We finished getting ready, spent some time praying together, and went to have breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast here is amazing. They have typical American breakfast food - eggs, waffles, sausage, muffins, toast, cereal, yogurt, fruit, orange juice and coffee. But they also have a complete Chinese selection - things like noodles, steamed rolls and dumplings, pork, chicken sausage, spinach and sauteed vegetables, hot water and hot milk tea. They serve plain hot water all the time. Our guide, Aggie, brings hot water with her every day to drink in a water bottle. She says hot water is good for fertility..."warms the womb." :) At breakfast, I have not ventured away much from the American breakfast food. Brad has, though...some things like the dumplings and the sauteed mushrooms he has liked, other things like the steamed rolls and some of the meat dishes he has not liked too much.
After breakfast, we went to a mall to buy some clothes for the orphanage and get some formula for Jedidiah. Malls here are not like malls at home. There are floors and floors of stores. It is crazy and the amount of items each of these stores pack into their space is pretty amazing.
Hohhot, the city we are in, has 2 million people. The stores are crowded and the streets are filled with traffic and people. It is crazy getting around. Thank goodness we have a driver who takes us where we need to go.
We got back to the hotel about 20 minutes before Jedidiah arrived. We were going to meet him in the hotel lobby, which we were very happy about. Also, we had tried the Wifi in the lobby the night before and FaceTimed the kids so we were all very excited it worked and they were going to be able to see us meet Jedidiah live...amazing what technology allows us to do! Rocky, our driver, got ready with the iPad...he was in charge of that plus our video camera...what a guy! We reached the kids...by this time it was around 10:20pm Monday night in Kenosha where they are staying with my sister, Eden, and her husband Brian. It was way past their bedtime, but everyone was very fine with that! I wish you all could have seen the kids' faces...they were filled completely with anticipation and joy! I won't ever forget their faces!
At 11:30am China time on Tuesday, April 8th, the adoption director from the orphanage carried Jedidiah through the hotel's revolving doors. The second I saw him, tears erupted again...such immense joy and love and peace and excitement and anticipation all wrapped into that one single moment. The emotions were truly overwhelming! The adoption director came straight over to me. She told Jedidiah in Chinese 'This is your mama.' Thank goodness the Chinese call mothers 'mama', otherwise I would not have understood what she was saying. But our guide, Aggie, was right there to translate every word. The adoption director told Jedidiah to go to me and then the most precious moment took place...he reached his arms out to me and I took him in my arms. Elation! A mother's dream! Jedidiah then stayed with me the whole time...we had to sign paperwork and take specific pictures for the adoption paperwork. Poor Brad...every time he asked Jedidiah if he could hold him (by reaching out his arms), Jedidiah just shook his head no. Once we got up to the room, though, Jedidiah warmed up to Brad well. He is still a mama's boy for sure, but he is letting Brad in more and more.
The time in the lobby took about an hour or so. Poor Rocky was holding my iPad the entire time. We kept asking the kids if they wanted to hang up, because after the initial meeting it was a lot of paperwork and semantics, but they did not. They wanted to be part of every minute...and I was very glad!
There were a lot of tears for them and some special moments with Jedidiah. He waved to them when we showed them all to him on the iPad. He was pointing at the pictures they showed him of their cousins, Hayes and Hartley, who are only 3 weeks younger than him. He was attempting to interact with all of them as much as a 20 month old is able to...the kids were thrilled! I cannot tell you how thankful we are that we were able to share the moment of meeting Jedidiah with them. I felt like it was such a blessing from God. God knew all along in the adoption process I so wanted to bring our kids on this trip. As time went on, we knew it was the best decision not to bring them, but it was heart wrenching for me. So, allowing the whole FaceTime thing to work was a huge gift from God. I am beyond thankful!
After we were done in the lobby, we went up to our room and spent time getting to know Jedidiah. He immediately warmed up to Brad while playing on the floor together.
We ate some lunch - a Chinese lunch - Jedidiah loves Chinese noodles! He was a great eater. Then I was thrilled when he let me rock him to sleep for his nap and he spent the nap sleeping on my chest. Love!
After naps, we took a walk outside in the courtyard of the hotel.
We had another authentic Chinese meal in the hotel for dinner. So authentic that they had to call the restaurant host, a guy named Andy, who is the only one at the hotel who speaks English pretty well, to help us order. Thank goodness! It was all really good - I had a pork and mushroom dish and Brad had fried rice and a chicken saute. Again, Jedidiah loved his noodles!
We then finished the day with a bath. Jedidiah loved his bath!
He fell asleep with Brad and I in our bed tonight. The end to a beautiful day!
Thank you for sharing this journey today with us. It ranks up there with one of the biggest moments in our lives. We feel blessed to get to share it with you!
Tomorrow, more paperwork, and then Jedidiah officially becomes a Gunnink!
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