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What a Day!
Well folks, it was all that we were told about and more. So much that we want to share, but we don’t want to bore anyone, so we’ll share highlights.
This morning started with a meal here at the the Holiday Inn – it was a breakfast buffet, Beijing Style – a few ‘normal’ western items to choose from, but lots of local favorites – fried noodles and vegetables, dumplings (made to order!) and lots of fresh fruit. Tami gives thumbs up to the cabbage and spinach.
Zhou met us for a quick bite and we were off with our driver, who we’ve named ‘Mia’ – very nice girl, and she’s as aggressive a driver as they come here in China. We have come close to hitting walkers and people on bikes everywhere we go. It’s every man for himself getting around here.
We started the day at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Zhou said that it was the perfect time to visit – light crowds, and the temperatures here were in the 40s, so with a warm jacket, hiking around was great. The Forbidden City was awesomely huge – it kept going and going.
It was amazing to be in what was the center of an ancient society – the buildings were phenomenal. Our history fans (Pappy and Scott Niedzwiecki) would have spent days here. And Pappy, we’ve got some pictures of the Royal Gardens for you :^)
We then took off to the Cloisonne Factory and Friendship Store, where Zhou had already arranged a meal for us to enjoy before shopping. With more than enough food for 2, a couple bottles of water, HUGE bottle of beer for Andy, our bill came to $10 U.S. for both of us – sweet! Uncle Tim, they had something called garlic sprouts with pork. The sprouts had the texture of asparagus, but tasted like garlic – good eats.
After lunch and shopping, we took off for the Great Wall. Zhou told us that we were going to the best part of the Wall here in the Beijing area, which was in Badaling. As expected, the morning crowds had thinned out, and with the haze burned off, it was PERFECT viewing. Alexa and Abby – it was so STEEP. We were blown away how huge and sprawling the Wall is, and to imagine that it goes on for hundreds and hundreds of miles!
On our way back to the car, we were gang-tackled by vendors looking to make their end of the day sales. While Tami and Zhou got some killer deals, Andy was raked over the coals by a woman who grabbed me by the coat and wouldn’t let him leave until a sale was made. Zhou made fun of the poor bargaining skills.
It’s 6:00pm here at the hotel and we’re going to check in with the kids on Skype before a dinner downstairs. We need a good night’s sleep before Lydia Day tomorrow – we have to leave the hotel by 7:15am in order to pick Lydia up at New Day and then make our flight to Zhengzhou.
We’ll check in tomorrow night (our time) with lots of pictures!
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Getting a Move On
Hi everyone! We’re getting our day started here in Beijing – it’s 6:30am our time, 5:30pm yours. Tami has been up since 3:30 – she’s been fighting some sort of cough since before we left and the dry air on the plane and in the hotel is beating her up.
Tami hopped out of the shower and wants to share that she’s officially having a “Good Hair Day” – the hotel dryer worked fine, and she’s doing quite fine.
I (Andy) slept like a dead man last night, despite our wafer-thin bed here at the hotel. For a few days leading into the trip, I tried to stay up as late as possible, and then fought the urge to sleep on the flight over. Someone recommended melatonin to adjust sleep, and it worked well.
Also, if you get a universal power adapter that’s big, take it back – ours falls out of the wall as soon as we try to use it – garbage. You may be able to pick up just an Asia plug adapter that attached to the end of a power cord, so if you can find that at Radio Shack or somewhere like that, that is my recommendation.
A note to our friends heading over…get used to drinking and using water out of bottles before heading over…we got here and Tami caught herself using tap water for brushing teeth. Hopefully, it won’t come back to haunt us :^)
Today is Beijing Day, and we are checking out the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square this morning. After the crowds thin out at lunchtime, we are off to the Great Wall. Will be good to walk off nervous energy, as tomorrow is Lydia Day!
We’ll post more tonight…
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We’re Here!!!
Hi everyone! It’s Tami and Andy from the the Downtown Beijing Holiday Inn, and we are here, safe, sound and WORN OUT! We’ve been on the go for about 24 hours and are settling into our hotel room for some rest. Our flight over from Chicago to Beijing was delayed by a couple of hours, but what’s two hours with a 14-hour flight, right?
