Passport!

Sadie's passport made it just in time for us to leave for Guangzhou! We have it and don't have to wonder all week if it will make it to GZ. Thank you so much for praying!!!! God has definitely heard and answered so many prayers with our adoption. I am so thankful that we have a loving and gracious and faithful God and that we have wonderful supportive family and friends.

Sadie has come so far in the last few days. She is drinking bottles willingly now (once daddy convinces her each time to finally put it in her mouth, she chugs it!)

She also ate a big dinner in our Taiyuan hotel room the night before we left, when she had not been wanting to eat in there at all previously. Though I'm not sure if this was her getting more comfortable, or if it was just that this girl cannot resist her Chinese dumplings!! We also discovered that she is a pro at sucking up noodles, rice, and congee (a very common soup-type dish they have here).

A couple of days ago (my days are running together at this point) we decided just to eat in the room and I was going to run out to find some of the famous Shanxi noodles to bring back. The other family here recommended a place around the corner so I thought it wouldn't be too hard to find, and I wanted to check out the tea house nearby also. I passed quite a few little restaurants and had no idea which it was. I went into one of the tea houses and they offered me a seat among a group of locals so that I could try a free sample of their tea. I have such a new empathy for people who come to America and cannot speak English! It is such an odd feeling to be alone in a group of people who all understand each other and not be able to communicate at all. After that I went into a restaurant that I thought may be the one (they had told us that the staff uses pictures of their menu on ipads as well as a translation app to communicate with you so I was hoping this would make it easier). Wrong place. They handed me a piece of paper with lots of Chinese writing and check boxes. I tried to communicate that no, I couldn't understand it and was going to go, but they grabbed me by the shoulders and physically sat me down at a table and put the paper in front of me. I finally was able to kindly refuse and made my way back to the room and we ordered room service!

When I got back to the room, Sadie was sitting in John's lap, tearful, and wearing her hat that she had on when we got her....this made me know she had been upset because she had been looking to those clothes for comfort and security when she felt scared. John said she had been sad and crying off and on since right after I left and just wanted to be snuggled. :( It made us so sad for her that she felt sad and scared that I wouldn't come back, but also we were really encouraged that she is showing signs of attachment to us! She was SO happy to see me.

From then until we left the hotel a day later, she tried to have both of us in her sights at all times. She would start to whine if one of us went in the bathroom to shower and would stand at the door. When I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror getting ready the next morning with the door open, she would run back and forth so she could see me in the bathroom, then John in the room...back and forth to be sure we were both there. Sweet girl. It breaks my heart to think that she is so fearful of one of us suddenly being gone for good. But she will learn over time that we always come back.

It is amazing how often the local people just come up and try to hold her. They talk to her real sweet for a minute then reach out their arms to grab her. Thankfully most of the time she wraps her arms tight around my neck and whimpers and then it doesn't have to be an awkward refusal on my part. Though several times, they have just kept on trying until I excused myself.

Poor baby, all of the local people keep thinking she is a boy! Even if she is wearing her pink fluffy coat, they are so surprised she is a girl. I guess maybe it's the fresh shave they gave her for us :) Back in October we found out we could request that they stop shaving her head, and the orphanage sent us the message in reply that they would let it grow. I'm not sure if the foster family didn't get that memo, or if they decided that leaving her a mohawk on top would be just as good! Either way, today she got to wear a headband!

Our guide gave us a note to hand to people who are staring us down, that explains that we are adopting. This has been helpful. People so far have stopped glaring and have been very kind once they understand what we are doing. They smile and give thumbs up, so it makes me think that a lot of their glares are more curiosity and confusion than disapproval. Though a few are clearly disapproval.

Yesterday we spent the morning packing everything up and getting ready to fly to Guangzhou. We went with the other Lifeline family to the restaurant they had recommended (they showed us this time!) and got some Shanxi noodles and dumplings. They were good. We were definitely the center of attention in the restaurant, and the staff was so kind and accommodating. They doted on our babies most of the meal. One lady (not staff) stopped by our table and knew a tiny bit of English so she was trying to communicate enough to figure out why in the world two white couples had two Asian babies. We tried to explain (this is before we had the note!). She asked me if my husband was Chinese and I shook by head and pointed to John and she looked so confused. Finally she understood "adoption" and she was so happy and thought the girls were "so lucky" to be going to America. Interesting. I would love to be able to communicate with the people here enough to get a better understanding of their lives and their point of view.

