Smurfy's Blog

After having Thanksgiving dinner with our family, we will get dropped off at the San Francisco International Airport.  Our flight leaves at 12:05am.  We will fly to Hong Kong via Cathay Pacific and arrive Hong Kong before 7am (Hong Kong time).  Our connecting flight to Wuhan City is not until 6pm!  Instead of bumming around at the Hong Kong International Airport, we plan on taking the train to the city.  I asked one of my good friends Emily what train should we take to go to Hong Kong island.  From the airport to the city, we can take the Airport Express which is a 24 mins ride to Hong Kong island.

When we land in Wuhan City on day of Nov 27, our guide named Zhu Hong Jun (or simply Grant) will greet us at the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport.  Since we don’t know how he looks like, he will be holding up a sign with our name on it at the arrival area.  Then another person (our driver) will take us to the Mayflower Hotel (Best Western Premier).

Since morning, I was very busy cleaning our house.  Also I did some laundry.  I washed the rest of Nathan’s clothes so that when we come back home, he has clean clothes.  I washed his crib bedding set too so that it will be ready for use for his new crib.

My husband and I have finished packing our stuff.  I have put our adoption paperwork together as well.

Nathan’s luggage is ready to go too!  His diapers took most of the room in his luggage.  I packed his clothes, baby bottles, infant formula, Gerber snacks and pureed food, baby wipes, a small blanket, etc.

Today is my last day at work then I take time off to get ready for our trip to China then  bond with our son.  A few of my coworkers surprised me with baby gifts for Nathan!  He got diapers/towels/other baby items shaped like a cake with his name on it, a potty and step stool and his first car!  Well actually it is the Mickey Mouse Jammin musical toy car.  🙂  You press a button then the music starts and colorful lights turn on.

We went to Babies R Us to look at mattresses and bedding for our son’s crib.  We saw a mattress that we feel will be good for our baby but the price at Babies R Us is too high.  Since we know which mattress we want to get, we will order the same mattress at Amazon because the price is much lower. 

The crib bedding set at Babies R Us are expensive too.  Some were close to $200.  Fortunately, I found some crib bedding set that were on clearance.  On top of that, Babies R Us was having additional 20% off on crib bedding set.  So I got our son this crib bedding set with pictures of all sorts of animals.

In beginning, we wanted to have our baby sleep with us on our bed.  But we figured that we will be more comfortable and have more sleeping space if we put him in a crib.  My husband and I looked for a crib at Babies R Us, Target, Sears, Ikea, etc.  We looked at non-drop down cribs and drop down cribs.  So far, the stores we went to did not have any drop down cribs.  I hear that the drop down cribs is convenient for the parent when putting the baby in/out of the crib.  But I also hear that the drop down cribs can cause harm to the child like strangulation or suffocation.  I want our baby to be as safe as possible.  We’ll probably go with non-drop down cribs.

Next item on our list is to buy our son’s own chair at home.  Instead of buying a high chair and to save space in our kitchen, we bought him a booster chair by Fisher-Price from Toys R Us.  Good thing Toys R Us was having 20% off on baby items. 

I found out that Costco Huggies diapers are $6 off.  So we went to Costco to buy diapers.  At 8 months, he was about 18 – 20 lbs.  Since he is 1 years old, we assume that he is still less than 28 lbs.  So we got him a size 3.  We bought a size 4 just in case.  I will be packing some diapers to bring with us to China as well as other baby items.

Here are some pictures of Nathan’s bedroom.   

Today, our China coordinator emailed us our confirmed hotel/transportation/sightseeing information from China Women Travel Service (CWTS).

CWTS have worked with our adoption agency for a long time.  They have good relations with hotels in China.  They also provide local guides and drivers for BAAS families.  They will take any other travel requests from BAAS families as well.

In Wuhan, we will be staying at the Mayflower Hotel (Best Western Premier).  (http://www.bwmayflowers.com.cn/english/eindex.html)  In Guangzhou, we requested to stay at Garden Hotel since we heard it is a nice hotel.  (http://www2.thegardenhotel.com.cn/index.php)  Fortunately, CWTS is able to book us a room there.

CWTS also have made local sightseeing activities for us.  In Guangzhou, one of the local sightseeing is the zoo!  Wow, when was the last time I visited a zoo?  More than 15 years?  I am sure our son will enjoy seeing the animals.  Another local sightseeing place in Guangzhou is called Pedestrian Street.  I asked my husband, ‘what is a Pedestrian Street?’  So I Googled it and it turns out to be one of Guangzhou’s famous shopping area!  YES!  Shopping!

We also requested to have CWTS book our transportation to Hong Kong from Guangzhou.  After we pick up our son’s visa on Dec 10, we leave Guangzhou at 6:20pm via train.  The train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong is about 2 hrs.  Now we just have to figure out how to get to Hong Kong Disney when we arrive at the Hong Kong train station.  I saw a picture of the Hong Kong Disney hotel.  It actually looks like the Grand Floridian hotel at Orlando Disney World.

Last night, our China coordinator emailed us and told us that our visa appointment in Guangzhou is 12/08  Wednesday and we can book our flight to China!

Actually before we received our visa appointment, our coordinator called us and told us that the consulate had a hard time reading the files that was emailed to them.  If they can’t read the files on their end, then we can’t get our consulate appointment.  I got pretty worried because if they can’t read the files, we may have to send our documents via Fedex or something and that could delay our travel.  But after few hours later, our coordinator emailed us saying she has confirmed our visa appointment.  I was so relieved!

My husband already booked our flight.  We will be leaving for China on 11/26 at 12:05am!  So after having a Thanksgiving dinner on 11/25, we go straight to the airport!  We need to be at Wuhan City in Hubei Province by 11/28.  With our flight, we will be there the day before.   Our tentative date or GOTCHA DAY to get our son is on 11/29!!!!!   Then travel to Guangzhou near Hong Kong for our consulate appt.  All the hotels, personal guide, personal driver, etc will be arranged by CWTS.  We did request to stay at Garden Hotel in Guangzhou since we heard the hotel is very nice.  Also we requested for a one way transportation from Guangzhou to Hong Kong since we will be taking our son to Hong Kong Disney.

After 3 years of wait, we will finally meet our baby!  Just like what Jesse from Toy Story says… ‘YEE-HAW!!!’

Wow, can’t believe it!  The one document that we have been waiting for and the one document that can change our lives forever has FINALLY ARRIVED!  We received our updated I-171H today in the mail!

This adoption journey has been about the ‘wait’ after another ‘wait’ and another ‘wait’.  The last thing we are waiting on is our consulate appointment.

I emailed our Chinese coordinator a scanned copy of the I-171H so she can request a consulate appointment for us in Guangzhou.  Once we know our consulate date, we can Finally, FINALLY book our plane tickets to China!