Flight Details for Our Arrival

Delta flight 4838 from Salt Lake City to Memphis

Arrives at 9:23 pm on Friday, August 27, 2010

Please check the flight status first. You can call 800-221-1212. 

 

We will be downstairs in the Delta baggage claim area.

August 25, 2010: Guangzhou - Qing Ping Market and Oath at US Consulate (Part 2)

I had so many pictures...I had to have a 2nd Post!

 

August 25, 2010: Guangzhou - Qing Ping Market and Oath at US Consulate (Part 1)

Today before we met at 2:15 to ride to the US Consulate, we took a walk through the Qing Ping Market.  It is one of the largest medicinal markets and it has all sorts of very unusual stuff for sale.  We saw dried snakes, dried starfish, dried frogs, dried seahorses, live scorpions and turtles, all sorts of beans, nuts, tea leaves and beautiful dried flowers.  We even saw dried hooves connected to some sort of dried leg muscle of an unidentifiable animal!  All of this is purchased for medicinal uses.  They grind it up and use it in teas and soups and they believe these items heal all sorts of malady.  For us, it was just neat to walk through the narrow alley ways and check out the bizarre stuff for sale.  The people watching is so great too!  Kate slept through most of it but Caroline was pretty interested.  

 

We walked around Shamian Island a bit, took some more pictures and hit a few more shops.

 

At 2:25 pm, we boarded the bus with many other families with our adoption agency and headed to the US Consulate.  We had to take 5 different escalators to get to the floor where the US Consulate is located.  You can not take your camera in, so we didn't get any pictures inside...but we have some on the bus right before and some afterwards.  Everyone had to bring their passports...even Gailie and Caroline as security is really tight.  They did 3 face checks with our passports before we even got into the Oath room.  Then they called families up to the window to sign some more paperwork and again check your face and your new child's with the passports.  It was very hard to here because it was loud with all of the people and kids...but the consulate workers all had very thick Chinese accents and they called the families by their child's Chinese name.  Sean and I were very concerned that we might miss it but finally we heard them call "Parents of Yu Jing Mei please come to window 22."   The 3 of us went to the window.  I signed the form and the Officer checked our faces against our passports...all clear and good to go! 

 

Next, the Officer in charge of the Adoption Unit spoke to us for a bit.  She was so informative and sweet.  She even acknowledged those children being adopted that have birthdays this month and families that had adopted before and been to this office multiple times...like us! She was very personable and it was a nice touch that I do not remember from when we took the oath for Caroline.  Next, we had to stand up as a group of all the adoptive parents and raise our right hands and repeat the oath.  The oath basically says that we have told the truth on all of our paperwork regarding this adoption and that we will take care of these children. It also states the understanding that the children become US Citizens upon first landing on US Soil and will be afforded all rights of a US Citizen. 

 

It was emotional for me as I held Caroline and Sean held Kate.  Mom was standing next to us and it just hit me how big a deal this is...even though there is not a lot of pomp and circumstance associated with it.   Holding Caroline in my arms and looking over at Kate, I am reminded again of where my children have come from and I grieve for them the loss that they do not yet know.  Although I do not want my children to be solely defined by their birth in China and their adoption...it most certainly is part of who they have been, who they are today being held in our arms and the strong women that they will grow into.  Although some might say China has not been kind to my girls, I choose to look at it in another way.  I have thought of the women who gave birth to Caroline and Kate often during the weeks of this trip...as a mother, I know they long to know that there daughters are safe and cared for.  Caroline, Sean and I pray every night for both Caroline's and Kate's birth mothers...for without the love and strength of those women, we would not have our daughters.   These women could have ended their pregnancies but instead they carried their babies safely to term and when they determined they could not keep or take care of them, they left them in a place where they knew the babies would be found quickly and taken to the orphanage to be cared for.  These two birth mothers have given our family our most precious gifts...and we choose to honor that by respecting our girls' Chinese roots and encouraging them to be proud of both cultures that will shape the women they become. 

 

We ate dinner at Lucy's, a restaurant known to cater to Americans and had desert at Starbucks which has been a favorite over the course of the trip.  Sean gave the girls a bath when we got home and Kate fell asleep drinking her bottle. 

