Gotcha Day

We were told to meet in the lobby at 10:00 am. From there, our guide would take us to the conference room where our kiddos would be brought. Clay and I got to the lobby about 15 minutes early. He had just prayed over us, and the tears fell as I lifted my anxiety up to the Lord. We were looking around the lobby, looking for the other two families, and our guide, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw her. 

 

There was our daughter, Bella Elizabeth, being carried into the lobby by her orphanage nanny. "There she is! That's her! That's her!" I told Clay, and I started crying. She was so beautiful. Her nannies had dressed her in the sweetest blue seersucker dress and little blue sandals with elephants on them. I wanted to run over and scoop her up but also knew we needed to ease into the hand off. So, we waited for the other families and our guide to arrive and then we all headed up to the conference room. 

She was so sweet. Looking all around, taking in the room, scoping out every detail. I couldn't take another minute of being away from her. I walked over and kneeled down to where her nanny was holding her. "Momma," her nanny gently told her while pointing to me. I reached out and grabbed her hands. She immediately began to poke out her little lip and frown. She looked back at her nanny and then back at me, protruding her lip with all her might. I slowly reached for her and scooped her into my arms. Her eyes began to well up with tears.

"Hi there, baby! Hi!" I talked slowly and softly, while she took me in. She was scared, uncertain. I walked her over to a window and started describing the scene before us. She was just so very sad. She made not a sound but her tears began to silently fall. Her Daddy, who was filming the whole scene, walked over and began to speak to her quietly. She wasn't sure of him at first, very likely having not seen many males in her life. He held her for a minute when she began to whimper. So, I scooped her back up and she started crying. We waffled between quiet confusion and tears and whimpers for a little while. 

But then, I started telling her about her big brothers and sister. About all the people who love her. About the life we will give her. I know she couldn't understand me. But somehow, it calmed her. And slowly, oh so slowly, she became more comfortable. While she wasn't interested in the doll, musical toy, nor lollipop we initially presented, she was interested in puffs. So, her daddy and I took turns handing them to her. At first, she just wanted to hold a single puff. She wouldn't eat it, but if she dropped, she would search all over until she found it. And then, she decided to give it a try. She slowly put it in her mouth. And then, she decided she liked it! Now she wanted a puff in each hand and would take turns eating them, then wanting two more. All the while, she was studying us. 

After asking her nanny a few final questions, it was time for the orphanage workers to leave. I teared up, mouthing 'Thank you,' to the woman who has been caring for my daughter for the last two years. 

Bella watched as her nanny left...and she was okay! No tears! Her daddy decided to try holding her again. This time, she opened her arms and went to him. I'm pretty sure he was wrapped around her little finger right at that moment. And that Daddy, well, he will proudly be able to claim the first smile. He started squeaking her little squeaky sandals, and she thought it was fantastic! She smiled shyly at first but then did it again and again! 

Meanwhile, we had to have professional photos taken for the adoption paperwork, one as a family and one just of her. She did great! After completing more paperwork, we were finally told we could go back to our room, about an hour or so after the whole introduction began. 

We walked slowly through the hotel, watching as her observant eyes took in all there was to see around her. It took my breath away, watching her watch the world. We arrived to our room and immediately gave her one of her favorite foods ("biscuits" we were told by her nanny). She loved it! She sat in my lap and nibbled away, while continuing to take in all the details around her. We gave her a sippy cup of water, too, which we offered to her in little sips. Then, her Daddy discovered that she was ticklish. He tickled her toes and....she LAUGHED. I had been so certain that we wouldn't see a smile for days, much less a laugh, and our amazing girl have us both within two hours of meeting her. 

