Friday, July 15
Today we transitioned from Nanchang to Guangzhou. I actually felt some sadness upon leaving, mostly for the girls. This is where they were born, their heritage and their biological parents. We may never visit this place again. I truly felt the burden of their loss today.
Then the plane flight. Oh, the plane flight. The night before we had finally settled into a bottle feeding routine. Prior to this we had been struggling to get the to suck so we just spoon fed thickened formula and rice cereal mixture. Consequently, the girls were not urinating much. Until the moments before the flight. The minute I placed Olivia on my lap she tinkled all over my pants. Her diaper was already full so it had no where else to go. So I quickly changed both girls diapers - while seated in the coach section on a Chinese airline. Keep in mind that Chinese people are smaller than Americans therefore the airlines make smaller seats. Right after changing Abigail's diapers the flight attendance asked Dave to move to another seat so that we would all have an air mask in the case of an emergency. I still had Daddy's girl (Abigail) on my lap at that point. To put it mildly, Abigail does not like to fly. Neither does Olivia but Abigail reeealllly does not like to fly. She cried, shouted and wailed much of the time all while writhing in my arms. I felt completely helpless and by the time we landed we were both in tears and I mean real alligator tears. It broke my heart to see in her in such turmoil.
When we finally arrived at the White Swan Hotel we were all exhausted, except Abigail I suppose she decided that she was never going to fly again so she learned how to walk, with assistance of course. We walked up and down the halls of the hotel. If I tried to turn around and go back to the room she would put up a fuss. She was so completely proud of herself and I was proud of her as well.
The White Swan Hotel is considered the baby hotel. This is where all the adoptive families wind up after gotcha day. The US consulate is located nearby and all families must be processed here in order to leave the country. My guess is that there are about 75 families staying at the White Swan this week. It is just amazing to see all the new families being formed. There is an ancient Chinese tale called the Invisible Red Thread or Red String of Fate. Some Chinese believe that an invisible red thread connects people that are meant to be together. You can read about it here. All I know is that the Lord has brought us together with the perfect babies for us.
Then the plane flight. Oh, the plane flight. The night before we had finally settled into a bottle feeding routine. Prior to this we had been struggling to get the to suck so we just spoon fed thickened formula and rice cereal mixture. Consequently, the girls were not urinating much. Until the moments before the flight. The minute I placed Olivia on my lap she tinkled all over my pants. Her diaper was already full so it had no where else to go. So I quickly changed both girls diapers - while seated in the coach section on a Chinese airline. Keep in mind that Chinese people are smaller than Americans therefore the airlines make smaller seats. Right after changing Abigail's diapers the flight attendance asked Dave to move to another seat so that we would all have an air mask in the case of an emergency. I still had Daddy's girl (Abigail) on my lap at that point. To put it mildly, Abigail does not like to fly. Neither does Olivia but Abigail reeealllly does not like to fly. She cried, shouted and wailed much of the time all while writhing in my arms. I felt completely helpless and by the time we landed we were both in tears and I mean real alligator tears. It broke my heart to see in her in such turmoil.
When we finally arrived at the White Swan Hotel we were all exhausted, except Abigail I suppose she decided that she was never going to fly again so she learned how to walk, with assistance of course. We walked up and down the halls of the hotel. If I tried to turn around and go back to the room she would put up a fuss. She was so completely proud of herself and I was proud of her as well.
The White Swan Hotel is considered the baby hotel. This is where all the adoptive families wind up after gotcha day. The US consulate is located nearby and all families must be processed here in order to leave the country. My guess is that there are about 75 families staying at the White Swan this week. It is just amazing to see all the new families being formed. There is an ancient Chinese tale called the Invisible Red Thread or Red String of Fate. Some Chinese believe that an invisible red thread connects people that are meant to be together. You can read about it here. All I know is that the Lord has brought us together with the perfect babies for us.
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