Last Day in Beijing, Can't wait to be home

I am here at the computer the night before our departure and as fascinating as the trip and the country have been, I have to say I can't wait to get out of here!

Seriously, it is true in a large way as we miss Jack and Harry incredibly and as good as the food and beer have been, this country takes a toll. Thinking back, we have had the amazing opportunity to have nothing but Mia in our lives for the past 6 days and she and we are no doubt the better for it. We all get so busy in our lives day to day and forget how much a difference it means to someone to have constant attention.

Today I toured the summer palace, an incredible construction of the second of the 3 major chinese dynasties consisting of some 300 hectares. I and Mia were quite the attraction (Mom decided to go shopping instead) as you will see from one of these photos I made a lot of friends.

We capped off the day and night with some peking duck of course, Mia's favourite, and I and Richard then washed that down with some nice black beatle!

See you all soon!

More of the Wall I hope

The Great Wall

So I am getting frustrated with this blog website service as I spent 15 minutes typing something interesting and it just vanished before my eyes. I am now tired I am rarely coherent twice in a row while typing so this will be short.

Today at the Great Wall, wow! Hard to believe this was built 8-900 years ago. I hope to have uploaded a few pictures, but again this website is failing me! But I trust you can see some. Believe me, I was alot more interesting a half hour ago and would have blown you away with my ability for our day to come to life in your eyes.

We miss everyone a ton and now can't wait to be home and see, most of all, Jack and Harry. Mia is, well, out of this world incredible! We cannot wait to share her with the world, although I guess we already have.

See you soon.

Beijing Photos and of Course, Mia!

A great Time In Beijing

Well we are in Beijing and love the city, such a refreshing change from Changsha! The city is vibrant and alive, but still far from what most North Americans are used to. This morning we were up early and visited the "dirt market", an incredible experience and not to be missed for those coming to Beijing.The formal name is the Panjiayuan Market which is only held on Saturday and Sunday and is the liveliest market I have ever seen. Vendors from all accross China fill hundreds of open air stalls with a dizzying array of collectibles. As is the case with most things here, don't forget to bargain as prices to be paid are a fraction of the opening.

As you can see from the photos, Mia is absolutely darling! Ans she has attached to us like you would not believe thus making all of our sight seeing possible. She has taken to eating what we eat already (well, not swallowing but she does love to suck on roast duck, dumplings and everything else). We are enjoying our time with her a lot and we wish we could upload a short video so you could all see how alive she is. Like one of our friends over here said tonight when he saw her laughing, it is incredible to see that in a span of literally days we have taken this little girl to where she was almost unfocussed to where she is now, full of smiles and laughter, she is truly in a happy place now as are we!

Finally after a few days I was able to upload some more photos (see the last post of the twins at the orphanage)so as I write this Ihope I am able to upload some more with this post. Th place we went for dinner last night, called Li Qun, was quite unbelieveable and an adventure to get to. The tiny place was hidden deep in a hutong neighbourhood (hutongs are old ancient neighbourhoods which are not for the faint of heart revealling mud and timber homes, poverty and dirt yet an "ordinary" look to all the people, and tiny alleys where sometimes not two people can pass). The duck was absolutely fabulous and Mia loved it too, and of course, the beer was plentiful, good and very cheap.

Our friend Richard said tonight after yet another incredible meal (this time yet again food much different than what we have had - Hakka food), every night the food just seems to be better than the night before and the flavours with our first meal we had ranked up there with some of the most interesting we have ever experienced. And for those coming here, if you are adventurous and willing to explore beyond the hotels and the tourist places, our meal tonight, quite typical, consisting of as much as we could eat for 5 of us, with about 12 beers (well only about 6 but they are very large!) was $208 YUAN, or about $30 Canadian.

Enjoy the blog!

Pictures of the Twins

These photos are from Youxian orphanage for friends of ours on their way soon to pick up these two darlings

On our way to Beijing!

We can't wait to get to Beijing tomorrow. We finally have little Miss Mia's passport and will be off to the Canadian Consulate Monday to have Mia processed for arrival in Canada. We are so excited to get home but also looking forward to seeing the sights of Beijing. In the meantime, more photos of Mia and Changsha are here.

The Orphanage in Youxian

John back again. I spent a long day travelling to where Mia was left to be found by us and some of the pictures are here for you to see. Yoxian is a small city of about 75,000 people. Getting there we passed many little towns, incredibly run down and simple. There is some beauty there in all of the chaos and madness, much like Mia I suppose. Lush green lands, between the towns and tree lined roads in places. You could see the hills growing larger in the distance as we approached Youxian as if things got better the further one went.

The contrast between manpowered carts and motorized vehicles was somewhat regular yet the environment no longer semed as poor and dirty as when we started out from Changsha. At the time I thought that there must be something successful happening around that little county, but I did not know what. Later I learned that the area is quite rich in natural resources such as coal and iron which may explain the building and activity around.

