Welcome to Jaden's Journal!

Well, it only took me 5 years, but finally I have the story of our trip to adopt Jaden in bloggy format. We didn't bring along a laptop, but I kept a handwritten journal and of course, we took lots of pics. We laugh now looking back because we were so new to the digital camera age that we took a 35mm camera along as well, just to make sure we didn't somehow screw up and lose all the digital pictures. Luckily, we got home with all of them, though they're not quite the quality we're used to these days.

We began our journey to Jaden back in the summer of 2002, submitted our dossier to China on February 21, 2003 and received our spicy girl's referral on November 17, 2003. We left New Year's Day 2004 on our exciting and life-changing trip and made some precious friends along the way. Happy reading and thanks for stopping by!

We're outta here!

January 1, 2004

DFW to San Francisco:
The flight was good and on time. It was very windy in SF so the last few minutes were pretty bumpy. The flight was full, so Derek and I had to sit on different rows (he was in front of me) and he sat by a man that was from Singapore.
Checking in from SF

San Fran to Beijing:
BUSINESS CLASS ROCKS. We are so thankful for going ahead and paying extra for these seats. We have plenty of room and had a nice meal of lobster, salad, fruit, dessert and the works. Derek had the duck and said it tasted like a frozen Chinese dinner from the microwave and I had the seafood. We have already met several families who are adopting, including a couple from Austin, Heather and Scott. This is their first baby, so they are super excited. I just took my first Ambien and hope to be asleep soon, we have 9 more hours to Beijing. (later in flight) Business class is definitely the way to go, we had more good food and snacks after our nap and I watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which kept me entertained for a while.

Arrival in Beijing

January 2, 2004

Once again, we encountered no problems on arrival, we breezed through customs and met up with the rest of our group before catching a bus to the hotel. Our guide, Michael, gave us lots of good info and helped us check in. We are heading to bed now but were told we'd probably wake up early from the jet lag...we'll see. Can't believe we're actually in China!
We made it!

Touring Beijing-Day 1

January 3, 2004

The first night's sleep was bad. We went to bed at 10pm and then were awake around 2am, but went back to sleep for a while before we had to get up. We had breakfast in the hotel and then headed out for the Great Wall. We stopped on the way at a jade factory and bought some things for Jaden (lions and a cute little teapot) and a dragon-phoenix ball for us. They gave us the history of the different types of jade and where they come from...very interesting. We could see parts of the Great Wall as we approached the mountains and were amazed at the size of it. Our guide took us to the Outer Wall, which is larger than the inner, and we were able to walk up very high. The weather was gorgeous and warmer than we expected so we were actually sweating when we got to the top. Not to mention the serious leg burn! I hope our pictures do it justice. After leaving the Wall, we had lunch at a restaurant called the Golden Celestial and loved the food. It was served on a lazy susan (which our guide called suzie, haha) and we all shared the dishes. The restaurant was connected to a Cloisonne factory and we got to see it being made. I never realized how much hard work went into it...very beautiful. Next stop was the Hutong tour. This was my favorite part of the day. We got a ride through the old part of the city in a rickshaw (reminded us of that Seinfeld episode) and actually toured a Chinese home that was around 100 years old. The hutongs (or small lanes) are so narrow that cars don't fit. Our driver was really great and passed lots of people, which couldn't have been easy with our big selves on there! We then went to a square that had a bell tower and a drum tower and were treated to a traditional tea ceremony. We tried green dragon bell and fresh jasmine tea that was hand rolled and very rare. The girl who performed the ceremony was very cute and funny. We just ordered pizza up to our room which should be interesting and are completely exhausted. I don't think we have to worry about waking up in the middle of the night tonight. One day closer to Jaden!

