Part 1

First let me say that I'm sorry that I left you all hanging.  Also if you leave comments, I cannot read them as China blocks all blogs.  So all I am doing is sending emails to the blog, hoping that they show up.

 

The day started with clues of what was to come…  The day before we went to Civil Affairs to start the paperwork.  The woman was fairly cooperative. My guide asked her when would the paperwork be finished, and she said she would let him know.  He called later that day and she said maybe later, she has an appointment.  He called at the end of the day and she said to stop calling, that she'd call him in the morning when to come. 

 

Well, he told us to be ready at 8:45 and be ready for the call.  An hour passed and I said did you tell her that we have to leave today to go to Zhengzhou for another adoption and then fly to Guangzhou two days later?  If we don't make our Consulate appointment on the 10^th, we will have to stay here an extra 2 weeks before we can get another appointment.  We can't afford that.

 

He said he did tell her.  I said to call her and make it happen now, we cannot afford to have the schedule changed.  He didn't seem to understand, and thought that we could just make another appointment.  I said NO! it doesn't work that way.  We are very lucky to have gotten this CA, I worked very hard for it and WE'RE NOT CHANGING ANYTHING!  I explained again why the timing was so crucial.  I pushed hard enough for him to finally call his supervisor.  Next thing I know we're on our way.  We get there and guess what?  She's not there, she had a day off and never told my guide that she wouldn't be there to finish processing the paperwork.  She led him to believe that the paperwork was being worked on by her.

 

You know if I hadn't pushed to make a call and rattle some cages, we could have been sitting there all day waiting and getting incredibly behind.  Because on that day we still had to go to the Notary's office and the Passport office.  Well, someone else there was talked into the final processing of the papers. Then off to the Notary, then to Passport.  Our schedule was so tight that we couldn't even wait for the passport. The guide was picking it up 4 days later and mailing it to Guangzhou. 

 

The rest of the day went fairly well.  We even got to the airport early…  That is when the day went south.  I finally understand from first hand experience the intense ownership the Communist government wants over each and very citizen.  Total control.

 

So this entry does not become too long, I will continue the saga and finale tomorrow, but I will leave you with a beautiful picture of our new daughter.