And then, the biggest yawn escaped her little mouth. It had been a big morning for our little girl! After a quick diaper change, it was time for her to hit the hay for her nap time. And this is when my heart nearly broke and when I was reminded of why it was vital for us to carry out our calling of adoption: We layed our girl down in her crib, covered her with her pink Bammy blanket, and watched as she clasped her little hands and rocked herself to sleep. She rocked quickly from side to side, and it was very clear that this is what she's done the last two years to put herself to sleep, when there was no one there to rock her. She learned to rock herself. It broke my heart, and I told Clay, "This is exactly why we needed to adopt. No child should ever have to rock herself to sleep." 

And now, she is asleep in her crib, and we are re-living the special moments of the morning. Neither of us can believe it went so well. We aren't fooling ourselves - there will be tough days and hard moments ahead - but for now, we are relishing in these moments, the morning our daughter was an orphan no more. The morning we got our girl. We gotcha, Bella. Forever and ever. We gotcha.

China: Day 3 (aka Gotcha Day Eve)

Hello from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, aka where our daughter has spent the first two years of her life. <3 Here, the sunrise view from our lovely hotel room: 

We awoke after about 4 hours of sleep (our bodies are definitely still trying to adjust to the time change) and were looking forward to the leisurely day ahead. First stop, breakfast! Our hotel has a big breakfast buffet each morning; so, we headed down pretty early to grab some grub. To be honest, I am very wary of what I'm eating right now: I am terrified of us getting food poisoning; so, I am trying to be cautious with what I eat. I'm sure I'll become more adventurous as the trip goes on... Breakfast here in China is also quite different than American cuisines, as in, we basically had noodles and rice for breakfast, with a fried egg and some bread on the side. I know I'll be craving American cuisine soon, but it wasn't a bad way to start the day! 

After that, I spent some time getting a few things ready for tomorrow, including preparing the gifts we brought for the orphanage nannies and director, unpacking all of Bella's things, and getting her crib ready. <3

We also decided to hit up the hotel fitness room to get in a little exercise and try to wake up our bodies a little more. I was excited to see a barre studio - I even got Clay to try some barre stuff with me after he finished his own workout. ;)

We spent the early afternoon exploring Hohhot. We walked all around the capital city, stopping for lunch at a local Chinese spot called "Tiny Tot." Then, we headed to the glory land - Starbucks!!!! Ha! We continued to walk around and take in the sights before heading back to the hotel to wait for our big excursion for the day (the supermarket :) ). 

 Our hotel

Dragon greeting us at the entrance to our hotel

 Pretty Chinese buildings

 Our lunch spot 

People love mopeds here!

Little shops along a side street

This man was toting kittens, puppies, chipmunks, and gerbils on his bike--all for sale?!

Hohhot reminds me so much of NYC! People everywhere, honking horns, crazy drivers, lots of shopping!

Check out the beautiful Inner Mongolian mountains in the background of the city!

 Starbucks! And my yummy Green Tea Chai Latte

Later in the afternoon, we met up with the two other families from our agency who are here to adopt their little ones. Our sweet guide, Aggie, took all of us to the local supermarket so we could stock up on supplies we needed (tons of bottled water; a new stroller; more snacks for Bella; additional diapers, candies and toys for the orphans, courtesy of Banks and Brooks; etc.). There were also some *interesting* edibles for sale there... :0

The market

Hundreds of candies for the orphans, courtesy of Brooks S. <3

Also for the precious orphans, eggs that open to reveal chocolates and tiny toys, courtesy of Banks <3

Cooked chickens for sale...with their heads still attached. :0 (I'm imagining the scene from A Christmas Story. Anyone else?)

Clay and I ended the day by having our last dinner together as parents to only three kiddos. Believe it or not, we had a (not so tasty - ha!) Italian meal at one of the restaurants in our hotel. But our conversation was everything. It was JUST what the doctor ordered for our Gotcha Day Eve.

And now, we go to bed, knowing that we will be meeting our daughter in the morning. After almost 18 months since this journey began, we will have our daughter in our arms. Such a dream come true. We know she will be scared and grieving, and while we will give her all the time she needs to start to adjust, we will immediately show her we adore her and she is safe with us. 

