Well, I had hoped to get back to this more quickly than I, in fact, did. Oh well, it’s been a full two days. We are now at the end of Tuesday and what a day. I’ll get back to it in the next post … but I wanted to finish up yesterday’s information as much as I can. Sandy, when you’re reading this, feel free to edit and add to it … I know I’ll miss things.

Anyway, most of the actual time spent in the Gotcha room consisted of juggling between filling out paperwork and giving our attention to Claire.  As I mentioned, she was apprehensive at first, but settled down after a bit and really clung to Sandy … which was nice.  She had absolutely no interest in going back to the “Aayi” from the orphanage.  I think the last couple months of “skype time” helped with her being calmer and comforted at seeing our faces … thank you Steeds!  I know the day would have been much more difficult without all of the preparation that they went through over the last few months.

Back at the hotel she quickly made herself right at home by taking her moose, bear and baby and letting them rest on the head of the bed, comfortably reclining on the pillows.  Thanks to the Steeds, Claire is, I am certain, the first child to be adopted along with a suitcase full of Claire’s favorite things and thoughtfully purchased (and extremely cute!) clothes and shoes.  We have explained to her a few times that the hotel is not “home,” and we think slowly she is catching on to that, but it is a little confusing for her.  Oh, and she is a master at using the hotel key card to open the door, and a pro at the elevator, too.

I’ve mentioned to a few people some “scary” things that happened yesterday.  The long and short of it was this … they made a few comments about the picture Claire had of our family and our knowledge of her surgery, etc. that worried us.  It seemed that some of the officials were seriously questioning how or why we would have such information.  For a moment I was concerned that if the conversation that was swirling around us continued, they might decide our contact with Claire had been inappropriate.  I had these visions of them saying … “You know what, we don’t like what’s been going on here … why don’t you just head home without her.”  Needless to say, it didn’t go that far and all ended well.

Here are a couple more videos of our time in the Civil Affairs office …

Our time ended with our “First Family Picture” of Sandy, Claire and Me.  Then they said, “OK”, you’re free to go!

We headed back to the hotel with Denise and then went out to do some gift shopping for the director of the orphanage and for a very special woman named Rae.  We aren’t exactly sure what Rae’s role in Claire’s life was … but it was suggested that without her, Claire never would have had the surgery she so desperately needed.  She either put up the money or collected the money needed to have it done.  We’re going to try and find out more information about that, but it goes without saying that we are deeply indebted to her for her kindness and generosity.

Below is a video of our first walk out on the town … the “on the shoulders” ride has now become her standard means of locomotion.  Again, thanks to the Steeds for the tip on that one!

One very funny story/anecdote that continues to pay off for us:  As we were out on this first little outing we walked through a VERY busy shopping and tourist area.  And by VERY busy, I mean “Asia busy”.  Those of you that have been to Asia will know what I mean.  Not just people were speeding by, but cars, buses, scooters and bikes were all over the place and we felt like we were constantly jumping out of the way of one thing or another.  At one point Claire shouted … “TOO MANY PEOPLE!”  Our guide, Denise, busted up laughing and has continued to tell people about that.  The funny thing to us though is how that has continued to be one of her favorite phrases about everything.  So last night I had to run out and grab some gift bags and also decided to grab some McDonald’s because it was right next door and we know she likes milk shakes from there.  I got two large French Fries along with some chicken nuggets and a burger for Sandy and I.  After dinner we still had a full box of fries left.  Sandy was going to throw them away, but Claire wouldn’t let her.  She said, “Save for later”.  So she started packing them in her now empty chicken nugget box, but they wouldn’t fit.  So she said, “Too many people!” … not “Too many fries”.  Today as she was playing in one of those “ball bins” she said “Too many people!” … not “Too many balls!”  Anyway, we crack up because no matter what she is dealing with that is too much for her, she says, “TOO MANY PEOPLE!”.  We’ve decided this will be our family phrase.  Going to a buffet and don’t know what to choose?  ”TOO MANY PEOPLE!”  At a soccer game and the other team is getting shot after shot off?  ”TOO MANY PEOPLE!” You get the drift … oh well, maybe it’s funnier to us because it’s coming out of this beautiful little girl.

Here is a collection of photos from the day yesterday.

