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!

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 !