Christmas in Nanjing

Here's a picture of the new family in front of the beautiful Christmas tree at the Mandarin Garden Hotel in Nanjing... on Christmas Day.

 

 

Update from Guangzhou

I'm still having a hard time finding a computer we can plug my camera into, but at least can let you know how we're doing...

 

We made it to Guangzhou, Benjamin was surprisingly great on the flight.  We made sure to feed him during takeoff and landing so his ears stayed in equilibrium.  I know both Lisa and I were very nervous about him making a lot of noise on the flight and thankfully, he didn't.

 

We had an apointment with the health examiner when we woke up on Saturday to get ready for the U.S. consulate appointment and the little man has bronchitis...  poor little guy... welcome to your new home, here's a nasty cough.  He seems to be getting better and hopefully he'll be better when we get home.

 

We've done a lot of exploring here in Guangzhou and it's a beautiful city.  Lots of temples, great shopping and we even got out in nature a little yesterday at a place called Lotus Mountain.  It's out on the South of the city overlooking the end of the Pearl River delta.  I'm hoping to find a good computer tomorrow so I can put a few pix up.

 

So far it's been a fantastic trip, Benjamin has made things much easier than we expected and I think he'll even be ready to meet everyone pretty soon after we get home.

 

Lisa, Benjamin and I are going to stay in for our first New Years Eve as a family tonight (we'll be thinking of Oscar too!) while my parents go to a concert at the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall... we just didn't think Ben could handle much classical music yet ;)

 

Happy New Year, look for pictures tomorrow... -jbm

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's December 26th here in sunny Nanjing and we've had a busy couple of days.  Unfortunately I am unable to upload any pictures as the computer I'm typing on is old enough that my camera is incompatible with it.

 

We arrived on Sunday, the 23rd and as soon as we got to the airport, we could tell we were in "real China."  Hong Kong definitely felt like we were in a Western city, almost all of the people are Asian, but most speak English and there were enough signs and fellow travelers that it didn't feel that different from being in Europe to me.  However, Nanjing is a different story.  There are very few signs with any Latin characters on them, let alone English and we've seen less than 20 Westerners since we arrived four days ago.  I feel very happy with our choice of agencies.  Hand in Hand has been great at holding ours through this whole process and continues to on the other side of the world.  We stepped out of the baggage claim to see a friendly woman with our name on a sheet of paper, ready to help us to our hotel and give a mini-tour along the way, explaining the sights and telling us a little about Nanjing.  We made it to the hotel easily, found some food and explored a little.  Lisa and I tried to get some sleep on Sunday night, but it was a little like Christmas Eve...

 

On to Christmas Eve, we got up and our guide for the week, Sandra, came to get us at the hotel.  We left at around 9:00, a 15 minute cab ride and we walked into a nondescript office building... the sign on the outside said something about a Civil Affairs Bureau for Foreign Adoption and Marriage.  We walked in an office and there sat ZhenWen in what we've come to call "The Arctic Suit."  Babies in China are bundled up to the point where they have trouble moving... I'm talking Ralphie's younger brother from Christmas Story here... and it's maybe 50 degrees outside.  Anyway, there he was, looking just as healthy and cute as we were hoping from our prayers and the three pictures we had seen.  I'm not sure what I was expecting from the "gotcha" moment, but it was almost anticlimactic.  He didn't cry and neither did Lisa or I.  We picked him up and gave him a hug, he was sort of wide eyed, but compliant.  We then signed some paperwork that gave us custody of him for 24 hours.  Sandra took a piece of paper with questions about ZhenWen to ask the woman from the orphanage what she could tell us and we started getting to know our son.  We've heard from several people that the orphanage and the Children's hospital here in Nanjing is one of the best in the country and we got our first confirmation quickly.  The orphanage has put together a lifebook of what's happened so far in little ZhenWen's time with descriptions of his activities and progress, plus pictures of him doing them and his primary caregivers.  It's all in Chinese of course, so we'll have to find someone to translate it when we get back... it's got a lot of great stuff in it and I imagine most orphans don't have the kind of documentation of their early childhood that Benjamin will. 

 

After we picked him up, we went back to the hotel, found some food and hung out for the afternoon.  Sandra came back in the afternoon to help us get all of our paperwork together for the following day's trip to the Bureau.  Once we had that all filled out, she hung out with us for a little while... she said she guides a new set of adoptive parents almost every week and you can really see that she loves the kids. 

 

Dr. Gong (pediatric cardiologist) came to visit and check up on Benjamin on Monday night. He said he was doing well although getting a little bit of a cold so he went out and got a prescription for us. When he came back, he was nice enough to hang out with us for a little while and he told us of all the places he has been to visit in the United States - and Phoenix is one of those places! He said the sunshine will be good for Benjamin since they don't get a lot of sunshine here in Nanjing.