Monday night ended with a tub.  Claire picked out some darling PJs with polka dots on them and got ready to hop in the tub.  But just before she got in she said, “Just a second” and then ran around the room looking through her stuff looking for something.  She just couldn’t find it, so of course, we said, “Claire, what are you looking for?”  She said, “baby.”  Luckily we knew she meant her baby balloon that she likes to take a bath with.  We told her that her baby was a Kohl’s house, but could we blow up a different balloon for her?  She readily agreed, so we grabbed some balloons that we had brought along, blew a few up, and headed back to the tub with a very happy Claire.  Of course, no tub time would be complete without washing Claire AND two balloons, right?  :)

So, Denise came to the hotel and met us at about 2:00pm to ride over to the Civil Affairs office where we would be meeting Claire.  We were dressed up and ready to go … and feeling a bit nervous.

As we entered the room 1 family was already with their daughter, who was crying and clearly shaken up by the experience.  We walked into the room with another couple and within a couple of minutes their son was introduced to them.  He, too, quickly began to cry.  I’ll just state right now that the crying continued the entire time we were there and the other little girl eventually vomited  from her crying.  In the midst of that, Claire entered the room.  I’m trying to post a video of her introduction to us … but honestly, the video thing isn’t going well and so I might have to put it in after I’ve published this post.  She was fairly apprehensive for the first 3 to 5 minutes.  She really didn’t even want to look at or talk to us.  Here aayi said, “Chun Yi, here is your baba and your mama.”  No real response.  We asked her, “Where’s Kate?” and as she looked around for Kate but couldn’t find her, we told her Kate was at home.  We weren’t trying to be mean, we just wanted to say something that would help her really understand who we are, and she regularly asks where Kate is when we Skype.  And it seemed to work, because then she started to warmup a little bit, like, “hey, maybe I do know who you are” and wanted to show us her stuffed animal flower on her suitcase and became more interactive.  She then discovered the cameras we were using to record the event and decided she wanted to try.  That turned everything around almost immediately.

She began video taping and shooting pictures with abandon and was having a great time.  She would take a picture of Sandy and then point to the screen and say “Mommy”.  Then do the same with “Daddy”.  Very nice.  And comforting.  You’ll notice a bunch of pictures of a fat guy in the gallery below … I normally try to stay on the other side of the camera … but all of those pictures were taken by Claire.  What was I supposed to do?:)  She warmed up to Sandy very quickly and would often just wrap her arms around Sandy’s neck as I really think all of the crying was bothering her quite a bit.  (In fact, on Tuesday when we went back to the civil affairs office to finalize the adoption, a couple who had adopted a precious-but-screaming little boy yesterday was amazed, asking  us why we thought Claire seemed to adjust so well during “gotcha day” and wasn’t screaming and/or crying and/or vomiting like the other children)

After shooting pictures and videos for about 10 minutes she saw the bag of M&M’s we had brought along with us.  She then sat in my lap for the first time and ate the entire bag … I think it was chocolate that convinced her maybe I wasn’t so bad.

Well, I started this post over two hours ago … but Claire needs us right now.  We are currently having one of likely many moments where Claire’s needs outweigh other things.  I’ll have to fill in more details later.

PS We are so grateful to everyone for their prayers and well wishes. We continually feel them and know that your love and faith are helping this process move along more smoothly for us all, especially Claire.

Claire is with us and what a day it has been. There is no way to record everything that happened or how we have felt this day … but we’ll try our best to cover the bases.

I wanted to separate the day into a couple/few posts. So this day in the adoption community is called the “Gotcha” day … thus the post title. This morning we spent some time running errands and doing a bit of shopping. Nothing big, just basically trying to pass time as the anxiousness increased.

We woke up early this morning at 4:30am … still trying to adjust, I guess. We had a good breakfast buffet here at the hotel … not quite to the level of the Crowne Plaza experience in Beijing, but pretty good.  Many more items of the Chinese “you eat what? for breakfast” variety such as: spicy Thai chicken fillets, steak/onion/green pepper stir fry, etc.  The highlight for both Sandy and I was actually the whole wheat toast … seriously good bread.

After that we had some great skype sessions with Seth, Kate, Zane, Grant, Grandma and Grandpa Weeks as a group. Then we skyped with Tim’s family. Then with Greg, Aimee and Anna. Thanks to all for the encouragement and good words.

