Civil Affairs Bureau for "Official Adoption Day"

Charlotte downing her morning bottle.

Hanging out in the playroom of the Civil Affairs Office while we waited for our interview.

We stopped at a local shop that was like WalMart. We thought this was an interesting snack! Chicken's feet!! There were other parts of things too that we didn't recognize.

The Starbuck's on Shamian Island was the nicest one we've ever been in and offered a taste of home much to Charles' delight. :-)

Playing at a park a few blocks away from our hotel.

A little boy came over to say "Hi!" to Charlotte.

We spend a lot of time walking around during our free time. It's a beautiful neighborhood.

All tired out!

I've never seen someone down liquid as quickly as Charlotte did last night and this morning when she had her bottle. She can drink 9 oz. without stopping once! We had to go back to the Civil Affairs office today to meet with an official and the notary in order to finish the Provincial paperwork. First a lady asked us a few questions: "Are you happy with your child?", "Can you tell me what her Chinese name is?", "Do you know which city she comes from?", "Do you want to adopt her?". It was a very quick and easy interview. Then we waited in a playroom forever for a man who reminded me of the annoying Emperor's official in the Disney movie "Mulan" (and I'm being kind). When we finally entered his office he "stepped out" for a few minutes and ignored us completely as he passed us on the way out. Everyone else in our group was done and had been waiting for us in the bus for a while by the time we finished. Now our adoption paperwork with China is complete and we wait until next Tuesday when everything is ready to pick-up and take to the American Consulate. Today, March 3rd, will be Charlotte's official adoption day.

GOTCHA Day!!

Charlotte loves her Cheerios!

Happy Dad, Mom and Charlotte during our first meeting!

Charlotte seemed to like the things we brought for her to play with.

The ladies from the orphanage just popped into the room handed her to Mom and then left quickly! Charlotte did such a great job and never cried once.

We woke up this morning and Charles said, "Can you believe that we're going to get Charlotte today?". It's been such a long process, 21 months total, and 5 since we reviewed her file and requested her for adoption. We met up with our group at 2:00pm and drove to the Civil Affairs Bureau about a 15 minutes drive from our hotel. By the way, our guides here are Kelly and Judy, sisters who will help us over the course of our stay. Everyone was so excited! We took the elevator to the 8th floor and when we walked out people were standing in a big room that had smaller private rooms off of it. Just as we walked in, a Chinese lady was handing a small girl to her family. The mom was crying and had her arms outstretched. It was an emotional scene to enter upon. There were people and children everywhere. We were whisked into a smaller side room and our guide Judy explained that we needed to get our orphanage donation and provincial paperwork fees ready. I hadn't even had a chance to take off my coat when all of the sudden Charles said, "There's Charlotte!". I turned around and some ladies were bringing her in. She let me take her and she never cried once the whole day. She was wearing the little read outfit that we had sent her in December for her birthday. It had the name "Charlotte" embroidered across the bottom of the shirt. It was so sudden I didn't have a chance to cry. We got some toys and books out and sat down to look at each other. Dad had a turn holding her and she snacked on Cheerios, but she couldn't seem to work out how to use the sippy cup. After we took care of the paperwork we headed back to the hotel. She ate great at dinner time. We went to a restaurant that was close by and had chicken congee (a watery rice porridge). Charlotte gobbled it up and slept soundly!

We arrive in Guangzhou

Look at all that cash!! It's a lot less than it looks like but made us feel like we'd won the lottery. Ha! Ha!

The lobby of the White Swan Hotel has a waterfall in it. It was a very nice hotel and close to most of the things we needed during our two week stay.

The view from our window overlooking Guangzhou.

We got up at 3:15am this morning so we could have our bags outside our door by 4:00am. We had an early morning flight to Guangzhou, Guangdong Province where we will meet Charlotte tomorrow. Our flight was only 3 hours which was nice and the entertainment system worked!! Yahoo! We flew with two other families who were also with Great Wall China Adoption and getting their children in Guangdong Province. Our hotel, The White Swan, is famous with the adoption crowd as there is a red couch that everyone takes a photo on when they get their children. It's located on Shamian Island...which is really connected to the main land on one side. It sticks out like a finger with one side only separated from the mainland by a large canal. The Pearl River which is quite large is on its other side. You can walk around the entire island in about 15 to 20 minutes. It was really beautiful with lush landscapes and parks, lots of bronze statues, cute restaurants (Subway and Starbucks) and shops catering to westerners and lots of old western architecture (it was the location of many western embassies during the Opium War). We had to convert some money into Yuan to pay our orphanage and Chinese government fees tomorrow and we had a huge stack!! The conversion rate is about $14 US to $100 Chinese Yuan. We are so excited to finally meet Charlotte tomorrow.

