Our first day in Beijing

Last night I managed to scrape up enough motivation to wake Adrian up off the desk and go out to eat. Which was not easy. Adrian says he would rather take a boat back home rather than the plane...I am so with you my friend... So, we walked to a local restaurant and had perch, noodles and dumplings. It was very good. After being in China twice you would think I would be used to it but it is still really strange to see people smoking in restaurants and even putting cigarettes out on the floor or the little boy who stepped out on the stairs a foot outside the restaurant to pee! And the driving! Wow, I don't think I'll ever get used to that! Our taxi almost hit a man on a bike on the way to the hotel yesterday. I yelled out loud and the taxi driver chuckled and was not shaken a bit.

After a pretty good night's rest we got moving early and had a nice breakfast at our hotel, Michael's House. It is really beautiful in here. Situated in the heart of a hutong (old stone authentic Chinese neighborhood) it is like a sanctuary in the center of busy Beijing. It is an old home converted into a hotel and it sits around a courtyard. The courtyard is really beautiful and peaceful. It is a lot like the Double Happiness where we stayed last time Aaron and I traveled almost 2 years ago. Adrian and I have the best room in the house. The "Emperor's Suite". Because we needed a crib in the room on our last night, you know- for our guest of honor - so they upgraded us for free. So nice of them!

Look it's Mexican Tomato Chicken Lays and what?! are those what I think they are? Yes! Plain Lays!

Someone was looking out for me this time!

It was cooler today than yesterday. It was in the 80s and rained a bit which felt great. We met up with Angela here at the hotel after breakfast. Angela is the same guide Aaron and I used. It was wonderful to see her! Her husband drove us today. We started by going to the Lama Temple which was pretty uneventful. I had hoped to actually see the monks praying but they start at 4 am and go again at 7 pm so we missed that. But we did see the largest buddha statue in China- standing at nearly 60 feet.

Adrian and I got our picture taken with the mama lion holding down her cub with one paw. I thought that was symbolic for me and my teenager... 

Then we went on our hutong tour where we rode on rickshaws around the old neighborhoods and along the lake. It started to rain during this but luckily Angela had thought of bringing umbrellas so we put it over our legs and we were good to go. The rain felt great and cooled things off. We had a bit of a rickshaw fender bender with another rickshaw which was cause for some excitement. Think hundreds and hundreds of rickshaws crowded down these streets with pedestrians, cars, dogs and I guess a bump here and there is inevitable. Pure pandemonium I tell ya!

As we were leaving, the rain was falling and the lotus were in full bloom- one week later than usual. A sign for me as my little YuHe's name means "rain on the lotus".

Then we moved on to a hot pot lunch, which consisted of a large pot of two different broths (one spicy hot, one not) and we boiled all kinds of different things in them - lamb, mushrooms, potatoes, bok choy, beef, tofu, fish, noodles. It was delicious, but the spicy hot was mild and was still really darn hot for me. And yes, that is a fork. Don't judge, it was either that or starve because I couldn't get a darn thing from that pot to my bowl. Adrian did pretty good though. Don't know how he learned how to do that.

Then we went to the Temple of Heaven which is where the emperor went to worship. When it was built in the 1600's it was built larger than the Forbidden City because of its religious significance. It was thought that the world was square and the sky was round so it starts out square and the end (or heaven) is circular. This is the echo wall. If you stand on one side and talk the sound with travel hundreds of feet to the other side. I didn't believe it until sure enough, Angela's voice came around and said "can you hear me?" and "I will wait for you on this side". It sounded like she was standing right next to me! That really was so cool! The rest of the park was filled with the smell of Juniper trees and the sound of people playing cards and music. I really enjoyed this. After seeing most of the sights in Beijing now I highly recommend seeing the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven.

And I'll wrap it up with a funny sight - as we were walking back to the car from lunch this is the sign we saw outside of the public toilet- hmmm.. I could see how most of these warnings might be necessary except for the fasten your safety belt thing... Obviously it is very dangerous to use the public toilets here so we will steer clear.

Finally, we've made it!

After 24 hours we have finally made it to our hotel! Needless to say we are exhausted. We've been here 10 minutes and this picture pretty much sums it up. 

Our Journey Begins!

Ava and Daddy saw us off this morning at 4:30 am!

We are currently waiting in Wash. DC for our flight to Beijing!

Travel plans are made and we are ready for our baby!

