Great Wall, Pandas, and Mcdonald's

We were back after about 4 years.  We went to the same section of Great Wall.  It must be the only one our agency goes to.  This time, we had three girls.  As we walked towards the wall, I was thinking how am I going to do this.  I was prepared to out do the last trip.  My goal was the top of the hill. As we approached, Kayla was flanked by her admirers.  The girls posed for a picture.  I don't think Kiersten was happy about it.  Once the photo session was done, the girls turned and asked if they could go with me.  I said no.  I was not going to be able to carry them down when they got tired.  I figured it would be pretty quick.   The climb began, I was making good time.  The first turret did not take long.  I took out the camera to take some pictures.  When I turned it on, I noticed that I did not have space for pictures.  The bag was at the base with Angie.  I had to walk all the way back...

The day we went to the Great Wall, it was cool from what I remember.  There are multiple sections to visit.  We got to know the Juyongguan Pass part of the Great Wall.  We arrived at the ticket area and waited for our guide to give us the okay.  Angie and I walked up some of the stairs, but she did not last long.  I felt more adventurous.  The stairs went straight up.  The spacing was like double the size of normal stairs. I made it to the first turret okay.  I was a little winded.  By the next one, I was panting.  I had locals, in their 70's to 80's passing me.  At that point I knew I had to exercise better.  I carefully turned back and walked down the stairs.  On one section, I was worried my legs were going to give out.  They felt like rubber.  All I could think was that if I fell, it was going to hurt. While I was climbing, Angie was looking at the gift shops and looking for bargains.  Once I ma...

When adoption did not pan out, we decided to wait.  In this time, we move to Florida.  We were looking for better opportunities.  Luckily we found jobs with ATT.  After my initial test, I was told that once I got on, I would have a job for life.  Eventually, I talked Angie into this great situation.   At this time, Florida's Department of Children and Families was running commercials and new stories about needing parents for foster and adoptive programs.  This was it.  We jumped in and made the call.  A week or two later, we were still seeing the commercials, but had not received a call.  Angie tried to call again, but kept getting the runaround.   I said we should call the news organization that kept running the stories.  That day, they came by our workplace for an interview.  We just told them that we really wanted to help children and that they had not even called us back, while continuing to run commercials and ...

Our first adoption was the first time either of us had travelled outside of America, with the exception of a cruise or two.  We were not used to how things work.  In Guangzhou, I found a music/DVD store.  I found a ton of movies I wanted and the price was right.  I bought a bunch of them.  Unfortunately, I learned a valuable lesson.  Don't bother buying DVD's of Hollywood films outside of the country and try to bring them back.  I even had a couple I had bought a Wal-Mart in China. As you land back in America, they pass out customs forms.  On this form, you have to state what you are bringing into the country, souvenirs, clothes, alcohol, etc.  We are honest people.  We stated what we had.  Then you have to deplane and go straight to Customs.  At this point, they check you declarations and asked questions.  Both of which are used to weed out people for inspection.  Then, you are either free to go one to you next fli...

When you go to the bathroom in China, you usually see one of two options.  You have the classic western model or you have what we call a squat pot.  I have been lucky, but I have had to use it on occasion.  My daughter had to use it once.  She said the next time she goes to China, she's just going to pee in her pants.  She says it will be the same as using the squat pot.  If you look at it, you can sort of see why they use it.  Your body does not touch it, so it would be good in that sense.  If you are not used to it, you could end up falling in it or just losing your balance and spraying everything.  My prescription for this is to watch what you eat, before going out.  Stay away from greasy foods and lots of liquids.  Being a male, liquids are not as much a problem.  Another thing, the bathrooms usually smell bad, especially in some of the park restrooms.

I have another lost story.  Don't worry it's not a trend we repeat every time.  I might have one more post about being lost.  Sometimes being lost in a foreign land can lead to some interesting finds off of the beaten track.  In  Beijing, they have a subway system.  The line was right in front of our hotel.  We are not experienced subway riders.  The only thing we have in Orlando is the monorail at Disney and the airport.  We go down to check it out.  Low and behold the price is very good versus taking a cab.  Plus if you saw the traffic in Beijing, you'd want to avoid the roads.  We paid for our ticket and went down to catch a train.  As we waited, I studied the map.  We were trying to get to Wangfujing Shopping street.  As many wives should know it is probably not good to let the husband set up directions.  We got on the train, which was in great condition.  Announcements are made in multiple lang...

So, we are now at the stage of our process where we are gathering paperwork, doing home studies, getting rid of things in the house to make room, etc.  Since we are looking at the Special Needs children, we get updates about available children.  We try to stick with what we have requested(as in what kind of needs we can handle).  Once we find a child, we can request to see her file.  At that point, the agency will lock the file for a specific time period.  This is when you look for other issues and ask questions.  The questions may or may not have answers.  If there are medical records, you can consult a doctor to see what advice they might give.  A lot of the files are bare bones.  Mainly it is filled with observations of the child's everyday life in the orphanage.  It may also take a leap of faith.  You will not always know everything.  We were told Mia may or may not be able to see.  We had to wait to see.  Ev...

