One more...

What can I say...I am a proud papa!!

At long last, we are parents!

SSIA

Or, in net terms, the subject says it all. After a very nervous night, we got ready and had breakfast for the last time as a couple. Emily picked us up and after dodging a multitude of sccoters and bicycles, we made it to the civil affairs department. Not knowing what to expect, we walked through the doors and there she was!! We met her and she knew who we were. She semed happy until she relaized that she didn't understand what we were saying. Then the tears flowed. But then, she calmed down and all was well. She did indeed have her backpack and I congratluted Valentino on a job well done. She looked at him for a little bit, then carefully put him away in her little back pack. We introduced her to Kai Lan and showed her that it said "loved" in Mandarin on her sweater. We put the little matching "loved" necklace on her and she seems very happy with it. We returned to our room and had our first conversation. After realizing that we just weren't going to understand what we were saying, she marched into the bathroom and lifted the toilet seat...message delivered!! (I let Laura handle that one.) Emily and I headed to the bank to exchange some of our cash into RMB. It's funny how a 1/2 inch stack of dollars turns into a 3 inch stack of RMB!! Lots of pictures of Chairman Mao. When I returned to the room, Laura and Anyssa were coloring and playing with the picture flash cards. She was VERY happy to see me and yelled PAPA as she threw her arms around me. Yes...this was meant to be.

Emily loaned us her computer so this will be a little easier than trying to squint my way through mail on the broken screen computer.

We will be going to lunch in a little bit and then we will meet back up with Emily at 2:00. We need to go shopping for milk and juice and a little portable DVD player so she has something to do on the long flight home. I will let you all know how THAT goes. So far, lots of laughing and smiling.

Chengdu

Laura and I have finally arrived in Chengdu. We left Beijing on a 3-hour flight and landed here at about 1:00 Pm. We met Emily (our translator and guide for the leg of the trip) and she had the driver bring us right to the Crowne Plaza. We found that Anyssa is already on her way to Chengdu from Guang An…it’ about a 4-hour car ride. We will be heading to the government building at 9:15 tomorrow and will meet her for the first time.

Since we’ve been having computer problems, we had limited access to the internet. This will be a quick posting until tomorrow when Emily will bring her laptop so we can do a longer post.

Day 1 of touring Beijing

It was a very amazing day today…too surreal. We went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square this morning, had a wonderful vegetarian lunch, then visited the Summer Palace this afternoon. While we’re both tired, we’re surprised at the adjustment we’ve been able to make as a result of the daylight. Even though we’re 13 hours later, it doesn’t seem like we’re that far off.

The Forbidden City is awesome. That word does not even come close to describing it. It’s unbelievable that just yesterday we were in Chicago and now here we are wandering around a 15^th century city. The artwork, the garden, the 300 year old + trees…it doesn’t even seem real. Our tour guide is Evelyn is wonderful. She is very knowledgeable and fun and is more than willing to answer our questions as well as take our picture in front of significant landmarks. Tiananmen Square was surprisingly emotional when you think back to what happened there 20 years ago. The picture of Chairman Mao on the outside of the north gate of the Forbidden City is so vivid and lifelike. Evelyn told us that it was from that gate that Chairman Mao proclaimed to the world the birth of new China. His mausoleum is across the square and his body is lying in state in a glass coffin. The building is normally closed and it was today as well.

We’re really enjoying seeing the sites with Patrick and Linda who are the other couple from our agency who are here to get their little girl. We will be parting ways in 2 days only to reconnect with them in Guangzhou with our little girls.

The Summer Palace was equally amazing. We really didn’t know too much about the Palace but as usual, Evelyn filled us in. She told us about the Dragon Lady who was the emperor’s mother who REALLY ran the country. She was not a very pleasant person and apparently is not remembered too fondly by the public. It’s difficult too describe…beautiful buildings in a garden on a lake. That statement really doesn’t do the Palace justice…the pictures will fill in the gaps.

After the palace, we stopped off at a pearl factory where they harvest pearls from the oysters that are gathered from the lake at the Summer Palace. They demonstrated how they get the pearls and opened an oyster in front of us, then gave us the pearls as souvenirs. Because they are also the factory that makes the jewelry, the prices are very reasonable. We bought a little something for Anyssa to wear.

