We Made it to Nanjing!

Well, we just broke the cardinal sin of jet-lag… we took a very long nap.  I couldn’t help it, we made it to Nanjing, got checked in, had a quick tour of where to find all the essentials, ate McDonalds, and bam… it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I laid down for just a minute and now 3 hours and some crazy dreams later, I am awake.  Ryleigh and Tim did it, too.  Reagan entertained herself by doing homework and playing games on the computer.  Now we will surely be messed up to go to bed on time later, but boy did I need that nap!

Our morning went very smoothly.  We got loaded up with our group and made it to the airport in plenty of time.  Our flight was nice, it was full and we were the only non-Chinese people on there, but they still announced everything twice, once in Chinese and once in English, thank goodness!  It was a short flight of an hour and a half.  When we took off, most of the people on the plane made an excited “Wow” kind of a noise, like Reagan did the first flight.  It was cute! 

So we got to Nanjing, got our bags (one is now ripped), and found our guide.  We love her already!  She is so nice and very assertive and really knows her stuff.  Of course, the first thing I asked was if she had any news.  She didn’t really, but she said that she thought the problem was a complication from his surgery.  Scary because his surgery was on his heart over a year ago (June 14, 2011).  It really bothers me that for the last couple of weeks, we have heard multiple times about how to “not accept” the child and “don’t sign anything until you are sure”.  I’m not sure how other people “love” but when I signed on to petition to adopt Chang Yi Dong, I fell in love with him.  Not just “oh, it would be nice to have him for a son, if it all works out perfectly”, but head over heels, I’ll do anything, that child is a gift to us from God, hurry up and get me to China because I AM HIS MOMMY kind of love.  I am playing mind games with myself now, like would there be anything that could happen tomorrow that would make us not bring him home?  He’s our son, he’s a little brother, he has friends waiting for him and church and Bright Beginnings.  He’s a part of us already because he has been growing in our hearts for almost a year now.  Please pray for our Gotcha Day tomorrow and for my sanity as we wait these last few hours.

Jane said that the pediatrician from the orphanage will be coming to the Civil Affairs office to explain what happened.  They are picking Ethan up from the hospital and getting on a train to come here.  We will be leaving our hotel at 9:30 to meet them.  Jane wanted us to have some water and juice ready for him.  She said it will be a long trip and he will probably be thirsty.  She took us to a mall that is just around the corner that has a grocery store.  She helped us find some juice, apple/carrot juice YUM! 

The city of Nanjing is the best city we have ever been to in China.  It is very pretty and clean and somehow just different.  Jane gave us the history of Nanjing on the way to the hotel and it is quite interesting.  I won’t take the time to tell you about it, but you can google it!  The hotel room is nice and the air is working, which is a huge blessing after a very hot van ride over here and some very hot walking to and from the mall.  We get so sweaty and gross.  Please don’t try to make a mental picture of this, but when we got back to the room with our lunch, we were all so hot we took off our sweaty clothes and ate without shirts on.  (Two Tuckers even took their shorts off).  Yeah, not a pretty sight, but hey you do what you gotta do to survive. 

There’s a crib already in the room and lots of space for a hotel room.  I need to get things organized because right now it looks like all of our suitcases have thrown up all over the room.  We are excited that there is lots to do right around the hotel.  The mall has a bunch of kid friendly things.  We will see how Ethan feels and how he reacts before we take him out and about though.  My stomach is in knots with not knowing what the next 24 hours will hold.  So, stay tuned… Gotcha Day is in 15 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!