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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prayer Request

There’s so much to write about our Saturday, but I want to first request prayers for Ethan. On the way to the Great Wall, our guide informed us that she had gotten a text from Jane, who will be our guide in Nanjing, that said Ethan is in the hospital. Grace called her and let me talk to her. She had very little information except that he was taken there by the orphanage yesterday and they are planning on bringing him from the hospital to us on Monday. I asked a few questions, but she had no answers. When I hung up, Grace was trying to be very reassuring that maybe he just had a fever or a cold. I know things in China are not like in America, so it is hard to know what to think. I believe that God is watching over him and has him covered, so I am doing my best to be at peace and not worry. I just want to hold him and let him know how much we love him. He needs a family to comfort him. It breaks my heart to think about him being so alone, especially in the hospital. Thanks for lifting us all up to the Great Physician. We started the day by eating at the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Nothing like the White Swan from Reagan’s adoption trip, but it was fine. We played it safe and ate cereal and a few other American things, stayed away from the fungus salad! We met the others from our group, Amanda and Sherri. Amanda’s sister is with her to help with the adoption of 2 kids! This will be Sherri’s first! We will go our separate ways to different provinces, but it was nice to make new friends and share experiences with them today. At 8:30 we met Grace in the lobby and waited for our bus. The trip to Tianemen (fogot how to spell that) Square was crazy, the traffic was horrible and only got worse as the day progressed. We were there with a million other people and Grace seemed to just want to rush through everything without giving us all the information like Veronica did back in 2005. It was fine though because it felt like 110 degrees and the humidity is so bad. We were all drenched in sweat, as you will see in the pictures. So we made our way across the street by going under (reminded me of Riga) to the Forbidden City. There were so many people it was hard to keep together as a group. Reagan was not impressed. In hindsight, we should have given her the history behind everything before we left. Tons of people wanted to take pictures of our group, mainly because the other women are tall blondes with blue eyes. It was funny! I guess they don’t see Americans very often! Everytime we saw a little boy, the girls would say Oh, look, how cute, etc. They got to see real live split pants and the reason they wear them. No wonder China stinks so bad! Grace took pictures of us to send to Veronica. We really wish we could have had her as our guide. Grace is fine, but we loved Veronica so much, she was with us the entire time with Reagan’s adoption. She and Grace are friends and even came to America together last year. After the Forbidden City we got back on the bus to head to a Jade Factory to tour and have lunch. Again, the traffic was awful. Grace said she had never seen it that bad. We arrived and it looked very similar to the place we ate in 2005 only it was jade instead of vases. We had lunch, which was pretty good. They brought out all these dishes, including sweet and sour chicken! There was nothing weird or gross. Ryleigh is being a little picky, but Reagan ate a lot! We got a tour of how they make all the jade things, like jewelry, trinkets, etc. It was interesting. We watched several people working and saw pictures of the Olympic medals that they made, there were pictures of Michael Phelps kissing his gold medal with jade on it. Pretty neat. We didn’t buy anything despite the high pressure sales people. It was pretty expensive and we know even if it is fake jade (we got a lesson on how to spot a fake) it will be cheaper in Guangzhou. It’s going to be hard to find gifts to take home for Ethan, much different than shopping for girls! The ride to the Great Wall was supposed to take 10 minutes. Unfortunately we got caught in traffic for over 2 hours. Then it started raining and that is the point we got the call about Ethan. So, it took a lot to make the Great Wall fun. However, that was one of my regrets last time, was not enjoying being at this amazing place. Reagan had fallen asleep on the bus, so she was grouchy at first, but once we made up our minds to have a good time, we did! It was dangerous trying to walk up all those steep steps in the rain and there were a billion people, so we took our time and stopped to take a lot of pictures. It was also very smoggy. We didn’t get any of the history lesson from Grace, in fact I think she just stayed on the bus, so I wished again we had brushed up on some of the facts of the wall to share with the girls. Reagan commented a few times that she didn’t think that it would keep people out of China. She’s funny! I hope she remembers everything she is seeing and doing, but let me just say, that kid is 100 percent American! We witnessed a girl about her age peeing right there on the Great Wall. It’s perfectly okay for people to let their children pee and poop in public, in fact there is a little tiny ditch which serves as drainage for that. Super disgusting, but made us laugh! When we left the Great Wall, we got back into the wonderful traffic. Exhaustion set in and we fell asleep for a little bit on the bus. We drove through the Olympic Village and Grace talked about the different areas. We saw the Watercube and Bird’s Nest and where they athletes stayed. It was neat to see a glimpse of it. The smog made picture taking difficult. Ryleigh and Reagan slept through it and it wasn’t worth it to wake them up. Grace said you can swim at the Watercube for $25 a day. We arrived back at the hotel around 6:00. We were too tired to think about going out for dinner, so we ate beef jerky and crackers. We got to talk to the big girls and my parents, it was so good to hear their voices. I think about a hundred times a day that they would love being here. I miss having my girls all together! They survived their first 3 days of high school and seem to like it! We got packed up and showered and ready to leave bright and early. At 9:00 I thought I couldn’t stay awake for one more second so I crashed. Now it is the middle of the night here and I am probably awake for the day. It’s exciting to think that in just a few hours we will be in Jiangsu Province and there will be no more traveling before we meet Ethan! It’s been a long journey, physically and emotionally, but the time is near! Thanks for following along. Hopefully the internet will be as good in Nanjing and we will post easily from there!

