One Year Home!

One year ago today, at 12:07pm, the wheels of a large aircraft touched down on a Chicago runway after a long journey from Hong Kong.

The minute that happened, our Kylie automatically because a US Citizen. 

I have made several international trips and every time, landing in the US has brought me to tears, but there is nothing…hear me…NOTHING like arriving on US soil after 2 weeks in China WITHOUT your husband and with your newly adopted child.

I knew that just steps outside of customs Steve awaited and I got choked up just thinking about it.  I knew once I latched on to him, I might never let go.  And I really didn’t want to.

But then, we touched down in Nashville and I really did think I would cry from joy.  PURE.  JOY. to see these faces all waiting to see this child they had prayed for.  My photo calendar has a few of these photos for the month of March because they are so dear to me.  So, in celebration of Kylie’s citizenship and surviving a whole year at home, here they are again.  (click here to see the blog post about our arrival).

Note:  I still cry when I look at these pictures…the smiles…the joy.  I love these people.

The Days After

Now that we have moved past Kylie’s first year in our arms, I thought it might be time for me to post something that has been floating around in my head and heart for a while. 

The past week I have spent quite a bit of time going back and re-reading my blog from this time last year.  Re-reading and re-living our time in China has made me quite nostalgic.  Adoption is quite a lot like childbirth.  Depending on how traumatic your experience is, the love you end up feeling for your child eventually makes you forget the trauma and makes you want to do it again.  And so many of the China adoption blogs I read, I found because they were in the process about the same time as I was and so all of their blogs are now also celebrating one year home milestones.  It’s hard not to find yourself thinking on these things.

For quite a while, having Kylie was rough.  It was rough in China not having Steve there.  It was rough having such a little child and feeling like, due to bonding, you couldn’t accept help from anyone (a myth, by the way).  The first few weeks home were brutally hard and filled with many a sleepless night (and day) asking myself “What have I done to my family!??!?” and wondering whether I was really cut out for this.

Then a few month ago, things started to REALLY calm down and fall into place.  We were finding our rhythm.  And I started thinking about possibly going back for another.  Steve had made a passing comment about a son and I started watching Gotcha Day videos on YouTube about Gotcha Day and looking at pictures online of boys waiting in China. 

And I was confused.  Did I REALLY want to do this again?  I thought our family was complete.  What was God telling me?  I had jokingly said if God wanted us to adopt again, then He’d have to tell Steve FIRST this time and drop the money from heaven because I just wasn’t fundraising again.   And for a time, I flirted with God…basically daring him to do it.

But after a while, I went back to feeling like our family was complete.  But my heart is still with the orphan.  Not just Chinese orphans, but ALL of them.  And so I ask myself frequently, “What do I do with that?”  I wish I could say I knew, but I don’t.  Honestly, I don’t think God is calling us to adopt again.  Will He?  I don’t know.  Who DOES know the future other than God?  But at this point, that’s not what it feels like to me.  And until I DO know what God is asking me to do with this desire, this passion, I continue to struggle onward…to seek out what I can do.

And as we approach the Easter season, I’d challenge you to ask yourself what you are supposed to be doing. 

Once I figure out what I’m to do with my passion, I’ll let you know. 

Chinese New Year Celebration

I’m sorely behind on this update, but I’ll try and get caught up.  We have an excellent group of folks in our local FCC group (families with children from China). We attended one dinner last year before we had Kylie, but we hadn’t been to anything since.  When we realized the CNY celebration was coming up, we definitely wanted to go.

There were tons of people there and Kylie enjoyed coloring while waiting to get our food.

Look at all the people!  There’s nothing like knowing everyone around you understands the make up of your family. 

