Our Adoption Journey: 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.