Friday, January 30, 2009

Final Preparations and Sleep Deprivation!

It has been a busy past few weeks. We have purchased gifts for Chinese officials we will interact with and orphanage workers. We visited a multi-lingual pre-school for an open house and while we won't be sending Bo there we did meet their Chinese teacher and got some good tips on educational materials. I am in the process of wrapping up work assignments and making sure all of my day to day functions will be filled while I am in China. This week I opened a local checking account so we can start collecting cash for our trip, nice clean $100s for the donation and various legal fees. I also visited our family doctor and got some prescriptions for our travel, an antibiotic and some back-up insulin in case something happens to my pump, etc.

I think Tuesday night was the first time this happened but it has happened now 3 nights in a row! I keep waking up around 4 AM and I just lie there thinking about what I need to pack or what I still need to do before we leave. I do eventually fall back to sleep but then I spend the whole day in a fog because I am so exhausted. I've been going for regular runs with the dogs, even running on the treadmill in the evening if my schedule doesn't allow outside activity in the daylight hours. I am doing everything possible to make myself tired enough that I sleep but I think there is just too much going on and until I get more organized this will continue. So, this weekend I will start my packing list and get all of Bo's things packed so all we have to do is our clothes right before we leave. We leave in 13 days so it's not too early. I'm just hoping a little more organization will make it so i don't create packing lists in my head at 4 AM.

One happy note: my uncle told me he is going to meet Bo and I at customs in Newark on our return trip 3/4! So that will be a nice welcome to the US for us after an incredibly long flight.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Trip to Houston


Yesterday, we drove over to Houston for Ryan's half marathon. We stayed with friends from Allentown, Amy and Jason, who are also Gulf Coast transplants. We went to the race expo Sat. afternoon then headed out to an Italian restaurant so Ryan could eat his pre-race carbs. Our day started at about 4:45 AM this morning as Ryan had to be ready for the 7 AM start time. I am posting a photo of him just before being picked up to drive over to the starting area at 6 AM! Luckily it warmed back up again so it was a beautiful day, about 60-70 degrees out and Jason, Amy, and I had fun driving to different spots along the course to see Ryan run by. His training got a bit messed up by a bad cold over Christmas and the procrastinating thought that we might be in China by now, but he finished the race with a very respectable time of 2:28. Not bad for the first time! Bo will certainly need a good bike if he wants to keep up with Daddy on future training runs.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Visas!!!

Our passports came back today with the visa stamps in them. I've got to say it was a little stressful not having them for the past 3 weeks. Needless to say, another step in the right direction so I am excited.

Also, I have called about every non-religous preschool in the city and it looks like we are going to stick with Kindercare. I liked the place when I visited last week and there is even another Chinese speaking little boy there (parents are engineers who moved to the US 6 months ago). The assistant to the director babysits a little boy with diabetes who used to be a student there as well so they have experience with Type 1 kids. I had really wanted to go Montessori but they are all booked up and even if I could get him in for fall I don't want to move him if he can stay at Kindercare. So I guess I will start applying for a kindergarten for Fall 2010 as soon as we get home, LOL. Oh the fun of living where the public schools suck so bad that the state has to take them over by law! Ryan has a lot of work to do.

Shopping update: I found out there are indoor pools at the White Swan, where Bo and I will be staying in Guangzhou, so I went to Old Navy yesterday and got the cutest swim trunks and matching shirt. He is definitely going to be the best dressed kid!

Next task for this week: figure out how to open a bank account locally so I can get clean $100 bills for the trip. Why doesn't everyone take Visa?

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Travel Plans

Flights are reserved as follows:

2/12 New Orleans/Newark CO817 Lv. 630A, Ar. 1023A
2/12 Newark/Beijing CO89 Lv. 1215P, Ar. 300P on 2/13
2/23 Beijing/Newark CO88 Lv. 500P, Ar. 540P (for Ryan only)
2/23 Newark/New Orleans CO816 Lv. 730P, Ar. 1007P (for Ryan only)
----
3/4 Beijing/Newark CO88 Lv. 500P, Ar. 540P (for Alison and Bo Cheng only)
3/4 Newark/New Orleans CO816 Lv. 730P, Ar. 1007P (for Alison and Bo Cheng only)

The original itinerary they sent us had us connecting through Detroit and Tokyo with very tight layovers. Traveling with just Bo and I on the return was going to be a nightmare with all thoses connections. Now everybody start praying/ meditating/ whatever floats your boat that there is no Nor'easter on 2/12 or 3/4!

Next step, intra-China travel plans.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Travel Approval!!!!

We got a call today from our travel advisor at Great Wall and our Travel Approval came in. The catch is that our child's province is taking a long time to complete the in-province part of the adoption process so our trip is going to be 20 days! This means Ryan will not be able to stay the whole time. So we will probably leave the US on Feb. 12th and travel to Beijing. We'll spend a day or two in Beijing getting adjusted and then we will go to Baoding City to meet Bo. We will stay in Baoding for about a week (celebrating my 32nd bday there on the 21st) and then Ryan will fly home and Bo and I will fly to Guanzhou to visit the US consulate and get all the necessary paperwork done to get his visa for our trip home. Once we get to Guanzhou we will be part of a large group of Great Wall families and there will probably be other American families at our hotel all there with their new family members so Bo and I will be very busy making friends. We expect to travel home on March 4th. It is going to be crazy, I now am on a mission to figure out how lightly I can pack since I won't have Ryan to be my mule on the return trip. Thank god I don't have to carry a diaper bag and an infant all by myself. I am starting to think we will buy a cheap umbrella stroller in case Bo doesn't want to walk in one of the airports on the connection in Hong Kong or Chicago. I definitely can't carry all of our stuff and all 40 lbs of him! Uggghhh, planning....

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Waiting, still...

Hi, Alison here...

We are still waiting for our travel approval so our travel can't be planned yet. We could be leaving for China in 3-4 weeks and we don't even know the date of our departure, ugghhhh.

This past week we got our final furniture for Bo's room and I got him some towels, a toothbrush holder in the shape of a giraffe, and a nice bright red rug for his bathroom. So the transformation from guest bath chic to 4 yr old fun is complete. We also picked up some medicine (Tylenol, Motrin, Childrens cold syrup), shampoo, soap, Finding Nemo band-aids and a Sponge Bob toothbrush and Wall-E toothpaste. He isn't even here yet and he's already surrounded by American consumerism. Ryan even picked out some Batman underwear for him. Whatever happened to stuffed animals and play cars?

I go back to work tomorrow and Ryan has two more days of his intersession class (final Tuesday) and then it's full-time 4th grade teacher for him starting Wednesday. Well at least we'll both be busy while we wait for the TA. And the last but most important piece of planning yet to complete... preschool options. I will try to visit KinderCare this week and maybe stop by LSU daycare to beg for a spot. Goodbye dignity, hello top private schools... at least until kindergarten!