3 Days to China

Wow!  I can't believe after all this waiting that the time has finally come.  My suitcase is packed (AND zipped), Don's suitcase is empty (but he did get it out and open it today), Yu Ping's suitcase has been packed for a month (95% pink stuff), my house is mostly clean, my pantry mostly stocked, and my cold mostly gone.  I'm not feeling nervous ~ in fact I feel strangely calm.  I promised myself that if I started to worry about me, that I would instead focus on HER.  Can you imagine how her life is about to change?  Her home, her friends, her nannies, her world as she knows it is about to be taken from her.  So many people tell me that she is a lucky girl.  I don't think she is going to feel that way for awhile.  There is little doubt in my mind that this is going to be a difficult process.    I hope she likes us.  I hope she trusts that we will take good care of her.  I hope she has been loved and well cared for.  I hope that she is ready to finally have a family of her own.  We are on our way to you sweet girl!  Wo ai ni!

One week to China

Its finally getting to be time to go!  After a year of waiting, we are packing, Mema is coming to stay with the boys, I've got Skype set up on my computer, the last big check was mailed to the adoption agency, and all of our documents and medicines are gathered.  (Guizhou is a province which has malaria, so we have to be prepared).  A group of my wonderful surgery girlfriends have made Yu Ping a beautiful quilt, and some of my best North Idaho girlfriends threw me a shower.  My neighbors, friends, and family are pitching in to help while we are gone and my boss isn't working me very hard this week (although I have to work Friday and we leave on Saturday!!).  A new friend that I met online through an adoption chat group sent me new photos of Yu Ping (her daughter was in the orphanage with her and she had pictures of them together ~ small world!).  It was such a wonderful gift to see my daughter playing with her friends in China (she is the one in the back of the photo posted above)!  We have also been put in touch with 3 other NW families who will be traveling around the same time as us, and who will be staying in the same hotel with us the 2nd week of the trip.  Its so nice to be creating a social network with other adoptive families.  It would be wonderful for Yu Ping to have relationships with other adopted Chinese kids after she arrives in the US. I keep waiting for the nerves to kick in, but so far I am only feeling excitement!  I am hoping to post to this blog everyday while we are in China.  Not only will it be a great way to communicate with folks back home, but it will be a nice keepsake for our daughter.  One word of warning ~ I am not very computer saavy.  Posting to the blog in China is different than posting in the US.  If you are following along, and aren't seeing any new posts, its only because I couldn't figure it out!  I won't be able to email or facebook and phone calls are very expensive, so keep your fingers crossed!!

Happy Birthday Evan!

Today our youngest son turned 9 years old! He was born in Seoul, South Korea on Feb 1, 2002. About a year ago Evan, being the incredibly bright boy that he is, noticed something on a globe called the "International Date Line".   When he learned that line means that Korea is a full day ahead of us, he promptly notified us that we were celebrating his birthday a day too late.   So now we stretch his birthday celebration out over a full two days ~ Jan 31 (cause its Feb 1 in Korea), and again on Feb 1 here.  Evan was a mere 4 months old when he joined our family and every year at this time, I am especially thankful to his birth mother and to the foster mom who took such good care of him in Korea.

3 Weeks to China

Today we received our final itinerary for the two weeks we will be in China.  The first 5 days will be in Guizhou, our daughters province.  We will meet her on day 2, and she will be with us for the remainder of the trip.  During that time, we will be finalizing the adoption and doing some sightseeing with a guide.

On day 6, we fly to the city of Guangzhou, where the US Consulate is.  We will spend 8 days there and during that time we will be taking care of Yu Pings passport, visa, and medical exam, and she will be sworn in as a US citizen on March 1 (exactly one year to the day we first saw her picture).  We will also have some time to sightsee there.

We are frequently asked if we will be changing her name to an American one, and the answer is "maybe".  We will leave that decision up to her.  At the very least, we will keep "Yu Ping" as her middle name (like we did with Evan's Korean name), but neither Don nor I feel comfortable walking into the life of this 7 year old child and telling her that her name isn't good enough for us.  We first saw her picture and claimed her as our own 11 months ago.  During this wait, we have thought of her as "Yu Ping" or "Ping Ping" (Chinese kids are often called by the 2nd name twice), and it seems very comfortable to us.  If she wants to have an American name, we have a list of some we like, or if she has heard of an American name that she likes, then thats ok too.  Regardless, the decision will be hers.

Travel Approval!

Here we go!  Leaving Spokane on February 19, arriving in Guizhou on February 20, meeting our daughter for the first time on February 21, celebrating Jolene's 44th birthday on February 24, swearing in little Yu Ping as an American citizen on March 1, and returning home on March 5. (Happy birthday to Kellen on February 23 ~ we promise to celebrate the big #12 when we get home!)

She Knows!

Every two months we get to request an update on our waiting child from the orphanage.  Usually we get a brief description of how they are doing, their updated height and weight, an answer to a question or two that we ask, and a photo.  Today we got an eagerly awaited update (no photo unfortunately).  The orphanage has received the package we sent (which included a letter I wrote to Yu Ping, photos of us, and two disposable cameras) and Yu Ping now finally knows that a family has been found for her and she is "eager for her new parents to come meet her"!!  That one little sentence update was a wonderful gift for us!

Happy New Year!

We rang in 2011 with the good news that our immigration paperwork is complete and our "Article 5" was sent to China on Dec 26.  This means we should receive approval to travel to China in late January and will most likely leave in mid February, after the Chinese New Year holiday ends.  Now that the Christmas tree is out the door and most of the decorations put away (we left the lights up for Yu Ping ~ call us rednecks if you must), we can focus on all of the last minute details involved in this journey.  In addition to packing for the 3 of us, Don and I have to get several vaccines,  purchase about a dozen gifts for various Chinese officials who will be assisting us while there, make multitudes of copies of multitudes of documents, arrange for childcare for the boys, and then actually make the travel plans themselves (we can't make them until we get "Travel Approval" and then we are expected to be in China within the next two weeks!).  Its all very exciting, but also a bit nerve-racking!  I know I will be a basket case ~ thank goodness my husband is very laid back!  We know two other North Idaho families who brought home their daughters from China on Christmas Eve (one is 6, the other is 3) and have shared happy information with us about their experiences.  Welcome to Allee and Anya!