Tuesday - 2nd day with Priscilla (Pictures coming soon...internet is too slow to upload them now)

We received Priscilla at 4:30pm Monday afternoon, at 8:30am Tuesday morning we had to be up, ready, packed for the entire day and in the lobby. That was a tough order, but we made it and only 5 min late!!

We traveled first back to the Civil Affairs office for another hour of paperwork. These documents marking our adoption official!! Priscilla is officially a Cooper! 😍 There was a bit of confusion as to which address we should use on our documents (Iowa vs Spain). Thankfully David sorted it all out and said we'd be ok!

After this we jumped into a different car and headed to QuJing (2.5 hour drive each way). We needed to go back and apply for her passport in her home town and we were to visit her orphanage.

Her orphanage is 6 years old and actually really nice. QuJing is a beautiful city, it's clean, relatively quiet, little traffic and the weather is fantastic. It's usually in the 70's year round and most often sunny. They have a spectacular playground and lots of grass to run around on. There are trees and flowers and many colors. Everyone we met was nice and friendly. Inside the orphanage it was cheerful and pleasant. Of course, being in a home with a family is so much better, but it was clear to see they cared for the kids. And it was definitely a lot different than the pictures I had seen when searching for orphanages in China online.

I knew this would be a confusing and difficult day for her and oh was I right!  She was beyond excited to see the people she knew and loved! She was smiley, "talking" and walking with them!! You could tell that she is very attached to everyone there and they loved her very much. She was particularly fond of her Ayi and to one of the orphanage drivers who she referred to as "YeYe" or grandpa.

She was not a fan when they gave her back to us. I can't blame her, they are the family she knows and loves. I will be forever grateful for their care and love for her. Her attachment to them is quite strong and her grieving for them is also intense. While this is difficult for her and for us as we watch her struggle, I know this is a blessing.

After our orphanage visit, the director and the lady in charge of international adoptions took us out to lunch at a nearby restaurant. We were very touched by this!  This also gave us the opportunity to ask the questions we had about Jiao Jiao. One of which was "if there was anything they'd like us to tell her when she was older". They were truly touched by this and asked if they could write her a letter for us to give her. Absolutely!! How special would that be!! They also welcomed us to come back at any time to visit the orphanage and gave us their email address to keep in touch. Another sweet gesture is that they gave us the blanket she was found in. They said they didn't have the clothes anymore as they weren't in good shape and were too dirty, so they had thrown them away.

After lunch we headed to three government offices to submit her passport application. The entire process took about 1 1/2 hours and they were amazed. The family that adopted last week spent 5 hours doing this paperwork!! Goodness!

Finally, we stopped by the orphanage one last time to say goodbye and drop one of the ladies back off. There were two kids (the little boy in particular) who really took a liking to Mitchell. He hopped right in our car and played with us (Mitchell was speaking to him in Chinese). It was cute.

Once back at the hotel Priscilla was quite sad and nothing seemed to comfort her. She doesn't want anything to do with Mitchell now. Won't even let him look at her. She'll "talk" to me if he's not in the room, but that's about it. She didn't want to play or eat last night. She was clearly heartbroken. It was horrible to watch especially because I couldn't comfort her or make it right. I know the grieving is a process they must go through so she can start to bond with us, but I wish she didn't have to!!

Gotcha Day

Yesterday was such a wonderful day for us and such an incredibly scary and confusing day for Priscilla. I was a ball of nerves all morning (our meeting time got moved to 3pm). I tried to keep busy, but of course couldn't concentrate on much.  

When the time came to finally leave we headed down to the lobby to meet David and the other family from Georgia. Side note, they are wonderful, sweet, Godly people. It has been nice being able to talk to them (they've adopted twice before and now have 7 children in total). David has also been fantastic. He's has been a huge help and has taken an interest in getting to know us. We spent 6 hours in the car together today and that helped too. I feel really awful about my negative thoughts a couple of days ago!!  

Once we arrived at the Civil Affairs office we watched the other family welcome their new daughter. It was beautiful to watch and also made my stomach even more crazy. Jiao Jiao (Priscilla's nickname at the orphanage and the name we are calling her for now to try to help her transition) was stuck in traffic and was running late. They arrived over an hour later.

The orphanage director was caring her when they came in. I had hoped we could ease into the handoff, play with her for a bit in familiar arms...but that's not how it works. You are expected to take her, so I did what I was told. Oh goodness, she was terrified. Sweet girl. She didn't like either of us and wanted nothing to do with anything I tried. When she finally calmed down a little bit she enjoyed looking outside. She would only cry if she look at me or Mitchell. It was heartbreaking.

After an hour of paperwork, we headed back to the hotel to get to know each other. Bless her heart, she did everything to not have to look at us. She wanted nothing to do with us.

We tried to ease into things, not wanting to rush anything or make her situation even more uncomfortable. She was interested in some of the toys, but still didn't want to look at us. She's basically collapsed her body in had when she was sitting. When we picked her up she was completely limp. She wouldn't move her arms, legs or even her hands. We were a bit worried, but also know she'd just had the worst day of her life.  

First selfie 😂 

Then we had a bit of a breakthrough, we got her to eat!! We'd learned from the orphanage director she'd never had anything besides formula (every 3 hrs). They recommended we start solids with congee (think a sticky rice soup), but instead we gave her apple sauce. She LOVED it!! After that she tolerated me a little more. She allowed me to change her diaper and I even got my first hug!! 

Almost a first smile!! 