Tami and I were accompanied over by Uncle Zhou, who will be our facilitator from start to finish while here in China. He arranged for a driver to haul us to the hotel this evening, and who will also take us tomorrow to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
We will be getting Lydia on the 30th here at 10AM China Time, so that would be 9PM EST on the 29th.
Not much more to share except details on the trip here, so here it goes…
The plane over from Chicago to Beijing was HUGE…a 747 with 2 levels. We found ourselves in the second to last row in United’s Economy Plus class. The Plus is tacked on to throw you off. Either that, or the non-Plus people rode down with the luggage. Wasn’t as bad as the sardine flights to Vegas, but it was booked solid. Our friends in front of us loved reclining their seats, leaving us with approximately 1-3/4 inches of legroom.
There was a really, really cute little Chinese girl sitting near us – she was Lydia’s age and we couldn’t help staring. Did we say cute?
For our adoptive friends will be travelling…here’s a tip…pack and travel LIGHT.
While you can take 2 bags at 50 pounds per person (along with carry on items) in the U.S., Chinese Domestic Travel only allows 44 pounds per person TOTAL including carry-on items. We do want to thank our adoptive family friends for suggestions on packing – we packed with expectations of wearing everything a couple times and washing once. Remember folks, a travel-sized Fabreeze is your friend! ;^)
As for your carry-on items, I (Andy) overestimated what I’d do on the plane and brought much more than needed – a reading book, a Sudoku book and an iPod is all I needed to carry on besides the laptop – it got heavy after lugging stuff through.
I’m not sure why we expected difficulties getting into China, but Customs and Immigration was a breeze. Tip #2 – get off the plane as fast as you can to avoid long lines at Customs.
Not much else to report right nowbnut we will post a bunch tomorrow after our trips along with some photos and maybe a video or two.
Thanks for your prayers and God Bless!
Tami & Andy
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Keeping in Touch
Hi all, Andy here. Lots comes to mind as our countdown to Lydia brings us closer to our travel date in two days, but the word that we find ourselves saying most is “Blessed”. So many of you have been with our family every step of the way, which has helped more than we can say. We all want to thank you for your thoughts, prayers and attempts to turn those frowns upside-down when the waiting got tough. There are thousands and thousands of other families waiting their turns to adopt, so at this point, we’ll ask that you divert a prayer or two their way.
OK, enough with the mushy stuff – we’re ready to ROLL! Countdown right now is t-minus 38 hours, 45 minutes and 29 seconds. Not that we’re counting or anything… 
Tami and the girls festively decorated Casa Roberts today and I got in our second-to-last run to Wal-Mart. We know we’re going to be there at like 2am the morning we leave. Gotta love 24-hour retail.
Lydia’s bag is packed and our stuff is in a couple piles in our room, so we are rounding third and heading home.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is officially declared “Family Day” by Alexa and Abby, and they’ve chosen a trip to the Cleveland Zoo followed by the requisite gorging at the Mongolian Barbecue as their picks for the day. Our dinner trip is a delayed treat to the girls for royally kicking butt on their report cards – yesss!
OK, the last pieces of information to share before I forget…on top of updating our blog on a regular basis, we plan on using Skype and/or Gmail for staying in touch with those back at home. The Dealy-O:
Skype is almost better than Elvis and definitely more reliable than the Cleveland Browns. For those who’ve not heard of it, Skype lets you use your PC and the Internet for making audio calls over the internet. For free. As in no dinero. Awesome. Head there now (here) and sign up. Then, leave a comment on the blog and let us know what your address is…we’ll be using ac.roberts from China.
Since China can be a little fickle about the Internet, our backup plan to talk to folks back home is:
If you don’t already have a Gmail Account, you need one. Like yesterday. Free online e-mail, accessible anywhere, and not dependant on your internet service provider. Oh, and voice and text chats. And you need an invite to get one. So, if you want an invite, post a request via a comment with your current email address and I’ll send you one.
Bye for now.
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The Schedule
Hi all! Our names are actually on plane tickets! We’re wrapping up last-minute shopping and packing and looking forward to Thanksgiving with our families. Some have asked about the specifics of our trip and where we will be and when. Based on our flights and what we know right now, here is the current schedule:
Monday, 11/27 – Tuesday, 11/28
Flight from Cleveland to Chicago (O’Hare) to Beijing
Wednesday, 11/29
Sightsee in Beijing (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square)
Thursday, 11/30 – Lydia Day!
