We're Home!

We arrived at the airport in Guangzhou at around 6:30 a.m. in a van with another family from Detroit (Szalai's) and were guided to check in for our flight by our super-guide, Molly. We waited in the airport for our flight with them and their newly adopted boy, John who will be two in April.

We got on our first plane at 8:40 a.m., China time (6:40 p.m.-MN time) and got off at 5 a.m., China time (3 p.m.-MN time) which by my calculation is about 21 hours of travel. Oh, sure it was only really 16 hours of true flying time. But there were no real snafu's and no cancelled flights or delays, or almost missed flights. There was that one little issue in Tokyo when we were boarding and the attendant asked to see my receipt for Ahn-Bao's ticket. After indicating that I didn't have a receipt, thinking that when we checked in the clerk in Guangzhou had taken all of the tickets and given us only boarding passes. Then I sorted through every pocket of the backpack and low and behold, there it was. Another minor hurdle passed toward the goal of bringing the boy home.

Ahn-Bao slept twice during the flights, for about 2 hours or so total. We tried to time tylenol doses to help with the ear pain that we surmised he was feeling being on his first air flights in his life during the first flight. He had a little trouble on the very first flight but after that, we succeeded in entertaining and feeding him sufficiently to keep him fairly quiet. With seats not ideal for a lap child, and other passengers close-by, I have to say that we didn't do too badly.

When we arrived in Minneapolis, we were required to pass through U.S. Customs. We got in the line for new immigrants (and parolee's) which was so much shorter than all of the other lines (a great educational tip from Leslie). When we got up to the official, she called over another attendant and said she needed help because she hadn't done one of these in awhile. Lehigh came over to assist. He indicated that she should assure that the brown envelope we got at the U.S. Consulate the day before in Guangzhou had not been opened or tampered with. He made the offhand comment that often they see people coming from the Phillipines who steam open the envelope and somehow tamper with it to bring immigrants into the U.S.

Anyway, he instructed her to swipe our passports, stamp them with various stamps in various pages. Lehigh then looked over the medical paperwork (which I have never really seen) and read aloud that Ahn-Bao had a cleft lip and pallette and upper respiratory infections. He then commented that Ahn-Bao's lip looked great and then offered that he also had a cleft lip and pallette. So then they said they would keep the brown envelope materials, he recommended that we apply for a passport and social security number soon for Ahn-Bao and told us, "Congratulations!"

We then had to get our luggage and have it rechecked for the flight to Rochester. We spent the $3 for a cart to haul the luggage and our carry-ons (our heaviest suitcase had a broken wheel suffered in the loading or unloading process on the flight to Guangzhou). We then hauled the bags to the check-in and went through security one more time. It was only 11:18 a.m. I called Bob after turning my cell phone on for the first time in 2 weeks. Bob said there was an earlier flight to Rochester at 11:15 that we might be able to catch. But no luck. That flight had already gone.

So that gave us just enough time to get the pepsi products we had been waiting for. We waited at our gate for the Rochester flight long enough to watch the Grand Rapids, MI flight take off. We also put Ahn-Bao on some of those amusements in the airport and were thinking that he certainly had never been exposed to this, among other things, in his sheltered life before.

A short 25 minutes after we took off, we touched down in Rochester and Bob and the kids had gotten out of school early to meet us. The kids came out of the van to meet us with all the smiles, hugs and kisses that I missed so much.

Yasmin, Elias and Kia were so sweet with Ahn-Bao and they all hugged and kissed him. He reacted pretty well given the "alien abduction" and all. I couldn't help but cry because I was so happy to see them and so glad to finally have achieved the goal of bringing this boy home to the family.

Will we be kicked out of our hotel?

After my last post, we had settled in for the night to get some sleep before our 4:15 a.m. wake-up call when our phone rang at 9:15 p.m. It was the front desk clerk of our hotel calling to say that the "deposit" charged to my credit card that they had swiped upon our check-in was insufficient to cover our last night's stay at the hotel. I responded that I was checking out of the hotel at 5:30 a.m. the next morning and would be glad to pay the full bill at that time in the morning. The clerk responded by saying, "I'm sorry."


