We continued the streak of 3 or 4 am wake ups (with Drew sleeping in til 6). Our activity for the day didn't begin until 12 noon so we spent the morning at the hotel and running a few quick errands in the mall. Since it is SO cold here, I needed to pick up a couple of typical warm Chinese outfits for Drew and a sweatshirt for Elise. We've been told the weather is even cooler in Guangzhou (the coldest it has been in 8 years). We're really regretting not bringing our winter coats.
It felt like we spent the entire day stuck in various buses, stuck in traffic. They typically weren't very warm and the windows were steamed such that you couldn't really see much outside. We left the hotel at noon to take a trip to the orphanage to meet Drew's foster mom in person. Here's a picture of the Nanning Expo Center. It's room is in the shape of a hibiscus flower, the city flower. It is a terrible picture but typical of our view so I didn't take many shots in transit.
We felt very lucky for the opportunity to go to the orphanage and meet the foster mom - not everyone is offered the chance. As we learned, it is actually discouraged. The only issue with this trip is that is was scheduled right during the kids' naps....so we were prepared for crabby little people.
Here we are at the beginning of the trip - everyone's awake and happy!
Here's a nice shot of some of the traffic.
When we arrived the orphanage, in an older section of the city, we went across the street to the orphanage medical center to meet the foster mom and orphanage staff. Glen was very kind to translate for us. We were able to get additional information about Drew's life that will help us tell him his story when he is older.
His foster mom is a grandmother of a daughter who was an adult. She fostered another boy who was older than Drew. She told us about how he likes to eat and likes moving his arms to music. She also gave us advice about not giving him too much fried foods, like fried rice (one of his loves that we've found).
We also learned that the orphanage director (next to Drew) flew him to Beijing to stay in Peace House before his cleft lip surgery.
We felt very fortunate to get to meet the foster mom. Since he was so young, he did not appear to be traumatized to see her again. We understand she wanted to meet us in person. I showed her pictures of Regan and Brett and the dogs so she could see more about Drew's family. She seemed like a nice and caring person.
I originally planned to video this event however Elise decided to fall asleep (remember the earlier missed nap thing?). She refused to be placed on the bench inside so I had to hold the sleeping child while trying to take snip-its of video and photos. My arms and back continue to build strength during this trip due to carrying either 23 or 27 lbs of weight - all the time. I guess we should have brought the double stroller.
Here's an outside picture of the orphanage in Nanning. We learned that Drew stayed there from time of finding until he departed for Peace House in March 2015.
We boarded the mini-bus for the long trip back to the hotel to check out and begin the next part of our journey. Everyone was awake and happy again. Elise in the stroller...
and Drew walking in the hotel lobby.
While waiting for all families to check-out, I snapped a quick picture of the outside of the hotel.
We all boarded a minibus for a VERY long trip (approx departure 2:30). First stop - police station (for Glen to get Chinese passports for children). Traffic was absolutely terrible. Due to the weather, traffic didn't move.
We waited on the cold, windows-steamed-up bus for almost 40 minutes. Once he boarded, we were off to the airport. It seemed like an eternity. We finally arrived airport by 6:30 pm for the 7:30 pm flight.
Here's a shot of the scooter lane. Elise especially liked seeing the colorful scooters in their designated transit lane.
Once inside the airport, someone continued her preference of being carried vs walking.
Once we made it through security, we learned our flight was delayed 40 minutes. I was able to convince Elise that the best way to warm up was to walk around as "exercise." It worked for a while.
I'm not exactly sure when the flight departed since Drew was asleep and I didn't want to wake him. He slept only for about half of the flight so I had to entertain him and keep him from crying too loudly. Poor kid - no real nap and really off schedule.
The airline took our stroller (no such thing as gate-check i guess) so I had to lug a very crabby and sleepy Elise all the way to baggage claim, since she refused to walk - another moment when I questioned if it was the right thing to bring her on this trip. We walked 10 -15 minutes with our luggage to yet another steamed window bus for a 40 minute ride to the hotel. We finally made it to our hotel room a little after midnight. I was not happy to request a crib 3 times from the hotel especially since we noted the crib request in our original reservation in December and the fact that we had to leave the next day for the medical exam at 8:15 am.
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