Today we celebrate four days with Judah.  Monday afternoon our lives were changed forever.  We arrived at the civil affairs office early so we walked next door to exchange some money.  For some reason this ended up taking an hour so I kept the girls entertained with sticker books and origami butterflies.  

Our guide had walked into the civil affairs office before we went to the bank. Judah was already there with his nanny and orphanage director.  So the entire time I was entertaining the girls I knew our son was just next door waiting on us. Here it is customary to take a lunch and nap break from 1 – 3 so we had to wait on the director of civil affairs to come back to work anyway.  Don’t you wish lunch breaks worked like that in the U.S?

After we wrapped up at the bank we headed over to meet Judah.  I was so nervous.  So much so that I let Michael Luke and the girls walk in the room first. He wasn’t in there though.  His nanny had gone to change his diaper and as soon as she walked back in the room I was all tears as she handed my son to me.  

Our guide, Lily, had Michael Luke’s phone so she filmed and took pictures of the entire event. Judah was worn out from his eventful day and almost instantly fell asleep in my arms. 

We signed some papers and and were able to ask his nanny a few questions but overall it was a quick event.  Unlike Esther who came with two suitcases of belongings Judah came to us with only the clothes on his back. He had on a new pair of yellow pajamas with a giraffe on them and a red and blue quilted pant and shirt with a penguin on it.  

One of the things that surprised us the most was that the orphanage gave us a disc with pictures of Judah.  This is such a special gift for parents and adoptive children who will never know much about their life before joining their forever family.  

Judah is small for a two year old.  Right now he is wearing 9-12 month clothes… Which makes him the perfect size for snuggling.  I’m not sure how much he is used to being held or if he’s ever attached to anyone before but the last four days he’s been held and loved on lots.  In four short days we have already noticed him becoming more alert. 

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This afternoon we flew into Nanjing, China. Tonight Judah sleeps four hours northeast of here in Lianyungang for the last time as an orphan.  Tomorrow at 2:30 he will join our family forever.  He will receive a new name and a new future!  

Before our life completely changes though I want to take a few minutes and remember everything about Saturday… our last full day in Hong Kong.

This is actually my second time writing this post on my phone.  Earlier today I was adding the last picture and the app froze and deleted my entire post… even though I had already saved the document several times. This is the second time it has happened to me this week. 

I wasn’t able to successfully install a VPN app on my Chromebook so the rest of my posts during this trip will be written on my phone because WordPress is banned by the government here. So to hopefully prevent my posts from being deleted again I will be including all pictures as part of my Instagram and Facebook posts included with the link to the actual blog post. 

Yesterday, we met two former Mother’s Choice workers for a dim sum brunch.  Gloria brought her six year old daughter Novia.  Novia and Noah became good friends almost instantly and had fun shopping together after our brunch. 

Connie had known Esther since she was one month old.  As a must of an adoptive child it has been special to connect with so many people this past week so have played a part in carrying for Esther.  

Yesterday afternoon Noah and Easter finally got to ride a double decker bus. Sitting on the top front row bush exclaimed, “when I grow up I’m going too live in Hong Kong.” 

We took the bus to a cafe famous for their egg tarts and afternoon tea. It’s a small cafe that makes fresh egg tarts all day.  A line firms down the street waiting for a seat at possibly a table with random people… This happened to Michael Luke and Jelly Uncle.  Eating here was a treat and for a few minutes we felt like a local. 

The day before Aliena and Rupert (Kai Ma and Jelly Uncle) offered to watch the girls for us so that we could go on a date for our honeymoon.  Never would we have thought a night out on the town would have been possible.  Mr. Rupert made us reservations at the Dragon King Restaurant… The same place we had eaten dim sum at a few days earlier.  The New York Times lists the Dragon King Restaurant as one of the worlds top ten restaurants. 

An American couple who only speaks English sticks out in an atmosphere like that though. After we were seated at our private table for two with a view of Kowloon Island and the harbor the manager brought us a special menu in English and then helped us select our five course meal.  

The main course was tiger prawns but I’m not sure about everything else.  It’s probably better that way because it’s really no telling what we eat. I do know ml had jelly fish as an appetizer… I didn’t eat mine. 

Overall the meal was wonderful though and we are thankful for such a special night out.  After tomorrow who knows when that will happen again. 

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We made it!  

Sixteen hours, four movies, three meals, and countless bathroom breaks later and we landed in Hong Kong.  In a sense it’s still almost surreal that we are on the first leg of our trip.  

The girls did awesome on the flight and although we are all incredibly tired I don’t think we will have any trouble adjusting to the 14 hour difference. Transitioning between timezones can be confusing but for the most part we followed our same nap and sleep schedule on the plane with each of those times naturally being shorter than they would in the comfort of our own beds.

The first movie that we all watched as a family was Moanna.  We had been wanting to see it but I dont think it has made it to RedBox yet.  The girls loved it and I enjoyed hearing The Rock sing. I also got to watch La La Land. I was really excited to watch it because it was nominated for so many awards. Honestly though I wasn’t that impressed with it. We you?  I wanted to be. Really I did because I wish Hollywood made more musicals.  I was more impressed with  ten year old Crazy, Stupid, Love. that was also available to watch on the plane. 

The must exciting part for Esther was getting to chew her first piece of gum.  I’m sure some people might think I’m a strict momma for not allowing them to chew gum before now. But really I just wanted to enjoy chewing my own gum without two girls asking me for a piece as well every I stuck a piece in my mouth. I’m doomed now though.

Noah’s highlight was me allowing her to order decaf coffee every time the beverage cart rolled by.  She enjoys doing on my decaf coffee from time to time so it was a real treat for to get her own cup of joe.  I’m supposed she enjoyed it though because it was instant coffee… which is nowhere near as good as the Starbucks Cafe Verona blend that I love. 

Our plane arrived at 5 p.m. (3 a.m. Central) to a beautiful and warm Hong Kong which is a welcome change from when we were here three years ago when we visited during the coldest winter Hong Kong had experienced in nearly twenty years. 

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day because we will be visiting Mother’s Choice.  Mother’s Choice is where Esther lived before we adopted her.  Maybe we can manage to squeeze in time for egg tarts and fresh smoothies too! 

While we are here I will try to post often but it really depends on our address to WiFi.  Some posts like this one will be written on my phone so please excuse any typographical errors. 

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