Day 2: HK then GZ

Today started out with sightseeing in Hong Kong.  We love it there!  We were up early and out exploring all day.  We ate at another cha chaan teng, Relax for a While, for breakfast.  These HK style diners are absolutely the best!  There's nothing like it that I know of where we live.  We all had noodle soup of some sort for breakfast and loved it!  Round it out with another hot milk tea and we were off to see the sights.

For all of you aware of E's eating "troubles", let's just say she's
eating like a champ here!

There's nothing we like better than just getting out and exploring a new place on our feet, and there's something to see down every side street here.  We spent a lot of time at Kowloon Park, which is a gorgeous park plunked right down in the middle of the busiest city we've ever seen.  It was relaxing and invigorating.

Tons of neon on every street.

E very excited about Kowloon Park.

Statues of comic characters.

E looking at the flamingos.

Sculpture walk.

After the park, we headed down to the waterfront area, grabbed a coffee, and took in the views.  We rode the famous Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor.  E just wanted to keep riding the boat back and forward across the Harbor all day.

Striking a pose.  Look at her Starbucks "bracelet."

After all of that fun, it was time to check out of our hotel and head to the train station for the next (and most important!) leg of our journey.  Things got a little chaotic because many of the trains were sold out, so we had to leave a little earlier than we had planned.  The train itself is nice, I would have no hesitation in suggesting it to anyone.  One caveat is that we *did* go the "luxury" route and used a porter and checked our bags.  I think that made a huge difference, and it's still an extremely economical way to get to Guangzhou.  E seemed to use up all of her patience on the long flights, because she was a squirmy little thing for the entire 2 hours.  I'm certain the people around us were praying she'd fall asleep.  But, I can't blame her, it's been a lot of travelling, and we were all looking forward to settling in.

Hugging her, or restraining her?  You decide.

We met our guide, Rebecca, at the train station.  She is absolutely lovely, and it looks like we hit the lottery again when it comes to GZ guides.  She was really great with E, and that gives me a lot of hope for how she'll be with R.  She gave us our itinerary in the van and started going over details and paperwork and it really got our adrenaline flowing.

I don't think P or I was fully prepared for the feelings that would come over us when we pulled up to the Holiday Inn Guangzhou Shifu.  For those of you who know it, it's a unique area, with lots of distinct smells, sights, and sounds...all of which we love.  But it hit us hard, and brought back just about everything from the last time we were here.  When we stepped into the huge lobby, I could almost hear E's nonstop cries echoing throughout not even 1.5 years ago.  But today I looked at her, and she was off and running, laughing, wanting to press the elevator button, showing everyone her sparkly shoes, asking for candy at the front desk.  It's so amazing to us that this is the same precious child we met in January 2012.  P said as he watched her with only the eyes a Baba can have for his first daughter, "We earned this."  We came up to the room and E immediately jumped on the beds, found the flashlight, started writing with the pens, using the phones, and generally wreaking havoc.  But, it was the best kind of havoc ever, after seeing her in this same hotel deeply grieving and miserable not too long ago.

After meeting with Rebecca, we headed right to the Executive Lounge for some much needed snacks.  I was so happy to see E picking out all of the stuff she wanted to eat...she could have asked for 4 plates of cheese and olives we we would have given it to her.  My last memories of that lounge are of us having to leave because she was so miserable.

We headed out to the pedestrian street for a walk.  We bought E a pair of shoes at one of the stores where we got her some shoes last time.  All of the excitement finally caught up to her and she passed out, asleep.

E doesn't totally understand what is going on, but P and I do.  We are excited and anxious and scared and hoping as hard as we can that things will be a little easier this time.  Rebecca told us that she's met R twice.  The first time, she was there when CCCWA went with several agencies to her CWI.  Of all of the kids at the CWI, they brought out our R, to show to everyone.  Rebecca said that every agency representative's hand went up, saying they wanted to try to place this gorgeous little girl.  Rebecca said, "Too late, she's ours."  Rebecca was also at Foshan Shunde in April with another adoptive family and she saw R, looking healthy and happy and beautiful.  She said that she did not interact with her, but to go over and squeeze her irresistible cheeks.  We can't wait to do that, too.

Day 1 or is it Day 2...Hong Kong

I never quite know what's going on with the days at the start of the trip as we've kinda lost one or a half of one...and I'm running on so little sleep I don't know my own name, never mind what day it is.

P and I got under an hour of sleep the night before we left.  By the time P wrapped up work and we both wrapped up packing, my dad was practically on his way to our house to pick us up.  E has been talking about the day Grampy would pick us up to take us to the airport for months now, but apparently I wasn't clear about something, because as soon as we pulled in to Terminal C, E said, "Are we in China yet?"  Um, no, not quite.  But now, about 10 gazillion hours later, we are.  Although, again, I must have done something wrong with my explanation of our trip to E, because as soon as we stepped off the plane in Hong Kong, she said, "But where's my little sister ROE-RIE?!?!!?"  As if she was going to be standing with the people holding the limo signs or something.  Ugh, how is it that I am so inept at communicating these things?  Well, at any rate, at least it's clear to E why we are here.