Day of Travel

Greetings from Beijing, China!  We arrived to our hotel room after midnight, local time, about 27 hours after we left Lebanon.  As far as international travel goes, our trip went well.  I was still rushing around before we left trying to get my house in perfect order for my mom, so Tim took the girls to school.  I think it was easier to say bye at home.  When Tim got back we loaded up.  Yes, once again, I do believe I overpacked (see more on that topic later).  After we went to the bank, we headed to Springfield.  We had plenty of time and the plan was for my parents to meet us there so they can keep our vehicle at their house.  We also needed to get some bracelets that my sister made for us to give as gifts.  And I had our garage door opener, house key, and the “instructions” for Isabella and Becca.  So, we walked in to the airport and the lady from American Airlines yells over to us “Chicago or Dallas?”  We say Chicago and she tells us to hurry up.  Tim told her we are on the 11:45 flight and she says “Oh, no, that has been changed, you’re needing to board right now”  WHAT?????  So without arguing (hindsight… we should have!) we go into panic mode and start rushing grabbing our passports, etc. and I called my mom and told them to hurry, but knew there wouldn’t be enough time.  Long story short, we left without seeing them and had to leave a bag of stuff for them at the gate with our not so friendly American Airlines woman (who got an earful from my dad, apparently… go dad!)  We made it through the security and boarded the plane at 10:00, along with 5 other people.  So the first leg of the trip was very laid back and Reagan was absolutely adorable and so excited.  She and Ryleigh talked non-stop about every little thing on the plane and outside.  The trip was so short to Chicago, it was the perfect little start for the girls.  So, getting the O”Hare early, meant that much longer to our already looooooong layover.  But, we made the most of it.  It worked our pretty awesome because we got to see our friend Marla, who was coming home from India.  The timing was impeccable, as we had just found her gate and saw her flight had arrived.  Literally 30 seconds after we sat down to wait and watch the people coming of the plane, we spotted her!  She looked so beautiful and it was so good to see her!  She used to babysit Ryleigh and Reagan and her parents are good friends of ours.  Anyway, we got to chat for a few minutes.  She was one of the first people we saw at the airport when we got home from China with Reagan!  She had to go try to find her sister, who was waiting in the non-secure area, so we didn’t get to see her. 

We had a very delicious lunch at Chili’s and then found a place to park ourselves at the gate we would eventually leave from, K19.  The girls were extremely well-behaved and entertained themselves for many hours.  We took turns walking around with the girls and saw lots of interesting people!  We got to talk to Isabella and Becca when they got home from school.  Our flight ended up being delayed for 30 minutes and then we also had to sit and wait on about 60 people once we boarded who were on a connecting flight that was late.  It was the first part of that flight pretty miserable.  Every seat had been sold, so it took a long time for the attendants to figure out why there were two empty seats.  They finally gave up and we took off after 9:00 pm.  Reagan and Ryleigh were very impressed with their personal tv and game system at their seats and we got settled in for the 13 hours trip!  It ended up going relatively quickly, as we all got to sleep for several hours.  They fed us lots of good food (the flight attendants spoke English and Chinese as they needed and even asked Reagan in Chinese if she wanted chicken or beef dinner, the look on Reagan’s face was priceless and then when she realized she was an American kid, she asked her again in English) and it was a pretty non-eventful flight.  PTL!

When we arrived, it was 10:25 pm local time.  It took us over an hour to get through everything and find our ride to the hotel.  We got in line to go through customs, which was kind of long and all of a sudden this guy tells us to go to the “Special Line”.  Really, it was marked with a neon sign that said that!  We didn’t argue because there was nobody in that line, so we breezed right through, never knowing what made us special!  But considering it was about 90 degrees with 100 percent humidity inside the airport, we gladly took the break!  We waited at baggage claim waiting for our 3 checked bags for what seemed like and eternity, possibly because I was so worried Ms. Grouchy pants from American Airlines Springfield wouldn’t have gotten them in the right spot to get all the way to China!  But eventually, they came down the chute and we headed to the outside world.  We were all sweating and stinking so bad at this point and it was so hot I thought we might pass out (not really, but it was super hot!).  Our friendly driver was standing there with a sign that said “Great Wall China Adoption” and he immediately grabbed our cart of bags (after gasping at how much stuff we brought!) and we headed to his van.  The memories I have of our first trip to China with the scary driving all came flooding back as we weaved in and out of traffic and he drove so crazy, but pretty safely at the same time.  Horns are used A LOT around here.  Our hotel was about 30 minutes from the airport, which seems stupid, so hopefully GWCA books us here because it is closer to the tourist stuff we are doing today.  It’s a nice hotel, but the air doesn’t seem to be working… UGH.  We were all wide awake and got settled into our room with all of our stuff (too much stuff, did I mention that?).  We all had showers without getting the water in our mouths and brushed our teeth with bottled water.  I had forgotten to warn the girls about that, but they did well!  The beds are like concrete, only harder, and so tiny, but we did manage to sleep for a few hours.  We have to go to breakfast at 7:00 and we are meeting to leave with 2 other families to go on our sight seeing adventure at 8:00. 

I am excited to be here, but I feel like the time in Beijing is still just one more hoop to jump through before I meet my son!  One more thing to check off the list to do and then hold my little guy for the first time!  Reagan seems a little annoyed so far with China.  She said too many people speak Chinese and too many Chinese people are here.  Even though she is Chinese, she is obviously Americanized and so much more beautiful than any other girls we have seen!  She said again how funny their eyes look!  She is such a hilarious little girl!  I hope that she will make good memories here the next few weeks, not just meeting her brother, but meeting her homeland, too.  But she definitely is an American girl with a sassy attitude! 

We are all up now, it’s almost 5:00 am here.   Hopefully we will be able to stay awake all day and go to bed at a normal time tonight.  Our flight leaves early in the morning for Nanjing.  Finally we will be in the same city as Ethan!  Then Monday is the big day!  Stay tuned for that!