Up, up and away!! We're leaving today!!

Wow, the day has finally arrived for us to head to China to get our Little G!  We are at the airport in Pittsburgh waiting for our flight to Washington DC.  We have an hour layover there then start our LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG flight to Beijing.  While most of you are sleeping tonight we will be arriving--mid-afternoon tomorrow.  

So far everything is going smoothly and we're looking forward to the trip.  There probably won't be a new post until Friday evening or Saturday morning.  

OK...We're off!!

Adoption Itinerary

Well, here it is!  The "official" itinerary from our adoption agency.  (One week from now we will have our Little G!  He'll be OURS!)

April 30th - May 14th

• Thursday, April 30 Depart for Beijing

• Friday, May 1st Arrive in Beijing

• Saturday, May 2nd Beijing Sight-Seeing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace 

• Sunday, May 3rd Beijing Sightseeing: Church Service, Great Wall  

• Monday, May 4th    Gotcha day!  Morning-flight to Guangdong

Afternoon-Meet San Wen Lian

• Tuesday, May 5th Civil Affairs Appointment

• Wednesday-Saturday, May 6th - 9th Paperwork, Sightseeing & Shopping

• Sunday, May 10th Medical Exam & Consulate Paperwork

Happy Mother’s Day!

• Monday, May 11th Free day in Guangzhou

• Tuesday, May 12th Consulate Appointment

• Wednesday, May 13th Pick up Little G's visa

Depart from Guangzhou

• Thursday, May 14 Depart from Hong Kong

Test

This is a test.
This is a nice engagement picture of "Mommy and Daddy", posted here by Aunt Judy, who will be doing the posts if they can't be done directly from China.

A Birthday message to our son: (even though he can't read it)

Happy birthday, Little G!

Oh how I wish I could hold you and hug you tight today on your birthday.  We sang happy birthday to you, even though you didn’t hear us.  We prayed that you would have a happy day, a good day, that someone would give you an extra special hug.  We emailed someone in China to see if they could deliver a cake for you today.  I hope they were able to do it.  I guess we’ll find out next week.  I can hardly wait to meet you.  I love you so much.   

Daddy says “Hi Little One.  Happy Birthday! – See you soon.”

When we get home and settled we'll have a little birthday party for you.  That will be fun, don't you think?  

Today I worked on getting all the paperwork in order so everything is ready for us to go to China to get you.  It's hard to believe that in 4 days we will be on our way! 

Happy birthday, little one.  We WILL see you SOON!  We love you!    Mommy & Daddy

Up & Over

One week from now we will have just passed over the North Pole and will be starting to head south to Beijing.  I just checked the flight tracker and it looks like we go pretty much "up & over".  I can hardly wait!!

This afternoon the adoption agency's travel coordinator had a conference call with all the families that will be traveling in our group.  There will be 9 families in our travel group.  Some will be taking children, grandparents (to the new addition to the families), or friends for a total of 30 people traveling.  It sounds like we will be meeting up in Beijing and keeping very busy Saturday and Sunday with sightseeing and getting used to the time change.  Then Monday we all go to the province in which our children are waiting for us.  Then, the moment we've been waiting for for oh, so long!

We will receive our "exact" itinerary tomorrow.  I'll fill you in on any thing that has changed from what I posted the other day.  

More later.

Is it really happening?

Today I went to Guillermo's office to have lunch with him.  After finishing our sandwiches, he showed me some things on his computer and decided to copy the Chinese songs from the server onto his computer so Little G can listen to them.  We talked about the things we still have to do and then I said "We leave one week from tomorrow!"  I think we both teared up a bit as the reality of finally getting our son sinks in.  It has been such a long wait.  In December we thought we probably had another 4, 5, 6... who knows how many years to wait for our child.  Then suddenly, on January 6, we had a picture of our soon-to-be-son!  In a way, that seems so long ago, but yet time has gone by pretty quickly with trying to get so much done.  

This morning I defrosted the freezer and made room for Matt & Jessica's cakes.  I'm hoping to get one baked this afternoon and the others tomorrow.  (OH, tomorrow we have our conference call with the adoption agency's travel coordinator and the other families who will be traveling to China next week!--- Shock--wow-- 

NEXT WEEK!!!  

Someone pinch me!!-- but not too hard!)  

OK... I gotta get busy!!  Thanks for your prayers for us and for Little Guillermo Franklin.  We so appreciate you all.  Keep praying and keep checking back.

Have tickets... will travel!!!

And soooooon!!!  That's right, we have purchased our airline tickets and will be leaving to go get Little G on April 30!  Less than 2 weeks from now we will be in Beijing!  

