We have made it to the Land of China! We got in late last night around midnight October 12th. After about 30 hours of travel we were so thankful to be hitting our bed in our hotel. We are staying at the Merchant Marco Hotel in a very affluent part of Hangzhou. It is very nice. We met our guide Savor, and our Driver for the week. Both are VERY kind, and our driver was very cautious in getting us to Hangzhou from Shanghai. We slept very well, and awoke at about 5:30 am. Breakfast is served at 6:30, so before breakfast we were able to Skype with both of the kids! Oh that made my heart full. I am missing them so much already, but I am so thankful they are with some very great friends who love them like their own. It was so nice to see their faces. Taryn has been sending me text messages over Skype, and I just love it. She makes sure she says Good Morning, and Good Night, and sends lots of emoji's with her messages. We went to breakfast at 6:30, and we were blown away by our breakfast buffet. It was a huge buffet with traditional Chinese food, and Western food. They had a chef there to make any kind of eggs you wanted. Fresh fruit, and freshly squeezed juices of all kinds. My favorite was the bacon, and the coffee. I love strong coffee, but in America it tends to more bitter the stronger it's made. Well this coffee was very strong, but it was not at all bitter. It had more of a nutty taste. Todd and I drank the entire pot ourselves. Sorry China. After a shower, and getting ready, we met our guide, and headed out to walk around. It is a gorgeous day of around 70 degrees, sunny, and very windy. We went to a large WalMart type of store, where they had everything. Our guide Savor and I had a ball!! She is super fun, and I really like her. She totally gets my sarcasm! It is very pretty here, and reminds me a lot of Okinawa. I feel so blessed to have lived there for 5 years, because I am not at all culture shocked at the grocery store! I pretty much knew all of the things, and have tried many. I found a bunch of snacks that I knew were delicious for Selah. I bought blueberry Pocky, which for all my Okinawa buddies, they HAVE BLUEBERRY!! They had about 9 flavors of Pocky! So great. Took this great photo for my friends Kim & Emily.
{Green Tea Ice Cream Flavored}
Our Guide Savor...
We are so excited to finally be in China! For the rest of the day/evening we are pretty much hanging out in the hotel. We will grab a bite to eat and then hit the sack, because tomorrow is a BIG DAY!! It's SELAH day! We should have our sweet girl in our arms at about 9:30 am tomorrow! Please pray for her to not be too scared or fearful, and that her grieving would not be desperate. Along with the beauty of adoption comes the heartbreak as well. This poor girl has no clue about what is going on in her little life. Thank you guys so much for keeping us covered in prayer. We have had such great peace, and things have been just falling right into place!!
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Erin almost pays a Buddist woman to pray for her. Just Bless all that.
