Our Adoption Journey

Field Trip to Firehouse

2008-12-06T03:31:00.010-05:00

In November, Jennifer joined her Intown Playgroup classmates for a field trip to the firehouse. She had a great time and here are the photos. The guys at the firehouse were great with the kids -- they gave a demonstration of how a fireman can put on all of his equipment in 60 seconds. They also demonstrated going down the firepole. The trip was made more interesting by the fact that there was a real fire call while we were there and the firemen all jumped on two trucks and rushed out of the station while we were there. They ended up coming back after 15 minutes (it was a false alarm) but it was exciting for the kids to see that. J.

Visit to Asian Art Show In NYC

2008-11-28T13:50:00.006-05:00

We had a really nice visit with Marion, Alan, and Illisa in NYC several weeks ago when we drove up for an Asian Art Show. Jennifer loved seeing the art but even more she enjoyed being with Marion, Alan, and Illisa! Here are a few photos. J.

Jennifer's Second Halloween

2008-11-28T13:26:00.016-05:00

Jennifer had a good time dressing up as a fairy princess (I think that was what the official costume was) for Halloween. In addition to walking around the neighborhood, we also had a good time hanging out with our next door neighbors Dan and Allison and their daughter Miriam (dressed as a bumble bee). There was also a party at the Intown Playgroup. Here are the photos.

Jenny's Second Birthday Party at Hillandale

2008-10-18T05:15:00.011-04:00

It seems like we are constantly celebrating birthdays these last few weeks but we wanted to host a birthday party for Jennifer so we could celebrate with family, friends, and neighbors. So we had a nice celebration at at the Hillandale clubhouse (located just up the street from our house). It was wonderful to have our special friends Marion, Allen, and Ilissa Herskowitz come down from NY for the event. Here are the pics. I especially like the one with R holding both Jennifer (wearing her birthday tiara!) and Jessica. I also like the one with Debbie and Alex smiling at each other.

Second Birthday Get Together with Sullivans and Heverins

2008-10-18T05:06:00.009-04:00

We had our annual birthday celebration with the three girls at the Sullivan's house to celebrate the girls' second birthdays. It was great seeing everyone and I got some great pics. All of the girls are just beautiful.

Birthday Piano and Intown B-day Party

2008-10-18T04:57:00.009-04:00

Since Jennifer has always admired pianos (she loved the piano player at the Four Seaons in Georgetown), we got her a mini-piano for her second birthday that we celebrated in September. Here are some good photos of her with the piano, as well as a few pics with R and Ellen. It's so funny how she totally fits on the mini piano bench! I also included a few photos of Jennifer at the little b-day celebration at the Intown Playgroup.

Apple Picking with Intown Playgroup

2008-10-18T04:50:00.003-04:00

Jennifer had a great time a few weeks ago on an apple picking field trip with her pre-preschool -- Intown Playgroup. Ellen, Rachel, and Etu also had a good time. Here is the photo I liked the most from the day -- of Jennifer in her Intown t-shirt.

Celebrating Family Day - August 5 2008

2008-08-05T23:16:00.012-04:00

We just got back from a quick overnight trip to NY where we celebrated the one year anniversary of the day we all became a family -- what we are calling "family day". We had a wonderful time and celebrated with Ilissa, Marion, and Alan Herskowitz. Since it's late and I have a very early flight tomorrow morning (as in 6 a.m. early), I'll just get the photos up but I do want to come back and update the posting since it was such a special time in NY. In addition to having a really nice lunch, we also walked around the dinosaur exhibit of the Museum of Natural History. There was a lot of love to go around and Jennifer was so happy to be the center of it. Thanks to Ilissa for sending me some of these photos that she took on her camera!

Girls Get Together in July

2008-08-05T22:58:00.015-04:00

We had a really nice time getting together with the Sullivans and the Heverins to celebrate Katie's baptism on July 12th. I have been wanting to post these photos for some time. I'll try to do more commentary later - but it was a great party and the girls all looked happy and wonderful playing together.

Going to Court

2008-08-05T22:36:00.010-04:00

We had a really nice adoption finalization hearing on Thursday, July 10th. Sorry it has taken us so long to post the photos. The hearing was required to get official English language birth documents from the D.C. government. All went great -and we are no have an official birth record in the eyes of D.C. Rachel, Jennifer, and I sat at the table in front of the judge and of course Jennifer charmed the judge. We had quite the gathering of family and friends sitting in the gallery - including Etu, Elana and David Cohen with Adam, Jane and Greg with Alex, Debbie, and Ellen. After the hearing, we had a nice lunch celebration at Jaleo with Jane, Greg, Alex, Etu, Debbie, and Ellen. I will try to post more commentary later but wanted to get a few photos up now.

July 2008 Trip to Berlin and Munich (continued)

2008-07-06T08:47:00.007-04:00

After five days in Berlin, we flew to Munich for a four day stay. In Munich, the hotel was right in the center of the City near the train station. At first, we were worried (ok, very worried) that the hotel location would be too hectic and crowded and after the amazing experience at the Ritz Carlton in Berlin, it was hard to find anything that was as nice. But it turned out to be a great hotel and the location was perfect. Our first full day in Munich, we started the day with a walking tour (also arranged through Milk and Honey tours) of the City. Our guide (Chaim) was great -- a professor of history in Munich but also a very worldly man (was a citizen of Germany, Italy, and Israel). I won't list all of the sites he took us to but it was a very powerful and informative view. The next morning, we met up with Chaim early and he drove us to the Dachau concentration camp. That was difficult and moving but something we had to see. It was particularly touching visiting together with Jennifer.

For our last full day before returning home, we took a 1.5 hour train ride from Munich to Salzburg, Austria and spent the day walking around and seeing the sights. It was well worth the trip and Jennifer loved it as well. We were all tired when we flew home yesterday but felt like the trip was special for all of us. Although Jennifer may not remember a lot of it when she gets older, we think she got a lot out of the trip and she certainly made it wonderful for us. Yesterday, as we cleared customs at the Dulles airport, we were both reminded of how happy we felt almost one year ago when we walked through those same doors with Jennifer on the way home from China.

July 2008 Trip to Berlin and Munich

2008-07-06T07:18:00.019-04:00

We just returned yesterday from an amazing trip to Berlin and Munich and it was our first trip to Europe with Jennifer. We were so happy with how everything worked out and Jennifer was an absolute joy to travel with. It's hard to even describe the trip since we had so many amazing memories and sights - so I'll just do a quick rundown now of where we went and I'll post some photos - first of Berlin and then in a second post for Munich. We started in Berlin and stayed in a really amazing part of town -- near Potsdamer Platz -- an area that is being completely rebuilt and has a lot of impressive and really beautiful modern architecture. The Ritz Carlton in Berlin was fantastic and that made the trip start on such a positive note. The staff there just loved Jennifer and we had a good time interacting with them. We did a lot of walking which was good because the food was not light (can you say "snawsauge"?). On the first full day we were in Berlin, we walked to the Holocaust Memorial -- a very impressive and moving memorial that takes up an entire city block and is made up of blocks of stone of differing sizes that you can walk between. You walk down into the memorial so that you can no longer see the outside and the path between the stones reminded me of narrow streets in the old neighborhoods. I have posted a photo of the memorial. We then walked to the Brandenburg Gate and had lunch in a cafe near the Gate.

The next day, we did a lot of walking on our own -- including spending a lot of time (I think more then 6 hours!) in the new Jewish museum. The building itself is a piece of art - a modern building designed by the same architect that is designing the New York September 11 Memorial. And the exhibits (both the permanent collection and the special exhibit) were really well done and thought provoking. Jennifer did really well -- she slept in the stroller for part of the time and then when she was awake we took turns walking with her and/or carrying her. Having her there really made the experience special for both of us. She was her typical outgoing self at the cafe and she sat with a group of French high school girls who just adored her and took turns having her sit on their laps! She also met another little girl her age and they played in the big atrium of the cafe.

The next day, we met our tour guide from Milk and Honey tours - a group that specializes in touring Jewish sites. The tour was a really interesting experience and well worth it since we saw a number of sites that we would have never found on our own. The guide (Robert) was a young guy from Brooklyn, NY who was studying in Berlin and was planning to get a Masters and/or PhD in German political history. He was a really nice guy and it was great hearing his perspective on what we were seeing. He took us on the train from Potsdamer Platz to Alexanderplatz -- on the East side of the former wall -- and we saw a number of memorials. One of the most moving was the site of the shop of a non-Jewish German man who helped save many blind Jewish workers by giving them jobs in his factory (the workshop made brushes) and also helped a number of families hide and escape. We ended the tour with a visit to the New Synagogue in Berlin that was significantly destroyed in the war but has been partially rebuilt. It is such an impressive structure (see photo). We ended the day with dinner in the kosher restaurant next to the synagogue and had just a wonderful time with Jennifer.

One of the days we were in Berlin, we worked with the Ritz Carlton concierge to get tickets to a classical music concert in the same location that the Berlin Philharmonic plays. We had originally worked with the concierge to arrange for a babysitter to come to the hotel to take care of Jennifer but we weren't feeling comfortable about doing that. We mentioned this to one of the managers at the hotel who loved playing with Jennifer and she offered to babysit for us. It turned out to be great - Jennifer had a great time and we were able to enjoy a night out. The concert was really beautiful -- a baroque program of Bach chamber music performed on period instruments. It was such an elegant setting being in the modern concert hall listening to the beautiful music. More later - and pictures/description of our Munich visit.

First Fathers Day

2008-06-17T07:01:00.010-04:00

Sunday was my first Fathers Day since we came back from China and it was amazing. R and Jennifer surprised me in bed with two cards and a box of Polo shirts. Jennifer was so excited - she did her normal routine of trying to scare me (she says "boo!" and I pretend I'm scared) and then helped me open the cards and the present. It was such a happy moment. After I got up, I took Jennifer outside and we had a great time hanging out at the duck pond, going up to the pool and watching the lifeguard remove leaves (believe it or not, an exciting activity for Jennifer) and meeting/talking to every neighbor we walked by. At one point, Jennifer said "happy". I told her I was happy too. It was one of those special moments that you know is good right when it's happening rather than having to look back on it and only realize it was special in retrospect. Here are some photos from our Fathers Day with the family.

Jennifer's First Day at Intown Summer Camp

2008-06-02T23:16:00.013-04:00

Today was Jennifer's first day at the summer camp run by Intown Playgroup -- the pre-preschool that Jennifer will be starting in September. The camp meets in Georgetown every day in June from 9 a.m. - noon and I accompanied Ellen and Jennifer this morning. Jennifer had a great time! I have posted a few photos of her running around -- in the sandbox, in the pool, etc. It was so nice seeing how comfortable Jennifer was being there. She loved the outdoor area (with a sandbox, slide, play house, baby pools, play cars, etc). She also liked the indoor area (including place to play with clay, do fingerpainting, story area, etc.) She did her usual dancing routine (pointing one leg forward in her ballet pose, taking a bow, etc.), she climbed into the teacher's lap during story time, and she was great with the other kids in the baby pool. It was so fun seeing her being herself and having fun. She tired herself out so much that she fell asleep in the car on the way home. I dropped her and Ellen off back and home and made my way into work. It was quite the contrast to go from the Intown summer camp scene to the adult work world of Fannie Mae. I hope I can join Jennifer and Ellen another day this summer to take more photos and just be part of her world. In addition to the Intown Summer Camp photos, I posted one photo from the Barker Foundation picnic this Sunday.

Another Museum Day

2008-05-19T22:22:00.011-04:00

On Sunday, we had a family playdate with Alex, Greg, and Jane at the Museum of Natural History where they have a special live butterfly exhibit going on now. Jennifer has been going through a major butterfly stage (she likes flapping her arms like butterfly wings and was excited to see them flapping around in person). The girls had an awesome time running around making butterfly wings with their arms and just observing the little creatures. We ended the day with a really nice dinner out. The girls were having a blast and Alex introduced Jennifer to blueberries. Now that's her favorite fruit and strawberries are on the back burner along with grapes. Here are some photos from the day.

More Jennifer Photos

2008-05-06T22:18:00.006-04:00

Here are some photos of Jennifer's trip to the National Gallery of Art from several weeks ago where we met up with her good friend Alex (see photos in bathtub from previous post). This was one of our Saturday daddy outings so it was fitting that we met up with Alex and her dad Greg. A good time was had by all -- we ate lunch in the museum restaurant where both girls made quick friends with the young woman at the next table who was trying to study for an accounting exam but ended up with Alex on her lap and both girls trying on her bracelets. Jennifer and Alex proceeded to spend a good amount of time admiring the fountain and amusing strangers. We then proceeded to the modern art section of the museum where the girls had a good time running around. We knew that it was probably time to call it a day when Jennifer and Alex both decided it would be fun to lie down in the middle of the floor. In addition to the museum outing photos, I have attached one photo of Jennifer standing on her Winnie the Pooh car.

She Walks, She Talks!

2008-03-25T20:34:00.009-04:00

Ok, so we let a few weeks go by since the last post. Next thing we know, we have a walking, talking child! Her "conversation" is a running commentary on all manner of things -- her favorite animals (the leading animal seems to be the bunny and all other animals that hop), her desire to go outside, her friends (currently, Alex and Roni are the leading mentions), the temperature (hot is a favorite word), her favorite foods (her first muli-word sentence was "more orange"), etc. It's wonderful to see the ideas come together and she picks up on everything -- even hand gestures or facial expressions. She is also mobile and can now walk from point a to point b without help. We sense a more exhausting phase coming on but we're ready for it.

I have posted some photos from several different get togethers -- the most recent ones are from this past Sunday night's Easter dinner we had with our friends Jane and Greg and their beautiful daughter Alex. The girls ran around chasing each other all night. Although they weren't much into eating dinner, they did do a pretty good job eating a cake that Greg made that was in the shape of a bunny. They ended the night in the bathtub together getting all the dirt and cake off! There is also a photo of Alex and Jennifer at the American Museum of Natural History on Rachel and Jane's most recent outing there. And finally there are a few photos of Jennifer, Etu, Rachel, Elana, and Jessica at a Purim decorating party that we went to where Jennifer and Jessica decorated Purim masks and groggers. Everyone had a good time at that get together and Etu loved being there with both of her granddaughters. Jennifer brings so much happiness into our lives and also to our friends and family.

A Day In Georgetown

2008-02-16T23:36:00.011-05:00

R.was getting her nails done this afternoon at the Four Seasons salon in Georgetown so we made an outing of it and had coffee in the Four Seasons restaurant while R was waiting for her nails to dry. Everyone loves Jennifer there and it's a great place for all of us to relax as a family. Jennifer enjoyed watching the piano player and saying "hi" to everyone. She is so social and cute that random people come up to her and say hello. It's so much fun to be with her! Here are some good photos of the day.

Jennifer is in a wonderful stage - she's learning a lot of new words every week and -- as Ellen says -- she knows everything. She knows the name of every animal and can make almost all of the animal sounds. She makes connections every day -- like pointing to the coat closet when she wants to go outside or pointing to the refrigerator when she is hungry. When we are reading to her, she can identify every different thing on the page -- the animals, the objects, etc. It's amazing to watch her grow and develop. She continues to have a wonderful, fun, happy personality. Ok - I'll stop the gushing of a proud poppa!

Jennifer Rose Cayman Islands Vacation - December 2007

2007-12-26T08:06:00.000-05:00

We are in the Cayman Islands with Grandma Theda and Grandpa Oscar. We are having a wonderful time. Getting here was tiring - we basically slept one hour before we got picked up at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning to go to the airport. We also had a lot of stuff! We had one entire suitcase filled with baby stuff -- diapers, wipes, formula, ziplock bags, clothes, etc. As a result, we had to pay an overweight baggage charge of $50 for both of our suitcases! We had a very smooth flight -- our first one with Jennifer Rose since we got back from China -- and Jennifer seemed to enjoy it.

The resort is beautiful and the setup is really good for Jennifer. She has gotten to know everyone here and we can't go anywhere without people saying, "Hi Jennifer!" A few funny things: one is that the lobby of the hotel has a Santa doll that dances the twist to the tune of Jingle Bells. Jennifer loves it and makes us go down and turn it on every evening. The second one (also kind of nasty) is that yesterday we were talking to another family and Jennifer was playing on the ground and the woman we were talking to noticed that Jennifer had something in her mouth (Jennifer's fingers have been in her mouth constantly because she has four new teeth coming in). It turned out that she had a used bandaid in her mouth that she had found on the ground! Can you say "nasty!?" We were all horrified. We also caught her right before she was about to put a used cigarette butt in her mouth! Nasty! This putting things in her mouth stage is new so we're going to have to watch her closely.

Here are some wonderful photos that we have taken over the last few days. Enjoy!

Love, J and R

Breaking the Radio Silence

2007-12-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

Ok - we've gotten lazy again. R tells me that she has gotten a few comments saying, "we need a blog update!" I can't believe it's been since Halloween since we had a photo posted. No excuse, other than we have been having such a nice time just being with Jennifer Rose. So today I'll break the radio silence with a few good photos -- a few from a visit that we had to Etu and Eugenios I believe for Thanksgiving (could that be right!), plus one from our first Hannukah with Jennifer Rose, plus a few that I took this afternoon (Sunday, December 16) when Steve and Cathy Cook came over with their daughter Rebecca (check out their blog at http://daughterfromchina.blogspot.com/).

As for this afternoon's visit with the Cooks, we had a nice time -- mainly watching the two girls take out all of the toys! My favorite was the one of Rachel and Jennifer looking at each other and laughing!

Ok - more later. But I had to post something.

New Meaning to the word Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T21:01:00.000-05:00

Today was our first Thanksgiving with Jennifer Rose and I could not stop thinking about how thankful we are to have her in our lives. What a blessing to have her so happy and healthy and in our lives. We had a really nice Thanksgiving at Etu and Eugenios with a lot of family -- about 18 people total. Jennifer loved being there -- playing with Talia, taking turns being held by various aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents, etc. It was nice to be able be part of that and just take in the love and happiness. Of course, there was a ton of food and I ate a tad too much! I have to go running tomorrow. I took some videos of J Ro this morning (using the video function on our regular camera). Had not done that since we were in China. I liked how it came out and will try to upload it here if I can remember how. Was the China trip even this year? It feels like 3 years ago! Ok - signing off now.

