Originally written 5/5/08
May 30th--We dropped off the children at their respective homes for the next two weeks. There were mixed emotions. John was worried about us and wanted to know why they couldn't just bring A to us. Wow--wouldn't that be something if they did that. Although I think visiting her birth country was an experience I needed to have. The children were also excited about the two week adventure that they would have living with another family. They had never spent more than one or two nights at a time away from home.
May 31st--we were off to the airport. There was kind of a funny story. . .for several weeks prior to leaving Kurt and I had talked about watching season one of Lost. We had never watched the show but had heard a lot of people say it was good. So Kurt got the first season on his ipod. While we were in the airport waiting to board the plane he hands me the ipod and says, "Here, you can watch Lost." I watched about 10-15 minutes of it and handed the ipod back to him. I told him I really did not think that I wanted to watch this when we were about to get on 3 different planes for a total of 16 hours or more. We flew from here to Detroit, from Detroit to Tokyo, Japan, and from Tokyo to Beijing, China. I was a little apprehensive about the flights considering I have only been on a couple of planes before and never for more than about an hour.
June 1st--We arrive in Beijing, China. There were 5 families (including us) in our travel group. Four of us were doing the Beijing Tour. We were on the flight into China with one of the families in our group. They traveled with their two small children and one set of grandparents. We got in pretty late, unpacked a little and settled down for the night. We met the other two couples the next morning at breakfast.
We found out that A was the oldest of the children being adopted by this group. There were two families with 14 month old's and one family whose child turned one while we were in Beijing.
While in Beijing we attended an international Christian Church service. You had to show your passport in order to attend this service. It was a nice service and we were thankful for the opportunity to go.
We did a two day tour of Beijing. It was wonderful. The people were very friendly. Our guide told us that we would attract attention because we were foreigners. If you had curly hair and light eyes you would get a lot more attention and even more so if you had blond hair. People wanted to take their picture with us. It was kind of weird. But it was not uncomfortable. We learned a lot about the history of China. I really enjoyed the tour and would love to one day return with all the children.
June 4th--That morning we finally got to meet the fifth couple in our travel group. We all met in the lobby of the hotel and were preparing to leave to go get our daughters. We found out that the last couple was adopting a 6 year old. We were thankful that we would have someone a little older for A to play with when we all met up in Guangzhou. We were leaving Beijing for our individual provinces. A was in the Wuzhou SWI, which is in the Guangxi province. Since the capital of Guangxi (Nanning) is so far from Wuzhou we were not able to visit A's SWI.
We were the only couple to travel to Nanning. We had a couple of hours in our hotel before leaving to go get A. We unpacked a few things and found the backpack we brought for her. We put a few snacks in it, a huge sticker book, and a little stuffed doggy. We were on our way to meet our new daughter.
We were so nervous. We were in a waiting area with a few other couples when our guide and two ladies from the SWI brought in our little girl. She was so scared. She came by bus to Nanning. Something that was probably very scary for her and now she was being brought into a room and being told that these two strangers were her mommy and daddy. Needless to say it didn't take long for her to start crying. My heart was breaking for this sweet little girl that I already loved so much. I gave her the stuffed dog. She was not interested in it at all, so I got out the sticker book. A loved the sticker book. The ladies helped with her and eventually she was sitting on my lap doing her stickers. She was fine for a few minutes then it was time to leave and go back to our hotel. She did not like that at all. She screamed as we were leaving the room, she really screamed as we got into the taxi, and she screamed some more as we were walking to our room at the hotel.
Once we got in the room she quieted down and started showing us some of her great personality. The ladies from the SWI brought a bag with them that was from her foster family. It had some fruit and sweet milk in it. She loved sweet milk. Another thing we soon learned that A really liked was watermelon juice. She would have it at every meal if possible. When we went down to dinner A withdrew a little bit until we got there and were seated. Once she knew we were going to eat she was okay. All of the guides kept telling us, "Give the children congi. They love congi." So we ordered her congi and I got a hamburger and french fries. She wanted nothing to do with that congi. LOL She ended up eating all of my french fries. Since she liked french fries so much we decided a trip to McDonald's the next day was a must.
