Last day at work

Today is my last day of work at Kids Crossing. I'm not kidding myself, though - I bet I will be back in here to finish up some stuff (for free) after I get back from China. Procrastination Station - that's not just my home, it's also my office! Today I am going to finish up a lot of filing and get my office in some kind of order so that my replacement can come back in and just pick up things where I left off. She used to do this job when I will still a full-time caseworker, so at least there's not a lot of training involved.

Lindsey and I are finishing up our last-minute packing. Johanna and Clint have offered to put together the crib and fix up the nursery for us while we are gone. Thank goodness - that's going to be a real help. We got a whole lot of medicines for us and for Hannah - so we will have a huge prescription bill to pay! We may not need the malaria prophylactic or the antibiotics, but we need to take them. If we don't we are sure to need them - it's a variation on Murphy's Law.

Six days to go...

This is one of the pictures we sent to China as part of our dossier. Lindsey has shaved off his moustache, so he looks a little different. I looked all over for a photo of the two of us for this blog, and this is the only good one I could find. We're not big picture-takers, but I think that's going to change!

Today I went to see Dr. Silveira, whom we have chosen to be Hannah's pediatrician. She is actually a family physician but she has adopted 2 daughters from China herself and she has sort of specialized in adoption medicine. I feel very comfortable with her, and she understands the China adoption process, which is a big plus. She also won points with me when we she told me how beautiful Hannah is. She said that in China they save the best babies for international adoptions, and that Hannah is the best. She said Hannah is obviously well-cared for and has a lot of personality. "Somebody loves this child; you can tell by the spark in her eyes." Well, if she 's just snowing me, she's doing a good job, because I agree with her!

Final Itinerary

We got our final itinerary today...suddenly everything is happening very fast. Things go very slowly until we get closer to the goal and then it goes faster and faster. It seems like a principle of physics or something.

Our tentative itinerary is no longer tentative. Next Friday is my last day at work. I will be doing contract work for Kids Crossing, so it's not as if I won't see those people again, and I will be working in "the biz". But of course it won't be the same. I've never thought I would be a "stay at home mom", and it's a change in my whole image of myself and the world. I just hope I'm up to the challenge!

Our next project is packing...and getting the house organized so that we don't have to go crazy with everything when we get home with Hannah. Also, I need to organize things and tie up loose ends at work so I don't leave a mess for whoever takes my cases.

Gifts...

Yesterday, we received a present from my mother - a beautiful hand-knitted blanket for Hannah. I know that she's been working on it for a while - every time I'd talk to her she would tell me how far she had gotten (and how many times she had to start over - she's just like me in that way!). Last week Hannah received a hand-knitted poncho from Lindsey's aunt Goldie - really pretty - pinkish-white, trimmed in a light pink. I think we'll take it to China with us so we'll have something to put on her to keep her warm when we go from warm South China to chilly November Colorado. I don't think I'll take Mom's blanket, though - it'll take up too much room in the suitcase. It will just be waiting for her in her crib.

My sister Kathy has sent me all sorts of little things, as well as clothes, towels, all kinds of baby stuff she got on sale at TJ Maxx or Marshall's. It's no fun for her unless she can get it for a great price! My sister Janet sent me lots of different books that I can't wait to read to Hannah.

At the shower, I got lots of sleepers, onesies, etc, of different sizes, which will come in handy because we use the ones that fit her right away, and save the bigger ones for her to grow into. I
bought her a pair of shoes on sale at OshKosh B'Gosh. They are going out of business and they have some great prices. The shoes were so cute, and I know you shouldn't buy shoes for kids unless you can try them on first but...I couldn't resist.

Beth got a stuffed cow hand puppet that moos (so she'll remember Aunt Bethy - Beth loves cows). Johanna and Clint gave us a little pink folding chair for the deck - very cute.

I can't wait to put it all into her room and get it ready for her. Hopefully we'll do that this weekend. Clint and Johanna are living downstairs now, but they will help me by letting me get at least the nursery together before we get back with Hannah. We're not exactly the type to have a "too-precious" nursery perfectly decorated for her...but I want to have a nice, warm, cheerful place for her.

We talked to CCAI yesterday. They will email me our final travel arrangements/itinerary on Thursday. Next Wednesday we will have our "Travel Group Conference Call" when we have a sort of telephone conference with CCAI and all the other people in our travel group. It looks like only one other couple will be going to Beijing when we go...Becky and her husband. It will be nice to be with at least one other couple. When we're in Beijing, I'm planning to try to contact my email friends, Jordi and Conchi from Barcelona, Spain. I met them through a Yahoo list, and they will be in Beijing adopting their daughter Sara when we are in Beijing. I'm hoping we can meet for dinner or drinks. I'm hoping my Spanish is good enough to talk to them. They do speak some English - people from non-English speaking countries always seem to do better in English than we do in their languages!

