Little Blessings

These last 2 weeks have been tough on us. There have been both smiles and tears, understanding and confusion, hope and helplessness. But tonight something happened that was the Lord giving us, his children, a special blessing. I want to relay a silly, frivolous, wonderful, compassionate story of God's goodness.

Since we arrived in Guangzhou, and found the teeny hole-in-the-wall called Walmart, we've made several trips there with one purpose in mind: to let Eleanor play the claw arcade game. You know the one where you use a metal claw to grab stuffed animals, only to have the claw jerk so hard it knocks the animal out of its grasp before making it to the exit chute. In the U.S. we never play these because they are ridiculously expensive and virtually no chance of winning. Here, they cost 1 yuan, which is about 17 cents USD. And still virtually no chance of winning. But they are fun and put smiles on kids' faces.

A couple nights ago, Jason played the game, trying to win a stuffed Minnie Mouse for Eleanor. He picked it up and carried it to the chute. She got really excited and jumped up and down. It hit the side and bounced out. "Oh no!" she said with a sad face. 

We knew we had one more trip to Walmart to get snacks for our trip home. This morning, as silly as it was, I prayed that the Lord might let Jason win a silly stuffed animal for her to take home, but more importantly for the memory that it would bring each time she looked at it. This evening, God did just that. Of course, she was bouncing off the walls with happiness and giving this little animal gigantic bear hugs. I was fighting back tears because the Lord was reminding me He is still in control. 

We encountered things here in Guangzhou that we were not expecting. Things we would argue we were not ready for. But God is always prepared. Sometimes we just need little reminders. See you all soon!

Adoptions are final--we are family!

Here we are standing on American soil!
At the Consulate of the United States of America in Guangzhou.

So today was the last step in making our adoptions final. As of today, we are a family of 9. We are ready to jump on a plane home, but we have to wait 48 hours for the kids' visas to be printed and inserted into their Chinese passports. They are traveling on Chinese passports, but will become US citizens once we arrive in Dallas and go through immigration Friday evening. 

We are looking forward to getting home and getting the kids settled into a new routine. I'm sure we will have a lot to figure out and adjust to over the next few months, so we're eager to get started.  We'll see you all soon!

Day 14

It has been a while since our last update. We know this. We have needed some time to process. We had quite a lot of information about our daughter, making it easier to prepare our minds for adding her to the family. She has grown up in a family environment and knows what it's like to bond and love. She was also well prepared for adoption by her foster family. Things went about as smoothly as an international adoption can go. At least so far.

However, we had very little information about our son. He is 9, has lived in an orphanage his entire life, and was called a "healthy child" by the caretakers. That was about the extent of information we had until we met him on Monday. Though our adoption training prepared us well for the unexpected, experiencing things in real life has still thrown us off a bit. We have some unanticipated challenges to face with our little guy. Challenges that we don't fully understand ourselves yet, so it is hard to communicate to anyone else. 

Both Jason and I need your prayers as we assess and figure things out. Being away from home and our 5 other children for 14 days is wearing on us. Trying to parent 2 new children through a language barrier, who don't fully trust us yet, is tiring. Being in uncomfortable surroundings and eating unfamiliar food adds to our stress, but also gives us a taste of what our new children will feel when they arrive home in the US. 

Playing Hot Wheels

We are trying to lean on Christ who gives us strength. We are asking for wisdom, and we know He will give it. More updates coming when we are able! Here's a few pictures from the last several days.

In the garden at our hotel

Ever had a Japanese noodle salad?

The entrance to Wal-Mart. We thought the cab driver
 had dropped us off in the wrong place. Nope. There
really is a Wal-Mart in the basement of these apartments!

Uno has been a life-saver in the hotel!

Day 1

Today has been everything I expected, and nothing I expected all at the same time. I expected crazy, and it has been that! Our poor guide, who was supposed to meet us in the hotel lobby at 9, had to send the van driver (who does not speak English) without her. Her metro broke down and they evacuated everyone. We had to pick her up on the way to meet Ping Lei, which made us about 20 minutes late for our appointment. Then papers were flying. "Sign here with tomorrow's date." "No, this one is supposed to be today's date." "Don't forget year-month-day!" Finally, they stacked up all the papers and brought our daughter in. Since we were late, she had been waiting longer than usual in the room next door while we signed papers.

I expected her to be quiet, shy, and reluctant to meet us. Instead, she rushed over and gave us both big hugs. She couldn't wait to empty her back pack and show us all her favorite things. Since then, we've learned that she is very street-smart (which is a very good thing in China), electronically savvy (she knows her way around China's equivalent of youtube AND already figured out the password on Jason's phone by observation), and eager to go swimming (this is great bonding time for us).

Here's our first picture together, just after meeting one another this morning. Things are busy here, so we will update as we get the opportunity. Thank you for your prayers. Don't stop! This is just the beginning.