Musings from Chongqing

So we landed in Chongqing (CQ) at 8:30 p.m. last night, 2 hours earlier than we were expected due to the flight change, Praise the Lord! A funny thing happened when we were going through security at Beijing. I had to go stand on a little wooden box for personal scanning because I “beeped” when I went through the scanner. Noah looked a little worried on my behalf. When he walked through, the stern looking security man motioned him an identical box. Noah tentatively stepped up and the man walked behind him. He then reached around Noah’s face and pinched both his cheeks and gently tapped him on the back to step down. When Noah turned around sheepishly, the previously stern looking man had a huge warm smile for Noah. It was really sweet. On this flight Eric and I were sad to discover that they were not running the crazy Kung Fu film that we saw from HK to Beijing. It was about some warrior women and their Meemaw warrior Matriarch. All the bad guys had big horrible looking Mohawk hair styles. It had some stupid Romeo and Juliet ending and we never really understood the plot. We basically did the MST3000 thing where we dubbed over our own lines. It was late, we were tired and we thought we were really funny. Anyway…that was 2 cities ago, back to Chongqing.

We were met my Michael our guide here in CQ. We loaded the van and headed to the hotel. This city is incredibly overwhelming. It just goes on forever…32 million people! The city skylines (yes that is plural) are beautiful at night all lit up and some in neon. The daytime brings a harsh reality though as you see so many of the buildings are apartment buildings in horrible disrepair, and they are just stacked upon each other.We were blessed with an incredible room, you can see Noah’s reaction below. It says it all.

It was so weird flying into CQ last night, I found myself highly emotional. I kept thinking to myself, “She’s out there somewhere. She is but a car ride away from us now. How is that even possible? Is this really happening? Are we really here?” I slept without back pain last night in this wonderful hotel, but I was awake a lot wondering and dreaming about meeting Hope. And did I mention this city is Ginormous!!!??

We found out from Michael on the ride to our hotel, JW Marriot, that we will get to visit the orphanage! We also learned that we will get Hope tomorrow, Monday, May 14th, at 2:30 p.m. That will be 1:30 am Monday morning for my Alabama folk. We also told him the possible connection between Hope and another recently adopted girl, Ella. Ella is the daughter of  some dear friends of ours, Julie and Chris. Ella was also from the same orphanage as Hope originally. They adopted her in December. We think they slept next to each other in their original orphanage Qianjiang. They were both moved in September 2011 to CQ, but we don’t know if they remained together or were separated. We told Michael how important it was to us to ask if the girls were around each other in CQ, especially since we only live 2 hours apart in the U.S. He seemed very sympathetic and interested in helping us to find out if there was a connection.

We met Michael today at 10 a.m. and headed out to the “Times Square” of Chongqing…it is indeed that. It is like 4 blocks from our hotel. We went there to buy an orphanage gift to bring with us when we visit on Thursday. Michael said that while the orphanage is new and nice it has very few toys. So we hit the Toys R Us in the 6 level mall and walked out with 3 bags of toys. While at the check out counter I spied some soft multicolored balls. I asked where I could find them in the store. I was told they were souvenirs or something but they were not for sale. Bummer. However when the women behind the counter found out why we were buying so many toys, they GAVE us the two squishy colorful balls and a stuffed giraffe! How sweet was that?! WHAT IS MORE FUN THAN BUYING TOYS FOR ORPHANS!!!??? The only thing more fun than that is adopting an orphan and being able to call them your child!!!

Before returning to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store for water and milk. We happened upon a wonderful sight…OREO’s. We bought the chocolate filled Oreo’s and the mint kind…or so we thought. When Eric tore into the mint package he soon discovered they were actually more like Green Tea flavored Oreo’s with a hint of mint. Oh my. He can eat them; Noah and I refuse!

Noah and I got back to the hotel and decided it was time to hit the pool while Eric went and figured out how to get our internet set up for free.

Then we lazed around in the hotel room a bit and decided to split the difference between lunch and dinner and headed out to find the Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut here is a big deal AND it is a fancy schmancy place AND it was fabulous! And they serve so much more than pizza so we will be going back.

After lunch/dinner…would that be called Linner? We hit the ole’ Starbucks as my Mother’s Day treat. (P.S. Thanks Mom & Dad for the card it was lovely and made me cry.) We got Noah a Oreo McFlurry from a McDonald’s kiosk stand thingy, he was so pleased.

By far my favorite pictures of the day are the two below, they are the Original Baby Bjorn! I love these! How cute is that little baby??!!

We are less than 24 hours until God presents us with our second little girl. We are so honored to be worthy of this gift He is giving us. Please pray for sweet Hope who has no idea what is about to happen to her. She will be terrified and heartsick for all she knows and is familiar with. She will not only be leaving 6 nanny’s but she will be leaving little friends too. It will be a hard day for her and hard for us to watch. But we will try to comfort her and love her as much as she will let us. Pray the sweetness of the Holy Spirit will comfort her on a level we cannot reach. I may post again tomorrow before we go get Hope…I may not, we will see how my nerves are. Pray for sleep.