A Peek at the Peeks

Once Upon a Fall

2012-01-12T13:01:00.001+08:00

I found these pictures I never got around to posting last fall. It was my attempt to get pictures of the boys frolicking in fall-like fashion. But then my camera & I got in a fight, I told it how much I wanted to upgrade (does anyone have a spare several thousand dollars lying around for me?), and ended our session with zero shots of Sam. Oh well. Such is life.

Well, that was fall. Where coats were optional. Where going out didn't involve so many stinkin' accouterments. Where random strangers didn't seem so compelled to approach my kids to "help" me by pulling their hoodies over their heads. Now this is how we roll (when we do go out at all, which, to be honest, isn't all that common!):

Layers, layers, and more layers. In order for children to qualify as warm in this country, you not only have to make them look warm but feel warm. And I don't mean feel as in you're not shivering and your fingers aren't numb. I mean you have to make sure your children are ready to be squished by a passerby and that they will find sufficient layers. Otherwise, your kid is cold.

I once heard a story a few years ago that I would never have believed unless I lived here. The story goes that there was a child in our city who was accidentally drug behind a moving car down a busy street. I wouldn't believe this story unless I He survived the incident unscathed. Why? Because he was dressed in so many layers that he just bounced along. That is what it means to feel warm.

So are we counting down the days to our warm getaway to the sunny south in a week? Are we looking forward to the Texas winter we will be enjoying in a month? Yes, yes, I think you could say that we most definitely are!

Crazy Times, I Tell Ya

2012-01-09T21:09:00.000+08:00

Crazy, fun times were had by all on this side of the globe the past few days. On Saturday, Kevin & I whisked away to the fancy-schmancy Hyatt they just build in town. It was like living in the lap of American luxury for 24 hours--my first workout in weeks (while watching some weird show called The Dog Whisperer on National Geographic), a bath AND a shower with hot water that lasted through both of them (I think I beat my regular weekly bathing quota in the matter of a day), English TV (because who doesn't want to spend their anniversary being further enlightened on the turmoil in Dagestan?), and Papa Johns pizza delivered to my door (and Kevin even got the thin crust because he loves me a lot). We split the boys and left them in the care of the most amazing, most servant-hearted friends a set of parents could ask for. It was our first night away from the little buddies, and word on the street was that they both did great. If this picture says anything at all, I'd say that just about sums it up accurately.

Thus concludes the only picture you will see on this post because the rest is just a summary of the craziness that ensured after departing from our little get-away. Thirty minutes after returning home, our social worker arrived from Shanghai for our 6 month adoption post-placement meeting. 6 months?!?! Has it been that long already? 6 months of squishy cheeks & big bellies, 6 months of a lot less free time & a lot more laughter, 6 months of striving to create a home & attitude toward my family that exudes joy in the gospel. We've loved it so much we figured we'd just go ahead and add on another little person...

Our meeting with our social worker went great. We love her, and it's more like spending time with a friend than with someone who has the authority to determine your fitness as a parent. Perhaps if I was a little more intimidated by this reality, I wouldn't start as many statements with, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this but..." Because we've all let our children almost fall off the platform at the train station, right?

Monday was another "festive" day for the Peek clan. Once a year, we have to go to a government office to apply to extend our residence permits. It really could be worse because lots of ex-pats are forced to leave the country every 90 days. No thank you. I'll take a day in a government office over packing suitcases and trucking children to the airport. And that's exactly what it took...an entire day! We spent two hours there in the morning, only to find out that what they wanted for the boys did not exactly exist. I wish I could tell you the details of it all (well, you probably don't wish I could because you'd most likely find it incredibly boring) but I was too busy chasing one baby, entertaining another, and answering questions from curious onlookers such as, "So do you perm your baby's hair?"

But my marvelous husband and our superhero local friend Lynn figured out everything we needed in order to legally remain in this country for another year. The only downside was that I had to bring the boys back up to the government office later that afternoon by myself. Can I just emphasize the "by myself" part? Oh how I'm looking forward to American when I can just walk my little people to my driveway, snap them in a car seat, and zip off to my destination! No more strapping one baby in the Ergo (over my ever-increasing belly I might add!) and walking the other down a moderately safe alley in order to find a taxi. Nevertheless, we made it, took care of what needed to be done, and caught the bus home.

Kevin will be gone tomorrow in another city to take his final language exam (go, hubs, go!), so I get to be solo-mama all day long. As my racing bibs from yesteryear used to read: Go, Beck, go!

Maybe things will slow down sometime soon...who knows but it sure is a fun & wild ride!

6 Years Later...

2012-01-07T14:18:00.001+08:00

...and I'm still this happy...

...still this smitten...

...still love looking up, up, up into the face of this man...

...and still love me a little of this too...

(Yes, for all of you who weren't fortunate to attend our shindig of a wedding, that is a stool I'm standing on. My maid-of-honor & I had hidden a little wooden stool on stage so when our pastor, Oren, pronounced us man & wife, all I had to do was scurry on top of it to make our first married kiss a little less awkward. Because, as we all know, there is nothing awkward about kissing a man while standing on a stool. Nothing at all.)

This is still my favorite picture from our wedding because I find it to be so symbolic of what we want our marriage to represent. We want everything about us--where we live, the children we raise, the way we treat one another, the decisions we make, how we spend our money--to be framed by Christ. We believe it's only in this way can we love life & each other to the full and make Jesus look good to all around us. I hope & pray that as this next year of marriage is upon us, we can continue to learn how to do that better & better.

Happy 3rd China-versary!

2012-01-05T15:23:00.000+08:00

Today marks the three year anniversary of our new life in China. Three years.

Three year since we said goodbye to family, friends, and Jason's Deli.

Three years since I drug my marathon-weary legs through multiple airports. (Though I will still contend that it was not a mistake to run that race three days before leaving.)

Three years since everything we owned in the world fit inside these suitcases:

Three years since I gloried over successfully making my first "real" meal in my new kitchen--naked, baked chicken, steamed broccoli, and a big hunk of bland bread served on paper plates. Funny how our diet hasn't diverged all that much since then...

(I know I look a bit "rough" in this picture but if it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then you get the idea of how "rough" it is to transplant your life internationally!)

Three years since surgeons on bikes & pee puddles in the elevator were a shocking sight...

Three years of learning, growing, changing, my worldview shifting, my comfort stretching, my awareness of our Father's great care deepening. Yes, it has most certainly been a very good three years.

And to maintain tradition, I'll leave you with the highly anticipated, world renowned, widely acclaimed...

Top 10 List of How You Know You've Living in China for Three Years

10. The more your language develops, the more you realize you know nothing at all. Like when you call the store up the street and ask them to deliver bread and they bring you donuts.

9. Nevertheless, when trying to hold a conversation with non-Chinese speaking Americans, your speech is still punctuated with awkward pauses in an attempt to search for the correct English word.

8. You use your kids' Chinese names to address them as much as you use their English names.

7. You feel a need to tighten the purse strings when your weekly grocery budget exceeds $50.

6. Your husband's choice breakfast consists of Chinese gruel and bread purchased off the street.

5. You can't sing, hum, or even identify a single Justin Bieber song (and would be pretty pleased if things stayed that way).

4. Since you've spent the entirety of this new decade outside of America, you're not 100% sure how to pronounce say it in English. Do you say two-thousand-twelve or two-thousand-and-twelve or twenty-twelve?

3. Your driver's license has long since expired, and your free time has recently been devoted to studying the Texas Drivers Manual in order to reclaim said license.

2. The phrase "Expect Nothing, Appreciate Everything" has become a benchmark to your life.

1. There is still no place you'd rather be than where you're supposed to be.

Proof that Pregnancy Brain Exists

2012-01-03T21:08:00.003+08:00

The busyness of Christmas has passed. The tree has been put away. The house is starting to have some order again. There aren't dozens of people streaming through. The boys are getting solid naps & full nights of sleep. And this mama now has a chance to look back at the craziness of it all and wonder how I stayed sane. There were moments, I will confess, where things weren't so pretty. One in particular, which is definitive proof that there is a connection between what's going on in my belly and what's going on upstairs.

It is not uncommon for random Chinese people to contact us out of the blue during Christmas and ask us to throw a Christmas party for them. We're more than happy to oblige, and we had seven eager college girls with us to help with those very things. One such opportunity came about on Christmas Eve. A week or so before (because that's how planning & scheduling go on this side of the world), I agreed to put together a Christmas program for 40 kids that would be held at a KFC 10 minutes from my house. With a few college girls tagging along to help, I figured it would be a tame morning. We planned to tell the Christmas story, sing a few songs, do a few crafts, play a game or two--we even had centers designed to control the madness. It was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be fun.

But then pregnancy brain kicked in.

Kevin also had a commitment outside the house the morning of the program, so we figured we would each take a kiddo with us. I didn't plan to stay long since both of the boys were a bit snotty and would have benefited from a quiet day at home. As I was getting Sam ready to go, Kevin asked me to which KFC I was headed. I answered him quite confidently, to which he inquired if that was the one at the university city an hour away from our house. Thus began a flurry of texts with the guy in charge of the party (who in fact confirmed that Kevin was right about the location), waking up the college girls with a frantic phone call exhorting them to get in a cab NOW, and begging a friend to come over last minute to keep our boys so I didn't have to drag them along.

I raced out the door, found a cab, and breathed a sign of relief as a nestled in the back, somewhat looking forward to the hour plus ride without a child climbing all over me. But then I got the phone call from the college girls saying their taxi driver seemed clueless about where to go. I handed the phone to my taxi driver, who attempted to give detailed instructions to their driver. When their driver still didn't seem to get it, my driver offered to wait for them in order to lead the way. So despite the fact I was already running late, I sat on the side of the road for 15 minutes waiting for the other cab, while my driver offered kind exclamations such as, "That driver is stupid to death! (Loose translation) Do you understand what I'm saying?" Yes, dear driver, I most certainly do.

Finally, we were off and, true to expectation, we arrived about an hour later. Our host, a vibrant, young Chinese guy who had chosen the English name Luck, met us on the street. He led us to the KFC, where two kids were waiting to welcome us by shooting fake snow in our faces. I was trying so hard not to inhale for the sake of our little Lao San that it took a few moments for the shock of what lay before me inside the KFC to truly set in.

We were told 40 students but the ENTIRE restaurant was filled with screaming, Santa-hat wearing, camera-wielding Chinese kids, who were more than excited to see a real, live foreigner. That's when we knew that we would never be able to pull off our centers.

The morning went by in a blur as Luck reappeared wearing a Santa suit complete with a scraggly beard. It was somewhat difficult to take cues from him in that get-up but the party went on. We attempted to tell the Christmas story, attempted to talk about American Christmas traditions, attempted to sing some songs, attempted to play a game...are you picking up a theme here? At one point, the KFC kicked us out into the parking lot in freezing temperatures, where we joined in on a choreographed dance performed by a KFC employee. Good times were had by all, and then we went home. For some reason, Luck & his colleagues were so appreciative of the terrific program we put on. All we really did was show up and be foreign but that counts for something around here!

Pregnancy brain convinced me I knew where I was going. Even though I know that I know that I know where the university city is and that it is no where close to our house, pregnancy brain believed otherwise. Pregnancy brain took what was supposed to be a laid back morning and turned it into a stressful situation. But as Kevin comforted me on the morning of, I'll look back at it later and laugh. He was right. I'm laughing now, and I hope that maybe you are too!

2011 Year in Review

2012-01-01T22:24:00.000+08:00

2011 has come and gone. Another new year. Another chance to look back at our Father's goodness to us in the year passed. If I could choose a theme verse for our family this year, it would be Joel 2:25-27:

I will restore to you the years

that the swarming locust has eaten,

the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,

my great army, which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

and praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you.

And my people shall never again be put to shame.

You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.

And my people shall never again be put to shame.

2011 was a year of unprecedented blessing for us. Welcoming two sons into our family, carrying a healthy pregnancy 20 weeks so far, becoming more & more comfortable in our China life...the Lord's gracious hand has certainly been evident in our lives. I think that 2011 has been so sweet because 2009 and 2010 were filled with a lot of struggles. The babies we grieved, the cultural barriers we seemed to smack into everyday, the arduous task of "recreating ourselves" in order to figure out how to do this ex-pat thing...not easy. Against the backdrop of the difficulties of the past two years came the restoration of this year. But what I've learned is that just because something is not easy does not mean that it is not good. Our struggles, just as much as our blessings, are from the Lord so that we can praise Him more and know that there is no one else but Him. During those dark days, His goodness to us did not shift or change. The blessings of this past year do not make Him a "better" God. In fact, I doubt we'd appreciate the gifts of today without the trials of yesterday.

I know that the promises of Joel haven't yet been fulfilled. Joel is speaking of a future day when Christ returns and all that is wrong in the world will be healed. But in a small way, 2011 reminded me to hope and reminded me to long even more for that day when true restoration comes.

So here are a look at the many happenings of 2011...

Celebrated 5 fab years of marriage to this dude

Listened to my last chorus of "Niao, niao!" ("I have to pee!") from my pre-school English students as we finished the last semester of classes

Good times were had during a rockin' visit from a dear friend

Actually stayed in country for the celebration of Chinese New Year & Lantern Festival (and, to be honest, despite the craziness of it all, I liked it!)

Took a solo trip to a nearby beach city (which, in hindsight now from my mama perspective, was pretty darn awesome)

Celebrated my friend Lynn's wedding

Said a whole lot of goodbyes...

to local friends...

to American friends...

to American neighbors

Said a whole lot of hellos...

to my babies...

to our growing family...

to our growing-some-more family...

and to a set of new American friends

Enjoyed my babies' early days vicariously through other peoples' pictures

And then got to bring them home and enjoy them every single day...

Had a wild ride getting introduced into motherhood, including Sami's seizure issues and a subsequent three week stay in Thailand

Played beach bum with the fam for three weeks in Hawaii so the boys could become official Americans (instead of just the fake kind)

Celebrated birthdays

Celebrated. That pretty much sums up the year: celebrated.

Man, I Needed That

2011-12-28T15:29:00.000+08:00

So in my last post, I said that there weren't any present under our Christmas tree. Let me just go ahead and clarify, lest you think we're anti-presents (we're not). It's kind of hard to time international shipping, so sometimes the boxes come before Christmas. Sometimes they don't. This time they didn't. My parents are waiting to do Christmas presents when we're back in the States in February. As for our family...well, I'll just give the excuse that the boys are still really little and don't really care much about presents. In fact, their favorite toys recently are my dryer (which, yes, resides in the living room) and my broom. I'll just go ahead and let them entertain themselves with the free things we already own than stress out over buying them new stuff. For now, at least.

But back to Christmas presents...I found out a few weeks ago that some of our favorite people of all time, Brad & Carrie V, had to make a trip up to Beijing to renew their son's passport. Since we're but a short train ride from Beijing, I created a master plan for a rendezvous. I pitched my plan to Kevin sort of like this:

Me: I know what I want for Christmas.

Kev: You don't get a present this Christmas.

Me: Ha, ha. No, really, I know what I want.

Kev: No, really, you don't get a present. Do you remember your expensive new lens you got for your birthday? You said it would count as your birthday & Christmas present.

Me: Drat, that does sound like something I would say...

Nevertheless, we decided it would be worth it to spring up to Beijing for less than 48 hours to hang out with these rockin' folks. We stayed at some Beijing friends' super-fancy apartment (seriously, it's like Pottery Barn fell out of the sky in the middle of China) and ate some pretty tasty Tex-mex. I know what you're thinking...decent Tex-mex in Beijing? Well, it is true that I'm not the best judge since I've been away from Texas for quite some time and didn't even really care about Tex-mex while I was there, but I will say that this preggo tummy was very happy indeed. Plus, they sell Diet Dr. Pepper, so what could possibly be wrong with a meal like that?

