Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Ok Ok Ok, I know many have been waiting for an update. Well, as weird as it may sound, I found some quiet time on Christmas day to write. After an early morning wake up for Santa, all three of the girls are taking a nap. I also layed down for a bit, but woke up well before the others will (I hope).
When I last wrote we were about to get on the plane to come home from China. 21 hours of travel later we arrived at home. Katie slept for 3 hours of the journey. Heather and I...not a wink. Katie screamed at the top of her lungs in two different 45 minute bouts. Other than that, she was content for the rest of the time. The trip was long and hard, but we made it and boy is it ever nice to be home. It's great to be home.
Once we were home it took about two weeks to get totally adjusted to the time change. Katie had some real issues with sleep. After sleeping for most of the day following the trip home, she reverted back to the early days in the hotel room. Scream, scream, scream...but only at bedtime. Which was better than before. It took several weeks to get her comfortable sleeping in our house. We tried every sleeping arrangement possible and every sleep technique known to man without much success at first. After about a month, she finally became comforatble going to bed and sleeping all night. With jet lag, Katie screaming for bedtime and waking up frequently at night, plus having another child who did not go through the time change and was sleeping well every night, the first month was rough. Things are much better now.
Being home has definitely had it positives. When we first received Katie she would only sit in one place and play with whatever was in front of her. She did not crawl, scoot, or move around. She did not like me at all, which was well documented throughout our trip. She could not feed herself. She did not attempt to talk. She did not smile or show much expression at all. She cried a lot.
Fast forward almost two months. Katie is now: walking, running, climbing, feeding herself, talking (about 15 words in English and expanding daily), she likes daddy a lot, she likes Ellie a lot, giggling, laughing, smiling, interacting, learning "no", getting into everything, gaining weight, riding in a carseat for about an hour without crying, the list goes on and on. With every day comes more comfort with her surroundings and new behaviors. We are so thankful to see her personality and get to know her as a person. She is bringing us great joy.
When I last wrote we were about to get on the plane to come home from China. 21 hours of travel later we arrived at home. Katie slept for 3 hours of the journey. Heather and I...not a wink. Katie screamed at the top of her lungs in two different 45 minute bouts. Other than that, she was content for the rest of the time. The trip was long and hard, but we made it and boy is it ever nice to be home. It's great to be home.
Once we were home it took about two weeks to get totally adjusted to the time change. Katie had some real issues with sleep. After sleeping for most of the day following the trip home, she reverted back to the early days in the hotel room. Scream, scream, scream...but only at bedtime. Which was better than before. It took several weeks to get her comfortable sleeping in our house. We tried every sleeping arrangement possible and every sleep technique known to man without much success at first. After about a month, she finally became comforatble going to bed and sleeping all night. With jet lag, Katie screaming for bedtime and waking up frequently at night, plus having another child who did not go through the time change and was sleeping well every night, the first month was rough. Things are much better now.
Being home has definitely had it positives. When we first received Katie she would only sit in one place and play with whatever was in front of her. She did not crawl, scoot, or move around. She did not like me at all, which was well documented throughout our trip. She could not feed herself. She did not attempt to talk. She did not smile or show much expression at all. She cried a lot.
Fast forward almost two months. Katie is now: walking, running, climbing, feeding herself, talking (about 15 words in English and expanding daily), she likes daddy a lot, she likes Ellie a lot, giggling, laughing, smiling, interacting, learning "no", getting into everything, gaining weight, riding in a carseat for about an hour without crying, the list goes on and on. With every day comes more comfort with her surroundings and new behaviors. We are so thankful to see her personality and get to know her as a person. She is bringing us great joy.