The general area where we are staying is called “Confucius Temple” … the sculpture in the picture below is of Confucius.  Here’s a quick sampling of our morning walk …

Our night’s sleep in Beijing was fantastic, really.  The room was extremely comfortable.  Actually our whole experience in Beijing helped sway my opinion about the city a little bit.  It’s always been my least favorite Chinese city … but it’s come a long way since I was last here.  I think they are actually interested in joining global society!

Anyway, breakfast at the hotel was AMAZING!  They had a buffet that was loaded up with Chinese and American favorites.  It was huge, of excellent quality and the service was completely on point … very nice.  Next time you’re jumping through Beijing … try the Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel … awesome.

So quickly after breakfast it was time to jump on the airport shuttle and make our way to the next flight … a two hour hop from Beijing to Nanjing.  The hotel staff recommended we be there at least two hours early to make sure we didn’t miss the flight.   It took us about 30 minutes to get through ticketing and security … so we read and talked for the next 1 1/2 hours before the flight left.  Below is a video of Terminal 3 at the Beijing Airport … it’s huge!  I don’t know if it will come through in the video, but seriously, it’s massive.

This flight was probably the best of the bunch in terms of turbulence, moderate in terms of food … but honestly, it was just so nice to be that close to settling down for a few days.

Upon arrival in Nanjing we met with Denise, our Nanjing guide who will help us through this first phase of the adoption.  She is a 33 year old mother of a 3 year old daughter and is great.  Excellent English and just a very nice person.  Below are 2 short videos of some of our trip from the airport to the hotel. By the way, this apparently is not the same airport Sandy and I experienced 15 & 16 years ago. This “new” one was built in 1997, but looks like it was built in 1887.

After arriving at the hotel (Mandarin Garden), Denise helped us go to the bank to exchange some money and then took us over to a VERY western style mall (there’s an H&M!).  We went to a grocery store and grabbed some water, fruit and other supplies.

Side Note: Sandy and I are both shocked at how much more modern and westernized Nanjing has become since we were last here.  The sea of bicycles we remember has been replaced by a sea of motor scooters.  It really is remarkable, it feels a ton like I remember Hong Kong.  I think most Americans would be pretty darn comfortable here as there are plenty of familiar services.  Immediately adjacent to our hotel is a 24 hour Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Haagen Daas, just down the road is a second KFC and a McDonalds.  The mall I mentioned has a Starbucks where Sandy has already purchased some much needed and appreciated hot chocolate (it’s a bit cold and rainy here).

Denise left us to ourselves after our grocery store trip and so we rested for about an hour.  We then headed back out in the drizzle to find a post office and explore a little bit.  We discovered a very cool shopping area and a neat little river front (Yangtze River outlet) area.  We then went in search of a place to eat and stumbled into a place that looked fancy on the outside, but was pretty unimpressive on the inside.  We shared a plate of sweet and sour chicken at a cost of about $3.25 US dollars (which was excellent … it’s amazing how different and how much better authentic Chinese food really is) and then headed back to the hotel.  Sandy lasted until about 7:30pm before she could no longer keep her eyes open.  I lasted until about 8:30pm before my time was up.  We are still pretty exhausted and trying to recover from the time difference (we are 14 hours ahead of Utah time).

It is now early Monday morning and we are about to go try find the gym and then off to breakfast.  We’ll skype with Seth, Kate, Zane, Grant, Mom and Dad Weeks in a little while.  Then at 2:00pm our time we head over to the adoption offices and receive Claire!  Unbelievable and what a blessing!

Here is a gallery of all of the relevant photos we’ve taken so far …

So I am currently sitting in our Beijing hotel room … nice place.  We wish we could take this room with us throughout the trip, there is no way our rooms will be this nice going forward.

Quick note: Vimeo (the site we use for video) is blocked by the China firewall … so I need to find a different solution for that.  Right now we pay by the minute for internet … so I’ll wait till we have free access before I figure that out.

So here’s how the day went …

Got to the airport early and with plenty of time (which turned out to be even more “plenty of time”).  Met Ty Burrell of Modern Family fame … seriously nice guy and very cool about me getting a picture with him (seen below).

Shortly after we boarded our plane.  Shortly after that we pulled back into the gate to make a “5 minute fix” to the on board A/C unit.  Shortly after that they told us the fix was going to be more like 25 minutes so go ahead and unbuckle and stretch the legs.  Shortly after that they deplaned us all and said it would be a bit longer than they anticipated.  So, 2 hours after we were supposed to leave … we did.

