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)

Gifts at Home Awaiting Jasmine

Thank you everyone!

Getting ready for Jasmine

Time to travel

Well the room is ready and the bags are packed. Cold in  Beijing but warmer in Nanchang, where Jasmine is living so we need to bring a variety of clothes for both places. Not sure how much she weighs so we also have to bring clothes for her in various sizes. All of a sudden everything is pink!

Introducing Jasmine Caiju Hickey

We are happy to say the stork finally arrived  on December 18, 2012 when we received a referral on our beautiful daughter Jasmine from Jiangxi,China. She is ten months old ,born on February 11, 2012 in the year of the dragon. We are hoping to travel to China on January 25 to bring her home!