With our guide Lisa and the other adoptive family, a missionary couple from Alaska,
in the airport getting ready to fly from Taiyuan to Guangzhou

When we came back from lunch it was time to head to the lobby to meet our guide and go to the airport. Sadie was all over the place in the airport. She loves to run around and she eventually gets going so fast that she falls face first. She doesn't have the greatest balance yet and she doesn't really look where she is going so we have to stay very close to her in a crowd or she will ram into people. She did well on the 3 hour flight. The first hour or so she was a little overwhelmed by everything going on and the stewardesses constantly coming by, and she was fighting sleep. But she slept in my lap the last 2 hours. No screaming, so that was good. Hoping for the best on our flight home...I think we have a 3 hour van ride to Hong Kong, then a 2-3 hour flight at 12:55AM China time, then a 5 hour layover in Seoul, Korea, then a 14 hr flight I think back to Atlanta. Should be interesting. I am hoping that since we will be all over the place all night long China time, that she will then sleep well on the last flight, which will be day time in China but night time in US, and that this will help her adjust easier to our time zone. Already nervous about jet lag for all 3 of us, because I have heard it is way worse coming back, and it's pretty rough here! So you can add ease of jet lag to your prayers for our return :) We cannot WAIT to see our other 2 sweet babies and want to have energy to spend good time together as a family when we get home before John has to go back to work.

On our flight we were sitting next to a Chinese woman who was very nice. She read our note about adoption and seemed to approve, but I think it made her think we were first time parents and were likely clueless. The whole time Sadie was awake she was watching us and trying to tell us what she needed. She would keep pointing at my water bottle and motioning that I needed to have Sadie drink, or she would keep handing us Oreos and motioning that we should give them to her...even though Sadie kept spitting them out. She was very nice but I was glad when Sadie finally went to sleep! We arrived in Guangzhou around 9-930pm last night along with the other family from our province and our new guide met us and took us to our hotel. Oh my word, it is like we arrived in another world. Everything here is so much bigger, nicer, more modern than where we have been the past week. Sadie was mesmerized on the way to the hotel, watching out the window of the van and seeing all of the enormous buildings covered in different colored lights that change constantly. I wonder if she has ever seen anything remotely like what she is seeing this week.

This city is huge, and our guide told us it was built up a lot when the Olympics were here. The air is a little better here, less smoggy, but it is much more humid and warm here than we expected. The hotel is amazing. Apparently they give quite a discount for adopting families, because our price is like a very average hotel in the US but it is 5 star with gardens and waterfalls and who knows what else...we will go exploring later! I was told this hotel houses the Japanese embassy. We got settled and in bed around 12:30 last night and had to be up in time for Sadie's medical exam this morning so we didn't have time to eat dinner last night or to check out the breakfast buffet this morning but I have heard it is great. I am hoping for some yummy breakfast food...our previous hotel had a big spread but no breakfast food, mainly rice and noodles and meat, and then a lot of strange things. John tried this creature below - I am not nearly as brave!

Really hoping for something more like grits here and with less teeth!

There are 6 Lifeline families in Guangzhou this week including us, as all of the families spend the first week in their child's province and the second here at the Garden hotel. We went with a few of them this morning for medical exams. Sadie was NOT a fan. The picture below is just before the screaming started. Thankfully each station was quick and pretty painless.

Squeezing a squeaky toy to make sure she hears it.

This hotel room has more space for Sadie to roam and play and so far she seems very comfortable with it. I think the change of scenery from our first hotel will be good for her. She is a very active, happy, silly girl the last couple of days. She has also called us Mama and Baba (Chinese for Daddy) a few times.

She is napping now and John is gone completing some paperwork for the adoption and Sadie's visa. Our guide told all the couples to send "the smart one" and have the other one stay back with the babies...haha. Look who's in the room!!!

We are going to attempt a bath again for Sadie when she gets up. Hoping she handles it better now that she is more comfortable with us. Tonight we will meet up with the other families and go to a Mexican restaurant nearby that we have heard is wonderful. It will be nice to have a change of food even though the Chinese food here has all been great. It seems like things have been so busy so far. I am hoping we get a little more down time but I am also looking forward to some of the tours & shopping excursions that they have planned for us this week while we wait on our paperwork. Maybe I'll have times to write here more often so that when I finally get to update it won't be a whole book like this one!

You guys don't know how much your prayers and your notes of encouragement mean to us!! Thank you!