We continued to pack today in hopes that we would receive Aiden's visa on time. He was in such a great mood all morning. He played while we packed. His favorite toy is his stacking cups. He found a bag and started putting them all in it and carried it everywhere he went. So cute! Around 10:00 we received an email from the consulate that we would be able to pick up Aiden's visa as planned at 3:30! That was such a relief!
Since Aiden was in a good mood, we decided to try the hotel playground again. He would have nothing to do with it the first time we took him. This time he loved it! He ran around laughing and showing everything to us. When it was time to leave, he pitched a fit. Shiyan has told us he is very reasonable, but when you can't understand what someone is telling you, it's hard to be reasonable. We tried to tell him we would come back, but the tantrum continued. When he is mad, he slaps us. We will be working on breaking that asap.😜
We met our group in the lobby for a final group picture with our children. The first picture was the Mama's with the children and the second was the Baba's with the children. We weren't sure if Aiden would sit with David, but he did and it was the sweetest picture. We were leaving GZ with only one other family, so we said our goodbyes and went back to the room to finish packing.
We took things out that we didn't need anymore and gave them to Shiyan so families coming behind us could use them. We also had to throw some things away to lighten our suitcases. Our travel scale was so helpful on this trip. I have been the one before at the airport check in pulling things out of my suitcase to meet the required weight limit. No time for that on this trip.
Finally it was time to leave. On our ride to the consulate, I began asking Shiyan more questions about Aiden's orphanage. When we were there last week, I just had a weird feeling about it. I felt like we were being deceived. When most people tour an orphanage, they get to see more than one room. I also didn't see the two nannies that we met on gotcha day there, and he didn't really seem to respond to any of the workers there.
Through all of my questioning, I received some great information about Aiden. He had not been at that orphanage. I think when he was originally found, he was sent there, but then he was sent to a baby home in Shanghai for children with more severe needs. When Aiden was found at 5 days old, he received emergency life saving surgery. The home he was sent to was two hours away from the orphanage in Nanyang. Shiyan said even our agency didn't know he was there. All of the correspondence was done through the orphanage in Nanyang. She realized he was in Shanghai when she read where he had received his vaccinations. Shiyan lives in Shanghai and said this baby home is very well funded. They have so many people that want to volunteer there that they can only go once a month. This also answered my questions about why Aiden came with so many belongings when some children came with nothing.
Although I am still confused as to why this was so secretive, I am so thankful that Aiden's needs were met and he was so loved and cared for. I probably broke a big rule when I exchanged numbers with his nannie, but she speaks great English and has been so helpful to me. I can text her and ask questions about him. She also has sent me so many pictures and videos of his time there. She wrote a farewell letter to Aiden and had all of the nannies write to him. She put together a 7 minute video of all of his pictures. I will treasure these things forever! She has asked that if I do find the right treatment for Aiden, that I let her know so that they can help other children at their home. I am so thankful that these questions were answered before we left China!
We waited at the consulate for Shiyan to go in and get Aiden's visa. It took about an hour so Aiden slept on me in the car while we waited. When Shiyan returned, we said our goodbyes and then were taken to Hong Kong. This was about a 3 hour drive. We had to switch vans and drivers at the border. Our temperatures were checked and all were normal!
Driving into Hong Kong was beautiful. We tried to capture it all on camera. As we were riding, Aiden began eating raisins. Since we are treating his rash, I only wanted him to have a few because more raisins means more poo and more poo means no healing for the bottom. Well, taking those raisins away caused the first full on temper tantrum. He cried and hit me for 20 minutes in the car. I felt so bad for the driver. We asked the driver what Aiden was saying and he said he wants out. Didn't we all? I video his tantrums (is that bad?) so that we can watch them back together. I do this with Asa and we talk about how silly it is and what other choices we could make. Aiden loves to look at pictures and videos of himself and when I showed him that video he just laughed.😜 One day I may laugh about it too.
We arrived at our hotel that was connected to the airport. It looked amazing, but we were very disappointed when we got to our room. For the price we were paying for that room, we should have been walking on floors made of gold. Instead, it was dirty and inconvenient. It only had one outlet and David had to unscrew two lights so we could sleep at night. We just dealt with it because we were almost home!
We walked over to the airport and got dinner before heading back to our room and calling it a night.
Tomorrow was our big day!