Kate's Homecoming

On Thursday morning, we finally reached what we missed so much after two and a half weeks away...home. Really....is there anything better than your bed? Precious little Kate was greeted by family and friends that got up early on that morning in the rain, wow. Holly & Brad, Carolin, Kelly...we love you all so much, thank you!

This trip was really hard, I'm not gonna sugar coat it. In the short time span of our the journey, we logged thousands of miles on 10 separate airplanes, stopped in several countries and states along the way toting two children under four. It nearly did us in.

Here's a funny TMI, that wasn't so funny at the time....my perfect little angel (that would be Kate that I am referring to this time)....who rarely had anything but smiles after we got to know each other in China, decided to have the mother of all meltdowns during a security checkpoint in the Guangzhou airport as we were leaving for Japan. She was terribly upset because I had the nerve to put her in the stroller earlier when she had wanted to walk, but since we needed to get past security and on to our gate to make the next flight, there was no time for dillydallying. So she was letting us HAVE IT and doing a fabulous job making it known to everyone in the airport her displeasure. When I pulled her out of her stroller at security to walk through the detector, I noticed she didn't smell too hot, so I turned her over to discover that she has poop all the way up her back.

In her battle with the stroller, she had made herself human toothpaste.

Peachy.

Holding my stinky, screaming child, I walk under the security detector, and get flagged to have one of those really fun extra security probes. Except I don't know it at the time because I don't understand Chinese and my child has poop all over her, so I walk through quickly, concentrating on finding a bathroom and move on with my life. Luckily for me, there is a bathroom less than 15 feet away, so I get to the bathroom and look up to see I have 5 Chinese security guards surrounding me as I attempt to change my daughter who is now writhing in tears and anger and definitely won't be sitting still for a quick diaper change. I realize that I am now a security risk in communist China. Really peachy.

After 15 minutes and the battle of the century, I finally get Kate cleaned up and changed. I'm sweating, worn out, embarrassed, horrified at her tantrum and wanting to pause the whole scene so I can quickly skim some chapters from a book on handling the "terrible two's" temper tantrums in public. Leah can be dramatic, but has yet to produce a performance like this, so I was totally unequipped to know what to do.

I look down to see I am covered in poop. The guards have looks on their faces that you don't need a Chinese translation book to figure out... "Ewwww....that's just gross."

I have it on my shirt, in my hair, on my body, on my pants, on my shoes...everywhere. At this point, our plane is getting ready to board in 20 minutes which begins a journey of 15 hours in a slender, silver tube with recirculating air. And I still have to go back with all my new friends and do a security check with poop all over me.

Thankfully, they made it quick.

After I got Kate changed and out of the bathroom, she instantly was her happy little self, like the last 20 minutes had not transpired. Figures. That's motherhood for you.

Enough about that, this is about Kate.

She is home and I think she knows it's for good. And after two full days of exploring her new nest, she is having the time of her life, and so are we. The next chapter has begun.












The photos above are provided by our wonderful friends, Brad & Holly.

Love's Journey

On Sunday, May 17th...Shawn, Leah, Aunt Jennie (Shawn's little sis) and I embark on a life-changing trip to bring our precious girl home. I've never asked this of anyone before in my life...but I feel like I really need to this time.

Please pray for Kate to bring her comfort, she will be frightened of her new life until the trust can set in, which can take days, months or years.

Please pray for Shawn & me, to give us the strength we need emotionally, physically and mentally, not only during this trip, but when reality sets in and we are home.

Please pray for Leah, to protect her heart, to know that love is not divided, but multiplied, and adding Kate into the fold will not diminish our adoration for her.

And lastly, please pray for everyone on that plane that sits within a 50 feet radius of an almost 4 year old with a majorly extroverted personality (and who can't sit still to save her life) on the 16 hours that we will be in the air.

Pray especially hard for that last one.

And thank you from the bottoms of our hearts--the support we've received for this adoption has been absolutely phenomenal. We are just flat humbled by your offerings to help pack, to cook meals, to mow our lawn, to give donations, to give of your time, and to give us encouragement.

We feel so blessed to know such incredible people, you've given us the gift of pure joy.

China or Bust!

Holy Cow!!!!!!

We got our travel approval today....hallelujah, praise the Lord! We are either leaving May 13th or 15th...just days from now! We're just waiting on the confirmation of our consulate appointment to determine the date, which hopefully we will know tomorrow.

For our little family, the timing of this is so significant. Shawn and I met 10 years ago on the 15th of May. We truly can't believe the adventure we've been on the past decade, I would have never dreamed this up!

Shawn had caught a very bad case of the flu that landed him in the hospital while we were making travel arrangements to get Leah, so he was not able to travel to China with me. On May 18th of 2006, he was finally able to hold her in his arms for the first time...


This is likely the same day we meet Kate.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

I think we're okay?

Iyiyi...what a roller coaster of a week. I foolishly thought this was going a slam dunk after we received Kate's referral and the fast PA, LOA...oh, silly moi!

However, at least as it stands this minute (since things are changing on the dime), it looks like we will still be allowed to travel and hopefully should receive our travel approval from China next week so we can start making arrangements to get our girl. Thanks so much for all your encouraging words and e-mails, it's been such a comfort with the uncertainty of the situation.

