First I am so sorry for the delay in getting this first post up.
The flights went pretty good. Amazingly I slept a good portion of it. That was a feet in and of itself as I never sleep on planes. Apparently the mix of a couple of glasses of wine before the flight and a couple of sleeping pills is all you need. Who knew? :) Mike slept some but not as much as me. Our flight leaving Chicago was delayed so we did not get in until 2:30am. Our poor guide Alison had to pick us up so late. We felt really bad. We got into our room and to bed around 3:30am. The hotel was clean and nice but the room was SUPER HOT and no air conditioner to cool it down (and the windows did not open) It also had a pungent smell like roses meets cloves. CRAZY and not so pleasant. As I was warned several times, the board, I mean the bed was as hard as it could be. Temperpedic has some serious work to do over here in China! :)
We slept for 3 hours and had to get up to meet our group for breakfast and then we were off to see The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and Olympic Park. Despite the lack of sleep, the day was amazing! Our guide Alison is THE BEST!!!! We really scored with her. Learning about Beijing, all the history and where they are today is fascinating. It is so interesting to me that we have come half way around the world, but yet they people are the same. They go to work, they have children to care for, they feel the pressures of the economy and providing. They are also kind, giving, caring and love to talk on their cell phones just like we do! Beijing is much like Manhattan although we did not see as many people. The city has 17 million people living in it today so I kept wondering where everyone was.
My favorite part of the day was climbing and I do indeed mean climbing the Great Wall. The climb was very steep and at times very difficult but the view from the top was amazing! I could not help but reflect that this adoption process has been much like climbing the Great Wall. At times it has been very difficult and I wondered if I could go on, but one step at a time we kept going and now we are just moments from reaching the top.
Because I cannot post pictures (my blog is blocked in China) here is a link to Mike's Flickr account where you can see pictures!
More than anything, I want to thank all of our amazing friends and family who have sent us countless good wishes and have sincerely held us up in prayer. Your encouragement and kind words have given me so much strength.
Day 2 - December 12th - Fly to Nanjing
Today we flew to Nanjing. This is where we will meet Mia tomorrow. We got up and had breakfast, and got off to the airport pretty quickly. 2 other families in our group got to meet their children today! Our flight was only a couple of hours long completely uneventful...just the way I like them. We met our new guide Georgina. She does not hold a candle to Alison (Georgina is young and pretty quiet and shy) but is very nice. She took us to the hotel and we checked in and unpacked for the next 5 days. It is crazy to think that tomorrow by this time, we are going to have our little girl with us! Anyway, there is a fantastic western mall connected to the hotel. There is also a small chinese grocery store which is super helpful for picking up water, soda etc.
The restaurants are pretty cool, but I am having a tough time with the food. I am such a steak and potatoes (yes I know I do not eat potatoes but I really do love them) kinda girl. Mike is findig the local cuizine to be more appetizing than myself. That said, I am trying to be a good sport and am trying lots of new stuff. At dinner I told mike I was a little frustrated because I was so hungry and nothing tasted good. It was at that moment when I really realized this is how Mia is probably going to feel about our food. I need to remember this and how it feels for her.
I am perplexed by a trend I see here. Apparently when a little boy needs to go potty, they do not go the the bathroom, they just simply pull their pants all the way down, whip out their little parts and go. If they are on the street, no problem they just go right there. If they are indoors, their mom holds a bag for them to go in. I seriously almost died when I saw this happening, knowing there was a public, nice, clean western restroom right down the hall (we were in the mall).
The women here are simply stunning. Not only are they beautiful, they have a wicked sense of style that I could only dream of. Their petite little bodies rock the fashion with incredible ease. I LOVE to people watch and here is absolutely no exception.
The little kids are so fun here. They see us and they just stare and smile. Some of them wave. When I say hello to them in English they get all excited and giggle. It is great. We found that it seems like saying hello to us in english is fun to the Chinese people. Many times people just walk up and say hello. They seem to get a kick out of it. It is so funny to me. I cannot imagine going up to someone just because of how they look and speaking to them in another language, but here it is not a melting pot like the US so we definitly stand out. That said, the chinese people have been so wonderful and nice. We really love it here. I honestly did not know what to expect, but the people have far exceeded my expectations.
Tomorrow is the big day! We FINALLY get to meet our sweet Mia. We were told today that she is very excited and has been telling anyone who comes to the orphanage that her mommy and daddy are coming for her. I am SOOOOOO happy to hear that. I really hope the information is accurate and she indeed is excited for this new adventure.
Day 3 - December 13th - Gottcha Day
Okay, so it is 1am in the morning and I cannot sleep. I am so excited to get our sweet Mia! I know I need to sleep but instead I thought I would write a few thoughts.
1. I pray that Mia has been prepared as much as she could be.
2. I pray that God gives me the wisdom to know what do do and say to her to make her comforitable and happy that I am going to be her new mom.
3. I pray that I have patience and understanding at all times since Mia is going to be going through such change.
4. I pray for her birth mother and family
5. I pray that we can be the family she needs and deserves
6. I pray that I do not do the ugly cry when I meet her :)
Day 3 - December 13th - Gottcha Day Part 2
WOW! What an experience....
