details from Wuhan

This was received from Christy via email on Monday May 5. She is unable to blog from Wuhan. I have not edited it. Hoping it posts,
Audy AKA Christy's Mother:)

This is LONG for those of you who want ALL the details. If you don't, just delete it! :)

Good morning! (It's morning-time here in China) Here's the skinny on the trip so far...I won't post this to the blog - too detailed, but thought you all would like to hear it all...

Today is the day!! We get Graham at 3:30pm this afternoon, which is 12:30 midnight your time. Apparently there is one other family who is getting their child at the same time, that's why we had to get him so late in the day.

Yesterday was a difficult day. We left Hong Kong (after a breakfast at McDonalds*) at 8:15, then caught the train to Guangzhou at 9:30ish. Funny story about Amelia...she is an American girl! As we were walking to the McDonalds, the streets were loaded with "smells", you know that foreign city, hot humid air, lots of trash, slightly washed streets, food just cooked, smell. I looked down at AAE and she was holding her nose as we were walking. I said, "what are you doing?", and she replied that "it stinks!" Even after we walked into the McDonalds, she still was holding her nose...too strange smelling! I just laughed! Oh, and why McDonalds Mother is asking!! Horrors!!! Well, our first morning (Sunday) before we headed to Disneyland, we went to the hotel cafe to have breakfast. We ordered pancakes (2 small, flat ones = a stack), 1 small omlette, oatmeal, coffee, tea and milk...guess how much?? $50.00 USD!! So after that, we decided to find another option for Monday morning. McDonalds had yummy eggs and sausage and english muffins, OJ, ...way more food, and it was $10.00USD....

Back to the train...It was an interesting ride, although I fell asleep for an hour. Amelia kept Tom busy. She had waked me up at 3:00am, so I'm actually stil feeling pretty rough today, and yesterday was hard. We then were met at the train station by our Guangzhou guide and driver and she drove us to the airport. It felt like it was about 100degrees when we got off the train. We arrived at 11:30, left the station with them about 12:15, and then it was about an hour to the airport. (Another interesting AAE story: when we got to GZ, Amelia and I both had to go to the bathroom - so we went into the bathroom and guess what...yes, a "squatty potty" (porcelain hole in the ground sprinkled generously around with other people's urine). I went and showed Amelia how to do it - and then it was Amelia's turn...NO WAY! The little thing couldn't let herself go...and so she held it for an hour until we arrived at the airport because she just couldn't go...it's no wonder she has an upset stomach!)

When we got to the airport in Guangzhou, they had changed all the baggage restrictions, so it was a bit of panic trying to get all the stuff in the appropriate bags etc., so they could get checked. We paid our China Women's Travel representative,(travel guides while in China) so that was a burden off Tom to give the money over. Then we went through security, and waited until our flight at 3:00pm. Still no nap...and finally on the plane (a regional jet seating 50ish...EMB540?) she was out in two minutes. The area near Wuhan looks like it is in a natural delta. Miles and miles of rice paddies on all sides. The city is at the junction of the Yangtze and Han Rivers, so it's this huge, wide valley you see as you fly in. The air is very "heavy" with moisture and most likely pollution. Wuhan has 3 centers of business. One the cultural (political), one the business and one the industrial. At one point, most of the cars made in China were made here...so you can imagine the air. It seems a lot like Chongqing in the air quality.

The flight was about 90 minutes. Once we were on the ground the local travel guide met us and we were off to the hotel. About an hour later -- the 4-lane road from the airport turned to city streets pretty quick, hence stop and go traffic -- we arrived at the hotel. Traffic like crazy people. Cars everywhere with people walking and mopeds tooting and racing, loaded bicycles weaving in and out all on the same street and of course white lane lines mean NOTHING! It's completely nuts. Tom saw a pickup with 3 horses standing in the back with nothing but a high gate on the back to keep in them in...and HOT!! The van had a/c, but the driver kept putting it off and on.

