Happy 3rd Birthday Jake

We celebrated Jake's 3rd birthday yesterday. We kept the celebration low key and stayed home for Chinese food and cake. As usual Jake was the first to start eating and the last one to finish. He loved having everyone sing happy birthday and really enjoyed his toys. We bought him a little truck to ride. He might be a bit old for this, but since he didn't have any toys like this in China he really loved it. Aunt Marianne visited this weekend which made everyone happy.

Tomorrow starts all of the doctor's appointments to prepare for Jake's surgery. We have 6 different appointment between Wednesday and Friday. I'm a bit nervous about the appointments since Jake hates going to the doctors and won't even take his coat off unless you pry it off of him. I guess we'll have plenty of chances to practice going to the doctor's this week. Mom is coming to help us out with Emily this week since we have so many appointments and didn't want to drag her around the city. Jim's parents are coming next week to help us out during the surgery. Jake will be on a liquid diet for 3 weeks after the surgery, which should be fun since he wants to eat nonstop. I feel bad for him because I'm no smoothie chef. We really only use our blender to make margaritas, which isn't going to work for him.

Home for a week

It's hard to believe we've been home for a week now. The flight home with the kids wasn't too bad. Only two mini melt downs for Jake, which were mostly due to the fact he was tired and couldn't get comfortable. The first few days home were really hard on Jake as he had an ear infection and a cold. Between the ear infection and time change, Jake didn't sleep for more than 2-hours at a time and wanted to be held sitting up. Emily would wake up at 3 am starving and ready to start her day. Jim and I we're bearly functioning. It took about a week, but everyone is finally back on schedule and Jake is doing much better. Jake is having a great time exploring around the house and playing with his toys.

Next week is very busy getting ready for Jake's surgery. We have 4 appointments, which should be fun since Jake is not too fond of doctors or any person in the medical profession for that matter. We can't get Jake to open his mouth to give him medicine, so I'm curious to see how it goes when the doctors want to look at the roof of his mouth.

Photos

The Red Couch photo with all of the dads, after a failed attempt to line the kids up on the couch by themselves.

Emily and Jake before the Red Couch photo. Jake was not enjoying the photo session as much as Emily.

Emily alone after deciding her brother was ruining her picture.

Emily with her pink purse she found in one of the markets. A funny story about that purse. The other day Emily and I went to Starbucks for some Mommy and Emily time. While we were sitting there I asked her what her favorite part of the trip has been. She thought about it for a while and said, "First my brother and second this great purse." I'm just glad her brother came first in the ranking.

Rebecca (Our guide) and the kids at Papa's

Last Full Day

Today is our last full day in China. Our luggage will be picked up at 6 am and our bus leaves for the airport at 6:30. Our flight home is 17-hours, which is really scary since Jake doesn't sit still for very long. Emily did really well on the flight over so I'm counting on her for a smooth trip back too. We decided to stick to a conservative dinner of Papa John's Pizza for this evening. Papa has been a staple of our diet during our stay. I don't think anyone is going to want pizza for a long time once we get home.

Yesterday was our Consulate Appointment where Jake was sworn in as a US citizen. It's not a very exciting ceremony but it was nice to have the grandparents with us for the moment. Jake took his oath eating his favorite wang wang cookie with his left hand and with me holding his right hand up for the oath. The swearing in ceremony celebrates the approval of the paperwork. He will not become an offical citizen until his feet touch US soil or Newark Liberty in our case.

Last night we took a dinner cruise down the pearl river. The bad weather really put a damper on most of our events and this was no different. Despite the foggy wet conditions, the views were still nice. Jake was fond of the cruise for the first 30-minutes (dinner) after that he was tired of being confined to a table or a boat. Jake likes to go, go, go all of the time. He's a happy guy who wants to experience things as an active participant not a spectator.

Jake's taking a nap and Emily is with Nana, so I should use this time to pack. Thank you to everyone for all of the nice emails. We can't wait for all of you to meet our smiley little guy.

Pictures

Jake doing what he loves...EATING.

Grandmom and Jake in the hotel's play room.

