Beijing- The Great Wall {day 2- journey to Ruby Mei}

Today was our first day of touring Beijing with our awesome guide David.  First on the agenda was The Great Wall.  We found out from him in the morning that it was a holiday- May Day/Labor Day in China and so the traffic will be pretty bad.  Just our luck to sightsee in a city of 20-some million people on a national holiday- ha!  It ended up taking over 3 hours to drive to the Wall but it was well worth it!

 It was pretty smoggy as you can see.  We have never experienced smog before and when we got outside at the airport last night I asked- what is that???  It was like weird heavy dark air.

Here we go!  Starting the LONG trek up the wall!  Can you believe I wore flip-flops??  What was I thinking?  And a long dress to boot.  Classic Missy, right?

All I have to say is that it was surreal to actually stand on top of The Great Wall of China.  I mean, who gets to do that?!?!  Well, obviously a LOT of Chinese people do but not a lot of Americans.  It was so cool and amazing and... exhausting- ha!  I was left in the dust(literally) and had to take a "little break".  I really did not intend to keep going but as I leaned on the rail being stared at a lot I noticed an old man- probably in his 80s- wearing a lot of warm clothes(it was pretty hot out), carrying a huge backpack, and not breathing like he was taking his last breaths on earth(like I was) - walk right past me and keep climbing I thought wait a minute.  I couldn't come all the way to Beijing and not go all the way to the top so I crawled my way to the next tower and found the rest of my family- boy were they shocked!

These cut outs in the wall were where the guns went in to shoot invaders.

Mary Beth spotted all these locks and asked why they were there.  David explained that they symbolized eternal love.  Mary Beth liked that. :)

 Here's the sun behind the smog.  Crazy-huh?

Starting the ascent to the bottom- also tricky with flip flops by the way.

Next post is on the Summer Palace... stay tuned!

What a day!  We love China already.

PS:  If you want to learn more about The Great Wall go here.
PSS:  About 12 years ago I pointed to a huge picture of the G.W. hanging at a Chinese restaurant and asked my sisters and John what "that long wall was".  True story.  Look at me now girls!!

China Here We Come! {day 1- journey to Ruby Mei}

Well we made it to China... by the skin of our teeth!  We woke up in the morning on Tuesday(after VERY little sleep) all ready and excited to begin our journey.  The phone rang and who was it but American Airlines telling us our flight from Fargo to Chicago(the first leg of our trip) had been cancelled!!  Can you even believe it?  We were fit to be tied.  How could this be happening??  We tried to work with the agent for over an hour to find another flight, any flight, out of Fargo that would get us to Chicago in enough time to make our 7:15pm flight to Beijing.  She continuously told us that nothing as available for 5 of us and that it looks like it just wasn't mean to be... we just couldn't accept that.  She wondered why we just couldn't leave the next day and gave up.  We had to leave that day!  We had a whole tour planned in Beijing- tickets were already bought, reservations made, flights scheduled for Fuzhou, a guide waiting for us... a million reasons!  So John went to the airport to see if that would help.  It took awhile and some dealings with a pretty crabby lady but after all was said and done he got us a new flight on Delta leaving at 2pm- plenty of time to make our connection- yay!!!

Our sweet friend Wendy was thankfully very flexible and was able to drive us to the airport a couple of hours later than scheduled.  Here's the picture she took of us as we excitedly unloaded our suitcases in what felt like 100 mph winds! :)

Well, the drama continued after we checked in and glanced up at the board.  Our flight was delayed 2 hours!! So not only did we have to sit at the airport for 4 hours now(which if you've been to Fargo's airport you will know why that is especially disappointing), but we also had to stress out that we were not going to make our connection anymore.

 Waiting and waiting....

Here are the kids watching the plane that would fly us to Chicago finally arrive at 4pm.  

Boarding(40 minutes before take-off!).

 We would not take off until almost 5pm.  We prayed and prayed that we would make it the entire trip.

We hurried off our plane as fast as we could and sprinted through the airport to our gate.  For obvious reasons I had to stop running part way through and tell them to save themselves- I was having chest pains and a serious cramp was forming in my side.  My sweet boy Jeffrey refused to leave me for dead and walked/ran with me the rest of the way.  When we arrived at our gate we found a crowd of pretty agitated Chinese people trying to relay their problems to the 2 ladies at the gate(who didn't speak a word of Chinese).  This effected us negatively in the following way:  we still needed seats assigned for 3 of us and they were boarding the plane at that very moment!!  We finally were helped by a VERY kind woman and thankfully got 3 seats together in a good row.  When we boarded I discovered that there were 2 single women sitting in our row with us so I asked them if they would mind switching seats with John and Mickey so we could all sit together.  They spoke English- yay!- and agreed to the switch.  We settled ourselves in and I quickly messaged David, our guide in Beijing, to let him know that we made it and we would arrive as scheduled.  Then we breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.

