Safe in Shanghai!

We are here, safe and sound in Shanghai!

We left early Tuesday morning (Canadian time). We had a limo-type vehicle pick us up to take us to the airport. We hired the company specifically because they advertised that they would provide a car seat for us. Note to self – make sure to ask the driver if the car seat is legal and if it was manufactured within the last 15 years. The car seat was so horribly installed and broken that I had to hold Maelyn on my lap. The car also smelled horribly of cigarette smoke – it was as though we were preparing for driving around in China!


Heading for the airport!

 

The ‘car seat’ that was provided…

 We arrived at the airport a little early, which meant we got through all line-ups and security with ease.





Entertaining Maelyn at the airport – she loved this ‘bubble’ machine!

Maelyn was so excited to board the plane and get to ‘her China,’ so that she could go get her sister, Ailee. She was wired and was bouncing off the walls for the first few hours of the flight. Maelyn behaved very well on the flight – during the entire trip, actually.

Maelyn and I walked up and down the aisles throughout the flight. She would smile at everyone and they would chat with her. My mom also took turns walking with Maelyn and holding Maelyn on her lap. She was such a big help! Maelyn eventually settled down, but she only ended up sleeping for about four hours.

On the personal televisions you can see a map of your flight and your distance to landing at your destination. Maelyn loved watching our progress and at one point, as the plane got closer to China, she yelled out, very loudly, ‘We are almost at China! Yay, China!!’

Landing was a little worse than I had remembered – it really hurt my ears. That could be because I have caught Maelyn’s cold/infection and I am a bit of a congested mess. Maelyn was asleep as we landed, but she woke up and was in a wonderful mood. How come she can’t wake up after only four hours of sleep at home and be in such a good mood??  We found our Shanghai guide and we got into the van, to head to the hotel.

What should have been a 45 minute drive turned into a 2 hour drive – and after such a long day and flight, it was slightly torturous. There was one point where we didn’t move an inch for over 20 minutes. Maelyn was unsure of what was going on and wasn’t impressed when I told her that we would be going to the hotel. She was very mad that we weren’t going to get Ailee right away!

We eventually settled into our hotel rooms and we all crashed right away. Maelyn fell asleep within minutes. But – it is now just after 1 am and we have already been up for an hour. We slept a total of four more hours, but hopefully our systems will get on track today.

In a few hours we will head for breakfast and then it is off to the train station and then to Shangrao. I have been anticipating this portion of the trip for over two years – since the day Maelyn came into our lives. It is so important to us to be able to visit her orphanage and foster home and hopefully gather as much information about her first two years as we possibly can.

I am not sure how reliable the internet connection will be in Shangrao, so if you don’t hear from us, we will touch base once we are in Guangzhou.

Leaving on a jet plane...

I thought for sure that we would be packed and ready to go so early in the day that we would be able to watch a movie and relax tonight. That did not happen. But -- we are finally done and we cannot wait to begin our journey!!

The car is picking us up at 8am and then we are off to the airport. I cannot wait until we leave the driveway and we can leave our to-do list behind. :)

Our flight leaves at noon and we will arrive in Shanghai at 4pm Shanghai-time. Right now, China is ahead 13 hours, which means that we will arrive on Wednesday afternoon.

I have a million profound things to say -- about meeting Ailee and about going back to visit Maelyn's orphanage and foster home. But -- this Mama is very tired and needs to get to bed. Hopefully, I will have time to get those thoughts down once we arrive and have a bit of down time.

Next post from Shanghai! See you soon!

(Thank you to my wonderful friend, Lianne, who will be posting for me while be are away. You are the best!)

Marking off the last 'sleep' before our big trip!

This was the face I got when I asked her to smile... :)

Packed and ready to go!!

Busy, busy, busy...

I am happy to say that Maelyn's fever has broken and our little miss is on the mend! Phew!!

We originally had a few play dates set up for her this weekend and we were going to take her to daycare tomorrow -- but we decided to keep her home to make sure she gets some rest and doesn't catch any other germs before the big day.

Now that she is feeling better, though -- she is a whirlwind of activity! And it is very hard to pack with an energetic four year old hanging off your legs....

Things around here have been very, very busy!!

We installed Ailee's car seat in our new vehicle -- that made things feel very real!

We got our shots and took our Dukoral to make sure we stay healthy while we are away. Maelyn was an absolute trooper. She went into the doctor's office, rolled up her sleeves, and with tears in her eyes asked the doctor to give her a needle so that she could go and get her sister.

We have spent hours getting paperwork done and ready for travel.

We got festive and decorated the house for Christmas. The tree is up and ready for Santa (or, 'Ho Ho,' as Maelyn calls him). The presents are purchased and wrapped.

Moving the furniture to make room for the Christmas tree...

Such a strong girl...

Silly girl... :)

All the decorations ended up in one section of the tree...hehe!

We have packed, but still have some packing to finish tomorrow.

We cannot wait to be on the plane -- heading towards our Ailee and not even thinking about our to-do lists!!

Itinerary

Our journey begins in two days!! We cannot wait to meet our little monkey -- it is hard to believe that we will be holding her in our arms in one week! Soon, we will be a family of four. :)

We are going to China a few days early as we are heading back to Maelyn's province to visit her orphanage and foster home. On our first journey, we were not able to visit the orphanage because of flooding in the area. We are thrilled that we are going to be able to go back just over two years since Maelyn came into our family.

