So, Gracie Is Finally Home

8061 miles and 14 hours by air, and a 2 hour car ride and Gracie is finally in her new home.

The flight didn’t go as badly as you would have thought despite taking so long. We bought a seat for Gracie on the way home, so we had a group of three seats to ourselves. Gracie was pretty fidgety, but she tool three naps for a total of seven hours or so. She is just taller that the width of an airline seat, and won’t sleep in our arms. This meant that Angela and I were somewhat cramped when she was sleeping. The lights in the cabin were out, and we couldn’t use the overhead light, so we pretty much sat there in the dark when she was sleeping.

Despite this I managed to get some reading done and finished the book I brought with me. I saved over three months worth of crossword puzzles from the paper, but didn’t do a single one the entire trip.

The rest of the kids did well, too. We were spread our over the plane, but we got up a lot to walk around, fill bottles, chat, etc.

The veggie meals on the way back weren’t as good, but they weren’t bad. When we confirmed our travel reservations, we ordered baby meals for Gracie. Three times on the flight she got two bottles of baby food and a bottle of juice. This worked out well for us.

We caught a serious tailwind on the way back and arrived an hour earlier than scheduled. Unlike the last time, the flight took us up the coast of Japan and Russia, across Alaska, and then down Canada into New York.

We were seated in the back of the plane, and this meant that we were one of the last groups off of the plane. The walk to customs took a few minutes, and there was a decent sized line by the time we got there. Newark doesn’t differentiate between US and foreign visitors at immigration, so there was one big line. Besides, we would have to go through the foreign visitor line since Gracie was still a Chinese citizen at this point.

The actual amount of time at the immigration window was pretty quick. We got to the window, and handed the officer the brown envelope with our passports. There was no problem with our passports. The officer scanned Gracie’s passport and broke the seal on the envelope. He flipped through the packet to double check that things were in order (and since it was sealed, it was), stamped the visa, and Gracie officially became a US citizen.

After than we went down to baggage claim, and all of our bags were already on the carousel. Customs was quick, too, and we made our way to the exit. I think immigration, baggage claim, and customs took about 45 minutes total.

Freddie and Joyce (Angela’s brother and his wife) signed up the the travel alerts from the airline, and realized that the flight was an hour early. They were waiting for us at the exit along with the families of the other local people.

We arrived home around 4:00pm. My mom was there, along with Kristen, Laura, and Joey. Gracie was a little scared by all of the people, but she did well as long as one of us was in eyesight. We talked for a while, and then ate dinner. Gracie did meet Sparkles, but was scared by her.

I didn’t sleep on the plane, and Angela only managed to catch 2 or 3 hours. I went to lie down at 6:30pm, and Angela and Gracie came up a little later.

Gracie woke up around 11:30pm, took a bottle, and is now wide awake. Angela and I are She is now in her second set of pajamas, and are getting ready to watch a Baby Einstein video.

Now that we are home, we won’t be blogging as much, but we will update everyone on how Gracie acclimates to her new home.  The next few days will be tough on us with the jetlag on top of an exhausting trip.  It is going to take Gracie about two weeks for her body to adjust to a 13 hour time difference.

We are very excited for everyone to meet Gracie, but we have a rough two weeks ahead of us.  If you want to visit, please check in first.  We will be keeping some very off ours until Gracie is fully acclimated.

So, That Kinda Sucked

Around 2:00pm, the porters at the White Swan picked up our bags, and we headed down to check out.

At 2:40pm, we started out to the US Consulate. They recently moved (they were around the corner on Shamian island), so we had about a 30 minute bus ride.

We went in the consulate sans stroller, waited in line, and then sat for a while. Around 3:45 or so, they swore us in and we got our “brown envelope” and Gracie’s travel visa. The brown envelope is a sealed packet containing original copies of the adoption paperwork and is required for immigration. Losing this would be a major catastrophe.

Around 4:00pm we boarded the bus, and headed off for Hong Kong.

The bus was packed, and we say with Gracie on our lap and the diaper backpack on the other lap. Oh yeah, we have to do some paperwork on the bus for departure from China and entry into Hong Kong. It wasn’t much, but was a pain to do in the crowded condition.

I think we arrived at the border around 6:15 or so. We had to get off the bus and go through immigration in China. Went to the bathroom, too. I won’t describe the facilities. They had to totally empty the bus, and we had to wait in line to get our passports processed. They also took all of the the luggage (two buses worth), x-rayed it, and then reloaded it.

We then got back on the bus, drove across the river for Hong Kong immigration. We had a quick interview on the bus, then got off to have our passport checked again. On the way out, they checked all of the baby’s temperatures with an infrared sensor; Hong Kong won’t let any visitors into the city with a fever.

Back on the bus, and on to the hotel.

We arrived a the hotel around 8:15. Our baggage was already there, and just had to make sure that our pieces had a tag on it with the right room number. Angela headed right up to the room, and I took care of the baggage.

I think Gracie crashed right away, and was so tired she slept in the clothes she had on. We ordered room service, and the luggage showed up a little later.

What a day. It was very busy and tiring.

