Samuel Day!

It was a very long day waiting for it to be time to go to our 2:30 appointment at the Civil Affairs office of Guangdong Province.  I have seen this room many times in other people's photos and videos, and here we finally were.  Many families had already received their children, and I wished we would have arrived a few minutes earlier to see "the moment".  We did not have this experience with Caylie's adoption, as they brought her to our hotel and we were the only family there.

Samuel's orphanage director had called our guide to let her know they'd be a few minutes late.  When they came in, he did not want to come into the main room.  I don't blame him - it was loud and hot and overwhelming.  So we went out into the hallway and sat on a bench with him, where he was playing with our guide's phone.  He continued to play with it and not pay much attention to us for several minutes, but we just kept talking about what he was looking at, and showing him things on our phones until he got more comfortable.  Soon he was smiling and laughing and playing games on our phones.  When it was time to go to the hotel, he did not want to get up and come, but after just a few words from our guide, he was fine.  

In the van on the way to the hotel.

Our guide came to the room with us and helped us show him around and get acclimated to the place and where everything was.  We filled out some paperwork while Samuel and his new siblings played and were generally being goofballs. By the time our guide left, he was laughing and totally fine.  I asked him, "Ni yao you yong, ma?"  (Do you want to go swimming?) and he was VERY excited about that!  We put our swimsuits on and played in the pool for about an hour.  He splashed all of us continually, but I think it was just his way of trying to connect with us in the only way he knew how in those beginning moments.  We just splashed him back and laughed and had a lot of fun.  

After that it was dinner time, so I asked him if he wanted to get pizza.  He has talked about pizza since we started Skyping in December, haha.  So we got dressed and walked down to Pizza Hut.  When he saw it, he said, "Pizza Hut!" and was very happy.  We had a good time talking while waiting for our pizza.  I tried to use Chinese as much as I could and then say the same thing in English.  I would also say, "Zenme shuo?" (How do you say . . . ?) and point to something, and he would say the word in Chinese and I would say it in English.  I want him to know that it's not just him who is learning another language in order to communicate.  We are doing the same.  :)  He loved the Hawaiian pizza and ate all of Jim's pineapple (bolou!) and any other pieces of spare pineapple he could find.  He talked to the waitresses and helped with the serving, and it was cute.  After we left there, we went next door to McDonald's for some ice cream.  When daddy said we would do that, Samuel said, "Ice cream!  Yes!"  

We came back to the hotel and played around for a bit and then it was time for bed.  I worried that he might not want to go to bed or would be sad or scared, but he was fine.  All the kids slept in the same room, which I think helped.  He slept all night and was cheerful this morning!

Today we went down to the big breakfast buffet, and he was completely overwhelmed by that!  Daddy and Keelan helped him get his food, but I have a feeling that he'll be running the place in a day or two!  He's learned to play Uno today and a game or two on Keelan's tablet.  We went to back to the Civil Affairs office to complete the adoption.  He had to sign his name on the notary's paper - that was fun to see!  As soon as those papers are processed (by tomorrow sometime) he will be an official Altman!

The Great Wall - Changcheng

On Saturday we hired a van to take us to the Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall.  Our driver was in fine China-driver form, passing any and all cars in his way, regardless of what was coming the opposite direction, honking endlessly, and cutting in and out of traffic, regardless of lanes, speed, or pedestrians.  We didn't worry a bit!  When we got there, I asked the driver "Women shenme shi hou hui che?" (When should we return to the car?) and he totally understood and answered me.  Yay!  :D

Jim's fitness app on his phone says we climbed over 10,000 steps just to get up to the Wall.  We really should have taken the ski lift, haha.  But we got a good work out going up, and a different kind doing down!  And Caylie did the whole thing, too!

This is a cannon.  I'm sure it wasn't originally encased in cement.

These people had more energy than me.  They must have ridden up on the ski lift.

 All of us on the Wall.  I really wished Samuel had been there, too.

I had my first squatty potty experience at the Wall.  It was everything I expected it would be, haha.  What I didn't expect, though, was that Caylie would have completely forgotten about squatties!  Yeah, that didn't go so well!  (Sorry, squatty potty cleaners.)  Ugh, trying to load picture of squatty, but internet is not good.

