Qu Le Mei Morales: our adoptive dog...

Qu Le Mei Morales: our adoptive dog...

uh, oh. it has begun. i feel bad. like i've unleashed some sort of lethal virus on unsuspecting, innocent people. i'm a pet sitter's terrorist.

one plus, we'll see if our friendship with kim and nixy can survive the carnage!

the journey's begun

we're in wichita now. i'm ripping movies to the hard drive (who would've ever thought 100Gb would be too little space?) and recording some more bedtime stories for grandma to play for the boy while we are gone. currently, the boy is ecstatic to be here. i think the way things will fall we'll head to the airport during his nap time on wednesday. even remotely thinking about saying goodbye to him makes my stomach sink. it'll probably be better for both of us to have him sleeping when we have to leave.

i think once we get on the plane and i've been severed from my boy like a band-aid ripped off the skin i'll be free to truly anticipate meeting my daughter. one thing at a time. i do the same thing when i eat. one thing at a time. for now, it's good to have a couple days to settle before launching into the marathon first leg of the journey on wednesday (30 hours non-stop traveling before we get to our hotel in changsha). the second leg of the journey will be shorter but will have more adventure. i hear chinese driving is an acquired taste. good thing i'll have 8 hours solid to get used to it!

but, i'll keep you posted as we go, no?

bags are packed, by the door

i just got home from plains, ks where i did the wedding for a wonderful couple who were acquaintances this winter and are now solid friends. it was an awesome time and i'm grateful that our journey to joy still allowed for me to be there this weekend. at the same time, i didn't get nearly the time with them that i would have liked.

i get less then stellar cell phone coverage pretty much any where but here so the wife and kid didn't know when to expect me home. i made it back to an empty house - even the dog has gone to mei mei's house to enjoy farm life while we are in china. if it weren't for the packed bags by the back door i would've worried the momma and the big brother had started the journey with out me!

i still have no good idea where they are at this moment but i better get crackin' and finish my part of the packing. for all i know amy will want to leave tonight! not that that will make our flight any sooner but it will be forward progress. football camps are starting up and so i'll throw in a football analogy to celebrate. it's first down and we're just pounding right up the middle. haven't broken through for any big gains yet but we're making forward progress. it is a game of inches after all.

new endings

with our trip hitting in the time of year that it does we get some special bonuses. higher plane ticket prices. crowded flights across the pacific. hotter then the sun temperatures in subtropical climates. and we miss the transition from summer to the start of school here in the states. with that we're having to say goodbye to dear friends incredibly early.

last night was the last meeting of the china group as it had been since the first of the year. we've added two chinese women but have to say goodbye (for now) to one very special one. leaf will be gone before we make it home. i'm sad that joy doesn't get to meet her this summer. i'm sad to see her go and am hopeful we get to have her back sooner rather than later.

to catch up the new readers leaf is a chinese student getting her masters at ft. hays state university here in town. i took the mandarin class she taught in the spring semester. then we invited her to join us on thursday nights as the three couples in town all made their different journeys to china to get their daughters.

fortunately, last night, we had ice cream cake and a pantless batman to do the entertaining. a great time was had by all.

am i excited?

i've been asked this question multiple times today. instead of trying to answer in extended prose i give you this self portrait.

i'm too wore out from the journey (mostly life in general at this moment in time) to really be excited. talk to me again in a few days.

in other news, we have the tickets in our little hot hands. now the only thing we're waiting for is the end of the waiting.

itinerary

this is about as detailed as it will get. i really enjoyed being able to see day by day what brendan and january where up to so hopefully you'll get a kick out of this, too.

mostly, i'm stuck in this vortex of stress. time is simultaneously moving incredibly fast and painfully slow. i feel like bill murray in what about bob - hi, i'm bob, would you knock me out, please? good thing i'll have 24 hours of travel to help me unwind . . . ok, enough whining. here's the itinerary:

The Preliminary Itinerary for Group #39
(August 3- 19, 2005, ChangSha, YuanLing, Guang Zhou, China )

3 Aug. Your Home Town / Los Angeles (LAX) / Guang Zhou (Wednesday)
Hometown to LAX for CZ 328 (11:59PM) to Guang Zhou, China.
- only 15 hours non-stop fun journey to China!

5 Aug. Guang Zhou / ChangSha (China Arrival Day!)(Friday)
6:20am Arrive Guang Zhou NEW International Airport.
8:45am Flight (CZ 3913) to ChangSha (1 hr). Stay @ Dolton Hotel
12:00Noon Fees and Group Money collecting @ your room by Morgan
Group Dinner @ Dolton Hotel ...... sleepless night for the new parents!