Beijing-Day 2

January 4, 2004

We started the day very early (3am for me). I guess we still have a little adjusting to do. Orientation with Holt was very exciting and emotional. I felt like I was on the verge of tears the entire time they talked about what to expect when we meet the babies. About half of our group found out today that their babies are in foster care (those at the Yuanling SWI) which was quite shocking to them. They may have a more challenging day ahead than we do because their babies are actually bonded with a family. They also received recent pics of the babies and the SWI which was exciting to see. They will not tour the SWI because it is 8 hours from Changsha, but they may be able to come with us to ZZ. We met a few new families today that just arrived so now our group has grown to 40. There are 2 families who have their Chinese daughters with them who we have really enjoyed getting to know. We had yet another good Chinese meal here in the hotel and then left for our tours of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is gigantic and can hold up to 500,000 people. There were vendors trying to sell us souvenirs everywhere and the are sometimes very persistent. We must have said "no" at least 500 times today. The Forbidden City is over 1000 meters long and we walked every meter. Some of us started to feel like the tour would never end! It is beyond my comprehension that it was built in 1420 and still stands today. Even the trees were that old and we took a pic of the oldest tree called the Lump Tree. I think by the end of the day, most of us could only think of tomorrow and were ready for the sight seeing to be over. We ate dinner with a couple from Montana (Mike and Alison) and really like them. Alison is from Irving and Mike is from Louisiana so I guess we are just drawn to those from our part of the country! Our bags are already packed for tomorrow and we are really getting anxious now. In just a few hours our lives are going to change forever and I can't even describe how excited we both are. We have no idea what to expect tomorrow to be like when they come knocking on our hotel room door with our daughter in tow. We have talked a lot about Jakob today and really miss him, he wouldn't way much on the phone today but at least he heard my voice. We are definitely happy with the decision to rent the cell phone. I've actually managed to make it to 8:30 tonight (I was asleep by 7pm last night) so I hope to be fully adjusted to the time soon. Who knows what tomorrow night will bring! Beijing was incredible and we will always treasure this experience. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how crazy people drive here. I don't know why they bother to paint stripes on the road because none of the cars/buses/bikes pay any attention to where they are going. Our guide told us that their stop lights are merely "suggestions" and that they don't really have to obey them. Beijing traffic makes Dallas rush hour look like a cake walk. Pretty funny to watch but a little scary to be in the middle of the action! I almost forgot to mention too, these two very cute Chinese college students approached us in the Square and asked me about the pin I was wearing (Feb DTC). They told me how beautiful I was and asked if I was a model, HAHA! We explained why we are here and they were very sweet and told us all about why there are so many girls to adopt. Sometimes we feel like people here think we're from another planet instead of just another country. Our guide explained that many of them had probably never seen foreigners before and that's why they were so curious. Several Chinese people snapped pictures of us, which was very amusing.

The Big Day

January 5, 2004

Neither of us slept well last night, and we were both up very early. We had to have our bags outside the door at 7am, and be in the lobby to go to the airport by 9:15. Derek was so nervous that he couldn’t eat breakfast and he paced all around the lobby while we waited to leave. It reminded me of the day I had Jakob, he just physically could not be still. Some of our travelmates got tickled that he was so nervous because he’d been so cool and collected up to that point.

The flight from Beijing to Changsha was about 2 hours long (seemed longer in those tiny Chinese airline seats), but a little nerve-wracking given how anxious we all were to get there and meet the babies. Shortly after we arrived, we had to go do paperwork then we headed back to our rooms to WAIT. The Hua Tian Hotel is 5-star and very beautiful, we have gorgeous white down comforters and pillows, and Jaden’s little crib even has a tiny down comforter of it’s own. The lobby is all decked out for the Chinese New Year, we’ll be sure and get pics of that later. 

