Oh yeah... I started the countdown... Two more days until we leave to go get you Shae HongQi! Hooray! Tonight we're going to eat like Americans to celebrate - we're having Butter Burgers from Culvers... duh duh DUH!!!!
I know what you're thinking... Butter Burgers? Mama you dont even eat red meat! I dont eat it because it doesnt love Mama... not because Mama dont love it! If I eat it today... I'll be in gastrological distress tonight and tomorrow and then its smooth sailing from there! Be proud of me that I'm not eating the frozen custard... there would be much moaning and wailing in pain if that happened.
When I'm done with my Butter Burger... I shall turn my sights to the love that is truly awesome chow.... Chinese foodie goodness from CHINA!! Watch if I dont eat one american thing while I'm there and eat only good stuff! Well... okay... Dadee packed Turkey Jerky, but thats it! Oh and then there's instant oatmeal and crackling oat bran, but nothing else - I swear! And maybe scrambled eggs and bacon... but those will be from Chinese chickens and Chinese piggies so they dont count!
I hope there are steamed buns where we're going for breakfast... I love steamed buns with bean paste... the frozen ones are just not the same! I wonder if Shae likes steamed buns......
I mentioned before that we already know that our guide is...well... whats a nice way to describe him... naw... cant think of something so I'll go with 'pretty shitty'. Cover your eyes girls... Mama's swearing again! Anyhoo... I wrote him up a nice little summary of the trip according to Mama... because we all know that if Mama is NOT HAPPY... NO ONE WILL BE HAPPY! BUWAHAHAHAHA!!! And yes, I will be giving it to him because I'm just that kinda girl!
Welcome to Cleveland/Fisher Adoption Journey 2.0! Thank you very much for guiding us and making sure we have a wonderful experience! Our main objectives are the same as Adoption Journey 1.0 and are simply this:
1. W e want to provide a smooth transition for our daughter
2. We want to experience as much of her culture as possible so we have good memories to share with
her about where she started in the world! Bring on the sites! We may NEVER get to see anything like this again! We expect to pay for all taxi excursions, entrance fees for all of us – that includes YOU, and lunch for all of us – that includes YOU! Come have fun with us!
If our daughter is adjusting well/isn’t sick, we would like to wander around with you every day while we’re here. You can help us learn about our daughter’s home town and we can answer any questions you have about where we’re from. We don’t want you to ‘hold our hands’ so to speak, but we would like to have help as needed when we go out and about. If our daughter isn’t adjusting well… we will still want Dana to go out while I do mama/daughter attachment work.
I will not accept that its too cold to go anywhere or that we wouldn’t be interested in seeing something because its boring. We are from the frozen tundra we like to call the Midwest – we know what cold is and are unfazed by it. Your boring is our interesting because we’ve never seen anything like this! Think of it this way – if you came to Iowa and told us that you wanted to go see corn and cows since that IS our chief attraction (seriously… it is…I’m not kidding… we are from the land of corn and cows), and we told you that they weren’t interesting and you had to stay in your room the entire trip without an opportunity to run amuck… you would be very unhappy! I don’t want to be unhappy and have to become very opinionated about lack of opportunity but I will if I have to… trust me, its not going to be pretty if I do… just ask my poor hen pecked husband!
I will also not accept that there is nowhere to buy treasured items from my daughter’s homeland to take home. Our daughter’s pride in her Chinese heritage is very important to us and we want her to have items to take home that help foster that pride. I’ve been told that there is a wonderful shopping district in the middle of Yinchuan that is pedestrians only square – lets go there and see what we can find together!
This is our schedule as I understand it – Fang said that you would be available Feb 8 and Feb 9… we will want to have some of your time both of those days if things are going well.
Feb 3 – The Terror that is the Cleveland/Fisher family arrives!
Feb 4 – Museum… oh yeah!!! We LOVE museums and are excited to go! Yahoo!!
Feb 5 – Shopping… we’d like to go shopping at whatever time shops open on Sunday and we will want to eat out somewhere. A nice noodle shop would be good!
Feb 6 – Meet Gao Hong Qi – soon to be Shae HongQi! Yay!! The Terror grows by a factor of 1! Dana may need to go shopping for little girl clothes if Shae HongQi is unhappy to be with us… we were never told her current measurements and had to just guess size when packing for her.
