Wal-Mart!!!

Yes, I have an official post for Wal-Mart...it was quite the experience! After settling in at the hotel in Zhengzhou and exchanging money at the bank our group took a field trip to Wally World. According to our guide it's in the Manhattan district...so funny! One thing about Wal-Mart in China and America that remains the same...it's dirty! Here's some pics my hubby took...he really got into the Wal-Mart outing:)
 

Me picking out rice cereal

On the buggy escalators w our guide Vivienne

Gross pigs feet

Not sure what you want to eat just pick it from the tanks in the meat dept.

GOTCHA DAY 7-1-13

I sure wish I was writing this the day we met Chloe, but today, as I write it has been almost a week since we first laid eyes on our Asian beauty-pure perfection!! Here's a recap of CHLOE Day...a day we will never, ever forget.

Our group (about 10 families) walked into the Zhengzhou Civil Affairs Office around 9:30 am. There were already babies there waiting with their orphanage directors/nannies. We watched as families literally had their breath taken away as they saw their children for the first time. It was a beautiful, beautiful sight. Lots of babies continued to arrive, but Chloe and one other child had yet to arrive. Nick and I and the other family still waiting just stared out at the parking lot begging for our babies to get there. Finally, around 10:45 am a blue SUV pulled in and we saw a caregiver getting out with a baby. We couldn't see the babies face so we weren't sure if it was Chloe or MeiMei, but the close the got I knew it was Chloe. The orphanage director walked right past me with her even though I was holding my arms out for her. Our guides showed the director that I was the mama and she gave Chloe to me. It was one of the greatest moments of my life...you know the moment when your kids are born and you see them for the first time...well, imagine that times 500. This child who we had prayed for, cried over, yearned for years for, and traveled the world for was finally being placed in our arms. I held it together because I didn't want to scare her, but Nick was having a tough time. He cried most of the morning prior to her arrival watching families receive their children. Although it was beautiful, there were many children there crying and begging not to go with their new mama and babas. Thankfully, our precious girl wasn't one of those children. She came to us and let us hold her without tears. She seemed so overwhelmed and we couldn't get any smiles, but she was content in our arms. We took turns holding her and loving on her while the other would try and get information from the nannies and sign paperwork. We found out that she hadn't eaten since 5:30 am so I scrambled (still shaking from nerves) to give her some baby food while we waited for the orphanage to give me formula which could only be obtained from them and wasn't available at the local Wal-Mart. Chloe ate like a champ...she is a chunky little thing. Lots of yummy rolls to kiss all down her legs and arms:) After all of our paperwork was complete we went back to the hotel for a bath, bottle, and nap. Chloe eats soooo well...well, formula that is. I don't think she has ever been given baby food or table foods. She has three teeth and naws the bottle to get her milk. I do have to squeeze just a little, but I am afraid she is quite used to doing it all by herself. She took a great nap and wasn't afraid when she woke up again to us. We are in love...and just so, so, so thankful to her Creator and the mother that gave birth to our daughter. She is precious beyond words and we can't wait to spend this life making up for the 13 months she spent without us!

One of the families in our group meeting Lily

 

 

 My friend Kelli meeting one of her children MeiLi

The room and all the families

Nick and I stared at this parking lot from the door for what felt like an eternity

Waiting for Chloe

 

Getting my baby girl for the very first time

 

JOY! 

 

She doesn't know what to think 

 One of the orphanage directors

 

 

Chloe's Daily Routine

Today after getting on the bus at the airport we were handed translated information about Chloe...her routine and such. Thought I would share some of our first glimpses about what our daughter will like:)

-She eats formula six times a day (every four hours). Her formula brand is "Qin Yong".

-She has cookies and bread for snack at 10:30 am. She is fed plain boiled water or Isatis Root water from bottle with snack

-She goes to bed at 8:00 pm and gets up at 6:30 am. She takes one nap from 11:30 am till about 2:00. She wakes one time at night to be fed. She does not need to be brought to the toliet to pee (in China when babies reach a certain age they wear split pants and the caregivers take them to the squatty potty to train them). She sleeps in a crib by herself. She sleeps on her tummy with a light on. She doesn't need to be held to fall asleep.

-She takes a bath every evening. She likes bathing. She is not afraid of the bath and does not cry or get fussy.

-She is a lively and active girl. If she cries or gets fussy you can give her snacks and a toy. She likes the toys that make sounds. We haven't found anything that she is afraid of. She can sit by herself.

