threewillcomehome.com – Page 31 – Two will go to China and three will come home

Hand me down cribs are wonderful things

Posted by Thom on January 14, 2007 in Lili's Room

After struggling to find the “perfect” crib for our daughter, and it was a struggle. The one we liked the most actually won’t be available until mid-March and Lili is too big to sleep in a dresser drawer like some of our friends did when they were little. We saw a lot of cribs but they just didn’t say ” buy me, buy me now!!”. So our friend Jessica gave us her old crib, which she used for her two children, and which was given to her by a family who used it for their three children. So Lili will be the sixth child to make use of this crib.

As wonderful as the crib is, it came with no directions, but hey Catherine is a pediatrician and I’m a consulting engineer we should be able to figure it out…..2 hours later after some shouting and occasional screaming, Catherine finally figured out how the thing was supposed to work and we now have a crib in place.

Now if we could only figure out which changing table we want and where to find prune juice in a juice box…. -t

A – 10 days; L – 15 days

The Star of Nanchang and the real star

Posted by Thom on January 13, 2007 in Thoughts

Apparently Nanchang, Jiang Xi province China is home to the world’s tallest ferris wheel at 160 meters. It’s even taller, by 82 feet, than London’s famed “Eye of London”. A full revolution takes about 30 minutes.

Star Nanchang

Maybe we’ll be able to take the “real” star of Nanchang on a ride around the Star Ferris wheel. In case you’ve forgotten what Lili look like here’s a picture just to jog your memory.

Lili Jpeg small

A minus 11 days; L minus 16 days -t

A – 12 Days and L – 17 days

Posted by Thom on January 12, 2007 in Thoughts

Why does something 12 days away seem like it’s coming at 100 miles and hour? And at the same time why does something just 5 days later seem like it’s never going to get here? (a = airport; and L = Lili)

As part of the preparations for our trip I’m doing my impression of a human pincushion getting the following vaccinations: TDAP – That’s tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis or whooping cough; Hepatitis A; and a Flu Shot – just because. In addition I’m also taking the Typhoid vaccine -which is given orally over 8 days. Plus I’m fasting in preparation for my blood work this morning so I can find out if my southern heritage and genetics have doomed me to a bland diet devoid of the four major food groups – fried food, sugared food, lard, and sweet tea.

Hopefully my newly acquired tastes for oatmeal and wine – although not at the same time – will have fortified my body with enough anti-oxidants to get my cholesterol below the magic number of 200. Wish me luck.

A-Day feels like a freight train and I’m wondering how I’m going to get everything done before we leave. We have no baby gates installed; the liquor hasn’t been moved to a high shelf, no crib, no changing table, no car seats, etc. But we have a beautiful room for Lili to come home to and L-Day can’t come soon enough because she’s all that matters.

Back to my school work before I start my actual work today. -t

We Have Flights and Dates

Posted by Thom on January 9, 2007 in Travel

After making a nuisance of myself asking my adoption agency almost daily, “are they here yet?”. They of course being the Travel Approval notices, which finally arrived this morning. This means we get to go to China, quickly.

We leave Boston Jan 24th at 6:20 am and arrive in Beijing Jan 25th at 9:20 pm. Yes that’s a long day of travel, but we’ll have our Ipods fully charged, fresh DVDs for the computer and three pictures of our daughter to sustain us.

We spend a few days in Beijing and fly onto to Nanchang, Jiangxi province where we finally get to shower Lili with love, hugs and kisses, and maybe take a picture or two.

After spending a few days getting acquainted with each other, we fly to Guangzhou where we’ll stay at the famous White Swan Hotel for a week before returning to Beijing on the 11th for one more night before flying home the next morning. Another long day with a long layover in Tokyo, hopefully Lili will like airports and airplanes. We land in Boston Feb 12th at 8:35 pm.

Still no furniture for the room but we are working on it. More later on today’s travel meeting. -t