In the past week we have introduced Jacob to our golf cart, the local ponds and ducks, and my folks swimming pool. We think he liked them all. Take a look!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Ducks, Golf Carts, Swimming - Oh My!
In the past week we have introduced Jacob to our golf cart, the local ponds and ducks, and my folks swimming pool. We think he liked them all. Take a look!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Days of Transition.
We have had a week of just hanging out as a family. Ric went right back to work and the kids and I have been playing and introducing Jacob to the library, the golf cart, the park, dog walking, rides in the car, our dog Sandy, and meals at the table with the family. He is taking a nap during the afternoon and sleeping through the night. He has recovered from the virus he had and seems to be feeling great! He is great at imitating our words and I can tell he is going to pick up the language very fast.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Home at Last - Fun at ATL Airport
Finally got home on Saturday evening. I didn't have a chance to post in Narita Japan as the connection was too short to use the Crown room or so I thought. We ended up getting expedited boarding...which just meant we spent another hour on the airplane! Perhaps not the best choice... All this so that we could get the overhead baggage space.
The in-flight service on both legs was pleasant, but I think I was spoiled by the China Southern flight attendants and the Customer Service Reps at the NWA counter in Hong Kong. The only downside is that they use the 747 on the ATL-NRT route so there is no individual entertainment system . The result was that I got to watch the same episodes of ‘MadMen ‘ (twice) and ‘The New Old Christine’ (three times). Side note: Wasn’t “Christine” the Steven King story about the possessed car? How did it end up with ‘Elaine’ from Seinfeld?
Ranting about Atlanta Airport:
Getting through immigration/customs then rechecking your bags, going through TSA and getting out of Atlanta Airport SUCKS...Ok I said it. I am sorry for everyone I offended and I imagine Jen will make me pull this down once she reads it, but it really is terrible. By far the worst airport experience that I had was the last one in the good ole USA. Why? Let me enumerate. (If you don't want to hear the rant go past the numbered parts)
1. We were told by CCAI (and I believe the US Consulate in Guangzhou) to go through the NON-US Traveler lane at passport control. This slows you up a ton as there is a requirement for all non-US folks to fingerprint, etc. No big deal, but the agent at the US told us (after we waited in line) that we should have gone through the US Citizen line...Note to follow on travelers.
2. After you go through the immigration line...they point you to a little room where you take your sealed brown envelope. Cool...I get it they have a process. However, you show up in the room and everyone is seated at a desk, there are no written instructions and after standing around wondering if I was in the right office the guy behind the keyboard looks up and says...leave the envelope in the bin and have a seat....No "Welcome fellow citizen and weary traveler", No "How can I help you?"...this guy obviously never did any time at Chik-Fil-A or China Southern Airlines. Finally sometime down the road the guy pulls our documents. Doesn't say anything...just hands us Jacob’s passport and says, "You can go." Now, I am perhaps a bit of a guy who likes some ceremony, but I would have loved it if he said. "Congratulations, your son is now a citizen of the greatest republic on the planet and in the history of the world.." But no...After being up for about 24 hours at this point this irritated me a touch.
3. Claiming your bags at E concourse to go through customs and then re-checking them to pick them up at bag claim #1. This must have seemed like a good idea to someone at the time...But I have to say that this is the dumbest, slowest works program that I have ever seen. Again, my point of view was somewhat slanted after being awake for more than 24 hours, but please...If you have never had to do this process before the signage, workflow and 'helpful agents' make this rube goldberg process all but indecipherable. When you add that to the hour + that it took for our bags to make it from the recheck point to carousel #1 you must really say that America's busiest airport is poorly designed and equipped for international travel. Travel through Beijing and Hong Kong was easier by a factor of 10.
4. Going back through TSA to transit the airport so you can get out...OK, OK, I get it that security is a big deal. However, the process is begging for a redesign. Somewhere around here, we were asking each other how many times and ways we could be inspected. The only cool thing is that no matter how long this process took...it really didn't matter because our bags took so long to get from E concourse to baggage claim.
