Civil Affairs Office, Show Hope, and Passport Office

Once again we started off the day with breakfast. The boys did okay. Much better than I had anticipated. For that I am thankful.

Jacob is kind of out of it today. Yesterday definitely took a toll on him. Caleb is a little tired but not like Jacob.

Surprisingly they did not cry when we got in the van. They are doing so much better

Once meeting our guide we went to the Civil Affairs Office. More paperwork and an official ceremony. The boys are officially Braxtons.

We are now driving to Jiaozuo. We are going to the passport office and we hope the orphanage. Our guides' English is so poor we really don't know. The other day I told her we needed to go to the store for the boys for food and she said "snakes?" Then she started talking about baby cakes. She eventually got it but not without some work.

It is 3:30 and we are on our way back from Jiaozuo. Now I am just mad. Mad at our agency, mad at the travel service and facilitators we have to use in China, mad at our facilitator, and mad at the lady in the purple sweater from the orphanage.
Just keeping it real. There is no reason it should be like this. It is stressful enough as it is. This is our 3rd adoption from China we know how it should be.

Now that I got that out of my system on to our day. When we arrived in Jiaozuo we went to the notary. Spent a long time there. Lady in the purple sweater from orphanage was there. Boys were fine until she started talking to them. Zachary and I had to pace with them and it was hot!

Finally left there. We were asked if we wanted lunch. We said yes and then lady in purple sweater gets in the car with us. This isn't helping the boys at all. So we change our mind and say no lunch. We know the boys will scream the whole time with lady in the purple sweater there.

Go on to orphanage to New Hope/Show Hope floor. Thank goodness there is a girl from the Phillipines that speaks English. She answers some questions for us.

We are then taken to a room to rest for an 1 1/2 hrs. We don't want to rest. I think the lady in the purple sweater didn't want us there. We let the boys play with their friends and nannies.

We requested to see Donna at Eagles Wings but was told she wasn't there.

Finally time to leave. Very emotional as you can imagine. To make matters worse the lady in the purple sweater gets in the van with us.

Next stop passport office. Boys have calmed down now and everything goes smoothly. We drop the lady in the purple sweater off at bus station, boys cry a few minutes and fall asleep.

The boys did much better tonight. We got back to the room at 5:00pm or so. We had a makeshift dinner. We played and they went to sleep peacefully. Still sleeping on the floor but no issues going to sleep.

Day 3- The Boys

Our first order of business this morning was breakfast at the Crowne Plaza. Breakfast is not to be skipped. It is our one good meal a day.

Our guide met us a little before 9:00. Zachary, Yoyo, and I then preceded to play a game of Frogger. We were the frogs trying to make it across the road. After completing the first round we waited at the bank a very long time to get money. Time for a second round of Frogger. I doubt we reached a high score but survival was good enough for us.

After arriving back to the hotel we got Debi and the driver. We were headed to the Civil Affairs office to get the boys.

This was a new experience for us. The girls were both brought to the hotel. I much prefer the hotel. The Civil Affairs office was chaotic. After about 15 minutes the boys walked in. Zachary and approached them and tried to get them to play. After lots of tears, paperwork, and sweat we left.

Next stop was Walmart. We were able to get some snacks for the room. The boys cried on and off the whole time.

We were able to get the boys to eat a small snack in the room. All afternoon they cried on and off and played a little. We did venture out once for a stroll.

About 9:00 Zachary and I could hardly keep our eyes open. The boys do not like the bed! Zachary thought of laying on the floor and the getting the boys too. Thank goodness it worked.

Caleb is still sleeping, Jacob woke about 2:00 and wanted to be held. I finally got him to drink a bottle. He pointed to the crib. He is now sleeping there but is crying out occasionally.

Other thoughts: This is hard. The boys have had a more difficult time than the girls. Caleb is the stronger one. My medical concerns with Jacob are much greater. Zachary has been a trooper. I am so proud of the young man he is becoming. He has had to step in and take Dallas' place. My sister is a huge help but we don't want the boys to attach to her before bonding with us.

We can't get my computer to connect to the internet. All my posts and photos are coming from my phone. Hopefully tonight the boys will be calmer and we can figure it out.

Please pray for the boys. Their little worlds have crumbed. Everything they knew is gone. Please pray for us. We need the strength to get through all that is yet to come.

Mother's Day

Dallas sent this necklace with Zachary to surprise me for Mother's Day. It has all the kids' names and birthstones.

Day 2- Summer Palace and Flight to Zhengzhou

Finally settling down to sleep. It is 11:40 p.m. Lots of highs and lows today. I am exhausted and can barely keep my eyes open.

After breakfast we went walking around the hotel. Really like the area. We had another ice cream cone. Little did we know that would be our last real food for the day.