We are hoping to be able to get more information about Maelyn's life before she came to us -- any information we can piece together for her would be invaluable. For two and half years I have wondered about where Maelyn lived and have always felt drawn to the place where our daughter experience the first 21 months of her life.

The following is an outline of our itinerary --


Nov. 21 - Arrive in Shanghai at 4pm local time and head to hotel.

Nov. 22 - Take train from Shanghai to Shangrao (9am - 1:30pm).
              - Shopping for orphanage donations in the afternoon.

Nov. 23 - Visit the orphanage and foster family; have lunch with the orphanage staff.

Nov. 24 - Van ride to visit finding spot; have lunch in Wannian County.
              - 2 hour van ride to Nanchang airport; flight to Guangzhou, Guangdong.

Nov. 25 - Free day.

Nov. 26 - Forever Family Day -- we meet Ailee!!!

Nov. 27 - Registration and notarization of adoption (paperwork day).

Nov. 28 - Apply for Ailee's Chinese passport.

Nov. 29 - Sight-seeing.

Nov. 30 - Free day/Sight-seeing.

Dec. 1 - Fly to Beijing.

Dec. 2 - Paperwork for Canadian Visa.

Dec. 3 - Medical examination at International SOS Clinic.

Dec. 4 - Visit the Great Wall / Jade factory.

Dec. 5 - Hutong tour and visit the Drum Tower.

Dec. 6 - Shopping!!

Dec. 7 - Fly home!! (Beijing to Shanghai; 6 hour layover; Shanghai to Toronto -- arrive 6:25pm)

Poor girl...

Yesterday afternoon Paul called me at school to let me know that our little miss wasn't feeling well. She was sneezing gross green -- you don't want to know -- and was very, very tired. Turns out she also had a high fever. With having had febrile seizures in the past, we don't take Maelyn's fevers lightly.

With Advil in her system, she slept from 4:00 to 8:30 and she was out cold. It killed this mama that I was at school and couldn't be home to snuggle my little miss -- especially because she was feeling so sick.

But -- this mama had to scramble to get things done to go on parental leave. Today was supposed to be my last day of school, but I had to stay home with Maelyn and take her to see her paediatrician. It made for a nutty evening -- and it took me until 8:30pm to get things done and in order in my classroom. It wasn't exactly the day I had been planning for!

The good news is that Maelyn was given an antibiotic today and we are crossing our fingers, praying, doing a good luck dance -- you get the picture -- that Maelyn is healthy by the time we leave Tuesday morning. And that the rest of us stay healthy!!

Maelyn missed her last day of Kindergarten today and we will keep her home from daycare on Monday. It will help her to rest and not be exposed to more germs. :) It will make things a little harder as we will have Maelyn around the entire weekend and packing should be a heap of fun!

So what do you do when you have a fever and aren't feeling well? Sleep, you would think, right? Nope! Nothing keeps this girl from her flurry of activities...

We make maps of China to help us find our way there...

We make rice crispy trains...



We copy Mommy...hehe!

Hopefully our little miss feels better soon!

Tapping Out...

I recently read a blog post here - http://nancyvnjourney.blogspot.ca/ - than ended up ringing true for me. I could totally and utterly relate.

Things around here have been a little nutty lately. To put it mildy. We have had so many stressors in our lives lately that I am surprised that we are still functioning as well as we are!

Both of Paul's parents haven't been well and he has had to spend countless hours at hospitals, making phone calls, ensuring programs are in place to help and support them -- especially while we are going to be away. The bigger stress, however, is the stress of worrying about the well-being of your parents and Paul has had a lot riding on his shoulders lately. I honestly don't know how he has kept it together.

My job has been taking up so much of my time -- not to mention the report cards that were due Friday (I will get them done tonight, I will get them done tonight.....). I found out last week that our school is reorganizing and that I will have to find a new school to teach at next year. Being that I am less than a kilometer from home, this news was not what I had hoped for or expected to hear.

Throw that in the mix of the daily grind of working and parenting, with a little lots of paperwork to get done for our adoption journey, preparing Ailee's room, packing for China, getting completely ready for Christimas - tree, decorations, gifts and all -- and it leaves you with one tired and slightly grumpy family.

But -- we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Paul and I cannot wait to get on that plane!! Mostly because we cannot wait to hold our Ailee -- but also because we are looking forward to spending time together as a family. It will be the most time we have spent together in months.

China, here we come!

New pictures -- our Ailee!!

Today we received a wonderful gift -- new pictures of Ailee!!

We haven't seen a picture of our little monkey since the beginning of August, so we were dying to see how she had changed over the past three months.

One thing is for sure -- our little girl is absolutely beautiful!!!

The person who took the pictures for us bought her a stuffie from her Mama and Baba -- a reindeer!

When we received Ailee's referral, we were given some information about our little monkey --

• she active, restless, impatient, and energetic (looks like our girls have a lot in common!!)
• she is attached to her nanny and likes to be in the activity room with adults
• wakes up at 6am and goes to bed at 10:30pm (what?!!)
• favourite foods are biscuits and bread
• likes listening to music
• likes to smile and gets along well with others

We cannot wait to meet our little Ailee! Only 11 days until we begin our journey of a lifetime...