A little patience.....and a lot of love

We have arrived in Hong Kong! Yesterday was a long day....thus no post on the blog but I'm making up for it by doing two posts today. One this morning and one tonight.....and then we are on the plane to "ami guo." Yesterday we spent the morning finishing up the last of the packing and then taking a little stroll through some of the shops around the hotel. We needed some wet wipes and then just wandered around a little. We then left at 2:30 and picked up our little sweetheart's Visa and headed for the train station. It was a little crazy. There's always so many people no matter where you go but we had our guide who was wonderful and she had the attendants come get all our luggage and take care of it so that made it much less stressful. We waited a long time at the train station before we actually got on the train. We were there with some other families that had been in our group. Sandy was there with her little boy Xander. She did amazingly well without her husband and Meili just loves little Xander. Once we were on the train, it was just great. The train was nice and Meili did great. Coming into Hong Kong it was absolutely gorgeous. The mountains, ocean, etc. It was so much more beautiful than I had imagined. We met a very nice lady from Hong Kong. She was so sweet and thought Meili was such a doll. She even asked if she could take our picture. It made the ride go a little faster. She made sure we knew where the taxi station was and where the visitor line was, etc. It was very refreshing.
So next we boarded a taxi for the hotel. Sandy was at the same hotel so we got two taxis, loaded them up with our luggage and we were off. Everyone told us that mostly everyone speaks English so it's no big deal. So we got in told the taxi driver where we needed to go....he looked at us and sighed. He had to get on his radio and find someone who could speak English. Sandy's driver actually tried to drop her off at the golf course. It was quite hilarious but we both made it to the hotel pretty much uneventfully. The city is absolutely beautiful. Coming across the lit up bridges was really cool. It was neat to see everything at night. The skyline was so amazing. We definitely could've spent a few days here....but we will save that for a future visit.
On to the reason for the title of my post. Over the last 2 weeks, I have watched Russel and seen an amazing father with all the patience in the world. I have said before it's probably a good thing Meili attached with me first because I probably would not have been as patient as Russel has been. He has loved her endlessly and although discouraged at times has never once given up on her or faltered in his adoring love for her. He is always there....patiently waiting for her to come to him. We have had our wonderful beautiful moments with her....but also our setbacks when we feel like things are moving backwards. Last night was another very cherished moment. Of course during the train ride, she played with him, let him feed her snacks, etc.....mostly the usual. After we got off the train, she turned into a very funny, sweet girl.....she's got such personality!!! So as we are going through this long line for immigration, etc., she is just a waving and saying hi to everyone. She's being so cute and silly. I think there were some that wondered what we had fed her on the train. Maybe she was just a little slap happy with no nap and a long day. Anyway, needless to say, she had us in laughs.
Just to sum up a few priceless moments, she kept asking Russel for kisses on the lips which he devoured every second of. He got more kisses yesterday than I think he hoped for in the next month. As we got out to the taxi station, Russel had to go to the next taxi boarding place and I stayed behind with Sandy to make sure she got in okay, etc. As Russel moved down the line, Meili ran after him. I was just waiting for the moment when she would turn around and realize I hadn't followed and then start screaming and crying. Well, she did turn around but when she saw I hadn't followed them, she just laughed. So then she continued to run back and forth between Russel and I just laughing and being silly. It was pretty amazing.....considering there is literally not one thing that she lets me do alone. She is always right by my side. I am so grateful for Russel and the amazing job he is doing as a father. This little girl has gone through so much and she is so blessed to have such a wonderful daddy. I am so proud of Russel. I know this has not been easy for him....he wants to hold her and kiss her and love her.....but he can't and he knows if he pushes it she will just turn and run the other way so he patiently waits for her to come to him. I am so grateful to have him in my life and so grateful for the kind of father he is to our five children. I love him dearly. Thank you sweetheart for having the harder part of our wonderful time in China and for doing such an amazing job at it. Thank you for having so much patience as our little angel adjusts to her new world and mostly thank you for all the love. As we have seen....with love, miracles happen.