Wednesday

Nothing too exciting happened today.  It was a free day--time for the family to bond and just be together.  It started raining on Tuesday and is predicted to rain all week.  So we were told about an indoor shopping center just down the street.  Most of the day was spent shopping an looking around.  It was huge, 2 to 3 times the size of City Creek in Salt Lake.  We didn't see half of it.

Getting home was not fun.  Because it was raining and there were 6 of us, none of the cabs wanted to take us to the hotel.  So we walked 2 miles back to the hotel in the pouring rain with no umbrellas.  We sang, "I will survive" as we walked.  Tired and cold, we arrived at the same restaurant and waved hi to our server from the evening before.

The Adoption is Final!

When we picked him up on Monday, we were given 24 hour guardianship.  They kinda give you 24 hours to make sure you still want the child and that all is well.  At first, you think Really?.  Someone would go through all this and pay that kind of money and then just say, no, I don't think he/she is going to work out.  But unfortunately, there are extreme situations where things just don't work out.  Luckily that was not the case for us.  Yes, the last 24 hours have been a challenge, but nothing that we can't handle.  So, the guide picked us up at 9:00 for our official adoption day.  We met with the officials to sign the paperwork.

Because in China they don't recognize our American signatures, you have to put your fingerprint on top of your signature. They took our picture as a family and placed in on our official adoption decree. Jeremy headed downstairs to exchange some money at the bank and I stayed up stairs with the kids. As his caregiver and orphanage director started to say their goodbyes he started crying.  A lot.  Then he started screaming.  It was extremely emotional.  My heart hurt for him.  I tried not to cry but the thought of what he must be feeling inside was hard to handle.  Imagine a child being taken from the only home, family and life he has ever known.  Jeremy came back upstairs just in time to see it all.  My mom came over with some chocolate and his iPad. He eventually calmed down but cried all the way back to the hotel room.   That afternoon we decided to take him swimming.  Knowing he probably had never done that before, we were prepared.  He was unsure at first and held on to me with a death grip.  After a few minutes he relaxed and started splashing.  Then it happened, English words.  He was holding on to dad and I had the girls.  The girls would count one, two, three and I would toss them in the air.  He watched for a moment and then looked at Jeremy and said, one, two, shree.  So Jeremy tossed him and the smile I love so much returned.
For dinner, we decided to walk down the street until we found something that looked edible.  Only a few buildings down, we saw a hot pot place.  In Japan that call it Shabu Shabu and there is one in Park City if you ever want to try it.  We love it!  We were so excited and ate til we were full.  The entire bill was only $30 for 6 people including tax and tip.  Sweet!  I believe we will eat there again.

Gotcha Day!!

I have just now had a minute to sit down and write.  Yesterday, was "Gotcha Day". It was crazy.  In fact, the last 24 hours have felt like I just went skydiving for the first time. It's the best way I know how to describe it.  I signed up, filled out the paperwork, took all the preparation classes, I voluntarily put the suit on and climbed in the plane.   They took us to 10, 000 feet, reminded us when to pull the red cord and then pushed us out.  The emotions are the same. Scared, nervous, and excited.

Our appoint wasn't until 1:45, so we slept in and had a late breakfast.  Then we went for a walk and picked up our laundry.  Our guide Eric picked us up at 1:45 and we headed for the Civil Affairs Office.  We filled out the 24 hour guardianship papers and then waited on the couch for them to walk through the door.

Just before 3pm we heard the elevator ding.  My mom started recording with the video camera.  And then there he was.  It was amazing.  I fought back the tears and he walked right up to us and said "Hello". He opened his photo album we had sent and started pointing at each one of us and calling us by name "Baba" (dad), "Mama" (mom), "Jie Jie" (older sisters) and "Way po" (grandmother).  He gave us a hug and the girls showed him some toys we had brought.  We couldn't believe it was going as smoothly as it was.  He was happy and content.  

We left the office and went to take his passport picture.  The lady told him to close his mouth for the picture and so he gave a frowny face. It was funny. On our way back to the car, our guide said he was calling us funny names.  He is quite the little jokester. However, the funniest part was dinner.  Our guide didn't give any recommendations, so we just picked the closest place.  We used an app to try and communicate with the server.  We did the best we could and decided we would just eat whatever he brought to the table. McLaren was laughing, trying to run away, and tickling Jade.  We had the entire restaurants attention.  I can only imagine what they were saying.  We decided after dinner that we had our hands full.  He is hyper and outgoing but he is also constantly smiling and laughing.  He is perfect and we fill so blessed.  

