Tuesday, June 17, 2008

115 East Sheridan Court, Waukegan, IL. Home. We made it!

The past four days have been a blur: one 37 hour “day”; a 5 hour weather related flight delay @ the Beijing Airport (3 and ½ sitting in the plane at the gate); family and friends anxiously waiting for us to exit US Customs via A doors…we exit via B doors; tears and hugs and kisses; 7-cheese lasagna, potato and egg strata, taco casserole in the refrigerator; Father’s Day spent at an acute care center(Daddy’s turn for antibiotics); Ellie adjusting to a strange and unfamiliar environment…her bedroom and bathroom, a high-chair and dining room, two cats named Kirby and Max.

During our lay-over in Beijing on Friday, June 13, all of us tired, anxious and hungry, we found a quiet corner table at the On the Border Bistro. The name of the place got me thinking about Taco’s El Norte, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Waukegan; a chicken quesadilla and margarita would be a great pre-flight lunch. As with so much of international travel, translation and execution of translation is everything; the On the Border Bistro is an Italian Panini sandwich place.

Our orders in, Ellie munched on a few Cheerio’s, Caroline braved the House Cabernet, and I nursed a Tsing Tao (a popular Chinese beer). Watching Ellie attempt to get the Cheerio’s balled up in her little fist to her mouth, I said to Caroline, “We made it through the day’s tough sledding.” As she acknowledged my comment and as I was formulating my next statement, I was suddenly overcome with a wave of emotion and through the tears came, “In a few hours, we’ll take our daughter home.”

And so we have. My heart was filled with indescribable joy as I watched Caroline, tears trickling down her cheeks, Ellie clinging to her side; push her luggage cart through the B doors of US Customs at the International Terminal of O’Hare airport looking for our homecoming entourage. Watching our family and friends meet Ellie for the first time, it suddenly hit me that this was a homecoming for only two of us. For one, a 10 month old, formerly named Bo Tong, going through the B doors was a life changing moment the likes of which she may never experience again. For Elizabeth (Ellie) Bo Satre, Friday, June 13 was much like the lyrics to one of my favorite U2 songs...Sort of A Homecoming…
Tonight we'll build a bridge
Across the sea and land
See the sky, the burning rain
She will die and live again

Tonight

And your heart beats so slow
Through the rain and fallen snow
Across the fields of mourning
Light's in the distance
Oh don't sorrow, no don't weep
For tonight, at last
I am coming home
I am coming home

Across sea and land she has come…
Her abandonment has died…
She will grow in newness of life…

So tonight, dear Ellie…
Oh don’t sorrow, no don’t weep…
For at last...
Forever and always you are home.

(Author’s Note: On June 4, 2005, I began journaling to Ellie. My goal was to journal something everyday from June 4, 2005 to “Gotcha Day.” As with much of my goal setting, I tend to overreach! My last entry was January 17, 2006; the day we received our official log-in date of January 6, 2006. To help chronicle our fears and anxieties, our hopes and dreams, from time to time I will post snippets from that journal that I’ll call Notes to Little One.)

Notes to Little One: June 4, 2005
Greetings little one! Today began a new path in life’s journey for us. Today at 9:00 a.m. Caroline and I turned in our application for adoption through Children’s Hope International. We are so very excited! And scared! Scared not of you, but scared of ourselves and the thought that soon there will be three of us. Just the same, this is a life changing day for us.

It was kind of funny. After we got home from the Children’s Hope International informational meeting, we both went to work…by the way; we’re both pastors at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Once in my study, I fired up the computer to check my email. There I found an email from Sunny. Sunny is a woman for helped us by reproductions of antique Chinese furniture. Sunny had emailed to inform us that the four pieces of furniture we’d ordered were finished and would soon be shipping from Beijing. Yes! We’ve already been to your country of origin! We traveled in your homeland from March 28, 2005 to April 13, 2005. It was awesome! Anyway, I thought it was serendipitous that on the day we turned in our adoption application, we got an email from Sunny in Beijing. More to come. Love, Brad

Final Day in Guangzhou

June 12, 2008

Yesterday was bittersweet.

We began with a trip to an amusement park in downtown Guangzhou. The rides were geared for children and was just right of babies, toddlers, and elementary age children in our group. We started with a tram ride that gave a bird's eye view of the park.

After the tram ride, Ellie and Mommy rode the water ride that had squirt cannons for shooting sharks and other monsters of the deep. As you can see, Mommy was into it! Ellie on the other hand, not so much.

