Sophi (to Christi): "Hi, Christianne Nelson Green! That's your name, huh?"
Christi: "Yes."
Sophi (to herself as she walks away): "And I'm Sophia Chinese Green!"
Friday, May 9, 2014
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Day One
We must remember we now have 10 children. This morning we woke up pretty exhausted. We all fought through it and got ready for church. We rushed out the door just a little late. Christi and Graci were in the car. I was in the van with everyone else. On the short drive I gave instructions as I usually do. Taylor, you help Lexi in, Parker, you help Sophi, etc. We parked the cars, walked in and found our usual seats at the very back of the overflow seating. I moved a chair out of the way for Cali's wheelchair. I counted the number of chairs in the row and realized we would need two more. I got two more chairs and put them on the end of the row. All the kids were getting seated. Suddenly Christi said, "Where's Elli?" I looked and re-looked. "Didn't Taylor bring her in?" Apparently not. Christi rushed out to the van and sure enough, there was Elle, bouncing and contended as could be. Way to go, Dad!
Saturday, May 3, 2014
All things work together for good to them that love God…-Romans 8:28
I love that scripture. The first time I really internalized it was after my sister, Tiffany, passed away. I remember my mom bringing it up to me. I don’t recall the specifics of our conversation, but I’ve remembered the scripture ever since. I think of it often, now. I’m glad that the first time I really understood it was in connection with Tiff, because it often brings her to my remembrance. I miss her. She was a really fantastic person. If you can get the internet on some kind of cosmic airways in heaven, know that I think about you often little sis.
Well, this post IS being composed somewhere over the Russian seaboard. We made it onto the plane. And let me tell you, it took a bit of a miracle to even catch this flight. Last night as we were flying into Beijing, I said a prayer that we would make our connection and get on the 9:00 pm flight to LAX. I quickly had one of the strongest experiences with the spirit I’ve ever had. I had an overwhelming warmth come to me. I hoped this meant we would somehow miraculously catch our plane, but I was also OK with the possibility that we wouldn’t. All I knew was that either way it would be all right.
Obviously we missed the flight, so I started to look for ways to apply Romans 8:28. Once Parker got over his initial frustration at having to wait another night before we left, he said, “Well, everything happens for a reason.” I reflected on that and replied that in my opinion, that’s not necessarily the case. Some things happen by chance. Some things happen as a result of our or other people’s choices. But what I do know is that “…all things work together for good to them that love God.” I told Parker that at this point we were going to be in Beijing an extra night. There was no changing that. But there could and would be good things that came of it. And there have been many.
We were supposed to be at the airport at 11:00 am for our 2:00 pm flight. We had to finalize our new itinerary, retrieve our luggage from the plane last night (including poor Cali’s wheelchair), recheck the luggage on our new flight, get our boarding passes, clear immigration and security, and, of course, do all of this in Chinese. A bit daunting. We were supposed to catch the 10:40 am shuttle from the hotel. We were later than I wanted to be, but still arrived in the lobby at 10:38. Of course the shuttle was gone. The next shuttle left at 11:20, but I didn’t want to chance that, so we took two taxis. Graci, Taylor and Parker went in one. Cali, Conner and I went in the other. It only took about 10 minutes for us to hook up once we got there (during which I was berating myself under my breath at my stupidity in letting three of my kids get into a Chinese taxi on their own) and so we had saved at least 20 minutes over waiting for the next shuttle. And we needed every one of those minutes!
The taxi driver that took Conner, Cali and me was conversational. He talked to me some and to Cali a lot. He asked many questions. He told us how wonderful Americans were for adopting disabled kids from China. He stopped at one point (pretty much in the middle of an intersection, but who’s keeping track) and pulled out his phone to take my picture. And when we got to the airport he refused to take any money for the ride. It was only 25 RMB, about four bucks. But it was his way of helping our sweet kids and contributing what he could to the effort. It brought tears to my eyes. Honestly, the impact our taxi ride had on that driver alone was enough for me to feel like our layover was worth it.