We don't have our "in country" itinerary yet, but most likely our trip will look something like this:

• Friday afternoon arrive in Beijing.  Tour the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, etc on Saturday and Sunday.

• Monday fly to Guangzhou (southern China) in the morning and MEET LITTLE G in the afternoon!!!  The day we've been waiting for for soooooooooo long!!!

• Tuesday sign adoption papers and he's ours... forever and ever!!!  

• Wednesday - Monday do siteseeing/sightseeing around Guangzhou.    Hopefully sometime during that week we will get to visit the orphanage where Little G has lived since he was one day old.  I think the medical exams are usually on that Saturday, but I'm not sure.  

• Tuesday we have our appointment with the US consulate to finish up paperwork and get Little G's visa.

• Wednesday wrap things up.

• Thursday head home.  We get back late the 14th.  
  

As we find out more details I'll let you know.   In the meantime, would you pray for us?  

• Please pray that everything would go smoothly in regard to travel and the adoption.  
• Please pray for Little G--that he will be healthy (no colds, stuffy nose, etc. that will cause him troubles on the plane trip home).  
• Also pray for him as he transitions from the life he has always known, the people he has always known, the sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, the surroundings.  I can imagine those first couple days will be hard on the little fella.  We are so excited to get him, and it would be "picture perfect" if he came running to us with open arms saying, "mommy, daddy"... but more likely, he will wonder "who are you and why are you taking me away from my nanny?"  We realize there will be an adjustment period, we just pray that it won't be too hard on any of us.   
• Pray that we would know how to help him with the transition and that we would be sensitive to his needs.  
• Pray that all the doctors' appointments that we will have when we get home will go well, that a plan of action will be quickly made so that Little G's lip and palate can be repaired quickly and he can get on with being a healthy, happy kid.  Pray that it won't be too overwhelming for the little fella.  He's got a VERY busy first two weeks "home".  

Well, back to cleaning and packing and all those other things I need to do.  

12 days & 15 hours until we leave!! :)  

(But who's counting????!!!)

What's in a name?

Several people have asked what we are going to name “Little G”.  I tell them and decided I might just as well make the big “reveal” here on the blog.  So without any further adieu…  Drum roll, please………………. Presenting……..

            Guillermo Franklin WenLian Gonzalez

………applause, applause!! 

So, why did we choose this name?  Several reasons: 

When we first got Little G’s information and picture we were trying to think of a name that starts with “G” and even a middle name that starts with “G”… then his daddy would be G^2 and he would be G^3!  (G-squared and G-cubed for the not-so-scientific mind! wink-wink)  One day we were reading through the info again and when we read the sentence that says “At the age of 5-6 months he can roll over, began to pay attention to the surroundings, always wanted to look around, can stretch his hands to touch the toys hung beside the bed, pull the quilt of the kid in the neighboring bed”,  we were hooked.  And at that point we set the name.  We decided then to name him Guillermo for a couple of reasons:

1)      He’s a natural “observer”. He pays attention to the surroundings and always wants to look around.  Anyone who has spent time with Guillermo (G^2) knows that as soon as he leaves a building at night he’s looking around—or UP and paying attention to the sky. 

2)      He’s a bit ornery! (like his daddy!!)  The poor kid in the neighboring bed kept having his blanket stolen—nah, borrowed! 

3)      Something about his little picture reminds me of Guillermo.  Maybe it’s the hairline, maybe it’s that he’s just as cute as can be.  I don’t know… but other people have said that he looks like Guillermo too. 

4)      What a wonderful way of carrying on family tradition of naming the first son after his daddy.  Guillermo’s dad was Guillermo too.

So, we had the first name.  What would his middle name be???  Well, since his first name is after his Grandpa, then why not have his middle name after his other Grandpa?  Guillermo Franklin… has a nice ring to it, don’t you think??

 

So… what’s in a name???  I looked up the meaning of Guillermo and Franklin online and both names are so fitting of the men they represent. 

Guillermo = will, desire + helmet, protection

I never had the privilege of meeting my father-in-law.  But from what I’ve heard of him, the name fit him well.  He was a man who had a strong will.  He started his own business as a young man in Cuba (b.C. – before Castro).  He was a provider for his family of a dear wife, a lovely daughter and handsome son.  When Castro’s regime took over and forced him from his business and home, he protected his family as they fled Cuba and flew to the US in 1967.  (G^2 was only 3 years old and doesn’t remember anything from the days in Cuba so I’ve tried to learn some of the history from his mom & sister.    When they arrived in the US, their sponsor took them to the court house to get their papers in line.  My father-in-law worked several jobs to provide for his family.  He worked several job as a mechanic, not just auto mechanic, but other machinery as well.  He also cut lawns, raised birds, etc. to bring in the money necessary to provide for his family.  He didn’t just come to the US to let other people take care of his family.  He came to protect his family and to provide for them.  They started out in a small apartment and he worked to move them to a better place and finally to the house where his widow and daughter still reside.  I wish I could have met him, but sometimes I feel as though I have.  His family loved him so much and it’s clear to see why. 