We sat with a family with two teenaged daughters from China.  I think their girls were 16 and 18.  They adopted them both when they were just about a year old and getting to talk to them was wonderful.  They gave some good nuggets of wisdom like what age their girls started to really ask questions about their time in China and how to best balance the Chinese culture with the American one (don’t go too far either way and don’t push).  Also, I had, for the first time ever, someone come up and recognize Kylie from my blog!  Which I mean, come on, is pretty amazing because the room was FULL of Chinese children and Katie was under the table so not noticeable to just anyone passing by!  It was SO cool and honestly, I felt a little bit like a celebrity.    Shout out to her! (She knows who she is, but I don’t want to call out her name to protect her privacy).

Then they had several groups of children dance.  Steve and I videoed from our phones and this is my favorite because the music sounds so similar to what played in the toy we sent Kylie for her first birthday while she was still in China.

Little CNY Dancers

Several other groups of dancers performed as did a young man with a Chinese yo-yo.  All very interesting and great Chinese culture

Then the finale…

I’m telling you…the people who put this on were excellent!  I SO wish I could have experienced this in China.  I think seeing it there would have been unbelievably cool.

Chinese New Year

There were red envelopes with coins in them on the tables for the kids to put in the mouth…

Even though it was really loud, Kylie watched and enjoyed it all perched atop Steve’s shoulders.

It was a great evening and I’m so glad we went.  I can’t wait for next year when Kylie can really enjoy it.

This Time Last Year…

I have been doing a lot of thinking about “this time last year”.  I was sleeping in Beijing at this very moment last year.  But in just a few hours, I was rising to pack my bags and head to Nanjing where my life would change forever.

As I sit and watch Kylie sleeping, I wonder how I am in this place already.  It seems like just yesterday we were standing at the airport taking our last photo as a family of 3.

And now, we’ve been home a year.  I knew this would happen but then why am I so surprised that it has? 

The next few days will be emotional for me.  If you want to follow our journey through China last year, click here to start.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I’ve never really cared much about Chinese New Year until now.  CNY is one of the most celebrated and important holiday in China  This is the Year of the Snake…

Kylie was born in the Year of the Rabbit (which I much prefer to the snake in terms of animals!)  We chose to celebrate CNY by celebrating Kylie’s birthday, although it wasn’t a CNY theme (more on that later).  We also sent Kylie to church today in her China silk.

So, as they say in China…

最良好的祝愿和祝贺。有一个繁荣和良好的一年

Kylie's Sees Us!

When we first met our Kylie back in August 2011, we sent a care package which had a disposable camera in it.  We also sent a photo album of us and asked her caregivers to talk to her about us.  When we arrived at the orphanage, we received the disposable camera back and once home, I had the photos developed. 

Here are two I thought I'd share...

 Do you see?  She has our photo album!  And she's looking at Jenna!  I love love love this picture!!!

This one is a picture of us.  For some reason, we didn't get this photo album back and I forgot to ask about it until we had left the orphanage.  I am so sad we weren't able to get it.  So if you are out there and traveling to Liangyungang anytime soon, let me know!  LOL!

At least we know she saw it once.  I'm not sure when this photo was taken but it was before December since that's when her cleft was fixed.  I'm so glad to have these..

Our final hours in China...

Wednesday morning, we got up and had a leisurely breakfast.  We had several hours to finish packing (which seemed like a monumental task) and get ready to catch our ride to Hong Kong.

Jenna took pics at breakfast...

There was a gorgeous courtyard outside our hotel and it was our view at breakfast the entire time we were in the Garden Hotel.  So, after breakfast, we went out and got some shots since we had time to spare.

And probably my favorite...

At 3:30, we met downstairs and reviewed our paperwork one more time and then it was a very NICE van ride to Hong Kong.  The ride took about 3 hours and again, Kylie was good the entire time.  Hong Kong is an interesting place.  Even though they are part of China, they are run by an entirely different government.  They drive on the opposite side of the road, cars steering wheels are on the opposite side, they use different money and when you get to the border, you are shot with a thermo gun to see if you have a fever (we didn't, thank goodness) and then you have to get out of the car and go into this big rest-stop type area for your passport/visas to be reviewed.

