Today is Saturday, the day before we finally meet Lily. We arrived in Nanchang in the Jiangxi province yesterday afternoon around 12:30 p.m. Izaiah did so well during the two plane rides it took to get here. As there was not a direct flight, we had a short layover in Xian where we had to get off the plane and re-board the same plane 30 minutes later. As we were being transported to the terminal, we had the most amazing experience that we will forever cherish!
A Chinese man named Mason introduced himself. He currently lives in Philadelphia but works for a company in China and travels often back and forth. He spoke very good English and he kept thanking us for adopting these children; he was so sincere and sweet. He told us that he was so happy these babies would have life, that he wanted to cry. A while later when we started to re-board the plane, he came up to us, remembering and calling us by our names, and gave us a gift he bought at the airport for our two children (even though we don't have Lily yet, we told him about her). He bought them each a stuffed panda bear. It was such a beautiful moment! We are still overwhelmed thinking about it. His comment about giving these babies 'life' was a clear reminder to us of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who gives us true life! When God awakens our heart to believe, we really are adopted as His sons and daughters.
The people here have been extremely kind to us. They do stare; boy do they stare! But they mainly stare at the white Americans, especially the one with blond hair and blue eyes. It is actually very funny. We have gotten used to it and just give everyone big smiles back, which is not hard to do at all as we are carrying around our son whom we are so very proud of. Everyone tries to get a good peek at Izaiah too, but it is usually done with big smiles.
We are staying in a nice hotel and feel blessed that they gave us a little crib, a baby bathtub, and a stroller in our room. We will get a second crib tomorrow for Lily. We often don't even have to ask for things and they just are giving here and helpful, not like America. We were in the hotel restaurant this morning and they just brought us a high chair, for example, though we could not use it as Izaiah is not sitting up yet but it was the thought that counted.
We are spending the day resting; the three of us just took a nice nap. We both have colds and stuffy heads so please pray that Izaiah stays healthy and does not get it. We will meet Ms. Lily Grace Zhi Olsen tomorrow afternoon between 4 and 5 p.m., which will be 14 hours ahead of you with the time change, so for you at home that will be 2 to 3 a.m. on Sunday morning. Then on Monday the four of us will go to the Civil Affairs office to do the paperwork to make Lily officially ours. Our "Gotcha Day" for Lily, Sunday, November 6th, is actually National Adoption Day! The month of November is National Adoption Month.
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