Emily sporting her big sister t-shirt. This pose is for you Aunt Ursula.

This photo wasn't taken today, but is a perfect depiction of how we've been spending our time outside.

This is a good photo I wanted to share. It's the group getting ready to receive Jake.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll have some photos from the Zoo provided the weather is good. If not, get ready for more of picture number 4.

Consulate Physical

Today was our Consulate Physical and visa photo. While Jake will leave as a US citizen, he'll be traveling on a Chinese Passport which requires a US visa. It's really crazy considering the paperwork you go through with CIS (US Immigration) prior to and during the adoption. Jake was not his usual happy self this morning and seem to cry about every little disturbance. We knew we were in for trouble with today's appointments before we ever left the hotel. Ironically Emily struggled with these appointments too when we were here for her adoption. The physical is to give the "all clear" for bringing the child into the US. Since Jim and I don't want to stay in China any longer than necessary, this is an important appointment. It was pouring rain today and our appointment was in walking distance. The walk would have been fine had it not been for the rain. By the time we arrived at the place for the visa photo, Jake was not a happy camper. He would not sit in the chair to have his picture taken and proceeded to have a huge meltdown. Grandmom came through with some gummy snacks and we were able to have a photo taken with red eyes and a runny nose. Hey, it's not his graduation picture, so we weren't too devastated. Then it was off for the physical, which was even more upseting to Jake. I can't say that I enjoy the location myself. The doctors and nurses are all running around wearing white coats and masks. It's kind of smelly and really hot. I guess since they see a good number of babies they feel the need to keep it very warm. Jake passed his physical without any problems. A major reason could be due to the amount of crying and screaming involved. I think the doctors and nurses would have passed hime regardless provided with left the building with our screaming child. Once we got outside in the pouring rain, Jake was back to his happy smiling self. We stopped at Starbucks and he was as happy as could be drinking some milk. I really feel bad for his doctors back home.

Other than an afternoon of paperwork, we all stayed in the hotel for the balance of the day. Mom (Diane) was feeling under the weather with an upset stomach and spent her day resting. She doing much better this evening compared to last night.

Tomorrow we might go to the Zoo to see the panda bears if the weather is good. That would be amazing if is was since we've had bad weather everyday. Hope everyone is well back home.

I forgot to add the pictures to the last post

Emily & Jake walking through the courtyard with Rebecca.

Jake in the White Swan Playroom.

Emily & Jake watching a movie.

The whole gang at the Orphanage with Orphanage Nanny and Director.

Out and about

It's been a couple days since my last post due to a crazy schedule and a tired Amy. Jim and I still aren't 100% on the time change and have been going to bed with the kids. We would sleep in, but a little girl likes to wake up around 3 am because she's hungry. On Thursday we went to a Shopping Mall and the Jade Market. Rebecca took us there right as the center was opening up because she wanted us to avoid the crowd. We left around noon, which was a good thing as the crowds of people were growing. We picked up McDonalds on the way home. I don't love McDonalds when I'm home, but after being here a few days it's one of the best things in the world. We took Emily and Jake shoe shopping with the hopes of having Jake's foot measured. I brought shoes but don't know if they are the right size. Apparently in China they don't measure your feet they just feel the foot in the shoe to see if it fits. I bought a pair of light up Cars shoes (From the Movie Cars) from home for Jake. He's absoulutely loves those shoes and looks forward to putting them on everyday. When we tried to take his shoes off to try on a new pair, he cried horribly. I think he thought they were taking his shoes away. So it's Cars shoes for now regardless of how they fit.

