The Great Wall

I must start out by saying arriving at night followed by Ambien makes for a wonderful next day. We got up and worked out, well I did, not Jim and met our guide for the day. He was funny, asking me if I owned a gun. We stopped at one of the national jade shops and heard the tales of women getting jade when they get engaged and saw carving. The woman who was leading us around asked if we had a daughter and we mentioned that we would be meeting her soon. She looked shocked and said "but you look so young to adopt, how old are you?" When I told her she mentioned that she was younger but I had no wrinkles and such pretty white skin with no tan. I suppose the grass is always greener. If she was aiming to sell me some jade, well done.

We then took a back road to the Mutianyu section of the wall, as the highway was shut down for some government official. Note to self bring ginger on long car trips...when we stopped for lunch I was digging out all of the sliced ginger to combat motion sickness. When we arrived at the wall, we took an open cable car up....uh, somewhat scary....very high. We both admitted to have thoughts of the car plummeting to the ground....our guide was behind us yelling and waving. The time on the wall could only be described as spiritual, it was the first time in many months I have felt in the present. We took a long "toboggan" ride down, which was numerous.

We thought about going to market to shop but realized we did not need to add any weight to our bags and could shop in GZ. The concierge walked us to a tiny courtyard restaurant for hot and sour soup, dumplings, and big beers.

Today is packed with the Forbidden city, Tianamen Square, Temple of Heaven, and an acrobat show...I may go down in my Peking duck.
For some reason I thought China would be busier, crazier...
Both of us are shocked that we fly out for GZ tomorrow and meet Evelyn the following day, still does not seem possible.

Itinerary

Our travel plans are set, we leave in a few days. For some of you, if you have seen one adoption blog to China you have seen them all. Big Ben, Parliament...right?

I hope to capture that raw emotion that we experience on this trip. This is how I will share with her in the future. People keep telling me to "have fun" in China. There is so much emotion that goes into an adoption trip, yes happiness but also guilt, grief, anxiety, and sadness. o much of this comes home too, it does not end when we arrive home.

I am not aiming for fun but memorable...

8/15 Flight to Beijing

8/15-8/19 Touring in Beijing

8/19 Flight to Guangzhou

8/20 Meet Evelyn Ying Yi

8/23 Orphanage Visit

8/27 US Consulate Appointment

8/28 Train to Hong Kong

8/29 Fly home


Jim and I are both in a good place...expectations are out the window.


As for big brother...he knows something is up!

We leave in 8 days! I will post our schedule when I know more...as it stands we should meet Evelyn on 8/20!

Travel Approval

Meaning we can go get Evelyn Ying Yi! We are in the process of requesting dates that we will be in country.

Last step...

We can finally say we are waiting on our travel approval (TA)...

When we leave depends on securing a Consulate Appointment (CA). It would be nice to jump in the first plane but the reality is a significant drop in airfare if we wait until the end of August.

We are getting some tasks done here (read Jim's hanging things I bought).

Parker knows Evelyn is coming and he has no idea what this means. One day he is so happy, playing with Evelyn's dolls naming them Emily and Mommy, and putting them for a nap. The next day he is saying "I just want Mommy, Daddy, and Parker" or our house is too small for her.

We are most likely going to miss his first day of preschool, which probably bothers me more than him.

We've been trying to spend the last of summer just having fun together.

New Pictures

Once again, a family visiting Evelyn's orphanage was able to get us updated pictures. I am so thankful they took time out of their emotional and stressful visit to see her. Trust me when I say I love the pictures but all I needed was for them to see her, and tell me she was okay!

Amy told me she was active, going from toy to toy, and was able to climb in and out of her crib. Her crib is on the end, so she can look outside and have fresh air.

I was also told there are more pictures and a video to come. To think we may be there next month is surreal!

How much longer?

Wonder how many times a day I hear that question?

2.5 more weeks until we are waiting on our travel approval...our I800 was approved last week and we were cabled yesterday.

Translation: The US approved our family to bring home Evelyn, and they sent this approval to the embassy (in China) so her visa can be generated.

We can leave to pick her up once our CA (Consulate appointment) has been booked, it all depends on the availability.

Here is some Parker from the past week...

Swim lessons, he is doing much better in the private lessons vs the YMCA. Eveything depends on his mood these days.

I normally think, sleeping pictures are creppy (remember the Elf on a Shelf business?) I went to get him for soccer and he looked like a sweet baby.

He is constantly saying how "sad' and "unhappy" he is Evelyn is not home. I do think he will be happy to have her here but I am prepared for some regression. He keeps saying how I am going to carry both of them up the stairs, at the same time. He tells me...you have two arms, you can do it!

We are in go mode around here!