I'm not going to lie, though. Right now, I am feeling so many emotions: anxious and excited, fearful and faithful, scared and happy, overwhelmed and overjoyed. I worry about so many things. I try to lay my fear at His feet and have faith that He is walking alongside us as we begin this adventure. Sometimes the fear takes over, but the prayers being said on our behalf truly help. So, to all those praying for us, for our family, for our Bella -thank you. And please keep them coming. These next few days/weeks/months will undoubtedly be a huge adjustment with lots of unknowns...

My next post will be all about our Gotcha Day. Which means, tonight is the LAST NIGHT that Bella will EVER have to sleep in an orphanage. Good night, baby girl. We'll see you at 10:00 am tomorrow. <3

China: Days 1 and 2

Well, we made it to China! There were a couple minor mishaps along the way, but we are here and getting settled in. I’ll start at the beginning, as I sit here in the Beijing airport, waiting for our final flight...:

It was really, really hard to say goodbye to the kids on Thursday night. There were lots of tears and extra hugs and kisses (from all parties). The kiddos are SO excited for their sister to come home, but this is the hard part of our story: the part where momma and daddy will be gone for two whole weeks. :( But we snuggled them tightly, said our goodbyes, promised we would come back with their sister in tow, and put them to bed. I had finally pulled myself together and then...Banks came downstairs, clutching something tightly in his hand. It was all the money he owned, that he has been saving for months and trying to decide what to buy with it. He handed it to me and started crying, saying “Momma, I want you to take my money and buy the kids in the orphanage some toys. They don’t have any toys, and I have a lot. So, please take this and buy them some toys.” I absolutely lost it. Like, was sobbing and hugging him, and he was crying, and I was insisting he didn’t need to do that - “I’ll spend my money and do it for you, buddy!” - but he cried and cried, saying no, no, no. He wanted it to be HIS money. This precious, generous gesture was mirroring what his friend, Brooks, had done earlier that day. Brooks’ momma has been one of my rocks throughout our adoption process, having adopted her youngest daughter from China, and she had texted me the day before saying that Brooks wanted to donate his money to the orphans in China. So, she brought Brooks over the night before we left so he could give it to us to take, and Banks witnessed this transaction. I guess he then felt this was the right thing to do; so, he followed suit. I don’t think I have ever been more proud. Such sweet, sweet boys.

One not-so-lovely event that happened that night at 8:30 pm (keep in mind, we were flying out at 7:30 am) is that my brand new (as in, 1-day new) phone suddenly died. Out of nowhere. It just stopped working. Enter momma panic. There was no WAY I wanted to travel to the other side of the world without my phone. Yes, my hub would have his, but I wanted mine, too, to use WeChat with my siblings and the grandparents, to be able to call and FaceTime the kids, to take 8,567,000 pictures using the better camera function that came with my new phone, etc. So, my husband jumped in his car and rushed to the mall in Charlotte where an Apple store is located. He made it with 5 minutes to spare. They weren’t able to fix the phone; so, he bought (another) new one and we returned the broken new one. Whew. Crisis averted. And then, after he returned, we could finally go to sleep.

On Friday, July 29th, I woke up at 3:30 am and was never able to go back to sleep - not with the nerves and the excitement and the anxiety and all.the.feelings. So, it was up and at ‘em! We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and made it to Dallas for our first connection, which included a 2-hour layover. 

Let the adventure begin!

We were able to FaceTime the kids, who were already having a ball with Nana and Pop and were at the toy store, each choosing a new toy. :) After saying goodbye, it was time to board our loooooong, 13.5 hour flight to Beijing. I was excited to learn we were on a plane called a “DreamLiner,” which has all these cool features. We were also able to get a free upgrade (never hurts to ask at the gate!), which meant a window seat and extra leg room. Score! The next 13.5 hours were spent watching tv and movies (I watched two movies: Lion [so good, and very fitting, given the reason for our trip :) ] and Gifted, also good. My hub got some work done and watched four movies!). We also napped, enjoyed several snacks and meals, and I got to read for fun. ;) The whole time I kept trying to figure out what time it was, given the 12-hour time change, when I should be sleeping, etc. My body and brain were so confused-ha! All in all, not a bad flight!

