Nanchang, December 8th-11th

We spent time in Nanchang sight seeing a bit, signing official adoption papers and getting to know Louie. In those first few days, he has been very easy going, a good eater, and a great sleeper, loves his bottle and will sleep in the crib.

Nora's a bit jealous...but that's par for the course. 

We don't know anything about his foster family besides that they were in their 50's, had older grandchildren living in the house and were probably vegetable farmers. Louie is from Feng Chang city about an hour from Nanchang. Here are some pics from those days.

 

December 7th, 2014 Louie day!

 Today was Louie's adoption day! We stayed around the hotel and took Nora swimming in the morning. Louie's arrival was at 4:30. Our guide, Shirley called for us to come downstairs.  In a side lobby...we waited. Louie appeared...extremely upset and nervous. He was crying and noticeably traumatized. We just tried to make eye contact and give him a few toys. After a bit, our guide left and we took him back to the room. We really wanted to rip all of his clothes off as he was layered in 4 sweaters, 3 pairs of pants, a huge coat and wet split pants :/ After removing some layers, we just hung around the room and tried to calm him. Eventually after an hour and a half or so, he quieted. He played a bit with Nora and we ordered room service and he ate a few forkfuls. After a wipe down and pjs and a bottle, he went down easily and slept 8 hours overnight or so. We are complete and excited to give him all we can. Looking forward to all the great moments to come. 

The Cretellas4

Haven't kept up with this, but we are going to be the Cretellas 4 today! We arrived in Nanchang, China on December 5th to adopt our son, Louie!

We decided to bring Nora with us on this adoption journey for various reasons. Probably the most important is that we are hoping Nora will help Louie's transition. We'll see. The trip here was long and tiring. We flew Cleveland-Detroit-Beijing-Nanchang. Nora did well considering that we traveled for about 30 hours. 

We are staying in the same hotel as we did with Nora which is good because it is familiar to us. We went shopping yesterday for some essentials and this morning have just hung around the hotel today and took Nora swimming.  Now we are just waiting for Louie's arrival at 4:30 today. 

Beijing, Nora Lin Day and More!

10/17/13-10/18/13

Waiting in Newark from Cleveland for our Beijing leg!

We landed in Beijing on 10/17, caught a cab and headed to our hotel The Novotel, where we crashed. The hotel was okay, extremely smokey. Everywhere here in China is smokey! We ate breakfast (western food), which was good and headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City!!! It was great. Beijing is extremely crowded like NYC, but the people are pushy and you fear for your life crossing the street because of the traffic. 

Cool Buddhist Monks 

Chairman Mao's tomb. Haha  

10/19/13

Great Wall pictures! Our driver "Mr. Li" was very nice, but spoke zero English. He walked very fast. Chinese people move quickly from one thing to another. 

The view was amazing. It took 1.5 hours to get there, the countryside allowed us to see beautiful scenery. We then went to the Summer Palace. A relaxing place for the Emperor in the 1600's, not so relaxing nowadays. It was so crowded, we couldn't even move. It is located in north Beijing and is apparently a hot spot. We did get stared at a lot too. But, when your husband wears shorts, a Girard Indians tee shirt and an OSU hat, what should we expect ;)

At the Summer Palace. 

Mark paying Mr. Li after he took us to the horribly crowded train station. After an 11 hour overnight, loud train, we arrived in Nanchang, China, Nora's city. 

10/20/13

We met our Nanchang guide Fiona at her train station and we drove to our hotel, The Galactic Peace. It's a great hotel with a good breakfast buffet. We had a couple of hours to kill before Nora arrived. She was brought to the hotel by some orphanage staff members, even though she was with a foster family. A Spanish family was meeting their son then as well. We then came down to the lobby and here is what we saw, a scared little girl, I recognized her right away. She came to us, but didn't like it. 

We took her up to the hotel room pretty quickly because there was a wedding reception in the hotel that day, and it was noisy. When we got to the room, she cried for a few hours and tried to leave. It was heartbreaking. She passed out and ended up sleeping until 6:00 the next morning. When she woke up, she was crying and scared, but she did warm up to us :)

10/21/13

Today, we had to cross the street to the civil affairs office to sign papers. On our way there, a Chinese woman stopped to talk to Nora. I looked at Mark, confused. She pulled out a photo album, and I saw our dog Teddy. I realized that it was the photo album we sent to Nora. It was her foster mom! She waited outside the hotel, it is where all adoptive parents stay, so she knew we were there. She had a hard boiled egg for her because she knew that Nora would be upset. She happily ate it. We stayed there for only a couple of minutes because our guide said that technically adoptive parents are not allowed to meet the foster parents. So, we were on our way to sign the official adoption paperwork. We are forever grateful to this woman. She truly loves her...

Official red thumbprints!

It's official!

 

So Close, I Can Taste the Rice....

4 days!!!!! In 4 days we will be closer to Nora. Her room is finally done. I hope she likes it!

For those of you wanting to know what will happen while we are in China, here is our schedule:

10/16     Our flight to Newark leaves at 7:32am from Cleveland.  Which means we have to leave

our house around 3:00am...so much for sleep.  We leave Newark at 9:03am and arrive in Beijing on the 17th at 1:45pm. That's almost a 16 hour flight, yikes... We will take a cab to our hotel in Beijing. Btw, China is 12 hours ahead of Ohio time. The weather in Beijing will be typical fall weather. Yay!

               

10/17     Arrival at 1:45pm. We will just stay close to the hotel this day.

10/18     Our hotel is close to Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City, so we will tour on our own.

10/19      We hired a guide that will take us to The Great Wall and the Summer Palace. We will then take an overnight train (11 hours) to Nanchang...where our daughter is! The weather in Nanchang is typical for fall weather. 

