Adoption Trips

The two cousins have hit it off. J is actually more enthralled with B than the reverse but we were happily surprised at the minimal amount of jealousy J displayed over B's arrival on the scene at Saturday's family lunch and at dinner Sunday when they happened to drop in for a visit. He only asked Aunt V to put B down on the floor so that she could hold him once. That was cute. Instead I had the opportunity to hold J while V held B.

OHIP went very well on Monday. V drove to Oakville and back and did all of the paperwork in 90 minutes. Typically 90 minutes at the Mississauga office would find you still waiting your turn to speak to someone. One office for 1,000,000 Peel residents is a farce.

OHIP accepted the legal adoption order from China as proof that B's name changed at adoption and registered him as B A******** K**** F**** R******. A photocopy of his OHIP card combined with a photocopy of the adoption order is, according to our adoption agency, enough proof for Immigration Canada to issue his citizenship with his new name. No tedious one year wait for a Canadian name change to be processed should be required nor should the extra cost of getting his name change recognized through a Canadian lawyer.

I forgot to bring the paperwork required to get him added to my benefits plan at work so if my baby brain allows tomorrow I will get him enrolled.

B has not slept through the night since Saturday. The rush of new faces and people picking him up may have had an affect or maybe he is just adjusting to life in our house. He wakes every hour after 4 hours of sleep and needs to be assured that V is there with him.

Thursday he has a doctor appointment in the afternoon.

We did end up missing the connecting flight in Vancouver although by a literal minute.

The flight to Vancouver was 40 minutes late. We were delayed at immigration, delayed getting our bags, delayed again when we were tagged to be inspected by customs (wasted 10 minutes while they asked what B was bringing into Canada. Answer one pair of clothes. Other families shipped antiques and carpets from China so I guess we looked strange when we declared $0 for B), and the final delay was at the domestic security check where the peeon controlling the flow put us in a long line when we specifically told him we have 3 minutes to catch our plane. Vancouver airport is beautiful, the people who work there suck. The level of lack of compassion for people in a rush could only be out matched by New York. Okay that comparison may be too harsh on New York. I can tell you I don't think Toronto is the least compassionate city in Canada anymore.

We arrived on AC152 at 23:15.

We arrived home at 12:15am

We had 6 flights on our itinerary. 4 out of 6 were late or delayed. All 4 were with Air Canada. The two Chinese internal flights were on time and very professional. The monopolies and unions with too much strength (i.e. Air Canada and the Canadian Government) are going to kill our reputation as a good place to come visit, do business or live.

We are off to our first family lunch with B and his new Mississauga family. We need to be packing as I type.

Tomorrow is free.

Monday V will take B to the OHIP office to get him a OHIP number. She will have a fight on her hands to get them to issue the card with the name we have chosen for him I am sure. We have two legal documents, one from China which says at adoption his name was changed and his record of landing which shows his Canadian name. I know the OHIP people will still insist on using the name the orphanage gave him when they found him.

So B did not make it to Tuesday's trip to the Temple of Heaven and the Pearl Market. He was sick all over mommy in the lobby just as we were about to head to the bus so mom and B stayed back at the hotel while dad did the tour and bought mommy some pearls from B. He was feeling okay by the time I got back. V and I both began experiencing Moa's revenge the same day.

On Wednesday he did the tour of old Beijing including a kindergarten and saw how the Beijinger's have tied whistles to the pigeons so that when they fly they make a whirring noise. That is one of the strangest things I have seen on this or any other trip I have been on.

The three of us shopped on Wednesday afternoon and picked up some goods from the Markets at very good prices. M tell that partner he needs to get the gig for Beijing. There is fake Tommy being sold everywhere here.

B was sick again yesterday morning. While on the bus coming back from the zoo the suggestion was made by one of our fellow travelers, after consulting her Doctor husband back in Toronto that we may have contacted Norwalk virus as at least one member of each family had suffered at least one symptom of the virus i.e. nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and congestion.

Yesterday we saw the Giant Pandas at the zoo including the new baby that was born in October. In the afternoon we had success in getting B's air ticket, returning for exchange a malfunctioning video battery I bought in the Pearl Market, and getting B some shoes at a very reasonable price. V also got a Gucci hand bag.

B was sick again at 3am this morning. He is also teething and cut three upper front teeth just yesterday. So we don't know if he is sick because of the teething or if it is the virus that we suspect we have contracted.

