We're off to get the Visas

I love the cherry flavor best.

With Chinese visa fees due to double on August 1, we wanted to beat the increase. Confusion abounded. Are the visas good for 3 or 6 months? Three months would be cutting it tight. What form to use? The one from the consulate website, the agency or visa courier services - all different. One or two copies required? I downloaded a form from a visa courier firm since I’d been told the one still up on the Consulate site was the old one.
Lela and I made the trek into the city and the Consulate yesterday. It went more smoothly than I expected – I expected a mob trying to beat the new fees, but we were only there about a half an hour. The form was not the new improved official form available at the counter, nor did it match any that I had looked at online, but they took what I had anyway – and I only needed one copy.
Since we were in the city, we decided to have a fun afternoon. Lela’s choice – the Hechsher playground at the SW corner of Central Park. We took the cross-town bus to 8th Ave., and the A train to Columbus Circle. The playground was recently renovated – they’re still working on the bathrooms, but it’s great. There’s an enormous sandpit with slides leading in, cushioned play surfaces, swings for all sizes, water sprays, and an enormous granite outcropping for climbing. After retrieving my soaked and sand encrusted urchin, we had our traditional ice-pop. She chose the Firecracker, a red, white and blue extravaganza, easily the world’s biggest ice-pop at about 8" long – and basically impossible for someone her size to eat before it melts. There’s something about the blue part – the color doesn’t come off skin. Jamie thought she was developing varicose veins until I clued him in – just ice-pop drips.

Update. Wednesday there was a message from our agency, "a question about your visa." ARGH, what else could go wrong now? But it turns out that due to people out of the office on vacation, they were just getting around to my message of Monday. Visas were picked up Friday and are safely squirreled away - and good until January 2008.

Travel Plans

We all know about the best laid plans, but this is our somewhat ambitious proposed itinerary. When we traveled to China for Lela, we never left Guangzhou. This time we'd like to see something of China. We're hoping for travel in late September. Lela is coming with us. We're planning to go to Beijing first, and see the big sights - the Great Wall, Forbidden City - for 2-4 days. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing.htm

Then we'd like to take an overnight train to the city of Xi'an http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/xian.htm in Sha'anxi Province http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shaanxi/where Lian will join our family (Family Day!) Xi'an is the home of the Terra-cotta warriors, and has a famous market, the Muslim Quarter, and many magnificent ancient buildings. We'll be there about a week. We're not sure if we'll be able to visit Lian's home city, HanZhong.

Then on to Guangzhou in Guangdong Province (formerly Canton.) http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/guangzhou.htm All US adopters meet in Guangzhou, where the US Consulate that finalizes adoptions is located. We loved the two weeks we spent there and saw many of the parks and historic sights - not to mention shop until you drop.

While there we hope to take a day trip to visit Lela's SWI in Shaoguan, http://chinatravelz.com/china/Guangdong/Shaoguan/index.asp about 125 miles to the north. Depending on what airline we take we may also need to travel to Hong Kong to catch our flight home. And drive home from Newark Airport.

Update

We thought we'd never get one and our agency was not optimistic, even though her referral report was almost two years old. But on July 11 we received an e-mail from our agency with an update and they were as surprised as we were.
No pictures (sigh) but a good report. She just had her palate surgery in June, something of a surprise since we gave the OK last October, but is reported to be recovering well.
She's a peanut - (32" and 22.5 pounds.) We thought we were getting a big northern girl, but at 28 months she's about the size of an 18 month old. Hope I didn't give those clothes away. Other parents who have adopted from HanZhong report they too have some petite treasures. So now we'll have two peanuts.
Developmentally she seems to be doing fine. She can go up stairs, feed herself, drink without spilling, stack blocks, draw a circle and say short phrases, though not very clear - that should improve now that her palette has been fixed. Lian likes to help and puts out the bowls for meal times. She likes to play with small cars and blocks with her friends. She also is reported to listen to and follow directions from adults - about half the time, hum.

What's in a name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, especially if it's also a lotus. Lian has many names for such a small person.

The name given her at her SWI is Han Lian, Han being the family name and Lian her personal name. We are using Lian for her first name (pronounced like Ian with an "L" in front, Li - un, not Lee Anne.) Her name will be Lian Elizabeth Rose.

She is also called Naomi by the christian workers from Caring for China in her special needs unit. Naomi means pleasant or agreeable in Hebrew. Naomi is Ruth's mother in law in the Old Testament Book of Ruth. (Lots of red threads - both my Grandmothers were named Ruth.)

Han is from the city where she lives, and also refers to the majority ethnic group, whose ancient empire was centered in Shaanxi.

Lian means Lotus. The lotus is considered sacred in many ancient cultures. (I stole the below wholesale from a lovely site about Chinese paintings)

The Chinese have always loved Chinese lotus flower paintings. These flowers are thought of as being like a gentle person, who keeps themselves clean, alive and healthy in a dirty environment. Essentially the Chinese lotus flower represents creative power and purity amid adverse surroundings. It is also a symbol of the seventh month, summer. In China, there are many poems about the lotus flower, often describing how they come out of the dirty mud under the water and yet retain their pureness, freshness and beauty.

An Old Chinese Poem:

"The leaves break the bandage of the green stem,
stretch themselves and form a green pool with untidy edges.
Now the flower comes from out of the vast surface of the water,
just like a very beautiful woman coming gracefully from her bath."

