Well this is it - our last weekend at home before the start of our big adventure. The girls are completely stoked and bouncing off the walls. We currently have High 5 on LOUD and lots of dancing going on. I'm sure the next thing will be the "12 girls band" from Shanghai. If you haven't heard them, they're awesome! I find myself, dare I say, somewhat relaxed although getting more emotional by the minute. I guess it's those pre-adoption hormones kicking in. Beware, Jane will cry at the drop of a hat or at nothing at all!!
We received our airline tickets this week along with other documents from Children's Bridge and now it's just a matter of finishing the packing. Stephanie's bag is packed, Hannah's will be tonight and my stuff is all ready to go in the bag - no last minute, staying up all night packing for me this time! Of course, going to bed on Tuesday night is probably useless as we'd have to get up at 3am anyway. Oh well, we'll be ready to switch our time clocks over very quickly....I hope.
We now have 2 extra friends coming along on our trip - Flat Stanley for Hannah's class and Flat Jessica for Stephanie's daycare class. Thankfully, they are flat and won't take up much room in our luggage;-) Stay tuned for the Flat kids' adventures in China.
It has been a long journey to Quinn but oh so worth it. I can't wait to give our son a hug - or even just a high five. I keep thinking about how our life is about to change, but our little man is facing more changes in the next few weeks than most of us could ever imagine. We look forward to sharing our trip with you.
Feb 22, 2008
Feb 12, 2008
Two weeks to go....
Hi there friends!
Here we are in another snowstorm (uggghhhh!!) and hoping and praying that it won't be like this in two weeks!! At this time two weeks from now, I'm hoping we'll all be in bed with bags packed and by the door. Hopefully, I'm not dreaming in technicolour;-)
We have now received our Robeez donation - 25 pairs of little leather slippers for the orphanage. What a great program they have, through which they have donated many pairs to the orphanages in China, and for that we are very thankful.
We received our final itinerary and it looks like we are going to be visiting some interesting places in Shanghai, and we are hoping that we will be traveling by boat on the Yangtze River from Hannah's birth city to Wuhan in Hubei province. Of course, one person reminded me today that China's safety standards are not the same as ours and to make sure I knew where the life jackets on the boat were!!! But this is coming from a person who went up the Lushan Mountains and said it was no problem on a one lane road for two-way traffic!!!??? So my point, it's all a matter of perspective and I'm not going to stress about it....too much;-)
The girls are getting very excited and starting to think about what they might take with them. Poor Stephanie was disappointed that her entire collection of Webkinz could not come with us, and how could she only take one??? Hannah received some great "traveling stuff" for her birthday - sketch pads, pens, videos, books - so she's got the essentials for keeping busy on the long flight.
We look forward to sharing our journey with all of you. Until next time,
Jane
Here we are in another snowstorm (uggghhhh!!) and hoping and praying that it won't be like this in two weeks!! At this time two weeks from now, I'm hoping we'll all be in bed with bags packed and by the door. Hopefully, I'm not dreaming in technicolour;-)
We have now received our Robeez donation - 25 pairs of little leather slippers for the orphanage. What a great program they have, through which they have donated many pairs to the orphanages in China, and for that we are very thankful.
We received our final itinerary and it looks like we are going to be visiting some interesting places in Shanghai, and we are hoping that we will be traveling by boat on the Yangtze River from Hannah's birth city to Wuhan in Hubei province. Of course, one person reminded me today that China's safety standards are not the same as ours and to make sure I knew where the life jackets on the boat were!!! But this is coming from a person who went up the Lushan Mountains and said it was no problem on a one lane road for two-way traffic!!!??? So my point, it's all a matter of perspective and I'm not going to stress about it....too much;-)
The girls are getting very excited and starting to think about what they might take with them. Poor Stephanie was disappointed that her entire collection of Webkinz could not come with us, and how could she only take one??? Hannah received some great "traveling stuff" for her birthday - sketch pads, pens, videos, books - so she's got the essentials for keeping busy on the long flight.
We look forward to sharing our journey with all of you. Until next time,
Jane
Feb 3, 2008
3 1/2 weeks to go...
Good morning! I can't believe that it is just 3.5 weeks until we get on that plane!! As we are cleaning up from snow on Friday, we feel so fortunate to have all the resources we have here in Canada. The news out of China is not good as they are experiencing the coldest and snowiest winter in about 50 years. Please keep everyone in China, particularly the little ones in orphanages in your thoughts. Reports from Half the Sky (an organization that provides support to Chinese orphanages) are that many places are without heat, electricity and fresh water, and that food prices have skyrocketed. They are heating their places with coal - something I'm sure none of us could imagine.
We can't wait to welcome Quinn into our family and hope that he is safe and healthy through this weather. We are hoping we can somehow find out through Children's Bridge how they are doing. I went out yesterday and purchased some warm tops and pants to donate to the girls' and Quinn's orphanages - it's a drop in the bucket and probably too late for this year, but they will be there for any more cold days this year and next. We are also anxiously awaiting our Robeez donation - they have a wonderful program for needy children around the world.
