This morning BinBin would not eat anything for breakfast. Instead, he just clung to me while we tried to eat. We had a long 4 hour trip ahead of us to visit his city, so I was really hoping to get some food in him. We took a hard boiled egg with us in hopes he would eat it later.
Our guide and driver met us in the lobby at 8:30. As we loaded the van, we were met with a strong cigarette smell and a filthy van. The smell of smoke is everywhere. We are so ready to smell clean air again. I immediately took our cleaning wipes and started wiping down everything I though we would touch. I pulled out some window clings and tried to play with BinBin.. He just stared at them with his emotionless look that we get often.
The car rides here are super stressful. I really can't even explain the driving here. The lines in the roads are merely suggestions. Cars and scooters swerve in and out of traffic. Horns are used all the time to warn people you had better move or you will get his because we aren't slowing down. David has had to take motion sickness meds before every long trip.
About two hours into our trip, we stopped at a service area. Alana and I took BinBin to the women's restroom to change him. The smell of urine hit us as we walked in and flies were everywhere. I found the cleanest spot in the floor that I could and was sick that I had to change my baby here. I am so thankful that someone gave me advice to bring the huge changing pads that hospitals use so that he didn't have to touch the floor. As soon as I laid him down, he began crying as he always does when we change his diaper. Alana and I quickly worked together. We have to wet cleaning cloths to use instead of baby wipes since he has a rash, then clean him the best we can as he squirms and cries, then apply his creams. When we are finished, we clap and tell him how brave he is and give him lots of kisses! While we were changing him, 2 women came in and just walked over and stared and were trying to tell me something. I know they thought I was hurting him. I told Alana to move over to block their view. It made me so angry that they were staring.
After that experience, I told David we would change him in the car from now on. We made one more stop on our way and finally reached Nanyang City.
The entrance to the city was beautiful! It looked completely different from Zhengzhou. There were huge building everywhere. Most of them were in the process of being built. There were also beautiful flowers along the road, something we hadn't seen in ZZ.
We took a very bumpy ride(we all came out of our seats a few times) down some back roads to Aiden's orphanage. When we arrived I was pleased to see how clean it was and that there was a big playground. We changed Aiden again in the van and then met the orphanage director that we had met on Gotcha Day. She led us down a hall that was brightly painted to Aiden's room.
I had been nervous about how Aiden would react when he saw his friends and workers, but he clung to us the whole time. We walked around and saw the children, most whom were sleeping. There were 3 one month olds in the same crib. I began taking pictures of these children and praying over them, praying that there were already families that were in the process of adopting them. Oh how I wanted to take them all with me! Lord, break our hearts for what break yours!
The workers then showed me Aiden's crib. Praise the Lord his crib was now empty which means there is one less orphan in the world.
After we left Aiden's room, we walked out to the gate of the orphanage and had some pictures made. We only stayed at his orphanage for 15 minutes because we had to get to another appointment, but I am so glad we went and now have pictures to share with him.
We left and headed to get to our appointment for Aiden's passport. We approached 10 huge buildings and pulled in the parking garage. As we were walking across a courtyard to get to where we needed to be, we noticed we were the only people in this huge city setting. It was eerily quiet. It looked almost like an empty set on a movie lot. It was so strange and we tried to ask our guide about it, but she didn't speak great English and didn't really understand what we were saying. In the states, during a work day like this, there would have been people everywhere. It was so odd.
We ended up having to wait about 45 minutes. During this time, we tried to play with Aiden. He didn't let us put him down though. We did start asking him for cheen cheens (kisses) and he would comply. So sweet!
We were called back and a lady stacked a smaller stool on top of another stool and told me to put BinBin on top for his picture. Um, no. I wasn't going to out my baby up there alone. So I squatted below and held him so he could get his picture made. He did so well and it was painless.
We went through the rest of the process and then had to go to the police station to get the rest of the paperwork.
We were starving by now, 3:00, so thankfully I had packed a few peanut butter sandwiches and some protein bars. We did get BinBin to eat a few bites of the sandwhich, and he loved the bar and ate of few bites of that too.
We began our journey home. BinBin slept a lot. He really is a great traveler. I'm not sure how much he will like it when he has to be in a car seat back home though.
That night after bath, Bin Bin came alive like we hadn't seen before. I put him down in his crib and he stood up and began playing and laughing and throwing toys and blankets out of his crib for us to get. I love when he does this. We just stop what we are going and enjoy it while it lasts.
Finally he settled down, and then I believe he began having a delayed reaction to visiting his orphanage. While he was lying down he would call out, "Mama?", and I would say "BinBin". We repeated this over and over for about 30 minutes. Then every 30 minutes during the night he would begin to cry and call for Mama. I would pick him up, walk him around, he would eventually point back to his crib, I would put him down, and we would start the process again in 30 minutes. We got no sleep that night. I think he just needed to know that we were still there and would not leave him.
We love our BinBin so much and tell him often that he is loved and that he is safe. In time he will begin to believe it.