It took about 20 minutes by car to get to the Civil Affair Office where we would meet and take Mia home from. When we arrived, we immediately saw her nannies and saw our beautiful little girl. I have played this moment a gaziilion times over the last 5 and a half years and what it would be like. It was NOTHING like I expected and hoped for. Mia took one look at me and started crying REALLY HARD! She would not go near Mike. Her nannies told us she gets car sick really bad (because she is never in cars) and had gotten pretty sick multiple times on the way to the Civil Affairs Office. That coupled with the fact that she was scared out of her mind was really tough to go through. She did not want to come to us but once we busted out the Skittles, we had her...or at least I thought. When it was time to go, she did not want to get in the car and cried herself to sleep on me on the way back to the hotel. Once we got up into the room....um....OH MY GOODNESS! My dear sweet girl has a set of lungs on her. She was crying for her nannies and telling our guide that she wanted to go back and that she did not like me. Of course I was CRUSHED but I totally understood and had honestly prepared for the worst. This was the worst for me. She told them she was scared of Mike and did not like me. They told us not to worry and this sometimes happens and just to stay calm and she will come around in a day or two. I honestly never thought it would happen that soon. The good news is that when she would cry, she would let me hold her and comfort her. She told our guide that she wanted to get some dumplings. I was happy to hear she wanted to eat! At the restaurant she wanted me to feed her. Remember, this little girl has been doing EVERYTHING for herself and is completely capable of feeding herself. Of course I did not pass up this perfect opportunity to bond with her. WIthin minutes she was smiling and then laughing! WHOOOOOO! We continued to laugh and play all afternoon (she loves ALL things girly and her favorite color is pink). It was WONDERFUL and I could not believe that she could come so far in a matter of hours. She LOVED her bath and the stickers I put on her nails. She was also giving us hugs and kisses and telling us she loved us. SOOOOOO sweet! It then came time that she should be going to bed. She was adorable in her new jammies and all of the sudden, her smiles turned to a very serious face. She cried just a little bit and I held her until she went to sleep. I then tried to take off her coat (which she would not take off all day) and that was it. She woke up and SCREAMED a gut wrenching scream for another 10 minutes or so. Needless to say, I did not fight the coat battle and let her sleep in it. She woke up off and on all night crying in her sleep but never completely woke up.
The pictures from today are uploaded to Flickr here:
Day 4 - ADOPTION DAY!
It is official. She is ours! When we woke up she was great. We skyped with Mom, Dad and Logan, and then we were off to make the adoption legal here in China. Poor Mia got sick again in the car (wondering how we are going to get through the 14 hour flight home but we will figure that out when we get there). We did not realize her nannies were going to be there and I was really worried about how she would react to seeing them again. She REALLY loves them. She ran up and talked and talked to them. We signed our paperwork, took group pictures. To our surprise when we were getting ready to leave, she waved to them and said bye, bye and was ready to go. No tears, nothing! On the way home she told our guide that she loved her mama and båba but love her mama just a little more than båba (båba is daddy in Chinese). Success! Not that she said she loved me a little more than Michael but because she said she loved BOTH of us! :) It is truly amazing what can happen in 24 hours.
Once we got home, we went and had lunch at McDonalds and then it was off to get Mia some new clothes and shoes! She is so funny. She decided to put on a show putting her jacket on backwards and wearing her headband over her eyes. The girl loves her french fries and ketchup. She doesn't like cheeseburgers so much. Chicken nuggets seemed to work though. She loves dipping things. The night before she ate a full bowl of noodles. Just kept eating and eating and eating. Mike couldn't have finished that bowl. And that was after a full day of eating sweets.
After eating her and båba went to play at the indoor playground while Georgina and I went to shop for some clothes for her. She needed a new jacket. We thought it might be a battle switching to a new jacket, but surprisingly she loved her new pink jacket. She is always so cold, so we need to find her some more pants. We were able to find her some Ugg boots. She seems to like them so far. After shopping and playing our guide left and we spent the night do some more shopping and Skyping with Logan back home. We took her out to buy some toys to play with in the hotel room. She wil tell us yes or no if she likes something. More times than not though, she tells us no. She is so innocent and doesn't understand what it means to take something home to keep.
The first half of pics from today are here:
There are a few things we have definitely learned about our dear sweet girl in 48 hours.
1) She gets cold. She has to have her hood up when outside.
2) Her things from the orphanage are very important to her
3) She likes sweets!!!!!!!
4) She likes to be out walking around
5) She likes pink and pretty things
6) She can seriously eat
7) She is very self sufficient, she takes care of herself a lot, very mature
8) She is particular, big time, her sleeves have to be done, her sweater buttoned up, her jacket can't be on without being zipped
More to come later, we have to get out and get some breakfast and fill ourselves up. Finding food hasn't been too bad, but a lot of things can't be eaten because of the water. They have a Starbucks here, we may get brave and try that today as well. Americans certainly make their lives hard living how we live and it comes out when traveling abroad.
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