GOODBYE SHANGHAI

This afternoon after his nap Alexander was a bit beside himself...he probably could feel that something was going on as Mummy and Daddy where huzzlin'' and buzzlin around....packing suitcases. He spent most of the time sitting on this tiny windowsill looking down at Shanghai as if he knew....it made me quite sentimental.

This is his last night in China, in Shanghai for quite a while!

We will come back, I promise, this is such a great country.


But for now we are looking forward to bring him home.

I see you all in just about less than 24 hours.
Tic, tic, tic.....

Shanghai: check!

Last post from Shanghai

I am running out of time now...It's 11:40pm now and I am supposed to be sleeping (Lars and Alexande are already sleeping).

We had a lovely day today and an extremely nice evening together with all the other parents and their children....a bit noisy but lovely, and after the muppets where asleep we had a nice time sitting in the corridor, drinking beers and havin a laugh. What a nice group we were.. we are all looking forward to go home now, meet friends and families, but i also feel like a few more days would have been nice to get to know these people a bit closer. We hopefully meet again soon. Without these kind and friendly group this last week would have been so much more difficult for us. It was an incredible week. We all shared time of extreme emotions and joy. It was an unforgetable experience in my life and I am happy that I had the opportunity to share it with such lovely people and their extra ordinary personalities and stories.

OK, that's it for now. I don't know when I will be able to update this blog as we won't have phone and internet connection before Christmas.

God bless and see you all vey soon.

Today, Monday, 10 December, we are together with Alexander one week. It seems like way much longer. He is bonding with us extremely well (he is all smiles when he wakes up and all smiles when he goes to bed, and so are we!!!).
The passports of all the babies have been brought over to the Danish Consulate this morning and surprisingly we can get them this afternoon togther with the visas. WOOHOO !!!! That's it: All paperwork is done here in China.

We are ready to go home.

We also have heard that we finally have gas, electricity and water working in the new house. That's great! Finally! We still have to wait for the telephone conncetion, but we are hoping this will be done before christmas.

You may have noticed that my blogs are getting shorter and shorter...I need to get into a routine with the baby and most of the day we spend at the moment with : feeding the baby, changing the baby, playin with the baby and start all over again and when baby sleeps we clear up the place or we are still walking ...he loves to sleep in his buggy.

That's it for now.

And here are some pictures of us eing at the Aquarium in Shanghai:

One week in Shanghai

Time is flying...we are already one week here in Shanghai. Unfortunately still haven't seen that much of the city...We went to the Shanghai zoo which was nice (besides the one or the other upsetting animal presentation, but I guess that you will find similar thigs in many other zoos in this world) afterwards we went for a bit a walk everyday around the area though. We had a walk in the drizzling rain Thursday down to one of the main shopping streets: Nanjing Road. Very nice, but very difficult if you are looking for a specific shop as there are no english names on the shop signs. We had to go and search for new pants for Alexander as all the clothes I brought and even the pants I bought a few days ago are still WAY too big. He is wearing now a size 73, still a bit long but waitwise fine. So, we had another shopping ferenzy.

We have received Alexanders chinese passport, his vaccination pass and his last medical report ( from 29 Nov) yesterday. So, the only thing which is missing now is the Schengen Visa and then we are ready to go home. We will get the visa on Tuesday next week, airport pick up will be 6:45am Shanghai time. It is going to be a very very long day on Wednesday and then we are finally home...and all is working now in the new house ... WOOHOO!!!! We can't wait!!!! Only a few more days.

This morning we took a taxi to go and find the place where Alexander was found in February 2006. According to his finding add and his papers he was found on the landing of the Xu Hang hospital in the Jia Ding district. We have been told by the concierge here in the hotel, that it is approx. 1 hour car ride. I took the taxi drive another 20 mins to find the hospital, we were real excited when we got out of the car, took lots of photos. After we showed the finding ad to one old man working there he apparently told our driver that this was the wrong hospital and he explained where the one mentioned in the papers was to be found. Well, what a disappointment. So off we went for another drive, lots of stops in between, as taxidriver got lost. That didn't bother us a lot as we had a chance to see the 'hometown' of Alexander. It looked very, very nice, no skyscrapers, lots of very nice townhouses, little shops and very clean. Of course there were some poorer streets but even they looked so much nicer than here in Shanghai. Apparently Xu Hang is one of the nicer areas around Shanghai.

