NAOMI'S 1ST OUTING

For Naomi's 1st outing we visited Quinling Lake. It had beautiful lakes, pagodas, monks, budas, , etc,.. It reminded me somewhat of Mt-Royal in Montreal but with monkeys to feed rather than squirrels. Very very nice.

here she is!

Hi all! We have Naomi! I am one-finger typing because she won't go to Stephan yet.

She screamed for the first 4 hours but then she slept well. Today she has calm periods and crying bouts. She loves the carrier and falls asleep as soon as I put her in it. Francis is a great big brother and she really loves to play with him. I will try to write more soon!

Help!

I can't seem to view the comments people leave us! anyone have any ideas? I have tried going through Bloglines and www.pkblogs.com. If you have any ideas, please email me - (there is an email me button to the right). Thanks!

Ni Hao from Beijing!

We made it! We are in China!!! Whoohoo! The plane ride was smooth but exhausting - it was
hard to keep Francis busy for all that time!

We met up with Elisa, Jarrod and Thomas in Vancouver. We are all staying at the Capital hotel which is very nice (but far from the airport). This is the hotel we will be staying at for the second half of our trip. Tomorrow we meet up with the rest of our travel group and fly to Guizhou!! I'm totally wiped so I am off to bed g'night!

Vancouver

We made it to Vancouver! It was a long 6 hour flight but we kept busy watching movies and TV shows - I love these new planes with a screen at each seat! it is 7 am and Francis and Stephan are already at the hotel pool. We leave for Beijing in just a couple of hours! We are staying at the Vancouver airport Delta hotel which is very nice - we have a fabulous view of the harbour from our room.

Well that's it for now - next post from Beijing!

And we're off!

Well this is it. We are ready. Luggage packed - camera retrieved :o)

A big thank you for all the encouraging comments and well wishes. Thank you to all our friends and family for all your love and support. I still can't believe this is really happening!

See you all on the flip side!

1 day to go

Almost there!! I can hardly believe tomorrow is the big day! Almost finished packing. We added a duffel bag so I think we will manage to get it all packed. I will try and dig out the camera to take the token "luggage at the door" picture before we leave tomorrow.

2 days to go

and I am in packing hell ...
can't post a picture, camera is packed.

p.s. Happy Birthday to my Mom!!! Thank you for all your love and support during this journey!

3 days to go

Ahh just a lovely relaxing day by the pool with friends Elisa and Jarrod and Doris and Dan. Tomorrow will be busy so I really savoured the day - our last Sunday as a family of 3!

4 days to go

Naomi is 9 months old today!!!









We had our travel meeting last night and so here is our itinerary:
25/07 - leave Montreal - arrive in Vancouver
26/07 - leave Vancouver
27/07 - arrive in Beijing
28/07 - meet up with group and fly to Guiyang
29/07 - Gottcha Day!!!
30/07 - Civil Affairs Bureau to legalize the adoption
31/07 - free day
01/08 - free day
02/08 - free day
03/08 - Get Naomi's Passport
04/08 - fly to Beijing
05/08 - visit the Great Wall
06/08 - Visa requests and doctor visits
07/08 - visit the Summer Palace
08/08 - visit the Forbidden City
09/08 - group leaves but we stay 1 extra day
10/08 - leave Beijing for Montreal (through Toronto

OMG! I can't wait! What a journey this will be!

5 days to go

Today is the day of errands. It seems like I can make lists faster then I can cross them off. (sigh). So far today: Bring Francis to hockey camp (check), Make appointment with Immigration Quebec (check), go to hairdresser and get ghetto roots taken care of (check), go to bank (check), go to pharmacy for meds (check), go to vet for cat food, treats and insulin (check).
Wow, got quite a bit accomplished and it's only 12:52 in the afternoon!

I still have 11 things on my list to get done before I pick up the kid at 3pm and then it's off to the travel meeting tonight! I should have my itinerary tomorrow ... stay tuned!

p.s. ok, for all of you who guessed Hawaii you got it! Whoohoo!

**UPDATE**
Almost forgot to mention that it's my grandfather's birthday today! He turns 85 years young today!

6 days to go!

Wow, we are down to 6 days!

Every day Francis crosses off the day on the calendar and then counts how many days until we leave for China! Today he made me laugh when he said; "if we cross off all the days now can we leave right away?". Ahhh ... I wish!!!

Today I spent the day relaxing with my friend Chantal - we treated ourselves to manicures and pedicures! Ahhh I feel like a million bucks. The last time I had a pedicure and manicure was for my wedding - 9 years ago! I just love those massaging chairs! I feel so spoiled - I will not wait another 9 years to go back!

In other news ... we were a bit bummed that we were not able to use our Aeroplan points for our flights to China so we booked a trip for spring break in March! A beach holiday will be lovely at that time and will be something to look forward to!! The location? Oh, you are going to have to guess! Ok, one hint: it's an island ...

7 days to go

Were down to a week! Next Wednesday we will be on the plane!

Today is my Dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad (aka: Grampa Paul). My dad has the first of several birthdays in the month of July - you will see a lot of happy bday shout outs in the coming days. My dad has been a great support during this adoption and he is very excited to meet his granddaughter!

