Day 6 The People's Park and shopping

Our forever family spot

The Peoples Park

Her Chinese name (Feng Caiju) written in water by a man in the park

We went out without the snow suit again. When we went to the store
to buy porcelain and I was inside the store, a lady gave Jim a chair to sit down. He thought she was being kind so he sat down and then she told him off in Chinese while she pointed to the sleepers. Bound to happen. Too funny!

Walmart

Our laundry came back in this basket all folded, pressed and in these plastic bags

I could get used to this laundry service

Jasmine likes the laundry service too!

We have come a long way in 4 days. This is the first time she fell asleep in my arms without crying and the first time she held my finger to go to sleep

We had a lovely walk in the park, the park is huge. People here know how to relax and most women retire at 40, sounds good to me. So many people were doing Tai Chi, fan dancing, playing Mahjong or singing. Lots of kids around since they are on winter break for a month. We talked to the locals and Jasmine loved all the people. Next we went to buy porcelain. Nanchang is known for its porcelain. We bought her a porcelain dragon, she was born in the year of the dragon, a couple of tea sets and porcelain writing pens. Then we went to Walmart. Holy cow! Walmart is very busy, got juice, more formula and another snickers bar! I don' know which they had more of, customers or stuff! Mary brought us Jasmine's birth certificate in the afternoon and her medical records. We found out that she was the only child in her foster home. Foster families get paid about 100 yuan for fostering, roughly 17 dollars a month. We won't get to go to Fengcheng to meet the foster family or go to the orphanage. We took a bunch of pictures this evening in the hotel lobby at the spot where we received her on Monday, where we became her forever family.

More Day 5

Aunt Donna and her co workers in the O.R in Maine toasting Jasmine to have a long and happy life with a cup of Jasmine tea. Thank you Aunt Donna and girls, looks like we have a bunch of people to visit in Maine!

Day 5 The Pavillion

Steamed eggs

The corner store worker. This is how much they bundle the children 

Thanks Gemma for the hat!

Heading out on our own without the snowsuit

Today is our first official outing as a family. Mary our guide took us and the other two families from the U.S. out to The Pavillion. This is a Museum that is an historical landmark where the Emperor of one of the dynasties lived. Jasmine loved being out looking around. We managed to climb the 6 story building stairs with the stroller. Several Chinese people came up to us to ask where we are from. We tell them Canada and  have been giving out the Canada pins and the stickers that we brought. Most of them smile at us and give us a thumbs up. There is a heavy smog in Nanchang , not quite as heavy as Beijing but after a couple of hours our throats became really dry and irritated. Even though it is 19 degrees here, it is their winter. There is no central heating in southeast China so they wear down jackets or heavy fleece and bundle the babies in the thickest snowsuits. If the elder Chinese women see the babies with less than three layers on, you will get scolded so we bundled her up and she was sweating...poor thing. Tomorrow we are going shopping, mommy loves to shop! 

Jasmine was not able to sit on her own, rollover or bear weight on her legs but with all of the play time from yesterday she is sitting without support today. She sleeps all night and we noticed this morning that she will now let us cuddle her when she gets up. She loves to eat! Ate a bowl of steamed eggs for her breakfast but doesn't seem too fond of the rice congee which the other kids love and it is served with every meal at the buffet. We went out for a walk to find some juice/cheese and some milk for our tetley tea. Mostly the little shops sell energy drinks and cola but nothing refrigerated so one kind young man who spoke just a little english said follow him to a grocery store ...we think , and as he was leading us into the crazy traffic, I remembered Yulin saying do not cross the street in Nanchung, cars have the right away, not people , so I tapped him on the back and said thanks and goodbye. So no luck with the juice/milk, we ended up with two beer and a snickers bar! Oh and we wandered into a mall, I thought great a mall...but was very disappointed to find every brand of washer and dryer, television and electronics known to man on three floors of a mall size department store. Tomorrow Mary takes us to Walmart.

Our Gotcha Day

We got up at 3am in Beijing to go with the other families and Yulin( our agency director) to the airport. We all left at different terminals so Yulin got us as far as security then we were on our own. Everything in Chinese but we got to the gate, and it was the wrong flight number. We managed to figure out that they changed the gate. Flight was easy and was 3 hours but the food was traditional Chinese, cooked red rice, celery salad, a chicken thing.  Could only manage to eat the yogurt. Our guide wasn't there when we got to Nanchang, she was late because the  road was closed for heavy smog (which they call fog)! She had a driver and when we got in the car she said the baby was brought from Fengcheng this morning (one hour drive) and was already at the hotel waiting for us. 

What...We weren't supposed to get right her that quickly but the people who brought her had to head back. When we got to the lobby, Jim saw her right away and said that's her over there! We went right over to her and she sized us up but came with me right away. We had only one hour in our room to bath and feed her. She was starved, drank her bottle in one minute then we had to meet back at the lobby. We walked to the provincial adoption center to sign her papers and get her footprints stamped. We were interviewed twice about why we wanted her. They gave us her finding ad from the newspaper and she was presented with a chinese porcelain jar. We had to drive to a Notary office and then to the passport office to get her passport. She fell asleep, all tuckered out. Then we drove to a grocery store for water and formula. We still had nothing to eat since the yogourt on the plane, I was famished. When we got back to the hotel and got in the elevator and she was after taking to us by now, looking for us everywhere, we both started to cry. We had a little meltdown. What a whirlwind. We got her up in the room and settled in and she played with us until 11 pm. She is fascinated by the little toys we brought her. She laughs out loud at us and yells at us Ah! when  we go out of her site to come back. She is constantly wiggling her toes. No words but she says something like mama. She has a few teeth. She is a happy baby. 