Alexander was in great form, he was enjoying himself in the car and was smiling and laughing when Lars talked to one of the doctors who passed by whilst we were standing outside the hospital, we showed her and an old woman who was sitting outside having a break the copy of the finding ad but they couldn't remember...that would have been too much to ask for though, but they very extremely friendly and from their expression we think that they really appreciated the fact that we made the effort and come back to this place and took lots of photos. It was a very emotional moment, one of many on this trip.

On the way back (another 1, 5 hours!) Alexander had his first screaming fit. Oh dear, can he cry and scream...suprisingly Lars and I stayed very calm and after a few mins the screaming was over and the little muppet was sleeping.
After a short while in the hotel we headed towards the People's park in the middle of Shanghai. It wasn't very easy to get there, especially on a Saturday....we had to cross a few streets which were overcrowded with cars and people. ..and the chinese people are not in the least good in queing or taking care about others than themselves when crossing streets..it was quite a struggle to handle the buggy but we made it. Found the park which is like an island of piece in between the hussing and buzzing of this busy street.
It is a rather huge park with different sections: We found the children area, had some fun on the playground and watch some kiddos making some art projects. We were strolling around and found ourselves in the 'match-making' area. This is a corner where parents go on the weekends and try to get their children married, quite fun to see that some people are just standing there holding up a piece of paper with the details of their son or daughter in their hands whilst others in a huge group showing pictures around and it seemed that they were haggeling about money... needless to say that we drew quite a lot of attention there, at first people were only staring at us and talking behind our backs but then after one woman asked us in very broken english if Alexander is a chinese baby there was suddenly a crowd of at least 15 people around us. We showed them the piece of paper with the explaination about the adoption in chinese writing and there was a big AAAHHH and OOHH and Thank you very much! from all these people. There was an even bigger response when we told them that Alexander is a baby boy!!!

I don't feel uncomfortable when people stare at us (we are used to this phenomena as Lars is always one of the tallest people, especially in Asia). We are happy to try to talk to the people if they try to start a conversation. I sometimes feel uncomfortable when they say 'Thank you' for adopting a chinese baby.

This was not the only time today we met people because of Alexander: While we were back on the main shopping street, a group of younger people looked at the buggy and started talking to us in english, asking us where we are from and where Alexander is from etc. when they heard the story they were very excited...the younger men even more than the women. it turned out that they where a group of art students from Beijing, just finishing an art exhibition. They invited us over and showed us all their pictures, we met their professor and had a crash course in chinese art. Wonderful. They had some very beautiful pictures there, some of them were drawn with Fingernails!!! I have never heard about that before. Very nice people. We exchanged email addresses and YES, of course we bought some pictures...which you will see if you come and visit us (hopefully soon).

I guess, that was it in a short version :o)))
Here are only a few pictures from yesterday and today:

Day 4

Today Alexander called Lars Papa and me Mama while he was looking at each of us.

That says it all.

.....ready to explore Shanghai

Lars enjoys shopping now!!!

















...guess what all these women are looking at??




He LOVES cake















ready to go and have a bath.

Wonder how they taste like, they sure sound nice.

I have been told that the video transmission worked last night.

So, here's another one. Sorry for the quality but these are the one made with my photo camera, the video one's are just tooo long.

Enjoy it.

Another lovely day...

My favourite photo of today!

I am happy to say that it loooks like Little Alexander likes to sleep!!!!!!!