J.

J Ro's First Halloween

2007-11-01T07:53:00.000-04:00

We had a great time on Halloween. R and Ellen found two cute ladybug costumes so of course they had to get both of them! So J Ro wore outfit #1 during the day to meet me at work and go to the library; she then wore outfit #2 for the evening festivities walking around our neighborhood and visiting with neighbors. Here are the photos.

J Ro Birthday Celebration

2007-10-21T22:14:00.000-04:00

I know it seems like we've had 3 or 4 J Ro Birthday celebrations -- but since we had lots of family and friends in town on Saturday for the baby naming, we wanted to have a big party to celebrate (we talked about having a big party like that even before we went to China!). So we had 100+ people at the restaurant Tragara in Bethesda, MD. Here are some photos.

J Ro Baby Naming

2007-10-21T21:52:00.001-04:00

After the wonderful conversion ceremony on Wednesday, October 10, we had a really beautiful baby naming ceremony on Saturday, October 13. It was extra special because it involved the naming of four cousins: Jennifer, Jessica, Noa, and Eli. It was so nice to have friends and family from near and far at the event. R's college roommate Andrea stayed with us on Friday night and we had a great time (see photo of her feeding J Ro on Saturday morning). We were also honored to have the Herskowitz family join us for all of the weekend festivities. Here are some of our favorite photos from the day. On Saturday night, Etu and Eugenio hosted dinner at a neighborhood Italian restaurant and everyone had a great time visiting and passing the baby around!

J Ro Conversion Ceremony

2007-10-21T21:20:00.000-04:00

Ok - yet again we have let several weeks pass without updating the blog with some of the wonderful photos we have taken of J Ro and the supporting cast. So many amazing things have taken place over the past couple of weeks. On October 10, we participated in a conversion ceremony at Temple Adas Israel for Jennifer Rose. In addition to Rabbi Seidel and the two other Rabbis, we were joined by both sets of grandparents plus Elana and Adam as well as Ellen. Ellen and R picked out a really beautiful outfit that was one of the really nice Guangzhou purchases so Jennifer looked very special for the ceremony. The ceremony itself involved R taking the baby in the mikvah (with R in her bathing suit and J Ro in her birthday suit!) and dunking her three times followed by blessings. It was a little traumatic seeing Jennifer get dunked under water (R did an awesome job making it more fun and less scary for her). But Jennifer seemed to take the whole thing in stride (perhaps the swimming classes helped) and it was a very special ceremony for all of us. We finished the afternoon by having afternoon tea at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. Here are some photos of the day.

J Ro with Etu and Eugenio

2007-10-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, we had tickets to the Shakespeare Theater with Doug and Morna so Jennifer Rose got to spend Sunday night with grandma Etu and grandpa Eugenio. Everyone had a good time -- so good in fact that Jennifer didn't want to go to sleep. So she was still up playing when we got home at 10:30 p.m.! She was tired on Monday and slept in! Before we went out, I got some really nice photos of J Ro with Etu and Eugenio.

Apple Picking with Doug and Morna

2007-09-30T19:12:00.000-04:00

It was an absolutely beautiful Fall day today and we went with Morna and Doug to a local farm in Maryland to pick apples. Jennifer enjoyed it and we got some good photos.

Jennifer, Katie, and Caitlin B-Day Get Together

2007-09-30T11:33:00.000-04:00

We all got together yesterday (Saturday) at the Sullivan's house to celebrate the first birthdays of the three girls. It's the first time we have all gotten together since we got back from China. It was a lot of fun and everyone is doing great. Here are the photos from the party. In particular, I like the one of the three girls in their birthday hats (reminds me of the Red Couch Photo Shoot in Guangzhou, China). Notice that Jennifer was crying - was not too pleased about the party hat and having to sit still for the photo!

Jennifer Rose Turns One!

2007-09-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

Here J Ro is playing with her cake. She had fun
playing with the frosting.

Yesterday (September 25th) was Jennifer Rose's first birthday. We celebrated with a family dinner at Chef Geoff's and had a really nice time. I have attached some photos. J Ro was just so cute and beautiful and she continues to light up our lives.

A Few Other Good Photos

2007-09-18T22:52:00.001-04:00

As I was getting ready to shut down the computer tonight, R came in and said she wanted to look at the photos. She found a few she really liked that I have posted. I believe these are from the day that Andrew and Michelle visited with Hannah. Enjoy!

A Beautiful Fall Day

2007-09-18T22:18:00.001-04:00

It was a perfect Fall day on Sunday. We started out the day with swimming class. As you can see from the photos below, J Ro liked her floating plastic dolphin. After class, R put J Ro in a big pink velour sweatsuit (see photo). We had a nice family day -- including afternoon coffee with Grandma Thedie andGrandpa Oskie at Leopolds in Georgetown. That's it for now.

We wanted to give a shout out to Lee for continuing to check the blog even though we have been bad about posting to it. We'll try to be better going forward.

J.

J Ro in Swimming Class

2007-09-15T02:21:00.000-04:00

Since Jennifer liked her first experience swimming, we signed her up for a swimming class on Sunday mornings. She loved it and it was really funny seeing all of the babies in the pool with their fathers (mostly). I had a great time with her and have attached a photo that R took.

We've Been Home for One Month

2007-09-13T11:36:00.000-04:00

As everyone can see from our poor record of posting blog entries since we came home with Jennifer Rose, we're realizing that it's hard to stay up on the blog postings when we have such a demanding customer in J Ro and also when we're having so much fun just being with her. But we woke up this morning (R's birthday!) and R suggested that we go ahead and update the blog. So, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to in the last month:

J went back to work the Monday after we got back (made for a very tired week of work!)
Ellen (our wonderful nanny) started and she has been terrific
R is home from work until mid-October which has been wonderful but we are both realizing that being home with the baby is a LOT of work in addition to being fun -- we are convinced that J has the easier job during the day!

We got the house more baby-friendly, including a play area near the kitchen with two baskets of toys!

We taught J Ro how to eat solid foods and she now enjoys it (although she still complains when R tries to clean her face and hands)!

We spent the Labor Day long weekend at Rehoboth Beach, DE and had a wonderful time with J Ro -- she enjoyed her first trip to the swimming pool and she loved it. We found out that she and also liked eating soft serve ice cream and that serving her this right before bedtime is not a good way to get her to go to sleep.

J Ro got to meet her Grandma Theda and Grandpa Oscar -- see photo of Theda reading to J Ro. It was so incredible to have Grandma Theda and Grandpa Oscar finally meet Jennifer Rose. She was so happy to be with them and it was an instant bond for them as well. Oscar took a lot of photos and video and I'll post them to the blog as soon as he sends them to me. Lately, if I'm not careful I'll completely forget to take photos myself since I'm just enjoying playing with Jennifer.

J Ro has also enjoyed playing with her counsins and with friends who have stopped by to meet her. She continues to be the joy of our lives and we can't imagine life without her.

Ok - so that's the quick update. I have also posted a few photos from our trip to the beach when she went swimming in the hotel pool (thanks to Auntie Elana for the very pineapple cute bathing suit!). Hopefully more later.

Hannah and Jennifer Rose

2007-08-28T22:51:00.001-04:00

Andrew, Michelle, and Hannah came over on Sunday and it was amazing watching the girls playing together. Andrew showed me how to use the Nikon D-40 that I bought after we got back from China (partly as a result of his recommendation). It was funny watching the girls sit their like movie stars while Andrew and I snapped photos with our Nikons (I have posted a few of the good ones).

Hannah has gotten so big and is now talking and running around. The two girls were just beautiful together and it felt good to finally have them together.

J Ro and Ben

2007-08-28T22:47:00.000-04:00

Uncle Ben came over on Saturday and it was great seeing him with Jennifer Rose. She tried to take his sun-glasses and also have him a musical concert with the electirc piano toy. Here are some of the photos. We also got some good video of them playing -- I'll post that later.

New Photos of J Ro at Home

2007-08-28T22:41:00.001-04:00

Adjusting to Being at Home

2007-08-18T23:31:00.001-04:00

We have been in adjustment mode since we got home on Thursday and we are all still out of whack. Every morning for the last two days, I have woken up and had my cup of coffee and said to myself, "I'm over the jet lag". And then by the late afternoon, I'm totally crashed out on the couch somewhere. I have mainly been playing with J Ro and then sleeping during the day whenever she sleeps. At night, I haven't been tired at all so after we put J Ro in her crib, I have been banging around the house trying to organize all of the stuff from our trip, catching up on e-mail, and checking in on the little one. R has tried to stay awake during the day and then totally crashes at night. It has been hard to put ourselves back on DC time but hopefully by Monday, we'll be more adjusted. We think it could take another week to be fully adjusted to the DC time zone.

Jennifer Rose has handled the adjustment well. She was so tired after not sleeping much on the flight to DC that she slept a lot right when we got home. Now we're trying to balance letting her sleep/eat whenever she wants with getting her on a DC-time zone-based schedule. So far, the "whenever she wants" camp is winning since we know that Jennifer is still on a different time zone just like we are. But hopefully each day we can get Jennifer more on a regular schedule.

Our pediatrician appointment on Friday went well but we felt so bad for J Ro since she had to get two vaccinations and had to have blood drawn. She was very unhappy about that and made quite a lot of noise in the doctor's office (I didn't know she could produce such a loud cry!). We had to hold her down while they were giving her the shots/drawing blood and we felt so bad. R was almost crying. But the good thing is that the doctor said Jennifer appears to be really healthy. The doctor looked in her ears and says they look good - no ear infection or sign of fluid. She said that she appears to have gotten good nutrition and seems to have really good developmental progress. The doctor had us take her off the Chinese formula (we were doing a combination of Chinese formula with US formula) and go with the Similac. She also gave us some suggestions on what other foods to start feeding her as she gets interested in solid foods. Hopefully after the shots and blood work, J Ro will be willing to set foot in that office again.

Today, we took Jennifer in the stroller around Georgetown. It was a beautiful day and it was so nice being home with her. R also took her with her when she got her nails done at the Four Seasons George Salon. Everyone there thought she was so cute and I can tell she's going to get a lot of attention wherever we go. Everything is still so new for us that it is taking us more time to do the basic stuff. When we were getting ready for our outing to Georgetown, we took our new stroller out of the box and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to fold it up so we could put it in the car. We are also still getting used to all the stuff we need to bring with us when we go out with the baby. After we got to downtown Georgetown, I had to return home because we forgot the diaper bag. And when we do pack the diaper bag, we're still figuring out the right balance between taking way too much stuff and forgetting essential items. Still, we have been enjoying being home with J Ro and even figuring this stuff out has an element of fun to it.

Now that we are back home, I have still been enjoying taking photos of the little one (no video so far but hopefully I'll do that later). I hve attached a few that I took Friday -- in the doctors office and then at home (note: I took the doctors office photos before she got the shots so she still looks happy). I know I'm biased but I just think both R and J Ro look beautiful in these photos. Ok - I will sign off now and find out what R is up to. She just put the baby back to sleep after feeding her -- so we have some moments of peace before the next wake up call.

Photos of the Arrival in Washington, Dulles

2007-08-17T01:23:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful reception of people (Elana, David and Adam and Debbie, Jane, Alex and Michael) meeting us when we came out US Customs in Washington Dulles. We are so greatful to have wonderful friends and family that were waiting to meet Jennifer Rose as soon as she got off the plane. Since it's 1:30 a.m. and my body is saying "what are you doing to me!?", I'll keep this post short and just put up the photos. Most of the photos are at the Dulles airport but there are a few with Elana as we are walking into our house (Elana was so great -- she drove us home with the baby in the new car seat and she had filled the refrigerator with wonderful stuff!).

We were so excited to have the US Customs agent stamp Jennifer's Chinese passport with the stamp that immediately makes her a US Citizen (we'll get the official paperwork within 45 days). We didn't have the nerve to ask for a picture with the Customs Agent!

After Elana drove us home, she stayed for a while and R and Elana gave J Ro a bath, gave her a bottle and put her in her new crib to sleep. We had a nice lunch of some of the great stuff the Elana had picked up (nice change from so much Chinese food). After I drove Elana home, R and I both totally fell asleep. We woke up a few times to change/feed the baby -- not something we're used to doing in our own house! Right now everyone is alseep so I'll go join them. We'll get a few hours of sleep and then tomorrow we have our first visit to Jennifer Rose's pediatrician. She'll likely check her over and do some blood work (hopefully no shots yet). We are so excited to be home with Jennifer Rose!

J & R.

We Are Home!

2007-08-17T01:06:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe it but I'm typing this from Georgetown! The last time I was in this room I had suitcases all around me and we we in packing mode!

The trip back was long and tiring for all of us but it went smoothly and the babies were all fine. J Ro was interested in everything on the plane so she would rather visit with people than sleep. She slept a little bit but mostly we just walked around with her and played with her on the floor (so much for the cushy business class seats!). Here's a quick recap of the trip: On Wedesday morning, we flew from Guangzhou, China to Tokyo, Japan. We spent the night in a hotel near the airport (woke up at 3:30 a.m. from an earthquake! and then at 4 a.m. to feed the baby). Then flew from Tokyo to Washington Dulles early on Thursday.

I'll try to post more later but wanted to put up a few photos from the journey home. I'll do a separate post with photos of the wonderful reception we all had at the Washington Dulles airport on Thursday morning. We were all overwhelmed with joy and excitement to finally be through US Customs (so the babies are all now US Citizens!) and be with our families and friends here in DC. More later once we're not bumping into walls and not knowing which way is up!

Photos from the US Consulate in Guangzhou

2007-08-17T00:54:00.000-04:00

Per the previous post, here are the photos from the US Consulate in Guangzhou that Jim took with his camera. The babies are wearing their matching red, white, and blue outfits that R picked out for the occasion. We were all so happy to have this step completed and we wanted to celebrate in style! Since we weren't allowed to take photos inside the Consulate, most of these are taken just outside the Consulate.

Guangzhou Day Five -- Continued (Last Full Day in China)

2007-08-14T09:04:00.000-04:00

We went to the US Consulate this afternoon and completed our final paperwork. It was a really wonderful way to finish this incredible trip. Before we left for China, R had purchased matching outfits for the three babies in red, white, and blue to celebrate their becoming US Citizens. They all wore these outfits to the ceremony. The ceremony was fairly fast -- there were 50 families with appointments today -- we recognized a number of them from the White Swan Hotel and even from when we were in Nanchang. First, Anli picked up our final paperwork, including Chinese passports with US Visas, the final adoption decree, and the paperwork that we will need to hand to the US Customs agent when we get to Washington D.C. The type of visa that Jennifer has makes her a US Citizen as soon as we clear customs in D.C.

Then we had to show our passports and the baby's documentation so that they could confirm that we were the parents of Jennifer Rose Yu Hua Firschein. Then the Deputy US Consul General made some remarks and congratulated all of the families for completing the citizenship process. Then we all had to take an oath that basically said that all of the information we had provided on our citizenship papers was true and correct. Then we were done!

It was such an incredible feeling -- we have such a beautiful baby and we are so happy. We weren't allowed to bring a camera into the US Consulate so unfortunately we don't have any photos to post but Jim had his camera outside and got one of all of the babies in their red, white, and blue outfits in front of the US Consulate sign. As soon as I get those photos from him, I'll post them.

That's it for now -- we just put the baby in her crib and just started packing. We have SO MUCH STUFF! We bought an extra suitcase to take everything home but it still will take a while to get everything packed by tomorrow a.m. We're departing early tomorrow. If I can post from Japan, I will. Otherwise, the next time I post will be from Washington DC with J Rose next to us!

Off to pack!

J & R

Guangzhou Day Five

2007-08-13T23:53:00.000-04:00

It's hard to beleve that this is our last full day in Guangzhou. We are meeting at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon to go to the Consulate to pick up the US travel visa and final adoption documents and to take the US Citizenship oath. We're not sure exactly what the oath involves but we are all nervous and excited about that.

While we were waiting to go to the US Consulate, Anli arranged for our group to meet in the White Swan lobby this morning so we can take our "Red Couch" photos with the babies wearing the traditional Chinese outfits that we bought while we were here. This is something that a lot of the families do when they are staying here. The babies all looked beautiful -- I have attached some of the good ones as well as one video that I call the "making of the Red Couch photo shoot." It was hard to get a photo of all three babies looking at the camera at the same time so hopefully between all of our cameras we got at least one in which all babies are looking the same direction. Still, I like the ones where they are looking at each other.

Right now, Jennifer Rose is asleep in her crib and everyone else in our travel group is out doing some final errands as we get ready to head to Tokyo tomorrow morning for the last leg of our journey. We stay in Tokyo for one night before heading home to DC on Thursday. This has been the trip of a lifetime and it has exceeded all of our expectations. Still, we are so excited be heading home soon. I'll try to post again after we come back from the US Consulate.

Guangzhou Day Four -- Continued

2007-08-13T12:35:00.000-04:00

Here are three videos from today -- all of us following J Ro's every move. All of these crack me up: there's another one of J Ro with her electronic piano thing (this time with tamborine accompaniment). There's a really nice one of R playing with J Ro. And finally, there's the obligatory baby-in-a-bathtub scene. These pretty much capture how we spent our day.

J.

Guangzhou Day Four

2007-08-13T11:12:00.001-04:00

Today we were both totally wiped out from walking around in the heat yesterday, fighting our various colds, and from not getting much sleep (J Ro woke up in the middle of the night and didn't want to go back to sleep). So here is what I can recall of our day in a nutshell (disclaimer: R did a lot more than I did):

5 a.m.: get up and hang out with J Ro and R - do the diaper, bottle, and bath thing. Play with the electronic piano toy that J Ro seems to love so much. Try to sing her back to sleep but the only song I could think of was Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen as well as other Bruce songs that are not particularly baby-friendly (mainly the dark stuff like Nebraska or Ghost of Tom Joad). R is not a big fan of my singing dark Bruce tunes to the baby so I'll have to go back to the pooper scooper song I made up yesterday.

