Changsha Day 5

This will probably be a short post - we are exhausted after a very long day of travel to Isaiah's orphanage and back. We left the hotel at 8am for the 2 1/2 hour, bumpy van ride to Hengyang. After arriving at the orphanage around noon and visiting with the director we were able to see a little of the area where Isaiah was. Unfortunately, the children were all sleeping so we could not see very many of them. We were able to see his nannies and they were very excited to see him ... they obviously loved him very much.

I had my first squatty potty experience of the trip today! It was extra fun because I had Isaiah strapped in the carrier! We had just arrived to the orphanage and there was no time to take him out .... so lets just say that I got a good leg workout today!  :-)

After the quick visit, we were able to go to lunch with the director and assistant director. Lunch was delicious! You would believe the amount of food we were given ... there were 6 adults and one 15 month old that eats like an adult and we still had 1/2 of the food left and it was all only $40!

By the time we arrived back at the hotel tonight it was 6:30pm! Isaiah basically spent about 10 hours on our lap all day and did wonderful. We are ready to slow our pace down a bit as we can tell he needs some down time to just be settled and with us. Just like with Anna, the uncertainty of what is going to happen next is making him a bit anxious at times. It's such a hard transition for these kids.

We are thankful he is a good sleeper, so we all continue to sleep very good. He has a bit of congestion right now - we will also be happy to get him home were he can be in a warm environment. It is fairly chilly here and not many places have heat.

It's official - he is ours!

Isaiah woke around 6am this morning - he was slow to wake, but a happy boy and more than ready to eat! We headed down for breakfast before meeting Celia to go back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize all of the adoption paperwork.

We decided to try the baby carrier today - some of you might remember than Anna loved the carrier while we were in China - NingNing seems to like it too! It is such a great way to work on our bonding and attachment, so we were happy to see he liked it.

We were also happy to see that once at the Civil Affairs office, when NingNing saw the orphanage director (that he so badly wanted to cling to yesterday), he didn't seem to care a thing about him today and preferred to stay in our arms!

He was very content all morning and happily sat in our laps for about 5 hours between van rides, appointments and lunch! He is napping now and we are just hanging in the hotel this evening. Tomorrow morning we will visit the orphanage. We leave here at 8am for the 2 hour van ride through the country side. We feel pretty confident that he will do okay during the visit. We are looking forward to meeting the nannies that loved and cared for him.

These first pictures were taken last night in our room and the next were taken this morning at the Civil Affairs office.

It's official!

Getting his red footprint

Us with the orphanage director

Isaiah Day Video

Good morning from Changsha. It's about 5am here and NingNing is still fast asleep in our bed. He fell asleep about 7:30pm last night and only woke once around 1am - he whimpered a bit and looked a both of us, then fell back to sleep in about 15 minutes. We're praying he wakes happy.

This morning we have our adoption finalization appointment and then he will officially be ours!

Here are a couple videos from yesterday - enjoy:

We have him!

As I type this, he is fast asleep taking a much needed nap in the middle of our bed!

I know all you really want to see is pics, so scroll down and look, then come back to read about our morning.

We arrived at the Civil Affairs office before NingNing was there, so we watched as another family had just met their sweet daughter and we waited, not so patiently, for Isaiah to enter the room. Just was we had let our guard down, in walked the orphanage director carrying this sweet little bundle - just like with Anna, Isaiah Ning took our breath away!

We have already come a long way in just a few hours. At first, he cried (as he should) and wanted nothing to do with us ... until we broke out the food. Then, as long as we were feeding him, he tolerated us, but every time the director or our guide got in is sight, he cried to get to them ... poor baby just wanted anyone that looked familiar.

We were only there about 30 mins before loaded up to head back to our hotel. He was the same way in the car - crying to get to our guide and quiet when we were feeding him. They said he was hungry and needed a diaper change (we could smell the evidence of that!). He was holding the photo album we sent him several months ago.

Once in our room, after Celia left, he stopped crying and has done nothing but laugh, eat, play, talk, and now sleep ... not one more cry! He is doing great. He is SO small. We haven't weighed him yet, buy the 9 month clothes we put on him are just about right, the pants slightly loose. He took a bottle immediately and has gobbled up a snack cup full of cheerios already. He let us change him, put lotion on him, brush his hair and dress him. He has the funniest little laugh! He will go to both Greg and I equally and follows closely when one or the other of us leaves the room. He reached for me earlier and said "Mama" - we couldn't believe it.

We laid down with him on the bed to try to get him to sleep and he was out within 15 mins or so. He fell asleep holding a washcloth.  :-)

Our guide is coming back to our room in about 2 hours to do some paperwork, so it will be interesting to see his reaction to her at this point. Hopefully, he will continue to prefer us.

