OUR FINAL DAY IN CHINA, January 22, 2011-Heading home!!!

On January 21st if you are wondering where that day went we had a nice breakfast and started to pack.  I then told Jeff I was sick of Chinese food and he could walk with me to McDonald's but I was going there regardless.  Luckily he came along because that square is kinda crazy.  So we walked around more down the streets of the square, there were so many people.  Kian loved the red lanterns that hung from the streets.  Kian did take a short nap again in his stroller and then we met Jocelyn at 5 and got our Visas, YAY tomorrow we can go home. We went to our final night at Starbucks one last time.... finished packing and went to bed.

The White Swan Hotel

We say goodbye to our final home in China.  It was a very beautiful hotel but I'm excited to get home.

Jeff and Kian in front of the Jade boat.  Yep this boat is carved out of Jade, Amazing.  Amazing is definitely my word for this whole entire trip, as you can see.  Well, hang on one more post, and we will be home!!

Brittani and Kian in front of the waterfall, so excited to go home but a little worried about the long flights.

Fish at the bottom of waterfall.

Here we are in the airport eating our final meal in CHINA!!

I must share this story, it made my entire trip.  As we were getting ready to board the plane from China to Korea some Chinese women and a couple of men started talking to us in their best English.  The people asked us some questions like where is he from, Kian was being cute and smiling at them and waving to them.  Jeff taught him to wave and it was so cute.  When it came time to board and we were in line they came up to us and said, "Thank You, you do a very nice thing."  They asked if we had other children and so we showed them a picture of McKade.  They really cant believe we would come and adopt a child, when we have a child at home of our own, and then a child with special needs.  It is so expensive to have a child they just don't understand it.  Then some women said, "God Bless You for what you do and Good Luck".  I was having a very hard time fighting back the tears because I didn't feel worthy of their praise.  I didn't come to China to save a child.  I came because my selfish heart wanted a baby so desperately.  Now that we are here I realize how much Kian did need saving but still struggling to accept their praise.  But, this experience made my entire trip.  The whole time I wondered how the Chinese felt about us coming there and taking home their children so to know they supported and appreciated what we were doing made my heart swell with joy.  I will never forget these people and their acceptance.  A man also told Jeff thank you and good luck as well, what amazing people, I am so thankful I could spend the last 18 days with the Chinese people and I will never forget all I have learned here.  Mostly life is short and time is precious, we need to quit living to work and work only enough to live and enjoy life, family and friends more.  I know this will be hard but I have finally made my new years resolution to work on this.

Once we got on the plane Kian was very restless as we sat there 40 minutes waiting to take off.  He was acting tired and fell asleep during take off.  On Korean Air they have these wonderful bassinets if you are lucky enough to sit in the bulk head and they attach to the wall.  So Kian slept in this for a couple hours.  To bad we didn't get the bassinet on our final 10 hour flight home.

Once Kian woke up he ate some snacks in the bassinet and then it was time to land and head to LA.

Jeff playing with Kian in LA before our flight home to SLC.  Kian did great on the 10 hours flight he slept about 6 of the 10 hours and ate and loved the gross Korean food served.  I mean for breakfast they served an omelet with beans and broccoli but he CHOWED it.  The flight home was very hot and there was no air above us to turn on so we roasted.  At one point I had to pee so that meant crawling over Jeff, Kian and the man next to us from Arizona.  So, I would wait until the last minute to pee in hopes I wouldn't have to go again on the plane.  So, I had to go badly and just got in line when two Chinese people butted in front of me.  I had most definitely had it with the Chinese butting by this time, that's all they do and I understand with so many million people if you don't butt you may never get what you want but come on we are on a flight.  So being the big tall white woman that I am I picked them up by their collars and placed them behind me.  They did say, "oh so sorry" but I had to PEE.  The guy from Arizona saw me do this and died laughing, he understood all to well traveling to China for work.

Before we left customs in LA we turned in Kians paperwork and 5 minutes later he strolled out of there a US Citizen.  Yep, can you believe that after having Kian 24 hours he was officially ours and fully adopted and then after being in the US a few minutes he was a citizen, AMAZING!!!  As we were walking out of customs the man called us back and I was a little panicked thinking oh no.  He asked us why we had US passports and we were white but had a baby with a Chinese passport who was Chinese.  We explained he was just adopted and we were just coming home and he said ok and waved us off.  Whew I was nervous for a minute!!  When we landed in LA we were so hot we walked into the first store and bought ugly t-shirts and stripped off our sweaty hot clothes.  Kian had pooped and peed more than expected and so we bought the final diapers in the airport and he kept going.  We were on our final diaper and prayed we could get to SLC without him going again, he made it.