We are ON OUR WAY!
Here I am, bright and EARLY, ready to head to the airport.
Yesterday was Sarah's 2nd birthday. We celebrated.
Bittersweet, but we know that soon she will be with us.
Well, here’s my first post on our trip to adopt Sarah.
It’s just a few hours after we left Vermont. This morning we were up before the
sun, heading to our local airport around 4:30 am, for a 6:00 am flight that was
delayed just 30 minutes. (This was a
HUGE RELIEF after watching countless Jet Blue flights between JFK and BTV be
delayed by HOURS yesterday due to weather. We had made plans to drive to
Montreal if we had to this morning to make a flight from there to China, if
necessary. Luckily, things have all worked out. ) So, we flew Jet Blue to JFK,
arriving at 7:30. We are now here so early that our international check-in
counter is not even open yet!
So, I’m typing this in the JFK airport. Our
international flight will leave at 12:30. We are flying on ANA (All Nippon
Airways, a Japanese airline). We will fly into Tokyo arriving at 2 PM (2 AM for
those of you back in Vermont) and then have a 4 hour layover until we travel
from Tokyo to Guangzhou, China. Pretty
sure that 4 hour layover (plus the 5 hour flight after that) will be pure
torture. In that Tokyo airport it will be at that point that I am so ready for
a shower and bed…and yet, I’ll have about 12 hours until that happens (layover,
flight, border/customs entrance into China, ride to the hotel, check in).
Phew! All in all it will be 32 hours from when we left
our house…I have my MP3 ready with the music I want to listen to on the flight (and
extra batteries), and my IPOD too, and some good books (for my former students,
you may be interested to know I packed some great YA dystopian novels,
including Delirium, Pandemonium, and a new one I just picked up). And, I’ll be
very, very happy if I am able to sleep on the plane.
Please think good thoughts for us on our marathon of
flights, and also for my mom back home with Aaron and Donovan. They are great
boys, but oh my…she is going to be exhausted by the end of the 14 days with
them!
I am looking forward to checking into the Holiday Inn
Shifu in Guangzhou. It will be almost like “coming home.” I have been dreaming
for 3 years and 4 months about returning to Holiday Inn Shifu and Guangzhou,
ever since we were here adopting Aaron in April 2010. We love Holiday Inn
Shifu!
We will relax on Sunday and do some shopping on Shamian
Island. Monday our lives and Sarah’s life will change completely and forever. Monday 2:30 in the afternoon will be when we
meet Sarah. (For those not familiar with adoption from China, we will meet
Sarah at a Civil Affairs building and about an hour later, she will leave with
us and return to our hotel. The next day, we will return to the Civil Affairs
building to legally adopt her. The rest of the time in China we will be
completing paperwork and requirements in order to bring her to the United
States.)
When we meet Sarah Monday at 2:30 pm, that will be 2:30
in the morning for you all back in the U.S. So, before you go to bed on Sunday
night, please think lots of good thoughts for Sarah (and a few for us too!). We
hope:
- that
she will not be too frightened on Monday.
- that
she will be able to be distracted by yummy snacks and toys at the Civil Affairs
building and will not be inconsolable.
- that
she will somehow see that she can trust us and that we love her.
- that
she will be able to be consoled by us during our time in China as she grieves
for all she is losing.
- for
strength for us. …We realize we may be one of “those families” whose child
stands for HOURS at the hotel room door, sobbing, waiting to leave, waiting to
be rescued by someone she knows…there is no way to emotionally prepare for
that, other than to know it is the experience of many other adoptive families.
It was NOT the case with Aaron. He took our hands, smiled, and never looked
back. Our time in China with him was easy and fun. I know that is quite
honestly the exception. It is likely Sarah will grieve very hard. Sarah is only
2 years old. She does not understand the significance of what is happening. She
does not understand that most children have a parent or parents who love them
and care for them. She has been surrounded by nannies caring for orphans,
including her, for as long as she can remember. She will be leaving everything
that is familiar to her.
- that
none of us will get sick and need medical care in China!
Now several humorous notes (or at least my attempt at
humor);
- I
hope she won’t be freaked out by my blond hair! (She’s been surrounded by
Chinese people her whole life, and has not seen someone with blond hair.) I
know someone who recently adopted and her daughter was petrified of her blond
hair. That mom had to stop washing her hair and let it get all greasy and
sometimes slick in back in a ponytail to make it look darker, or keep a
baseball hat on. Pretty sure you’ll be able to tell from the photos we post how
that is going!
- Care
to place a bet on what she will come to us wearing? Every single photo I have
seen of her since February (from three other families visiting Bao’an, from an
update, from our agency’s workers who were there), she has had on the same
butterfly dress. If that’s the case, my selfish desire is that she will be
willing to part with it and put on brand new dresses (‘cause we’ve packed a
suitcase full of them). (By part with
it, I just mean hopefully she won’t be spending 11 days in China in it. We will
bring it home with us, and pack it away for her with the items she came to us
with, just as we did for Aaron.) But if all our photos the first few days of
Sarah are in that butterfly dress, you’ll know she’s not yet willing to take it
off!
- Okay,
and on a REALLY humorous note, here’s hoping I can avoid using squatty potties
in China. (Last time the only one I had to use was at the orphanage when we
visited with Aaron to say goodbye.) For those not familiar with bathrooms in
China, there is basically a hole in the floor. And in some cases, forget
privacy…there are multiple ones right beside each other. Or, in some other cases
it is just a stream of water running across and a communal style trough. Everyone who has adopted from China knows all
about these. You can be in a quite nice restaurant, and go to use the restroom,
and ta-da, squatty potty…you just never know. I try to avoid them at all costs.
(So especially for my students, I’m including a photo so you can see what I am
talking about! Public restrooms are bit different than in the U.S.! And
remember how when we went on field trips to places like the Flynn I always made
you “try” before the show – well in this case, I’d be saying, “hold it until
you get back!” Luckily, regular toilet in the hotel.)
The next time I post, we will be in China!
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