Orphanage Visit Day

Today we had the privilege of visiting Charlie's orphanage where he spent the first 18 months of his life.  I knew it might be a hard visit, but I didn't expect to be as emotional as I was about it.  Seeing the people and the places I had only seen in photos was very moving.  As soon as I saw his nanny walking toward me, I burst into tears and hugged her so tightly.  I have so many pictures of her with our son from when he was very tiny until recently.  She loved him and kissed him and saw his first tooth, first steps, etc.  I couldn't thank her enough for all she had done.

The orphanage is very clean and the caregivers all seemed very loving.  They would see Charlie and stop and want to hug him and kiss him.  It was very overwhelming!  Charlie cried for a moment when we left but afterwards, he was fine.  I am so very honored to have visited this important place in the story of his life.

After the visit, our guide took us to the place where Charlie was found.  We wanted to see it and go in person and I'm so glad we did.  What a special thing to stand in the same place his birth mother once stood!

We came back to the hotel and had lunch and then met the group for a visit to an old official's home that is now filled with antiques and local artists.  It was really neat to see the artists make their goods.  This place also had a beautiful garden!  It was so nice to let the kids down to run around in the sunshine after being cooped up in the hotel room for several days.  One of the little boys in the group was friends with Charlie in the orphanage and they enjoyed playing together.  It was adorable!

Today was a much better day than yesterday.  Charlie was in a pretty good mood and we got some time to see the city and get some fresh air.  I thank God for all your prayers.  You have no idea what it means to us to know so many of you at home are thinking about and praying for us!!

Tomorrow Brian has to go verify some documents and then we are supposed to go on another tour outside!

I forgot to mention how the morning began.  I was feeding Charlie a bottle and Brian was in the shower when we heard very loud popping and banging sounds that lasted about a minute.  It sounded like machine gun fire or like the building was collapsing.  I jumped up and yelled for Brian to get out of the shower.  I looked outside and people were just walking around on the street like nothing had happened.  No one was in the hallways.  Brian called the front desk and they acted like they didn't hear anything.  I nearly had a heart attack about it and no one else seems to notice.  When we went outside to walk to our bus this morning, we found out what the noise was.  Apparently there was a wedding at our hotel this morning.  On a Wednesday at 8am.  They lit firecracker like things when the wedding party arrived and then lit them again as they were leaving.  We got to experience the lovely noise again, but about 25 feet away.  Oy vey....

Specific prayer request:  Pray that little man and I do well tomorrow while Brian is away and that we have another good night's rest!  Sleep makes such a big difference!

It's Official!

Good evening!  Today we went back to the civil affairs office to complete Charlie's adoption.  It's official!  Xie Yi Chen is now Charlie Yichen Thrasher!  We had to sign some more paperwork, again stating that will will not abuse or abandon our child in the future and why we want to adopt from China.  Then we had to place a red thumb print over our signatures to make it official and sign a document in front of the notary.  That was it!

The not so fun part was that Charlie wanted none of that room.  We were there about two hours and he got very restless.  He did much better when we took him outside to walk around.  On our way back to the hotel, the bus driver drove us past the place where Charlie was found as an infant.  I'll leave the details for him, but it was pretty surreal to pass the place.  The bus couldn't stop there but we may have a chance to go back later this week.

Charlie's fussiness lasted the majority of the day.  While he was pretty stressed and out of it yesterday, today he was not happy with much of anything.  We are all pretty tired of being in this hotel room.  It's hot and stuffy and there are far too many things for him to hit his head on.  So we walked around the mall and walked the halls.  We were also able to buy some clothing and treats for the orphanage children with the money so generously donated by our friends at Charlie's baby shower. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Tomorrow we get to visit Charlie's orphanage.  I am looking forward to it and not looking forward to it at the same time.  I want to see where Charlie spent his days and meet his nannies and friends.  This is an important piece of Charlie's history and I want to be able to share as much as possible with him about that place.  I am also not looking forward to it.  So many children who have yet to find homes.  Children living without families.  It will be hard to see as well, I'm sure.  I mainly want to hug Charlie's nannie's neck and thank her for all she's done for our son.

Charlie also got his first bath tonight.  He LOVED the water and didn't want to get out!

We are very tired, as we usually are by early evening, and hope for a good night sleep!  Goodnight friends!

Specific Prayer request:  Please pray that all goes well at the orphanage visit tomorrow.  That Charlie doesn't get scared or worried about returning there and that we get a great picture into his history.

It's Charlie Day!!

What a day!  Let me start at the beginning.  We woke up about 6:30, got ready, and headed down to breakfast.  We've found that even though we don't really eat breakfast at home, in China breakfast may be the only good meal we get all day.  I know it's a shocker, but I'm having trouble finding food I like here.

