late post-home safe and sound

Hi to all,
Sorry this post has been a long time coming. The jet lag has been horrendous. I finally feel today the fog is lifting. The time difference in China is 12 hours.
The girls and I got home after 22 1/2 hours of travelling. We made our connecting flight in Vancouver with 15 min to spare. Brian and Zhi flew home last saturday in the Beijing storm. The Beijing airport closed stranding 80,000 people. It was the heaviest rain in over 60 years. They were 3 hours late and we were glad they got home safe and sound. Here are a couple pictures of our first week at home:

We are slowly adjusting to a family of 5. Zhi loves his sisters, not sure about our cat Pickle Juice and is a crazy 4 year old boy. I think he has the 4 of us wrapped around his little finger!!

Bachelors in Beijing

Bachelors in Beijing
We awoke this morning to a call from our agency reporting that the Canadian Embassy system for issuing visas was down. Bottom line, Zhi was going nowhere. Changing all of our flights would cost way too much. So Zhi and Baba are bachelors in Beijing. As I post this, I am imagining my three girls flying over the Bering Strait. Send kind thoughts their way. As for us, we watched cartoons, ate candy and dined on Japanese cuisine with another late leaving family. Tomorrow we will buy some more toys. Hoping for a call tomorrow saying we have a green light, because we are booked for a Saturday flight, and I am getting sick of the breakfast Muzak playlist. I never want to hear kissed by a rose ever again.

home??? or not???

so we have had yet another change of plans. The embassy's computer system is down and they are unable to give Zhi a visa until Saturday. Due to a lot of factors we have decided Myself, Lia and Ami are flying home as planned and then Brian and Zhi will be home on Sat evening. It really really sucks to leave Zhi and Brian even for two day but thats life so we shall carry on.

we are coming home!!!

Yeah!! Zhi's passport is arriving or has arrived in Beijing this evening. The embasssy will have his visa ready by 1pm tomorrow so we will pick it up just in time on our way to the airport!! Yeah. Its been a great trip but a long one. Packing is almost done. Now we just need to keep any sugar away from Zhi as he seems to go crazy with any sugar. I can only take so much La La La La La singing from the top of his lungs funny boy. Cross your fingers for no vomit on tomorrows flights!!
 
Tricia and the gang

ready to come home!!

Today we had a day to ourselves. I am tired and ready to come home. We still do not have any word on Zhi's passport, sigh. Please send positive thoughts are way so we can come home on Thursday as planned. We are really to the last minute now.
 
We did some shopping at the Tianye market. The kids bought lots of toys. The kids had fun making funny faces for my camera while they were having lollipops. Not only did Zhi go swimming but he also had a shower AND a bath, all in one day. He loves the water, he is now super clean and in clean underwear AND clothes. For those of you who may not have visited China, bathing caps are mandatory in the pools!! A great day!!
 
Tricia and the gang

The Zoo

Hi to All,

Today we went to the zoo. The girls loved seeing the pandas again while Zhi slept in his stroller!! We are still without his passport and are waiting to see when it will be ready in Hangzhou and couriered to us in Beijing. Brian and I are getting really anxious. Zhi loves the camera and making funny faces. It keeps him busy during bus rides. 

Tricia and the gang

The Great Wall

Hi All,

Today we went to the Great Wall. It is always a favourite of mine. It was really really busy and HOT. We also visited the jade factory and had a great lunch.

Lia was having a bath tonight and was showing Zhi the shampoo (we still have not gotten him in the bath or shower). She said "Zhi, this is shampoo but not poo". It was great, he then said something to her in Mandarin. 

Operation underwear has been a success. Zhi was in new clothes today and then tonight when I was doing laundry in the bathroom he let me again wash his underwear. I then offered him a new pair and he put them on along with a pair of new pyjamas!! Yeah!!

Brian and Ami have taught Zhi a new word….bologna. He now goes around saying "hello bologna".  He has a great laugh. 

