It's just after 9pm in Utah, and Baby Yan should currently be enjoying Saturday's lunch. It is just afternoon in her city, Lian Xian. It is so strange to think my daughter is so far away... so far away in fact that she is well into tomorrow. I remember when I was in New Zealand the novelty of this would never wear off. I could call home and have the opportunity to tell my Mom how tomorrow would be.
I have started to do a little research on Yan's birth city. From the Swallow's-eye-view of Google Earth, Lian Xian appears to be in a fertile valley, surrounded by 1200 to 2000 foot peaks. The headwaters of several rivers appear to be within a short distance from the city. It is very green and fertile area. Lian is in the northern most part of Guangdong province and I speculate that the border between it and Hunan and Jaingxi to the north is a small mountain range. Within the province, it is as about as far as you can get from the South China Sea.
And what else do I know about Lian Xian? Well, I can tell you the weather. I did a search on Google and the first six to seven listings are links to today's, tomorrow's and yesterday's weather. Could it be that the only thing to talk about it this little village in the hills is the weather? It would be nice to imagine that little Yan is in a "village" where not much is going on and all the townspeople have to discuss is whether it is going to be hot or hotter today, but in a province with a population 74,730,000 humans, I sort of doubt that is the case.
We don't know yet whether we will get an opportunity to visit this place, but I am going to try.
I think we are going to be thankful that we are in this area in the month of January. Evidently mid-summer can be sweltering.
It has been a week today, since we found out our amazing news. Now, we will travel in 4 to 6 weeks! It still is hard to believe that this little being I have a photo of beside me will soon be in my arms (probably wailing). We haven't heard anything about travel plans from our agency, but we did get one ginormous packet of info and forms we have to fill out. The paper work for adoption is never-ending. I am so thankful Val has the stamina for it.
As this big adventure looms over us, we can just take one day at a time. We learn new information from friends and fellow "adopters" about what to expect, what to take, what not to take, and why you NEED to be in business class. There are so many things we have yet to figure out, not to mention this parenthood thing.
But for now, I know one thing for certain...tomorrow in Lian Xian it will be partly cloudy and around 57.