At 12:00 our guide picked us up. She was back to normal and acted like nothing happened yesterday. We spent a couple of hours at the Summer Palace before heading to the airport.

Our flight was delayed so we spent about 3 hours at the airport. We arrived in Zhengzhou airport at about 8:45. Our facilitator, Yoyo, was there waiting for us. It is going to be a long week. Yoyo speaks very little English. I will be counting down the days until Guangzhou.

Around 9:30 we arrived at our hotel. We have 2 adjoining rooms that are quite nice. Yoyo tells me I need all these copies that I don't have. Hopefully I have enough for Monday and then I can make some at the copy center.

Zachary and I attempted to get them but found out the business center was closed. Zachary and the lady at the front desk communicated through translator apps on their phone.

Won't be long until we get the boys. We meet our guide at either 8:30 or 9:00. Communication just isn't there. We know there are at least 2 other American families here adopting. Hopefully at some point we will run into them. It is going to be a long week.

Will add photos later. Still have not downloaded them from my camera.

Day 1- Great Wall and the Apple Store

What a busy day! We started the day with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast is included with our room so it is the meal we never want to miss .

Our guide, Vanessa, picked us up at 9:30 am. Traffic was quite heavy. We decided to go to the Mutinayu Section of the Great Wall. It took about 2 hours to get there.

After climbing many steps we arrived at the cable cars. We were able to ride the cable car up to the wall. Absolutely beautiful! Zachary and our guide ventured out for a hike on the wall. My sister and I decided to stay at the base and take photos.

After Zachary and Vanessa returned we rode the cable car down. Once again the scenery was beautiful. After exiting we had to walk down lots of stairs to get to our van. On both sides of us were vendors trying to sell their wares.

Earlier in the day our guide agreed to take us to the Apple store. The driver dropped us off at a upscale mall. Arrived at the Apple store and to begin with they were
booked for the day and could not see us. Our guide convinced that it was an emergency and they got us an appointment with the Emergency Genius. It was all rather comical. In this 3 story Apple store all of the technicians had the name Genius and a number. I was very pleased with our Genius when he returned with my computer. He was able to reset it and it was once again working. Plus it was still under warranty so it was free. I wanted to give our Genius a hug but didn't think it would go over very well with the very serious security officer.

Soon after our Genius brought my computer to life our guide received an emergency phone call. Her whole attitude changed. She stood in the taxi quay with us and told the taxi driver where to take us.

We decided it was our second day in China. It was time for Chinese food.
We had asked our guide where a noodle shop was earlier in the day. After a short walk we found it. For $12.00 we each got a huge bowl of beef noodles. It did not disappoint us. Even Zachary was pleased and he had wanted to go to Subway.

On the way back to room we stopped by McDonalds for an ice cream. Less than $1.50 for 3 cones. Tastes just like home.

Arrived back at the room around 7:00. We were finding it hard to keep our eyes open. My sister quickly fell asleep and by 8:30 I could no longer keep my eyes open. So now it is 2:30 a.m. and I am wide awake.

Looking forward to another busy day tomorrow and our flight to Henan.

Pictures of the Great Wall are on my camera. I will have to load those later.

Almost there and Arrival

We are almost to China. The flight was long but it wasn't too bad . Our seats were bulkhead so we had more room.

Eager to arrive and get settled in our room. First order of business may be a shower.

Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall, Sunday the Summer Place, and then we fly to Henan. Three more sleeps until we meet the boys.

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Next part written after we arrived at hotel.

We were greeted at the airport by Olivia. She did not speak English very well but she was very kind. It was fun trying to talk with her. She absolutely loved Zachary's name. She kept trying to say it. The drive was about 40 minutes to our hotel.

We checked into our hotel. Nice hotel with some stores in walking distance. We walked down to McDonalds for dinner. First dinner in China and we have a Big Mac.

Only one issue my computer died. Dallas has big plans for us to find the Apple store today. We are hoping to figure it out after we get back from the Great Wall. Hoping our guide will assist us.

Also have to arrange for New Hope/Show Hope to pick up bags from us. We had them send us two suitcases of supplies to carry to China. They didn't show up at airport so we now need to arrange for them to be picked up.

After a few hours sleep we are now ready for our day. Didn't go to bed until 10:00 pm but woke up 11:22. Stayed up about an hour, slept until about 4:20. Been up since. Tonight I may try taking something to sleep.

Next post ... Our first day in China.

Here we go ...

We are sitting at RDU waiting for our first flight. Hard to believe this is actually happening.

No enlightening posts this morning. Way too tired for that.

Forgot to get Dallas to take a photo before he left so we got a random stranger to take one. Not a good one at all but here it is for memory's sake.