We made our way to the area of the park that had the classic "nickel" rides: pandas, Santa's sleigh, rocket ships, trains, pony express pony and the like. We thought Ellie would enjoy the fighter plane-space shuttle-ish one. As you can see by her expression, Mommy and Daddy were way off!

After lunch and a nap we joined the other 18 families for a trip to the office of the ACS, American Citizenship Service. Located in the new developments on the west side of Guangzhou, the ACS office is the final stop for all infants adopted out of China who are going home to the United States. After presenting passports, checking Ellie's Visa and other documents needed for her to enter the country, we said, "I do" to the oath that was spoken and it's all official. Ellie is stuck with us! When we touch down at O'Hare, she will be a citizen of the United States; her Chinese passport will be a trip memento.

The four families we spent the most time with all met for dinner at the Grill Room of the Swan Hotel; an all you can eat buffet of grilled meat, seafood and vegetables (and also a wine pairing!). We sat overlooking the Pearl River from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Slowly, one by one, Ellie's orphanage mates headed off to bed and Mommies and Daddies, once strangers, now more than friends, began to say their good-byes. We all did a pretty good job of not crying, but it was close! Macy's older twin sisters, Madison and Megan beamed when they heard that we would all see each other again at reunions. As I told them on the day we first met, when we talked about how cool it is that all our babies are from the same orphanage and share the same surname, 'Bo', "we're related!"

And we are. In a manner not of biology and DNA...not of religion, race or creed...not of socio-economic standing or political persuasion. We are related with a bond of having been blessed beyond measure with daughters whose life journey began in abandonment and institutionalization. We are related by a bond of having been on an unbelievable journey, traveling to Jiangxi Provence, flashing our passports at an adoption official and being handed our daughters, each of whom, miraculously mirrors the flavor and personality of their parents. Most importantly, we will always be related in the truth that our joy has been made complete through a lifetime of love and laughter our daughters give to us unconditionally. I pray that we, their parents, will always to the same.

See you tomorrow.

Quote of the Day: Last evening at dinner, Ella's daddy says to her, "I don't know where you put all this food. You must have a wooden leg." At this, Ellie's mommy, aka Caroline, says, "that would be a hollow leg." To which Ella's daddy say, "Yeah, that what I meant...a wooden, HOLLOW, leg."

June 10, 2008

Today began with a leisurely breakfast: Ellie had scrambled eggs and conge; Caroline had yogurt and French toast; I had dim sum, fried noodles, dumplings (pot stickers), fish balls, pastries and multi-grain bread (I only went through the buffet line once!). Ellie is a good eater. She hasn’t refused anything that’s put in front of her. She so wants to feed herself, but she has yet to figure out the mechanics of getting the Cheerios in her fingers into her mouth.

Our hungers satisfied we left the hotel to pick up our laundry and do a bit of shopping, both of which we did at the same store. One of the interesting cultural nuances of the shops that surround the hotel is that they all offer laundry service and free use of strollers. When you think about it, that’s rather clever marketing; just get the people and especially new adoptive parents into the store.

The shopping adventure complete we made our way back to the hotel and our room. From 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. we needed to stay in our rooms. Today we had our meeting with the US Consulate General, that is to say, Elsie our CHI in-country guide and host had a meeting with the appropriate person(s) to review all our visa and passport documents for Ellie. The last thing Elsie told our group last night was, “No phone call from the Consulate General is preferred. So hope that I don’t call you.”

She didn’t, so we went swimming. Ellie was moderately excited about being pool side.

Today was also picture day. It was quite a spectacle! All six of the girls who came from the same orphanage each had on a traditional Chinese dress and cute shoes. Let’s just say that they were all less than thrilled; the photos say it all. (FYI: here are the names of the girls reading from left to right…Gianna Cai, Macy Bo, Emily Browne, Emmaline Maio, Ellie Bo, and Ella Wei.)


The day ended with the farewell dinner. After tomorrow, most of our group is heading home. It’s hard to believe that it’s all coming to an end. It’s harder still to believe how attached to one another we’ve all become. I really do love these people and their daughters…they are in a sense, Ellie’s sisters.









