Waiting to Meet Her

Surprisingly last night I was not too nervous. When we first arrived in Tianjin and started unpacking, the nerves started kicking in. But as the day went and we became very tired(still not over the Jet lag) we were able to sleep - for awhile. Dominic got up at about 2am to use the restroom and we were all up and down the rest of the night. I have to say it was no too much the nerves as it was still recovering from Jet lag( Note to self - Tylenol PM doesn't get me through the entire night so save it until I wake up at 2am!) and the fact that the three of us were sharing a king size bed. We are getting a cot for Dominic but thought we would wait until we got Sophia before we had them bring it up. So Russ threw in the towel at 4:50am and Dominic and I were able to make it until 5:30. Only 3.5 more hours until we leave. So we are double checking everything we need to bring and trying to get the room ready for her.

Wow it is finally here. I have to tell you that I can feel your prayers. I thought I would be a basket case by now and I am not, it is truly an inner peace and a trust in God that he has it all under control. Thank you all.

We have our Sophia!

Things went pretty well today considering. I will have to be brief because we are all getting pretty tired. We have been busy doing things this morning and afternoon and this evening has been pretty quite so it gave her more time to think and therefore more tears. The good thing is that she will let me comfort her when she is sad. SO thank you Jesus for that. What we have seen of her personality is that she is silly and out going. Her and DOminic have been getting along great. In fact when we are out and about, she does not like to hold hands but she will hold his hand.

Tuesday will will go to the civil affairs to make things final and we need to go back to the orphanage to finish up some things also. A little conserned about that because I am not sure how she will respond.

There is another mom here with her daughter that is 11. Sophia and her do not know each other but they can talk to each other so that helps.

So overall everything is going as to be expected. We are really tired so are going to go now. Hope to post more soon.

We are in the Same City as Sophia!

Today was a day of packing driving and unpacking. Nothing really that special, except that we are now in the same city as our daughter. Just typing that still feels so strange. We have been on this road to her for over 9 months now. Nine months at looking at the same pictures(until 1.5 weeks ago), Nine months of reading the same pages of information about her, hoping that I would cathch something new. And now we are only about 12 hours away from meeting her. It almost doesn't seem real, like this whole thing is not real. We are going to have a new daughter tomorrow! My stomach is just at the light stages of butterflies and even Russ finally said, that he was getting very anxious now that we are here.

So just a quick recap of the day. We got up around 6:30 did our normal routine. Met a fellow adoptive mom that has the same agency and talked to her for a little while before she flew off to her province. We then had to kill time until 1pm. We were traveling to Tianjin with another mom, who got in the hotel at about 2am, so we were giving her more time to rest. IT was hard for DOminic because we had been on the go so much and now, we were just sitting in the room. So at 1pm we met Mary and our new guide and driver. Drove to Tianjin in a little over two hours with a van jam packed with suit cases. Once we get the girls, it is going to be really tight to just fit us all in the van. You tell we are not in Beijing any more. There are still many skyscrappers and a few million people that live here, but we seem even more of a minority than when we were in Beijing. THe hotel staff speaks very little english, so our guide did all the check in for us. He is staying here in the hotel also, so that is good. WHen we first pulled up, we saw a group of people at the front of the hotel holding some sort of colorful tubing and something laying on the ground. We quickly realized that there was a wedding reception about to start. It wasn't 2 minutes after we entered the hotel that a huge blast of fireworks went off( the something on the ground)! They were extremely loud, glad we made it inside before that happened. And then the bride and groom appeared in a cute little red convertable. THat was fun to see. We then went to our room to unpack. For dinner we went with Mary to walk around at the local Carrfours(walmart like store) and look for something to eat. Well in the store, we kind of got stuck because you can not go in and out of the same door. So we had to try to find the exit - which was on the floor below, and then find the line that let "NO PURCHASES" out. THe store was packed so that was not easy. But we finally made it out and went to eat at Pizza Hut. We were all very thirsty and ordered the large drinks. Of course the waitress did not speak any english, but thankfully the menu was pointer friendly. Well to our surprise when she brought our drinks to us, we had one full glass( DOminic's) and three empty glasses( ours) and 3 PITCHERS of Pop!!!!. We all had to laugh at ourselves, no wonder the waitress kept trying to repeat the order!

Oh the fun and crazy things that happen when you are in another country( and don't speak the language). Well all I am off to bed. I can barely keep my eyes open. Took a Tylenol PM to make sure I was good and tired so I would sleep through the whole night. SO here is praying that they butterflies stay away until morning. Good night on the last day we are a family of 6!