6 Aug. ChangSha/YuanLing (Baby Meeting & Orphanage Visit!) (Saturday)
8:00am After breakfast, bus to YuanLing SWI (8 hrs)
Group Lunch or Snack on road. Stay @ YuanLing (best available Hotel).
Before or after Group Dinner, visit Orphanage and meet foster
family and your daughter. Gifts for Director Ms. Zhao & foster family.

7 Aug. YuanLing / ChangSha (Holding Baby Back to ChangSha) (Sunday)
After breakfast, visit finding sites & maybe quick city tour. Then back to
ChangSha with Orphanage Staff. Your daughter will stay with you overnight.

8 Aug. ChangSha (Official Baby Gotcha & Adoption Day!) (Monday)
8:30am Bus to Provincial Office together with Orphanage Staff (Gifts – 1+1 for a staff
with your baby + Lady from Provincial Office) Orphanage Donation ,
baby's passport & family photo fee & newspaper advertisement fees.
9:00am Baby Gotcha @ HuNan Provincial Office -pretend to meet your baby first time!
CONGRATULATIONS!
1:30pm Bus to Provincial Office.
2:00pm Adoption Certificate is issued. (Gifts 3, mostly for ladies)
3:30pm Authentication by Notary Public @ same building. Gifts 2.

9 Aug. ChangSha (Bonding Day) (Tuesday)
FREE or some emergency shopping for diaper, medicine or food etc.

10 Aug. ChangSha (City Tour) (Wednesday)
Visit YueLu ShuYuan Academy & Silk Embroidery Factory & group shopping..
Group Lunch in the city or Dolton Hotel.

11 Aug. ChangSha (Bonding Day or City Tour) (Thursday)
FREE or City Tour (Museum or city park etc.).


12 Aug. ChangSha (Passport pick-up) (Friday)
AM FREE
PM Baby’s Passport Pick-up @ Police Station by Morgan
Group Dinner @ Dolton Hotel

13 Aug. ChangSha / Guang Zhou (Back to Guang Zhou ) (Saturday)
2:20pm Fly CZ 3379 back to Guang Zhou. New Victory Hotel (4 star).

14 Aug. Guang Zhou (City Tour / Shopping) (Sunday)
9:00am Bus to Six-Banyan-Tree Temple & Chen’s Clan Academy-City Tour; Jade &
Pearl Wholesale Market & Group Lunch @ a fancy restaurant at the foothill
of BaiYun Mountain

15 Aug. Guang Zhou (Medical Exam) (Monday)
AM Medical Exam & baby's visa photo Gifts 2.

16 Aug. Guang Zhou (BCIS Paperwork Preparation) (Tuesday)
3:00pm Group paperwork prep for INS at Hotel’s Conference Room (3rd floor

17 Aug. Guang Zhou (Paperwork Turn-In ) (Wednesday)
9:00am Visa Paperwork turn-in by Morgan or AAC facilitator to US Consulate

18 Aug. Guang Zhou (VISA interview & VISA Pick-Up) (Thursday)
AM Group interview & vow in front of INS officers with baby at the Consulate.
Group Photo at Balcony in front of the Water Fall @ White Swan Hotel
3:00PM Baby's visa pick up at American Consulate General by Morgan
5:30PM Group Celebration & Farewell Dinner (TBA)

19 Aug. Guang Zhou / Los Angeles / Home Town (Homecoming Day!) (Friday)
AM FREE!
PM 5:00 Leave Victory Hotel for Guang Zhou International Airport.
9:00 Departure for US by China Southern CZ327.
6:50pm Arrive LAX.

After Immigration and Custom, to your hotel @ LAX or fly to your Sweet Home!

(SEE, we are back not only on the same day, even before we left China!!)

WELCOME HOME!! CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

in broken english

here is the latest from "uncle morgan" our guide on our journey to joy:

Updates from China regarding our Possible Trip to YuanLing: From Director Ms. Zhao last night, everyone @ Orphanage (including the foster families) even the YuanLing County Magistrate himself is exciting and expecting to meet all of us on Aug. 6. We may expect a feast dinner with Orphanage staff & some top-level officers of YuanLing County on Aug. 6 - at YuanLing Orphanage Dinning Hall. Ms. Zhao said they will try their best to make us feel at home during our 2-day stay @ YuanLing - Food wise: we may have all three group meals (Dinner on Aug. 6 & B +L on Aug. 7) at YuanLing Social Welfare Institute (SWI) since Ms. Zhao promised to offer us good, authentic, healthy/clean, not-too-spicy, no-MSG, local flavor HuNan food for us with very reasonable charge; Hotel on Aug.6 - Ms. Zhao already locked one best available hotel there (5 minutes away from SWI) for us - maybe 2- 2.5 star -:) but for sure with A/C & hot water for shower/bath, they will try to start to do deodorizer for ours rooms and make sure at least less-smoking smell for one night on Aug. 6 (No non-smoking rooms in countryside of China -:)). We may have to pay CASH to this Hotel @ YuanLing (around $35 per room) since the Orphanage has to pre-pay for us (including Driver & a local guide from ChangSha). For the Hotel Room @ ChangSha on Aug. 6 - you could either retain or cancel your room - if retain you have to pay room that night; if you cancel you have take all your stuff with you to YuanLing or leave some at the Hotel Lobby (with or without fee?- not sure) but you have to re-check in your hotel on Aug. 7 (maybe late night) and also Hotel can't guarantee you the same room so you may reassign to different room on different floor of group stay. ; Car to YuanLing - already booked a 45-seat bus with EXCELLENT AC (double checked & confirmed) & maybe DVD/VCR for our possible 8 hour - karaoke contest or movie display but no bathroom on bus so ............ -:)