(Who’s Who: working from left to right…Eric, Jacinda, and Emmaline; Edson, Macy and Megan; Ellie and us; Kerri and Madison [Edson and Kerri are married and have twins, Madison and Megan]; Wendy, ella and Brian)

18.7 Pounds

Monday, June 09, 2008

This morning was medical exam day. At 9:00 a.m., all 18 CHI families walked to the Physical Examination Building (really, that’s what the sign over the door said!). Once inside, all were packed into a small waiting area with three adjoining room: 1) Height and Weight; 2) ENT; 3) Medical and Surgical. Child specific medical forms were passed out and after a brief introduction all parents and children went to each of the three rooms for examination. Our first stop was the ENT; Ellie passed. Then we went to the Height and Weight room. Ellie is 28 ½” tall and we’re proud to report that she tipped the scale at 18.7 pounds! She’s the heaviest of her five orphanage “sisters.” The doctor in the medical/surgical room said Ellie has bronchitis. We began giving her antibiotics (amoxicillin from the Waukegan Target) on Friday as we suspected she’d come down with whatever it is Caroline caught. Other than that, she got a clean bill of health.

Finished with the medical exam, we walked off the island to the Peace Spice Market on the mainland part of Guangzhou. I’ll use the word spice market loosely; didn’t see too many spices, mostly dried seahorses, gutted, stretched and sun-dried frogs, something that looked liked shriveled bats and giant fungi. It was all very interesting…but a little dab will do ya!

After Ellie’s two hour nap, we went back downtown to the pedestrian shopping mall with our CHI group. We’d missed some of the stores when we were there yesterday, mostly the jade market. Apparently jade is all the rage in China because it’s everywhere, almost to the point of sensory overload.

We bought Ellie a traditional silk Chinese dress. It’s adorable! When we got back to the hotel, we attempted to have her try it on. All I can say is in the attempt, she was slipping and sliding all over and we were laughing so hard we couldn’t get it all the way on.

The day concluded with a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. Dinner consisted to Papa John’s Pizza that most of the families had delivered right to the river boat. The river boat did offer a buffet, but our guides said it was marginal. The cruise also offered free “box lunches.” This free lunch consisted of white rice and assorted boiled fish and animal parts. Nasty!

The best part of the river cruise was talking with many of the families who went to different provinces than Jiangxi. Everyone’s story is different and at a certain level each is the same; the arduous paperwork process, the excruciating wait, the surreal nature of hearing your name called and having someone hand you your baby, the overwhelming joy and endless love.

Tomorrow all our paper work goes to the American Consulate Generals office for approval.

Event and quote of the day: In the realm of “you can’t make this stuff up”…the three of us got on an elevator at 5:15 p.m. and were heading down to meet our group of the river cruise. In the elevator was another couple with two children, one of whom had just been adopted. The woman looked at Caroline and asked, “have we met before, you look so familiar to me.” Caroline shook her head saying, “No, I don’t think we’ve met before.” The other woman said, “are you sure…maybe in Chicago…I’m Ann and this is Kevin.” At this point Caroline, cries out, “Ann!” Ann and Kevin are members of the church we used to serve in Naperville. They were just becoming members as we preparing to accept the call to St. Paul’s. Once we all remembered one another and how we knew each other, Kevin cried out, “Pastor Brad and Pastor Caroline! I can’t believe it’s you…you look so different.” (Could it be the 19 pound baby attached to me!)

We've had Ellie for a week!

June 8, 2008
We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon after a less than pleasant flight. Ellie came down with a cold and she was quite congested. We were worried about the change in pressure and the sensitivity on her ear. Our pediatrician told us to give Ellie a bottle of something to drink during take-off and landing; the sucking helps equalize the ears. We did this on take-off and it worked. Unfortunately, Ellie had a bottle at the airport, too, so we didn’t have anything for the descent. As the plane started down and the pressure began to change, without any kind of build up, Ellie began screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. Yes, we’d become “that family;” the one we’ve all murmured about on any given flight whose child(ren) scream during the whole flight. I felt so bad for Ellie; she was in such pain. The only thing I could do was hold her tightly to my chest.

When we arrived at the White Swan Hotel, we began to run into the other 10 families who were part of our travel group in Beijing, but went to different provinces to get their babies. It was great seeing everyone’s child and hearing other parents tell their “gotcha day” stories. I believe that our Jiangxi Province group is the only one whose “gotcha day” was last Sunday. The rest had to wait until Monday.

