On To Wuhan

We left early this morning to fly to Emma's province of Hubei.  We will complete the first round of adoption paperwork in the provincial capital city of Wuhan.  Our guide for this city told us on the way to our hotel that this was a smallish city with only 10 million people.  Yeah, that's what I consider to be a smallish town.  Anyway, we got settled in our hotel and grabbed some lunch at the nearby Burger King.  We were not sure if we would get Emma today (Sunday) or if we would have to wait until tomorrow. Her orphanage is over 3 hours away, so we were told that she would be leaving in the morning (6pm on Sunday in Mississippi ) which would put her here around lunch time (9-10pm MS time) and then we would get to see her.  If I'm being honest, it is such a surreal feeling to be here. After talking and praying about something for so long, it is so bizarre and exciting to actually be living it out. There have been several times that J and I have looked at each other and been like "we are in China. CHINA?!?!?!!!"  We are hoping for a good nights rest tonight since we know tomorrow could be a difficult day.  Please say a pray for Emma. We love her deeply but she does not know us and for a child who has never been outside of her orphanage walls, there will be an overwhelming amount of experiences to take in for her all of which will seem so scary. We pray that she will learn to trust us and feel more and more comfortable with us as we pour out love on her. The next few days are uncharted territory for us. With our biological children, they are born with an attachment to us.  Adoption is different. Attachment is a process that takes time and it is honestly scary as we attempt to get things "right."  We know that The Lord has a heart for adoption and He will carry us as we bring Emma officially in to our family. 

Day 2 In Beijing

Today we did some more exploring in Beijing.  We started our morning at Tiananmen Square before heading into the Forbidden City.

Here we are outside the gates with a little photo bomb by Chairman Mao. He is everywhere...including watches and fans and any other souvenir item you can imagine.

This is our travel group right before we went in the first of several gates.

The Forbidden City was enormous. We got a brief history lesson from our guide as we moved through each section. It was really interesting and I learned a lot....but I couldn't get the Mulan soundtrack out of my head as we came to these steps leading up to the emperors throne room.

Once our tour was complete, we jumped in to these bad boys.

I had to close my eyes because our driver had that rickshaw weaving in and out of traffic like crazy.  I'm thankful we survived!

Our driver dropped us off at this little alley way so we could go have a traditional meal in the home of a family who lives "under the shadow of the emperor" because it is located so close to the palace.  These homes may not look like much but they have been around for 600 years and would cost $10 million to purchase!  Only 10% of the people living in this area own their homes.  The rest are owned by the government.

They had a man painting with the traditional calligraphy so we had him paint Emma's name. Beautiful.

After lunch and another thrilling rickshaw ride, we went to a tea room for a Chinese tea ceremony.  We are not tea drinkers but we enjoyed tasting and learning about different teas.

This was my favorite tea because it didn't have any tea leaves and was just hot water and dried fruit.  It would have been super yummy cold!

We learned the proper way to drink our tea.  I'm so fancy.

After our tea ceremony, we got to watch an acrobatic show.  It was amazing! The performers were 10-18 years old and it was unbelievable to see the things they could do.  We were not allowed to take pictures which was a bummer but it was awesome!!! We are off to bed now because we have a flight to catch at 8:30 am (6:30 pm in Mississippi) as we head to Emma's province.  We are not sure if we will get her tomorrow afternoon or the next morning, but we are so excited to be this close to her! It is almost (FINALLY) time to meet our girl!!!

Our First Day In Beijing

We have had an incredible day exploring Beijing today.  Our organization arranges for the travel group to have two days to adjust to the time change, and see a bit of China before meeting our child.  So today, we went to a jade factory, a Cloisonné factory, the Great Wall and to the Olympic Village.  The factories were both really interesting to see the craftsmanship used and the patience needed to make each unique piece.  We had an authentic Chinese meal and spent a good part of our day on the Great Wall. It was amazing to see how blue and clear the sky was while we were there as opposed to the sky in the city.  The smog is no joke but it is nice to be here in the winter when it is not quite as horrible.

We put a lock on the wall for our Emma. There were thousands of these love locks lining the wall and I was excited to add one for our little girl.  Maybe one day, she will want to come back to China and we can show it to her.