From our many journeys to China, we have been able to experience what China had to offer or not offer.  In the hotels we stayed at, they catered to a Western audience.  So we were able to get a couple of western channels:  CNN, BBC, HBO.  As for HBO, I do not know if they were censored for sex and violence.  We did not have much time to watch.  You are either too tired or too busy running around.  Even when Angie laid down for a nap, I would go out and walk around.  I do know they censor CNN.  We were watching a story about a Chinese Official doing something and then the screen went black.  A few minutes later, the screen came back.  It was not due to technical difficulties.  It was the end of the story. Our first trip, we did not watch much TV.  I may have turned it on for the news.  When you flip around the channels, there is not much to see.  I remember seeing a lot of ancient story lines in a Soap Opera s...

On Shamian Island, there were many shops that catered to tourist.  This is where we stayed at the White Swan Hotel.  This island used to house the American Consulate.  They decided to move it due to safety issues.  On the day we arrived from Jaing Xi, we were starved for American cooking.  Part of the problem was that if you did not have your translator, food was harder and more expensive to come by.  It is hard to go to a restaurant, where no one knows English and order something.  They all had pictures, but you did not know what kind of meat or whether it was spicy or not.  Depending where you were, that mattered.  Our guide told us about the western oasis known as Lucy's.  Lucy's is a Mandarin run business that serves western food, like Hamburgers.  We ate our first meal here.  It was good, but we found it to be pricey.  It had movie posters and other paraphernalia hanging on the walls.  On our next trip, we we...

When travelling, I can not stand to stay in the hotel and do nothing.  A lot of families will do just that.  We want to see the province our daughter comes from.  We are always looking for gifts for the children when they get older.  We mainly look for crafts.  While we were driving around with our guide, we asked her if she knew of places they sold hand made crafts.  Either she did not understand us or didn't care to bring us there, she replied that they do not make crafts in Cheng Du.  At the hotel, we found a kiosk that displayed sites in Cheng Du.  We found the Wenshu Temple.  It looked interesting and said it had hand made crafts.  We go to the person behind the desk.  Luckily, he knew where it was.  He tells us to go out the hotel and turn left and walk a certain distance and then follow the waterway, etc.  Bidding him a good day, we started walking.  We made it to a bridge over water.  At this point, I...

In China, there are many ways to cross the road.  My favorite way is by underground tunnel or bridge.  Some areas are do not have areas to get to the other side without stepping in front of a car.  I would equate the experience to the game Frogger.  When we needed to cross the road, we would follow the locals.  It is not for the faint of heart.  Some of these people trust that the drivers will stop.  Although these people are crossing at a crosswalk, don't be fooled by the stopping cars.  They will keep going.  When you cross, you start and just keep on going.  I guess at the same time praying no one will hit you.  Like I said, we preferred the tunnels or bridges. 

What does it cost to adopt?  The answer is it is a lot of  money.  But, it is worth it in the long run.  Everyone wants their money up front.  It's like if you were pregnant and everyone wanted you to pay before delivery or as you are giving birth to your child.  People have some theory that it is just the country selling children.  They would be wrong.  A lot of our charges come from this country.  We have to pay for paperwork from multiple states, Hague training, etc.  It seems that in addition to protecting kinds from kidnapping, the Hague was created to make money.  We have been through 4 adoptions and 30 or so children as foster parents.  What kind of training do you think we need?  At this point of our lives, I would say we are pros at this.  Getting back to pregnancy.  People who are giving birth to a child usually have some sort of insurance to cover a lot of the costs.  What if insurance did not...

On our second adoption, it was in 2009.  We stayed at a Beijing Hotel.  In the morning, we had to eat breakfast by a certain time.  As we finished, we had to go back to the room to get something.  We got on the elevator.  The man on the elevator was Jackie Chan.  I know it's hard to believe and I do not have proof.  It looked just like him.  The only thing that threw me off was that he had facial hair.  In all the movies I've seen he had never had facial hair.  I started looking at Angie trying to get her attention, but she was preoccupied.  If Kiersten could speak English and Mandarin, I could have had her ask him in Mandarin.  But, she only knew Mandarin.  I did see that he was going to the penthouse.  Later, I was watching the news and saw that he was in Beijing to celebrate the opening of 1911.  I guessed it could have been him, but he still had the facial hair.  A year later, I saw the Karate Kid re...

