Hong Kong

And poof! they disappear! Sorry. We're here. We got into Hong Kong after a lovely flight in sold-out coach class. It wasn't as horrible as it could've been though. They fed us a lot (decent food even), and I slept through half of the 14 hours from San Francisco (thank you, Ambien). No snags in immigration, baggage claim & meeting our guide. We checked into our hotel room & took a quick walk around the neighborhood (Shatin).

Funny little story from SFO: when we got off the plane, there was a little old Chinese lady trying to ask the gate agent where to go for her connecting flight. The lady didn't speak English; the gate agent didn't speak whatever the little old lady was speaking. We saw her pointing at her boarding pass, which said "Hong Kong," so we walked over to her, pointed at our boarding passes, which also said "Hong Kong," and motioned for her to follow us. We started to walk off, but when we looked back, we realized she had her mom? grandma? with her. An tiny, ancient looking Chinese lady who would've lost a race with a snail. We had plenty of time in San Francisco though, so we walked with them to the international terminal and dropped them off at the gate. We never learned anything about them, other than the fact that they lived in Hong Kong.

Saturday morning we had a tour with the other families in our agency. I think there were about 15-18 families in all. It's been fun to meet some of the other people on CCAIWCP in person. It feels a little surreal, since I've "known" them for over a year now, but never seen them before. Anyway, our HK tour took us to the top of Victoria Peak, where we took a chilly & windy walk and took in a view that was spectacular in spite of all the haze. Next stop was Aberdeen and a quick spin around the harbor in a sampan. We blew through a jade factory, where the "very good, factory direct" prices that were still in the thousands helped us keep our money in our pockets. We did shell out a little bit at the Stanley Market for some souvenirs. Last stop was a dim sum lunch, where we stuffed ourselves with dumplings and started to feel the jetlag. We had planned to stay in downtown HK when the tour was over & find our own way back to Shatin later on, but changed our minds after lunch. Long story short: I fell asleep at 3pm yesterday and woke up at 5:00 this morning. I'm hoping all that is out of my system now & I can function like a human.

The view from our hotel:

The pink panther had dim sum too:

A few families left yesterday afternoon for their province. The rest of us head out today. We have 5-6 other families traveling with us. We have to be downstairs in about three hours to head to the airport. We're not sure when we'll meet Little Z, but it will be sometime this afternoon/evening. Wow. After a journey of two years, we're hours away from THE MOMENT. I'm hoping to check back in tonight, but we'll have to see how Z is doing and how the internet connection is in Nanchang.

First though, we pack. Then I'm going to go downstairs and inhale the entire breakfast buffet. Hey, I slept through dinner!

The pink panther sneaks up on a jet lagged dad:

Here we go

We leave early tomorrow morning. We get into Hong Kong on Friday evening, then go on to Nanchang and our girl on Sunday. See you all later!

Progress (or lack thereof)

This is as far as I got with my packing over the weekend:

I think tomorrow's going to be a very long day.

I made this for B:

There's a present for him to open each day we're gone. He's going to want us to leave all the time after this!

This is how B & his dad entertained themselves tonight after dinner -- they were playing "Robot Daddy."

My countdown clock: 5 days to Zhi Yi

Packing sucks

I just hate it. And I can't figure out how some people do their packing ahead of time. There's stuff I'll use right up until the night before we leave. I'd rather just do it once, rather than do it now, then undo it so I can stick the last few things in on Wednesday night and then pack it up all over again. I've got some semi-organized piles going, but I think I'll wait to actually put it in suitcases until Wednesday.

B & his dad are going to a monster truck rally with some friends tonight, just the dudes. No girls allowed. You know what? It's going to be the first time I've had an evening to myself at home in FOUR YEARS. Since B was born. I'm really looking forward to doing absolutely nothing in a quiet house.

