We heard from our travel team today. We may go to China as early as October 20th! This is after they said there was NO WAY we'd be traveling in October. I guess that trade fair that fills the hotels will be rolling out of Guangzhou about the time we roll in if we leave around the 20th. We will know in a few weeks exactly when....
We did send out a care package over the weekend. That was fun. (Not). We found it very ironic that alot of stuff gets shipped to the United State FROM China, but shipping to China is confusing and expensive. We will not know 'til we get there if our package makes it. While we really wanted to send a HUGE package of stuff, it just isn't done, due to taxes the orphanage must incur. So like all care packages to Chinese orphanages, it was small and hopeful. We packed a toddler chewable photo album of us (including the dog), plus included her picture on front, 2 outfits,2 pairs of socks, soft cuddly bunny, disposable camera, toddler apple snacks, and two packages of Harry & David "Moose Munch"for the orphanage staff ( which is basically carmel corn, and also served nicely as padding). It was the size of a shoebox. For her name, I scanned her name in Chinese from her adoption paperwork and taped it on the letter in Chinese explaining what the package is and who we are from the agency. The best we can hope for is that someone feeds her some of those toddler snacks and shows her the photo album of us, and maybe take some photos of her life in the Orphanage. Actually, the chances are good if the package gets there, they will take the photos for us, and we will get the camera back when we get her. Sometimes when you pick your child up, she is wearing the clothes you sent, but more often than not, the clothes just go to any child that needs them in the orphanage. Yeah, if I were a good scrapbooking kind of parent, I'd would've taken photos of what we sent, just to document the event. But only thought of that a day later.
Travel Team from adoption now has us paranoid about paperwork again. Warning us that if we mess up now - Everything grinds to a halt, and you get stuck in China without your child.--so we need to check to be sure our names are spelled EXACTLY the same as it is on our passports as on the 171-H. Make sure we have BOTH copies of the homestudy and updates are notarized, (which is really funny because we don't get these directly from our Nevada homestudy agency -- and actually have to get them from the agency in Texas--long story there) Make sure your Visa is correct. Make sure you bring 7 copies of your passport. Ironically, everyone from Guangzhou to USCIS to Texas has these forms already, but I think they figure everyone else will lose them so you better be responsible and bring them yourself.
Back to happier stuff: our phone call last week with doctor was brief and reassuring. So here we are on the phone, she just says, what do you want to know? Me: Anything we need to do special due to her malnutrition problems? No, just feed her as you normally would do with snacks, three meals, etc. Take her for walks. Get her some sun. Me: Should we worry about the 'no teeth' thing? Nope. Seen lots of kids without teeth even at 15 months. Me: Will she always be small? No, probably not. Me: Can we send her big bowls of pasta and meatballs ahead of time to help fatten her up? Nope. Don't bother. Anyway, that was it. It is all good. David just said. OK. Let's go get her.
