3.22.09 We are now a family of three!!!

We were at the lobby at 4:00 pm as told to hand some documents and our fees to Mary. We were then ushered to a room on the second floor where the Aunties will bring the babies. While waiting, we verified some documents which will be used tomorrow when we do the notary and apply for passport. We were also given the order of the child and parents to be called in. We are #2 in line. OMG, this is now happening. Then at about 5:00 pm, the babies were brought in by some Aunties. At first, we could not tell who Maelyne was. That's her... No, that's her, but finally we recognized her and we were certain it was Ling Cha Yi. They started calling the parent's name and the baby's name. I am now in in tears. Then our names were called and the baby was handed to us, she is Maelyne ChaYi, the most beautiful girl on earth in our eyes!!!!! She cried but not much. I probably shed more tears than her. What an incredible feeling! After 3 years and 20 days of waiting, God has given us this beautiful and precious little girl who will never be abandoned and will be loved unconditionally. We took her up to our room after all the babies are handed-off to their forever parents. But we need to go back down to sign some papers in about 30 minutes. We cleaned and checked her real quick, changed her and off to the same room we met these beautiful girls earlier. Back to the hotel room, we gave her a bath. I can tell she did not like the water at all. Don't know exactly how they were given baths back at the orphanage.
She seemed to like Henry more than she likes me. She does not cry a lot and she is quiet. She likes to hold things on her hands. The longest thing she held was the little baby powder, second, the container of Cheerios. She seems to like the Cheerios. She finally went to sleep at around 8:30 pm but woke up at around 9:00 pm. At this time, Henry put her to sleep a little after 30 minutes. Now she's sleeping peacefully so is the dad. Thank you GOD for your wonderful gift and thank you all for the love and support and for sharing in this with us.
(This event was captured and recorded on video and we will get a copy of the disc on Friday. We'll share it with everyone when we are back to the US.)


The Eguilos Family

3.22.09 Goodbye Beijing, Hello Nanchang... GOTCHA Day!

We left the Radisson Hotel in Beijing at 5:30 am Sunday and flew to Nanchang, Jiangxi (Maelyne's province) at 7:35 am. Thank God it was only a 2 hour flight. We arrived at Nanchang airport at 9:35 am. We were greeted by Mary, our local guide. We then took the bus for a 30 minute ride to the Gloria Plaza Hotel. On the way to the hotel, Mary gave a little overview about the Jiangxi province. It has a population of about 43 million - mostly agricultural so lots of rice produced here. Their main industrial product consists of porcelain. It reminded of the Philippines where Henry and I came from of the poverty in this province as Mary mentioned. We are very lucky to have Mary as our local guide. She is so nice she already checked us in even before we arrived. She handed our room keys and we are staying in Room 1723. The hotel is a little older than the Radisson Hotel but it is beautiful. In the room, we have a king size bed, a crib, stroller and bath tub for Maelyne. Oh and we have a view of the Ganjiang River. Nice!
Some of us met at the lobby at 11:30 and went to the market, a 5 minute walk, to stock up on water and some supplies for Maelyne. Shortly after we got back to our room, we had our first lunch in Nanchang at the Atrium Cafe, a buffet Chinese restaurant.
I got the room organized and the required paperworks ready and the gifts for the orphanage director and 2 nannies. At 4:00 pm we are meeting the guides and the rest of the adoptive families to hand in documents. We will meet our precious little ones at 5:00 pm somewhere down on the second floor of the hotel.
Camcorder - check, camera check - documents - check.
I just need to look decent for our daughter so I'll put on a little make up. We are a little nervous right now but we will be okay.
We will post pictures later....

3.21.09 Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, and Great Wall

Today we had our sightseeing at the Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall. There are now 7 families (18 altogether) so we had a bus this time to accomodate all of us. Elsie was our CHI guide and Lei was the tour guide. Our fisrt stop was the Tian'anmen square. There is not much to see other than tons of Chinese tourists. We managed to make our way to the Forbidden City. You won't miss the portrait of Mao Tse Tong because we have to pass under his gigantic photo hanging. We were told there were a total of 9,999 rooms in the compound. These buildings look really stunning.
We had our lunch at the Peking Duck Restaurant. While we were in the bus, we were already told what we are going to have for lunch. The popular peking duck is kind a like a burrito that you put together. Every food served was great!
We continued our tour heading to the Great Wall. On our way going north of Beijing, we passed by the Bird's Nest where the opening/closing ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics were held. Not far from the stadium is the water cube building where the swimming and diving competions were held. All we can do was try to get photos since we were just passing by.
After almost an hour drive, we finally reached the the famous Great Wall. In some areas the traffic is crazy and it was even a weekend. We visited the JuYong Section of the Wall. It is very steep and the the steps are not even. We were told it might rain but it did not so the weather was comfortable. However, it was hazy so the photos did not really capture the higher parts of the wall. The views though are well worth it.
It was time to go back to the hotel. We drove more than an hour in those busy freeways again. While in the bus though, we had our orientation from Elsie. We were told we meet our babies at 5:00 pm on Sunday instead of the scheduled 3:00 pm. And we will be meeting them in the Gloria Plaza Hotel. I have butterflies in my stomach. In about 24 hours we will finally have Maelyne with us.

