handsful

Today is the day that our touring trip turns into a true adoption trip. We loaded the bus early this morning and made our way to the airport. There are 16 families in our group, which is at least 2 people per family and some have brought their kids or parents. That means, around 40+ Americans poured into the Beijing airport with tons of luggage being pulled behind us. We were quite a sight!

Arriving in Zhengzhou, our guide Yisha along with her assistants Rita and Cindy, met us at the gate and loaded us onto another bus for our trip to the hotel. On the way, she gave us our pep talk on everything coming up, along with our detailed itinerary of the days ahead. Today was spent turning dollars into RMB, setting aside money for all the individual fees and wrapping our gifts for the officials. We unpacked, loaded all of our orphanage donations into one bag, and packed our backpack with Dylan items for tomorrow. We meet in the lobby at 9:30 for the trip to the civil affairs office where our children are being taken to meet their forever families. There are children coming from around 6 or 7 orphanages, and they will come in shifts. I have no idea when Dylan will be there…hoping we don’t have too long to wait!

My cold is better in some ways, and worse in others. My sinus’ aren’t as bad, but my voice is really hoarse and nearly gone. I’m sure Dylan would rather his mom NOT sound like a chain smoker, so I’m hoping it’s better tomorrow.

They delivered the crib this afternoon. Once we’re home, he’ll be in his twin bed. But, we know he’s used to a crib in the orphanage. We’ll see how he likes it…we have a king bed this time around, so he can always bunk with us if he needs to. Hard to believe he’s going to BE here tomorrow.

Randy and I took a walk to the local Wal-Mart here. Zhengzhou is a big and very busy city. It reminds me of what NYC must look like, on a smaller scale. Tons of traffic, horns constantly honking, bicycles and scooters dodging around each other in mad dashes to wherever they’re going. Lots of neon, lights, and the hotels are all decked out for Christmas. The walk was about 15min, and we had to pay close attention while walking…these people don’t look for you! I held tight to Randy’s hand when we crossed the street! We ended up walking right past it, but ran into friends who turned us around. lol…

We bought a few snacks for ourselves and Dylan. If we get a chance, we should bring the camera to Wal-Mart. The “meat” section is especially interesting…too bad we can’t upload the smells. Well, that’s actually a good thing.

We were hoping to find a stroller, but the cheapest one was $60. We’ll be going to a different store tomorrow, so until then we’ll carry him in the Ergo. Randy plans on heading out one of these nights with the camera/video camera to catch Zhengzhou nightlife.

Our meal tonight was pizza in the hotel’s Italian restaurant. Kinda neat, since our last meal before meeting Lainey was also pizza at the hotel in Hefei. I guess we have a tradition there?

We’re all ready for tomorrow. A day we’ve been thinking about and praying for for almost a year. We know that God has it all planned and ready for us, and we trust and believe in that plan.

Dylan coming up!