Next stop...Guangzhou!

**This post will be a multi day post as alot of time was spent in packing and travel.**

4/10/13 Is the day we leave Harbin. Its the day Kyle says goodbye to his home town. I hope I have got enough pictures and memories to tell him about where he came from. We will leave at 11 to go to the airport and Ms Susan (the director of the province) and Lynn (her assistant/our guide) will come by at 9 to bring his passport and paperwork. Ms Susan came and said goodbye to Kyle. She was so very thoughtful. She brought a gift to Kyle and to us. She brought Kyle a beautiful bookmark that had the face of a Peking Opera. She brought him a bookmark because she said he is so smart he will be a scholar. She gave us a beautiful doll of "Ma Chao" doll. ("He was one of the great generals of the West-Shu Kongdom") Two very thoughtful gifts that we will treasure. Kyle was listening to her Kris's iphone and he gave her one of the headphones to listen to. She had tears in her eyes while saying goodbye to him. This speaks measures! We are not talking about someone who cared for him daily, or was a teacher, nanny, auntie, etc. This was the top official. Who knows if she had ever even seen him before our gotcha day. She loves the children of her Province so much, that she cries for them. That they are leaving their culture, their country, their heritage...and that they are loved, they are in a family, they are an orphan no more! It touched my heart and even now as I write this, I am crying. The also have a journal that all the families write it when they adopt from Harbin. We wrote in the journal said our goodbyes then it was time to go.

Off to the airport we go. Thank the Lord for Lynn! She got us special treatment and we got to go through the VIP line for customs...no waiting we just went right through. She didn't leave until we were safely on our way to the gate. She is a very special person and thank God that she was apart of our journey. (Kyle even called her auntie when she called at night to check on us lol) Off to Guangzhou we go! Kyle is off on his first airplane ride!

4/11/13
We arrived in GZ last night. Went straight to the hotel and crashed. We stayed at the Garden Hotel, which is alot nicer (building wise) than the place in Harbin. It is huge and very decorated.

view when you exit main entrance

check in

entrance

Now its off to medical. He will have an exam and a TB test. The worst part of the trip by far! You get to go to every station with him except when they draw blood for the TB test.The take him in a room and shut the door...and there are NO windows! This is the first time we have been apart since we got him five days ago. He was screaming and crying for what seems like an eternity!! FINALLY they bring him out and we are done! Off to walmart..or as it is called here.."Trust-mart".

taking picture for Visa

Here are a few pictures from our trust-mart trip

yeap...that's right..CHICKEN FEET!! ugh! (NO we did not purchase these)

Back to the hotel to get all of our paperwork together and spend the rest of our day at the hotel.

our guide Richard

Busy couple of days. Tomorrow we are off to shop with the famous Ann from Red Threads! We can't wait! 

4/12

Ann came to the hotel at 9:30 and met us in the lobby. We are off to the toy, jade and pearl market. We purchased Kyle some traditional Chinese silk outfits to wear on Chinese New Year as he gets older. Also we were able to purchase some items to give to him on his Gotcha Day each year. We also got a pearl necklace made for his wife to present to her on their wedding day. (along time from now but we are prepared lol) The pearl market you cant put into words. It is just shop after shop of pearls and gems. They have other stores in there as well but it's overwhelming to see all of it! When we returned to the hotel, Ann came to our room to pickup and gift from a waiting family. Their daughter turned 13 so I brought a present to her from her family. Something her Momma and Ba'Ba held in their hands. Ann is going to mail it straight to her. She also spent time with us TRYING to teach us how to pronounce Chinese. Todd is A LOT better at it that me. It all sounds the same to me LOL. She is so sweet and thoughtful If and when you travel to Guangzhou, you MUST shop with her!!