 Showing off their treasures they got with Nana and Pop :)

 So long, Dallas! Next stop, Beijing!

 On our way! Each seat back had these really nice monitors for showing movies, tv shows, ordering beverages, watching our flight path, etc. I loved watching our flight progress between movie watching. :) 

Our first glimpse of Beijing! 

Once we arrived in Beijing, we went through immigration, collected our luggage, and got our plane tickets for our final (domestic) flight, which would take us to Hohhot, where Bella’s orphanage is. Then, came a heart-stopping moment: my laptop was stolen. We were going through security. We took out all the necessary items and put them in bins to be scanned (as you do in airport security ;) ). Once through, I grabbed my bookbag and started putting the items back in, starting first with our passports. I literally turned to grab Clay’s passport from his bin and when I turned back 0.5 seconds later, my laptop was gone. PANIC. It.was.gone. All I could think of were all the photos I have taken and uploaded to it this year that have not yet been backed up. Long story short, after 10 minutes of speaking with security, who were in the process of reviewing the camera footage to find the thief, this sweet woman came walking up to security. She had been in front of us in the security line and had accidentally grabbed my computer, thinking it was hers. Whew! Crisis averted. And I am SO thankful we were still standing there when she returned it. Otherwise, they would have had no way to return it to me, seeing as how I don’t have my contact information on it. Correction: I do now! Lesson learned.

After our hearts stopped pounding, we were able to enjoy our first authentic Chinese meal. I had vegetable ramen and Clay had spicy beef ramen - delish! Then, we headed to our gate to wait out the several remaining hours we still had left in our layover before our final flight departed. We were both able to take good naps while outstretched on benches, and awoke to board our 8:00 pm flight...only to discover it was delayed two hours. Womp, woooooomp. So, here I sit, documenting it all while WeChat-ing with family back home (best app ever!). We just got to FaceTime the kiddos and learned that Banks’ football team won both of their games on Friday night-score! Off to the playoffs they go!

Where we ate our first authentic Chinese meal. 

Delish!

 Loved these grass sculptures in the airport!

The beautiful "Dream Garden" in the Beijing airport

Off to Hohhot after a 2-hour delay

Next stop, Hohhot, where we will have a full day to rest up, try to adjust to the time change, and overcome the jet lag while we countdown the minutes until Monday morning (which will be Sunday night back at home!), when we will finally meet our daughter. <3 We will be in Hohhot until Thursday, when we will depart for our final stop in China - Guangzhou. This is where ALL families from the U.S. completing adoptions must go for consulate appointments. This is also where we will get Bella’s visa and where she will have a medical evaluation and TB testing. But for now, our days will be spent in Hohhot. We are so, so close!

UPDATE: We made it to Hohhot (such a BEAUTIFUL airport! Wish I had taken a picture!) and met our guide, Aggie, who is just lovely. She will be helping us the rest of the week while we are here. We got to our amazing hotel after a 30-minute car trip (side note: Hohhot is so beautiful at night! The city is all lit up with the most stunning light displays. Again, I wish I had taken photos while we were en route to our hotel (I was pretty delirious by that point). So pretty!!!), and Aggie helped us get checked in while I took photos of the gorgeous lobby. 

 Our lobby, shortly after midnight when we arrived. 

 The cutest little bed display on the side of the lobby 

The beautiful wall behind the front desk

And then, around 1:30 am, we were FINALLY able to fall asleep. Now, we dive into Day 3 of our 14-day trip to China. Our adventure continues!