And oh how glad we are that we went! These are the kinds of friends who ask questions. Real questions. And don't let you get away with anything but honest answers. These are the friends whose family convinced us that we could take the first step toward adoption. These are the kind of friends whose intentionality about life makes you think twice about the decisions you're making. These are the kinds of friends who make you want to love Jesus more. These are the kinds of friends who make you laugh until you might cry. These are the kinds of friends that make it worthwhile to drag two babies along on a multi-hour trip and not regret it for a second. So very thankful for friends like these!

Our Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T20:11:00.000+08:00

I wish I had some festive pictures to post of our Christmas, but it didn't exactly go as expected. We had originally planned on joining some of our dear local friends to celebrate Christmas morning and then pass out some goodie bags to our market & street seller friends. But after a week jam-packed with parties, events, and lots of people, both boys woke up a sneezy, snotty mess. Not only that but Kevin had some serious stomach issues (probably because he ate a chicken head the night before). So our Christmas morning merriment involved my husband comatose in bed, my two sick babies (one of whom has decided he'd rather not take a morning nap anymore), and five loads of laundry that needed to be done for the college girls that are visiting this week. To add insult to injury, a good friend of mine butt-dialed me (you know, when you accidentally bump your cell phone and inadvertently place a call), and I could hear her merry voice on the other end doing the exact things that I wanted to be doing at that moment.

But God is good. So very good. Instead of wallowing in a "failed" Christmas, He reminded me of that little baby in a manger. The one who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). On Christmas, I got to share in the heart of Christ by serving my family & our visitors. There wasn't a present under our tree this year but this sweet reminder of Christ & Christmas was quite enough for me.

Micah's 2nd Birthday

2011-12-24T16:14:00.000+08:00

November seems to be the month of birthdays for our family. Micah turned 2 on the 19th. Equipped with my boxed cake mix and can of icing from America, I actually managed to put together a cake in the near proximity of his birthday.

I'm not exactly sure why but I attempted to make a layer cake. For most of you, that's not a big deal at all, but for this pastry-impaired mama (as if you could even call boxed cake a pastry!), it's a pretty fantastic feat. No one in my family particularly likes icing so why I deemed it necessary to add an extra layer of the sugary glue in addition to an extra layer of hard work still remains unclear. The truth of the matter is that I wanted to put a little bit more effort into his cake rather than just dumping the mix in a 9x13 pan. And this is what I came up with:

Yes, the cars most certainly came straight from the toy box in an attempt to cover up the crumb-filled icing and uneven surface. But you can't even tell the difference, right?

Micah certainly couldn't. My cake's less-than-stellar appearance didn't deter his eating ability in the slightest.

Another confession: we actually opened his present first and then did cake because I forgot to charge the battery for our video camera. But I'll post the pictures as if we actually observed typical birthday party chronology.

We're not terribly big present people in our family but I felt kind of bad not giving the kid anything for his birthday. Kevin said he wouldn't remember but I surely know that I would. So I gave myself a $10 budget at the Honolulu Wal-mart and was pretty pleased to find the combination of two of his life's greatest pleasures: Elmo & cell phones.

So now I've got a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and one on the way. It's a blessed craziness, I tell ya!

Polynesian Cultural Center

2011-12-22T16:50:00.000+08:00

Our final adventure in Hawaii was to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I'll be honest that I was a little wary because they have places like this in China where they showcase several of the country's minority groups. It's a little bit like a people zoo. In my opinion, that's is weird.

This place, on the other hand, wasn't weird. It was beautiful (as most all things are in the great state of Hawaii) and entertaining. The boys did great all day, even during the evening show we attended.

I've been trying to study this picture on a regular basis with Micah so he can learn the names of our family members. (That's just one of the things you have to do when you live far away.) At this point, however, he just wants to point out everyone's shoes. Sigh. Oh when, my son, will you learn the family is far more important than footwear?

So that concludes our Hawaiian adventure. We flew out from Honolulu, spent the night in Seoul, and then made it home. It's not America but it's still home for now.

A Big Day for Big Little Brother

2011-12-20T12:43:00.000+08:00

Around our house, we call Sami 大弟弟, which is pronounced Da Di Di and translated to Big Little Brother. Big as in size and little as in birth order. If you ever have the opportunity to be up close & personal with the boys, you'll quickly understand why. Poor Micah is in the negative range for height on the growth chart, and Sam is...well, he's not a small kiddo.

Though small he is not, he hit a big milestone in Hawaii on November 1: his first birthday. Albeit several days late, I managed to make him a cake for the occasion (you can blame your little brother/sister for that one, Sam).

Here's the play-by-play of Sam's first piece of cake:

The Anticipation

The Inspection

The Sampling

The Approval

The Diligence

The Reckless Abandonment

The Enrapture

Happy birthday to our big little brother!

18 Weeks on the 18th

2011-12-18T22:53:00.000+08:00

I have to admit that it is a very odd experience dealing with a first pregnancy that is in fact my third child. Probably because of the craziness of having two kids, I don't think I'm very good at being pregnant. I most likely don't rest enough, spend too much time on my feet, don't eat the protein I should, and certainly have neglected to take any belly shots until my 18th week. Oh well. That's just like a third child, isn't it?

But the good news is that I've reached week 18 (on December 18th no less). Everything seems to be progressing quite nicely and I'd like to say that I've moved on from the pregnancy fluffiness to have a bone fide baby bump. The verdict is still out when it comes to my Chinese friends though. My butcher told me last week that I looked skinnier. Our landlord told me I looked fatter. Not pregnant. Fatter. But that's a pretty common remark from people around here. I had to quit getting offended a long time ago.

The verdict is also still out on the gender of our Lao San (that's how you delineate the 3rd child in Chinese). According to Chinese wives tales, if you're craving salty, then it's a boy. Spicy means it's a girl. Well, if anyone has ever eaten popcorn with me, you know that it doesn't take a baby to make me want salty food. So on one hand it's a boy. But the Chinese also say that if you have a dream that the baby is one gender, then it means the baby is actually the other gender. My dreams would indicate I'm having a girl. Either way, we'll be thrilled. Our plan is to find out when we're in Thailand next month since it's not standard procedure in China for doctors to tell you.

In other news, our Christmas craziness officially kicked off this weekend. My marathon weekend involved an overnight house guest, an all-morning baking extravaganza, picking up seven extraordinarily excited college visitors from the train station, helping them exchange money & get checked into their hotel, buying a block of cheese in order to break a 100 kuai bill so I could take the bus home, and then hosting a 3 hour party. And that was just Saturday!

In classic Becky-in-the-kitchen form, I burned my snickerdoodles. And I put too many on the cookie sheet so they all ran together and looked like squares. I really only make cookies once a year so it shouldn't surprise me that something would go wrong. Did that stop me from serving them? No, it did not. Do I feel bad about it? No, I most certainly do not.

My crowning achievement, if I may say so myself, was my Christmas tree cake, suggested by my oh-so crafty friend Rachel. Just bake a cake, dye some frosting green, give it some sprinkle fun, and slap on half a Snickers bar for a trunk. The cake was inhaled by our guests in about 3 and a half minutes. I even saw one girl walk off munching on the trunk, which elicited Meg Ryan's voice from "You've Got Mail" chiding Tom Hanks at a party: "That is a garnish! You're eating the garnish!"

We loved hanging out with some dear Chinese friends and meeting new ones as well.

But let's be honest...the main attraction at our party had to be the boys. Now 30 more people in our city have at least a dozen pictures of my children stored on their cell phones. What they do with these pictures, I'm not entirely sure, but they surely do love taking them. At one point, I had put the boys to bed, turned off their bedroom light, and shut the door for them to go to sleep. I knew that the chances of them actually sleeping was slim to none with all the commotion going on, but I thought it was at least worth a try. About ten minutes later, mobs of party guests started parading through the boys' room for another photo opp. Then someone just picked them up out of their beds and brought them back to the party, where they proceeded to be fed copious amounts of cookies & sweets. If I was any other kind of mom, that would probably have driven me absolutely batty. But I figured it was just one night, they weren't going to sleep anyway, and they really were enjoying all the friends. Plus I think their footie pajamas are so very cute.

This coming week will be nearly as busy, which is why I should probably end this blog and head to bed. And so I shall!

To the Top of Diamond Head

2011-12-16T15:22:00.001+08:00

As if our lighthouse hike wasn't enough, we set off for Honolulu's famous extinct volcano, Diamond Head, a day or so later. This time, my brother Mark was the haas and carried Micah up the 1 km hill.

We had to share the viewing deck at the top with a group of high school kids, but that didn't ruin the beauty of it.

The house where we stayed was somewhere in that direction.

But the house where we'll stay next time is most certainly in this direction. Right, Kev?

More climbing, more of Sam getting addicted to the Ergo, more family pictures taken while facing the sun, more fun time with the coolest people ever that I'm thrilled to call my familia.

A Most Welcome Mix-Up

2011-12-14T08:35:00.000+08:00

My mom brought a few Hawaii tourism books with her so we could maximize our tourist time. We decided that we wanted to take a trip to the north side of the island, which is known for its tall waves and roadside shrimp trucks. We used her book to pick out a beach the day before, and the next morning, all piled into the car, prepared for a long drive to the north shore. Twenty minutes later, we were there. That was our first clue that perhaps we weren't at the north shore.

A certain member of my family (who shall remain nameless) had read the charts in the book wrong and had in fact chosen a beach for us located on a completely different side of the island. No matter, though, since it ended up being one of the best beaches and best days we had.

There weren't really many dramatic or funny stories from the day. Just us hanging out on the beach. So rather than bore you with silly captions, I'll just let the pictures convey our day.

Like I mentioned before, our boys are obsessed with the water. So much so that if we took them away from the waves for even a moment, it resulted in major crisis. But it's hard work keeping two babies from drowning themselves in the ocean, hard work that we were not willing to exert for the entire day. So Kevin, being the amazing father that he is, decided to build them their own swimming pools. Dig a hole, insert floatie, fill with water, insert child...hours of fun.

My brother & Kevin spent a decent amount of time building a pretty impressive sand castle. When they were done, Kevin gave Micah "How to Destroy a Sand Castle" lessons. Then we let him loose. Fun times were had by all.

And that's the story of our "North Shore" beach day. Not quite the famed North Shore but who really wants 8 foot waves when you can teach a two-year old how to obliterate sand castles?

Makapuu Lighthouse

2011-12-12T15:10:00.000+08:00

My parents, brother, and sister-in-law arrived in Honolulu about 10 days into our trip. Most of the steps of the boys' citizenship process had already been completed, so we were free to play, play, play as we waited for their expedited US passports to be processed.

We celebrated Christmas a little early with the gifts my family brought. My parents had found Hawaii outfits for the boys when they were in Maui, so Micah rocked out surfboards and Sam hibiscus blossoms for the next week. My brother & sis-in-law had two amazing, hand-made quilts made for the boys. The fabric used for the backing actually came from a women's relief organization in Mali. Such a thoughtful & beautiful gift that I haven't had the heart to let the boys sleep with them and inevitably pee on them.

But as immaculate as the quilts were, the boxes and wrapping paper still trumped as most fun.

Our first family outing was a hike up to the Makapuu lighthouse. My dad is a haas and carried Micah in the Ergo during part of the hike (the uphill part, I'd like to add!) so that pregnant me didn't have to. What a dad!

Once we reached the top, the view certainly didn't disappoint.

Then we set off back down again. Apparently, there was a spectacular sunset, but my mom & I were too busy gabbing to notice!

Next on the agenda o' fun, the Peek/Corbin clan attempts to visit the North Shore.

An Unexpected Hangout

2011-12-09T16:15:00.001+08:00

What we assumed would be tropical time solely with family ended up having an unexpected and much welcome interruption. Our good friends from our church in Louisville, Ryan & Tara Beth Townsend, happened to be in Honolulu the same week as us for a conference. We most happily took them up on their offer when they invited us for lunch and swimming at the swanky Sheraton Waikiki.

We had a fabulously yummy lunch at the Sheraton's beachside restaurant (anything involving turkey & avocado are always a winner in my book) and were blessed by such encouraging conversation. I'm afraid that it's often the case that some people don't really know how to engage or ask questions about our life overseas, so they resort to not asking anything at all or asking superficial questions. Not so with these dear friends. They asked good questions about our daily life, how we handle the constant transition of our life, and how we would advise others who are looking to begin a life overseas. But not only did they ask good questions, but they listened well. Such an encouragement!

I imagine that our mini-men were not as entertained by the conversation as we were, but there was plenty of fun in store for them in the pool later on. Remember what I said about our boys loving all things beach? Let me revise my statement by just saying they love all things water. It's a fearless love. A scary, fearless love (for this mama at least).

Should I be worried when my one-year old plunges his face into the water repeatedly? And has now adapted these same behaviors to bath time as well? Hmmm...

But there were plenty of hands on deck to circumvent an attempted drownings and to put lots of smiles on these little faces that I love.

We ended the afternoon with a legendary Dole Whip (pineapple flavored soft-serve) and left an encouraged, sunburned, happy Peek posse.

A Rite of Passage

2011-12-07T14:56:00.000+08:00

Events of today force me to interrupt the Hawaii series to report an important rite of passage for our Micah: his first hair cut.

I've been putting it off and putting it off for months now. I had a myriad of excuses:

But I love those curls!

I don't know how to cut Ethiopian hair (and surely no Chinese barber does either!).

Our clippers are broken.

But then what I just passed off as morning bedhead (which, I will admit, usually lasted the entire day because attempting to tame the mass just ended up with a crying little boy), started casting frightening shadows on the wall...

Then I started not being able to tell the difference between the shadow and his real, live hair...

I finally ran out of excuses when I heard that my friend Rachel gave her son his first hair cut with safety scissors. So I grabbed the closest pair of scissors, put on an Elmo podcast in an attempt to channel his two-year old energy, and started cutting. No strategy, no vision, no rhyme or reason...just started cutting.

I can personally attest that curly hair is very forgiving (and concealing) of chop-job haircuts, so when I was done, the boy before me was still pretty darn cute.

This face either means "What have you done to my head?" or "I'd rather be watching more Elmo than looking at you with that camera pointed in my face again." I'd also like to point out the traces of breakfast left on his chin. Because, let's be honest, when you're chasing two babies and incubating another, sometimes chins don't get wiped as they should.

Watch out, little man! You're next and that Mr. T mohawk we know & love will be no more!

Nana & Grandpa

2011-12-06T15:53:00.001+08:00

And what would three weeks in Hawaii be without grandparents? Well, it would still be a lot of really great things but grandparents make it greater. Kevin parents flew from Texas (first class no less!) for a visit, and we loved every second of it. Considering that our boys are grandkid #9 and #10 for Anne & Ron, they've got the grandparent thing pretty much down to a science.

We visited a lookout with a blow hole rock. When a big wave came, it shot up through the rock.

Micah was less that overwhelmed. He was more content to be held by Nana and watch the flocks of Asian tourists go by. I guess all the dark hair and cameras made him feel at home.

Then we hit up Sea Life park, which was more or less Hawaiian Sea World. I figured it would be a hit with Micah since he loves, loves, loves fish. My theory proved correct.

On the other hand, Wee Sam (though after carrying him for hours, I wouldn't necessarily ascribe to him the word "wee"), took himself a nice nap in the Ergo. At least the majority of us were awake for one of our few family pictures.

But the highlight of our time with Nana & Grandpa was the way cool beachfront condo they rented. We were no more than 6 steps from the beach. A very uncrowded beach, I might add.

The question with kids on a beach trip, I've learned, is how they'll respond. Will they be freaked out by sand? Or will the eat it to their heart's content? Will they cry at the mere sight of a wave? Or fearlessly throw themselves into the ocean? It turns out that our kids fall in the latter category and couldn't get enough of all things beach. Including exploring the culinary qualities of sand.