The flight was uneventful and generally torture it was so long.  People really get worked up about picking the "perfect" airline or flight, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't care if you are riding on an amusement park attraction in the sky, 15 hours (one of the legs) is going to get a little long.  But, I will say, E probably took it better than any of us!  She was great.  P and I were the ones whining the most.

We checked in to our hotel by about 7 after sitting in quite a bit of traffic.  We are staying in the heart of Kowloon so even though it was raining and swampy and were were so tired our eyes were crossed, we headed out to explore a bit.  We ended up seeing the not-so-impressive light show (even worse because we were just looking at a lot of umbrellas in front of us), walking around a tiny bit of the massive shopping area, eating at a local (and delish!) restaurant, and grabbing a coffee at one of the coolest Starbucks we've ever seen.  So, not bad for people who have been going for about 48 hours now.

Our luggage.  Oh, and, er, Emmie--our carry on.

"Let's go!  Let's go!  Let's go!"

E and Baba rarin' to go!

E and Baba*, about 3 minutes later.
* Baba approved this pic, but requested a disclaimer:
The roll on his belly is all of our passports and cash, not excessive Five Guys consumption.

Hong Kong skyline.  I am completely exhausted!

E drinking my milk tea.  Milk tea tastes so much better in Hong Kong!

E and Baba ravenously eating noodles.

We're looking forward to spending the day in Hong Kong tomorrow (rain is supposed to be gone!) and then heading to Guangzhou via train, which should be interesting for sure!

I made you something

I'm not crafty.  I can't sew a button.  I am super left-brained...when it comes time to each E how to work on a new puzzle, I've got that covered.  But some of the craft projects I've come up with for her are entirely amusing.  I'm a cook--not a baker--so when I see moms who make homemade 3-dimensional Dora cakes I'm floored.  But I can only rest on my "I-used-to-be-a-clinical-researcher" status for so long.  I'm a stay-at-home-mom now, and stay-at-home-moms do these things, right?

Sometime in January I decided I had to come up with something crafty I could do.  I decided I'd try making E a hairbow.  Four hours, a pound of hot glue, 3 burns, and some tears later and I came up with this:

Lopsided, not particularly pretty, and definitely not worth the effort.  But, E loved it.  I felt terrible, making one for E, and not one for R.  She was so far away, both in distance and in time, but it felt sad not making one for her, so I did, and decided whenever I made E a bow, I'd make one for R.

February came, and it was time to come up with something for Valentine's Day.  People were talking about expediting thalassemia adoptions and getting them done in 4 months, start to finish.  Would R be here to share some sweet treats and be our Valentine along with E?  No, but I made her a bow, anyways, knowing next year would be the sweetest ever with both of our daughters.

In March, we were getting frustrated with all of the delays we seemed to be having.  We finally received our LOA after 75 long days.  St. Patrick's Day was coming up, and I knew R wouldn't be here to bring her Baba his annual Guinness to celebrate the day.  But, next year she would be, and since Baba would have two little princesses bringing him his treat, she'd need a bow, too.

As the month came to an end, our frustration hit an all-time high as some paperwork hit a bunch of unnecessary snags.  I wanted R here to get her basket from the Easter Bunny so badly, instead of watching it sit there untouched.  But I made her a bow anyways, and we celebrated a beautiful day with E, and smiled through our frustration.

April was off to a rocky start with more paperwork delays.  There were a couple of days I took calls from the agency in the car and had to pull to the side of the road to cry.  But Spring was springing, and E was having fun outside playing and catching ladybugs.  On April 18, we finally got our TA and I actually started to believe that the delays were behind us, and we'd have our sweet R in our arms soon.  Would she love ladybugs like her jie jie?  I wouldn't know for awhile yet, but it was getting closer...

Over time, the bows got easier to make.  And, more fun to make.  Not because I was getting better at it, but because I knew both of my daughters would be wearing them soon.  It also became very cathartic for me.  Rather than spending sleepless nights hitting "refresh" on my email or furiously tracking a package, I was doing something with my own hands, from my own heart for my girls.  There were a lot of sleepless nights, and I ended up with a lot of bows.  Maybe I'm crafty after all!

So, now, comes the really fun part.  Deciding which ones will go in our suitcase tonight, to travel half-way around the globe to China tomorrow.  And, we're hoping that they didn't shave R's beautiful hair (like they did with E) so she can actually wear them!

T-minus 6 days!

OK, up until about 4pm today, I thought today was Thursday, so I thought we had one more day than we do.  That's what no sleep, lots of stress, and the world's longest To Do list will do to your brain.

It's funny, I've said to a few people that it's as if this "snuck up" on us.  I mean, things have been going so slowly that it surely felt like our time would never come, but we definitely could have gotten a better jump on a few things.  So, here we are, it's midnight, we're drinking coffee and putting together a bed...