Feb 7 – Registration – just want to go do that… nothing more this day
Feb 8 – We want to go wandering around with you at 10am or so and eat at a good Muslim restaurant. If you have official stuff to do that day – we will work around your schedule but we MUST go out if our daughter is doing well. Is there a Buddist Temple or Muslim place of worship we could take Shae HongQi and have her blessed during our wandering time?
Feb 9 – same as Feb 8 but we want to go eat at a good Hot Pot restaurant! Could we go see the bridge where Shae HongQi was found during our wandering time?
Feb 10 – airport… put the Terror back on a plane! Hooray!! You’re free!
Thank you very VERY much for putting up with us! We appreciate you and your work for us!
Well...its one week until:
1. Our guide knows the true terror that is da MAMA!
2. We by the grace of God go forth and actually make it to Shae's province on the day we're suppose to
3. We know the true terror that is Shae HongQi... God help the poor little imp! She's gonna need it!
4. I have to leave Mama's tiny infant Aubree BiXiu... my heart is breaking just thinking about it.
5. The dogs say 'Dude... Grandma is entirely noooooooooo fun!'
6. Talen gets a screaming little room mate... God help him as well!
7. The cats say 'this is soooo wrong! we must pee on everything in retaliation!'
8. We have to ferry adoption fees like drug mules... owwww thats gonna hurt!
9. I turn to Dadee and say 'Dude... you look like two sheets to the wind and one a flopping!'
10. Dadee turns to me and says 'if I'm two, you're three and NO I will not carry you! You are so not that cute'
Well Peanuts... I dont mind telling you that Mama is COMPLETELY stressed out and out of sorts. I compare myself to a lady that is 45 weeks pregnant... severely overdue and ready to cry. We have just over a week left before we travel to you Shae... work has decided that everything must fall apart right NOW and I'm the only one that can help fix whatever it is thats broken. I just dont want to get into this stuff right now... I've got no focus at all and dont have the patience for the concentration needed.
I'm stressed over leave you BiXiu... its killing me to think that I have to leave you while we travel to bring home your sister. Sure you're going to be okay... but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph I havent left you for more than 1 night since I got my grubby paws on you and I didnt sleep the entire night worrying about you.
I'm worried about making our connecting flight in Beijing to Yinchuan. I dont know how to confirm the flight and I'm scared about being stranded in Beijing. I keep thinking that I should book a room in a decent Beijing hotel for just in case of worse case scenario.
I'm stressed out about all the 'stuff' we have to take with us... you know what 'stuff' I mean.
I'm all pissed about my insurance and my tummy dr not getting along and me either being without my tummy medicine OR having to pay for the whole thing AGAIN!
I'm tired... tired... TIRED of waiting!
If anyone reading this... and I mean ANYONE... tells me to just relax, I swear I will swallow them whole and spit out the bones! I will also rip the guide in the province a new one if he so much as pulls anything remotely like he's done for the last two families... his bee-hind is gonna be MINE if he does.
---------
Speaking of J, M, and J... B and I were coming home the other day and someone cut me off. Me being the vocal chick that I am yelled 'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!!' instead of something more colorful... baby on board you know!
B says 'where Mama?'
I say 'where what B?'
B says 'where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph?'
I say 'uhmmmmmmm they're back there... we passed them... they were waiting at the bus stop'
B says 'go back Mama, I want to see them'
I say 'uhmmmmmmm we'll see them again tomorrow honey!'
I am sooooo in trouble folks... and she's not even 3 yrs old yet!
Wow... has it been a wild week! We received our confirmed Counsulate Appointment for Shae and Mama has been in high planning gear! Even though we dont get to leave until 02/02/2006 - we have nearly everything planned or taken cared of! We've got:
1. Our plane tickets purchased and confirmed!
2. Our in-country flights/hotels confirmed!
3. Bags packed... hullo.... for about 3 weeks now!
4. Yuan ordered and received... I've got it all parsed out and labeled as of last night
5. The US money collected thanks to Dadee! - he's worked hard for months collecting good bills! This is also all labeled and ready to go! ***Note to potential robbers... oh no... its not in the house under the mattress... no way! Nor is it in the freezer... that would be WAY to obvious!
6. Letter written for Auntie CeeCee so she can take good care of BiXiu while we're gone!
7. Two versions of our COO packing listed posted for the ladies on OCT DTC - one for baby and one for older child
8. Leave requested - we get 2 weeks of paid adoption leave this time! So I'm taking 1 week vacation, 2 weeks of the paid adoption leave, and 1 week unpaid!