We will be going to the Great Wall tomorrow and will be sharing more pictures in the next day or 2. Thank you all for your prayers and support and we are glad that we can share this journey with you.

And back in the US.....

Hi everyone - it's Toni (from here at home, not China!) Looks like the postings will continue without problems, but I'll keep an eye on it to make sure we all stay up to date. Got a text from Roger, and it sounds like all is good so far. It seems very weird that while I'm having dinner here, they're having breakfast tomorrow morning there.......hmmmm......... They have a full day of siteseeing ahead of them - I'm sure we'll hear more soon!

We're here!!

Well, here it is 4:43 PM (or should I say 3:43 body clock time). We are in China…Beijing to be exact. All is going well…we met our translator Evelyn who is wonderful. We connected with the Coynes (who are also here adopting). As a matter of fact, they are in the room right across the hall from us. We’re running on vapors, but we figured we would let our bodies go with the flow so we’re going to grab something to eat in about an hour and then crash. Tomorrow is the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square! Pictures will hopefully be coming soon.

I must add something about Murphy…you know…the guy with all the laws? Well, Laura’s laptop had been acting up…the display kept going out. Well, we got on the plane this morning and tried to power is up and BAM! No backlight. Therefore, it is impossible to read anything from the screen. Luckily, the business center has a computer center and I was able to connect their monitor into the external monitor port of the laptop. This looks like what we’re going to have to do from here on out.

Sorry if I’m jumping around a bit…I’m running on vapors!

I have to add the surprise we got when we got on the plane. Jinny’s sister is a flight attendant on UA for the flights to Asia. Even though she could not be on our flight, she got word to the other crew members and they surprised us with champagne and a nice card from the whole crew! Fantastic! It even made up for the cramped coach seats we had way in the back of the plane. The 13 ½ hours FLEW by (slight sarcasm). Thank you Jinny and Jackie!!

As expected, the site is blocked so this will be a blind post…I will have no way to see the finished product. Toni has kindly volunteered to be a blog moderator and if for some reason this DOESN’T post, she will get a CC’d e-mail and she will post it. We won’t see the finished product until we get home.

That’ll do it for now. Heading back to the room to shower and get ready to eat.

Welcome to the crazy house!

It's Wednesday morning and we are just about packed and ready to go. Last minute freak out are the order of the day! What's funny is that in our quest to make our checked bags weigh less than 40 pounds, our carry-ons now weigh about 50 pounds each!!

Finishing up and getting ready to load the car...talk to all later.

Ready or not, here we go!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Heading to O'Hare to be on a 12:04 flight to Beijing. It seemed like this day would never come, then all of a sudden, it's racing down on us. It's 10:16, and despite the fact that I wanted to be done packing by 5:00, we're still finishing up. The hard part is that even though we are each allowed to check 2 50 pound bags on the flights out and into the US, the in-country flights in China only allow you to bring 1 40 pound bag each. That's a little different. Strategic packing and planning on doing laundry seems to be the only ways to go. Most of my clothes are going in my carry-on. Not only do we need to bring clothes for us, we need to bring stuff for Anysaa. All we can do is all we can do...the wheel is turning and you can't slow it down...

Our flight will land in Beijing at 2:40 PM China time...unfortunately, that's 1:40 AM body clock time. I hope we can sleep on the flight. I know jet lag is going to kick our butts...I just want to TRY and minimize it.

OK...signing off for now. Gotta get some sleep. What a trip...we're leaving as a couple and coming back as a family.

Last weekend as a child-free couple

Wow...I can't even comprehend the weight of that statement! How could I? We've ALWAYS been childless. Laura and I had a discussion the other day and I reflected back on everything I've done and everywhere I've been and everything I've experienced along the way. Joining the army and driving a tank in Germany on the autobahn, working full-time while putting myself through school, touring with the Grateful Dead for 8 years, advancing through the ranks at the companies I've worked for, etc. While I have some regrets (not too many) I've done a lot. I think Pink Floyd said it best when they sang "then one day you'll find, 10 years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."

Well, I heard the gun and went off on my own. Looking back, it occurred to me that I've worn a multitude of hats except one major one...parent. That's when I realized that this is exactly what I want to do. I want to be "daddy" to a child. In just 11 short days, I will be. We will meet our daughter for the very first time. I have no idea how she'll respond, but I know that God has pointed us in this direction and obviously he pointed Anyssa too. This is how it is supposed to be. I know it. Isn't faith wonderful?