I clarified by saying, "S0 you are asking me to get out of bed and come down to the front desk to provide my credit card, that you already have on file, right now?" And she replied, "I'm sorry Ma'am." I thought for a few moments about how if I was in the U.S., I would have refused to go down and would have just paid my bill in the morning. However, after a couple of incidents where just after walking into my hotel room, my phone rang with someone from the front desk calling; those "big brother" electricity controls in the hotel room that indicate when you're there and not; and the "Great Firewall of China" which seemed to be tracking what I was accessing on the internet, I imagined Mom and Ahn-Bao and I being removed from our hotel room in the middle of the night by the Chinese army in their green coats with the red trim , our luggage being confiscated, or worse, I'd be arrested.


So I went to the front desk, in my pajamas (which was probably a risk in and of itself) and took the same Discover credit card that I had used at check-in and offered to pay the bill in full. But after the manager got on the phone for a few minutes, the clerk suggested that maybe I'd like to use another card or pay cash. I had made special arrangements with Discover Card in advance to allow use of the card in China, which they had assured me would be accepted just like a domestic China card called, UnionPay. I explained all of this to her and then remembered that I had a printout from Discover written in Chinese which explained the card and how to use it so I went back up to my room and got the explanation card and took it back down to the manager.

She looked at it, got on the phone again for what seemed like a long time, then finally agreed to swipe my card. I waited until she had agreed before I asked if I could pay part of my bill with my remaining Chinese Yuan so that I wouldn't have to take it home. It seemed a little ironic that after all the trouble I had during the first week getting access to Chinese Yuan, that I would be looking for a way to unload the stuff at this point.

A bit of advice to anyone going to China, make sure that the U.S. cash you take is really pretty money, clean bills with no stamps, writing, creases, or defacing of any kind. Crisp, clean hundred dollar bills are preferred by everyone in China, at least if you don't have crisp, clean 100 Yuans. Everywhere I exchanged money, at the Bank and the Hotels, the bills were examined from various angles, held up to the light, and bills with creases were rejected on at least two occassions. It's very amazing at how careless we are in the U.S. at how disrespectful to our currency.

Headed for Home!

Today we had our appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, the last step in the process to bring our boy to his new home. We took a bus provided by the White Swan Hotel. The Hotel is heavily invested in the business of international adoption and there were at least 6 busloads of families all arriving at the same time for this swearing-in ceremony, which happen almost every afternoon.

We had to stand and raise our right hands and swear that all of the information provided in our application for immigration was true to the best of our knowledge, and then we were congratulated having survived the heartache and paperwork to get to this point. Even though we still have a couple more steps ahead of us in MN to formally make Ahn-Bao a full U.S. citizen, it was quite moving to have the speaker recognize all of the effort that it takes to have both the Chinese and U.S. Governments say we can really keep him!

We had to make our last decision about a meal and opted to go back one more time to Lucy's Cafe. Ahn-Bao ate french fries and Mom and I had "American Fried Chicken." Not too bad and pretty American.

We have set the alarm for 4:15 a.m., China time (that's 2:15 p.m. for those of you in MN) to be ready for the van that will pick us and one other family up to take us to the airport. Our itinerary for tomorrow is as follows:

5:40 a.m. Board a van with our guide Molly and one other family to drive to the airport

8:30 a.m. Board NW Flight #10 to Tokyo-Narita, Japan

4 hours, 5 minutes flying time

1:35 p.m. Arrive in Japan

3:00 p.m. Leave Japan on NW Flight #20 to Minneapolis

10 hours, 55 minutes flying time (Hey, it's better than the 13.5 hours from Detroit to Japan)

10:55 a.m. Arrive in Minneapolis

11:00 a.m. Purchase Diet Mountain Dew in the airport!

