New Friends

Today I met new friends, and one of them lives in Raymore! Her name is Laine. The other girl's name was Kinley. She lives in Japan but is moving to Ohio soon. We had a blast! It's sad I won't Kinley her again but Laine and I plan to meet up again sometime. First we went to the Temple of Heaven.  As we got there we walked past a bunch of older people sitting around in small groups playing dice and card games and other games.  That was cool to see.  Then, later we went to the Summer Palace.   At the Summer Palace we met a 6 or 7 year old girl. She could speak English very well. She said her name was Mary. She LOVED looking at pictures of Violet and us. Mary said we had a lot of pictures. We all took a picture with her. The Summer Palace was like a maze. It was also still raining. Dad and I bought ponchos from a street vendor. The street vendors are very aggressive and make me nervous.  Laine was with us and she bought an umbrella. Laine and her family took a train tonight to Xian with most of the group.  Kinley and her family fly to Guangzhou in the morning early.  We are flying to Chongqing in the morning.  I'm tired and going to bed...goodnight!

~Lydia




We started out the day at the Temple of Heaven, which was beautiful.  The weather was gorgeous this morning.  It has rained quite a bit in the past 24 hours which cleaned the air and the whole city some.  It seriously looks like air and the city had a shower and it made the whole city smell better too.  After the Temple of Heaven, we went to a pearl factory.  That was pretty interesting.  They taught us how to tell real pearls from fake ones.  I can't wait to get home and see if the pearls I bought Lydia and I in China last time are real. From there we went for lunch.  They serve meals around a round table for 8-10 people with a large lazy Susan in the middle.  Then, you just spin the lazy Susan around to help yourself to whatever you want family style.  This restaurant thought they'd really impress the Americans by bringing out french fries and ketchup.  We tried a few and they were okay.  I'm not much of a french fry fan. 

Then, after lunch we went to the Summer Palace where the Emperors used to stay in the summer because it was cooler there with a breeze off the lake.  It was raining a bit but not too bad.  Lydia and her friend, Laine, that she met on the trip were walking around just chatting.  At lunch we discovered that Laine lives in Raymore, MO.  Like 15 minutes from us!  So, the girls are making plans to get together sometime.  There is also another family along who lives in Olathe (about 30 mins from us).  They are in one of the other groups.  Our group is divided up into 3 smaller groups and each group is assigned to a different bus.  Anyway, Laine and Lydia were chatting at the Summer Palace as we sat in this large gazebo.  There were many Chinese people sitting around.  Craig, Jake and I were sitting in a different spot so the girls appeared to be alone.  But, of course, they sat there chatting in English.  Craig and I looked around and noticed many people just staring at the girls in complete awe, shock, confusion I'm not sure what.  Then, a little while later, this little girl comes up as I am showing Laine a picture of Violet and she starts asking us about our pictures in the most amazing English you could imagine with an English accent!  Does Rosetta Stone teach English with an English accent?  We thought maybe she was learning it that way or from a tutor from England.  Either way, she was amazing.  I think her dad sent her over to us to practice her English with us, which was great.  He was very nice and spoke English well himself, though not as good as Mary, his daughter.  It turns out that many Chinese people have a Chinese name and an English name.  Our guide, Allen, told us that he has a 2 year old son.  He told us his Chinese name but then said that his English name is Will.  

When we walked into the Summer Palace there was a man painting Chinese characters on the sidewalk with a gigantic paint brush. It was so cool how precise he could be.  Then, our group got surrounded by all of these photographers who were apparently professional photographers trying to photograph Americans.  But, they wanted pics of American children and blonde people.  So, a few kids and I got the brunt of the camera clicking.  The same thing happened at the Forbidden City a couple of days ago with a group of teenage girls.  They came up and asked if they could take selfies with me and a teenage girl in our group.  They kept telling us we were beautiful.  When I told them THEY were beautiful they erupted into embarrassed giggles.  They were darling!

Tonight we said goodbye to the people we have been with in our group for the past few days.  Most of them took a sleeper train to Xian tonight.  We are flying to Chongqing in the morning.  Chongqing is a municipality sort of like Washington D.C. is to us.  It is situated in the Sichuan province but it doesn't really belong to any province.  It is the area Lydia is from.  She came to us in Chongqing City in Chongqing municipality via a 12 hour bus ride.  So, we will stop there and get to visit the Civil Affairs office where we met her for the first time.  Then, the next day we will take a train to Xiushan which is the county Lydia is from.  At the time we adopted her the train was not yet built for travel from Chongqing City to Xiushan but they built it several years ago.  I can't wait to visit Xiushan.  That will really be the highlight of our trip I think.  Our guide said that Xiushan has a large minority population and that we will be able to tell them apart from everyone else by their traditional dress and their very dark skin.  He believes Lydia is part of that minority population because of her very dark skin.  She was, by far, the darkest in our group.  Only one other girl even came close. 

