Day 4 started bright and early, meeting in the hotel lobby at 5:50 am. The whole group was heading out of Beijing, so we loaded up into our little van and made our way to the PKG, the Beijing airport.
Chinese airports are quite interesting. The Chinese do not really follow line rules, so you have to kind of push your way forward, or you would never make it. Someone would always cut you off. Luckily, our guide pushed her way through and we were able to get our luggage tagged and our guide got our boarding passes. (Travel in China was booked through our agency, so we did not have access to our flight or train information. This was slightly panicky for me, as I normally triple check my travel information and could not there)
Contrary to popular belief, but you can NOT see the Great Wall from space.
We boarded our plane and were off to Nanning. Our tour guide in Beijing told us that Nanning was a "small city" in the southern part of China. We knew to expect weather similar to southern Florida.
As we started our decent, I noticed a large city that spread for miles. I showed Ryan and we both agreed it could not be Nanning, but we should look up what huge city it was when we landed.
We were wrong. It was Nanning. This "small" Chinese city held 7 million people. 7 MILLION. Just for reference, Nanning does not even make the top 20 most populace cities in China, so to our Beijing guide, it was small.
We landed, grabbed our luggage and headed out to meet...no one. No one was there. No signs, no people looking for a group of Americans. Nothing.
After some frantic calling, emailing and WeChats (Like a Facebook/messaging app that is widely used in China. Facebook and anything Google is banned) we found out that our guide was given wrong flight information and our driver (who doesn't speak english) would pick us up shortly. With some hand motions and waving, we made it out of the airport!
The air of Nanning was dramatically different than Beijing. Hot and heavy with humidity with a scent of tropical florals in the air. As we drove into this massive, sprawling city that was lined with beautiful flowers, the real reason for all the travel hit me. We were going to meet our daughter here. In this city. Tomorrow.
Nanning.
We met our guide, Sunshine, at our beautiful hotel and we went through the plans for our Gotcha Day tomorrow. Sunshine was efficient, prepared and very thorough. She has done adoptions for 17 years, and we were instantly put at ease with her. We had the times, we had the paper work, we just had to wait.
When we entered our room, there was a pack n play set up, with a little blanket and pillow all ready. It took my breath away. This room was already for a baby. My baby.
Our hotel was attached to a huge beautiful mall that had a Wal-Mart in the basement. We walked around, had dinner at Pizza Hut (one of the only restaurants with English menus...or pictures) trying to take it all in, while also trying to remain somewhat calm. My nerves were in overdrive at this point.
I would like to tell you that I was excited and eager, and I was, but the overall feeling was intense. More intense than I thought it would be.
Every emotion. Every feeling. I felt them all. It reminded me of when I was about to give birth. I was so ready to be done, but yet, there was the unknown that I was not quite sure I was ready to do... what would it be like? How would I respond?
Sleep was evasive that night, and it was not due to jet lag. My mind was racing with questions about how tomorrow would go, how we would feel, how she would respond.
Tomorrow was the big day. Our Gotcha Day. After 18 months of being in the China program, and two years since starting the process, tomorrow we would meet our daughter.
Gotcha.
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