Winter storms in China

You may have heard of the terrible winter storms they've been having in China. Or maybe you haven't -- the U.S. news certainly hasn't said much about it. Anyway, they've had snow storm after snow storm over the past couple of weeks, in parts of the country that don't normally get snow at all. These are 100-year storms, very rare, and they have caused massive destruction and suffering in southern China. It's a disaster of Hurricane Katrina proportions. The photo below was taken this week in Zhi Yi's province:

Unfortunately, this is all happening right in the region of China where Zhi Yi is. We have not been able to obtain any information specifically about the conditions in her orphanage, XiaJiang CWI, but we have heard of terrible conditions in other orphanages very nearby. Buildings are without heat, electricity, and running water. There aren't enough blankets and warm clothes. They are running out of diapers, formula, and medications.

XiaJiang is very small, in a fairly remote part of the province, and is not aided by any of the various international organizations that do charity work in Chinese orphanages. It is rare for buildings in this part of China to have central heat, and temperatures have been in the teens. The heavy snows have closed down most transporation, and ice storms have cut power to many regions. It is likely that conditions there are similar to the bad conditions we've heard of in other orphanages nearby.

Needless to say, we are terribly worried about Zhi Yi and the other children in her orphanage. We don't know if she is warm, or has enough to eat. We have inquired through various channels, but no one knows anything about XiaJiang. It makes me so sad and anxious to not know how she's doing, and to be completely unable to hold her, feed her, and keep her warm.

A truly wonderful charitable organization, Half the Sky, is taking donations on behalf of specific orphanages. You can donate on their website, specifying "XiaJiang CWI, Jiangxi Province" in the "message to Half the Sky" field, and they will get the funds to the orphanage so that they can purchase what they need locally. Or you can simply give to their relief fund, without specifying an orphanage.

All waiting parents would be grateful for your help, and the comfort it will bring to China's orphans is immeasurable.

What happens at naptime stays at naptime

Unless your mom has a blog.

This is what M found when he went to get B up from his so-called nap yesterday (I was at Target, spending what was left of our life savings on stuff for our trip to China):

Now in all honesty, not everything funny that B does or says makes it onto the blog. A kid deserves a certain amount of privacy, so the REALLY embarrassing stuff doesn't get on here. But this one was too good to keep to ourselves.

My countdown clock: 13 days to Zhi Yi

I'm baaaaack

It's been a crazy, psycho blur of a week. There's been no time to do a blog post. This is the best I can do -- a quick rundown of what's been going on around here:

Last weekend we had 60 degree weather, so we took B to the zoo. I learned that the zoo carousel (or is it a merry-go-round? the zoo train engineer tells you about the difference as you pass by it on the train and I know I've heard the spiel at least twenty times, but apparently I don't really listen) goes abnormally fast, as I was unable to get a photo that was both (a) not blurry and (b) had both M and B's heads in it. Why did M ride the carousel? Because it makes me so dizzy I feel like I'm going to hurl.

We wound up a fun weekend by roasting marshmallows over a backyard campfire. We got a patio fireplace from my parents for Christmas but hadn't been able to use it yet because every single day since Christmas it's been snowing, freezing, incredibly windy, or some miserable combination thereof. Note the cool after-dark view of downtown that we have from our backyard. It's much better at night, when you can't see the brown cloud.

On Wednesday this week, my work friends threw me a baby shower. Cake and presents, always a good way to spend a Wednesday afternoon at work! It was fun and very sweet. The women all sat on one side of the room, and oohed and aahed over all the darling girly clothes I held up as I opened gifts. The men sat on the other side of the room and oohed and aahed rather sarcastically, if you ask me. But I didn't mind, really. It was nice that they came. Men showing up for a shower at our office is a rare event.

Also on Wednesday, I went to the doctor and got a fistful of prescriptions for our trip, including antibiotics for all three of us and a goody bag full of Ambien samples so we can sleep on the way to Hong Kong.

One last thing. The best thing, actually. Today I went to work for a few hours and took B with me. In the car on the way there, he counted all the way to 100, with very minimal help from me! Very impressive. He tried to convince me that he was the only person in the whole wide world who could count to 100, but I didn't buy that. We finally settled on the idea that perhaps he's the only 4 year-old person who can count to 100.

My countdown clock: 16 days to Zhi Yi -- WOW!!