Talked to a sleepy Brett

Now, you need to understand a lot of these adoption blogs are written by the mom. They have all these pictures about their stay and lots of chatty information. This blog will be mostly written by me (Beth), but I am getting second hand information from my husband (Brett) while he is in China. So, if you don't get a lot of "feelings" and chatty information and lots of pictures, you'll know why.

I called Brett up today on his Panda phone. I woke him up...It was 10:30 pm there and he was supposed to have a skype call to us at 8 am. His clock said that we were only at 3am, so no call. They got into China at 5:30 in the morning. He said they hadn't slept much on the plane and went to take a short nap at 2:30pm. That short nap was the one I woke him up from. They decided not to pay for internet in the hotel in Bejing and just do it from their hotel in Zhengzhou when they got there (in two days). I asked Brett to find one of his travel mates and update us a bit on his computer. So, this is all the information you or I will get for now. They are going to the Great Wall tomorrow, so I hope they sleep the rest of the time.

Brett is on a plane

Yesterday at 3pm, Caleb, Nathan, and I drove Brett to the airport while Judah stayed with his Grandma. There was a short teary goodbye and lots of hugs and he got on a airplane and flew to Los Angeles. I, being the "want to know everything" kinda person I am asked him to call me from LA just so I would know that he made his connecting flight to China. So, he left LA at 2am our time and is hopefully sleeping a lot on that plane. He made a little sign for his shirt that says "please do not disturb" because the last time we were on an Asian flight, they seemed to feed us whole meals every 4 hours. He will arrive in Bejing at 5:30 am and have a day to do nothing. The ironic thing is, his hotel serves a nice breakfast and he may be just in time for it. I told him last night that this whole plane thing is the main reason he's going and not me. Caleb woke up a little teary eyed and misses his dad already. Judah just keeps saying "DADEE". It's going to be a long two weeks.

Just eight days till we travel to China...

It's hard to believe that I'll be leaving for China on Sept. 9 and will be able to hold Amanda in my arms on Sept. 12! We estimated that it wouldn't be till Oct. or Nov. that I (Brett) would be going there. I'm looking forward to having my dad with me during this time. He's quite the research king so he'll know what is surrounding us at every turn so I can just focus on Amanda's needs. He knows that we don't want to be there longer than the two weeks we need to be there and he is willing not to do the extra tour day in Bejing. But we do plan to join our group of other families who are also adopting from Henan province to go to the Great Wall (which Beth and I saw in '95)

A nice suprise...

We just got an e-mail from our adoption agency about an e-mail that got lost in cyber-space and just now got to us. It's another picture and a very short update. We found out that she is potty trained during the day. A nice suprise - I was very willing to do it, but I guess when you adopt an older child, you get little things like this. In June, she was learning to eat finger foods and making a transition to a cup. There's so much that we have missed of her baby years that we can never get back, but there's so much of her older years that we get to be a part of.

Amanda: eta September 26 or 27

Brett's dad is currently booking plane tickets to go to China! I am so thankful he took on that part of the planning since I am up over my head with my other children (mostly Judah who is recovering from hip surgery). We have a conselate appointment in China which means they are getting ready for us to adopt this little sweetie:



It says on our paperwork that our group will take the oath on the afternoon of 9/24/09 which means on that day, she becomes officially a member of our family. She really has soulful eyes in this picture which makes me just want to kiss away all her woes. We got new measurements and she has grown a lot in the past few months. What I thought was going to be a little peanut of a girl has turned into a very typical size for her age. After such a long wait, we are ready to go.

When is Brett going to leave?

The basic answer is I DON'T KNOW! We could have been leaving Wednesday since we got the coveted last piece of paperwork from China in early August, but Judah (our oldest) is having hip surgery Wednesday so we just couldn't. You see, we thought this whole process would take much longer and we were expecting to get Amanda in October/November. The same day I scheduled Judah's surgery, I got an e-mail from our adoption agency announcing we were to travel in 5-8 weeks. I cried and cried. We wouldn't be able to do both and the stress of all of it coming at the same time just crushed me. That same day, God gave us a rainbow in the sky - sorta His promise to us that He would take care of it all. We've had rainbows every time a major life circumstance has happened (mostly Judah stuff).

So, we are looking at a travel date of September 2 or 9. We are in a way hoping for the 9th, but feel guilty for having Amanda have to stay in an orphanage one week longer. Judah is bed bound for three weeks while his hips heal. I feel like looking at those stress lists and wonder how high on the scale I am.

On a fun note, my church is having a toddler shower for us. It should be fun and a good thing to be able to focus on the joy of having a new child coming instead of the dread of a major surgery. Hopefully, I'll remember my camera!

Just because I have more pictures...

We have seen the blue circle thing in other pictures on our yahoo group for our specific orphange. It's really interesting to talk with others who are adopting from this same orphanage. It gives us a little better idea of what she's been living in and helps us to see that the kids are usually smiling in their pictures. It's a mind-blowing experience to have all these people all over our country adopting kids who have grown up together halfway around the world. It's a very wild and crazy roller coaster we are riding.