Chinese poets also use lotus flowers to inspire people to continue striving through difficulties and to show their best part to the outside world, no matter how bad the circumstances may be. This is understood as being just like the lotus flower, bringing beauty and light from the murky darkness at the bottom of the pond. Another symbolic characteristic of the Chinese lotus flower leads from the observation that the plant's stalk is easy to bend in two, but is very hard to break because of its many strong sinuous fibres. Poets use this to represent a close unbreakable relationship between two lovers or the members within a family, showing that no matter how far away they might live nothing can really separate them in heart. In Buddhism the lotus flower symbolizes faithfulness. The golden lotus that is mentioned in Buddhist sutras has two meanings, one is the symbol for the achievement of enlightenment and the other points towards a real flower which is beyond our normal perception.The influence of a lotus flower in Chinese paintings is to open us up to beauty and light. A good Chinese lotus flower painting can act as a reminder of the miracle of beauty, light and life. This reminder, communicated on an emotional level, is said to aid both spiritual and practical understanding of Tao, the world and our place in it.

Her English names have lovely meanings too.

Elizabeth is her Great-Grandma Wilson's middle name and Aunt Gillian's too. It means God's promise. Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist.

Rose is Grandma Pines maiden name. It means a beautiful fragrant flower, and is the symbol of Mary, mother of Jesus. When used as a last name in Scotland is also means a valley or dale.

There is even a St. Elizabeth Rose, who lived around 1130, and was a Benedictine abbess, the foundress of the convent of Sainte-Marie-du-Rozoy, near Courtenay, Loiret, France. Her Feastday is December13.

Her list name at our agency was Marci, which derives from Marcellus, or belonging to Mars - warlike - not keeping that one.

Where in the World is Lian?

Lian is living in the HanZhong Social Welfare Institute (SWI) in Sha'anxi Province in central China. (See maps at bottom of page)

The special needs unit is run by a Christian group from Australia and Britain, Caring For China http://www.caringforchina.org/ . The unit, opened in 1997 , is known as Shekinah Shalom (Radiant Glory and Peace). She lives in a family group in the Blue Apartments with 4-5 other children and a caregiver.

When we adopt her, we will receive a scrapbook of photos of her life at the SWI - that's how we got the photo of her with Hailey, who is home with her family already. At CFC's request, we will be bringing water purification tablets with us when we travel. Other parents have taken vitamins, tushie cream or donated to buy fuel for winter heating.

HanZhong is an old city located about 150 miles from the provincial capital, Xi'an. http://chinatravelz.com/china/Shaanxi/Hanzhong/index.asp

Check the weather http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/57127.html

The Bad News First

June 16, 2006. We had PA, we had our appointment with our social worker - we were going to have Lian home before Xmas. Three days later Jamie got laid off. Our adoption went on hold. While he searched for new employment, we took on whatever extra jobs we could find and economized. Finally in late October he got a job working for a marketing research company run by friends from our church. At the same time we got an e-mail forwarded from the CCAA asking permission to have Lian's palate repaired. Given the unknowns in our timeline, we said yes. We called the agencies, set up appointments and started working on our dossier again.

Our social worker got our home study done and we submitted it to the USCIS (formerly Immigration, now part of Homeland Security) on January 3, 2007. We got a fingerprint date a month latter and that coincided with the mammoth Valentine's Day blizzard. We actually tried to go, but after only getting a mile in an hour, gave up. We went in the next week and traded off holding Lela, while the other went for the digital fingerprinting. The technician was having a hard time with Jamie's, but said that they were, "Probably OK." Three weeks latter we got a letter rejecting his prints - with a new date a week latter. He diligently applied hand cream every few hours to help "plump up the lines." Back he went, with a much better and more careful tech, the fingerprints really were OK this time. Meanwhile we had to get a new certified copy of our marriage certificate - China only accepts documents less than a year old. I sent an e-mail to the CIS asking for progress - they had now had our file over 3 months. No reply. Finally on April 28 we received our approval.
By now our police clearance had expired and our medicals were on the verge. We got everything notarized, when down to the County, got our new police clearance and County certification of all the documents.

The next day I went into NYC to get the State and Chinese Consulate certifications. At the State Dept. office in lower Manhattan they noticed that my home study had been missed by the County in the mass of documents. Luckily the notary was also certified in Manhattan - I ONLY had to run (literally) up to the clerks office, a mere 12 blocks away, and come back. You would be surprised how fast a chubby old broad can move if motivated. On to the Chinese Consulate on 42nd St and 12 Ave. I got #291 - they were serving #94. An hour and a half latter, I handed in my paperwork.

Lela and I went back to retrieve it at the end of the week, spent a lovely afternoon at the Central Park Zoo and FedEx'ed our dossier to our agency. They had to translate everything and then ship it off to China. Our dossier arrived in Beijing on 5/16/07 (courtesy of Fed Ex tracking) 11 months to the day since our PA.
We settled in to wait for our LID (Log in date) with trepidation - if we weren't LID by 5/23 our medicals would be too old. On June 29 we got an urgent e-mail from our agency - Good News - all our documents were reviewed and approved - Except - the CCAA was requiring a letter from the CIS explaining the messy dates on our approval form. The Friday before 4th of July week. Yeah, right. I e-mailed and left voice mail, the agency e-mailed and AMAZINGLY the CIS faxed them a new amended cover sheet that afternoon.

A few days latter we got a call with our official LID - 5/17/07 - one day after receipt, a world record for Chinese LIDs. That's the day the clock starts ticking on a new wait for LOA (Letter of Acceptance), a new wrinkle added this year, and then for TA (travel approval) and then CA (Consulate appointment- you count back from that date to Family day) The average wait for LOA is about 70 days, and we're closing in fast on that #.