Today we had some more free time until 12:30pm when we were to be picked up at the hotel by John our guide. Theo, Laura and I started out early and had our usual breakfast… a fried egg (both sides), bacon, toast, sausage link, and a pancake, cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant. You might be thinking… lame for not trying all of the other international options, but to date we are the only couple without stomach issues. Talk about an answer to prayer! We had a close call at the zoo after the (smelly) hippo exhibit, but we were able to reign it in.
Typical Breakfast – Hyatt Jinan
After breakfast, we said goodbye to some of the hostesses and walked over to Starbucks only to find the doors locked at 8:00am. The barista came and unlocked the door and we all had a good laugh about how in the United States, some Starbucks open before 5:00am. 15 minutes later she was ready to take our order…
Hostess who loved “Hui Hui” – Theo’s Chinese name
We walked back to the hotel and spent the next 3 ½ hours putting Theo down for his morning nap and packing up the rest of our luggage. He slept great last night after we covered him with a heavy duvet. Although we would never do this in the U.S., he has been used to being covered by such a heavy blanket for his whole life and it really helped him sleep through the night. He must have been cold the past the nights.
We met John in the lobby and he loaded us all up into the van. First stop, the Entry and Exit office of Jinan to pick up Theo’s passport. Laura stayed in the van with Theo while I went in with all the paperwork, and all the other men. My experience so far has been that she is way more prepared than I am in understanding all the paperwork for this trip, but somehow the guys made it through and appeared with each child’s passport. A Chinese passport of course!
Jinan’s Airport
We arrived at the Jinan airport a little after 2:00pm and said our goodbyes to both John and our driver. Each was presented a gift and a specified amount for a tip. John continued to take us through the ticket counter and up through security. He really did a great job and he will be missed for his sense of humor, sometimes scattered brained-ness, and ability to see us through one of the longest/best days of our lives (meeting Theo).
Some of his last words to us were “oh, I forgot to tell you that your seats are not together… but don’t worry, I’m sure someone will switch if you ask them. Chinese people will probably do that for you… bye – bye”.
The ladies and their babies
After we get through security and board the plane, which is full, I approach the man sitting on the window side of Laura with my google translate app in hand. I’m wearing Theo in the carrier at this point and he agrees to switch with me! Great. Or at least we thought. Once he saw that I was sitting in the middle seat for the opposite row, he quickly changed his mind and went back to his original seat… fail.
So I just went back and sat in my original seat hoping that whoever sat next to me would be willing to switch with Laura. More and more people kept filling the plane, but no one was sitting next to me yet. A man came to my row and motioned to the window. He seemed nice and I let him through. Theo’s feet were jabbing him in the side, but when I asked him if he needed anymore room, he declined. Those were the last words we exchanged for the rest of the flight.
The door to the cabin shut. Victory! No one sitting on my left yet, so I motioned to Laura and over she came. Talk about a God thing. There is no way I could have handled two non-english speaking passengers in my ribs and a 1 year old on my lap for the 3 hour flight. Praise His name.
La and Theo at security
After turning many heads with screaming children on our flight, we all made it safely to Guangzhou. We met an airport concierge who led us to our van, and checked into our hotel tonight around 9:00pm.
After a long flight of stares and screaming children
Laura took the lead with Theo while I went out for some McDonalds and our next few day’s supply of drinking water. We did run into another couple who was with us in Beijing and got to see their little boy with a cleft lip (repaired) and cleft pallet (not repaired). They have been in Guangzhou since leaving Beijing.
About the same time I did overhear another woman talking about another high profile adoption agency (not ours) and saying that she was disappointed with how they operated or “catered” to their needs. I talked with Laura about this over a cheeseburger and a bottle of water. It’s going to be a strange feeling tomorrow morning during breakfast when we look around and see many other couples/families with their first/new child. Many American’s holding their new Chinese child. Feeding them, hugging them, kissing them. Comments like the one I heard tonight makes us question other people’s motives. We agree that we don’t truly know everyone’s motives for adopting, but hope that we have been straight forward with everyone reading this blog, others in our group, and even with our own family.
We are not doing this for an experience, we are not doing this to make our Christmas card look cute, we did not decide to adopt an orphaned child so we could feel better about ourselves. We chose to adopt because EVERY child deserves a mother and a father, EVERY child deserves a loving home and someone to stand-up on their behalf, and EVERY child deserves to have that loved sized hole in their heart filled. We chose to adopt because no matter how different we look or act in God’s eyes, He still sent his Son to bring us back into his love. Even when we were lost and off on our own, God brought us back into his family, where we belong. He chose to fill that God sized hole in our hearts with his love, even though some people still don’t realize it’s there.
Your reflection about meeting the other families from other groups in the hotel were very much my own. I would get up early and hang out with Londyn and have breakfast with her and chat with other families. At that time it seemed as though most of the families were like minded, but on our last few days (we were the group from Jinan last July/August that had to be in China for 3 weeks so I had LOTS of breakfasts in that hotel), I bumped into a family that did have different motives and I was actually a little concerned for the 9 year old boy that they were adopting. I can only hope and pray that all is well, but it did leave my heart a little sad then.
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