Finishing Up

Reasons I'm two weeks behind finishing up our China details on this blog:
1)  jet lag
2)  Lottie


Yep.  That's about it.  We've been settled in at home for two weeks now....seems like it should be a lot longer than that, but we checked the calendar and yep - we've only been home for two weeks. Cray.  Jet lag did a number on us and Lottie is FULL TIME, so I've now forgotten most of what happened in those last days in China.... but I'm gonna insert a bunch of pictures below and just hope it all comes back to me.  Cause we want to remember as much as possible!  So, here goes......


Tuesday - Appointment at United States Consulate


On Tuesday, we had our official appointment at the US Consulate.  Because they'd been shut down the day before due to the typhoon, they'd had all the missed appointments come in on Tuesday and they were working folks in..... IT WAS CROWDED.  But Simon got us unloaded and through security quickly and we by-passed a bunch of long lines and walked right in!  We went upstairs with the rest of our group and joined a whole bunch of folks with their newly adopted kiddos as we waited to 1) take the oath that says something about something (Joe took the oath for us while I played with Lottie, so I dunno what we actually promised there.... something like all our paperwork is true and adoption rocks.....) and 2) have an "interview" about our adoption experience (basically answering things like, yes, her condition matched the information in her file and yes, we'd been prepared for all the stuff in adoption and yes, we've been to China before and stuff like that.  Quick and simple.  Then they took a whole mess of our paperwork and gave us the VERY IMPORTANT BROWN ENVELOPE that you MUST NOT OPEN and DO NOT LOSE cause you'll need it at customs to GET YOUR KID INTO THE US.  And we were done!  Just like that!


Mary had worn the same red, white, and blue dress that Mary wore to her consulate appointment five years earlier.  SO CUTE. 

On Tuesday night, we went on the Pearl River Dinner Cruise.  This was really something else!  We'd missed this event on our last trip due to EPIC Mary meltdown, so we were excited to experience this for the first time.  SO MUCH FUN!  There was music (uh. Ricky Martin in Chinese is FUN. NY.), a strange but entertaining clown-like trick-doing lady, balloon animals, lots of food, and BEAUTIFUL scenery!  It really was a lovely evening - boosted our spirits as we headed into the home stretch!

They called these Phoenix Claws - I call them chicken feet - and no, we didn't.

About 15 years ago, all of Guangzhou was farmland.  When the government took over the city and began to develop it, they put about 10,000 farmers out of their lands and work.  As compensation, the farmers were each given 10 units in these condominium complexes.  The farmer could live with their families in one unit and then rent out the other units as income.  Now, these units (which the farmers were given for free to own for life), bring in about 10,000 or more dollars EACH MONTH in rental income!  We were told that the farmers were VERY happy with this deal!  No work, free condos, and LOTS of money each month in rent!  Not bad for a farmer!

 

Wednesday - Back to Shaiman Island and the TOY MARKET

Our schedule was a little wonky because of the typhoon, so our guide asked us what we wanted to do that day.  Half of our travel group went about an hour away to a Safari park and half of us decided to do a bit more shopping.  We headed back to Shaiman Island (I"m not sure I'm spelling that right....) and saw the aftermath of the typhoon.  93% of the island had no power and all the shops and restaurants had most of their things on the sidewalk trying to air out.  It was awful!  We got lucky and found one of the shops open.... but we had to shop by flashlight!  No problem.... we found several things we'd been looking for.... English/Chinese Bible, ornaments, and a chop for Lottie (that's the way the Chinese do official signatures - with their chop..... and we needed one for Lottie!)  

Facetiming with the brothers......

Getting SO ready to go home.... IS IT FRIDAY YET?

beautiful......

Airing out the damaged goods from the floods.....

The shop owner gave Lottie a pair of shoes for free!

I'm not sure what he's selling, but it must be good.....

Now, let me explain the TOY MARKET.  There's no way to explain the toy market.  I have very few pictures of the toy market because it was HOT in the toy market, I was toting a KID through the toy market, and we were told we had FORTY MINUTES to shop in the toy market.  I am still beyond at how marvelous this place is..... one area was kinda small..... lots of little booths.....but the OTHER place is like SIX FLOORS full of TINY LITTLE BOOTHS with EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD THAT YOU CAN IMAGINE for sale.... Made in China - for real.  With China prices! 

Things I bought:   silk handkerchiefs, Marvel lego sets, notebooks, silk bags, squishies (there was a WHOLE BOOTH OF SQUISHIES), Marvel keychains, rubix cubes, handheld games, and other stuff I can't even remember.  I wish I had  more pictures, but I HAD TO HURRY. 

Just imagine the greatest thing you've ever seen with your eyeballs - that's the toy market.

