an amazing homecoming; an amazing first day

absolutely one of the best parts of an adoption journey is walking down the long corridor of the indianapolis airport knowing your family and friends are as anxious as you are to spot each other :)  love that!  sam and hannah were holding hands and walking ahead of sarah, lydia, and me.  i told them they could take off, and take off they did!  and i've been told hannah ran straight to find her baba (daddy :)

thank you dani, amy & crew, melissa & crew, tammy, becki & crew, sandy & crew, teri & mike, sarah, kathy, britt & crew, care bear & tobi, bri & brandon, lydia, and robin for seriously making it the most crazy awesome homecoming ever!  greg and i were blown away at the gift you gave us that night; we will never ever forget it....

our first day home went better than i (and you :) probably even prayed for.  hannah has hit the ground running and not looked back.  i know that she knows that this is home.

phoebe and hannah became quick friends.  phoebe has completely stepped up to the plate and enveloped and loved her.  i think this was the 'therapy' phoebe needed.  when you have several kids within a close age range, natural friendships happen -- sometimes based on age, sometimes personality, sometimes things that don't appear obvious.  i see God's hand all over this now.  it didn't play out like i imagined ("exceedingly abundantly above what i could think or imagine").  sarah and lydia have long been good buddies (a case of opposites attracting in many ways).  i had concerns that hannah would change that in a 'three's a crowd way'.  instead, hannah is a much better match for phoebe in size and maturity.  i realize it is way too early to predict how things will play out, but i have a hunch that these two were destined for each other :)  as mom to a kiddo whose heart has been indelibly smashed like phoebe's has, you have no idea how much joy this brings me.  hannah is a gift to all of our family and especially phoebe.  God knew :)

from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for the love and support you have shown us.  love poured out.  you, sweet friends, are exceedingly abundantly above what i could think or imagine.

love from home.  xoxoxo

.... and thanks to my precious sister deb for standing in my blogging gap :)

at least we will remember sarah's 10th birthday

sarah started her birthday puking and running a high fever. spent the day in bed.  she ended her birthday with hannah puking in the van all the way from guangzhou to hong kong from extreme motion sickness (remember her filling barf bags on our first flight a week ago?)

gives new meaning to "party till you puke" huh?  sorry, couldn't resist :)

pray us home please....

ps.  actually sarah's birthday ended at 10:00 with Alex stopping by the airport as we were checking in :) and singing 'happy birthday' to her.  love that man...

countdown

a friend, sarah, has been sending me daily prayers.  they have strengthened me greatly.  today's was for our transition back to home.  that was nice to see :) and will be much needed.  it is so easy to think this is the end of the journey ... and then i realize she hasn't even met half the family :).  everybody will shift positions, sibling relationships will be altered, more room will be made at the counter :).  a new normal will eventually fall into place.  coming home will find us walking that fine line of 'keeping it real' with those few folks that are your inner circle and 'keeping it what you hope it will become' with the rest of folks whom you couldn't or wouldn't share everything :) and that folks is why the adoption community is a tightly knit group.  they are a safe place.

i distinctly remember being at the airport again three days after getting home with abe and lydia (for a friend's adoption homecoming).  i plastered a smile on my face but was a mess inside.  i was thinking that i, with eight kids in tow, would never be able to leave the house again :).  in the beginning, being in public is where it is tough for me.  grace, jan.  let His grace be enough and don't focus on others' expectations.

consulate appointment, check.  completely uneventful and strikingly similar to being at the BMV with hyped up security :) and our finale (!!!!) was the pearl river riverboat cruise.  the buildings along the river go on and on and on.  and on.  and on.  the sheer volume of people here is just staggering.  1.4 billion about with india closely behind at 1.1 billion.  and way way way behind those two is the USA at 400 million - 1 billion less than here.  and most of them are without The Savior.  if you would right now, please say a prayer for paul and ben (our bellboy buddies in nanchang) and linda and joanne (alex's friends).  all of them know of Him, but don't know Him.... yet :)

see the needle-like top of the rainbow lit skyscraper?  it is the tallest building in china right now.  and if i heard our guide correctly, you can bungee from it!!!  not sure which is crazier?  this or the tiger trainers?  {{ i laughed at your comment yesterday, kathy.... about not being in my natural habitat :).  you nailed it! }}

we are up early to do our first breakfast buffet at this hotel -- it is $125 for us to have breakfast (do i hear a collective "ouch!"?).  it is sarah's 10th birthday so we are splurging :).  then off to shamian island to do a little shopping since i was in nostalgic lalaland last time and didn't have a plan whatsoever.  actually i still don't have one, but whatever :)

and then we head back to pack (!!!!!!!!), get a group photo, pick up child's visa (!!!!!!!!), and head to hong kong for an early flight thursday morning to home (!!!!!!!!).

love from guangzhou one last time :).  xoxo

koalas, pandas, tigers

the safari park was good, but hard.  i have a tough time seeing animals not living in their natural habitat.  i know, i know...call me pollyanna.  so, the positives -- the wide variety of animals were amazing and God was showing off in some of these species.  utterly amazing the details He attended to to ensure they have exactly what they need to survive.  and seriously, is there anything cuter (other than your kids :) than a panda or koala?!!  there are also in this park 200 white tigers of the 500 in the world.  beautiful creatures.