Happy May Day and to my fellow Kentuckians...Happy Derby...where all the beautiful people hang the first Saturday in May.

You can't make this stuff up

So.....I hugged my girl, took my walk, giggled while she sang "Best of Both World's" at the top of her lungs listening to our ipod on top of Daddy's shoulders, completely oblivious to the world. I was even feeling better as I'm watching Leah play in the sand by the playground. Life goes on.

A sweet little boy decided I looked interesting enough to stop what he was doing and come over, so I smiled and he took that as an invitation to sit down next to me. I noticed that his nose was running pretty bad, so I inched myself a little farther away from him but thought nothing of it. A few minutes later, as I was getting up to leave, he leaned over and WIPED HIS NOSE ALL OVER MY SHIRT.

I got slimed.

I mean seriously.

Now, I'm sure the reason of why this is happening to us...I'm going to come down with the pig flu.

Since it soaked through my shirt, I had to take it off in the car in the parking lot, while Shawn slathered my back in hand santizer, and I wore a dish towel home.

Yep, it was the cherry on top.

So I did get to take my bath, but I was quarantined immediately upon arrival. And since we've been all "healthy living" for a year now, the worst thing to eat in my house is this:


A big ol' whoppin' 260 calories. It's pretty darn awesome though.

I can't stop laughing. Whatever will be, will be.

Ugh.

We've been expecting our travel approval from the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) for weeks now. We were told we would travel within the next two weeks to go get Kate, but it looks like we've hit a roadblock, and I don't know if it's minor or major yet.

Our agency can neither confirm nor deny a report that CCAA is not sending TA's or referrals indefinitely until the swine flu outbreak subsides.

I'm going to hug my girl, go for a walk, take a bath and eat something really, really bad for me now.

Go now, and live.

Seven and a half years of waiting and wishing is coming to a close in just weeks. It’s been an uphill battle from the word go. I dreamed of being a mommy, Shawn needed to be a dad. A painful chapter that lasted several years included multiple heartbreaking miscarriages and countless medical procedures.

We were left broken, battered and exhausted….trying to put a round peg into a square hole….meant for a different path. Hard to accept, and a difficult chapter to close. Not realizing that these dark days were getting us ready to be the parents God needed us to be.

Just days after a lonely Christmas in 2004, we threw in the towel on having a biological child, I was done, it was time to move on. The decision was made to pursue adoption from China and immediately I started to perk up and feel God’s hand on my life again, though I know now he had never left, and in fact, guided us to this new path.

We jumped through numerous hoops, produced mounds of paperwork, opened our home to a social worker barely out of school to judge whether we were fit to be parents. Bring it on. I had a new surge of energy and was made of steel after all the battles in my life.

Eighteen long months later, Leah was placed in my arms in May of 2006. What an amazing child she is! We are absolutely crazy about her. I humbly thank God every single day for allowing us to be her forever family.



When we started the process to adopt again in October 2006, a year before Kate was born; the wait times were climbing fast. For several years, I had been promoting adoption at educational seminars which gave me the chance to learn about the waiting child program which included special needs orphans, China’s ultimate underdogs. These children needs referred would be considered relatively minor issues in the United States, but not so there, so we opened our hearts to consider a child with a special need.

In October of 2007, the same week Kate was born, we submitted our medical checklist to our agency. We were told 8-10 months until a referral from that point, but waited another 17 months. It seemed endless at times and I did have moments when I felt like it wasn’t meant to be.

Then I saw her photo for the first time.




Oh my. Her soulful eyes and beautiful smile has captured my heart and wrung it dry. But God was clearly asking us to step up to the plate and stretch ourselves again, to risk, to have faith. Kate has a visible special need, missing most of her fingers on her right hand and a few on her left.

I’ve had a top doctor recently tell me that she was a reject, that she should have been left in a field to die, to not pursue this adoption. The horror of his statements gave me extra strength that I needed to take on this new challenge.

More than ever, the adversity, the darkness and the light, Shawn and I have had in our lives makes us the perfect parents to raise her. I have peace. Yes, this precious little girl does have a noticable need, but I absolutely refuse to let it define who she is, because she is so much more than that.

She will face harsh adversity and climb mountains daily, but I know she also will show more courage and determination than anyone I’ve ever met. She is going to touch lives, and not just a few, many. She will inspire, she will teach compassion, she will do something amazing for this world.

Just wait and see.

Blessed

LOA!

Last Friday we received our Letter of Acceptance from the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and expect to travel in a month. It's so funny it took years to get to this point and now it's happening with lightning fast speed!

We will be in China almost exactly the same time that we traveled to get Leah in 2006, I had my first Mother's day there and wouldn't it be the coolest if I was there again with both my girls? Seriously, how's that for timing?

We were also fortunate to receive updated photos of our little cutie-patootie....check out that twinkle in her eye!

Her love for the camera just makes my heart sing too, she's a little ham bone! It's so rare to have referral photos with the children actually smiling. In almost every photo we have received so far, our girl is cheezin' it big time! I have no idea what that means, but it sure sounds like fun. I'll keep you posted on that.

I was in the mood for a new blog to document the journey to China to get Kate and life thereafter. Hope you like it and sorry I've made you change your blog links for the third time! :)