Orphanage visit

4/9/13

Today is the day we are blessed to visit where Kyle has spent the first 3 years of his life. I am so thankful for the honor of being allowed to visit. Due to the fact that none of us have left Kyle yet, we all went on the trip. He was a little nervous (the van ride does this to him) but again big sister set his mind at ease and before too long he was asleep. He fell asleep right before we got to the orphanage which is a good thing. We didn't want him to know he was there.We were amazed at the size of the building! It looked like a castle! (Kris commented that he would think he went to the slums when he gets to our house lol) So big, clean and beautiful. Kris, Lynn and myself went it with our suitcase full of gifts. We had taken clothes, hats, toys and supplies from another mother how has a child from Harbin. We went in and went to the conference room. A huge room with lots of awards and certificates. It truly is a very nice place and you can tell they really love the children that is in their care. We meet the new director, his nanny and his foster grandmother. (they called her grandmother instead of mother since she was older). I could see the love that these women had for Kyle. I could not hold my composure as I thanked them for taking such good care of him and for loving him. I promised them we would take good care of him and to send them regular updates. Its amazing how love bonds people how can't speak the same language. It was truly a humble encounter that I will treasure for the rest of my life. We got to go on a tour to see where Kyle had class each day, where he played and where he took his naps every day. On our way we passed a few rooms that had children in them. IF you have a child at Harbin SWI and you are reading this...let me assure you...they are loved and are being taken care of. Everything is so neat and clean. The little toddlers would run to the windows as we walked by. We could do pass without kneeling down and putting our hands up to theirs through the glass. They would just giggle. When we went into Kyle's room we saw the children he was with everyday. Oh how I pray these sweet babies have families waiting to come get them. A little boy in the corner caught my eye. He had on the blue stripe shirt that Kyle wore in some of the photos we received. I prayed that his family would receive photos like we did with him in that shirt. His nanny showed us his favorite toys and what he liked to play with. We got to ask questions that we wanted to know and I also got them to write a little note to Kyle so when he is older I can give them to him. Because of the great honor we were granted, I will not be posting pictures from our visit. I do not want to do anything that might effect fellow parents from being allowed this same privilege. It was a special day that I will forever hold in my heart! Thank you Lord for opening doors! and Thank you to everyone who prayed for favor!

After we left there we went to a popular tourist attraction in Harbin. We went to the St Sophia Church. It was built in 1907 and was the first Orthodox Cathedral in Harbin. It was a spectacular building that now is turned into a tourist center. On the side of the church you can hand feed pigeons. We checked it out but Kyle made it very clear he did not want to feed any birds. We left there and took our guide and driver to a local dumpling restaurant. I great ending to a day that will live in our hearts forever!

It's Official

4/8/13

We traveled back to the adoption center today and Kyle is officially ours! It was funny when he had to do his hand print. He hit it once, then hit it again and was going for a third pat and they stopped him. It was almost like he was saying...this is MY family! No tears were shed today, however he did get nervous on the ride over. Kris made sure the guide told him that it was OK. We were only going to do paperwork and he was not leaving us. She is such a great big sister. She is always making sure he gets told in Chinese that everything is OK and that he is not being left again. We had asked yesterday if we could be granted permission to visit the place where he was found and to visit his orphanage. The province director had told us that we could do one or the other. The orphanage was an hour away and IF we were granted permission to see it, it would just be a drive by for us to take a picture. We were told before we went not to get our hopes up about visiting the orphanage. This is a request that is very rarely granted to Americans. I just want to share for good our God is! (and how your prayers were answered) The province director told us today that after we left her office we were going to be taken to the hospital where Kyle was found AND that tomorrow we get to visit the orphanage. NOT drive by the orphanage but VISIT the orphanage. I am so grateful to them for allowing us to have this honor.

After everything was completed we left the office and headed to the hospital. Everything in China is crowded so this is not an easy task. We had to park on the sidewalk and Lynn and I walked the last few blocks to the hospital. It was just your normal hospital other than the fact that this is where our boy was safely left for us. I can't imagine how that mother must have felt. The sacrifice that she made to leave her baby so someone could help him with his medical issues. I pray for her and that God will let her know that her boy is being taken care of and that he has a family. I thank God for her and the gift that she gave us. Thank God for tummy mommy's! Without them, us heart mommy's would never have our babies!

