Also I forgot to add our day 15 Feb 24th.........probably because it was a NOTHING day!!!! We literally sat around the hotel play video games/watched movies, did some more shopping around the hotel , walked outside in the nice weather and enjoyed the island in Guangzhou while having lunch at a restaurant that was made from train cars.......(just another boring day waiting on visa paperwork to be finished)
Ni Hao!
It's 2pm in the afternoon here in Beijing on the 26th of February! Tomorrow (2/27/11) we will fly out on Delta Airlines at 11:55 am and land in Seattle, WA at 07:30 am on Feb 27th! We are excited this phase of the adoption process is coming to an end and our new life in America will begin very soon! Aiden is still very nervous about starting a new school and Justin (the dog) will like him, but we reassured him, we will be there with him and in time he will be very happy with Justin and the new school!
So let me explain the pictures on this email! The first set of pictures are pictures of our departure from the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou on the 25th of Feb (Friday). The picture of Aiden holding his passport page that has his IH-3 American Visa!!!! This documents states that Aiden was adopted in a Hague Convention country and will automatically acquire U.S. citizenship upon entry to the United States on this IH-3 visa. (USCIS automatically sends Certificates of Citizenship without requiring additional forms or fees). Once we are home, we will file legal documents known as "adoption recognition with the state of Missouri" so Aiden can acquire a US birth certificate and passport. The brown envelope has all the legal documents from China and visa paperwork for the adoption and we are told DO NOT OPEN it or LOSE it; its his ticket to becoming a citizen, if we lose this, we have to do the whole Guangzhou process over again which would result in lots of costs/delays in returning home......so we are guarding it with our LIFE!!!!
Last night we took China Southern Airlines from Guangzhou to back to Beijing. By the time we arrived to Beijing and go made it to our hotel, Citic Airport it was after 1:00 am.
Now get ready folks Here's where the drama story unfolded!!!! (refer to the first set of hotel . pictures). The outside of the hotel looked kind of run down and old but the hotel lobby looked nice and had no smells so we opted to continue with our check in. True It was not as nice as the hotels we have stayed at during our trip but it was really for 2 nights and very close to airport making our transfer on Sunday easier so we thought oh well. Once we arrived to our hotel floor, I thought "OH NO this is not going to be good". The smell of cigarette smoke would knock you down. Seriously. I honestly think there are bars that did not smell that bad. It was terrible. When we entered our room, it was like entering the 1970s. VERY OLD bathroom, linens, lightening fixtures etc. I did not say a word, but as soon as we walked in Ray turned to our guide and said, "We need another hotel, we are not staying here." Well our guide and ray went round and round about the 1 am time and no reservations at another place and our "short" stay that ray finally gave in and said Fine we will stay the night. The room smelled of sour linen and urine along with SMOKE......it was snowing outside but i opened a window as i literally could not breathe it was sooooooo bad. I COULD NOT BELIEVE the travel agency would book this place for adoption families. Their excuse was it just a short stay so it should be tolerable.... (eyes rolling)....We slept in our clothes and i told the boys DO NOT OPEN ANY SUITCASES until we get another hotel. Aiden and I went down this morning for our continental breakfast buffet, UGH horrible, nasty, small selection of food..........GROSS!!!! While we were having bfast, Ray ended up calling our adoption and travel agency that book our adoption trip (which is done through the adoption agency) trying to find a solution. It took a good bit of our morning trying to figure out a new place to go. The agency called us back and told us because our prepaid hotel and airport transfers there were just no options. Ray told them we wanted to stay at the Hilton airport hotel and they said it was sold out and too expensive too book. Ray argued that he could care less just find another hotel. Finally since Ray is a VIP Hilton Honors GOLD member and he took it upon himself just to book a room online and we called a taxi ourselves to carry us to the Hilton. Once we arrived, When we walked in it was like HEAVEN!!!! This hotel was built in July 2010, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NICE!!! What was even nicer was the hotel staff hospitality. Thank you God for all those nights and weeks Ray has been traveling for work because of those days, Ray is a VIP GOLD status Hilton Honors member which provided a way out of that nasty hotel. We were so excited when we got here because there was a VIP separate area check-in area with lounge, free internet, complimentary bfast, evening chef's canapés and delicacies with cocktails, along with a welcome gift of a jade book marker/keychain. In addition to this we were upgraded us to a 1 BR suite room.............ahhhhhhhhhhh.
Please say a prayer for our flight home. We have a long journey. 10 hr flight from China to USA. then customs/immigration, then flight 2 connecting flights in the USA before arriving in KC on the 28th at 1630!KC out of Seattle so we do not have the long layovers, but if we are not lucky then We plan to visit the Seattle needle and mall of america in Minneapolis during our flight layovers (we have about 8 hours at each place)... Also wanted to add that Aiden had a rough time last night with the pressure in his ears during the flight, despite chewing gum and teaching him how to blow with his nose closed. I finally got put two cups with wet towels in the bottom on his ears to help equalize the pressure.
Thank you all for putting up with misspelled word, poor grammar, run on sentences,and wrong words. We have been using ray's work laptop and his mouse-pad is so sensitive that it deletes whole paragraphs or jumps around making typing out emails a painful task when your trying to get out a quick email. This is our final Adoption Journey email! Thank you all for being a part of our very special journey! We appreciate the support and prayers during all of this! We look forward to the day you all can meet our Aiden! He is such a fun, easy going, loving, happy child. I know God sent him to us. I will send out another email down the road with pictures of Justin and Aiden's reunion, his reaction to his new home and room, and new school along with the adoption story video!
Feel free to follow along on our blog www.ralstevens.blogspot.com
I do want to close with a little story about God and Aiden. So I asked Aiden when we first came together do you know who God is? He said Yes the man upstairs. He has not ever been taught about Jesus or God. He really does not even know what religion is or what Christmas is all about. We are starting very slowly with introducing God/Jesus with bedtime prayers. One night we were praying and Aiden said, " Mommy I know how to pray. You can just say it in your heart what you want to tell Jesus." I was floored. I was like where did he hear that? I asked him, Aiden who told you that? He said, " Henry my friend at BCIS" I asked him to explain more and he said, " At recess Henry told him about God and how to pray so he has been doing it." TALK ABOUT WOW..........a small child in a foreign land during recess sharing with Aiden how to pray. In closing, Aiden: "Mommy do you want to know what my heart said?" Yes Aiden I do, " I said thank you Jesus for bringing me a mommy and daddy that i love very very much"!
:)
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