Day 6

What a day.

We woke up early (again), and ended up Skyping with some folks while we waited for it to be 6am, when the breakfast buffet opened. And when I say buffet, I'm not playin'. Our hotel had a huge selection of pastries, veggies, rice, dumplings, salads, lunch meats, and American breakfast fare. If it wasn't being served for breakfast, you didn't need it. We were a little adventurous with breakfast, but we mostly concentrated on filling ourselves up so that we could make it through the day.

While we were eating, we saw a man out side the window who had a cage with about two dozen pigeons in it. He opened the cage and let the pigeons fly around for a while, and then put them back in their cage. Not something you see every day.

The rest of the morning was kind of a blur. We were all anxious to meet Ruthie. We took a nap after breakfast, and walked around the mall that is attached to our hotel. It is a BIG mall, full of interesting stores. Strangely enough, they have a Cold Stone Creamery. And a Dairy Queen that serves Wasabi Blizzards. Hmm...

Finally, it was time to meet Ruthie. We drove to the local government office that handles foreign adoptions (and foreign weddings), and we waited for the children to show up. There were 4 families all waiting, including us. One by one, kids were brought in and began meeting their new families. We waited and waited, growing more anxious by the moment. Finally, our guide called the orphanage director to see what was taking so long. Shortly after that, she arrived.

From the start, she was very reluctant to see us. That leads me to believe that she knew what was coming. She didn't want anything to do with us and then she started crying. And crying. And crying. I'm happy to report that she has very healthy lungs.

We had a brief conversation with the orphanage director, and we could tell that they genuinely cared for Ruthie. They gave us a scrapbook of photos from throughout her time in the orphanage, which is pretty rare. They also gave us quite a few clothes for her. Again, not the norm. It is nice to know that they cared for her. The orphanage director also wanted to make sure that we were going to get medical attention for her, which was touching. 

After they left, she still was pretty upset, but eventually started to take to Anne. The two of them walked around the building for a while (I think Ruthie was looking to see where her nanny went). They began to bond slowly, and then we left.

On the way home, we stopped at Carrefore, which is like Wal Mart. Only dirtier. We got a few essentials there, including a potty seat. She said she had to go when we first got her, but wouldn't go in the public toilet (the public toilets in China are literally a hole in the ground. You put your feet on either side and you squat). Ruthie is definitely a Harrison because she wouldn't use the hole/toilet.

By the time we got back to the room, she was starting to get a little more comfortable with us. We bought some of her favorite snacks, which no doubt helped.

In the hotel, we just focused on having some fun with her and making her feel comfortable. The thing that finally broke through was cartwheels and break dancing. Our kids started dancing for her, and she really enjoyed that. I've tried to attach a short video to this, but I don't know if it will show up on our blog or not. If you can't see the video, then click the link below and you should be able to watch it: 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/IMG_2029.MOV

After some dancing, we ate in our room, and then we read that her normal bedtime is 7:30. Conveniently, that is when we have been crashing into bed ourselves, so that is what everyone did. We're grateful to have her, and anxious to see what tomorrow holds.

Facebook note

Hey friends, it is 3 am, we're awake, so we might as well drink a cup of coffee and blog. Nothing new to report, but we did want to let you know that we are not able to read Facebook posts or messages or comments here. 

Our blog is set up to automatically post to FB, so I know many of you read it that way, But, if you want us to be able to read what you write back, you'll have to comment directly on our blog. We are able to read those comments in our email. 

Thanks for all your interaction. 

Day 5

Another long day of travel today, but we had some fun interspersed. In the last 48 hours, we have been on a plane, a train, a subway, a van, a car, and feet.

The day started bright and early, as we all woke up about 2 am local time. Most of us were able to go back to sleep for a little while, but we still got up and moving about 4:30am. Ah, the joys of jetlag.

We had arranged with a friend to meet in our hotel lobby at 9am, so that gave us plenty of time to start the day off nicely. Our hotel had a really nice shower head where it could hit you from multiple directions, so we all took long showers. It was nice. The kids also had fun with the room's toilet. I kid you not, it had a control panel. It was a combination toilet and bidet, with a lot of different options for front cleaning, rear cleaning, adjusting the water temperature, drying, etc. So, that was pretty much our morning: Long showers for the adults and long toilet sessions for the kids.

While we were eating breakfast and getting ready, we got news via email that a measles outbreak had struck our son's orphanage. We don't really know any details, other than what is in our previous blog post. So, we stopped then and prayed, and we continue to pray. We'll keep you posted if we learn more info.

