Day 3: Best Mother's Day Ever

I really, really intended to post last night, but all three of us crashed just after 8:00pm. Today has been busy with appointments (and a long nap). Bean is asleep, so I have a few quiet minutes to write a quick update (if I can keep my eyes open).

Yesterday morning was about seven years long. As soon as I opened my eyes, I was thinking about meeting Bean. Our appointment wasn't until 2:00pm, and I'm pretty sure all the clocks in Ch*na stopped moving yesterday morning. Jeremy wanted to sneak in a few last minutes of uninterrupted reading. I tried reading with him, but I'm not sure I got through three pages all morning. I was just way. too. excited.

We are staying in the same hotel as two other adoptive families from the States. It has been so much fun sharing meals and having them at our appointments. One of the families is using the same agency, so we share a guide and a driver. At 12:30, all three families headed next door to the bank to exchange money for some of the legal fees. What we thought was going to be a quick five-minute errand turned out to be an adventure/cultural experience. 

It started pouring rain just as we headed out. We hadn't grabbed umbrellas, so we looked like a bunch of crazy white people running down the sidewalk to the bank. (Nobody wanted frizzy hair for Gotcha Day pictures.) At the first bank, they wanted our SSNs to exchange money. I have never been asked for my SSN in China, so we decided to try another bank. At the second bank, we told the security guard what we wanted. He called a man over who chatted with our guide for a while in Ch*nese. Then he left.

We were getting a little confused at this point, but the guide assured us that the man worked at the bank and he had gone out to get our money. Hhhhmmmm...it seemed a little odd that the bank manager had to leave the bank to get us money. A few minutes later he came back with a brown satchel full of money. It was the most interesting currency exchange I've ever experienced, but so far everyone has taken our brown-satchel Ch*nese money.

Finally it was time to head to the Civil Affairs Office to meet Bean. The other two families left at the same time. We ended up arriving early, ahead of the kids and the orphanage staff. They ushered us into an office where we sat around a big table. We were all nervously chatting and laughing when we heard voices coming down the hall. It was such a crazy feeling to know that our daughter was about to walk into the room. Here's our eek-we're-about-to-meet-our-daughter selfie.

Nannies started coming into the room holding little ones. Bean was the third baby to come in, and I recognized her right away. She just has these big eyes that are impossible to miss. When the nanny handed her to me, she cried for a few seconds but stopped as soon as I handed her a sippy cup.

We were able to sit with one of Bean's nannies and a translator to ask questions. I may or may not have brought a slightly-OCD list of about 87 questions that the nanny patiently answered. It sounds like Bean's orphanage is doing some things very well. We were told that she was cared for primarily by one nanny who was responsible for four babies. Older children in her orphanage live in foster-type settings with one married couple caring for 4-6 children. The nannies had prepared a very sweet photo book with lots and lots of notes (which are unfortunately all in Ch*nese). They also returned the lovie and mini photo album we sent in February.

I wasn't sure what Bean would think of Jeremy. (Plus, I didn't really want to let her go.) Little ones in orphanages don't see adult men very often (and pretty much never see scruffy white guys who are 6'2"). Surprisingly, once he managed to pry her out of my arms she went to him right away with no tears.

After we got back to the hotel, we had a little family time in our room. Bean has been very quiet. I'm sure she is scared and sad. Yesterday she was pretty shut down, but she was willing to perk up for her cup and food. The nanny said she is not picky, and that is true! Last night we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. Bean devoured my beef fried rice and then Daddy's uneaten tomatoes and pickles.

After dinner, we were all ready for bed. I gave Bean a quick bath (which she hated) and got her pjs on. Bean is tinier than we expected. When I put my hands around her to pick her up, she feels so dainty and fragile. I brought mostly 24-month and 2T clothes, and they are pretty big on her - especially the bottoms. Here she is in her whale jammies.

This is her mad face when I took her sippy cup away to snap another picture.

