3

We went with the third bag. There was just no way around it. Her clothes look so small but they can really add up when you bring several sizes of everything. I have to admit I just grabbed stuff out of the closet without really worrying about whether they match each other or how many days we'll be there. The most important item -- after our passports, plane tickets, and prune babyfood -- is the 10 United Airlines drink coupons for the "lucky" people sitting next to us on the plane on the way home.

What are we forgetting?

Packing

On Saturday we told ourselves we'd finish packing and close up the suitcases. We told ourselves the same thing on Sunday. Until we actually try to put the pile of clothes, medicine, food, bottles, books, dolls, and other necessities into our two giant suitcases, we can keep imagining that it will all fit. I'd say we have several more hours to keep this dream going. And then I imagine we'll have a few hours of sitting on suitcases, debating what we can live without, and discussing the plusses and minuses of a third bag.

We're leaving tomorrow morning! We'll get Casey one week from today.

It's a date!

Finally finally we have a date. We're going 10/30 to 11/17.

We're making our own pre-trip trip, leaving Tuesday, 10/30 to go to Hong Kong for our fourth and final "last hurrah". We're going with two other couples who live near us. We've been so lucky to meet people we'd enjoy hanging out with even if they weren't in our group!

Then we'll head to Guangzhou on Saturday, 11/3 to meet up with the rest of the group. I'm pretty sure we get Casey on Monday, 11/5. The first week we'll stay at the China Hotel (Marriott) and the second week we'll stay at the Garden Hotel.

I can't believe we're going in two weeks. Is this really happening?

Bu yao ku (Don't cry)

Last night I sort of hijacked our Chinese class and started asking how to say things we might need to know next month. For example, I'm trying to get better at pronouncing "Ying" and I wanted to know how to say "don't cry". Unfortunately, when I say the first part it sounds like "don't bite" but I guess at least it's something that also might come in handy.

Then our teacher started getting into it and gave us all kinds of phrases.

"What do you want? This? That?"
"I'll take you out to play."
"You are very pretty."
"You are cute."
"You are a good girl."
"Do you want water?"
"Do you want milk?"
"I want coca-cola." (That one is for me. Ke kou ke le translates to "delicious happiness!")
"I want beer." (Apparently Eric was wondering about a few too.)
and "Quick, go to sleep." I'm not sure about the quick part but I guess it can't hurt to try.

We also learned how to say California. Jia Zhou. Sounds like G.I. Joe.

This weekend I'm taking baby sign language with Davina and Max. I hope it will help us communicate with Casey, especially during those first few weeks. Eric thinks it's so Davina, Max, and I can have our own secret language. (So I can tell them when I am hungry or tired or have to go potty? Right.)

Casey is a clothes horse

Update from Jamie: This isn't even all of her clothes. I haven't gotten to the pants and pajamas yet or the diaper boxes full of clothes for age 2 and up. These come from three families with very well-dressed daughters. Some of the clothes were bought in Paris, Israel, and China! If left to us, all of her clothes would be from Target (four for ten dollars!). Our neighbor's daughter (one of our suppliers) is 3 and she's already told her mom twice, "let's give THIS to Casey" when she didn't like a shirt she was wearing. I'm going to try to encourage that and try to get her to say this about items in their house! (I hope they aren't reading this.)

Eric's observation: I don't know about you, but my clothes are contained in basically 1/3 of closet rack, 4 dresser drawers, and a shelf for sweaters, sweats, and hats. One might expect that clothes for a 14 month-old would take up proportionately less space. Nope. Suffice it to say that Casey has yet to move in, but she already has more clothes than Jamie and I combined. Yesterday I bought all the kid-hangers that Target had on the shelf, and then I went back today to buy more......

Bull

At first I was trying to be low maintenance and didn't call our agency at all. I figured that if they had something to tell us they would call or write us. Now that I've learned that's not the case, I call every once in a while, ok, maybe once a week. It's really really hard to stay on the phone with them. They always sound busy and you can tell they want to hang up as soon as they answer (or don't answer) each question. It's like riding a bull and the bull wants to throw you off but you try to hang on. I always type up my questions, put them in order, give myself a little pep talk (I hate talking on the phone), and dial. I ask my questions as fast as I can and then suddenly I'm out of breath dusting myself off, wondering what just happened.

The latest news is that we will not be traveling in October. That doesn't mean we have a travel date, of course, it just means that it will be some time in November. We won't have any more updates for 2-3 weeks. Save my sanity and please don't ask me when we will travel.

This also means that now I have to run a marathon. A long time ago I signed up for the Nike Marathon, which is October 21. The plan was to sign up for all kinds of things that I would have to cancel, because Murphy's Law would kick in, and we would go to China and I'd have to miss them. It's been hard to train knowing that I would probably be in China. And now I can see that the whole thing has backfired. Murphy triumphs again.