Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Last Post From China

In less than 10 hours we will be on the road and starting our journey home.  We are going to start out a 26 hour travel day by getting Leah up and out of here by 6:15 a.m.  It's going to be a party.  We fly to Shanghai, have a long layover there, and then leave Wednesday 6:00 p.m. China time to fly to Chicago.  We gain time all the way home so even though it's a 13 hour flight we will end up in Chicago at 6:20 pm Wednesday evening.  Wednesday night will be so much fun we're going to do it twice!  We have a quick over nighter in Chicago and can hopefully regroup just a bit and then we fly home bright and early Thursday morning.  I am so excited to see the boys I can hardly stand it.  It is a little bittersweet leaving China.  This is Leah's country of birth and we've had a great experience here.  We've also started saying goodbye to friends we've made as everyone leaves over the next couple of days.  Part of my heart will always be in China after this trip, but I'm taking the best of China home with me.

Yesterday was our appointment at the US Consulate.  We took the oath and did the final paperwork for Leah's visa processing.  We now have her visa and immigration stuff in hand, and she will be a citizen as soon as we go through Immigration in Chicago.  In the afternoon we went with our guides to a jewelry market.  It was like a really huge shopping mall with at least 5 floors that were just jewelry.  We went to the pearl market.  Pearls are a big thing to buy in China and you can get them at wholesale prices here.  Our guides took us way upstairs to a shop that they trust.  It was wall to wall pearls and other jewelry in there.  Many adoptive parents buy pearls for their Chinese daughters to wear on their wedding day, and I think that's a really neat tradition so we got a necklace made for Leah.  It's beautiful.  Now I just need to keep track of it for the next 20ish years.  Jer also spoiled me with pearls, and we bought some gifts.

We headed out in the late afternoon with friends back to Shamian Island.  The evening was beautiful with a breeze, and we had great food at Lucy's. It was a perfect evening to sit outside and eat.  Lucy's backs up to a park where older people are doing tai chi and playing badminton and there are lots of pretty flowers.  There are also tons of brides and grooms on the Island getting their wedding pictures taken which has been really neat to see. We did a little more shopping, survived the cab ride back, and called it a night.  Today was our last day in Guangzhou.  There wasn't much on the schedule except for a group picture.  Most of the kids were in some sort of traditional Chinese dress and our whole travel group got their picture taken together.  This really has been a nice group of people to spend two weeks with, and I will miss them.  While we were taking the pictures on the steps in the hotel lobby some Chinese people were stopping and taking our picture too.  I guess we were quite a spectacle.  This afternoon we made one final trip to Shamian for lunch at Lucy's with the McAdams before they left for Hong Kong.  The rest of the evening we've spent packing and getting ready to leave bright and early tomorrow.  It is so amazing to me that Leah was placed in our arms only a week ago.  She is such a different girl already.  That shy, scared little baby has become a happy, bubbly baby girl.  She is such a cutie with a  funny personality.  She laughs and smiles a lot and is becoming quite the ham.  She is also rolling and army crawling all over the place and even loves to take steps everywhere with help.  She has brought us such joy already, and we feel so blessed to be her parents.  I just can't wait to get home to the boys and have our whole family together.  Pray for sane and safe travels!  America here we come.

3 comments:

  1. I can't believe it's already been two weeks!! I'm so glad you're coming home and get to bring Leah to her brothers!! She is going to love them....and they will absolutely adore her! There is something so special about having a sister! They'll be teaching her to wrestle and do arm farts in no time!! She looks leo happy Jen...you all do! It makes me teary every time I read your updates! Soooo happy for you guys!

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  2. yipee!! here's to safe travels. i'm so very happy for you, and like mandy, i get so teary reading - and just thinking about all this for you guys. i'm so happy for you. i'm so happy for her! woot-woot-woo!! how i wish we were closer to chicago so we could come and hug you all!! sending lots of love, prayers for safe and quick travels and a most happy reunion with the boys!!
    xoxo

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  3. Yeah! I can't wait. For some reason Jordan has been following this process particularly close. Last night in her prayers she said "Bless Leah to get used to Jen and Luke and Seth and Ian and yes.. especially Jer!" After I said why especially Jer and she said "Mom, you know Jer is just Jer. It was so funny!! We pray for you every night and can't wait to see you! Love you all!

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