Wuhan Day 1

I should really title this post as "How to survive without a tour guide" but I don't know if we survived it.  Wuhan is considered a "small" city (10 million people) in the center of China.  I don't think they have ever seen an American and absolutely no one speaks English.  At least in Beijing, you would find someone that learned English in high school.  We ate breakfast in the hotel and ventured off to find a laundromat.  We were told you could find some and they were usually cheap.  Yeah well, there's a lot of things I was told that haven't actually been true.  We found one close to the hotel and walked there.  Have I mentioned that no speaks English and that we can't read Chinese.  (I'm regreting not taking a crash corse in Mandarin.) After quite an ordeal and $120 later, we have clean clothes.
Next, we decide to go see the sights.  Hmmm, not sure that was such a great idea.  We got a taxi and showed him a picture of where we wanted to go--East Lake.  We had no idea our destination was as large as it was.  We later learned that the East Lake is the largest lake in all of China.  It really was a beautiful area.  We even saw the sun (which was a first since we arrived in China).  After being dropped off, we thought we would grab a quick lunch and then do some activities.  We started looking for places to eat.  I had no idea that finding lunch was going to be that complicated.  First, you have to find a place that looks decent, then you have to see a menu.  The menu is the key.  If there are no pictures for you to point at, then you can't eat there. We walked for hours and stopped at several food places and never got lunch. I can't even begin to explain how frustrating the situation was. Even with several translation apps on our phone, we aren't being successful. Tired and starving, we saw a place with coke and chocolate.  Hallelujah!  It will at least tied us over till we can find a place.  We are so far from our hotel, that we decide to catch a boat back to the other side of the lake.  Nope, the last boat has already left. We are too late.  We walk all the way back to the main highway and hail a cab.  We are done!    I show him the business card from our hotel and off we go.  We ended up having the restaurant in our hotel cook us a hamburger.  I don't know about everyone else in my party, but I'm ready to be home.  My nerves are shot. The girls are being real troopers and I am grateful.  I felt bad for them today.  I know tomorrow will be better.  We will have our driver and guide back, but most of all, it is gotcha day.  We get our son tomorrow (Monday) at 2:30!  

Transfer Day

On Saturday, we were picked up by our guide at 11am and taken to the train station.  When we filled out our itinerary, we were given the option of riding the bullet train or flying. We couldn't pass up the train.  200 mph, but it didn't feel like it.  You knew you were moving along, but you thought it might be more like 100 or 120, not 200.  The girls loved it and I decided it was better than flying.

The pollution in Beijing is so bad that by the 4th day, we all had headaches and were ready to leave the city.  We thought it would clear after only a few minutes on the train but it didn't.  Only after arriving in Wuhan which is about 1000 miles from Beijing did we begin to see the tops of buildings. We arrived in Wuhan at 6pm and were picked up by our driver and translator.  We were taken to our hotel and dropped off.  We were told we would not see a translator or driver until Monday at 1:45.  Great!  It's late and we are exhuasted and hungry so we decided to eat in the hotel at $40 per person.  Ouch.  The price we pay for convenience.

Beijing Day 3

Well, we did not have our guide with us today.  It was a free day.  I thought that would come as a relief to be on our own schedule, but our guide and driver are awesome.  We have the same driver and guide all week and have really come to love them dearly.  I almost cried when we said goodbye.  So, we ventured out on our own.  We wanted to see the Temple of Heaven, so we managed to find the subway and make it to the right stop.

We found a Pizza Hut for lunch. It's not exactly the same food as an American Pizza Hut, but close enough that it was a much needed escape from Chinese food.  We went to the Pearl Market and Toy Market.  The girls loved it.  If you have never been to a market that you have to get feisty and dicker with the prices, put that on your bucket list.  It reminded me of the streets of Tiajuana Mexico.  Jeremy loved it and got us some great deals. When we left, the girls said "Those people are crazy!".  It was great!

