Day 2 - Rainy Days Across the World - Beijing

We finally had a moment to sit down and post from yesterday's adventures... all this, and we're actually under 2 hours away from going to meet our daughter for the first time! :)

Ok... here's a few comments about our adventures in Beijing:

• We stayed at the Metro Lido Hotel not too far away from the airport. I guess it was a 4-star hotel that is nicer than most 5-star ones over there. I guess from our point of view - it was a hotel room... nothing to write home about - with the exception of the breakfast buffet!! Wow! Not only did I enjoy fried noodles, dumplings, and terriaki chicken, but also more typical items like bacon, pastries, eggs, and sausage. Also, the area had a very nice fully automatic espresso machine - so I was in heaven.
• We started off by going to Tiananmen Square - just across from the entrance to the Forbidden City - what a huge place!! It was very impressive to see Army soldiers and police all over the place.
• We crossed the street and entered the Forbidden city - and that was even more impressive... what history! Our only disappointment was that it started to rain as we were entering the 3rd inner ring into the city - and it didn't stop after that.
• When we were about finished, we started to get random strangers coming up and clammering to get a photo with our blond-haired daughter Ashlyn... I think it happened 3x that day (and once today)...
• We then went out to the Jade market where there was also a restaurant attached up on the 2nd floor... there were some massively expensive pieces there... things like life-sized jade sculptures of the terra-cotta soldiers... now THAT would be cool to have... too bad the price on that was $130,000 though... oh well...
• We then drove out to the outer edges of Beijing to see the Great Wall... unfortunately, it was really raining still at that point... so our experience there was rather..... let's say wet.... we did end up climbing up what felt like a mountainside... only to see the stairs kept going up. Our daughter Ashlyn ran up the stairs... which meant that I had to go up after her... when I finally caught up to her... she was stopped with someone... taking a picture :) Yup... she's liking the celebrity status here...

• We ended our day at dinner - which was a "real" Chinese dinner. We had spicy vegetables, candied deep-fried sweet potatoes (which were great), kung pao chicken (best ever!!), Peking duck, and sweet & sour chicken. Overall - a fantastic meal...

I'll post more about today in a later post... but let me just say that our Gotcha Day is just moments away. :)

 



Our family in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City






Ashlyn having a good time looking around






The Chinese Paparazzi found Ashlyn






Ashlyn and our two guides in Beijing - Holly (behind) and Cissy (front)






Ginny and Ashlyn about to trek up the Great Wall






Our dinner once all the food was delivered - oh my!!





The Great Wall of China



Day 1: Columbus, Chicago, and Beijing, China

Well... Here I am at 4:54 AM in the morning on our first full day in Beijing (our sightseeing day)... Gotta love jet-lag...

Our flights went very well yesterday... Both were on time, and both were completely uneventful. Our 14 hour flight was very VERY long, but we kept ourselves occupied by sleeping, watching an assortment of movies and TV shows, and watching our progress on the GPS map as we flew over Canada, the Arctic Ocean, Russia/Siberia, Mongolia, then finally China...

When we finally arrived into China, we went through customs (wow that was easy!!) and went out to find our guides. After a few frustrating minutes of wandering around, we did find our guides (Cissy and Holly) and we were off to our hotel.

Since we only have 1 full day in Beijing, we decided to squeeze in a little sightseeing last night by visiting the Olympic village and the Bird's nest stadium... That was awesome! :) Besides, it felt good to walk around after being cooped up in the plane for so long.

So... Today's agenda includes seeing the Forbidden city and the Great Wall of China... And then heading out tomorrow for our GOTCHA DAY!! :)

And......... We're OFF!!!

Well... We made it to Chicago O'Hare from our early morning flight out of Columbus this morning...

Now... Just killing time until our flight to Beijing leaves in a couple of hours...

The calm before the storm

I think it's starting to get a little overwhelming... at this point a week from now (Saturday AM), we will already be in Beijing for a full day and we'll be off sightseeing. Our itinerary has us trying to see Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and the Great Wall - all in one day... Amazing!

We received our in-country travel package this week with the details around where we'll be and when certain things occur. Top of the list: GOTCHA DAY is scheduled for Sunday afternoon Nov. 4th!! What's even funnier is that I also learned that a nationwide/global event called Orphan Sunday is also scheduled for that Sunday too. Coincidence? I think not...