2:15 p.m. Leave Minneapolis on NW Flight #2863 to Rochester

3:00 p.m. Arrive in Rochester

Proceed through customs and then . . .

3:15 p.m. Hug and kiss Yasmin, Elias and Kia (oh, and Bob too) and introduce them to Ahn-Bao

Winter Storm Hits Southern China

So we're watching CNN today in our Hotel room (one of a couple of tv channels available in English) and are tracking an amazing confluence of problems with the people of China traveling.

We are in Guangzhou (pronounced, goo-ahng-joe) where the weather has been rainy for several days and cold by local standards as it has been in the 40's most days. However, just north of this southern city, a snow and ice storm has hit in areas that are not used to dealing with much if any snow. The winter storm has shut down the trains and bus stations and service in a large part of China. The storm has happened at exactly the time when many, many Chinese people have plans to travel to be with their families, often far away, for the biggest holiday in China, the Chinese New Year (the lunar new year) which happens on February 7.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3264827.ece

Many, many workers in the larger cities are referred to as "migrant workers" because they make their living at often hard jobs in the big cities, far away from their families. Many young couples with children that live in the countryside, will have to leave their children with extended family, many times grandparents, while they go to their jobs in the big city and aren't able to see their children or families for months at a time. The Chinese New Year is a week-long celebration where most Chinese people are off of work and it is the one chance, sometimes all year, for them to be with their families.

So many, many Chinese people (and there are MANY people in China) have purchased bus and train and airline tickets to travel home for the vacation week. However, the storm has stopped the trains and buses and made it very difficult for some airports and so people are stranded waiting for their planned transportation to move. In Guangzhou, it was reported that yesterday the crowd of people at the train station in the city was as high as 500,000 people stranded at the train station with no trains going. Many of them have been camping out for as long as 6 days waiting for word that their train would go. Today they're reporting that the crowd at the train station is down to 200,000 as many people have given up on traveling. The government quit selling train tickets and the vendors of food and local businesses with toilets and phones have jacked-up prices in the area of the train station.

People in Guangzhou are distressed because they have bought train tickets but now can't use them. On top of that, they're cold and wet because it's been raining and so there are reports that there was fighting and some trampeling because people are so anxious and disappointed to be stuck where they are.

The people in the area where the snowstorm actually hit are in an even worse situation as they are having trouble keeping the electricity going with downed power lines and a shortage of coal for heat. There was a bus accident on icy roads that killed 35 people.

China's Premier, Wen Jiabao was shown today with a loudspeaker saying that all government officials should take action immediately, although I'm not sure what they would do. When we were in Beijing and Xi'an, we were amazed that the methods of snow removal, even on the major thoroughfares quite literally consisted of people with dirt spades, hand-made brooms with short handles, and snow shovels with the blades made of plywood, shoveling snow into piles.

It really is a very sad situation for these people. Once again, it makes me appreciate how lucky I am to have been born where and when I was. I have added to the things I miss from home, snow plows and sand trucks!

Tuesday in Guangzhou

We enjoyed a little sleeping-in this morning as we didn't have appointments to start the day until 1 p.m. Ahn-Bao did better in the crib than the floor the night before. I suspect it was a little more secure and what he was used to. However, he woke up quite a number of times and seemed to need to just know that I was still there. Which meant I woke quite a number of times. All a part of having a new baby and worth the effort. In fact, it's kind of nice that he's checking to make sure I'm still there for him.

So we finally had a little time to Skype when it was a reasonable time for the family back home as we were in our hotel room for a majority of the day. Grandma and Grandpa Hubert got to meet Ahn-Bao in video form anyway and he even managed to give them a wave.

