Leaving China...We Made it Home

We are home...and glad to be here! After traveling for nearly 30 hours, we pulled in the driveway at 1:00 am on Saturday night (after a quick stop at the store for coffee and milk since our fridge is bare). I wish the traveling to/from China was not so painful, then we might be eager to go more often. The flights were uneventful and thankfully everyone slept almost the entire 13 hours. We have been on so many flights and buses the last seven days that I was beginning to wonder if we would ever arrive home in one piece.

The most harrowing portion was leaving Fuling on a bus at 4:00 am on Friday. The small mountains between Fuling and Chongqing are hilly with scarey tunnels and several foggy overpass bridges. We have had an amazing bus driver who has been able to manuver that huge thing through nearly any obstacle.

As we left Fuling, I was dreading the next many hours, sitting straight up in a seat, trying to sleep, and attempting to keep the kids from freaking out. They have done an excellent job on this trip! They had several nights of empty tummies because of the exotic food, much lost sleep because of the hectic schedule, and much poking and prodding from the locals, who were trying to figure out if they were real :-)

I'm glad to be in my own bed, wash my face with clean water, and not worry to drink water from my faucet. Sam already misses China and has expressed that he wants to go back and live there. I reminded him that he is most likely missing his friends that he made and the experiences that we had, and that living ther would be MUCH different...no Chinese/English speaking guides, no new-found American friends to pal around with, no nice hotels and police escorts, and they would be expected to go to school!

Our favs of the trip:
Grandma Dolores---walking the streets of Fuling, experiencing real Chinese life (and the Wall of course).
Jason---he's not sure yet.
Me---definately the orphanage and holding the babies
Sam---the Great Wall, hanging out with new friends
Jack---the Great Wall, his new friends
Lydia---the Pandas

What we won't miss: intestines, stomach, and jellyfish tenticles for dinner; questionable water; being stared at; sitting on a bus; being lectured by an ancient Chinese man (I'm sure about us being Capitalist Pigs and The White Devil---we were moved on by apologetic locals, who tried to hush the old man...ask us about this story!); sleeping on rock hard beds; and lugging suitcases around!

We will miss: the beautiful scenery of Sichuan Province; the friendly, curious locals; cheap goods; our new friends; our guides William and Alice; and most of all, the babies of Fuling.

In all, we had an amazing trip! A trip that Lydia won't remember, but that we will tell her about often as she looks at the pictures and reads "her story." I was disappointed to not find out much more about her life before us. I had imagined that I might uncover something huge while I was there. But, I think it is best that we just live our lives here, appreciating China and Fuling, teaching Lydia what we know about her life, and admit that the rest is just unknown.

One mother actually met her daughter's foster mother while there (found her in 1 million people!) but was quickly scolded for meeting with her unsupervised and the foster mother was told to leave the woman's hotel room by the people in charge of our trip. I wonder if that "foster mother" was really the birth mom? A bit unsettling...I wonder what these government officials really know about our daughters. Perhaps they have inside info that can't be found out and thus want to keep us from trailing leads....or perhaps they are just protecting us from potential problems. Nothing can be done; it's China.

I'm content to have my little girl and just wonder about her history...while we make our own history together.