7:30 a.m: put J Ro in stroller and roll her around the hotel hallway to try to put her back to sleep. Although it worked yesterday, it doesn't work today. She just wants to play. Figure out that she's a bit of a thrill seeker and likes to go fast in the stroller. Note to self: don't let Jennifer have the car keys until she's well out of high school.

10 a.m: hotel breakfast buffet with Etu and Eugenio and R (and J Ro).
As much as we have really enjoyed the traditional Chinese breakfasts, I am starting to get a little tired of Dim Sum buns and dumplings so I kept it simple: scrambled eggs, french toast, and a bowl of corn flakes. Etu seems to be the only one in our travel group who is not tired of the Dim Sum buns. Major milestone of the day: Eugenio was able to interest J Ro in some of his oatmeal. Until today, she had no interest in anything solid. Although she only had a few spoonsful (or is it spoonfulls?) of oatmeal, we hope this is the beginning of a new eating trend.

11 a.m: go back to room and hear even more of J Ro's electronic piano toy. Get really happy because J Ro takes a bottle from me without fussing (normally, only R has the magic touch with the fuss-free feeding but I have had more trouble getting the bottle angle just right). So I am starting to get the hang of the feeding thing.

12:30 p.m: everyone in our travel group meets for lunch and shopping near the hotel, but I happily stay with the baby in our room and we both sleep for almost 2 hours. It is so relaxing being with her when she's sleeping -- she seem so peaceful and happy. When J Ro finally wakes up, we have a fun time playing with the electronic piano toy and other toys that R has bought on this trip. I also enjoy reading to J Ro the two baby books we brought with us on the trip. One is about a baby catipillar that eats through a variety of foods over the course of a week and J Ro enjoys putting her fingers in the holes in the book where the catipillar ate through each of the food items. I wonder if she has any idea what I'm reading about.

3-5:30 p.m.: Jim H stops by the room and bangs around on the computer posting to his blog and making backup DVDs of his and our photos while R and I play with the baby. At one point while R is playing with the baby, I find a copy of the South China Post and don't miss the fact that the front page has no news on the US Presidential election. A lot of the front page news is about whether China will unload their US dollars (consensus appears to be no) and whether the problems in the US subprime mortgage market will affect Asia (consensus appears to be yes). After scanning these headlines, I go back to playing with the baby and the electronic piano toy. At some point in the afternoon, Anli calls and says that her meetings at the Consulate went well today and it appears that our paperwork is in order (but we will continue to think positive thoughts until everything is finalized tomorrow).

5:30 p.m.: R has her nail appointment at the hotel salon. I take J Ro in the stroller and walk with her to the appointment. This is my first venture out of the room except breakfast. After 5 minutes at the nail appointment, the baby and I both get tired so we head back upstairs to the room and the baby falls asleep on me while I sit in the big cushy chair. I love the fact that she falls alseep on me and I just watch her for most of the time that she is asleep. She's absolutely beautiful -- and looking at her while she is alseep makes me think of numerous cheesy light rock songs that that R usually can't stand. R gets back from her nail appointment and plays with the baby while I lounge some more in the big cushy chair. I then get up and make up three bottles with formula -- all ready to go (just require hot water).

8 p.m: Since Jim and Debbie had gone to dinner earlier, we have dinner with Etu, Eugenio, Scott, & Elaine in hotel restaurant -- again, I opt for a change from the Chinese food that I have been enjoying for most of the trip and I order spagetti bolognaise. R and I both enjoy walking around the hotel restaurant with the baby and looking at big fish in hotel lobby pond. She's so social that she wants to say hello to everyon we meet. After dinner, R and I take the baby back to the room to give her a bottle, bath, and diaper change. While all of this is going on, R humors me as I try to video everything - the bath, the feeding, the playing with the electronic piano toy. Finally, R gets the baby to fall asleep and then puts baby in the crib without waking her up (this is a move I have not yet mastered). R is now crashed out on the couch while I type.

As slow as this day sounds (and it's the total opposite of how we spent our time in Beijing seeing all of the sites), we both have really enjoyed the time we have had in Guangzhou and also Nanchang to play with and hold the baby. I'm getting more proficient at the basic blocking and tackling (ok, sports analogy) of being with the baby -- the diaper changes, the bottles, the putting her to sleep. But I also like the improvisation involved -- the songs, the watching her develop and hit new milestones, reading stories, etc. I'll have to come up with a sports analogy on that later.

I have posted some photos from today. I just love the ones of her sitting on the floor of our room -- the different facial expressions and her beautiful smile. I'll try to post a few the videos later tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow, we have our appointment with the US Consulate. We're looking forward to it and will keep our fingers crossed that all goes well. More on that later.

J.

Guangzhou Day Three -- Continued

2007-08-12T09:39:00.000-04:00

Scott stopped by our room late this afternoon after we had finished filling out adoption paperwork in Anli's room and asked if I wanted to go with him to the driving range. I was like "what driving range?" Turns out the White Swan hotel has a frickin' driving range on the hotel roof (you drive into nets but have an incredible view of the entire Guangzhou skyline and the river next to the hotel with big boats coming down it).

After being totally worn out from our walk into the old part of Guangzhou and also still getting over my cold, I was not particularly up for being outside in the Guangzhou humidity hitting golf balls. But sometimes, the story is just too good to pass up. So we headed up to the roof and a hotel sports club attendant got us some golf clubs and a few buckets of balls. We were the only ones up there and it was really funny. I wish I could have been nonchanlant about it -- just hitting a few golf balls in the afternoon like any other Sunday. But we were hitting golf balls IN CHINA. On the roof of the WHITE SWAN HOTEL. Overlooking a river filled with HUGE BARGES with big RED CHINESE FLAGS on them. The day before we filed our final adoption paperwork with the US Consulate after more than a TWO YEAR WAIT. It was just so wild and hard to keep a straight face as we hit balls up there and it felt really good. We did a couple of buckets each and then the heat got to us and we called it quits. As we were up there, I was trying to think: how do you even begin to describe this scene? I really wanted to start this blog posting with something casual like, "So Scott and I were hitting golf balls off the roof of the White Swan hotel and he said to me..." But I couldn't pull it off. Too bad we forgot to bring our cameras up there. It would have been good video footage. As we were coming down from the roof, Scott reminded me that today is the one week anniversary of when we got our babies in Nanchang. Has it only been a week? It feels like a lot longer than that. I feel like R and I are different now -- we are three instead of two and it feels great.

Now we're in our room and just winding down the day. Compared to the crying baby scene and R and I both feeling really sick and rundown yesterday, everything feels much calmer and better today. I don't want to temp the fates but I think I have mostly beat my cold. R is still caughing pretty badly but seems to be feeling a little better as well. The baby is quietly sleeping in the crib and she has been great today. She's eating well and seems to get stronger and more comfortable with us every day. We'll just hope that this continues.

Tomorrow is a light day as Anli is filing all of our paperwork with the US Consulate. R and Etu will likely continue in their quest to buy every cute baby outfit in Guangzhou. Eugenio and I will continue in our quest to avoid those shopping excursions and hope that they leave us enough cash to buy a bottle of water or two. Maybe Scott and I will hit a few more golf balls off the roof of the hotel tomorrow.

I have posted one video -- of J Ro with her new electronic piano toy. Maybe I'm biased, but J Ro seems to have musical talent. She wants to bring the little electronic piano toy with her wherever we go. Tonight, we took it to dinner and played it for her in the restaurant. But I won't count on the college music scholarship just yet. Ok - signing off now. Will try to post more tomorrow.

J.

Guangzhou Day Three

2007-08-12T03:41:00.000-04:00

It's late in the afternoon on August 12 and we are all resting up after Anli took us all on a walking tour of the old (non-touristy) part of Guangzhou. It was really interesting but also HOT (made even hotter since I was wearing the baby in the Snugli baby carrier thing!). Although we were all dragging from the heat, Anli said it is normally a lot hotter this time of year in Guangzhou so we were thankful it wasn't even worse. The babies were fine with the heat and humidity -- again, they seem to be used to it so it's the adults who are overheating.

Basically, the part of town Anli took us to is a shopping district that felt a bit like a farmers market except the things people were selling were very unsual -- huge mushrooms and bags of various dried roots and things used in traditional Chinese medicine. It was hard to tell what some of the stuff was but there were big bags of dried out sea horses, starfish, snakes, etc. There was also a big section with live animals -- rabbits, mice, turtles, fish, birds, etc. There were also pets for sale -- dogs, cats, fish, etc. There were also stalls selling prepared food and drinks. It was unlike anything I have ever seen in terms of the scale, the number of people, the smells, and the unusual variety of items for sale.

We stayed away from purchasing any of the food items -- that probably would have finished us all off. But I did buy a watch for $2 (my watch stopped working in Nanchang) and Jim bought a big suitcase. R bought a small Hello Kitty suitcase to put the baby's things in on the way home. After we had been out for a few hours, I started fading and the baby was starting to feel really heavy in the Snugli. We made it back to the hotel just as I ran out of energy.

After a quick lunch break, Jim, Scott, & I met Anli in her room to fill in the adoption paperwork that Anli needs to submit to the US Consulate tomorrow. There were about five forms and they all had to be completed exactly right. Anli walked us through line by line. In some forms, we had to fill in the baby's name for "name". In other forms, we filled in our names. In some forms, we had to use Chinese date format. In other forms we used US date format. As we had done all along on this trip, we just did whatever Anli told us to do. It felt good to get all of the forms filled out and also to get Anli's confirmation that we had brought the correct forms with us to China. We'll find out tomorrow afternoon whether the Consulate is ok with all of our paperwork.

I have posted a few photos -- mostly of our trip to the old part of Guangzhou plus one really cute one of J Ro in our room. More later.

J.

Guangzhou Day Two -- Continued

2007-08-11T08:04:00.000-04:00

After we completed the baby's medical exam this morning, Eugenio and I spent a few hours hanging out in the room with Jennifer Rose (Rachel and Etu were busy shopping). Then R came back and we got some good videos of us playing with J Ro. As much as she's a very cuddly and sweet baby, her "very, very strong-willed" nature seems to come out more and more each day. She seems to decide whether she wants us to sit with her or stand with her or whether she wants to take a nap or not. So far, there's no going against her will. We just want to do whatever we can to make her happy.

Right now, it's just after 9 p.m. and R is in the bedroom trying to get the baby to stop crying. Why is she crying? We already fed her and she doesn't seem to want any more of her bottle. She doesn't need a diaper change. We think she may have some teeth coming in. The other theory is that she may be getting an earache (she has been pulling on her ears a little). Etu and Eugenio don't think that's the problem. Still, it's hard to hear her cry and not be able to make it stop. Ok - I'm off to try to help R. More later.

Ok - I'm back now. It's almost 11 p.m. The baby finally stopped crying but only after a mini-drama where we called on Elaine and Etu to come in and advise us on whether to give the baby some baby Tylenol (we decided "yes). Then we had to see if the baby had a fever (consensus was "no"). I was hovering around worrying and not making things any easier so R sent me next door to Scott and Elaine's room where Scott had a bottle of Johnny Walker Black scotch and Jim, Scott, and I each had a drink while Elaine went in the other room to check on R and the baby (I realize that's not what the baby books say on how to deal with one of these situations, but it seemed to work for us). By the time I got back, the baby was fast asleep and R was happily surfing the Internet on our computer. Elaine said the baby was fine - there was no fever and the baby was just acting like, well, a baby. I don't like this lack of precision thing. I want to know what the heck is the reason for everything so I can anticipate and make things perfect. It's going to take me a while to get used to things not being that way.

Meanwhile, R and I both have full-blown colds. We just ordered more tea with honey and I have been downing Sudafed. We feel like this is one of those around the world races and we are lagging with another few thousand miles to go. But we'll pull through. As long as the baby is healty, that's all we care about. But seriously, everyone in our group except Etu and Eugenio (and the babies) is dealing with some malady and we just want to finish up all of the adoption paperwork so we can get home. Ok - off to bed now.

J & R

Guangzhou Medical Exam

2007-08-10T22:43:00.000-04:00

We just got back from having the baby's medical exam as required by the US Citizen and Immigration Service. All three babies passed with flying colors. It was quite the hectic scene getting there and just being there. R and I had a bit of trouble getting ourselves out of our room at the required time. Everyone always told us to add extra time with the baby -- it's totally true. We were on time as we ran out the door of our hotel room but we didn't bring all of the right stuff. We forgot to bring the Sunggly baby carrier and we also forgot our umbrella (it's raining really hard). We brought the stroller which we totally didn't need since it was raining so hard. So R carried the baby in one hand and a borrowed umbrella in the other hand. I brought all of the various diaper bags, backpacks, bottles, toys, etc.

When we got to the medical exam office, it was fairly chaotic -- crying babies, people waiting in line, doctors, nurses, etc. Anli managed to thread our group through the crowd to get us to the place where we needed to have the adoption medical exams. R and I went first and the first doctor checked her fingers and toes and looked her over. He also listened to her heart. Then we went to a second set of doctors. They took the baby's temperature and also weighed and measured her height. Then we went to a third doctor. He checked her hearing (he had an electric piano toy and played it next to her head to see if she turned). Then he checked her eyes to make sure she could track the light. Then he looked into her mouth and ears. She was cooperative the whole time and was smiling to the doctor. All along the way, the doctors would write stuff on the medical sheets we had with us but they didn't tell us anything. When we finished, we gave the forms back to Anli and she said that everything came out ok. We assumed that Jennifer Rose would pass but it felt good to have this step completed.

I have posted some photos from the medical exam. There's a good one of all of the babies together, plus one of us with the first doctor who examined the baby. We are so glad that the baby is healthy. If anything, we're all the ones who are ailing medically and the babies are all fine-- we're all coughing and sneezing and wheezing after the strain of this trip and not getting much sleep. Still, we're all deleriously happy and don't mind going through all the boxes of Kleenex.

One thing that was touching was that we saw a number of babies at the medical exam office who were not healthy. A number of people choose to adopt "special needs" babies -- some with serious medical conditions. We saw some of those babies this morning. The families adopting these babies are so filled with love and strength that we know that the babies will have a good life wherever they are going. Plus, we have heard that with US medical technology, many of the medical problems can be corrected when the babies get to the US. But it was still a little sad to see the babies that are not healthy and it made me even more thankful that all of the babies in our travel group appear to be healthy and strong.

Right after the baby medical exams, R and Etu did a quick shopping run. They bought more than a few baby outfits -- including one each for nieces Jessica, Elli, and Noa. Eugenio and I couldn't handle being in the baby clothes store so we went back to the hotel. Eugenio and I made the mistake of asking why Etu and R need to keep buying baby outfits when we have plenty for this trip. They both just looked as us like we are crazy. We clearly don't get it. Still, R knows I'm in total heaven with the baby and she can do anything she wants as far as I'm concerned in the baby outfit buying department. Also, they are buying traditional Chinese outfits that we won't be able to get in the US and they are also buying outfits for special events in the future -- like Jennifer's one-year-old birthday. The set of shops outside the White Swan hotel totally caters to moms who have just adopted babies so the stores must do really well. There are so many shops that there's a lot of competition -- so the prices say good. R said that the three outfits they bought last night were $20 total. So I can't complain too much.

One final note: when we got back to our room, the hotel had left us a present. It was a "Going Home Barbie". It's Barbie with a little Chinese baby girl in her arms. We were surprised -- we didn't know there even was a Barbie like that. We just thought it was the cutest thing. It can go along with the "Chinese New Year Barbie" that R bought when we were in Beijing. So now little Ms. Firschein is now the proud owner of two Barbies. Who would have ever thought that was possible!? I thought I would be anti-Barbie but Jennifer Rose is so cute that I'm happy to let R get her stuff like that.

Now we're just relaxing in the hotel room with Jennifer Rose and Etu and Euginio. The baby is just giving all of us so much joy. No more major plans for today except that Anli may take us to a store that sells pearls. We hope to get a little keepsake that we can give to Jennifer when she's a little older as a small reminder of how special this trip has been for us. More later.

We Are In Guangzhou

2007-08-10T19:51:00.000-04:00

We have arrived in Guangzhou and everyone is feeling great. The flight from Nanchang was fine. We all felt good heading to our third leg of the China trip. One funny aside: we decided to get some sandwiches to have for the flight since we had about 45 minutes until our plane boarded. For some reason, it took a really long time to get the sandwiches so the plane was boarding by the time that R and I came running back to the gate. That sort of threw us in to a fit of disorganization -- we had the baby, the stroller, the snuggli baby carrying thing, our two wheelie carryon suitcases, the diaper bag, and the big bag of sandwiches. It was just too much stuff to carry and the airline people were just looking at us probably thinking " these guys are a complete disaster". So after a bit of running around bumping into each other a few times, we ended up just throwing the sandwiches away since we couldn't carry them and we were so running around at that point. Then we had a funny scene on the airplane trying to find places to put all of our stuff. Then after we finally were all seated, the guy who was sitting at the window of our row wanted to move his seat (probably wanted to get away from the crazy people) -- so we all got up and let him get out and move to another seat. We got situated again and the flight attendants told the guy he couldn't move his seat. So we all had to get up again while the guy unhappily moved back to his window seat in our isle. It was comedy. I was sitting there thinking: ok, the baby has never been on an airplane before and we're the ones acting like travel novices!

But we finally took off and everything settled down at that point. The baby slept for most of the flight and only cried as we were landing in Guangzhou. This is a much bigger city than Nanchang and we all felt really good to be here. As with all of the cities we have been in, there was massive traffic getting from the airport to our hotel. The bus driver was very skilled at getting us to the White Swan Hotel in one piece. We had heard so much about the White Swan -- it's where most of the US adoption families stay. After getting settled in our room (which is awesome), Anli took all of us to get Visa photos for the babies. Then she gave us a quick tour. There are lots of good stores and I know R and Etu are going to have a good time buying baby things (in fact, they did a quick run into one of the stores and bought two baby outfits).