So many thanks to Anne/Nana & Ron/Grandpa for making the trip and loving on our boys (and us!) so skillfully. Looking forward to more of it next year!

Hawaii Life

2011-12-01T13:32:00.001+08:00

Three weeks is a long time to be away from home. But when you've got family to hang out with, US citizenship to apply for, and the cereal aisle to haunt, it's not too difficult to whittle away your time. A stay that long was really only possible because of an amazing deal we were able to find on a house in Honolulu. A local church in the area had a house available for us to rent for just $100 a week. So for the bargain price of $375 (we threw in a little extra in the end to make up for the blinds the boys tore down and our love affair with the air conditioner), we had a place where we could build lots of fun family memories:

Sam learned to fo-real crawl in that house. No more army crawl for my little guy! When he wasn't crawling, he was working on pulling up.

We shared the house with my parents, brother & sis-in-law when they came to visit. Mark & Valerie cooked fancy dinners for us almost every night, which eliminated a lot of stress from my life in having to take the babies to a restaurant. They went to bed, we ate, and then I promptly fell asleep on the couch (that's the biggest downside of being in your first trimester when you haven't seen your family in a year and a half!).

Football every Saturday! It's been a while since we've gotten to enjoy that, even if it means watching our Aggies lose.

We shared a room with the boys while my family was staying with us. One morning, Sam woke up first and was serenading us with his typical morning songs & coos. Micah, who apparently was not ready to be awake, yelled from his crib, "No! Hush!" Who in the world could he have picked that up from...?

I will whole-heartedly say that having a backyard is an amazing thing. Since both of our boys are water babies to the core, we stripped them down to their diapers and let them play in buckets of water on the porch. And we didn't even have to worry about them drinking it the way we do in China!

Speaking of our backyard porch, there were these cute tropical birds with red beaks that would perch on our porch railing. I think there might have even been a nest inside the wall of the house. Micah & Kevin enjoyed sitting out there in the mornings, Kevin drinking coffee and Micah bird-watching.

We were walking distance from a park, a public swimming pool, Wal-mart, the boys' pediatrician, and a bus stop that could get us everywhere else. The weather was a welcome treat as we walked to all those places several times a week.

While we were busy, we still had plenty of down time for the important things in life like naps & Sesame Street.

And She's Back In the Game!

2011-11-28T16:53:00.000+08:00

I'm back and quite glad to be! The blog atrophy can be attributed to three things:

Our internet had issues, and I couldn't access blogger. But that's fixed now (obviously).
I was on vacation in Hawaii! More blogs to follow with fun pictures of beach babies & grandparents.
I went to sleep for three months and just recently woke up. What excuse can I give for my prolonged sleepy state? Well, it turns out that around May 18th, our family will graduate from two kiddos to three. Crazy times, right? We will have gone from zero kids to three kids in 11 months, and at that point, our oldest will be a mere two and a half. Even crazier times, right? But Father's plan is perfect & wise, and we are so very thankful (though a bit overwhelmed!) at this blessing.

So stick around for more blogs about all things Hawaii and all things pregnancy.

Soon & Very Soon

2011-10-08T10:22:00.000+08:00

On October 19, our family is heading to Hawaii. When we were in Ethiopia last June, the US embassy gave us a 6 month visa for the boys to enter the States. Since our plans to return to the States didn't fit inside that window, we decided a trip to Hawaii would be necessary (and awesome) in order to finish up the boys' citizenship process. Plus, the US Citizenship & Immigration office (USCIS) in Honolulu can process their Certificate of Citizenship and US passports relatively quickly.

I'm looking forward to the trip for obvious reasons. It will be our first time on American soil in nearly three years. My parents, my brother & sis-in-law, and Kevin's parents are all coming too. People will speak English (well, sort of. I still can't pronounce many of the Hawaiian words because there are so many vowels!). There will be turkey sandwiches. The sky will be blue. What's not to love about that?

But there are some things I'm a bit nervous about too. First of all is the 10 hour flight to Honolulu with two lap babies. Not to mention the 20+ hour layover we have in Seoul on the way home. Plus we will continue to be subjects of public transportation. Even if we were willing/able to rent a car, both of our driver's licenses have long since expired. So the merry bus we will ride! I'm a little bit nervous about figuring out American life all over again. I called a pediatrician's office in Honolulu this week to schedule appointments for the boys and found my palms all sweaty when I was done, wondering if I had done it right and said the right things. It's funny now that I can waltz into a Chinese hospital now and get everything I need done but I get anxious about scheduling appointments with an American doctor's office. I can only wonder how many more of my China-isms will become apparent over the three weeks we're in Hawaii.

So there ya have it. Hawaii, here we come!

Three Months Later

2011-09-30T11:57:00.000+08:00

This past weekend, we had our three month follow-up visit with our social worker. Ethiopia requires a social worker to check in on your family at 3, 6, and 12 months after bringing the kids home. After the one-year mark, you're required to submit a picture of your child and a summary of how they're doing every year until they're 18. I appreciate how the country has implemented such a process to ensure the well-being of their kiddos, and it makes a great time marker for us adopted families. Almost like the ebenezer stone of adoption...

It's crazy how much things have changed for us over the past three months. There have been changes in our schedule: Sleeping in until 7 AM is a rare treat. Our only quiet dinners are the ones we have after the boys go to bed. There have been changes in ourselves: Prayer is a much more frequented activity in my life. We are much more intentional in conversation with each other during our down time. And thankfully, there have been changes in the boys: Micah no longer "log rolls" on the ground when we tell him no. Sami sleeps through the night like a champ, no longer demanding bottles at 2 AM.

So to commemorate those early days of sleeplessness and border-line sanity, I'll share a story that fell through the cracks. Originally, I had planned to post it as "Motherhood's Maiden Voyage," but then all the drama with Sami's seizures went down and that never happened. So here goes...

We had been home from Ethiopia for about three weeks. Kevin had been around the house more than normal in case I couldn't handle something with the boys. But during that particular week, he had agreed to help out at an English camp out in the countryside, leaving me home alone all day long with my new little friends. I felt I was up to the task and even wanted to honor the occasion by taking the boys out. Again, I'll emphasize all by myself.

Just to set the record straight, taking the boys out all by myself is quite a different ordeal in China than in America. There's no minivan with car seats parked conveniently outside my front door. Instead, I strapped Sam up in the Ergo and figured I'd have Micah toddle along at my side until we could make it to the gate of our apartment complex to get a taxi. It seemed like a feasible enough idea, so I loaded up all our stuff right after afternoon naps and set out.

These were before the days, however, where Micah really enjoyed holding hands. And before the days where he realized that mama's voice carries authority. The back alley where we had to traverse isn't actually the safest stroll either. Zooming cars, careless bikes, open manholes, stray dogs, puddles of unidentifiable substances...enough to make a new mama hold on real tight to that little boy's hand, despite his many protests.

But catch a cab we did and off we went to the indoor play place at one of the fancy new malls in town. I thought I'd even try to take a picture of us all on our little adventure.

Attempt #1:

Attempt #2:

Attempt #3:

Well, you get the idea. A happy mama and her little guys in a cab destined for a fun afternoon of playing. We even exchanged pleasantries with the cab driver, which went something like this:

Driver: Are those your kids?

Me: Yes.

Driver: Both of them?

Me: Yes.

Driver: Are they twins? (a very common question here)

Me: No. They're a year apart.

Driver: A year apart?!?! Why did you give birth to kids that close together? You should wait longer before wanting to have another one.

We finally arrived at the play place, where Micah had a blast and made quite a few friends.

But unfortunately, this is where our afternoon began to derail. I knew there was such a thing as evening rush hour traffic but, being the avid bike riders we are, I forgot that rush hour starts at 4:30. Now to a typical suburban American, rush hour might just mean sitting through a few extra lights or braving your way through gridlock on the freeway. But for us urban folk, it means a battle to the death to get a taxi. When cab drivers are heading for their shift change, nothing will convince them to stop for another fare.

So we left the mall and headed to the street. Micah was not pleased about leaving, so he was screaming. Micah got even more upset when I spotted even more open manholes in front of the mall and relinquished his walking privileges. Sam was not pleased about something and I had lost his pacifier somewhere along the way, so he was screaming as well. I was also convinced that one of my children had made a pleasant deposit in their diaper, which I wasn't about to attempt to deal with at the moment.

I walked and walked and walked, carrying both screaming children. One strapped to me, one wriggling to get loose to reclaim his freedom that had so maliciously been scooped away from him. Driver after driver turned me down. Finally, in a moment of desperation, I spotted a cab and bolted toward it, despite the fact there were people already in it. I knocked on the driver's window and gave him a nearly-sobbing spiel of my ordeal: how my kids were hungry & tired, how my apartment was very close, how I would leave him my first-born (or first-adopted in our case) if only he would acquiesce to help us.

I doubt it was my well-composed Chinese prose that convinced them. I doubt it was my offer to bestow upon him one of my crying babies. More than likely it was the crying babies themselves (Chinese people HATE to see kids cry and will do almost anything to mollify them). But whatever it was, the passengers in the cab paid the driver and left the cab to me. I have no idea if they had even reached their destination, but I didn't really care in the moment. I was just happy to be on the way home!

So perhaps the maiden voyage of this mother was a little harrier than I had anticipated. But it made for a good story in the end!

A Peek of Unprecedented Proportions

2011-09-27T11:53:00.001+08:00

It's no lie that Peeks have skinny genes (and jeans for that matter). When we were first married, I made Kevin try on my jeans, just to see if they'd fit. And they did, minus the length of course. When we were preparing to move overseas, our medical clearance was flagged because of Kevin's BMI. All we had to do was reference his equally-skinny twin brother to prove our point that he was certainly born this way.

Then Sami came on the scene. Sami with his chubby, chunky, cherub curves. Sami with his manly mini-muffin top. Sami with his plump, paunchy, portly proportions. Sami with his rubber band wrists and lotus root legs (the China equivalent to ice cream cone legs). And our life has never been the same.

I do have to add that I took some other shots of Sami's squishy goodness that I find terribly cute, but Kevin told me they were not internet worthy. Seeing that I would like to prevent any future blackmailing opportunities against my child, I refrained from posting any but these two.

Sami On the Move

2011-09-20T11:49:00.000+08:00

I've posited before that it's a rough life when you're immobile. But then again, maybe it's not so difficult when mom straps you to her front and carries you around for endless hours.

So then the kid got himself some classic wheels. Seriously, I think eight children have taught themselves to walk using this thing. It is well loved & well used. He scoots himself across our wood-floor apartment, much to the chagrin of our unsuspecting toes.

I guess Sami, during one of his late night ruminating sessions, decided that it would be a little awkward to have mom carry him across the stage to collect his college diploma. And perhaps wheeling down the aisle to meet his bride might not be very proper either. So his little baby mind came up with a grand scheme: I will crawl. I will attempt to move my 20 pound self all on my own.

And crawl he did. Well, sort of. Crawling is probably too generous a word for what's actually going on with the little guy since it more resembles dragging and has yet to involve his knees, but he can get from Point A to Point B. And that, my friends, is really all that matter when you're a baby.

But of course, as any physical activity does, crawling takes its toll on a body, so resting is surely in order. And chewing on things. I read in Runner's World magazine that chewing helps stimulate carbohydrate reserves and replenishes energy stores. (OK, not really but that's what I tell Sam so he doesn't feel bad about taking a break.)

The thing about taking breaks, however, is that you often have unwelcome visitors attend to the drool that has collected on your face. And that's when the mama has to put her camera down and intervene because she knows just where that visitor's tongue has been.

So at the end of the day, our little crawler is one step (yes, pun very much intended) to forsaking both his wheels and his mama. And that most certainly is deserving of a snuggly night's sleep.

And He Does It Again!

2011-09-16T14:47:00.000+08:00

A true picture of our family: Sam has no pants on, there's junk on the floor, and I couldn't find birthday candles so I had to use an IKEA tea light instead.

Another year, another birthday for this man that I love. Last week, we celebrated rather unceremoniously, which helped me avoid another burned cake incident. I did, however, bust out the imported brownie mix. You can't mess up when all you have to do is add eggs, oil, and water!

Some of our good friends finally returned from Thailand with their newest addition, so we celebrated Kevin's birthday with them and another family that make up our little community here. I offered Kevin a Saturday morning alone at Starbucks but, being the simpleton that he is, he opted to seclude himself at home in the bedroom instead. And that was about it for our wild, crazy birthday fun. Not even 30 yet and this is how we live it up!

Maintaining Kevin's birthday tradition from last year (can you have a tradition after one year? I think yes.), here are 29 reason why I'm thankful to be married to this man:

He continues to put Christ at the center of our lives & family.
He is intentional to spend quality time with the boys every evening, even if it's at the end of a long day for him.
He spends hours & hours studying Chinese so we can really live a full life here.
He always voices his appreciation for everything I do in the home, especially when all I feel like I've done all day involved poop.
He sacrifices part of his lunch break to hang out with the boys so I can take a shower.
He is still the most terrific listener.
He happily gives Sami his evening bottle every night and loves the snuggle time with his little man.
He gives me preference to use the Kindle whenever I want, even though it was technically his Christmas present.
He supports my efforts to cook meat-less at least twice a week and doesn't even have to pretend to like my lentil "meat"loaf--he actually does!
He helps our family save money so we could afford to bring home our two greatest blessings from Ethiopia. Whenever I felt anxious about the big expenditures it required of us, he told me that it's just money and that we were just going to spend it. Simple as that.
He has mastered the Denton Public Library online borrowing system.
He is ever-patient with Micah as he identifies every animal he see as a dog.
Since his Chinese vocabulary now far exceeds mine, he is intentional about teaching me new words because he knows I love this language but don't have as much time for it as I used to.
He knows more about buying diapers & formula than I do because he has assumed this responsibility all to himself.
He listens to books-on-tape in order to pass the time doing dishes.
He laughs at me when I'm being silly, even though the average person would probably just find my antics annoying.
Before Sam was sleeping through the night, he once found me underneath the crib in search of a pacifier at 3 AM in tears. After that, he took over night time baby duty.
He has learned that when I dream about planning vacations in Australia and purchasing $1000, I usually don't actually intend on following through with these plans. Usually.
He is patient & gentle.
He keeps giving our faithful quadruped (our new moniker for Beans, thanks to our both reading Swiss Family Robinsons) more chances to fit into our family, even though he tried to lick the boys' face far too often.
He's not afraid to ride his bike in the rain.
He eats Chinese food that I don't like off my plate when we go out with friends, even if he has to pay for it later in the bathroom.
The simplest way to his heart is with a back massage.
He fights to continue to date his wife, even though when we go out, we're both tired & ready to go home by 8:30.
He insists on pushing the huge double stroller (Phil & Ted have not yet graced this family!) when we go for our evening walks.
As long as dinner ends with pudding, he is a one happy guy.
His birthday present to himself is a new bike because he wants something newer & safer to ride when he carries the boys.
He is wise yet continues to seek wise counsel regarding work & family.
He strives to always be the first to apologize.

To my best friend and father of my children: happy birthday!

To Beijing And Back Again

2011-09-06T14:53:00.000+08:00

Micah's one month thyroid blood test was due.

I still had latent TB and no medicine to kill those little buggers setting up shop in my lungs.

And I had a sneaking suspicion that Sam had an ear infection.

Yes, there are hospitals in the city where we live that most likely could have handled each and every one of those issues. But the time & energy required to accomplish them all easily would have sucked up at least 5 days and possibly my sanity. So my dear husband gave us the go ahead to hop on the train to Beijing to the international hospital. The international hospital where everyone speaks English. The international hospital where you can actually make an appointment. Ahhhh...the international hospital!

