The Night Before “Gotcha Day”

As I sit here and type (1:15pm), we are on our flight from Beijing to Taiyuan, Shanxi. Evie J. lives in a suburb of Taiyuan, so you can imagine our excitement of being within just a few miles of her. Up to this point, our focus has been on touring Beijing and learning about the Chinese culture, which included the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, a village called Hutong, Tianamen Square, a silk factory and a jade factory. It has been an unbelievable experience thus far, but we know the most exciting and important time is still to come!

During our time in Beijing, we traveled with several other families all adopting through our adoption agency. Each family has a beautiful story to share and we feel very lucky to have been able to enjoy this experience with such a precious group of people. Brycen, Finn and Bennett have been fantastic! Their little legs climbed many large steps of the Great Wall, walked for over three hours on our tours yesterday, have eaten foods that they typically would not touch and have seemingly enjoyed the tours on the bus and in the factories. They have also been great sports when asked to be photographed with Chinese men and women. This began at the Great Wall and continued throughout the two days of touring Beijing. At first, Brycen, Finn and Bennett were confused and unsure how to feel about strangers taking their pictures, however they quickly got use to the idea, and now smile upon request. J If you know my Finn, you will find this amusing.

***We have started our descent into the Taiyuan airport so I must shut down the computer. I will continue and complete tonight.

It is now 10:15pm and all (but myself) are sound asleep. I wonder if I’m even going to be able to sleep tonight! As my mother mentioned earlier, tonight is like the night before Christmas with Santa Claus coming tomorrow. Tomorrow is our “Gotcha Day!” J

We had another very busy day. After arrival and checking in to our hotel, we briefly met with our very informative, kind and patient guide, William, and met all of the families adopting children from the Shanxi province. More wonderful people with more wonderful stories! I have a feeling I am making relationships that will last a lifetime! After dinner, Brycen, Finn and Bennett were exhausted. In fact, they nearly fell asleep while eating, so we took advantage of their exhaustion and quickly put them to bed as soon as we got home. Must I mention that my poor husband is trying his best to fight off some sort of virus. He has not been feeling well and has had a fever for 24 hours. He must be better by tomorrow morning!

So, this leaves me with my final paragraph until I am officially the mother of a beautiful little girl! Words that describe my feelings tonight: excited, nervous, anxious, hopeful, prayerful, scared, grateful, loved and blessed. I cannot wait to update the next time with pictures of our four kids! Until then, I am going to lie down tonight (far away from Bryan so I do not get his bug), and try to sleep as much as I possibly can. I have a feeling that I will have several sleepless nights in the coming week, so this rest is important. Tomorrow we will gain a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece and a friend, and she will gain a forever family who will love her forever with everything we have!

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