While we were waiting by a trash can, a couple came over and had their little boy pee in the trash! The trash can was right beside the restrooms! We have seen several babies in split pants. They wear these instead of diapers so they can just squat and go anywhere at anytime. Tonight we saw a little girl squat and go on the sidewalk, her mom wipe her, and then throw the trash on the ground. We try to be extra careful not to step in puddles around here!
We saw our sign to begin loading the train. Our seats were 2A, 2B, 2C so I saw car 2 and went inside. There was a man sitting in our seat. I tried to explain to him, but he wasn't budging. A man beside us spoke English and asked if he could help. We showed him our tickets and he showed me the number 13 on the ticket. This meant we were supposed to be in car 13. The car we were in was First Class. Oops. We walked and walked to the back of the train, found our seats and settled in. The ride was fast and I enjoyed the scenery on the way. Alana even spotted a rice patty farm. David and I ended up napping on the trip. I woke up as we were coming into Zhengzhou.
We unloaded and found our guide right away, a girl named Daniel. She took us to meet our driver and we were off to the hotel. We noticed immediately how much more beautiful ZZ is than Beijing. The traffic was not near as bad either. There are trees everywhere and it just looked much cleaner and the buildings looked newer.
We arrived at our hotel and check in and paid our guide the fees that we owe for the adoption process tomorrow. We were so excited to see it was $2000 less than we were planning. What a blessing that was! We unpacked a little, requested a crib, and then left for dinner.
We found a Japanese place across the street from our hotel. We ordered dumplings, chicken fried rice and beef and noodles. It was all delicious! In China, there is no tipping your waiter. So you really have to hunt a waiter down if you need something. They also do not bring all of your food to the table at once. They bring each dish as it is ready, so we received the rice and dumplings and then waited 15 minutes for the noodles.
After dinner we did some exploring. We found a mall with a kids park in it with rides and a carousel. We will definitely be taking Aiden there. Then we found a WalMart. It was on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a building. It was even more disgusting than the WalMarts back home. It was really difficult finding what we needed. No one spoke English and they didn't even really understand my charades. We did get some animal crackers for Aiden, bottled water, bread, tweezers, and swim caps. We may try the pool after we have Aiden, and you have to wear swim caps in the pool. They were about $10 cheaper in WalMart than what our hotel was going to charge. Tomorrow we will go back for diapers after we see what size Aiden is.
When we got back to the room, the crib had been brought in. I unpacked Aiden's things and made his bed. I can't believe this little boy will be ours tomorrow. Tonight is his last night in an orphanage. Tomorrow he will have a family and will be a son, brother, cousin, nephew and grandson! We love you Aiden Xubin Ivarson!
I Samuel 1:27 - I asked the Lord to give me this boy and he has granted me my request!