The GUY Report

I agree with Lora's post. However, I'm sure Lora and I will experience the trip in different ways. Yesterday started like it always does, with Lora staring out one cracked eye looking for her double pumpkin spice latte. In fact, much of the trip was about eating and looking for the next coffee such. We used strength and incredible will power to not buy a refill at the Starbucks at the Spokane airport . However, the lay over in Seattle (2 hours late) was just too much and I'm afraid Seattle's Best was too much to resist.




Our plane from Seattle to Tokyo was big. The attendants were for the most part adequate. I saw them giving a lot of attitude to a lot of people, but then many people are just plain difficult.

The ride across the Pacific was LONG. I don't meanClarkia to Elk long, or Elk to Oregon Coast long, I mean real long. I'm already wondering what is realistic to exect for a toddler for this long. Having 4 kids already, the prognosis is not good.

Riding along I had time to watch Lora try to sleep, and 3 movies. They were classics such as Balls of Fury and Rush Hour 3. Hard to want the plane to end with this sort of free entertainment at your fingertips. The meal thing was really weird having a constant supply of snacks and random dinner/lunch/breakfast combinations because of the time zone switches. You know what the saddest part is? Each time I stepped up to the challenge and ate my meal.

In Tokyo, when we landed past the time our next flight should have left, everyone was SO helpful. Very strange experience coming from American airports. We also had to go through security again, but it was more like the old days in the US and a simple tray for your pocket items. What a relief! I wonder if that will change before the Olympics or if it is just the US over reacting with ineffictive rules at airports? Once we reached Beijing I think we were both pretty tired. I don't usually stay up for 24hrs straight. I once again had that same feeling of being in some sort of strange video game with 3 lives as we raced in and out of traffic on the highway. Like Lora, I was strangely not worried.

I can't wait to see what today brings. We are finally bustling about gathering things together. We need to go have our breakfast that has already been paid for and then go wherever William takes us. It should also give us time to settle.

William is really nice and does talk fast! He is like one of those guys that does the disclaimers at the end of the radio commericials. Wow!

Conor, Cameron, Andrew, and Gabrian I already miss you guys. Be extra nice to Gabrian and listen to Nana. See you real soon!

(P.S. I would like to add that today's focus will be both coffee and avoiding snake, not necessarily in that order in Lora's mind. )

One Hour In Beijing

We slept well, but even after 23 hours of travel, just can’t make ourselves sleep past 5:00 am. . . Our bodies think it’s 1:00 in the afternoon.

The trip was long and cramped, but I guess as pleasant as anyone could have asked for. All of the attendants were nice, and they just kept serving stuff. Reminded me of being in a hospital; all you really want to do is sleep in a very uncomfortable place, but someone keeps asking if you need anything (Michael). The way the local times worked out, we were served dinner 3 times! It was not the biggest of planes, but certainly the biggest we’ve been on – 8 seats across. Before we were even seated, stacked in like crayons in the 64 crayola box, we both concluded that we had definitely, positively made the right decision in buying Ari her own seat for the return trip.

We were late, as mentioned, leaving Seattle, and thus late leaving Tokyo. We landed about 20 minutes after our connecting flight should have departed. It was a mad dash through the airport praying our plane was still there. (It was, much to the dismay of the people already seated, waiting for us.) We had no time to even check out an airport shop in Japan. The one thing that was remarkable was – there were people everywhere waiting to look at your ticket and direct you. They were even polite and helpful. Even security was polite, organized, and fast. It was not an American airport!

We have only spent an hour awake in Beijing so far, and most of it has been laughing. Our guide is a large Chinese man – dwarfs Michael – who speaks non-stop rapid-fire English. His English is excellent, but enough accent and prosody differences that I really have to concentrate to keep up. (I think he asked us if we want to eat donkey tonight. He definitely determined that we agreed that we wanted to drink “local white lightening” today. No snakes in the bottle, PLEASE, as I have seen in pictures.) The driver did not speak English but obviously spent many hours playing Mario Kart to get his drivers license. I guess we were too tired to be terrified as he whipped up the highway at twice the speed as any other drivers, weaving in and out of impossibly small spaces. I didn’t even have the energy to be frightened when he straddled the dotted lines and squeezed between parallel cars in the lanes. Or maybe I wasn’t scared because at high speed, it was over so fast.