Bean slept in our bed. Somehow her tiny body took up more space than Jeremy and me combined! Thankfully, she slept really well. She's a thumb sucker. I was dying to take a picture of her, all curled up and sucking her thumb, but I didn't want to wake her.

I am very thankful that we are seeing Dr. S right after we get home. Bean's heart is definitely working hard. Her fingers and toes are very blue, and she has to put extra effort into breathing. She's also pretty tired. She fell asleep in my arms three times today. (Some of that could be the stress of everything that is happening to her right now, as well.)

All of her symptoms are normal for a little one with unprepared TOF, but seeing her little heart struggle makes me so thankful for the people who worked so hard to get us here fast. I'm also very grateful to know that she'll be seeing Dr. S less than 24 hours after we get home. I emailed him this morning, and he said to go ahead and start her on the beta blocker he prescribed. This should help her some with the blueness.

One of my most poignant memories from yesterday happened on the van ride back to the hotel after meeting Bean. The other family riding with us adopted a sweet 13-year-old girl. (Actually, both of the other families with us adopted 13 year olds.) On the way back to the hotel, their little lady could not stop talking. She was so excited.

Our guide translated for her as she peppered her new mama and baba with questions. She asked things like, "Did you bring me pajamas?" and "What day is Christmas?" She was just bubbling over with happiness.

One of the questions she asked was, "My friend _____ is still at the orphanage. Can you help her find a mom and dad like you helped me?" This little girl knew the joy of finding her family just in time, and she wanted her friend to have that too. (Orphans in Ch*na "age out" at 14 and can no longer be adopted.) Hearing her ask that question was incredibly sweet and heartbreaking at the same time.

Today was filled with meetings, and I'll try to post about those later. I do have to tell you that in one of those meetings, our adoption became official. Li'l Bean is ours forever. 

I'll leave you with a picture from this morning (because I know the pictures are why you're here, anyway). This was before the guide very directly informed me that white flowers are only for funerals. Oops.

Days 1 & 2: Beijing

We had a whirlwind 24 hours to see Beijing. Our flight arrived around 2:30 Friday afternoon, and we caught the bullet train to Bean's city at 2:00pm today. It ended up being a fun overnight adventure.

Last night we took a long walk (mainly in an attempt to keep our jet-lagged selves awake later than 5:30pm). I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera because we ended up at a super interesting food market. There was one stand selling kabobs unlike any I've ever seen. They had centipedes, snakes, bees, and tarantulas. Seriously. (No, I wasn't brave enough to try one.)

This morning we started off with a very authentic breakfast.

Try not to be jealous of our ability to adapt to a new culture so quickly. ;)

After breakfast, we took a walk to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was fun adventuring on our own. Of course, we had to take some selfies. Here we are outside the Forbidden City...

...and hanging out with a lion statue...

...and, um, just being our special selves.

On our way back to the hotel, we walked through several hutongs. These are traditional Chinese neighborhoods made up of alleys that connect courtyard residences. Some of them have been around for hundreds of years.

I love the hutongs. I think they are filled with personality and really unique architecture. The crazy thing about Beijing is the fact that a street like this...

...is literally just a minute's walk away from a street like this, where you can shop at stores like Tumi and Apple.

After our very American breakfast, we got brave and walked into a little Ch*nese restaurant for lunch. We managed to order lunch on our own, even though none of the employees spoke English. Best of all, everything we got was super yummy and our whole meal cost less than $10.

Our guide picked us up at noon to head to the railway station. We chose to take the bullet train to Bean's city instead of flying. It's less expensive, and we were excited about the opportunity to see rural Ch*na. Plus, the bullet train is pretty much the coolest method of transportation ever. Here we are in the train station.

The ride took about four-and-a-half hours, and we got to see lots of countryside and small villages. I tried to take a picture for you, but we were going a little too fast.

We arrived in Bean's city around 6:30pm. There's another adoptive family here this week who is working with our agency, so we get to travel together and share a guide. They are super sweet, and our guide is wonderful!

