Women Ai Nimen

The title of this post translates to we love you (plural).  These beautiful people are Louise's parents and her friend.  They drove three hours to meet us at the Shanghai airport!  Do I need to tell you how fun it is to walk through the doors through immigration at an airport in *China* and see the smiling faces of three people who are there to meet you?  One of those faces we even recognized from having met her before, and she was beaming.  What joy.  Good thing the interpreter, Candy, was there because we really wanted to be able to tell them how much we love their daughter.  They walked with us to another terminal in the airport so we could get something to eat and visit.  Candy was having to play both sides of the net, but she did a great job.  Louise's mom is a fantastic knitter and sewer, and she gave us a few dresses that she had made for Maryn, Tenley and me.  Beautiful.  (For Christmas this year, Louise game me a camisole her mom had knitted on, I'm not lying, needles as big around as toothpicks.  The stitching, including cabling, is perfect and looks like it was done on a machine.  It is a good thing I saw her knitting one when she was staying with Louise for six months back in 2008 or I wouldn't believe she'd done it herself.)

They were kind enough to stay with us the whole time even though we were less than perfect company.  Eventually we were plum tuckered out and fighting sleep, except for Maryn who actually did sleep, but they stuck with us.  And, you know, it was a good thing they did.  When we checked our bags in at the start of the trip, the agent told us they were checked through to Hefei.  We clarified:  they are checked through to Hefei, and we don't have to get them when we get to Shanghai?  Nope.  Well that's not correct, Missy, but, of course, we didn't find that out until we tried to check in for the flight to Hefei.  Turns out you can't check in without the bags you got to Shanghai, unless of course you don't care if the bags arrive with you at the next stop, and the agent at the counter in Shanghai was able to explain that to Louise's parents.  The sprint was on for her dad, Candy and Tom who had to hightail it back to the terminal where we had arrived, locate the bags, get them on a cart and push the cart at a brisk pace back to the terminal from which we were leaving.  Maryn and I stayed behind sitting down while mama waited in line with the cart of backpacks and gifts she'd given us.  As more people came to check in, she let them go around her, but she was right where she needed to be when the three of them returned with the cart o' suitcases.  Waiting in line in *China* should always be done by someone who is Chinese, or at least has years of experience doing such in *China*.  She was the right woman for the job.  When it was time to say goodbye, I teared up.  They are wonderful people, and it's hard knowing Louise has not seen them in a long time.  I gave them as many hugs as was more than socially acceptable, and then they waved to us till we couldn't see each other anymore.

This morning we had a call on our rented phone.  It was Louise's  parents calling to make sure we got where we were supposed to be.  At least that's what we believe to be the purpose of the call.  There were a few ni hao's (hello) and a few hao's (good, okay) given on both sides before a zai jian (goodbye) grand finale.  We didn't have Candy to fall back on, but we didn't need an interpreter because we know what was in their hearts.  Looking forward to seeing them again someday.

Up and At 'Em

Finally rolled out around 3 p.m. this afternoon, and the hotel maid was eager to get in and start smoking in our room.  We walked about 15 minutes down the road, only having to cross a street once, and went to a nice, big, three story shopping mall to get something to eat and stretch our legs.  It was overcast, but I gave Maryn my sunglasses so she could go undercover.  Dined at McD where they offer a photo lineup of menu selections.  Our index fingers speak English and Mandarin so that works well.  Won't order the milk next time unless I need it to put myself to sleep, but the rest tasted as delicious as it does at home.  I'll leave it to you to determine your own level of deliciousness for that.  Attached to the mall is a Wal*Mart so we went in in search of air freshener and found it on our own without a dictionary or international incident.  A bottle of spritzy *Glade* in a lovely scent and two cans of lavender gel are doing their duty in our new adjoining rooms with one king bed and two twins.  The open windows are doing what they can to exchange the air and also bringing in the sounds of Hefei which go something like BEEP, beep beep, EEEENG, HONK, squeak, rumble, rumble.  I like it because it doesn't sound like home and reminds us where we are and what we're doing here.

I must apologize for two of the pictures above.  I don't like it when I'm on someone's travel blog and see pictures of tomorrow night's dinner waiting around in cages or tubs without being forewarned they are coming up. But, this is Wal*Mart, and those snakes are not something you're going to see on people**at*wal*mart*com, or whatever that site is.  I give you my solemn word you won't see any more pictures of things in cages or tubs here so come back again.

For Ame and Jen

What's not to love about a 14 + hour flight when you have access to great TV?  The fact that there were only two episodes!  Fortunately the picture was much clearer than this one.

Land Ho!

We're here.  We're safe.  We're tired.  As a matter of fact I can hear Tom already sawing lumber as I type this.  Whoa, that one wasn't your run of the mill lumber.  He was trying to get through a redwood!  Tonight we are in a "non-smoking" room with two twin beds because that's the best way to luxuriate after a long day of traveling.  I've forewarned Maryn that daddy is going to snore tonight because he's that tired, and I might, too.  I've also admonished her that there will be no kicking, turning over, throwing her leg over me, etc.  When I'm done here I'll finish that admonishment with a kiss and an I love you.  I'll finish with that for you, too.

