Thursday, May 12, 2011

Ni' Hao from Chengdu for our last time!

It is a bitter sweet thought to know that we are leaving Emma's birthplace. She was born in a bustling city that is full of people constantly coming and going. On more than one occasion, I have found myself wondering if Emma's birth mother is walking the same city streets that we are. Is she out there wandering with a piece of her heart missing? I pray that she has peace in her heart with the hope that her very sick, but precious little girl may have received the necessary medical care. We believe that she knew it was impossible for her to afford the medical care and surgery necessary for her daughter to get better, and that is why she walked into a specialized children's hospital in the heart of the city with her baby girl wrapped up in a yellow cotton coat, a pink coat and a purple adult coat and left her there. Can you imagine the grief that must have filled her heart? We ache for her loss, yet rejoice in her wisdom, knowing that her daughter needed help. Since the beginning of time, God had HIS plan in place for us, and for Emma Claire. HIS plan was for her to be raised in a loving Christian home, that will daily point her to HIM! He wants her for HIS glory and we pray that at a young age Emma will realize she needs a savior. We count it a privilege that we are able to parent her, realizing she is a gift from HIM, the giver of all good things! While Emma's mother wanders the city streets and life passes her by, may she know that the void in her heart and life can only be filled by a Perfect, Holy and Loving Savior. HE is all we need! Please pray with us that Emma Claire's birth mother will seek Jesus in her heart and she will come to know Him as her personal Savior! What a heavenly reunion that would be, 2 mama's and a girl........who all just needed HIM!

We head for Guangzhou in the morning. Our flight leaves at 11:00am and we are set to arrive in Guangzhou at 13:15! :) Get with China time people!!! Please pray for Emma, as she will be experiencing flying for the first time! We have lots of tricks up our sleeves to keep her occupied! We are SO looking forward to meeting up with the other families to meet their children and make some more memories with them. We have grown to love these other families in just a few short days. We will be staying at the famous White Swan hotel on the Pearl River. Many adoptive families stay there and it really caters to their needs. It has a western breakfast and a play room for the children. It also has the famous red couch where all adoptive families must get a photo of their children dressed in their Chinese best!

This morning we met Susie for our trip to the Giant Panda Reserve Center. It was a beautiful park with lots of lush foliage and bamboo lined sidewalks. We were able to see some of the Pandas being fed their lunch. We were able to get very close and get some great photos and videos. Avarie, Evan and Ella you will love watching them eat their lunch! We also saw 5 baby Panda's hanging in a tree....SLEEPING!!! It was a pretty silly sight, but as you know they need to be safe when they're sleeping, so high up in a tree is what their Panda mommy said!

After our Panda trip we Emma and I laid down for a nap and Jason was off to finish up some more paperwork. We received all our final documents today and will now take those with us to Guangzhou for the final stages of the paperwork process..........hmmm, let's see......how about more ways to make $$$$$$!!!!!!!

Tonight for dinner, we ventured out to McDonald's, where we were met with MANY stares and handed a picture menu!!! I pointed to the filet-o-fish meal and Jay pointed to a double cheeseburger meal! Together we pointed to a chicken mcnugget meal with fries for Emma! Dinner was a success! Emma cleared her plate as they say! Well, daddy helped! She did finish every last fry and ate 1 whole nugget! Then we did a little shopping in a fancy department store! We found 2 beautiful dresses for Emma Claire......to have her pictures taken in at home, and we got 2 children's books with both Chinese and English writing. Emma attracts a lot of attention when we're out and she loves it! Many of the Chinese people comment on how beautiful she is, we think so too!

After dinner and shopping it was time for a bath and packing. Emma LOVES the bath and starts washing her feet right away. It is really cute! Did I mention that she is pretty much potty trained??? Thank you foster mama!!! She is still wearing diapers while we are here, but when we get home she should easily transfer to pull-ups and eventually big girl undies! She has had a good day overall. We are noticing that bedtime/naptime is the most difficult. She forces herself not to fall asleep. We believe she does this to avoid the scary feelings that come over her when she wakes up. Today at naptime, I was laying next to her on the bed and she doing her heavy, nervous breathing and as she finally closed her eyes a giant tear swelled from her eye and ran across the bridge of her nose, falling to her pillow. She is grieving.......may we remember to be sensitive to this precious child who has lost all that she knows, and each time she wakes up, realizes that her old reality no longer exists. How very scary this must be to her. She is being so brave.