Not sure "weather" to pack shorts or sweaters

When we went to China in 2005 to adopt Jeremy, we were in Hong Kong, Nanning and Guangzhou which are all southern or coastal cities in China. Even though we visited in late November, temperatures were in the 70s much of the trip and I happily wore shorts most of the time. This was especially helpful because we had limited ourselves to one checked bag and one carry on bag between the two of us which also carried baby supplies and gifts for the various Chinese representatives we were working with.As I review the average temperatures over the next week in the main cities we will be spending time in, I am in a quandary as to what we should pack. We will spend our first 3 days in Beijing acclimating to the new time zone (China is 13 hours ahead of North Carolina) and doing some sight seeing before the real stress begins. We will spend 6 days in Zhengzhou which is the capitol of the province where Leah's orphanage/foster family is located. Then for the last 5 days of our trip, we will be back in familiar Guangzhou to finalize the paperwork and meet with the US officials.

As you can see by clicking on the picture above, the temperature range during our two weeks in China range from the upper teens to the mid 70s! How would YOU pack one suitcase and a carry on for three people if you were traveling? Not only do I need to figure out how to stuff all our clothes into 1-1/2 suitcases, but I will apparently need plenty of sunscreen as well.

Maybe I should plan to pay the extra fees for additional baggage. Good grief.

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Soon to be "United"

Final approval is in and it looks like we will be leaving for China one week from today! At this late date for securing tickets, United was the only airline offering tickets for less than $2,000 a piece and only one stop. Now when we ask family for money as a Christmas gift, you'll understand why a check in an envelope looks so much more festive than a fancy, gift-wrapped box.

On December 10th we will leave Charlotte with a brief stop in DC prior to making our way to Beijing, China. Currently, weather looks pretty compatible with home as the Weather Channel's website is showing highs in the mid 40s and lows in the low 20s overseas. Once Leah is safely in our arms, we will return to Charlotte, passing through Chicago.

When I first heard we were going through O'Hare on Christmas Day, my mind wandered to the second Die Hard movie. Alas, my memory was wrong (as Angela always knew) -- John McClane was stuck in the DC airport on Christmas Eve. Either way, I'm hoping that we will not run into weather delays on our way home as I'm very excited about arriving home with our best gift of all on Christmas Day. Aside from bad weather in the windy city, my biggest fear is that our flight overseas will collide with Santa's sleigh as we will be airborne for over 20 hours, all on Christmas.

Stay tuned for all the joy (and stress) of our 2nd international adoption. If you stumble across our blog earlier than the 10th, you can always review our stories from our last trip in 2005 when we went to China to adopt Jeremy.

As a reminder to our technically-challenged readers (thanks for watching the boys while we're away Mom & Dad!), remember that clicking on an image will lead to a larger version. Clicking on the itinerary above should allow you to see all the details of our departure and arrival. ;)

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Remote Login Test

Just testing to see how blog posts work when connecting to my home laptop from a remote location. It certainly won't be good for playing Puzzle Pirates but I think general typing and internet access without Chinese government restrictions should be doable. The question yet to be answered is whether I can load photos from the local machine via the internet connection on the remote machine? If it works, we should have no internet problems for our trip to China!

(By the way, the current estimate is to be in China from December 10th to the 25th. Yes, we would be coming home on Christmas day -- would that tie Eli's adoption to Leah's? we already have Jeremy connected through the same birth date. and yes, i realize that leaving on the tenth means there's not much time before we go.)

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We're Coming Leah!

I was just checking in to see if the blog was ready for our next trip to China to adopt our daughter Leah. We spent Thanksgiving 2005 in China when we adopted Jeremy, and it appears that there may be a good chance that we will be spending Christmas 2008 in China this time around. I wonder what Our Lady of Lourdes on Shamian Island does for Jesus' birthday?

When we flew overseas last time, we started with Hong Kong (HK) which was the nearest international airport to Jeremy's home town. We had a great time as you can see in the older blog posts, but we had to keep telling people that we did not visit the Great Wall as it was nowhere near HK. While the Chinese government could authorize travel through HK again, it would appear that Leah's home town is much closer to Beijing. That would mean an opportunity to adjust to the time difference while visiting the Wall and the architecture from the Summer Olympics!

