Fuzhou day 1 continued 2

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Fuzhou day 1 continued

Sent from Samsung tablet

First day in Fuzhou

After over 30 hours of traveling, we finally arrived at our hotel in Fuzhou.  Fortunately we slept great last night.  After a yummy breakfast, we drove to Olivia's orphanage.  We got to meet her foster mom and foster grandma.  We made a picture album for them with pictures of Olivia and our family over the years.  Olivia was very quiet during the entire meeting.  She seemed OK with it but just nervous and quiet.  So now they all think she is a quiet girl.  Ha!  If only they knew her true personality!  The foster grandma seemed especially excited to see her and picked her up and held her.  

Then we went on a walk to Old Fuzhou.  This was a place where the old family homes have been restored and are set up like a museum, with lots of cute touristy shops and local food.  As the day went on, it got hotter so we decided for fun to take a rickshaw ride.  Can you believe this is my 6th time in China, but my first rickshaw ride?

We are spending some time in our room resting now and will go back out to the park and find dinner once the sun is down more.  This heat and humidity is going to take a while to get used to!

I am trying posting via email because I have to use a vpn to blog which slows things down, but I can only send one picture at a time so I will have multiple posts each day with a picture on each post.

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Made it to Fuzhou.

Quick check in to say we made it. We are in Fuzhou and plan to visit orphanage and Olivia's foster family tomorrow. Flight was super long, but good.

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Leaving tomorrow!

Our flight leaves at 5:15 tomorrow morning.  We are mostly packed and ready to go.  We get Jacob on Friday!!

Hannah got a stomach bug on Friday and now Olivia has it today.  Please pray she is all better by tomorrow morning!  And that I don't get it too.  

I'm trying to test out posting from the tablet using a vpn, so here goes!

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We are going to China!!

We got our travel approval on Friday and our consulate appointment was confirmed this morning.   So for a good part of today I have been booking flights. We leave on May 28th, 9 days from now!  I can't believe the time to meet Jacob is almost here.

Olivia is going to be my traveling buddy.  We are going to make a quick stop in Fuzhou, where Olivia is from, on the way to Zhengzhou.  Our travel agency is trying to locate her foster family so that we can visit them. Please pray they can be located, Olivia is really looking forward to seeing them again. Her only memories of them is through pictures.  She spent most of the first year and a half of her life with them.

Then we get to meet Jacob on June 2nd.  I am so excited, but also nervous. He has been at an excellent foster/group home with lots of love, so I know it is going to be so hard for him to leave.

Lots to do to get ready!

Here is a picture of Jacob with his buddy from his foster home (Jacob is on the upper left).  They are only a day apart in age.  I know it will be so hard for everyone to say goodbye!

Jacob turns 2 on Friday!!  I am sad we are missing his birthday, but we will have lots more to celebrate with him.

Hippotherapy

Today was Jayden's first day of hippotherapy (otherwise known as equine assisted physical therapy).  He did so great and seemed to really enjoy himself.  He even told the horse to "walk on"! What better motivation to speak than to a horse, right?

We are so blessed to have a wonderful therapist and a wonderful therapeutic riding facility close to our home.

On adoption news, our Article 5 was picked up on Monday. (Don't worry if you have no idea what that means.)  So we are now on our final step Waiting for travel approval!  This can come anywhere betweem 1 amd 3 weeks.  Getting closer to holding Jacob in our arms!