Happy Valentine's Day

Love is in the air! We've made it to Valentine's Day 2007, and enjoying it with Zoe, who happens to be 9 months old today. The weather is beautiful now (it had been raining since we got home) so we can get our girl out in the California sunshine (fresh air! treated tap water! There's no place like home!). By now we are settling in, but so is the jet lag. Funny how the lag has a lag. Zoe is really struggling with the time change the most, I think. Here in the Western Hemisphere, day is night and night is day. Try setting your adult body clock (with your adult sense of reasoning) to that after 8 1/2 months of opposite time. Then imagine what it's like for an infant.

All things considered, she is really doing well. After her first visit with her pediatrician, we are assured her lungs are clear, and she is a robust, if petite, baby. Takes after her mother, I guess :).

February is the shortest and most packed month for us, and this one definitely wins the prize! Baby's first Valentine's day, first Chinese new year celebrations (Feb. 18), first visit with one set of grandparents, MaMa's birthday, cousin Hannah's 10th birthday (I can't believe I just wrote that, am I mistaken?), Zoe's first Adopt International (our agency) gathering, am I leaving anything out? Still, we are trying to keep everything as low-key and relaxed as possible, despite our own feelings of excitement and frantic-ness. Zoe needs her rest (and frankly, so do we!)

So, happiest of V-days to everyone from Baby Z, and her family -xxxoo

A Chicken Pox Upon the Bureaucrats

I don't know if anyone is still following this blog, but we've been home for a few days and are still settling in. Zoe's cold seems to be finally getting better, but she isn't sleeping quite as well. We had one of those nights that all parents dread - when the baby starts crying and can not be soothed no matter what you try. We've always been able to calm Zoe down pretty quickly, so this was a little frightening. Lorin got her to sleep eventually, but we're all feeling pretty jet-lagged today.

But the sun is out (it's been raining since we got home), so in a little while we're going to take Zoe out for a walk in her new stroller.

In the meantime, there's more to recount about our time in China. Let's start at the end, on our last day in Guangzhou, with a bit of bureaucratic theater known as the "swearing in."

After going through the dossier paperchase and waiting 15 months for our referral, I knew that the Chinese part of the adoption (our week in Nanchang) would be an exercise in red tape. It never really bothered me, even when we learned that the notary would no longer take U.S. dollars and required the mighty sum of 4000 RMB (about $520) from each or our two families traveling together, a sum which was more than the first three banks we went to were willing to exchange. It didn't bother me because a) this was the process that many others before us had been through, and that it made sense in its own twisted way, and b) our guides Tom and Jim were more than able to guide us through the labyrinthine process. Having Tom and Jim around made the buracracy all part of the adventure.

Not so much adventure on the American side of the adoption. On our second day in Guangzhou, our guide, Ms. Liang, came to our room to help us fill out the paperwork required for the American Consulate to issue a visa to Zoe. On Wednesday, she delivered the documents and made sure they were all correct. (Turns out the U.S. gov't had issued a new form that needed to be filled out, and Ms. Liang had to come back to the hotel to have us take care of that.) Finally, on Thursday, we were all to go to the consulate for the mysterious "swearing in" that we had heard so little about.

Most adopting Americans in Guangzhou stay at one of two hotels - The White Swan or The Victory. Both are very nice and are in walking distance of where the American Consulate used to be. About a year ago, the consulate moved to the other side of the city. And Guangzhou is a big city, the 3rd largest in China. Still. most folks like to stay at the White Swan or Victory, so both hotels will bus the new families to the consulate. The bus ride takes 45 minutes to an hour through heavy traffic. There are about 50 families on 3 buses.

At the consulate, we all waited in a large room while we were called one-by-one to a window to show our passport, which the clerk compared to the xerox of the passport that we had already provided. Then we all waited around for a while longer, wondering what comes next. There are signs and instructions around for the "interview" process of getting a visa. "Just relax and tell the truth", the instructional sign says. Parents are yakking, kids are yelling, and it's not long before some of the babies, including our Zoe, are having major meltdowns.

An official notice is passed around advising us that a few of the kids at the White Swan had come down with chicken pox. We had all heard about this, and many of us were nervous about our kids being exposed. Then it occurred to me: the U.S. government was warning us about exposure to chicken pox by putting us all in the same room and thereby EXPOSING US ALL TO CHICKEN POX. It had been a long couple of weeks, our daughter was sick and crying, and I was starting to get a little pissed off.

Finally, a consulate official came out to administer our oath. She explained that the children would be getting temporary green card visas, and would become naturalized U.S. citizens as soon as they set foot on American soil. Then she had us raise our right hands and attest that all the information we had provided during the long process was true to the best of our knowledge. We did, and we were done, except for collecting our children's visa packets and the long bus ride home.

That's it? All that schlepping across town and waiting and crying and sweating (did I mention the sweat?) to verbally attest to something to which we had attested in writing for every document we had submitted? What a waste of time.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I'm glad to have Zoe home and I'm glad she has her U.S. citizenship. But would it really be so difficult to have the consulate official come to the hotel, look at our passports, and hand out our visas there? I bet most of us would be willing to chip in and pay her taxi fare.

P.S. There's a few new pictures at the Shutterfly link...

Home At Last

Got in early this morning. Zoe didn't let us (or anyone else in our cabin) get much sleep during the night, so I'm having trouble thinking or even... typing... at... normal... rate...

