I am now the mother of three! I have kept the family tradition of 2 girls and 1 boy-which goes back to at least my great grandmother, grandmother, mother and sister! Not sure before my great grandmother though.
Gotcha day was better than anticipated. Adam was in the room, Schwen went into the room, saw him, gave him a hug and said "Baba". She holds his hand when out and gives him a lot of smiles. The guide says she has a good vocabulary and speaks mandarin with a nanjing dialect. Communication is difficult but she is mimicking him. She is not shy and has her opinion on the clothes and toys. She told the guide she wanted to see her things and was very definite on what she liked and did not like and then folded everything up and put it away. They went to the store and she wanted apples and pears to eat. His biggest concern is keeping her busy while in Nanjing. A good first day and she went to bed with no problem.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Day 2
Adam is in Nanjing. I received a brief email from him this morning - he is having issues with his laptop so he probably will not be posting and you'll have to rely on my interpretations of phone calls with him!
He lucked out on the 16 hour flight from Newark to Hong Kong and had two empty seats next to him. He said the food on Continental was horrible. The Dragon Air flight from Hong Kong to Nanjing was nice and again he had an empty seat.
Arrived in Nanjing and met by his guide Nancy. She took him to the bank to exchange money and told him he needed a $1,000 more than he had anticipated! He said he about threw up! She spoke with the HIH person and found out these fees were already paid. It turns out that Nancy works for some agencies that don't require the payment up front. The bank was interesting-tons of people sitting around on benches waiting and Nancy goes right up to a window and banged on it and the money was exchanged. He was very impressed.
Nanjing is very industrial and tons of people everywhere. He said it is like being at the State Fair! There is a kareoke event going on outside of his hotel and busloads of people were being dropped off! Things he noticed right away were smog, smell and so many people. He decided to venture out and was bombarded by people trying to sell him things. He said he only saw two other caucasion people and that he really stands out. We've heard there are seven families adopting children this week so hopefully he can hook up with those families at some point. No other families from out agency though. I received four requests from families who have children in Nanjing and gave Adam their names in case he is able to visit the orphanage. Right now he is just a bit overwhelmed with everything.
Jia and I will be out of town until Monday night so probably won't post until then. Happy Labor Day to everyone!
He lucked out on the 16 hour flight from Newark to Hong Kong and had two empty seats next to him. He said the food on Continental was horrible. The Dragon Air flight from Hong Kong to Nanjing was nice and again he had an empty seat.
Arrived in Nanjing and met by his guide Nancy. She took him to the bank to exchange money and told him he needed a $1,000 more than he had anticipated! He said he about threw up! She spoke with the HIH person and found out these fees were already paid. It turns out that Nancy works for some agencies that don't require the payment up front. The bank was interesting-tons of people sitting around on benches waiting and Nancy goes right up to a window and banged on it and the money was exchanged. He was very impressed.
Nanjing is very industrial and tons of people everywhere. He said it is like being at the State Fair! There is a kareoke event going on outside of his hotel and busloads of people were being dropped off! Things he noticed right away were smog, smell and so many people. He decided to venture out and was bombarded by people trying to sell him things. He said he only saw two other caucasion people and that he really stands out. We've heard there are seven families adopting children this week so hopefully he can hook up with those families at some point. No other families from out agency though. I received four requests from families who have children in Nanjing and gave Adam their names in case he is able to visit the orphanage. Right now he is just a bit overwhelmed with everything.
Jia and I will be out of town until Monday night so probably won't post until then. Happy Labor Day to everyone!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Adam's Itinerary
9/4/09-9/5/09
travel to Hong Kong-overnight at HK Sky City Marriott
9/6/09
fly to Nanjing where he will be met by the guide and taken to the hotel
9/7/09
gotcha day
9/11/09
leave Nanjing and fly to Guangzhou
9/15/09
consulate appointment
9/16/09
oath and then take the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong-overnight in HK
9/17/09
arrive at CMH at 7:30 pm
travel to Hong Kong-overnight at HK Sky City Marriott
9/6/09
fly to Nanjing where he will be met by the guide and taken to the hotel
9/7/09
gotcha day
9/11/09
leave Nanjing and fly to Guangzhou
9/15/09
consulate appointment
9/16/09
oath and then take the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong-overnight in HK
9/17/09
arrive at CMH at 7:30 pm
Friday, September 4, 2009
And so the adventure begins!!!
As I write this Adam is (or should be if all went as planned) about 3 hours into his 16 hour flight to Hong Kong. He will spend the night in Hong Kong and hopefully meet up with the Dini and Corkern families who will be spending their last night overseas before heading home with their new children.