-Her rooomate friend is Dang Qing Xin. (I sure hope we get to meet her).

It's so nice to have a better idea of how to care for her. Less than 24 hours now and no more nannies...mama and baba will meet her every need!!! Praise God!!!

Day 2 and 3: Jade Factory, Great Wall, Chinese lunch, Olympic Village, Acrobatic Show and Travel

Yesterday we had a full day for our last day in Beijing. We started the day at the Jade Factory. It was neat to see the different kinds of jades and how to tell real from fake.

 

 

Next, we went to the Great Wall of China...one of the seven wonders of the world. Pretty cool that we can say we have climbed it. Nick climbed both sides (shocker) in the 1.5 hours that we had...I barely made it up one side...all the steps were different sizes because when it was built it was supposed to make is difficult for adversaries to get to them...well, now us tourists know just how difficult it is. Nick was DRENCHED when he was done so we made our first souvenir purchase..."I climbed the Great Wall" shirt.

 Climbing so, so, so exhausting

 Nick on the second part minus his non-fit wife

At one of the towers

 

After the Great Wall we enjoyed (well me not so much-I only ate rice) another Chinese lunch. Our group is great and we have really enjoy getting to know them. They had some beer for us and some liquor which smelled like acetone (don't think anyone actually tried it the smell was so bad)...here are some of at lunch toasting to our babies!

 

 

 

Next stop of the day was the Olympic Village. We only had a few minutes there to take some pictures by the bird's nest and water cube, but it was cool too see.

 

 You can see the smog in all the pictures...it is so polluted especially in Beijing. They said prior to the Olympics they shut off the factory for a week or so to clear out the smog.

 

Finally, we ended our day with an acrobatic show. It was great, but we couldn't take pictures. It kind of reminded me of Cirque but on a small scale with all Chinese performers. I have to admit, by the end of the day we were so exhausted we could barely keep our eyes open. We are still waking up at 2:00 am China time (2:00 pm US time) every night for several or more hours. Hopefully, tonight will be better since its our fourth night here.

 

This morning we got up very early to leave the hotel by 7:00 am for our flight to Zhengzhou (Chloe's province). Chloe's orphanage is 3.5 hours from here. Our flight was uneventful except my DTC FB friend who joined our group (and I "met" for real the first time today) and I were stopped and given a hard time at security because we had baby food and no babies. Thank God our guide was still outside the security walls and could yell to them our babies were in Zhengzhou and we were adopting. So our baby food made it..YAY!!!

 Here's our guide Michael just outside of security...he was only our guide for Beijing...we will miss Michael...he was sooooo nice!! He even took Nick to the pharmacy one evening for suspected pink eye help. I don't think Michael even knew what pink eye was but he was able to secure some drops that made Nick's eyes better (although Nick swears they weren't drops and were urine...and that is what it looked like).

 

Here's my friend Kelli! I think I have said before that I heart my FB adoption groups...I really feel like these girls our "friends" (and they are) so it is sooooo nice to meet them in person. We will have a chance to meet many, many more in GZ! Including my cyber BFF Maureen and my new friend Dawn Campbell from good ol' Highlands County (my hometown).

 

Now, as I type we are all settled in our hotel (another even nicer Crowne Plaza) waiting for the crib to arrive. Nick's at the bank with the group exchanging money for all the rest of our adoption affairs. Then we will head out to Wal-Mart to buy Chinese formula, diapers, and wipes.

 

 It is crazy to think that this moment I have waited what feels like most of my life for is finally here!!!!! Chloe should arrive at the local Civil Affairs office around 9:30 a.m. Everyone in the group will go together and receive their babies at the same time. I hear Chloe may arrive later because her orphanage can only be traveled from my van and its a 3.5 hour drive. I already have tears in my eyes as I think of watching nine families receive 10 children (Kelli is adopting 2). Tomorrow will be a beautiful day, but also a difficult one. Our children have experienced so much...loss, maybe trauma, life in an institution, and will be ripped away from everything they have ever know. Although my heart leaps with excitement that this day has finally come, it isn't without some sadness as well.