While Angela has been keeping up with every step of the journey to adopting our first daughter, I have been keeping busy with other activities and not spending much time or thought on when the big day would arrive. Now that we have received our travel authorization and know that travel will occur in the next 4-6 weeks, the nervous excitement is beginning to build. I'm still concerned about how Jeremy will be able to handle two weeks without mom and dad, and I will feel rotten if we wind up missing Christmas and Eli's birthday with the family, but it is sure to be an exciting trip with a reward to offset these unintended side effects. I'm hoping I can get my parents set up with a working Skype account so that we have the ability to keep in touch with them (and the boys) during our journey.

As a side note, I thought it was interesting that I started this blog exactly four years ago today! Who knew when I was speaking prophetically about the state of the American economy that I would be using this blog to document the adoptions of two of our children?! Too bad the namesake of the blog couldn't be around to meet Leah. Look for another post once we have specifics on where and when we will be flying overseas.

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Grand Finale

Ahh. Final post before heading for home. The title is fitting as last night was apparently the conclusion to a week-long tourism expo here in Guangzhou which wrapped up with fireworks shot off of three barges anchored in the Pearl River directly behind the White Swan hotel. We sat at the window of one of the other families' rooms from our Nanning group (see below) to have a 13th floor, first row view of a fireworks show that would put D.C., New York, or Philadelphia to shame. Everything was quantity and quality on this display including the showering "willow tree" type fireworks that filled the entire sky and didn't extinguish until they hit the waters of the river. There were new fireworks I have not seen in the states that were like strung-together lights which remained lit as they floated slowly downward connected to invisible parachutes. It was a "de-sight-ful" way to end our trip here in China.

We didn't want to forget to add a picture of the families we met while in China. Many are here for the second time and their children were an inspiration that comforted us when anxiety built up prior to meeting Jeremy. I look forward to sharing website addresses to see what others wrote about our trip so that we can see through their eyes all the wonders we have experienced these past two weeks but forgot to mention here.

Shamian Island has been a little slice of Europe while here in China. The island is where the hotel is located and was originally a French/British settlement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The architecture is considerably different and natural areas are more plentiful than when you cross the bridge into the main city. We smiled each and every time we came across the young children moving between classes and the playground (above). All were eager to say "Hi!" and show us how well they knew English. One man told us that Americans were lazy for not learning Chinese, a language of a growing, world powerhouse. He dreams of a day that we will learn Mandarin just as he learned English -- by watching TV and listening to radio. (And he was one of the better English speaking Chinese as I recall!) Perhaps when Mandarin becomes available on cable TV or required for browsing the internet, I will make a concerted effort to become bilingual.

Friday morning we attended daily Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes on Shamian Island. When we arrived shortly before 6:45 AM, the locals were just wrapping up praying the rosary. Mass was in Cantonese, but we were able to follow along with a copy of the Magnificat -- one of the many beautiful features of the universal Church! When Mass ended, they began praying the Stations of the Cross. It was incredible to see these people praying so reverently in a building with open windows where passerby could certainly here the loud, clear voices singing to a God opposed by their government. Scott and I are just about ready to put together a group of men to make a mission trip here to renovate this beautiful, old church.

We took a stroll on to the mainland Friday after breakfast to see the "real" city; away from all the tourist traps and western fare available near the hotel. Some shops had items that made it nearly impossible to distinguish whether it was a pet shop or a grocery store (they definitely had both) as all contained turtles of various kinds and sizes. Many people had a towel laid out on the street and were hawking horns, paws, or skeletal remains of various exotic animals such as tigers, antelope, and monkeys. One place had several bins like the one above containing huge quantities of scorpions. (Where do you find this many scor -err- never mind; I don't want to know!) We are fairly certain they were meant for human consumption based on the other items available in the shop. It appeared as though the would-be buyer picked up these fresh specimens with chopsticks. You'd better be an EXPERT at chopstick handling before trying to grab a live scorpion! And just how do you eat him before he poisons you? Thanks, but I'll stick with hamburger.

That should do it for our stay overseas. I'm sure we will look back at our trip as a special opportunity; not only to adopt our second son, but also to experience this culture personally. While much of what we read in America is true, China is not as bad as what I had pictured in my mind. There are signs that the government tries to keep its people from knowing too much about the rest of the world, but I tend to believe that between Hong Kong's capitalism and technologies like the internet and satellite television, China will have a hard time maintaining Communism for more than another decade. Regardless, I'm ready for the USA again.

Clicking on any of the pictures posted will give you a larger view, but perhaps the best one of all is Jeremy who smiles with us at the thought of finally coming home to meet his big brother, the family, the two dogs, and all his new friends. I have no doubt he is going to love everyone and everything that make us long for home!

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