Everyone else in our travel group was tired and went back to the hotel to grab dinner in their rooms. We wanted to eat together so we had a quick dinner with Etu and Eugenio and the baby at a wonderful Thai restaurant. The baby slept the entire time on R -- it was such a happy scene. Then we came back to the hotel. We fed the baby a bottle and got her ready for bed. She seems so happy and it's just incredible to me that we are all a family and it's starting to feel normal. R put the baby in crib and I totally conked out on the couch. I was going to post to the blog last night but was so tired I could barely make it from the couch to the bed.

Today, we are going for the baby's medical exam -- a requirement by the US in order to get a US Visa. We'll post pictures from Guangzhou later today. In the meantime, I have posted a few good ones from Nanchang -- from our trip to the park on our last full day in Nanchang. More later.

Nanchang Day Five

2007-08-09T02:33:00.000-04:00

Today was our last full day in Nanchang. Anli is spending much of the afternoon getting all of our paperwork finalized so we can travel to Guangzhou tomorrow to begin getting the adoption paperwork processed by the US Consulate so that Jennifer can become a US Citizen. Partly to pass the time today, Anli arranged for the bus to take us (and also Etu, Eugenio, Jim, Debbie, and Caitlin) to a big park near our hotel. It was incredibly hot out but still felt good to get out of the hotel. We took J Ro in the stroller and she didn't seem to mind the heat (again, we think she's used to this kind of heat!). The park was such an interesting scene: there were old people practicing Tai Chi and people playing traditional Chinese musical instruments and singing, and little kids playing in the water sprinklers. It was a really nice scene and something that had nothing touristy about it.

Other than our trip to the park, one of the ways we have been spending time is just staring at beautiful Jennifer Rose and taking photos and video of her. She's a complete social butterfly - wherever we go, people come up to her and she gets excited and starts babbling.

J Ro has really enjoyed sleeping on grandpa Eugenio and also playing and singing with grandma Etu.

One thing that has been funny is how many of Jennifer Rose's clothes don't fit -- they are too big! So this morning we had to do three costume changes before we found an outfit that didn't fall off. But Etu keep saying "she's a perfect size - with great muscle tone!" So we're not worried. But when we get home, we know grandma Thedie will have to come and start serving massive quantities of chicken soup and matzoh ball soup to fill her up!

Ok - we're going to try to take a nap while J Ro is sleeping. So more later. Here is a video of J Ro crawling (sort of) on our hotel couch. I'm also going to try to load two other ones (one with grandma Etu and one with the waitresses in the hotel restaurant).

J & R

More Photos from Day Four in Nanchang

2007-08-07T23:31:00.001-04:00

Here are a few still photos (I know, how old fashioned!) of J Ro. I just love these. There is one of Jennifer taking a nap on my chest -- which I just loved. There are two good ones of J Ro with grandpa (she's asleep in one of them). We're going to try taking J Ro for a walk because she doeesn't feel like taking a nap! Can you stay strong-willed?

Ok - R and I just went on a little adventure outside the hotel. We were going a little bit stir crazy in the room and the rest of the hotel. So we took out J Ro's new stroller (yep - bought it at Wal-Mart for $35!) and visited the local equivalent of Walgreens or CVS. It was extremely hot out and both R and I were fading fast. But Jennifer was fine with the heat. We think she is used to it. We bought a bunch of random stuff -- beer for daddy and Scott; some plastic containers to put baby formula in; some hard candies; some plastic spoons for the baby. The funny thing was that when we got up to the front of the store to pay, they wouldn't let us buy the plastic spoons. We couldn't understand the problem but the lady at the cash register took the spoons away from us and put them somewhere else. So I figured that meant: you can't have them. Of course, R wouldn't take no for an answer ("strong-willed"?) and she went and got the spoons again. We repeated the previous step where the cash register lady took the spoons away. This went on for a few minutes and finally a few other ladies came and led Rachel back to the part of the store where the spoons came from. I stayed up front with the baby (and the small crowd that had gathered to watch the excitement). When R came back, she had no spoons and we both laughed about it. We still don't know why they wouldn't sell us the plastic spoons. R wants to go back tomorrow with Anli to figure it out. In the meantime, I got some good photos of Jennifer in the store (one was with one of the nice salesladies).

We just gave Jennifer Rose a bath and will try to put her to bed. She has not been very interested in taking a nap today -- there are just too many distractions. But we know she needs to stay on her nap schedule or we'll pay later. So we'll see if she will cooperate with us and go to bed early.
J.

Nanchang Day Four

2007-08-07T22:05:00.000-04:00

We have another day of rest today in Nanchang while we are waiting for the paperwork to be completed. We are both happy for that and we have really just enjoyed hanging out with Jennifer. After she went to bed last night (after the needing to poop ordeal), she woke up once at around midnight to take another bottle. Then she slept through the night. At around 7:00 a.m., she woke up and -- after a quick diaper change -- I took her up to grandma and grandpa's room. They loved playing with her on the bed and she seemed to like it as well. She's such a loving and cuddly baby and seems happy now that the not-being-able-to-poop thing is resolved (at least temporarily).

Then I went back down to the room and R and I gave the baby a bath. We're getting good at the bath thing now and Jennifer seems to like sitting in the warm water. We'll have to buy one of these plastic bathtubs when we get home. They sit right in the regular bathtub and are easy to use. It cracks me up to see her hanging on to the side of the plastic tub. I can already tell she likes to be catered to (reminds me of R!). Four Seasons Georgetown spa get ready for a new customer!

Then we did another diaper change. You'd think by now we'd be really good at it but we're still in need of practice - Jennifer generally cries when we put her on her back because she always wants to be held! We try to go as fast as we can but we have lots of room for improvement. Hopefully, we'll get more proficient at this. Then we put Jennifer in a really cute outfit that Elana (R's sister) gave us. We also gave her a 4 ounce bottle that she was happy to wolf down.

Grandma and grandpa came by the room and we went down to breakfast while R took a shower and got dressed. We had a good time at breakfast -- Jennifer is such a social baby. She wants to check out all of the people and all of the hotel restaurant waitresses just keep coming up to her and saying hello and tickling her tummy. She seems to really like that. We tried to feed her some solid food (boiled egg and also Congee) but she still wants nothing to do with it. So we didn't force it. We just played with her while Rachel ate and then R held her.

We just got back to the room and R and J Ro went to visit Scott and Elaine (their room is a few down from ours). I'm just loving this - it doesn't sound like we're doing anything but it's just so much fun to have the baby and make her happy.

Here is a video of J Ro at breakfast with grandpa. And there is a second one of Rachel with the baby at breakfast. These are both really cute - I hope they come out. I'll post more videos and regular photos a little later.

One last thing: Scott and Elaine just gave us the address of their blog - so if anyone wants to see their blog, here it is: http://kiranslittlesister.blogspot.com/

J.

Video of J Ro in Nanchang

2007-08-07T05:14:00.000-04:00

Jim H just showed me how to link a YouTube video to the blog. So here goes. This is a video of J Ro with grandpa -- where he is teaching her how to "make nice". Hopefully it comes out as great as it was in person. More commentary to come.

J.

Second Day in Nanchang - More Photos

2007-08-06T09:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some more photos from today's activities in Nanchang. Also, if you haven't already checked it out, Jim Heverin is posting video on his blog. So my old fashioned photo blog thing is getting out of style. I'll see if Jim can show me how to post video. In the meantime, check the link to Debbie and Jim's blog from our blog's links section. Jim told me tonight that he posted a nice one of me and J Ro but I can't seee it because YouTube is also blocked here.

Right now, R and J Ro are asleep in the bedroom and it's so peaceful to be typing here and listing to their breathing. Unlike yesterday, I now have my bottles with formula ready. Unlike yesterday, I now know how to change a diaper. Unlike yesterday, I am now pretty decent at giving a baby a bath. So I'm feeling good about everyone's progress. More tomorrow.

Second Day in Nanchang

2007-08-06T08:56:00.000-04:00

We just finished our second day in Nanchang and all went really well. Jennifer Rose was just amazing and beautiful and we just kissed her and hugged her all day long. She seems to be pretty easygoing -- no matter how much incompetence we exhibit, she just looks at us with her big beautiful eyes. A few things we have learned today (yes, the hard way):
Don't wait until the baby is ravenously hungry to figure out how to mix the formula into the bottle. (the more experienced among us put the formula in the bottle in advance and then just added hot water when the bottle was needed).

Bring a thermos so that we can prepare a bottle when we are out of the room (again, the more experienced among us had hot water with them).

Bring a spoon (we tried to mix the formula with the swizzle stick from the mini-bar)

Bring the correct size diapers (we brought a size too big and had to make an emergency Wall-Mart run today).

Bring something to wash the bottles out with (we had to use soap from the baby bath until our Wall-Mart run).

When you are putting the baby in the baby carrier (aka Snugli), try not to bonk her in the head with your head (yep, J did that).

You get the idea. But we really are starting to get the hang of things. We are sure there will be new lessons to learn tomorrow and we just hope that Jennifer foregives us for our ignorance.

Today we ran around and did paperwork at several different offices. We also got to see some of her caregivers again at the Nanchang Adoption Center and ask questions about Jennifer and her time at the orphanage. The caregivers told us she is a very clever baby and we shouldn't be fooled by her angelic looks. They emphasized that she is "very, very strongwilled". So now J will have two strongwilled ladies to contend with.

Today's activities were really special -- particularly the time with the caregivers. There was also a great deal of formality to it -- we had to be interviewed by a Chinese official (with a translater) who asked us why we are adopting from China, how we plan to raise her, whether we plan to give her an education, etc. We also had to sign the official adoption documents and then also provide our fingerprints nex to every signature. There were other activities at the City police station and at the City notary (where we were again briefly interviewed before we signed more documents). You can see from being part of this how important it is to the Chinese officials that the babies are going to good, loving families that care a lot about education. It makes us feel good to be part of such a process even if it is difficult.

Tomorrow we get to chill out and experience day #3 with Jennifer. It's going to be a balmy 98 degrees tomorrow, so we are all looking forward to hanging out in the hotel with the air conditioning. Here are some photos from today's activities.

J & R

More Photos of Jennifer Rose

2007-08-05T09:09:00.000-04:00

Here are a few more photos of our big day meeting Jennifer Rose. We are totally exhausted. In fact, R is asleep on the bed and J Ro (as R was calling her) is asleep in the crib. I need to put together some paperwork for tomorrow but I am just really happy. We know we still have a lot of mountains to climb but we just feel so wonderful to finally get to this point. We feel all of the love from all of our family and friends who have been waiting with us this past 2+ years. It is absolutely amazing. Ok - time to peek in on my two ladies. More later.

Jennifer Rose is Here!

2007-08-05T08:44:00.000-04:00

We don't even know how to put in words how happy were are to have Jennifer Rose in our arms! What a very emotional and amazing day! The babies were brought to Nanchang today after a 3-4 hour bus ride from the orphanage. At around 5 p.m. local time, we were able to meet the caregivers and the babies and have pictures taken with them. It is difficult to describe what a wonderful moment it was to be holding Jennifer Rose and have her snuggle up against Rachel. She loved Rachel's necklace and seemed content to be held for a long time. J also got a turn to hold her and it was amazing.

Of the 3 babies, Jennifer is the most petite. We kind of thought the pictures that we received were deceiving. We were all worried that we were buying clothes that were too small-- turns out, they are probably too big. Although she is petite, she seems healthy and happy and she is beautiful.

Once we got back to the hotel, Jennifer was hungry for a bottle. Etu and Joseph took care of getting that ready. Then we played with her for a little while-- she seemed to really enjoy playing with us and we'll have to go out and buy some more toys for her! Joseph changed his first diaper and Jennifer was very patient while he fumbled around with it.

After a while we gave her a bath (with the help Etu). She seemed to like it and she especially liked when R dried her off with the big towel. Then she started rubbing her eyes and after a few more minutes she was asleep. She is asleep now in her crib. We keep sneaking peaks at her just to make sure it's not a dream.

Tomorrow is more paperwork, etc. We have posted some photos - will post a second batch shortly. We are in love!

R & J

Last Full Day in Beijing

2007-08-04T09:50:00.000-04:00

We just got back from a nice dinner with the group at the same amazing Chinese restaurant that we ate lunch at on our first full day in Beijing (the one where Etu and Jim ordered turtle). It was a really nice way to end the Beijing phase of our journey and we are all back at the hotel now packing up our things tonight for an early morning departure to Nanchang.

At one point during dinner tonight, someone asked Scott and Elaine (who already have a daughter) what their top tips are on being a parent. After a few joking comments along the lines of "you are on your own", they gave us some good tips, including something about being consistent, not using the child's bedroom as anything but a sleeping area, and a third one that I have already forgotten. It was fun and strange to even be having the conversation. How often can your really say to someone: "hey, real quick - I'm going to be a parent tomorrow. Any quick tips on how to make that work out ok?"

I'll get to the touring part of today in a moment, but for me the best part of the whole day was when we got in the elevator to go back to our room at the end of the day of sightseeing. A couple came in with a beautiful Chinese baby in an umbrella stroller. Of course, R and I were just so taken with the baby that I think the couple could tell that our reaction was more than just the typical "cute baby!". We told them, "we're meeting our baby tomorrow." They were very sweet and even stopped on our floor and told us how great it was going to be and how everything was going to be fine. I saw that as a good omen for tomorrow. The couple was part of the large Spanish contingent of adoptive parents here that we have seen a various points over the past few days. The babies all look happy and the parents look like they know what they are doing (they have had the babies for about 10 days so they have had lots of practice!).

Ok - a quick note on the sights. I sort of was on autopilot today with the sightseeing thing -- partly because I was more thinking about tomorrow and partly because I have gotten a bit overwhelmed by the crush of people at all of the sights. In any case, here are the highlights (my version) in order:

First we went to the Ming Tomb. It was very beautiful. Check with R on the significance because I wasn't listening to the guide very closely. I can say that it was a very tranquil and beautiful place -- with a long path with carved animals on each side leading to the tomb. I realize I'm not giving you much here. Work with me. The layout of the grounds was just very beautiful and impressive at the same time. I have attached three photos from this part of our day: one of the girls; one of the guys; and one of me and R next to one of the animal statues. Other highlight: I bought my mom a straw hat similar to the one I bought Etu at the Temple of Heaven.
Second stop: Jade store. Again, this was one of those deals where they give you an expert pitch on how the stuff is made and that quickly transitions to the hard sell portion of the visit. We were actually looking forward to this part of the day since our daughter's Chinese name (Yu Hua) means "beautiful jade". The store was one of the top places in Beijing to buy jade so we enjoyed buying some nice gifts for Jennifer Rose to give to her when she's old enough not to eat them. We know that these will be special gifts because we got them at a time with so much significant for us and when we are so hopeful about Jennifer Rose coming into our lives.
Next stop: lunch. This was both a lunch spot and a place that sells all manner of items of interest to tourists. It was too much for me -- the volume of tourist nicknacks; the tour buses in the parking lot, the large volume of tourists (not just from the US). So while it was useful to pick up a few gift items there, I was glad when we got back on the bus to head to the Great Wall.
The Great Wall was....pretty great. Ok - I'm fading, but how often do you really get to use that joke in context? Actually, it really was impressive. The only minor downside was that there were so many people all over the place and the crush of tourists, tour buses, and people selling nicknacks got to both me and R (that plus the fact that someone had yacked all over the part of the path we were hiking on). So after some climbing around on the Wall, we were content to hang out with Etu while the others climed to a higher part of the Wall. I have attached two photos of me and R with Etu at the Wall. It was special for us just to be spending time with her so we didn't mind that we didn't climb to the top of the Wall. The Great Wall is just an amazing thing to see -- another one of those parts of Chinese history that just makes you want to learn more and read more. Being in China you get so see so many thousands of years of history unfolding before your eyes.
Last stop: Chinese acrobatic show. It was truly amazing to see what the acrobats can do. It was so good that it had me wondering if it was even real! Where is the trick? The acrobats were in incredible shape and they combined the skill of a top gymnist with what appeared to be a huge amount of risk. It was also interesting that this didn't appear to be a major foreign tourist destination. A lot of the audience was groups of young Chinese kids. So it felt very authentic. It was also very crowded and loud. So while we loved the show, we were happy to get back to the hotel at the end of the day and just unwind. Thus, it was such a welcome little interlude to have that conversation with the Spanish couple with the baby in the elevator as we were heading back to our room.

That's pretty much it for now. More to follow once we are in Nanchang. As Jim and I said to each other at dinner tonight: "this is not a drill."

One last item: please keep the blog comments coming. Even if we cannot currently read them (since the Blogger site is blocked for us in China), we want to have them as a keepsake to give to Jennifer Rose when she's old enough and we certainly look forward to reading them as well.

Beijing Day Three

2007-08-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

Another really full and good day seeing Beijing. The day started at about 6:30 a.m. when I went to get bottled water at the little shops near our hotel. After I got the water, I took a few minutes and checked out the various comings and goings of the people. It's amazing how varied the scene was. On one hand, there is our fancy hotel with a beautiful lobby and a bunch of really elegant restaurants and shops across from the hotel. But right around the corner from the hotel, there is a construction site (I believe they are building another hotel) so there are construction workers coming and going -- most not wearing shirts, all smoking cigarettes. And the little shops have activity of their own. There was a guy on the corner deep frying bread and serving it to the construction workers and other people on their way to work. There was a guy making what looked like crepes with eggs on them. There were people biking down the narrow street and people setting up shop. It was really nice to start the day that way.

After meeting everyone for breakfast at the hotel, our first stop was Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. The pic of R and Etu is in Tienanmen Square, as is the one of Etu wearing the hat I bought her yesterday. The other three photos are from the Forbidden City. Tienanmen Square was impressive mainly for its massiveness. The buildings look like they were built for giants and the same is true with the public spaces. The Forbidden City is also massive but not in terms of the size of the buildings -- rather, because there are so many buildings and the complex just keeps going on and on. I personally liked the Forbidden City more than Tienamen Square and we all enjoyed walking through the various parts of the City (although it was very hot!).

