Welcome The Childrens Parent's Here

We got to visit Zoe LuYao's SWI (Social Welfare Institute) yesterday. Except for "gotcha day", it's been the most powerful part of the trip so far. I can only describe it in a series of moments --

-- the beautiful countryside on the way out; the town itself with the now familiar mix of old, new, rich, and poor; how happy the staff were to meet us and to have a few more hours with our babies; the emotional roller-coaster of being in the room where Zoe lived since she was a few days old - the rows of cribs each with a living bundle waiting for a home and the empty one that was Lu Yao's; how happy she was to be back in the familiar arms of her ayi; the little boy with the cleft-palate who took my hand and led me around the room; the trepidation with which we westerners accepted the staff's generous offer of lunch at a local restaurant (we'd seen the town on the way in) and our delight at enjoying what has been so far the very best meal of the trip; the comic timing of our first back-seat diaper change; and the wonder of visiting Lu Yao's finding site.

Whatever our feelings about the manner in which these babies are cared for in their first months, we left knowing that they are truly loved by the SWI staff and we are comforted by the fact that Zoe was able to form a genuine attachment to her caregiver.



P.S. Spotty Internet service has prevented me from posting more pictures and videos in the past day or two. I'll have more on-line as soon as I can.

Long Day Ending

This morning's peaceful post belies the headlong rush into parenthood that was today. From the visit by the doctor to make sure Zoe's cold isn't serious (it isn't) to the hurried trip to the adoption center for paperwork (we barely had time to get dressed) to the labyrinthine trip to the notary (which no longer accepts U.S dollars) to finding a bank that would change our money (the fourth one did), the morning was nothing short of intense.

Back to the hotel by one, we thought we'd have a nice quiet afternoon to relax with our daughter. She had other plans. Her cold was acting up, and she didn't want to sleep, and would only calm down if one of us was walking with her. We finally got her to sleep after singing a medley of our favorite 60's TV theme songs. I think it was Gilligan's Island that finally put her under.

Anyway, she'll probably be waking up any moment for more fun and games, so I'll sign off for the night. Tomorrow morning we head to FengXi (about an hour away) to visit her orphanage.

In the meantime, if you'd like to see some video from yesterday just after we brought her back to the hotel, and from this afternoon, check out the Video link of this blog.

GOTCHA!

Zoe LuYao Sharp is with us now. We're exhilarated, exhausted, and terrified. But we're also in love with this beautiful baby.

It's 6 AM on Monday morning. Zoe is finally asleep after being up since 2 AM, so Lorin is catching a few Zs herself. We think she might be teething (Zoe, not Lorin) and definitely has a cold (which is standard for all the babies this time of year), so we're still figuring out what she needs. But Lorin got her to take half a bottle of formula earlier, and she had some sound sleep earlier, so I think we're in the right direction.

Today will be a long day - at least 4 hours at the adoption center filling out paperwork, and meeting with the director from our orphanage. Tomorrow we get to visit the orphanage, which is a couple of hours away.

We'll call and email as soon as we have a chance, but in the meantime, enjoy the pictures posted here.

Big Day Tomorrow

We made it to Nanchang today. The China Air flight was very smooth, and the food was surprisingly good. Our guides Tom and Jim picked us up at the airport and brought us to our home for the next seven days - The Lake View Hotel - maybe not so nice as the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing, but certainly serviceable.

Later in the afternoon they took us and Rob and Carla (the other couple in our Adopt International group) to what seems to be the world's biggest Walmart, another surreal experience. We stocked up on diapers, formula, and cute little outfits for baby Zoe, who we will meet tomorrow afternoon around 4:30 PM, China time. It's going to be a big, big day, so we're going to try and get some sleep if we can.

Watch this blog for new Zoe pictures soon!

Beijing-A-Go-Go

It's Friday night, China-time, and we're ready to pack in this leg of the trip as we head for Nanchang tomorrow and our "gotcha day" with Zoe on Sunday.

Beijing has been quite surreal - a collision between traditional and modern Asia - ancient temples and modern office buildings, poverty and booming new wealth, hotels with wireless Internet where you still can't drink the water. Everyone we've met here has expressed great pride in their city, its culture, and its history.

Our new friend Zhang Bin, introduced to us by my friend Jinhu back in the States, has bowled us over with his generosity and kindness. He picked us up at the airport, arranged a wonderful dinner with him and his family last night, got us a driver to ably take on the horrendous Beijing traffic (which, by the way, would reduce to tears the toughest New York cabbie) and get us out to the Great Wall (it's pretty great), and arranged for another colleague of his to take us out tonight for another wonderful dinner - Beijing (Peking) Duck with all the trimmings.

And now, off to bed and then off to Nanchang. I don't know how good the Internet connectivity will be there (it's poor here because of a December earthquake destroying an undersea cable), but we'll post when we can. Meanwhile, wish us luck on Sunday!

P.S. We've posted some pictures on Shutterfly. More to come.

We made it to China!

It's actually Thursday here in the Eastern part of the hemisphere! We've finally gotten to our first destination, Beijing. We've been away from home now for about 24 hours. We stopped over in Tokyo for only a short amount of time, so we only had a chance to hang around the airport for an hour! Note to self: take a trip to Tokyo sometime. We're so happy to have finally made it to Asia. For now though, our destiny lies in Nanchang.

But that will have to wait until Saturday. Meanwhile we try to rest up until we are united with Feng Lu Yao (Zoe) on Sunday! OMG!

It's now 1:00 am here, Thursday morning, in Beijing. For a city open 24 hours, it's really quiet, at least in the section we are staying in. Very close to the the Forbidden City and the Royal Palace. We are told that Beijing is like Washington, D.C. (government & history), and Shanghai is more like NYC (lively and bustling, & very "Western").

We are very tired, the major adrenaline buzz that got us through the last 48 hours of preparation ran out somewhere between Alaska & Japan!

We got a call forwarding service, tried it once to get our messages, then couldn't get it to work again. Otherwise it would've been an opportune time to phone home. The internet is slow too, due to a recent earthquake just off Taiwan that knocked out an undersea cable. Anyway, I think I can still post this blog, by gum, so I wanted to let you all know we arrived safely and are staying in the very nice & quiet Peninsula Hotel in downtown Beijing.

Ken's already sawing wood, and I'm ready for bed too. Til the next post, 'night all!

I did it myself!

Gotcha Day is Coming!

After two-plus years of research, filling out forms, social worker scrutiny, medical exams, document gathering, waiting, waiting, and more waiting, we are finally off to China next week to bring Zoe home!

We leave on Tuesday, 1/24, for a couple of days in Beijing, then it's off to Nanchang on the 27th, where Zoe will join us on the 28th or 29th ("Gotcha Day"). We'll head to Guangzhou on Feb 3, and home on the 8th.

While we're away, we'll try to keep everyone up-to-date with posts, pictures, and maybe even some videos. Watch this space!