When I got out of the taxi, we didn’t have a wheelchair for Cali. I carried her two or three hundred yards to the first seat I found in the terminal. [OK. Side note. I have absolutely LOVED carrying Cali everywhere. I am so glad things are so accessible in the states and the she doesn’t need me there and that she is so independent. I would never trade that. But there is something so endearing about carrying my little angel. About helping her when she can’t help herself. I think she has felt closer to me because of it and I know I’ve felt closer to her. Another example of all things working together for good….] Cali and Conner waited there while I located the other kids. Once we were all together, I rushed over to Air China to start what would turn out to be a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal. I went by myself because I didn’t want to upset Graci. Grace has been so good on this trip. She hates interpreting, but she has done SO much of it and done it well. As the trip has gone on it has started to wear on her, and I’ve had to bite my tongue a few times when she let me know how she felt about a request to interpret. Earlier in the morning I had pulled her aside and told her that for the next few hours she might have to interpret quite a bit. I asked her to try not to get upset. That there was no pressure. Anytime she couldn’t do it, all she had to do was say so. Just give it her best shot. She said she would try, but I didn’t want to make her do any more than she had to. So I went over to Air China on my own.
I’ve gotten fairly good at speaking in Chinese. I can communicate a lot of things. I was able to tell the Air China lady that we had missed a flight yesterday and needed to find our luggage and check in for our new flight. The problem is, I can’t understand hardly anything. She went on for about a minute before I gave up. I called Grace over and our adventure began. Grace was wonderful. She tried harder than I’ve ever seen her try. First we were sent to the ticketing desk (took over an hour to get our replacement tickets correctly processed!) then to the lost luggage desk, then to the oversize luggage area. I was starting to see that this was going to be a long ordeal and started to wonder if we’d make it or not. The two of us sprinted to the oversize luggage area where we were told it would be a 40 minute wait! We sprinted back to the lost luggage desk to tell them we couldn’t wait 40 minutes or we’d miss our flight. He said the oversized luggage people were wrong. We sprinted back to oversized luggage and waited about 15 minutes. Finally our luggage, including the wheelchair, showed up. We sprinted with all of our luggage back to the lost luggage area. By this time I had worked up a decent sweat. This was exactly what I had hoped for prior to our 12-hour flight. Lost luggage now checked our bags and printed boarding passes. During all of this craziness, Graci and I were able to spend time together. It was one of the sweetest experiences I’ve ever had with her. We were working together, even running together, for a common goal. She opened up about Chinese and why it’s so hard to interpret. We had a beautiful time. This experience alone would have been worth our missed connection.
Once we finally had our boarding passes and Cali had her wheelchair, we headed to the shuttle for the international departure area and the immigration and security we had to clear there. Just getting to the exiting immigration area took about 15 minutes, and by the time we got the actual security area it was 1:25. Plane leaves at 2:00. Gate E31. (Yes, dear Christi, we did go by gate E32, but we were all in a dead run at that point, so no massage chairs for us!) They moved us to the last line in security. It wasn’t the disabled line. It was the “you look like you’ll be a big hassle and take a lot of time” line. We were behind a family that was, indeed, a big hassle and took a lot of time. We didn’t all get through security until about 1:40. We ran to the gate and were there as the last passengers were boarding. Whew! We made it. BUT…our tickets (I’m not making this up) were all middle seats with no two together! This means Conner would have to sit between two strangers. Conner is an amazing, sweet, wonderful, talented, thoughtful, good, easy kid in many ways. But suffice it to say he has a bit to learn about social boundaries. He takes the old AT&T marketing line, “reach out and touch someone” to the extreme. Not to mention that if someone just handed him a meal tray, it might get a bit messy with no one to help him prepare it. The gate agent looked at me like I was crazy. “The flight is very full. You will not be able to sit together.” “But look at us! We have to have at least a couple of seats together!” “Go talk to the flight attendants on the plane.”
In the end, being the last ones on probably helped our cause. As I carried Cali in and Parker led Conner, all eyes were on us. The purser was quickly able to find a couple of people who traded seats with us and we ended up all in a group with Conner and Cali right next to me. People are so good. I’ve had a conversation with one lady on the flight who was in tears as she learned about our family.
Many lives have been blessed as a result of our missing that flight. I am humbled by the way the Lord can take a single event and make it work together for good in the lives of many. I’ve seen this many times in my life and I’m grateful any time I’m a part of it.