The moms to be are going shopping at the supermarket and the dads to be are going to an electronic store after dinner but I was very exhausted from the tour and for only having few hours of sleep last night so I passed on this fun activity. My body was giving up so Henry and I stayed and we just ordered food delivered to our hotel room. I also made an appointment for full body massage at the health club down at the second floor but I had a room service instead. I felt better after that. Henry was fine so he did not get one.

It has been fun for all the families. We enjoyed our stay in Beijing. This is our last night as couple and tomorrow, life will change.

Tian'anmen Square

With Mao Tse Tong

Bird's Nest

Great Wall

3.20.09 Good Morning Beijing!

We managed to get some sleep last night after waking up in the middle of the night and was up for 2 hours before we can go back to sleep. The queen size bed we have is comfortable but the white comforter is thick and it gets hot! We got up again at 5:00 am(30 mins before the wake up call... we did not need one, afterall). We headed down to the hotel's breakafst buffet on the second floor at around 6:30 am (it is included with the price of the room). Henry and I are very hungry at this time. We were pleasantly suprised to find out the food being served is much like home including some assortments of Chinese food. We were both very happy with our breakfast meal and we are now ready to go sighsteeing in Beijing.
We met 2 other CHI families (Dale and Greg, and David and Deanna), and 2 CHI China employees, (Jessie and Cindy) in the lobby at 8:30am. After paying our dues (this is an optional tour), we hopped in the van with the 2 couples including Cindy our tour guide. Our first stop was at the Temple of Heaven. We arrived there at around 9:00 am and found the place is already packed with mostly Chinese older people, Cindy then mentioned they are mostly retired citizens.
There were different groups doing different things everywhere, so chaotic. One group dancing the tango with their partners in public, another group doing tai-chi, others doing other kind of dances. We continued walking through the hallways of this one huge building and we saw mostly men playing cards, some singing, some doing any other types of entertainment. I did not see people playing madhjong though, Henry and I would have joined them, ha, ha.
Did you ever see a "split pants"? Well, this little boy was wearing one. He squat to pick something up on the ground and was not expecting to see it was open in the middle. Could not believe what I saw (2 others in my group saw it, too). Yes, it is what you are thingking. These kind of pants are made for a reason. Just thought it was weird.
We continued walking through the park, it is getting chilly, temp in the high 40's and a little breezy. I have to wear my gloves I brought to keep my hands warm. We finally reached the temple.

The Temple of Heaven (The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests) is the magnificent centerpiece of the complex, which lies within 267 -hectare park, south of the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square (we will see these 2 places on Saturday). During the Qing Dynasty, this was the site of the Emperor's most important annual rituals. We learned that the Cypress trees are over 200 years old and every tree has red tags . These trees are being preserved and well protected by the government. "Homemade Rolex" anyone? or Gucci purse for half price... Sound familiar.

After venturing the huge park of the complex, we thought it was an amazing and fun sightseeing! The driver picked us up at the other end of the park because it would take us long if we had to go back where we came in. Cindy took as to a Chinese restaurant that looked like a rain forest. We got there early so we took time to eat our lunch. There were also Chinese dancers to entertain us while we are savoring the so many dishes served for us. After their performances, each one of us got a red thread on our wrists which we later tied them on the branches of the cypress trees outside the restaurant for good luck.

Next adventure was the Hutong tour. Before we got into the rickshaw, we went inside the Bell Tower with Bob, the Hutong Tour guide. Accross the Bell Tower is The Drum Tower but was closed for renovation. To get to the Bell Tower, we have to climb the steep concrete stairs, maybe about 50 steps all together. In the ancient times, clocks were not available so the bell was used instead to let the people know of the time. We got to the top to see the view of the hutong community, it was a great view.

(Sorry folks, just too many things going on and also a lot of times we have internet connection problems, so it is a little frustrating.)

