You know in the book of Judges in the Bible when God calls for Gideon to lead an army? An angel of the Lord says "Rise oh Mighty Warrior!" and Gideon is presently hiding with his tail between his legs from the Midianites...in a hole. God still refers to him as a Mighty Warrior even when Gideon is scared and feels that he's the last person to live up to that title? Well, stick me in a hole and call me 'Mighty'!
These past few days have been interesting to say the least. Funny how the Lord has called this inadequate mother of 2 to be a mother of a third child that was abandoned and doesn't speak your language. I think that last part was just a zinger that made this all humorous. I can't tell you how many times today I've said "Oh sweetie, I have no idea what you're saying to me." I've done well to catch on to a few phrases. I've laughed out loud a couple times thinking that he's probably saying not so nice things about me in Chinese. I truly can't imagine how hard this is on him. Thankfully he'll probably forget most of this time and won't hold it against me. Right? ... right?
I don't mean to be the glass half empty type. A friend told me that I'm a bit of an Eeyore. lol I always thought of myself as being more positive, but I also lied to myself in that I thought I handled stress well. Ha! My husband laughs at that, too.
Today Jason went back to work and left me alone with my three boys. After breathing in a paper bag, I got busy on laundry, dishes, and playing. We played in the front yard. We played in the backyard. We had a snack. We played upstairs. Had lunch. We played downstairs (where I could watch them AND ride my stationary bike for 22 minutes-thank you very much). Then we played outside again. So on and so forth. It actually went pretty well. When Jason got home we had dinner, I took a shower, and got to run to the store (just me and Jakey).
The boys are doing really well. Jadon is an amazing big brother to Judah and tries so hard to listen and help him. Jakey, I think, just wants him to go away. I would think that that is typical for how the baby of the family would react. For the most part he does okay.
Judah is amazingly pleasant and is also trying to learn and adjust. He is even getting use to to our crazy dogs. I don't think I'm use to our crazy dogs, so, yay Judah! He did finally sleep last night after we took down the toddler bed and replaced it with the crib. There is some security for him in that crib and that's okay.
I will continue to ask for prayers at this time for our family to adjust to being a family of five. We will get through this! It is in my weakness that the Lord can really shine, so here we go, call me a "Mighty Star" why don't cha?!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Judah Day 9
We made it! Two weeks come and gone. Tomorrow morning we leave before the sun comes up to head home.
As our last day in Guangzhou a couple of families bore the rain to visit a museum and the grocery store for last minute snacks for the plane ride home. Rain or no rain we were going to be out and about on our last day. We grabbed the hotel umbrellas and took off. After the museum and an unfortunate mishap in the subway where I almost lost an arm, we had McDonald's for lunch. Jason had his first McDonald's cheeseburger in over 10 years. He was still not amused. Judah has become quite the french fry lover. He ate part of mine, part of Jason's, part of his friend Jett's, and then finished Mr. Zhou's (our guide).
Mr. Zhou lives in Cleveland, Ohio and is the China between for our agency. The agency just started a program called Uncle Zhou's kids. They are working with a specific orphanage in China with 50 or so children. Knowing Jason is a minister Zhou approached him about helping him plan a possible mission trip to this orphanage.
It's nap time and I need to start packing our things. We have so much laundry, I think that's all I'll do Friday when we are home.
Thank you all so much for your encouraging emails and prayers for our journey. Keep them coming. Our journey is just beginning!
Flight arrangements: We leave our hotel tomorrow morning around 5am for the 3 hour drive to Hong Kong. Our Hong Kong flight leaves about 10:30am for Newark, NJ. We land in NJ 16 hours later; around 2pm. From there was talk to the Immigration Services and Customs and hop on a plane around 5pm for Columbus. If all goes well we should land in Columbus around 7:30pm. We will be absolutely exhausted, but so excited to be home.
Can't wait to see my Jadon and Jakey as well as our family and friends. Yay!!!!
Note from me...