After Ellie’s morning nap we took a cab to the pedestrian zone and walked around for a few hours. Just as we were getting ready to head back to the hotel at mid-afternoon monsoon like storm swept through downtown Guangzhou. We found sanctuary in the entry way of the jade market. The rain came down in buckets and we were so unprepared; no umbrella, no rain coats, no hats. It poured non-stop for 20 minutes. As we were under some time pressure to get back to the hotel for a meeting, when the rain let up a bit we made a break for the taxi stand…as did many others. It was a no-holds-barred-every-person-for-themselves event. People would run with a taxi until it stopped to let its fare out. People would cut people off in line. We were doing our best to keep up, be cultural yet considerate all the while, it began to rain harder. A young woman standing near us had an umbrella and she came over to cover Ellie. Then she called out to two other young women standing in the street, also waiting for a cab. What the woman with the umbrella over Ellie had done was ask the other two to help her get us a cab before they got a cab. It was so sweet.

It’s just 5:00 p.m. We’ve had Ellie for one whole week. There are times when I look at her and the whole past week (and the last three years) seems surreal; when am I going to wake up back into my reality. Yet, at other times, I look at Ellie and experience this feeling that she’s always been a part of our lives. Walking down the pedestrian zone this afternoon, Caroline said to me, “Can you imagine how differently our lives would have turned out if we hadn’t found each other? I wouldn’t ski and you wouldn’t travel and we wouldn’t have Ellie.” I for one, am grateful that we did!

Horrible Day

Today, one of the families in our group had to endure the pain of terminating their adoption (had to give their child back to the orphanage) due to circumstances beyond their control. Please pray for Julie and Hutch.

June 5, 2008 (late afternoon)

After a nice nap, we’re heading down to the play room for a little family time. Ellie had her mid afternoon snack, a bottle of formula. She is a chow-hound! She squeals when she sees the bottle being prepared; we can’t seem to make it fast enough. Lunch and dinner, she’s a moving target and we shovel the carrots, peas, tomatoes, and fish baby food in as fast as we can.

She's become somewhat of a spectacle when we’re out in public. People will walk up to the three of us, look at Ellie and then grab her little thighs, say something and walk away. We asked our guide about this. Mary told us that it’s really a sign of affection; in China, a mark of a healthy baby is chubby thighs and a chubby face.

Quote of the Day: Caroline walked down to Elsie’s room to ask if laundry had been picked up for the day. She had Ellie with her. Seeing Ellie, Elsie, said to her, “You have a big belly like Daddy. But don’t worry, just for now.”

June 5, 2008

Caroline and Ellie are sleeping; nap time for Ellie and recuperation time for Caroline. Caroline coughed through the night and woke up Wednesday morning with a horribly sore throat. It was sore enough that we mixed up Ellie’s Amoxicillin and Caroline took two doses. With Ellie bedded down for the night, Caroline did the same. At nine p.m. Caroline woke up feeling terrible. She felt the way she does when she gets strep throat. We’d previously talked about options should one of us become gravely ill. We decided it was going to be necessary for Caroline to get some adult antibiotics in her system.

I went down to Elsie’s room to ask how to begin that process. As luck would have it, antibiotic drugs are sold over the counter in China. So Elsie walked me to the neighborhood pharmacy where I purchased a course of antibiotics and an herbal supplement to be taken with the antibiotics. Thus far Caroline has had three doses and is beginning to feel better.

It’s been a quiet morning walking around a famous pavilion and gardens not far from the hotel. Tomorrow is our final paperwork day in Nanchang, then it’s off to Guangzho.

God's peace and love.

p.s. about the pictures; one is a bronze statue of what's called the "Happy Buddha." One is called "Ellie With Her Happy Buddha." It's self-explanatory!

The Village and Jiang Xi Business News

June 4, 2008

Today was sobering; two events are of note. The morning began with a walk through a local village just outside of the Nanchang city limit. As villages go it was unremarkable…better than average by Chinese village standards according to our guide. Most of what one would expect in a poor, rural village could be seen: dirt roads littered with garbage; dark and dank dwellings-no plumbing, no appliances; chickens roaming free, weathered and weary elders sitting quietly in front of their homes.

I’ve been in places where there was such abject poverty that today’s village would be considered an upgrade: the “Colonia’s”, squatter villages built on the active landfills of Juarez, Mexico; a 15’ by 30’ two room house (kitchen/dining room & bedroom)-a pot belly coal burning stove providing heat for Mom and Dad & five children, in the coal country of Hazard County Kentucky. It wasn’t the sight of people living in poverty that got to me today; it was what the poverty meant. Most of the people in the today’s village are illiterate. Most have and will continue to live in the village their whole lives, as did multiple generations of families before them. Even though there is an attempt at providing education for the children, only 1 in 1000 will pass the required academic test that will allow that one to move from the village to an urban setting to attend college. Most of the babies abandoned in China are from villages like the one we toured today. Our guide, with a level of certainty, told us that the five babies in our travel group came from villages like todays.