I am anxious to get somewhere where the traffic isn't quite as bad.  It is still very crowded and the traffic is bad in Chongqing, but not like here in Beijing.  We were just commenting yesterday on our bus that it is amazing that we don't see any cars with damage from being in wrecks or any accidents on the street.  Then, one of the other buses in our group got hit by a car today.  Everyone was fine, but they were on an extra tight schedule all day.  The traffic is just nuts.  Another family in our group brought their 3 year old...they live in Okinawa so they didn't really have anyone to leave her with and the flight wasn't that long...but the little girl was walking just behind her mom out the front door of a hotel we stopped at and very nearly almost got hit by a car.  Everyone who saw it had a moment where their heart stopped.  I really thought he bumped her but he didn't.  He was completely unapologetic about it and acted like it was no big deal.  Last time we were here, our guide told us that cars have the right of way, not pedestrians.  I guess that's right. 

Ok, one last thing.  We saw a bunch of people eating corn on the cob on the street today that they purchased from a street vendor and they were all eating it vertically.  They would bite it like we do eating it horizontally, but they all ate it vertically.  How's that for a totally random observation?!  Goodnight!

~Carla

PS - We drove by the Olympic Village from the 2008 Olympics and got to see the Cube where Michael Phelps won his record breaking gold medals. We learned at the Jade factory that the medals from the 2008 Olympics had Jade inlays in them. They were beautiful. We got to see some up close picture of them yesterday. That's what one of the pics is. 

Jade Factory, Great Wall of China, and Crazy Parking

I got to see the most beautiful bracelets ever today.  We went to the jade factory and got to see how they carve jade jewelry and statues.  At the jade factory I was trying to find a pig so I could show Addie Baker how to spell pig in Chinese characters but I didn't end up finding one find one.  Sorry, Addie. Mom and I each bought a jade bracelet.  I wanted a bangle but I ended up with a stretchy bracelet that I can wear now and when I'm older.  The jade was very pretty.  It was came in greens, purples and white.  There was a chess set with jade chess pieces.  That was cool!  I was going to buy it for Elsa except it was $1500 US dollars.  Sorry, Elsa.  After we finished at the jade factory, we went to the Great Wall of China.  While we were at the Great Wall, it was raining so by the time we were done we were soaked.  We got many got many good mountain view pictures and selfies.  The steps were weird to climb.  They weren't a consistent height.  Running up them is hard but going every 3rd is easier.  We only walked a little section of the wall.  When we were coming back to the buses, I accidentally to pointed out something from one of the street vendors I was interested in.  She was trying hard to lure us over there and trying hard to get us to buy it.  We didn't end up buying it.  I now know not to draw to attention to those things.  On the way back to the hotel, I learned that my favorite car is a three wheeled motorcycle type thing.  Some you pedaled like a bike and some had motors.  Some you could fit 4 people and some only one person and cargo.  Some had shells over them so they looked like cars and some looked like wagons.  We ran into a weird traffic jam.  The cars were facing every which way.  There was a green car parked that was sticking out in the lane our bus was in so our tour guide had to get out and stop traffic so we could get around it.  Tonight we are going to go to a Peking duck restaurant and then to a KungFu show.  I'm excited for the show!

~Lydia

As Lydia said, we we went to the jade factory today.  Craig and I went there last time we were in Beijing.  Lydia and I got some pretty bracelets.  Then we went to the Great Wall.  Craig and I also climbed the wall last time we were here but we were in a different section.  Today, we had to take a cable car up a mountain to get to the wall.  That was a little freaky.  I'm not a fan of things like that but I did ok.  It was raining, so the steps of the Great Wall were a little slippery.  If it had been a dry day, we probably would have ventured over more of the wall.  It is so beautiful and is definitely my favorite part of Beijing.  It is about an hour and a half drive from the city center so it is very green around that area and the unpleasant odor of the pollution in the city is gone.  When we came down off the wall, we noticed a Subway among the shops and some blaring Lionel Richie music they were playing.  Lydia was SO excited to get a Subway sandwich! 

The traffic is crazy.  I've never been to NYC but I'm sure it is sort of like that except that no one obeys any parking guidelines.  They will pull right up on the sidewalk edge and park.  They park facing all different directions.  It is totally nuts.  And, no one bothers to call the police or a tow truck.  They just don't even address it.  They couldn't even begin to tap into the problem because it is so widespread.  There are just a TON of people and cars.  Apparently there is a lottery system to get to purchase a car.  You can't just go buy a car and license it.  You can buy it, but your name has to be chosen in the lottery to get to license it.  And then you can only drive on certain days depending on the last number of your license plate in an effort to control the air pollution.  According to our travel guide, it is working. 