In other news ... last night I was trying to sleep but I kept hearing weird noises in the backyard. Dying of curiosity I went down to investigate and when I saw what it was I ran to get my camera cuz I was thinking wow, great blog material! :o)

I've decided to call him Ricky ...

8 days to go

Yesterday we bought our airline tickets! We had a lot of help from Stephan's cousin Brigitte who works for AC.

So we are leaving the evening of the 25th heading to Vancouver where we will spend the night, then the next morning we head off to Beijing (11 hour flight YIKES!) We will arrive a day ahead of our group which will give us some time to settle in. We return on the 10th (a day after the group) via Toronto (13.5 hour flight YIKES!).

Glad that this part is done but I am wondering how to keep Francis (and myself) entertained during those long flights!

9 days to go!

Found out that our travel meeting is on Friday Night!! Looking forward to getting our itinerary and finding out when Gotcha day will be (my guess is the 29th ...)

Countdown

10 days until we leave for China. OMG. I can hardly believe this is really happening! Whoohoo!!!

Good news all around

Yahooo! TA's are in!!! (happy dance)

Today was my last day of work (yeah, Friday the 13 har har ...). I got to leave at noon and some coworkers took me out for a 3 hour lunch! (I will post some prezzie pictures soon). When I left the restaurant I checked my cell and there were 10 messages!! Our adoption agency called and so did Elisa, and Jarrod and the hubs. Turns out we got the green light to book airline tickets!! So that is what we will be doing tonight. Looks like the scheduled leaving date is the .... 26th!! Yup, less than 2 weeks to go!

Yippee!!!

***UPDATE***

Looks like we are leaving the 25th!!!

A box of goodies!

Yesterday I came home to find a lovely little package of happy in my mailbox! I was so excited I ran into the house and ripped it open! Inside the box was an adorable little tiny skirt and a matching top!!! Oooooo ... and the most incredible little glittery sandals had me saying "Shut up" (a la Stacey London). There was also a sweet key chain with Naomi's picture on one side and Francis' on the other (way to make a mother's heart melt). And last but most certainly not least was a cute ladybug journal - which I love because I am a big journal-er. Thank you! Thank you to Michelle and Mark of Waiting for Pumpkin who sent these lovely surprises!! You guys are the best - I am so glad we got to met back in May and look forward to seeing you again soon! Thank you for putting a huge smile on my face!!!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

SHUT - UP!! Seriously, aren't these the cutest????

bad kitty

???!!!!?????!?!???!!!!!!!!!!

Nursery updates

New pictures up of Naomi's Nursery!

Here's a sneak peek:

carrier and luggage

Yesterday I finally got my BabyHawk Mei-Tai baby carrier in the mail!! I had it done reversible with Red Hot Geisha fabric on one side and Blue Lotus on the other. I tried it on with a teddy bear standing in as Naomi - I think I'm going to need some practise!!

This evening we dragged out our 2 largest suitcases to start preparing for packing. I'm usually a good packer so I am not too worried - maybe just about the 44 lb maximum for each bag. I'm kinda wishing we had bought 2 of those big brown suitcases! We are taking backpacks as carry-on - here's mine - Did ya notice I'm from Canada? Even Francis has his own little carry-on that will hold his fun items for the plane ... Gameboy, play dough, books, drawing stuff, movies, music ... etc!

The suitcases are out!!

A few things ready to pack ...

Spidey suitcase ... ready for action!

Visas and more prezzies!

2 posts in one evening?? Hey, I'm on a roll! :o) My husband travels a lot on business and could not be without his passport for 3 weeks while our agency had the visas done so yesterday we went to Ottawa to have our visas done ourselves. Here is a picture of Francis and me in front of the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa - we couldn't find anyone to take a picture of the 3 of us - that is why Stephan is not in the shot! Whoohoo one more BIG thing done!

At the BBQ on Sunday my friends Colleen and Jeff (and daughter Aislinn) brought down a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne to toast our referral!! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it!! And they also surprised us with these 2 adorable outfits for Naomi! Thanks guys!!!!

Check out this adorable red and white outfit that was sent by the lovely Catherine for Naomi!! Thank you so much!! This just might be her Canada Day attire for next summer!!!

And check out this delicious little pinkalicious sun suit!!! It was sent to us by Kathy and Joel!! You guys are so thoughtful - Thank you!!! This is definitely coming to China!!

Ok, last but certainly not least RQ has reported that agencies have started receiving TA's for June referrals!! Whoohoo!! Looks like we will be headed to China very soon!

catch-up

Our Canada Day BBQ was a total blast!! Even a bit of rain couldn't dampen our spirits! - there was lots of food and fun even if the weather didn't want to cooperate!! I have a bunch of pictures to sort through but for now, I present the little darlings ...

This is miss Aislinn showing us her cool side! Happy Birthday Cutie Patootie!!

Matthias being a total cutie!!!

Here is Thomas enjoying one of Doris' homemade ice cream sandwiches made with brownies!!!

Here's Brandon enjoying his burger ...

Here's Francis wowing the crowd with his sparklers

Well... that's the kids ... there were far more adults, but the kids just stole the show!

Happy Canada Day!

I'm in prep mode for our annual Canada Day BBQ! Tonight we will be enjoying the company of many of our wonderful friends - some new, some old, all special. CHEERS!