Standing with Ellie strapped to my chest in her Baby Bjorn, looking out over a rice paddy filled with sewage and garbage, I whispered into her ear, “Ellie, I’m sure glad someone found you.”

The other sobering event occurred mid-afternoon. Elsie, our CHI representative gave us a local newspaper. The newspaper was the September 24 to September 30, 2007 edition of the Jiang Xi Business News. In that week’s paper was the Jiang Xi province official notice of abandonment. By law, before an infant or child can be eligible for adoption, a picture with a brief narrative must be published for 60 days to allow the birth mother’s family or the mother herself to claim the child. In that week’s edition there were 130 infants and children listed on the official notice of abandonment. Ellie’s picture was in the second column about half way from the top with this announcement: “Bo Tong. Female. Was born July 29, 2007. She was found to be abandoned at the gate of the bus station of Bo Yang County on July 30, 2007. Her hair is not a lot. She has dark skin and big eyes.”

Again I say, “Ellie, I’m sure glad someone found you.”

As you can imagine, the past three days have been filled with wonder and amazement. With each passing day Ellie is more and more comfortable with us. She’s beginning to understand that Caroline is the new woman in her life; Ellie watches Caroline wherever she goes and has cried for her. It’s all so tender.

During play time this evening, Caroline was exercising Ellie; helping her to sit and stand up. And with all that core muscle group activity, Ellie sat up by herself for the first time!

More tomorrow. God's peace and love.

Now this is China

Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Today was a bit of a Ellie and Daddy day. Having had Ellie’s picture taken and scanned into a computer at the passport office, Caroline passed Ellie to me. The next thing I knew, she was sound asleep:

She slept this way for the next hour and a-half while we walked through the People’s Park of Nanchang.

Finished with the walk in the park, we ventured back to the hotel for lunch and our first play date. The hotel hosts many families who come to adopt from the Jiangxi Province (there’s a group of families from France here, too), so they provide a children’s play area on the 4th floor; that’s were Ellie, Emiline, and Macy met for their first play date:

The first play-date a success, the girls returned to their rooms for their afternoon nap. When nap time was over, Ellie, Emiline, and Macy were readied for a walk down the pedestrian zone. You can imagine what a sight we were…three American couples, one with bleach-blonde 8 year-old twin girls, each carrying a Chinese infant in a Baby Bjorn.

On the way back to the hotel, we stepped out of the pedestrian zone on to a side street. WOW! Now you knew without a doubt that you were in China.

(pictures: top-side street we walked throug; middle-preparing rice and bananna leaves for dinner; bottom-assorted frogs for sale, probably not for fishing!)

Side streets such as this are where you truly get a feel for a country, its people and its culture.
What made this day’s trek into local-Ville so interesting was Ellie’s reaction.

We’ve noticed over the past two days that whenever Ellie is feeling overwhelmed, anxious or out of sorts, she self-soothes. Her self-soothing mechanism is sticking her middle and ring fingers in her mouth and sucking on them. During yesterday’s stroll down the pedestrian zone I noticed Ellie putting her fingers in her mouth almost none stop. She seemed overwhelmed at all the sights, sounds, and smells. Culturally, finger sucking is taboo as we discovered when a middle-aged woman walked up to Ellie, looked at the two of us, said something and pulled Ellie’s fingers out of her mouth.

Today, when we began walking this side street Ellie had her fingers in her mouth. As we went further down the street, she took her fingers out and with both hands, held on to the flap of the Baby Bjorn. Her head turned from side to side, taking it all in. She was relaxed, calm and comfortable in this environment.

She was home.

Quote of the day: Macy’s (one of Ellie’s orphanage pals) parents sharing what they overheard another Westerner ask the server at the Chinese restaurant where they ate last night: “Do you have any tea?”

June 2, 2008 @ 8:24 p.m.

After a two hour nap Ellie enjoyed her first excursion to the pedestrian shopping zone where she was quite the attention grabber. Standing at a crosswalk, a woman next to us said, “You have fat baby.” A few blocks later an older woman came up to Ellie and pulled her fingers out of her mouth. Once at the pedestrian zone, an elderly woman gave us the “thumbs up” and a smile as she walked by. It was indeed another extraordinary day.

Quote of the evening: Ellie had a rather boisterous dinner, one that found her throwing stacking cups and rattle keys on the floor, eating like a champ, and communicating to anyone who would listen. Having noticed this behavior, Elsie, our CHI guide said to Caroline, “I think you got an outgoing one.”