We met our friend and he went above and beyond in showing us around town. We walked the Bund, the famous riverfront area in Shanghai, and then he took us to a local outdoor marketplace. It was full of people, and just like something out of a movie. Hannah later said, "Well, I was introduced to several new smells today." They had lots of pushy folks trying to sell you everything from cheap kids' toys (now I know where they all come from) to fake Rolex watches and Gucci handbags to everything in between. But, they also had some nice handmade crafts which we enjoyed looking at. We'll post pictures when we can.

We stopped at this marketplace to have a second breakfast/brunch. Shanghai is known for a certain type of dumpling, so we had to try them. They were delicious and fresh, dumplings filled with pork and crab meat. We ate them with a little egg soup and some fried tofu (though we all decided we could do without the fried tofu). The place we ate had a chopstick dispenser, just like you would see a straw dispenser at a fast food restaurant in the states. You know the kind where you push down on the lever on the front and a straw comes out? I've always been a little germophobic of the straws that come out of those things, because so many people touch them. But today stepped it up a notch, because it was chopsticks, with germs from a foreign country. Oh well.

After we ate, it was time for us to go and check out of our hotel and get to our train. We had to take the subway to the train station, and then we rode a bullet train to get to Nanjing. We were so grateful for our friend's guidance, because this train station was huge. As in, roughly the size of Walla Walla, with at least twice as many people. And all the signs are in Chinese. But, with his help, we made it on to our train safely. 

We were all exhausted from the massive amount of walking we did (hauling all our luggage) to get through the station, that everyone napped a bit on the ride. About halfway through the trip, a police officer came walking through the train, giving loud instructions to everyone and looking very stern. I was just really hoping that whatever he said didn't apply to me, because we couldn't understand what he said. This language is a total mystery to all of us. (Side note: as I am typing this, Elliott is watching some anime cartoon on TV. Anime is odd enough, but when you can't understand it, why bother? Still, he's glued to the TV).

When we arrived, we were at another very large train station, like the size of a couple of Wal Marts put together. Our guide who was to meet us was informed that our train was delayed, (though it wasn't), and so she wasn't really looking for us yet. Fortunately, we literally walked right up to her without knowing it and she recognized us. Weird thing to happen in a very crowded train station, but I suppose we do stick out a bit.

We headed over and got settled in to our new hotel. It will be nice to stay more than one night in a place. Our guide took us to dinner with another family who is adopting. We'll both pick up our kids tomorrow.

At dinner, Elliott fell asleep at the table. So, we ate quickly (we fed all of us for only $12), and trudged back to our room. Everyone is trying very hard to stay awake as long as we can, so we can start to adjust our body clocks, but it is about 7:30 and I'm the only one still awake. As we head to sleep, I can see fireworks outside our window.

We found out that we'll meet our guide at 2:30 tomorrow so that we can go and meet Ruthie at about 3 pm. It's going to be a long morning waiting until 2:30...

Day 4

Day 4 felt like it took two days. We were in transit all day long. We got up at 3:45 am and left from San Francisco. We had a lengthly layover in LA, and then a 13 hour flight to Shanghai.

Our flight was uneventful, and we all got caught up on all the movies we didn't see this past year. So, if you are curious about a movie that has come out in the past 12 months or so, one of us has probably seen it, or at least part of it.

So after 13 hours of reading, relaxing, and intermittent napping, we arrived in steamy and humid Shanghai at about 6pm local time. We hadn't showered, since we got up so early, and we were all way overdue for a good washing by the time we got to the hotel.

We had a van arranged to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel, which was nice. We went to check in, though, and they told us that there had been some flooding in some of the rooms, and they were going to take us to a different hotel. So, that was an unforeseen change that we had to navigate. It took two cabs to get all 5 of us over to the other hotel, but we got in there without problems. The concierge from the first hotel actually rode over to the second hotel with us, and took care of the cab fare and the price difference, so we came out no worse for the wear.

By the time we got into our room, we couldn't decide whether to sleep or shower first. We crashed hard. But, knowing we would only be in Shanghai one night, we wanted to walk over to the Bund, the riverfront walkway, so we could see the city at night. Anne and Hannah were too tired to go, but Calla, Elliott, and Kris made the trip. I'll have to add pictures later, but you could google "Shanghai Bund" and get the idea. It was a nice way to end a very long day. As we were walking back to the hotel, Calla smiled and said, "In two more days we get to meet Ruthie."

Day 3

We had such a nice time with our friends staying up late and visiting that we didn't get to blog last night. So, I'm taking advantage of our layover at LAX (world's worst airport, BTW. I mean, where the heck is the Starbucks?)