We saw many children on their way home from school today riding on the back of their parent or grandparent's bicycle with their backpacks in the basket that is attached to the front.  The children get 2 months for summer break so they are still in session.  They get about 6 weeks for winter break.  They all wear uniforms.  The children begin school at age 6 and go through high school until they take college entrance exams.  If they pass, they get to go to college.  If not, they can go to trade school or some other type of training.  For example, if you want to be a national swimmer (and you are good enough), you get to go to swimming school.  The focus is swimming but they also teach you math, science, etc.  It used to be that only about 40% of the kids who took the college entrance exams would pass and get in.  Now, since they have more universities and have controlled the population to some extent with the former one child policy (now they have a 2 child policy), 90% who want to go to college get to. 

Our guide tried to teach us to read some Chinese today.  I absorbed none of it.  I can only recognize Lydia's Chinese name. 

Well, off to Peking duck for dinner and a Kung Fu performance tonight.  Tomorrow the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace.  Wednesday we fly to Chongqing which is the general area Lydia is from.  

~Carla

Day 2

We saw many amazing sights today. My least favorite was Pizza Hut. We ordered cheese, we got cheese, cheese with no tomato sauce. Even worst, there was a weird spice sauce on it. That was bad. Mom didn't even try the pizza it smelled so bad. (And we told her it was bad.) The rest of the day was great, yet hot with no breeze. The Forbidden City was my favorite part of today. We got to eat at a local family home. That was good, but I could only eat rice. Tomorrow is an another adventure.     ~Lydia

Today we went to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and we got to tour the Hutong District via a tricycle rickshaw.  In the Hutong District, we ate lunch at a local family's home.  It was delicious!  The homes are so tiny and old.  They are down alleyways and most don't have a restroom.  They share a public restroom outside on these narrow streets.  However, they are VERY expensive and we saw many high end cars parked on these crowded, narrow streets in the Hutong District.  It is filthy, run down, with trash everywhere but apparently a very expensive and sought after place to live.  Baffling to us.  We went to an acrobatics show late this afternoon, although we were so tired that Lydia and I kept falling asleep.  This 11 hour time difference is super hard to overcome.  After the show, we walked to Pizza Hut hoping for a taste of home.  Nope.  It was SO gross.  We ordered cheese pizza but it came with this smelly, spicy, brown sauce on it.  Oh, the smell was so bad.  We paid for it and ran out of there!  We are hoping that Pizza Hut in Chongqing is more what we are used to like it was 10 years ago.

I'm ready to move on to Chongqing but that isn't for a couple of days.  Beijing is so crowded, dirty, and has a unpleasant odor to it everywhere.  The air quality is horrible.  It is so hazy and gray from air pollution and it makes your throat and nose dry and congested.  (I may have to go visit Dr. Zhang-haha!-see the pic) I don't really remember it being like this when we came 10 years ago but that may have been because it was February.  It's fascinating to see Beijing, but I honestly don't know how anyone could live here day in and day out.  And I'm surprised that we don't see more people than we do wearing masks.  The Great Wall was my favorite part in Beijing last time, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

We also learned that the government has blocked Facebook and Google, so in order to post to my blog, which is Google based, I have to email everything to my sister, Sarah, to post it.

Here's a few pics of us getting ready for the Hutong tour, eating lunch at the local family's house, and in Tiananmen Square.

~Carla

Arrival Day!

We've been on 3 different airplanes today! One had the coolest touch screen tv thing. On the longest flight, they served meals. I can't have anything because of my nut allergy.  There were two heart melting Japaneses movies mom and I watched. I would reccomend these movies. Dinner (4:30 pm in China 3:30 am at home) was cool. I still couldn't eat anything from the restaurant, but I got to play with chop sticks. I am sooo tired. After dinner we all went on a walk. That was chaotic. We almost got ran over by a car! Traffic lights are just a suggestion. Really! I'm very tired.  ~Lydia

We left at 3:45 this morning after getting to bed at 1am.  It was hard for me to leave Violet, but she said, "Now you leave, Mom!"  I think somebody was excited for a sleepover at Grandma's!  However, I called and spoke with her when we were in Canada and she asked me if I was going to come home and snuggle her.  She was okay with my answer that she was going to get to talk to me on the computer later.

The flight to Beijing was long, as we knew it would be, but having your own personal TV screen with loads of movies made it much easier than 10 years ago.  We thought we'd have wifi but no luck.  Lydia and I watched two Japanese movies (with English subtitles).  They were really good.