This morning we are packing up to go. The hotel will not let us check out late and in fact asked that we check out early. No chance we are leaving early. We will check out at noon, head to the airport at 1:30pm, check in before 2:30pm (pray we get a seat as the flight is over booked) and fly to Vancouver at 5:30pm. We arrive in Vancouver before we left Beijing. AC flight 30 is scheduled to arrive at Vancouver airport at 12:30pm. Hopefully we can be one of the first in line for immigration as there are 38 babies on the plane and we have to do B's immigration paperwork before we can leave for Toronto. Our flight to Pearson is scheduled to leave at 14:30 and arrive at 21:50. T***y is picking us up. If we miss our connection I will need to scramble to get us on the next flight out or we spend the night in Vancouver.

So hopefully there will be no reason to update from the Vancouver airport and we will arrive at home tonight. I will update again when we are home.

We made it to Beijing on Thursday without losing any luggage. It was a very late night and B was quite cranky before we got him to bed at 23:30.

Friday we got the lay of the land on Beijing's equivalent of Yonge St. (only 48 km compared to Yonge St.'s 100km) and we completed the paperwork, with our guide Freda's help, for B's application to become a permanent resident of Canada. Friday night we had Chinese food from the western desert. Something V had never encountered. Lots of goat on the menu but we substituted for good old cow.

Saturday morning we did the all important immigration medical check at one of three Beijing hospitals where the Canadian government has a doctor on staff. Dr. Lucy Chen from Montreal said B is healthy and his blood tests showed no issues. His lower gross motor skills are delayed and he is small for his age but is proportional meaning no dwarfism etc. Dr. Chen indicates there are three possible reasons for the delay and his stature; a) he is truly small for his age and development is delayed, b) he was born prematurely or c) his date of birth was not accurately recorded on his orphanage forms and he is younger than reported.

Based on the way he acts V is convinced he is no more than 7 months old. We don't really care how old he is. So far he has the demeanor of wonderful baby. He cries when he is tired, when he is hungry or when he has to poop. The rest of the time he giggles and laughs and wants to play with mommy and daddy. Friday he decided he wants to stand up with Daddy's help and yesterday he began verbalising frequently. V coaxed him to say something close to Daddy last night and I was on cloud nine. V and I are taking turns and sharing the load (figuratively and literally) for his care including the changing of diapers. It is amazing how after two days his smell does not bother me anymore. I always assumed parents were just fooling themselves. If they were fooling themselves so am I. B has targeted me for projectile vomiting. He got me yesterday morning when I fed him, yesterday at lunch and again this morning. I must not be holding him correctly or I am too rough when I move him.

Yesterday in the morning we went to the government sanctioned Jade market and bought some jade for B, V and I. Then we continued on to the Great Wall. I made it half way up a 1000 foot climb with B strapped to my back before V gave up and headed down. I was afraid I would need help on the way down so I followed her. Last night it was Szechwan food for dinner and B used a high chair for the first time. Now we can feed him and ourselves at the same time.

This morning Freda took our applications to the Canadian embassy for processing so we have to hang around the hotel until 11am in case there are questions that need to be answered.

This afternoon we go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tomorrow the temple of Heaven and a pearl market.

Wednesday a local village, kindergarten, local family's home and shopping for clothes (we got B a pair of shoes that have a squeaky toy built into the sole so he squeaks when you bounce him).

On Thursday we go to the Zoo and a Buddhist temple where some of our fellow travelers want to have their babies blessed.

Friday we pack up and head home. I confirmed our seats all the way to Toronto and booked a ticket for B as well. $150 Canadian for him to ride in our lap compared to $200 Canadian that the travel agency in Ottawa charged all of the other parents.

We are so happy with our boy. He is good, quiet and you can see V's face light up when B snuggles with her. We can not believe that it has literally been only one week since we received him into our family. It seems like he has been with us for ever.

Internet access is 10 times as fast and 10 times as expensive in Beijing so I will send an update once more before we leave, probably on Thursday, unless something important comes up then I will update again.

Again you can check for updates on our group travel site as well at http://www.intectus.com/china

We received our luggage on Tuesday night at about 9:15. We still had some tribulations to overcome just to get the bags released from the Taiyuan airport and delivered to our hotel. Seems the Air Canada partner carrier would not give the bags to the hotel driver because we did not send the claim forms with him. In the end our guide Freda, who also was the one calling 3 times a day to keep the pressure upon the airlines, had to take a taxi out to the airport to get the bags released then ride back with the hotel delivery van. When we opened our luggage we realised that the contents in our two soft sided bags were wet, or at least the contents that V had not put in ziplock bags were. I am speculating that the bags were left on the tarmac or in some other unprotected area while it rained before they got to us. It did pour here in Taiyuan yesterday morning and since Beijing is due east from here maybe it rained there as well.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we left for the orphanage in Datong 15 minutes late because Master R***** decided he would mess himself just as everyone was about to get on the bus. The drive was 3.5 hours long and boy has China made improvements in their road infrastructure since we last traveled in Canton 10 years ago. We traveled on a 6 lane, toll, limited access, divided (twined) highway for 299km of the trip at speeds ranging from 60km when approaching busy interchanges to 120km in the country side.

