China: Part I

On the eve of Family Day, the day we meet our son, I am feeling about one million different things. Inadequate. Hopeful. Afraid. Excited. Anxious. Overwhelmed. Humbled. Oh, and tired. Tired, but not exhausted, so that’s an improvement.

We left Atlanta on Wednesday, February 21, to begin our (incredibly long) journey to China. My prayer going in was that I could walk away saying the travel wasn’t that bad, so that maybe I could work up the nerve to do it all again one day. Like most things, I think the anticipation is the worst part. It’s the fear that nearly swallows me whole sometimes, and I was certainly afraid. Travel was frustrating for sure. We flew a new (to us) airline in a different terminal. We learned mid-flight to Chicago that our seat arrangement had been changed without notifying us, so Sam no longer had extra leg room (he’s 6’9). I cried from fear and frustration and exhaustion that day, but my prayers were answered. It wasn’t that bad. Sure, I’d rather travel by floo powder, portkey, and certainly transporter, but until our technology catches up with our imaginations, international flights half way around the world are doable (I’d recommend a bottle of your favorite benzodiazepine). 

American Airlines-not my fave, but it was okay
Also, note that flying up and over Canada is a much
more enjoyable flight than across the Pacific Ocean.

We arrived in Beijing on Thursday, February 22, in the evening. As China is 13 hours ahead of home, our travel had taken approximately 18 hours all together, but it admittedly felt far closer to the 32 hours time led us to believe had elapsed. We were all exhausted. The first night I crashed, but then woke up about 3 a.m. My body could be tricked no longer. Despite how tired I was, my brain knew that it was 2 o’clock in the afternoon. This has maintained itself as a pretty regular pattern each night. I wake up sometime between 1-3 a.m. to just sit and process the day and I eventually fall asleep a few hours later for a final nap before myself or Garrison gives up and we start our day. 

On our first day here, we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. My two biggest surprises were how many Chinese people were visiting. We were truly the only white people I saw for hours. I guess I expected more international travelers to such popular tourist locations. My second surprise was how deeply the Chinese people feel for Chairman Mao. He served as the the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. The President of the United States in 1976 was Gerald Ford. I know that because I looked it up. And without reading the Wikipedia article, I couldn’t tell you one thing about the man, but the people of China seemed to genuinely love the man. On many occasions people were shouting things aloud that our guide translated as praise for Mao. It was so interesting to see even small children excited over this man. As a child, President Bush (the first one) came to my hometown. I was so very close in proximity the the President of the United States,and yet 20+ years later, I barely remember it and know next to nothing about him, but these children who were born some 30+ years after Mao died seemed to truly care deeply for him. So interesting. 

Add caption

The Summer Palace was by far my favorite, probably for lots of reasons not the least of which is that it was more remote, has beautiful trees and lakes, and gave off a more peaceful feeling in comparison to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Summer Palace is also lavishly painted with murals along the Long Corridor. I could have spent days there learning about the paintings and the architecture and the various buildings.

On our second and last day in Beijing, we traveled outside of Beijing (well at least it felt like it) to visit the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Modern conveniences such as a bus half way up the mountain and a cable car up to the wall made this a totally doable day adventure, but even then, the wall was quite the workout. Also interesting to note that very little has been done in terms of safety features to prevent trips/falls etc. I likely noticed this in part as I was carrying Garrison in the ergo and feeling how insecure I felt on many of the staircases with no handrails. I kept thinking how something like this in the US would have been modified so much for the number of tourists that visit (because hello, lawsuit). 

Beijing is still cold, and therefore it's a pretty dreary landscape, plus
the smog has a way of eating all the colors in the photos, but still,
pretty amazing to see...and to imaging that this was just one tiny piece
of the wall.

Today we were up bright and early to board a plane to Kunming. If you’re keeping track, that is plane ride number three. I’m half way through the six and that feels REALLY good. In no way am I going to be a fan of flying by the end of this, but maybe I’ll be just a teensy bit better. 

The view from the (very back row of) plane as we flew
over Yunnan and came into Kunming.

Today is Garrison’s birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in our family. Sam and I usually both take off and do something fun for his birthday. Obviously, that couldn’t happen this year and it made me SO SAD. I felt so much guilt about today and the lack of focus on Garrison. Once we got to Kunming, we went to a park that is really close to our hotel. Garrison attracted people to him like birds to scraps of food. They were practically circling. Thankfully, so far he has been a champ about all of the attention. We let him explore the park a bit and bought him an ice cream cone, which of course didn’t really taste like ice cream. Bless him. I’m glad he’s not old enough to tell me what he thought of this birthday.


Tomorrow is the day. We leave at 2:30 to get to the civil affairs building where we will begin the paperwork process to finalize our adoption and meet our son. Thankfully, I’m too tired right now to stay up worrying. To be determined if the same proves true at 3:00 a.m