Due to that delay, our LAX experience became a mad dash make it to our first international leg.  Made it with about 10 minutes to spare and got in our seats just in time.

OK, so the LA to Seoul flight started out really fun.  We were surrounded by Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Japanese speakers and it was awesome to hear it all.  The fun started to become not so much fun when Sandy said, “We’re about half way through this flight … right?”  Sadly, no.  We were about 3 hours into the 13 hours we would eventually spend on that crummy food, crazy screaming Korean guy (ask me about this one later … it was truly weird … essentially an air rage incident), everlasting flight!  The flight was made much better, though, by a pretty incredible on flight entertainment system.  Sandy and I watched Blind Side together and I watched Sherlock Holmes … both of which were 1st time views.

Anyway, we made it Seoul (Incheon, actually) and had to go through security again to make it to our Seoul-Beijing flight.  By the time that was all done we, again, had about 10 minutes before we had to board.  It was a very tight day making all of our connections … but we were blessed to be able to make them all.

The Beijing flight was also a bit difficult.  It was pretty bumpy and Sandy got quite sick when the turbulence was combined with bad food, lack of sleep and another pretty terrible dinner offering on this flight.  I didn’t eat either on this flight as the meal really didn’t look very appetizing.

We arrived in Beijing at about 8:30pm and made it to our hotel at about 9:30pm.

I started this post last night before bed … but now it’s Sunday morning and we are preparing for our final leg to Nanjing.  It will be a 2 hour flight and then a relaxing Sunday in Nanjing.  We will be united with Claire sometime tomorrow around noon.  CAN’T WAIT!!!

On another very positive note … Seth’s soccer Team Hydras won their game today which puts them at 3-0 for the season so far … WAY TO GO!!!

Well … I need to finish getting ready … so I’ll check in later today or tomorrow!  And I’ll try to get the video thing fixed up.

Love and miss you all … Tom and Sandy.

Some videos …

We have officially begun our trip!  Sandy and I are currently sitting in the Salt Lake Airport at Gate D9 waiting for our flight to board (in about an hour).  We made it quite early to the airport and beat the rush which started arrive just after we checked in at the international desk.

Not exactly looking forward to the next 24 hours (that’s about when we arrive in Beijing) … but really looking forward to what comes after that!

Here’s a video of Sandy and me waiting …

The next post will likely be from Beijing.  We should be there about 48 hours from now  and will try to get something up once we arrive.  Woohoo!

Pay no attention … just some video tests for our trip.

Regular Flip Video

Flip HDUltra

Kodak 720p at 3ofps

Kodak 720p at 60fps

Kodak 1080p

It’s clearly time to resurrect this blog to a semi-useful state.  We’ll be posting travel information, pictures and video here as we prepare and depart for our trip to China.

We are now looking to leave next Friday (April 9th) and really hope it pans out that way.  Our original thought was that we would leave today, but alas, no such luck!

I’m currently running some tests with video and image posting to make sure that we’ll be able to keep you all updated as we travel to and around China.  For those interested, here’s our basic travel plan for the trip …

We hope to leave late Friday so we arrive in Nanjing, China sometime during the day on Sunday.  Nanjing (at Nanjing University) is where both Sandy and I spent most of our “study abroad” time before we were married.  It is the former capitol of China and the name, in fact, means Southern Capitol.

Anyway, it is Nanjing that on Monday (likely) we will first meet in person and be given Claire (ChunYi).  We will spend a few days in Nanjing while finalize paperwork and process on the Chinese side of things.  We might take a trip down to the Shanghai area to visit the orphanage where Claire has been living and maybe even see some of Sandy’s family?  Not sure about all of this right.  But any of these things would have to happen during this first week of the trip.

We will then likely leave on Saturday or Sunday for Guangzhou where the US Consulate exists (at least the consulate tasked with managing international adoptions).  We will have an initial appointment on Monday.  Some medical screening and follow-ups over the next couple of days and we should be done sometime on Thursday.

At this point we then plan to head to Hong Kong for a few days.  This is a personal diversion that Sandy is allowing me as I REALLY want to spend a bit of time in my old mission areas.  Can’t wait to see how the place has changed over 15 years!  We’ll likely fly out of Hong Kong that Sunday or Monday and be home the same day depending on when we leave.

All in all, the trip should take just a couple days longer than two weeks.  We can’t wait to go and are anxious to finally have Claire home with us.