We had nothing on our schedule today, so we decided to take it easy and try to sleep in....the little fella woke up at 7:40 this morning, we then took him into our bed in between us, schmused a bit and then we all fell asleep again: TIL 9:oo am!! How great is that. We then had breakfast, played a bit and then went to a shopping mall. The first time we used the new stroller we bought for him here in Shanghai. It is not so easy ( as you parents know) just going out for a short time, my god we do look like we are going away for a weekend. All this stuff needs to be loaded to a taxi and then of course unloaded...and we haven't even started the shopping.

We bought two pair of shoes (one pair was 4,90 Euros and they are extremely good quality, the other Euros, just to give you an idea of the prices down here). I bought also quite a few clothes for him and a huge bag of Pampers, which we definetely need. Since last night we have number 2s...and plenty of them ( I know: OVERSHARING!). It's a good thing, considering that quite often children coming from orphanages have serious problems with digestion. So, all is cool and groovy....and a bit smelly.


Even Lars enjoys going shopping now...no complaints about some weird and sudden backpains (this used to happen, and mostly very close to a pub). When he got bored, he just went outside and had stroller-trolley race with the other Lars, the father of Bertram.
We than a lunch at BURGER KING, hmmm, how nice, after all this chinese food, even junk food tastes wonderful. This was also the very first time our son had french fries...and he loved it. Btw, doesn't Lars looks good behind the buggy?

After our return to the hotel we had an one hour (!) afternoon nap, but then it was time for another corridor-marathon. It is just so funny to see the kiddos runing the corridors. They are probably so used to do that whilst they where in the orphanage and being in the baby walkers all the time. Back and forth, make a turn in a half circle and off again, and no collisions only the occasionally fall. It is weird to see the kids falling: No reflex in protecting the head, they just fall over on their forehead...and not a single time we saw them crying, they just get up and run again.

Alexander got really upset when Lars picked him up and brought him back into our room. The little munchkin was sweating from all this running, but didn't want to stop. He really has his own mind, and a very strong one it seems. But after a few minutes and a few crackers he was fine again. We decided to spent the evening here in our hotel room, just the three of us. How nice, we played and heard quite a few giggles. He has such a sweet little voice, and his smile is just winning. He also started to enjoy having a bath, he spent about 20 mins in the tub, playing with his toys.

Now he is asleep, and we finished our daily corridor meeting with all the other parents. What a nice group we are. A really nice atmosphere. Tomorrow we have a birthday party: Marius, one of the little boys will turn 2 tomorrow.

Despite the very nice place here, I must admit though, that we can't wait to come home.

That's it for today. Nighty night!

I am trying to upload a short video, please let me know over gmail account if it works, as the chinese firewall blocks google.

One wonderful day with Alexander

After last nights meal here at the local chinese restaurant in the hotel, we went back to our room and gave Alexander his first bath. After undressing him we found that he had a quite a big bluemark on his right lower back....but at our corridor meeting we found out that this is quite normal for an asian child and that it will grow out with age.
We were a bit concerned about Alexanders development, he was very passiv, just sitting and not even moving his arms or even his head...just his eyes were moving, watching every little bit. We even had to test his hearing as he was not reacting on anything. He was eating very good though, and sleeping was not a problem at all, after his bath last night he had a bottle of milk and went to sleep at 8pm and slept through the night until 7:10am when we had to wake him up. Let's hope he will stick to that routine :o))

This morning we had to go to the office of civil affairs again and to declare the name we will give him, after that the whole group went to the Registry and Notaire office. After very long hours there we finally signed all the necessary papers and had a short interview with the notaire and then we received the most important document: The official adoption certificate!!!

We are a family now and forever!

It was quite a moving moment. During the waiting hours Alexander became more and more livelier whilst playing with his other buddies. We even heard him the first time laughing...and what a beautiful sound that is (He still is very very quiet, but most of the kids are as well) He even made a few steps holding on to my hand, after a few minutes he just let himself fall down and didn't want to get up again (I did see a glimps of a strong mind there).
After the return to the hotel we were all very tired and took an hour afternoon nap, very nice feeling falling asleep with your son in your arms.

