So we are finally at our last
stop of Patrick’s adoption trip. We are
in Guangzhou, in Southern China, where we will go before the US consulate to
officially apply for Patrick’s US entry Visa.
Hopefully we have done our last load of laundry in the bath tub. We have unpacked for the last time, and since
Korean Air allows two bags per passenger (no we won’t have that many) the
repacking won’t be a stressful! Next
Saturday at 9 am Eastern time we will land in Atlanta and Patrick will be a US
citizen. The only thing standing in our
way is about 24 hours of travel with a 3 year old who loves us but still barely
know us. We’ve done it before, and we
will do it again!!! (Probably not but I just wanted to make sure everyone was
paying attention)
We spent the last 3 days in
Beijing where we did a little shopping, went to the crazy food market, and got
to visit New Hope, the place where Patrick lived for a while and the place
where we met and fell in love with him.
I don’t think pictures of the food market really do it justice, and
except for the snakes, scorpions, grasshoppers, sheep testicles, starfish,
squid, pig intestines, whole pigeon, seahorses, spiders, and hearts, most of
the food was pretty normal. We branched
out and tried a few things. Lauren some
pineapple rice and me a fried banana as well as some sugared fruit Maggie,
Janie, Patrick, and I gladly shared. Did
anyone think we would actually eat a spider?
We consider ourselves pretty adventurous but the line has to be drawn
somewhere. We enjoyed some great, rather
normal Chinese food, and spent some time with some wonderful fellow adoptive
families. It’s amazing how quickly bonds
are formed when you are halfway around the world with people who have the same
heart for these precious babies as we do.
Speaking the same language helps too.
Our last morning in Beijing was
spent at New Hope. Apparently all of the
nannies had been warned we were coming, and as we walked toward Patrick’s room
we had quite the welcoming committee.
They were all so excited to see him come back. He was quite anxious at first but eventually
settled in and let a few of the nannies hold him. He started playing with the toys in his room and
in the preschool room just like he had never left. We are glad that he was not scared of his
previous home or his caregivers. It shows
us that he was loved, but as we prepared to leave there was no doubt he was not
ready for a long term visit!! Janie also got to visit with her ayi. This sweet nanny fixed Janie's hair every day we stayed in New Hope two summers ago. Janie has been talking about seeing her for weeks. As soon as we walked in she picked Janie up and gave her a big hug. We were sad that Robin and Joyce Hill weren’t in
town to visit with us, but we were thankful that we were able to share a cup of
coffee with Rebecca and Mikey Shook before heading back to town. We always look forward to visits with friends
when we come to China.
Who knows if this will be our last blog entry
before heading home, but if so Lauren and I want everyone to know how thankful
we are for those who have prayed for us and our new son throughout the whole
process. Please keep those prayers
coming as it’s not going to be a cakewalk when we get home. I have to get back to work, school and ballet resume following the Christmas break, and we have 7
kids and some grandparents who are anxiously awaiting our return. No rest for the weary I guess. As I often say, there is never a dull moment
in our world. Honestly we wouldn’t have
it any other way. 
No comments:
Post a Comment