We checked into our hotel and had just enough time to feed Kylie, Skype with our boys and get ourselves ready for the next morning.  We ordered room service for dinner and then went to bed so we'd be sure not to miss our alarm and airport shuttle the next morning.

We skipped breakfast the next morning in the interest of time and thinking we'd grab something at the airport.  We got the shuttle, but when we got to the airport, there was a super long line to check in.  By the time we checked in, we had about 1 hour before the flight left, and they were going to begin boarding in about 20 minutes.  We had a LONG commute in the airport to get where we needed to go and we were carrying Kylie, plus about 2 carry ons each.  We made it to our gate, but they were already boarding.

I went up to the lady and because we had a baby and lots of stuff, they let us cut line and get settled which was a GOD SEND.  I seriously wanted to kiss that airline staff person.  The flight from Hong Kong to Chicago was pretty good.  I felt like I was going home.  The food was more American, the flight attendants were more attentive and the announcements were in English first, then Mandarin. 

Kylie was WONDERFUL.  She played, slept and was fussy for just a tiny bit.  Our wheels touched down in Chicago at 12:07pm on Thursday, March 29.  That is the moment our Kylie became a US Citizen!

We had to go through customs and immigrations with the big top secret brown, sealed envelope of Kylie's paperwork.  The minute we stepped through the door at customs, the sweetest site ever met my eyes...I wish I had gotten a photo but it was the LAST thing on my mind...

So this photo will have to do.  I was SO. SO. SO. happy to see Steve and Katie standing there waiting on us.  The best decision I made about this whole trip was having Steve meet us in Chicago.  There just aren't words to describe how happy I was to see him there.  No.  Words.

And Kylie took right up with him.  No fear.  Just pure infatuation on both their parts.

Our flight departing Chicago was on time and we landed about 6:10ish in Nashville...but those are some special pictures....my friend Samantha Byers documented our homecoming in Nashville and it deserves a post of it's own...and there were others there with their cameras....so here's a sneak peek...

Ah yes. 

HOME.

Trying to finish up China...

I'm so behind, so I appreciate your patience!  Last you read, we had visited the safari park in Guangzhou.  After that, we had some time at the hotel to rest and have lunch and then it was off to the famous Shamian Island for shopping.

We bought several souvenirs and then met up with several of our traveling families for dinner at Lucy's.  Lucy's is well known to adoptive families as being the best place to get American food.

I had a cheeseburger and while I thought it was good, I don't think everyone else loved what they had.  We ended up going back to the island the next day after our consulate appointment.

Our appointment started out rocky because *someone* was late.  And yes, after they told us not to be late, because if we were the bus would leave us and we'd have to find our own way there.  In my defense, we were on the 22nd floor and it took 10 minutes to get an elevator up and down.  But yes, my guide was furious with me.  However, in the end, we got there on time and all was well.  The consulate doesn't allow videos or cameras so there's nothing for me to post.  It was a very non-event.  We went in and the entire room stood up to swear we would give accurate information.  Then, you waited for your name to be called and then went up to the window with your paperwork, signed some stuff and then you were done.

After we did that, several families went back to Shamian Island to finish shopping.  Our main goal was shoe shopping at Sherry's!

Deanne was not as interested in the kid shoe shopping as I was, so she waited outside with the strollers while we shopped inside.

We also got some pics around the island that I had wanted the day before but wasn't able to get.

After shopping, we caught a taxi back to the hotel and then rested until our evening dinner cruise.  We had been warned that the food wasn't great, so we ate a very late lunch.  I didn't eat anything on the cruise, but Jenna and Deanne did.  Kylie even enjoyed some food.  The dinner cruise was a great opportunity for me to catch some of the beautiful sights of Guangzhou at night...

It was a late night, but it was a good one. It was our last evening in Guangzhou...Wednesday afternoon, Kylie's visa would be picked up which would be the last thing we needed to fly home!