After spending some time playing we decided to celebrate the BIG day: We invited Bertram and August together with their parents over for drinks and nibbles. (Yes, this was Alexanders first party). All the little munchkins had a great time playing or hunting for food (Sweet little Bertram has an eye for everything which looks like its eatable). All over sudden, little Alexander moved (I have noticed that most of the children don't crawl) towards the couch where Lars (Bertram dad) was sitting and he really struggeled to get up. He finally made it and stood up, he then moved along the couch holding on with at least one hand. Of course every one was very pleased to see that. We were even more surprised when he suddenly let go and started walking by himself....and he hasn't stoppped since then. First only around our two rooms and then he discovered the long hotel corridors...oh my, can he walk!!! And his face is one big smile, somtimes he falls because he just wants to go to fast, but no problem at all, he just stands up and starts running again. He probably ran a few kilometers today and was very upset when we had to stop him, first when we went to the restaurant and then after another long run, for his second bath. He is such a lovely littly boy and we are just ever so delighted that we got him. It was such a beautiful, important and also very relieving day for all of us.

Lars and I are overjoyed, words cannot express how happy we are. We both can't wait to wake up tomorrow and spend another beautiful day with our lovely little son.

Good night all and big hugs.
Thank you for all your nice message during the last few days.


And here is the reason why we HAVE to go shopping tomorrow:


On your right you see Alexanders shoe, in the middle you see the two pairs I brought from home ( size 22 and then because I thought they might be too small, I bought a size 24..)
haha, little did I know. His weight was according to his files in June 8.5 kg and his height 72 cm. Well, he weighs now 9.2 kg which is not very much for his age...and he hasn't grown much, a size 84 is WAY too big, which means almost all the clothes I brought are too small....so, shopping it is. WOOHOO!!!

....and here he is!

We left this morning at 8:30am, went to the Civil Affairs office, signed a few papers and then went to the Shanghai Welfare Institute. This Orphanage is such a nice, peaceful and clean place. The director and all the caretakers were there to meet us. It was a very happy athmosphere. Of course we were ever so excited....and then after a few words by the director we met the children.

Alexander was the very first child we saw, they were talking to the children and we heard his name...so, there he was sitting on the lap of his caretaker, looking a bit frightend but very alert and not crying! Well, he started to cry when he saw me....what is it with babies that they cry when they see me?? I don't know. He instantly calmed down when he was on Lars arm. Oh, what a beautiful picture that was. Lars looked sooo happy. The room was full of happy parents and children. The caretakers were laughin and started to come towards the parents and started talking to us. I can't describe the feelings I had. So calm and content, and overful of joy.

We came back to the hotel at around 1pm, took off his clothes, counted the toes (10!) and changed his nappy. No problem at all, little Alexander is now sleeping. He is a very very quite boy at the moment, despite what we have been told, well, this might change soon.

Here are some pictures:

Today is THE day

We just came back from breakfast....one more last check through all our bags...and we are ready to go!

I can't believe this is really happening, after such a long time. I feel really calm and content, not a bit nervous....but we know that this can change dramatically :o))

First we are off to the Office of Civil Affairs, and then off to the Orphanage. We have been told that we will be back in the hotel for lunchtime...but seeing is believing!

Ok, dear friends we are off....

First day in Shanghai

On our first day here in Shanghai we HAD to go shopping: We bought a stroller, some toys, clothes, coloring books and a cd-player with lots of cds for the orphanage tomorrow. Lars fiddled the stroller together and I did pack all the bags for tomorrows big day!

Here is Lars practising:

We have a group meeting today at 7pm and will get more information about tomorrow. We are slowly getting excited.

We are going out for a walk now and have a look around Shanghai, which is in constant smog clouds. Very noisy and sticky here.

More hopefully tomorrow.