We traveled through the mountains to get to Datong and even spotted a mile or so of ancient parts of the Great Wall that were made from clay instead of stone. The wall was not accessible from the highway but I did get some of it on video.

When we got to the orphanage we were greeted by the party chairman for the Datong Social Welfare Institute who laid out a big feast for us. Cold meat and vegetable dishes followed by tofu for the veggies and goat for the meat eaters. The lunch end with a calamity when again Master R***** decided he should grab Daddy's piping hot bowl of corn chowder. That brought nurses from China and Canada out of the wood work. He cried like a banshee but once L-J, our group leader and emergency nurse at Credit Valley Hospital, gave him a good sized dose of children's tylenol he quieted down. The orphanage cook coated his hand in egg whites and held it in a bowl of cold water. The orphanage nurse applied a Chinese herbal salve and for the rest of the day his favorite sucking thumb was off limits.

Today the four fingers he stuck in the bowl are a little red but there is no blistering and will be no scares. I would expect that by Saturday the incident will be nothing more than a lesson for Mom and Dad to remember so that it does not happen again.

On a side note, V is convinced that the DSWI has lied and that there is no way that B is 10 months old. He does not yet know how to be fed by spoon or crawl. He can sit himself up with effort in his crib. When you lay him on his back to change him he will draw his feet up to his chest in a fashion similar to smaller infants. He is also not anywhere near the 19 pounds we expected. I would say he is barely 15 pounds. 9 month old clothes are a little big on him so the 12 month old stuff we brought is huge. Poor guy can not even suck his thumb when we put his snow suit on.

After the commotion was over we visited the orphanage buildings and saw the toddlers area where B spent 5 months. This information came from the vice director of the orphanage which was contrary to what one of the nannies told V on Monday. We don't know what to believe now. We discovered that one of the other children adopted in our group was in the crib next to B's and that they were good playmates.

We visited the older children's (school aged) dormitory and classrooms one floor up and then headed outside to take pictures and see the area where the children are commonly left for the orphanage to discover. It is a crime in ShanXi province to abandon your children, so we are told notes are not left with the children to explain anything about how they arrived at the orphanage or what prompted the parent or parents to give their children up. Speculation from our guide Freda is that in B's case he was born out of wedlock making his birth an illegal birth thus his mother gave him away.

The overall impression of the orphanage was that it is very well run and the people really care about the welfare of the children. The group delivered toys and books for the children and a scrapbook that Children's Bridge group 120 had prepared for the DSWI that showed how the 11 babies they adopted in the summer of 2001 were doing. All of the care givers who were present when we presented the scrapbook took pleasure in looking over the scrap book and seeing some of their children again.

On behalf of one of the group 120 mothers V asked about a video the DSWI was making about the orphanage and the children. We were told the video is not complete but a book has been finished. The orphanage graciously gave us two copies. One copy for Group 120 and one for our travel group. I am trying to encourage V to translate the book in here spare time while on parental leave.

Today we will tour a famous temple in Taiyuan and tonight at 8:20 we fly to Beijing arriving at 9:20 or so. V and I have learned our lesson. All three of us will have a change of clothes in the carry on luggage just in case our bags decide to take another side trip.

Tomorrow is a free day and then on the weekend we start the process to bring him home. We received his Chinese passport yesterday morning and the official legal papers detailing our adoption last night. We have, in the eyes of the People's Republic of China, completed the adoption and D*** J*** B*** has legally been renamed B****** A******** K**F*** R*****.

So until later this week when I have another chance to get on line please visit http://www.intectus.com/china to see the latest photos that the group has posted from China. I have many more pictures but because of my PC problems do not have the facilities to post.

It has been a few days eh! The important thing is that we made it to Taiyuan and we receievd B into our family yesterday at about 10:15 local time. We legally completed the adoption at around 16:30 local time yesterday and we have been enjoying getting to know him ever since.

B is healthy, alert and quietly pleasent. He has about 8 teeth. He smiles when you play with him and laughs at his mother and father when they make goofy gestures. He loves his bottle and likes to eat egg, congee, biscuits and steamed Chinese buns. He is not very keen about drinking water. Juice is something we will try later on today.

