Leaving Nanchang & Arriving in Guangzhou

We woke up today and we are spending our last day in our hotel here in Nanchang.  Today is the day we leave our daughters beautiful province and head to Guangzhou.  It is really bittersweet to leave.  We have been with a wonderful couple Ron and Melinda which has made the trip very fun and memorable.  We have really had a great time here.  We have created so many wonderful memories together.  They have adopted before so they knew just what to ask and see.  This really helped us to explore even more because we truly would not know what to ask.  We really loved spending time with them.  They have helped make our trip what it is has been and we are truly thankful for them.  We are really going to miss them when it is time to go.  We have seen so many beautiful things and we really have taken in her whole province and have tried to learn about where she came from.  We loved it here!!!!  We also had an AMAZING guide here too.  She has shown us so much here and told us so much about our daughters province.  She feels like a close part of us.  We have developed a bond this week through our adoption.  She has been there with us from morning to night.  She always was available no matter what time of day.  She loves these children and loves helping families.  You can see that in all she does.  She was a HUGE part of showing us our daughters finding spot and her orphanage.  She believes that it is a good thing for the families and good for the child to see the foster parents one more time.

Since we had some time before we had to leave, we decided to spend some time in the indoor pool and see what Piper thought of the water.  We went down to the pool, got ourselves ready and went into the water.  It was a little cool.  I guess I was expecting warmer water.  Piper went in with Jon.  She didn't make a peep.  She just looked around and took it all in.  She had a ladybug swim suit on and boy was she cute!!!  I watched Jon hold her for a little while and then I got in too.  I eventually held her and she cuddled me on my shoulder.  Before I knew it, she had fallen asleep on my shoulder!!!  It was a fun, relaxing moment for us all. 

 

 

After the pool, we headed up to our room.  Our guide brought us our daughters abandonment certificate and her birth certificate.  After she left, we packed and got everything ready to meet her at 2:30 PM in the lobby to head to the airport.  After doing this, we both agree that we would have packed much lighter than we did.  We are toting around WAY TOO MUCH!!!!!!!   Toiletries are available at each hotel we have been to, laundry service is available everywhere as well.  If you are planning on coming to Ch*na, I would definitely recommend packing light.  After we packed up, we took pictures of our hotel room, a room we will never forget.  It is the place where we met our beautiful daughter.  She is amazing!!  Each day gets better and better.  Layers peel off.  She is starting to giggle and really has such a sweetness about her.  She loves to cuddle and if you know my other girls they loved to cuddle too.  Jon keeps saying she is definitely my baby.  We headed down to the lobby and our guide was there waiting.  We took some last pictures of our families with Sissi our guide.  After we headed to the airport in lots of traffic.  I was honestly very exhausted!!!!!  We have been running from morning until night and I think it was finally catching up with me.  The week has been amazing and I would not have done any less.  We really were able to explore our daughters province and have many pictures and information we can share with her.  We arrived at the airport, got our boarding passes and showed Piper's Ch*na passport.  This would be Piper's 2nd flight but her first flight with us. Her first flight was when she had her lip repair surgery done back in February 2012. As we entered the airport I had lots of thoughts and reflections on how scary it must have been for her to fly and to have her surgery alone without anyone close to her. I know that they had told us that she had gotten really sick and that she probably should have stayed in the hospital longer but they already had the tickets purchased so she had to fly home. Her surgery was quite far away from her province. Breaks my heart to know that but I am truly thankful that God has united us so that we can be there for her. Sissi walked us through all the way to security where we said goodbye.  It was so hard saying goodbye to her.  Of course, I cried.  She was a big part of our week.  I will never forget her.  We made it through security with no problems.  We had to be checked by security and I have to say they really searched Piper.  Poor girl!!  Scary world we live in.  After we made it through, we had some time to relax.  We had coffee with our friends Ron and Melinda and I got fresh squeezed watermelon juice.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  At 6:00 PM our flight took off from here and we headed to Guangzhou.  We are starting to miss the girls more and are excited to get home.  We could have really skipped this part and just headed home but we have our last week here.  Piper did so well.  I fed her her bottle as the plane took off and when she was finished she fell asleep.  I fell asleep right with her.  The planes are so uncomfortable and really do not give enough leg room.  I figured out that no matter what flight you are on short or long they are all hard!!  Our flight was about 2 hours.  After we landed, we got our luggage and headed to meet our guide.  We met our guide and I was nervous at first.  She picked us up but we could barely understand her.  Thankfully we had heard we were having a different guide the next day.  I was so tired that I fell asleep in the van all the way to our hotel.  Piper had fallen asleep too and slept the entire night through when we got back.   We made it safely to Guangzhou.  3 flights down 2 more to go!!!