China Days 123 & 4

 

 EDIT: I tried to upload some pictures but it's taking way to long. I'll try again tomorrow gotta go get some sleep! Hugz from China!!

 

I'll just give the highlights of the days then try to recap and go into greater detail when I get a chance. 

 

Day 1: We got into Beijing pretty late so we missed most of the day. (Due to the 6 hour delay in TO) We tried to get some sleep but after a 12 hour flight and sitting for that long it was a little hard to go to sleep not to mention the hour change. Flight was great, Sugar Pie is a wonderful traveler. She surprised me! Hard for her to sit long but she managed to keep herself busy. 

 

Day 2: Breakfast was great, love those western breakfasts! Sugar and her new found friend Miss M hit it off right away. We went on a tour of the poorer side of the city today. It was interesting. They are such humble people. We went on a tour to the "Drum Tower". You had to walk up a HUGE flight of steps to get to the tower. Sugar Pie scaled it. Shanes dad aced it, his mom did it bless her heart but was pretty outta wind. Shane and I did it no problem. After that we all took a rickshaw to the road we needed to get to to walk back to the hotel. We got back and relaxed a bit then we all went out for supper. Met a few more families then back to the room to try to get some sleep! At this point Shane and I haven't slept much in the last 36 hours. Running on adreniline I think!

 

Day 3: Up and to the bus by 5 am to head to our childrens provinces. Flight was good, Smaller plane so it was a little more rough. We arrived to the province got our baggage and found our guide right away. Jumped in the van and headed to the hotel. We knew we would get the children that day but didn't realize until we asked that the chioldren were going to be there waiting for us when we arrived!!!!!!! I didn't have the little bag of toys I wanted to give him! Sugar Pie had a little teddy she was going to give him so that would have to make do. We got there and wern't even 10 feet into the door when I spotted a sweet little boy to the right far off corner sitting there with a couple of nannies and the director. They were talking to him and telling him who we were then they put him in my arms and comforted him. He was as stiff as anything, he wasn't smiling, he looked really blank..we gave him his little teddy and the director took pictures of us then the director told our guide to tell me that Hunny Bunch wanted to go to his pre school to say bye to everyone before he left. He went and he told them he would go to Canada and when he comes back he would bring them all really good treats. :o(...so sweet. Sounds like they really prepared him. The director spoke to him again and then they left. We went up to the room for a short little while then we had to go meert our guide at 1 to start the paper work. (Here in Nanchang they both give you your child and do the formal adoption the same day as opposed to getting the child then having the 24 hour harmonious period then paperwork the next day. So we made it to the government building accross the street which was an adventure in and of itself! We were sent off to a darker style room with dark wood furnature in it and we signed papers, gave this fee then that fee. Had an interview, paid the orphanage donation, got our fingerprints, our sons foot prints then off to another office a few blocks away...unlike in Canada a few blocks only takes a few minutes, this was almost 30 minutes! Sugar Pie was falling asleep on me. Hunny Bunch was fading they were both hungry and tired. I handed a sleeping Sugar to Nanny while Shane and I went in to the passport office to sigh more papers and answer more questions. Then off to the police station to have photo's taken. Our guide Mary said we would have to wait until Friday for his passport so we won't get back to Beijing until Saturday morning. We came back to the hotel and ate at the restaurant. I was beat...that all happened so fast I had to go threw it all in my head and try to make sure everything was done the way it was supposed to be done. And I wondered why we weren't told before hand that there were a couple other extra fees we didn't know about. I hadn't realized we had to pay to have the child brought over to the hotel nor did I know we were required to help pay for the translated money order. I stayed up and wrote out every detail I could remember in my journal. It's moments like this you never want to forget and the smallest detail is vital info! I put some pics on facebook. They took forever to load up so I only put a few.

 

Day 4: Last night I got up feeling just terrible. I had a bad headache and my tummy was sick. I did end up getting sick, I tried to get back to sleep buy my head was pounding so I waited then when Shane went to bed I figured it would be safe to take a gravol. Got up at 6ish. Sugar Pie was a squirmy worm and it's hard to sleep when someone is kicking you LOL. We went for breakfast and I just had toast. Everyone else ate well and had a good sleep. We went back to the room and took it easy for the morning. At 12 we ventured out to the shopping mart down the road. It was so hot and humid we just got what we needed and got out. We just had supper in our room and the kids played. They get along really well. You would think they have always been together. Hunny Bunch is a sweet sweet little boy. Very bright! And he loves to sing...He sang Twinkle Twinkle to me in Chinese today which was very sweet. The a bit later he gave me a kiss! I'm totally smitten!

 

Ok that's about all I can catch you up on today so I'll try not to fall behind by 4 days again!

Debbie & Shane Gallant