On the 3rd Floor of this building, our son started his journey to us!

Gotcha Day! 4/7/13

Happy Birthday to my little sister. Although she could not travel with us, she is getting the best birthday present ever! We met our guide Lynn and our driver Mr John at 9:30 am to go to the adoption office. My mind was in a whirlwind as I was reliving what everyone else description of their special day. I wondered how ours would play out. We loaded up in the van and away we went. Harbin is a very pretty town with LOTS of people. Traffic is crazy so I am glad we have a good driver. We travel for 30 minutes and pull into a narrow half circle drive that has cars everywhere. We stop and we hear the words "we are here!". Our hearts fell! It was almost like you stopped breathing and the world stopped for a brief moment. As we climbed out of the van with our mountain of paperwork, Kyles backpack, cell phones and camera it was like we were frozen in time. We quickly were brought back with the Lynn yelling...."Its Him! It's Him! It's YOUR BOY!!! RUN!". As tears filled my eyes we took off running to see a small little man with a panda coat climbing the stairs to the building. He was holding his teachers hand, being lead to his forever! The little one that we love so much, that had only been a picture, was not in front of us! We walked with them through the building as Lynn explained to the teacher that we were his family. As we were riding the elevator upstairs, we knelt down and showed kyle all the pictures on our phones of him. We then went into the adoption office and sat on the couch. His teacher pulled out his photos we had sent him and showed him the pictures and pointed to us. This little man just sat there looking at the pictures and at us. You could see in his eyes that he was feeling the same way we were. The people who were only photos in a book, were now in front of him. His little face had tears running down it but not a sound could be heard coming from him. Momma instincts took over and I didn't care what anyone said to me. THIS was MY boy and he was upset! I sat beside him and put my arm around him and told him it was OK. He let me pick him up and he set in my lap. Before long be quit crying and was just taking everything in. We had to sign all the paperwork so he went to his Jie Jie (big sister) and she had him playing in the floor with all the stuff from his book bag. To this day I do not know how long we were in that office. Time stopped once we had our boy! The van ride to the hotel he feel asleep sitting beside me. He is so smart and studies everything. I guess his little mind was on overload. Once back at the hotel, we were able to skype with family for a moment. I tell you we felt every prayer that was being said on our behalf. It was around an hour after we got back that we started calling us Ma'Ma and Ba'Ba' and was making eye contact. He laughed for the first time! He started playing and running around! God opened his heart and gave him peace and he knew he was home! THANK YOU ALL for your prayers. God gave us miracle after miracle on this trip!

Traveling To and our first day in China!

I know I am so late in posting but due to the fact we had a terrible time getting an Internet connect while out of the country, I am going to try to put everything into words now.

We left for China on Thursday, April 4th. Words can NOT adequately describe the long flight and layovers (due to weather) we had so I wont even begin to try. We arrived in Harbin at 2 o'clock in the morning on April 6th to ice and snow. Our poor guide and driver had been at the airport waiting on us for 5 hours! And they don't let them in the airport! If my memory serves me correctly, there was a lobby at the front of the airport where they waited and they was little to no heat in there! We were freezing so I know they were miserable! We finally made it to the hotel and collapsed. The only thing I remember from the drive was that everything had snow on it and it was deserted.

The hotel we stayed at was on the main street in Harbin. It was fun to be right in the center of everything. From our window we could see everyone coming and going. It was the tomb sweeping holiday weekend so people were on the square selling balloons, bubbles, cotton candy etc. Our guide for the day took us down Central Street and we got to see all the buildings and happenings. A very fun, unique street that must be walked if you visit.  As I stood and looked out our window, I could not help but wonder if our boy knew his family was so close? I wonder if they had told him that his forever family was coming to get him? 24 hours and we our wait will be over!

 

 

 After we finished walking Central Street, Starr took us to Walmart to buy some items. Due to limited space instead of being wide its tall. You have escalators that take you to the next floors. They are quite different from our stores here in the States. Major difference is the fish is just out in the open. It was fun to make SEVERAL trips there!