More later!  Please be praying. . . we will get Samuel in a couple of hours.  

First Day in Beijing

We got to Beijing on Thursday night.  Our long flight out of Seattle was delayed for an hour due to problems with the air-conditioning system.  We thought for awhile that they were going to have to put us on a different plane (brought from another airport?) but thankfully God heard our prayers and that didn't happen.  While we were waiting, we met up with my adoption friend Whitney and her family, and hung out with them while we waited in line.  They kept telling us we could go sit down, but we weren't about to give up our place, haha.

Since we were very late, we were worried that the driver we'd hired online to pick us up would not be there.  But he was.  It's been fun this time, trying out our Chinese.  Jim asked the man, "Ni shuo yingwen ma?"  (Do you speak English?)  The man grinned and said "Nope!"  So I said, "Women shuo yidian zhongwen."  (We speak just a little Chinese.)  He looked at me funny, so I added in English, "but apparently not well".  Haha.  But then I told him "Women de feiji wandian."  (Our plane was late.)  He totally got that and started rambling on in Chinese about it, to which I just smiled, haha!

Our hotel here in Beijing is the Novotel.  It has an international flavor, as we heard several different languages in the elevator and at breakfast.  The breakfast is good, although they don't cook their omelettes all the way!  The pool is small but fun.  We have walked around the neighborhood and found places to eat, including Dairy Queen.  (Keelan got a picture of that for you, Brittany!)  The traffic is as crazy as the other cities we've been to, but there are way less bikes and scooters.  

This tea place is next door, with the teapot suspended in the air.

On Friday we walked several blocks to Tiananmen Square.

These are the sights we saw along the way.

We're On Our Way!

 Bags were packed last night and we were on our way at 7am this morning.  (Much better than last time, when we left at 3:30am!) 

Our first flight was from Denver to Seattle.  

And now we're sitting in the Seattle airport waiting for the long flight to Beijing.  Please pray that the car we booked to take us to the Novotel hotel will be there when we arrive!  :D

Skyping

Last night we Skyped with Samuel for the last time before we will travel.  He was wearing the same shirt that he had on in the very first photo we ever saw of him.  :)

One More Week

One week from today we will be on our way to China!  It's kind of strange, since last time we left 6 days after TA, but we're not as rushed this way, and probably much less stressed.  We have booked all flights, both across the ocean and in China.  Hotels are booked, in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.  Train tickets purchased, trip to House of Grace scheduled.  Every day we check more things off the to-do list.  

Please continue praying for us as we are in the last days of having our family as it is.  Pray for Samuel as he goes through his last days at House of Grace.  Pray for each of us, that God would continue preparing us for how our lives will be changed.  Pray that He would knit our hearts together as a family.  Thank you, friends.

AAC at the Denver Zoo!

Have I mentioned that we LOVE our adoption agency?  They have family events every couple of months, and it is so much fun to see old friends and meet new ones every time.  Today was the AAC family day at the Denver Zoo!

Brittany and Brad have a zoo pass, so they met us there.

AAC friends!  Cynthia and Emma, Caylie and me, Vickie and Maleah & Willow and their cousins.

 AAC Staff -  Nicole, me and Caylie, (Of course my eyes are closed, haha.) Christie, Alexa and Karen.

And more AAC friends!  We met Emily and Dave at our adoption training in the fall of 2012.  They brought their little Olivia home from Korea last year.  Regina from AAC is with Emily.

My friend Juleanne.  She has 3 beautiful China girls. 

Caylie and LiLi, Juleanne's daughter.  These girls are from the same orphanage in Fuzhou, Jiangxi.  They also were in kindergarten classes across the hall from each other this year.

I didn't take a lot of animal pictures, but the giraffes are my favorite.  :)

The last thing we did was take a ride on the carousel.  Last year we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs for the AAC event, and Caylie was TERRIFIED of the carousel.  (See this post!)  This time she started out the same, clinging tightly to the post with that look on her face.  Jim and I kept telling her how fun it would be, but she did not believe us!

However . . . as SOON as the ride started, she started whooping and yelling about how FUN it was!  Silly kid!  

It was a fun day.  :)