After lunch in the Forbidden City, the next stop was a factory that makes silk carpets. I had very low expectations here but we were all pleasantly surprised. The guide was really knowledgeable and we all learned about the process of making silk carpets. Short summary: it takes a long time -- years in some cases to make a single carpet. There is a lot af artistry involved. And even a small carpet is many hundreds of dollars. Luckily for me, R didn't buy anything. But our party didn't disappoint our guide -- a few people bought things, which made our tour guide happy.

We then spent all afternoon on a rickshaw tour of the old Beijing neighborhood. It was both fun and educational -- we had two people per rickshaw and the guys peddaling these converted bicycles were fearless as we weaved in and out of traffic, around pedestrians, and over bumps in the road. We stopped along the way a few times to have tours of various parts of the neighborhood -- including a stop in a nursery school and a house. Of course on the house tour Etu hit it off with the 95 year old grandmother who spoke no English! We all got pictures of the two of them hugging and (according to our guide) the grandmother wished us all well in our travels. It was touching and funny all at the same time.

Next stop was an early dinner at the top Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. It was a huge place -- with photos on the wall of dignitaries who had eaten there (including Henry Kissinger when he was doing shuttle diplomacy for the Nixon trip to China). We all loved the duck. Jim, Etu, Gene, and I ordered four beers that came in massive bottles (see, even the BEER in China is huge!). Etu and Jim fought over who could eat the duck head (and then they realized there were two duck heads and were both happy)! We are all grossed out. Yesterday, they both ate turtle at a Chinese restaurant for lunch, so they are our adventursome eaters.

We managed to finish all of the beer and we made it back to the hotel in one piece. We are all tired but feeling good about how much of the sights, sounds, and feel of Beijing we have been able to absorb in a short time. Tomorrow we have an early start since we are going to the Great Wall. We are all getting increasingly excited as Sunday approaches. So the busy itinerary is helpful if nothing else because it helps us pass the time until we get to Nanchang on Sunday. But it also has been good just to get a better flavor for this amazing place. Ok - off to bed now.

Beijing Day Two

2007-08-02T05:31:00.000-04:00

As noted earlier, it really feels like we have been here much longer than two full days. We have been cramming so much into every day but that's the way we wanted to do it so that we can experience as much of China as possible.

We started this morning at the Temple of Heaven -- a really impressive set of structures. As with yesterday's visit to the Summer Palace, we were all impressed by the beautiful colors and architecture. I have uploaded a few photos that hopefully show this. In particular, I loved the deep blue colors and the gold colors as well as the elaborate patterns and designs. It's really hard to capture on camera -- you really have to see the entire place. The Temple of Heaven was such a large site that we did a lot of walking -- lots of steps! So we are getting our exercise even if we didn't bring our running shoes.

All along the way, there were lots of people trying to sell us various items - fans, hats, Beijing Olympics stuff, etc. I finally gave in and bought Etu a straw hat for $10 Yuan - just over $1. It was the best purchase of the day and she loved it.

As an aside, Jim H. noticed today when we were on the bus that the Green Tea drink that we have all been enjoying (see yesterday's post) has a website listed on bottle. I just went and checked it out and it's pretty cool -- mostly in Chinese but with cool animation. Here's the link: http://www.byunif.com/ if you want to check it out. We really do have to track the stuff down in the US to see if they have distributor. If not, this could be a hit business in the US (but I won't quit my day job just yet).

After the Temple of Heaven, we visited a silk factory. They gave us a tour where they showed us how the silk is made and we got to see women (not sure why no men) weaving with the silk fabric and turning the fabric into yarn. Not surprisingly, this educational component transitioned into the sales portion of the show -- and Rachel and Debbie did not let down our hosts. They both bought some beautiful traditional Chinese outfits for our little ones and also purchased silk bedding. This was exactly at the point in time where it hit me that: 1) I was feeling a big of jet lag and 2) shopping is shopping -- whether you are in Tyson's Corner mall in the U.S. or a silk factory in China. So I was fading quickly. But R is a decisive shopper - so she finished her purchases and we quickly made our way to the next stops -- first lunch at a Chinese restaurant then the Lama Temple.

I was not as into the Lama Temple as I was the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. Perhaps it was that I was still fading from the travel. But my personal opinion was that it was just not as beautiful a site as the other places we have seen. One thing that cracked me up: they had a huge carved Buddha statue with a sign outside that said that this was the largest carved wooden Buddha in the world (carved from a single piece of wood) and was in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1992. I was sitting there thinking: so the monks at the temple took time away from their heavenly thoughts to be happy about being in the Guinness Book of World Records -- perhaps right next to the guy who ate 50 Nathan's hot dogs in 10 minutes? Etu and I were the only ones that thought this was funny.

R and Debbie had expressed interest in seeing a traditional Chinese tea ceremony (and after the shopping and Lama Temple I was thinking "please, no more"). But this was the surprise hit of the day. We had an awesome time getting a demo of the various types of teas and some of the ceremony around drinking tea in China. Our guide was a lovely woman who spoke great English and had an awesome sense of humor. As a bonus, drinking all of that tea totally helped my sore throat. So I didn't mind the obligitory sales part of the presentation where we all proceeded to buy large quantities of tea. So we're now set tea-wise for the rest of our lives.

We just got back to the hotel and R and Debbie had so much energy that they went out on a walk to see one of the supposedly good shopping streets near our hotel. Those guys are amazing -- not even showing any signs of jet lag and just wanting to experience every ounce of this place. I begged for mercy and was spared having to go along on this excursion. So I'm relaxing in the air conditioning of our hotel room. When they get back, we'll try to find a spot for dinner. We are all looking forward to seeing Scott and Elaine tonight -- they should get in around 10:30 p.m. local time and we'll try to meet them at the hotel. Hopefully their flight was as smooth as ours. Ok - time to get some rest. More later.

Trying to Get the Hang of Posting in Chinese

2007-08-01T11:53:00.001-04:00

Ok - I think I may have figured out the trick to posting to the blog. It appears that Blogger really is blocked in China but the tool that is used to update Blogger (called Blogger Dashboard) is not blocked. But it is in Chinese. So in trying to post to the blog, I feel a bit like someone in a room with no lights on. I remember where the buttons are (sort of). I just fumble around looking for furniture and the light switch etc. And I have no way to read the blog once we post something. Nice. So sorry in advance if the posts and the photos don't match.

We are now at the end of our first full day in Beijing. We are really getting into the swing of this place -- the beautiful hotel, the nearby shops, the restaurants. We took a nap this afternoon and just relaxed a bit. Tonight for dinner we went to a really good Hong Kong noodle place right near the hotel. It was a cool set-up -- at each table, they had a burner and they boiled the meat and vegetables right there (kind of like those Korean BBQ places except everything is boiled instead of fried). There was a nice variety of things that we cooked -- noodles, chicken, beef, mushrooms, tofu, etc. The server did most of the work and we just enjoyed it. It was just what we needed after the heavy lunch we had.

We kept asking the server for the Chinese name of the things we were eating. After a while, we gave up because her English was so much better than our attempts at Chinese. Everyone here has been so friendly -- it has really made it comfortable to be here and makes us feel good about the trip. It has been funny to see how Etu manages to make friends with everyone -- even if they barely speak English. She talks to the concierge and the lady in the gift shop and everyone on the airplane, etc. It's just so nice to have her here because she's a whirlwind of social activity and her smiling face attracts people.

One other totally random thing I just remembered from today: the drink we discovered today is a green tea that is sold in a plastic bottle similar to bottled water (I have attached a dorky photo of me holding a bottle of it). It costs about 40 cents and it is awesome. I downed two of them at the Summer Palace and then bought two more to take the the hotel tonight. They could do good business in the US if someone could figure out a way of selling it. It's not too sweet but is tasty.

Another random item from today. I picked up the China Daily today in the hotel lobby. It had a headline that read "China 'is no threat to anyone'". The sub-headline was: "Aim of economic development is to feed and clothe 1.3b people: Wu". I liked the simplicity of that headline.

Here are a few more photos from today -- from our trip to the Summer Palace. I like the one of R and Etu because it captures how happy we are to be here. I also like the one of Etu and Eugenio in front of the lake (we took a dragon boat across that lake to get back to our bus). Today gave us a glimpse of the amazing Chinese culture and history, as well as the friendly people. I'm sure we'll have so much more of that in the coming days.

Last item before I sign off: The last family in our China travel group (Elaine and Scott Sullivan) should have just left Dulles, VA an hour ago! They are on the same flight that we took on Monday -- the 12:20 p.m. out of Dulles via Tokyo. It's exciting to think that they will be here with us starting tomorrow night.

Photos of Beijing Summer Palace

2007-08-01T06:39:00.001-04:00

Per the earlier blog posting, here are a few photos of the Beijing Summer Palace. The place was really impressive -- the color of the designs, the scale of the place, and the unique architecture.
J.

First Full Day in Beijing

2007-08-01T06:28:00.000-04:00

Surprisingly, we weren't feeling too jetlagged this morning when we woke up. It's hard to believe we are here after so much anticipation and waiting. In some ways, it's hard for both of us to get into "seeing the sights" mode because all we can think about is having Jennifer Rose in our arms on Sunday. But we are also excited about learning more about China and really experiencing the culture. So we all really enjoyed the half-day trip we took to the Summer Palace. The place is really huge and although there were a lot of tourists (mostly Chinese), it didn't detract from the impressiveness of the place. I'll try to post some photos later (Jim came up with a possible solution to the fact that the blogger site appears to be blocked - by posting mail to Flickr). It was hot but not unbearable and we enjoyed walking all around the huge palace grounds. The scale of the place is immense and I was really drawn to the colorful images and beautiful architecture. Hopefully that will come out in the photos I post.

After we got back from the Summer Palace, it was late afternoon and we went to a really amazing Chinese restaurant near the hotel. It was such good food we really enoyed the atmosphere (extremely elegant). Some of the more adventuresome eaters in the group (Jim and Etu) tried a turtle dish. The rest of us passed on that. We also had really good Dim Sum and two amazing clay pot dishes. We were all stuffed.

Now the entire group is relaxing before we re-gather and go out again. Adjusting to the time difference hasn't been that bad so far. We were tired before we left for this trip so this doesn't feel very different. Maybe it will hit us later today or tomorrow.

Ok - will sign off now.

J.

We are in Beijing!

2007-07-31T11:31:00.000-04:00

Wow - after many hours on airplanes today, we are all safely in our Beijing hotel. We have been on the go for over 24 hours so we'll keep this short and we will write more later. Everything about the travel was good -- the ANA flight was on time and not too crowded (because we were in business class). The food was great. The flight was not too bumpy. The flight from Tokyo to Beijing was also fine. Beijing is hot and muggy but we are all so happy to be here we don't care. We were met at the airport by Anli -- the Barker China travel coordinator. She had a bus waiting to take all of us to the hotel. Tomorrow we meet for breakfast at 8 a.m. to begin touring. We don't feel tired now (R noted that we are on our fourth or fifth wind). But I'm sure we'll be tired when the wakup call comes.

Here are a few pics we took in the airport today -- some at Dulles and some in Tokyo. You can see how excited we all are. You have to be excited to take photos in the Dulles airport! More later!

J and R

T Minus One Day

2007-07-29T08:19:00.000-04:00

Only one day until we leave for China! We're feeling ready, although we keep saying, "how can we be so tired when we haven't even started the trip yet!?". Last night, I was totally dragging and had that fighting-a-cold feeling. I was thinking "feets don't fail me now! - I need another gear." But this morning, I'm feeling human again, so my hope is that this is like sports where you are sometimes tired heading into the big game and then the adrenaline kicks in. We don't have a ton of stuff to do today: R is going to get some tank tops because it has been so hot in China and she wants to stay cool. I just need to put all my stuff in the suitcase and go through the last items on my to-do list. We also have it sort through the huge pile of baby stuff and decide what we need to bring (what IS all this stuff?).

Last night we had an awesome dinner at our house with the adoption travel group -- Jim and Debbie Heverin; Scott and Elaine Sullivan and their daughter Kiran; and Etu and Eugenio (R's parents). I have posted a few photos -- including a really nice one of all of the girls in Jennifer Rose's room.

Jim and I immediately got into the computer geek stuff (I showed him the laptop I'm bringing to China and also the mini camcorder. He had his pile of tecky do-dads). Scott is also bringing a laptop and camcorder so we'll be pretty set as far as documenting the trip. After dinner, we all walked up to the pool and we hung out and relaxed while Kiran splashed around in the pool like a little seal. It was just such a nice, relaxing evening. Hopefully, the next time we're all at the pool it will be with the little ones! Ok - ready to sign off and begin the last push to complete the packing. I'm not planning on logging on tomorrow so the next post will be from China.

T Minus 2 Days

2007-07-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

Ok - we are in all-out packing mode. R was scaring me there for a few days since she did not start packing until last night. But she has her approach. She first goes into PURCHASE MODE -- including at least one massive CVS run in which she buys the entire row of the store that sells Advil, Pepto Bismo, Tums, Sudafed, and a bunch of other items that could enable us to open a small pharmacy here in Georgetown. Then she goes in search of the perfect purse or backpack. This include a review of online sites as well as stores. She settled on a really cool backpack that is decorated in what looks like leopard skin-spots -- very stylish, but what would you expect! Then she moves into massive LAUNDRY MODE. Everything gets washed. And I lose about 10,000 calories going up and down the stars from the laundry room to our bedroom as R does more and more laundry! Then she goes into IRONING MODE. This is a step this is not familiar to most guys -- ironing something before you put it in the suitcase!? Then and only then does she get into PACKING MODE. It appears that she has just made the transition from ironing mode to packing mode.

The other new mode that we have both gotten into is the DOWNLOADING MUSIC MODE. R went to I-tunes last night and downloaded "Jet Airliner" (Steve Miller Band) and she got a bunch of her other favorites that she has been cranking as we pack. Meanwhile, I'm up in the office typing on the computer we'll be taking to China and I'm listening to -- you guessed it -- Bruce Springsteen. R surprised me by downloading a Bruce tune last night from I-tunes -- the one with the lyrics that go "when I'm out in the street....I walk the way I wanna walk...". Meanwhile, I'm listening to the darker Bruce stuff (like the soundtrack from the movie "Philadelphia" or anything off of Nebraska or Ghost of Tom Joad).

One other random observation before I get out of the house to do some final errands. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love sports metaphors. Hidden secret: I also like finance metaphors. Kind of embarrassing to admit. But sometimes, finance does a good job of describing philosophy. So here's the thought (humor me here, eh?): so much of life seems to be about what stuff you have achieved or collected. Kind of like a balance sheet on a company's financial statements. On a balance sheet, it lists all of the assets and liabilities at a point in time (usually the end of the calendar year) and if a company has built up a lot of assets relative to their liabilities, then they have a big net asset base. That's impressive. By contrast, the income and expense statement measures the company's revenue and expenses not at a point in time but over the course of a time increment (usually a year). So what does this have to do with life? It's that rather than always focusing on balance sheet measures (what you have achieved, how much you have accumulated), it's also important to look at the income and expense measures in life -- what you have done in a particular year regardless of whether the activity generates an increase in net assets. Ok - maybe the analogy doesn't work so well. :).

Then I started thinking about what the accounting treatment should be on things like incredible experiences. Can you monetize it just like a company can associate a value to their brand or to "goodwill"? This last few months in going through the adoption process has been priceless even though it has actually resulted in a drop in net assets on the balance sheet. Ok - I'm going to end this one before I beat it to death. Bottom line - we're feeling good. R is finally packing. I've got my pile of stuff on the couch that is ready to go in the suitcase. Or as I told my NY cousin Dan Margulies when we spoke earlier today, our packing staging areas are like the space shuttle: once you are ready for launch, the shuttle has to be moved from the hangar to the launch pad. Similarly, tonight I'll slowly move all of my packing stuff from the assembly staging area to the launch pad (suitcase). Ok - I got to stop with these metaphors. I'm off to the bank and then to get my haircut. More later.
J.

T-Minus 3 Days

2007-07-27T05:56:00.000-04:00

Ok - only 3 days left until liftoff! So that you can keep track of us while in China, we have included our travel itinerary. We plan to post blog entries daily (even if we are sleep deprived!).

OUR ITINERARY

Monday, July 30
Leave Washington Dulles @ 12:20 pm for Beijing.

Tuesday, July 31
Arrive in Tokyo, Japan at 3:25 p.m. Depart Tokyo at 5:20 p.m. and arrive in Beijing @ 8:05 pm.

Wednesday, August 1
Summer Palace in the morning. Catch up on sleep in the afternoon!

Thursday, August 2
Temple of Heaven in the morning. Lama Temple in the afternoon. Catch up on more sleep!

Friday, August 3
Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City in the morning. Rickshaw tour to the old neighborhood of Beijing in the afternoon. More sleep after!

Saturday, August 4
Ming Tomb in the morning. The Great Wall in the afternoon followed by a Chinese acrobatics show.

Sunday, August 5
Morning flight to Nanchang. Afternoon, go to Jiangxi Adoption Center to meet Jennifer Rose!!!

Monday, August 6
Start paperwork and appointment with Civil Affairs.

Tuesday through Thursday, August 7-9
Paperwork, sightseeing and shopping. Probably no sleeping!

Friday, August 10
Finish paperwork. Late afternoon flight to Guangzhou.

Saturday, August 11
Baby's visa picture taken in the morning followed by a medical examination.

Sunday, August 12
Half day tour of Guangzhou.

Monday, August 13
Documents submitted to US Consulate.

Tuesday, August 14
Go to US Consulate to take oath. Pick up visa.

Wednesday, August 15
Depart in afternoon for Tokyo, Japan.

Thursday, August 16
Depart Tokyo in morning for flight to Washington Dulles

Thursday, August 16
Arrive Washington Dulles @ 10:40am!!

