Friday, May 11, 2012

Guangzhou...finally - 6 more days

They made it to Guangzhou…a little worse for the wear. The trip was exhausting. It was an hour and a half to the airport then the flight was delayed. They ended up at the airport for almost 5 hours. The flight was two hours and another hour to the hotel.  Josiah did really well on his first flight….really well (thanks for the prayers ya’ll), but then he fell asleep right at the end of the flight and woke up confused when they landed and started crying. Then they got in the van to go to the hotel and he fell asleep again and woke up at the hotel and really melted down. The new hotel room apparently freaked him out.  Then the grieving started again. He’s extremely tired. The last time I talked to them it was 1:30 in the morning their time. It was five and a half hours past his normal bedtime and he had been crying for an hour and a half. Not good : ( It’s heartbreaking to hear him crying so hard over the phone and not be able to do anything about it. Bobby was starting to come apart at the seams...God I pray they are sleeping now.  They have to be up early and at the medical clinic for 9 a.m. which in the past has been a very traumatic experience for our kiddos.  It’s a lot of change for him in a short period of time.  I am relieved that they are in Guangzhou though. It’s a familiar place for Rob and one step closer to home. When you get there it’s like this giant exhale that happens. There’s significant comfort in knowing you’ve made it to this point.  It helps that the island is beautiful. The people are so kind there. The shop owners love the adoptive families. There will be lots of other families that are adopting so you have people to talk to...in English : ) The food is a welcomed respite for the westerners. He’ll have sweet tea at Lucy’s tomorrow and he’ll take Josiah to the park and it’ll be a better day.

Here are a few photos from their last day in Wuhan:










The girls and I are a little worse for the wear too. The girls are starting to meltdown. They are over Daddy being gone. They can't wait to see Josiah. Izzy said this morning I want to touch him for real Momma not on the computer screen anymore : ( All the emotion and stress of the last seven days has finally kicked my butt. I feel like I've just has a serious workout only I can't recover from it. All day long I've dragged myself around. It's pitiful. I feel like a wimp...like ridiculous that stress could make me feel so tired. I really should have cleared my schedule this week, but I didn't anticipate being so overwhelmed by the emotion of it all. I just thought since I wasn't in China I wouldn't be so exhausted by it all like you are when you are there. Apparently it doesn't matter. Actually I've had a lot less sleep this week than anytime that I've been in China. Go figure. So I taught school, did piano lessons, horseback riding lessons along with all of the usual parenting stuff and I'm kaput ! I am happy to say that on Thursday I taught lesson 170 and we officially finished school for the year...that's a big ole YIPPEE!!!  My girls amazed me this year. They learned so much and did so well. I'm a very proud Momma. This summer we're just doing a reading program and getting to know our newest member of the family.  That's it..nothing else on the agenda. Just a lot of lovin on our boy : )

1 comment:

Keisha said...

Father God.. I pray that you will pour out your blessings on the Braniff family. That you will re-new their strength and hold them up. May you heal the broken hearts and comfort them during these times & give them the HOPE that this feeling of being overwhelmed & missing A beloved will soon pass! ~Amen!
Hang in there girls! 6 more days! You can do this... you're in the single digits!
Hang in there Rob!!!!
:)
((HUGS))