Day 2: Beijing Great Wall & Acrobatics Show

We woke up this morning (Saturday) so happy and so refreshed!  We all got a good long full night of sleep and it was fabulous.  We got ready and ate breakfast at our hotel.  They had Chinese breakfast (lo mein, marinated hard boiled eggs, dumplings, and more) and American breakfast (french toast, hash browns, etc.) and it was delicious.  Very fun to try new things!

Helen met us at 9am to head to The Great Wall.  There are 2 other families here in Beijing with us and it was a HUGE blessing to be with them today.  The Lawrence family have their 6 year old girl Olivia, and their 13 year old son Anthony with them, and they are adopting a 9 year old girl named Lily.  Our girls made fast friends with Olivia!  And the Capps family (also from NC) is adopting an 18 month old little girl.  And I can not say enough good things about our guide Helen!  She has been so amazing. She has been sweet with the girls and truly taken care of every need for us.  I will miss her when we leave tomorrow.

We drove to The Great Wall and spent about 2 hours there.  Matt took a lot of great pictures!  I'll post some now to give you a taste and we'll share more later.  It was perfect weather and so so beautiful.

 Molly, Olivia, Leah 

 All 4 of us!

Group after group of Chinese people wanted to take pictures of our girls.  Matt snapped this picture to show what it was like.  But usually, they didn't want us in it, they only wanted the girls.  Leah, Molly, and Olivia were very kind to smile time after time for them.  Most of them didn't speak any English but would point to their cameras to ask to take pictures.   

Matt and the other guys in our group went really far up the wall.  Cara and I took the 3 girls as far as they could go and then walked back down with them. We met up with the guys about an hour later.  They climbed so high and it is so steep!  They saw some amazing views.

 We bought the girls pandas. They were happy. :)

After such a fun time at the Wall, Helen took us to a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  Delicious!!

Next, we made the dive back to the city and went to an acrobatics show that Beijing is famous for.

Our day ended with another Chinese dinner. Came back to our hotel, tucked the girls in bed, and now we're headed there ourselves. Tomorrow, we do a few more things in Beijing and then fly to Chongqing (Jack's city!!).  Goodnight from China, friends!

Day 1: Travel (otherwise known as the day that lasted 2 days)

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog.  We have had some trouble figuring out internet connection, but

WE ARE IN BEIJING!!

We left RDU on Wednesday around noon and arrived in Beijing on Friday around noon.  If you do the math, you will notice that is a LONG time to travel.  We were very thankful to get our feet on the ground in Beijing and know we could stay two nights here.

Overall, our flights went well.  I'd say the hardest time was when we were at LA for six hours in the middle of the night waiting to board our 15 hour flight.  And the 15 hour flight itself was intensely long. Oh my word. The low point of the flight was when I was sure we were within a few hours of landing only to find out we still had 9 hours to go. I thought I was going to loose it at that point.  It is truly God's grace that we made it!  The girls did sleep a good bit and they watched Monsters Inc. four times (not exaggerating).  I am so proud of them.  They have had to do a lot of waiting and have overall handled it so well!

Walking in to the airport at RDU

We had just boarded the 15 hour flight. We were so thankful to be out of the airport and on the plane. 

Next stop: China!

When we arrived in Beijing, our guide Helen was waiting at the airport exit with a sign that said "Harmon" on it.  Y'all I totally cried!  I was exhausted and so happy to have her there to help us.  All I could do was hug her, even though we've never met before.  She took us to a van and drove us straight to our WONDERFUL hotel.  She took us to the bank to change over some money and she took us to a noodle restaurant for some yummy noodles.  The girls did awesome with their first Chinese meal and even ate the whole thing with chopsticks!  

We ordered pizza for dinner and then we crashed early. 6:00 for the girls, just after for mommy and daddy.  Literally could not stay awake any longer.

