So back to leaving in a month, to my husband and I that seems so far away but also so close all at the same time. While we would like to be leaving tomorrow to get him there is still so much we need to do before then. Over the last few weeks I have worked on narrowing down our packing list. I have used the list that our adoption agency provided us along with researching several adoption blogs to see what others who have taken the trip recommend bringing. I have narrowed it down to 5 pages. My husband and I have been on a few trips overseas that require planned packing and Tetris like skills to fit everything in the luggage but this is going to be different. The amount of recommended medicines on our list could take up an entire carry-on, plus we will have two tiny humans with us. We are talking more preventative medicines then when we went to Africa for our honeymoon where we slept in tents and didn't have running water! The main reason for this is because some medicines we may need are either not the same in China, are not available, or are just too expensive. That is where the blog research has come in very handy. Some of the blogs I read even wrote out exactly what they took on the trip and indicated if they would bring it again or leave it at home. Perhaps I will do the same with our packing list when I return from our trip so that it is available for others who might take same the trip in the future.
We have also received our finalized itinerary from Children's Bridge. Seeing on paper what we will be doing each day has made it even more real. I have written out a summary of our trip below.
Beijing:
Sat. Feb 25 - Adoption travel guide will meet us at the airport in Beijing and transfer family to the hotel.
Sun. Feb 26 - Adoption travel guide and driver will meet us at the hotel and bring us back to the Beijing airport for our flight to our sons province Fujian.
Fujian:
Sun. Feb 26 - Provincial adoption travel guide will meet us at the airport in Fuzhou, Fujian Province and bring us to the hotel. We will receive our son on the afternoon of Sunday February 26th.
Mon. Feb 27 - Prov. adoption travel guide will meet us at the hotel and bring us to the provincial adoption centre for registration, notarization and to complete our son's Chinese passport application.
Tues. Feb 28 - Sightseeing in Fuzhou City.
Wed. Mar 1 - Prov. adoption travel guide and driver will pick us up at the hotel for the drive to the orphanage. Visit the orphanage (approx. two hour drive).
Thurs. Mar 2 - Prov. adoption travel guide and driver will bring your notarized adoption paperwork to you at the hotel.
Fri. Mar 3 - Prov. adoption travel guide will pick up your son's Chinese passport and bring it to you at the hotel. Free day in Fuzhou.
Sat. Mar 4 - Prov. adoption travel guide will pick us up and take us to the Fuzhou airport for our flight back to Beijing.
Beijing:
Sat. Mar 4 - Adoption travel guide will meet your family at the Beijing airport and transfer your family to the hotel.
Sun. Mar 5 - Complete paperwork for CIC (Immigration).
Mon. Mar 6 - Medical examination for Emmett. Adoption travel guide will take immigration paperwork to the Canadian Embassy. Visit the Great Wall in the afternoon.
Tues. Mar 7 - Visit Hutong, make dumplings for lunch, acrobat show in the afternoon.
Wed. Mar 9 - Visit the Beijing Zoo (panda house).
Thurs. Mar 9 - One dinner arranged by adoption travel service (Peking duck).
Fri. Mar 10 - Adoption travel guide and driver will pick us up at the hotel and transfer us to the Beijing airport for our flight back to Canada.
So as you can see the first few days of our trip are going to be very busy and very exciting. Fingers crossed everyone will adjust to the time change in a very short amount of time (ha ha). We know the day we receive our son will be a whirlwind (and sadly likely very traumatizing for him). We weren't expecting it to be so soon after we arrived but the more time we have to bond with him before we fly home the better.
While I have been working on the packing list and finding/purchasing the supplies we need my husband has been working on all of the paperwork that needs to be completed. Right now he is working on our VISA applications. Perhaps sometime he can write a bit more about that process (once it is complete and we know that we did everything correctly).
I have also downloaded a few apps for our phones and I Pad that we will use on our trip. A few translation apps (Pleco Chinese Dictionary), and a learn Chinese app, so that we can communicate with our son and with the local people when our guide is not around. I downloaded a Chinese Kids Songs CD that we can play for him in our hotel or on the plane. Our goal is to learn one of the songs so that we can sing it to him when we meet him. That was an idea I received from one of the blogs I followed. They said that it was the best thing they could have done to help with the beginning stages of bonding with their adopted child.
This weekend marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year. 2017 will be the year of the Rooster. To celebrate we are hosting our families for a traditional (well we are going to try) Chinese meal and festivities. We hope to make this a yearly tradition. So far our daughter has loved seeing the bright red Chinese decorations I have hung throughout our main floor. She is really looking forward to our "big Chinese party" this weekend.Happy New Year everyone!
