Day 4: Travel to Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou is the capital city of the Henan province and where Xiao Yu lives.  It is about 400 miles southwest of Beijing.

We ate breakfast quickly and left the hotel for the train station at 7am.  The taxi drove by Tiananmen Square.  So we got to see that really quickly...

At the train station, we put our bags through security.  We're not sure what they are checking for because our bags have knives such as a Swiss Army Knife.  We also went through metal detectors but Elvin had his phone and camera on him...and they let him through.

The train is one of the main modes of transportation in China and the train station is huge and chock full of people.  Here is the "gate" area before boarding, to use an airport term.

The bullet train was really nice, with plenty of leg room.

Traveling at 180 mph, we got to our destination in 2.5 hours.  It was a great ride.  Eliana was apprehensive about getting motion sickness again, but realized that although the seats looked like airplane seats, the ride was very smooth and totally different.

At the hotel, we checked in...here is the hotel lobby.

And here is the outside of the hotel.  We are off to grab lunch!

After lunch, we met up with our group to make a trip to Walmart.  The girls stayed behind.  Cousin Erica took them swimming in the indoor pool.  It is very fancy.

At the Walmart, our local guide who works for the adoption agency told us which floor we could buy diapers (2nd floor) and which floor had formula (3rd floor.)  Our guide gave us an info sheet on Xiao Yu...it said he still drinks formula along with porridge.  This is very common with the kids in orphanages--to still drink formula at age two or three.  He also eats steamed buns and rice.  It also said that he is semi potty trained but still wears diapers at night.  We'll see how this will work out for us.

Our guide texted the orphanage director to find out which brand of formula Xiao Yu likes...

This is the kind he likes, apparently.

By the time we returned from Walmart, the girls were bathed and ready for dinner.  We ate a small dinner of steamed buns and french fries from Burger King.  Now it was story time!  Notice that Gabriel has now warmed up to Erica and willing to sit on her lap...

And we had lights out by 7:30 pm...

Tomorrow is the day we meet and get Xiao Yu...this is called "Gotcha Day" in the vernacular of the adoption community.  They will be picking him up from his foster home in the morning to take him to the Civil Affairs office where all the parents in our group will be waiting.  People say that the kids will react in one of three ways: They will either run to the parents' arms, or kick and scream and cry, or totally shut down.  We will see how Xiao Yu reacts... 

We have been working towards this day for over a year and traveled over 5,000 miles to get here.  Now that it's finally here, it's a little surreal.  Everyone is pretty excited to meet him.  Karina woke up this morning, and announced, "It's Xiao Yu day!!"  Emily is pretty worried about how Xiao Yu will react, though...we'll let you know!