One Year Ago Today…

Mom, Dad, Norma and I boarded a plane first for Vancouver and then for BEIJING!  We were going to China and were just days away from meeting Hannah XiaoFen!!!

Truly, I cannot believe an entire year has passed.  How did that happen?

We left Toronto bright and early that Thursday morning and our hearts were soaring higher than the plane!

I vividly remember the wonderful feelings of anticipation, giddiness, excitement, a little uncertainty yet more than anything I remember God’s peace covering me like a blanket.  In the past, unknown adventures ahead had led to anxiety and fear but this time peace.  Sweet, sweet peace.  A peace that only He could provide.

The plane that flew us to China!!!

I had to keep pinching myself.  I was on the way to China to meet Hannah!!!

This was one of our first glimpses of Beijing.  I was immediately struck by the sheer density of the population as we looked down upon row after row of apartment buildings.  (We were later told by our guide that there are no single homes in Beijing, all are apartment style buildings!)

When we landed in Beijing it was one day later, Friday, October 30th, late in the afternoon.  We had been up for a while as the flights had been 5 and 11 hours long but you can tell that sleep was not on my agenda.  I was now standing in the very same country that my daughter was living!!!

I think in this picture I think I’m asking our wonderful guide Sarah if she knows when we’ll be meeting our babies?  And….she did!  Less than 72 hours after this picture was taken, Hannah would be placed in my arms!!!

We settled into our rooms and while mom and dad went downstairs to the hotel restaurant to find some supper, Norma and I ventured out into the night to see what we could find.  The adventure had begun!   Mmm…cake.

Hmmm…last I checked we didn’t have Seaweed or BBQ Steak Pringles at our local grocery store.   

We were less adventuresome deciding on plain Pringles, coke and apples for supper but we sure did enjoy them.

I will be forever grateful to Mom, Dad and Norma for going on this trip of a lifetime with me!  It wouldn’t have been the same if even one of them had been missing.  We were a great team and I love them all SO much!  Thank you again!!!  Love to each of you….xoxoxo

This was the picture I was holding tight too.  Mommy was coming XiaoFen.  Mommy was coming!

My China List of 'Must Haves'

I've wanted to share some of the items I took to China that I used on a daily basis and am so very thankful I had them! Here they are:

• Baby Bjorn - Hannah spent hours each day in it and still continues to spend hours in it most days even now that we're home. It may sound silly but I also believe it might have helped prepare her for travelling in a car seat at home. She was very used to being 'confined' in it when we were in taxis and sometimes in the bus. Her transition to the car seat was seamless (SO thankful for this) and I truly believe part of it is due to her daily time in the Bjorn. To this day she kicks her legs and gets that delightful grin on her face when I put on the Bjorn and begin to lift her into it!
• Thermos - Each morning I filled it with boiling water from the hot pot in the hotel room. Using a combination of bottled water and this water it was easy to make bottles at the right temperature whenever we needed them. (Using the royal 'we' here as Norma was the master bottle maker when we were out and was a huge help when my hands were full of baby.) The weather in Beijing was quite cold so if the thermos had been filled with water at a cooler temp it wouldn't have been possible to get the bottles as warm as we needed them when Miss H needed to be fed.
• Backpack Diaper Bag - This was a great type of diaper bag to carry as it had lots of pockets to easily store all we needed with us for a day of touring and also, it may sound silly but the weight of it on my back helped to offset the 16lbs. I was carrying on my front. :o) After about 3 days I could carry Hannah for many hours and over a lot of terrain and truly not feel uncomfortable at all.
• Flip Video Camera - This was a 'spur of the moment' purchase in June and I am forever grateful that I made it!! This great little video camera captured hours and hours and....hours of our time in China and continues to do so at home too. It's so small that it easily fits in the pocket of anything I was wearing in China so was easily accessible but could also be tucked away when not in use. It's easy to download, recharges when plugged into my computer and the videos are also easy to send to family and friends so that they had up-to-the-minute videos of all the action in China. It holds up to 2 hours of video on it so there was ample room. I downloaded it daily and kept all important videos while deleting some of the others once they were saved onto my computer.
• Tights for Hannah - The wonderful little Chinese Grandmas like to make sure the little ones are warm enough. The only day I was scolded by a Grandma was the day she was wearing 'only' a onesie, long pants, tights, socks, a sweater, jacket and hat. Oh yes...it was 27oC/80oF! The little Grandma showed me her 5 sweaters and scolded me for not having enough on Hannah. I just smiled at her....and took her picture. :o) I did find though that because Hannah's legs were always covered I was far less scolded by the Grandmas.
• Comfortable shoes - I only took 2 pair of shoes and truly did not need any others. Sandals for Changsha and running shoes for Beijing. We did find a lot of people checking out our feet in Changsha as it quickly became evident that they didn't wear sandals so our toes poking out seemed to draw their attention. I think my mom wishes she had brought boots to Beijing but truly, who would have thought we'd have 3 days of snow in Beijing the beginning of November?? Comfy shoes are a must as you will do a lot...and I mean A LOT of walking in China! The places that surprised me most were The Summer Palace and Tienanmen Square/Forbidden City day. Sure was glad my feet were comfy as we walked for more than 2 solid hours on both of those days!
• Laptop - I found I wanted to capture as much of the trip as I possibly could for Hannah and this was the best way to do it. I still have a few days to go back and catch up but much is here and I'm so thankful for that. It was also a great way to keep in touch with family and friends back home.
• Stainless steel bowl and colander - These were great to have for washing bottles each night. I'd fill the hot pot with water and then pour the water into the bowl to wash the bottles. Used chopsticks to transfer clean items to colander to dry. Bowl was then available for doing assorted laundry which normally consisted of bibs and a few baby items. We bought dish soap and plastic clothes pins in China and used these daily too.
• 30 Canadian diapers - These were used for travel days. The rule of thumb suggested to me was to have on hand 1 Canadian diaper for every hour of travel from the moment we left the current hotel until we either reached the new hotel or home. It worked really well. Neither of our flights were delayed but after the disaster we faced on our Beijing to Changsha flight I was super cautious to have enough diapers on hand!