9. All of Shae HongQi's appointments scheduled for when we get back! I even sent a message to the principal at school to warn him when she was starting!
10. Message sent to Social Worker that we're leaving!
11. Dadee is working on getting the Panda Phone and the Travelers checks - go Dadee!
So! We're leaving 02/02/2006 and coming home 02/15/2006. We will got Des Moines, Chicago, Beijing, and Yinchuan on the way out and Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Chicago, and Des Moines on the way back. We've got 1 day to rest up in the province and start to drive our guide crazy before we get Shae. We're getting to stay at the International Hotel in Yinchuan like we wanted AND we get to stay in the White Swan again in Guangzhou! Oh! Oh! Oh! AND we get to go on the River Tour in Guangzhou if Shae is up to it by then! WooWoo!
If you see two minimally packed people on the way out - stop over and say Hey! If you see two adults chasing down a fleeing, blonde, tiny, chinese pixie in Guangzhou or the airports on the way home... well dont just STAND THERE! Give chase and help us run her down! :D
More later... *giggles*
Let me off I want to puke! :P
Anyhow.. We had been waiting for our TA, seems like we were skipped or they lost it or something. So we have been bummered that last couple of weeks looking for it as others passed us by.
Well, Just lately we were told it was lost or they were mixed in a batch that had some account problem, but that wasn't it. All of a sudden, they found ours, and turns out its on it way.. It was shipped last friday! Do you here us Shae!! Your mom and dad are screaming that they are about to be one step closer to bringing you home!!
Yea!!!!!!!
Next up via'ing for choices on CA (Consulate appoints), which sound around mid Feb!! Woo Woo
Posted out to the Oct 2005 DTC board
I've got the traveling bug today so I'm sitting here figuring out the
vast quantities of cash we're going to need and flights. I'll dump my
thoughts here in the hopes that its helpful to others.
Cash - A CHI Mama thats traveling right now to my daughter's province
(not a province - autonomous region!) sent me the following cash
breakdown she was given for her travel. Fees in other provinces may
very... this is for NingXia :)
US dollars
$380 Counsulate (yep - increase for those that have done this before)
$3000 SWI Donation (cant figure out WHY our agency cant wire it!)
$100 SWI Service Fee (this is for Yinchuan... others might be different)
$200 for Shae HongQi's passport
Grand total of US dollars needed: $3680 US in crisp, NEW $100 bills
Yuan
500 - Medical in Guangzhou
35 - Visa picture
500 - Announcement (announcement to whom? the finding ad maybe?)
250 - Registration
2000 - Notary
Grand total of Yuan needed: 3285 (about $407.18 US dollars)
I'm going to go through Travelex's to get our travel insurance and
traveler's checks... I might as well use their My Travel Wallet and get
the Yuan needed plus some money for eating/etc ahead of time too!
Orders over $700 have free shipping!
Flights
We're going the Chicago, Beijing, Yinchuan route on the way there -
flights today from Chicago to Beijing are $836 per traveller on Yahoo
for Feb travel. United has an adoption discount so it may be quite a
bit less - have to call for a quote when we're ready to book... the bad
thing about it is that YOU have to book it and not a travel agent... so
I've been told that the case about a year ago. The one way flight from
Beijing to Yinchuan is running about $151. The one way flight from
Yinchuan to Guangzhou is $250... our in-country agency may be able to
get it for less than that... we'll see.
On the way back, we're going Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Chicago... Guangzhou
to Hong Kong is easy to look up - one way is $110... but the Hong Kong
to Chicago is... well... lets just say that the price quoted on Yahoo
makes me wheezy. I'll have to talk to United or Sue Sorrels about what
its really going to cost... it should be as easy as changing the
departure city from Beijing to Hong Kong for a lesser heart attack.
Laurie - plotting her escape!
Yet denied! A packet of TA's came this week and guess who's was missing along with 4 others... thats right... Shae HongQi's
Its enough to drive a Mama to drink I tell you! Evidently due to a clerical error... our batch didnt get printed and sent out. We have been told that they have been taken to the printing room and will be first priority next week... they might even be at CHI next Friday!
Come on! I'm ready to go! I've had us packed for 3 weeks now! Just a little longer baby... just a little longer.