The Journey Home (Day 12)

We get to bed about 1:30am (12:30pm CST 5-26).  We wake up at 5:00am and began getting ready for the journey home.  We get at the airport at 8:30am for a 10:40 flight to Tokyo.  At the ticket counter is where the fun beings.  Our 10:40am flight was changed to 9:15am.  Needless to say, we couldn't catch that flight.  After discussing all of our option with the airline, we decided on a flight that would leave at 4:30pm.  So at this time, we will be the airport for seven hours before our flight to LAX.  We have heard horrible things from adoptive parents flying into LAX.  So we were not looking forward to this.  The flight from Hong Kong to LAX was great.  Cathay put us on the bulkhead so that we can put Alyse in a bassinet if she fell asleep.  That came in very handy.  She slept about 6-7 hours.  Once we got to LAX, immigration and customs went very smoothly.  We were very relieved.  Our flight from LAX to DFW left at 4:45pm (3:45am Hong Kong 5-27).  We land at DFW at 9:45pm (CST, 8:45am).  Seeing Madison was wonderful.  It seems like she grew a foot over the two weeks.  Everyone is excited when we get home so we were up for a bit.  We finally go to bed about 2:30am.   That trip home we were up almost 35 hours.

Alyse's first night home.

Last day in Gaungzhou (Day 11)

This is our last day in Guangzhou.  Don't have much going on.  We are waiting on Alyse's US visa on her Chinese passport.  We leave the hotel  at 7:00pm for the airport.  It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone.  We lived with these people for two weeks and got to experience a life changing ordeal with them.  We were ready to get home to Madison, but it was still bitterweet.  Our flight from Gaungzhou to Hong Kong left at 10:40pm and got into Hong Kong at 11:30pm.  We finally get to our hotel room about 12:45am.  We leave the next day.

US Consulate (Day 10)

We have a 10:00am appointment with the US Consulate for our swearing in ceremony.  All the families gather in a room with their adopted parents and recite the adoption creed.  After the meeting, we head back to the hotel.  We meet at the famous red couches of White Swan for group photos.  That evening, all the families head out for a dinner cruise along the Pearl River. 

There were about 20 cameras taking our picture.  I did not know which one to smile at.

Sydney, Alyse and Katherine

Alyse, Katherine, Arwen, Grace Ann and Sienna

James was in China by himself, his wife stayed home with their other children.  He adopted TWO on this trip.  He adopted Bella (lap) in another province before coming to Guangzhou.  In Guangzhou, he adopted Deanna (middle).  Hannah on the left end was adopted years ago.  He was probably the "most with it" parent.  Kuddos James.

Katarina, Sydney, Katherine(Katie) and KyraSong



Our entire Guangzhou gang

Rest Days (Day 8 & 9)

The next two days are Saturday and Sunday.  Nothing going on these days.  We went shopping, relaxed in the room to really get to know Alyse.  She is beginnning to smile at us and seems to be very content  with us.   She is such a good baby.  Getting her medicine down her, is another thing.  She loves being strolled outside which is great with us.  She is eating every meal and sleeping good.  Tomorrow (Monday) we  have our appointment with the American Consulate to get her visa stamped on her Chinese passport.

Guangzhou Zoo (Day 8)

Since all  of the official Chinese government appointments are behind us, we have free time until our US Consulate appointments.  Today we are going to the zoo for a few hours.  The zoo was built in 1954 with no wheelchair ramps (or strollers) so we are having to carry Mei Mei up flights of stairs all the time. 

Some of those steps I was telling you about

These kids were so cute.  They would keep saying hello to us in English.

Water park inside zoo

Guangzhou City Tour (Day 7)

With all of the Chinese government appointments behind us, all we have to do is wait for the final paperwork and the US consulate appointment on Monday.  Today we are going to visit a Buddhist Temple, the Old Chen House and an Arts crafts shopping center.  The Buddist temple is over 1400 years olds.  The Chen House was actually a Qing Dynasty Academy built over 100 years ago.   Here are some photos:

Some buddas



Maggie & Jason our guides



Me and Alyse walking into the Chen Academy

Medical Exam and Passport photo (Day 6)

We started the day off with passport photo for Alyse's Chinese passport.  She will be actually travelling to the states as a Chinese immigrant until she goes through immigration back home.  After that, we walked to the medical exam office near the hotel.  We are worried a little because she isn't eating and hasn't pooped yet.  The doctors tell us she is fine and that she is going through a little bit of shock.  That night she still wasn't eating and she needed to so bad.  We called Maggie, on of our guides, and she came to our room to help try and get her to eat.  She began to speak baby Mandarin to Alyse and she started to eat a little bit.  Our pediatricain prescibed some amoxicillan in case she was sick and she was.  We began treatment, which she didn't like at all.  We went to bed a little relieved that she finally did eat something.

Registration Day (Day 5)

Today we registered the adoption with the Provinvial Civil Affairs Office.  It went smoothly and now the country of China considers Alyse ours.  We went to the Carrefour Supermarket to stock up on the formula and rice cereal that Alyse has had in the orphanage.  She just stairs at us for long periods of time.  She is sleeping just fine but not eating so well. 