Conner (as well as everyone else) has done great so far on the flight. We’re just about halfway at this point. It’s getting late in China and it’s an early Saturday morning in Utah. Looking forward to some awesome jetlag over the next few days. Oh well, all things work together for good…well, you get the point!
-Jeremy
PS. We are now officially in our Puzzle Them Home home. Conner is tucked into the bed that's been waiting for him for 8 months. As we said family prayer tonight and Conner was there with us, it felt complete. He belongs.
Well, this post IS being composed somewhere over the Russian seaboard. We made it onto the plane. And let me tell you, it took a bit of a miracle to even catch this flight. Last night as we were flying into Beijing, I said a prayer that we would make our connection and get on the 9:00 pm flight to LAX. I quickly had one of the strongest experiences with the spirit I’ve ever had. I had an overwhelming warmth come to me. I hoped this meant we would somehow miraculously catch our plane, but I was also OK with the possibility that we wouldn’t. All I knew was that either way it would be all right.
Obviously we missed the flight, so I started to look for ways to apply Romans 8:28. Once Parker got over his initial frustration at having to wait another night before we left, he said, “Well, everything happens for a reason.” I reflected on that and replied that in my opinion, that’s not necessarily the case. Some things happen by chance. Some things happen as a result of our or other people’s choices. But what I do know is that “…all things work together for good to them that love God.” I told Parker that at this point we were going to be in Beijing an extra night. There was no changing that. But there could and would be good things that came of it. And there have been many.
We were supposed to be at the airport at 11:00 am for our 2:00 pm flight. We had to finalize our new itinerary, retrieve our luggage from the plane last night (including poor Cali’s wheelchair), recheck the luggage on our new flight, get our boarding passes, clear immigration and security, and, of course, do all of this in Chinese. A bit daunting. We were supposed to catch the 10:40 am shuttle from the hotel. We were later than I wanted to be, but still arrived in the lobby at 10:38. Of course the shuttle was gone. The next shuttle left at 11:20, but I didn’t want to chance that, so we took two taxis. Graci, Taylor and Parker went in one. Cali, Conner and I went in the other. It only took about 10 minutes for us to hook up once we got there (during which I was berating myself under my breath at my stupidity in letting three of my kids get into a Chinese taxi on their own) and so we had saved at least 20 minutes over waiting for the next shuttle. And we needed every one of those minutes!
The taxi driver that took Conner, Cali and me was conversational. He talked to me some and to Cali a lot. He asked many questions. He told us how wonderful Americans were for adopting disabled kids from China. He stopped at one point (pretty much in the middle of an intersection, but who’s keeping track) and pulled out his phone to take my picture. And when we got to the airport he refused to take any money for the ride. It was only 25 RMB, about four bucks. But it was his way of helping our sweet kids and contributing what he could to the effort. It brought tears to my eyes. Honestly, the impact our taxi ride had on that driver alone was enough for me to feel like our layover was worth it.
When I got out of the taxi, we didn’t have a wheelchair for Cali. I carried her two or three hundred yards to the first seat I found in the terminal. [OK. Side note. I have absolutely LOVED carrying Cali everywhere. I am so glad things are so accessible in the states and the she doesn’t need me there and that she is so independent. I would never trade that. But there is something so endearing about carrying my little angel. About helping her when she can’t help herself. I think she has felt closer to me because of it and I know I’ve felt closer to her. Another example of all things working together for good….] Cali and Conner waited there while I located the other kids. Once we were all together, I rushed over to Air China to start what would turn out to be a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal. I went by myself because I didn’t want to upset Graci. Grace has been so good on this trip. She hates interpreting, but she has done SO much of it and done it well. As the trip has gone on it has started to wear on her, and I’ve had to bite my tongue a few times when she let me know how she felt about a request to interpret. Earlier in the morning I had pulled her aside and told her that for the next few hours she might have to interpret quite a bit. I asked her to try not to get upset. That there was no pressure. Anytime she couldn’t do it, all she had to do was say so. Just give it her best shot. She said she would try, but I didn’t want to make her do any more than she had to. So I went over to Air China on my own.