Greg will work on getting video loaded later, but here are some pics for now

Changsha - Day 2

Just like last time, last night was our hardest night of jet lag. We tried our best to stay up as late as possible last night (we did sneak in an hour nap yesterday afternoon), we made it to about 10ish last night and crashed. We both woke up around the same time, thinking it must be almost time to get up for the day and it was only 1:30am! We were pretty wide awake, so we broke into our melatonin stash and managed to fall back to sleep in about 45 mins and slept until around 5am or so. Not bad.

We started the day with the breakfast buffet in our hotel. Like all hotel buffets in China, it was full of traditional western breakfast food along with plenty of Chinese foods like fried rice, noodles, dumplings, etc. We loaded up on breakfast then ventured out for the day. Our guide had told us about a pedestrian street - called Commercial Street - that was good for shops and people watching. We found our way there ... probably a 2-3 mile walk each way from our hotel. We got lots of looks! Most of the time if you smile and nod, you'll get a smile back. Anyway, lots to see along the way!

For those wondering ... Anna is doing good, we've Skyped with her twice. The first time we talked to her, she immediately asked to talk to her baby brother. It was really cute. We miss her lots, but it makes us feel so good knowing she is having a good time.

We might venture out again later this afternoon, but we're going to try to rest up so we're ready for Isaiah Day tomorrow!! We'll meet Celia downstairs at 10am, then head to the Civil Affairs office and meet Isaiah around 10:30am. I'm guessing we'll be back to our hotel by noon or so,  so depending on how he is doing, we'll try to get pics posted early afternoon (your Sunday night). Please pray for Isaiah's transition to us, we know he is close to his nannies and this will be very hard for him.

Thanks for all the comments ... they mean so much!!

Some of the sights and sounds of Changsha....

A distant view of our hotel.

Changsha - Day 1

We're here! Our flight was smooth, just about an hour flight from Hong Kong. We were met by our guide, Celia, at the airport. She is really sweet. She and our driver for the week, Mr. Joe, got us loaded up and we drove to our hotel, the Huatian - it's really nice. It is very smoggy here today. The temp is about 50 and cool, it's supposed to be a bit more sunny and nice the next few days.

After Celia got us settled in to our room, there was a knock at the door ... it was the staff bringing up the crib!! :-)  There is a restaurant downstairs, connected to the hotel, called Food Street. Kind of buffet style, except they make it for you to order. All the dishes, seemed like hundreds, are on display and you just point to what you want and they make it fresh. We picked 4 different things and it was really good ... definitely had that Hunan spice going on!

After lunch we walked down the street to load up on bottled water. Now we're just going to rest the rest of the day/evening. Tomorrow we are on our own and are going to go out exploring the area.

Celia said we will meet Isaiah Monday morning at 10:30am!!! That will be 9:30pm cst (with your time change) on Sunday for you all back home. I imagine it will be after midnight your time Sunday night before we'll get back here and get pictures posted.

So exciting!

 View from our room - lots of smog!

Another view from our window.

Hotel Lobby

More Lobby

Made it to Hong Kong!

We're here in our hotel getting ready to crash. Our flight was good ... long, but good. We maybe slept on and off for a total of 1 1/2 hours. It's just so hard to sleep on the plane! We watched plenty of movies and tv shows though. The food on Cathay was actually pretty good too!

We catch our flight to Changsha at 9am in the morning. Just three more sleeps until Isaiah day!!

In Chicago, waiting to board...

We went to bed about 1am and the alarm went off at 5am. - hopefully that means we'll have a nice sleep on the flight to Hong Kong! Our flight to Chicago was smooth and now we have about 3 hours until we board. We'll land in Hong Kong around 8pm Friday, so that will be Friday morning US time.

Here are a few pics for you ...

Ready to go!

Flying Cathay Pacific this time and looking forward to it.

Never mind our puffy, tired eyes!

The plans...

Here is our itinerary while we are in China. We will fly from Springfield to Chicago Thurs morning and then on to Hong Kong that afternoon. We'll arrive in Hong Kong Friday night and spend the night there before flying on to Changsha Sat morning.

Sat.  March 10:  Fly to Changsha from Hong Kong. Stay at the Hua Tian Hotel.

Sun.  March 11:  Free time

Mon. March 12:  Meet Isaiah  (YIPPEE)

Tues. March 13:  Registration & Notarization

Wed. March 14: Sightseeing: Provincial Museum

Thurs. March 15:  Sightseeing: Hunan Embroidery Museum

Fri.  March 16:  Sightseeing: Yuelu Academy. Get the passport. Fly from Changsha to Guangzhou, Stay at the Victory Hotel.

Sat. March 17:  Photo  & Physical for Isaiah

Sun. March 18:  Sightseeing: visit the Yuntai Garden

Mon. March 19:  Visa appointment at 08:30, Swearing in ceremony at the Consulate, getting the visa

Tues. March 20: Pick up Isaiah's Visa. Leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong by T819 at 6:20pm (we're taking the train back to Hong Kong again, like we did with Anna)

After arriving back in Hong Kong on the night of the 20st, we'll spend the night at the airport hotel, then catch our flight back to Chicago Wednesday morning. So, because we're flying back in time .... we'll leave Hong Kong the morning of the 21st and arrive home Wed evening!