Tricia and the gang

The good the bad and the vomit

Hi to All,
We had a great last night in Hangzhou. We walked down by west lake. It was a bit cooler so there was lots of people outside walking. Poor Ami was getting bitten by bugs. The bits swelled quite large, I am glad we brought lots of antihistamine for her.
We were unable to pick up Zhi's passport despite several visits to the passport office. So our guide will be picking it up on Monday and sending it by courier to us in Beijing. We hope its ready then. At least we were still able to fly back to Beijing. Hangzhou is beautiful but Beijing is much easier to get around.
 
Before we left we had our guide negotiate an underwear treaty with Zhi. He really wanted to only wear the ones he has on but he would allow us to wash them. A good start. We got on the plane and about 30 min later poor Zhi puked, a lot!! Brian was sitting with him and it was everywhere. Thankfully I had some Gravol in my bag. He needed his clothes changed so we decided to do it quickly in the aisle as Zhi was quite upset about the puke on his clothes even though we were going through some turbulance. We changed his shorts then he began to talk quickly in Mandarin and took both his shorts and underwear off and handed his underwear to me. Gotta love him. I washed them last night and they are back on today. We did manage to get him to put on some new clothes today. He will not go into the bath or shower but will allow me to sponge bath him. Tonight he sat on the side of the tub and put his feet in. The orphanage said he showered everyday so baby steps are good.
 
Zhi is very sweet, he shook hands with the doorman when we left our hotel in Hangzhou. He will speak with others but is a bit shy with strangers. Brian is still small dog, occasionally big dog. We are happy to be back in Beijing. It is cooler here. Today we completed yet again more paperwork. We also went to the Summer Palace. It was really really crowded. Zhi is doing really really well. He loves the DS. He loves Brian and his magic tricks. The kids were running around the room today playing duck, duck , goose, Zhi mostly ran around tapping the girls heads and making them laugh. We are in a big suite at The Presidential now that we are a family of 5!!. Tomorrow we are off to the Great Wall!!
 
Tricia and the gang

Guess who??

Day four and counting...

Hi to all,
Zhi is four days into his clothes and no sign of taking them off any time soon. We are ok with him wearing the shirts and shorts, after all Ami wore the same dress for 8 weeks when she was little, and then a different dress for another 8 weeks. I would like it if he would change his underwear, he he. I think I will head out shopping to see if I can find some similar to what he is wearing. They are pleasant goat which he loves to watch on tv. We are off again today to the children's park.

Tricia and the gang

Sent from my iPad

and more photos

even more photos

more photos

lots of photos

not sure if they will all fit into one email so I will send a bunch of posts. 

I now pronounce you......

I now pronounce you....

Sorry no photos with this blog entry, i am on my IPad during breakfast. I will put some on tonight. Yesterday we decided to go to the children's park with rides. Zhi was very excited, he loves rides. He fits in our family well!! He went on the tilt a whirl with Ami and Brian and loved it. He was smiles all day!!

In the afternoon we went to the civil affairs office to make it official, he is now a Dallaway! We think he was waiting for that moment to show his true colours. He was trying to pull a picture off the wall during the ceremony. Then he pronounced that Brian is a small dog, xiao gao. Brian has remained Zhi's small dog.  He told our guide he is excited to see all the new things and of course he needs to touch EVERYTHING!

He adores Ami, they get along well. Ami has taught him to say hello. Brian and the girls went swimming last night but he would have no part.

Zhi will only wear the clothes the SWI sent him with, thankfully they sent two pairs of shorts and two shirts. Unfortunately only one pair of undies, hopefully we will find some when we are shopping.

Zhi came with a snoopy backpack. It has his change of clothes, crayons, the toy we sent him and an empty skittles container. It goes with us everytime we leave the room. Anything we give him goes into the backpack. He will let us carry it for him but our rule is no one goes into his backpack. He also came with a photo album of pictures of him since he was a baby. Neither of our girls came with any photos. There are also recent pictures of him with his nannies. It is beautiful. They also gave us a book of his artwork from nursery school. It is obvious they have loved him. The day we met him he followed around the executive director of the SWI, a wonderful looking man. Zhi cried when they left. A double edged sword, very difficult to watch but it means he was quite attached to them. 

