The alarm went off at 4 AM this morning. It didn’t matter – Dilla and I hadn’t slept much anyway. We would be with Lily later today and we were just too excited to sleep soundly. One funny thing happened this morning. As we were getting ready, all the power in the hotel room cut off, leaving us standing in the dark. Fortunately, I had packed a flashlight, found it, and the hotel sent someone up to turn it back on. We had tripped the breaker for the room, undoubtedly by running the air conditioner for 4 days at sub-zero temperatures. Did I mention that it’s REALLY hot and muggy here?
By 6, we were on the way to the airport. Our bags somehow morphed from 6 to 8 between the time we arrived in Beijing and today. At 6:30, the Beiging airport was already packed! We were allowed to check 3 of our bags, because of weight restrictions, and they made us carry the rest on the plane. We wedged ourselves into our seats (there’s less room since the people are smaller here) and took off for Chongqing (pronounced “chong-jing”, meaning “double celebration”). Being a domestic flight, there weren’t many other non-Chinese on the plane. The flight announcements were repeated in English after Chinese, and the attendants knew enough to communicate with us. The man sitting next to us couldn’t speak English, but motioned for my pen, as I was doing a crossword puzzle. He took out a scrap of paper and wrote, “Welcome to Chongqing :) ”. This is characteristic of the type of experience we’ve had with the Chinese people since we have been here. They are wonderful people.
Justin "pack-muling" it through the Chongqing airport
I digress. We landed on time at 11:30 and hauled our carry-ons to baggage claim where the guide was waiting. She took us to the van; we loaded up, and headed for the orphanage to get Lily. The ride took us through the northern, central and southern parts of Chongqing – a city of 17 million people on the Yangtze River. The terrain is hilly, and the city is known for being hot and humid. Not many bicycles her because of the hills, so more motor cycles. The hour and a half drive was very scenic, between the people, vehicles, buildings, shops and natural landscape. This is how we imagined China would look.
The orphanage is a really nice place. It’s pretty large – about 300 children in all. It’s clean, well appointed and well kept. It also appears to be well-run, as the children we saw were playing happily, if they weren’t each in their own cribs asleep. We saw no other visitors, and were taken right to Lily’s room. And there she was, playing on the floor. Dilla went right to her, and she started screaming (Lily, not Dilla)!
At this point, a lot happened all at once. Time seemed to stand still, yet pass instantly. Lily seemed scared and confused by the sight of us. We were taking pictures and talking to nannies and the director of the orphanage. We were trying to concentrate on Lily, too. They invited us to a play area, in order to help Lily settle down, which she did, a little. All the people there were very kind. After a few more minutes, they said it was time to go. We were told that we would take care of the paperwork tomorrow, so we made our goodbyes and got in the car to go back to the hotel. And there we were with Lily Beth – just like that!!!! It seemed surreal, like a dream, but it’s true. At this moment, Lily is sleeping quietly in her crib in our hotel room.
Anyway, once we arrived at the hotel and checked in, we settled into our room and played with Lily for a while. We realized that it was now after 3 PM, and we hadn’t eaten anything all day, besides some trail mix and a roll on the airplane. We went down to the hotel cafe and had a bite to eat with Lily, who was feasting, herself, on Cheerios. These things are like magic – they instantly stop her from screaming! So, it seems as if she was not only confused, but hungry and thirsty as well.
After our meal, we went back to the room, which is where we spent the rest of the evening, playing with our little one. She is precious. She is in overall good health, but seems to have a touch of a cold that you can hear when she coughs. She played with stacking cups and rings and ate more Cheerios (about 7 ounces in all). She is walking, but hasn’t said much or made many sounds. Dilla did get her to say “da-da” a few times. We’ll work on “ma-ma” tomorrow. Finally, at 7:30, she was tired enough to go down for the night. So there she lies, asleep in her crib, with hardly a clue of how her world has permanently changed. It’s just after 10 PM now, so I’m going to get some rest, too. I’m sure I'm going to need it for the rest of the trip!
Here's Dilla in line waiting to check bags - both carts are ours!
Dilla holding Lily just moments after first seeing her.
Here we are together with Lily for the first time. Not a bad lookin' family, huh?
We're in the car on the way back to the hotel
Here we are back at the hotel. Lily's playing on the bed. If you look closely at her finger, you can see that she already has us firlmy wrapped around it
Here's a few more picturs just in case you don't already realize how overjoyed we are to have this new bundle of love in our life!