Today is Sunday and we left Beijing via plane to travel to Wuhan within the Hubei province. The Hubei province is well known for high humidity and extremely warm weather. When we arrived at the Wuhan airport we were welcomed with the high temperature. It is very obvious Wuhan is far less advanced than Beijing as the vehicles are a lot more dated and architecture is not as stylish. The one thing that remains a constant is the driving habits, however here in Wuhan they drive a lot faster. As we made our way from the airport we past through a lot of Wuhan. The amount of people here is remarkable as population exceeds 7 million. Beijing has 13 million people, but Beijing is 3 times as large.
We got to the hotel and checked in. When we got to the room the first bit of reality hit us as there was a crib in the room along with other baby related stuff. We do not know why that was a surprise to us, but it did kinda make you say “hmmm”. We finally got to unpack as we will be in this room for 6 nights as we process the paperwork locally for the adoption. Once the bags were unpacked, I thought I would go our exploring. I made my way to the sidewalk and made a trek along the same path the other 5,000 were making. I passed a lot of shops and places and lots of people. Every now and then I would stop and take pictures of people. Most of them seemed OK with it as they smiled and waived. According to Thomas the tour guide, there are not a lot of westerners that come here and I may have been the first Caucasian they have ever seen. According to Thomas, the median monthly income for people in this region is less than $150 US dollars per month.
After you walk around as I did, you see there is a need for adoption here in China. The children I came across seemed happy, but seeing the older generations you can tell the lifestyle is not that great. Hard to explain unless you have actually seen how it is here. After visiting Beijing Christy and I felt bad about taking a little girl away from her culture. Now that I have seen Wuhan and the poverty that exists, I feel better knowing we will be giving Olivia a better chance in life.
Tomorrow is the big day as we have an appointment to get Olivia at 3:00 PM (that is 3:00 AM EST). I do not expect to get much sleep tonight, but I did not expect to anyway with this bed we have got. The room we have has 2 full size beds and the mattress on both is as hard as concrete. I jarred my neck when I set on one for the first time.
Check back on Tuesday as we will have pictures of “gotcha” day aka “forever family day”.
We got to the hotel and checked in. When we got to the room the first bit of reality hit us as there was a crib in the room along with other baby related stuff. We do not know why that was a surprise to us, but it did kinda make you say “hmmm”. We finally got to unpack as we will be in this room for 6 nights as we process the paperwork locally for the adoption. Once the bags were unpacked, I thought I would go our exploring. I made my way to the sidewalk and made a trek along the same path the other 5,000 were making. I passed a lot of shops and places and lots of people. Every now and then I would stop and take pictures of people. Most of them seemed OK with it as they smiled and waived. According to Thomas the tour guide, there are not a lot of westerners that come here and I may have been the first Caucasian they have ever seen. According to Thomas, the median monthly income for people in this region is less than $150 US dollars per month.
After you walk around as I did, you see there is a need for adoption here in China. The children I came across seemed happy, but seeing the older generations you can tell the lifestyle is not that great. Hard to explain unless you have actually seen how it is here. After visiting Beijing Christy and I felt bad about taking a little girl away from her culture. Now that I have seen Wuhan and the poverty that exists, I feel better knowing we will be giving Olivia a better chance in life.
Tomorrow is the big day as we have an appointment to get Olivia at 3:00 PM (that is 3:00 AM EST). I do not expect to get much sleep tonight, but I did not expect to anyway with this bed we have got. The room we have has 2 full size beds and the mattress on both is as hard as concrete. I jarred my neck when I set on one for the first time.
Check back on Tuesday as we will have pictures of “gotcha” day aka “forever family day”.
1 comment:
Hey Guys!
I know you have Olivia by now. I can't wait to see you all together as a family!
Love,
Jan
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