Notes from China trip

Saturday, April 15, 2006, 11:43 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Now that Pam and I are home after our journey to adopt our daughter from China, I offer these comments about the trip.

Holt International Children’s Services
Our social worker from Catholic Charities said she had good responses from Holt and a longtime friend and fraternity brother also had a great experience.
Now, after Pam and I spent the past year and a half working with Holt on our adoption, we also have words of praise. This organization is first-class all the way.
Foreign adoptions can be time consuming, complicated and intimidating. Holt walked me through the process and helped me every part of the way.
If I had a question, all I had to do was pick up the phone and call the office in Eugene, Ore., and I had an answer immediately. Holt representatives also were great in China.
Folks, if you are thinking about a foreign adoption, this is the group to use.

Lotus Travel
Holt uses Lotus to help arrange travel inside China. We used Lotus to arrange our flight tickets and our extra days in Beijing and Hong Kong, as well as extra tours in Beijing.
Here is another organization that is top-notch. From the minute we arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, March 28, until we left Guangzhou on Wednesday, April 12, Lotus was there with us.
Lotus representatives offered great suggestions for sightseeing and dining in Chinese cities. And they offered practical advice for the novice traveler in China.
Beijing was a highlight of the trip when it comes to sightseeing Lotus arranged not-to-be-missed tours of several Buddhist temples, the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City (see earlier posts for more details).

Hong Kong
This is a busy city.
In many ways, it reminded Pam and me of New York City. We’ve never seem so many people - no, make that hordes of people - everywhere we turned.
And to top it off, we only visited one small part of the city.
Too bad the merchants in this city weren’t in the mood to bargain the way they did in Guangzhou. I picked up a new suitcase in Guangzhou for $10 and in Hong Kong for $20.
The suitcase from Guangzhou wasn’t quite as nice as the one from Hong Kong. But, the Hong Kong folks simply didn’t want to deal at all. I was disappointed.
I wish we had more time in Hong Kong if only to try one or two restaurants in town. We simply didn’t have enough time to eat anywhere other than the hotel restaurant Thursday night.

Odds and ends

• What is it about neon? It’s everywhere in China. Every city becomes a spectacular nighttime display of neon as restaurants and billboards endlessly tout products in neon.
• We finally discovered the secret to Coca-Cola in China. The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. there uses sugar and not high fructose corn syrup to sweeten Coke. You can certainly tell the difference.
• Pam’s mom flew from Jackson to Detroit with her nephew’s wife to meet Pam and me on our way to a connecting flight to Jackson. The visit shocked Pam, who was reduced to tears.
• The Jackson airport also was a memorable scene. Our family and friends, holding balloons and gifts, burst into cheers and tears when they saw Pam, me and Camryn.
• I imagine their excitement must have been similar that of Pam and me on the day we met Camryn. And the poor baby was so confused by all the people who wanted to see and hold her.
• After some disgustingly awful and inedible plane food (see previous post), Pam and I joined other family members at Cock of the Walk before we brought Camryn to see pop-pop.
• We returned home for the first time in more than two weeks and slowly began unpacking. I didn’t realize how much stuff we brought back. Besides that, I need to buy a lawnmower and cut the grass.

Final word
Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read and visit our blog during our trip to China.
This began as an experiment, as a way to keep our family and friends informed about our adoption trip. But the more I played with it in China, the more fun I had writing.
Consequently, this blog took on a life of its own. And, I’ll have to admit, the responses I got from everyone who read my posts and looked at our pictures, fueled my enthusiasm.
This truly has been an amazing journey for Pam and me - and we were more than happy to share it with you.
I plan to keep updating the blog, hopefully on a daily basis. It obviously won’t be as intensely updated as it was during our trip (I do have a job), but I’ll try my best.
Thanks.
And God bless.

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.