The funniest thing was the guide asking about adoption, when we told him we had 4 sons. I think I get comments in the US when I buy yogurt 40 at a time. . . This was hilarious. He went on and on in incredulity. Then, after a moment of quiet, he burst out in Chinese, and we could see him and the driver talking excitedly, holding up 4 fingers and pointing at us.

He said it will be very exciting for us to be here to watch the celebration for the new year. He said it is a very family-oriented holiday, and parents always give gifts to their children, like Christmas in the US. We have the best gift for our daughter, he said. “American parents. The best gift.” Michael said, “It is a gift for us, too.”

Made It To Beijing

It is 11:00pm here & 7:00am at home. We are going to bed. All I can say at this point is that we are here & safe. And that I am going to have little checkerboards that match the airplane upholstery embossed on my posterior for months to come.

Officially On Our Way

We've made it all the way to Seattle! Our tickets say that our flight to Tokyo leaves at 12:00, but the info here at the airport says 1:30.(We got here at 10:30.) So we've got some time to kill. Luckily, Seattle is a pretty easy place to find espresso.

I didn't even know this part of Sea-Tac existed. I've never taken the airport train in Seattle before. Judging by the size of the planes we can see, it lookes like the next plane may be able to hold about 6 of the little prop planes like the one we got here on!

Our Last Gabrian & Mama Day

I don't work on Wednesdays (at least not officially). The boys are at school, so it's me and Gabrian at home. Generally, though adorable, he is rather annoying without his brothers to keep him busy. He wants me to entertain him all day.

This morning, the boys were going to school, and Gabrian, as usual, wanted to go too. Cameron and Conor told him, "No. It's Gabrian-Mama Day." It just struck me that this is the last Gabrian-Mama Day alone.

Kinda wonderful. Kinda sad.

Plane Tickets Finalized

Got tickets today. I've learned you can always negotiate the best deal by booking your tickets less than one week in advance!

We leave Spokane at 9:30 am 1/22 and arrive in Beijing 9:15 pm 1/23.
(No, that's not really a 36 hour trip. They are 16 hours ahead of us.)

We come home at 11:00 am on 2/8 (after leaving Guangzhou at 8:30 am 2/8 -- that's one fast plane! I wish!).

We bought a seat for Ariana. It was a lot of money and just a guess as to whether Ari will have anything to do with it. I just think that 20 hour trip with a toddler -- we might want to have the extra room. I'm betting no one will want to sit near us!

Consulate Appointment Finalized

We heard last night that our consulate appointment is Febuary 4th, and to get plane tickets today. Now the rush begins!

As a side note, the boys were very excited last night to have something happening.

Travel Approval Arrived

Travel approval has arrived today. It looks like we are targeting Feb 4th for our consulate appointment. We are working backwards now to figure out when we need to leave. It will definitely be next week.

Visas are back

Got the visas back today. Now we are just waiting on 1 piece, the travel approval.

Visas Are Coming!

Whew! Our passports with visas are on their way back. The tracking number finally yields data. As of this morning, they are somewhere between VA and KY on their voyage back to us. I was worried. (I know -- Me? Worry? Hard to believe.)

TA??

I know of 10 different families (from posts to adoption groups) who received notice of their TA on 12/31/07 or 1/2/08. Seven of these families have the same LOA date we do. (One before us, one after us, and one unknown). When I saw these posts, and the follow-up congratulations posts, coming in on a regular basis, I was very hopeful that our TA was close at hand.

Now, I've decided there is one thing worse than panic about impending travel. No word of TA. No word on where our visas (and passports) are. Nothing shows up yet with the tracking number. No correspondence from the courier. No checks clearing. No TA. Just a whole truckload of uncertainty!

(And a couple of employers who would like to know almost as much as we would.)

Consulate Appointments

They would like to have our appointments with the Chinese Consulate finished by Chinese New Year which is February 7th. Yikes!