Trip to China
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Sunday, December 6, 2009 LATE UPDATE!!! For everyone following along…. I AM SO SO SORRY THIS UPDATE IS LATE!!! Yesterday was a very eventful day. We woke up, had breakfast and then packed our bags. We spent some time visiting Zachary’s House which was the house I was not able to visit yesterday. We walked in and Ava ran around the corner and disappeared. The Ayis embraced her and scrutinized her clothes and hair. I immediately knew that I had failed in the “dressing her and doing her hair” category!!! I tried but she didn’t want to wear socks or have her hair done. I tried to explain myself to them saying that she refused both things but they just looked at me. OOOPPPPSSS!!! These weren’t her regular Ayis but ones that she was very fond of and they were very fond of her. They asked when we were leaving Shepherd’s Field and we told them we were leaving shortly. Several of them teared up. I saw them embracing her and she looked a bit worried. However, she came right over to me and sat on my lap. This part of the journey is always very hard. This is the point where parents have had a child for several days and the child is now saying goodbye to all they have known for so many years. In our experience, after several days with us they are not interested in what they are leaving behind. I have to say that it would break my heart as an Ayi to have a child not want to go to me after just a couple of days with “strangers”. After about 20 minutes visiting with the children at Zachary’s House, Kiah started getting very agitated. There were several non-mobile children crawling on the floor that kept pulling on her clothes for attention. I tried to explain that they only wanted her to talk with them but Kiah started crying. So we said our goodbyes and left. We decided to eat a quick lunch. Our driver came to pick us up at 11:30am. We walked our donations over to the Shepherd’s Field office and then loaded our bags in the van. Right when we began to get into the van, an Ayi appeared in front of the gate and Ava stopped and looked. They looked at each other for several minutes. When it was time to climb in the van Ava started to cry. We weren’t sure if it was the confusion of the situation or the Ayi’s appearance. She was calmed quickly and we were off to the Beijing airport. The folks at Shepherd’s Field are top notch. Very helpful, kind and knowledgeable. Philip Hayden Foundation runs a fabulous organization.

We made it to the airport with no problems however there was a bit of confusion at the Air China check-in counter. We did not have identification for Ava and I was using our official Travel Approval as proof of her identity. They hesitated briefly and then printed up her ticket. The flight was uneventful and we made it into Zhengzhou in late afternoon. Then the fun begins. We were booked at the Ramada Plaza however I was not able to find any good information on the hotel from previous traveling families. Prior to leaving I questioned our agency about rebooking at the Holiday Inn but I was assured that the Ramada hotel was good. It wasn’t. The rooms were super small, there was no door separating the bathroom/shower from the room… only frosted doors for each area. We couldn’t move in the room with our 3 bags and 4 people. I immediately dissolved into angry tears. Normally in this instance my husband would put on his super cape and take care of business. However, I am supposed to be filling that role on this trip! In a God moment, the phone rings a few minutes later and it is our guide who we thought had left the hotel 15 minutes ago. I explained our situation and he came up to the room to take a look. He agreed that we could switch hotels the next day. We unpacked only necessities and turned on the TV and we all fell asleep. It was a stressful day however we are glad to have Ava and tomorrow we will be making her an official member of our family!!! Since we were traveling we did not take any pictures however I am posting some from the past couple of days!

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