Offical Adoption Certificate

Ellie's Nanny

Pedestrian Zone Friends

Ellie Bo

It's Official

Monday, June 02, 2008

Words are truly incapable of describing yesterday’s life changing experience. From crying at the sight of a little crib that was the first thing we saw upon opening the door to our hotel in Nanchang, to the nervous quiet on the bus driving to the Provincial Adoption Center, to walking into the baby/child transfer room, to knowing that Ellie was somewhere in the room, and to being the first family called to come forward, Sunday, June 01, 2008 will be long etched in our collective memories. It was a surreal experience, actually. The moment that Ellie was handed to Caroline, the up and down, the ebb and flow of the long three year wait vanished; upon presenting our passports, we were handed this beautiful little girl. It was, and is, a miracle…a true “God thing” as our agency told us it would be. In the 20 hours that Ellie has blessed our lives, we’ve seen signs of both of our personalities manifest in Ellie’s behaviors. It’s truly remarkable.

Ellie has been nothing but extraordinary; slept through the night, ate a hearty breakfast, took a nap on the way to the Provincial Adoptions Center, lost a sock as we had our first shopping excursion-the Nanchang Super Wal-Mart, ate squash for lunch, went poo-poo in the toilet and bedded down without incident for a nap.

We made two official stops this morning. The first was at the Provincial Adoption Center. Here we had a family picture taken, Ellie had her passport picture taken, we were interviewed and we received our official adoption certificate. We are officially Ellie’s parents! The second was a notary office, where we were again interviewed and our official adoption certificate was notarized.

The day’s official work completed, we made our way to Super Wal-Mart; two full floors of Western retail marketing with Asian products and services. As the three of us walked the aisles filling the shopping cart with jars of tomato with fish medley baby food, diapers, burp rags and Tsing-Tao beer, people stopped to look at Ellie and then smile at Caroline and me. Two young girls in their late teens came up to Ellie while we were in the baby food aisle. The two smiled with delight after giving Ellie the once-over, and then said to us, “Thank you. This is very kind of you. We think she will be very happy in your family.”
We both stood there with tears running down our cheeks…such a powerful moment of grace.

Now, back to the poo-poo…

While we traveled to the day’s first stop, one of our adoption guides, Mary, told our group that the babies are potty trained. A half hour after eating an infant is held over a toilet, certain sounds are made and lo and behold, the infant voids fluids and eliminates solids. Mary encouraged us to keep to this schedule. So, after we got home from Wal-Mart we fed Ellie squash, she’d had a bottle on the bus, we undressed her, and I held her over the toilet…and lo and behold…poo-poo plopped into the toilet. Daddy is so proud!

Quote of the Day: Upon hearing that our daughters are potty-trained, Ella’s dad leans across the aisle on the bus and says, “That alone is worth the $4800 Yuan adoption fee!”

It's a Total God Thing!

The First Thing We Saw on Gotcha Day

We made it to Nanchang and arrived at the hotel @ 2:00 p.m. It’s 2:52 p.m. Sunday for us, and at 3:30, we travel to the adoption center to get Ellie!


Here’s the first thing we saw when we opened the door to the hotel room:







As you can imagine it was a tear fest!


It is International Children’s Day, a day that has much significance in Chinese culture. On this day, children are celebrated and children are said to treasure this day more than any other because it is a day for them to receive a gift that they’ve truly wanted and have been waiting a long time for. How fitting that Ellie’s ‘gotcha day’ falls on this day…a day when all three of us receive the gift we’ve truly wanted and have been waiting a long time for…the gift of each other, the love of a mother and father, and the love of a child.”

I’ll be sending more pictures immediately after we get back from the adoption center.

May 30, 2008

Friday, May 30, 2008
We left the hotel this morning for an optional excursion; tour of the Temple of Heaven, rickshaw ride through a Hutong, and a matinee performance of the Chinese Flying Acrobats. With us were two of the families who will be traveling with us to Ellie’s province. Edson, Keri and their twins, Madison and Megan, hail from Orange County, CA; Eric and Jacinda are from rural KS. All of us are getting baby girls! All of our girl’s surname is Bo; and at least two of us are keeping Bo as some part of our baby’s English name.

Event of the day: Finished with the tour of the Temple of Heaven, we made our way to lunch…a Chinese, Chinese restaurant. Lunch was a mixture of perfectly steamed rice, fried noodles, kung-pao this and kung-pao that.