On the mend

It hit Anna first early last week, then me and now Greg. We have had the most terrible round of "junk" that we can either one remember having. We're still blowing noses, we still can't smell, taste or hear, but I think we're getting better.

We still have a lot to do to get ready to leave next Thursday, so I'm thankful we're on the upswing of this. Our bags are about half way packed,the house is about half way clean, and the laundry is about half way done. Progress! I'll post more about our itinerary in China in a couple of days.

For those of you that have asked, we have decided to leave Anna here. It was one of the hardest decisions we have had to make, but we finally feel at peace with it. Anna is looking forward to sleepovers at Nana's house and with her cousins. She is also very excited that we have made her in charge (or "on charge" as she says) of making signs and getting balloons for Isaiah at the airport. And she is happy that she gets to be the first one to hug him at the airport. Anna has 2 wonderful grandma's and an awesome aunt and uncle and super fun cousins, so we know we're leaving her in good hands. Thank you all for helping us!!

Here is a pic of our super awesome Big Sister. She is so excited for her baby brother to come home. We couldn't be more proud of her, she is a special little girl!!

Have tickets, will travel!

Tickets have been purchased, itinerary is set ... packing and to-do list need a little help though!

We were lucky enough to get another picture of Isaiah earlier this week. Two weeks from today we'll be on a plane to meet this little sweetie! This was taken Feb 20th!

Better pack the hair brush and hair gel ... baby boy has some hair!

I'll post more about our itinerary soon.

TA!!!!

It came today!! I was in the middle of Walgreens when I got the call and it was all I could do not to scream. Of course, I ran to the car to call Greg ... then I screamed!   :-)

More details to come ... but it looks like we'll be leaving March 8th (3 weeks from today!!) and meeting Isaiah on March 12th - the day he turns 15 months old!

Praise the Lord!

Video!!

We were able to get a short video of Isaiah that was taken last October!! 

Seriously, could he be any cuter!!  Come on TA!! Prayers that we get our travel approval next week!!

Where are we going?

Our route to China will start in Chicago again. We'll fly from Chicago to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Changsha, Hunan. On the way home we'll most likely take the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Chicago, then one more quick flight home!

Hunan is located in the south central part of the Chinese mainland, and has long been known for its natural beauty. Hunan is surrounded by mountains on the east, west, and south, and by the Yangtze River on the north ... it's mixture of mountains and water makes it among the most beautiful provinces in China. For thousands of years, Hunan has been a major center of Chinese agriculture, growing rice, tea, and oranges.

Our first week will be spent in Changsha, Hunan. Changsha is located in the northeast part of Hunan. It's the capital city of Hunan as well as it political, economic and cultural center. Similar to Kunming, Yunnan (where we were with Anna), Changsha has a subtropical climate year round as well. Changsha's population is 6.13 million.

We will meet Isaiah in Changsha, however he is actually in Hengyang which, by high-speed train, is about 30 mins south of Changsha. Hengyang is the second largest city in Hunan with a population of over seven million.

Hengyang is located in the middle reaches of Xiangjiang River and to the south of Mt. Hengshan in Hunan Province. It is a historically significant city renowned as the 'Bright Pearl in Southern China.' It is also known as 'Wild Goose City' because flocks of wild geese flying south for the winter have been known to stop there to rest.  

We are fairly certain that we will be allowed to travel to Hengyang to visit Isaiah's SWI and meet some of the wonderful people with ICC that have taken care of him. Speaking of ICC - please take a minute to check out their website and learn about all the wonderful things they are doing. If would like to help support them and the children they care for, please check out their donation options here. 

The second week of our journey will be spent in Guangzhou (Canton), just like last time - this is where all families spend their 2nd week in China and where our US Consulate appt. will take place. We are anxious to visit Guangzhou again as last time much of the area where most adoptive families stay was under construction and we didn't get to see a lot of the architecture. Guangzhou is the largest and most flourishing industrial and foreign trade center in south China. The population in Guangzhou is about 12.7 million! The climate is humid and flowers bloom all year round; hence its name as the City of Flowers.

We are starting to get really excited to experience China again! It's hard to believe that we are be just over a month away from going!

Article 5 pick up today!!

As of today we are officially waiting for our Travel Approval. Our Article 5 is to be picked up from the Consulate in China today and dropped of at the CCCWA where they will issue our TA. Right now it's been taking an average of 22 days for TA's to be issued.

Once we have our TA our agency will be able to  schedule our Consulate Appointment and we can purchase our plane tickets!! My best guess is that we'll either leave March 8th or 15th. We're praying for March 8th as that would put us meeting Isaiah the day he turns 15mths.

We've been busy busy lately preparing for his arrival. His room is almost complete, travel shopping is well underway, suitcases are ready to be packed, meals are being frozen. Still lots to do, but we are making good progress!