Greetings From China!

Greetings from China (I wish I knew how to say that in Chinese)

It’s about 2 am in the morning.  Specifically the morning of the day we receive Anna. Tony pointed out that today is Labor Day in the US and said that’s how he feels – like he’s waiting in the labor and delivery room waiting for our baby to arrive.

What a crazy ride we are on. From the moment we landed in Beijing, it’s been non stop.  On our written itinerary, it listed for Sunday:  fly from Beijing to Zhengzhou and go to bank to exchange money. We figured we were in for a slow, relaxing day. I won’t go into the travel diary details, but we finished for the day around 7pm.

The highlights have meeting the other adopting parents and getting to meet them. Of course, I am drawn to Laura – little Nathan’s mom (Nathan is the little boy who is Anna's little friend - they have been together since they were about a month old). She is not only an amazing person, but also a fountain of information, both on adoption in general as well as specific info on Anna. I’ve loved chatting with her and feel like I have a new friend with the bonus that she is Anna’s little friend’s mom.  We also met Dan and Suzanne Fullmer from Washington. I could tell right away that they were LDS and it wasn’t just their 9 children that gave it away. They are adopting two older children, one of which is from our same orphanage so we may be traveling a bit together.

We went to Walmart in the evening – yes, Walmart. I’ve always thought the Walmart’s at home were chaotic, but this store put the word chaos to shame. The noise, the smells (they had a full fish market with live, freshly killed and dried creatures of the sea) and the crowd was almost more than I could bear. Mix in the heat and humidity and it made for the perfect overwhelming experience.

The agency gave us an information sheet from our child’s nanny with a ton of information including what they eat, etc. So we shopped for Nestle brand formula, Nestle brand rice cereal, bread, apple juice and her other favorite snacks. Then we had to buy diapers, estimating what would fit. This is when it REALLY became real. We were buying a ton of baby supplies for a 17 month old and really had no idea what she liked. SO different from a biological newborn baby where you have them from day 1 and learn what they like and dislike as they grow bigger. So it was at Walmart where I started to panic – what if she doesn’t like, or worse, can’t suck (a problem for cleft palate babies) from the bottle I brought with me. What if she doesn’t like the way I prepare her food. And even, what if she doesn’t want me to hold her or care for her? Given that her info said “afraid of strangers”, this was not an unrealistic fear!

But we managed to get through the Walmart experience. By then it was 6:45pm and my jet-lagged body was in full revolt. It wanted to be fed, bathed and put to bed and it wanted it now. There was a KFC next to Walmart so we grabbed a quick meal, headed back to our hotel room to eat and I was horizontal and out for the count by 8pm. Which is exactly why I’m writing this at 2am. I know I desperately need to sleep, but after tossing and turning since midnight, I gave in and decided to record my thoughts and feelings. Tony is up as well so we’re two creatures of the night getting ready for one of the biggest days of our lives.

Most of all, I want to write about little Anna. My eyes fill with tears every time I picture her little face. I know our life is about to change pretty dramatically and honestly, I am scared. I know all of the medical issues, the emotional issues, the attachment and life issues – each one of those categories are huge – but I know that we will be guided in our journey. We have no guarantee that it will be easy or fun, but I already know it will be worth it for each member of our family and especially for little Anna Jing.

I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father. I know He is with us on this journey. Most of all, I know he loves me and my family, including a little baby girl who He has watched over, protected and cared for in some of the most remarkable and amazing ways.