Having eaten our fill, our guide and CHI employee, Dennis, suggested we visit the bathroom before loading the bus. I knew better to accept his suggestion; local restaurants tend only to have Chinese toilets, a.k.a. “squatters.” So I relaxed in my chair. The power of suggestion can come at the most inopportune; no sooner had a few of my table mates headed to the bathroom, that the Chinese preserved egg experiment I was still recovering from fought back.

It had been a measure of pride that I’d been able always to find a Western toilet while traveling in China. Consider, 2005…days using a Chinese toilet: 0; days using a Western toilet: 15. 2008…days using a Chinese toilet: 0; days using a Western toilet: 9…until that very moment.

Needless to say, the “squatter experience” was not that bad, save for having to hang my shirt, my cargo shorts, and my pride on the door hook in the stall in order for this cultural transaction come to its conclusion.

Quote of the day: At 10:45 p.m., I awoke having fallen asleep before I’d completed charging all the camera batteries. (Caroline was fast asleep.) Still recovering from the Chinese preserved egg experiment, I was feeling the need for a bit of potassium; I left the hotel and walked along Wangfuling Street looking for a vendor still open that still had bananas for sale. After a few blocks it became clear that most of the fruit vendors had closed.

As I made my way back to the hotel, walking this time on the opposite side of the street, a young, attractive sharply dressed Asian woman approached me. After the obligatory, “Ha-lo, Ha-lo,” the woman uttered words I’ll long remember, “You want hotel room with night of romance?”

Preserved Eggs and Happy Buddha

May 29, 2008
Until today, we’d been rather scheduled, so we enjoyed sleeping in until 7:00 a.m. After a great phone call from dear friends and a leisurely “get-ready-to-face-the-day,” we made our way to breakfast. Another standard buffet with the exception of Chinese preserved eggs. Also known as hundred-year eggs or thousand-year eggs, this Chinese delicacy is made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for 100 days. When completed, the yoke becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the egg white becomes a dark brown transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. I had two. Given that for the rest of the day, I found it necessary to be cognizant of the proximity and availability of Western toilets, those two will be my last.

It was a gorgeous day in Beijing, mid 70’s, low humidity and blue sky. This was a bit of a surprise. Three years ago when in Beijing, even on cloudless days, the sky wasn’t blue; rather it was a hazy grey. Smog. In preparation for the Olympics, all factories, manufacturing concerns and the like, were required to move from Beijing proper to outskirts of the city; it was believed that doing so would help improve the air quality for the Olympics. Based on today’s experience, it seems to have worked. There is, however, a bit of irony to this. Beijing is laid out in six concentric circles. All the factories, etc., were to be relocated to at least the fifth ring (based on what we’d been told three years ago by an ex-pat living in Beijing). Today, Caroline and I made our way to the Olympic Stadium; it’s located in the middle of the fourth ring. The closer we got to the Olympic site, the poorer the air quality became.

We took advantage of the Beijing subway system today. This was great as we saw a lot of the city and because it made us feel like we were truly traveling, having to find our own way rather than relying on guides.

Tomorrow we will meet some of the people in our adoption travel group. It’s getting a bit surreal; two days and a wake-up and we’ll have Ellie!

Quote of the day: Walking down Wangfujing Avenue’s pedestrian shopping zone, we take a side street into a local marketplace complete with vendors selling seahorses and scorpions on a stick (yes…to eat…kind of like state fair food!) to Chairman Mao watches. As we’re pursuing the goods, a young woman vendor in her teens calls out to me, “Ha-lo, Ha-lo, Happy Buddha, shop here, give you good price.”

Snippets of what we've seen

Peasent farmer making lunch in her kitchen in a village of Dazu County

Caroline taking pictures from the stern of the Victoria Anna on the Yangtze River

Caroline relaxing on the balcony of our cabin

Getting in line to enter the lock system of the Three Gorges Dam

Three ships get in behind us

The mother of Buhda carved in a cliff at Dazu, north of Chongqing

Buhdist monk at worship in the Temple of the Jade Buhda, Shanghai

Back to Beijing

May 28, 2008
Chongqing, the largest city in China, at 33 million people, was wet and rainy this morning. Nini, our young guide, got us to the airport, helped us check in; we exchanged email addresses, said our good-byes and it was off to Beijing. The flight was unremarkable, with the exception of the interesting manner in which the in-flight meal was served. Each passenger had a choice of rice or noodles, which came in an aluminum foil tin. The tin was placed on top of a cardboard box, much like a box lunch from Honey Baked Ham. Inside the box were an assortment of prepackaged items; cherry tomatoes, bun, pickled vegetables, fish noodles and glutinous popcorn. All in all, it was a pretty good meal.