i better start practicing my ABBA for the karaoke contest!

wanna come with us?

oh the marvels of technology. thanks to Google Earth you can see what our trip will look like - from the sky. after we get back i'll fill in the details with pics from the ground.

the overall trip, as the crow flies, is 9,112 miles one way. go here to see for your self. (i recommend the "view slideshow" option.)

official

while we don't have the tickets in our little red hands they have been signed and paid for. we have our appt's in China scheduled and now all that has to happen is the planet must keep spinning in order for Wed, Aug. 3rd to get here.

here's the rough over view. i'll post a more specific itinerary when we get it from the adoption agency.

aug 1 & 2 - head to wichita, get the boy settled in with the grandparents.

aug 3 fly to denver, meet up with most of the rest of our travel group. fly to LA. wait for midnight. fly to guangzhou.

aug 5 arrive in guangzhou (it's a 15 hour flight but we cross the date line and lose thursday). hop a flight to changsha, capital of hunan province. (did i mention that waaay back in january i pinned this to be the city where joy would be from? i was off, but that is the city where we will adopt her from!) stay the night.

aug 6 hop on a bus and travel 8 hours into the mountains to yuanling where the orphanage is. (did i mention we're helping to build an orphanage in cambodia? you can help, too! click the link to the right.) see orphanage, joy's home town, hopefully the place she was found and her foster parents, too.

aug 7 back on bus, 8 hours downhill to changsha.

aug 8 joy's adoption is official!

aug 13 fly to guangzhou. we have the whole week to do i don't know what! it'll be exciting. i'm sure there will be some tours and things we'll do as a group. maybe i'll catch star wars 3 in chinese?

aug 17 appt at american consulate. joy is officially a US citizen. we have several days here to also see the city, etc.

aug 19 at 9p fly back to LA where we land at 6:30p - before we left.

aug 20 fly to denver to wichita to the boy whose birthday it is today! we've been telling him that his new little sister is bringing him a present all the way from China. a toy, he says? yes, probably a chinese toy. (i don't mention that most of his toys are from China already).

then we'll see how we do as a family of four! i'll try to be diligent and post regularly as we go.

F.A.Q

thanks to all the well wishings in response to our happy news! even though i only have 3 readers they managed to ask a staggering number of questions. out of sheer callousness, i'll answer them all here instead of individually.

1 - isaac is as ready as an almost 3 year old can be to get a little sister. i don't think any of us have any clue what we're getting ourselves into, including joy. which is good. no one has the upper hand in that case. i am a little concerned that maple the dog will figure things out a bit more quickly and will therefore have two paws up on the rest of us.

2 - yes, i am packing enough underwear as sizes in china will not fit me. both unsightly and painful.

3 - this is why the sky is blue.

4 - no, i haven't been eating my veggies.

5 - we do hope to be blogging regularly as we travel. so this is a great place to stop by and keep up to speed.

bedtime tales

T-minus Two Weeks and Counting

new email just came in. 85% chance of traveling to china on Wed. 8/3. back to LA on 8/19. we'll know for certain tomorrow. and we are going to go to yaunling, hunan province - where Joy is now!

the journey to joy has shifted gears. tune in often.

Fw: Travel Approval (straight from email to my faithful 3 readers)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Amy"
To: "Jake"
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 3:05 PM
Subject: Fw: Travel

> HOORAY!
> ----- Original Message -----
> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 1:13 PM
> Subject: Travel
>
>
>> Hi Group 39!!
>>
>> We received your travel invitations today. We have sent our request for
>> consulate appt. for 8/11, 8/12, or 8/9. We should have an answer in
>> 24-48
>> hours. We'll let you know what date when get and when we will plan to
>> leave. Have a great day!!
>> Lynette
>> AAC
>>
>>
>>
>

mexican prison ain't all it's cracked up to be

as all three of my regulars know, i was pretty excited about going to mexican prison. little did i know that the folks who run the mexican prison were less than organized. i had it all planned. they were coming to my office, arresting me and i would cause a major scene. i put it on the company calendar so even the co-workers had plans to bring cameras, etc. but 30 minutes after i thought they were coming to get me and no one had yet arrived i called. oh, there's been a mix up. we thought you were turning yourself in. oh, um. ok. and then, me still being at work, i got caught in an unplanned conference call. . . underwhelming, no?

