Gotcha Day Confirmed

We will be meeting Mia on the very day we arrive in Nanchang, which is 4 days before our 10th wedding anniversary.

About Colors and Clothes, Fingers and Toes

Red is the color of celebration in China, and white is the color of mourning. Thus, one should avoid dressing a child in white while traveling in China. In other words, white may go with anything, but it doesn't go over too well in China. Guess we'll have to leave at home all those 6-12 month size onesies (white) we bought from the Carter’s store.
As you can see from Mia’s first photos at the bottom of the page, the Chinese believe in dressing their children in lots of layers. Those photos were taken in April, which is plenty warm where Mia lives. We’ve been instructed to let her slowly adjust to wearing fewer clothes, and to keep her arms and feet covered as is considered proper. Mia may show quite a fascination with her own fingers and toes at first, largely because when one is dressed like the Michelin Man, one doesn’t get a close-up look at one’s fingers and toes too often.

Travel Dates Confirmed

For security reasons, we're not listing our departure date, but friends and family will know what it means when I say we'll be leaving exactly 1 week before our 10th wedding anniversary, and Mia will join our family 3 or 4 days before our anniversary (her exact arrival date is still TBD).
We cashed in over 10 years worth of Northwest Worldperk miles yesterday for 2 business class seats. As I spoke with the airline, I was glad my [Donna's] father had impressed on me the value of "delayed gratification."
We couldn't get the ideal routing, so we'll be taking some long flights and lots of 'em. If anyone has book recommendations for me, please leave them in the Comments section.
This week we've corresponded with 3 other adoptive families whom we'll meet up with in China. In a couple of weeks, I'm sure we'll be fast friends. Fortunately, there is at least one experienced mother in the group. I can hear it already - "Hey, it's Donna again. Do babies usually do this, or do we need to call the Dr.?"
Now, back to that packing list!

Today's Chinese Culture Lesson: Split Pants

The Chinese have a custom of dressing babies in what they call "split pants", instead of diapers. These are basically regular pants with open seams in the crotch. I can't imagine how that would work, but I guess we'll find out. Fortunately, the adoptive families are allowed to diaper their children.

Next Steps and Timing

A few families who are working with other adoption agencies received their travel authorizations today. Our agency is hopeful they'll receive the TA's for our group fairly soon, which would make it likely that we'll travel in mid-September rather than November. Here are the steps in the process:

1. The drop-dead date for receiving the TA's is 8/31. If they don't arrive by then, we'll travel in November.
2. As soon as the TA's are received, the agency will contact the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to make the necessary appointments to complete the adoption.
3. Assuming they are able to book the appointments for late September, we'll leave mid-September. We'll get our baby on the 4th day of the trip. We'll probably meet her in a hotel lobby.

By the way, we'll be meeting our baby in the city of Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province. We will not be able to visit the orphanage, which is 3 hours away. If you'd like to learn more about Nanchang:

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/jiangxi/nanchang/

Still Waiting for Travel Authorization

We are not sure yet when we'll be leaving for China. By 8/31, we'll have a better idea whether we'll be spending Mia's first birthday with her or not. At this point it is out of our hands. In the meantime, we are gathering documents (How many pieces of paper can this possibly take?) and trying to figure out what to pack. The Internet isn't all that helpful. Too many opinions, too many packing lists. Combine that with first-time parent jitters and it is a recipe for confusion. Luckily, we have a couple of friends who have agreed to be our packing consultants.

Take a look at Mia's Playard. (Yeah, the one with Some Assembly Required, Batteries Not Included.) Isn't it cute?

I think she'll be a little old for the mobile, but we set the whole thing up just to get the full picture.

Some Assembly Required, Batteries Not Included

Every couple of days, something happens that makes us realize, "WE'RE REALLY GOING TO BE PARENTS!!" This weekend it was setting up Mia's new Graco Playard (that's the modern version of a playpen, in case you were wondering). Donna's family sent us the play yard, and it is really cool. It has lots of attachments, including a bassinet, changing table, mobile, and a unit that plays music or nature sounds. Donna did OK at first. She got the base unit up in no time, then she got to the bassinet, which has several different sized metal poles. The instructions have those lovely black and white line drawings where all the parts look the same and you can't tell which end is up. Fortunately, there is a Daddy in this house who is a bit more mechanically inclined than the Mommy. Plus, he has a Ph.D., so you KNOW he knows how to figure stuff out. Well, eventually Daddy got it all put together. (All the while Mommy was saying, "Don't force that, you might break it!" and "The supplies caddy should be next to the changing table, not on the opposite end. You can't take your hands off the baby while you are changing her!").
But then we couldn't figure out why the sound and light show didn't work. Daddy said it must need batteries, but Mommy argued, "It doesn't SAY you need batteries." (Don't ask Donna exactly how she thought this thing was powered. Solar panels, maybe?) Well, you guessed it, eventually Jeff figured out where to insert the batteries, but I assure you it was NOT obvious. I might add that the music maker has quite a classical repertoire, including Brahms' Lullaby and Debussy's Claire de Lune. We're sure Mia will like it a lot.