* Pick up Lydia at New Day!
* Fly Beijing to Zhengzhou
Friday, 12/1 to Monday, 12/4
* Provincial appointments
* Visit Luoyang CWI
* Terracotta Soldiers (if possible)
Monday, 12/4
* Fly Zhengzhou to Guangzhou
Tuesday, 12/5
* Appointment at U.S. Consulate
Wednesday, 12/6
Chill and Shop with Lydia Day
(Alexa and Abby Prize Day!)
“Amazing Race” Day – We’re Heading Home! – Thursday, 12/7
Flight Schedule: Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Chicago to Cleveland
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The Countdown Begins
The day we have been waiting and praying for finally arrived! We got our official call yesterday that our travel approval is here! We need to get a move on things…we’re leaving NEXT WEEK! Here’s what happens now:
- Our agency has requested an embassy appointment for 12/5. We can’t book our flights until this appointment is approved and confirmed with our agency.
- It looks like we will be flying out either Sun., Mon., or Tues. of next week. That’s right folks, in 5-7 days!!
- We will most likely fly into Beijjing. Lydia has been sent to Luoyang CWI (where she lived for the first 2 years of her life) to obtain her passport and complete paperwork. We don’t know if she will stay there until we pick her up or return to New Day Creations. Please pray that she goes back to New Day. We really want to travel there to meet the staff, and know that she is very well taken care of there. The Luoyang CWI does not have heat!!!
- We will stay in Beijing for only a day or 2 before traveling to Luoyang. In Luoyang, we will complete paperwork and get to experience the culture where Lydia was born. Typically, people traveling to adopt spend 4-5 days in their child’s province. This may not take this long because Lydia already has her passport.
- The last leg of the trip will take place in Guangzhou (north of Hong Kong). We will fly there to complete Lydia’s medical exams and her embassy appointment.
- The following day we will head back to Ohio! Our agency plans on us returning on or about 12/7.
Lydia’s room is ready and waiting for her. My sister, Juli, is going to be finishing some decorative painting before we return. Of course we need some ladybugs on her walls! The quilts and curtains were made with lots of love by Andy’s mom. Now all we need is Lydia home!
Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and support. We are so excited to bring our daughter home! As you can imagine, we have much to do in the next 5 days. I’m cooking Thanksgiving Dinner, and am motivated to get our Christmas decorations up before we leave! Abby and Alexa are soooo excited to meet their new sister.
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Hi Friends!
Last night wasn’t as exciting as last week, but we are still blessed to have the opportunity to call and check in on Lydia. We made our weekly phone call only to find out that Lydia wasn’t at New Day, but was at the doctor for a “well child visit”. We pray that her visit went well and that she had safe travels to and from her appointment. We are grateful that she is in a quality foster care center, and that she has the opportunity to visit a doctor for such appointments. This makes us think about the thousands of other orphans in China who are still waiting to be matched with their forever family, who may not be receiving appropriate medical care, and our prayers are with them.
We are still waiting for our travel approval and are hoping to hear something any day. At this point it doesn’t look possible to travel before Thanksgiving, so now we’re shooting for having her home for Christmas – what a blessing that would be! So now….the plans for Thanksgiving Dinner are shaping up, the menu is planned, and we have much to be thankful for. We are blessed beyond meaure, and for that we are grateful.
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She got her Package!
Hi everyone – you ever have one of those days when you felt like your panties were in a bunch? All…day…long???
Well, today was one of those days. Yes, indeed, we love our Mondays!
We’re on week 7 waiting for our Travel Approval, and a whole bunch of folks got their approvals today, and more are rumored to be on their way, so we’re holding out hope that we could get the call soon. One can never tell what’s happening behind the big curtain at the CCAA.
So all that said, we needed a little pick-me-up before our call to Lydia tonight, and it came in the form of some pictures from New Day – she got her package from us!
Checking out her new lotion and Care Bear!
Gnawing on good old American packaging. Wait ’til she opens this bad boy – it’s one of those obnoxious noise-making toys that will SURELY be left at the Foster Home (sorry Brandi & Karen!).
We also sent a picture book of all our family with our names so that Lydia’s New Day helpers could start to introduce us.
Thanks for stopping by.
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