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Sunday, November 6, 2011

10 hours

In 10 hours we should be meeting our Hannah! We are suppose to meet our guide in the lobby at 8:30 to drive to the orphanage. Our appointment at the orphanage is at 9:30 am (7:30 pm Texas time considering that the US has done Day Light Savings time and China has not). I've pack up some snacks and toys to have for our first meeting! When the Watts visited Hannah in Aug they said she liked Smarties, so we have packed plenty of them also.

We have had a rough day today. We woke up to the news that Chris' grandfather, Lou, had suffered a serious heart attack on Saturday. He lives in San Antonio. He is still in the hospital and we are unsure of his prognosis at this time. Please pray for Grandpa Lou, his wife Thella, Chris' mom JoAnn and Chris' entire family. A tragic event is always so hard, but the miles between us and our family felt extra long today.

After breakfast this morning we headed out to the airport and we said our goodbyes to Angela. Our 3 hour flight from Beijing to Chengdu was so nice. The plane was very comfortable and it far exceeded my expectations of a domestic China flight. Once we landed we quickly found our luggage and guide.

Our guide, Tina, seems nice, but I wonder how long she has been doing this job. She is quite unsure of herself and when we would ask a question she often asked the driver or called her manager for the answer. On our drive to the hotel Tina informed us that our appointment to get Hannah was at 2:30. The orphanage has 2 appointment times 9:30 and 2:30. About a month ago we requested the 9:30 spot because families that go in the morning tend to see more of the orphanage. Families that go in the afternoon are usually unable to get a tour of the orphanage because the children are napping. Tina tried to tell us that it could not be fixed, but After many phone calls and our insistence that we go in the morning the appointment was finally changed.

Then we arrived at our hotel, Crowne Plaza Chengdu. Check in went smoothly and then we were led to our suite. The hotel has some suites that were renovated over the last year or so and some that we're last renovated 15 years ago. Sure enough we had a suite that was one of the old ones. It was dark, out dated, truly just horrible! I would also like to mention we paid a premium for this suite when we made our travel arrangements because other adoptive families had raved about the suites here and we wanted our first 5 days with Hannah to be as comfortable as possible. The hotel would switch us to a renovated suite at an additional $100 per night. We spent the next 3 hours in the lobby trying to get it all settled. Our guide was totally worthless and often spent more of her time trying to get us to be ok with the set up than to be our advocate and help get it resolved. The whole debacle was solved when Chris insisted that he be able to speak to the manager of the hotel. After convincing our guide to go and ask for him, the manager came to see Chris. Chris was very kind to the manager and the hotel manager agreed to switch us to the correct room at no additional charge. It was just stressful and frustrating. I was so thankful to finally get it all settled. We still don't have Hannah's crib delivered to the room yet, but they insist that it will be done tomorrow.

We finally got in the room and had out bags delivered. At this point we were starving! We headed out for a quick dinner and then returned to our room to get our boys to bed and our stuff unpacked.

We are going to try to be as nice as possible to Tina tomorrow, but it may be difficult. I think she has to be new to being an adoption guide. The guide should tell you what paperwork you need and the number of gifts you need for officials the next day but as you may have guessed, Tina didn't give us any of that info. I never even considered that we would have a bad guide. The guide is usually so helpful to the family and the child as they go through the first few days of this difficult adjustment. Sadly, I'm not banking on much help from good ole Tina in this area. Ugh... Pray for us, pray for Tina and pray for the person she keeps calling for all the answers.

Ok, so enough about Tina! We get our Hannah tomorrow!!!! Yep that's right - TOMORROW!!!!!! This is it!!!! Tonight she spends her last night in an orphanage and tomorrow (while it is still Orphan Sunday in the US) she will be claimed!!! It is estimated that there are 163 million orphans in the world, but tomorrow there will be one less!!!! Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!!!!

Blessings to you all!


Chris, Amy, Travis and Chase

3 comments:

  1. Amy&Chris- I will be praying for a restful night and harmony and peace in the morning. Love that tomorrow there will be one less orphan in this world. I know the angels and our Father who is above the angels will be rejoicing! I also love that since I am only 5 hours behind you, I will probably check my email first! :) love you guys. SWA jason

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  2. UGH ... always so fun to have confrontation .. especially in a distant land. HA. Score - Chris 2, Tina 0. Praying tomorrow, Tina's emergency contact become your contact. You are so right ... our guides were the ones who truly made that part of the trip easier. Praying the Lord intercedes with his most awesome second plan A. He CAN! It's 6:49 Texas time ... all I know is that right now, you are 41 minutes from HANNAH TIME! I remember those last moments so well .... like yesterday! Oh my gosh, I am so so excited for you!

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  3. Amy,

    I followed you over from the comment you left on Kristina's (Kia's) blog when I saw your SA email address. It's a small world . . . I just realized that we are both part of the Fostering/Adopting Fellowship Group w/ Jenn Gager.

    Just read your last couple of posts, and am so excited to know that you should be with your sweet Hannah as I type! :)

    Blessings on your special day!

    Tina (a fellow adoptive mama in Texas . . . not the inexperienced guide . . .praying that situation gets much better!)

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