Put Them All Together They Spell Mother

Maryn sings in the children's choir at church, and today they did two songs, the second of which was a song for mothers.  When they went up to the front and stood on the stairs, they all stretched their arms out to make sure there was enough room for the hand motions.
M is for the million things she gave me.
O is only that she's growing old.  (Ouch!)
T is for the tears she shed to save me.
H is for her heart of purest gold.
E is for her eyes with lovelight shining.
R is right, and right she'll always be.
Put them all together they spell mother, a word that means the world to me.

When they finished, the remainder of the kids joined them at the front for the children's chat.  During the chat, they were asked if any of them could name something that makes their mother special.  An arm shot up from the back row, and it was attached to Maryn's body.  Without hesitation and with the utmost confidence and clear speech, she said into a microphone, "She's nice."  I'll admit there was probably a largening of my pupils, undetectable to the naked eye, as I waited to hear what she would say, but when she said, "She's nice," I merely had to agree.  I am nice, but seeing that she was immediately willing to risk going out on a very long, narrow limb to declare that to the world, now that was really special.

To all those of you who call me mom or fill a large space in my heart and would make me proud to call you my own, thanks for a wonderful Mother's Day.

We're Booked!

Our airline tickets are booked, and we'll be on our way soon.  As with any journey on the path to international adoption you wait and wait and hope and wait some more and then suddenly you're going and the world is turning faster than it was the 200 or so days or 3+ years or whatever the wait has been.  That's where we are right now.  So much to do, so little time, but life continues. Toby woofs at the back door, the dryer makes it's tumbling noise, and before long everyone is going to be hungry.  You mean I still have to feed everyone?

The suitcases are out waiting to be filled.  Things are getting crossed off lists.  We still need to get a few things written down in characters, such as our dinner menu.  Grilled chicken or grilled salmon, rice or boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli or steamed cauliflower.  That's what we stuck to on our last trip, and it worked beautifully.  Tom gets migraines, so he has eliminated from his diet many foods considered to be migraine triggers.  On the top of the list of migraine triggers:  Asian food.  We learned early on in preparation for our last trip that bu fang wei jing means don't cook with MSG.  I'm allergic to shellfish and can't eat spicy food.  As a couple, we are a Chinese food disaster looking for a place to happen, so don't look for any pictures of us enjoying any of the delicacies offered on sticks from street vendors.  Ain't gonna happen but have *Immitrex* and epi*pen, will travel.

We have a 14.5 hour flight ahead of us with an 8 hour layover in Shanghai followed by a 1 hour flight to Hefei.  When I see all of that written down it's enough to make me weep.  We don't have the luxury of flying at night this time, and we are going to be tired and wrung out, but there is a part of the travel plan that makes me laugh while I'm weeping.  We received a call the other night from Louise, our unofficially adopted, 20-something daughter from *China*, informing us that her mom and dad are going to meet us at the airport in Shanghai.  You might be able to figure out what comes next, but I'll give you a clue:  they don't speak English.  With our own extensive Mandarin skills, Tom and I will be able to say to them hold my hand, stay with me, you are being good, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, do you need to pee and several other general phrases necessary for our trip such as thank you, you're welcome, that's too expensive and I don't want any.

That darn language thing.  You notice it frequently has the word barrier attached to it.  We are lucky, though, because we've already met Louise's mom when she was here for six months a few years ago.  When we see each other again, we'll pick up where we left off.  We'll smile, we'll laugh, we'll hug, words that don't have barrier attached to them, and it will be wonderful to meet her dad.  Don't get me wrong, we'll be exhausted, and it's going to be tough to pantomime how much we love their daughter and what a great job they have done raising her.  But, we'll do what we can using the international language of smiling, laughing and hugging.

T-YAY!!!!

We have travel approval - TA is the appropriate jargon, and we were notified Friday, May 4.  That means we'll be seeing our darling's face in person very soon, and we are so excited at our house.  In the morning I told Tom if he got a phone call from our agency telling him the TA was received, he had to call me at work.  His response was something along the lines of don't you think I'd call you?  He also reminded me that if he called me and couldn't speak everything was okay.  When I hadn't heard from him by 1:30 p.m., I sent him a text with a frowny face saying "Hey, remember you said you'd call me."  Ten minutes later I was paged to take a call, and my frowny face turned into a smile knowing it was the call I'd wanted.  Tom did pretty well managing to strain out a whisper of, "It's here," before starting to laugh and cry at the same time.  That's my mushball.  Well, pull yourself together, mushball, we've got a lot to get done in a short amount of time!  Tom picked up Maryn after school and waited to tell her until she got home so we could tell her together.  Of course, I wish we had her reaction on video because it was priceless.  She was sitting on the floor in her room packing her bag for her Brownie campout, and her face went blank while she took in and translated what Tom said, and then she jumped up and screamed.   We then called our agency and heard the good news again together.

It wasn't until the next morning that I realized we received our travel approval on May 4, three years to the day that we received the call telling us about a precious 7 year old girl now called Maryn.