I read that there will be a total of 7 families getting children from Nanjing next week so hopefully Adam will be able to connect with a few.
I have so much to do while he is gone...clean the house, clean the carpets, get the girls room ready, make a few dishes and put into the freezer. They will be home in less than two weeks. J and I made a paperchain and will tear away a chain for each day daddy is gone.
I read that there will be a total of 7 families getting children from Nanjing next week so hopefully Adam will be able to connect with a few.
I have so much to do while he is gone...clean the house, clean the carpets, get the girls room ready, make a few dishes and put into the freezer. They will be home in less than two weeks. J and I made a paperchain and will tear away a chain for each day daddy is gone.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
This is horrific
below is the story of a mother who was arrested for the death of her daughter who was adopted from China. I remember this adoption b/c the mother was african american and the chinese government did not want to let her adopt. Her agency and many many people in the adoptive community rallied for her and she was able to take the child home. The sad thing is that she dropped off of the adoption community yahoo groups once she was home from China. These yahoo groups are a great resource and if the mother was having difficulties there could have been other families willing to help her. This story was the second time today my heart was heavy to hear the death of a child adopted from China. The 7 year old girl who was swept into the water iny heavy waves due to the huriccan off the coast of Maine last week was also adopted from China. Anytime a child dies it is horrific and sad but for those of us in the adoptive community when an adopted child dies it tugs at our hearts a bit more.
Police have arrested a former Elk Grove resident and charged her with murder in the death last year of her 3-year-old adoptive daughter.
Sabrina Banks, 42, called 911 on May 2, 2008, and reported that her daughter Lavender was "unresponsive," said Officer Christopher Trim of the Elk Grove Police Department.
Medical personnel were unable to revive the girl, and pronounced her dead at the scene. Lavender had visible injuries that "were not consistent with an accidental death," said Trim.
An autopsy report lists the probable cause of death as "asphyxiation by smothering" and "multiple blunt force injuries," according to the Sacramento County Coroner's Office.
Trim said it took detectives more than a year to gather the evidence necessary to charge Banks with murder, assault resulting in the death of a child under 8 years of age and endangering the life or health of a child.
"It was a very long process of interviewing the mother, her friends, checking her history, working with the coroner's office," he said.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Banks, and she was located in Visalia on Wednesday and taken into custody, said Trim.
She will be transported to Sacramento County within the next few days, he said.
Banks had one other child in her Elk Grove home when Lavender died, and that youngster has been in protective custody since then, Trim said.
The family had previous involvement with Child Protective Services in Kern County, Sacramento County CPS Director Laura Coulthard previously told The Bee. She did not provide details.
Trim said he was unaware of any further CPS involvement with Banks
Police have arrested a former Elk Grove resident and charged her with murder in the death last year of her 3-year-old adoptive daughter.
Sabrina Banks, 42, called 911 on May 2, 2008, and reported that her daughter Lavender was "unresponsive," said Officer Christopher Trim of the Elk Grove Police Department.
Medical personnel were unable to revive the girl, and pronounced her dead at the scene. Lavender had visible injuries that "were not consistent with an accidental death," said Trim.
An autopsy report lists the probable cause of death as "asphyxiation by smothering" and "multiple blunt force injuries," according to the Sacramento County Coroner's Office.
Trim said it took detectives more than a year to gather the evidence necessary to charge Banks with murder, assault resulting in the death of a child under 8 years of age and endangering the life or health of a child.
"It was a very long process of interviewing the mother, her friends, checking her history, working with the coroner's office," he said.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Banks, and she was located in Visalia on Wednesday and taken into custody, said Trim.
She will be transported to Sacramento County within the next few days, he said.
Banks had one other child in her Elk Grove home when Lavender died, and that youngster has been in protective custody since then, Trim said.
The family had previous involvement with Child Protective Services in Kern County, Sacramento County CPS Director Laura Coulthard previously told The Bee. She did not provide details.
Trim said he was unaware of any further CPS involvement with Banks
a great surprise
There are two Hand in Hand (our agency) families in China to get their children and they were able to visit the orphanage and see the children who have families waiting for them. They took many pictures and this is one of my favorites of S with one of her nannies.
This weekend was spent getting things ready. We finally ordered beds on Saturday and they will be delivered on Thursday. The garage is finally cleaned out and I can park a car in there once again. We still had left over garage sale items sitting in the from our sale over two months ago.
Justin turned 27 this past week, so hard to believe my baby boy is SO old! The house they are having built is moving along and hopefully will be finished in a few months and they can get the tax credit. He has been on his procrastinator mother for the past two months to get the wedding guest list to him. He is a much better planner/implementer than I am!
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