Anyway, back to the good part! Tracy, our Holt guide, call at 4:55pm to say that the babies had arrived and that they would come by in 5-10 minutes. (insert pacing and nervously preparing cameras here) At 5:05, the knock at the door finally came and I opened it. She looked totally calm and was so cute all dressed in a huge poofy yellow and orange outfit. The orphanage caretaker handed her to me (insert tears rolling down my cheeks here) and she just looked right up at me then started checking out the rest of the room. She was breathing really quickly, but she didn't cry or seem too scared of us. One of the first things I noticed about her was that she had so many teeth (7)! Vicki (our local guide) and the caretaker left us and let us have about 10 minutes alone with her. She looked back and forth at both of us and Derek videotaped that first few minutes (I can only imagine what was going through her mind at that point). I handed her to him and took a few pictures, and she wasn’t too thrilled with that so he gave her back to me. I tried to sit down on the bed with her, but she whimpered so I jumped right back up (I didn’t want to be the first one to make her cry, lol) and walked around the room talking to her.

Vicki and the caretaker came back in and told us more about her and answered our questions. They said she had a slight cold and that she had a little diarrhea because they had just changed formula at the orphanage. She had a little bruise on her forehead where they had put an IV to give her fluids. These are some of the other things they told us about her: She like to watch TV, she eats and sleeps well, she likes to suck on her blanket to go to sleep (even though they tried to break the habit), and that on the bus on the way to the hotel, that she had said “baba”, which is Mandarin for Daddy, for the first time ever and they thought it was very strange that she would say it today (she’s a genius, I tell you!). They left and then we were on our own. We slowly started to take off her layers (there were 3!) and finally got down to her tiny little body. I put her in a purple 6-9 month size outfit with purple and white socks and a bib that said “I love my big brother”.

All 20 of our newly formed families then met for dinner here in the hotel at 6:30. Jaden just sat quietly at first and looked around, she seemed to be just taking it all in. I made her a bowl of congee and steamed egg and she ate off the spoon like a pro. She ate 3 bowls full as a matter of fact and probably would’ve kept going if I’d let her. Then the spicy girl show began…she started smiling at me when I gave her kisses and got more and more animated the more we played. Everyone thought she was such a cutie and couldn’t believe how happy and smiley she was. Many of the babies, especially those who had come from foster care, were very upset and cried throughout dinner. I felt so bad for their new Mommies and Daddies, especially those who had just become parents for the first time. We came back to the room and tried to give her a bottle but she wouldn’t take it and we didn’t have much luck getting her to bed either. She faked us out by falling asleep at 9:30 but then was up at 10:15 ready to play! She didn’t go back to sleep until around 2:30am. She’s such a cute little stinker though, we didn’t mind too much. We are head over heels in love already and are so blessed to call this beautiful child our
daughter!

Getting ready to head to Changsha

Our room, complete with crib

First moments with her



Our first dinner

Day 2 with Jaden

January 6, 2004

We had to be up early to go do the official adoption so we finally had to wake Jaden up to get her ready to go. I dressed her in the pink Tommy outfit with her pink jacket and little flowered hat. We rode the bus to the Civil Affairs office in Changsha and had to do a little paperwork (it never ends), then we had a very informal interview with an official. She asked us if we were satisfied with our baby, and of course, we said YES! We then had our first family picture made and had to check the documents for the notary. Jaden was really good the whole time and just started to fuss at the end (we had to wait a little while after we were done). Derek decided to try and make another bottle and this time she took it right away. We figured out that she really likes her bottles steaming hot! She even sweats when she drinks them. We had to stop on the way back from the CA office and have Jaden's passport picture retaken because I guess the first one didn't come out right (2 other families had to stop also). Then we had our 1st ride in a taxi in China and boy it was scary. NY taxi drivers seem calm compared to these maniacs! We ate lunch in the Western restaurant here and I had spaghetti and Derek had a hamburger. It was our first American food in days and it tasted good. We just kind of hung out for the rest of the day.
Showing her the outfit

Cutie pie

At the Civil Affairs office

Finally got that bottle hot enough

This is a page in my journal where they stamped her cute little pink footprint while we were doing the official paperwork