The pictures will tell the rest of the story. I will attempt to update possibly monthly now that we are home. I know many of you missed the daily updates from China. It was an amazing journey that was really only the beginning. Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Final Thoughts, Praises and Coming Home
Final Thoughts
Wednesday was a bad day and good day. Katie woke up in the middle of the night for the first time...oh joy. She was then extremely cranky for the morning. Cry, cry, cry. Mostly crying during pictures. But we got through it. We've pretty much resigned ouselves that she is going to cry a lot. We're trying to enjoy the times that she's not crying. Like yesterday afternoon. Katie took a four hour nap while I was at the consulate picking up her travel visa. The last piece of paperwork completed. Ready now officially to come home. After the nap, Katie was absolutely content, sometimes smiling and easy going. A different kid. We really enjoyed seeing more snapshots of who Katie might become in the days, weeks, months and years to come.
Look at this precious little smile!
So much for that. She woke up crying at 1:00 am and then again at 6:30. At 6:30 we just decided it was time to get up. She screamed for awhile (I think we called her bluff). We had breakfast, she calmed down and is now playing with Heather on the bed. She's fine unless Heather moves. This has been much of our existence.
Praises
I have been amazed at the number of people I have heard from that have referenced our blog. The internet is far reaching that is for certain. Some of you that have been following the blog know of the faith Heather and I have in Jesus. Some of you don't. Part of our faith is the belief that God had guided our steps here. That God and God alone has ordained our adoption of Katie. And that He deserves all of the credit for this incredible journey. Specifically, we want to praise Hime for:Speaking to Heather February 5th, 2007 through His word in Isiah 43:5 which says, "Do not be afraid for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." These words started our journey. We took His word as a promise to us. God fullfills His promises.
Giving us Katie Some of you know that we had completed paperwork to receive one little girl, but did not receive her. We had then received an official referral from China for a second child. But, China made a mistake and referred that child to two families. We were told that she also would not be our daughter. Finally, in May of 2009 we were referred Zhan Yangting who would officially become our Katie. All of this was part of His plan.
His provision Adoption is not cheap. I am a teacher. Heather does not work (at least for money). Yet, He has provided everything that we have needed financially for the adoption. He blessed us with a $4000 grant from Shaohannah's Hope, a foundation created by Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman. He helped us raise almost $3000 from garage sales, thanks to donations from many of you. He even stole our car. Which doesn't sound like provision at all. We needed $6000 for travel costs to China. Our car was stolen. Willy and Melanie Newhart from our church gave us a Volvo. The insurance company gave us $6000. We were ready to go. God provides.
His peace Throughout this 2 and a half year journey we have had peace. Throughout this 17 day adventure in China, we have had peace. As Katie screamed with no end in site; peace. His peace has been abundant.
His protection Through the airports, on the airplanes, from the germs, in the taxis, through all of the paperwork, through six vaccinations, through anything and everything that could have gone wrong He has protected us.
His praying people He has propmpted many people to pray for us and your prayers have been heard. Thank all of you who have interceeded to God on our behalf.
Our belief in Jesus prompted this journey...our belief in Him has been strengthened from this journey...we will continue to serve Him with all of our hearts. He is worthy of all of our praise.
Coming Home
As we come home I'm sure that all of you will be very excited to meet Katie. We are thankful so many of you love us and want to share in our excitement of bringing her home. With that said, getting home is just the beginning of the process of uniting Katie fully to our immediate family. First and foremost, Katie needs to know with complete security and confidence who her mommy, daddy and sister are. She needs to become comforatble in our home. She needs to have a familiar routine and know what to expect with each new day. Because of these things, we will be a reclusive family for awhile. We will not be out and about introducing Katie to a whole bunch of new people; even realtives. In time, as Katie adjusts, we may get out and about more, but when we do, Heather or I (maybe) will be holding Katie. We will be at home for Thanksgiving. We are holding loosely to any plans we have for Christmas. It took two and a half years for us to wait for Katie, you might have to wait a month or two to meet her yourselves. Thank you for understanding how important it is that Katie fully accept and attach to us as her family. Going forward it will help her immensely to become a well adjusted little girl. If you would like to come and visit you may certainly call and ask. Please do not be offended if we happen to say no.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
A Day of New Birth
Katie started the day cranky, cranky, cranky. And then she got cranky (see pics). Instead of fighting it, we decided to go with it. We took pictures! As mentioned in the prayer request from Monday, Katie was having some issues with her lower intestinal track that had not yet been resolved on day 6. We decided that this was the most probable source of the crankiness. So, with some hesitancy we decided it was time to take action. Operation relievin' constipation was underway. The solution...a glycerin suppository. And since she doesn't like daddy yet anyway...guess who was the applicant?