 

This quote expresses my feelings better than I ever could-

"A child born to another woman calls me Mom. The depth of the tragedy and magnitude of the privilege are not lost on me" -Jody Landers





Travel and Day 1: Hutong, Silk Factory, Traditional Chinese Lunch,Tianamen Sqaure, Forbidden City

Ni Hao! It's been a whirlwind couple of days...we had an uneventful trip...flights on time, luggage all here, and we were able to make it from airport to hotel with no problem. We were sooooo tired-20 hours of travel with a 14 hour flight from Newark to Beijing was exhausting. When we arrived at our hotel (Crowne Plaza) we wanted to go to sleep, but since it was 3:30 pm here we tried our best to stay awake first, so we could talk to the boys...second, so we could try and get on the 12 hour time difference schedule. I was feeling pretty sad and home sick...I am sure some of those emotions were part of sheer exhaustion, but it wasn't a fun night. We got to talk to the boys and then went to sleep about 7:30 p.m. but woke up around midnight and could not go back to sleep. We watched Duck Dynasty (on the ipad...only a couple English shows on TV) till about 3:00 am and finally went back to sleep until 6:00 am. We went to breakfast and then had a full day of touring. With CCAI, we are always with a guide and have a travel group of around 20 people so far. It is sooo nice to be with people who are also adopting. Most of the families have their children with them though, so that does make me miss our boys even more.

Our tour of Beijing today started at a Hutong (old, traditional Chinese housing) on a rickshaw. The rickshaw right was my favorite part of the day. Next, we went to a government run silk factory. It was cool to see how silk was made, but we refrained from making any purchases due to the high prices. Then we went to a traditional Chinese lunch...our guide ordered for us and it was really very tasty, but made me sick...so I got my first experience with a squatty potty (which made me even more sick). Thank God for zolfran and immodium!!!!! And for tissues and antibac...there isn't toliet paper or soap in the yucky bathrooms. After lunch, I still didn't feel very good so it was kind of a blur, but my history buff husband enjoyed the square and Forbidden City. It was soooo smoggy though so our pictures weren't very good and we walked for MILES, but it kept me busy and my mind off wishing this trip would go quickly.

 

Richshaw ride

 



 

Forbidden City

 

Silk Factory

 

Chinese lunch with our group

 

Tomorrow, we head out for The Great Wall, chinese lunch (I won't eat), Olympic Village, and an acrobat show. It should be another full day!!! Then Sunday we say goodbye to Beijing to fly to Chloe!!! We will be united with her on Monday (China time) Sunday night (U.S. time). Goodnight from China!

Family Fun Day

No more work, no more to dos (well maybe a few) its just a day to enjoy with my precious ones!!! Ethan wants to go to Golden Corral-no joke  and Gavin wants to go to Disney World! Guess we shall see what today brings!!! It's sure to be memorable:)

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changes not, Thy compassions, they fail not : Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

God is faithful!! How do I know? We have trusted him for big, crazy, miraculous, move mountains things in this last year and a half. I was looking back at my testimony I wrote for church for how God was working in my life a year ago...here is the condensed version of what I wrote...

Until recently, I have lived most of my adult life as a spiritually complacent Christian....not rejecting God but not totally in love with him either. That all changed recently when various life circumstances led Nick and I to seriously seek God's will for our lives in the area of adoption. Specifically to adopt a little girl with special needs from China. I prayed God would break my heart for what breaks His and boy did he answer. I can no longer sleep at night and pretend this world isn't full of suffering or pretend there aren't orphans....millions of them living in conditions most of us would shudder at the thought of. I can no longer pretend that some aren't hungry, scared, and have never known love of any kind....some have incredible special needs. My heart aches. As I scoured the bible for verses related to orphans God began to change me, not just in my burden did orphans of this world, but he totally made over my heart, my marriage, our finances, my desires. I could share so many verses and passages that have spoken to meme over the course of these last months. I am so excited about what God's Word has done in our lives. Phillipians 3:16 says God is working in you giving you the power and desire to do what He pleases. That week there was no denying what God was telling us "to do" was to surrender to His call to adopt a baby with special needs internationally with limited resources to do so on our own. This seems crazy to even us-we have two small children of our own, limited resources, and time and why in the world China?! This is certainly not a safe, comfortable, easy plan in the eyes of man, but God keeps reminding me every time I open His word that my job isn't to have it all figured out. David Platt says in his book Radical that when we see a biblical picture of Jesus, we realize the greatness of who He is demands the surrender of all we are and all we have. Our job is to deny ourselves and follow him with radical devotion. James 1:22 says Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. For us this means living out James 1:27 to look after orphans and widows in their distress with sacrificial devotion.

I needed to read and write this today so I could be reminded how mighty God is....He has moved many mountains for us and He deserves all our devotion.