Anyway, the Hutong tour...

Each couple in the group rode on a rickshaw (Chinese pedicab) and they took us around the Hutong community. One of the three stops we had and probably the most memorable one for us is the Kindergarten school. The guide told us the parents bring their child to the school on Monday and they stay there for a week. The parents will then pick them up on Friday afternoon and bring them home and does the same routine every week. We get to meet some of these kids ages 3-5. We thought they all look alike and we are picturing Maelyne will look like them when she's at their age. They are very friendly and we hated to say goodbye to them.

We were also brought this place where there are over 200 bars but of course we did not have any drink, we just walked around. It is now time to head back to the hotel. We had half an hour to rest before we go and see the Flying Acrobats Show at 5:30 pm. When we got there, all tickets were sold out for the show so we have to wait for the 7:15 show. We had enough time to have dinner at the KFC (not as good as the American KFC though). The menus are all in Chinese so we just point at the picture to order. We headed back to the theater for the show. It was spectacular! I would watch it again!

3.19.09 We finally arrived in Beijing...

After over 18 long hours of flight over the Pacific Ocean, we have reached Beijing safe but exhausted. While we were in Los Angeles, we met Dale and Greg (also an adoptive family) who flew in from Missouri to LAX. We were on the same flight to China (China Southern, FL CZ328 non-stop to Guangzhou). We left from LAX at around midnight on 3/17/09 and we arrived in Guangzhou at ~6:30 am China time on 3/19/09. After going through the Chinese Immigration and Customs, we claimed our luggages and rechecked-in for our next flight to Beijing. We had to take a bus to board on the plane which is probably good 3 miles or so. We left Guangzhou at ~10:00 am and arrived in Beijing at ~12:30 pm. Did I mention, everyone is speaking to us in Chinese. Either they don't speak English or just thought we are Chinese people. too. :) The weather is in mid 50's so it is still kind of cold. We were met by Elsie who works for CHI China and brought us to the Radisson Hotel where we are staying for 3 nights before we leave for Nanchang on Sunday morning. She will be stay in the hotel on Saturday night and will go to the 3 cities with us. We finally settled in about 1:30 pm. We are in Room 727 with a queen size bed and a view of tall buildings. Later we met Dale and Greg who flew in to Beijing an hour ahead of us. We decided to walk to the Carrefour market to buy some groceries but mostly water and juice. Boy, that was a huge market, it was overwhelming. Oh and you know, you buy the grocery bag and you bag the groceries yourself. Right now we are back to the hotel and try to get some sleep before we'll have dinner with Dale and Greg. Henry and I probably only had 3 or 4 hours of sleep while we were on the plane.

3.17.09 All bags are packed and ready to go....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
After repacking our suitcases and carry-ons (Henry found out last night that our carry ons should only weigh 11 lbs (what?) when flying domestically in China, dang, i have to remove some of our clothes ), we are set to go. We cannot believe that in a few hours we will be leaving for Maelyne's home country. At last, we will be united with our long awaited daughter. It's a dream come true and prayers answered. As I am typing, I'm feeling some emotions that I cannot really describe. I think I am somewhat terrified for this life changing experience but Henry and I are very excited to bring home Maelyne and start a new chapter of our life...parenthood.
More updates and photos to come when we arrive in Beijing, where all the fun and excitement begins. So, please stay tuned.....

Few things to do before we leave...

Madelyn's mom, Grace and Darren came to the house on Sunday afternoon. Henry and I gave them some instructions for things to do around the house while we are away and then we had dinner at Chili's in Scripps Poway. After dinner, we headed to Grace's house to drop off some important documents for Vangie to keep for the meantime. We chatted for a while about the trip and then we said our goodbyes. Last stop was at my mom's house to drop her off then we headed home.
On Monday morning , I had a Swedish massage so I will be relaxed when we have our almost 16 hours flight to Guangzhou. In the afternoon, we went to see my friend Veronica who works at the church (Kathleen was already out of the office) then we attended the afternoon service. Sweet Kathleen, she got a stuff toy for Maelyne.
In the evening, our neighbors Gina, Matt and their 2 adorable girls, Lily and Karlyn came over to see us off. Gina and Matt have BTDT so we got a lot of good tips and advises from them (we are going to the same places they had been 3 years ago) so, we now know what to expect. Thank you!
Later in the evening, Henry and I picked-up the rental car from ALAMO at Kettner Ave. for
use to catch our international flight in LAX.

There are other little things still to do but I will try to go get some sleep now...