After a long one year, one month and one week of receiving pre-approval to adopt Yuhe we are preparing to leave to add her to the family. In 9 days (July 24th) Adrian and I fly out of Burlington to Washington DC to Beijing where we will spend a couple days touring the sites and visiting Love Without Boundaries, the wonderful foster home where she has spent all but four months of her life. We have been granted the opportunity to pick her up from Beijing on the 27th and travel with her to her birth province, of which I am so grateful. This means she will not be sent back weeks ahead of time to her orphanage to live with strangers, only to be caused more upset to then be placed with us, more strangers. Now her caregivers whom she trusts will explain who I am and why she will be going with me. What a wonderful gift for me and her!

We will be arriving in her birth province, Anhui, on the 28th by 4 hour high speed train. Oh how I hope she is starting to accept me by then! I'm sure she is going to be confused and upset and being stuck on a train is never an easy way to deal with those emotions. And just as I thought before I left to get Ava- I hope she likes me! It will be strange not to have Aaron there to share through the transition as we have always done together. He is my rock and I will miss him a great deal. Adrian will be a huge help in so many ways though and I'm so glad I can share this experience with my oldest child. I just wish I could bring them all! 

On August 2nd we leave Hefei City to go to Guangzhou to finalize with the US Consulate on the 6th. In the meantime I will spend my 38th birthday on August 3rd in China as a mother of 6! We will arrive home on the 8th from Hong Kong after 15 hours and another 7 hour layover, this time in Newark. We will arrive in Burlington at 11:30 pm. Ugh. This is the only time I really do not like living in a small state without a large airport. I'm going to be chomping at the bit to rent a car and just finish the trip myself...

I've decided to announce her name to everyone when I pick her up! And no, I'm still not positive what it is! Although the family has voted and we've narrowed it down to a few favorites.

So a couple last pics from our most recent update before I go. The next time I post will be on our way to China!

My beautiful Yuhe!

  And my beautiful Ava anxiously awaiting her arrival!

  My two spicy but sweet girls! Love it! These two, I have a feeling, are going to be quite the pair! Sisters, and friends for life. I can't wait to bring them together!!

  

We have Travel Approval!

On Tuesday I had a really good feeling that Travel Approval would be coming that day or the next. Sure enough yesterday afternoon I got the call! Looks like travel at the end of the month!

All we need now is Travel Approval!

Yuhe's visa application has been approved and we are now waiting for China to give us Travel Approval (TA). Adrian and my visa applications were sent to Chicago and these will be back on Friday. Usually it takes about 2 weeks for TA and we can travel about 2 weeks after that. So in a month we can be on our way to China!!

She's Finally Coming Home!

After 8 days in the hospital little Ava is finally coming home today! She started eating broth and jello two days ago and yesterday she was eating eggs and cheese pizza. She hasn't had any adverse reaction so they are ready to let her go. She has been all smiles and laughs for a few days now and you can tell she just feels so much better. The house just hasn't been the same without her and we are anxious to have her home. Yayy Ava!!

Shout out from Ava!

Ava wants to tell everyone she is feeling much better today. She is lounging with her legs crossed and is very relaxed while watching the Disney Channel. She wants you to know that she slept for a full 8 hours last night and her pain was very well managed. She admits that she even might have cracked a half smile at her Mama and had a great conversation with Daddy on the phone. She also asked where Adam was. She tends to pick one brother's name to ask about but it is meant to ask where they all are. So sweet. They all had a nice visit with her last night and brought her a big dragonfly balloon which she claimed as hers right away. Her preschool teachers have visited with her and brought a beautiful get well card from her class and Aidan made her a card that each of the boys have signed. She is very grateful for all the love and is working hard to get back home and to school.

We are hoping that her intestines wake up and start doing some work so they can take the tube out of her nose. She is really sick of that. We are going to try to walk a bit today to get things moving. This is the point where you actually hope for some bodily functions such as gas to let us know things are working down there. I'm hoping she'll bust out with an "Enune Me" (Excuse Me) anytime now ;-)

I-800 Approval for Yuhe Today!

While my beautiful Ava is recovering things are speeding right along for little Yuhe and we now have I-800 approval approving her to be adopted. Now we need China to approve her and then we wait for travel approval. These next steps are small and will go by fast. With baby girl in the hospital and my house completely turned upside down with a mom and dad switching being there, a remodeling project on hold and the lives of four boys to keep up with. Well, I don't think there will be much time for just waiting. And I may have to find a spare minute to start packing...

Ava Update...

So Ava had a rough night which was to be expected. The pain from intestinal surgery was explained to us by the surgeon as being very intense. They are trying to keep it under control with an epidural and morphine among other things but she is waking up from time to time very upset. She doesn't like the tubes and does her best to tear those out when we aren't on our game. Luckily her nurse was assigned to just her and sat right next to her all night so I did manage to get a few hours of sleep. We will probably be in here for 5-7 days depending on how well her recovery goes. Aaron and I are going to switch on and off staying with her as life with four boys at home goes on.