Here's our official itinerary schedule:

• Thursday 11/1 - fly out to Beijing via Chicago - arrive mid-day Friday
• Saturday 11/3 - sightseeing!!
• Sunday 11/4 - GOTCHA DAY!! AM travel to Guiyang, Guizhou; PM meet our daughter
• Monday 11/5 - Civil affairs appointment - adoption is official
• Tuesday-Friday - sightseeing and adoption appointments (obtaining Chinese passport)
• Friday afternoon - leave Guiyang for Guangzhou
• Saturday - Friday - appointments, sightseeing in Guangzhou
• Thursday 11/15 - US Consulate appointment
• Friday 11/16 - pick up US Visa - travel to Hong Kong
• Saturday 11/17 - travel home via Chicago to Columbus

So... in the midst of all this excitement and craziness, there just so happens to be this "storm of the century" about to hit the eastern US. While this will hopefully not impact our Thursday travel too much, it is having an impact on the travel plans for my parents to come out here to watch our sons. Things will work out one way or another... so no worries there. 

Getting Ready

Ginny pointed out to me that we can now say that we're leaving for China next week!! Wow!!

So, we've purchased our international flight tickets (3 there, 4 coming back!) and were fortunate enough to be able to purchase the upgrade to Economy plus on our long legs (Chicago to Beijing; Hong Kong to Chicago). Another good note was that our flights over are direct from Chicago... so no layovers in other countries like South Korea or Japan.

Anyways, the fact that our departure is now a handful of days away has started the supplies shopping side for our upcoming trip... purchasing little things like:

• Toilet paper
• Backpacks and small roller bags for the girls
• Pain killers (Advil & Children's Tylenol)
• Imodium AD
• Ramen noodles & instant Mac & cheese, along with snack bars and such
• Small gifts for the nannies and the orphanage director (we bought him a Ohio State Buckeyes hat since it represents the area where are living)

I know we've just scratched the surface, and we're also cognisant of the weight limitations for the luggage too (50 lbs for our United flights, 44 lbs for the China domestic flights). I'm also trying to make sure we carry the things necessary to update our blog and Facebook... (power converters, cell phones, DSLR camera, laptop, etc.)

So, a question to those out there who have gone to China before and have actively updated their blogs (specifically blogspot since it's tied to Google) - did you have issues connecting using the internet over there? Did you subscribe to a VPN service before you left? Is there one that's generally recommended and works well? Any advice would be appreciated!!




Ginny and the kids out shopping for our trip

Answer: 18 or 19

Question: What is the number of days until our Gotcha Day???  :)


That's right!! We've finally received the long-awaited phone call from America World today saying that we've received our invitation from China to come over and get our little girl!! I received the phone call around 3:20 pm this afternoon - while in the middle of a large group meeting at work. As soon as I saw that it was AWAA calling, I bolted out of my chair and made a beeline for the door! I think it made a few folks chuckle since they all knew I was waiting for this phone call...



E-mail congratulations from America World on receiving our TA



 

So, everything is still kinda tentative at this point, but we should have confirmation of our US Visa Consulate appointment hopefully by tomorrow or Friday. That appointment will be in Guangzhou at the US Consulate offices there. Everything is based around that date (Gotcha day, travel dates, etc.).  But, as it stands today, we are going to be leaving on Thursday November 1st for Beijing and spending a couple of days there. On Sunday evening, we will likely be flying from Beijing to Guiyang and meeting Jin Guo (Mia) on Monday at the Civil Affairs office there. We'll return the following day and that's when the official adoption decree is issued... then we'll be off to Guangzhou for a few days of medical checks, sightseeing, appointments and such. Then, a short bus ride to Hong Kong and then home to Ohio!!

T-15 days until we leave...  I don't think it has really sunk in yet...

Guiyang, Guizhou

 

 

Downtown Guiyang, Guizhou

Crazy fun weekend

Well... just a quick update from us... we have just finished a crazy marathon 3 week travel session for work - and are now gearing up for our biggest trip yet! :)
 
This last week, I was able to travel back to my alma-matter (Alfred University) in upstate New York for volunteering and for recruiting for the company I work for. They definitely chose the right week to have these sorts of events up there since it coincided with the peak fall colors! It was fantastic!!
 
Anyways, we are now back home and are still anxiously awaiting the call from our travel agent at America World to tell us that our travel approval has finally been issued... we are really hopeful that we should receive that this week since Thursday marks the 2 week period since our Article 5 was issued.

So, in the meantime, we continue to wait... to have fun as a family...