The Shower

Beth and Terry threw me a baby shower at Terry's house on Saturday, 10/15. Most of the women from work were there, and it was really fun. Three different people gave me little rubber duckies with a blue spot that changes color if the water is too hot. Are they trying to hint that they think I'm neglectful, or just dumb? Of course, granted, this was a bunch of social workers and therapists, so naturally that's the type of thing they would think of. Jenn took some pictures, but on most of them I have really weird expressions on my face. I'll post them here anyway, but they are pretty awful.

We bought our plane tickets today. Another big step in the process. It is starting to feel really real now, and I am getting a little anxious - we have so much left to do. The only really big things we need to buy are a stroller and a high chair. We have them both picked out on our registry, so we just have to get them.

Our itinerary

We finally got our "tentative" itinerary for our trip. We decided we are going to spend a couple days in Beijing before joining our group in Hong Kong. How many times do we go to China? Besides, this will give us some time to relax and adjust before going to Hong Kong.

10/31/05: Colorado Springs to San Francisco to Beijing (the overseas leg of the trip is 12 1/2 hours!)
We will stay in Beijing for 3 nights and have 2 days of sight-seeing. Yes, tour groups - my least favorite way to travel. But this is not Mexico or France, where we could understand the language (at least a little). This isn't even Italy, where we could figure a lot of the words on signs. Not only do we NOT speak the language, we can't understand any of the writing! Tour groups are the easy way, and we will need that!

11/4/05: Beijing to Hong Kong
We meet up with our group and stay in Hong Kong for a night or two. For the others, it's a chance to get acclimated and get over jet lag.

11/6/05: Hong Kong to Nanning: get Hannah!
We fly to the provincial capital of Guangxi. Hannah is the only child living in Nanning, but the others will be bussed to Nanning from their smaller cities, and we will probably get the children on 11/6/05. We do the Chinese adoption, get paperwork done and start bonding with Hannah.

11/7/05: Chinese Adoption Day
We will adopt Hannah in Nanning - that is when she officially becomes our daughter and a Topper! (We will re-adopt her in Colorado when we get home, but it will be sort of like renewing wedding vows because she will be legally our daughter.)

11/8/05 ~ 11/11/05: In Nanning
We will bond with Hannah, get paperwork finished for the Chinese government, and do some sightseeing. We hope to visit Guilin - the pictures are beautiful.

11/12/05: Nanning to Guangzhou
We will do all the paperwork that needs to be done for the US government at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, have Hannah's Visa physical and Visa appointment so she can emigrate to the US with us. We will also do some shopping and sight-seeing.

11/17/05 Guangzhou to Hong Kong to San Francisco to Colorado Springs
HOME!!! Hopefully Johanna and Clint won't forget to pick us up at the airport! Because we will cross quite a few time zones AND the international date line, we will land in San Francisco (8:35 am) before we leave Hong Kong (12:50 pm). Sounds like the Twilight Zone...

Development Report

This is the development report about Hannah, from the orphanage (Nanning Social Welfare Institute). (You can click on it to zoom so you can read it. ) We already had most of this information when we got the referral but this is the actual report, translated from Chinese. It gives her some personality. It also makes me want to go get her, right now!

We also received an update on Hannah from the orphanage, through CCAI. As of September 5, 2005 (just after referral day), here are her stats:

Height: 28.9 inches
Weight: 19.36 pounds
She has two more teeth, for a grand total of 4!

According to the Chinese growth charts I have seen, she is in the low part of the curve for both weight and height. She's a little closer to average on weight - actually she looks like a little chunk to me!

Travel Group 862

We found out we are in Travel Group 862. It's a small group; most of the parents are adopting from Pingnan. We are the only ones adopting from Nanning, and it looks like Hannah is the only child in foster care. CCAI tells us we are due in Hong Kong on about 11/4, and we should arrive in Nanning on 11/6. Usually, parents get their children the frist or second day they are in the provincial capital. So we should have her by 11/6 or 11/7.

CCAI told us we have a good chance of visiting the orphanage. I'm glad about that, but what I really want to do is meet her foster parents. We received what they call the Adoptive Child Development Report. Lindsey's secretary scanned the report, so I will post it here.