Once here, we met our guide and some other families that we will be with in Beijing only and got settled in our hotel.  We then walked down the street and got Chinese food all by ourselves at a place that came recommended by our guide because it had English menus.  No English speaking people though.  So, lots of pointing to communicate.  That's kind of fun.  Jake tried a few bites and was a little lukewarm.  The food gets better as we get to Chongqing though.  It's pretty bland in Beijing.  As Lydia said, she doesn't get to eat anything.  The risk of cross contamination with nuts is too high.  We are super prepared, though, with two weeks of food for her packed in our suitcases, 7 epipens, 2 bottles of zyrtec, and an emergency airway kit (no, I am not kidding!)  I think that is the only way our allergist was going to let me bring her here after her recent anaphylactic reaction in his office!

We are exhausted!  We keep having to wake the kids up.  We are trying to get them to stay awake until 7:30pm so they don't wake up at 3am unable to go back to sleep.  Tomorrow is the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and an acrobatics show.

Good night!

P.S. Julie Riley, I'm so sorry I texted you back at 1am!  I obviously didn't do my math.  It was sunny outside here and I totally blanked that it wasn't the same time there! 

~Carla

This is Testing a Momma's Heart

We are 11 days away from leaving our house at 3:30am to fly to Denver to catch our connection to Toronto and head on to Beijing and the panic is starting to set in. 

How on earth am I going to leave little Violet for 2 weeks???

She doesn't really understand.  She knows we are going on a big airplane on a long trip and that she is staying with Aunt Sarah, but she just keeps telling me that she is a big girl and wants to go on the big airplane too.

I left Jake when he was just shy of 4 to go get Lydia and that was super hard as well.  I remember being so sad and yet so happy at the same time.  I feel the same way all over again.  I really wish she was a bit older so that she could process this better.

Last night, about 2 am, I was rethinking all of my options.  We could take her...but she would be miserable, she could run off and how would we find her, she could get sick and that could be very dangerous because she is so little, everyone on the flight to and from China would hate us because she will be mad about having to sit still for so long.  No.  We can't take her.  I could stay home...but miss this trip with Lydia? No.  I want to hold her in my arms when we finally reach that spot where she was found and be there in case it is hard.  That is something we've discussed for 10 years.  And, I want to be with Jake to see how he responds to his first trip out of the country.  I think his heart will be sad for the level of poverty he is about to see.   I have to go.  The only sensible option is that she stay home.  And, she will do great with Sarah and others. 

It's still hard...

She just woke up and asked me if it is "almost snowing."  She's irritated that it isn't almost snowing because she wants to make snow angels.  I will miss her illogical logic for 2 weeks. 

But, this is a must do.  I wouldn't miss this opportunity with Lydia for anything.

Being a parent is hard work.

11 days until take off....packing starts today!

10 Years in the Making!

Welcome!  This blog will tell the story of our trip to China.  This isn't just a vacation.  This is a heritage tour for Lydia who we adopted in China on Valentine's Day 2006 when she was 8 1/2 months old.  It was one of the most special days for our family.  We can't imagine life without our sweet girl and are so thankful God has led her to us.  We are traveling to China with Lydia so that she can experience as much of the sights, sounds, people, and culture of China as she can in a two week trip. 

It will be the first time Lydia remembers traveling internationally and the first time Jake has ever done so.  Violet will be staying home with family.  This is just too big of a trip for Violet.  She would not remember it or enjoy it. 

We are leaving on June 10, 2016 and will return June 23, 2016.  Our tour will begin in Beijing where we will visit the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, and the Great Wall, among other sites.  From there we will fly to Chongqing which is the municipality where Lydia is from.  Within Chongqing, we will go by train to XiuShan county which is specifically Lydia's starting place.  Craig and I did not get to visit XiuShan 10 years ago when we adopted her because there was not a good way to get there.  Now there is a train (a 12 hr train ride) to XiuShan so we will all get to experience it together...Lydia for the second time and the rest of us for the first time.  We will then return to Chongqing City and head on to Guangzhou where Lydia got her visa 10 years ago to travel home to the US.  The US Embassy is in Guangzhou and so all American adoptions of  Chinese children must pass through Guangzhou. 

This will be a very fun and action packed trip, but it will be a very emotional one.  We do not have any birth family information, therefore, we will not be meeting any relatives of Lydia.  She has known that her whole life and understands the system of Chinese adoption.  She will, however, get to be in a country where she looks like the majority for a while and get to see with her own beautiful eyes what China is like instead of gaining her knowledge through pictures and stories from us.  Her best friend, otherwise known as her brother, will be there to support her as well as Craig and I who adore her and cherish her in every way. 

We've waited 10 years for this trip and are thrilled that the time has come.

Stay tuned!

Carla