We are here – and I am so VERY thankful. It means we are one step closer to home.
But there is something about this place… Something I didn’t appreciate too much the last two trips (that were spent entirely in Guangzhou). It’s this sense of “home”. Now – don’t get me wrong: this is not home. But it is closer to home than I was 24 hours ago. There are friendly faces, familiar smiles and the laid back atmosphere on “the Island” and they make it feel so cozy.
We started the day a LITTLE too early for my liking (3:30 am) when Mr. Abe decided he had enough sleep. Ugh. So by 4:30 we were up. Breakfast. Last minute packing. Check out. Mad dash to the airport to wait. :o) We were SO blessed that once we boarded the plane, a flight attendant offered us an entire row of four seats in the “economy plus” section! Abe only had a lap ticket! It was nice to relax a little bit. Abe slept about 1 hour (from take-off til just after lunch was served). He really did very well and I was able to stave off the “getting up to walk around” until our long flight home. I need more busy work for this little boy. He reminds me so much of Austin. He loves to explore and figure out how things work.
We landed in Guangzhou just after 1 this afternoon and saw – Rebecca. Oh, I love Rebecca. Connie knows her from their last adoption trip (March of this year) and it was fun to just be with her. Her energy is contagious and her laughter is sweet to the soul. We quickly kicked it into high gear and got the medical exam done and worked on paperwork in our room. We goofed a little something, but Chris is ON IT and will have it corrected by the time I wake up.
We met 2 other Small World families for dinner at Lucy’s. That was SO good… People just as crazy as me and Connie (one family has 10 kids and the other has 7!). So between the four families represented, there are 28 kids – at least 12 of them adopted from China! That is just amazing… One of the families adopted an 8 year old who was using… ummm… well, maybe not using table manners :o) The mom said “yeah – we will be working on table manners in about 2 months!” So funny!
Abraham is tucked in bed and sleeping (oh, thank you, LORD!). Tomorrow is consulate appointment day! Wow. We are nearing the end of this journey already. It almost seems that Beijing is almost a distant memory. Weird.
Abraham is my youngest at gotcha (19 months), but my heaviest! 24 lbs 9 ozs! I missed his height – oops! You gotta see him, though – very proportionate. I think he might be tall!
I will try to post info about our arrival tomorrow – along with a great story WHY I love airport greetings!
Abe awake TOO early – but still checking himself out in the mirror!
a snuggle with Momma on the way to the airport
first airplane trip – chowing the rice cereal
Actually – up until a few minutes AFTER this picture, he was actually being pretty quiet…