Nanning is very far south and was quite hot and steamy when we were outside. Our guide was very good, but the people here were not as used to seeing foreigners as those in Beijing. They were not quite as friendly and would look at us a little funny. I did not feel very comfortable taking A out much so we spent alot of time walking around our hotel. There was a little park area right behind our hotel. A loved to play ball with daddy at that park. We also took a blow up balloon. She loved that balloon just as much as she loved the sticker book.
A right away preferred me over Kurt. When it was just Kurt and A she would hold his hand, but if I was there she would not. She would hold my hand and put her other hand behind her back so he could not hold it. But when it came to play time--it was Kurt that she wanted. She would laugh and laugh when they played with that balloon. We would play with the balloon out in the hall by the elevators. There was plenty of space there to play. We met another family who was there adopting their third child from China. They were a sweet family and we very much enjoyed spending time with them.
We took a small photo album with us that had pictures of the children and our home and pets so she could get accustomed to them before we got home. The first time that we were able to call the children after getting A she said their names to them. Craig was very impressed that she could say his name.
We spent several days in Nanning getting to know our new daughter. She was full of personality and would get much attention when she turned on the charm. She started to play a game with me every time we went down to the restaurant for a meal. She would tell me she needed to go potty and I would take her. I soon realized that she would do this as many times as there were stalls in the bathroom. And each time I took her she would use a different stall. She would go until she ran out of stalls. Needless to say I didn't play this game long after I realized what she was doing.
After Nanning came Guangzhou. This is where we met up with the other couples in our travel group. We got to spend a lot of free time sight seeing on our own or with others if we chose. There were a few places we toured together as a group.
We spent a lot of time with the couple that had the 6 year old and became good friends with them. They also had three children at home and we had a lot in common. I knew by this time that I would be home schooling the children and she also home schools her children. The girls had a lot of fun playing together. They were fast friends and would play and laugh together. I am so thankful that we were able to get to know them.
A was very independent when we were in China. She wanted no help in the bath. I think she had been so used to doing it all on her own that she wasn't used to having help. She would squat in the tub and wash herself and even try to wash her hair. I had to let her know that it was okay to sit down and play in the water, not just wash quickly and get out. We took some flashcards with us that would have a picture on the front and the Mandarin and English words on the back. Because she knew both Mandarin and Cantonese these were not the most useful. She would say the word and we would look to see if it looked like what the card said. If it was not we figured she was speaking Cantonese (either that or totally fooling us). A would withdraw a little each time we left our room to go somewhere. She would do this until she figured out where we were going. Once she realized we were not leaving her somewhere she was fine.
As our time in China came to an end we felt great joy. Joy to have had this awesome experience. Joy that we had finally united with this special child. Joy that we would soon be home with our other children. Joy that we were blessed to meet so many wonderful families while we were in China. Joy that so many children were going home to be with their forever families.
June 1st--We arrive in Beijing, China. There were 5 families (including us) in our travel group. Four of us were doing the Beijing Tour. We were on the flight into China with one of the families in our group. They traveled with their two small children and one set of grandparents. We got in pretty late, unpacked a little and settled down for the night. We met the other two couples the next morning at breakfast.
We found out that A was the oldest of the children being adopted by this group. There were two families with 14 month old's and one family whose child turned one while we were in Beijing.
While in Beijing we attended an international Christian Church service. You had to show your passport in order to attend this service. It was a nice service and we were thankful for the opportunity to go.We did a two day tour of Beijing. It was wonderful. The people were very friendly. Our guide told us that we would attract attention because we were foreigners. If you had curly hair and light eyes you would get a lot more attention and even more so if you had blond hair. People wanted to take their picture with us. It was kind of weird. But it was not uncomfortable. We learned a lot about the history of China. I really enjoyed the tour and would love to one day return with all the children.
June 4th--That morning we finally got to meet the fifth couple in our travel group. We all met in the lobby of the hotel and were preparing to leave to go get our daughters. We found out that the last couple was adopting a 6 year old. We were thankful that we would have someone a little older for A to play with when we all met up in Guangzhou. We were leaving Beijing for our individual provinces. A was in the Wuzhou SWI, which is in the Guangxi province. Since the capital of Guangxi (Nanning) is so far from Wuzhou we were not able to visit A's SWI.
