Day Three: A Miracle and Nanjing

We arrived in Nanjing at 11:45 am and met our new guide, Jin. She is older than Emma and very kind. She is like a mother to us, and loves her city. Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu province, and XinQin lives about 40 minutes from here. It's 1:30 in the morning now, and we meet XinQin at 9:00am this morning.

I'm feeling all fluttery.

I need to get the room ready for XinQin, and get her bag organized, and put the things we'll take with us to the consulate in a backpack. I was going to do that last night, but I fell asleep. Hazzard of 16-hour time differences, I guess. I can't believe we get her tomorrow.

We had another miracle just before we left home. Weeks ago I made a request for any photos of XinQin growing up. She's been in the same foster home since she was 3, so I hoped somebody had taken pictures of her during that time. It felt so important to me to have record of her connection to China and being a child, and I desperately wanted to see her during the years we've missed.  We only had 5 pictures of her from age 10-11. But our agency said it was rare to get pictures like that.
The day before we left home I received an excited email from Kayley, our agent at GWCA, with almost FIFTY pictures attached! I cried. I called Brandon at work and he cried. It was such a blessing. Before, our window into XinQin's life was pretty foggy, and these pictures of her from age 3 to 11 threw the window open. They also made my heart ache a little that we couldn't get her sooner. I would have gotten her sooner if I could have. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Jin took us walking around all the shopping near our hotel and we bought lunch at a supermarket. they make a stir fry for you with ingredients of your choice and then charge by weight. Brandon and I split a large container of stirfry and a small complimentary soup for $1.65. Not too shabby. It was delicious. We also bought water bottles, but will save the fun shopping for when we have XinQin.

We walked back to the hotel and relaxed for a few hours. "Relaxed" as in Brandon slept for 4 hours while I posted the previous posts. :) When Brandon finally woke up I was crashing and my internet no longer worked, so I went to bed at 7pm, to his dismay . . . I couldn't even keep myself upright anymore. SO tired. And he was pretty much awake, so he went for a walk. I was asleep before the room door closed. I'm curious how his walk went. Of course, he's sleeping great, now, but I got 6 hours, so not too bad, I'll try again in a bit.

The pictures of Nanjing are taking FOREVER to upload, even one at a time, so here is one:

It's about 60 degrees and hazy here. Lots of old sycamore trees. The city isn't as showy or as big as Beijing, but still very old and colorful. It's built along the Yangtze River (just upriver from Singapore) and is very industrial. There is a 6oo year old Confucius Temple just behind our hotel. Jin told us Nanjing was the capital of China for 10 dynasties, and the capital city went back and forth between Beijing(Peking) and Nanjing for a while. I'll try to post more pictures later!

I can't believe we'll have her tomorrow. I can't believe it. 7.5 more hours . . .