Home Sweet Home!

Here it is 8:00 am on Sunday morning after being up for about 30 hours straight.  Why am I up when I could be sleeping in and shaking off the jet lag??  Oh yeah...I have TWO beautiful boys laying on the floor in the family room rolling around and playing together!!  I could not be happier!  By the way...both boys thought 6:30 am would be a good time to get up today. :)

The last 48 hours were probably the most stressful and adventurous of our entire trip.  It started when the van came to pick us up at the China Hotel in Guangzhou.  We left about 2:45 pm China time.  We went to the US Consulate first so that Lily could pick up Caleb's Visa package and Immigration paperwork.  We waited in the van while she went in to pick it up.  Then we had a 3 hour ride to the hotel that is attached to the Hong Kong Airport where we would catch our flight home the next day.

However, in order to get to the hotel, we had to go through customs both going out of China and coming into Hong Kong.  I thought this shouldn't be a big deal.  When we got to the China border, we had to get out of the van and walk across the border and meet the van on the other side.  As we walked up to the customs counter, I had Caleb and both of our passports and Jeff was with Sam and had their passports.  If anything, I thought I might have trouble with Caleb's passport or visa.  But, the issue was actually with mine.  The customs official kept looking at my passport picture and then at me, then at my passport picture.  Finally he pointed to the picture and said, "Is this you?"  I said, "Yes, it's me!"  He looked again and then looked back at me and said, "This picture is too fat."  I laughed (nervously, I'm sure) and said, "Well I have lost some weight since I've been here."  He didn't laugh.  He finally stamped my passport and let us cross.  Luckily Sam and Jeff didn't have similar issues.

After we got in the van, we drove up to the Hong Kong border.  We didn't have to get out of the van, but as we approached what looked like a toll booth the van driver opened the van door and a guy with a surgical mask stepped up to the door and pointed a laser heat detecter at each of us and checked our temperature.  It was a very odd experience.  Then another official checked our documents and let us through.

When we got to the hotel, we checked in and they "upgraded" our room to a suite that was a two room suite with two bathrooms.  One room by itself was bigger than any room we had while we were in China.  Too bad we were only spending about eight hours in this room.  When we checked in, the receptionist asked us what time we would be checking out.  Since the hotel was attached to the airport, I told her that our flight left at 9:20 am, so she said that if we checked out at 7:30 am we should be OK.  We decided to check out at 7:00 am to be safe.  It took about 15 minutes to get through the check out line.  By the time we got to the airport, the line was incredibly long.  It was very disheartening.  The line moved incredibly slowly.  We kept looking at our watches and couldn't figure out how we would make it through line and to our plane in time to board.  The line was so long, that we were way outside the little straps that guide the line.  I started praying hard.  I didn't know what I would do if we didn't make our plane home.  Just as we were about to enter the line guide, a representative from Delta came up to us and said that they would be starting another line and that we would be first in that line!  God is so incredible.  After we checked in, we were able to go through a special "family" line at security and then make it through customs to exit Hong Kong.  By this time, we really had to walk fast to make it to our gate.  When we got there, we sat down for about five minutes before they called us to board the plane.

Our flight was bout 16 hours in total.  Sam and Caleb both did very well.  Caleb probably slept the most.  Sam didn't sleep until about 2 hours from our destination.  We had really nice seats and a nice young man switched with Jeff so that we could all sit together.

On our 16 hour flight from Hong Kong

Arriving in Detroit, we knew that we would be cutting it close to get through US customs and make it to our connecting flight to Dulles, but thought we would be OK on time.  We quickly made it through the first customs line pretty quickly we found out that we had to go through another special immigration line for international adoptions.  This line did not move so quickly.  There was an extremely long line and only one agent helping this "special" line.  As we stood there, the time to begin boarding our flight came and went.  Our turn finally came and we made it through immigration only to find out that we had to go through baggage claim and walk our checked luggage through customs as well.  After we did that, and re-checked our bags, we then had to go through security again before we could go to our gate.  This whole time I was praying, but had resigned myself to the fact that we had, in all likelihood, missed our plane.  However, once we made it through security, we decided to run anyway.  I'm sure we made a sight running through the airport.  Jeff running with Sam and me holding Caleb as tightly as possible (since I had to take off the baby carrier to get through security) and running as best as possible.  I couldn't keep up with Jeff and Sam, but they kept running.  It's a good thing they did because Jeff got there just before she was going to shut the door, and he was able to get her to wait for us.