10/20     We arrive at the train station at 7:22am and a guide will take us to our hotel. Nora Lin becomes part of our family at 4:30pm this day, in our hotel lobby she will be with us the rest of the time we are there. The orphanage director will bring her to us and we are not permitted to meet the foster parents, however, it's not uncommon for them to "show up" at the hotel. I hope they will!

10/21       Paperwork at the civil affairs office and free time.

10/22      Free time in Nanchang

10/23      We may visit the orphanage this day (Nora was there for 3 months). 

10/24       Free time in Nanchang

10/25      We will fly (with Nora, of course) to Guangzhou.  This is the city where the American

Consulate is and this is where we get Nora's visa. We are staying at The Garden, which is a wonderful hotel from what I hear. Just look at the lobby!

               

10/25        Nora has a medical appointment and we apply for her visa. Side note, the climate in Guangzhou is tropical.  It should be in the upper 80's while we are there.

10/26       Free time in Guangzhou

10/27       Free time in Guangzhou

10/28       8:30am Consulate appointment.  This is where we sign official papers for Nora to become an American citizen!

10/29       3:30pm, we will leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong. It's a 3 hour van ride and we will stay overnight and fly out on 10/30.

10/30       We will arrive in Cleveland at 8:11pm United Airlines flight 1053 as a family. Anyone is welcome to meet us at the airport! Just be aware that we will be exhausted and Nora will be overwhelmed, I'm sure!

Oh, and we just got this step stool for her yesterday. Isn't it awesome?

                 

 

            

Tick tock, tick tock..

     Many people have been asking me "When are you going to China?", "Are you packed yet?", "Are you excited?". The answers are "We don't know yet", "Nope, but we bought luggage and a travel router and have our visas" and "I can't answer that because I'll start sobbing, but if you want to split a bottle of wine and listen to me, I'm all for it!". Right now, we are at the Article 5 step...which is super close! Here is a quick explanation of this step:

Article 5

After you have received I-800 Approval and have been cabled (and gotten the NVC letter), it's time for your Article 5 letter to be issued by the US Embassy. This is a step that you don't have to really DO anything about, but it is helpful to know what is going on.

Once you have emailed your NVC letter to your agency, they will forward it to their in-China representative.

The in-China rep will take the NVC letter to the US Embassy in Guangzhou along with your DS-230 application and Parental LOA.

Why is my paperwork going to the consulate?

The consulate needs to review your new child's visa application (the DS-230), make sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed. This is called the Article 5 letter. You cannot obtain custody of your child until the Article 5 letter is issued!

The consulate takes a standard two weeks to complete this process. If your paperwork is dropped off on a Monday, it will be picked up from the consulate by your agency rep two Mondays later.

Once it's picked up from the consulate, it will be delivered directly to the CCAA for Travel Approval! 

     Our Article 5 letter is being picked up on Wednesday!!!!! Then, we enter the most exciting pre-travel phase, waiting for our TA (travel approval) from China. When we get this letter, we book our flights! Typically TA takes 2 weeks after the Article 5 pick up.  One issue we are having is that China has a holiday the first week October, so this  sets us back a week.  October 1st-8th is the Golden Week, here is a quick explanation of this holiday:

The word National Day, appeared in Chinese language as early as in the Western Jin Dynasty (265 - 316 AD). In ancient China, it usually fell on the day when the emperor ascended the throne or was born. Nowadays, it is celebrated on October 1st every year to commemorate the founding of People’s Republic of China. On that day, lots of large-scaled activities are held nationwide. Besides, the seven-day holiday from Oct. 1st to 7th is the so-called "Golden Week”, during which more and more Chinese people go traveling around the country.

     That being said...most likely we will receive our TA on October 17th.  You can travel directly after receiving this letter.  We are hoping to have Nora join our family on October 28th, normally the day you meet your child is on a Monday, so this is our best guess.  In the meantime, we are just staying busy preparing things. 

 I finally decided what to buy Nora's foster mom.  What do you buy someone who has loved your child in your absence for almost 2 years...I have no idea.  What about the woman who rocked her to sleep and kissed her boo boos...I have no idea.  The woman who saw your daughter's first steps and heard her first words...I have no idea. Based on Leslie's suggestion, I decided on this:

There really is no way to thank Nora's foster family.  The only way is to give our daughter the best life we possibly can and to always remember that she is a gift for us to cherish.  I hope those of you with children do the same....

Gatlinburg and Update!

We spent a weekend in Gatlinburg, Tennessee....which is an amazing place to visit.  

Notice Mark's head at the top!

This was taken during a car ride...it's beautiful in the Smokies! 

Couple of pics during our hikes:

We hiked a lot and ate some really great food! Gatlinburg is basically a "strip" with

 tons of cool shops and food joints.  The Log Cabin Pancake House was so yummy! 

We had this made in a little shop there. Nora can use it on the plane!

Speaking of Nora...we received an update from our agency!!

I love her piggy tails!!!! 

We also were able to contact a company that locates adoptees "finding ads". In China, when a child is found, they place a small ad in the newspaper.  Here is the first picture that was probably taken of her!

Along with the newest pic of Nora, we received a written update as well.  It gave us a few pieces of new information:

She is 20 months old now.

She is 2ft 9in. That's the 90th percentile for height!

She is 20.9 pounds.

She likes to take a bath.

We requested they not cut her hair (as you can see, they permitted that).

She listens well to her foster parents. 

She is potty trained.  Somehow I doubt that one. 

It says she loves to be outdoors and is an "active girl". That should be fun!

Here's a sneak peak of her room! Yes, we will have side rails on the bed. 

Our I-800 Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative was approved today! Traveling in October to get her!