i did make it out to prison eventually. two hours later than i had thought. they did feed me some mexican food, what was left anyway. met an interesting guy who does work for miracle ear. i resisted the urge to pretend i couldn't hear him very well, causing him to repeat himself repeatedly. i was even going to put down all the things we did with the money raised. but, again, my father-in-law is passed out in my room and i don't want to disturb him to dig the stuff up. it works out to something like 20 or 30 flu shots. or, 4 screen tests, or 1.5 therapy sessions, or we managed to get a kid on the bus, to the camp, but they can't get off the bus.

so, it was for a good cause. good was done. i was told we did raise a good amount. so you all should feel proud of yourself. but i really am more excited about the orphanage project in cambodia our group here is working toward. there is a link to the right. you can go there right now and help out, too!! i'll put more info on there as soon as i can.

no new news on Joy. our visas have arrived. we're one step closer to leaving but still have no idea when we're going. it's driving me just a little crazy.

helping out

one quick reminder - there is still time to donate to the Jerry's Kids/MDA fund raiser i'm doing on wednesday. follow the link to the right and donate online. it's a good cause. i wasn't looking to help them fund raise but couldn't tell them no when they called. i will actually be going to a mock jail at a local mexican restaurant (mexican prison). i'll post pictures.

but i'm more excited about something that just came in my email. last year we started helping an organization called International Cooperative Ministries. they provide the capital for existing congregations across the world to build a buidling. the congregation in turn plants 5 more churches. for $7,000 we helped a congregation in tanzania build their building. these buildings often become community centers where they have school, medical aid is disbursed and the buildings are often also storm shelters.

after completing the tanzania project our group here in hays (dubbed the joshua group) signed up to sponsor a church/orphanage. our project is in cambodia, will house 40 orphans upstairs and a congregation of a couple hundred downstairs. go here to read a bit more, see a few pictures and even to help us fund the project by donating online. i believe the total cost for this building is $21,000 of which we have almost $6,000 already.

i'll dedicate more space to this endeavor later. hopefully before we leave for china to get baby joy.

deja vu

had a wonderful day at the mckracken rodeo, also known as nixy's birthday. never been to a rodeo. we had to sit, on the ground, right at the fence. dusty, yes. thunderous when the animals blow by, you bet. can't wait to go to another rodeo. isaac wasn't really all that impressed. could be he was terrified and dealt with it accordingly. he mostly ran around playing batman.

but that's not why i'm writing. i was looking at joy's picture and felt this strange guilt. she's so foreign. not in the literal sense. that really isn't my problem (though i'm not so naive to think her literally being foreign will not come with its own set of "issues"). this girl is so foreign to me. to my world. to my life. can i make her fit in? logic says of course but the worry is still there. i mean, who is this person i'm bringing into my home, into my life, forever?

and then i recalled i've felt this way before. and that actually made me feel better. i re-read my blog from the days of before there was the boy. here's an excerpt:

1:01pm (august 20)

isaac william glover is born. and he's fine. his one minute apgar is 7. his five minute is 9. and he cries and cries. and he's beautiful. absolutely beautiful. but kinda weird, too. who is this stranger? i feel small tinges of guilt that i'm not having love at first sight. but, it comes quickly enough i learn. and it comes hard.

i was looking at joy's picture and feeling tinges of guilt because i wasn't feeling all gooey and smitten. but i know from experience i will. and i will do so in a very hard and totally complete, irrevocable way.

ps - you can read the blog from the days of before there was a boy by following the ancient history link on the right.

this time next year

we had a massive influx of family this weekend. still do. it's been fun watching the kids play. favorite memory so far - three completely gleeful children taking a speed ride in the wagon through the back yard. when two "horsies" (grown-ups, let the reader understand) tired and i stepped in to take the reigns, glee turned to carnage. like some old driver's education video. we hadn't even made it into turn number one when little people went flying, tumbling, and clanging out onto the yard. it sure was funny. and, i wasn't asked to pull the wagon after that.

my second favorite moment was when kim's horse, Isa, stalled the entire 4th O' July parade with a lengthy poop. she didn't even have anything to read.

go here to see several pics of the whole thing (and that also includes the poop).

this time next year - joy will get to join us . . .

oh, yeah, i guess you probably want to know any new news on joy. there is none. after several days of fresh bulletins i'm afraid we're back to another blackout period. we'll hear something new next week at the earliest. could be 3 more next weeks for that matter. it's all up to the chinese government at this point.