wenzhou

 Today is Friday in China. I woke up at 3:45 am, and couldn’t sleep. I played around with facebook and snuck in a few games of candy crush and still couldn’t go back to sleep. So I started my day around 5 am. I took a shower, and got ready at my own pace. I was slightly disappointed that my curling iron doesn’t work here… I guess its straight hair for me today. Then we walked around trying to find a place to eat breakfast and ended up at the restaurant in the hotel…. That was one EXPENSIVE omelet I had. After breakfast we went back upstairs to facetime with the kids and read them a bedtime book. Its so fun to see them and hear about their day and the CRAZY weather in Michigan. I guess they had snowdays yesterday. Azalia kept telling us about a person dressed up like a cow that she saw at the childrens museum, Asher was so proud of the work that he did shoveling the driveway with papa,  and Aviela told us about how she got to go to the childrens museum with nana alone at nap time(I guess she really liked the piano).  It sounds like they are having lots of fun at home. Tomorrow they are going to Disney on Ice…. Lucky kids!

Today we are heading to see Johns parents and the flight leaves at 3:00pm. So after getting ready, eating and talking to the kids we had a little time to waste, but didn’t really want to venture out too far from the hotel (which is at the airport) just incase we were not able to find our way back. So we wandered around the airport lobby, went in some shops, checked out the subway, and did a lot of people watching.  Most of the people here dress very fancy or dressed up. We also saw quite a few more people sprinting. It really makes me giggle when I see them start sprinting. Forget the fast walk, its an all out sprint. Sometimes I wonder where they need to be so quickly. Ill try to get a video. We got quite a few stares as well, which when I noticed them staring I quickly smiled. We feel quite helpless not being able to communicate. This morning at breakfast while we were paying we were trying to decide how to tip here, when we asked them if we should they had no idea what we were talking about. I tried to pull out my phone to have John translate, but I had no service…. Fail. In the end it worked out, but it was quite challenging.

We made our 4th of 9 flight to Wenzhou today. I was slightly nervous to get off the plane and meet Johns parents, because I was a little nervous how we would communicate with the language barrier, and they have never met us. AND John was sleeping so he couldnt even help if I needed him, we were totally on our own with this one. I can't even describe to you what happened when we made eye contact- Wunju recognized us right away (although we were the only non-chinese getting off the plane) she ran to us wouldn't stop hugging me (much to johns surprise) gave me a huge bouquet of flowers, and they refused to let us help with the luggage. We were then dropped off at a fancy hotel, assigned to an amazing room that over looks the river running through the city. We were escorted to our room by Johns mom, at least 3 bell men with our bags, and our own personal translator. The room is crazy fancy, we have our own cabinet with tea dishes. We were not in the room more than 15 minutes when we received a knock at the door with a plate of fresh fruit for us. We definitely feel like royalty! When we were dropped off in our room we were told to take a rest and meet in the lobby at 6 (which was about 40 minutes away). So we freshened up, (I was sweating hot on the car ride), and headed down stairs. We sat with his parents and a translator and had some tea while we waited for Johns grandparents and cousin and uncle to arrive. The next part is some what of a blurr again as I stood in utter amazement at what was going on.... We were escorted into a large room, and told to pick 6-8 dishes out of the glass cabinet. (We have no idea what anything is, not to mention if it will taste good) They INSISTED that we were the guest and choose the food. Now anyone who knows me knows, that I don't like waste, and ordering something I don't like would be not good- PLUS we were picking out food not only for ourselves but for the entire group... YIKES... We asked Johns cousin what she liked and she was helpful. So after we pick out 6-8 dishes out of this cabinet they tell us to turn around and pick our own live seafood for them to cook. (sort of like the lobster at meijier only a TON more choices) I have been told by numerous people not to eat the shell fish... how could I tell them no? I couldn't, so I broke that rule! AFter the shell fish it was on to another row of food which we were told to pick 2, then a hot pot (hot pot can be a meal in itself), then some "greens," then dessert.... I just kept thinking Dan isn't that big of an eater, John isn't here, I definitely can't eat all this.... And its somewhat rude to waste food in the Chinese culture.... YIKES.... Now all the food was picked out, we were told that while we waitfor it to be cooked we would just go "check out the weddings upstairs"... I felt like a wedding crasher, but it was really neat!! Then they said we were going to find a place to sit while they cooked our food, where we were walking seemed like a hallway with a dead end. YUP sure enough we have our own private VIP suite with a HUGE round table that our food was brought up to us into.... I had lots of feelings of inadequacy, and we were NOT dressed for the occasion. Johns grandma told me on more than one occasion to relax, so they kept feeding me wine.... I am definitely not an adventurous eater so this was out of my comfort zone. I just kept telling myself "dont look, just chew and smile" I did and surprisingly I liked it! I have no idea what I ate, but it was good and it was a great time for us to chat with Johns parents. We were treated like a King and Queen, guests of honor, and totally spoiled rotten. We had a great conversation at dinner, they asked about our faith and believing in God, we talked about cultural perceptions, Johns college, and got to share how much we love John with them. I REALLY REALLY like them! Oh and want to know something else pretty cool.... Johns dad is a business man and he turned down multiple dinner offers tonight to spend time with us. Which the translator explained that is how they build relationship (much like the US), but it was a big deal I guess. This was the dinner that went on for 4 hours!! My stomach can not take much more. :) John did warn us that they were going to feed us a lot. I just feel so blessed to have this relationship, Im so thankful we decided to make it a point to stop here to connect with them, and once again Im amazed at how God works. He took my fear of communcation and turned it into something really special, and even gave us the opportunity to mention his name and talk about how they support Johns faith.

