Our First Week with Nate, Our Last Days in Beijing (Part Four)

This is the part of our time together that I will mostly leave for private journaling.  However, I am including some photos and a few descriptions of our last days in Beijing.  We had a few appointments we had to take care of before we could leave Beijing.  Once we left Beijing we flew to Guangzhou where the US Consulate is and where Nate's final adoption process would take place.

                                                    Waiting for another appointment!!



We were able to visit Bethel (City Life) where Nate had a Good-Bye Party with his "Bethel Brothers" and  precious caregiver-his China Mom.  We are so very grateful for her and the others that loved on                                   and took care of Nate all those years he was in their care.

                               It was quite emotional being there.  It was also very, very special.
                                                 Absolutely so blessed to have met them!

                              Here are a few photos of random things we saw along the way!

Riding the subway, acting too cool for a picture with mom!

                                 


                                           The shopping area close to our hotel in Beijing.

Nothing quite like finding an amazing coffee shop just down 

from our hotel the day before we leave Beijing!!!

                                       
                                          Our last dinner in Beijing at one of the THE most
                                                      famous places to eat Peking Duck!

                                 

 The time Adam gave him one melatonin to see how he responds before his first plane ride ever!

We had many adventures our first week with Nate. 

 There were tears on our part and his.  

Misunderstandings due to the obvious language barrier.

But, there were laughs and love and memories made too.  

And we could absolutely feel the prayers of our family and friends 

carrying us through this time. 

Thank you!!!!

China Part Three-Adoption

It is so hard to believe that we are fast approaching the one year mark.  Nate has been part of our family for almost one year.  Wow and what a year it has been.  Laughter and tears, joy and frustration and lots of growth for everyone.  I'm not sure how many people even check our blog anymore.  I apologize for not having completed our travel updates as I stated I would when I posted China Travel-Part One....in October.  For those who have been through an international adoption (at least most of them) who "get it", there are really no words to describe all that is involved once you get home.  Of course, we have been a busy family of six and therefore the frequency of blogging has been affected.  But as we have lived this story out, we want to share and yet be careful of what and how we share.  I have been working on a series of posts to celebrate his one year with us, so I guess I need to quit apologizing and just post when I can. So here you go....Here is Part Three.


Sunday, June 11th, 2017. This is the day we, as a couple and then as a family, had been thinking about, praying for, planning, completing paperwork for, loosing a bit of sleep over, talking about, dreaming of for 18 months.   18 MONTHS!!!!!! We knew we heard from God about this and we all felt peace and the day had FINALLY arrived.  No longer an orphan, Nate would become a son.  With a family.  A FOREVER family.  He had been loved and cared for at Bethel China, however, there is NO substitute for the family.  God created us to be part of a family and Nate was hours away from meeting his.  We were hours away from embracing our new son.  The one we had known about since August of 2014, the one we prayed for and thought and wondered about, the one we sent letters and packages to....  not knowing then that he would become a Harris. The drive over to where we would officially receive him was both long and short, if that makes sense.  To finally turn that corner and drive through the gates and I saw him.  He was there.  Our Bethel friends grabbed him real quick so that we could get out of the van and have a formal introduction, but Nate would have none of that.  He came running.  Embracing me, his mother, then-his father, then each of his siblings.  Nate then headed straight to the van beside us ready to "I go to America".  What a moment. 

                      All Photo Credit for the following images goes to: The Archibald Project

I'm going to leave this right here and just let the joy from these images speak for itself!!!!!

China Travel Part Two

I think there is no better day to blog than on this 6 month-iversary of having Nate as part of our family!!!  1/2 a year has flown by much quicker than the six months leading up to seeing him for the first time in person!!!!  So part two will include the two days of site seeing we enjoyed as a family of five as we acclimated to the time difference and prepared our hearts to become an official family of 6!!!

On Friday, June 9th (China time) we toured The Forbidden City and then we enjoyed a rickshaw ( tour in a Hutong.  What is a rickshaw and Hutong you ask?  According to Wikipedia "Rickshaw originally denotes a two or three-wheeled passenger cart,..., generally pulled by one man carrying one passenger."  "Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently Beijing."  We ended that tour by visiting the home of a local family and they prepared lunch for us.  This was all arranged by our adoption agency and it was so interesting. 


           We toured the Forbidden City.  We felt like special agents because our guide gave us each an ear piece and as we walked he told us all about the things we were seeing.  There were quite a few of us in the group together so it helped us keep up with him while learning at the same time.

It was such a hot day and this was a group of people waiting to cross the street.  There were mass amount of people everywhere!

Once we were done with the guided tour of the Forbidden City, we were taken to the rickshaws and enjoyed a tour of a Hutong and ended with a lovely lunch at the home of a local family. It was absolutely delicious and they were so kind.

All of the walking and the heat made us a bit nappy, but after we rested and ate dinner, we decided to walk around by our hotel and take in the sites (and smells) of Beijing.

Good Night June 9th!!!  One day closer to Nate!!!

Saturday, June 10th brought a new adventure as we headed out to one of the Seven Wonders of the World-The Great Wall of China!!!!  Oh my goodness!!! 

Right before we left the Great Wall, Adam and Hannah enjoyed a cup of coffee.

Once we left there, we enjoyed lunch at a jade factory.  We watched a man carve some jade and then walked around a beautiful showroom of jade items.  They also had a restaurant and we enjoyed another delicious meal.

We drove by the Olympic Park on our way to our last event, an acrobatic show.  It was neat to see the area where the Olympics 2008 were held.  

And then.....the terrifying  exciting acrobatic show.  The photos won't do it justice...but you get the idea.  We all really enjoyed it.

There ended up being like 6 people on 6 motorcycles going around in this one cage!  It was insane and the part that scared me the most!!!

We were all so glad to have had the privilege to see just a small part of Beijing and experience some of the culture before we met Nate. But now it is time to regroup, sleep-although we are all so excited, and go get our son!!! Here we come Nate!!!

Stay tuned for more on our adoption journey.............

All photos were taken by Adam, Tiffany, Hannah, or Brooklin (Iphone and Canon 60D)