Foreigners

     Well...we made it! After a 13 hour flight into Beijing and a 3 hour flight into Kunming...we are officially in Josiah's province.

     For those that prayed... thank you! It was a very smooth flight and my Dramamine worked wonders! No sickness, no crying, and we were even able to sleep some... those are all big victories! 

     We checked into our hotel late last night-around midnight (but 12PM our time). Of course, we had to FaceTime our cuties back home! We miss them so much and it's hard to imagine our journey away from them has really only begun. Emmaline doesn't seem to know what to think. Sydney also explained to us that she was the only one of the 3 kiddos NOT to be up in the night. Apparently, Landon was crying for reasons unknown. And Emmaline struggled as well. Extra prayers for my mom as she tries to catch some rest during our time in China. Yikes! Love you, Mom!

     One of the funniest things so far is just how much attention you draw as a "foreigner." I can't tell you how many times our guide has mentioned Eric's height. He is SO tall! We were not surprised by this attention because we've been told by family members and others that this is what to expect. But, that didn't excuse us from a bit of stress when we landed in Kunming. We picked up our bags and headed to the "Way Out" as the airport kept explaining it via signs. Our guide was to have a sign with our names on it. Well, we could not find our guide. And as a result, we had to endure dozens of people trying to get us in their taxi and take us to a hotel. Admittedly, we looked lost...and I probably looked slightly panicked. And...we're foreigners!  We were pretty much like raw meat to these people. There were several gates to come out of and we just didn't pick the right one. As we paced up and down the gates...some people even came up multiple times asking us to come with them. We just smiled and kept saying no. Ha! Thankfully, I used WeChat to contact our agency and she called our guide who ran RIGHT to us. She felt terrible...bless her heart. It was an easy fix and we were relieved to be safe from any more random bartering.

     Our luggage was loaded and we hopped into a van with another couple and rode to the hotel. They will be with us this week and next since their daughter is also in Kunming. They had seen us on the plane from Beijing and knew Eric was wearing a bright green shirt so that was helpful to our guide when she was trying to locate us "lost puppies" at the airport. Ha! I will say...it was very nice to have him wear that color while we traveled! 

     Today is a "rest" day. I'm waiting for Eric to wake up so we can go to breakfast. Then our guide will show us some things around the hotel. Tomorrow, we leave at 2:20 to go to the Civil Affairs office where we'll get to meet our sweet boy! When our guide saw his Chinese name...she said he had a strong name that meant brave. I couldn't help but smile because truly, bravery is at the heart of adoption...how brave these kiddos have to be to leave everything they've ever known and embrace a life they know nothing about with a family they've just met. Please be in prayer for us and the other families we'll be with tomorrow as we all welcome our precious kiddos into our arms.

     Here are a few pictures so far... hopefully I can be back on in the next couple of days with an update.

 See those young boys in the background? They were so kind to help Eric find our gate information at Beijing!

 We had to ride a shuttle out to our plane in Beijing. Then, we climbed a flight of stairs to enter. At this point, we felt a light at the end of our travel tunnel!

We were surprised to be fed on this flight since it wasn't super long and it was later. It was definitely a fun game of What Am I? I chose not to eat because A. It was later in the day and B. My belly was feeling pretty good at this point. Eric got a few pointers from a man beside him. He chuckled at us a couple of times as we figured out what everything was and HOW it should be eaten. Eric did get a little ill on this flight...it was very warm and had a particular smell to it. Luckily, he feel asleep before we took off and avoided any sickness.

Josiah's crib was ready for us when we checked into our room...so I had to throw in his blanket and a few of the toys we brought.