In the meantime of getting through customs, Caleb thought it would be a good time to poop after not having pooped for a two days.  I knew exactly when he did it and there wasn't a thing I could do about it at the time.  Not to mention that we then ran through the airport to make it to our connecting flight.  When we finally made it to the plane and sat down, the flight attendant told me that we could use the changing table on the plane as soon as we made it in the air.  This worked out quite well.  Caleb, Sam and I were all sitting together and Jeff was sitting across the aisle.  When I got back to my seat with Caleb after having changed him Sam was crying.  When I asked him what the matter was, he said he felt like he needed to throw up.  I was able to get the barf bag out just in time to catch the vomit.  I'm sure the flight attendant on our small flight was glad for us to be off the plane! :)

When we finally made it to Dulles, it felt so good!  We decided to take our time since we felt like we had been running so much.  However, when Sam found out that we were walking to Mimi and Pawpaw, we had a hard time keeping up with him.  When we got to baggage claim, we were even OK to find out that one of our bags did not make it to the airport. (They should be delivering it to us today)  It felt so good to see Mimi and Pawpaw and Emma.  They picked us up in a limo and we were able to ride home relaxed. They brought us food and I had a Diet Dr. Pepper!! :)

After getting home, we dropped off our "stuff" and then when to Mimi and Pawpaw's for an AWESOME homemade supper.  The boys fell asleep in the car on the way home and we were all in bed by 10:00 pm.  It felt so good to be in our own bed!!

Which brings me to this morning, sitting in our family room on Sunday morning enjoying being home as a family!  As one of our former beloved pastors used to say all the time.....God is good all the time and all the time, God is Good!

Stepping Foot on US Soil for the first time.

Caleb is a US Citizen!!

One Step Closer to Home!

Today was a very special day. We had our US Consulate appointment and took an oath on Caleb's behalf so that he would become a US Citizen as soon as we step foot on US soil. It was a very simple oath, but I could hardly keep tears from streaming down my face as we repeated the words. After we took the oath, they called us up one by one to look at all of our documents. I had a moment of panic because one of our documents was not completely filled out and they would not accept it because it had already been notarized before we left the States. Fortunately, it was one that we could redo at the consulate, it just took a little bit longer. Come to find out, all of the families from America World had to redo the same document. I think it was just a miscommunication between our US Travel Coordinator and our Chinese Guide. It's all fixed now and we are completely finished with all appointments and paperwork. We weren't allowed to take a camera into the consulate, so we just took a picture of the sign outside.

 

Lily, our guide, will pick us up at the hotel tomorrow afternoon at about 2:45 and we will head back to the consulate to pick up Caleb's Visa and then we head strait to Hong Kong. So, now we have free time until we have to check out of the hotel tomorrow at 1:45. We will probably visit the pool one last time and do some last minute shopping. Then we'll pack tonight and tomorrow morning. We are so looking forward to going home!!

Gotcha Day Video Link

               

Crazy Day!!

The boys (feels so good to say that!) were really tired from traveling yesterday and they both slept in. Therefore we had a little bit of a late start. Since we didn't have time to go down for breakfast, Jeff and I decided to have a little Starbucks. :) Real coffee tasted very good! Our big appointment today was an appointment at a medical clinic to fill out all the medical forms for Caleb's US Visa application. What an experience! The picture does not do the chaos justice. We'll have to show you the video when we get home.

 

We arrived shortly before 10am. We stopped at a small baby store to have their visa pictures taken. Then off to the clinic. Since China just recently celebrated a national holiday, the clinic was extra busy with families who were adopting from China. I must say that I was amazed at the number. I would say that there were no less than 25 other families at the clinic doing the same thing we were doing.

