Travel Journal

January 15th (Saturday) - We leave Raleigh headed for Charleston, WV. When we arrived, Sue had made dinner for us. What a pleasant surprise after a long trip from the south. Chris, Mel and Bailey joined us. Bailey was so excited to see "the baby." Mel told her she would have to wait until next time.

January 16th (Sunday) - We install the car seat prior to leaving for the airport. We are off to Newark, NJ. It is snowing in Charleston, so our flight is canceled. We get booked on a later flight through Charlotte, NC. What a way to start our trip. We made it to Newark, NJ at 9 pm rather than 4 pm.

January 17th & 18th (Monday) - We get up, have room service for breakfast and head off to the airport. We meet up with some of our travel group before leaving for Hong Kong. We discover all 22 families are on board the flight to Hong Kong. It was a long flight. It took us 16 hours to get from Newark, NJ to Hong Kong. We arrived about 8 pm Hong Kong time. Our families are 13 hours behind us, so it is 7 am for them.

January 19th (Wednesday) - We leave Hong Kong for Nanjing at 11:55. Before departing we have a travel group photo made (pre-babies). We arrive in Nangjing at 2:30 pm and are headed to the hotel. While on the ride to the hotel, we are told, we are actually headed to get the "Babies." What an exciting time for everyone. At 3:30 pm, we arrive at the Government Affairs Building; we can see the babies through the front door. They are all dressed so nice. We are told to depart the bus and enter the building. Upon entering, we were able to get a couple photos off all the babies before they started handing them out. We are family number 4. Before we know it, we are holding "An Ming Gao" in our arms. She cried for a little while but then settled down into our arms. We had our first family picture made within the hour of receiving her. We stayed in the government affairs office for approximately 1 hour before heading to our hotel. An Ming gave us her first smile on that bus ride. When we tickled her on her belly, she smiled and grind. What an amazing moment for us as parents. She only wanted to be held and hated to be undressed. It took us quite a while to get her undressed. We tried to give her some American formula but she did not want it. Helen and Susan gave Tim some Chinese formula when he went to complete some paperwork. An Ming gulped that bottle down. She slept the night on our chest, we are guessing for security reasons. We called home about 8 pm our time to let our families know we received her. They are wanting some pictures of her, NOW!

January 20th (Thursday) - Brianna/An Ming got up at 3 am. She and I played on the bed while daddy got a shower. Today, we go back to the government affairs building to finish some paperwork and meet the nannies. We met Bri caregiver. She took Brianna into her arms and Brianna lit up and started to smile and laugh. It was tough for all of us to encounter her. We thanked her for taking such good care of our joyous daughter. We stopped off by at market on the way back. We bought a couple 6 packs of soda, 2 bags of Chinese formula and 3 bottles of water (all for 6 American dollars). We ordered lunch in and Brianna wanted a cracker. Instead, we gave her a French Fry. We officially received custody of Brianna today from the China government. "SHE IS OURS."

January 21st (Friday) - Today was a day of bonding. We got up early to give her a bath. Her first bath, which went really well. For breakfast, she ate some eggs and drank some apple juice. At 10 am, we went to the market shopping; what a trip. It was as if we were celebrities out walking around. At one point, there must have been 50 - 60 people crowded around us. We did not buy much other than a coat for her to wear later. Daddy fell in love with the coat. After returning to the room, we ate some lunch and took a nap. We tried to email home but had no luck. The weather was cold and started to snow in the afternoon.

January 22nd (Saturday) - We enjoyed a bus ride to the Revolutionary Monument today. The monument was great. We were able to see some pictures of Chairman Mao as well as take some pictures of his family tree linage. It snowed most of the day. After the monument, we went to the mall. We picked up Brianna some shoes and a toy. We also got some "Starbucks Coffee" for mommy.

Mao is the individual with no descendents in the upper right hand corner.

January 23rd (Sunday) - Another cold day, but that won't stop us. We are off to Xuanwa Lake. At the lake, we saw some rock formations, huge dragons, a 600 year old bridge and an awesome view of Nanjing City. Prior to returning to the hotel, we visited KFC for some lunch. After a nap, we ventured out to shopping one more time. Daddy and I bought Brianna a cute Asian outfit. It will fit perfect for Christmas next year. We got the disposable camera developed which we sent to the orphanage about a month ago. They took several pictures of her playing, eating and crying.

January 25th (Tuesday) - Today, we leave for Guangzhou. We left for the airport at 10:30 am. Our flight leaves at 12:15. Brianna slept for the entire flight. When we arrived, we checked into the "White Swan" and took Brianna to get her Visa photo taken. The group went to Lucy's for dinner. One of the babies 1st birthday is today, guess who "Lucy." We celebrated her birthday.

January 26th (Wednesday) - What an odd day. We got up and gave Brianna a bath for her medical exam. When we meet in the lobby for the 5 minute walk over to the exam building, we found out Zoe had chicken pox. After the medical exam, we were taken to a mall for some shopping. While shopping, we were told Brianna may need to be immunized prior to leaving for Hong Kong. At this point, all our travel plans are up in the air. We could be held back for a few days since all the babies were exposed. We should know more tomorrow.
January 27th (Thursday) - Today was our Consulate Appointment but since our babies were exposed to Chickenpox, the Consulate Office came to us. We met in Der and Helen's room at 1:45pm. The Consulate was running late since they went to check on Zoe's situation. The Consulate was there for no more than 15 minutes. Then they released us to travel to Hong Kong.

January 28th (Friday) - We are packing to head to Hong Kong today. We had to have our luggage in the halls by 10 am. At 10:30, we had a group photo made. We checked out around 2 pm and by 2:30, we were on a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Hong Kong. Since it was raining, it turned into a 4 hour ride. We had one more opportunity to use a squatter at the customs office to enter Hong Kong. About 40 minutes into the ride, Brianna had a bottle, which she was not able to hold down. Of course it came up and went all over mommy. Mommy got so messy, she had to take off her shirt and throw it away. Good thing mommy did not like that shirt.

January 29th (Saturday) - We are going home! At 9:30, we were headed back to the Hong Kong airport for departure to the US. Our flight was to leave around noon. We got on the flight with no issues. It was a long flight, but at least Brianna slept for about 10 hours of the 16. We arrived in Newark, NJ and made it through customs. I must say, though, when the customs employee opened the brown envelope, mommy was nervous. There was a brown envelope we were given in Guangzhou. If we opened the envelope then Brianna could be sent back to China. We said goodbye to our new friends; some of us had another flight and others were driving home. We had dinner at TGI Friday's prior to leaving for Washington, DC (Dulles). Our flight from Newark, NJ was late leaving so our layover in DC was very short. We had about a 15 minute wait between getting for the shuttle until we got on another plane. It was snowy, so we sat on the plane at the gate for over an hour. We were waiting on our turn the for deicer. We should have been in Charleston before we ever left Dulles. We arrive in Charleston about 1 1/4 late, but to our surprise, all our family was still there. They we so excited to see Brianna. Brianna put on a show for everyone. We left the airport and everyone for the most part was very excited and happy. Uncle Terry and Aunt Emmy brought the truck to pick us up. After nearly 30 hours of travel Brianna was wearing down. She did not like her car seat and screamed the whole way to Jerry and Sue's.


Aunt Debbie holding me at the airport.