I’ve gotten fairly good at speaking in Chinese. I can communicate a lot of things. I was able to tell the Air China lady that we had missed a flight yesterday and needed to find our luggage and check in for our new flight. The problem is, I can’t understand hardly anything. She went on for about a minute before I gave up. I called Grace over and our adventure began. Grace was wonderful. She tried harder than I’ve ever seen her try. First we were sent to the ticketing desk (took over an hour to get our replacement tickets correctly processed!) then to the lost luggage desk, then to the oversize luggage area. I was starting to see that this was going to be a long ordeal and started to wonder if we’d make it or not. The two of us sprinted to the oversize luggage area where we were told it would be a 40 minute wait! We sprinted back to the lost luggage desk to tell them we couldn’t wait 40 minutes or we’d miss our flight. He said the oversized luggage people were wrong. We sprinted back to oversized luggage and waited about 15 minutes. Finally our luggage, including the wheelchair, showed up. We sprinted with all of our luggage back to the lost luggage area. By this time I had worked up a decent sweat. This was exactly what I had hoped for prior to our 12-hour flight. Lost luggage now checked our bags and printed boarding passes. During all of this craziness, Graci and I were able to spend time together. It was one of the sweetest experiences I’ve ever had with her. We were working together, even running together, for a common goal. She opened up about Chinese and why it’s so hard to interpret. We had a beautiful time. This experience alone would have been worth our missed connection.
Once we finally had our boarding passes and Cali had her wheelchair, we headed to the shuttle for the international departure area and the immigration and security we had to clear there. Just getting to the exiting immigration area took about 15 minutes, and by the time we got the actual security area it was 1:25. Plane leaves at 2:00. Gate E31. (Yes, dear Christi, we did go by gate E32, but we were all in a dead run at that point, so no massage chairs for us!) They moved us to the last line in security. It wasn’t the disabled line. It was the “you look like you’ll be a big hassle and take a lot of time” line. We were behind a family that was, indeed, a big hassle and took a lot of time. We didn’t all get through security until about 1:40. We ran to the gate and were there as the last passengers were boarding. Whew! We made it. BUT…our tickets (I’m not making this up) were all middle seats with no two together! This means Conner would have to sit between two strangers. Conner is an amazing, sweet, wonderful, talented, thoughtful, good, easy kid in many ways. But suffice it to say he has a bit to learn about social boundaries. He takes the old AT&T marketing line, “reach out and touch someone” to the extreme. Not to mention that if someone just handed him a meal tray, it might get a bit messy with no one to help him prepare it. The gate agent looked at me like I was crazy. “The flight is very full. You will not be able to sit together.” “But look at us! We have to have at least a couple of seats together!” “Go talk to the flight attendants on the plane.”
In the end, being the last ones on probably helped our cause. As I carried Cali in and Parker led Conner, all eyes were on us. The purser was quickly able to find a couple of people who traded seats with us and we ended up all in a group with Conner and Cali right next to me. People are so good. I’ve had a conversation with one lady on the flight who was in tears as she learned about our family.
Many lives have been blessed as a result of our missing that flight. I am humbled by the way the Lord can take a single event and make it work together for good in the lives of many. I’ve seen this many times in my life and I’m grateful any time I’m a part of it.
Conner (as well as everyone else) has done great so far on the flight. We’re just about halfway at this point. It’s getting late in China and it’s an early Saturday morning in Utah. Looking forward to some awesome jetlag over the next few days. Oh well, all things work together for good…well, you get the point!
-Jeremy
PS. We are now officially in our Puzzle Them Home home. Conner is tucked into the bed that's been waiting for him for 8 months. As we said family prayer tonight and Conner was there with us, it felt complete. He belongs.
Friday, May 2, 2014
We'll Get There Eventually...