Hope this list is helpful to those of you who are preparing to travel. (Congratulations!!) I thoroughly enjoyed our time in China and just writing this list has made me want to go back. Someday we will Hannah. Someday......

Calling All Airport Photographers! :o)

I'm working on a post about our homecoming and am trying to gather pics. Finally realized tonight that the easiest way to gather as many of those photos as possible is probably to put the call out here so....

'Hey!! If you were at the airport on Nov 14th and have pics you could share, can you please email them to me?' Thanks!!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

Home Safe!!

So much to share but for now, going to snuggle back into bed and wait for my precious to wake. Don't want to miss being there the very first time she awakes in her new home!

Will share more as I can. Thank you once again for all your prayers, love and support!!

Flight Information!

Here is our flight information for the next couple of weeks.

Thursday, October 29, 2009
Toronto to Vancouver
Air Canada flight 029
Departs: 9:00am Arrives 10:55am

Vancouver to Beijing
Air Canada flight 029
Departs: 1:40pm Arrives: 3:40pm (Fri, Oct 30th)

Sunday, November 1st
Beijing to Changsha
China Airline flight 1349
Departs: 11:25am Arrives: 1:35pm

Saturday, November 7th
Changsha to Beijing
China Airline flight 1344
Departs: 11:45am Arrives: 2:00pm

Saturday, November 14th
Beijing to Toronto
Air Canada flight 032
Departs: 6:50pm Arrives 6:40pm SAME DAY

If you would like to meet us at the airport you're more than welcome!! It will be a wonderful treat to introduce you to Hannah!

Everything But the Kitchen Sink!!

Wow!!! These are the meds and 'stuff' that I'll be taking to China for Hannah and I! It's hard to believe but when I look at much of what's here I don't want to be without it when there, and then again once home. If we don't need some of them I'll be returning them to the store when we get home but much will become our home pharmacy. Having been quite sick this past week I've been reminded how important it is to have the proper things on hand.

Some will say that I can purchase much of this in China and you're right but, if I or my baby are sick I don't want to be trying to find a pharmacy and even more importantly, I don't read a speck of Chinese so I don't want to be guessing what something is or how much I might need!

You may wonder how I decided what to purchase and that's a funny story! For the past almost 4 years I've carried this picture in my purse that I had snagged from some one's blog. More than 2 years after I put the picture in my purse I was at my friend Karen's place and she was showing me her daughter's photo album. Suddenly I jumped up, ran and got my purse and said, 'Look!' Here was a copy of the pic she's put on her blog back in January of 2007, long before we'd ever met let alone become the great friends that we are now! How cool!!

Off to work on packing. My pharmacy is together. Paperwork to be copied tomorrow is put together....almost. But clothes for Hannah and I? Oye!!! The weather is so much warmer than I'd prepared for it to be (33oC this coming Friday in Changsha!) so I'm having to rethink my packing a bit.

Wheeee!!! I'm packing for CHINA!!!

China....Where We're Staying!

Is it just me or has the clock slowed down? The 10 1/2 week wait between referral and travel seemed to speed by for the first 6 weeks but suddenly it seems like someone has put the brakes on time. Each day seems to be moving in s-l-o-w motion. The good thing is that in that time I'm accomplishing a lot and each night when my head hits the pillow more items have been crossed off my 'to do' list. Oh yah....and more added too! :o)

One of the things I'm enjoying doing to prepare for our trip is to check out the hotels that we'll be staying at. They both look beautiful and top notch!

In Changsha, Hunan province, we'll be staying at the Dolton Hotel. It is 52 stories tall and I've heard from many who have strayed there and all have raved about it! It will be the first temporary 'home' that Hannah and I share together so I know that it will be a very special place.










The hotel we're staying at in Beijing, at the beginning and end of our trip, is the Holiday Inn Central Plaza. It's also a beautiful hotel and is rated 3/2,715 hotels in Beijing on Trip Advisor. That works!! I'm sure most hotels in Beijing are in great shape after the 2008 Olympics.

Both hotels include free Internet in the room so hopefully with the help of M3 it won't be too difficult to keep things updated here.

Thank you so much for all the support and encouragement you are sharing with me as I prepare to travel to meet Hannah. 3 weeks from tomorrow she will be in my arms! Ahhhhhh!!!!! CANNOT WAIT!!