With the medical remedy in place, the event was on. Katie held tightly to Heather like a baby gorilla on its mother's back. The medicine bottle said the remedy would produce in 15 minutes to an hour. We were hoping for 15 minutes...we got an hour. The contractions started mildly at about the 10 minute mark and we thought, "Ok this is going to be easy." But the contactions only picked up from there. A half an hour in, we timed the contractions at about two minutes apart; she was close. But then they leveled out. She still clung tightly to Heather. Doug caressed her back while she gave dirty looks. Heather spoke to her softly and Katie gazed at her lovingly. Doug spoke softy...more dirty looks. At the 45 minute mark the contactions kicked in again. This time closer together and stronger. Katie was fighting through them with everything she had; obviously holding on to the prescious package she needed to deliver. At exactly 11:48 am Nov. 17th Katie gave birth to twins. Two diapers full of beautiful gifts from heaven.
Our visa paperwork was being reviewed by the U.S. Consulate while operation constipation was taking place. We received a surprise phone call from our guide that our Consulate oath had been moved from Wednesday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon. We put an exhausted Katie down for a nap, woke her up from a dead sleep and headed to the U.S. Consulate at 2:15. Katie was in a much better mood, having taken a load off of her mind. We headed off to the Consulate. This was to be the last step of paperwork to complete our adoption of Katie on both the Chinese side and the American side. It all came down to this.
We arrived and went through security. Years had been spent preparing paperwork for this moment. We came into a room that looked a lot like the DMV. A voice over the speaker began to call family names one at a time to come to the counter. Heather and I decided to have some fun and started clapping and cheering every time a name was called. Pretty soon all of the families in the room (about 30 of them) were all joining in the party. When the first family from our group was called, we made a tunnel like at a kids soccer game and the family ran through it. We had a lot of fun with it. I'm not sure the U.S. Consulate will ever be the same. The officers their continued to be very businesslike and stoic.
Then, it happened. It was our turn. The moment we had been waiting for. Hours and hours and hours of paperwork. Years of waiting. All for this. We ran through the tunnel. Picture it in slow motion in your mind. All were cheering wildly. Champagne corks were popping. It was like we had just won the world series. Pure excitement!
We made it to the booth, they said, "sign here." I signed. They said, "let me see the baby." We showed them the baby. They said, "take a seat." We took a seat. Done.
After each family had gone through the same experience, we all stood together and with tears in our eyes, took the citizens oath on Katie's behalf for her to become an American citizen. The interview had been anti-climactic. The oath meant something. It was closure to a very long process. The only thing left to do now is get her HOME! When we land in San Fransisco on Friday. Katie automatically becomes a citizen of the United States. She is already officially recognized by both nations as our daughter. It was a day of new birth on many fronts. Praise be to God!
Our visa paperwork was being reviewed by the U.S. Consulate while operation constipation was taking place. We received a surprise phone call from our guide that our Consulate oath had been moved from Wednesday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon. We put an exhausted Katie down for a nap, woke her up from a dead sleep and headed to the U.S. Consulate at 2:15. Katie was in a much better mood, having taken a load off of her mind. We headed off to the Consulate. This was to be the last step of paperwork to complete our adoption of Katie on both the Chinese side and the American side. It all came down to this.