Our hotel is very nice, and it's located close to the center of the city. We can walk to lots of shops and restaurants (including DQ), as well as some interesting historical landmarks. Bean's city was the capital of Ch*na before Beijing, and they've worked hard to preserve the history of the city.

Here's the best part of our hotel room.

They had this sweet little crib ready for Bean..who we get to meet at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon!!! (For those of you at home, that's 2:00am Sunday morning.) We are so excited hold our baby girl! 

Alright...time for bed. I'll have pictures of Bean in my next post!

Overflowing

I wrote this post yesterday afternoon, but I didn't have a WiFi connection in the airport. We are now in Beijing, and our jet-lagged selves are ready to crash. We had a fun evening walking around a pedestrian mall and eating some yummy food. Tomorrow afternoon we'll take the bullet train to Li'l Bean's city. I'll post more from there.

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Our travel day is finally here! We are in Chicago, waiting to board our flight to Beijing. It’s crazy to think we’re just three days away from meeting our Li’l Bean.

As I think about the journey that has brought us to this point, the word that keeps coming to my mind is “overflowing”. I am truly overflowing with so many emotions.

I’m overflowing with excitement. I’m about to fly across the world with the man I love to meet our fourth child. Jeremy and I get to experience a different culture and see a little bit more of our amazing world together. In just hours, I’m going to eat real steamed dumplings (my pseudo-pregnancy craving)! How crazy exciting is that?!?

I’m overflowing with joy: joy that God has touched a place of brokenness in our hearts. There are days when I am simply amazed that my empty arms have been filled with three – and very soon four – beautiful children.  Something I once thought impossible, He has made possible in an incredible way. I am blessed beyond measure.

I’m overflowing with thankfulness. Guys, I don’t even have words for this one. What can I possibly write to describe friends taking our kids at the drop of a hat, strangers giving generously of their finances to support our adoption, people I haven’t seen in years telling me they are praying for our family, over $19,000 being given to our adoption fund (through grants and personal gifts) in less than three months? I’m so thankful, humbled, and amazed.

I’m overflowing with awe. When we started our process at the beginning of January, we committed to moving as quickly as possible to get our Bean home for cardiac care. In my mind, that meant staying on top of paperwork and encouraging our agency to push for quick approvals. Jeremy and I joked that May 7 would be the perfect day to leave, but we honestly thought it would be the end of June before we could travel. Through the support of some amazing FB mamas who have done this crazy expediting thing before and our agency’s willingness to advocate for our family, here we are: sitting in an airport on May 7. Our sweet Bean will be sitting in the Amazing Dr. S’s office on May 21. (This is the Amazing Dr. S who chatted with me on his cell phone for half an hour the other evening and is coming in on his week off to see Bean. He pretty much deserves his own blog post. And I’m guessing he’ll probably get one sometime soon.)

So, we’re getting on a plane in 90 minutes. And, while I’m excited about the fact that we’re traveling alone (yay, babymoon!), we are absolutely not alone on this adventure. To those of you who have prayed for our family, left notes of encouragement on FB, asked if you could help with our kids at home, given of your finances, poured concrete at Ms. Sherrill’s house, shared your adoption expertise, listened to me vent share for hours about our adoption process, you are appreciated. What you might have thought was a small gesture has been a huge blessing to our family.

Thank you for doing this crazy thing called adoption with us.

Let The Countdown (Officially) Begin!

I was laying in bed staring at my alarm early this morning. Not because it was going off, but because that's what you do when you've booked tickets and packed for Ch*na, but you're missing one last super important document: you know, the one that allows you to travel to get your daughter.

So, this morning before my alarm ever went off, I tiptoed downstairs to check my email. At 5:56am, I got an email from our travel coordinator in Ch*na saying that our Travel Approval has been issued!!! We're (officially) going to Ch*na on Thursday!

