The orphanage

We can't say enough good things about Eliza's orphanage and the nannies there. They are amazing and so clearly in love with all the children. When we visited Eliza was like a rock star, surrounded be nannies saying "Baoer! Baoer!" (her Chinese name). Her main nanny cried when we left. We joked with our guide later that it's because Eliza was so much work she was relieved to see her go. Ha! Here are some photos from the visit to the orphanage. By far my favorite is of Eliza looking into the baby play room where she used to spend so much time.

We have our daughter!

Thanks to Marquette's VPN connection we are able to sneak onto our blog and also Facebook. Woo hoo! The trip has been amazing, the people, the sites, everything. But of course nothing can beat Eliza! Gotcha Day was as magical as we anticipated. She is amazing and smart and funny and pig-headed and brave and lovely and naughty and sweet and has us wrapped around her little finger already. I won't waste too much time with stories for now, I'll just post some pics here and gush more later.

And we're off like a herd of turtles...

Yesterday was chaos to say the least. We scrambled and packed, counted and sorted money...lots and lots of money!... and picked up and bathed dogs and did laundry and repacked and picked up some more, chased some paper for our travel package, emailed our poor case manager late in the evening in desperation on some MIA paperwork, packed some more, recounted the money .... into the wee hours of the morning. We left the house at 2:30 a.m. and headed to Mitchell. By 5:30 we were in Chicago.

Now it's time to let you in on a little secret. Our travel agent, assigned through our adoption agency, is a big giant idiot. We hate her, I mean really really hate her. I won't go into it here, this is a happy place...ha!...but here's how she rolls: She originally wanted to book us directly out of Chicago. We said, "well, it's doable but it's a two hour drive and we'd rather leave from Mitchell (Milw)". She said, "Ohhhh, OK...yes, two hours is too far to drive, I'll book you from Milw to Chicago and then directly to Beijing". Excellent. Then -- after many other things that irritated, angered, annoyed and frustrated us ... we got our final itinerary exactly 11 hours before we had to be at the airport. All in military time. Did we have time to check it? Nope. If we had it would have taken her 30 hours to get back to us anyway (her average response time) so we just figured it would be fine, how bad could it be?

After finally settling on the flight to Chicago at 5 a.m., after 3 days of little sleep followed by not going to bed at all last night.(and looking forward, oddly enough, to the 14 hour flight to China so we could finally sleep)..we had time to review the itinerary. We arrived in Chicago at 5:30 a.m. .. our flight to Beijing is at 1:00 p.m. YES. A SEVEN HOUR layover, two hours from home. We could have driven here almost 3 times. We could have gone to bed. We could have almost walked here from Milwaukee.

Did I mention how much I hate our travel agent?

But with that said, here we ARE! Full of coffee with two games of Farkle under our belt. We look comical with our money belts that are oh-so-not disguised under our shirts so full of cash they are (if you want a definition of stress look under adopting internationally and the requirement to bring 10K in cash with you overseas). I actually look pregnant because of my money belt...irony at it's best. ;) Walter is passed out on the bench next to me. We'll be boarding fairly soon so wish us luck. After this it's all smooth sailing!! (Right?...please say "right!").

Next stop, Beijing.

Seven days to Eliza!

One week from today, we will be united with our baby girl. According to our itinerary, "Gotcha Day" will be Monday, August 15th, although we've been warned that she could be waiting for us at the hotel on Sunday when we arrive in Nanjing. And to complicate matters further, if we get her on Monday morning, it will actually be Sunday evening here. :) So if we cross your minds anytime between Saturday and Sunday it's a safe bet that it's because the magical moment has happened. Seven days. ONE WEEK. It is impossible to find words to express what this feeling is like. It is part disbelief, part shock, part awe and total joy all mixed up into one emotion. I had a hard time sleeping last night knowing that in less than two days we'd be boarding a plane to China. We have waited so long that there have been many points along the way that have felt more like daydreams rather than a wait. Adoption is peaks and valleys I always say. Sometimes we see her clearly and other times it's as if she has been blanketed in a mist. But now she is SO CLOSE that I'll say it again, I have no words to describe what I'm feeling right now. Maybe just this...wow.