As I get older the phrase "hindsight is 20/20" becomes more and more true. Our China trip may be the greatest example of this I have in my adult life. Jon and I were given the option to condense a typical fourteen day trip into just ten days. This seemed like such a great idea. It would save travel costs and time away from our boys. It seemed like a win/win. Hindsight, people. I should have thought a little more about this. This post will explain the first few days of our trip. They were long days with lots of emotional stress. This stress may or may not have been avoided had we stayed the extra couple days in Lila's province. I'm going to offer you a pictorial timeline of the first 3 days.
September 18th-Leave Memphis EARLY
We had a layover in Detroit and then we were China Bound.
The flight to China from Detroit was so long. Like 13 hours long. The food was less than ideal but we made it to Beijing and then had to navigate the Beijing airport, go through customs and recheck our bags without speaking English. To say we were a little stressed might be an understatement. I have never been as uncomfortable as I was that moment. We had some McDonalds then boarded a flight to Nanchang. We arrived in Nanchang about 9:30pm some 27 hours after we left Memphis.
September 20th: Nanchang: Lila's city
We woke up the next morning to one of the coolest views. We would meet Lila at 10:30 am at the Civil Affairs office. The red bags are gifts for the Chinese officials.
10:30-Civil Affairs office. Most Nanchang gotcha days take place in the lobby of the adoptive parents' hotel. Since we expedited we completed what most people do in the first two days in about an hour at the civil affairs office. We met Lila in a very hot, empty civil affairs office. She did not exactly take to us right away. It was a very emotional and scary day for all of us, especially Lila.
We then took our van to the notary office and signed more paperwork. The lady in the picture above is Shirley. She was our wonderful guide. Zoey tried to keep Lila happy while we signed paperwork. I have absolutely no regrets bringing Zoey. She was an enormous help. Lila was very scared. Very scared. I can imagine how it was so overwhelming.
After the notary's office we went back to our hotel. We spent some time playing and napping and then we took her to dinner in our hotel. For a brief couple of hours we thought she was starting to realize that we were going to take care of her and love her.
September 21st-Orphanage visit/Travel to Guangzhou
If we had a typical trip we would have spent at least 3 maybe 4 more days in Nanchang. We would have had more time to bond and connect before we went back to visit our orphanage. We expedited part of our trip because we were running into the Mid-
Autumn Festival and China shuts down their government. We would have had to wait at least 2 more weeks before we could have travelled. Again all hindsight. This is where our struggles really began. I am going to keep these pictures private. Lila started to become weary of Jon. She did not want him to hold her or really be left alone with her. We packed our bags that morning and met our guide to visit Lila's orphanage and foster family. I had hoped that visiting her foster family would have given her a little closer but I can now see how it was so confusing and scary for her. Hindsight. Lila had literally left these people the previous morning. They had loved and cared for her for most of her life. They were her family. She had spent a very brief and terrifying 24 hours with these strangers and now we took her back home. You can imagine how confusing this all was for her. In addition she was in completely new and scary places with these new and scary people. She had an absolute meltdown when we left. She shutdown and started getting sick. We put her on an airplane that afternoon and I'm still amazed we all survived that day. Her body was under complete stress.
I will finish up the rest of the trip in part two-Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Thanks for sticking around and thanks for always loving and supporting our family.