So, after 15 days, our TA arrived on April 18.  We would have traveled the following week, but, as with this entire process, we hit a snag due to the holiday on 4/29.  So, that put us with the following schedule:

Thursday, May 2:  Leave Boston

Friday, May 3:  Arrive Hong Kong

Saturday, May 4:  Travel to Guangzhou via train

Sunday, May 5:  Get our bearings in GZ, do some pre-Rosie shopping and relaxing with E

Monday, May 6:  Gotcha Day!!!!!

Monday, May 13:  Consulate Appointment (even though she's over 2, we have Monday CA)

Tuesday, May 14:  GZ to HK via van

Wednesday, May 15:  Heading home as a foursome!

Since receiving our TA, it's been a non-stop flurry of trip planning, shopping, and preparing for our new bundle of joy!  As I said to my sister, the adoption process really doesn't test your ability to be a good parent.  In the first phase, it tests your ability to be a good admin.  In the second phase, it tests your ability to be a good project manager.  In the third phase, it tests your ability to be a good travel agent.

So, we have a short time left as our little threesome.  E is so excited, and is mostly taking it all in stride while we get things ready for her little sister.  She's clearly got some anxieties about it, which I think is perfectly normal.  She's quizzed us a few times about how things are going to be after we meet R.  The other night I was explaining to her what it meant that we were going to be R's Mama and Baba, too.  She responded with, "Will you still be here and be mine?"  We're giving her lots of love and reassurance that we're going to be here for both of them, forever.

Now, let's get that bed put together!

E's Home Opener

There's just been a lot of stuff going on around here.  Unfortunately, little of it related to moving forward much with Rosie, but busy nonetheless.

There was Easter, and I've been one busy Mama...it seems like I'm constantly out and about giving talks.  I had the amazing opportunity to speak at Acceleron, a company working on a treatment for thal intermedia.  The welcome I received was just incredible.  Today I had a talk at my alma mater, Simmons College, about my career in clinical research.  Tomorrow I have a talk at Harvard Medical School about living with thal intermedia.  So I've certainly been working the speaking circuit in between bubble blowing sessions with Miss E.  That's OK, it gives me a reason to take off my stay-at-home-mom sweats and stay on top of my game.

We went away for the weekend to Ogunquit, one of our favorite places.  We're trying to get in some last good times as a threesome before mixing things up with our newest addition.

Yesterday was the Red Sox home opener at Fenway, and while we did not attend, E did her own tribute to the home team.  You can see for yourself...

Easter

Kennebunk Beach, Maine

Missing Mei Mei

Oh, Rosie, Rosie.  I was going to do a cute Easter post (and I will), but right now my heart is just so so so sad thinking about you tonight.  I think about you every night, and just about every minute when I'm not 100% occupied with something else.  It's funny how you can miss someone you've never met.  I felt it with E, and I feel it with you.

I guess someday it will just be part of your story, part of the beginning of your life with us.  We might even laugh about it.  But right now, we are sad.  We've watched family after family move past us, catch up to us, and leave us behind.  We had an exceptionally long LID wait, much longer than the current average for our LOA wait.  And, now, a paperwork glitch is keeping you away from us even longer.  There was an important signature on one of our papers missing.  Our agency had the papers for over two months and didn't notice this.  It was sent to China without the signature, and has started a chain-reaction of delays and problems. In order to fix the problem, a new, signed paper was overnighted from the agency...to Chile.  Yes, right next to "China" in the drop-down menu.  From there it was re-routed by the agency to China Florida.  From there, the paper went on a 24-stop, 11-day journey.

I reminded everyone that at the other end of these exceptionally long waits and careless errors is an actual child.  I'm not just waiting on a pair of shoes from Zappos.  In the end, this current set of problems will delay us another two weeks at least.  Two weeks, you might say, doesn't sound all that bad.  But on top of all of the other delays we have had, and our timeline in respect to other families, it's getting a little hard to take.  Baba reminded me that all of this will definitely result in your requiring another transfusion in China.  Whether you get it or not is anyone's guess.

I've cried till my eyes can't cry anymore.  My hands are tied, except for sitting here with the tracking number all day and all night hitting "refresh" on my computer.  It's amazing how one piece of paper circling the world can make an already excruciatingly long wait even longer.

We love you, daughter, and just want you home here with us.

Hi, Mei Mei!

After our crazy long LOA wait, we've been pulling our hair out of our heads waiting for our I800 approval and NVC pdf.  The anxiety around here is through the roof.  I feel like all I've been doing is hitting "refresh" on my email.  So, what a sight for sore eyes it was when I hit "refresh" for the zillionth time yesterday and saw we had an update on our beautiful sweet Rosie!  She is absolutely precious, and absolutely TINY!  I'll just let the pictures (all taken on March 19th) do the talking...

Tiny!

The cutest moment *ever* was when I told E that we had some new pictures of R, she came running over and hopped up on my lap.  I flipped through the pictures and E said, "She's boooootiful!"  And, then, melted my heart...she waved at the computer screen and said (with NO prompting from me), "Hi, Mei Mei!"