We had planned to go with a couple of other families to the zoo today but it was raining and no one was really interested in dragging children around in the rain so we just had the day off. We lounged around the hotel most of the day. After Ahn-Bao had a short nap, we headed out to do some shopping in the neighborhood. We're starting to get a little more comfortable with the bargaining required to get a good price on purchases but I am sure that Bob would have done better -- although he would have likely just walked away from the purchases altogether, but he's not here so we're on our own! We even went back to browse a little in Susan's "Big Store," the one down the alley and behind the church where I picked up our laundry the night before. Except this time we did it in the daylight.

We had some dinner in our hotel restaurant and then finished the day with our routine of a bath and pajamas for Ahn-Bao followed by one of his favorite routines, baby lotion. He's sleeping now and we'll hope for the best on a peaceful night.

Tomorrow we will take the last step in our China process, we will take a bus to the U.S. Consulate where we are told we must pass through very strict security and can't have any electronics, cameras, liquids, or coins. There we will take the U.S. Citizenship oath on behalf of Ahn-Bao and receive his visa to bring him home - finally!

Molly the Super Guide!

Molly called us today to say that Ahn-Bao has passed all the tests and I must have completed my paperwork appropriately such that all systems are GO to take the oath at the Consulate and make him a U.S. Citizen! What great news and we are so happy to be at this stage where we can be on our way to bring Ahn-Bao to his new home.

Molly has been so much fun as our guide in Guangzhou. She is fun and funny and has a great personality. On top of how delightful she is, she really knows her stuff. She is keeping track of 4 families in our group and maybe some more and she knows all the kids names (Chinese and English) and knows every detail of how to fill out all the paperwork, where to go when, how to get there, how much it will cost, where the best and worst deals are, and so much more. It was great fun to see her pull out her "Children's Home" flag to lead our group through the streets of Guangzhou on our Pearl market tour yesterday. She has really made our time in Guangzhou so easy and not stressful.

Pharmaceuticals, Poultry and Pearls

After the medical exams this morning, several of the families in our group walked a few blocks with a destination of the Pearl Market. To get there, we walked over the bridge of the Zhujiang River and through an open market with wholesale materials for traditional Chinese medicine. Among the many things to see there, live scorpions for scorpion soup, bags of dried seahorses, dried animal parts of many kinds, and for eating, several stores selling while chickens, geese and pigeons, cooked and hanging with their heads still attached. Our guide suggested that the reputation of Guangzhou citizens is that they'll eat anything in the air but the airplanes and anything with 4 legs but a table.

When we got to the end of this market, we were near the Holiday Inn, where one of the families in our group was staying and found it an opportune spot for all the families and kids for a bathroom break (Western-style toilets are always a welcome sight.)

We proceeded from there to the "Times Square" of Guangzhou, complete with a big screen tv, McDonald's, KFC and Papa John's Pizza. Near there was the Pearl Market -- a kind of a mall where in the lower level are all manner of jewelry stores, each specializing in its own kind of jewelry (jade, pearls, turquoise, amethysts, etc.) Our guide Molly was especially helpful in pointing us to the best prices and the best quality stores. Mom and I found a little something to remember our trip by.

After jewelry shopping, we went to the McDonald's for a little taste of home for lunch. The food was just like back home and a welcome treat. Ahn-Bao ate what has to be his first chicken McNuggets and loved them.

After lunch, we walked back to our hotel and Ahn-Bao had his nap along the way and then a little longer with Mommy back at the Hotel. After a nap, we discovered that his cup had a leak so a little more shopping was in order before dinner.

We found an appropriate sippy cup at one of the many stores in the neighborhood which cater to adoptive parents. We also returned to Susan's Place and were able to exchange the shirt for Mom's pajamas per the laundry adventure from the day before. Then we went to dinner at the place we had eaten lunch at on our first day in Guangzhou, Lucy's Cafe and met up with Joel, Alayne and their 3-year old Mimzie and had dinner together (fried chicken, fries and broccoli, although the broccoli was not as big a hit tonight as it was a couple of days ago, he is a fickle eater).

We got back to our hotel room and Ahn-Bao is asleep once again in the crib and I'm headed to the same place. Guess that's our story for today.