Today we went back to Jake's orphanage to meet some of the people that took care of him and tour the center. The orphanage is as nice as an orphanage could be and was very clean. The director gave us a tour and shared some information with us about Jake. While he's only been with us for a few days, Jake is very attached to us. He did not enjoy his visit back to the orphanage and became very upset when we got to the area where his bed was. I broke off from the tour and took Jake back out to one of the lobbies. Jake spent some time with a foster family and was not in the orphanage the whole time. We found out his foster mother is a teacher at the orphanage and learned English while studying at the univerisity. We had asked the orphanage director if Jake's foster parents had taught him English because he seems to understand everything we say. No problems with him understanding what we are saying, which has been a big relief. The orphanage director believes the foster mother had taught Jake some English. It is always sad to see these all the kids in the orphanage but caregivers really do their best to take care of these children. We were also thrilled to be allowed to meet and take photos of a 4 year old little girl who is being adopted by a couple back in the US. Her foster grandfather brought her to the orphanage to meet us and be photographed. She was really cute and her foster grandfather was very pround of all of her accomplishments. I know how much those update photos meant to us while we were waiting to travel for Jake, so I'm glad we were able to do this for another family.

We had an early dinner tonight at a Thai restaurant. The reviews were not too good from most members of the group. There were many things on the menu that have never crossed my mind as being edible. Believe it or not the least adventurous person in the food area is Jim. Not Mom!

Tomorrow Jake has his physical for the US Consulate. I hope they don't need to take his shoes off for this physical or things could get ugly.

From Jim: Okay, the coolest things are that he's totally potty trained and seems to understand everything we say. And he's cute. The worst thing is the food, as usual. Amy was being kind when she talked about the Thai restaurant. Not everything was totally nasty, but the pig's neck, big fish head, and fried intestines weren't big favorites. Back to Amy......

I'm sure you've seen the news reports about the horrible weather conditions in China. Guangzhou has seen very cold temperatures, but other areas were hit with tremendous snowfall totals. You may have seen the crazy crowds in Guangzhou train stations on TV. Our guides always take us on routes aways from the station, but you can still see the crowds. There are people standing in really long lines under tents outside of the station. Imagine several football fields of lines and that's the situation. Our guide was telling us there were about 3.8 million people in the train station or standing in lines to buy tickets. We couldn't understand why this many people would really go to this much trouble to go home for the holidays. Rebecca explained how most of these people work for the large factories. They live in dorms provided by the factory and don't live with their families. Their families live in other provinces so they have no other place to go when the factories close for the holiday.

Civil Affairs Appointment

Today we went back to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize Jake's adoption. After some paperwork, photos and a short interview, Jake officially became an O'Malley. After our appointment, Rebecca took us to the Chinese version of Walmart. We were in need of some additional warm clothing items. It was a very interesting experience to say the least. Rebecca told us if we had gone on the weekend we would have waited in line for an hour since next week is Chinese New Year. I asked Rebecca to pick out some food items Jake might be accustom to eating. Again, very interesting. She picked out duplicate items so Emily could have them too. There are some weird jello like containers that she called jelly. I asked if you were supposed to put it on something and she said they just eat it out of the container. Jake was really excited when he saw these jello/jelly things so I guess he'd used to them?

This afternoon we have an appointment at the police station to complete Jake's passport application and photo.

Here he is...

We received Jake today around 4 pm at the Civil Affairs Office. We had a long wait since the driver from the orphanage could not find a parking place. Our guide had to meet the car with Jake and his Nanny on the street while the orphanage director and the driver kept looking for parking. Emily immediately we right to Jake and announced she was his big sister and gave him a hug. She had candy and toy truck to give him and wasted no time trying to fill his mouth with candy. After Emily's greeting, it was pretty easy for Jim and I to pick him up. I would write more but we're really tired. So enjoy the pictures and we'll fill in the details tomorrow.

The clock is broken

It's 12:25 and we leave at 2:30 for our 3:00 appointment. Time is passing really slow. Next post is with pictures of Jake!

Museum & Tea Party

Today was very cold and rainy...again. The forecast looks like rain and cold weather for the next 10-days. Guangzhou is experiencing an unusual cold spell with temperatures in the low 40's. We were expecting temperatures in the high 50's to low 60's so we've been bundling up with what we have. Rebecca took us to a beautiful museum today. The highlight of the tour was the tea room (Undercover but still open air) where we were treated to traditional tea service. Rebecca explained how much the Chinese hate tea made from tea bags. My father-in-law Ed, who recently retired from McCormick, told her he quit his job when McCormick started putting their tea in tea bags. I think the guide took him literally, so it was pretty funny.