Today we are off for his passport and some site seeing depending on how long that takes!

Oh yeah, it is hot.  No really, it is crazy hot.  Step into a sauna hot.  The lobby has a sign stating that the temperature must be set at 26 degrees to conserve energy.  Fortunately our room is set to 23.  Nothing is as welcome as a blast of cold air.  Zhi doesn't even sweat.  He may not like Canadian Winter.

Sent from my iPad

New day

Hi to all,
It was a crazy night. Lia was crying and Zhi fell out of bed. He is still quite sad but we see glimmers of hope. He is eating and drinking well. We are going to try the childrens park today. We go back to the civil affairs office later in the afternoon for more paperwork.

meeting Zhi

Hi all. This is just a short post to let you know we have Zhi and some pictures. The orphanage staff was wonderful to him and us. He had a large crying spell this afternoon and threw up. He has a little backpack that he came with that he put on and told us repeatedly he wants to go home. We are seeing small smiles, he is very shy. He is watching Pleasant Goat and we are waiting for him to exhaust himself to sleep. I will post more tomorrow as we are all tired. What a day. 

Tricia and the gang

Happy Zhi Day!!

We are all settled into the hotel. We are at a different hotel than our last visit. The girls went swimming last night. It was easily 45 degrees with the humidity yesterday, our guide said it was hotter the day prior!! We have about 45 min til we meet our guide Carl who will take us to meet Zhi!! Zhi is probably already on his was from Yuhang to Hangzhou.

Panjiayuan Market

Hi to all,
Today we set out to the Panjiayuan Market, aka "The Dirt Market", aka the "antique" market. Its always busy and hot!! The girls bought some trinkets and I bought some clay teapots. Brian bought some wood carvings. Its fun to see the different aisles, each couple of aisles sell the same things, 2 rows of tea pots, 5 rows of jade, then lots of individuals selling lots of misc stuff. We are finding less bargaining this time around but its fun. Too bad we did not have more suitcases or I am sure we could have filled a couple more. We are off to Hangzhou early tomorrow. We have been the only family from our agency here in Beijing this week, its nice to see other families arriving.
 
Could someone post in the comments if the pictures are coming out ok, I am having to resize before sending. There should be 3 with this post, hopefully not blurry . I want to make sure we are ready for our Zhi pictures on Monday!! Thanks!!
 
Tricia and the gang

Behai Park

Today we went to Behai Park. This is one of Brian and my top 3 sites to visit in China. Lia could have spent the day feeding the large koi fish. It was very hot again but we were spared the sun as it was cloudy.  We had lots of fun watching the dancers in the park. We climbed all the way to the top of the white pagoda, which has a great view of the city.  It is a great place to spend the day.  Towards the end of our visit Lia was feeding more fish in a small pond, we had lots of fun sharing our fish food with some little boys around the same age. These are the moments I really enjoy.

 

Lia keeps saying she wants to go get Zhi. Only a couple more days and she will get her wish. A big hi to everyone at home!!!

Wednesday

This posting is late as we have not had internet access in our room. We have been round and round trying to get it fixed, finally our guide Fei has found out our room has had no internet for quite some time so I am at the business centre. 

 

We got to Beijing safe and sound. The girls did well on the plane. The jet lag has been tough. Yesterday Lia was up at 12:30am, today was better but we all were up by 4am. We have seen our guide from our last trip Fei. Today we went on the subway to the Lama temple. Brian says you see one Buddha you've seen them all. Brian bought a groovy Tibetan prayer ring. Maybe he needs to start praying Lia will listen better. She was trying out for AFV today when running through the subway entrance and the side gates came out and clobbered her in the head. |Poor Lia. It is really really hot!! The girls are loving their spray fans. Tomorrow we are planning on Behai Park.