Day 8

Wow! There is SO much to blog about I just don't even know where to start and I really need some sleep, so I'll just have to do my best to get you caught up on the day.

First we went back to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize our adoption in the eyes of China...it was a very simple, yet big moment for this little girl.


And an emotional and proud moment for us as her family.


Then we headed over to visit the orphanage she spent her 1st few months and last couple of weeks in. As we pulled up and she saw out the window where we were she melted down instantly, and we weren't sure if we would make it off the bus. Then she settled down and was fine from that point on. She didn't even seem to have any connection to the place.



This building is only about 3 years old and is considered to be one of China's model orphanages...and it really was...for an orphanage. Complete with Mickey Mouse greeting everyone as we drove up.








Then they presented each family with a care package where we got her health records, developed photos from the camera we sent her, CD of other pictures they took, copy of note given from birth parents, and a few other things...SO glad they did this for her!





Then Mark found a picture of Hannah hanging on the wall with pictures of some of the other children who are still there, and it was a happy moment to hold her in my arms knowing she is not an orphan in this place any more.


Then we began our tour...while wearing blue shoe covers (It's a very well kept place).


First stop....a classroom.








Then on to the bedroom where all the children were sleeping. Charlie and I spent most of our time walking around talking to and touching the children. This part was not easy. Charlie had a hard time with this part, but the good news is that most of these kids already have families coming for them. This was Hannah's old bed.


Then on to the playroom that is used when the weather is bad and the children cannot go outside.


Where we met her nanny.


Then is was time to go, and oh how great it felt to walk away from here holding her in my arms listening to her say, "Bye Bye" and wave her hand. This was the only time I started to tear up. I just didn't feel any connection to this place, I guess because of how little time she spent there. Now if this had of been her foster parent's home it would have been a whole other story...they probably would have had to build a dam to hold back the flood.

Next stop of the day was the silk museum here in her province.


We had a little tour of how silk is made, then were taken into a room for a real fashion show...with a real runway and loud music. :)



It was really fun for us girls, and Hannah was mesmerized!


The most beautiful model was this sweet little asian girl dressed in a cute dress...just a real beauty who really knew how to work the crowd, and the crowd loved her!!!


Funny, she looks like someone I know???


Oh wait a minute, that's MY daughter! :)


After lunch we were finally back in our rooms for naps. :) Busy day!!!

Hannah is starting to loosen back up and let the 3 boys in a bit more...baby steps right??? I've been letting the 3 of them be the ones to feed her, and that seems to be helping. Mark was so excited tonight when she let him feed her the whole banana. Y'all, I cannot tell you how much this kid loves his new sister!!!!!! So the banana thing was HUGE to him.


We all really enjoyed our last dinner here at our favorite Pizza Inn.


Then because of the rain we let Kevin hail his 1st taxi (yeah Kevin), and we all piled in like a bunch of clowns at a rodeo to head back to our hotel for more packing. Good times!


I cannot tell you just how happy we are to be leaving Hangzhou... EVERYTHING about this place has been SO HARD (except getting Hannah of course). However, I can't believe we will soon be in the last leg of our trip. Tomorrow we hop on yet another plane to Guangzhou...where every child adopted from China has to go through to finalize the adoption with the US Consulate.

It is a little sad to think that Hannah will be leaving her home here, and all the things that are familiar to her. The next province will be very different from here, and they even speak a different language. Please pray for her as she makes more changes, and flies on her 1st airplane.

We are all just praying she does not have one of her melt downs while on the plane...poor girl still has several uncontrollable crying spells every day (these are so hard on all of us). All I have to say is, "Hannah, lets go bye-bye" and the poor girl instantly starts screaming with a panicking fear...SO SAD!!!! She really has a great fear of being left, and understandably so. :(

P.S. I did not wake up sick today. Just sore throat and heavy chest from all the smog and cigarette smoke here...way worse than in Beijing! So nasty!!!
Everyone else seems to be on the mend. :) Thanks for the prayers.

P.P.S. Our video camera fell out of our bag today and no longer works...this makes me SO SAD!!!! Praying for a miracle on that one too.

Good night!

Day 7

Well, today was a bit better...I guess. Less crying, but still very withdrawn in many ways. She has become very detached and fearful of Charlie...and the boys, well she has not really wanted anything to do with them from the beginning (except take food, which they are always happy to do).


Again this is very normal for a child to pick one person to meet all their needs and shut everyone else out, but it's SO HARD to see it happen. The boys are being so sweet and trying so hard with her, but she will not even let them come near her. Charlie has handled it pretty well, but I can see it is breaking his heart. We both know it is a temporary phase, but the boys do not understand it very well. We just keep encouraging them to not give up.

The orphanage director told us when we got her that she had a VERY hard time after being brought back to the orphanage from her foster home, and that she is very much an introvert. She tried preparing us for her to have a hard time; we just couldn't believe her that first day. Oh, we believe now!!! I am glad we at least got a glimpse of what's to come, because it gives us hope.


Oh, did I mention Charlie is sick???? :( Praying I'm not next.