I should have done some training to get in shape to hike up the part that we climbed.  It was brutal but it was truly spectacular.  I can not even imagine what it must have been like to build this 3,000 mile wall brick by brick. 

We love the Olympics, so it was great to see the Bird's Nest and the rest of the Olympic Village. They spared no expense in the construction.  We were bummed that they had the area blocked off so we couldn't actually get inside. I really wanted to run a lap.

We have had a fun day getting to know the other families traveling with us.  Adoption creates a special bond and I'm thankful for the conversations we have already shared together.  We are all about to grab dinner now and head off to bed.  We have another day of touring tomorrow before heading out to the province where we will meet Emma!  

We Made It!

We are in Beijing....in the same country as Emma!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!  Our flight got in a couple of hours ago to the biggest airport I could ever imagine. It was seriously huge.  We met up with our guide and 2 other families that are traveling with us.  We are meeting in the morning at 8 to do some sightseeing around the city.  We are excited to take it all in, but for now, it is bed time! It has been a long 26 hours!!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It was an early wake up call for the Nelsons (and my dad) today! Daddy picked us up at 3:45 am and we made our way to the airport. Our flight got delayed due to ice on the wings. Seriously, we live in mississippi to avoid situations such as this!  We were about an hour and a half behind schedule so when we arrived in Charlotte, we literally ran through the airport (think Home Alone airport scene) and were the last 2 people to board our plane. It was insane but we made it and that was the important thing!  We got to our seats and saw that the back 12 rows were completely empty. It turned out that almost missing a flight has some perks because we got to stretch out over several seats since everyone was already situated and completely unaware of the available space in the back. It was fabulous. We arrived in Chicago just a bit ago and we are now waiting on our flight to Beijing. We are scheduled to leave at 3:45 and we are looking at a 16 hour flight!!!! Thank you so much for the kind messages and for all the prayers. We certainly appreciate all of them! Stay tuned! Next stop...CHINA!!!!!!!!

Orphan to Ours

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the encouragement and support as our family has been on this adoption journey.  I tell people all the time that we are surrounded by an amazing "village" to love on and care for our family. In less than 24 hours, J and I will be in the air on our way around the world to meet our baby girl!  We hope to post updates daily, so check back often.  We would so appreciate your prayers as our family transitions into a family of 5. There are many unknowns as we begin this next stage for our family, but one thing is certain and that is the Lord is faithful and good and for that, we are grateful. We can not wait to meet Emma and we are even more excited that there will be one less orphan in the world!  

Go Time

"Please Jesus, just bring her home by Christmas."  This was my prayer for months and months, long before we laid eyes on our beautiful girl.  Once we were given our referral, I started doing the math of how the next steps would need to work out so that this would actually become a reality.  It was close.  Really close.  But it was possible. Our China Team called last week and said that if our travel invitation was issued by Wednesday the 3rd, we would likely be able to travel with our agency's travel group leaving in December.  I was hopeful and doubtful all at the same time but The Lord gave us such a peace about things. Whether we traveled in December or January, Emma would be coming home soon and that is all that really mattered.  So, today I was in my mom's bible study group at church and they were asking for a status update.  I was literally in the middle of explaining things and my phone rang.  It was our travel agent saying he was about to send us our flight options! Say what?!!?!  We were issued our travel invitation! We leave NEXT WEEK and we will be home right before Christmas!  All 5 of us!!! Under one roof!!!  For Christmas!!! The Lord is so good and we are thrilled, overwhelmed, overjoyed, anxious, and pretty much feeling every other emotion out there as we are so close to bringing Emma home.  Please say a prayer for our family if you don't mind for traveling mercies, for Emma's little heart (we love her dearly but we are taking her from the only home she has ever known), for EK and W as we are away from them for so long and as they deal with gaining another sibling, for the grandparents who are so awesome and willing to hold down the fort with the kids while we are away, and for our transition to a family of 5.  We have many challenges ahead as find our new normal but we are trusting The Lord with the details. He has been so gracious and faithful to our family and we are trusting in Him as we move forward.  Thank you for walking down this road with us.  We are thankful.