We are home!

It's been over a week now since we have been home and I am finally updating the blog.  I always have such a hard time returning from China.  I'm still waking up at 4:30 am every morning.  It is nice to be home but it is always a tough adjustment to get back to a normal routine. 

This was a life changing experience for all of us, but especially Christian.  He really enjoyed being in China and now wants to learn Chinese, which is great.  This will really help him be able to develop a relationship with his birth family.  We have talked about taking a Chinese class as a family, although I do not have high hopes in ever being fluent in Chinese. 

We have already received emails from Christian's brother and we plan to continue to correspond with all of them.  I think it will have to be by snail mail for his grandmother and uncle since they do not have internet access, but that's okay.    I already miss them! 

It is going to take some time for Christian to process all that he has experienced over the last few months.  Please pray for us as we try to absorb all of this and continue to develop relationships with our new extended family in China!

Also please keep our extended family in your prayers- that they are more at peace now and that his birth mother and grandmother live many more years so that Christian has a chance to develop a relationship with them. 

Thanks for  your support and encouragement.  I do hope to write a book and so does Christian as we both have a story to tell from different perspectives.  If anyone knows of a publisher that might be interested please let me know. 

Thanks again for your interest in our story!  God bless!

For I will restore health unto you, and I will heal you of your wounds, saith the Lord.  -Jeremiah 30:17

Our Last Day in Beijing- Heading Home

I woke up early to pack and get organized.  Our flight doesn't leave until 6 pm but we have another busy day planned.  I had a 9 am meeting with two of the volunteers with "Baby Come Home." Later someone from Hunan TV is supposed to be bringing our videotape back and copy more photos from our computer for the documentary they are making. 

After a busy morning we had lunch with Barbara Demick, writer for the LA Times and another colleague of hers.  They are both US citizens living and working in China.  Barbara wrote an excellent article on the story that was in the Baltimore Sun, LA Times, Chicago Tribune.  We had a great lunch at a sushi restaurant in a very modern part of the city.  I really enjoyed talking to both of them about China and their experiences.  It was also interesting to get their perspective on the Reunion story and hear how well it has been received by local Chinese people.   

After lunch we took a taxi back to our hotel, where we met Emily, our local guide and the driver to take us to the airport.  As we were halfway to the airport at about 3:30 pm, I started looking through the flight information for Jamie's flight number.  Jamie flew separately from the rest of us and we recalled that his flight was three hours from ours.  As I scanned the flight information I realized that the 9:30 departure time I had previously seen was not his departure time from Beijing but from his connecting flight in Newark.  Jamie's flight was leaving three hours before ours, not three hours after ours!  He was supposed to leave Beijing at 3:30!  So...Jamie got an extra night in Beijing!  Kelly and I joked the whole way home about how we were going to tell our mom, because the last thing she said to Kelly was "don't lose my boy."

Back In Beijing

After our quick stop in Chengdu we flew to Beijing for one last night before heading back to the states.  The trip has gone by so fast and we are all wishing we had more time in Beijing.  We land in Beijing by noon and were met at the airport by Emily, our local guide.  She took us back to the hotel, where we had lunch with the former Director of Luoyang Children's Welfare Institute, where Christian was adopted.  Director Pei recently retired as Director, which I learned is more like a "forced retirement" due to age.  It was great to see him.

Christian and I with Director Pei

The whole gang with Director Pei

After our lunch we did some last minute shopping at the Silk Market, which is now inside a 7 story building.  The last time I went to the Silk Market (5 years ago) it was still outdoors near the US embassy.  It was quite an experience this time.  The shopkeepers were much more agressive than the last time.  You really have to be in the right mindset to go shopping here.  As soon as you walk in "lady, lady you need Polo shirts, Coach purse, Gucci...how about some Uggs?"  I got to bartering with this one lady and walked away when she wouldn't meet my price.  She grabbed me by the arm and dug her nails into me saying "Lady, you are being mean....come on...you got to be kidding...these are Chanel (sunglasses)."  I told her to get her hands off me and walked away again.  She immediately yells "okay, lady...fine...come back."  I wasn't going to come back but she came after me.  I paid her as she was saying "lady, how can I make any money when you won't pay me what it's worth."  I reminded her that they are fake and not worth much.  "what? you are kidding...these are not fake, lady.  Come on, lady."  Needless to say, we only could take about an hour of this and then went back to the hotel.

We had plans to meet Wen-Chun, the CNN Producer for dinner.  The guys decided they would rather shop longer so they passed on dinner (no, that's not a typo...the GUYS decided to shop longer and pass on dinner).  Kelly and I met Wen-Chun back at the hotel and he took us to a very nice Taiwanese restuarant.  We met up with the CNN reporter, John Vause and his wife at the restaurant.  They are all really nice and we had a lot of fun hearing about their experience living in China as ex-pats.   

Wen-Chun took us back to the hotel and we met up with Christian and Jamie to look at the video of our trip to the village.

Christian, Wen-Chun and me

Chengdu Panda Research Center

After touring the Terra Cotta Soldiers, we had lunch at a restaurant where we learned to make Jiaozi (traditional Chinese dumplings) before heading for the airport to fly to Chengdu.  Our flight to Chengdu was quite interesting as it was delayed almost two hours and other passengers were getting really angry.  Every time one of the flight crew would come off the plane to the check in counter, they would be verbally attacked by a crowd of angry travellers.  We finally boarded but the plane sat on the runway for about 30 minutes.  One man two rows ahead of us was shouting at the poor flight attendents, who would just nod and smile a lot.  If this had been an American airline I think the man would have been thrown off the plane. 

Chengdu is our last stop before going back to Beijing. We are only here for a day to see the Panda Research Center, which was Christian's request.  He was the only one that had the chance to hold a Panda while we were there. 

So cute!

One year old male panda born during Olympics last year