The medical appointment consists of three parts. Height and weight, ENT check and overall check from what they call Medical and Surgical. We had to wait in line at each station. It was very loud, babies crying everywhere and hardly a place to walk. In all honesty there was not much to the visit and we didn't really glean any information from it. Caleb did not have to get any shots however because we signed a form saying that we would be responsible for getting them within 30 days of returning to the states.

After that appointment, we stopped at the Chinese Wal-Mart to pick up more diapers, formula and wipes; then we headed back to the hotel. Once there, we were able to take a walk and eat lunch before we had another paperwork appointment. While I took Caleb to work on paperwork, Jeff was able to take Sam to the pool. Sam had been looking forward to that for days.

Tomorrow we have a day of relaxation and shopping. There is a very beautiful island where the US Consulate is which has a lot of nice shops. I'm looking forward to it! We are certainly enjoying our time in Guangzhou, but are still looking forward to coming home.

Will be posting our "Gotcha Day Video" soon. Thank you for your continued prayers!

PIZZA!!

The topic of food has been a frustrating one for us. When we are with our guide, we have had some really good meals. He is able to take us to nice places and order for us. However, when we are not with our guide, getting food is very hard. It's hard to know what is good and where we should go. One of the other families told us that they had discovered a Pizza Hut. When we heard about the Pizza Hut, we knew that we would try to make it there for Sam's sake. One of the receptionists at the hotel wrote down the Chinese characters for Pizza Hut. So Jeff went with the mom from one of the other families to try and catch a taxi for us to go. As they stood out on the sidewalk, they were able to stop several taxis, but none would take us to Pizza Hut. To top it all off, it was raining outside, so they got soaking wet in the meantime. Finally the gave up and we ended up eating peanut butter and jelly in our room.

According to our guide, today is intended to be our "day off". A chance to rest and relax and do things on our own if we wanted. Since we had the extra time, we thought that we would try to walk to Pizza Hut. We set out at about 11 o'clock. We made good progress, but I'm pretty certain that we were not going the most direct route. We have become pretty used to having folks stare at us as we walk down the street. Some will even come up to us and try to ask us lots of questions in Chinese. Our adoption agency was aware of this and they gave us little cards to bring with us that described what we were doing in China and that we were adopting Caleb. As we were walking, we were approached by a couple of nice ladies who began to ask us questions. Luckily I had one of those cards in my pocket so I pulled it out to show them. Immediately the began to smile and give us thumbs up. We were somehow able to communicate that we were going to have Caleb's cleft fixed and they seemed very appreciative. Jeff decided to ask if they could point us in the direction of Pizza Hut. She got a huge smile on her face and said with a very thick accent, "aaahhhh, Pizza and coffee! Come, come..." She began walking with us and we quickly realized that she was taking us to Kentucky Fried Chicken. So, we corrected her and made sure she understood Pizza. She then brought a Police Woman over that she seemed to know and began talking with her in Chinese. They soon figured out where we should go and said we needed to get a taxi. They hailed a taxi for us and explained to the taxi driver who we were and that we wanted to go to Pizza Hut. They tried to pay him, but he wouldn't let them and we told them that we had the money. However, once we reached our destination, he would not take our money either. What an amazing gesture!

We were able to make it to Pizza Hut and had good salad and an amazing cheese pizza! It tasted so good! Sam ate several pieces. After we were finished we were able to walk back to the hotel. Even as we were walking back to the hotel, another older lady started walking with us. It's almost like these ladies were sent as our guardian angels to make sure that we were able to make it to our destinations safely.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I know that your prayers are keeping us safe and helping our trip to run smoothly. Thank you!

 

 

A Day of Sighseeing

Breakfast in China is very interesting. We eat in the hotel every morning and they set out a large buffet. The interesting part is that it looks like most other meals with the exception of a few American breakfast food items like bacon and cereal. Yesterday I was holding Caleb, so one of the hotel workers offered to help me fix my plate. They had a chafing dish of fried eggs, so I asked for one. Without asking, she immediately put soy sauce on it. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but took it anyway. It turned out to be quite good. They also had, what I call, the Chinese equivalent to mock hamburger. It was actually very good and reminded me a bit of home. I mentioned to Jeff how much I liked it and looked for it this morning. I was disappointed because I couldn't find it. So, I just filled my plate with other things and went to sit down. Before I knew it, the lady that had helped me yesterday appeared with a small plate full of my Chinese mock hamburger! I have no idea how she knew that I liked it or that I was disappointed that I couldn't find it. I accused Jeff of asking her to get it for me, but he said he had no idea. What a sweet gesture!

