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.

Waiting for TA

We still haven't heard anything regarding our Travel Approval yet. We will get our visas next week and then theoretically we are ready to go!!

Yesterday we had real good news from our new landlords:

The gas and water will be available on the 10th of November, the house has to be heated for a week to allow the painters to complete their work by the 18th, followed by a thorough cleaning. Electricity is available for the moment from the "compteur de chantier" and the final supplies will be connected in week beginning 28/11/2007. That means we will be able to move in on the 28th of November, if we are still here and not on our way to Shanghai. Why do things in my life always happen at once??

I really wonder....

In this case the moving company has been warned and some very, very dear friends already offered to supervise the packing and moving of our belongings. When I think about it I feel rather strange but hey, better coming home with our son into a new but slightly messy house than bringing Alexander home to the old house and start the move with baby and dog around! I am just ever so happy that Lars will be off work for quite a while, without him it might get a bit tough.

I LOVE YOU LARS!

Yesterday, one month ago......

.... since we have heard of our son to be, Alexander Huai Gan who is waiting for us in Shanghai Children Welfare Institute.

Ok, it took two more weeks until we saw his lovely little face but hey, do I need a reason to post another photo of him??? No, not really :o))

I did a little bit more shopping for Alexander on the weekend ...not much though, just a wee bit whilst I bought one of the cutest baby outfits for our new neighbour: Cyprien, born last week, a very cute little tiny baby boy! Congratulations to the proud parents Alix and Benoit!!

I keep thinking: Where will we be in a month time? Already in China? Or still at home, in our old house or finally in our new one? I wish I would know very soon, I am tired of waiting and not knowing...

Thank god we have something to look forward to: Friends of us have organised an Adoption party this Friday!! THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH !!!! (You know who you are....)

I am very much looking forward to Friday.

Sorry for not posting earlier. I had to stay at home with a really nasty cold....coughing and sneezing like crazy and feeling unable to make more than 10 steps in a row. Oh dear, I was laying on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket with all the necessary medicine around me, water, tissues within reach...and then it hit me: How will I ever be able to take care of an almost 2 year old toddler runing around the house if I have a cold like this again???? Yes, you are right, all you mothers out there...you can sing the 'I-told-you-so song' and I am apologizing if I have ever have thought that it couldn't be THAT bad.

Last week we have received the letter with all original documents and also the original photos of dear little Alexander. Oh, how cute does he look...the quality is just sooo much better. We are delighted. We have already received a danish resident permit for Alexander. I am very, very impressed with our agency. Very well organised! Now we only need the date for the family day, the day we are going to meet little Alexander for the first time. Our visa is in the pipeline, flights can be booked fairly quick. The packing is still far away, I must admit I am always a last minute 'packer', I have lots of packing lists though, which I change and add all the time. I find it rather difficult to pack suddenly for a child....how many outfits, (if they fit at all, Alexander might have grown very much during the last half a year or maybe not), bottles (according to his growth report he still has a bottle in the morning and one in the evening) etc. We definetely have to plan some days for shopping in Shanghai...If only we had a date yet.

Talking about missing dates: We still have no news about our possible house move and today is already the 1 November. We seriously hope that we will hear from our new landlords very soon as I hope that we can move house before we go to Shanghai. I so would love to bring Alexander back into the new house and safe him from the trouble of moving house. Zai jian ( Bye bye)