(written in the very very early morning hours of Saturday morning in China)
I was supposed to be composing this on a plane somewhere over the Russian seaboard. No such luck. Here I am at the Golden Phoenix Hotel, just a hop, skip and a jump (or a short shuttle ride) from the Beijing airport. Real quick, in light of my propensity to miss flights from time to time, or at least to cut them VERY close, I would like to clarify that THIS IS NOT MY FAULT! We booked this itinerary before we came to China. We had a full two-hour layover scheduled in Beijing. Our bags would be checked all the way to the USA, so two hours should have been PLENTY of time. Unfortunately, when we got to the airport in Hangzhou to check in for our 5pm flight, they informed us that it had been cancelled. Cancelled?!? Can they even do that?!? Apparently so. As luck would have it, we were quite early and they said, “Hey, we might be able to put you on the 4pm flight. But after getting our hopes up, they quickly dashed them with, “Nope. There are too many of you. You’ll have to take the 6pm flight. Scheduled to arrive at 8pm. Exactly one hour prior to the departure of your international flight.” And then our 6pm flight was delayed. We deplaned at 8:30pm. Not a chance. So here we are in a mid-level hotel with a mostly edible buffet for Air China passengers with missed connections. Sadly, they forgot to turn on the AC. On the bright side, Taylor found an awesome little market in the Hangzhou airport with some genuine American snacks. So I’m sitting here munching on Sour Cream and Onion Pringles after having eaten 1.5 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and wondering why I can’t ever seem to lose weight. (I’ll let you decide if that’s 1.5 actual cups or 1.5 bars….) But really, I’m once again in China as a single parent. With FIVE kids this time. I’ve kept my cool quite well through some very stressful situations. Who’s going to begrudge me a calorie or two?
It does seem that we can’t do this trip without some sort of mishap. Missed connections in LA. Obstinate customs agents (and subsequent missed connections) in Canada. More missed connections in LA. Christi having to go to the ER while I’m still in China. Missed connections in Beijing. Jessica falling off a luggage cart and flat on her face. All kinds of fun stuff. I’ve actually been very impressed with all of the kids. They’ve taken things in stride and are making the best of it. We’ll get home about one day later than anticipated. It’s not costing us any extra money. We’re all bone tired, but we have beds to sleep in tonight. (Or as Taylor refers to them, box springs.)
Hangzhou was terrific. Everybody in Graci’s foster family were their usual, wonderful selves. They fed us, housed us and entertained us every moment we were there. We went to an old part of town for a self-guided tour. We were able to cross the grand canal. This canal is over 1000 years old and over 1000 kilometers long, flowing from Beijing to Hangzhou. (Maybe we should have taken a boat to Beijing?) Part of the walking tour was a trip over a 1000-year old bridge. 1000 years old. How do you even wrap your head around that? It’s neat to be able to experience such ancient history. On the other hand, they didn’t have accessibility regulations when this bridge was built, so three of us just lifted Cali’s whole chair all the way over the bridge. Probably 60-80 feet uphill. Did I mention that Graci’s family hardly let me do anything for Cali while we were there? They are so sweet and always want to take care of everything. We also rented boats, picked strawberries and had a virtual all-you-can-eat buffet for two straight days. (Poor Taylor doesn’t do so well with Chinese food. He didn’t feel so great for much of the timeL.)
The boys’ favorite part was Friday morning. Prior to our trip Graci’s family had asked what we would like to do. On a previous visit we had a chance to play ping-pong with a cousin of Graci’s, so we mentioned ping-pong as something that would be fun. They arranged for a ping-pong coach to come out and give the boys a lesson. That’s the kind of people they are. So thoughtful. I’ve never met anyone more attuned to what their guests want. If there is anything we ever mention that we enjoy doing or eating, we are guaranteed to do or eat more of it the next time. They are amazing people. (For those of you who don’t know, Graci lived for four years with a wonderful foster family. We keep in close touch with them. So if I refer to her China Dad or her cousin, etc. this is referring to her foster family. Christi and I have also been deemed “America Grandma and Grandpa” to Graci’s foster niece, Ling Long. We are both completely smittenJ.)
Outside of adopting Conner, my favorite part of this trip has been seeing our kids bond with each other and with me. I feel like they have grown much closer by traveling together for so long. I’m so grateful for each of them and feel so blessed to have them for the next few years.
