may have made a tea drinker out of Christopher.  They had one made from dried fruit, and he might have drank a gallon if they would let him.

We left there, and came back to the hotel.  We decided to go out for dinner with the other couple travelling with us.  They are a couple from Connecticut, and are adopting a baby girl.  They've been in process for this so much longer than we have - they started in 2006!

We found a restaurant behind the hotel, and managed to order dinner without ending up with pig intestine or sea cucumber (both were on the menu however....)  It was really delicious, and now I know what people mean about not ever having had authentic Chinese food.  This was nothing like JP China!  The staff at the restaurant thought the big group of Americans who couldn't use chopsticks, and had to point for everything was pretty funny :)

We all came back early tonight to get to bed, so we can leave early for the Great Wall and Summer Palace tomorrow.  Tomorrow night, we have to pack up the disaster we've made in the hotel, so we can leave early Monday morning for the airport and meeting Benjamin!!!!!!

Welcome to Beijing!

We made it to Beijing with no problems. It's a long 14 hour flight, but everyone did well. Christopher was amazingly good, and didn't die of boredom or anything. We were really careful to empty our carry ins of any snacks we'd have trouble bringing through customs (fruit and veggies), but other than stopping to make sure we had visas, no one even batted an eyelash at 5 people with enough luggage to be moving in permanently :) Our guide met us right at the end of the customs line, and helped us get loaded into the van and back to the hotel. She'll be with us most of the time we're in Beijing, right until we get to the airport to go to Changsha. We managed to change money on our own last night, sent my parents to the store for water, walked to a nearby restaurant to get dinner, and managed to point and order food without a problem. It's feeling pretty successful all in all. Right now, it's 4:00 am here, and I'm wide awake. Christopher has been awake off and on since midnight, but he got a lot more sleep on the plane than any of us did. Thank gosh of an iPad with a lot of Disney movies :). We'll be heading out today to the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and one of the jade factories. There is another couple from our agency here at the same time, so they'll be coming with us as well. It feels like such a relief to be here after all this time planning. We will be in Beijing until Monday morning, and then will leave for Changsha early Monday morning to meet Benjamin! It seems a bit weird, knowing we're here and so anxious to get him, and he probably has no idea what is about to happen. If you can spare some prayers for him, and for all of us, we'd appreciate it!

One more night!

We've spent hours and hours dreaming and hoping for this day. We leave in the morning to meet Benjamin! We're flying from Boston to Wasington DC, then to Beijing. We'll spend a couple of days in Beijing, then we meet him on Monday. We'll spend a few days in his province for the adoption to be finalized, then we go to Guangzhou for a few more days to complete his US visa application. Christopher has been so excited to go. Every morning this week, he's been asking when we go. Tonight before bed, he was so antsy to get to sleep "so I can get good rest before I get my brother". Hopefully he does well with the flights. Then again, hopefully the grown ups do well too.... :) At this point, if we didn't pack it, we don't need it. If all of our pictures are in the same outfits, you'll know I spent so much time worrying about diapers, sippy cups, and toys, that I forgot clothes for us. The next chapter for our family starts tomorrow. The bags are packed, alarm clocks are set, and so far, we're all too excited to sleep!!

TA!!!!

We got our travel authorization yesterday!!!!! We're still waiting to hear about our consulate date, but hopefully we'll hear either tomorrow or Thursday. Once we have that, we can plan out the dates we'll be traveeling. We're getting so close!!!!!!

New pictures and an update!

We were finally able to get an update and new pictures on Benjamin!  According to the update, he's been doing well this winter, and growing taller.  We got lots of info about things he likes - playing outside, toy cars, and such, so he will have a great time playing with Christopher.  Apparently the one thing he's afraid of is dogs.  We'll just pretend that JackJack is a rug.  It's not much of a stretch of the imagination...... :)

We're now waiting on our travel approval (TA) from China.  If we get it in the same timeframe that everyone else is getting theirs, it should come in early next week.  Then we can finally start planning out our travel dates and such.

So, here's the part everyone actually wants to see :)

I swear, when we get home, he will never see the color pink again.  In every picture we have of him, he's wearing something pink!