Micah traveled in style through the huge train station they just build in the western part of our city, through the bowels of the Beijing subway system, and right to the doors of our good friends' apartment.

Sam was just happy to be somewhere where he could continue to eat, drool, and sport a serious Mr. T impersonation with that amazing head of hair. That's what he does most days. And occasionally crawls too!

All our medical drama was more of less resolved in a mere 4 hours. We took the boys to the pediatrician first. I had to leave after about a half hour for my appointment in a different wing of the hospital to get my TB medicine. I was trying to be resourceful by double-booking our appointments but instead I left leave Kevin alone in a tiny doctor's office exam room with two little ones full of lots of pent-up energy from a morning of travel and no naps. Left him alone to hold Micah down while they drew his blood (which ended up being a terribly harrowing since the nurses couldn't find a vein in his dark skin). Left him alone to answer a zillion and one questions about why the boys did not have immunizations when they were born. Poor Kevin! Poor Micah! Poor Sami (who, in fact, did have not one but two ear infections)!

Meanwhile, while I was at my appointment, I found out that I was going to have to have my blood drawn for a liver panel to make sure that this TB medicine wouldn't destroy my liver. I skipped back over to pediatrics, only to find a very stressed husband. I took Micah back with me to hopefully reduce some of Kevin's workload. Micah dug through medical supply drawers and wore the blood pressure cuff as a hat as the nurse dug through my forearm to find a vein. Twenty minutes and several sticks later, I finally left. Micah was thrilled that we both had matching Winnie the Pooh bandaids.

We spent the rest of the day Friday and Saturday morning with our wonderful Beijing friends and then caught a late afternoon train home on Saturday night. A quick but very worthwhile trip!

When did I get so old?

2011-08-30T20:58:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since I've pierced body parts...

weathered a stormy German night in a tent...

basked in the Mediterranean sun...

or hiked through the Alps.

As life treks on and my responsibility load keeps moving me precariously closer to being a full-fledged adult, our thrill factor has somewhat diminished. But I think yesterday's events knocked another few notches off what little thrill factor we had remaining.

On Monday night, Kevin tutors two little boys at our home. They cancelled this week, leaving us with a night wide open. What oh what were we to do with our expanse of free time? This is the conversation that commenced:

Kev: I could go for heading to bed early tonight.

Beck: Oh! Me too! I can't remember the last time I got 8 hours of sleep.

Kev: Well, what time should we turn in?

Beck: Let's get in bed with plenty of time to read for a while but still go to sleep before 10.

Kev: Excellent idea!

So we went to bed at 8:30 and I was asleep by 9:30. Chinese preschool children don't even go to bed that early! My neighbor's 18 month old son doesn't even go to bed that early! Nevertheless, even though the sun is up by 5:30 AM here does not mean that I'm ready to get up, though I have volitionally set my alarm to help me do just that.

On Tuesday night, one of my local Chinese friends was supposed to come over for dinner. She called me that afternoon to cancel our plans because her husband was getting ready to go out of town for a business trip. Which again left us again with an evening alone at home and a familiar conversation:

Kev: Want to go to bed at 8:30 again?

Beck: Absolutely.

Old and boring. That's what we are. But perhaps I could instead euphemistically label myself as well-rested and sane.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's almost 9. Past my bedtime!

An Unexpected Saturday

2011-08-27T21:51:00.000+08:00

A Chinese family that we're good friends with called us this morning, wanting to come take pictures of the boys. It had been a long week with one too many nights of too few hours of sleep, so the prospect of attempting to get our family photograph-able seemed a little daunting. But we did (sort of) and were so thankful for it. Here are my favorite shots that I finished editing tonight...

Can't get any more real than that...that is most definitely Sam's drool on Kevin's shirt.

And finally, what started as innocently touching the flowers...

Ended in an afternoon snack...

Life As We Know It

2011-08-24T22:36:00.000+08:00

We've had the boys for two whole months now. Both Kevin & I often say we don't feel like parents. We just feel like us plus two kids. It's fun. We like it. Life is different, that's for sure. But this is life. Real & raw.

This is where we spend a lot of our day. We have two toy drawers and a book drawer. The toy drawers get switched daily so there's always something "new" to do. The book drawer is always available, and Micah actually love to spend time turning the pages and being read to. It makes my nerdy heart sing!

I pretty much wear my work-out clothes all day long. I figure if I don't spend abundant time getting dressed, I'm more willing to crawl on the floor with the boys, take them outside where I inevitably sweat a lot, or not care as much when any assortment of bodily fluid ends up on me. And as if the chasing, lifting, and constant moving aren't enough, I usually am able to get a work-out in too. (And since I know you're wondering, that giant contraption next to me is our living room AC unit.)

My parents sent us these amazingly awesome Keep Austin Weird shirts. Most Chinese people think both of our sons look like girls (maybe the big eyes and long eyelashes?), so I'm sure the colors don't really help their case for manliness.

Sami has been seizure free for almost a month now, which is a huge answer to prayer. He's getting so close to crawling, an activity that I'm not necessarily encouraging. I've got my hands full enough with one mobile one!

Micah is a ham to the core. He gets shy around a lot of people (ie-the crowds that descend upon us whenever we leave the house) but when we're at home, he constantly makes us laugh. He dances & snaps to any music he hears, which is only just proof of his African roots. He further testifies to his heritage by finding our coffee grinder in the lower kitchen cabinet and eating the residual coffee grounds with his finger. He can say a few English words (dog, shoes, fish, amen, mama) and a few Chinese ones as well.

As for Beans, she's getting along just fine. The boys & her have finally come to terms with each other, and they've actually made friends. Micah actually figured out how to play tug with her, and Sami hasn't figured out how to escape her pink tongue yet. When she's not playing with the boys, she does a lot of this during the day:

If that picture doesn't perfectly depict my life, I'm not sure what will. Yes, that plant is dead. I took it from a friend who moved away a year or so ago, promising her I'd keep it alive. I have failed her. I hope she doesn't find out. And that giant piece of machinery in the middle of my living room is my dryer that we bought for $50 two months ago. We haven't used it or plugged it in yet, but it makes an excellent place to pile dirty towels. Don't let the folded nature of those towels fool you. They are indeed quite dirty with rain water from the giant deluge that flooded our house last week.

And I'll conclude this random blog post with another installment of Creepy China Gifts. We call this guy Demon Dog. He walked, barked, and his lights lit up all red & scary. He must have freaked out Beans too because she ate it. I can't say I was devastated. Micah, on the other hand, still requests to play with Demon Dog because it makes noise (or I suppose I should say it once made noise). He now resides in the trash can.

So that's life. It's not perfect. It's not always tidy. But it's us and we're thankful.

Somalia on My Mind

2011-08-12T08:25:00.000+08:00

There's been a lot of talk of Somalia these days. The UN has declared a famine ransacking Somalia, affecting almost 11 million people and taking the lives of 29,000 children under the age of 5 over the past three months. There are stories of women who walked weeks through the desert with their children, hoping to find respite from the suffering at refugee camps stationed along the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Those same stories did not all have happy ending as their mothers were forced to leave behind some of their little ones who succumbed to the silencing grip of hunger & thirst.

The images are heart breaking; the new footage is devastating. I feel like it all hits closer to home at this season of my life when I've got two Afrikids of my own in my care. As I tried to watch an ABC news clip this morning, Micah obstructed my view by covering my eyes with his sticky hands in an attempt to play peek-a-boo. It obviously didn't register with him that some of those kids on the screen live but a few hours drive of his hometown in eastern Ethiopia.

I see the pictures of these little famine victims, and I see the faces of my own sons. The same deep brown eyes. The same kissable nose. And I realize that there is no difference between these children, apart from life's basic necessities of food & water.

I see our little Sam, who was once dangerously underweight himself. With all the weight he's carrying now, it's hard to imagine he's still that same little boy.

May it be the same for this little one as well.

Pray for Somalia.

Give to Somalia.

Remember Somalia.

The Happy Light Goes Off for Good

2011-08-09T08:56:00.004+08:00

* I wrote this post several weeks ago but with all the drama with Sami going on, it seemed a little out of place in the blog roll at the time. But now that life has calmed down substantially, I still wanted to share this with you all.

Once upon a time, I thought that once we moved to China, my big transitions would be done with. Because moving to China was indeed a big transition. Packing, selling, Craigs List-ing, hugging, crying, goodbye-ing...it was all quite an ordeal. An ordeal that I wasn't displeased to have behind me. Now that doesn't mean I was displeased to have all our friends & family behind us, just the drama of leaving them.

That's what I figured at least. That ordeals involving such transition would in fact be BEHIND me. Little did I know that life overseas has turned out to be one transition after another.

Take this wonderful group of ladies, for example:

This picture was taken in July of 2010 and represented every American face that I called friend who lived within a 300 mile radius of me. Now, one year later, every single one of those faces lives in a different place. Each family that left meant a hard goodbye. Each family that left meant one more transition.

The most recent to leave was the honorable matriarch of this family (Just to clarify, her family left too. She didn't leave her husband & daughters in China without her!):

Rachel was not only one of my best friends here but my neighbor. I could always see the happy lights of her kitchen & living room shining, and we could occasionally wave at each other from our own homes while she washed dishes and I hung laundry. It took about 50 steps through a clump of trees and over a rock path through a pond to get to her house. A path I knew quite well because I traversed it so often. To share a meal. To drop off half of a batch of crescent rolls because I made too many. To return a borrowed book. To babysit three darling kiddos. To workout together. To borrow some liquid smoke when my BBQ sauce isn't turning out right. To worship in song together with Rachel at the piano. To join in on a mom's book club she led for some Chinese friends. Or, for my favorite reason, no reason at all but to chat and drink homemade chai tea together.

Rach taught me so much about what it means to be a mom who actively loves & serves her home & family while still not neglecting reaching out to the Chinese around her. Both my China life & my family life are different because of her influence.

Rachel stood by us and supported us every step of the way during our adoption process. She actually tried to understand what all the adoption lingo meant and how it affected our timeline. It was uncertain if we would be able to bring the boys home before their scheduled departure date, so we were all so thankful when our family of four arrived home to China 4 days before they left for the States.

The thing about not being able to necessarily choose your friends overseas is that you often end up being paired with people who are extremely different from yourself. The disparity between my interests and Rachel's is pretty substantial, but now I'm happy to be somewhat versed in all things opera, small town living, The Joy of Cooking, gardening, and coffee.

Yes, it's true that the happy lights of the Wind's China home have now been darkened. But that doesn't mean I'm alone. Our Heavenly Father is our forever friend, a truth that I've learned in a deeper way with each transition & goodbye that we've faced. In His kind provision, He's also given me two more ladies with whom to live this crazy China life. Two new ladies who will teach me new things about shopping, counseling, ranch living, and photography. Two new ladies who will, most importantly, teach me new things about the character & care of our most fabulous Father.

China, We Greet Thee!

2011-08-06T09:47:00.000+08:00

After three long weeks in Thailand, we are so very happy to be home. We had one final doctors appointment on Tuesday, where the boys received another round of immunizations and clearance from the doctor to return home to China the following day.

We had 7:30 PM flight leaving Chiang Mai, but we were delayed by at least an hour. We didn't reach Kunming until around 11 PM and still had the task of finding a hotel where we could crash for a few hours before catching our 8 AM flight the next morning. We kind of set ourselves up for disaster by not making a reservation or even having a clue about local hotels, but with all the uncertainty surrounding our departure date, securing a place to lay our heads for some reason fell to the bottom of the priority list.

This is where the wonderful hand of God's providence intervened.

We had met a Chinese woman in the Chiang Mai airport who was just smitten with the boys. We ended up talking for a while, which was a good thing for my neglected-for-three-weeks Chinese. When she found out about our little Kunming predicament, she vowed to escort us to a nearby airport hotel when we arrived.

After passing through immigration, customs, and picking up our luggage, we exited the Kunming airport to find it pouring down rain. Our new friend's effort were not deterred by the inclement weather, and she solicited the help of a guy claiming to be an airport employee who offered to drive us to a nearby hotel. Though his casual t-shirt and jeans didn't really lend to his credibility as a legitimate airport worker, we were too tired to care and happily climbed in the back of his car.

Several phone calls and three hotels later, we finally found a place that had a room available. I was a little skeptical at first when I noticed their price listings had an hourly rental rate, but the clock was ticking until we had to return to the airport and all I wanted to do was unstrap the baby that had been attached to me for the past 6 hours and get some sleep. My anxieties immediately dissipated, however, when we were shown to our room, which ended up being decent enough.

6 AM came all too quickly, and we were back at the airport. While we were waiting for our flight to board (delayed again!), a flock of Chinese tourists descended on the boys, taking pictures of them, giving Micah candy for breakfast, and commenting on how much cuter one of our sons was than the other. We finally boarded the plane, only to wait an additional hour. Apparently, there was a flight from Bangladesh carrying a few passengers who were supposed to be on our flight, and our plane was waiting for them. Having missed way too many connecting flights before, I thought this was an impressive gesture of customer service, but several other passengers did not feel the same way. People were screaming at the flight attendants, and we were pretty certain they were going to start throwing punches. One woman was marching up and down the aisle of the plane shouting, "If Hu JinTao (the president of China) was on this plane, we wouldn't be waiting!" and "Do only foreigners count as people? Chinese people are people too!" Tempers were assuaged when we finally took off.

Once we made it to Beijing, we still had an hour cab trek across town and a 90 minute train ride ahead of us. The new Shanghai-Beijing high speed magnet train stops in our city, and it has made travel so much more convenient. On this particular ride, the cars we practically empty, so Micah had the freedom to wander around and Sam had two seats to himself to lay out on.

Now we're back at home, doing our best to re-establish some routine to our lives. Yes, Thailand was great but there really is no place like home!

A Much Needed Break

2011-07-31T10:47:00.000+08:00

While it's true in a rather unfortunate way that we've been averaging about 4 hours per day at the hospital, we have been having fun while being stranded in Thailand. For one thing, there is cereal. And milk that doesn't have the weird UHT aftertaste. Kevin has also been loving the pad thai for a dollar. For another thing, the sky is blue. Really blue. It even has fluffy white clouds.

Plus there's a zoo. A pretty rad zoo. I think "zoo" might be too narrow of a definition for this place though. It's more like a maze of hills weaving through a jungle that has occasional animals. Buying bus tickets to view the zoo would never in a million years have been something I would have done in my pre-parent days. But when you strap a 20 pound baby to you in the sticky Thailand heat, why, yes, I'd love to pay 80 cents for someone to drive me around, thank you very much.

We started off with wild notions that we would actually trek the zoo. Kevin studiously poured over the zoo map while Micah wandered about. Do you see the two chicks in pink in the background of the top picture? That hill was our first clue that the bus was a good idea!

This was Sami's posture for the majority of the day. Between the hospital visits and our family outings, that boy has clocked so much time and taken so many naps in the Ergo that he gets fussy when he's not being held.

It was a super fun day filled with all sorts of wildlife:

And not-so-wild life:

Sami also got a to leave the Ergo for a moment to mingle with the wildlife. I can hardly believe that this perfect little face is struggling with seizures!

But then back up in the Ergo he went! It's a rough life when you can't move by yourself. On second thought, he doesn't look like he minds too much. Maybe it's not so rough after all...

My favorite thing about spending so much time with Micah in Thailand is watching the world through his eyes. I imagine that every two year old has a heightened sense of curiosity but based on Micah's time at the care center in Ethiopia, I wonder if his is even more acute. They did a wonderful job of caring for him there but I'm sure the nannies weren't able to take him outside all that often, if ever. So every truck, every animal, every shiny Buddhist statue he see here stops him in his tracks and inspires at least of minute of pointing and saying "oooo!" I just love getting to be a part of it.

