The Final Chill Day

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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?