Journey to Joy: Day #2 and #3

     Day #2 (Sunday) was quiet and mostly uneventful... besides the fact that we left our passports at the check-in desk the night before and were startled with a call late in the day that someone would bring them up immediately. Yikes! The weather was rainy and overcast and I made it clear to Eric that I'd be OK if we didn't adventure today. So we didn't! 

     Breakfast is from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. so we made it down around 8 a.m. Breakfasts are always an adventure. Let me tell you, it never smells like breakfast. I immediately lost my appetite at the smell of something seafood-related. I could feel my grumpy pants coming on. Breakfast was the one meal I ate on our last trip. Eggs every.single.day. After a few trips around the buffet, normal foods were found and I was back to my un-hangry self. In our experience, there is always a large selection of foods. But, they're not always the breakfast foods you'd expect. We did find  some amazing banana bread though! And Eric knows to choose molasses for his pancakes. Below is our view from breakfast. We sit at the same table and they always play American music...think 80s easy listening. Ha!

     We are on the 29th floor of our hotel. Here are a couple of daytime views.

     On Sunday night, we ordered room service. China is like the only time we ever do this, haha! We actually had the manager pay us a visit for our order because no one can understand us. The language barrier is always tricky. Eric and I both talked about doing Rosetta Stone and learning it. Haha! I'm not sure why because he's made it very clear that we are done after this adoption. Bless him. We had beautiful fresh flowers on our table for two. Eric had spaghetti Napolitano and I had Beef and Noodles. Both were excellent! For dessert, we had to try their Napoleon. Oh and it was all washed down with Sprite! Simple pleasures.

The concierge here is amazing! He has personally reached out on a daily basis to see if we need anything. He is originally from Indonesia and has been at this hotel for about 2 years. He is usually the one that is called upon when we make a request (like exchanging money or needing copies of visas) that the front desk can't understand. Haha! I usually say something to the effect of, "Hi! It's us again...the foreigners!"

     Here was a night time view out our hotel room window. They take lighting very seriously. Many buildings have flashing patterns and colors. Definitely a Vegas-type feel. Our guide shared that the population of Zhengzhou is about 10 million. This is not quite double the population of Kunming...where we were for Josiah's adoption in 2017.

     On Monday, we were to meet our guide at 8:30 a.m. for some sightseeing. Coffee has not been easy to come by and we were counting on a trusty Starbucks to be closer than a 30 minute walk. Danielle, our guide, is a gift-giver. She has gone out of her way several times to do things for us. At 8:30, she greeted us with mooncakes and a souvenir keychain from the Henan province (where we are). Danielle knows that foreigners like their coffee so she offered to take us to the Starbucks on our way out of the city. Bless her! It was a glorious vanilla latte!

     We had a little less than 2 hours of drive time to our destination. Danielle is very personable and chatted with us throughout the trip. I snapped some pictures of the landscape as we traveled.

     While I can't speak much about our final destination (per our guide), we were blessed with a life-changing experience for a couple of hours. Our time spent was valuable and special...and something we will both remember forever.

     We're averaging about two meals a day...a big breakfast and an early dinner. This will obviously need to change when Aliza is in our arms. But, for the two of us, it's simple and doable. After we returned from our morning adventure, it was almost 2 p.m. We ate at one of the hotel restaurants and shared an order of French fries and mutton. Mutton was something we had when in Kunming. Our amazing guide, Susan, took us to the ethnic village where we tried it for the first time. It was good here, but not as good as in Kunming.  

      Physically and mentally, we feel great! We just get pretty tired in the afternoon. We've done a big no-no and taken afternoon naps. Sometimes, that means you're up at 10:30 p.m. typing blog posts without a sliver of tiredness. Besides, tomorrow is Aliza day! How can I sleep? We leave the hotel at 9 a.m. (so 9 p.m. on Monday for our family and friends back home). We can't wait! Please be praying for her little heart to feel safe and loved. We would also appreciate some prayers about leaving on Wednesday for Guangzhou. We found out today, we don't actually have train tickets (that we paid for) to leave Zhengzhou. Our guide is working on it though! (Remember, she's great!) And we won't have Aliza's passport to show at the train station when we leave because it won't be ready and has to be sent to us in Guangzhou. We've been assured that our Travel Approval will work and this happens all the time. But, it makes my Mama heart nervous. Thanks for reading and praying along! We hope to share our sweet Aliza with you all soon!