This just seems so surreal. I can't believe I'm sitting here in China again. All the bags are unpacked, the diapers are laid out alongside the wipes and sippy cups and formula bearing instructions I can't read, the 2Ts are folded up next to the 4Ts and 5Ts for Jai Li, and a huge bag of meds containing everything from Desitin to PediaCare is out of reach in the closet. The room controls are in Chinese and I can barely see across the courtyard outside our room because the smog is so unbelievably bad. It's below 30*F and I'm physically exhausted but mentally wired, but still having a hard time believing I'm here.
Jai has a new friend, another child who was adopted from China and is her age. They have become best buds and have kept the entire group well-entertained today! I have both girls while Layne and the girl's mom, Barb, are at Walmart (!) shopping for formula et al. Alissa's dad is asleep. While they have played, I've put everything away, as we will be here for 5 days... 5 days in the town where my second daughter was born. I'm done unpacking, and the girls have settled from hard play; they're laying on their bellies on the bed watching Sofia the First on the iPad. I'm watching them through the slats on the crib that was delivered minutes after we checked in. I've put Samia's blanket in there and her new little curly monkey pillow. Layne has found a stuffed bunny (she was born in the year of the rabbit), so it's tucked in the corner. It's so hard to believe we have made this trip again and we are hours away from meeting our daughter.
We had dinner tonight with the parents of Jai's new friend. Have no idea what the restaurant was called but the food was awesome. No one spoke English so we just pointed to pictures of something that looked remotely familiar. Everything was exceptional. Green beans so peppery hot that my lips are still burning several hours later! Jai and Alissa ate noodles and played while the grown-ups twirled the rotating center of the table sharing dishes til we were stuffed. Really wonderful food. It seemed to be a very local place, nothing western about it at all. Fun experience for our first meal here!
The travel group is wonderful. Lots of varied families, from a dad traveling alone to a family with seven kids of varying skin tones. We got updates on our children today, lots of info about what their schedules are like and what they typically eat. We already know much about Samia, so this info actually seems really dated! Tomorrow we will know for certain what she's like. Wow.
More to come, have lots to write but carving out blog time is hard. Fortunately access is simpler this trip, so we are getting online with ease. Haven't tried video chat yet... Tomorrow, I hope. You folks with iPhones, be ready to meet the new family member!
- Nikki
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