What day is it? When did we leave? How did this happen?

Well, hey hey hey!!  We have finally got settled in Wuhan.  What?  You're in Wuhan, you say?  YES!  Let me back up.

Tuesday October 7th, we left Chicago.  Normal flight to Narita Japan.  Upon arriving in Narita, we were informed that a plane on the runway was stalled and we needed to circle.  So we circled...for a while.  Finally landed.  Plenty of time to get to the next gate and wait for a our plane, which wasn't leaving on time as we were still waiting for the stalled plane.  Arrived in Hong Kong nearly 1 hour later than planned, met our driver and all 9 pieces of luggage arrived.  HUGE FRIGGIN SIGH!  I was worried.  Oh yeah, it's now October 8th.  Now...fast forward to taking forever to get through immigration when we arrived in Shenzhen.  Um.  Driver drops us off waves to a line and says he will get us on the other side.  What the heck?  Um.  Yeah.  We somehow figured out how to do that with about 500 Chinese nationals coming back from Hong Kong or where ever else.  We did this with 9 pieces of luggage, 4 carry-on's, 3 very tired kids and managed to survive.  After a quick drive at 3 am we arrived safely in Guangzhou at a very beautiful hotel.  Thanks Daria for suggesting The China Hotel.  It really is amazing.  Saw a late email from Richard (our guide) that he was meeting us at 8 am to catch the train to Wuhan.

Still following?  We woke up the morning of the 9th, fast breakfast at the hotel and met Richard in the lobby.  Another quick dash to the train station and we made the 10:00 to Wuhan.  The train was cool.  It was clean, quite and well worth it.  What a great way to see the country.  So much of this trip for us will be spent in major cities that we wanted to get a glimpse of more rural areas.  We are also taking the train back to Guangzhou on Sunday when we leave.  The rest of the 9th was spent sleeping.  Nothing else.  Sleeping.  However we were met in Wuhan by a great guide named Jeffrey who was funny and I wish we were getting to use his services more.

Hello!  Good Morning!  It's now October 10th!  We woke at a normal 4:30 am because we were so well rested.  It was great to sleep so much and I welcomed it.  Breakfast again at the hotel.  Which is VERY pricey to say the least.  We used points to pay for the room and didn't get breakfast.  Um.  There are pros and cons to this.  We will look for other options.  But it was delicious.  We were picked up at 9 am by our guide Christina.  She is super sweet and very friendly.  She presented Julia with a gift from the Hubei provincial office.  It's a plate and very beautiful.  After a short drive to Xianning, we arrived at the new orphanage that was moved to that location in 2008.  Julia was adopted in 2005, so she was never at this building.  Currently, there are 40 kids there.  Mostly kids with more significant needs.  We were not allowed to see them.  For that I am glad.  I would have cried.  I would have left a piece of my heart there and I already have a new son waiting for me!

Then.  We saw him.  Director Lu (aka Baba Lu).  I love this man.  I do.  He has a heart the size of Texas for the kids in his care and he loves them.  He knew so much about Julia.  He remembered her name, why she was given that name and the exact meaning.  He brought out Julia's file and we were allowed to look at it.  There is one picture that I couldn't take a picture of.  It was Julia, the day she was found.  Wearing the red hat, yellow jacket and white pants with red flowers on them.  My baby.  The youngest picture I have of her.  I do have a copy, it's black and white.  However, it's ingrained in my memory and I know I will never forget it.  Those were the clothes that her birth parents placed her in.  We also saw the hand written letter from the woman that found her.  All of that is amazing.  However, no foster mom.  She is not in the area any longer.  I was very bummed to hear that.  However, she will always be in my heart and definitely  in Julia's.  Director Lu called her Lu Yin Gui the whole time.  Well, to him...she is Yin Gui.  She's Yin Gui to me too, but...to him, that's one of his babies.  You can see it in his eyes.  He was thrilled to see another baby back. Julia also got a wooden mug that came from Director Lu as a gift.  It's pretty cool.  We had a great time visiting and left for lunch.  It was was at a banquet place of sorts where there was a wedding happening!  How cool!  It was loud and smokey.  Great local food and Julia enjoyed it all.  We also stopped along the way home to get a gift from Xianning.  Julia choose a jade bracelet.  It's lovely.  Wayne and I wanted her to have something from her city.  That is what she choose. Perfect.

We are now back at the hotel.  Ju and Wayne are swimming, I'm blogging, Cam is waiting for the laptop and Anna is sleeping.  Not sure what tonight holds, but I will tell you what we did tomorrow!!

Love you all!

The exit sign for Xianning.

This sign says Welcome Back!

The gate at the old orphanage where Julia was found.

This is the plate Julia got.