In spite of all the ugly in our day, we did enjoy getting to see a better side of Hangzhou...It was AMAZINGLY beautiful!!!! West Lake (not Ross' Westlake) and the tea gardens took our breath away. Our tour group went to an incredible "tea" village and received a lecture about all the medicinal properties of green tea. Did you know the Chinese Universities offer a 4-year degree on "tea"? I guess coffee would be a masters program. We also learned from our lecturer, Dr. Tea, how much the Chinese dislike the Japanese. Understandable I guess when you hear them talk about WWII. Overall it was very interesting and the village was very beautiful.



We ended the day on a good note. Charlie was able to bribe Hannah with a banana (FYI, Charlie says people are not allowed to call her Hannah Banana) and she seemed to warm up to him a bit. She also possibly started to turn a corner with the boys - she started watching them play and even slowly followed them around a little this afternoon. We're praying that she will be giggling and chasing them by the end of the trip. We're also praying Charlie can stop bribing soon so she won't become the first overweight Chinese person we've seen here. But really, if you tried to feed Americans half the things they eat here, we'd all be skinny too! Some of it is really scary!


Tomorrow morning we go to the orphanage. We don't really know what to expect and we're a little nervous of how it could impact Hannah and the other little girls. I mean she's two years old and will most likely have some understanding of what that place means. Please pray for Hannah and the others that God will somehow use this trip tomorrow to cement the bond between them and the parents.

Enough for now, gotta go to bed. Feeling like I may be getting a sore throat too. :(

Psalm 27:10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord (and my adoptive parents) will receive me.

Day 6

Wow! What a difference 24 hrs. can make! The day started out fine. Hannah slept through the night (outside of coughing and moaning from time to time due to the nasty cough she came with). She woke around 7 am, and had a bit of confusion on her face, but still happy. We all ate breakfast, and skyped home for the 1st time. Another great day, right???

WRONG!!!! Out of NOWHERE something happened (what, we are not sure), and from there she fell apart. This is very normal for most adoptive children (especially the older they are), but I guess we let our guard down a little too much and a little too early. She became very fearful, and nothing seemed to calm her down. Very withdrawn, and would go from almost hiding in my arms to kicking and screaming to the point it was hard to hold her. We asked our adoption guide if she thought this was just due to her cold, and she said she thought she was just going through the typical grieving...Oh how I was just hoping it was the cold.

We set out for lunch (KFC today...BLAH) thinking it would help since she likes to be outside, but it was only a temporary fix. She began to really fuss, then fell asleep in her carrier. Due to this being way before her nap time, we were now way off her normal schedule...bummer! Things got progressively worse as the afternoon went. We finally laid her in her crib later in the afternoon, and I patted her to sleep...poor thing cried herself to sleep. :(





About 40 minutes later she woke with a night terror (this can also be normal, but again we were hoping and praying we would not have to deal with this). She did settle and go back to sleep on the bed next to me, where she slept a good hour and a half more.





She woke crying and still somewhat afraid and withdrawn, but finally began to pull herself out of it about the time we left for dinner (the nicest most up-scale Pizza Inn we've ever seen...I'm not kidding). Hannah did great, and even sat in a high chair most of dinner. She was back!!! The rest of the night we saw the same smily, happy, playful girl we had yesterday...even giving kisses at the table. Thank you God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





It was a really hard day to see her act this way, and to feel SO helpless in that moment...broke our hearts. Please pray for her to have fewer moments like this. However, I know it is normal and even good for her to grieve in this way...so maybe you should just pray we will be calmer and more patient to just let her get it out. YUCK!!!!!

P.S. You might also pray for our friend Amanda who is traveling with us, she came down with a cold yesterday. In spite of her cold she is being such a trooper (while in another country)...they too read all comments, and love hearing from their friends and family. Please pray the rest of us can keep our health, and that Hannah too will wake feeling better.

FYI, the reason for all the narly fast food today was mostly due to a very nasty experience last night with the Chinese food...even Hannah wouldn't eat most of it, and she's from here.

Good night prayer warriors. We are so thankful to have you at a time like this!

Day 5 "Gotcha Day"

We'd like to present to you the newest member of the Campbell family,

Hannah Qingchu Campbell.


Just before leaving the hotel at 8:30 we stopped to take one last family photo of 4, wearing the new color coming into our house...PINK.



We all then boarded a bus to the government office where the "exchange" would take place.



We arrived at the government office and waited anxiously with 2 other families, full of nerves and every emotion possible.



We were literally counting the minutes away.



At exactly 10 minutes after 9:00 a.m. on October 10, 2011, the door opened and the first little girl was brought in.....and little Hannah Qingchu Campbell came into our lives!



And we all began to marvel.



At how beautiful and amazing she is.



And how happy she is.



And how amazingly easy the transition went!



And then the paperwork began....again.



Then she got her foot stamped in the China "red" ink.



Along with our thumb prints.



We cannot even begin to count the ways God revealed himself in this day. One of the things all four members of our family prayed fervently for was that she would recognize us immediately and not be afraid of us. We were amazed at how well she recognized us from a photo book we had sent a few months ago.