-Jeremy
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| I got all the kids to the airport and on the plane! |
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| Cali has this awesome "mean face" that is hard to capture on camera, but I got it! |
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| Our granddaughter! |
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| At least they give you the choice! |
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| Graci and China Mama! |
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| Graci, Ling Long and Ting Ting |
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| The princess comes down the bridge! |
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| The whole group |
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| The cute girl next to Taylor developed a just a bit of a crush despite his being 6 years younger:) |
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| Graci with China Mama and Baba |
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| Taylor and Parker on a ropes course type of thing that definitely didn't have to pass any safety inspections. Good thing mom wasn't around to use some common sense? |
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| Strawberry greenhouses. The catch was, you could only eat them as you picked them. No taking them home. No washing them off. Intriguing. Not sure whether this or the ropes course was more dangerous... |
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| Boat rides! |
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| Taylor fell asleep and Parker woke him up with typical brotherly love:) |
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| Basketball stars |
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| Graci in the clothes China Mama gave her |
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| Graci's two dads! |
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| Basketball stars |
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| ping pong lessons |
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| Graci and Grandma |
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| The group! |
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| Grandpa Green |
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| Exhausted at the airport. Waiting to figure out what flight we'll get after ours was cancelled |
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| Cali's wheelchair is still at the airport with our checked baggage. The loaner they gave her is huge. She got completely wedged in while trying to get to her toothbrush. Poor kid! |
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Finally checked into the hotel, we're all exhausted and starting to get a bit loopy. Parker puts two shopsticks in his mouth and becomes a walrus. Good-night!!!!!!! |
Home Again…Well, Sort Of
I’m writing this on 4/30/14. I’m not sure what day it will get posted.)
Some of the magic left with Christi. All of us have been kind of dragging the last couple of days. We can’t really take taxis anywhere because some of the kids would be without a parent. The weather has been mostly rainy in Guangzhou, so we didn’t even get out of the hotel much. All of the adoption paperwork was finished early on Tuesday morning, so all were doing was waiting for Conner’s passport with the US visa in it. In other words, we were all bored to tears. This morning Parker said to me, “You know, I’m ready to go home at this point.” And honestly, I felt the same way. We’re all pretty tired. It sounds nice to get back to our own house and our own beds and a bit of a routine. And yet we still had Hangzhou ahead of us.
Graci was the exception to the rule. She was looking forward to the Hangzhou portion of our trip more than anything else. Her beloved foster family and hometown were waiting for us. I knew it was important to her, so I didn’t let on that I was anything but ecstatic, but inside I was really lamenting that we couldn’t just leave Guangzhou and head straight back to the good old USA. I felt that way through the packing. (I think Parker was worried I was going to lose my cool, but I did not! I have been a pretty patient papa the entire tripJ.) I felt that way through airport ticketing and security. I felt that way on the plane. I felt that way as we retrieved our baggage.
And then I saw China Mama. And I was at home. It really was a beautiful experience. I felt like I would feel if my parents picked me up at the Portland airport or if I pulled into Christi’s childhood home in Ferron. I was home. I can’t say enough good things about this beautiful extended family we have half way around the world. I love them dearly.
In the hereafter, I look forward to many things, including: receiving a huge bear hug from my sweet Sophi’s arms, gazing into Lexi’s eyes and asking her if I look like she imagined, having a heartfelt conversation with China Mama and China Baba in a language we can all understand.
Of course it will be wonderful to return home on Friday night. But a piece of my heart will always live in Hangzhou.
-Jeremy
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Fun Few Days!
We've had a great past few days. On Friday we left Wuhan. It was sad to leave Conner’s hometown and sad to leave our WONDERFUL guide, Joanna. She did a great job navigating us through all of the necessary paperwork and became a good friend. We hope to be able to keep in touch with her and meet up some time in the future J.
Saturday, Christi took Conner for his medical exam (poor guy had to get four shots L) and did the final adoption paperwork with our guide, Jason. This is the fourth time we have had Jason as our CCAI guide in Guangzhou. He has also become a friend to our family. For some reason he no longer seems to believe us when we tell him this is our last trip…. It turned out to be a crazy stormy day, so we just stayed in the hotel for the most part. Graci, Cali and Conner watched some Chinese TV shows. Taylor and Parker found the NBA playoffs, although it was a different experience watching them with Cantonese commentators.