To say that we are excited would be an understatement. We are ready to begin this adventure!
J.

T-Minus 4 Days

2007-07-26T23:24:00.000-04:00

Ok - so I'm procrastinating from packing and the best form of procrastination is listing to Bruce Springsteen ("Secret Garden" off of Greatest Hits) while rambling through the blog-o-sphere. We got a really nice e-mail from Thedie (aka Theda aka mom) today with another in her series of poems that she's writing to Jennifer Rose. She has 15 poems done so far. Here are the two that she has sent so far:

Three little girls from across the sea,

Jennifer, Caitlin, Kate all three,

Three little girls from Cathay.

Three little girls all from Cathay,

In China we would play all day,

Now we’ll play in the USA

Three little girls from Cathay.

These little poems bring a smile to my face. Here's the one she sent yesterday.

Jennifer Rose, Jennifer Rose,
Up into the air she goes,
With mommie and dad
And Etu and Gene,
She’ll be home before anyone knows.

Stay posted for more of these as they come off the presses.
J.

T Minus 5 Days

2007-07-25T23:40:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that we are leaving for China on Monday! Although we've had a lot of time to get ready, it still feels like a rush to get everything done before we leave. One of the final items on the "to do" list was to get a car seat installed in R's car. So this morning before work, I showed up at the DC DMV inspection station where they help install car seats. It was a pretty simple process and it felt good to have it done. It was a strange feeling driving around with a car seat in the car -- it was like "what the heck is that thing doing in here?" Even after everything we have done, it still doesn't feel real. I think it will feel real once we touch down in China.

Right now, I'm on the new laptop and I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits -- a CD that I found while cleaning up last week. It's such a great album and it reminds me a lot of my first year at Berkeley (not sure why I was going through such a big Bruce phase then). Anyway, I love the album and R is not particularly fond of it. But she's fast asleep on the bed while I'm typing this so I'm free to tinker on the computer and listen to my favorite Bruce tunes.

I was thinking of another sports metaphor today. It had to do with Olympic acrobatic ski jumping of all things -- you know - the sport where they go down the steep ramp on skis and then do all kinds of flips and twists. It would also apply to Olympic diving. My question/thought was this: you can practice all you want. You can read all of the instruction manuals. You can get hooked up to a harness and experience what it feels like to do the twists and turns. But at some point, you're just going to have to go down that ramp or jump off that high dive and the only way to experience it is to do it. That's the way I feel right now with the adoption. We've read every book. We've gone to so many Adoption classes and conferences. We've been on listserves. We've been to waiting parent meetings. We know what to say and what not to say when asked about the adoption. We know what to pack and whether it's better to bring cash or travelers checks. We know that the baby seat has to be rear-facing since the baby will be less than 1-year old. We know all of this stuff. But at some point, the training is over. You just have to just do it. So, let's go off the high dive, shall we?

This Bruce is so good - I am going to drive R crazy in China if I'm listening to this all of the time!

More later.

J.

An Assessment of the Techy Purchases

2007-07-22T23:40:00.000-04:00

As I noted in my July 1 posting ("Techno Geek Heaven"), we bought a few techy items in preparation for the China trip, including: 1) a small Dell laptop; 2) a really small camcorder; and 3) a laptop messinger bag. I thought I'd do a recap of the overall user experience for each of these items vs. my expectations. (warning: description of computer-induced frustration follows. Do not read if this will give you computer set-up flashbacks) Bottom line: I'm really happy with what we got but my fears were realized about the horrible experience of setting up new technology items. I don't know why I was disappointed with the setup process -- this experience was no different from most of the other times I have tried to set up new technology items. But I can always have my hopes and dreams, yes?

Here's the run down. First the laptop. It's a beautiful looking little thing -- it looks like Dell stole some design elements from Apple. The keyboard is a shiny platinum color and the overall look and feel is good. It feels much lighter than our other laptop. So far so good. Although I'm happy now, I must say that the "out-of-the-box" experience left a lot to be desired. Once I turned the thing on, I was bombarded by various set-up messages -- some from the MacAfee anti-virus program (the laptop came with 1 year free); some from Windows; some from Dell. I tried to stay with the various prompts and requests. If it asked me to accept terms of use, I accepted them. If it asked me to create a password, I created it. The new computer has the Microsoft Vista OS -- so I wasn't used to it. I had to go to the "help" section a number of times just to figure out where key features were (where's the e-mail application; where's the "My Computer" icon; how do I shut down?). It auto-installed an ugly lookng Dell Internet home page that I had to uninstall and replace with the clean Google News UI. It ran me through a few additional hassles -- like having me find the Microsoft Office disc among the materials shipped with the laptop and entering a 16-digit key in order to get Microsoft Word to work. But I'm not complaining! Just passing along a few observations.

I was very proud of myself that after only 5 tries, I figured out how to get the laptop to talk to our existing wireless router/DSL modem. There is a code listed on the bottom of the wireless router that I had to enter as part of my network setup. I also finally figured out that Microsoft Outlook Express is now called "Windows Mail". I struggled to configure the mail program and then I bumbled around for about an hour trying to get the mail set up properly (you need to know that the incoming mail server is "incoming.verizon.net" and the outgoing mail server is "outgoing.verizon.net". You also have to know to check the box under "tools/accounts/preferences/servers" that says "my server requires authentication". Without that, the mail won't work. I figured this out after a call to the Verizon tech help number. At one point, I was told to call a different Verizon help queue (the wireless Verizon #) to determing why the computer was not communicating properly with R's Blackberry device. After getting on that call, I was disconnected before the guy could help me. I think the Blackberry is working now, so I'll deal with that issue later if there are problems.

But don't let me sound bitter -- the main thing is that I did figure out what I needed to figure out and I'm happy with how the computer seems to be working now. But this little voice kept saying: does it have to be this hard. And I was thinking about those Apple advertisements on TV where the hip young guy mocks the older guy in the suit because his setup is so old fashioned and difficult.

As for the camcorder, it was basically the same lame out-of-the-box experience. Getting the thing to turn on and take movies was easy. Getting it connected to the PC was a royal pain. Turns out it is not compatible with the Microsoft Vista OS so I had to go to the RCA website and install a new set of .exe files. (I had no idea what I was doing -- I just kept randomly trying things until it worked - I think). I took a few sample videos yesterday and was able to view them on the computer so it appears to work fine. But I had some trouble figuring out how to share videos using e-mail or the box.net web interface. I also couldn't figure out how to publish a link to a video in our blog. I'll figure that out later, I hope -- maybe when Jim Heverin comes over on Saturday for our last pre-China travel get together. One other comment on the RCA camcorder -- although it's small and has good features, it looks like a cheap American product. Very different from the cool design that Apple does. But hey - what can I expect for $120. If the thing works and is so compact I'll actually take it with me, then I'll be happy.

Lastly, the Timbuk2 laptop messinger bag seems ok -- although I'm still not convinced a messinger bag is the most comfortable way to carry a computer and other equipment. I might be better off just going with a backpack or a wheelie laptop bag. But this isn't the fault of the messinger bag. It may be better for a trip to the local Starbucks than a trip to China with all of my carry-on items. But we'll see.

Overall, I'm HAPPY with the tech purchases. Just wish the out-of-the-box experience was better. When we get back from China and have a little more time, I do want to buy a Mac and compare the setup experience to see if Mac really is a lot better. Wouldn't it be cool if you could just take it out of the box, plug it in, and have it work?

Ok - signing off now. Tomorrow (Monday) is officially 1 week before we depart. We're ready.
J.

Let the Packing Begin

2007-07-21T12:05:00.000-04:00

Ok - so we have these big empty suitcases and the question is: what to put in them. It turns out this is a topic of much obsession among the international adoption set. As an example, Jim Heverin found the following link (from Families with Children From China) that contains something like 15 different adoption travel packing lists! http://www.fwcc.org/packtips.htm. I looked at it for about five minutes and decided to wait a day to begin this. Too much info!

So I'm going to take the plunge and open up the laptop box instead of dealing with the packing list issue. I'll be back later with a report on whether the laptop works (same with the camcorder). And more to come on the packing issue. It seems pretty simple to me -- just bring enough stuff to carry you through 2.5 weeks including a 10-month old baby. But just remember that the authors of most of these packing lists are talking about more than just a packing list. They are talking about what the trip meant to them and are recounting their experiences. So I'll cut them a litle slack. But not much.

J.

Final Travel Itinerary for China Trip and Additional Sports Metaphors

2007-07-21T08:08:00.000-04:00

We got an e-mail from Barker this week with the final travel itinerary for internal China travel. We are all really excited about it. Jim and Debbie Heverin did a nice job in their blog of describing the day-by-day plans so I figured I'd just link to their entry: http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/07/we-have-travel-itinerary.html. Not much more I can add to that. We are totally psyched and are ready.

One funny thing that I've been thinking about on the itinerary relates to the choice of airline: we are flying ANA to Beijing via Tokyo. My brother-in-law David Cohen told me that he has flown ANA to Asia a few times and he said that in business class, they have unlimited Japanese noodle bowls. For some reason, I can't seem to get that out of my mind. I can just picture myself eating 3-4 huge noodle bowls over the course of the 19+ hour flight just to pass the time and then I'll either be feeling great or I'll feel like a sumo wrestler. And it's also a sorry fact that with everything to be excited about on this trip (you know, little things like meeting our daughter and seeing the Great Wall of China and the Imperial Palace), I'm thinking about how great it is that we get unlimited noodle bowls on the plane! People who like food will understand.

Separate from sharing news about the China travel itinerary, Rachel has been urging me to put in more sports metaphors to my blog posts. I think that's pretty funny because when I first posted the sports metaphor entry (scroll down to July 5 posting), R thought it was strange. But she said the she got good feedback from several friends on this. So I'm urged to do more. As I told her, you can't just do a perfect sports metaphor. It has to ripen like a good wine. But I have been thinking about this for a few days in particular because this weekend is the British Open golf tournament -- site of the famous 1999 Van de Velde meltdown where he choked off a 3-stroke lead on the 18th hole on Sunday. I have been thinking about two metaphors: one complex and one pretty simple. First the simple one: don't pull a Van de Velde. Van de Velde was ahead by 3 strokes and on the final hole he pulled out a driver instead of an iron or a 3-wood off the tee. Bad move. If he had picked an iron, he would have probably won the tournament. His driver shot put him in a bad spot. But with a 3-shot lead, he still could have recovered. Instead of laying up and getting back into a good spot to win the tournament, he tried to go for the green on his second shot. He ended up in the river and the rest is history. So I'm feeling a bit like we have a 3-shot lead these days. We got our referral. We got travel approval. We have suitcases. We have a few really cute baby outfits courtesy of R's shopping excursions over the past few weeks. We have notified work that we're leaving. We just need to make it through next week -- no drivers off the tee. Three wood up the middle. Keep the head down. Don't listen to the crowd noise. We've been doing this process for two-and-a-half years.

Or as my high school tennis coach (Mr. Wall) used to say, "We've been training hard for this, boys. Just need to execute like we did in practice." Not sure how that applies to waiting for the adoption, but it's funny to think about Mr. Wall and the Woodside High tennis team. Mr. Wall was a former marine and was a total hardass. He used to follow us in his car when we ran around Woodside hills and always had us in better mental and physical shape than the opponent. He once gave an impassioned speech in which he said: "This is a team. We need to act like a team. We need to think like a team. It's a team when we go to practice. It's a team when we leave practice. It's a team when we go to a match. It's a team when we are dismantling the other guys. It's a team. Are there any questions?" And every wise-ass bone in my body wanted to raise my hand and ask, "Mr. Wall - just one queston, sir, that I'm not so clear on. Is it a team?" Didn't have the guts to do that. He would have kicked my ass off the team (and possibly put me in the wrestling room and fired tennis balls at me with the ball machine like he would do on rainy days when we couldn't practice). But it would have been a great story and would have been worth it in retrospect.

The other sports metaphor I've been thinking about relates to football and applies to how best to respond when the other person (R, for example) is being what I might call irrational or unreasonable(disclaimer: hardly ever happens. And I do my share of freak-ons as well). In any case, when I get in one of those situations, I think about the hard count in football. You know - when a team is on fourth and inches and instead of trying to go for the first down, they try to draw the other team offsides by having the quarterback do a hard count (Hut..Hut.. Hut HUT etc.). Everyone on both sides of the ball knows this is going to happen. It's the oldest trick in football. So in the defensive huddle, all of the guys say "remember: nobody fall for the hard count." But then invariably someone falls for the hard count and the offense gets the first down as a result of the 5-yard offsides penalty.

So how does this apply to our situation? The simple fact is that with all of the stresses and pressures that come and go in life, there's always going to be some moment where the other person acts in a way that isn't 100% rational or calm. That's the hard count. You pretty much know it's going to come. You tell yourself it's going to come. And when it comes, the right thing to do is to be disciplined on defense and not fall for it. You just calmly wait there and the offense is forced to call time out and punt the ball.

The other part of not falling for the hard count is that you will fall for the hard count. That's just life. And when you do fall for it, just take the 5-yard penalty. Don't get caught on a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct call. It's not a question of whose fault it is. The game isn't always fair. They never get the guy who throws the first punch or steps on your head at the bottom of the pile -- just the guy who responds. So, rule for the day: don't fall for the hard count, and when you do fall for it, take the 5-yards and go back to the huddle.

Ok - enough sports metaphor pontification for one day.
J.

More Baby Shower Pics and Technology Thoughts

2007-07-21T07:04:00.000-04:00

R was looking through the photos of the baby shower (see previous post) and saw a few other good ones that she asked me to post. So here they are. There's a really nice one of R with Debbie and Elaine and there's also on of Ademski and Talia helping R open presents.

We now have a room in our house that is "the shower presents room". Previously, that was the "moving boxes room" from when we moved 2 years ago! We are looking forward to putting the shower gifts to good use -- particularly the books and the clothes. It will be fun to pick out a book to read to Jennifer Rose and I'm sure R will be all over picking out the outfits.

So this weekend we are doing various things in the getting ready for China category. As I type, R is going through stuff in the room next to the baby room to get ready for delivery of a desk this morning. We are going to use that room as an office so we won't have to keep the laptop computer on the dining room table as we have been doing.

I'm also planning on opening the boxes of technology items that have arrived over the past few weeks. One box contains the laptop computer. Another contains the mini camcorder. Another contains extra memory for the camcorder. We always have the same ritual when new technology arrives. I try to set it up and pretty rapidly become flumoxed by the fact that computers basically suck. Then I spend 2+ hours on the phone with Dell or Verizon (or to be more precise, I spend time on the phone with Dell or Verizon's call center in Bangalore, India). I have no complaints against the friendly folks in Bangalore. I have found they really know their stuff. My issue is with computers in general and the fact that there is no party who accepts responsibility for the minor fact that THE COMPUTER DOESN'T WORK. Dell will say it's a Verizon problem and Verizon will say its a Microsoft problem and Microsoft will say it's a Dell and/or Verizon problem. So I always end up forking over additional money to Dell to take responsibility for all problems for a brief period of time. Last time, I paid for unlimited tech help to resolve "four incidents". So when I had the incidents, I really wanted to get my money's worth.

I don't want to be a pessimist and say that I'll have problems with the new computer setup. But I start to break out into a cold sweat when I think of trying to get the new laptop to talk to the wireless router/DSL modem (which I'm sure I can't find the password to). So I'll reset the password on that and the current laptop won't be able to talk to the modem/router anymore and will no longer forward mail to R's Blackberry. You get the idea. I know this sounds pessimistic but it's simply the way it has always worked. (ok Mac users, now's the point in time where you go into the comments section and type "why don't you buy a Mac - they work right out of the box!") I have been very tempted to buy a Mac but the Windows propaganda has me scared into thinking things like "maybe I won't be able to open a Word document". In any case, I'll try to think positive thoughts when I setup the new laptop.

Reminds me of the first time we got our Verizon DSL and wireless modem and a new computer. Our good friend and neighbor Martin Rofheart (PhD in electrical engineering and CEO of a wireless chip company) told us it was going to take us about 4 hours to get everything to work properly. I couldn't believe it had taken him that long given his tech expertise. But sure enough, when all of the equipment didn't work right out of the box, I had the 4+ hour investment of time with the folks in tech support. So if it took Martin 4 hours with the folks in tech support to get his computer to work, I don't feel too bad that it happened to me as well.

Ok - that's it for now. More later.

Airline Tickets + R Baby Shower = This Must Be Real!

2007-07-15T21:58:00.000-04:00

Ok - where to begin. As noted in the previous post, we got official travel approval. Then R huddled with the travel agent and we finalized the plane tickets. We are all flying ANA out of Dulles -- via Tokyo -- to Beijing. We depart DC on Monday, July 30 at 12:20 p.m. -- arriving Tokyo at 3:25 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31. We depart Tokyo at 5:20 p.m. and arrive in Beijing at 8:05 p.m. on July 31.

Then we have the rest of the week to get used to the 12 hour time difference and to see a few sites. We expect to fly to Nanchang on Saturday, August 4th or Sunday, August 5th (the internal China travel is being set up by Barker and we expect to have that finalized early this week). As noted in a previous post, we hope to have Jennifer Rose in our arms on Sunday, August 5.

We are departing Guangzhou on Wednesday, August 15 and will stay one night in Tokyo. We depart Tokyo on Thursday, August 16 -- arriving back in Washington, Dulles on August 16 at 10:40 a.m. I got tired just typing that! We'll provide more on travel once we have the domestic travel intinerary from Barker early this week.

What else has been going on? It seems like a lot. Rachel had a nice baby shower on Saturday at Rachel Burton's parents house in Chevy Chase, MD. Rachel Burton is a best friend from R's childhood and it was so nice of her to host the shower together with Morna, Diana, and Des. I have attached a few photos --one really nice one of R and R; and one of the cake. I can attest to its quality since I had two pieces. Or was it three? I spent the afternoon of the baby shower with Keith, Doug, and Chris while Keith and Chris were on baby duty. We had a good time having lunch at the Cheesecake Factory but then I got a chance to see the tail end of the shower when I went to pick Rachel up (thus the 2+ pieces of cake).