Tomorrow is a big day (duh). Our luggage needs to be ready by 7:30am, and we need to check out by 8:30am. I think out flight is around 11:20am.

So, We’re Back In Hong Kong

I am writing as we are trying to board the plane.   They are preboarding all of us.  Will see if wireless works on the plane.

So, We Had A Nice Meal

Last night we ate at the Cantonese restaurant in the hotel.  Gracie did very well.  It was a very nice place, and I don’t think many of the families bring their babies there.  Gracie had stir fried rice noodles, Angela had baby bok choy with “bamboo fungus” (we think this was a type of mushroom), and had fish.

Gracie was up a good portion of the night, and was up for good at about 4:00am.  This also meant that Angela and I up at 4:00am.  Ug.  We also managed to lose the third (and last) pacifier yesterday.  We couldn’t find one in a store and we didn’t think to ask another family until this morning.

Angela and I are pretty tired at this point, and not sleeping isn’t helping matters.  I got lost in the buffet this morning on the way back to  table.

Minor sidetrack.  Baby food.  We used up most of the baby food we brought with us.  Thankfully, Gracie eats a lot of table food in addition to formula, and we just use the baby food in the room.  We have seen a fair number of “unusual” blend of baby food.  We haven’t seen any Gerber food here; Heinz seems to have the corner on the market.  Fish blends are pretty popular.  One of the families tried it and said that the babies love it, but that the smell (both going in and coming out) were pretty bad.  I managed to find some carrots and chicken with mushrooms for the flight home.

It’s all worth it though.  Angela and I can’t imagine life without Gracie right now.

So, Our Paperwork Is Done

Today started out same as most.  We had to hang out in the room for an hour just in case there was a problem with our consulate paperwork.  No calls.

After that we explored the island a little more and got a few more things for Gracie.

At 2:00pm, we had a short meeting in De’s room.  The first thing he told us is that all of our paperwork is OK, so we are done.  Tomorrow afternoon we check out of the hotel, and head over to the US consulate for a quick group interview.  When we are done that we get Gracie’s travel visa, and we head to Hong Kong by bus.  The trip to Hong Kong will take about four hours or so.

When we were done with the meeting, we did some group pictures. We did a picture with all of the families together, and then we did some photos of the girls on one of the red couches. We have sixteen kids in our travel group, and all of them didn’t quite fit on the couch.  Getting that many kids to sit still for a few minutes wasn’t easy, but we have some nice shots.

Given the timing of everything, I am not sure if we will be able to blog tomorrow in real-time.  If I can’t, I will back-date a post when I am at the Hong Kong Airport.

So, I Can’t Feel My Feet

After shopping today we visited a Thai restaurant.  Despite picking up Gracie from my lap and realizing that both my pants and shirt had huge pee spots on them (so much for the vinyl undies), lunch was nice.  I had some more squid, and Angela had a pad thai.  Eating is is a slower pace than we are used to, though.

Gracie fell asleep on the way back to the hotel, and slept until about 6:00p.  Then we had the decision to wake her up to let her sleep.  We woke her up in the hopes that by doing so, she would sleep tonight.

Angela played with Gracie while I made my first trip to Lucy’s for take-out:  chicken congee.  Angela fed Gracie, and I made my second trip to Lucy’s for adult food about 30 minutes later.

Feeding and bathing went fine for not having a dinner table or a high chair or other food options or any bath toys or more that one room.  We played with Gracie for a little bit, and then tried to give her a pre-bedtime bottle.  This is where the fun began.

Gracie just wanted to play.  She knows her English name now, and we think she understands who “mama” and “dada” are, and she was just too interested in us and everything else going on in the room.  We are also hampered by not having a good place to feed her.  We have a few chairs in the room, but no couch or comfy chair.  Finally, we turned off most of the lights in the room and let her play on the floor by herself.

After about 15 minutes of this, I started to give her a bottle again.  The only way to keep her still was to sit cross legged on the floor, and put Gracie in the hole between my legs while Angela hid in the bathroom.  After a while, I finally got Gracie to fall asleep. I psssted to Angela and she picked up Gracie and put her in the crib.

When I stood up, I realized that both of my feet were numb.  Upon the return of bloodflow, the pain started.  Fun.  Angela ran off to a massage (her present to herself, mine was the tea) and I read in bed while Gracie slept.

Right now, she is sound asleep in a contorted position and her nose is whistling (loudly).

So, Another Relaxing Day

We had another pretty easy day.

Gracie slept fairly well last night (stirred a few times, one changing), and ate a lot at breakfast this morning.  The buffet here has oatmeal as well as congee, so we are starting to make the switch.  She also really likes apple juice.

We had an medial appointment this morning for the US visa.  We went to a clinic on the island, and it had a dedicated group / rooms for handling the adoptions as well as the normal medical clinic type services.

Gracie weighed in at 18.1 pounds, and is a little over 28 inches long if we read the chart right.  They did a few tests, and we were done in about ten minutes.

After that we did some more shopping to get things for the house, and also get Gracie some Gotcha Day gifts.  About half of the stores here take Visa; the rest just do Chinese money.  We also went to a tea store, and I bought some puer tea.  De brought in a pearl dealer to the hotel, and Angela got a bunch of items.