There are 3 other families here from the u.s.a. One lady from New York knew we were famished and dropped some cheese and crackers to our room. You know there really are some nice people in the world... 

We have no details on how she sleeps or her likes and dislikes so we will teach each other as we go! We are staying in today to rest and play with her.  We can't believe we are finally together.

Day 4

Today we stayed in to play all day. We played, we rested and we played some more. She is easy going and lots of fun.

Happy Family Day!

Jasmine

Jasmine

Here she is!!

Day 2 Beijing

Beijing

Bell Tower

Rickshaw Rdie

What a day. Trying to stay awake on local time to cure the jet lag. Everyone woke at 3:30am and had an early breakfast. Faye took us to the bank to exchange our money to Yuan.  What a huge pile of money when it is in Yuan. Then we went to the grocery store to buy water. Crazy busy and you can buy anything you could ever want. All high end name brand counters on the top level such as Apple, North Face,  cosmetic brands etc. Lovin this, gotta get Bach here later. Next we went sightseeing for a couple hours and took the subway. Faye loves to walk and we nearly froze but she found a Starbucks and saved the day.  Took a rickshaw through old Beijing. What an experience that was. Dinner with the group again and back to the hotel to reduce our luggage for the domestic flight tomorrow to Nanchang. We go to Nanchang alone and meet a new guide who will take us to Jasmine! We become parents tomorrow and can' t wait to see that precious face for the first time. We can't believe we are here and only hours away from her now. Might be a restless night. Next time we post she will be in our arms.

Day 1 Beijing

Vivian

Jim enjoying noodles

Our Hotel

Some of our group

We arrived safely. What a long flight. It was really crowded. Served us noodles for our  late night snack. Jim is a pro now with the chopsticks. Vivian our guide was waiting for us when we arrived. The smog is brutal, it hit us right off the plane in the airport. Stings your nose and burns your throat. They tell us it is not so bad today you can at least see the moon tonight. Took us an hour to get to the hotel by bus, Beijing is huge, 20 million people, very modern  and beautifully lit up at night. We met Yulin ( our agency director) tonight briefly.  She just said Janice and Jim, finally!  Our second guide Faye took us out for our first meal in China. We ate with the other families and had a lovely but tiring evening. Food was yummy, Jasmine tea even nicer. Everyone in our group is really relaxed and easy going. Couldn't have asked for a nicer group.

Quick Update

Hi everyone, this is Maria. I just wanted to let you know that I heard from Janice and Jim. They arrived in Beijing safe and sound. They are currently on their way to Nanchang and will get Jasmine bright and early NL time tomorrow morning (Jan 28th).

They are having a little trouble with the internet, but as soon as I get anything more from them I will update this post.

Ready To Roll

Thanks to Maria for posting our pics and updates while we are  in China.  We are just waiting to board the flight. Just met some of the other families in our group. Two families are going for their second trip and have brought their kids along, both previously adopted from China. One of the girls is from Jiangxi, where Jasmine is also from. Funny how kids are, the girls are instant friends already. We will meet the remaining families flying from Vancouver when we get to Beijing. So we are ready to roll, and will post again once we get to China on Saturday and we are a lot closer to little Jasmine.

Zai Jian (Goodbye)

On Our Way

Well we're finally on our way. Thanks Howie for taking us to the airport this morning. The past few weeks have been hectic getting all the paperwork in order. We just received the Travel Approval letter from the Chinese government on Thursday. We were worried we wouldn't get it on time and we were not allowed to leave without it. Needless to say when we sat on the plane we finally took a breath. We had a smooth flight and leave for Beijing on Friday. We have a very long flight to Beijing. Hoping to meet some of the other families travelling with us by then. We want to say thanks to everyone who called us or sent us a message to wish us well on our journey. You will see her soon!

Our Itinerary

• Monday January 21 Depart for Toronto
• Friday January 25 Depart for Beijing
• Saturday January 26 Arrive in Beijing
• Sunday January 27 Pack for Nanchang
• Monday January 28 Fly to Nanchang, Jiangxi. (3hrs). Meet our guide. Head to Provincial Adoption Center to get Jasmine! (around 5pm China time, about 5am Newfoundland time).
• Tuesday January 29 Official adoption day
• Wednesday January 30 and 31 Paperwork
• Friday February 1 Depart  for Beijing
• Saturday February 2 - 4 Site seeing Beijing
• Tuesday February 5 Jasmine becomes a Canadian citizen at Canadian Embassy
• Wednesday February 6
• Thursday February 7  Depart for Canada
• Friday February 8 Toronto
• Saturday February 9 Bring Jasmine home!  (arrive St. John's 3:24pm)