Beijing Day 2

Today was a fun filled day but very tiring, not that we aren't tired enough from Jet lag). It was the day to visit the Great Wall. It took about 2 hours to drive there. On the way we stopped by the Jade store. Got a quick tour a bought a couple small things. There were many beautiful pieces, it really is amazing at what artists can carve out of the Jade.
It was greet to see the Wall. It is just amazing and beautiful. as we got to the point where the climb up started, you think "oh man am I going to be able to climb this thing. I was here 12 years ago, in early August and didn't make it up half the way, it was soo hot then. Today it was warm but there was a nice breeze. So up we went. We would make several rest stops along the way and did not make it up all the way to the top but we made it to the point that we wanted to get to. Dominic was more nervous about going back down( which I don't blame him). It took us about 40 minutes to get up and 30 to come back down. By the time we stopped at the bottom, my legs would quiver if I stood still. I was hoping that we would go to the pass that had the cable car that took you too the top so I was a little disappointed at first but after we accomplished the limb, I am glad that we were here instead.
So we started back to Bejiing. Stopped for lunch at a place that had some good food but way too much and then on to the Acrobat show. We got back to Bejing a little early so our guide took us to Dr. Tea. THe give you a tea sampling and then try to get you to purchase the tea. It was fun but since all our favorite tea was black, we thought why should I pay for something I can get easily back home.
Finally we were on to the Acrobat Show. Remember how we were running early? Well the traffic was horrible getting there and we made it to our seats just before the show started. A special thank you to our driver who got us there in time but also gave us a taste of what it would be like if vans were in the NASCAR races!

The show was fun and we all enjoyed it. It was really great just watching Dominic and his expressions during the show. What was even more amazing was that we got to sit in the first row. The seats were probably not the best for the overall show, but we were so close that a few times I was a little nervous that one of the acrobats would fall and end up landing on us. In fact Russ got hit in the head twice by feathers from one costume.

We then went back to the room had a little to eat and are all ready for bed and it isn't even 8:30. Oh, we did manage to sleep in till almost 6 am today.

Tomorrow we don't leave for Tianjin until 1pm. There is another mom going with us and she would not get to the hotel until 2am, so they are trying to let her get as much sleep as possible. I can't believe that we have only one more whole day left without out little girl and that we will be in the same town as her tomorrow.Wow, it still doesn't seem real - I wonder when it will?

Pictures

Beijing Day One

Well we started off today early, too early really. I woke up at 3:30 am and tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work. By 4 am we were all up so I started to unpack some. Of course Dominic was bouncing off the wall and ready to go but there was no where to go yet so we finally got him to settle down by putting a movie in. We had a great breakfast buffet. There were several other families here adopting too. One of the families was on the plane with us.
It was overcast and rainy today. We went to Tian'an men Square and the FOrbidden City. It started off rather chilly and a light rain. Of course we had no jackets but soon the rain stopped and it turned out to be fine. RUss and Dominic were amazed at how large the Forbidden City was. My favorite part was the Imperial Garden at the end. So beautiful. It was a little unnearving for DOminic, you could tell he was very nervous about all the crowds and was very clingy, but that was ok. We did get a lot of stares and even one lady was commenting on DOminic and kept staring at him as we walked, he did not like it at all.
After the touring we went to the Pearl Market and Silk Factory. They are really just tourist traps to get you to buy something and being the typical tourist shopper, I couldn't let them down. I really wanted to get a strand of pearls that had all the different colors but it was way too expensive so I got my purple pearls, just love them. At least the silk factory was very educational. Dominic enjoyed it, probably because it had to do with worms and cocoons.

We ate lunch out today at a buffet which was pretty good but there was nothing DOminic really wanted except for fried rice. So at this point he was tired and hungry. SO after a quick stop at the Silk Factory we went back to the hotel, he fell asleep in the van.

We then took a little nap, ventured out to McDonalds for dinner and now are just trying to stay up as late as possible to try to get adjusted to the time.

Tomorrow we head out to the Great Wall and then to a Jade Store and end the day with an Acrobat Show. I hope I can keep Dominic up through it all.

I am thankful that we came early not only to see the sites but also adjust to the time. I was afraid that these first few days would go really slow but they are moving quickly. It looks like we will be traveling to Tianjin with another Mom getting her daughter so we will have someone to talk to in TIanjin besides ourselves and our guide.

Well off to get ready for bed and chill out a little. Only two full day until we see our little girl.

Can't Seem to get the pictures to come up throught this process so I will try to email them.

In China

We made it safe and everything went very smooth! Yea God! We got up Wednesday morning at 4:45 am and got to our hotel at 4 am THursday morning(Ohio time) Just short of 24 hours on the go. None of us slept much on the 13 hour flight here, we just could not get comfortable but amazingly the time went quickly. In fact this flight seemed better then our flights to Moscow. It took about an hour to get to through the airport and to our car but the airport was so nice and organized. Kyley, Greg, Phyllis and Craig - passport control had lines!!! and I did not feel like we were in a smokey dungeon. We then had a long ride to the hotel but got checked in and to our room, even the phone I had ordered to be delivered to the hotel was there(and it worked the first time too)! We took a quick 1.5 hour nap and then called home. We ventured out around the block, there was a McDonalds Pizza Hut and KFC but we just were not that hungry, that will hit us a 4am. So we got noodles and water in the hotel and ate in our room.
We met two couples that sat beside us on the plane that are adopting too. They are in different provinces but we are at the same hotel in Guangzhou so we will meet up with them again.
We will be touring tomorrow so I should have some pictures for you then. It is so hard to believe that we are here. I know we have only been in the process for about 10 months( the couple by me on the plane had been waiting 5 years!) but it just doesn't seem real. only 3.5 more days until we meet our little girl. I find myself looking intently at all the little girls trying to imagine what it will be like in just a few days.

THank you for all your prayers, we definetly are feeling them. DOminic has been a great trooper. It was really hard for him to sleep on the plane but for a little boy with major sleep depervation, he is doing great! Well, off to get ready for bed. Talk to you soon.