EEK!!! TODAY IS THE DAY WE MET OUR GIRL!
Originally our meeting to get the girls was scheduled for the morning, but when we arrived in Kunming our guide told us (the night before) the time had been changed to that afternoon. WAAAHH! I mean let’s talk about that. We got up in the morning and just did our best to kill some time! Kunming is a much smaller city (and by small I mean just six or seven million people-ha!).
Just killing time waiting to meet Britt! We woke up early and headed to the Starbucks, which was just a quick walk from our hotel.
These three were pumped!
This guy knew he was just buying time as the baby of the family getting to ride in the stroller. Our guide met us in the morning to give us a little tour of things that were close to our hotel.
Our guide wanted us to see some good restaurants near by and on our walk over we popped into this local market. You guys I’d say five days a week I could easily be vegetarian (I’d probably crave meat the other two) so walking around this market was CRAZY to me! The butchers were saving every piece they possibly could. And I mean every. single. piece.
Bowen’s face sums it up.
This sweet girl’s parents were dying to get her picture with Bowen. He didn’t seem to mind. Look at his arm!
We walked right by a kindergarten. There were big gates with windows and I was the creepy American taking a picture. I thought it was so cool to see. Our playgrounds are very similar.
I don’t remember the name of this park but it was BIG and gorgeous! If you’re in Kunming, CHECK IT OUT!
This gentleman was watching our crew take pictures, took a few pictures of us Americans, and then asked for his picture with Tab. Tab asked him to flex his muscles and he thought it was hilarious.
One area of the park had men playing this game…looked a little bit like checkers. These guys NEVER looked up…even with our crazy crew surrounding them.
Remember me mentioning how Tab likes to immerse himself in the culture? Here he is taking his shoes off enjoying this massage rock area.
The park had a large koi pond inside. Definitely a highlight for my kiddos.
This guy decided to dump his entire cup of food at one time. Not the BEST decision.
Someone’s still upset they “fed” the fish so quickly. Can you guess who?
What a journey! So thankful to have this guy by my side.
We had a bit of down time in our hotel before our guide and driver met us to GET OUR GIRLS! My stomach was a ball of nerves. I had no idea how this guy fell asleep. haha!
We met the girls in the Civil Affairs office. When we arrived there was a family there getting their daughter. (I want to add that I thought I would be sobbing at this point. haha! Just thinking about the day that’s what I imagined myself doing. The family that was getting their little girl was saying goodbye and I heard the little girl’s foster mom say she had to leave because she was about to burst into tears. My heart ripped open for this foster mom who had loved this little girl with everything she had for the last year and was now saying goodbye forever. I snuck off in the corner and had my moment.) Our girls hadn’t arrived just yet so we anxiously awaited their arrival. Remember how I mentioned the W family (we were traveling with) was amazing? We’re all nervous, anxious, and excited and we circled up and prayed with this family. Such a sweet time.
We were all looking out the window, which happened to be the wrong window, while our girls walked in! A lady was carrying Britt and I’ll never forget Nixon shouted, “Britt!”. And there she was. I walked over and took her in my arms. She was a little unsure but not really crying.
Oh my heart. Just seeing these pictures makes me realize how far we’ve come in a month.
Can you spot the proud big siblings?
She went to Tab easily and then did not want a thing to do with me. You guys…it broke my heart. I wasn’t sure if I should just let him hold her the entire time to make her feel as good as possible or force it a bit to let her know I’m your mama.
We snapped a few pictures with the civil affairs’ worker and the orphanage director before we left the office.
We grabbed some dinner, all got clean, put on matching pajamas, and played before going to bed.
At this point she was still a little unsure about all of us.
She started warming up a bit playing with the kids on the bed.
She even flashed us a couple smiles.
Best Big Sister Award goes to Ebby Lee. She was so sweet with her.
May 15th is a day I’ll forever remember. It couldn’t have been more bittersweet. Our family was so excited to welcome Britt into our family, but at the same time this sweet baby was giving up everyone and everything she’d ever known. Not only her but the orphanage workers who had cared for her for the last eighteen months were saying forever goodbyes. It was just a tough day.
On Tuesday our plan was to sign the paperwork at the Civil Affair’s office, drive three hours to check out the girl’s orphange, and while we were there we needed to apply for their passports. But the day before the orphanage told us they had applied for the passports for us. We decided since our group had a lot of kiddos and we would have been in the car for over six hours we’d skip the orphanage visit. One day I might regret that but in the moment the thought of taking Britt in a car for six hours just didn’t sound right.
When we went back I toted Britt around in the carrier. She fell asleep and slept the entire time we were signing paperwork. This was one of the orphanage workers who had cared for Britt while she was there. She was really sweet and so sad to see the girls go. My heart ached for her.
Our guide took us to Wal-Mart and I was the crazy lady taking all the pictures because I wanted to show you what Wal-Mart looks like in China. 🙂
For the most part, it looked really similar. The only major difference was when you purchased something in the health/baby section you had to pay there before moving on to another section of the store. I’m not sure if that’s how all Wal-Marts are in China or just this particular one.
We walked around doing a little sightseeing of our own.
At this point she was okay with me or Tab. I think the night time snuggling we got helped her open up to me. haha!
Britt was (is…we’re still seeing her little personality come out) super shy. She would be super stoic when we were out during the day in a big group but once we got back to our hotel room with just us six she’d be a little more playful.
There was one western restaurant, Salvador’s, a quick walk from our hotel and we hit that place up! We introduced Britt to pasta on this first night…big hit!
Can you tell?
We brought lots of Puffs, which she was also a huge fan of.
Our crew during dinner…poor Britt is looking squished.
On the walk home Tab was holding her and Nix kept jumping up. She was laughing out loud.
We covered a lot of emotional ground in the first twenty-four hours. This sweet girl had a lot of change happening, but we did our best to love on her as much as we possibly could.
To see other parts of our trip,
Thanks so much for stopping by today. I’ll be back tomorrow for Tuesday Talk!