 

Christmas, was the day that the adoption was official. We went back to the Civil Affairs Bureau office where we signed more paperwork and we had to put our fingerprints on the documents too. One of the forms had to have Ben's fingerprint too which wasn't too hard to do - although he didn't love the idea. Now he's officially ours! The ceremony wasn't anything over the top - it was very matter of fact. We did get some pictures of the time we were there which was only about an hour.

 

Other than those couple of appointments, we've just spent our time hanging out and getting to know each other. He LOVES to eat and he's not picky at all. He's also a really good sleeper but only once we've gotten him to sleep. That's the hard part so far. And he's also affectionate with us and gives out kisses readily. He's not too sure about hugs yet but we're sure he'll like them before long. But all in all, he's been really easy to deal with and get to know - a true blessing that's for sure!

 

We're waiting to get his passport which should arrive tomorrow. We're also going to visit the orphanage and we're going to try to find the bus station that he was abandoned at too - to get pictures to share with him later in life. Then, we're on a plane on Friday afternoon headed to Guangzhou for the week to get his visa papers to bring him home.

 

That's the long and short of what we've been up to so far. Sorry for not being able to post pictures at this time. We hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season and we'll post more when we can.

 

Love,

Jay, Lisa and Benjamin

It's Prom!

I just had to add another post... the hotel we're staying at, The Harbour Plaza, seems to host quite a few weddings, so Dad and Roxane posed on the grand staircase in the lobby all decorated up with wedding goodness!  Aren't they cute?

The trip

Well we made it to Hong Kong! I hope the pictures will publish... the computer here in the hotel is sorta working... The flight was long, but uneventful and we're still trying to figure out what time and day it is... Here's a picture of us at the beginning of the flight.

The hotel we're at in Hong Kong is across the harbor from the famous skyline. Here's a picture of it at night. It's a pretty amazing sight, many of the buildings even have Christmas decorations... I think you can see one in the middle here. Sorry, It's a little over exposed because I was trying to get all the lights. The clouds were low enough that the light reflected from the buildings gave it a nice halo effect.

We spent the day sightseeing in Hong Kong and adjusting to the time. It almost feels like dinner time, so I guess the adjusting is going OK. We took the ferry across the harbor today and headed up to "The Peak" on a tram that goes up the mountain above downtown. Here's a picture of Lisa and me with HK spread out below. It's kinda hazy, but you get the effect. We thought the little girl diving to get into the picture was a nice touch. The people here are very nice and accomodating... all we had to do was ask ;)

Time to run to dinner. Thanks for all the encouraging responses to my first post. Lotsa love and Merry Christmas. Two more days and we'll be parents... that's what's been running through the back of my mind all day.

First Post... Our World is About to Change!

Lisa and I are almost ready to head to China to adopt a little boy. We're going to use this blog to try and keep our friends and family up to date while we're there. Currently, our son's name is Yan Zhen Wen and he lives in Nanjing, China in the Jiangsu Province. We are scheduled to pick him up on December 24th. Hopefully his "Gotcha Day" will be the best Christmas present any of us have gotten. We don't know if his caregivers have been preparing him or not, whether he's seen any of the pictures we sent in with our adoption paperwork, even whether he's ever heard English or seen blonde haired blue eyed people before! We're going to pick him up and whisk him away, first to Guangzhou to get his U.S. Citizenship taken care of, then back home to Phoenix. Where he'll get to experience a whole new world from the desert climate to his own room to aunts and uncles and cousins to a 60 pound, four legged new best friend and a set of loving parents, everything will be new to him. Oh, we're planning on changing his name too. His passport will say Benjamin James Zhenwen Matre. I keep hearing that kids adjust fast and I've seen it myself, but I can't imagine what he'll go through in the next few weeks and months. We're anxious about what he'll mean to our lives, at least we have some basis to work from. Hopefully he'll understand quickly that he's safe and very well loved. Well, enough worrying about after the trip, we still have to make it halfway around the world before then...

We're leaving on Wednesday the 19th, we'll stop over in Hong Kong for a couple of days to get our internal clocks adjusted... and do some sightseeing of course! it's not every day we get to go to China! Then we'll leave for Nanjing on the 23rd, pick up ZhenWen on Christmas Eve and spend the rest of the week finalizing his adoption in China. We'll leave for Guangzhou on Friday the 28th with Ben and spend a week there waiting on the U.S. Consulate to come back from their New Year's revelry so we can get Ben's U.S. Passport. If all goes well, the newly expanded Matres will get home just after midnight on the 5th of January. What an amazing start to 2008!