The way she sucks her fingers is priceless

Look at that smile

Gothcha Day (Day 4)

We woke up this morning with a little extra spring in our steps.  Today is the day we receive Alyse.  Our group has a 3:30 appointment with another 29 other people.  When we arrive at the government building, we wait in the lobby for the elevator for the eight floor.  As we were waiting, these women began to usher in little girls one by one.  Our group's girls van was stuck in traffic and just made the appointment.  We got to see our kids walk in.  Imagine this, thirty-eight families (some with travel companions) in a room with about 500 square feet trying to receive our kids at one time.  It was nothing short of utter chaos.  Babies screaming, parents crying, camera flashes everywhere, it was quite a scene.  Here are some photos of us with Alyse for the very first time.

The hand-off.  Notice Susan was crying, wasn't expecting that.

Scott and Heidi with Sydney.  Alyse is blowing air bubbles on Susan's arm.

Notice how Alyse is sucking her fingers.  She already Hook Ems!!

A cute photo back in our room.

Her first nap with us and she is still callin' the Horns.

Bus ride to Guangzhou (Day 3)

 After a day of touring and a goodnight rest, we headed to Guangzhou by bus around 10:00am.  Once we actually left Hong Kong proper, we had to go through a Chinese port of entry.  At the entrance, we had to remove all of our belongings from the bus and carry them through immigration.  We had to show our passports departure card from Hong Kong, and has our baggage examined once more.  After we were all through, we got back on the bus for a three hour tour of the country side heading towards Guangzhou.  We saw some very rural areas of China along with some industrial cities that have literally popped up over night.  When jobs become available, people began to mirate from the east and north for these jobs.  These cities tend to grow very quickly.  There is excitement in the bus when we go through the Guangzhou toll booth.  We are almost there!!   We arrive at the White Swan Hotel about thirty minutes later.  Our home away from home for the next 10 days.



Here is a partial group photo of our travelling caravan.  
Knelling is Scott, Susan and Joan.  Standing left to right is Matthew
 our Hong Kong guide, Michelle, Garry, Amy (friend of Joan's)
Ellen (Garry's wife, Me, Amy (Michelle's friend) ,Heidi (Scott's wife),
Deberah, Melinda and Joan (Melinda's mom)



One of those pop-up cities

                                                            


The toll booth getting into Guangzhou





Hong Kong (Day 2)

After a somewhat restful night on a bed made of plywood and a fitted sheet, we head out with other members of our travel group to tour Hong Kong.  What a beautiful city.  We got to see Jackie Chan's house, went and walked on the beach, shopped at some street alleyway shops, took a boat tour of a finishing village and made our way up to the "circle" of Hong Kong.  Here are some photos of our tour.

The hole in the middle of the hotel is there to allow the dragons to come down from the mountains and fly through instead of crashing into the hotel.  Interesting!

The Floating Restaurant.  It can hold up to 3000 customers @ one time.

These photos are through the "wheel" of Hong Kong

Outside of the hotel, was a park that had footprints from cities from all over the world.

May 12th, the Journey begins (Day 1)

We finally get to sleep about 2:00am and get up at 4:30am to start getting ready.  We finally get the car packed and Madison ready and head to Gigi & Papa's so they can take us to the airport.  It was very hard to say goodbye to Madison.  She did throw a little fit about not being able to go inside the terminal with us, but was soon okay as she and the grandparents quickly made it to IHOP for breakfast. After getting our boarding passes, we wait in a very long security line.  It was the longest line I've seen at DFW.  After getting through security, we had about 10 minutes before we were boarding the plane to LAX.  Needless to say, we did not get breakfast or anything to drink.  The flight to LAX was uneventful which is nice since it was only suppose to be a 45 minute layover (continuous flight on same plane) before heading to San Francisco.  This is where the fun begins.  We asked an attendant if we stay on or get off, she said either it doesn't matter.  At this time, I noticed that they took our checked baggage off of the plane.  I raced to another attendant and told her such and she explained to me that they were just making room to get other baggage off the plane.  You're probably thinking the same thing we were which is, that's strange, but...ok.  We get off the plane to stretch our legs and find a quick bite to eat if possible.  After finding no food in the vicinity, we head back to our gate only to find a flight attendant explaining that our flight into SFO has been delayed because of weather.We race down to customer service because we have to make that connection to Hong Kong as arrangements have been made by our agency to pick us up at a specific time.  There were directions on finding your own way if you miss the arranged pick up, but we aren't that adventurous and really didn't want to be in that situation.  While waiting in line, a gentleman passes by us to look at some flights on a screen.  On his way back, we're in his way, and he excuses himself.  That's when I noticed that is was Dave Foley.  If there are any "Newsradio" fans out there, he was the boss.  I told him that I was a big fan, and he stopped and talked to us for a bit.  What a great guy.  He wished us luck on our adoption and we bid him safe travels.  He was nice to talk to and really down to earth.  Once we got to the counter, we were informed that our flight was now boarding and about to depart.  We race back to the gate to make that flight.  We made it, but with a 45 min delay to SFO. Once we landed in SFO, we had one hour and fifteen minutes to catch the flight to Hong Kong.  For anyone trying to making an international connection in SFO, you have to leave the airport then re-enter through security.  We do all of those things with fifteen minutes to spare.  Upon heading to the gate, we hear our names over the loud speakers telling us we are needed at the gate.  I start a mad dash through the airport to that gate to catch that flight.  I must have looked like OJ from his old Hertz commercials.  I got there completely out of breath and couldn't even speak to the attendant.  We did make it though.  We left the United States on Cathay Pacific about 1:40pm (3:40pm CST).  Still no food or drinks.  Cathay Pacific took very good care of us.  By far, the best airline I have ever been on.  Susan wasn't feeling too well, so they rushed to get her some water, apple juice and a sandwich and checked on her the entire trip.  Other than that, the thirteen hour and forty minute flight was great.  We finally touched down in Hong Kong  on Friday the 13th @ 6:45pm (5:45am CST).  We breeze through immigration and made our way to pick up our luggage.  After a bit of waiting at the carousel and giving each other that "oh, no, not again" look.  I hear our name over the loudspeakers and rush to baggage claim.  Our checked in luggage was still in LAX.  Of course, right!!! All in all, not that big of a deal.  We are met outside of the terminal by our guide Matthew and another couple Scott and Heidi.  We get in a taxi and make our way to the Regal Kowloon Hotel.  We had no idea that Hong Kong was so mountainous.  The terrain was quite beautiful and we really enjoyed our couple of days there. 

