September 14, 2008

Following the orientation we took taxis with the guide, Joy, to the silk and pearl market. Imagine a 7 story building with narrow walkways between back to back stalls of merchants. Each floor has wares ranging from silk, pearls, cashmere, clothing, etc. literally being hawked by primarily young girls grabbing at you yelling for you to buy and haggle the prices. They pull out calculators to show prices, renegotiate, and yell 'what you want'. They don't like to take 'no' for an answer sometimes foisting the object at you. The overwhelming sales pitches frequently left many of us looking elsewhere. We did find McDonalds! The old fried apple pies are still alive and well in China.

September 14, 2008

On Saturday we had orientation with Shiyan. She gave each family their next set of instructions and answered questions. The group of children is comprised of 6 11-16 month olds, several 3 year olds and David, the oldest.We learned he is doing well and we can ready a list of questions for background information. He has been told he has a "US Mama and a US Baba" coming for him soon. Children are given to you with an initial 24 hour temporary custody agreement called a "harmonious period of time", before official proceedings start.

September 14, 2008

We arrived safely in Beijing after a 7185 mile journey taking 13 hours! By 5 hours we were ready to get off the plane. The unusually rugged mountains around Beijing were an awesome sight as we got closer to the airport.The guide met all 6 families at the airport as we converged from several different states. The remainder of the group will come in tomorrow.The Para Olympics are taking place so the traffic is still restricted to a third of its normal capacity. Beijing is an mixture of new and old. Weeping willow and poplar trees dot a landscape of modern skyscrapers, old builings with cage-like balconies and traditional Chinese style buildings.One building referred to as 'the pants' is a modern highrise shaped like an upside down u. Traffic consists of motorized old bicycles of all sorts,scooters,rickshaws, taxis, trucks , buses and private cars.

September 6, 2008

We can't believe we are leaving in less than 5 days. The anticipation is building as our departure gets closer. Everything is finally packed and within the airline weight limits! We have gratefully been graced with offers from 2 different wonderful friends to take us to the airport and meet us on our arrival. The itinerary, which arrived a few days ago, says that we will be in Beijing for 4 days with nine other families touring the Great Wall, the Cloisonne Factory, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Acrobatic show, an orientation meeting, and a tour of Hutong round out the activities. From there we fly to Zhengzhou with only one other family, where we will receive our long awaited son, David Dongsheng, on the 16th. We will be there 3 days while we do the adoption registration and notarization. A tour of the Henan Provincial Museum is scheduled, but our stay in his province was shortened due to a convention in their capital city. On the 19th we fly on to Guangzhou to spend 2 free days getting to know our son before his appointment for his medical exam. On the 23rd we have our Visa appointment. The next day we take an oath and pick up his Visa. Due to our shortened stay in Henan Province, we will be leaving ahead of the other families in our group to fly home on the 25th. We can't wait to get him, but at the same time it is so hard to leave our other children! Believe it or not, it's the first time we've ever left them behind.

August 18, 2008

The agency in China forwarded information about David's size today. He is now 114 cm tall (44.8 in) and weighs 21 kg (46.3 lbs). They said that his feet are 18 cm (7 in). After checking with friends that own a shoe store, we now know he's about a child's size 12 shoe. It's good to see that he's had some growth since last August's figures of 105 cm and 17.5 kg.

August 12, 2008

Good news! Our agency e-mailed us today that we have a consulate appointment in Guangzhou, China on September 23, 2008. This means that we will be flying from Newark to Beijing on September 11 and onto David's province of Henan to the city of Zhengzhou on September 16th. We should be able to head home on September 25th. Everyone is excited!

August 13, 2008

We have a referral for a healthy little boy from an orphanage in Zhengzhou, China. He was abandoned on December 8, 2006 in front of the gate of a construction bank. With no identifying information on him, he is named Fu DongSheng. Dong means winter. Sheng means deep thinker. They say he is obstinate, adorable and lovable. His birthday is now the day he was found. They estimate that he is now 6 years old.