About Jack

We get on a plane tomorrow to go to this little guy!!  We could not be more excited to hold him in our arms.  You can pray for him these next few days.  He is about to leave everything he has ever known.  Adoption is one of the most beautiful things there is.... but it involves broken stories, sad stories.  There is trauma and tragedy before there is beauty.  So, pray for Jack and his adjustment to us.  And pray that we would have wisdom on how to best love him these first few days/weeks.  We spend a few days in Beijing and then fly to Chongqing, which is where Jack is, and his "Gotcha Day" is Monday Nov. 18th.  We will update this blog as much as we can while we are there.  Thank you for walking this road with us!

 This is the first picture we ever saw of our little guy!  

 This is from when we sent him a care package, including our pictures.

 This is from when we requested an update.

This is the final update picture they sent to us.

Packing

We have been getting ready for this trip for months.  I noticed some anxiety creeping in last week about packing.  How would I get everything into our suitcases?  How would I keep it organized?  And then there is Leah's tooth. Her front tooth has been dangling for a while now.  Last week, I told her if it didn't come out before Monday I was taking her to the dentist for him to pull it out before China.

But you know what?  I realized that I can't control Leah's tooth and make it come out (without a lot of blood and tears anyway).  I can't pack the perfect suitcase either.  

And there is so much freedom in letting go of those things.  I will do my best with packing our bags.  And we will keep wiggling Leah's tooth. But we will get on that plane just as we are - imperfect bags, dangling teeth, and all the other mess in our hearts. (update: Leah's tooth came out!  fell out on it's own, wahoo!)

Because this isn't about having everything together. This adoption and this trip are all about Jesus.  He adopted us as sons and the goodness and sweetness of that is too much for us to keep inside.  It overflows out and compels us to act!  If you see anything at all through our story, through Jack's adoption, see Jesus.  His adoption of us cost far more than $30,000.  He didn't do any fundraisers to pay our ransom.  He gave his very self, poured out his own blood.  And because of that, we are welcomed as sons of the Living True God who knows every hair on our heads.  That is what this is about.

We can't wait to introduce Jack to the One who made him, the One who knew before the beginning of time that Jack would be a Harmon!

Jack's Shower

 These friends threw me the sweetest shower over the weekend!  You know you are loved when not one or two but NINE friends throw you a shower.  It brings tears to my eyes just to think about it!

Left to Right: Ashlee, Becky, Becky, Leslyn, Meghan, Suzanne, me, Anne, Rachel 

(and Emily isn't in the picture because she had to slip out early)

 This is Anne giving me bags full of fun airplane goodies for Leah, Molly, & Jack.  Molly got the sweetest bag of airplane stuff from her preschool class so the hostesses got together and made awesome bags for Leah & Jack and another small one for Molly.  SO SO thoughtful!!!  I got tears in my eyes when I gave that bag to Leah the next day. She was so happy and I am just so thankful these friends love my children well.

 Anne, Emily, Shirley

 Suzanne & Leslyn

 My Mom & Matt's Mom

 Anne, me, Leslyn

 Shoes for Jack!  I actually just packed these in our bags.  Can't wait to see his little feet in them!

Loved all the clothes and PJs we got for our little guy!

We are so blessed to be bringing Jack home to family and friends that already love him so dearly! 

Gift for Molly

Our Molly is five years old.  She goes to the sweetest preschool and has the sweetest teachers!  They did the most amazing thing for her at the end of last week.  Her teacher, Ms. Kathy, showed the kids on the globe where Molly was going, they prayed for her, and...

...they gave her this awesome bag of goodies for the airplane...

...including these journals for both of our girls...

... and this soft blanket to keep her warm!

Y'all I cried like a baby that day!  I can't tell you how much this meant to Molly.  She was so excited to tell me all about it and show me all the things.  And the blanket - oh my word - it is soft and fuzzy and Ms. Kathy told her "You can feel my arms giving you a big hug when you wrap up in this blanket." It was huge because it truly gave Molly a new sense of confidence about the trip!
I still can't think about it without crying.

Thank you, Ms. Kathy and Ms. Ann, for loving Molly so well! 

Our Jack-o-lantern