I'll share more details about our trip schedule later, but you have to know that we're leaving in three days and we meet L'il Bean on Mother's Day! Six days until we hold our girl! So. Stinkin. Excited.

What are the odds I will actually sleep tonight? :)

The Wild Ride Continues

I just wanted to share a quick update on our progress. We got through two of the three steps we were hoping to complete this week. Our Immigration paperwork (a.k.a. Article 5) has been delivered to the CCCWA (the Ch*nese government's adoption department). Now are officially waiting on Travel Approval - just one last piece of paper!

We are still hoping to travel next week for several reasons, the biggest one being Li'l Bean's need to get home for medical care. We found some amazing prices on flights Tuesday morning - they were the cheapest I've seen them for our dates in the past few months of looking - so we went ahead and booked tickets for next week! We should be on a plane to Ch*na next Thursday at this time. AAAAHHHHH!!!

I made Li'l Bean's first appointment with her cardiologist yesterday. We were able to get into our first choice doctor (the Amazing Dr. S) the day after we get home.  Her doctor is actually only on call that week, but he agreed to come in to see Bean. I'm so thankful!

Please keep us in your prayers as we get ready to go. Packing for Ch*na while planning for our kids to be home with Grandma and wondering when that last piece of paperwork will show up is just a bit much for my li'l planner heart. In the midst of the crazy, I am incredibly grateful for the provision I've witnessed, the doors that have opened, and the friends and family who have surrounded us with love and support.

Let the wild ride continue!

Crazy, Crazy News!

I'm sorry I've been MIA the past couple of weeks. Our life has suddenly turned into a whirlwind. Remember the graphic I shared in my last post? This one?

When I shared this picture on April 7, we were on Step #7: waiting not-so-patiently for Ch*na to issue our LOA. In the last two-and-a-half weeks, we have zoomed through Steps 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. If all goes well, Step #13 should happen tonight while we sleep. That means we should be waiting for approval to travel this week. We are hoping and praying that we can be on a plane May 7.

I can't tell you how ecstatic we are that we will be meeting our Li'l Bean in May!!! There's a good chance she will spend her second birthday at home. But, all this crazy flying along has meant the last couple of weeks have been a blur of paperwork, hours on hold with government offices, shopping, packing, and laying awake at night thinking about whether to pack footie pjs or nightgowns for Bean. (Can you believe Jeremy stays up thinking about crazy things like that?!?)

Although I have struggled to come up for air in the past two weeks, I cannot adequately express the deep sense of support and encouragement that has surrounded us during this time. It truly feels like a giant team of our family and friends is sharing in our excitement as they partner with us - through prayer, through finances, through encouraging words - to bring Bean home. We have friends who have watched our kids at a moment's notice, friends who have generously given of their finances, friends who have shared their Gymbucks to make sure Bean has the cutest wardrobe ever. I can't find the words to thank any of them enough. 

In the middle of the whirlwind that has been April, we were able to complete our Both Hands Project. We had 51 people show up to give their Saturday serving Ms. Sherrill. We were blown away (and I think she was, too)! The video below was put together by one of our team members. He did an awesome job recapping the project in just three minutes. Please take a minute to check it out if you haven't already.

As of yesterday, our friends, family, and complete strangers have donated over $10,000 to our adoption through our Both Hands account. I don't even know what to say after typing that. We are humbled, overwhelmed, and so incredibly thankful. When we accepted Li'l Bean's file at the end of December, we committed to moving as quickly as possible to get her home. Now, less than four months later, we look back amazed at the way God has provided. Many, many of you have been part of that provision. Thank you. Thanks for being part of Bean's story. Thanks for loving our family in a big way.

So...what's coming next? We need to get past Steps 13, 14, and 15 before we can book our trip. We're hoping all three of those things happen this week. There's a holiday in Ch*na on Friday, so we're praying they decide to get all the files off their desks before their long weekend, and they issue our Travel Approval later this week. If that happens, we're planning to travel May 7-20. We'll be home just in time for Bean's birthday.

