Shanghai

I can't believe that we are back in China!  It has been nearly three years and we find ourselves once again amongst the beautiful people of our daughter's homeland.  And not only are we back but we are going to get the privilege of bringing home her little brother.  Only one more day and we will have our son in our arms.

Our trip so far has been fairly uneventful (except for the ride from the airport to our hotel but more about that later!).  On the long trip from Chicago to Shanghai, we somehow lucked out to be on a nearly empty flight.   Marcus and I each had our own row to stretch out on and it was glorious.  Haha!  It really did help to be able to get some rest and not feel so claustrophobic.  The hardest part of the flight was feeling the distance grow between us and the kiddos.  My momma heart can't just be detached and separated from them.  It is grounded in their very beings.  As we flew further and further, I felt it stretch across the world along with us.  It will stay uncomfortably stretched and connected to them like that while we are here setting anchor in another little heart until we return home.  I can't wait to have all my babies in one place finally!



When we arrived in Shanghai, it was a seamless transition through customs and finding our driver.  He didn't speak any English so we knew it wasn't going to be a very chatty ride.  As we drove along, we began to notice that our driver was not quite as alert as you might hope as you are driving along the highway!  The first time he began drifting over out of our lane and Marcus had to shake him to wake him up.  A few minutes later, he started drifting off again and the car slowly lost acceleration.  I shook him awake again.  After that, I nervously kept watch of his eyes through the rearview mirror and every time his eyes started to droop again, I would cough loudly or make some other noise to try to keep him awake.  Needless to say, it was a very stressful drive into the city!!!!  He is supposed to pick us up in the morning to take us to the train station so I am really hoping he gets a good nights rest tonight!  ;)

Our hotel is right in the middle of large outdoor mall so there is lots of hustle and bustle.  The biggest blessing is that there is a great little restaurant right across the road.  Super yummy food and menus with pictures and English translations!  :)

Today we decided to be a little adventurous and venture out on our own since we don't have a guide for here in Shanghai.  We took a taxi to the well known Bund area.  It is right along the Huangpu River.  It was good to see the city a little but we didn't end up being able to enjoy it much because the smog levels were so high.  It looked really 'foggy' out but the air literally smelled like exhaust.  My bronchitis hasn't quite cleared up and every time we go out, I start coughing and feel my chest tighten up.  Not fun.  We walked around a bit, used my internal coffee gps to find Starbucks ;) and then headed back to our hotel area for some lunch.  We actually met another Mid-Westerner at the restaurant who was here for work and had lunch together and chatted.  :)


After lunch, we came back to our room and have had a nice quiet afternoon of resting.  Tomorrow, we take a train at 11am to Ezra's home city of Hefei.  The train ride is about 3 hours long.  Once we get there, we will connect with the other families that are coming to Hefei with our agency to meet their little ones too.  The best part is that the kids are all in class together so they will still get to hang out with their friends while we are in China!  :)  Once we get into town, we will hopefully find out what time we get to meet Ezra on Monday.  We are getting so close and my heart speeds up just thinking about it!  Thank you for your continued prayers!  Please be especially praying for Ezra right now as he spends his last two nights with his foster momma and the only world he has known.  Life is about to get really crazy for him for awhile and I am just praying that God will prepare his heart and somehow let him know that we are safe.