Blogging in China

It seems that the Chinese government has blocked blogger so we were not able to blog while there.  We will try to post the entire trip over the next few days.  Day one to follow...

We finally have a name...

Alyse Arden Glendenning

We have a confirmed Consulate Appointment!!

Based on our Consulate appointment, we will fly to Hong Kong on the 12th of May.  That is less than two weeks away.   Now it is a mad dash to the finish line. 

We received our TA today!!!

We got our Travel Approval (TA) today.  All we are waiting on now is an appointment with the US Consulate...almost there.

More pictures of our precious little girl

Visa's are here!!

We received our Chinese Visa's today from the Chinese Consulate in Houston.  One more step closer...

What Happens Now?

Some of you were wondering what happens now, so we wrote it down for you.  We signed our letter of intent to accept Xiao and Fedex it back to CCAI.  Now, is the time where so much happens in such a short time.  Our agency (CCAI) will (or did) send our acceptance back to the Chinese government (CCAA) and CCAA will work on getting us a Travel Approval (TA) to fly to China and adopt Xiao.  This process can take around 2-4 weeks.  Once CCAA sends our TA back to our agency, our agency turns around and sends it to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China, along with our fingerprints and passport copies to schedule an appoinment for Xiao's visa and our swearing in ceremony.  The consulate takes about 2-4 days to set-up an appointment.  After the consulate notifies our agency of said appointment, our agency starts booking an itinerary for us (travel, hotels, government appointments in China, etc.).  Our agency will notify us of our travel dates about 7-10 days before we actually travel.  We will spend about two weeks in China.

We should get updates about Xiao after CCAA receives our intent to adopt.  We will share any and all updates when we get them.

More Pictures

Introducing Song Xiao Qing

Isn't she precious?  Here is the information that we have right now.  Granted, this information is from her last medical check-up on 12-15-10 (my birthday).  Her birthdate is 8-8-10 (Susan's is 8-6), she weighs 12.23 lbs, 23.23" tall, and all test (HIV, HEP, etc.) have come back negative.  She is completely healthy.  We love you all. 

Fortune Cookie

     No truer words have ever been encased in a cookie before.

Official wording from our agency

4/1/2011 Matches Mailed!

We are very excited to have learned that the CCAA has mailed a group of matches to us! The CCCWA has updated their intranet site to state the following: The CCCWA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 15, 2006. We do not know when matches will arrive in our office, but we will update this site as soon as more information becomes available!!

From the Rumor Queen:

Ni hao zau an

THE LID CUT-OFF IS THE 15TH!!!!!  Meaning, we are included in this months referrals.  We will get our phone call from our agency today or on Monday.  So excited.  BTW, this is not an April Fool's joke, we wouldn't do that to any of you. 

WHEN?

We should hear something by the end of this week.  So hopefully, I will have a picture up within a week or so of our daughter.

CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International) Update

"We believe that CCAA is beginning to organize children's paperwork to match families.  We do not know the log in dates for the next match group at this time"  YEA!!

Timelines

It has almost been 3 weeks since CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) match the last batch of children with adoptive parents.  The next batch could take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks to match.  With that being said, we could be matched with Chinette at the end of this week or the first of next week at the soonest.  Most likely though, we will be matched somewhere around the first of April.  We check the rumors sites daily just to see if there are any floating rumors out there about the next batch of dates to be match.  It's hard to believe that our time is here.  After we are matched, we will travel to China in about 5-8 weeks later to pick her up.  That's about mid May.  When we started this back in 2006, we were suppose to have her by May 2007!!

A waiting bedroom...