5. Finally we made it a bit harder on ourselves because we forgot that we had thrown in some apples for the journey. The cool little beagle at immigration reminded us and we had to go through the agricultural inspection...Another x-ray of the bags...Laughing by this point.
Ok...the ranting is over...if you skipped ahead you were probably smart.
Blessings in the Fridge:
We were blessed on arrival to our home to find meals in the freezer provided by the McBryde's and the folks in our Church. What a way to bring our focus back on how blessed we are. Many thanks to Tiffany, Eric, the Cornerstone Sunday School class, our church family at Carriage Lane and our other dear friends and fellow believers.
Finally, I have to publically thank my in-laws for taking care of so many things while we were gone, not the least of which was our precious children and our 'dennis the menace' dog.
I am sure we will post some more pics and video of Gotcha Day. Thanks to everyone for the prayers, skype calls, love, meals, support, emails and friendship.
We are truly blessed, and Jacob is now home with the family that God planned for him before the beginning of time.
Ric
The in-flight service on both legs was pleasant, but I think I was spoiled by the China Southern flight attendants and the Customer Service Reps at the NWA counter in Hong Kong. The only downside is that they use the 747 on the ATL-NRT route so there is no individual entertainment system . The result was that I got to watch the same episodes of ‘MadMen ‘ (twice) and ‘The New Old Christine’ (three times). Side note: Wasn’t “Christine” the Steven King story about the possessed car? How did it end up with ‘Elaine’ from Seinfeld?
Ranting about Atlanta Airport:
Getting through immigration/customs then rechecking your bags, going through TSA and getting out of Atlanta Airport SUCKS...Ok I said it. I am sorry for everyone I offended and I imagine Jen will make me pull this down once she reads it, but it really is terrible. By far the worst airport experience that I had was the last one in the good ole USA. Why? Let me enumerate. (If you don't want to hear the rant go past the numbered parts)
1. We were told by CCAI (and I believe the US Consulate in Guangzhou) to go through the NON-US Traveler lane at passport control. This slows you up a ton as there is a requirement for all non-US folks to fingerprint, etc. No big deal, but the agent at the US told us (after we waited in line) that we should have gone through the US Citizen line...Note to follow on travelers.
2. After you go through the immigration line...they point you to a little room where you take your sealed brown envelope. Cool...I get it they have a process. However, you show up in the room and everyone is seated at a desk, there are no written instructions and after standing around wondering if I was in the right office the guy behind the keyboard looks up and says...leave the envelope in the bin and have a seat....No "Welcome fellow citizen and weary traveler", No "How can I help you?"...this guy obviously never did any time at Chik-Fil-A or China Southern Airlines. Finally sometime down the road the guy pulls our documents. Doesn't say anything...just hands us Jacob’s passport and says, "You can go." Now, I am perhaps a bit of a guy who likes some ceremony, but I would have loved it if he said. "Congratulations, your son is now a citizen of the greatest republic on the planet and in the history of the world.." But no...After being up for about 24 hours at this point this irritated me a touch.
3. Claiming your bags at E concourse to go through customs and then re-checking them to pick them up at bag claim #1. This must have seemed like a good idea to someone at the time...But I have to say that this is the dumbest, slowest works program that I have ever seen. Again, my point of view was somewhat slanted after being awake for more than 24 hours, but please...If you have never had to do this process before the signage, workflow and 'helpful agents' make this rube goldberg process all but indecipherable. When you add that to the hour + that it took for our bags to make it from the recheck point to carousel #1 you must really say that America's busiest airport is poorly designed and equipped for international travel. Travel through Beijing and Hong Kong was easier by a factor of 10.
4. Going back through TSA to transit the airport so you can get out...OK, OK, I get it that security is a big deal. However, the process is begging for a redesign. Somewhere around here, we were asking each other how many times and ways we could be inspected. The only cool thing is that no matter how long this process took...it really didn't matter because our bags took so long to get from E concourse to baggage claim.