Jim and I met with Rebecca later in the day to prepare for receiving Jake tomorrow. His foster mother calls him Sha Ming, which translates to little emperor. Our appointment is scheduled for 3:00 pm.

We've done a horrendous job of taking pictures thus far. Hopefully today we'll do a better job now that everyone is feeling more on schedule. That last statement is somewhat questionable since I started working on this at about 5 am. Emily set up in her bed at 4 am and said, "I'm hungry right now!" I had this great idea of walking over to Starbucks at 6 am, but found out they don't open until 7:30! You cannot believe what the Chinese call coffee, think Sanka crystals.

Hope all is well back home.

We're Here!

We're finally here! Our first flight out of Newark was delayed, which meant catching our connecting flight in Hong Kong was not going to happen. Much to our surprise, we landed in Hong Kong with about 30-minutes until our next flight. When we got off the plane there were people from the airlines yelling Guangzhou and putting stickers on us. Next thing you know we're following these people through the airport. As they were expediting our processing through immigration and security, I started to wonder if these people really worked for the airlines. They were so concerned about us making this flight and we're helping us move luggage and holding our jackets. We caught the second flight knowing our luggage wouldn't catch up with us until today. Everyone had enough in their carry on luggage to make it through. There were a few items we needed so our guide (Rebeeca) took us to the 7-11 store across the street from the Hotel. There are some great stories about 5 jet lagged adults searching for health and beauty aids at 1 am in the 7-11. I'll have to save those for when we get home.

We won't be receiving Jake until Monday, but received a good deal of information about him from our Rebecca. She went to visit him a few days ago and says he is very shy. She says he is almost as tall as Emily and very skinny. Emily does not like hearing her little brother might be as tall as her.

It's been rainy and cold here, which makes walking around outside not too much fun. I'll try to post some photos later.

New Picture from China Today

We were surprised to receive a new picture of Jake today. He's gotten so big! It's very crazy here today trying to get everything together, but wanted to share this new picture with everyone. I know I'm his Mom, but he's really a cutie.

Packing Stress

Should I be doing this right now? No, I should be organizing our paperwork or packing. I'm so tired of packing and repacking. I also have the good fortune of having my assistant Emily unpack things that I already packed. She says she wants to see what I'm taking. Today we took the dogs to the Vet to have their shots updated for boarding. We got in the car and a few minutes later Emily started sobbing. It seems she thought we were leaving for China and forgot to take her stuff. She was most upset about a card she made with her friends in school that she wanted to give to Jake. Once we convinced her we were only going to the Vet, she was much better. After we left the Vet, I felt like sobbing because I really hate paying ridiculous vet bills. Why do I have to pay $400 to have someone tell me I have a fat dog and an old dog. Now I'm really off topic, so I better get back to packing.

Confirmed

We are booked and ready to go! We leave in just a week and still have a good deal of packing and prepping to go. As of today, it looks like we'll be receiving Jake on 1/28, but there is a possibility of receiving him on 1/26. It all depends on if the orphanage is willing to travel on Saturday. I guess we won't know for a couple days or even until we get there. We'll be leaving China just prior to Chinese New Year. I'm hoping we get a couple glimpses of the lucky Chinese Dragons. We've seen the dragons at the parades in China Town NYC. The Chinese believe the dragons bring luck, which is something I'm always up for.

Catching Up

Where to start? I'm a bit behind sharing everything that's been going on, so here's the latest. We received our LOA (Letter of Approval to Adopt) on 12-14-07 and thought we'd be leaving sometime around the beginning of January. Once you receive the LOA, you need travel approval (TA) from China to plan your travel dates. We finally received our TA today and have a tentative Consulate Appointment of 2-4-07. We have the travel details and flight arrangements worked out once we received the confirmation, which will come tomorrow. We will be leaving on 1/24, if all goes as planned. We were hoping to get an update on Jake's height and weight with our TA, but that didn't happen. Fortunately I'm pretty good at over packing, so I'm sure he'll be fine.