On Wednesday night, Lottie and I ventured back to the WalMart where we DID NOT get lost, thank you very much, and it was NOT crowded.... so it was FUN.  We got three dumpling rolling pins (which I'm sure you can buy at home, but it makes it so fun that they came from actual China!) and some penguin slippers for Max!  (We had souvenirs for everyone but Max, thus the trip back to WM)..... I carried Lottie in her pouch that I wear and she did GREAT!  We even stopped in a nice little bakery on the way back and got a couple of treats for dad's BIRTHDAY which was the next day!

Here is the one picture I took at the WalMart - the chopstick section.  I love this. 

I'm having trouble remembering, but I THINK it was Wednesday night when we went out and found our favorite Cantonese restaurant down the street from the hotel.  We'd been there last time and really liked it, so it was fun to go back!  This time, we weren't with our guide, so we had to order on our own..... there was much fried rice, noodles, shrimp, steamed ribs, and bok choy.  IT WAS GOOD.

 

Thursday - Mom packs, Lottie's Visa is ready, Dad and the girls explore the hotel - and Dad's birthday!

Ha!  Lottie's like, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?

Lobby of our hotel....

They were getting ready for the MidAutumn Moon Festival, so the decorations were everywhere!

And so were the moon cakes...... MILLIONS of people buying moon cakes in the back area of our hotel.....

Killing time in the hall while Mom packs.....

That night, the hotel hosted a little reception for all adoptive families staying in the hotel.  It was VERY sweet..... I feel like all the families were BEYOND ready to be home by that point, but it was nice to have one final time to say goodbye and God bless you to folks we'd met or been waving to at breakfast for a week or more....

That's one thing that had impacted me on both of our trips..... there are a LOT of families adopting - big kids, little kids, sick kids, fragile kids, healthy kids, girls, boys..... there are dozens of families each week at our hotel alone.... but for every child who gains a forever family, there are HUNDREDS of kids left behind.  SO MANY KIDS who just need a family.  On both trips, I remember getting on that plane to head back to the United States, my new little one on my hip, thinking about all the kids left behind. 

You got room to love another one?  COME TALK TO ME.  Joe's ALL OVER the Angel Home Foster kids...... been WeChatting those folks since we got home and there are several who are paper-ready!  They just need someone to say yes and get on the plane to China! 

Speaking of planes.....

FRIDAY - TIME TO GET ON THE PLANE AND GO HOME.

I'd been dreading this part.  Not the part about going home - I was WAY ready to see my boys, have AIR CONDITIONING (Lord have MERCY), and sleep in my own bed.

But there were things I was NOT excited about:

1) the plane ride - it is LONG.  And Lottie would be SITTING IN MY LAP the whole way.  We had Guangzhou to Beijing.  Then a LONG layover in Beijing.  Then Beijing to Detroit (12 hours).  Then Detroit to Birmingham.  I was not excited about this.

2) I was also not excited about the emotional side of that plane lifting off the ground in China.  Cause I always realize in that moment that I'm taking my girls away from their home country.  I'm taking them away from their culture and their language. I'm putting A LOT of miles between them and their birth family and their first home.  I'm taking them to a place that is FULL OF LOVE, but full of unknowns.... and it will always be their second home.  I've packed my bags FULL of trinkets and treasures and gifts from China - things to give them through the years to represent their home country - but it's not the same as BEING THERE.  This ALWAYS makes me cry.

But we will be back.  In a few years, when the girls are older, we'll go back.  We'll visit their provinces, walk again on the Great Wall, eat the food, and hopefully, visit the places where they lived their first months of life.  Until then, we'll make dumplings and celebrate the holidays and talk a lot about China.

On Friday morning, our group met Simon in the lobby at 6AM.  That was 5PM on Thursday night in Alabama.  Travel day begins......

BYE, SIMON!  THANK YOU!

Silly airport faces......

The first leg went really well.  Guangzhou to Beijing - about 2 and a half hours..... Lottie ate a good snack and then fell asleep!  Yay!

Mary watched a movie.  Also yay!

Then there was Beijing.  BOOOOOO on Beijing.  First of all, our stroller went missing.  WE NEED THAT THING.  Finally, they found it!  So we were off to customs.  Where they told us we were at the wrong door.  So we went to another place and the security people there said the other door was right.  So we went back to that door.  Made it through, bags through security, loaded back on cart, kids in stroller..... off to recheck bags and go to gate.  OH NO.  Not so fast.  These two girls (who are on my LIST now), took the tickets we'd had printed in Guangzhou and THREW THEM AWAY.  Then, they told us that Lottie's ticket was not matched with our tickets.  They got on the phone with Delta and we waited A WHOLE LOTTA MINUTES while they tried to get it fixed.  They did not try urgently, mind you..... it was all very casual and not a big deal to them..... but they weren't letting us move forward.  And while we waited and worried and tried to settle down two increasingly agitated kids, THEY ATE COOKIES (not my kids, the girls at the ticket counter).  I bout lost it. 