 

Franklin = honest, free, free man

 

I am very privileged to have a dad who is honest and free!  He is one of the most honest people I know and has always taught his kids and grandkids (and multitudes of students) that honesty is the only way to go.  Don’t tell a lie, don’t talk back.  He taught us respect, to respect those around us, to respect authority, to respect the things that we have and the things that belong to other people.  Free—when everyone else was snowed in due to bad weather, he’d bundle us up and we’d go on an outing.  I remember summer vacations when we’d go traveling in our big bus-camper.  He would drive long hours so we could see many things along the way.  He drove that bus in places where other people said, “You’ll never make it in that bus.”—but he pressed on and drove uphill, downhill, around sharp curves and even through the “needle” on “needles highway” in South Dakota.  I love that sense of adventure!  I know now that he could have said, “we don’t have the money to go there”, or “I need to work so we can pay the bills”, or made some other excuse not to spend time with the family.  But he was dedicated to us and the values that he instilled in us are priceless.  I could go on about my dad.  I love him so much and am thankful that he is still with us.  I’m very glad that little Guillermo Franklin will have the privilege of climbing up on his lap and hugging his neck and exchanging those loving glances that my dad has for each and every one of his grandchildren—and one great-granddaughter! 

So, now you know the meaning of our dads' names.  We pray that Little G will reflect those traits in his life, that he would come to know Jesus early on and that others would see in him that he is a protector, honest, strong willed, free man! 

What are we going to CALL him???  Now, that’s a good question!!  Probably “Guille”, maybe “Little G”. My sister proudly says she’s calling him “Frankie”—which I have no objections to.  One of the names will stick.  Whatever we call him, we’ll call him our son, and we’ll love him forever.

 

 

23 days and counting!

Yep, that's right!  In 23 days we leave for China to go get Little G!!!  The adoption travel coordinator called at 2:20 this afternoon to tell us that we have our travel approval and so it looks like April 30 will be when we travel.  She said they had hoped to get a group for the 23 of April, but China has another holiday in that time period so we can't go then.  I'll take April 30, though!!  It IS still in April!! :)  (Can't get any closer to the "end of April" than the 30!)

We are soooooooooo excited to finally know our travel dates.  Well, at least tenative travel dates.  The travel coordinator has to make appointments with the US consolate in China before we can get our airline tickets.  

I'll post more about travel plans later.  Now I have to go to church and teach Spanish to a group that is going to Honduras on April 24.  It would have been fun to go on that trip, but THIS trip to CHINA is going to be so much more exciting!!!

It's April!

Wow, it IS April! That means I can change my phrase from "we hope to travel to China sometime NEXT month" to "We hope to travel to China sometime THIS MONTH!" Even just typing that brings tears of joy and anticipation to my eyes. I can hardly wait for the adoption agency to call and say, "When can you travel? Here are the options..." My reply would be "NOW!, Tomorrow?", but I suppose it will be at least a couple of weeks from that time. You know, buy the airline tickets and such.

I started packing Little G's suitcase. A variety of sizes, a few 12 month, mostly 18 month, and a few 2Ts (which I'm sure will be too big, so why pack them, right?) I packed a little stuffed toy, a little hammer that lights up and makes noises (yes, WE bought it for him! It's not a "revenge" gift from one of my siblings for all those noisy toys I bought for nieces & nephews. haha) I've packed his bibs, & toothbrush, his "snacks"... those "melt in your mouth, yogurt-fruit babyfood snacks". It will be interesting to see if he eats anything solid, or if he's had the chance to try. Blogs from other people who have adopted from China vary from never having eaten anything other than the rice-mush (congee) & formula, to will eat anything. I'm guessing that since he only weighed 18 pounds in September that he doesn't get a LOT to eat.

Please pray for Guillermo. He's decided that he'll take his turn at being sick. It's kinda funny because as it progresses day by day, I KNOW what's coming.... Been there, done that. I pray that he doesn't get it as bad as I had it. He IS continuing to teach his classes, though he did cancel office hours today. He has been resting and taking quite a few naps, so that's a good thing!! (I slept all the time!!)

I need to end this post and get some things done, but I'll end with this...

WE'RE GOING TO CHINA SOMETIME THIS MONTH!!!!! YEAAAAAHH!!