 

As I type this, everyone in our 2 adjoining hotel rooms is peacefully asleep.  I truly feel so blessed by my sweet husband who is the best Daddy ever, my precious Mom who made it possible for us to bring Caroline on this once in a lifetime trip back to China for the first time since her adoption and our 2 beautiful daughters who I know God gave to us to open our hearts and mould us into the Mommy and Daddy He wants us to be.   I am so touched by every one's comments, emails and prayers while we have been on this adoption journey...that we are fortunate to have now made twice! 

 

We leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong on Thursday, August 26th around 10:00 pm and then fly from Hong Kong to Salt Lake City to Memphis arriving around 10:00 pm on Friday evening, August 27th.  In the morning, I will post our flight information for anyone that wants to welcome Kate to her new home in person!!

 

Thank you again and please continue to keep us all in your prayers.  The next day and a half of travel will not be our funnest part of the trip, but I can imagine it will be hardest on Caroline and Kate.

Love to all and we will see you soon!

 

August 24, 2010: Guangzhou - Red Couch Pictures and Pearl River Dinner Cruise

This morning after breakfast our CCAI guides, Grace and Maggie, went to the U.S. Consulate for our Travel Group's Visa Appointment. They go on our behalf and we had to stay in our hotel rooms until 11:30 am in case their were any questions or problems with Kate's US Visa paperwork. Grace called us at 11:15 am with the great news that all of our paperwork was in order and that we were good to go!  Yeah!  This means that tomorrow we will take the oath at the US Consulate and then when Kate arrives on US soil...she automatically becomes a US Citizen. 

Pretty COOL!

 

We then met our Travel Group 1614 along with 2 other CCAI Travel Groups for the famous Red Couch pictures.  I honestly have no idea how this has come to be a tradition...but it is!  Adoptive families always take their new children to the red couches at the White Swan Hotel on the 2nd floor to have their pictures taken.  The idea is that all of the children will sit on the lovely red velvet couch for their group photo...but it becomes utter chaos as kids scream and flail about!!  I am amazed that our 2nd round of red couch pictures went as well as our first in 2006.  Caroline was a champ in December 2006.  She sat on the couch with a cookie and just took all of the chaos in...but never screamed or shed one tear over it.  Amazingly...Kate acted the same way!!  I placed her on the couch while Sean took video and pictures of the spectacle.  She just sat there...taking in the scene.  She never got upset all though she did keep Sean and I in her sights the whole time.  Kate wore the same dress that Caroline wore for her red couch pictures 3 and a half years ago.  It is a sweet dress that I smocked while I was waiting for us to be matched with Caroline.  The little girl in the middle to Kate's left in the red dress is Grace.  She is 3 and a half and was in the same orphanage as Kate.  She is so sweet and every time we run into Grace's new family, the McIntyre's, Grace runs over to Kate calling "Mei Mei" and she tries to mother Kate by giving her a bottle or a cookie.  It is very dear but also makes me so sad to think about either of them in an orphanage without the families that they now have. 

 

Kate and Caroline took a short nap while Gailie and I did some shopping at the stores on Shamian Island.  When we got back, I took some pictures of Kate walking around our hotel room.  She was drinking out of Caroline's sippie cup which is almost as big as she is!  Watching her walk is just awesome!  We just crack up because it is so funny and so cute!

 

This evening we took a Dinner Cruise on the Pearl River which runs through the huge city of Guangzhou.  It was pouring rain when we boarded the boat, but by the last 30 minutes we could go out on the top deck and see the sights.  The river is lined with huge skyscapers that are all lit up with bright flashing lights.  We are glad we went on the cruise, as we did not get to do that the last time we were here...but the dinner left much to be desired!  The buffet was typical Cantonese...stewed fish heads, pickled chicken feet, salted quail eggs are just a few of the highlights!  Thankfully, there were noodles and fried rice and strawberry ice cream that filled us up.  My Mom, Sean and I had a great laugh at some of the items.  Chinese cuisine is just very different from what we are used too!  Sean fed Kate from chopsticks just like he used to feed Caroline.  I have a hard enough time getting food into my own mouth using chopsticks...so hopefully, Kate won't get too used to that.  It is funny to see how comfortable she is eating from them though as that is how she was fed in the orphanage.  Kate also had a big time trying to figure out how to eat a plum as you can see in the pics.