Rachel got some amazing baby things that I know we will be able to put to good use. It is such a wonderful feeling to have so much support and love from family and friends. It was also really cool to see Debbie Heverin and Elaine Sullivan at the shower. Debbie posted a really nice entry in her blog (see link here: http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/07/wonderful-celebration.html).

Ok - I'll sign off now. I have an early flight tomorrow for a work trip to Atlanta on Monday, Chicago on Tuesday, and Dallas on Wednesday. Back in DC on Wednesday night. Then one more full week of work before we depart for China. Yikes - so much still to do! Deep breaths. Ok - will go pack now for Atlanta.

Official Travel Approval

2007-07-12T07:02:00.000-04:00

Ok - it's official. We just got the following e-mail from Tina at Barker:

"Hi all,

Great news! I received the emailed confirmation from the Consulate today. The appointment has been scheduled for Monday, August 13, at 9:00am. Please proceed and purchase your international airline tickets. Please forward your final itineraries to Emily and myself as soon as you purchase your tickets."

When we got the news, R made a happy noise that sounded like a mouse that had just run into a big pile of cheese. It was something like "eee eee eee". As we are getting ready for work this morning, we're both running around the house bumping into each other. I think I had too much coffee! R is going to work with the travel agent this morning to book our tickets. I'll go down my "to do" list again (it's two pages long!) and make sure everything is on track.

So we will depart Washington on Monday, July 30th for Beijing and we hope to have Jennifer Rose in our arms on Sunday, August 5th!

Did I mention we are excited?
J.

Getting Closer to a Travel Date

2007-07-11T22:17:00.000-04:00

Ok - it's starting to get close. We got an e-mail from Emily at Barker Foundation today forwarding the following note from Tina (head of international adoption program at Barker) who is currently on travel in China:

"I have not received an email confirmation from the Consulate yet. I was able to get them to tell me verbally that the families were scheduled for August 13th. This means that the families will need to be in Nanchang on August 5th and they will be receiving their babies that afternoon. With this in mind, they could arrive in Beijing on August 2 or 3 to spend two or three nights in Beijing prior to flying down to Nanchang. On their way out, they can leave from Guangzhou on August 15.

Please tell the families not to purchase their tickets yet. I will let you know as soon as I receive a written confirmation from the consulate. Before they send out the email, they could still move people around."

On Monday of this week, we had received "travel approval" from China -- which enabled Barker to go ahead and request an appointment with the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Confused yet? So just to review the bidding, we first got our travel visas approved. Then we got travel approval. Now we've gotten verbal but not written approval from the US Consulate in China. Once we get written approval, Barker will finalize our itinerary and we will be able to book our airline tickets.

Assuming the US Consulate date holds, we'll likely depart Washington Dulles on Monday, July 30th and arrive in China the evening of Tuesday, July 31st. After a few days in Beijing getting adjusted to the 12 hour time difference and seeing a few sights, we'll likely depart for Nanchang on Saturday or Sunday, August 4th or 5th. We are scheduled to have Jennifer Rose in our arms on Sunday, August 5th. We were so psyched to get this news today. August 5th is so close!

We had several exciting phone calls once we got the news -- first I called Etu from work and R and I spoke with her via conference call; then Rachel spoke with Elaine and Scott; then we both spoke with Jim and Debbie. We're all looking at taking an ANA flight via Tokyo but will wait to confirm once we get our dates confirmed by Barker. Things are really starting to fall into place. We just want to go to the airport now!

Speaking of going to the airport, when we got home, there were 3 suitcases in front of our door. R had ordered them online and they just arrived. They seem big. But I'm sure we'll fill them up. Name a time we ever left for a trip and didn't have enough stuff to bring there or take home?! So we're going to just start packing -- in part because it gives us something constructive to do and also so we can be smart about packing rather than pulling one of those "I have no idea what I packed" situations.

More later....
J.

Finding the Perfect Sports Metaphor

2007-07-05T08:07:00.000-04:00

I have long thought that sports metaphors are a great way of describing non-sports events. So since we have been on this adoption journey, I have been looking for the perfect sports metaphor to describe it. Several weeks ago (before we got our referral), I turned to my good friend (and former Stanford and Berkeley classmate) Doug Steiger to help find the perfect sports analogy to describe the adoption waiting process. In particular, I asked Doug if he could think of cases where it took an athlete a long time to achieve his or her sought-after victory and whether the victory was more sweet as a result. I was thinking that maybe Phil Mickelson (golf) would be a good example because I knew it took him a long time to win his first major (although I couldn't remember which major he finally won and when that was). Doug is a big sports fan and I knew if anyone could come up with the perfect metaphor, Doug would. Here's Doug's e-mail response that he sent me on May 8 when I asked him about the Mickelson analogy:

"I think Elway might be more widely understood. Elway won the Super Bowl for the first time in his 15th seaon and then again in his 16th season. He'd lost three times in the Super Bowl before that, often badly (39-20 to the Giants, 42-10 to the Redskins, and 55-10 to the Niners). Plus, he's got that Stanford connection.

Mickelson? I think he played 41 majors as a pro before he won the Masters in '04, with 3 seconds and 5 thirds. (he was third in the Masters in '01, '02, AND '03 before he won in '04!). Here's what Wikipedia said:

'Despite these accomplishments, for many years Mickelson was often described as the "best golfer never to win a major." Mickelson often played well in majors: in the five-year span between 1999 and 2003 he had six second-place or third-place finishes. But victory always eluded him, for reasons that were ascribed to taking too many risky shots, missing too many short putts, or a general lack of what it takes to close out a big tournament. Undaunted, Michelson continued to refine his game and his course strategy and psychology. His first major championship win came at the 2004 Masters, where he won with a 20-foot final hole birdie putt, defeating Ernie Els in a Sunday back-nine duel in which the stars traded birdies and eagles back and forth.'"

I loved getting this note from Doug because during the long wait for our referral, I could just think to myself "it's just like what John Elway or Phil Mickelson had to face for all those years before they had their first big championship -- just keep working hard and good things will come." So it was nice to get another e-mail from Doug the day we got our referral congratulating us on the green jacket (another reference to a Masters victory). I told Doug we won't celebrate too much until we have Jennifer Rose in our arms (e.g., we are in the Butler cabin) and didn't want to pull a Van de Velde (as Doug reminded me, Van de Velde is the guy who blew a 3-shot lead going into the 18th green at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie). See how carried away you can get with these sports metaphors?

Doug and I even got Doug's wife Morna hooked on using golf sports metaphors (and she doesn't even like golf!). So not only have I gotten Morna addicted to the Heverin blog (see previous entry in which Jim gives a shout out to Morna), I have gotten her hooked on bad sports metaphors.

J.

Posting Comments to Blog Entries

2007-07-01T23:47:00.001-04:00

We have received a few questions lately about: 1) whether people can post comments to our blog entries and 2) how one goes about doing that if they have any interest in doing so. In answer to question #1, the answer is YES - absolutely. Posting a comment is fun for us and for others reading the blog. It tells us who is on the receiving end of this crazy form of communication and helps remind us that our friends and family are supporting us through this process.

As for question #2, the answer is: it's simple. You don't have to have a Google user name or password or anything. You just click the "comments" link at the end of the posting you want to comment on. Enter your comment in the space provided. If you don't have a Google user name, simply click the "anonymous" box. This lets you post your comment without having signing in. If you want us to know who the comment is from, just put your name at the end of your posting in the Comments section. It's as simple as that. Let us know if it's more complicated than that or if the system is giving you trouble. If so, I'll consult my tech expert friends at AOL or will ask Jim Heverin if he can explain it. So please, post those comments!
J.

Techno Geek Heaven

2007-07-01T19:45:00.001-04:00

I have been having a running exchange with Jim Heverin and a few others as to what tech equipment we should bring to China. This is just the kind of topic that I enjoy delving into and thinking a lot about. Basically, we want to be connected to all manner of friends and family through e-mail, the blog, etc. But should we bring a laptop? Most of the big hotels have Internet access in them, but this may not be the case everywhere we will be. I have heard conflicting advice on this issue from friends who have traveled to China. Our friends Andrew and Michelle (check out their blog link in the "links" section) did bring a laptop and they had a good experience with that. But I believe that our friends Steve and Cathy did not bring a laptop and they did fine posting to their blog via the hotel business centers. After considering this one, R and I felt pretty good about bringing a laptop. The only question was which one.

After much research, and too much time on the Cnet and ZDnet websites, I opted to get the lightest Dell laptop that they sell. I just purchased it a few days ago and it should come in early July. It is called the XPS M-1210. (here's the C-Net review for you true geeks out there: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/dell-xps-m1210-vista/4505-3121_7-32329097.html?tag=prod.txt.1 ). According to the reviews, it's got a lot in a small size and relatively low weight. We opted not to get the gaming and other fancy features. We just focused on the features that would allow us to easily access the Internet via wireless if possible. So everyone in our travel group can use our laptop if there is a problem getting computer access at the hotel business centers.

As a brief aside, I was not overly impressed with the Dell ordering process. This was the third Dell laptop I have purchased and the sales process seems to have gotten more complicated. When I finally got to the sales stage, I used their "chat with a sales agent online" feature to find out what kind of discounts they could provide. This ended up launching a bidding war of sorts between two different Dell sales agents competing against each other for my business. I guess it ended up being good for me in the end but it was a tad confusing. Also, Dell's process is so filled with tactics to upsell you on various extraneous items ("no thanks, I'm not interested in buying an extra television monitor with my laptop; thanks for offering me the latest educational software but no thanks; no I don't need extra storage; etc."). But I have yet to find a better deal than Dell and as much as I am tempted to make the leap to a Mac, I wasn't ready to do that for the China trip.

To cut down on weight, I went with a light but extremely cool (some would say too cool for my age and non-bike messinger status) "laptop messinger bag" carrying case from Timbuk2 that I custom built on their website (very cools site: check out the link here: http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/retail/catalog.htm). If you haven't heard of Timbuk2, they have the most amazing concept in customer ordering via a web interface. The website allows you to custom select the colors, sizes, inserts, and all manner of techy heaven dudads. And you can see a 360 degree image of your bag as it's being built (you can turn it around and open it up, etc. After I used the webside to build a custom laptop bag, I actually called the customer service department because I couldn't believe that going with a custom-built bag would be the SAME price and the SAME amount of time as buying one of the already built ones. The customer service rep (of course in San Francisco) said (and I'm not making this up): "Dude - chill out. Your bag has already been built and shipped." Tell me how an old fashioned store can compete with that? That even kicks Dell's butt and they are the king of custom-designed online techno-geek purchasing.

The next question was: to bring a cellphone or not to bring a cellphone. We are leaning towards not bringing a cellphone unless we get one thrown in via our international airline ticket purchase (some of the travel agencies have a special that includes the phone rental). Elaine and Scott Sullivan (also in our travel group) will have a cellphone with them so we can use that if absolutely needed.

The next techno gadget question was: to bring a camcorder or not to bring a camcorder. I was pretty sceptical on the need for any type of video recording equipment on top of our small Canon digital camera. We don't know of anyone who has brought a camcorder with them to China. At the same time, I was thinking: how cool would it be to have streaming video of parts of this trip -- even if it is just streaming video of Jim and me pontificating on the pros and cons of deep fried versus steamed chicken or video or R, Debbie, and Elaine playing with our little girls at the White Swan Hotel. So once the laptop purchase was complete, I couldn't resist cheking out what the camcorder offerings were. After looking at the high-end options, I was leaning against going with a really fancy camcorder mainly for space and weight reasons (I didn't want to lug around the laptop, regular digital camera, and full-scale camcorder). This morning, I happened upon this review on the Cnet site for the RCA EZ 201 camcorder and was tempted to look into it: http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/rca-small-wonder-ez201/4505-6500_7-32445372.html?tag=prod.txt.1

The above-mentioned Cnet site even has a streaming video review of the device in action and it is just the coolest little thing. And for a price (less than $120) and weight (3.5 ounces) that was just too tempting to pass up. The device is a very simple concept: it sacrifices everything for low weight and small size -- and assumes that the users are just looking to do up to 60 minutes of video to send to friends and family via e-mail or via a web page. It assumes that big camcorders are of no use of they are too big to bring with you and worry about. This was exactly what I was thinking. So I found a good deal on Amazon and quickly did the deed. This may end up being a really stupid purchase (or as Belushi said in Animal House "a really futile and stupid gesture"). If so, I'll give the device to my dad and he can put it the room in my parents' Menlo Park, CA house that is the graveyard of all of his no-longer-working but extremely cool looking Radio Shak telephones and other techy toys that he couldn't resist (I believe the Next machine is there somewhere next to the see-through telephone that never quite worked; both next to the electric leaf blower from Price Club). But for less than $120, if my new mini camcorder ends up being a stupid purchase, at least it's not such a costly stupid purchase.

While I was on the Amazon site, I also picked up an extra 2 GB SD Flash Memory card for $20 to get extra storage space (some of the consumer comments on the Cnet review site suggested doing this). And while I was at it, I picked up an extra 256 MB Compact Flash memory card for my digital camera so I won't run out of memory. Quick: someone fetch the dart gun and put me out of my misery! This is the just kind of damage that results when R leaves me alone in the house for an extended period of time on the weekend with too much coffee and a tech gadget shopping list. (She went to the Four Seasons health spa to get a massage with her friend Diana so I was justified).

So I have officially declared an end to the techno gadget buying season and will hope that I don't come to regret these purchases. Jim Heverin has cornered the market in all other manner of techy do-dads that we would need in China (including every possible outlet converter and all manner of card readers and other methods of storing, exchanging, and moving data around). And he's the one who actually understands this stuff and has backup-plan upon backup plan for ensuring that we can post to our blogs while in China (he even figured out a way to post to his blog via an e-mail which he showed me and I promptly forgot). I just know enough to be dangerous but Jim can show me how to undo my problems if I get into too much trouble.

You may wonder what I actually decided NOT to buy since I was not showing a lot of restraint on the above-mentioned items (with the exception of the cell phone). In my defense, there was one item I considered and decided not to get: noise-canceling headphones. One day when R and I were at the Tysons Corner shopping mall in VA, I checked these out at the Bose store and was TEMPTED. It's hard to resist technology that actually works. And I would have had no problem justifying a purchase of really nice headphones even if I didn't need to cancel out the sound of jet engines (or whatever the sales pitch is). So why didn't I get these? Because I can't picture the scenario on the way back from China with Jennifer Rose that I would WANT to cancel anything out even if R would let me. :) And on the way to China, I'm going to be so amped up that I really can't picture myself relaxing in noise-cancel mode with those airline black shade things over my eyes!

Ok - enough babbling for one day. This techno equipment pontification has been an interesting aspect of the adoption process -- probably something that we would have never considered if we weren't doing this in another country. I'll do another post when all this equipment comes and I have the pleasure of seeing whether any of it works. :)
J.

Shout Out From the Heverin Blog

2007-07-01T15:08:00.000-04:00

For anyone who has been reading our blog, you will know that we make periodic references to the Heverin blog (see the link in the "links" section to Jim and Debbie's blog). It's a truly awesome blog both in the detail, bredth of topics covered, and the fact that it brings the adoption process to life. Based on the quality of Jim and Debbie's blog and the fact that we have been slow to post a lot of new entries, we have created a little following of our friends and family who regularly read the Heverin blog. This list includes my aunt Evelyn in NY as well as our good friend Morna (who dutifully reads the Heverin blog between important Congressional business on the House budget committee). It was Morna who called me one day a few weeks ago to note that Jim had missed a day in his pledge to do a post every day before we leave for China! In Jim's defense, he was on an aircraft carrier (or was it another type of large boat?) somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

So Morna and Evelyn will appreciate it that Jim has given a "shout out" to them in his recent entry. (I told him he had a following). Here's the link for anyone who is interested.
http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/06/to-myumfans.html

This made R laugh out loud! :)

J.

A Very Special Package

2007-07-01T12:32:00.001-04:00

On Friday night, R and I got home from the Barker China travel meeting and there was a package waiting for us. We opened the box up and inside was such an incredibly touching and special surprise. It was a letter, two beautiful fabric samples, and a wrapped gift from the Herskowitz family (Marion, Allen, and Ilissa).

We had chosen the name "Jennifer Rose" for our little one in part to honor and celebrate the life of Rachel's very close friend from NY -- Jennifer Loren Herskowitz. So we were so touched to open up the package from them and find the following letter:

Dearest Rachel and Joseph,

We've enclosed two fabrics for the quilt, one from us and one from Ilissa. Actually, she picked the Asian lanterns and then the decorator at the store told us he had recently done a nursery in that pattern for a family that had also adopted a Chinese baby girl. What a coincidence!!! He suggested that we send you a large piece so that you could center the pattern and if you needed some extra fabric you could use some of this material.

We are also enclosing a cuddly little dog for Jennifer Rose from Jennifer Loren.

We hope you will understand when we explain that Ilissa and Jenn were on a trip to Vermont and visited the factory where these are made. She loved the dogs so much that she bought a few as future baby gifts for some of her close friends. This is the last one that she was holding to welcome the next new baby. Therefore, we thought it would be very appropriate to send this little gift to Jennifer Rose as our Jenn cared so much for you and Joseph and would have been so happy for you.

Again, mazel tov and lots of love,

Marion, Allen and Ilissa

We were so moved by this letter. We immediately called Marion and talked on the phone for over an hour. What a special way to conclude the week -- especially after coming back from the Barker China travel meeting. I have enclosed a photo of the little dog. Also, when I went into the baby room this morning, I noticed that R had set up the dog on the changing table with two other stuffed animals that Jennifer Rose had received as gifts so I took a photo of that as well.