Anyway, then we went outside to pray a little before we left.  We got very overwhelmed thinking about how scared Charlie must be and how sad his nanny must be saying goodbye to him this morning.  Unfortunately, with the joy of adoption and this exciting day, there also comes loss of so much.  Charlie loses everything he has ever known and that makes me very sad for him.

We met our group and drove over to the civil affairs office about 15 minutes from our hotel.  When we walked in, we saw him immediately, getting some snacks from the lady who brought him.  Her name is Coco and she does the paperwork for the children at the orphanage.  We immediately became emotional after seeing him.  We are finally in the same room!  The lady handed him to us and he came right to us.  No tears.  Brian and I took turns playing with him while we completed the paperwork basically saying we will take good care of him for the next 24 hours until the adoption can be finalized tomorrow.  We also got a wonderful book from the Half the Sky foundation that has several baby pictures of him as well as some type of journal of his growth.  It's all in Chinese so we'll have to do some translation.  I am so very indebted to Half the Sky for the wonderful programs they run at my son's orphanage and at others around the country.

Then we loaded the van and headed for the local Walmart type store.  The bus made Charlie very nervous.  When I walked onto the bus he immediately broke into a sweat and clung to me.  When we got to the store we picked up a few items we needed like some snacks and formula and then headed back to the hotel.  He did fall asleep on me on the way back to the hotel and napped for about an hour.

We played together for several hours after that and then went out to the mall to try to find some dinner for Charlie and some new shoes.  The ones he was wearing were too small.  We found a cute kids store and bought him some shoes that fit better.  We also looked for some clothes for him because his 12 month stuff is too big.  He is very tiny.

Shopping was interesting.  We tried to explain we were looking for smaller clothing for our baby, but they didn't really understand us.  All of the clothes we saw seemed like toddler sizes and are all for very cold weather.  We are sweating from the heat and still air and these stores only sell sweaters and coats.  We are also quite the attraction.  Store employees would call everyone over to see the Americans with the Chinese baby.  I'm not loving all the staring, that's for sure.  We did find some veggie rice to feed him and then headed to Papa John's for dinner.  The familiar taste was very welcomed!

We fed Charlie a bottle of a formula and rice cereal mixture, which we totally guessed about how to make, but it seemed to be a big hit.  We weren't sure when he would want to go to bed, but we figured he had a very long day and about 7:45 we tried to get him to sleep.  He didn't want to sit or lay down so Brian paced the floor with him until he finally gave up the fight and fell asleep.  He's in his crib next to our bed now.

Overall, today could not have gone better for us.  Charlie is such a sweetie and really did great considering the circumstances.  He really likes food and he laughs when Brian tickles him.  He hasn't cried much, but I imagine it's going to set in soon that he is staying with us and the sadness will come.

Tomorrow we go back to the civil affairs office to make everything official with Charlie!!  Thanks again for all your prayers.  We felt them every step of the way.  God is so very faithful.

Going to get Charlie!

We saw him when we walked in!

We are finally holding him!

We are in Nanjing!

We started the morning early again because we are apparently not capable of sleeping past 4:30am here.  Hopefully that will change once we've got a toddler wearing us out.  

We met at 7:30 am for the airport and went through the most stressful and intense security checks ever.  It's hard to know what they want you to remove from your carry on.  Some people had to remove electronics, some had to remove batteries, some jewelry, etc.  Then they physically wand down every person, except for me for some reason who passed right through.  I guess I look innocent or something.

The flight was short and we landed in Nanjing.  We checked in to our hotel, a Holiday Inn, and unpacked and then took a look around.  There is a huge mall attached to our hotel that has many American stores like H&M, Gap, Nine West, etc.  There is also a Papa John's and a Cold Stone Creamery there that I'm sure we'll be visiting more than once while we are here.  

For the first time we are in the same city as our son.  We are just a few minutes from him.  We have an empty crib sitting in our room and I packed his backpack full of fun toys and books.  We meet our son tomorrow morning.  I really don't even know how to comprehend that we will be becoming parents again so soon.  It's very surreal.  After a year and a half of paperwork and preparation, we will have him in our arms in a matter of hours.

I have no idea what to expect exactly tomorrow, but hope to at least post a picture as soon as I can.  I know you are all excited to see him too!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support over this journey.  We love hearing from you as we are longing for the familiar.  We get just a taste of what Charlie will feel away from everything he knows.  It's tiring and stressful and I hurt for his sweet little heart.

Specific Prayer request:  Please take a moment to thank God for His incredible faithfulness to bring us here and pray that things go as smoothly as possible tomorrow.