It was raining this morning, so the original plan to go to the zoo was changed with a plan to go to a local history museum. It was actually quite interesting and our guide, Steed, was very knowledgeable and made the tour very interesting. Next we went to the Yellow River and walked through different parts of the riverside park to see local sights. At one location there were some female army officers that were having their picture taken. All throughout our trip, locals have been fascinated with Sam and 2 other little boys that are here with one of the other families. Often there are requests to have their picture taken with them. These female army officers were no exception. They immediately called them over to have their picture taken with them.

We have two more days in Gansu and then we head out to Guangzhou where we have all of our US Consulate appointments. As interesting as this has all been, I'm ready to come home! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

 

 

Gotcha Day!!

My intention was to post our Gotcha Day blog yesterday.....but, wow...what a long, busy, emotional and exhausting day.  By the time we had a moment to sit down with the internet, we were all about ready to collapse in bed.  So now I sit in our hotel room with my three boys this afternoon after our Civil Affairs appointment this morning (and a 2 hour nap) and I'm ready to post.

Gotcha day started at 4:30am.  Not that I could have slept any longer anyway.  We had to repack our suitcases to the Chinese Domestic Flight weight limits.  We headed down to breakfast at 6am and were out to the airport to catch our flight to Lanzhou, China.  Lanzhou is the capital city of the Gansu province which is where Caleb's orphanage is.  After we boarded the plane, we waited for an hour on the runway before we took off.  As we drew closer to Lanzhou, our hearts began to pound because we knew that it wouldn't be long until Caleb was in our arms.  However, once our plane landed and we met up with our Gansu guide, Steed, it was still an hour bus ride into downtown Lanzhou.  On a side note, driving in China cities is quite harrowing!!  Steed did an excellent job filling us in on the local culture and history, but it was very hard to concentrate on what he had to say.  All I could think about is when we would see Caleb for the first time.

After arriving at our hotel, we checked in and had 10 minutes to drop our luggage and head out to the local department store to pick up last minute supplies like formula.  This store is called Vangard which is the Chinese equivalent of Wal-Mart.  Oh my!  It is a three story store which is probably 1000x more stimulating that Wal-Mart.  You have to see it to know what I'm talking about.  After searching for about 30 minutes for needed supplies, we walked back to the hotel.  We arrived at 2:45pm and were told that the babies would arrive at 3pm.  Because there were three families receiving babies, they were looking for a large place for us all to meet our new babies.  The only place available was the area outside of the elevators on the floor where our rooms are.

So, here we were, three families standing outside the elevators waiting for the ding and the opening doors.  Dads with cameras in hand, moms holding back the tears.  Then that sound of the elevator ding that caused our hearts to stop.  Out walked the orphanage director and three nannies, each holding a precious bundle.  They were all quiet, not certain what was about to happen.  Then they called our names and placed our long awaited baby in our arms.  What a moment!  It is impossible to describe.  There I am with tears in my eyes, holding my new baby boy!

The orphanage workers gave us all a rundown of the babies, their personalities and their schedules.  Caleb had all the gifts that we had sent him previously and they gave those back to us to bring home with him.  The also gave us the bottle that he typically used to eat.  We could very easily tell that Caleb had been well taken care of and that all of the babies were well loved by their nannies.  The director and nannies also presented us with a photo album that they had put together for each baby.  We presented them with gifts of appreciation as well.  It was such a precious moment.

