Beijing-Finally!

We woke up early this morning uhm…like 3am early, cause our time clocks are all messed up. Hope has a shiner! She fell off the bed last night Can this all get better, please? Well it does, because we then headed for the airport and had for breakfast at McDonalds-per our kids’ request. We then went to check in and the lady gave us seat assignment

s all sitting

together! Yeahhh, is this really happening? Yes!!! Thank You Lord…I thought this was not going to be possible for us. My body is so broken, I cannot even explain it. So I went over to the massage chairs (yep they have massage chairs facing the airplanes in Japan) that give 10 minute massages. And I am not one that likes massages or one that will do this- especially in public. But I did it; along with all four of our poor kids! We were just so elated to finally be going to Beijing….what a trip! We boarded the plane and sat together, our four kids just beaming with smiles, because of the video games they provided. We flew via ANA airlines, which UNITED code shares with and they were really great! I also must say here before I move on that the Japanese, are among the nicest people you will ever meet! They are so soft spoken, kind and very helpful. Freddy says I should be more soft spoken too because I yell too much…he better watch it. The women though, are so glamorous and there is a lot of wealth…I’d say “look Freddy everyone has such pretty luggage.” Ours looks…well I don’t even know what ours looks like anymore…at this point, we probably look and feel homeless! haha! Ok, ok so we then arrive in Beijing! WOW we’re finally here. CHINA!!!! At this point in my excitement, I have forgotten that we are soooo late and off schedule with our agency’s reps…that shock has left my mind. So we descend to grab our luggage, its quite a hustle and bustle here in China. You have to keep up and we have to keep our children close…our kids are grabbing to us pretty tightly, because they too realized that they could be run over. While trying to find where to wait for the taxis, we bumped into an Israeli couple that warned us to be aware that the drivers-do not understand English. So we asked someone from their party, to write down ‘subway station south’ and Zhengzhoudong, she wrote it on a paper for us and I am telling you this, because Freddy says it’s important to mention this for others. Once we showed the driver the paper he grunted and said “700RMB!” we communicated-simple! He got us there in a heartbeat, I was very proud of our driver who was driving in the shoulder of the highway the entire time, bypassing all of the traffic. Looking around Beijing, a familiar picture entered my mind-Russia. It reminded me of Moscow, the smog and apartments….many, many apartments. The hustle of the people, with all of the stress in their eyes seemed familiar too. We are here again God; another journey to your people, whom you love oh so much. The Beijing South Station is a zoo!!! Literally, uhhh people were coming up to us and asking us things…and I just kept saying BU, BU,BU….no no no. Then I also had to tell them I am American, little mandarin. Hehe, that’s like all I know. I forgot everything I learned and we never got past the first Pimsleur cd. Anyway, it was crazy! People stared at us I think because of Hope and it was awkward…I didn’t know what to think..nor did I care at this point, they were pushing us out of the way and I just said BU! Freddy finally got the tickets for the train to Zhengzhou, we had to go through security again..I think it’s like our 6th time through security checks? Maybe more at this point? We didn’t care though, we hopped on that train! It was like another airplane ughhh….more sitting and travels. But it moved very, very fast and we could face each other and I put my feet up and conked out! Another 3.5 hours later, we arrived at Zhengzhoudong (east). Our rep texted us, that she is waiting for us with a CCAI flag. Someone cares!! Thank you Lord, we are here and someone cares. We exited off the train and find ‘Rita’. She’s a small, soft spoken woman with nothing but pity in her eyes for us-yeahhh she has pity! So now we are here in a Holiday Inn Express, with the nicest staff ever! We feel like we’re amongst family really. Wilson and Alice, are at the front desk and they are just the cutest, sweetest pair ever…the kindness radiates off of them and they seem so interested, in our crazy bunch of kids. I can’t tell you how good we feel right now, all nestled in our connected rooms. Our kids are psyched to have their ‘man cave’ and Hope is in the bed next to us. She too is excited to sleep because tomorrow, she will meet her baby sister Faith Amelia. I am a little confused about our schedule still, because we have gifts to give and we’re still not sure how the tipping goes. But I can already see that leaving Henan will be painful. We’ve been given Faith’s schedule, her diet and preferences. Uhmm she wakes at 5:30 am? We have to sleep. Tomorrow we will meet her and be her guardians for 24 hours. She is weary of strangers. Ahhhh another daughter tomorrow at 9:30am sigh. This is all moving so fast…wow. I keep thinking about Hope in Russia, and how awkward it was when we met….I hope tomorrow goes fine? Hope I can sleep tonight-my stomach is not so good with the jet lag…I feel like I can’t keep anything down.