Sunday we walked over to a beautiful nearby park. It’s a large park with thousands of people there at any given time. While we were strolling along a teenage girl became quite taken with Taylor. She bravely approached him and asked if she could take a picture. Taylor was flattered. We took a ride on some paddle boats. At the end of our hour, we decided to race back. Taylor, Christi and Conner had a head start on the rest of us in the other boat, but Christi somehow managed to dump the boat’s life preserver rings in the lake and they had to spend the next 20 minutes slowly circling around and trying to collect them. Score one for Dad’s crew! In the evening we visited our beloved Shamian Island. This is where we stayed during our first four trips to Guangzhou. The White Swan hotel is still being renovated, but much closer to completion than it was when we visited in 2012. We've become regular enough visitors that two of the shopkeepers on the island remember us when we pass through. We had a dinner at Lucy’s, and Christi ordered her favorite peppered spaghetti dish. It’s amazing how much of a tradition some things about this trip have become. Really, since the beginning of 2007, we've only had one fewer trip to China than we've had Christmases! No wonder we've developed deep ties to some things over here!
On Monday we did something new. We visited the ChimeLong Paradise amusement park. This is a six-flags type park about an hour taxi ride from our hotel. They have a few very spectacular rides, including a roller coaster that claims to have one of the highest drops in the world. It was AWESOME!!! It was the first ride of the day for us and Conner’s first roller coaster ever. When the ride came to a stop, Christi couldn't pry his fingers away from the bar he was holding on to. Scared him silly, but he loved it and kept wanting more. Another coaster had 10 inversions, including a four-in-a-row corkscrew. Way fun. Another adoptive family came with us on this day. They have been living in China for two years and they have a teenage daughter who has missed interaction with other teenage girls who speak her language. She had a great time with Cali and Graci. While at the park, Cali and Graci purchased the cutest little masks ever. I have the cutest girls!!! The only hitch in this day at the amusement park was the beginning. With seven of us, we had to split up into two taxis. They took us to different entrances at opposite ends of the park. We couldn't use our phones to call each other and it took us just over an hour to finally meet up! Oh well, it still turned out to be a great time.
To end our day we took a short river cruise on the Pearl River. This is another tradition for us in Guangzhou. The river is so beautiful at night. The surrounding buildings, bridges and other boats are decorated in all kinds of lights. It’s a really nice way to spend the evening. We brought some Papa John’s pizza on board and had a lot of fun. The LeSuers, the other adoptive couple we met up with in Xi’an, came along with us and we were able to meet their beautiful new son, Caleb. At one point in the evening, Christi and I got to spend a few moments alone on the upper, uncovered deck. It was very romantic to be there with my sweetheart. A perfect ending to a momentous trip together.
Christi got on the plane home at 6 a.m. this morning. It’s funny. I often spend a night away for work. I occasionally spend four or five nights away. But it never feels as lonely as these trips to China when Christi leaves a couple of days before I do. I don’t know if it’s because we’re brand new parents or because we’re continents away from each other or what. But my heart truly breaks when I watch her taxi drive away. I love you, sweetheart. Here’s hoping you have a great sleep somewhere over the Pacific tonight! (OK. This is rather sappy, but true. As I've been writing this post, I've been listening to a playlist on my phone. Just as I started writing about how much I’m missing my honey, Maroon 5’s “Daylight” came on. I mean, come on! It’s a sign. We were meant to be!!! Love you, hon. The song just ended and I started it again J.)
So on we go. Conner and I went to the US Consulate today and I took the oath for him to get his immigrant visa. We’ll receive the visa tomorrow and leave for Hangzhou. I may not be able to post again until we get home. If not, thanks for all of the love and support. We continue to be amazed at the beautiful life we have been blessed with. We’re excited for this next chapter to unfold.
-Jeremy
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| Joanna with our family at the Wuhan airport |
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| At the park across from our hotel |
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| How could she NOT want this guy's picture? |
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| At Lucy's Restaurant on Shamian Island |
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| The Amusement Park |
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| New friend |
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| Graci and Cali with their cute masks! |
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| Photobomb! |
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| Cali loves selfies :) |
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| River cruise |
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| Hey, we look OK for being the parents of 10 kids! |
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