On our first trip to China, we went across the street to a department store.  We just wanted to walk around and look.  I was still reeling from jet lag and being in a communist country for the first time.  All I could think of was, is someone watching us?  The store was set up like a Sears.  We walked around looking for deals.  It's just what we do.  As we are looking, I notice all these employees standing around.  Some are stocking and folding clothes.  We go to look at some clothing.  I think we were looking for Michelle, our new baby, but we did not know hear size.  When we picked up the item, an employee's interest was peaked.  Sort of like they were looking for a shoplifter.  She approaches us to ask us a question.  Of course, it is in Mandarin.  I think we understood that she was asking about assistance and we said we were looking or tried to convey that.  Once we were ready, we got the clerks atte...

Of the things we've learned from adoption is you need to grow thick skin.  You are going to be asked questions, get comments or just looks that are insensitive.  Either you're family/friends may not agree with what you are doing or where you are adopting from.  I worked with a person who made comments about international adoptions to my face, know that I have adopted three girls from China.  They said that they could not understand with all the children in America, why would people adopt internationally.  I always found that comment ignorant.  Why?  I have adopted from America.  I know what it's like.  We prefer international adoption.  There are many reasons.  I would say that most states provide for children in the system.  In other countries, that may not be the same.  From our fostering days, I would say 75% of the kids that came into our house had been molested in some way.  Once that happens, it takes years of...

During an adoption, there is a lot of things to do.  That list has grown since our first adoptions.  The Hague has created additional hurdles to jump through.  It is all there to protect the children.  Everyday I have Angie telling about some form or other that needs to be filled out, notarized, sent off, etc.  It is an ongoing process.  I would just be happy to fill out one application, pick out or be matched with a child and go get them.  It's not that easy.  It is sort of like pregnancy.  We have nine months of paperwork and waiting.  A lot of times, I get the hurry from my wife and I comply.  Then I ask frantically, What's next?  She says, "I send it off and we wait".  In our first adoption, we were waiting for a healthy child.  There are many steps after your paperwork is sent off to China.  The final stage is the matching stage.  I remember getting our child's picture.  We rushed our response to...

Travelling by plane can be fun.  It can be annoying.  We have always loved it.  When in China, you have to use domestic carriers.  They have many Air China and China Southern are two that come to mind.  On our first trip we were warned that the pilot are usually retired military.  If they see a storm, don't expect them to fly around it for our comfort.  From our trips, I can only remember one incident where this might have come into play.  We started hitting turbulence.  A warning started to go off and it repeated.  It said something about the rough air and buckling up.  Besides that, I can say we enjoyed all of the flights.  The in flight stewards were excellent.  They went out of their way to assist and were never rude, or as far as we could tell, since we do not speak Mandarin.  They always had drinks shortly after takeoff and then a second time with a meal.  They even served meals on short flights....

In my life, I can only remember taking the train to travel one time.  It was in California.  My dad brought us the San Diego from Oceanside on an Amtrak train.  I only slightly remember that trip.  I was thrilled to find out that on our third adoption we would have to take a train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.  I thought HK was an island, but they had built tracks to go to it. Enter the station, we noticed a large escalator going up multiple floors.  In the ceiling, there was a large glass dome, with an intricate design. Departing trains have to go to the third floor.  I found this to be strange.  I could see it if it was on an elevated track.  Gathering our bags and children, we went to the escalator.  This was a challenge.  Every adoption we have been on, we have added luggage.  We say we are not going to go overboard, but we always seem to find a deal or hand made things we can not pass up.  When we are with ...

In the beginning, we decided to adopt.  My wife can not have children and if she did it would put her life at risk and/or may pass on her disorder to our child.  When we decided to adopt, it was in the late 90's.  The internet was still kind of new.  We could not research to the level we can today.  We knew we did not want to adopt domestically.  We felt that there were too many issues.  That does not even include what we learned as foster parents. We discovered international adoption after watching a news show.  The story was on children in Russian orphanages.  After that story, my wife started to look in the process.  We attended a meeting about the subject at a church.  An adoption agency explained the ins and outs of international adoption.  The country we liked was China.  Unfortunately,  we were too young.  Both parents had to be 35+.  We were in our 20's.  At this point, we ...

In America, we are used to Arctic cold fronts.  In China, they have Siberian cold fronts.  We experienced it on our first trip.  In Guangzhou, the front hit.  It was like Florida.  We were cold one day and then back to being warm.  Of course, when you have a baby with you, you have to bundle them up.  This is for more than just keeping your child warm.  I will discuss this in a later post.  On our last visit, we got to really experience a Siberian cold front.  It hit Beijing.  On the day it hit, we were in sightseeing mode.  We were visiting the Forbidden City.  This plus the cold make it sound desolate.  Being from a warm state, I was only semi prepared.  I did not have a toboggan.  I had a hat.  When the wind blew, I knew why Russians wore those hats.  Suffice it to say, I was freezing. Then we saw a vendor selling Chinese Ushankas (the Russian hat I was referring to.  My wife decided to...