I have added some additional photos to the "photos from China" section.
More to come in the next few days as we get back on a normal schedule.
Larry
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
We are home!
We landed in Jacksonville and should be home within the hour.
We will be adding photos and updating with reports about the trip soon.
We will be adding photos and updating with reports about the trip soon.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
technical problems
Larry Katz cannot get the internet at his location. When he is able he will update his blog about the girls. Stay tuned. his POP Ron |
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
New Photos
I just added some photos to the photos from China section on the side. I am having some issues getting them directly to the blog.
Larry
Larry
Monday, December 13, 2010
Family Day: Dateline Nanchang December 12, 2010
We boarded our flight from Hong Kong to Nanchang around 11:30 am on the 12th and during our hour flight our stewardesses had not only done a brief beverage service, but had also served a hot meal. We were greeted at the airport by CC and Evelyn our agency reps. More on them later, but for now let me just say they are the best!
It was raining and we had a quick walk to our bus using hotel umbrellas. During the ride to the hotel were were given our itinerary and were told that we would be receiving the babies at 5:00 pm. My heart started to race - the big day was finally here. Our daughters who until now were abstractions made up of brief reports and a few photos were about to become real flesh and blood children.
When we got to the hotel we checked in - our room is very nice with a big bathroom and a little area with a counter and fridge. Larry took some video of the room before we destroyed it. We will post some later. As soon as we were unloaded we went down for our briefing. Evelyn and CC were very good at conveying a lot of information quickly. We were about half way through we the back door opened and someone holding a little girl in red peeked in. I was certain it was one of the girls. My ability to absorb any more of what was said was shot. So I took notes and hoped they would make sense later.
We were told to go up to our rooms and then come back down. When we came out of the room a beautiful little girl in a red Chinese outfit was walking with her nanny - I just knew it was one of the girls. We raced up stairs and then back down. When we walked into the room I was so close to bursting into tears. There were our daughters they looked like little Chinese Christmas elves with their little jeweled hats and Chinese silks. We both took a daughter into our arms and the love that I had for those little abstract photo children grew even bigger. I never knew how much love I could have - my love for Larry takes up so much room that I know my heart must have tripled in size to hold all three. My family is now complete.
Susanne
It was raining and we had a quick walk to our bus using hotel umbrellas. During the ride to the hotel were were given our itinerary and were told that we would be receiving the babies at 5:00 pm. My heart started to race - the big day was finally here. Our daughters who until now were abstractions made up of brief reports and a few photos were about to become real flesh and blood children.
When we got to the hotel we checked in - our room is very nice with a big bathroom and a little area with a counter and fridge. Larry took some video of the room before we destroyed it. We will post some later. As soon as we were unloaded we went down for our briefing. Evelyn and CC were very good at conveying a lot of information quickly. We were about half way through we the back door opened and someone holding a little girl in red peeked in. I was certain it was one of the girls. My ability to absorb any more of what was said was shot. So I took notes and hoped they would make sense later.
We were told to go up to our rooms and then come back down. When we came out of the room a beautiful little girl in a red Chinese outfit was walking with her nanny - I just knew it was one of the girls. We raced up stairs and then back down. When we walked into the room I was so close to bursting into tears. There were our daughters they looked like little Chinese Christmas elves with their little jeweled hats and Chinese silks. We both took a daughter into our arms and the love that I had for those little abstract photo children grew even bigger. I never knew how much love I could have - my love for Larry takes up so much room that I know my heart must have tripled in size to hold all three. My family is now complete.
Susanne
Sunday, December 12, 2010
We have the girls!!
I am holding Rose.
Baba
爸爸
Friday, December 10, 2010
We are in Hong Kong!
Or as it should be titled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of travel to China.
It started out bad, we had to get up at 3:30am to get ready for our 6:00am flight out of Jacksonville. I was up at 2 worrying about not getting up at 3:30. The good is we were through security in less than 10 minutes with no full body searches. We only had one small hiccup in security when they decided to test my backpack for bomb making residue (they did not find any),they said it had something to do with the excessive amount of electronics that were in my backpack. So what is the definition of excessive?
We took off and went to Chicago. We then had a 5 hour wait in Chicago for the flight to Hong Kong.