Beijing

This was our first official document that we got for Charlotte. We're getting excited about meeting her on Monday!

Charles with some "Man Art" at the Great Wall.

Our knees were shaking by the time we made it back down from the second tower! It's quite a climb and the stairs are all uneven.

The air was always hazy in China but you can see some of the Great Wall across the ravine.

Climbing the Great Wall of China. Those ancient soldiers must have been super fit.

The Emperor's throne. Only he was allowed to use the colors red and yellow. It was against the law for anyone else in the country to use these colors.

This was the first courtyard of the Forbidden City. It was a truly massive palace.

Here we are in Tienamen Square outside the entrance to the Forbidden City. The photo of Mao is always the same although replaced every year with a fresh copy.

Tienamen Square - the largest town square in the world. We were here on a Saturday and it was packed with people.

We took the Bullet Train from Tianjin to Beijing last night. It took exactly one hour which was must faster than driving and very clean and organized. Josh said that it had just opened for the Olympics. We managed to catch a taxi to our hotel no problem. We feel like "old pros" with taxis now after all the rides we took in Tianjin. The first thing we noticed was that the city was much newer looking with tall modern buildings everywhere and the traffic was much more orderly...hardly any horns and people stayed in their lanes.

Today we met up with our group from Great Wall China Adoption. Evidently there are 30 families here with our agency to get their children! We were split into three tour buses and visited Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Our guide Grace was really nice. The common theme of all of these sites was "BIG"!

Tianjin

Ancient Culture Street: The lanterns were still up from Chinese New Year. Maybe they're up all year in this street? This place shows what shops used to look like.

Josh bought some porridge for us to try. It was like oily peanut paste but you could choose from the different powders at the left. The hot water pot was neat.

Josh and Janella took us out to some great restaurants. This night we went out for some awesome Thai food.

Uncle Charles with Lucy, Carter and "George" the alligator.

Carter with "George"

Emily

Lucy having fun with the hand blower! :-)

This was a typical street scene. A man who had a bicycle repair shop on the sidewalk.

Local vegetable and meat market...no refrigeration here. Note the dog near the meat counter. :-)

There were rows and rows of these types of shops which sell specific items, from food to bicycles, shoes, hair items, clothing, etc.

Kathy, Janella and Emily

We've had lots of fun with Josh, Janella, Carter, Lucy and Emily the past few days. We got to visit the school where Josh teaches in Tianjin and have had fun walking around the city and visiting with the kids. We can hardly wait to see them again back in California this summer!

We've finally arrived in China!

We left on Monday, February 23th and arrived in Beijing on Tuesday the 24th after a 12 hour flight and adjustment for time. We had a great trip except that the entire entertainment system was out. I was bummed! I told Charles before we took off: "This is the first airplane trip in 8 years that I will be able to watch a movie! Woo! Hoo!" (usually I'm making sure that the kids are quiet and happy). Instead, we stared at a black screen in the dark (the lights in the cabin were out too except for the annoying little head lamps that glare into your face). It was a llooonnngg 12 hours!! Ha! Ha! We did sit next to a lady and her 8 year old daughter who were also on their way to China to get their baby daughter so we had fun talking with them. They were from San Diego. Kathy's brother Josh and his family live in China so he met us at the airport and we headed to Tianjin which was about a 2 hours drive from Beijing. The drive was sometimes funny and surprising! There was a shepherd and his herd crossing the freeway, people on bikes riding down the middle of the road, people crossing and even walking down the middle of the road, dump trucks backing up into oncoming traffic with not an orange cone in sight, and no one paying attention to the lines in the road. They drive wherever they like and even on the shoulder. My Mom and Dad had told us about the driving but it was quite a thing to experience. It was great to get to Josh and Janella's apartment and visit with them. Their kids are getting so big. It had been over a year since we had seen them. We had a great first day in China!

Getting Ready to Leave for China

Well, we've finally set up a blog spot and hope we can figure out how to use it properly before we set out for Beijing, China tomorrow. After 21 months of doing paperwork and waiting we are finally packing and preparing to bring home our daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Huaqing Specht. Charlotte's first birthday was in December and she is at the Yangchun SWI in Yangchun, Guangdong Province, China. We are hoping to post some memories from this adoption trip for our Charlotte!