Angela is attempting to get Gracie to take a nap right now.  She won’t take a bottle, and is practicing squirming, giggling, biting, kicking, babbling, and gymnastics; none of these are terribly conducive to sleeping.

I am not totally sure of the rest of the events we have left.  We have to wait in our rooms tomorrow morning in case there are any questions about our paperwork.  We meet with De in the afternoon about something, and I think we do the visa interview on Wednesday.  All I am sure of is that we get the visa on Wednesday right before we leave for for Hong Kong.

So, We Went Shopping

The first full day in Guangzhou stated out with a visit to the Chen Clan Academy. This was a temple / school created by the Chen families in China. Other than that, I haven’t totally figured out it is. I was very interesting, though. The building itself was about 200 years old, and there were lots of examples of Chinese artistry and architecture.

After that we visited one of the shopping streets. A shopping street is a wide street that doesn’t allow cars, and is lined with shops. It is Sunday (ie, the weekend), and it was very busy and crowded. We went to a baby department at a store, visited a jade shop, and then went to a book store. We found some Chinese / English children’s books, and a bunch of CDs. I bought a set of children’s CD, and some Chinese opera CDs. The children’s CDs were easy to find (you look for pictures of kids, duh), but I was having trouble with the Chinese opera CDs. I found our translator, Laura, and she managed to find an opera buff in the store who picked out a few CDs for me.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a quick appointment with De to drop off some paperwork, and then we went to lunch with a few families.

After wandering around for a while, we decided on a restaurant and spend over two hours there. It was nice to relax.

After that, we went shopping. We bought a few items at a store, and then went to Jennifer’s. De knows Jennifer, and makes sure that we get a good deal there. Our stroller is from her store (it is either free, or a rental that we already paid for) and we also use their laundry service. We bought a silk jacket for me and a white dress for Gracie. Angela and Gracie are having matching outfits made, too. After those and some other items, I had no money left in my pocket and I have to stop back later to pay the balance.

We probably won’t go out for dinner tonight. It is nearly 7:00pm right now, and we are hoping to get Gracie down soon. She is currently dancing and giggling with Angela, so we will see how that goes.

Tomorrow we visit the hospital for Gracie’s physical exam. This is a requirement for her US entry visa. The amount of paperwork we have done so far is amazing. Between the paper chase, the updates to the paper chase, the Chinese adoption, and the US visa, we have done a monumental amount of paperwork. We will have even more to do when we get home to get Gracie’s US birth certificate, etc.

I think we are going to visit the Mattel playroom in the hotel.

So, The Change Of Scenery Is Nice

We caught up with a few other families and went over to Lucy’s, a restaurant near the hotel that serves a lot of American Food. A lot of the shops and restaurants have English names, mainly because so many adoptive families stay at the White Swan.

We ate outside, and everyone was able to order “comfort” food. Angela had grilled cheese and french fries, and I had udon with seafood. Yes, I do consider udon a comfort food, and squid always hits the spot.

We ran into the other travel group. The baby with chicken pox is quarantined to her room, and all of the other babies received the inoculation. We are still playing it safe, though.

The area around the hotel is very nice. Gracie kocnked out in the stroller on the way back to the room, but she was a little stinky when we got back. We haven’t really unpacked, so Angela wasn’t quite prepared when she changed the diaper, and Gracie woke up. A bottle didn’t help; she was totally wound up and very playful. We decided to take a walk, and ran across a park (a city-type park without grass) that ran several blocks and saw lots of kids playing (it was 8:30pm or so) and families out walking. She finally fell asleep when we got back to the hotel.

The change of pace is nice. I can deal with the crumby weather, but toting around a 10mo at the same time is a little stressful. Nanchang wasn’t stroller friendly which added to the problems that we were facing as new parents.

We may go sightseeing tomorrow. I forget where we are supposed to go. I guess I could read my own blog and figure it out, but I am tired.

So, It Was A Long Day

Gracie didn’t sleep well last night.  We did a dinner out in Nanchang, and this kinda messed up her schedule.  She is also cutting a new tooth, and the end result was that she woke up a few times.

We had to pack this morning, and we had a little trouble getting everything to fit again.  Despite having a lot less food and diapers, the suitcases are still cram packed.  Out flight was at 1:40pm, and when you work backwards, we had to leave the hotel at 11:30pm.  The flight was full, but we lucked out and had an empty seat next to us.  Gracie didn’t sleep on the plane, but she wasn’t too fussy.

I can’t remember when we arrived in Guangzhou, but the flight was a little over an hour long.  After collecting our bags, we hopped on a (nice) bus and drove over to the hotel.

When we got to the hotel, Angela went with De to get a picture for Gracie’s US visa, and also get a quick orientation to the area.  I checked us in to the hotel.  It’s now about 5:30pm, and we are trying to get Gracie to take a bottle.  Our bags should show up a little later.  We are not sure if we are going to do room service, or wander out for some food.

Fortunately, the weather here is very nice (T-shirt weather), and everything is close by.  There is no rain in the weather forecast for the next six days.

Will post more later.