We arrived and went through security. Years had been spent preparing paperwork for this moment. We came into a room that looked a lot like the DMV. A voice over the speaker began to call family names one at a time to come to the counter. Heather and I decided to have some fun and started clapping and cheering every time a name was called. Pretty soon all of the families in the room (about 30 of them) were all joining in the party. When the first family from our group was called, we made a tunnel like at a kids soccer game and the family ran through it. We had a lot of fun with it. I'm not sure the U.S. Consulate will ever be the same. The officers their continued to be very businesslike and stoic.
Then, it happened. It was our turn. The moment we had been waiting for. Hours and hours and hours of paperwork. Years of waiting. All for this. We ran through the tunnel. Picture it in slow motion in your mind. All were cheering wildly. Champagne corks were popping. It was like we had just won the world series. Pure excitement!
We made it to the booth, they said, "sign here." I signed. They said, "let me see the baby." We showed them the baby. They said, "take a seat." We took a seat. Done.
After each family had gone through the same experience, we all stood together and with tears in our eyes, took the citizens oath on Katie's behalf for her to become an American citizen. The interview had been anti-climactic. The oath meant something. It was closure to a very long process. The only thing left to do now is get her HOME! When we land in San Fransisco on Friday. Katie automatically becomes a citizen of the United States. She is already officially recognized by both nations as our daughter. It was a day of new birth on many fronts. Praise be to God!
This is all of the families from Bethany
This is all of the moms and kids
This is all of the kids
Praise the LORD !
Monday - A little better again
Monday was a day off from paperwork, so we had one objective; get out of the room. We ate the hotel breakfast again, which is absolutely outstanding. Breakfast is like Holiday Inn breakfast except not at all. There are really no similarities to speak of. The comparison should have never been made. If the White Swan breakfast was a trout it would be a 24" rainbow that took 30 minutes to land on a remote Montana stream. If Holiday Inn breakfast were a trout it would be store bought with the head on wrapped in plastic. Purchased on the way home from getting skunked so you could make up a story about how good the fishing was. Anyways, we went to breakfast.
After breakfast we decided to head for the mall. This involved another taxi ride. We are gluttons for punishment. But, it was either taxi or hotel room. We chose taxi. You'd think after several near death experiences we would choose otherwise. We have grown to savor the near death experience. I think we are becoming Guangzhou taxi adrenaline junkies. Katie's dislike of vehicles only adds to the adventure. Katie screams, so the taxi driver goes faster, so Katie screams more and so on. Actually, Katie did well in the taxi today, the driver still went fast. Maybe there isn't a correlation.
Anyways, the mall was seven stories of different shops. We went looking for a deal. We quickly figured out that there were no deals to be had. Every store was very expensive. This was the upscale mall of China apparently. Seven floors of expensive. We just walked around, found a spaghetti place for lunch and then got back in another taxi. We arrived back at the hotel with that feeling that you get after a ride on the scrambler at the fair.
Katie got a nap. Her fever went down. She played well on the bed most of the evening. After that bath and bed. A pretty good day. No pics today, I'll take more tomorrow. I promise.
After breakfast we decided to head for the mall. This involved another taxi ride. We are gluttons for punishment. But, it was either taxi or hotel room. We chose taxi. You'd think after several near death experiences we would choose otherwise. We have grown to savor the near death experience. I think we are becoming Guangzhou taxi adrenaline junkies. Katie's dislike of vehicles only adds to the adventure. Katie screams, so the taxi driver goes faster, so Katie screams more and so on. Actually, Katie did well in the taxi today, the driver still went fast. Maybe there isn't a correlation.
I'll pause the story for a prayer request
Katie hasn't pooped in five days.
Anyways, the mall was seven stories of different shops. We went looking for a deal. We quickly figured out that there were no deals to be had. Every store was very expensive. This was the upscale mall of China apparently. Seven floors of expensive. We just walked around, found a spaghetti place for lunch and then got back in another taxi. We arrived back at the hotel with that feeling that you get after a ride on the scrambler at the fair.
Katie got a nap. Her fever went down. She played well on the bed most of the evening. After that bath and bed. A pretty good day. No pics today, I'll take more tomorrow. I promise.
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