The funny thing to me about this picture is that everyone in it (minus the baby elephant I assume) is now on daily medicine: Micah is taking hormone supplements for his thyroid issue, Sami is taking anti-convulsants, and I'm taking meds for my TB exposure. I'm just a regular old apothecary now!

We're still not sure when we'll be able to leave Thailand. Sami had a second seizure on Friday, which forced us to push off our departure a second time. We're hoping to be back home within a week, but there's no way to know for sure. Meanwhile, we're thankful for cereal, pad thai, blue skies, and having so much family time together.

The Day the Soup Boiled Over

2011-07-29T13:55:00.000+08:00

I made tomato soup for lunch today at the little apartment where we've been staying. I turned it on low to keep it warm enough to eat until Kevin came home. But instead of just staying warm, it boiled over and made a big mess. That's kind of how I feel like today has been: a boiled over mess.

Sami had another seizure this morning. At the beginning of the week, Kevin was able to meet with the pediatric neurologist, and she informed us there appears to be one part of Sami's brain that shows signs of atrophy. I'm not exactly sure what that means. It might be something that could heal over time, or it might affect his development later on. What I do know is that this second seizure means that we will not be leaving Thailand on Sunday like we had originally planned. We have a second appointment with the pediatric neurologist tomorrow morning to see if this second episode sheds light on anything or if it will require further testing.

You would think that Sami's seizures should have been the end of all our hospital drama. Quite the opposite in fact! On Tuesday, it was another marathon hospital day with between 8-10 pokes for the little guys, including two rounds of drawing blood, four immunizations, and a TB test. The nurses had a hard time finding veins in the boys since their skin is so dark, so the blood drawing was particularly painful, physically for them and emotionally for us. They had their eyes checked and were sedated in order to undergo a hearing test. After 6 hours at the hospital, we finally were able to bring our bedraggled boys home for some rest.

Wednesday was mine & Kevin's turn to be poked, prodded, and stuck. Some friends of ours who are in town offered to care for the boys for us so we wouldn't have to chase them around the hospital. Pardon me for being a bit jealous that they got to go swimming while we subjected ourselves to shots & docs. It wasn't that bad actually. Both of us managed NOT to pass out for our three shots and blood draw, which is a major accomplishment for us. The most difficult thing has been the aftermath of still having to lug around two 20 pound kiddos with a painful Japanese encephalitis shot in one arm and a huge bruise on the other from having blood taken.

Friday found us once again at the hospital to get the results of the boys' blood tests. Micah's thyroid levels are high, so we have been referred to a endocrinologist for later this week. While we were visiting with the pediatrician, I showed her my PPD test (that's the tuberculosis test for all of you lucky enough to have never had to have one done!) since it had been hurting and bothering me. Turns out it was positive, which means some where along the way, I've been exposed to tuberculosis. The chest x-ray I took today will let us know if I actually have TB or if I was just exposed.

So what seemed like a quietly, simmering situation yesterday now seems like a boiled over mess. We were planning on visiting the elephants this weekend instead of dealing with a second seizure, potential thyroid issues, and a possible case of tuberculosis. In reality, however, it's not a boiled over mess. We are trying to trust in and rest in the fact that whatever comes of any of these situations will be for our good and for His glory.

MRI Results

2011-07-24T21:40:00.000+08:00

For those of you who like to flip to the back of a book to figure out the ending without actually reading it:

We got the MRI & EEG results back, and the verdict is that everything looks normal. This is a huge relief & an even huger (is that even a word?) answer to prayer. It's possible that the abnormalities on the CT scan were "artifact," which I think just means he moved a bit during the scan. We're going to stick around in Thailand until the pediatric neurologist comes back just to make sure that the radiologist read the films correctly. Hopefully, we'll be able to get some answers as to why the seizure might have happened in the first place.

And for those of you who would like to hear the drama of our night in the hospital:

Sami & I checked into the hospital around 4 PM, having no idea what kind of accommodations would await us there. Much to our delight & surprise (OK, maybe it was just my delight & surprise. I don't think Sami cared either way), we had a fabulously comfortable private room. It was on the top floor of the hospital with a beautiful panoramic view of the city and the surrounding mountains. The nurses came to take some of his vitals and asked me if he went "pee pee and poo poo" that day. Gotta love language barriers! We hung out in the hospital room until Kevin & Micah came to visit with Subway sandwiches for us. By the way, is it normal for a two year old to be able to eat an entire 6 inch sub? Because mine can.

After they left, I got Sami ready for bed. The hospital didn't provide a crib for me, so I rigged a few pillows around the end of the hospital bed and we shared it. It wasn't the most terrific night of sleep for either of us. The nurse woke us at 5:45 the next morning to prep him for anesthesia. The whisked him off to another room while I got dressed. That didn't really take long since I just slept in my clothes from the day before, so I sat down to take a few quiet moments in the word. I was reminded by Luke in chapter 4 of the crowds of people that would flock to Jesus just to touch him in hopes that they would be healed, and by His power they were. As I was reading, a bird flew past my window and Matthew 6 came to mind to prompt me to consider the birds, how they neither sow nor reap but are cared for nonetheless.

These were the words stirring in my heart as I realized quite a bit of time had passed, and Sami hadn't been returned to me. In that moment of having no clue where my son was, I was challenged to again place him in the Father's hand, knowing that He is willing & able to care for him in ways that I can't.

Once I went looking for him, it turned out that he was only two doors down. The nurses had successfully put an IV in his little hand. To keep him from ripping it out, they had wrapped & knotted a cloth around his entire forearm, and you can imagine how unhappy my little guy was about that.

So I had an unhappy & hungry baby on my hands with nothing to do but wait for the doctors to come retrieve us and take us down to the MRI floor. Sami screamed & screamed and there was not a thing I could do but hold him & sing to him. I sang him every English worship song I could think of and when I ran out of those, I started on my Chinese repertoire. Finally, he fell back asleep in my arms. I didn't dare put him down on the gurney when the nurses came for us, so I carried him all the way to the MRI wing.

The anesthesia & MRI took about an hour, so I slept off & on in the waiting room. When it was done, I heard Sami wake up and cry, which was comforting to know that he was ok. They then took us to the recovery room, where he slept for another 45 minutes or so. Not surprisingly, he woke up terribly hungry, so I was quite relieved when the doctor gave me permission to feed him a bottle. After he had his IV removed, we packed up our things and headed home.

We are certainly grateful for the care & support we've had here and for the prayers coming from you all. The next few days will be spent waiting for the doctor and taking the boys back to the hospital for the orphan check-ups. No time for elephants just yet but hopefully we'll be able to take care of our remaining medical stuff soon so we can do something fun!

Change of Plans

2011-07-22T15:37:00.000+08:00

So there's been a change of plans...again. The hospital here will not release the EEG results until their doctor has reviewed them. The doctor is in Australia currently and it's unclear when she will return. That means we can't take the EEG results to Bangkok with us, which means we would have to pretty much start over and re-do everything we've accomplished in the past five days. That means we're not going to Bangkok.

The plan for now is to stay put in Chiang Mai. Sami & I will check into the hospital this afternoon at 4 PM in order to prep him for an 8 AM MRI tomorrow. Then we'll stick around until the doctor comes back from Australia to interpret both the MRI & EEG findings.

Now that we're not going to Bangkok, having to make a border crossing into Laos or Myanmar is looking more probable. So that will be an interesting adventure!

We're hanging in there I guess. The most stressful thing has really just been the constant change in the game plan. I am confident in the care that we're getting here. Sami's condition is stable, so there is no immediate danger to his health in having to wait. There are some nice things about being stranded in Thailand: lots of green, lots of yummy Western food, and an elephant reserve that we would love to take the boys to. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a fun update soon!

Please pray that the doctor will return to Thailand sooner rather than later. Please pray for Kevin as he is fighting a cold and will stay at our hotel tonight by himself to care for Micah. Please pray that we would have stamina to continue to respond well to the challenges at hand. Most of all, please pray that this trial would cause our hearts to trust Father more.

Frankenstein Baby Heads to Bangkok

2011-07-21T21:28:00.000+08:00

I so very wish I had a picture of our adventure at the hospital yesterday but between lugging around CT scan films, a diaper bag, and a twenty pound baby, my camera bag did not make the cut. We were able to make it in for an EEG yesterday, and Sami was transformed into a Frankenstein baby with 30 multi-colored wires glued to his little head. Quite a pathetic sight!

When the nurse first started to apply all the censors, Sami was not a happy guy. He writhed and protested as she measured his skull and made blue marker dots across it. Finally, the frustrated nurse asked me to put him to sleep so she could work. Easier said than done for a 9 month old whose entire life & routine have been disrupted by another international trip on top of daily visits to the hospital! But by the grace of God, a lot of prayerful begging, and a lot of rocking, I managed to put Sam to sleep so the nurse could work. It took her a while to finish wiring him up so by the time she was ready to begin the sleeping EEG, he was awake. She must have assumed I was some kind of miracle worker or baby whisperer when she asked me to put him to sleep once more. So after a lot more prayerful begging, a lot more rocking, and a lot of benadryl, he was out again and the testing began.

There is something very strange & surreal about watching your baby hooked up to a bunch of medical machines. Thankfully, this test didn't cause him any pain but instead steadily measured his brain waves as he slept. He was pretty angry, however, when he woke up to still find all the sticky goo and wires on his head. He was even more angry when the nurse took them all off!

So right now, the status is that we have an MRI scheduled for Saturday at 8 AM, so we've been asked to arrive at the hospital on Friday at 3 PM. That should be a fun night! We've completed the EEG but there apparently is no doctor available to read it. I was informed today that the doctor will be in Australia until July 29. The problem with that is that since the boys haven't finished their US citizen naturalization process, they are still traveling on their Ethiopian passports. Ethiopians can only stay in Thailand for 15 days so we have to leave on July 31. We can't go back to China because we only have a double entry Chinese visa for the boys, which means that we would have to get another Chinese visa for them in order to go home when all of this drama finally concludes. Another option would be to exit the country into Laos or Myanmar and then re-enter in order to apply for another 15 day Thai visa.

But that still doesn't address the question of how we'll get the EEG read for Sami. The answer to that seems to lie in Bangkok. One of the best hospitals in southeast Asia is in Bangkok, and it seems that might be a better place for us to take care of our little guy. We would have to change our flights, but that seems like a small price to pay to be able to hopefully get everything we need in one location.

So more than likely, we will end up in Bangkok next week. Yet another installment in this great adventure called parenthood!

Update on Sami's Seizure

2011-07-20T08:46:00.000+08:00

The update on Sami is pretty much that there is no update. I've spent the past two days visiting four hospitals and one clinic here in Thailand, and none of them seem to be able to help me get an MRI done for Sami. One of the main problems seems to be that the hospital I went to in Beijing did not write up an order for an MRI, and the doctors aren't very willing to take my word for it that he needs one done. Another problem is that a 9 month old needs to be sedated for an MRI, and none of the hospitals seem to have the equipment to monitor him while he's under.

I do have an appointment scheduled for an EEG tomorrow afternoon, but the verdict is still out on when and if I'll be able to get the MRI. On Friday, we're supposed to see an neurologist who should be able to refer us, but my fear is that we won't be able to get everything done before we're set to leave the following Wednesday. Changing our tickets isn't really an option either because Ethiopians are only granted 15 day visas. The plan is constantly changing, so I'm sure by the time this blog even posts, we'll be moving in a different direction. We're trusting that Father will provide us what we need for Sami to get checked out, even if it means leaving the country and re-entering in order to purchase a new visa for them.

Tromping around Thailand for the past two days has been exhausting but has certainly given me my fair share of memorable moments. Here are a few notable ones:

When leaving the first clinic I visited, one of the doctor's patients gave us a ride in his motorcycle taxi to the next hospital. The crazy thing about it was that he had just had several stitches removed from a large gash in his head. If that were me, I would have been either passed out or too dizzy to drive, but thankfully he seemed fine.

At the second hospital, I was asked if I spoke Thai. When I answered no, they laughed at me. Then a nurse made sure that I moved out of the way from the fan for Sami's health. As we waited to see a doctor, I became increasingly aware that this hospital wasn't going to be able to help us. While I was pondering this, Sami blew out his diaper. I took this as a definite sign I should leave. I had to retrieve Sami's CT scan from the registration desk, so I couldn't sneak out of the waiting room. I had to come up with an excuse as to why I had to leave. I couldn't exactly say it was because I was out of diapers because then I would look like a bad mom. And I couldn't say it was because I didn't like their hospital because then I would offend them. They interpreted my lack of excuse to mean that I was unwilling to wait in line to see the doctor, so they skipped Sami's file ahead of about give people in front of us, which made me feel like a jerky foreigner. Finally, a doctor wearing a Mickey Sport shirt saw us and confirmed that they were in fact not able to help me. I paid $3 for my visit and happily left.

I shared a truck taxi with three Buddhist monks in orange robes.

I stiffed another truck taxi driver out of two thirds of his fare because I thought he was trying to take advantage of my inability to speak Thai. I got out of the truck, threw some money at him, and walked away as he shouted at me. I thought I was being to clever to avoid being cheated but later found out that his fare was actually reasonable. Oops!

Sami & I both fell asleep in the fourth hospital's waiting room as a nurse tried to schedule our appointment for the EEG. When I woke up, I was served a glass of some yellow, fizzy drink that tasted like Froot Loops. But then again, it might have been pee...

So there's been some laughing, some crying, some wishing I was in America where this would more than likely be a little bit easier to accomplish. But there's also been a lot of prayer, a lot of one-on-one time with my little guy, and a lot of exploring a city that is so beautifully verdant. Overall, God is certainly sustaining us all and we're hopefully for forward progress at tomorrow's appointment.

I think this is what they call the deep end...

2011-07-15T16:27:00.000+08:00

I've always been a wader, never the kid who whole-heartedly throws themselves off the diving board into the pool. Nice. Slow. Steady. Yes, that describes me much more accurately. So I figured it would be nice if my introduction to parenthood would be a little bit more like the kiddie pool rather than the high dive.

However, yesterday threw me in the deep end in a big way.

Let me just preface all of this with the wise words of Sami's sage nanny: Sami is fine. It's true Sami is fine. His mama on the other hand...

On Thursday morning, I was at home with the boys. Kevin had left around 7 AM to head out to the countryside about an hour & a half away to help out at an English camp. It was my second day of solo motherhood. Everything was fine until around 8:45 AM when Sami was getting ready for his morning nap. He was a little fussy, as most babies are when they'd rather be asleep than be subjected to whatever their well-intentioned mothers are trying to get them to do to hold out until their designated nap time. But then the fussiness wasn't just fussiness. It was a gasping for breath. It was contorted swallowing. It was clenched fists. It was a tiny twitching foot. I thought he was choking, though I didn't have a clue what it would be since he had been in my arms for the past 5 minutes. To be honest, I thought he was dying, though I certainly had no clue why that would be happening either.

Thankfully, my friend YL, who has been helping us around the house twice a week, was there. She held Sami while I sprinted to the building across the way to find my friend who owns a car to get her to take us to the hospital. The elevator was in use, so I sprinted up 9 flights of stairs to her house, only to find her not at home. Once I made it back home, I decided to knock on our neighbors across the hall to see if they could take us. These are the same neighbors who provided us with Creepy Winker, Lover Bear, and the Happy Me Too bunny bank. The same ones who hadn't paid much attention to us until we brought the boys home.

Well, I had their attention now! The husband (who I later found out had only just gone to bed at 5 AM for some unknown reason) let us all pile into his car to take us to the hospital. And I mean pile in a very literal sense. He drives a teeny tiny Audi sports car whose backseat is virtually nonexistent. But I wasn't too concerned with arriving comfortably. I just wanted to arrive!