We were the only couple to travel to Nanning. We had a couple of hours in our hotel before leaving to go get A. We unpacked a few things and found the backpack we brought for her. We put a few snacks in it, a huge sticker book, and a little stuffed doggy. We were on our way to meet our new daughter.
We were so nervous. We were in a waiting area with a few other couples when our guide and two ladies from the SWI brought in our little girl. She was so scared. She came by bus to Nanning. Something that was probably very scary for her and now she was being brought into a room and being told that these two strangers were her mommy and daddy. Needless to say it didn't take long for her to start crying. My heart was breaking for this sweet little girl that I already loved so much. I gave her the stuffed dog. She was not interested in it at all, so I got out the sticker book. A loved the sticker book. The ladies helped with her and eventually she was sitting on my lap doing her stickers. She was fine for a few minutes then it was time to leave and go back to our hotel. She did not like that at all. She screamed as we were leaving the room, she really screamed as we got into the taxi, and she screamed some more as we were walking to our room at the hotel.
Once we got in the room she quieted down and started showing us some of her great personality. The ladies from the SWI brought a bag with them that was from her foster family. It had some fruit and sweet milk in it. She loved sweet milk. Another thing we soon learned that A really liked was watermelon juice. She would have it at every meal if possible. When we went down to dinner A withdrew a little bit until we got there and were seated. Once she knew we were going to eat she was okay. All of the guides kept telling us, "Give the children congi. They love congi." So we ordered her congi and I got a hamburger and french fries. She wanted nothing to do with that congi. LOL She ended up eating all of my french fries. Since she liked french fries so much we decided a trip to McDonald's the next day was a must.
Nanning is very far south and was quite hot and steamy when we were outside. Our guide was very good, but the people here were not as used to seeing foreigners as those in Beijing. They were not quite as friendly and would look at us a little funny. I did not feel very comfortable taking A out much so we spent alot of time walking around our hotel. There was a little park area right behind our hotel. A loved to play ball with daddy at that park. We also took a blow up balloon. She loved that balloon just as much as she loved the sticker book.
A right away preferred me over Kurt. When it was just Kurt and A she would hold his hand, but if I was there she would not. She would hold my hand and put her other hand behind her back so he could not hold it. But when it came to play time--it was Kurt that she wanted. She would laugh and laugh when they played with that balloon. We would play with the balloon out in the hall by the elevators. There was plenty of space there to play. We met another family who was there adopting their third child from China. They were a sweet family and we very much enjoyed spending time with them.
We took a small photo album with us that had pictures of the children and our home and pets so she could get accustomed to them before we got home. The first time that we were able to call the children after getting A she said their names to them. Craig was very impressed that she could say his name.
We spent several days in Nanning getting to know our new daughter. She was full of personality and would get much attention when she turned on the charm. She started to play a game with me every time we went down to the restaurant for a meal. She would tell me she needed to go potty and I would take her. I soon realized that she would do this as many times as there were stalls in the bathroom. And each time I took her she would use a different stall. She would go until she ran out of stalls. Needless to say I didn't play this game long after I realized what she was doing.
After Nanning came Guangzhou. This is where we met up with the other couples in our travel group. We got to spend a lot of free time sight seeing on our own or with others if we chose. There were a few places we toured together as a group.
A was very independent when we were in China. She wanted no help in the bath. I think she had been so used to doing it all on her own that she wasn't used to having help. She would squat in the tub and wash herself and even try to wash her hair. I had to let her know that it was okay to sit down and play in the water, not just wash quickly and get out. We took some flashcards with us that would have a picture on the front and the Mandarin and English words on the back. Because she knew both Mandarin and Cantonese these were not the most useful. She would say the word and we would look to see if it looked like what the card said. If it was not we figured she was speaking Cantonese (either that or totally fooling us). A would withdraw a little each time we left our room to go somewhere. She would do this until she figured out where we were going. Once she realized we were not leaving her somewhere she was fine.
As our time in China came to an end we felt great joy. Joy to have had this awesome experience. Joy that we had finally united with this special child. Joy that we would soon be home with our other children. Joy that we were blessed to meet so many wonderful families while we were in China. Joy that so many children were going home to be with their forever families.
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