SHANGHAI

We are finally here!!! After 3 hours delay in Amsterdam, which we spend in a very nice dutch bar (btw: Amsterdam airport is not an airport to get stuck in) Also, we were lucky to change our seats to exit seats, which was extremely so Lars could strecht his legs. The seats were not at all comfortable... the food was surprisingly good and the service very nice as well. We had amongst others, two lovely chinese flight attendants: One was called Ying and the other was called Yang ( ...and no, I am not making this up!) They were really interested when they heard that we are going to Shanghai to adopt a baby, even more surprised when they heard that we are adopting a baby boy!

After one hour and a half we arrived in the Salvo Hotel, which exceeds our expectations. We have one bedroom with a huge double, comfortable bed, a TV and an amazing view over the river and the Bund area. We also have a kind of a living room, with a couch and another TV, a desk with a computer and a few build in wardrobes. The bathroom has a jacuzzi bathtop and a powershower...rrrrrhh!

Here is the view out of our window at night (we are on the 28th floor)

We also had our first corridor meeting with all the other parents to be from our danish adoption group. All are very nice and we are all very excited. Most of them have arrived a few days before ( some also went to Bejing beforehand). Laila and Lars have found a nice shopping mall where they bought lots of baby stuff today. We got the address and we are off shopping tomorrow.... Yehaaa!

We went out for a chinese dinner tonight somewhere close to the hotel. We were 8 pers. and we ordered way to much food, a huge bottel of beer each (600ml) ...it was delicious. I intentionaly sat with my back to the kitchen...just didn"t want to see the kitchen... Like I said, plenty of food and plenty of Tsing Tao beer....and the price was less than 10 Euro per couple!!! UNBELIEVABLE....and soo good.

We have a bit of a problem at the moment with the computer setting. I can write on my blog but I am not sure if it is published. Could someone please send me an email to either my gmail, web address and/or Lars at CERN.

We are trying to go to sleep early today and hoping that we will adjust to the time as fast as possible, because we only have one more night until we will see Alexander. I am ever so excited and a bit scared as well.

We wish you could be here with us....

Zai jing.

We are on our way

Finally. After all this time and stress: We are in Amsterdam airport now, about to board our plane to Shanghai.

After yesterdays move we are exhausted but very, very happy that we now can bring Alexander into our new home. Thanks again to John and Ursula for all their help during the last few days.

I can't wait until we are in the plane, have some champers and then fall asleep.

I so appreciated all your lovely messages which I have received during the last few days. We are lucky to have friends like you.

BIG HUGS TO ALL.

WHAT A DAY....

What a day we had today. After packing the last couple of days like maniacs, we had our l'etat de lieux (handover of the new house) this morning. And what a SHOCKER: The house was not finished, and it still looked like a flippin construction site. Cement dust EVERYWHERE: the floors, the kitchen cabinets, the built-in-wardrobes without any shelvings....No electricity, no gas .....FLIPPIN NOTHING has changed since we last saw the house. Even the notaire was speechless and postponed the handover until we are back from China. We still don't know if the house will be clean tomorrow morning when we arrive with the first truckload of furnitures and boxes. Well, nothing we can do right now. If worse comes to worse I will spend my morning cleaning the new house, unpack boxes in the afternoon and collaps in the evening. DAH!!! But thanks to the best neighbours EVER, we are still in a very good mood and on top of that very well fed. John and Ursula helped us so much during the last few days....a big THANK YOU and a huge HUG to you both.

Lars and I just finished packing up and doing the last bits and bops here at our old house. It feels weird, there is almost an echo and no Rocky running around ( he is from this afternoon onwards in wintercamp)...and what a surprise he will have when we are back: Not only will he come to a new house, he will also find a new member of our family...and hopefully a new friend to play with.

None of us would have thought that we will be spending our last night here like this.

Our suitcases are packed, we have the tickets and we are so much looking forward to Friday morning....off to Shanghai. (We will probably board the plane in Amsterdam and fall asleep right away).

In only five days we are meeting lovely, little Alexander. Considering what we have been through the last couple of weeks we will finally see a very bright light at the end of the long, long tunnel.