So, we finally got to the hotel at 7:30 pm. The lobby is really pretty - just very smoky - it kind of makes you gag when you walk into the marble and crystal space, we needed the white masks to put on to keep the smoke out of our lungs. Then we needed to get something to eat. We opted to go to the local supermarket, Carrefour, to get water and see if they had take out food. Well they did. Not only did they have food, but everything else. Most likely we'll go back there tonight to get diapers etc. The WalMart is about 20 minutes from the hotel, so I'm not sure if we're going to go there or not during this week. The problem was, the store was about to close and everyone had to check out at the same time. So after waiting about 45 minutes!!!!, (one checker, no bagger and each item was individually either scanned or punched into the computer)...with people buying food, bed sheets, raw fish, toaster ovens, coke, shoes, underwear and frying pans all in the same line with carts loaded...we made it back to the hotel, a 6-minute walk, to eat our pork fried rice, rolls, watermelon, and cookies about 9:30pm...of course we couldn't eat until almost 10 because we had to get scissors to open our plastic zip-ties off the luggage. By this point, Amelia was crawled into her own bed and begging to go to sleep! The beds are like ROCKS - I have NEVER felt such a hard bed, but surprisingly, we all slept WELL!! Thank the Lord! Amelia even slept until 5am, and then went to the bathroom, and I told her to get back in bed and go back asleep - and she did until 6:00, so we're making progress!

(Oh, in the store - ALL the people were staring at us and then at Amelia - they couldn't quite figure it out...and we had neglected to bring the explanatory chinese informational card with us. (Mr. Wu, the chinese teacher, wrote out a card for Amelia that says.."Hi, my name is Amelia. I am an American child. I speak English, I don't speak Chinese. Thank you." Funny. Later today we pinned it to her shirt (at her request), and everyone who looked at her read it and chuckled...very cute. I think we'll keep it handy from now on. Also, the store was about 90degrees and humid..so we were all standing in line stinking and sweating and them staring...very interesting.)

Here we are at 1:00pm Tuesday, (10:00pm Monday your time). Amelia's down for a nap, and our guide will be here at 2:30 to go over papers before we go get Graham for a 3:30 appointment.

Oh, this morning, when we went down to breakfast there were about 9 other adopting families in the DR. One grandmother was trying to keep her newly adopted 4-year-old girl from running away from the table. (The Mother was having difficulty because the little girl was rejecting them all - and was nowhere to be seen--and Dad had left to try and comfort Mom) The little girl was so upset - we felt so badly for them. The grandmother looked at me and Amelia and said -- "oh, she's doing so well!" It took a minute for me to realize she thought Amelia was newly adopted, and I blurted out "oh, she's mine!"...and then was at a loss...how do you describe it...yes, she was adopted, but we've been home 3 plus years...seems strange to think of her as not always mine...a strange feeling. I think I forget she's Chinese or something..."she's mine" is how I feel, and never a second thought.

Also, other families were there -- I think ALL of them were special needs adoptions. I was relieved to see the other cleft babies were all eating well. (I'm sort of anxious that I'll know how to take care of Graham)...Most of the children were very small. We saw one 18 month baby who was smaller than Amelia when we got her! Amelia just took it all in. Got very, very quiet and didn't quite know what to say. Most of the Mothers said their kids were eating and eating and eating...which is very typical of orphanage children...imagine from never having enough to a buffet of yummy food!

On a logistical note...our guide doesn't do many adoptions. She's very young...and she said there are not that many babies available anymore - so this is not as routine for her as it was for the guides when we got Amelia - so thankfully, we've met the guide for the American World Adoption group (the group who is here), and we're going to send our laundry with their special laundry person etc.,...it's always easier to plug into an established system, and the hotel laundry is rather expensive. But our guide is planning on taking us on some 1/2 day excursions of the area, so we should be able to see some of the city.

I think that's about it. Oh, we can't get into our blog here - so I'm going to send the Joyful Journey update to Dad or Carrie or Mother, and have them enter it into the blog for us. That way we can keep it updated! Which of you want to help with this? I sure appreciate it! We can get to Yahoo just fine.

We love and miss you all and wish you were with us. This is a different trip than the one to get Amelia and that's a good thing...it's not as luxurious or easy (so far), but I know it will be just as rewarding. The temperature is fairly hot, so that makes everything harder (one wearing on the clothes only thank you)...but as Aunt Eleanor always says - "we haven't melted yet"!

Love you very much,
christy for all (and with the approval of Tom reading over my shoulder as I write this).