Dinner was served pretty quickly- thank goodness- because we were starving at this point.  FYI- when the beverage comes around(and it comes quite frequently!) you can choose beer or wine for free on international flights American Airlines flights!  Sadly, I didn't find this out until round 3. Oh well- I will know for the ride home. :)  Here is a picture of our dinner.  It was ok.   I was so hungry that it didn't really matter to me anyway.  

After awhile they turned out the lights and everyone pulled down the shades.  It got really dark even though it was bright as could be outside the entire flight(until we got to China).  Here's the thing:  a 13 hour flight is REALLY long.  Even when you have a tiny TV screen and a bunch of movies you can watch.  My legs were very cramped, they went all crazy like they need to move a lot, and I was 100% positive that I was forming a blood clot that would kill me at any moment.  None of us slept much- which is fine because I wanted us to be able to sleep that night in China and not stay up for hours staring at each other.  I'm really hoping there's a new movie line up for our return flight because I pretty much watched all of them on this leg.

We finally landed after what felt more like 23 hours and then began our trek through customs(got our first stamp in our passport books!) and to the baggage claim where we were definitely not expecting to receive our luggage.  Because we were told not to due to the quick connection time in Chicago.

The airport was beautiful and we DID get our luggage, we found our temporary guide for the night(David was out of town and would be back late), and got our ride to our hotel:  Oriental Bay.

And then we went to bed.  So that is how the flight went.  Let's just say that we were beyond thankful that everything worked out for us but I am not looking forward to doing it again in 17 days.

Ruby's Smile {more pictures and an update}

Yesterday we received a wonderful surprise:  several pictures of Ruby we haven't seen before!  They are from the sweet family who got to meet her last month.  There were some more on their other camera and after transferring them onto their computer they sent them to us.  The best part of course is that there was one of our beautiful girl smiling!!  What a special send off for us!  

I like to think she is blowing us kisses here. :)

Our smiley pretty girl!  We are on our way Ruby Mei!!!

We are literally at the airport right now!  New post on that as soon as possible.

We also got a growth update this morning.  Sadly it looks like our little peanut lost more weight since last month. :(  I don't know why- but we can't wait to give her lots of yummy foods!

height: 72cm(28.34 inches), weight: 8kg (17.63 lbs), head circumference: 42cm, chest circumference: 46cm,

 foot length: 10cm

A surprise update and from Red Thread!

This morning I found a message from Ann of Red Thread with 8 new pictures of Ruby Mei and her updated weight, height, ect.  To say we are thrilled is an understatement!!  It looks like she is sad or pensive in this pictures though- we can't wait to make her smile and laugh and give her a million hugs and kisses everyday. :)  And her hair is still getting longer- yay!  Maybe they are letting her grow it out in anticipation of her adoption day??  Fingers crossed!  We always notice her right little hand is always out and moving- we wonder if it's a sign she uses to try and tell her nannies something?  Or is she signaling us to hurry up and come get her? ;)

She is so sweet and beautiful we can hardly stand it!  Those chubby little cheeks! This last month of waiting is pure agony- very similar to the last month of pregnancy.  So close but never soon enough...

Here is her growth update:

weight: 18.74 lbs

height:  almost 28 inches

teeth:  2

feet:  almost 4 inches

She either lost weight(we were told she was 20.5 lbs at 12 months old) -which is possible due to just having her palate surgery recently- or else there are variables to the way they are weighing her.  This current weight puts her in 6-9 month clothes!  Uh-oh!  We have oodles of cute 18 month clothes from Mary Beth and I have bought a few extra 12 month clothes just in case.  But now I will have to get a few 9 month outfits too.  She's getting pretty close to 12 month clothes at that weight so I will bring 9 month and 12 month to China.  That foot size puts her in a size 1(almost 2) shoe- so tiny!!  Everyone says to wait until we are in China to buy her shoes because it's too hard to guess correctly.  We should get one more update on all these measurements in a couple of weeks too.

Red Thread is a service that a very nice lady named Ann provides to families who are adopting.  She lives in Guangzhou and will shop for items for you to send to your child.  She also translated a letter to the orphanage for us and put together a photo album(with pictures we emailed her) for Ruby to look at until we get there.  Normally when she sends the care package she will also call the orphanage and ask for some new pictures and new measurements so she can send those to the family right away.  It took awhile for us to get them because she was in the hospital following her surgery.  :(  We are so thankful for any new picture we get- it is usually a difficult thing to get your hands on pictures.  We will treasure these always and I know Ruby Mei will be so thankful to have them later on too.  We also sent a flash drive stick and requested that the nannies take lots of pictures of Ruby and give us the stick when we arrive.  Hopefully it will be full!

