We are still having internet issues, so I'm way behind on posting. I'm going to quickly share about the last 24 hours (because they've been super eventful and involved way too little sleep), and then I'll do my best to catch up on the rest of the week when I can.
Yesterday was our last day in Bean's city. We got up early to meet some amazing ladies for breakfast. Our adoption agency's Ch*na team is in Ch*na visiting partner orphanages right now. They happened to be visiting Bean's orphanage yesterday and were able to meet us for breakfast. These are some incredible ladies who work so, so hard for little ones in Ch*na. I really feel like they are my friends, and it made my day to meet them in real life.
Here Bean and I are with Stefani, our agency's waiting child advocate. This is the awesome lady who sent Li'l Man and Li'l Dude's files to us and who works tirelessly to find families for waiting children every. single. day. She's pretty much an adoption superhero. (Check out Bean's grouchy face; she had a major diaper explosion while Stefani and I were talking, so that might explain her look of displeasure.)
We knew we'd be up late for our flight to Guangzhou last night, so we headed back to our room for quiet time (and diaper explosion clean-up) after breakfast. How sweet is my little thumb sucker?
We were able to check out of our room and grab a late lunch at McDonalds before heading the airport for our 6:30pm flight. Here we are in the airport, saying goodbye to our wonderful guide. (The couple on the left are our new adoption buddies. Their daughter is in the peach headband.)
Right after this picture is when the adventure really started. Our guide casually mentioned that our flight was delayed about 15 minutes or so. No big deal, right? We found our gate easily and settled in to wait for our flight. We quickly noticed that the computer screen at our gate listed 4-5 flights, several of which were already supposed to have taken off. Not a good sign.
We were doing our best to keep up with the flight announcements that kept crackling over the PA system. (Trying to catch your flight number in heavily accented English on bad speakers in a loud airport is challenging. Understanding what is actually being said is pretty close to impossible.) After we'd been waiting a little while, we managed to decipher an announcement saying that our flight was delayed until 7:30pm. Shortly after that, our gate was changed. We found ourselves in the "basement" of the airport, waiting on a bus to take us to a plane at some unspecified location.
Time slowly ticked by. 7:30pm came and went, but all the screens still showed our flight was scheduled for 19:30. We were on the same flight as 7-8 other adoptive families, and the little ones were starting to get tired and restless. 8:30pm came and went...then 9:30pm. At one point, a huge rush of Ch*nese people left our gate, and we were sure our flight was canceled. Thankfully, it turned out to be another flight scheduled for the same gate.
The one bright spot in our super long evening was that Bean was in a super silly mood. She apparently thought the airport basement was the most interesting place ever. She smiled and smiled as she watched all the craziness. At one point, she was sitting on my lap and she started throwing herself backward. I played along and tipped her backward and then back up. She broke out into giggles. It was the first time we'd heard her laugh. She wanted to do it over and over, and she laughed and laughed. It was so fun to see her opening up, and her sweet little giggle is pretty much the cutest ever.
Finally our departure time changed from 19:30 to 00:20. Ugh. Shortly after midnight, we loaded up on a bus and rode out to a plane in the middle of the tarmac. We were exhausted, but at least we were finally headed to Guangzhou.
The flight was really full, and the some of the little guys were pretty much losing it at this point. We taxied out to the runways and stopped. Apparently Air Traffic Control had not released our flight. So we sat in our crowded plane full of crying babies in the middle of the runway...until 2:00am.
We finally arrived in Guangzhou a little after 4:00am. Amazingly, Bean slept through 95% of the airplane ordeal. As soon as we loaded the van with our guide, she fell back to sleep. We got to our hotel around 5:30am and took a nap from 6:00 - 8:00am. At 8:00, we had to drag ourselves back out of bed for Bean's medical. (This is an appointment required for her U.S. visa.)
The medical went well, and we enjoyed our morning with our guide and our friends. We are staying in a really fun area that our guide calls "authentic Guangzhou". She helped us buy a delicious lunch a couple blocks from our hotel, and it ended up costing $2 for all three of us!
We had a leisurely afternoon (which involved a very long nap for Bean) and then spent the evening walking around. We visited "the island", the area where we stayed when we were in Guangzhou for the boys' adoptions, and ate dinner at Jeremy's favorite restaurant in China. (They serve double cheeseburgers and sweet tea in Mason jars; he's a big fan.)
Bean was a big fan, too.
(When you're the fourth child, you get to do really crazy things like drinking sweet tea before your second birthday.)
Tomorrow we have a day off. We are going to sleep forever and then just enjoy a relaxing day together. The only thing on our schedule is meeting friends for dinner. This sleepy girl is excited.
Alright, I need to sleep. I'll leave you with one more picture of Bean from our walk tonight.
Exciting times! Congratulations!!
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