She slept like a rockstar last night. She went to bed at 9pm (same time as at the orphanage) and got up at 7am. They had said she takes bottles in the middle of the night, but I was thankful she didn't wake up. After such a stressful day, she was completely exhausted. Sweet girl.  

Beijing Pollution, I didn't miss you...

Thankfully, the morning we arrived in Beijing wasn't so bad. It wasn't a "blue sky day" as we used to call good air days, but it wasn't horrible. Quickly though, the pollution go out of control. There are parts about China that we love and miss, but I'm so thankful we don't have to deal with this anymore.  

Saturday night. Thanks for the mask Helena and Jarter!! 

Anticipation...

Yesterday was a challenging day for me. We arrived in Kunming safely and actually had a rather enjoyable flight with China Sourthern. Our guide, David, picked us up at the airport and my expectations were possibly too high. I have read hundreds of blogs about people's time in China and a common theme was that the guides were incredibly. So sweet, helpful, encouraging, etc. Well, I'm hoping ours was just having a bad day because he had no interest in who we are. There was nothing personal about how he talks to us...no questions (or interest when I mentioned it) about our family, the fact that we lived in China, about Priscilla, nothing. He gave us our schedule, took us to the hotel and that was the end of it. On our schedule we were supposed to "go shopping" 2 hours before we received Priscilla today. By shopping, it means go to Walmart and buy food and diapers that you need. Walmart is stressful enough in the U.S., in China is a whole other can of worms. It's packed, loud, chaotic and stressful. There is NO way I wanted to go to Walmart right before we picked up Priscilla so I asked if we could go to Walmart on Sunday. At first he said sure, but then changed his mind and gave us (super crappy) directions to go ourselves. Fine. We could do that. 

This is in the baby section at Walmart. I opted not to buy it.  

We checked into our hotel and were extremely disappointed. We were told we'd be staying in nice hotels, Western (ish) and good quality on China standards. Well our hotel is far below that...think Super 8 equivalent. Ok fine, we aren't here for the hotel...but it would be nice to be able to sit on the floor and play with Priscilla. Our carpet is gross, there is mold in the bathroom and the room is pretty dingy. Not quite the "welcome to your new life with us" I was envisioning.  

We were also told by David yesterday that there is another family from a different agency that will be with us all week. For every step. They are here from Georgia adopting a 7yr old girl from Kunming. I don't really want to be sharing our experience with another family. I don't want to be sharing our car and our guide, but maybe it'll be a blessing in disguise. Maybe there is a reason God put us together. We haven't met them yet, but I'm trying to be a little more open minded about it and I'm doing a lot of praying. 😉

last night before I went to bed, I decided that I'm being a bit of a dork with my aggravations. I need to be positive and enjoy it for what it is. I did a lot of praying for my attitude towards David. He doesn't need to be my friend and I need to be thankful that he is handling the legal bits of this.  

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to make our room feel more homey. Lisa had told us before we left to unpack our things (put clothes into the dresser...meiyou 😂 we don't have one) and to get as comfortable as you can. So I improvised and decided it'll be fine. 

Priscilla's toys

Most of this we brought, but we did get a few of our kids favorite snacks (from China) too.  

I even decided to do some laundry. We found Tide at Walmart!! Crazy! They didn't have that at the non-import stores when we lived here.

Today at 2:30pm we meet David and the family from Georgia in the lobby. We will drive together to the Civila Affairs office and meet Priscilla. I have been envisioning and praying for this moment for months, but I'm SO nervous. I know God has us all in this, but it's still hard. It's finally really here. I will have her in my arms TODAY! I just hope I can comfort her pain of being away from her home. I hope we can connect so she isn't terrified of us for very long. I hope that our attachment to each other starts to grow quickly. I love this little girl so much and yet know nothing about her. I love her because God loves her. He chose us to all be together and I am so humbled by this. He wants me to be her mama. How incredible is that??! God is so much more amazing than I can even begin to imagine.  

Day 3 - Final day in Beijing

Our last day in Beijing was a lot of fun! After breakfast we walked to the "American Girl Doll Store". It's about the size of Adeline's bedroom at home and packed full of dolls, clothes and accessories. Most items are completely authentic and if they do have a flaw, it's only minor and most of the time you can't notice. The lady who runs the store is super sweet and even remembered me from when we lived here. 😂 Mitchell said I made an impression from being nice or buying way too much...lets go with the first option!  

After that excitement, we headed to Hongquo (Pearl Market) for a couple must needed stops. First stop was Po and Liz, our electronics supply source. We topped up new iPad/iPhone cords and a few Christmas presents. After this we navigated our way to the new LuLu location, as she had moved since I was last here. After talking to three different friends, trying a couple of wrong buildings and then finally calling my lady, we made it. 😊 it was fantastic and I got a few treasures!! Such fun!

After our shopping excursion, I took Mitchell to my favorite foot massage place, Bodhi Sense. We had 80 min of complete relaxation, it was such a huge treat!!  

We met Jarter and Helena for dinner at Bao Yuan Dumplings and then went back to Jarter's for a super fun and intense game of Settler's of Catan. It was a late night and we only got 3 hours of sleep. Oops!! ​

This was in the lobby of our hotel. I thought it was beautiful.  

Jet lag - 1, Jess - 0

We thought we were doing pretty good adjusting to the time change. We did everything right, starting on Beijing time as soon as we landed (at 9am) Thursday. However, sometimes even the "fail proof plan" doesn't work. Last night I woke up at 2:54am. Wide awake. Hopefully it gets better before we get Priscilla on Monday!!