Friday,
August 6, 2010
THE LAND OF YUE XIA FENG
Today is the day we travel to Harper's province, Jiangxi. We
will stay in Nanchang, the provincial capital of Jiangxi. Harper
is from Fengcheng which is more of rural area about 2 hrs away.
We slept pretty good last night and I actually woke up at 5 am
bright eyed and ready to go. Well semi bright eyed..I just
wanted to get to her province and be done the big travel part of
this week. We had breakfast at the Executive Lounge at the
Marriott. We had our first taste of the Asian buffets..yes rice
is served at every meal. At breakfast we kept joking with each
other about how we will no longer have quiet and relaxing meals.
The idea of food and dishes being thrown about at the table will
soon be a reality!
We headed off to the airport and again tried to follow the
crowds. This airport is like a huge mall...any high end designer
you can think of has a store here. We waited in a very long line
for our China Eastern flight. The trade show is happening in
Shanghai right now so there were tons of business men carrying
all sorts of large boxes filled with gadgets. In this line we
were the only American people and it was interesting to feel
like the minority! I was just so excited to get to Nanchang. We
are finally going to see where Harper was born. As we went
through customs again we saw an American family with an Asian
baby girl. The baby girl was sound asleep in her mother's front
carrier. I got butterflies as I thought about having Harper in
our carrier in just a few days! The couple told us that they
were on their way home and they had a great but long two week
trip. This was their fifth child but their first adoption. They
were from Seattle and commented on how blessed and grateful they
were that God let them parent this child. That is exactly how we
feel!
As it was time to board the plane I looked around at the people
getting on our small plane to Nanchang. I began to wonder do any
of these people know Harper's parents? Could they be distant
relatives? There were a few young girl's around the age of 6 on
our flight and they were in dresses and carrying Disneyland
souvenirs from HK. Their facial characteristics reminded me of
Harper's and I said to Todd that is what Harper will look when
she is their age. But as happy as an occasion it is for us the
stark reality that somewhere a mother still grieves for her
child and now a foster mom will too is starting to become a bit
unsettling. I have to wonder why some people in this country can
afford such privileges as flying back and forth to HK to go to
Disneyland while others have to abandon their children. There
are always large discrepancies between the wealthy and the poor
but here in this country there is a very unfair and
disheartening discrepancy. Here parents have to abandon their
children b/c they can not afford to care for them or pay the
taxes that are placed on them for having more then one child. It
is all very sad.
My thoughts of Harper and her homeland stayed with me and on our
very short flight I looked down and saw her orphanage. It was so
strange! I literally could pick it out by the building markers
we had seen on the web. The area has been hit hard with floods
this summer and you could see some of that as we landed. You
could also tell that this was not a wealthy area. We went
through another temperature scan upon arrival and then filled
out more immigration forms. This airport was small and all the
modern conveniences and excitement that was present in the HK
airport was non existent here in Nanchang. it was more solemn,
stern and sterile place. However the excitement was about to
pick up when we saw our cheery Nanchang guide, Karen.
We loaded the luggage in the van and we were off to the Galactic
Peace hotel which would be about a 40 min. ride ( I know it
sounds like something in Star Wars!) Karen began talking so
quickly about the baby and the China way of doing things as well
as about our week ahead. Our heads were spinning with all this
information. It was like a crash course on parenting. She would
try to keep our attention every time we would look out the
window. What we saw outside was just mayhem. Cars and people
were everywhere! She told us to never cross the street by
ourselves b/c there are no lights and it can be quite difficult.
She also told us in a very polite manner why the Chinese way of
rearing children is better. I think the census here is Americans
are too overprotective! The funniest thing was her explaining to
us that Harper at 18 months will be mostly potty trained. She
told us how to hold the baby's legs over the toilet while
pushing her back against our bellies and to say "ba ba mmmmm"!!!
As in poop push out!!! ha! Todd and I got out of the car and
said to each other, "Oh my goodness we are in China!" This is
just crazy!!! |
Hong Kong
airport in the background
HK Marriott SkyCity Hotel lobby
Here we go again!
Aerial view of Fengcheng
Karen, our Nanchang guide, waiting for us at the airport
A small view of the mayhem . . .
those cars crossed right in front of us! |