Now for the reasons that it has taken me 5 days to post anything. The computer I brought with me is toast. The OS is reporting an IO error when attempting to read the configuration file on boot up. W2K Pro says I can fix it with the install disk. If only I had the install disk with me and if only I beleived Windows messages. I am assuming that either the hard disk is dead or that I need to reinstall the OS when I get home. I am renting a PC in the business office at the Grand Shanxi Hotel for 15 yuan hour ($2.40 CDN).

The failed computer is not the only trial we have faced since arriving in Shanghai.

Our checked luggage... all 3 pieces were left in Vancouver by Air Canada. Not only our luggage but the luggage of every passenger (many adopting in China) who checked luggage in Toronto for Shanghai on flight 37 on Friday the 28th. 46 pieces in total or 3 luggage containers were left at Vancouver airport.

We were 50 minutes late into Vancouver and then the flight to Shanghai was delayed 1 hour. We got on the plane at 13:20 on the 28th and I immediately sensed trouble. The plane had been changed. The interior was configured for short hall domestic flights not trans Pacific flights of 13 hours. The seats did not have adjustable head rests or foot rests. They were very uncomfortable and my shoulders ached for 12 of 13 hours.

On the flight from Toronto to Vancouver the entertainment system in business class would not work and the purser tried 5 or 6 times to reset the system without success, so I assume that AC decided to swap planes so that the business class people would not complain.

So we boarded at 13:20. I noticed we had changed planes. Then we sat in the cabin, in our seats because the catering had not been completely loaded. Our 13 hour flight left Vancouver at 14:00, 1 hour and 40 minutes late. We arrived in Shanghai at 7pm Shanghai time almost 2 hours late. At 7:30 we were told that 46 pieces of luggage were left in Vancouver. I assume that they forgot or did not have time to get the Toronto lugage off of the plane and over to the new plane.

We have been listening to promisies by Air Canada's agents here in China ever since about how we will get our bags the next evening.

The 1st story was that the bags would arrive in Shanghai on Sunday and would be shipped to TaiYuan on Monday. They were to arrive Monday at about 8pm. Needless to say they did not. The flight from Vancouver to Shanghai was delayed again on Sunday.

The 2nd story was that Air Canada's Chinese partner can not fly from the Shanghai International Airport to Tai Yuan directly so the bags have to go to Beijing then Tai Yuan. The partner air line can not even transfer the bags from the international airport to the domestic airport in Shanghai where there is a daily flight to Tai Yuan. The bags should have been sent to Beijing Sunday night and then to Tai Yuan Monday night. The bags missed the flight to Beijing because Air Canada was late arriving in Shanghai again. The bags went to Beijing on Monday evening and are supposed to arrive in Taiyuan tonight. We have to pay about $25 CDN to rent a truck to go to the airport to get them if they really do arrive tonight. We can not get anyone to confirm that the bags are on the flight.

One of the other 5 families with us is in the same boat as us.

V and I have had to buy a few things again for B that we had stored in our checked luggage and we have each had to buy a change of clothes. I am still wearing the same jeans I had on Friday and until this morning when B spit up all over his mother she was still wearing the same track pants. She has since bought another pair. B now has some jammies and a snow suit that V bought last night at a boutique with the help of our guide. Today we picked up a teether some more bottles and some rattles to keep him happy although a cardboard box from a hotel toothbrush has kept him happy thus far.

Today we received his Chinese passport. We went shopping in a general department store and V was followed around the grocery section by curious staff who wanted to know if B was real Chinese or if he was mixed. V's knowledge of Chinese writing is coming in very handy and her Mandarin which was at first very shaky is improving by the minute. Generally she is able to make the local people understand what she wants and to answer their questions. The scene in the shopping mall when 5 white couples and a mixed couple walked in with 6 Chinese toddlers was very interesting. People all around stopped to look and whisper although I think only V was personally approached.

Tomorrow we are traveling 6 hours round trip to Datong to visit the orphanage were he has stayed the 1st and last months of his 10 months thus far. He was in foster care for 8 months until we sent our signed intention to adopt him. He was then taken back to the orphanage as the Datong social welfare society believes this will lessen his trauma and the foster parents trauma of us adopting him.

Thursday we get the notarised adoption papers and we can leave for Beijing to complete the Canadian immigration portion of the process.

I don't know when I will be able to post again. So visit our group website where some group and individual pictures have been posted by one of the other fathers.

Later
T