Yesterday, we got in to San Francisco bright and early, and spend the day with our friend. We started our journey in Portland, then to San Fran, I think we are easing our way into culture shock once city at a time...

We enjoyed a day playing at the bay and walking around on the pier. We used Urban Spoon to find a breakfast place, and it was not too bad. The lady recognized we were not locals...so..read whatever you want to into that. My only desire was to eat some sourdough bread, and in this case it was combined with bacon. #winning!

True to form, we had a typical, beautiful California day. We saw the bay, played at a park, went to the pier and thanks to our friends, visited the aquarium. But our favorite thing of all was investing in and being invested in by our friends. It's a good reminder that time and space may separate us but true friendship never dies. We were loved on and cherished before we embark on an unforgettable and no doubt, exhausting journey. If you do nothing else today, invest in someone you love. It's worth it.

Day 2

There's not a lot to report today, but I figure we might as well blog while we can.

We slept in today...because we could. We had a nice leisurely breakfast at our friends' house and then decided to go and enjoy the day. We took the kids to see a movie at the mall, and that gave us an opportunity to walk around a lot at the mall, too.

While at the mall, we bought a small cross necklace. We had been talking to a friend about our desire to share our faith in China, if God gives us the opportunity. We know that is a difficult thing to manage, but we thought that wearing a cross necklace will help other people start the conversation, and then we can see where it goes from there. So, we'll see what happens with that.

The weather in Portland today was absolutely gorgeous, so we took advantage of that and found a local park. It turns out it is the oldest park in Washington (it's in Vancouver), so that is kind of interesting. They had a beautiful rose garden, a tall clock tower, and a nice playground for the kids.

While we were on the playground, a girl came up to Hannah and started chatting. She was quite friendly, and so we asked her how old she was. She said "four." We smiled to ourselves, knowing that in just 5 long days, we'll have our own four year old girl!

Day 1

While we are travelling, we'll try to blog every day. I can't guarantee that we'll have internet access every day, but we'll do what we can.

Today, we left our house bright and early. The night before, we had some dear friends stop by and pray for us and for our trip and our family, which was very encouraging. We left this morning tired, but refreshed at the same time.

We drove to Portland, where we'll be flying out of. We came out early so that we could have our lice situation dealt with once and for all. Any of you who have had lice know that it is hard to get rid of, and since we'll be gone for a while, we wanted to treat it aggressively  So, we had an appointment set up for this morning. That went well, and we are now lice free. We have heard from several people that it is likely that we will get lice from our visits to orphanages, and we're OK with that. But, we want to be able to go and visit them and not worry about giving them lice. So, we hope that everything will stay clear there. We're set to go back to the place tomorrow and get re-examined.

After running a couple of last minute errands, we grabbed lunch at some food trucks. Elliott won the "Adventurous Eater of the Day" award, since he tried something new. (We all agreed that the stakes for that award are about to be raised quite a bit). Most of us chose the French crepe truck, which was good. In typical French fashion, when I (Kris) asked to substitute gorgonzola instead of cream cheese in my crepe, the French owner rolled her eyes at me. But, I chose wisely. It was really good. 

Finally, in the late afternoon we settled in to our friend's house, where we'll stay tonight. Our friends are awesome, since they are letting us stay here and they are not even in town! I hope you have friends that love you and open their home to you (even when you might have lice). We're blessed to know them.

So, we're relaxing tonight and making some final travel reservations/confirmations.

Speaking of confirmations, I have to share a story from earlier today. We were driving, and as always happens on road trips, our radio station started to cut out. So, we began to flip around the dial. It is always a little like Russian roulette when you do that, because you might get some really good music, or you might get Ke$ha. We stopped for a moment when we heard a preacher, Alistair Begg. It was really fortuitous that we caught the tail end of his sermon, because it was on the book of Ruth.

The biblical character of Ruth is a story that we have both loved for a long time, and it is one of the reasons we wanted to name our daughter Ruthie Joy. In the book of Ruth, and in the part of the sermon we caught on the radio, Ruth has to make a very difficult decision. She is an outsider, not an Israelite.  When her husband dies, she has to decide if she will go back to her homeland, or if she will stay with Naomi, and with God's people. She finally says, "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God." 

Being reminded of this today was very encouraging, because, really, that is what is happening with our family. These two kids are "our people" and are forever connected to us. They are Harrisons, with all the good and the bad that comes with that. It means they probably won't be very good at sports, they may not grow up to be very tall, and they will have insatiable cravings for Tex Mex.

When people find out that we are adopting two kids, they almost always ask, "Are they siblings?" And the answer is no, but the answer is also yes. They are siblings, and they will always be. It was an encouraging reminder to us today that God is with us.