So not wanting to sound all gloomy, we are very excited about our upcoming trip and will keep you posted as things progress. We should have our finalized itinerary sometime this week and will post it then. We will also be celebrating 2 great events this week - Hannah's 8th birthday on the 6th (where does the time go??) and Chinese New Year on the 7th. To celebrate both, we will be going to our favourite Chinese Food haunt for "New Years Eve" and birthday celebrations.
Gung Hay Fat Choy or Gong Xi Fa Cai!!! Happy New Years to all!!
Jane
We can't wait to welcome Quinn into our family and hope that he is safe and healthy through this weather. We are hoping we can somehow find out through Children's Bridge how they are doing. I went out yesterday and purchased some warm tops and pants to donate to the girls' and Quinn's orphanages - it's a drop in the bucket and probably too late for this year, but they will be there for any more cold days this year and next. We are also anxiously awaiting our Robeez donation - they have a wonderful program for needy children around the world.
So not wanting to sound all gloomy, we are very excited about our upcoming trip and will keep you posted as things progress. We should have our finalized itinerary sometime this week and will post it then. We will also be celebrating 2 great events this week - Hannah's 8th birthday on the 6th (where does the time go??) and Chinese New Year on the 7th. To celebrate both, we will be going to our favourite Chinese Food haunt for "New Years Eve" and birthday celebrations.
Gung Hay Fat Choy or Gong Xi Fa Cai!!! Happy New Years to all!!
Jane
Jan 27, 2008
One month to travel!!!
Jane here - Steve's left his blogger seat and finally let me have a say;-) I'm in panic mode!! One month until we travel and so much to do, so little time. We can't wait to meet our dear Quinn! We received an update from the orphanage yesterday, and it sounds like he is a little charmer. Apparently, the nannies regularly take him to their homes so he can "experience the love and warmth of a family." He is "honey-mouthed" (sweet-talker?) with adults, loves the outdoors and LOVES cars!!! Sounds like a real boy!!! Size-wise, he is the same as Stephanie was at the same age - at least we have some updated measurements to buy him some clothes. Of course, the shoes will be an issue, so just guessing and will buy one pair, as we all know I love to shop for shoes in China!! I think it was 14 or 16 pairs I bought for the 2 girls on our last trip;-)
We are so excited about our trip and know that the next month is going to go very quickly. We look forward to sharing our journey with you and hearing from you along the way.
Enjoy!
We are so excited about our trip and know that the next month is going to go very quickly. We look forward to sharing our journey with you and hearing from you along the way.
Enjoy!
Jan 25, 2008
We have a travel date!!
Today we locked in our travel dates. We are off to Shanghai to start our adventure on February 27 and will be returning home on March 20 with the families from Group 253. Stay tuned for more details, and check out our high-level itinerary (click on the "Where we are today" link at the right-hand side of this blog).
Jan 21, 2008
We can start planning our trip!!!
Yipee!!! Much to our surprise, we received our confirmation letter on Friday January 11, signalling that we can start planning our trip to China. We will either be heading there the last week in February or the first week in March. Keep checking the itinerary for an update on the start of our journey.
Jan 20, 2008
Itinerary - What's planned for today
| Wednesday February 27 | Fly to Shanghai via Vancouver |
| Thursday February 28 | Arrive in Shanghai @ 4:30pm |
| Friday February 29 | Shanghai - Shanghai Museum, The Bund, Nanjing Rd. |
| Saturday March 1 | Shanghai - Silk Factory, Yuyuan Garden, Acrobats |
| Sunday March 2 | Shanghai/Train to Nanjing, Jiangsu (morning) |
| Monday March 3 | Nanjing/Drive to Taizhou, Jiangsu (day trip) (Stephanie's Orphanage) |
| Tuesday March 4 | Nanjing/Fly to Nanchang, Jiangxi (morning) |
| Wednesday March 5 | Nanchang/Drive to Jiujiang, Jiangxi (afternoon) |
| Thursday March 6 | Jiujiang (Hannah's Orphanage) |
| Friday March 7 | Jiujiang/Drive to Lushan Mountains (day trip) |
| Saturday March 8 | Jiujiang/Drive to Wuhan, Hubei (afternoon) |
| Sunday March 9 | Wuhan - Free day - sites tbd |
| Monday March 10 | Wuhan - Meet Quinn!!! |
| Tuesday March 11 | Wuhan - Paperwork + Free day - sites tbd |
| Wednesday March 12 | Wuhan - East Lake Park |
| Thursday March 13 | Wuhan - Free day - sites tbd |
| Friday March 14 | Fly to Beijing (late afternoon) |
| Saturday March 15 | Beijing - Free Day |
| Sunday March 16 | Beijing - The Great Wall |
| Monday March 17 | Beijing - Quinn's medical/Visa |
| Tuesday March 18 | Beijing - Hutong Tour, School visit, Shopping |
| Wednesday March 19 | Beijing - Forbidden City, Shopping, Peking duck dinner |
| Thursday March 20 | Fly to Toronto - Home Sweet Home!!! (Flight AC032) |
Our Route in China
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