Im sorry this is in three different font sizes... Im kinda struggling with the technology. 

Airport in Shanghai

Airport hotel

our crazy expensive breakfast in Shanghai

breakfast in Shanghai

More Breakfast

Us with Johns cousin

Me and Johns mom. I really do love her!

The lobster we picked out of the tank

First row- Johns uncle, Dan, Me, Johns Cousin. Back row- "victor" the translator, Johns Dad, the Chef, and Johns mom

One of the walls of food. Presentation is huge!

The fish tank

This is a sculptor in the lobby of a new hotel Johns dad is going to be managing after its build. It will open in 2016

We are Here!

Whoa that was a long flight! I tried to sleep most of the time to pass the time faster, Dan enjoyed watching movies. 

I can’t tell you how many texts, messages, and emails that I got today from people telling me they are praying for us. You have no idea how comforting that is. I was especially nervous for the flights, and saying goodbye to the kids. Asher seemed pretty excited to have a little different routine for awhile, Addy just said “are you going to China mommy?” as I kissed her soft face goodbye. Aviela is probably the only one that realizes what is going on. She seemed a little nervous, but I know they are all in great hands.  Aviela internalizes a lot of her emotions, on Tuesday night while we were finishing packing I asked her to write me a note to take with me. (she loves writing notes). She disappeared for about a half hour, and came back with a huge smile and shoved  a letter in my backpack. I asked her when I could read it, and she said “when your in China.” I can’t wait to read that sweet letter.

One of my adoptive momma friends told me that she kept reminding herself of Isaiah 26:3 the day she left.  Perfect peace, perfect peace, God is in control. That was definitely my comfort as we boarded the planes.

It was definitely a good distraction to travel our first leg with Lisa Rozema, and Rachel Mulder. They both work at John’s school with the international students. They also are headed to China to meet with develop relationships with the parents of the students in their program at the high school. It was fun to see them.

 

We flew from Grand Rapids to Detroit, Detroit to Beijing, and Beijing to Shanghai. In Detroit we quick grabbed the last taste of American greasy food at McDonalds. I spilled some ice cream all down the inside of my shirt! Yuck! A sticky mess, and you can only imagine how ridiculous I looked trying to wipe it off. Waiting to board the plane in Beijing we definitely felt in the minority already. While we were in line to board I noticed the backpack on the person in front of us had Chevron rainbow ribbon attached (which is the ribbon my facebook adoption group has chosen to put on our bags so we can identify each other in China). I quickly said Hi, and she hugged me and said “Im Amy!” So fun to meet some of the people who have been my rock over the last 6 months or more. What a roller coaster its been that we have all traveled together as basically strangers (although it feels like we have known each other forever), and now we are meeting together physically in China with the babies in our arms that we have cried over, prayed for, and longed for together for so long. It really is a blessing to share this adventure with those once random strangers, that I now know as friends!! Its fun that Dan can put a face to the names I talk about all the time.

Tonight we are spending the night in Shanghai, and will leave tomorrow morning for a flight to John’s city- Wenzhou. It will sure be interesting how we will be able to communicate with Johns parents. They do not speak English, and we of course don’t speak Chinese. We know about 10-15 words in Chinese. I asked Dan if he thought we knew more Chinese then they do English, and he said “yea probably.” We both laughed knowing that’s not much. J

We finally made it to the hotel. Goodness that was an adventure. The Wiifii is really tricky here. Im so thankful for all the advice from my friends who have traveled before us. We would have never known to use the hotel room key to turn on the lights.  

We were just skyping with the kids and I was going to show them outside, only to pull the curtain and find a WALL not a window. It was quite an adventure finding our room. The guy at the front desk loaded all our bags up, and I said Dan lets just take them ourselves (so we didn't have to tip them) and he was like ok... well we definitely paid for that one. We couldn't read the room number it said "F32"... ok... we went to the third floor with no luck, then I remember him saying we needed to go up one floor... so we tried that, and ended up trying to get into someone elses room. She opened the door, and knew barely no english. oops... meanwhile we were dragging 2 carry on bags, and 3 rolling suitcases on THICK carpet. It was like trying to push a stroller in sand!! Finally as we were getting back on the elevator to go downstairs to "pay" someone to take us to our room we found a house cleaning lady (who knew limited english), but she was able to point us in the right direction. Finally to our room! We found some gas masks in our room. oh China!

Room Number?!

 At the airport I was slightly alarmed a couple times when I noticed on different occasions airport staff running through the terminal. I came to realize that is just how they move quickly... it was more like a full on sprint... I kept checking for the guy they might be chasing, yup, NONE, just how they move quickly. :) 

OH and I was surprised to receive a full MEAL on our flight from Beijing to Shanghai... only 1.5 hrs, and we got a full meal... That doesn't happen in the States. :)

Ok well its off to bed we go... its been a long day (we did 3 of our 9 total flights for the trip today), I really dont know what time it is, or what day it is, and I still feel like we are moving... Thank you for all your prayers, keep them coming!! Good night