By that time, Sami was doing a lot better. He was breathing again but was still extremely lethargic. We arrived at the pediatric ER and instead of going through the typical Chinese procedure of registering and putting down your treatment down payment before seeing a doctor, we barged straight into an examine room. I tracked down a nurse and explained the situation to her. We were quickly seen by a doctor, who poked Sami with a popsicle stick to see how responsive he was.

By that time, our other American friends in town had helped us get in touch with a doctor in the states. Both he & the Chinese doctor seemed to think that Sami had had a seizure. It was a very surreal moment. Here I am, in my third week of motherhood, in a Chinese hospital surrounded by kids with IVs stuck in the foreheads, being informed that my brand new son has had a seizure. This was not the day that I was hoping for.

Both doctors also advised for us have further testing done on little Sam. We could have stayed at the local hospital but we would have had to wait until the afternoon until the CT scan expert was available. Or we could have hopped on the new mag train that only takes an hour and a half to get to Beijing and seen a doctor that speaks English. We chose the second option.

We were planning on coming to Beijing on Friday anyway, so all we really had to do was pack in half an hour and get to the train station to change our tickets up a day. A bit easier said than done but we made it. Once we got into town, we took a cab to our friends apartment, while Kevin stayed with Micah and I took Sami to the international hospital.

We were there for about three hours or so. They did a physical exam on him to rule out trauma as the cause of the seizure. They also did a CT scan on him, which revealed some abnormalities in the gray & white matter of his brain. Our American doctor told us this could be because of malnutrition from when he was little, which could also suggest that it could correct itself. But we're also aware of the fact that it could be something worse. The next step for us is to have an MRI for Sami when we are in Thailand the next two weeks.

During this whole experience, God has been good to remind me of a few facets of his character:

GOD'S LOVING CHOOSING OF US--As I sat in a taxi singing over Sami and then later held his little band-aid clad hand while he laid on a hospital bed, I remembered that I've only really been with this boy for three weeks. We were but near strangers before. Yet I love him so deeply & so dearly because I've chosen to do so. How much more has our Heavenly Father chosen to love us. Chosen to sing over us. Chosen to hold our hands.

GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL CARE--This whole incident could not have been surrounded by more providence. The fact that we've been planning this Thailand trip for months. The fact that I wasn't home alone when Sami's seizure occurred. The fact that, though I feel a world away in China, I can still get quality care for my son.

So that is where things stand for now. In the meantime, Sami continues to be the happy, rolly, baby he's always been. I will try to post an update as soon as we know more in Thailand.

Babies, Meet Beans. Beans, Meet Babies.

2011-07-06T15:07:00.000+08:00

The reason we have Beans at all is because she couldn't handle living with kids. But that was almost two years ago, so with her puppy energy behind her, I was hopeful that we could welcome the boys into a family that included Beans. Most of our Chinese friends think we're crazy for having both a dog and kids, but the meet-and-greet-get-to-know-you adjustment has been going well.

Sami is pretty ambivalent to the dog. If we'd let her, she would lick him for an hour straight, and I don't think Sami would mind at all. (We don't let her, of course.)

Micah, on the other hand, has had a few more misgivings about the strange creature that is about the same height as he is. Over the past week, he has progressed from screaming when in her presence to shirking around her to actually initiating interaction with her. I think they'll be best good buds in the near future.

But the boys haven't been the only ones who have had to adjust to having a dog around--Beans has had to adjust too! She's been a little confused as she's been trying to figure out exactly what to make of these two new little things in the house. She's spent some extra time in her closet when we can't wrangle both her and the boys. She's had to share some attention, but I've tried to compensate for that with some extra petting and head scritching. I've literally looked her in the eye once or twice and told her, "You are a valued member of this family." And I'm quite convinced she understood.

On day two, Kevin was almost ready to get rid of her, but if that happened, then I would have to figure out a new way to clean up all the dropped food particles left over from meal times. So if Beans can manage not to destroy all the boys' toys and not to lick them mercilessly every time I turn my back, we're pretty sure we'll be able maintain our current floor cleaning employee.

Babies, Meet China. China, Meet Babies.

2011-07-04T16:25:00.001+08:00

I have to admit the while I was excited to bring the boys home, I was a little nervous to bring the boys home to China. As we shared with Chinese friends, neighbors, and strangers about our plans to adopt, their responses varied from excited & encouraging to skeptical & down right rude. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked if I want my own kids (as if Micah & Sami could never truly be mine), then this adoption process would have been a lot cheaper. I've had more people than I can count tell me that if I would just take some Chinese medicine (well, actually they said "eat" Chinese medicine because that's how they say it here!), then we wouldn't need to adopt. I'm learning to respond gracefully and patiently, knowing that adoption is still a rather foreign concept for most locals. But there are some days when we stay indoors to maintain my sanity by not having to explain for the millionth why our family is different colors.

I had hoped that maybe I was overreacting and that my fears of the barrage of questions wouldn't be as bad as I anticipated. I was wrong though. Very wrong. No sooner had we set foot on Chinese soil at the airport in Beijing did the immigration official ask me if I had my own kids. "These are my kids," I replied, forcing a smile on my jet-lagged face. "Oh...I mean...do you have other kids?" he corrected himself. "Nope. Just these," I replied as I gathered our passports and made our way through the customs line. And so it began.

For the most part, people actually haven't commented on their skin color that much. The first reaction we usually get is that they are twins. They're not, which is obvious enough to me and anyone else who would take the time to notice that they are on incredibly different developmental levels. But my merciful & patient husband reminded me that here in a one-child policy country, most people who see a family with multiple children automatically assume they are twins. Besides, I'd much rather debunk the myth that they're twins rather than explaining that their skin is in fact not dirty and that in fact I bathe them quite regularly.

I know people all over the place say thoughtless things to adopted families. Well-intentioned things but stupid nonetheless. I keep having to remind myself that it happens in American too. It's not just the Chinese who are out to get me and my little black babies. On our first outing, a perplexed grandmother wrangled me within 10 steps of our doorway and started rapid firing questions. "So do you know a black person?" she asked. I hate announcing to the world that our babies are adopted because I don't want them to be labeled that way, but when I realized the intention of her question was more in line with the biblical sense of the word "know" (ie-and he knew a woman), I made an exception to my conviction. It wouldn't take long for there be rumors floating around our 2000+ people apartment complex that the foreign chick had an affair with an African and birthed two babies of different ages without any evidence of being pregnant at all. Not only miraculous but juicy gossip!

She then turned to relay the situation to her friend, and for some reason included the detail that I was currently pregnant. No. Not pregnant. No affair. Just me and my babies. Her friend then pinched the boys' cheeks and said, "They're too pretty to count as black!" I'm still not even sure what she meant by that.

But then of course, we have had our dear local friends who have been counting down the days with us until the boys came home. Friends who have prayed for us. Friends who have helped us give them Chinese names. Friends who have asked questions and tried to wrap their minds around the concept of adoption. For these friends, we are incredibly thankful.

I even had a dear friend call me this morning and ask if she could come over and see the boys on July 12 at 9 AM. Being in a culture where planning is often a peripheral thought, I was impressed with her commitment to coming. So guess who now has plans on July 12 at 9 AM!

The other fun quirk of our China life with the babies is taking them out on our bikes. We strap them into the Ergos and ride just like we used to. Well, maybe not just like we used to. Much slower now. We're actually much safer with the boys strapped to us than we were before. Instead of zooming and swerving around us, other bikers slow down and even stop to ogle as we pass by. If we felt like we were living in a fish bowl before as two white foreigners, we've now reached a new level with the addition of two Afrikids. The increased stares, points, and cell phone pictures are now just a permanent part of life.

Not that the attention is bad. Our neighbor across the hall that has never once before paid attention to us came and knocked on our door the other night with gifts in tow. We now have our first installment of rather strange Chinese toys! We call the guy on the left Creepy Winker because he's...well...creepy. The middle one is a bank whose shirt says "Happy Me Too." Perfect for beginning to teach the boys about personal finance. Not perfect for teaching the boys how to speak normal sounding English. The bear on the right seems tame enough but we didn't want him to feel left out from his other odd companions so we named him Lover Bear. The innocent terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" are often translated as "lover" here. It's hard to keep a straight face when someone asks you how old you were when you had your first lover. We think Lover Bear will be helpful in teaching the boys how to make the differentiation in their own English skills.

So now we truly are a black and white family living in a yellow world. It has its challenges but it certainly makes life interesting!

Rolling Out the Carpet

2011-07-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

Instead of rolling out a red carpet to welcome our family home, our carpet was of the car variety. I transformed a corner of our yang tai into a play area for the boys. A yang tai is a typical feature of Chinese homes and is basically an open area with lots of windows intended for hanging clothes to dry. Our yang tai is at one end of our living room, so it makes a space for them. I found a basket drawer set at a market in the southern part of our city and had a seamstress replace the girly floral liners with a fun jungle fabric I found at the cloth market near our house. So now the boys have a fun place to play and look out the window.

They boys, however, aren't the only ones who have been enjoying the car rug.

The three other American families have been such a blessing in welcoming us home. They have been eager to meet the boys and spend time with us but have respected our space as well. When we returned home, they had our house clean, our fridge stocked, and a few surprises as well.

Our first week at home has had its high points and low points. We've had lots of sleepless nights, lots of messes, and lots of tears (sometimes not just from the boys!). But we've also had lots of laughs, lots of hugs, and lots of thankfulness. Our main goals for the first few weeks is to try to establish a routine, including teaching good eating & sleeping habits. It might seem a little ambitious but we've made a lot of progress I think. Sami has started his first solids of banana and pumpkin puree (homemade stuff I froze before we went to pick them up), and Micah pretty much plows through anything we put in front of him, including vegetables (evidence that he is most certainly fit to be my son!). He has a serious crush on his fork and refuses to begin a meal without it, even if he doesn't use it at all.

While Sami is pretty much a dream at going down to sleep, he hasn't been sleeping through the night most of the time, requiring a bottle around 3 AM. Micah is not a fan of naps or night time, but we're slowly discovering a sleep routine that seems to be working. Micah has made it through the night once, but he typically wakes up a few times. We think maybe it's because of the residual itchiness from his scabies, so hopefully his sleeping will get better as his skin heals.

So this first week has been full of a lot of learning. This is probably one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life. More difficult than marathons. More difficult than living internationally. More difficult than learning Chinese. But my husband is amazing, my God is sufficient, and our commitment to these boys is steadfast.

Day #4: Planes, Trains & Automobiles...we're home!

2011-06-28T09:58:00.009+08:00

Picking up the boys' American visas went as smoothly as applying for them did. Well, actually smoother since our agency rep, Haile, went to the embassy for us to pick them up. All we had to do was stay at home and wait for him to drop them by. And with one final pass-off, we had everything we needed to bring the boys home with us. Chinese visas. Check. American visas. Check. Two black babies. Double check.

To celebrate the conclusion of it all, our friend Becky took us to the most amazing place for lunch. Kevin & I both love Middle Eastern food, but when your best option here is hummus from a Singapore chain (and even that you have to take a three hour train for!), you know you're hard pressed for the good stuff. Fortunately enough, our friend Becky knew of an authentic Yemini restaurant in Addis. We sat on the floor and had tabbouleh, hummus, and chicken kabbobs to our hearts content. And our hearts (and stomachs!) were very content. But we weren't the only ones with happy bellies. Micah pounded away and ate more than the rest of us.

After lunch, we headed home to pack, which was a somewhat difficult task considering I had to make room for all the extra things I had bought in Ethiopia. We purchases a few extra cans of formula since I'm a bit untrusting of the stuff we can buy here in China. Plus the Ethiopian toys I got for the boys. And of course, the import cereal we found for nearly American prices. No, no, not baby cereal. Honey Bunches of Oats. That one was for me!

We still had a few hours before our flight left, so we were able to hang out with Becky and some of her other American friends that night.

Then it was time for the travels to begin! I think we were both a little nervous about the flight ahead, especially Kevin since memories of taking two little babies on an 11 hour flight just the month before still lingered in his mind. So we strapped up the boys in their Ergos, hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst.

Ethiopian Airlines was extremely accommodating. We never stood in a line more than three minuted before an employee spotted us with the kiddos and whisked us to the front. We had originally booked seats with the bassinets for the boys, but the airline ended up blocking the seats next to us instead so each boy could have their own seat to sleep in. It worked SO much better than a bassinet would have. The kind Chinese man next to Micah & me even rescued him from tumbling onto the floor when I had nodded off to sleep.

Speaking of sleeping...did they do it? Micah's benadryl left him conked out for the first 8 hours of the flight. Sami did decently well, considering I had an amateur mommy moment while packing and didn't put an extra can of formula in our carry-on bags. More on that story later... Kevin & I didn't sleep much, but we were able to sit most of the time and even watched quite a few movies. And I had thought my plane movie watching days were over!

We finally arrived in Beijing at 3:30 PM on Saturday. We have some dear friends, Justin & Lauren, that live in Beijing who open their home to us whenever we're in town. Ironically enough, Justin was on a flight from the States that arrived just an hour before our flight did, so he had his driver wait for us and took us all back to their apartment. We stayed there for the night and took the train home on Sunday afternoon.

We've been home now for a few days and have had plenty of ups and downs. Sleepless nights, unexplainable and seemingly interminable crying, and pretty much being consumed with caring for these little ones. But there have also been indescribably joyful moments of seeing their personalities unfold, discovering their idiosyncrasies, and just staring at them. Like my little friend Clara Anne said, "I can't believe they're here. They're not pictures anymore...they're people!" I couldn't have said it any better myself, Clara.

Day #3: Parenting Is Easy...With Benedryl

2011-06-24T15:24:00.000+08:00

Micah has scabies. Poor baby. Thankfully, the care center staff had already taken him to the doctor and were able to pass along his medicine to me. Medicine involving benedryl for the itchies to not be so itchy. Medicine that turns him into a sleepy, huggy zombie. Though it's kind of sad to see my kid tripping out on drugs, it sure has made taking care of him easier. We went to the US embassy yesterday to process their American visas, and he sat in my lap the entire time. That was nearly two hours of uninterrupted lap time. I even helped him go down the slide at the kid's play area inside the embassy, but he was less than thrilled with it. He far preferred snuggling with me, which I have to say I didn't mind much either!

The other thing that helps his scabies is to give him a warm bath before I apply his skin cream. So we started the day yesterday with a bath. He wasn't too sure what to think about it all, and he looked like a wet rat when we got him out of the tub.

Everything went swimmingly at the embassy. They asked us a few questions about the boys and made sure we understood that the adoption is legal and binding. I wonder why people keep reminding us of this. Has an adopted family ever stood at the embassy window and said, "Really? You mean I can't give him back?" Let's hope that never happens! Their visas should be ready by Friday morning, just enough time for us to catch our flight home on Friday night.

We've had two nights with the boys now, and I have to say that we've been impressed with how well they sleep. They are both in our room with us--Sami in a pack & play and Micah on a palet I made him on the floor. I was probably the one who had the hardest time sleeping. All their little baby grunts and noises kept me on constant alert. Sami decided to have a late night play hour with Kevin from 3-5 AM, but Micah slept like a champ. Night two was much better. I was more accustomed to their noises, and Sami only woke up once for a bottle.

So with the chill skillz (thank you, benedryl!) and sleeping skillz that our sons seems to be exhibiting, we're hoping that our 10 hour flight home won't be too miserable. We'll be staying in Beijing on Saturday night after we land and then taking the train home the next afternoon. Welcome to your new life of planes, trains, and automobiles, my little friends!

Day #2: I'm Kind of a Big Deal

2011-06-23T16:14:00.000+08:00

On Wednesday, we spent the morning shopping for some toys to help the boys remember their Ethiopia home. We also made a trip to a local grcery store to stock up on formula & diapers. I was also thrilled to find my favorite American cereals and whole wheat pasta that I can't buy in China. With our shopping behind us, we were ready to set off to the care center to bring our boys home.

