Sunday, January 21, 2007

Happy 70th Birthday Grandpa Pace! We wish we could be there with you, but something came up and took us to China.

Today was an early day. We needed to be packed and ready to have our luggage picked up by 5:00 AM. Of course, our clocks are still messed up, so Victor woke up at 2:30 AM and used the computer. We were checked out of the hotel and on the way to the Beijing Airport by 6:00 AM. Our CHI coordinator, Lina, is absolutely wonderful. She checked all of our luggage and had our boarding passes ready for us at the airport. We basically have to follow her little red CHI banner, and she takes care of everything else. She even had one man check all of our luggage...if our bags are overweight, he apparently knows how to sweet talk the women into letting the weight restrictions slide "just this once."

We flew to Hefei via Hainan Airlines. A typical flight, except that the in-flight meal was a bit different. Victor's snack pack had 2 rolls, strawberry jam, apple chips, a mixture of vegetables and some seasoned green beans. Angie had a roll, a sponge cake slice, cherry tomatoes and sliced sausage. All this for breakfast. Once arriving, we met our new guide, Jane. We rode the bus to our hotel, the Novotel, and were able to see a bit of the city. Hefei, while a large city of just under 3 million people, is still in a rural area. Jane told us that there are not many English speaking people here, even working in our hotel. Victor learned this when he went out to purchase some bottled water from a local street vendor. He did, however, come back to the hotel with a case full of bottled water for under $2. We were also warned to be cautious when crossing the busy streets. "Just do as the Chinese do", Jane says. "If they walk, you walk. If they stop, you stop. Much easier to watch them than signs!"

Our hotel is beautiful, and our room already had a stroller and a crib in it! Victor was able to get online and do some work, while Angie took a much needed nap. Afterwards, we decided to try lunch in the hotel's Western restaurant. It is interesting ordering when you and the waitress don't speak the same language. Pointing and smiling a lot seem to help! Jane warned us to be careful of trying to order room service over the telephone. She said we might want an egg, but get a chicken, or order a chicken and get an egg, so it is much better to point at the menu, which does have English translation. We did succeed in getting what we ordered.

After lunch, we took a brief stroll in front of the hotel. There are numerous little shops, where vendors sell everything from sodas and cigarettes to cooked meals. We were stared at quite often, but the cutest thing was when we passed children who would yell, "Hello" after we walked by. We guess they had to work up the nerve to talk to us.

We had another orientation this afternoon to learn more about Gotcha Day. It truly is amazing how quickly almost 2 years have passed, as we started the process back in March of 2005 and tomorrow is Gotcha Day. We are told not to worry about anything but our babies tomorrow...no money, no passports, no paperwork...just babies. We only have to take a bottle (probably water, as most of them won't drink our formula yet), a snack, and some toys. We are leaving the hotel at 9:00 AM, and should finally meet our Becca by 9:30 AM. We will have a chance to talk to the nannies and find out more about Becca's stay at the orphanage. After we leave the orphanage, we will all go to the store and Lina and Jane will help us purchase formula and other supplies.

We were wondering how we would manage to meet Becca and, at the same time, videotape Gotcha Day. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that someone will be videotaping the day's events and giving each family a DVD as a gift from CHI. We also learned today that an Australian documentary team is doing a story about Americans adopting Chinese children. They have chosen to follow our group and one family in particular. So, we may possibly see footage from that in the future.

We will stay in Hefei for one week to complete the Chinese portion of our paperwork. The most important document we will get will be our "Red Book," which we should get Tuesday. This is the official document from the Chinese government saying that we have adopted Becca and that she is ours forever. Then we only have to wait on a notarization and her passport before we leave for Guangzhou.

The families in our group have been given permission to visit the orphanage on Thursday. Most of the group was very concerned about taking the children back, as we feared it might be very confusing to them. Lina and Jane informed us that the babies in the past have done very well going back to the orphanage. We will have been with Becca for 3 days before returning to the orphanage, so she will probably (hopefully) be very comfortable with us by then. We may also be able to go to her finding spot, which will be both sad and wonderful to see. Sad, because she was abandoned, but wonderful because someone found her and took her to the authorities. We have been asked not to post any pictures of the orphanage on the website, and we intend to honor that request. We know that others have posted pictures in the past, but we want to respect what our coordinator has asked of us.

Can you believe it? Tomorrow we will have Becca in our arms! Thanks for all of your prayers, emails, and messages in the guestbook.