Here is our first family photo:

We brought Caleb back to our room and had about 30 minutes to introduce ourselves before we had to head out and have our official family picture taken for completion of the official paperwork.  When we got back to the hotel, we had about 15 minutes to come back to the room and make a bottle before having to meet with our guide to sign initial paperwork.  Then we headed back to our room where our guide met with us individually to change over our money for the orphanage donations.  By the time that was said and done, we were ready for bed.  Mind you it was about 7pm.  We were able to Skype with Mimi and Amy so that they could also meet the new family addition, but poor Sam was completely worn out and had already put himself in bed.  After getting off of Skype, we were about ready to settle down for the night as well.  Caleb fussed briefly, we laid him in the crib, turned the lights out and he was fast asleep.  Believe it or not, he slept through the night, no problem and was awake bright and early at about 4:30am this morning.

Today we had our Civil Affairs appointment where all of the official adoption paperwork was completed.  We triple checked all of the documents and wrote our final signatures.  After signing the documents, we finished by placing a red thumb print on each of our signatures.  Then Caleb had to put a red footprint on several documents.  It's official!  He's ours!  Another special moment!

We exchanged email addresses with the nanny so that we can share pictures and updates after Caleb has his surgery.  Then headed back to the hotel to rest and bond as a family.  Steed is coming this evening to bring the finished paperwork.  The rest of this week will be taken up with sightseeing and shopping.  I think we may have some other official appointments throughout the week as well.  Then we'll fly out of Lanzhou on Friday and head to Guangzhou, China to have all of our US Consulate appointments.  Although I know we have a lot of important things to do, I have to admit that I would be ready to fly home tomorrow.

Things could not have gone more smoothly for us and I know that it is due to your prayers and support.  Thank you so much!  Please continue to pray for us as we complete our appointments and head home.  I'll continue to send updates and pictures.....

We're here!

We're Here!

Well, here I am sitting in my hotel room in Beijing, China and I can honestly say it hasn't fully hit me yet.  We had a long day of traveling yesterday....or should I say today....I'm a little confused.  I had a brief moment when we were about to go through Customs at the airport where it began to sink in and I got a little teary eyed, and then a Chinese security guard began herding us to the correct line and I refocused on getting through Customs and finding our ride to the airport.  

The flight to China was fairly uneventful.  Sam slept a for a while on the flight and was also very excited that he was able to watch Cars2 and Rio.  There were so many choices for him that we never even had to pull out the DVD player that we brought.  We met up with another family that is traveling with America World.  They are from Georgia and it is so nice to be traveling with them.  They brought their two sons who are  2.5 and 8 years old.  I think Sam is going to get along well with them.  We met our guide at the airport in Beijing.  She is great!  Her name is Lily and she has a lot of experience with leading groups with America World Adoption Agency through Beijing.  She told us that she goes to the orphanage where Caleb is often and helps out.  She said that she likely helped him "get checked in" at the orphanage when he was a newborn.  She told us that it is a very nice orphanage that recently built a new facility and has a very kind director and nannies.

It is about 5:30am here currently.  We head down to breakfast at 7:30 and then leave at 8:30 for Tienneman Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.  We're in for a busy day.  Then we have an early Sunday morning flight to Gansu where we will meet Caleb for the first time.  Gotcha Day!!  Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon.  I can feel your prayers and it really means a lot.  Please keep them coming.

Pinch Me!

In about 12 hours from now we will be leaving for the airport to head for China!  God certainly works in mysterious ways!  Just two weeks ago today, I was writing on my blog in frustration and discouragement because we hadn't received word about when we might travel.  Less than a week later, five days to be exact, I get phone call from our travel coordinator asking if we could be ready to travel in a week in a half.  I just need to remember that God has our best interests in mind and as hard as it is to do, sit back and let him do his thing.  Today, one of the other mothers on an adoption listserv that I belong to posted to following text:

 "I am still confident of this:
       I will see the goodness of the LORD
       in the land of the living.
 Wait for the LORD;
       be strong and take heart
       and wait for the LORD."
                         Psalm 27:13-14
This brings me back to the control and patience issues that I have written about previously in my blog.

Also, as we prepare to leave tomorrow, I can honestly say that I feel your prayers.  I think I can speak for Jeff and say that we are overwhelmed and extremely appreciative of all the love and support that has been expressed to us.  Jeff took these pictures earlier today...cards of encouragement and support.

Thank you so much for everything.  Next time I post it will be with pictures of our new son!