Hearing the boys say, "I love Hannah!" melts my heart every time.





And that, makes us a family of 5!!



And then, we took the poor child to McDonalds to celebrate with Happy Meals and meat filler! LOL!!!!



We THANK EVERYONE SO MUCH for your prayers for today! I can not count the times we looked at each other (with tears in our eyes) and said, "God answered our prayers". We are speechless at how great the day has been. We have only had a few moments where she seems scared and tries to withdraw (mostly when she woke from nap). But all in all, it was a FANTASTIC day!

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

P.S. If you choose to leave us a comment (and we hope you do), then please sign your name so we will know who it is...that is if you are not signed up as one of our "peeps".

Day 4

Can you believe it, we all made it down to the lobby by 6:15 am? We even beat our guide today (this was a first). Maybe that's because we were all really excited about riding the bullet train today. And ride the train we did.


It was another amazing experience for ALL of us.


Riding anything over 240 MPH is fun for all ages.


Ok, except for this man who snored SO LOUD almost the whole trip!

It was such a great way to get to see the country side of China.


However, it was also an eye opening experience for me. I personally have never seen 1st hand that kind of wide spread poverty. So many of the homes didn't even have doors or windows, and the roofs were covered with whatever they could find. This was one of the better ones.


It being October, we got to see all the farmers out working the fields to bring in their harvest. I have NEVER seen so much corn in my life...and yes, I've been to Kansas and Nebraska both. To watch all the women work right along the men with their bare hands, a hoe, and a machete type knife to cut the stalks...and can you believe, not a John Deer in site. The amazing part is that you would have never guessed that most did not use a tractor by the perfect rows and clean harvest.


The other thing that we noticed is that most people do not have washer and dryers, no matter how nice the home. They just hang their clothes out the window to dry.


The best part is that it was a nice relaxing trip for us all...and very much needed!!!!!


We are all settled into the tinniest room in the world (after taking out 1/2 the furniture in the room...NO JOKE), and a diaper bag packed for our 9 am appointment to welcome Hannah into our lives. We are all getting very excited, and I admit VERY emotional. Just praying we can get some sleep tonight.

As I lay my head down on my pillow tonight (on the tinniest bed in the world...NO JOKE) I wonder if Hannah has any idea what tomorrow will bring? If I could talk to her tonight I would tell her that tonight will be the last night she will ever be referred to as an "Orphan", and that tomorrow she will take on a new title of beloved daughter, sister, grand daughter, niece, and cousin.

We are only miles and hours away now. I can not believe this day has finally come!

Gotcha Day Update

Well, so it sounds like we will have our Gotcha day as originally planned on Monday. This brings us SO MUCH relief to know we do not have to endure a day of rushing around all stressed out, to then go pick up Hannah who will also be stressed out. The calmer and more organized we are, then better we will all make that transition.

Now maybe I can nap on the train (cause I woke at 3 am today) instead of pack her a diaper bag and gather and check paperwork. Although, it's kinda sad to think she has to stay one more night. :(

Please pray God will give her the strength and peace over the next 24ish hrs. Also, pray she too will get a good nights sleep.

Thanks for all the prayer friends! BTW, we love hearing from each of you...kind of brings a feeling of home to China (which we sometimes need). The boys get SO excited when their friends or family leaves a little message for them too. So good to hear you really are praying...DON'T STOP!!!!!

~The Campbell Family

Day 3

Well, today was a bit of a hard day on all of us. 1) I seem to wake up hours before I need too (the rest of the family I think is now on China time). 2) We start our tours early in the morning and go ALL day, and went until late last night. Today was Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, and a traditional tea ceremony.



3) I had a hard time with lunch today, so I didn't get the boost I was really needing.

4) The boys I think hit a delirious wall today, which can be very taxing on a person already not in their best mind. :( To their credit...they did an unbelievable amount of walking, and listening to a bunch of stuff they don't care about (much less understand).

5) The "toilet situation". I think the picture says enough!

Tonight is our last night in Beiging. We leave tomorrow morning on the fast train at 8:00 (this means we have to leave our hotel at 6:30 am) for Hangzhou. We will finally be in the same province as our daughter. We are a little nervous about what we can expect once we arrive at the train station in Hangzhou, because our agent said they had a request to change "Gotcha Day" to Sunday at 2 pm...our train does not arrive until 2:30 pm. :-/ The last we heard they decided to go ahead and let the other families get their children, and we would keep to the original schedule of Monday. I just don't like the not knowing for sure. There are many things to get ready before we go get her, and that would make things very difficult to get any of it ready before hand.

So tonight we pack, and pray for a really good nights sleep.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who put their hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.

Day 2

Today was a magical day (yet very LONG and BUSY). To get to stand on the Great Wall of China was an amazing moment for ALL of us!


I had a hard time leaving this place. It really was a beautiful moment. Oh, and the weather could not be more perfect y'all! 70's I would guess, with blue skies...well I'm assuming they are. Hard to tell from all the smog. :( Those aren't clouds sitting on the great wall people.

I was sad to leave, and really sad Hannah was not with us for this moment.