That's our crazy news. We're over-the-moon excited, amazed, and only slightly freaked out at the way things have come together. I will keep you updated on our progress this week, but right now I need to go pack some baby girl jammies.

Where We Go From Here

I've had several people ask about the next steps in our adoption process, so I'm going to try to explain where we're headed. The part we've done so far is pretty easy to understand: collect lots and lots of papers, get lots and lots of stamps/seals on them, and send them to Ch*na. What's coming next is a little more complicated. (And I currently have a nasty cold that has turned my brain into complete mush. So, be warned, there is a fair chance this post might be totally incomprehensible.)

Some really talented adoptive parent created a graphic to help explain the process of adopting from Ch*na. I'm a big fan of visual aids. so here you go...

Steps #1-7 are what we've done so far: collecting lots of papers (home study, immigration approval, etc.) and sending them to Ch*na. We did Step #7 (sending our dossier to Ch*na a.k.a. DTC) on February 27. Step #8 is usually the longest (or one of the longest) steps in the whole adoption process. Now that our big stack of papers is in Ch*na, it's up to them to translate everything, review it, and issue our official approval to adopt (called an LOA/Letter of Acceptance or LSC/Letter Seeking Confirmation).

Thankfully, our agency is still working hard to keep our case moving along.  They actually sent someone into the adoption office in B*ijing last night to check on our paperwork. I'm hoping this means we'll see some movement soon! 

After we receive our LOA, the steps get really tricky. If you want the short version, we're basically waiting on U.S Immigration to process our case and send Bean's visa to Ch*na. At that point, Ch*na can issue our approval to travel. This process usually takes about 8 weeks, but an expedite can be done in as little as 10 days (although 2-4 weeks is more likely). If you're up for the long and detailed explanation, keep reading.

We'll send a copy of our LOA to U.S. Immigration (Step #9) where it will be processed by the amazing Officer B. Because our case is considered a medical expedite we'll be able to email the LOA to Officer B, and our approval should only take a day or two. Some of you are probably thinking, approval from U.S. Immigration? I thought you already did that step? And, you're absolutely right. We received our initial immigration approval in February. That step approved us to adopt any child from Ch*na who fits the parameters of our home study in regard to age, gender, needs, etc. This step approves us specifically to adopt Li'l Bean.

Once we're approved, our file will go to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire. They will send Li'l Bean's visa to the U.S. Embassy in Gu*ngzhou, Ch*na where we will pick it up during our trip (Step #10). They will also "cable" us (Step #11). This means we'll receive a PDF via email that says they have processed our case. We'll email this PDF to our adoption agency (Step #12). (Notice I just knocked off three steps in about 24 hours. Woot!)

Step #13 is completely outside the comprehension of my stuffed-up brain. It's called Article 5 Drop-Off and Pick-Up. It involves a representative of our agency dropping off a packet of documents to the U.S. Embassy in Gu*ngzhou. Usually this packet is picked up ten business days later, but expedites are often processed in 24 hours. After our Article 5 Pick-Up, our agency representative delivers our packet of documents to the Chin*se adoption entity in B*ijing (Step #14).

After all this emailing and cabling and dropping off and picking up, the ball is back in Ch*na's court. The next step (#15) happens when the Ch*nese adoption entity issues our Travel Approval (TA). This usually happens 1-2 weeks after Article 5 Pick-Up. Once our agency has our TA, they can schedule our Consulate Appointment (CA). This is our final appointment during our trip to Ch*na. Once it is planned, we can work backward to figure out the dates for our trip and book our plane tickets and hotels (Step #16). WOOHOO!

So...we're just a few simple nine crazy steps away from hopping on a jet plane. We're still planning to travel sometime in June, although we could conceivably go in May if our LOA comes soon. In the meantime, we're working hard on our Both Hands project, trying to convince our kids to go back to school after spring break, and nesting like crazy.

In other  - much less complicated - news, we found out yesterday that we were given another grant toward our adoption! :)