watching them perform however was... what words to describe?  sad?  scary? they looked healthy for sure. but also afraid, extremely hot, mad even?  can you imagine being in a small pen with 11 unhappy tigers?  me either.

the first week my whining focused on time crawling.at.a.snail's.pace.  so this week, let us change our focus to the heat :).
oh.my.goodness.i.can't.adequately.describe.it.so.i.won't.even.try.

but the whining won't be outdone because the praises are countless!!!  the newest ranger for one :)  {{and can i just brag for a minute?  after each animal exhibit, there just happens to be a gift shop.  think probably 10 shops with gazillions of stuffed animals and assorted paraphernalia (they were open to the outdoors, but had AC so it's not like you wanted to avoid them :).  hannah didn't ask for one stinking thing, thank you very much:) }}  back to name just a few of the praises i'm always aware of -- other than sarah's weird allergy thing, no one has been sick here or at home!  can i get an amen?!!  and we've made amazing new friends; been shown amazing hospitality by alex and company; stayed in amazing hotels with amazing beds, pools, and showers; have an amazing sister who is retyping and posting every blog post for me; and have amazing friends back home praying and staying in touch!  honestly, it has been an amazing trip!  so, why have i whined?  because i'm a brat.  can you be a brat, but still be grateful?  because i am both :)

tomorrow is consulate day!  stay tuned for the soon-to-be cutest American citizen in a crazy cute pink chinese outfit (and it cost all of $8!!!).

lots of love from guangzhou.  xoxoxo

Holy is the Lord

there is nothing quite like being in another country and worshiping with believers.... every culture praises in different styles but the Focus is the same and it is awesome to be part of it.  this church is a bi-lingual service meaning it lasts twice as long:) but it is so very worth it!  when the first song (sung in english) was "holy is the Lord, God Almighty, the earth is filled with His glory.... and TOGETHER we sing, EVERYONE sing,".... i felt completely undone.  at home, i have never once raised my hands in praise and today there was no way i was keeping them down!  it felt so freeing to show Him love in this way :).  i hold back at home feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable.  i truly don't know why.  has anyone else felt like this before?  it made me realize i keep my focus on myself instead of Him....

shopping was as fun as i was sure it would be:).  i gave sam, sarah, and lydia each 200 RMB (about $30) so they could make their own decisions and bargains :)  sam and lydia spent every penny on siblings and friends.  they were so cute going through every person and searching out the perfect item.  made my heart happy that they understood the joy of giving.  it is way more fun to give!

hannah is in the period of showing me every.single.item by calling "MOMMY!!!!"  my ratio of 'no' to 'yes' was about 415,547:1.  is there hope she will see a pattern?!

sarah had a funky allergic reaction to something in the first shop (before church where we dropped off laundry).  my guess is that it was a pregnant cat that she was petting forever (she could have cared less about looking at the stuff because of the cat :).  she tells me she can't stop scratching her face and then i realized the rash was everywhere.  thank God a mom had one Benadryl and within 30 minutes it was better enough that we felt like church was doable.  she has never had that happen before so maybe chinese cats have something ours don't :).  sandy and teri - learn from me and bring lice treatment and allergy medicine :(

time to eat and swim :).  big (code:  long and hot :) day tomorrow at the safari park and i hope it promises what everyone raves about.  being the ginormous animal lovers that we are, i can't imagine we will be disappointed....

love from guangzhou for only 72 more hours!!!!!  happy dance :)  xoxo

divine appointment

i'm so excited!  time has been zipping along at normal speed!!!!  since i wrote last, we've said our bittersweet farewells to lisa and nanchang, had hannah's first plane ride (and subsequent filling of barf bags), gotten settled into guangzhou, completed the medical examination, eaten mexican with chinese waitresses :) and had the complete blessing of ministering to a mom who needed a divine appointment.  you know the times when you do something that you wouldn't normally do?  and only later do you realize it was a prompting of the Holy Spirit?  i don't mean that to sound all spiritual or holy or anything smacking of 'me' because honestly i know i had nothing to do with it.  if i would have had anything to do with it, it wouldn't have happened.  i hope that some part of that made sense because it was really a beautiful thing that God allowed me to be a part of.  a deeply hurting mom and a mom (me) who recognized herself in this mom's pain.

do you not love the wine vending machine in the lobby of the health clinic?!  (nice transition of paragraphs...LOL!)

broke my heart today as hannah struggled with even her 'good' right eye to see the eye chart from just a short distance away.  my guess is that her vision is really crummy in the right eye and i pray glasses will open up a new and brighter world for our sweet girl.  love her to pieces and realizing each day how easy of a transition we've had so far....

our friendship with julie and brian has been so gooooood.  he's a man's man, funny, adventuresome (which is great for a sissy wink like myself who wouldn't venture far :).  they have been an amazing blessing to the kids and me.

phoebe texted me her weight today -- 55 lbs.  hannah packs it in at 42 :)  not even kidding when i say i carry her on my hips like a toddler.  crazy!

calling it a (good) day because we are up early to go to church on shamian island and then shopping :):):).  i'm not even a shopper outside of amazon and walmart, and i'm excited for the nostalgic trip :)  it so much symbolizes china adoption.  it is your reward for a year long accomplishment of paper-chasing insanity!!!

i know we are in the home stretch and it is easy to let us fall off your prayer radar :), but i hope you will continue until we a safely on home soil;  i thinking they are what has carried us this far.

love from guangzhou.  xoxoxo

safely in guangzhou