Hutong Tour

Entrance to the hutong market...no time to shop though!
Getting ready for the tour!
I think my new "Baba" is pretty cool!

So one of the afternoons, Danny, Gavin and I decided to venture out on our own and do a Hutong tour. (Danny was even able to negotiate the price)! So, the three of us climbed into the rickshaw (felt sorry for the poor guy having to haul us around) and an hour later, we were done. It was really cool and I felt worth it! We bought tickets to be able to go into the courtyard for tea (this was a total joke in my opinion), but everything else was great. The three of us were pretty exhausted but we had fun! 

Our New Family Day!

This is the first glimpse we got of our little guy. Look at the "shell-shocked" look on his face. Poor guy...
You can see our guide Michael and the director from the orphanage who brought Gavin to us.
Let the Chinese portion of the paperwork begin...

Well, we are home after three weeks in China! Obviously, I couldn't post to either blog while we were there unfortunately. For those of you who don't know, the server would drop everytime I tried to get on the blog. (As a sidenote, I do not plan on updating the "new" blog-keeping up with two blogs is just too much, so I'm sticking with this one).

So, every few days or so, I will update our trip in order!

This is our second day in Beijing. We met Gavin first thing Sunday morning. He was so inside of himself. He opened up a little bit when Danny handed him his new backpack full of toys! We were happy to receive a bag from the orphanage director that contained the items we sent him in his care package. Unfortunately, you could tell he had never seen these items before. I wasn't surprised to tell you the truth. The good thing though, is that they had two disposable cameras in there with pictures of him in the orphanage. I developed them a week later and I'm really happy with those pics. 

Eventually, the paperwork portion was finished for the day, and we suddenly found ourselves alone with our new son. The three of us went up to our room and played with all of his new toys for hours. Little by little, he became comfortable and let me pick him up. He even gave me a kiss! It was cute. He ate about ten snacks, one right after the other and drank a ton of water. Next thing you know, he is repeating "sow pia" over and over and we had no idea what he was saying. Eventually, we figured out he had to use the restroom! Happily, I discovered how well-potty-trained he is. Thank goodness for small miracles. (He never once wet the bet in China). While I am on the topic of the bathroom, he would also put on his shoes everytime he had to go. I had to quickly break him of this habit, because at three in the morning waiting for him to put his shoes on is no fun!

All in all, our new family day was a success. I will update again probably tomorrow...

Last post (probably) before we leave!

Tying up lots of loose ends around here! Still not packed, but will finish that tomorrow night. Tomorrow is my last day of work (and boy is it a jam-packed day) and we leave on Thursday.



So, we are hearing that people are having problems posting to blogger, so we are going to try something different. We are keeping a travel blog at http://www.sonintheeast.wordpress.com/ Check us out over there, and hopefully it will work.



See you in China!

And Now It's October!

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last! It has just been crazy busy around here since we got our TA. Dan and I have been so busy at work, trying to make sure everything is in order before we go. Like I said in the last post, we leave October 15th, which happens to be parent conferences! So, all month, I'm doing parent conferences before and after school to make sure they get done! It's gonna be plain nuts. We've also been doing a bunch of little projects around the house. Dan's been working on wiring for electrical in our backyard, putting up a ceiling fan in the patio cover and other odds and ends. I cleaned out our master closet, the linen cabinet in our bathroom and the laundry room cabinets. Next weekend, I'm scrubbing my house spotless. At least that's the plan for now. I pretty much have everything we need to take with us, so most of our shopping is done. Just need to put it all in the suitcase. 

So, we leave Oct. 15th and arrive in Beijing at 5:30 the 17th. (They are ahead of us by a day). 

We actually meet Gavin on Sunday, the 18th-a day earlier than we thought!

19th-Paperwork (does it ever end)?

20th-Shopping for children and TB test

21st-Beijing Zoo (we are going to see if we can pass on this)

22nd-Beihai Park and Dan leaves to go home that night

23rd-More paperwork

24th-Great Wall

25th-Free day

26th-Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square

27th-Lama Temple

28th-Summer Palace

29th-Hongqiao market

30th-Fly to Guangzhou and do Gavin's Medical Checkup

31st-Chen Family Temple

November 1st-Yuntai Park

2nd-4th-American Consulate appointments

5th-Come home!

We are both starting to get really excited-we can't wait!

The Countdown is on Baby!

We got our travel dates! We leave October 15th for Beijing. Monday, the 19th is when we meet Gavin! I'm so excited because Dan is going to be able to go for the first week. Landree will not be going with us and will be staying at home with Nana. She is very excited about this by the way:) I will return home on November 5th. We haven't received a day-to-day itinerary yet, but we did purchase our airline tickets there and back. Our agency waits for confirmation of those flights and then makes plans for our stay. I can't wait! Thirty-one more days!

Beyond Excited! Our TA is here!

Ok, so out of the blue today...we got the call! Our TA has arrived! I was so not expecting this wonderful news today. Our agency called while I was teaching my kiddos. I was dancing around the room while on the phone and they were all cracking up! Ah, what a relief. So...I should find out in the next couple of days exactly when we go, but they said I could go as early as October 9th and as late as October 23rd. I'll take it! It's funny, yesterday I was all down-and-out and today I'm on cloud 9! As a friend of mine said, "What a difference a day makes." No kidding. Let the packing begin!

Beyond Frustrated

So, found out today it looks like we aren't traveling until the end of October AT THE EARLIEST. That's saying we get our TA sometime soon. If we could just get it, then I could at least start counting days. I am just beyond frustrated. I'm pulling my hair out just knowing our little piece of paper is just sitting on someone's desk just waiting to be signed. Never in my darkest nightmare did I think it would take a year from our pre-approval, or possibly longer. Oh, and on top of everything else? Our Power of Attorney will expire during this wait. Guess what that means? Certification and Authentication AGAIN. Sigh.

On a positive note though, as I was eating dinner tonight, watching Landree eat, I thought to myself how lucky we are to have her. Everything we went through was worth every bit of headache. So, that's what I'm trying to remember right now. It WILL happen.