Anyway, Zoe seems to like her new home pretty well (she actually woke up smiling after her nap) and neither she nor Kitty has freaked out the other. Yet.

More posts, pix, and videos to come, after we catch up on some sleep. Stay tuned!

Going Home Zoe

If all goes according to plan, this should be the last post from China. Our flight from Guangzhou leaves tomorrow morning, Thursday, at 8:30 AM. After a couple of hours in Tokyo, we fly on to San Francisco and arrive... Thursday morning at 7:50 AM. Pretty cool.

Zoe has her U.S. Visa, and as soon as she clears customs in San Francisco she'll be a U.S. citizen. Today was jam-packed -- from our morning visit to the artist who carved her "chop" to the fight with the hotel staff over their refusal to give us one of the ridiculous "Going Home Barbie" souvenir dolls normally given for free to adopting families staying at the White Swan, to the even more ridiculous "swearing in" ceremony at the U.S. consulate.

I will write about these things and continue adding to this blog, but not tonight. The bags are packed, the baby's asleep, and our ride to the airport is coming at 6:00AM. Time for the newly-minted mom and dad to catch a few z's. See you on the flip side.

Home Stretch

Wednesday Morning - China Time. Zoe's bronchitis is improving slowly, but her breathing is still raspy. Monday she had her medical check for the visa process, and the doctor at the clinic changed her medication from the ones the hotel clinic gave us. It's tough when you can't ask the doctor a direct question, but we'll have her home soon.

Ms. Liang, our guide here, helped us with all the paperwork needed by the Consulate, walked us through the medical exam, and got our papers delivered to the consulate. She also took us to see a couple of the local sights.

Cindy Huang, our friend from Berkeley, got into town Monday night. Cindy is an anthropologist who will be in China for the next year doing research. She's also does photo essays of families adopting from China. Zoe seemed a little put off at first by Cindy's enormous camera, but she's adapting quickly.

Cindy took us to a local Haolin Buddhist Temple, which is very beautiful. (Video posts will have to wait until we're home!), through a local Jade marketplace, and down a major shopping street. The real Guangzhou at last. And, oh yes, street food! Food vendors were set up all up and down an arcade with all sorts of delicious things to eat. We skipped the "cocoon bugs" though. Cindy also took us to a local artist to have a stone "chop" made of Zoe's Chinese name: Feng Lu Yao. We'll go back this morning to pick it up.

Finally, this afternoon, we go to the consulate for her visa and the "swearing in" ceremony. We head home early tomorrow morning. Busy day ahead!

Everybody Say Awwww

Need we say anything more?

Doctor Mom Knows Best

Greetings from Guangzhou! It's been a mixed bag so far - The White Swan hotel is very large and luxurious compared to the Lake View in Nanchang, but the service is much more impersonal. The hotel is situated on an "island" separated from the city proper by the Pearl River on one side and a canal on the other . The enclave is very nice, but feels somehow cut off from the real world.

We'd continued to be concerned about Zoe's raspy breathing, and despite reassurances from many around us, Lorin thought we should bring her to the hotel clinic shortly after we checked-in. Good call. Zoe has a nasty case of bronchitis (no fever, but lots of congestion), so the clinic has us giving her lots of nasty medicine that she hates, and we've been bringing her back for broncho-dilator treatments. We checked with our pediatrician back home (who called us back at 2:30 AM, her time!) to assure us that the clinic's treatment is exactly what she would do, and that this kind of bronchitis is extremely common for these children. Anyway, Zoe is still congested, but her appetite and sleep are better. We're still anxious to get her home ASAP, though.

Tomorrow she gets her medical check for the visa process, and then on Tuesday our guide brings all her paperwork to the Consulate. Wednesday she gets her visa, and Thursday we fly home.

I'll post some more when I can. In the meantime, check out some new pix and video.

Off to Guangzhou

The day flies by when you're taking care of an infant. It's like a never-ending game of Myst - constantly searching for that special trick that will get her to drink her formula or go to sleep. So even though we had most of today free (we got Zoe's Chinese passport this morning) I didn't have a chance to write "A Country Run By My Mother" - in which the people of Nanchang behold in amazement the American men going out in sub-60-degree weather without four layers of clothing to protect against "the cold", or "The Walmart Dumpling Gang" in which we take Zoe, strapped to my chest in an infant carrier, to Walmart for supplies, how I fed her standing in a crowded elevator, and entertained lunchtime diners at a local dumpling restaurant as I walked cranky Zoe up and down the restaurant while singing God-knows-what to her.

All that will have to wait, as we're off to Guangzhou tomorrow to prove to the American consulate that Zoe is our daughter and get her a visa home.

In the meantime, I've posted some more pictures and some new videos. Enjoy!

Some New Pix

A quick note: I finally managed to post some new pictures on our Shutterfly page. I'll try to post some new video footage tomorrow.

For those unable to view the video on Windows PCs, you probably need to install Apple Computer's free QuickTime software here.

The past few days have been pretty busy, and I'll write more about them soon, but the important news is that we received copies of the documents today that officially make Zoe our daughter. As far as China is concerned, the adoption is complete. Tomorrow we get her Chinese passport, and Saturday we fly to Guangzhou to start dealing with the American government's side of things. More to come...