We had only a a brief disappointment when we were one of the 15 families (out of our travel goup of 26) that did NOT receive Travel Approvals on Monday, 8/29/05.....

On 9/7/05, I got a call that we're scheduled to fly out on Sunday morning, 9/11/05.

   FINALLY!

Now we have to finish getting ready for the trip. We need to buy 8-10 gifts for people we'll meet in China, make sure that things at "the home fort" are all set up, and the scary part...

See if all our "stuff" fits in the luggage (1 checked + 1 carry-on bag/backpack each for Dyanne & me).

Dyanne's parents, Don and Virginia, will be taking care of Alan and our 4 dogs while we're in China.

When bicycling around on Kelleys Island (Lake Erie), I (Jeff) took a spill on some gravel, opening up a 1.25" jagged dirty nasty cut on my right arm. Despite prompt treatment, two different oral antibiotics, I've ended up with a good infection. I was admitted to a local hospital yesterday (9/7/05) for IV antibiotics. If it's not cleared up by Saturday, 9/10/05, our trip will be delayed until around 10/4/05.

After spending 2.5 days in Kettering Medical Center (Kettering, OH), hooked up to an IV pump, receiving 7-8 bags of IV Zosyn antibiotic [Good stuff, by the way...kept frozen at -20C, gently thawed prior to use, then pumped into my veins], my infection was cleared up. I'll still be on a decent oral antibiotic (Augmentin) for about another week to make sure the "bugs" are killed off.

Here's the grand plans (so far, at least):

9/11 (Sun)
8:21 AM Fly NW 3160Y Dayton, OH to Beautiful, Friendly (?) Detroit MI, Arrive 9:41 AM
2:20PM Fly NW 25Y Detroit, MI to Tokyo, Japan's Narita airport, Arrive 4:35 PM on 9/12/05    (remember the date line change...we'll "gain" a day coming back)

9/12 (Mon)
6:25PM Fly NW 11Y from Tokyo to Beijing, China, Arrive 9:25PM
Stay overnight at the Sino-Swiss hotel (Guodu airport hotel) Phone 01186-10-64565588

9/13 (Tues)
After a night spent trying to sleep, when our bodies are yelling YOU IDIOTS...IT'S 8 IN THE MORNING...WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?...[Lunesta sleeping pill samples might come in handy here]
11:10am Fly CZ (China Southern) 3124 Beijing to Changsha (Hunan Province - where Zoe's orphanage is), Arrive 1:30 PM
Stay at Dolton (Tongcheng) Hotel 4 nights, Phone 01186-731-4168888, Fax 01186-731-4169999

Some time the afternoon of 9/13, we'll go to the Civil Affairs Bureau of Hunan Province to receive Miss Zoe.

9/14 (Wed)
Morning - Go to Civil Affairs Bureau to complete the adoption registration & notarization procedures.

9/15 - 9/16 (Thurs-Fri) Possibly free time spent touring. We'll pick up all the notarized paperwork except for Zoe's China passport.

9/17 (Sat)
2:20 PM Fly CZ3379 from Changsha to Guangzhou, Arrive 3:20 PM.
Stay at White Swan Hotel 5 nights
Phone 01186-20-81886968, Fax 01186-20-81861188.

9/18 (Sun)
Free time/touring.

9/19 (Mon)
Morning: Have visa picture taken & medical exam performed on Zoe. Obtain Zoe's China Passport.

9/20 (Tues)
Morning: FTIA coordinator submits the Visa application documents for us at the US Consulate in Guangzhou.
Free time/touring.

9/21 (Wed)
Afternoon: Take the group oath at the US Consulate, receive Zoe's Visa.

9/22 (Thurs)
LEAVE CHINA
8:20 AM Fly NW10Y Guangzhou China to Tokyo, Japan (Narita airport), Arrive 2:10PM.
After a 1 hour layover (seems a bit short, but we'll see!)...
3:10 PM Fly NW26Y Tokyo to Detroit, Michigan, Arrive 1:40PM (still 9/22 - remember the date change?)
IMPORTANT NOTE: When we touch down in Detroit, Zoe will automatically receive US Citizenship
3:10 PM Fly NW 3100Y Detroit to Dayton, Ohio, Arrive 4:20PM.

So...That's the plans as of 7AM 9/10/05.
Jeff

Here Dyanne & I are with our son Alan. 5:30 AM at Don & Virginia's house. It's 7:35 now at the Dayton Intl Airport, and we had no problems getting through security (!). Cinnabons & Boston Stoker coffee are excellent too! Next Stop: Detroit, and then..Tokyo.

OK...it's about 10AM, and we got into Detroit with no hassles (small Saab prop driven aircraft). My checked bag weighed 50.0# at checkin (pure luck, I assure you). Max weight for international flights is 50#, but we might need to shuffle some weight from it to the other checked bag, since China has a 20 Kg (44#) weight limit. If you tried accessing the website between 8 & 10AM today, it was down due to unknown technical problems (operator error, most likely). I'd deleted some of the HTML pages that drive the website, and was unable to upload the new pages to the server. No problems with that from Detroit, though (where I was able to fix it).

AOL has deemed me SPAM-MONSTER-EVIL-SCUM!  While trying to send out an update email this morning from the Dayton Airport, it must have tripped some flag inside AOL's monitoring system. This temporarily locked out my AOL account. I reset the password, so all is OK, so far. I guess the list of recipients to my "Adoption Webpage Update" emails has reached some critical level. I've tried emailing AOL, explaining the situation, so we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I've split up the recipient list into 2 groups, hoping that this will make the emails seem "friendlier" to our Big Brudders at AOL. Welcome to "1984", AOL-style.

I'm trying to convince Dyanne that we need to go to the Duty Free shop for some nice dark chocolate. She seems a little dubious. Wonder why???

It's 10:30AM, and we've still got ~4 hours till our flight to Tokyo. The last time I flew over there (1989), I was able to fly Business class. That was most excellent! I think the sardine-class cattle seats won't be quite as nice, though. You'd think that for $1600 per person (OUCH!) airfare, we might get better seats, but that's what happens when you fly on little notice, and require connecting flights to get to a "main" city for your international flight. Not sure how much Hurricane Katrina cranked up prices, but such is life.

Dyanne and I were talking about how wonderful our son, Alan, has been handling this whoe thing about mom & dad fleeing the country for 2 weeks. He's been GREAT! Alan helped me pack my stuff yesterday. He & Dyanne went to the Greek Festival in Dayton yesterday (9/10/05), and both came home pretty tired. We didn't get to sleep until ~10:30PM last night, and had to get up around 4AM.

My infected right arm is getting much better, with no redness at all, and the swelling is reducing with each passing day. Now, here's the fun (?) part....Monday or Tuesday USA time (probably after we arrive in Beijing or the following morning), Dyanne & I get to remove the 6 stitches from my arm. Doesn't that sound fun??? I tried to get some Fentanyl patches or Versed to help me deal with the trauma, but the docs at Kettering didn't quite see it that way. Not sure why.

All for now...time to wander around the scenic Detroit airport. Dyanne says there's a Japanese place just down the concourse (we're at gate A56), so we might go there for lunch. Gotta rush...only 3.5 hours left till our flight!

OK...Japanese lunch was good (Udon noodle soup, with a shared Adzuki bean paste Mochi ball for dessert)...It's 1:15PM, and we've got about 1 hour till the flight leaves (delayed 15 minutes, now leaving at 2:35PM instead of 2:20PM). We've met up with 3 other families in our travel group, and are sharing baby pictures.



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Jeff Johnson
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