Speaking of meals…

This morning’s breakfast was another gastronomic delight; sushi, French toast, Danish pastries, banana bread all adorned my plate. As we sipped our last cup of coffee, at an adjacent table sat two couples with young Chinese children. Curious, as we walked by their table, Caroline introduced herself and asked if they were in Chongqing to adopt other children. The couples invited us to join them and shared with us that the children with them were their newly adopted son and daughter. They had gotten the children on Monday. Both were special needs children; the girl was 3 ½ and the boy was 6 years old. The father of the little girl shared that all the fear, anxiety, and unknowns melted away on Monday when he saw his little girl for the first time. His words were an encouragement, as we’ve both been experiencing a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions.

Back to Beijing…

We were met by our CHI Beijing contact, Lena, upon our arrival this afternoon. She dropped us off at the hotel, we checked in, and off Caroline and I went for a stroll around Beijing. Of note; it’s all about the Olympics.

Three more days until we get Ellie!

Another memorable quote from the cruise: Septuagenarian seated behind Caroline on the sampan, while I’m putting on the traditional outfit of the famed Yangtze ‘boat trackers’; “My goodness he’s a big man!”

Back to internet access

Friday, May 23, 2008
Caroline and I enjoyed another delightful breakfast from the 31st floor of the Salvo Hotel Shanghai. Once again, I managed to make it an around the world event:

First stop: Asia for sushi, dim sum, fried noodles, boiled duck eggs and sesame bun.

Second stop: Europe, for crescents’, bread, brie, cold cuts, pastry and hard roll

Third stop: America, for Western omelet, hash browns, pork fritters, min-cinnamon roll and jelly pastry

Final stop: Asia, for sushi, pastry, dim sum, pecan pie and fried noodles


It was a wonderful morning!

After a pleasant flight from Shanghai to Xichang we boarded the Victoria Anna for our Yangtze River cruise.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Today we headed upstream to the Three Gorges Dam Project. The dam is the largest in the world and is scheduled for completion in 2009. When the dam goes completely on-line, the water level behind the dam will rise 175 meters, flooding millions of acres of farmland and displacing nearly 1.3 million people, most of them peasant farmers. We’ve made many acquaintances on the ship, from our table mates to the ship’s staff. Most of the staff are men and women in their early to mid twenties. All speak exceptional English and are very good at their jobs on board the ship. We enjoy having conversations with them.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Continuing along the Yangtze, today we ferried up the Lesser Gorges, including a sampan ride up one of the minor gorges of the Lesser Gorges. Along the way we observed monkeys jumping through the trees along the gorge walls and hanging coffins from the gorge walls. The hanging coffins are somewhat an archeological mystery; centuries ago, when a river person died, the family would construct a wooden coffin, place the deceased inside, seal the cover and somehow hang the coffin hundreds of feet above the river on the shear vertical cliff walls of the gorge. Fascinating.

As we returned from the Lesser Gorge excursion, our tour director, Dick pulled us aside. As you can imagine, this made me extremely nervous; my mind raced with possible reasons for his need to speak to us, none of them very positive. Dick had heard via the ship grapevine that we were in China to adopt a baby; he shared with us that he had an adopted daughter from the Philippines. As an expression of gratitude, Dick pulled us aside to inform us that he had upgraded our breakfast and lunch to the executive dining room; a gesture for which we were most appreciative. We shared with many of the staff and other passengers we met that we were traveling in advance of finalizing our adoption of Ellie. The many kindnesses and expressions of gratitude we received from complete strangers have been overwhelming.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Today we visited the city of Fengdu, known as the City of Ghosts. We visited the temples of heaven and hell; surprisingly, the god of Hell is above the god of Heaven, so rather than going down to hell and up to heaven, we went up to hell and down to heaven.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

We disembarked from the Victoria Anna early this morning in the port city of Chongqing. Chongqing is the largest city in China, having a population of 33 million people. We enjoyed a great tour of the city and the surrounding country side; our young guide Nini has been wonderful, perhaps the best personal guide we’ve had to date. We will spend the night and in the morning, it’s off to Beijing to meet up with our adoption travel group.

Quote of the trip thus far: Tracy, our server in the executive dining room, this morning to Caroline, (whispering into Caroline's ear) "Your husband like traditional Chinese cooking. I think that why he so fat."