Then to find dinner--on our own.  Let me remind you that everything is in Chinese.  We can't read street signs, menus, much less ask anyone.  So we decided to go to a place we were taken the night before.  This is where it begins to get crazy and I know that me telling this story is not as funny as it really was.  You would have had to be there.  Imagine a huge crowd of chinese people outside this restaurant.  We go inside and hold up 5 fingers.  She gives us a ticket--in chinese.  We have no idea what it says and it is a long note.  We find the number 54 at the top and assume that's our ticket number.  Even if it is, we have no idea what number they are calling.  We began to laugh hysterically. What have we done? I get out my trusty cheat sheet and look up the numbers 5 and 4. Woo shur shu. Great, everything they say sounds like woo shur shu.  We decided that when they called a number, we would just see if anyone acted like it was their number.  If not, it must be us. We waited and waited. Just when we were about to give up, we heard 'woo shur shu' over the speaker. We all screamed, that's us! The lady behind the desk started laughing at us. After being seated, we just pointed at want we wanted and everthing worked out. Great memories.  P.S. It's my dads birthday today. I'm sure he had a good laugh too.

Beijing Day 2

So, yesterday was a full day.  Our feet hurt so bad when we got back to the hotel that we didn't even go out for dinner.  In the morning we went to the Summer Palace.  Built in the 1400's, it's a place where the Emperor would spend the summer to escape the heat of Beijing.

Then we exchanged some money and went to lunch.  Our guide ordered us eight dishes for lunch.  Now you know why skipping dinner wasn't really a problem.  After lunch we went to Tiananmen Square.

And then to the Forbidden City. It is the place the Emperor lived. No one was allowed in, hence the name, Forbidden.  I've never seen anything so large in my life.  I know why they call it a 'city'. A building for eating, one for sleeping, one for meetings, several for all his concubines, etc... it was insane.  It made the white house look like the servants quarters.

The last event was The Legacy of Kung Fu show.  It told the story using music and dancing, no words.  It was an exhausting day, but so fun.  So grateful to live in America and have the freedoms we enjoy.

We have arrived!

Yeah. We are finally here and all is well. We left Salt Lake at 2pm on the 20th and arrived in Beijing at 8pm on the 21st. The flights were not as bad as I had imagined. Packing lots of fun stuff for the girls to do in their backpacks helped tremendously along with all the in-flight movies and games.

 Our hotel is called the Hulu and is located in one of the old Hutongs that was renovated and turned into a hotel.

On Wednesday, we got up and met our tour guide, Jasmine. Her husband picked us up from the airport. They are a very cute family and speak almost perfect English. We feel like royalty with our own tour guide and driver all day long. We went to the Jade factory first.

They showed us how the Jade is carved and taught us how to tell the difference in real jade and the fake stuff. One of the coolest pieces of Jade is a family ball. It starts as one ball and when they are done, it has 4 layers that move independently. On the outside is a carved dragon and phoenix. It symbolizes the unity of the family. Yes, we purchased one. It is a perfect piece to symbolize this journey.
Our second stop was the Great Wall. There are no words. It is magnificent. We rode the ski lifts up to the top and rode the toboggan ride back down. We sat on some stairs of the great wall for a while just trying to take it all in--not believing that we were actually sitting on the Great Wall of China. Surreal.

We ate at a restaurant next to the Great Wall, called Mr. Yang's and had BBQ fish. Our last stop of the day was to see the Acrobat show. We were a few minutes late, and so they placed us in the VIP section (2nd row). The girls were mesmerized.

Experiences in life

I read an quote on Facebook the other day that said "You haven't really lived until you have given something to someone who can never repay you." wow. I immediately thought of my girls' birth mother. The sacrifice and strength needed to give your child to someone else is mind blowing to me. I can never repay her and in a way, I'm glad. Because the gift Heavenly Father will give her will be much better. Several months ago, Jeremy and I were sitting in the Immigration Office getting fingerprints for like the umpteenth time. We were people watching. (That's quite a treat in this office--cops, illegals). Jeremy turned to me and said, "People need more experiences in their life". I pondered that for some time and realized that people only have one life, one chance to do something that will make a difference. Something big. Part of something bigger than yourself. It's humbling and rewarding. It opens your eyes to others and the true meaning of loving your brother. I am so grateful for my experiences in my life. Not being able to have children has been difficult. The pain is physical, emotional and in a way, spiritual, but I never imagined that I would get to travel on this amazing journey called adoption. It is like opening your soul. The experience of being able to look into another woman's eyes and tell her thank you. Knowing those words are completely inadequate. The experience of standing next to her in the delivery room. The feeling of looking at her after the baby was placed in my arms. The mixture of emotion--pain, fear, unselfishness and joy is indescribable. An experience that only a few ever get to have. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I want my girls to know that their mother was brave and unselfish. She loves them and I love her. It is a triangle that can't be broken.