5. Finally we made it a bit harder on ourselves because we forgot that we had thrown in some apples for the journey. The cool little beagle at immigration reminded us and we had to go through the agricultural inspection...Another x-ray of the bags...Laughing by this point.
Ok...the ranting is over...if you skipped ahead you were probably smart.
Blessings in the Fridge:
We were blessed on arrival to our home to find meals in the freezer provided by the McBryde's and the folks in our Church. What a way to bring our focus back on how blessed we are. Many thanks to Tiffany, Eric, the Cornerstone Sunday School class, our church family at Carriage Lane and our other dear friends and fellow believers.
Finally, I have to publically thank my in-laws for taking care of so many things while we were gone, not the least of which was our precious children and our 'dennis the menace' dog.
I am sure we will post some more pics and video of Gotcha Day. Thanks to everyone for the prayers, skype calls, love, meals, support, emails and friendship.
We are truly blessed, and Jacob is now home with the family that God planned for him before the beginning of time.
Ric
Friday, July 17, 2009
Hong Kong- On the way Home
We spent the night in the Marriot Airport Hotel in Hong Kong. Under different circumstances we would have pushed to tour the island, but Jacob was due for a nap so we spent the afternoon napping, in the gym and in the pool. Our room had an awesome view over the South China Sea! It is truly beautiful here and I wish we had a chance to see it.
Note to fellow travellers. If you are just laying over in HK you probably don't need to change USD (dollars) to HKD. However, in an effort to use the cash we had set aside I paid cash for the room. The bad news is that the exchange rate that they used was 7.1 and I think that the peg is around 7.6 so I got ripped off. Bottom line is that you are better off to use the credit card.
Also nothing but great things to say about the Northwest Airlines service. A uniformed Customer Service Agent met us at the self service check in kiosk...understood that we were an adoption and held our hands through the check in. Wow...one thing that the Chinese folks we have dealt with understand is customer service. Many US companies could learn a lot from being here.
Well, all for now...we board the flight for the way home. Layover in Narita. I will post there hopefully.
Ric
Note to fellow travellers. If you are just laying over in HK you probably don't need to change USD (dollars) to HKD. However, in an effort to use the cash we had set aside I paid cash for the room. The bad news is that the exchange rate that they used was 7.1 and I think that the peg is around 7.6 so I got ripped off. Bottom line is that you are better off to use the credit card.
Also nothing but great things to say about the Northwest Airlines service. A uniformed Customer Service Agent met us at the self service check in kiosk...understood that we were an adoption and held our hands through the check in. Wow...one thing that the Chinese folks we have dealt with understand is customer service. Many US companies could learn a lot from being here.
Well, all for now...we board the flight for the way home. Layover in Narita. I will post there hopefully.
Ric
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Oath-Onward
We had our appointment with the US Consulate in Guangzhou. No issues. It was all very anti-climactic as we reviewed the documents then stood and swore that we had filled everything out accurately, to the best of our ability and honestly. Then the official told us we were done and could leave. The longest part of the event was the trip to the adoption affairs office and back.
We returned to the hotel, finished packing, skyped with the kids (thanks Carrie) and went to bed.
We are now checking out then heading to Hong Kong on the first step of our return trip.
Thanks for the prayers.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Photos Below
Ok…so I think I figured it out. I have to post the pictures first…then post the notes so that you can read the notes and look at the pictures.
Notes on the photos.
Laundry: There is no normal coin operated type of laundry. So we take our laundry out to one of the souvenir shops. I know it doesn’t make sense..but when in China.
Waiting for the phone call: The group was sitting around in the halls waiting for the “all clear” call from our consulate paperwork. You do a lot of sitting around waiting for paperwork in this process. This is just the icing on the cake.
Jacob and JT. Both of these little guys came from the same orphanage and Phillip Hayden…they had a bond on Gotcha day and that still goes on.
Group Photos and the cruise…somewhat self explanatory.
RIc
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