It's quite difficult to describe the emotions welling in our hearts and the thoughts racing through our heads as we were traveling down the familiar road to the care center. But this tip wasn't like the trips we had made before. This trip would not end in a goodbye. This trip would double the size of our family and change things from here on out. Everything felt so surreal. We've been moving toward this day for so long that it was hard to grasp that it had finally arrived. The joy & trepidation of parenthood took hold of me in a grasp of realism. I remembered Jesus' words from the book of John that I had whispered to them last April: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

And then it was time. We were there. We pulled up to the metal gate of the care center. Knocked once. Knocked twice. The gate opened, and we entered in to find our sons to bring them home. The nannies were anticipating our arrival, and Sami's departure was particularly difficult for one of them. We have been praying for the last six months that he would be cared for well and loved while we were separated. Those prayers were answered in this woman.

She held Sami tight, kissed his fat cheeks, and cried over him as we prepared to leave. I almost felt guilty for taking him away!

Micah was a little charmer, waving goodbye to everyone as he put on his shoes.

The nannies had prepared special matching outfits for the boys to wear on their departure day. This is what they said:

"I'm kind of a big deal."

Very appropriate for the occassion but not necessarily the sentiment I want carrying them through life!

With tears in my eyes and tears in the nannies' eyes, we finally managed to leave. We were now together as an official family of four!

We headed back home for an afternoon full of firsts:

First bottles

First hugs

First play time

First dinner

First poopy diaper

Our first evening together as a family

The boys have done great so far. There have been very few fits but instead a lot of hugs, smiles, laughs, and clapping. Micah has been thrilled with all the attetion he's been receiving. He loves the toys we brought for him, but what I think he loves more is that there aren't twenty other kids fighting for the same toys. Just like the nanny said, Sami is fine. He's content to chill on the floor or in our arms. So I would say Day #1 of parenthood went much smoother than expected!

The First Day of Everyday

2011-06-22T14:27:00.000+08:00

Well, our ghetto tickets seemed to do the trick, and our flight took off about a half hour later than expected. We were given bulk-head row seats, so Kevin had some wicked leg room to stretch out those spider appendages of his. Our plane even had individual movie screens, so I was a happy camper for my final flight involving freedom to actually watch movies. Our flight actually landed in Addis about an hour ahead of schedule at 5 AM instead of 6 AM. Since it was so early, we cruised right through luggage pick up, getting our visas, and clearing customs. No customs troubles this time, except the lady kept asking me if I had binoculars in my bag.

We went straight from the airport to our friend Becky's house where we are staying. She is a fun friend of ours from the states who graciously opened her home to us and our kiddos. It has been such a blessing to have a kitchen and a living room and a friend with a car who is a rockin' conversationalist. We chilled with Beck for an hour or two, waiting for the Chinese embassy to open so we could go apply for the boys' visas. Our agency driver came to pick us up and we headed that way.

Hurry up and wait was the name of the game at the Chinese embassy. We stood in line for three hours outside a metal gate with a possee of Ethiopians also wanting Chinese visas. Our agency representative joined us in the waiting game about half-way into it. Noticing my obvious misery, he let me take a nap in his car while my trooper of a husband held our place in line. The embassy closed for lunch at 12:30 so we got a little nervous as the clock continued to tick. The gruff gatekeeper who reminded me of the Wizard of Oz finally admitted us around 12:15 to see the magical visa man in the tiny blue room. He looked over our paperwork quickly, said it shouldn't be a problem, and told us to come back that afternoon at 4:30 to pick up the passports. During our entire stay at the embassy, we saw not even one Chinese person. Kind of strange.

We went from the visa office back to Becky's apartment to eat lunch and get some much needed rest. Then we finally got to head to the care center to see our boys. It was crazy to think that this was the first day of getting to be with them everyday. Micah was sleepy and fell asleep win my arms within the first 10 minutes of us being there. It looks like he might have some sort of scabies on his skin, so we'll have to figure out how to deal with that. The care center nurse told us that they have been treating him already. Hopefully that will help him. Sam is fat, fat, fat. I got to see him roll over, and I gave him a round of mama applause.

I wanted to get an idea of the boys' daily schedule and habits, so I asked the English-speaking nurse some questions about them. This was her description: Micah likes to be held. Sami is fine. Micah likes to eat everything. You're not going to get any arguements from me!

We weren't able to stay long because we had to jet back over to the Chinese embassy to pickup the boys' passports. We had already decided to bring the boys home on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, so we could have an extra day to get over plane fatigue. We're only 5 hours off China time, so the jet lag really isn't that bad. It's mostly just a sleepless night that we're battling.

We were met at the embassy by the happy gatekeeper once more, who announced we were late. "But our appointment is at 4:30," I told him. "Oh," he replied. "Then wait." So wait we did. But this time not for three hours, maybe just 15 minutes. We were once again ushed into the magical blue room of visas. We were ready to pay but then realized we had forgotten a form we needed. As we rushed out of the embassy compound back to the car to go pick up the form, the gatekeeper met us with a disappointed shake of the head. We were back again within 20 minutes, but the gatekeeper still felt the need to remind us that we were late again. Despite the flurry of it all, we were so thankful to find that the boys have been issued double entry, 180 day visas, which will cover us coming home and our trip to Thailand next month. What had taken Kevin and our friend Josh five days to handle when they were here in May, we accomplished in one day. So thankful to the Lord's grace for that!

We ended the day with a wonderful meal at a restaurant Becky recommended. I swear, hanging out with this girl, cruising around in her 15-passenger party van has made our stay in Addis a vacation so far. We bring the boys home on Wednesday afternoon, so we'll see how the vacation feel changes after that!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to Africa we go!

2011-06-20T22:28:00.000+08:00

Today went off without consequence, and now we're waiting in the Beijing airport for our flight to leave. Oh Starbucks, how I love thee and thy free internet!

We took the train this morning and arrived around 1 PM. We then navigated the bowels of the Beijing subway system and ended up at a fancy-schmancy shopping center where we had a late lunch at my favorite restaurant. Kevin went to Starbucks while I got my hair cut at the Tony & Guy. There are few places that I trust getting my hair cut at home because of the dreaded thinning scissors and the eternal bangs that are so popular here. But for some reason, a familiar brand convinces me that these people must know how to cut a foreigner's hair. Honestly, I feel like my new haircut is a bit mom-ish but I guess that's only fitting considering I'm going to Africa to become a mom. Either way, it was a fun way to kill some time.

Then we took a bus & another subway to grab a quick dinner at Subway. We took the airport express out to the airport and got here around 8:30 PM. We arrived at our terminal to find a madhouse. There were ghetto signs hanging from the monitors with different African destinations written on them. Come to find out, the entire computer system was down! One of the airline employees took our passports, and, after checking the master list (hand-written master list I might add!), she asked us if we were sure we were booked on today's flight. Yes, I told her. Absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure as sure can be. OK, she said, and generated two tickets for us that look like this:

Now if that isn't the most ghetto thing I've ever seen! So much for making an adoption scrapbook with all my charming mementos. OK so I'll probably never make an adoption scrapbook but if I did, these ghetto tickets would certainly spoil the look of things! But here's hoping that they'll get us on the plane!

After being issued our questionable tickets, we went through immigration & customs. I stepped up in line and handed the official my passport. He looked at me and my straight hair (thanks Tony & Guy!), looked at my curly-hair passport picture, looked at me again and said, "Is this your photograph?" Thankfully, he took my word for it when I said yes, didn't even balk at the odd ticket I hand him, and let me pass through.

Which now brings us to Starbucks, our final destination before our 11 hour flight to Africa. Babies, ready or not, here we come!

The Final Chill Day

2011-06-19T22:11:00.000+08:00

Today we say goodbye to the wide open, lazy day we know as Sunday. I worked really hard all day Saturday to ensure us a somewhat laid back day today.

I packed and organized and packed some more.

The entire family got involved in the packing process.

Until finally...we're ready to go!

Our final Chill Day was unfortunately what we call a "white sky" day today so we stayed in and just enjoyed our final day of just the two of us.

We attempted to sleep in but the sun rising at 4:30 AM doesn't really aid one's efforts to do that.

We had a special breakfast of biscuits & homemade strawberry jelly. (OK well Kevin had a special breakfast of biscuits & homemade strawberry jelly. I stuck with my old faithful oatmeal. Because when so many things are changing in life, I figure at least one thing should be the same. And why not make it your breakfast?)

We took our time lingering in the Word of God in the morning without interruption.

Kevin took a nap before noon without interruption.

We watched a movie while we ate lunch without interruption.

We chatted with each other without interruption.

We skyped with family without interruption.

I worked out without interruption.

Because I know that in a few days, lazy mornings will cease. Interruptions will be upon us. But I am entirely convinced that it will be worth it for these two.

As I stand before the precipice of motherhood, I was really encouraged by what I read in Philippians this morning. Sure, I've read this passage a thousand and one times but with the reality that motherhood is a call to sacrifice & service on my mind a lot recently, these words really intersected with that has been going on in my heart:

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:3-8

Because the immediate context to me for the word "rivalry" mostly exists within the Big 12, I looked it up in the dictionary to get a broader perspective. Rivalry is competition for the same objective or superiority. Will my own agenda and desire for an uninterrupted day including time reading my Bible, a good, sweaty workout and a shower, and an adult conversation with my husband compete for superiority over my boys' needs? Or will I see the honor of caring for them as they've never been cared for before as impetus to put their needs before my own? Even better yet, will I set Christ's example of love & service ever before me so I can serve them without receiving an ounce of gratitude yet still feel satisfied in the King's pleasure of me?

So these are the things I'm thinking about as we set off on a great adventure tomorrow to multiply our family. These are the things I'm praying that God would add to my heart as we add our Micah & Sami to our family for good.

494 Days Later

2011-06-14T21:07:00.000+08:00

From start to finish, the time it takes for two people to become parents is 280 days.

From start to finish, the time it takes for two elephants to become parents is 640 days.

From start to finish, the time it has taken for Kevin & me to become parents is 494 days.

We began this adoption journey on February 14, 2010 and it will come to an end on June 23, 2011.

Where did the date June 23 come from? Could there really be an end in sight?

Why yes! There is! June 23 is the day that we will bring our boys to the US Embassy in Ethiopia and jump the final hurdle to bring them home. After interviewing Micah's birth mom and reviewing some additional paperwork for Sami, Uncle Sam has deemed our little ones fit to become good ol' Americans.

Our plan is to fly out of Beijing on Monday, June 20th around 10:30 PM. We should arrive in Addis on Tuesday morning around 6 AM. We should be able to process both their American & Chinese visas in time to leave late Friday night (technically Saturday morning) around midnight.

Our main prayer request is concerning the volcano that recently erupted in Eritrea for the first time since 1861. Pray that the ash will not disrupt air traffic and keep us from getting to our little men.

Hopefully, that won't be a problem and at the end of it all I can say...

494 days later, these curls were mine...

494 days later, these smiles were mine...

It has been a long 494 days, with a little bit of heartache but a lot of joy along the way. Looking forward to the next 494 days and beyond with these buddies!

This is my son. He is smiling.

2011-06-08T22:46:00.000+08:00

Now that our sons are staying in the Addis care center rather than the care center in the eastern part of Ethiopia where they're from, we get to see tons more pictures of them. The reason is because families from our agency are constantly traveling through Addis for their court dates or to bring home their own children. Our agency has a Picasa website where we can share pictures of the kids at the care center with each other.

That is where this picture came from. This is the first time I have seen my son smile. In fact, Kevin & I had to stare at this picture for a long time before we could definitively say it is our Sami. We're still only about 95% sure that it's him, since we've never seen him make this face before.

So the status update is that the boys' paperwork has been officially submitted to the US embassy. They have now asked for some clarification on some of Sami's paperwork and for an interview with Micah's birth mom. It's not very clear how long this will take, but we're still hoping that we'll be able to travel before the end of the month. Either way, we know they are in good hands with the care center nannies and in even better hands with our God.

Some of my favorite people

2011-06-04T20:49:00.103+08:00

It probably won't surprise you for me to say that living overseas can sometimes be somewhat of a lonely endeavor. An ocean away from family & friends where only the daring will attempt an international call. Yes, our Chinese friends hold a near & dear place in our hearts, but there really is something to a shared culture and language that makes a relationship a bit easier.

That's why our relationships with the other American families with whom we share life here are extremely precious. And that's why it's also really tough to say goodbye when people head back to the States for a little (or a long!) while. Take the Morello family, for example, who left on Monday to spend the next year in the US. With them, I always know that I will have...

Someone to tell me I'm crazy for even considering buying a white couch in China

Someone who will go so far to convince me that "butt dust" is a word, that they'll add it to their phone's Chinese dictionary and forever leave "pi gu chen tu" seared in my brain (it's not a word, by the way, in case you weren't sure)

Someone who will subject herself to a Chinese hair salon just to make my rough day a bit better

Someone who will risk saying the hard things because it's for my good

Someone who patiently re-explains recipes when I call her in tears because I accidentally made scrambled egg brownies ten minutes before my party is supposed to start

Someone who shares my dislike of Chinese food but makes life here work nonetheless

Someone who prays for & loves my boys as much as I do

Someone who laughs from that deep pit of your belly where all contagious laughter originates

Someone who constantly reminds me of the sovereign love & care of our great God

Someone who gives an amazing example of all how to love & honor her husband

Someone who makes use proud to be called Uncle Kev & Aunt Beck

Someone who is just as bummed as I am that Sami & Micah didn't come home with us when we went to Africa last April

Someone who always pops their eager head into my kitchen while I'm cooking dinner and asks if there is anything they can do to help

Someone who justifies my mistake of purchasing a bright yellow chaise chair by arguing at every sleepover who gets to sleep on the "highlighter" first

Someone who wants to know why Uncle Kevin's twin brother doesn't live here in China because they can't fathom why you would ever want to be away from your twin

Someone who makes me cards for any occasion that always read "U R the Best"

Someone (or someones I should more specifically say!) who have made the past two and a half years living in China a blessing & a joy

To Africa & Back

2011-05-21T14:32:00.000+08:00

I figure that my hiatus from blog life is justified by the fact that I had a hiatus from husband life. One might think that a husband hiatus might precipitate a rise in blog posts, but life kept moving on at its busy pace, even without Kevin around. While Kevin was in Africa helping Josh bring home his sons, I spent 5 days with Josh's wife Courtney in a city about 6 hours from here. We chatted, laughed, and filled her deep freezer with enough baby food and frozen meals to feed their growing family.

The guys, on the other hand, did not do as much laughing & chatting as we did. This is what they were usually doing:

Though on a regular day, I'm not sure the smiles were as big as they were in this pictures that was taken right before they headed to the airport to come home. Their stay was extended to around 10 days because the Chinese embassy was less than willing to grant the boys visas. It took navigating a maze of red tape to finally come home. Nights were long, tears were abundant, and diapers stinky. But there is certainly a redeeming quality in knowing that the source of those sleepless nights, shrill cries, and foul smells are these little guys:

And of course, there was the highlight of getting to love on our little men as well. Kevin took plenty of videos for me, which I have been watching several times a day for the past week or so. I even attempted to upload on the blog to share with you but gave up after 6 hours of waiting for our slow internet to do its job. Pictures will just have to do!

The update on Sami & Micah is that their paperwork is ready to be submitted to the US embassy for review. Our agency representative attempted to do it last week but was unable to because he was informed at the last minute that he needed yet another document. Thankfully, it was easily obtained, and the embassy should have our boys' files in hand this week. It can take anywhere from one day to 6 weeks for the US embassy to give their approval, so there is still no way to know when we'll be able to travel again. To whittle away at the wait time, I did my first loads of little boy laundry this week. Now if only there were little boy bodies to fill those little clothes...

