Friday, February 22, 2013

First post from China!!!

Well everyone, we made it!!!  It seemed to take us like 3 days to get here!  We flew a total of 21 hours!!  We also had 2 four hour layovers but we are finally here!  We are staying in a nice hotel, but the city of Guiyang is not really what we expected.  I guess we expected it to be like the US where there is a "good" part of town and a "bad" part of town, but it's not really like that here.  Our nice hotel is sitting in the middle of the town and wow....well, you can look at the pictures and tell.  We are stared at a lot.  I guess they don't see many Americans.  I can't imagine how we'll be stared at when we get Hannah....and American couple with a Chinese child!  Our guide, Benjamin, met us at the airport and brought us to the hotel.  He got us all checked in and left.  We suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of "OH MY GOSH".  It was then that we realized, we're on the other side of the world...we know no one....very few people here even speak our language!!  These are times that we are reminded to totally rely on God!  Too many times in our day to day goings on we take a lot for granted and handle a lot "ourselves".  Let me tell you something though....we are totally out of control of things over here and again we go back to the fact that God called us to do this and through Him we will overcome!  We had a good breakfast this morning at the hotel and the staff was really nice.  There are a few staff members who speak limited English so we were able to communicate with them.











We are very excited about seeing Hannah!  When we came into the room today, they had the baby crib set up and it just made things seem so real!!  They moved our Gotcha Day to Monday morning so it  will be Sunday night in the US.  We're not sure exactly what time yet, but we'll try to share as soon as we know.  Please continue to pray for her heart to be open to us and to understand that we are there to make her a forever part of our family.  We just pray for a quick attachment! 

Not sure why the bedding says "wolf" but ok.....it's clean and soft!
Believe it or not...this was Erik's first meal in China.  We ate at the airport in Guangzhou.  He DID eat it!  :)
This was our meal on the airplane (China Southern).  It was pork under all those mushrooms.  It was actually pretty good.
Erik's reaction to the airline meal....he ended up eating most of it though.  He didn't touch the breakfast they gave.  Lol! 
This is what you look like after 21 hours of flying....we were still smiling though.  Yes...Erik's smiling!
This is our room.  I was standing in the widow to take this picture. Our room is smaller than what we thought.  Where you see my reflection in the glass, that's our bathroom and yes....you can see straight through into the bathroom!  Glad we're married!! LOL!

I'll post more pics later.  We plan to go into town today and do some shopping.  I'll try to take some while we're out and about.  We love all you guys and thanks for all the encouraging words!!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh....I have been obsessively checking your blog! So glad to see y'all made it and everything's going good....we are supa excited and can't wait to see more pics :) Praying!!

Unknown said...

So glad and relieved to see your smiling faces!! Oh the joy that I feel for you over the sacred transaction that's about to take place physically - there are no words to describe it!! I am so thankful you made it safe and sound and that Erik was able to eat something. We've been checking the blog too - so thankful that we can share the journey this way!! Can't wait to see pictures of Hannah in your arms. We are so thankful that she will be joining us in the county of Dodge!! ALL PRAISE TO HIM for placing so many China gifts in our community - HE does "exceedingly above anything we could ever dare, ask, hope, dream or imagine" and in abundance always!!! Enjoy every minute, and I know you will be giving HIM praise every step of the way - and we are too!! We love you all - and we continue to pray!! Oh what joy and beauty awaits!! Hannah will be with you soon!! THANK YOU FATHER!!!

The Great Adventure said...

So glad you guys made it safely and seem to be doing well. We'll continue to keep you in our prayers and look forward to seeing more posts...especially when little Hannah is in your arms! : )

Keisha said...

So thankful you guys made it!! I actually looked the flights up... & we said.. well.. we know they arrived! lol! I'm loving the Wolf on the crib bedding! lol! She needs some PINK on that bed!
Forgot to tell you.. tell your guide.. to tell housekeeping to come get the stuff out of the fridge. That way.. you can have the fridge space & you can go to the store and buys drinks to put in there. The hotel stuff is expensive! ;)
I can't wait to Gotcha day.... to see Hannah in her Momma & Daddy's arms! I got my tissues READY girl!
Love yall!!

Unknown said...

PTL!!! Glad everything is okay. Jonah and Anslee are doing fine. We talked about you being gone and they miss you but are doing good. Jonah even said he was okay with having a little sister now. I think they are getting excited about having her to come home. Of course, it helped that Papa took them to Wal-Mart and let them pick out anything they wanted. Anslee chose a sword. She said she knew it was a boy toy but she wanted it anyway. Cant' wait til you get Hannah. Keep in touch...love you bunches!!!