Between the China travel meeting and this wonderful package from Marion, Allen and Ilissa Herskowitz, I think I have finally allowed myself to realize that this adoption is really going to happen. Friday night, I had my first dream about Jennifer Rose. Although my memory of the dream is a bit fuzzy, I can recall from the dream that R and I were playing in the back yard with Jennifer Rose and we were all happy. What an incredible few days. The adoption process is truly an amazing experience and this one is unfolding in a really special way.

China Travel Meeting at Barker Foundation

2007-07-01T08:33:00.000-04:00

On Friday, we had a travel meeting at Barker with the Sullivans and the Heverins as well as Etu (R's mom). The purpose of the trip was to go over what we need to bring and also go over the expected itinerary. We still won't be able to get the exact itinerary until we get our travel date (espected some time in mid-July). If you want to get a good description of the travel meeting, check out what Jim Heverin wrote on his blog (which is still by far the best blow-by-blow account of the adoption waiting process that I have seen). Here's the link:

http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/06/travel-meeting-making-final-plans.html

After the meeting, we all went out to dinner in Bethesda. As I have said in past blog postings, we are really lucky that we all get along so well and have become really close friends. It is going to make the China trip that much better.

I have posted a few pics of us, Etu, and the Sullivans as we are going into Barker for the travel meeting plus one of Tina (the head of International adoption at Barker) and Emily (the international adoption coordinator).

Spreading the News

2007-07-01T08:08:00.000-04:00

A few people have asked: so what have you guys been up to since you got the referral? I was going through a bunch of photos I took over the last few weeks and I came up with a few that pretty much tell the story: R on the phone telling her friends/family the great news about the referral. Notice photo of Little Miss Firschein sitting next to the computer! I love these pics because they capture the good mood we have been in.

Besides being on the phone or sharing the good news in person, we have done a few other things, including:

1) getting baby furnature delivered

2) cleaning out junk room(s) to get ready to get baby furnature delivered

3) converting junk room #2 into usable space for a guest room and office and getting sofabed delivered

4) going to Great Beginnings (massive baby store) and registering for a few car seats and other baby-related dudads.

5) sending baby gifts to Baby Jennifer Rose and to the caregivers at the orphanage via the Blessed Kids website (see links section)

6) buying a decent pair of walking shoes for walking around China in 100 degree+ heat

7) looking at Baby Jennifer Rose's photo a few hundred times

8) looking at the awesome fabric samples and notes that everyone has sent -- this has been the best part of waiting. In particular, the notes have been so wonderful and we are going to make a big scrapbook of them to give to Jennifer Rose when she's old enough to not eat it.

Aside from all of the above, life has been pretty much a blur and I don't have a lot of recollection as to what we have been up to. Speaking of not having a lot of recollection, I lost R's car keys. You may wonder how I did that. I honestly don't know. Last Sunday, after the dinner with our China travel group (see previous posting), I drove R to the airport for a work-related trip to Dallas and then came home and put her car in the garage. I didn't use her car again until she came home the following Wednesday. When she was ready to go to work on Thursday, she said: "can I have my car keys?" and I said: "um, I sort of, well....don't know where they are." I checked all of the usual places: the junk drawer; the key thingy on my dresser; next to the mail pile, etc. No sign of them. So either I put them in a really clever location that I haven't discovered yet, I threw them in the trash, or I accidently included them in the boxes of clothing that we donated to the National Children's Center last Tuesday. In any case, R is driving to work on the extra set of keys and I have the fun task of going back to the dealer this week to try to get another set of keys.

Ok - signing off now.

Dinner with China Travel Group

2007-06-24T21:57:00.000-04:00

We had a really nice dinner tonight with the China travel group at Scott, Elaine, and Kiran's house. We were all in a good mood and comparing photos of our little ones. There's really good chemistry between all of us which has made this part of the adoption process really amazing.

The exact date of the China departure is still TBD but we a hoping for early- to mid-August or even a little before that. As much as we are all anxious to get to China, we really enjoy hanging out and comparing notes. And we are all enjoying this part of the process as well.

At the dinner tonight, Elaine and Kiran gave us a tour of the baby room (see photo next to the crib). Jim and I also played fetch with Bailey (the family dog). The dog actually brings the ball back to you which is a first for me (my past experience has always been that they get the ball and go chew on it somewhere else). But the bulk of the time was just hanging out eating great food and sharing our excitement about the upcoming trip. There was one pretty funny moment when we all were sitting around the kitchen table looking at our referral photos and Jim noticed that the photos of all of our babies were taken minutes apart (he noticed that the rain drops in the photo background were in the same spot!). I got a photo of Jim doing the photo comparison! It still cracks me up that he figured that out!

For a good description of the dinner, check out Jim and Debbie's blog posing (see link below):

http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/06/another-family-adoption-dinner.html

Ok - have to run now. I'll post more photos later.

Post-Referral Excitement

2007-06-21T20:40:00.000-04:00

Ok - it's been a while since we updated the blog and we were starting to get some complaints from family and friends on the radio silence. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and excitement. After we got the referral, we had a few hectic days of doctor consultations. The medical checks came out fine and we signed off on the referral paperwork the Tuesday after we got the referral (June 11). The night we signed all of the paperwork accepting the referral, we had a nice informal evening with Esther and Gene (Etu and Eugenio) -- they had stopped by to drop off their passports and China Visa application forms since they will be coming to China with us and the other two families in our travel group. Etu brought over some cute baby clothes for Jennifer Rose and Rachel and Etu had a good time checking it out. Eugenio and I reviewed the Visa forms and got everything filled out. I dropped all of the forms back to Barker the next day (Wednesday, June 12) and it felt great to have everything finished on our side.

Barker sent the referral acceptance forms back to China on Friday, June 14 and also sent in our China Visa applications. We hope to get travel approval back from Chinia in early- or mid-July and then Barker will request an appoinment with the U.S. Consulate in China. Once we have that date confirmed, Barker will be able to confirm our travel dates and we can book our travel. We are currently hoping to travel in mid-August but it could come a little sooner or later than that. I had heard that this part of the wait is really difficult but so far it has not been bad at all. We have been so busy -- between the adoption-related stuff and work -- so we have not had too much time to be anxious about the wait.

So that's pretty much it for now. We'll post more later. We have plans to get together with the other two families in our travel group on Sunday at Scott & Elaine's house -- so we're looking forward to comparing notes and just being excited together. We also have more logistical items to go over -- like deciding on a joint gift to provide to the orphanage and also just figuring out what to bring with us to China. But it's somewhat fun to think about that stuff.

Ok - signing off.

J.

Here's Little Miss Firschein!

2007-06-09T10:20:00.000-04:00

Introducing Jennifer Rose Yu Hua Firschein! We had a great meeting at Barker yesterday and a celebration with our families and a few friends last night for dinner. We have posted a few pics below -- two from our meeting at Barker and one of the star of the show. More to come!

Love,

R & J

She's Here!

2007-06-07T06:41:00.001-04:00

Big news -- we got "the call" at 1 p.m. yesterday from our adoption agency (The Barker Foundation) and it's a girl!!! The referral is being translated into English today and we expect to go to Barker on Friday to get pictures and the medical history. The details are:

Name: Dong Fang Yu Hua
Birthdate: 9/25/06 (one day before Rachel's mother's!)
Province: Jiangxi
Here is the link for a map of the China provinces (it is in the Southeast close to Guangzhou).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:China_administrative.png

She is at the Taihe Social Welfare Institute (in the Southern part of the province).

We learned that she is in a smaller orphanage that is located in a poor farming community. We are very anxious to get the rest of the information and more importantly to see her picture! We plan to have our friend, Michelle Potter (who is a pediatrician), look over the medical information on Friday or Saturday. Then we have until the end of next week to accept the referral. When we get the pictures on Friday, we will scan them and post them so everyone can see. We are ecstatic!

Rachel & Joseph

Talking Points Say "Cautiously Optimistic" But Nothing More Definitive

2007-06-06T06:54:00.000-04:00

The rumor sites are buzzing with activity about a possible referral this week for people with log-in dates through November 7, 2005 (our LID is November 7). We're both still treating these as rumors and nothing close to fact at this point. Even the Rumor Queen (major China rumor site) is reporting the 11/7 LID referral rumor as only an "R3" -- meaning that it is not even close to confirmed. So we're powering through and just waiting to hear from Barker Foundation.

It's is fun to see people's reactions. My favorite so far is the one that Jim Heverin posted on his blog yesterday. As noted in our previous postings, Jim and Debbie are in our China travel group and they have the same 11/7 LID as us. Jim's blog posting yesterday said the following:

Oh jeeze...oh crap.....oh man........I...uh......buh
WE HAVE A SIGHTING OF THE GREAT WHITE BEASTIE, CAP'N AHAB, SIR!
It looks like we are in for this month!!!!! We should get a referral in the next few days!!!!! From that site and related sites, it appears there are at least two confirmed referrals with dates of 11/7/05, and at least two confirmed people who said they just missed with dates of 11/8 and 11/9. This means we just BARELY made it!

That pretty much sums up the anticipation. But as we keep saying, we're "cautiously optimistic" that we'll be hearing something in June but we're leaving it at that for now. Sounds sort of Alan Greenspan-esque but that's our story and we're sticking with it. We don't want to have any irrational exuberance. By the way, to check out Jim's full set of blog postings, check out the link to "Jim and Debbie's Adoption Blog" in the links section to the right. And to see the insanity of the rumor blogs, check out the "Rumor Queen" link.

As we wait to hear news on the referral, we have been getting some wonderful letters with fabric swatches and good wishes notes for the "100 Wishes Quilt" project that we have asked friends and family to contribute to. It's fun to have so many of our closest friends and family be part of this process with us and to see what they come up with in the fabric samples and the notes. In answer to the question "are you going to sew the quilt yourselves?", the answer is a big "are you kidding?!". We don't even own a sewing machine! We are working with an artist and expert quilt maker to put the quilt together. She promises that it won't be Laura Ashley-looking -- which is a good thing in our book. So we have a box that we are putting all of the fabric samples and good wishes notes in as we save them for the quilt-maker.

Ok - that's it for now. Hopefully more to come later this week or early next week.

J.

Photos from Dinner with China Travel Group

2007-05-19T08:50:00.000-04:00

We had another really nice get together with the other two families in our China adoption travel group -- at Jim and Debbie's house. In addition to having a really nice dinner and comparing notes on projected referral dates, we got our first two fabric squares from Jim and Debbie and from Elaine and Scott. Here are the photos.

Update on Status of Referral

2007-05-17T23:40:00.000-04:00

Here's a piece of the adoption update we sent last weekend to family and friends with an update on where things stand with the referral:

So far, China has issued referrals for families with log-in dates (LIDs) up to November 1, 2005. Our LID is November 7, 2006. Now the big question is how long it will take for China to process another 6 days of LIDs. The answer is: it depends. China typically issues referrals at the beginning of each month and most recently they have been issuing referrals on only a few days worth of LIDs. We are hopeful that we will get our referral in the beginning of June or July. If that’s the case, we hope to be traveling to China this coming August or September. However, the one thing that has been a constant in this process is the difficulty of predicting anything – so this anticipated timing could change.

Good news -- and everyone in our China travel group is trying to predict when the referral will happen. Here's the quote from Jim Heverin's blog:

As of May 7, 2007, the dossier date processed by China is now NOVEMBER 1, 2005!...six days away from our dossier date (Nov 7, 2005), so we expect a 90% chance of getting the referral in June 2007.

Jim has done an analysis of the probability of the various referral dates. I'm not so sure about the 90% chance thing but hopefully he's right. Believe it or not, there are a number of people who are into predicting China referral dates and other statistics and Jim was happy when I give him a link of a site that analyzes and summarizes past referral data since it does a good job of showing trend lines. The link is:

http://people.wwc.edu/staff/stirra/china/stats/statsdisplay.htm

This link has info on how referral wait time have changed over the past few years (big surprise - the wait has gotten longer).

Another interesting site with information predicting referral dates is "Rumor Queen". The link is:

http://chinaadopttalk.com/

My reaction to reading this site is: "someone has a LOT of time on their hands." But it's a good source of info if you're into that sort of thing. For example, the latest Rumor Queen post says the following:

We are also told that matching has already begun but that the batch is expected to be on schedule (i.e. not an early batch).
If you want to see what my predictions for this month were you can see them here: http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/05/01/analysis-3/

- Scenario based on April: November 5th
- Bad (but not worse) Case Scenario: November 8th
- Good Case Scenario (recent history): November 13th
- Good Case Scenario that hasn’t happened for a while: Nov 16th
- Most Likely Scenario: Between Nov 8th and 13th

Again, this is just based on what they did last year and this year. They are capable of getting far past the 16th. Something happened in September of 2005 that literally cut their work in half from the month before to the month after. As I’ve recently explained, my theory is that this made people switch to SN and then we saw things further crumble in March of 2006 as a result of NSN families switching to the SN program. So, while it is possible for them to go farther, my predictions show what the new “norm” is and do not take into account what they are actually capable of doing.

This kind of rumor and prediction stuff goes on and on and a little bit goes a long way for me. But the bottom line is that we're all feeling good about the fact that China is now in the same month as our log-in date. So if we don't get the referral in June, hopefully we get it in July. Ok - enough for now.

Joseph

Brunch with Adoption Travel Group

2007-04-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

Here are photos from our brunch with the other two families that will be traveling with us to China -- Jim and Debbie; and Scott and Elaine and their daughter Kiran (thanks to Jim and Debbie for sending us these photos!). We all met for Dim Sum in Roslyn, VA. It was a really nice time. Jim demonstrated that he will be a worthy food tester on the trip since he is willing to eat even the nasty looking stuff -- chicken feet and tripe! More later.

Test of Posting to Blog from email

2007-03-14T21:23:00.001-04:00

Ok - here's a test of whether we can post to the blog from e-mail rather than going from the Blogger web UI. If this works, all of the credit goes to Jim Heverin. If it doesn't work, I'm probably not following his instructions correctly. Here goes. J.

NY Times Article on China Adoption and Bat Mitzvah

2007-03-09T07:53:00.000-05:00

Oskie sent us this really nice article from the NY Times -- let's see if I can save the link to the blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/nyregion/08batmitzvah.html?ex=1174021200&en=1802454579bb3767&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Articles like this make us happy and we look forward to having future moments like this.

J.

Amsterdam Trip -- February of 2007

2007-03-09T06:53:00.001-05:00

Here are photos from our Amsterdam trip in February of 2007. What can I say about Amsterdam? It's a beautiful city -- both modern and also old. When R suggested we go there for the President's Day long weekend, I thought it was crazy. Too much going on at work. Not enough time. Too much to do with the adoption. But as usual, R was right about going. Even though we only had a long weekend, it was enough time. The hotel was beautiful -- right overlooking the canal. We walked all over the place and did our share of museums and concerts. Not too many tourismos in any of the places we went (particularly the concerts). More on that later perhaps. J.

Cabo San Lucas, MX in December of 2006

2007-03-09T00:23:00.000-05:00

R got the idea that she was tired of cold weather and Northern CA during rainy season wasn't going to be warm enough. So, what's warm, a direct flight, and not to far for Oskie and Thedie to go? Baja - dude! So we arranged to meet O & T in Cabo San Lucas for the Christmas holiday. Of course, I thought that was a silly idea -- too far, bad time at work, etc. Wrong again. It was amazing and well worth the trip. Here are some photos of the beautiful resort we all stayed in -- called Pueblo Bonito Pacifica. J.

Our Adoption Journey

Field Trip to Firehouse

Visit to Asian Art Show In NYC

Jennifer's Second Halloween

Jenny's Second Birthday Party at Hillandale

Second Birthday Get Together with Sullivans and Heverins

Birthday Piano and Intown B-day Party

Apple Picking with Intown Playgroup

Celebrating Family Day - August 5 2008

Girls Get Together in July

Going to Court

July 2008 Trip to Berlin and Munich (continued)

July 2008 Trip to Berlin and Munich

First Fathers Day

Jennifer's First Day at Intown Summer Camp

Another Museum Day

More Jennifer Photos

She Walks, She Talks!

A Day In Georgetown

Jennifer Rose Cayman Islands Vacation - December 2007

Breaking the Radio Silence

New Meaning to the word Thanksgiving

J Ro's First Halloween

J Ro Birthday Celebration

J Ro Baby Naming

J Ro Conversion Ceremony

J Ro with Etu and Eugenio

Apple Picking with Doug and Morna

Jennifer, Katie, and Caitlin B-Day Get Together

Jennifer Rose Turns One!

A Few Other Good Photos

A Beautiful Fall Day

J Ro in Swimming Class

We've Been Home for One Month

Hannah and Jennifer Rose

J Ro and Ben

New Photos of J Ro at Home

Adjusting to Being at Home

Photos of the Arrival in Washington, Dulles

We Are Home!

Photos from the US Consulate in Guangzhou

Guangzhou Day Five -- Continued (Last Full Day in China)

Guangzhou Day Five

Guangzhou Day Four -- Continued

Guangzhou Day Four

Guangzhou Day Three -- Continued

Guangzhou Day Three

Guangzhou Day Two -- Continued

Guangzhou Medical Exam

We Are In Guangzhou

Nanchang Day Five

More Photos from Day Four in Nanchang

Nanchang Day Four

More Video from Nanchang

Video of J Ro in Nanchang

Second Day in Nanchang - More Photos

Second Day in Nanchang

More Photos of Jennifer Rose

Jennifer Rose is Here!

Last Full Day in Beijing

Beijing Day Three

Beijing Day Two

Trying to Get the Hang of Posting in Chinese

Photos of Beijing Summer Palace

First Full Day in Beijing

We are in Beijing!

T Minus One Day

T Minus 2 Days

T-Minus 3 Days

T-Minus 4 Days

T Minus 5 Days

An Assessment of the Techy Purchases

Let the Packing Begin

Final Travel Itinerary for China Trip and Additional Sports Metaphors

More Baby Shower Pics and Technology Thoughts

Airline Tickets + R Baby Shower = This Must Be Real!

Official Travel Approval

Getting Closer to a Travel Date

Finding the Perfect Sports Metaphor

Posting Comments to Blog Entries