We found out the other day that we will be meeting up with a couple who was in our travel meetings. We will meet them in Beijing and probably go on tours together. Then they fly off to Guiyang in Guizhou Province while we go to Sichuan. They will pick up their daughter and we will all meet back up in Guangzhou. It will be nice to be with other people who are going through the same thing we are. It will also be good for Anyssa to see another child being adopted too although their daughter will only be 18 months.

Today will be the last day of work for both of us. From here it's full on to China. Packing and trying to not forget anything. We have some last minute paperwork to complete so I'll get that done this weekend. Wednesday will be here soon!

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of her room. We still have a couple of pictures to hang and some books to put away, but this is it. I think she'll like it. As you can see, she has a fully stocked closet already. She's going to be a little fashion plate!

The work goes on

Today I finished rebuilding our closet in a feeble attempt to create more room. Since we were a solitary couple, Laura used to store her off-season clothes in what became Anyssa's closet. I got rid of our single rod on my side and added a double rod with a built in hamper. After all that work, it seems like we only got a little more room. Time to see what's going to Goodwill!

I will post a little more about our itinerary tomorrow. As you will see, it's not the Chinese who will be the biggest hassle while we're there...

Moving right along...

As promised, here is a picture of Anyssa's room...well, her bed anyway. It's hard enough to find time to post to the blog let alone try and find time to photograph it all. I realize that I should be documenting everything...she might get a kick out of it in a few years!

We got our itinerary from Sunny Ridge. It looks like we get a day to rest after we arrive in Beijing. Then, for the next 2 days, we see the sites. We're going to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square. I'm REALLY glad I scored a 16 GB memory card for the camera. I was at Fry's today and they had another 16 GB for 19.99 after rebate. Instead, I bought a card reader. That way, we can download every night to Laura's laptop. I am going to take as many pictures as I possibly can. Any of you "younger" folks may not know that there was a time when you bought film, snapped 24 pictures, dropped the film off at the drug store (anyone remember Photomat in the supermarket parking lots??), waited for your prints to come back only to find out that half of them didn't turn out. Today, it looks like I can snap a couple of thousand HD prints and have room to spare!

From there we fly to Chengdu and that is where we will meet Anyssa for the very first time. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'd like to think I'm ready for anything but I won't know until we're there. It's such a life-changing event that I can't even possibly fathom the change we are about to experience. I know enough to know that I don't know anything. People say that they think Laura and I will make great parents. The only person whose judgement of that I'll accept will be Anyssa.

Tick, tick, tick...

It's ironic to use a statement like "time is going so fast" considering it seemed to be forever to get to this point!. Yes, in 12 days we will be in the air (over the Arctic circle...go figure) on our way to pick up our daughter. It still seems very surreal saying that in 1 month time we will already be home with our little girl. I can't even imagine what that's going to be like.

All the furniture is built and now we are putting her clothes away. Not an easy chore because even though we have her measurements, we don't actually know her size. We have to take clothes with us because she will only have the clothes on her back...and hopefully the stuff we sent her. Yesterday, I was looking around the house and a thought occurred to me...we need to childproof the house! I installed tamper resistant outlets in her room already, but I'm pretty sure Laura would rather not have Anyssa try to play with stuff in her crystal cabinet! Anyone know what the Mandarin word for "fragile" is? Oh, and the poisons...I have a pretty good collection of noxious chemicals that I need to secure. I really hope that there isn't a fun cartoon in China featuring the loveable character "Mr. Skull and Crossbones" that will grab her attention when she sees it here!!

I just spoke with Anna at work (in HR) who will be helping us get Anyssa onto our health plan. I've talking to her about the adoption for almost as long as we've been in the China program so she has already kind of been following along. I think she is just as excited as we are!

A lot of you have asked for pictures of her room...I will try and get a couple posted in the next day or 2. I will also try and get Laura to sign on and say HEY.

Time to build!

Laura and Linda went furniture shopping today and came home with a nitestand and a nice vertical storage unit. Time to make sure the DeWalt is charged up...I'm gonna have fun!