The flight to Hong Kong was good and bad. The good was it went very smoothly after a 45 minute wait on the tarmac. We actualy made up 30 minutes of the time and only landed 15 minutes late. The staff were very atentative to us we got two hot meals which were good on the airplane scale of foodness. They came by every hour or so with some water although is was only about 2 ounces, just enough to get your mouth wet. The ugly was after 5 hours on the plane we both felt like we had lived our entire lives on that plane and we still had over 10 hours to go before we landed.
Hong Kong:
Our arrival at Hong Kong was uneventful, immigration took less than 10 minutes because as the line got long the staff opened up more windows and moved us through (Disney should pay attention to this). We came out of the customs area looking for our guide, we found Cecelia almost immediately and she had us stand and wait for the other family from CCAI that was on our flight. We left the airport by bus for the hotel which was about 30 minutes away. While we were driving to the hotel she told us about Hong Kong. She told us that if we wanted to go out and walk about the city that we could and that it was a very safe city. She said this at least 3 different times on the way to the hotel. The third time she mentioned this she did add the caviat to watch out for pickpockets (safe?). Cecilia checked us into the hotel without incident. The one small glitch was when we tried to leave the room to get dinner we were not able to use the safe as it would not lock. I contacted the front desk who sent a young lady to show me (the person with excessive electronics) how to use the safe. She then sent for engineering to fix it, engineering then sent for a new safe to put in our room. We had a late dinner.
The room is good, although the mattress feels like we are sleeping on a box spring instead of a mattress. My back actually feels good this morning. I may have to get one of these for the house.
We are going on a half day tour of Hong Kong today and tomorrow we fly to Nanchang and get our girls.
I will try and post some pictures later today.
Larry
It started out bad, we had to get up at 3:30am to get ready for our 6:00am flight out of Jacksonville. I was up at 2 worrying about not getting up at 3:30. The good is we were through security in less than 10 minutes with no full body searches. We only had one small hiccup in security when they decided to test my backpack for bomb making residue (they did not find any),they said it had something to do with the excessive amount of electronics that were in my backpack. So what is the definition of excessive?
We took off and went to Chicago. We then had a 5 hour wait in Chicago for the flight to Hong Kong.
The flight to Hong Kong was good and bad. The good was it went very smoothly after a 45 minute wait on the tarmac. We actualy made up 30 minutes of the time and only landed 15 minutes late. The staff were very atentative to us we got two hot meals which were good on the airplane scale of foodness. They came by every hour or so with some water although is was only about 2 ounces, just enough to get your mouth wet. The ugly was after 5 hours on the plane we both felt like we had lived our entire lives on that plane and we still had over 10 hours to go before we landed.
Hong Kong:
Our arrival at Hong Kong was uneventful, immigration took less than 10 minutes because as the line got long the staff opened up more windows and moved us through (Disney should pay attention to this). We came out of the customs area looking for our guide, we found Cecelia almost immediately and she had us stand and wait for the other family from CCAI that was on our flight. We left the airport by bus for the hotel which was about 30 minutes away. While we were driving to the hotel she told us about Hong Kong. She told us that if we wanted to go out and walk about the city that we could and that it was a very safe city. She said this at least 3 different times on the way to the hotel. The third time she mentioned this she did add the caviat to watch out for pickpockets (safe?). Cecilia checked us into the hotel without incident. The one small glitch was when we tried to leave the room to get dinner we were not able to use the safe as it would not lock. I contacted the front desk who sent a young lady to show me (the person with excessive electronics) how to use the safe. She then sent for engineering to fix it, engineering then sent for a new safe to put in our room. We had a late dinner.
The room is good, although the mattress feels like we are sleeping on a box spring instead of a mattress. My back actually feels good this morning. I may have to get one of these for the house.
We are going on a half day tour of Hong Kong today and tomorrow we fly to Nanchang and get our girls.
I will try and post some pictures later today.
Larry
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Waiting to board
Larry
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
On Our Way
So the first leg of the trip is done. We have a 3:45 am wake up call. I don't know that I'll be able to sleep tonight.
In four days we will finally see our daughters face to face and will be able to hold them and tell them how much we love them. The past few weeks have gone so fast and yet each hour seems to take forever.
In four days we will finally see our daughters face to face and will be able to hold them and tell them how much we love them. The past few weeks have gone so fast and yet each hour seems to take forever.
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