After an exhausting 10 hour flight home, we arrived safely home at Schiphol airport. We were welcomed by quite a few of our friends and colleague and of course my brother and parents. The arrival gate was packed with other people welcoming the adoptive parents; it felt like a home coming party !

Rob and Jeannette made the photos below and mailed it to us (thanks!). Roselyn looked quite sleepy as she just woke up. She was happy with the balloon she got from Karen's colleague.

Riksha tour old city of Beijing

The great wall

The silk market - shopping ....!

At 10:00 this morning we take a trip with the group to the "Six Banyan" Temple. It is said that we can pray there for the wellfare of our children. This is an old temple from the Chan Buddha Clan. After that Tony our guide took us to a restaurant near the Pearl River for lunch. It's a pity, Guang Zhiou is currently in the rainy season; rain and cloudy.

This evening (17:30 - 20:30) we will go on a River boat trip along the Pearl River, dinner included.
This trip is quite enjoyable, our guide Tony picked us up together with the Riedel Family to embark us at the river port. It's quite a well sized party boat (3 storeys) with a party/panorama deck on top. We travelled for about two hours along the Pearl River of Guang Zhou with impressive buildings on the banks well decorated with colourfull lights. The (buffet) dinner was very nice, quite a wide selection of Cantonese delicacy.

Today in Guang Zhou our guide Tony, took us to the Civil offive for the second time to finalize our paperwork; we took a family photo, together with Roselyn for the so-called "Red Book" and went to the Security office for another family photo for the Visa Application. Tomorrow we will go to a photo shop for a Passport photo for Roselyn.

So far, Roselyn's bonding (attachment) -process went very good; everytime when one of us is not around, she'll will look around for us. So we have to re-asure her in gentle and slow voice "I love you and will be back soon".

This evening we decided to have a diner take-away. Karen went with Heidi to the local food-stall to get some Chinese take-away. Karen was gone for quite a while and Roselyn was feeling quite restless and was sobbing pitifully; it broke my heart to see her like that. But they say it's natural, after a while she'll understand that Karen and I will not leave her.

During dinner, we were so proud to see that Roselyn could pick up a (kiddy) spoon and feed herself ! What a clever girl. So we were bold and try to teach het more things. After that she is able to wipe her own face after we gave her a tissue paper. She is also able to wipe her hands after we gave her a second (wetted) tissue paper to clean her hands .....! We were quite surprised to see that she can pick up things very fast.

Finaly, we have packed all bags and ready to travel to China/Beijing to pick up our daughter Roselyn! Our kind and friendly neighbours Ton/Rika brought us to Schiphol airport to board our flight to Beijing.

Flight numer CZ346 leaving on the 17th of March 2006, at 18:50. Somewhat nervous and anxious but very exiciting to finaly meet out log awaited daughter. We wondered how she would respond to our first contact. The flight, short (about 9 hours 40 minutes) was not too bad, the food was tasteless and the movie programme was in Chinese. The temperature in the cabin was cold ! We had to ask for an extra blanket to present us from shivering.

We arrived at about 11:50 the next morning at the Beijing airport. After the usual customs nuisance, we were picked up by a nice Chinese lady (Selina) to take all 16 couples to out hotel at 20 minutes drive, just outside the airport where we could spend overnight before leaving to the province of Guand Dong the next morning.

Finaly, we completed Roselyn's bedroom.

The bed and wardrobe cabinet arrived last week, but we didn't have the time to assemble them.
But, today (or should we say tonight) they're finaly ready. We hope that our little girl will feel at home and have peacefull and restfull nights in her very own room. We'll decorate her room with other kiddy stuff when we know what her preferences are, but just for now we just put some teddy bears and toys to cheer up the room.

It''ll be quite a change I think sleeping all on her own, after getting used sleeping with lots of other children in the dormitory of the Wellfare Institute. But with love and guidance I'm sure that she'll adjust just fine (hopefully .....!).

Today Karen went (on her own ...!) to the Hague to the Chinese Consulate to apply for the visa for our travel to China. Everything is done within two hours, with urgent service.
Normaly this application will cost 42 euro per Visa and this will be ready in one week time.

There is an extra service called "Urgent service" which costs an extra 35 euro (!) to speed up the process; if you apply before 10:30 am, the Visa will be ready by 12:00 noon. Seems like a good business to me.

After handling over 2 x 77 euros, the reception counter at the consulate handed back our passports with the VISAs.

Finally ! Today we received the long awaited TA (Travel Approval) for China.

K&T sent us a letter notifying us the good news; our trip to China is definitive scheduled for the 17th of March 2006, we will return with Roselyn on the 31st of March. Karen will go to the Chinese Consulate in The Hague to arrange for the necessary the visa for our travel.

On the 14th, we are expected to attend a so-called travel information gathering. On this gathering all future adoptive parents traveling on the 17th will receive detailed additional information and itenary concerning our travel and the necessary local Chinese transfer procedures.

We will be traveling with the carrier China southern Airlines.
Leaving for China on 17 March
(18:50) Schiphol (Amsterdam) to Beijing - Flight number: CZ346

Returning to Amsterdam on 31 March
(13:20) Beijing to (17:00) Schiphol (Amsterdam) - Flight number: CZ345