FOLLOW UP: nite stand assembled. No power tools, just good old fashioned brute force and ignorance!  :-) Looks really good...we hope she likes it!

The fan base is growing

Hey there, everyone. Sorry it's been a few days since the last post. It kinda threw us for a loop when we found that BLOOGER (blogspot) was banned in China. Free speech banned...who'da thunk it? Anyway, we have a couple of workarounds, neither of which will allow us to actually VIEW the blog while we are away, just do blind postings. So be it...if that's what we get, that's what we get.

A lot of folks have asked to be added to the blog, but not everyone has responded to the invite. So far we have 29 readers and growing every day. We hope this will be as much fun for you all as it is for us!

We are now working on travel insurance...just in case. Flight or medical issues...we want to be ready.

A lot of you have asked about where exactly we will be going once we are there. In a nutshell, we fly United to Beijing (non-stop on a 777). It's something like a 13.5 hour flight. We will meet our translator "Bill" at the airport and he will be with us the entire time. After a few days in Beijing, we will fly to Chengdu, which is the capital of Sichuan. It will be here that we meet Anyssa for the first time. We will be in Chengdu a few days to get all of Anyssa's paperwok in order and to get her passport issued, then we fly to Guangzhou. Now the real fun begins. You would think that dealing with the Chinese government would be the hardest part, but apparently, getting through the American consulate is where the REAL fun is. Once we are cleared by the US, we will take a 3-hour bus ride to Hong Kong where we will board a 747 for the 14 hour flight home. What's neat is that as soon as the wheels touch down at O'Hare, she will become an American citizen! I'm pretty sure we will all be exhausted by the time we reach the house.

All in all, it will be a 16 day adventure. I just bought a 16GB memory card for our new camera. We can shoot HD movies with it and I'll be downloading daily to Laura's laptop. We will post whatever we can!

Just so you know, Laura is also going to be an author on the blog so hopefully you be able to get HER view on this too.

Test message

D’oh! We just found out that BLOGGER has been banned in China which would make updating the blog rather difficult. I am testing a workaround so if you are able to read this, it should work. 

We will do everything (legally) possible to keep posting to the blog while we are in Asia.

Woo-hoo!

According to the USPS, the package was delivered at 9:30 this morning. Of course that was like 8:30 PM yesterday here...I think. HOPEFULLY that means that Jiyuan/Anyssa has the backpack and has seen what we look like. One day, after she's been here for awhile, I hope she will be able to recall what this period of her life has been like and how she felt when she heard she was going to be a part of a family. I wonder what she thought when she first saw us. I hope we made a good first impression!

We are going to pick up her bed tonight. A twin set to start with. We don't know what her current sleeping arrangement is. She might just be on the floor with a pad and blanket. Someone remarked to us that she will probably feel like she just won the lottery when she gets here. Unlikely...the life she has been living these past 5 years has been her "normal"...I don't know if she even knows that a lifestyle like ours even exists. PLUS...we will be moving swiftly into Christmas. She probably has no idea who Jesus is let alone what Christmas is! January will probably be a harsh reality!!

Laura's friend Linda was here yesterday helping her come up with some design ideas for Anyssa's room. It sounds nice but we really won't know until we have the bed in place. I should have it all built by tomorrow.

"We attempted to deliver your item in CHINA PEOPLES REP at 4:17 pm on October 05, 2010"

Promising words. At least I know that I typed in the proper address when preparing the shipping label! How sure can you be when there is no street number, rather it just says "Guang An Childrens Social Welfare Institute?" I guess that since it is a government building, their post office knows where it is. Hopefully it passed through customs OK and no one opened the box to snag the M&Ms!! :-)

We just received word that the sister of our former neighbor Jinny (who is a flight attendant for the UA flights to and from China) might be on our flight on the way home! That would be very cool. Since pretty much all of the adopted children on their way to the USA fly home through Hong Kong, I'm the sure the flight crew has experience with kids! How to keep a child busy on a 14 hour flight... At least she will have her own seat!

Wow...this is really gonna HAPPEN

I'm gonna guess that it's a little different if you're pregnant...you can see the changes, you have a pretty good timeline...basically, there a certain reality to the situation. But with an adoption, it is, if you'll pardon this terminology, a total crapshoot. You don't know what's going to happen, when it's going to happen or even IF it's going to happen.