Before being taken to Mia's finding place we are greeted by the Director of the orphanage nearby and some of his staff and asked to sit down to a lunch of traditional Youxian food. They are very pleased that we have made the journey to come see them and the orphanage. The lunch is fantastic and a nice break from the 3 hour bumpy ride on poor roads. We have many spicy dishes of mini fish, pork, beef, bean curd and of course, local beer to wash it all down!

Mia was left at the gates of an orphanage in this place that I refer to as the middle of nowhere in south central china. She, and all the children, I believe had mothers who cared for them deeply but yet unable to keep them and thus left them to be found and to find a better life. It is heartwrenching to think of a culture and circumstance that drives mothers to give up their loved ones although given everything you witness here, you can't help but think that those mothers believed there would be a better life for their daughters elsewhere. Having spent time with a number of families in our boat, our 5 lost daughters of China have truly been found.

Youxian orphanage is still full with little girls. We have uploaded a couple pictures of the "Stich Twins" for their new family to see. Brenda and her husband are on their way soon to Youxian and you will be happy to hear your daughters are beautiful, healthy and well cared for.

Day 4

Mary here. Mia is having her afternoon nap (she is a champion sleeper!) and John is on a trip to the orphanage. We made the decision not to take Mia on a 3 1/2 hr hot and bumpy bus ride so I stayed here at the hotel with her. It was pouring this morning so went went to the toy room, and then window-shopped at the expensive shops in the hotel(oh she is Mommy's girl!) and then went for some Dim Sum. There are several restaurants at the hotel - the one we went to serves authentic chinese dishes and dim sum, I was the only caucasion in the restaurant, most of the North Americans seem to choose the buffet downstairs, where we have breakfast. Mia and I were quite a novelty in the the restaurant - none of the serving staff speaks english but they have many dishes on display around the restaurant, and we find that pointing and nodding seems to work fine. I had more dim sum that I could finish, plus a pop, for about $6. Canadian.

Mia continues to amaze and delight. I am going to post pictures after I type this - altho I understand that the pics John posted yesterday did not go through. It's weird, we can post on the blog, but can't view what we are posting. Numerous websites are inaccessble here.

I know when we were preparing to travel I followed blogs religiously, hoping to glean some information that would help me on our journey. So this next paragraph is for the adoptive parents:

All the girls in our groups are extremely healthy; Mia was perhaps the worst for wear, with her poor little face being covered in mosquito bites. Each baby had a "rattle" in the chest but that seems to be going away. The babies seem much younger developmentally than their ages. None of them can sit up, and many, including Mia, are still very wobbly. We have weighed Mia on the bathroom scale and she is barely 7 kg. Just a peanut~ The Gap 6 - 12 month stuff fits okay, just a little big. The transition went smoothly, she turns to hear our voices now, and we get many smiles and the occasional laugh now. It seems incredible that we have only had her for three days - and we think she has shown signs of "catching up" already!

She is very good eater and a good sleeper, which I think has made everything very easy!

Everyone in our group is going well and the babies are adapting wonderfully. John and Richard have developed a real taste for Tsing Tsao beer and in fact, the wine stinks here so that seems to be the drink of choice for Cornelia and I also. We are really enjoying the spicy Hunan cuisine, and our guide, Professor Wu, joined Cornelia, Richard, their adult daughter Amy, and John and I (and Katelin and Mia of course) for dinner and to his surprise we out-spiced him.

We miss Jack and Harry desperately and are happy that they are in good hands with Teresa, and now Grandma and Grandpa Sandrelli. We'd love to come home now but have to wait for Mia's chinese passport and then go to Beijing to get the Canadian immigration paperwork done. At least Beijing will be interesting. Changsha is a big, hot, industrial city. The Wal-Mart was an experience - they even sell live frogs for dinner!

By the way, I thought I would eat anything, but the Turtle Soup last night, with the litty bitty whole Turtle in the bowl, was something I passed on!

John may post more later when the group returns from the orphanage.

Mary, John and Mia ("Zhou Zhou")

Day 3 with Miss Mia, still in Changsha

Hey everyone, I hope you are enjoying the blog. Jack and Harry called this morning (Tuesday night for them) and told us they loved the photos and seeing us so that in itself makes it all worth it.

Skip this if you are only interested in the photos as today's update will be a long one.

I am sitting in our room at about 3 pm and Mia is sleeping. I am actually calling her "Zhou Zhou" often which she reacts to. She is getting more beautiful every day and already knows Mary's voice and follows her with her eyes constantly. We are very lucky to have her as ours now.

