Category Archives: Travel

DTC

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Three letters that say so much- we are finally DTC! This is the Chinese adoptive families community’s acronym for Dossier To China, or All Systems Go! Our complete application has been processed through our agency, filed, and overnighted to Beijing. Probably within a week, we’ll be logged in to the official system, and we’ll be ready to meet our future son or daughter!

In other news, our Sunday night dinners took an exciting turn, as we tried making bao for the first time. For those who aren’t familiar, bao is a steamed bun often filled with meat or vegetables. We made bbq and ginger pork bao– which turned out fantastic! We cheated by using this recipe for a lazy Sunday night dinner, but for our first time, they turned out wonderfully!

Anyone have any tips on cleaning bamboo steamer baskets?

 

Great News

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I saw it the minute the car turned off our street into our driveway.  As my friend backed out of the driveway, his headlights focused on the big white envelope tucked into our door.

It’s here! True to their word, the Consulate mailed all of our dossier back to us today. I ripped open the envelope the second I got into the door… and I’m thrilled to share happy news! The Consulate authenticated all of our documents, which means our completed dossier will be on its way to our agency first thing Monday morning, and will most likely arrive in China at the CCAA before the end of next week! As soon as we turn our dossier in to our agency next week, then all we have to do is just wait for The Big Phone Call!

Thank you again to all who are joining us in prayer and positive thoughts on this journey. We are incredibly grateful– and we have a long way to go!

 

A surprisingly refreshing break

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As you’ve seen (or more appropriately haven’t seen), there hasn’t been much to update you on as of late. Our failed efforts at the Consulate has forced us to regroup, make a few changes to our dossier, and take a step back for a few weeks. Our agency has been incredibly kind and supportive to us, and our friends have bent over backwards to offer help– one dear friend even offered to courier some out-of-state documents for us!

The slight “break” from all the paperwork has been wonderful, and it’s given me a chance to begin to clean up our garden for the year and plan for my fall bulb planting. Now our little adoption hiatus has most likely come to a close, as our final document for state and Consulate processing should be coming in any day. That means I’ll be making my hopefully last trip to the Secretary of State and the Consulate early next week.

If the unexpected delay and slight backtracking has taught me anything, it’s that there will be setbacks during this adventure. To quote our fantastic coordinator, “You know first hand that adoption is not a 50 yard dash, but a marathon.” So for now we’ll take things day by day, and soon enough we’ll find ourselves in Beijing!

Important papers

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Today just might be a landmark day. I’m starting out this morning at the secretary of state’s office for hopefully the last time. Then off to the Chinese Consulate to drop off all our important papers to be authenticated. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, and stay tuned for updates later today.

Today’s Governmental Encounter

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Today, Kathleen and I visited the Application Support Center. No, we didn’t go to Dell customer support. It’s a nondescript unit in a mini-mall in the middle of the suburban shopping parking lot expanse that is the border between Naperville and Aurora. You wouldn’t know that it’s the INS until you’re safely inside the one-way-glass door.

Once inside, we filled out a couple of quick forms and were issued our service numbers, deli counter style. Both of our numbers were then immediately called. Talk about efficiency! At that point, the staff treated us to our second fingerprinting of this whole adoption process.

This fingerprinting is required for the naturalization process of our child. This makes it (once we’re approved and all) so that once we step back on to American soil with our child, he or she will immediately become a U.S. citizen.

The fingerprinting was mostly uneventful, though they did have a little trouble with my left pinky. It’s a little misshapen from a childhood accident. It was slammed in a door when I was three or so, and from the base of the fingernail or so up, it had to be sown back on. Kathleen was suitably horrified by this story, but I thought I had told her before. I guess there’s always more to learn about each other.

Character Building

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Amid everything else going on in our lives, I’ve added a new hobby. I briefly mentioned it in my Portland post, but now I’m officially fascinated with the Chinese language.  Brian and I would both really like to become more familiar with the Chinese language, both written and spoken– this is an incredibly overwhelming task considering neither of us knows a lick of Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese). Because we don’t know what provinces we’ll be traveling to until we accept a referral, I’m hedging my bets and starting with Mandarin. Continue reading →

Poetry in Portland

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Our lack in posting means only one thing– yes, we were on location at another wedding. This time, our travels took us to Portland, Oregon to witness the beautiful wedding of Brian’s sister Rachel to our new brother-in-law Jon.  Aside from getting to visit with family, the trip out west was a great break from all the paperwork drama. There’s something about mountains and trees that seem to make even the greatest stresses disappear.

While we were in the City of Roses, we took the opportunity to visit the Lan Su Garden with Brian’s parents and some friends of the family. We were all in awe of the striking architecture, decorative silk paintings, and the careful thought that went into even the way water was diverted from the eaves of structures. Even though my own gardening style is English cottage (where more is more!), I loved the careful editing of every aspect of these gardens.

A beautiful lotus in bloom at the Lan Su gardens

We took advantage of a guided tour by a very knowledgeable guide who explained to us the philosophy of Chinese gardens– rock, water, plant, architecture, and poetry. Though I was surprised at the last element, I had my *aha* moment by the end of the tour.  The classical texts combined with the lush atmosphere did really complete the experience.

The single highlight of the visit to the garden for me was meeting a Chinese calligrapher in one of the buildings. Although it’s been a few years since I’ve dusted off my calligraphy pens, I felt at home with the Chinese brush and ink stick. We talked a little about the stylization of characters, and he let me give it a go. Now, at home several days later, I’ve found that practicing the calligraphy is really helping me learn the characters! I’m focusing primarily on the simple pictograms (like water, sun, moon, person, etc), but I think it’s a good start. I’m on my way!

A great view at the Lan Su garden

 

Better grab a sweater on your way out…

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There’s no avoiding it. We’re going to encounter some major culture shock when we arrive in China. While we’re plowing through paperwork, we’re also trying to learn a little more about cultural practices and etiquette so we can be gracious visitors and better understand the homeland of our child.

I read this article a while back, and I don’t think I can do any better than the author’s explanation of this pervasive trend in institutionalized children. Although I am trying to steel myself for having many well-meaning “advisors” guiding me on how to dress my child, I know that it’ll still be quite the experience. From all the stories I’ve read thus far, I think it’s impossible to avoid at least one comment of “Put some clothing on that child!”