Sure...we are getting Anyssa in a month, but right now, she is just a photograph. We don't know what she knows about adoption, what her concept of a family is, why has she been waiting 5 years...you simply don't know. Will she know how to use a western-style toilet? Will she eat any of the food we cook? How will we communicate? Will she like us? Will she be able to sleep by herself? It can be quite maddening. The only thing I know is that life will be changing for a lot of people...we pray for the better.

We sent Anyssa a care package last week. They told us that she will only be able to bring the clothes on her back when we get her. That being the case, we sent her a little Elmo backpack with a couple of goodies inside. A coloring book with crayons, some M&M's and Jolly Rancher gummies, a photo album with pictures of Laura and me as well as the cats and the house, and a disposable camera. I read on the net that sometimes the staff will use the camera to take pictures of her with her friends/playmates as well as care givers, then send the camera home with her. If that works, that might be the only physical record of that part of her life she'll ever have. We also put in a Beanie Baby...Valentino. He has a little heart on his chest. He has been sitting with rest of our beanie bears for years. I selected him, dusted him off and wished him safe travels. I told him to take good care of Anyssa and we'd see him soon. If NOT, I told him to take care of whoever he might end up with. If all goes well, she will be bringing the pack with her when we get her in Chengdu.

Hello everyone

Hello everyone and welcome to my first attempt at blogging. Please...bear with me..:-)

Anyway, we decided to start a blog so everyone can follow us as we prep for our journey to China to bring our little lady home. Please bookmark this site and come back often. I will post any of the interesting stuff that happens along the way.

A brief synopsis for those of you who don't know the whole story. Laura and I began the long journey of international adoption at least 5 years ago. When we decided on China, we were told that the average wait time was between 12 - 18 months ("closer to 18" they told us). Well, the Chinese government officially approved our paperwork and we were put into a stack with other families. That was March 2007. For reasons known only to them, the Chinese have REALLY slowed down the healthy child program. So much so that if we were to stay in it and they were to progress at the current rate, we would easily be waiting another 8 - 10 years.

Our agency had recently been approved to be part of the "special needs" program and we were invited to a meeting. I know, I know...the words special needs can sound a little scary. However, it turns out that to the Chinese government, any child that is not "perfect" (physically or mentally) is considered special needs. After lots of conversation, reflection and prayer, we decided to enter into the special needs program. We decided to look for a little girl who had been born with a cleft lip, palate or both. We originally were looking for a child up to age 3, but after we were told by our agency that children up to age 3 were in high demand, we decided to up our age limit to 8 years old, with a plan to look for a child up to 5 years of age.

The way it works is like this. Every month, the CCAA (the China Center for Adoption Affairs) posts a list of all the available children. Apparently, all of the case workers sit by their computers waiting for the list to post and try to find and match kids as fast as possible. Of course this can crash their server. So...you wait until it comes back up. Once you decide on a child, the child gets "locked-in" which means that the child comes off of the list and you have 3 days to decide if you will accept this child. You get pictures and a health record to have examined by a pediatrician experienced in international adoptions. If all is well and you go ahead, you are "matched" and the paperwork begins. If NOT...then the child goes back on the list. You can also choose to be notified of a specific child and THEN decide whether to lock him/her in. The only problem here is that the child may be gone when you go back. Our case worker asked us what we wanted to do...did we want to be notified first or did we want to go ahead and lock her in.

Hmm...interesting. We went home to decide and a thought came into my head. I asked Laura if, after everything we had gone through, we were to have a child matched who met what we were looking for, could she actually see us going "Hmmm....well...I don't know...". Hell no! We told our case worker that if a little girl, up to age 5 with a cleft lip, palate or both were to come up...LOCK HER IN.

That first month, the list came out. After a couple of days, Jessica (our case worker) called and told us there were no matches and she would try again next month. A few days later we got the call...we had been matched with a little girl (age 5) who had been born with a cleft lip and palate. The cleft had been repaired when she was 3. We were on our way.

Her name is Tao Ji Yuan and she has been living at the Childrens' Social Welfare Institute in Guang An City in Sichuan province. Her last name Tao is actually the last name of the policeman who found her. She had been abandoned "near the toll-gate of the Heping to the Linguang entrance of Linshui Country in Guangan City."

This is our daughter.