New Pictures of RUBY MEI {and a surgery update}

Last night I received a text that made me start shaking, crying, and running to wake up John.  It was a new picture of our baby girl!!  I very sweet family that I have gotten to know through emails and messaging these past months is currently in Fuzhou, Fujian adopting their baby girl.  The kind mama had offered to inquire about Ruby for us when they visited the orphanage that the 2 girls were once in at the same time.  We had been told by other families that this particular orphanage would not allow families to see other children, take pictures, or get information about other children so we did not have any expectations.  But there were lots of prayers!  Imagine my surprise when I got a text late last night with a picture, and several messages saying that the orphanage was very happy to let them meet Ruby, touch her, talk to her, and ask questions about her!  She is going to send me a detailed email explaining all they learned but she texted me these pictures right away before they went to sleep for the night.  She says that they have even more pictures coming!!  This has surpassed all of our hopes and prayers.  It is a very special, rare opportunity to gain this kind of information and to receive all of these extra pictures!  She apologized that some were blurry but she said that her hand wouldn't stop shaking, she was holding her new daughter, and she kept reaching down to touch Ruby's little hands.  :)  I will take any pictures I can get- blurry or not!
Here is what we have found out so far:  Ruby had just returned that morning from being in the hospital for awhile following a lip surgery.  We are trying to get more information regarding this- we had no idea that she was going to have a second surgery there- she had already had her lip repair before we were matched with her.  How thankful we are that she had just returned in time for this family to see her!  Perfect timing!  The nannies said that Ruby is a very quiet baby and the family was able to get her to smile at them several times. :)  We can't wait to see more pictures and to hear all the other things they have learned about her.  I will share the rest of the pictures tomorrow!
About one more month to go until we hold her in our arms- I've never wanted time to fly by as much as I do right now.

UPDATE:  We had our adoption coordinator inquire about Ruby's surgery and she found out that it was actually to close her cleft palate!!  We did not want her to have anymore surgeries in China.  We wanted to pick her surgeon and mostly for her to be with her family during her recovery.  I have also heard that she could have spent a month or more in the hospital there after each surgery!  :(  I know there is nothing that can be done at this point but I cried and cried for her for days- not rational I realize, but I was just so heartbroken for her.  My poor baby.

January 1, 2014 {the day we learned our daughter's name and story}

On New Year's morning I came downstairs at 10:30 and went to check my emails like I usually do.  There was an email from our adoption coordinator with a subject line that I had used when I wrote her to ask a question a couple of days before.  So naturally I assumed she was just answering the question.  I opened the email and started reading... she did answer the question.  But then at the end(all non-chalant like) she wrote:  "I locked a file for you tonight of a baby girl with cleft lip and palate. Please let me know if you are interested in pursuing her adoption."  WHAT??!!??!?!?!  And there was the attachment way at the bottom of the email- labeled "Zhang Rong Can".

I immediately started shaking and frantically telling John what I read.  I ran to get the kids-  I wanted the first time we laid our eyes on our newest daughter to be done all together as a family.

And then I clicked on her file.  We opened her picture... and there she was.  Absolutely beautiful and positively ours.  A sweet, tiny, perfect, adorable little peanut.  And it was her birthday!!  

I new from the beginning of the process that our daughter would have a cleft lip and palate.  I can't explain how or why but I just did.  So I was not surprised or worried.  We had already done a ton of research about this medical condition.  We had prepared the kids all these months so that they were very familiar with it too.  When they saw her they just kept saying how cute she was- over and over again. :)  And boy oh boy- is she ever!

The file told us that Rong Can has a bilateral cleft and palate.  

And we thought she was absolutely perfect.

Oh those cheeks!!  I cannot wait to kiss them a million times!

Those little toes!!!

We stared and read and read and stared. 

We had 72 hours to review her file, consult doctors if we wanted to, and decide.

We emailed our coordinator and asked for an update since the pictures and info we had was from 2 months ago.  But we already knew in our hearts she was ours.  We were going to request that all surgeries be postponed until after the adoption, so that she could be with us during recovery.

We celebrated her birthday that evening with Chinese food of course!!

I was sad she couldn't be with us on her birthday but we were so happy and thankful that we finally "met" our new baby girl.

The next day we received an update with new pictures.  That's when we found out they had already repaired her lip.  We were upset that she had to go through that without us, but there was nothing that could be done.  We will be with her for her palate surgeries though.

And then, knowing that we had all the information we were ever going to receive at this stage, and knowing that she was ours, I sat down to email our coordinator to tell her that yes, we absolutely want to adopt precious Rong Can... and thank you very much for finding our baby girl for us!  :)

I wrote a letter called "Letter of Intent" that would be sent to China.  It states that we are formally requesting to adopt Zhang Rong Can from Fuzhou, Fujian.

Done!

And just like that we were on our way!  The second half of our adoption process had begun:  bringing our baby girl home to her new family.  We couldn't believe it.  Every minute of those days my tummy was full of butterflies- I looked at her pictures 80 million times.  We are in LOVE with RongCan.  No doubt about it.

She may be half a world away from us but she is ours and we are counting down the days until we can hold her in our arms and smother her with kisses and hugs.