We also want to say a big, big thank you to all our friends who sent us of very nicely last night over a delicious indian meal...hmmm, I am going to miss Butter chicken 2F...it will be a while until I can have that again.

Lars is going to pack the computer in a few mins. That means my next post will be from Shanghai. WOOHOO!!!!!

I love you and leave you now. Nighty night.

PANIC....

I never in my life would have thought that our last days before we go to China would end like this: In an absolute mess in the house and quite often in my head as well....we have so many things to do re. the house move. We have packed maybe a third of our belongings so far. I am off to change our address with EDF, Sogedo and will have the pleasure to stay in line at France Flippin Telecom...then off to moving company again to get more boxes.

For our trip to china everything is sorted. Ok, most of it: We have our tickets, money and the hotel booking, the confirmation that we will be picked up at the airport and the most important confirmation of all: We will meet Alexander on Monday, 3rd December early in the morning. That is less than one week from now!!!!! Haven't packed our suitcases yet.

We are soo busy that we can't even get all nervous about this. But every morning when we get up we count the days.

Ok, gotta go now. Will probably post tomorrow before Lars packs the computer.

6 days and the rest of today...tic, tac, tic, tac....

We have our itinerary:

We are leaving Geneva on the 30th November at 12:10 and will arrive in Shanghai the 1st December at 10:55 local time.

We will be back on 12th December at 19:20 if all goes well.

YES, YES, YES !!!!!!

We will meet our son on Monday, 3rd December and from this date onwards we will be a family.

We are just ever so excited.

Sooooo many things to do:

Go, go, go and do, do, do!!!

Have I mentioned before that our friends are very good finding reasons to celebrate?? My girlfriends have organised a babyshower for me this Friday, WOO-HOO!!! Thank you Wendy!

We also got confirmation that we can finally move into our new house: Moving day is the 29th and 30th November. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we will still be here.....

because we still have no travel date!!!

How difficult can it be, just send us a date! We are all so tired of waiting....

OH NO...just when we are waiting for our TA

RQ has word that the CCAA (China Centre for Adoption Affairs) is working half days right now. It appears it’s been going on for a few weeks and could extend into next week.
Something about them needing to spend time in training regarding any new communist party guidelines following the recent party meeting.
Will this affect referrals? I don’t know. If they are matching ahead, then probably not. It might affect LOA’s and TA’s, though.

We had the first snow for this season last night.....Beautiful !!!

But still no TAs, aaaarrgghh

One step closer...

WOOHOO !!! We got our visas today!!! Come on TAs, we are ready to go....

Thank you

Here is a big, big thank you to all our friends. The party on Friday was wonderful. We had a great time, it is so nice that you all share this special time with us. Lars and I are sooo happy to have such good friends. Thank you for all the lovely gifts we received on Alexanders behalf!

Btw, on Friday it was Alexanders 21 months anniversary! In less than 11 weeks we will be celebrating his 2nd Birthday!!!! How exciting, especially when thinking about what is going to happen inbetween.

I went shopping for the last things missing for Alexanders trip home and I had a blast: I just LOVE cruising around the baby shops, it's very difficult to make a final descion on things like 'should I buy the brown sweater or the blue one'....

You all know me: I ended up buying both!! Haha!

On Saturday night we stayed at home, looking at all the wonderful things we already have, removed all tags etc. and packed it away in a big suitcase (as we are moving house very soon, I thought this might be the best way to keep all his stuff together, it also showed me that I shouldn't buy more...)

Hopefully we will get our TAs this week, I am hoping to book our flights this week.

Here are a few photos from Fridays party:







Thank you Julie for hosting the party at your place !!!!!






Lars, Richard and most of the girls !!!













Unpacking presents










...and more pressies....











Lars, Helen and Monty









The girls after quite a bit of champagne!

Preparing for ....

the party tomorrow. Hey, if anyone feels like salsa music, cooking and getting a peek of some of my secret ingredients...you are welcome, come on over and have some cold beers. I am looking forward to tomorrows party.