The Relationship Between Stress & Trash

2011-05-10T21:12:00.000+08:00

An odd thing I discovered when we first moved to China is that the trashcans are tiny. Maybe it's because most kitchens are tiny too. It didn't bother me in the beginning but just forced me to take the trash out a little more often. Even that didn't bother me because all taking out the trash involved was tying up the bag and putting it outside our apartment door for the maintenance guys to pick up. I don't even have to climb the four flights of stairs out of my apartment building to throw it in the dumpster. What makes the set up even better is that one morning, I discovered a kind neighbor had donated a discarded tile and a wooden box lid to my front door stoop so I could put my trash bag could rest there while waiting for its final journey to the big trashcan in the sky. Could it get any better?

But then we got a dog. A dog who like to stick her nose in anything and eat anything. Including my trash. Nary a day went by that I wasn't chasing her as she fled from the kitchen with a contraband egg shell or discarded cabbage leaf in her mouth. I thought I was outsmarting her when I bought a trashcan with a lid. But alas, this was the scene that I unfortunately continue to deal with:

But then I went to a local market with my friend Tao Sha the other day. We meandered past a restaurant supply store and, amidst the commercial waffle makers (random) and soft ice cream dispensers, I spotted it--the mother of all trashcans! It was only $10, and I knew it had to be mine. The salespeople were terribly perplexed why I only wanted one. I didn't even attempt to explain to them that it is for personal use. I lugged my booty home and presented it to Beans. Ha! Take that, puppy!

My other favorite thing about my trashcan is the easy-to-follow directions on top. Push. Why, thank you, I think I will. But laugh as you may, those directions actually came in handy to my little 6 year-old friend, Clara when her family came over for dinner on Friday. She asked me where she could throw away her trash and I pointed to my behemoth of a trashcan. "How does it work?" she asked, most likely due to the fact that she's never seen a trashcan that she herself could fit inside. Upon my prompting, she used her newly cultivated reading skills: "Push. Oh, now I get it." Let's just hope that Beans never learns to read like Clara.

So there's one area of my life that I've now seemed to de-stress somewhat. Just trying to simplify as much as possible until those two little men come and shake things up a bit!

Good idea? Bad idea?

2011-05-05T10:12:00.000+08:00

Good idea: joining a group of friends at our local Botanical Garden

Bad idea: my friends informing me that we were to meet at 8:30 AM

Good idea: joining the old ladies doing Latin dancing (or so they said) in the park

Bad idea: pretending that I was Lauren from "So You Think You Can Dance" when in fact my rhythm is as poor as it was during my failed attempt to try out for the drill team in high school

Good idea: dancing to Lady Gaga songs downloaded on their cell phones & being silly throughout the park (After all, these friends are freshmen in college, which makes them about 19 years old. Man, that makes me feel old.)

Bad idea: dancing & being silly around the guys, who weren't really thrilled with the girly giggling

Good idea: agreeing to ride one of the theme park rides at the park with my friend Bonny

Bad idea: agreeing to ride one of the Chinese theme park rides that went upside-down and incredibly fast. Stuff around here isn't really known for its stellar quality...

Good idea: participating in the ever-so popular Chinese past-time of hanging out with pigeons

Bad idea: actually holding the dirty, scabby birds and letting them eat out of your hand

Good idea: hanging out with, getting to know, & loving on these dear Chinese friends

Bad idea: well, there really isn't anything bad to say about that!

The Sovereignty of God & the Calendar of Man

2011-05-04T23:36:00.000+08:00

The Bible reminds us frequently that the Lord has numbered our days and that He knows each one. This truth has proved resoundingly true recently as I've been reflecting on the "ironic twists of fate" that have manifested themselves in my life. Let me give you a few examples:

April 9, 2010 was the first time I experienced the overwhelming hope & joy that a bit of pee and two tiny lines can bring a woman. Though I was never able to meet that little life, hope & joy persisted still. April 9, 2011 was the first time I experienced the overwhelming hope & joy that holding your child (or children in my case!) for the first time can bring a woman. I was finally able to meet the little lives that were forever to be entrusted in my care. One year to the day.

Three days later on April 12, I legally became a mother. All the way on the other side of the planet, on that very same day, my dear sister-in-law Shannon became a mother as well to two beautiful twins. We've walked the long and sometimes bumpy road toward motherhood together, and in some ways we reached our destination together. Together. On the same day.

Today happens to be my birthday. Last year, I was so thankful to spend my birthday with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law eating sub-par Moroccan food in a Chinese tourism hub city (not a good idea if you were ever considering it!). This year, however, my husband is on another continent, enjoying the opportunity to see our sons. My "new" family is together on this birthday while I'm at home. I don't share that with you to elicit any pity (it's actually been a wonderful day, especially the part where I bought myself a birthday pineapple, shoved a candle in its leafy top, sang to myself, and blew it out) because there's no trace of sadness in my heart now. This is such a work of the Lord in my heart from years past! I used to be the person who reminded folks that my birthday was on its way. If the day didn't live up to my expectations, I was disappointed. The disappointment robbed me of the joy of recounting God's faithfulness to me over the past year.

But this year seems different. I'm so thankful that Kevin has the opportunity to be in Africa and that we got to talk for 8 whole minutes on the phone today. I'm so thankful for the low-key morning I got to spend at Starbucks with my friends. I'm so thankful that I got to meet with the same local friends tonight that I meet with every Wednesday night. I'm so thankful for the handful of local friends who remembered my birthday and sent my sweet text messages. I'm so thankful for the Facebook messages that have made me feel loved from across the ocean. I'm so thankful that this is hopefully the last birthday that our family will be separated. Lord willing, next year, I will look back at this birthday, remember the separation and be overwhelmed once again with thankfulness that that particular season of waiting is behind us.

It is the specificity of God's sovereign love that arranged these events to play out just so. It is the sensitivity of God's spirit working in my heart that helped me notice them at all. Therefore, my responsibility is to love Him, thank Him, praise Him. Won't you join me in that?

Off to Africa Again!

2011-05-02T13:44:00.005+08:00

All it really takes is one rather large credit card purchase, one 3 hour train trip, and 15 hours on a stuffy plane. In my opinion, the expenditure is really quite reasonable when it means that this is on the other side:

Unfortunately, it's not yet time for both of us to make that global leap to Africa for the second time. There's a reason, however, that I emphasize both of us. The reason is that one of us will be doing this very thing this week:

We have some good friends, Josh & Courtney, that live in our province who are also adopting two baby boys from Ethiopia. The twist in their adoption journey came when they discovered they were pregnant about half-way through the process. Now it's time for their boys to come home but Courtney is too pregnant to travel. They asked Kevin if he would be willing to take her ticket to Africa to assist Josh in toting their sons across the world to their new home. Of course, my husband was more than happy to oblige.

So this was the scene at 6 AM this morning as he scooted out the door to catch the early morning train to Beijing to re-board the same flight we were just on three weeks ago. I tried my best the night before to not only pack his suitcase but to pack his brain with every baby trick I've ever learned. Our friend Leslie "lent" us her three-month old son for practice so Kevin could learn the ins & outs of diapers, soothing, and all the other baby know-how that just seems to come more naturally for us women folk. Courtney & I agree that this international escapade our husbands are undertaking has potential for a reality show...

Two Men,
Two Babies,
One Really Looooong International Flight...
Will they all make it in one piece?

On top of the comedic effect this event will most definitely bring, we're thankful for this unexpected opportunity for Kevin to serve our friends and to love on our sons. I have to admit that I'm a bit jealous that it's him going instead of me but bringing home my friend's children with her husband just might not be the wisest course of action. I'm just glad that one of us will be there to give that extra amount of attention to Sami & Micah. Plus, this whole experience for Kevin will hopefully make our own homecoming trip with our boys that much easier. Hopefully...

So until Sunday (or maybe even Tuesday...we're not exactly sure how long this trip will be!), Beans & I will be cruising solo at the casa. We should be able to keep busy to help the time pass quickly. Well, I'll be keeping busy that is. Beans' idea of busy is relocating herself every so often for a new napping location!

Project 353: Week 16

2011-05-01T21:19:00.000+08:00

April 24

Our Easter Sunday at Thousand Buddha Mountain

April 25

Kitchen Organization Project...Done!

April 26

Kiddos' Room Organization Project--Done!

April 27

Thursday (early!) Morning Fun at the Botanical Garden

April 29

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweet Christin!

April 30

Is it normal to love a trash can as much as I love my new one?

Introducing Lao Da

2011-04-29T21:16:00.094+08:00

Lest you think I'm already starting a bad habit of parental favoritism and was only going to introduce you to Lao Er (or Sami as I can openly call him now!), we're also pleased for you to meet Lao Da: Micah James. Micah was able to spend the first ten months or so of his life with his birth mother, but circumstances unknown to me prevented her from being able to continue to care for him. I have a million questions about who she was, what she was like, how hard it was to give him up. Questions that will probably never have answers but will most likely be permanent residents in my mind. Nevertheless, he is such a happy little boy. It's as if the rough patches of his life haven't left their indelible, dark mark to erase his smile or quench his curious spirit.

Like Sami, Micah's actual birthday is unknown, so we chose for him to share a February 21 birthday with his cousin Jonathan. The second birthday festivities should be quite raucous when we're in Louisville next year with Chris & Sarah!

The reason we chose the name Micah James for our little guy does not have as elaborate a story as Samuel Jedidiah's. Mainly, the Old Testament book Micah and the New Testament epistle James were the reasons we named him such. Within the text is a rich treasury of truth & wisdom that we have already begun to pray into his little life:

That he would be filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord, with justice & might (Micah 3:8)

That he would desire for the Lord to teach him His ways so that he may walk in His paths (Micah 4:2)

That he would walk in the name of the Lord his God forever and ever (Micah 4:5)

That he would do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8)

That he would look to the Lord, wait on the Lord, and let the Lord be a light to him (Micah 7:7-8)

That he would love the God who pardons iniquity, passes over transgression, and delights in steadfast love (Micah 7:18)

That the trials of his life would produce steadfastness and faith (James 1:2-4)

That he would be a doer of the word, not merely a hearer (James 1:22)

That he would care for widows & orphans in their affliction (James 1:27)

That he would have a faith that is alive & active (James 2:14-26)

That he would humbly submit himself to God & draw near to Him (James 4:7-10)

We had so much fun with Micah in the care center at the beginning of the month. He is old enough to begin manifesting his little personality. He laughs, smiles, points, toddles around in his Spiderman shoes, and eats, eats, and eats (usually with double fists). He has the kitchen staff at the care center wrapped around his wee, chubby finger: several times he wandered toward that area of the house and returned with a new chunk of bread to gnaw on. We can tell already that he will not be easy to keep up with, but we both agree that we're looking forward to the challenge.

I love his soft curls. I love his toothy grin. I love his fat, kissable cheeks. I love the sound of his gentle breath when he sleeps. I love the unique fold in his left ear. I love that the day when he gets to come home and never be taken care of by anyone else again will eventually come. I love him for the little boy that he is and for the man that he will grow up to be. Our Micah James.

Project 353: Week 15

2011-04-24T22:09:00.001+08:00

I'm not really sure if it's fair or not to call this Week 15 of my project, considering I've taken the past two weeks off and this week isn't even complete. Must have something to do with the fact that I've been half way around the world and am still trying to get back in the swing of life...

April 18

My first "official" photo shoot. We got at least one good one, right Amy?

April 22

Easter festivities with the kiddos

April 23

Party at our house with some of our student friends

Introducing Lao Er

2011-04-20T16:05:00.001+08:00

This is the first son I'd like to introduce to you! He is the younger of our two boys, but I definitely cannot call him the smallest. The birthday we chose for Sam is November 4, 2010. There's really no special significance except for the random fact that it is my half-birthday. This is just an estimate since there is no official record of his birth, but it is assumed that he is around five months old. When we first "met" Sam in December, this is what he looked like:

It's hard to believe he's the same little boy. But beneath his jolly rolls & butterball cheeks, I can still see those eyes that I fell in love with all those months ago.

Our Sam was found abandoned at a hospital when he was only 4 weeks old. We don't know anything of his history beyond that. The name that was given to him in the orphanage was Sami, which according to a few websites I checked (I know, thorough and entirely reliable research on my part!), means "God has heard" or "high and exalted." We really liked the first meaning because the fact that this little one was discovered and his life saved is evidence of the fact that God heard our prayers for him even before we knew him.

Despite the fact that we had all along been planning on naming one of our sons Ethan, we began to consider the name Samuel. With those meanings in mind, I liked the idea of maintaining a similar name to Sami's Ethiopian name. Plus, we liked the connection to the prophet Samuel in the Bible, whose mother Hannah's desperation to bear a child did not go unrecognized by God. While it's obvious that I didn't bear our Sam, God has still been merciful to my desire to become a mother by bringing him into our family.

The lynchpin, however, to choosing Samuel as our son's name actually came a few days after we had received his first pictures. When our agency gives an adoption referral, they include a few pictures, some scanty medical reports, and a social report that explains some of the child's developmental progress. Sami's social report stated that he was not responding to external sounds around him. Our doctor was afraid that he might have some serious hearing issues. While we recognized that deafness is certainly a manageable disability, we weren't sure if it was something that we would be able to gain proper medical attention for while living in China. We had to face the reality that we might not be able to accept this darling little boy's referral. That was a very, very tough realization which caused no small amount of sorrow for my heart.

The next day was a Friday, which is the day our group of ex-pat friends gather together for worship. The following is one of the hymns we chose to sing together that evening:

"Whatever My God Ordains Is Right"

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.

Samuel Rodigast, 1676

Though the words were from long ago, they were such a solace to my downcast heart. Whether Sami was to join our family or not, God's plan was right and to Him we would leave it all. And who was the author whose pen spoke through the centuries to comfort me? None other than a man named Samuel. Surely, if this little boy was to be ours, he too would bear that name.

A few days later, we found out that the social report had been filled out incorrectly, and there was in fact nothing wrong with our little one's hearing. We joyfully accepted his referral and have been exceedingly grateful ever since to call this one our own.

The middle name Jedidiah was a name Kevin selected from the Old Testament. It means "loved by God." We wanted our son's name to affirm to him that though his life had a somewhat hapless beginning, God's loving hand was not far from him, nor will it ever be. We also have some dear friends who lost a son named Jedidiah, and we wanted to honor his memory with our son's name.

So I'm thrilled to share with you my favorite pictures of Lao Er, our Samuel Jedidiah:

Where do we go from here?

2011-04-16T11:54:00.000+08:00

Well, we're back home finally. We spent another restful day in Beijing with our friends Justin & Lauren, which involved me sleeping for nearly 11 hours straight, lunch at my favorite restaurant, and the best Mexican food I've had in two years (slim pickings for Mexican food in China!). We took the train home on Friday and returned to our puppy, our friends, and our life here.

So what's next? How do I meet my sons, be granted guardianship, leave them in Africa, and then expect to resume normal life? And why in the world, as my friend Vanessa so blatantly inquired, are they still in Africa anyway?

Here's the deal: we are their parents in the eyes of the Ethiopian government. But now the US embassy wants to look over our case before granting the boys permission to immigrate. This process will take at least 8 weeks, possibly longer. We have to wait for the Ethiopian court to issue a formal decree of our guardianship. Then new birth certificates and passports have to be issued and authenticated. Once all of that paperwork is gathered, it will be submitted to the US embassy in Ethiopia for their review. Recently, the embassy had been extremely thorough in looking over these cases to make sure that no corruption is leaking into the adoption system. I'm thankful for their commitment to prevent child trafficking and the like, but when it's my sons I just want to say, "Can't you just make an exception and send them home now?" But I doubt that would really help.

So let the waiting game begin...again.