Went out for a run at around 6:30 this morning. Mia is actually sleeping all night so no problems there. Changsha is very busy but I stumbled accross a cool park where the Chinese were up early dancing (every morning many chinese dance and perform Tai Chi). I have to say one does not get bored jogging here. I find my eyes alert to everything as it is all so different. One thing that really stands out is that almost all families have one child, and most of the children out and about are boys. That really hit home.

We did a little sight seeing today, Mary has continued on to a Wall-Mart if you can beleive it. We started at the Changsha Museum (actually the museum for all of Hunan Province). For those that do not know, Hunan is in south central china and has a population of about 65 million people. Changsha is the capital with a population of about 6 million. Hunan is famous for spicy food (the second hotest in all of China after Sichaun), Mao and also embroidery. There was also a very interestig archeological dig here about 30 years ago where 3 tombs of the Han Dynasty were found after 2100 years. We saw the corpse at the Museum today and I have uploaded the photo as it is incredible to see.

We later went to a beautiful park and then to the embroidery institute. Embroidery is well known in Hunan and the detail is fascinating. The picture here is embroidery even though it appears as clear as an oil painting. The photo of the young chinese girls are in the midst of their work.

Back to Mia. She is getting stronger everyday and cuter too. We are here for a couple more days until we get her passport and then off to Beijing.

I hope you enjoyed this.

Mary and Mia Video

Sorry but to big so can't upload from China. Maybe a shorter one tomorrow.

Day 2 with Mia

Our second day with Mia. We learned tht her nickname is Zhou Zhou (Jo Jo), which we think is very cute. Thought I should add some shots of her with Dad and Mom took her to the pool today too. All of Mia's mosqito bites are clearing up and she is really taking to Mary and of course yours truly (when I can pull her awy from mom).

I wil keep this short even though Mary has given me a hard time about not typing much in here. I figure you don't need to listen to me and would rather look at Mia!

I have added a video with the next post so hope that works.

We are off to dinner and the Huan spice is waiting (as is the Tsing Tao!)

Some more shots just a few hours ago

Here are a few more shots just a few hours ago. We are off soon to do some paperwork and then we may have to have some more celebratory beers!

Back at the Hotel

We are now back at the hotel and Mia is sleeping permitting me to get some of this stuf done. I (John) am relly tired myself (after those celebratory beers over dim sum at lunch! I also had the added bonus of checking the web to see that the Oilers won.

Here is Mia sleeping away moments ago.

Mia's Arrival

Monday May 22, 2006 we saw her for the first time at about 11:00 am. Ta Da!

Today is the day!

It is 10:00 am on Monday morning over here and Mia will finally arrive at 11:00 am. Mary has everything organized (of course) and I just got back from the gym. We will have pictures on here today (assuming my technical skills are working).

Sahnghai was very cool, amazing number of people and energy. Quite a contrast with where we ar now, Changsha in Hunan Province, where it is very industrial and english is non-existent. Not surprisingly, we stand out a little here but everything is very safe and again very fascinating.

We are off in moments and the next time you see this, you will see MIA!

Tomorrow is D Day!

(As in D-eparture day).

Hopefully we will be able to blog from China. We are getting very excited about meeting our girl!

Bags are pretty much packed although we will likely take one last poke through them in an attempt to streamline them. Hard to believe that this time next week will we will already have Mia for two full days! Yippee!

More when we get to China.


Mary & John xx

Here is Mia.

This is John's favourite photo. She certainly looks like she will fit right in to our family!

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to our blog that we'll use to document our trip to China to adopt the newest addition to our family, Mia Zhou Sandrelli.

We received our referral on March 30, 2006. Mia is currently known as You Dao Zhou (Zhou is pronounced, "Joe"). She was born on August 12, 2006. She is currently at YouXian Social Welfare Institute, in You County, Hunan Province.

Folklore has it that because of the spicy cuisine in Hunan province, that the babies there are fiesty, or spicy. So, please join us as we travel to meet our Hunan Spicy Girl!


Here is our travel itinerary:

May 17 - noon - fly from Vancouver to Shanghai (two other families of our group of 5 families are also on the same flight)

May 18 - arrive in Shanghai at 3:10 pm(15 hour time difference plus cross the international date line).

May 19/20 - Explore Shanghai!

May 21 - fly to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. Check into the Dolton Hotel.

May 22 - GOTCHA DAY! Meet Mia in person for the first time at the Changsha Civil Affairs office

May 23 - Adoption Day

May 24/25/26 - Wait for adoption to be processed. Hopefully visit the YouXian Social Welfare Institute.

May 27 - Fly to Beijing with our daughter - check into Wangfujing Hotel.

May 27 - June 1st - complete necessary paperwork to bring Mia to Canada at Canadian Embassy. Sightsee! Bond.

June 1st - Return home. Leave Beijing at 4:30 pm and arrive in Vancouver, same day (back over the international date line) at 12:25 pm.

I will hopefully post pictures of Mia shortly, still learning how to "blog".