Finally, they told us there was nothing they could do.  We would have to visit main Delta counter upstairs.  So instead of checking our luggage, we toted it all upstairs to the main, CHAOTIC Delta area. 

This is where it all went to pot.

This lady starts telling us that our bags are overweight.  This had not been a problem in Guangzhou, but apparently, in Beijing, it is..... we told them it was fine.... just tell us how much we owe.... no,she said, too much.... just take some stuff out.  Lady, I'm already carrying two kids, three backpacks, and some other stuff.  I"ll pay. I don't care.

She wouldn't hear of it.  So, in the MILLION DEGREE HEAT of the airport with a BUNCH OF PEOPLE behind me in line and a little bald-headed Asian YELLING AT ME from the stroller, I started pulling crap from our luggage. 

What was Joe doing, you might ask?  Well, he'd been pulled to a BACK AREA to literally  UNPACK one of our suitcases because there was something questionable in it. 

Do you want to know what the questionable thing was?

An umbrella.  It was an umbrella.

So Joe's got the contents of one suitcase spread all over the airport, I'm jerking things out of another one left and right (muttering things about America and Donald Trump under my breath), and Mary and Lottie are BEYOND sitting in the stroller.  People felt sorry for us.

It was a scene.  An ugly, bad, sweaty scene.

I do not like you, Beijing airport.

Your only bright spot was the fella that spotted us in the VERY LENGTHY customs line and opened up a rope and pulled us to the FRONT OF THE LINE.  He sensed my desperation, I'm sure of it.  I liked that man.  THANK YOU, customs official.

So we made it to our gate, I gave Lottie a quick bath in the bathroom sink (which she DID NOT appreciate AT ALL), and we got ready for the LONG LEG of the journey.

And HOORAY and PRAISE THE LORD, both girls did GREAT!

They looked like THIS for most of the flight......

Once we landed in Detroit, Lottie Powell became a US Citizen! 

Hey, Lottie, you're a citizen of the United States of America!

Airport shenanigans.  She does whatever Mary does.  All the time.

The customs line here was easy peasy (gave them the brown envelope and we were done!), rechecked our luggage, and made it to our gate in no time.  Here, the girls got their second wind.  We ate and played and walked and laughed. 

Then we hopped on that plane where Lottie went right back to sleep.  Praise you, Lord!

Once in Birmingham, we had a car service waiting.... we'd told the family that we'd rather they all go to Max's football game and not wait on us at the airport.  They'd been texting us throughout our final flight the details of the game - apparently, it was a nail biter!  Jack's words were  THERE IS A LOT GOING ON - this game and Lottie's almost home!

Lottie's sitting in her first carseat!  Cause they don't use those in the China!

Here's how long we'd been traveling.  GRACIOUS it was good to be home.

The fam was waiting in the culdesac when we drove up.  We were so happy to have all six kids under one roof!  We talked for a bit and then fell into bed..... SO HAPPY.

Little one in her bed at home.

Yes, Mary still sleeps in our room, too.  And she'd taken the umbrella off the stroller and put it on her bed.  She funny.

But would you look at how Lottie sleeps?  Hiney in the air.  PRECIOUS.

On Saturday morning, we had all the grandparents over for a brunch and let them meet Lottie and love on Mary.  We gave them the gifts we'd brought from China, talked about the trip, and let them get in a bit of play and love before we enter the cocoon.  We'll keep Lottie's world pretty small for the first couple of weeks at least.... she's gotta learn about this place called home and all who live in it.  Once we feel like she's got it figured out and has a good handle on who Mama, Daddy, sister, and brothers are..... we'll welcome all family and friends to love on her and hold her! 

Lottie spent the first couple of days exploring every nook and cranny of the house, playing with Mary, and getting to know the boys.  She fell in love with them pretty quickly (what's not to love?) and is settling in well!

We are overwhelmed and amazed at God's love for us.  He led us to adoption.  He led us to Mary.  He led us to adopt again.  He led us to Lottie.

We feel full and complete and totally blown away at His blessings on us.

Thanks so much for your prayers and words of encouragement.

Adoption ain't easy.  And now the work of raising these sweet people continues.  But I am OVERWHLEMED that the Lord chose me to do it!

I told Joe that it feels like I can take a deep breath now and move forward with life.  No more waiting on someone to come. I'm so thankful to feel complete.  My people are all here.

Thank you, Jesus.

More to come soon about our first two weeks at home!  Everyone is doing just great!