Families that adopt internationally are normally families that can afford it, because this is an expensive adventure. Between paperwork, travel, passports, food, buses, everything this adoption can easily cost around $30,000..maybe more. Jason and I are not one of those "families that can afford it" families. I began to worry the other day because the money that we have with us for the remainder of the trip is all we have. Really. We have sold things, asked friends for money, drained our saving account, try as much as we can to hold our cars together, went on vacation by crashing with friends that didn't make us pay. The other families with us are spending money left and right. Our baby needs surgery when we get home and I don't know how expensive it will be to take care of those. Last night I really just gave it all to the Lord. I don't want to worry. We didn't come all of this way to spend lots of money to "buy" a child. We came all this way and spent all that we have to give a child without a family, a family. We came here because we want to risk it all for the sake of teaching a child about the Lord and to love him in a way that he could have never dreamed of. I was reminded in my own little way that I CAN and WILL risk it all for Him. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. When I think of the gift of eternity I just want to give all of my "things" away anyhow so that I can sit at the feet of Jesus. Some people think we're crazy for the risks that we are taking. King David said he would be "undignified before the Lord if that's what it took." (Jeri Blackwell version) Well call me Undignified! You want to know something really cool... last night we went to dinner with a couple of families and the waitress put our bills together then one of the families "picked it up" for everyone. Today at lunch, same thing...another family. They are not expecting us to "pay them back" or "pick up the next bill" that's just their way of doing something nice. And they can afford it! When we get home there is a program in Ohio that helps pay for the first 3 months of surgeries and treatments for our internationally adopted child. Praise God. I know that He will take care of us. He's promised to. I'm not ashamed to take risks for Him. All the better. This email is not to say "look at us", but rather "watch what He's going to do" cause I know it's going to be great.
Love to you all.
Judah Day 8
We have a crazy one on our hands folks. It's funny how each of the 4 children somehow represent their new families; the diva, the baby, the only child, and the wild not sure where he came from mouthy one (that would be ours). Our little on talks all day, dances, sings Alleluia, and runs around like a crazy child.
Just like Daddy. ha ha ha
Judah is so much fun. He's going to fit into our family so well. Since before he was born the L..d knew that he would be with us and he created him just perfect. He is going to give little Jakey a run for his money, though. Right now he is yelling/singing and all day he's been says "Ni how" to his goldfish crackers.
Today we had our meeting at the US consulate Everything went well and we can pick up Judah's Visa tomorrow to get into the US. Then we pack to come home!!!! I am so excited to come home. This has been quite an adventure. Highs and lows, good and bad, pleasant smells (these were few) and not at all pleasant smells. The list continues.
We have been told that we are supposed to have a two month "lock down" in order to minimize the stimulation given to our new child. We are not supposed to leave home. Stay in. Learn. HA! This child is banging down the door to get out of here in the morning. We'll try to stay in as much as we can, but I am not making any guarantees. We plan on being at church on Sunday because I teach class and Jason leads singing. Back into the swing of things. Too much stimulation could make your child misbehave, run around, act crazy...hum. Too late! But we will try. Just call before you come over so that we can appropriately camouflage you to look like a piece of furniture.
We will see you all soon!!! Can't wait! Pray we don't kill each other on our 16 hour flight home. Ahhhhhh!
Judah Day 7
Today I finally got to see a real live Panda! We headed to the Guangzhou Zoo this morning for a nice stroll in the BLAZING heat. My friend Shannon said she's pretty sure she saw Lucifer twice while we were there...cause it was so hot. Our babies were all dripping in sweat even. It was fun, nonetheless. I've attached a picture of the 4 little ones being adopted. Two girls. Two boys. Judah is all the way on the right. We spiked his hair with his sweat so he looked more like daddy. He said "Ni how!" to most of the animals and did call the majority of them "chow go go"s, but that's okay.
Judah talks nonstop. He points our every bus, car, dog, non-dog, etc. Jason tried to correct him. Judah says "bus" in Chinese, Jason'll say "bus" in English. They go back and forth and back and forth. Judah probably thinks he's got the dumbest Daddy that just can't say "bus" in Chinese. It's like Judah's trying to teach Jason while Jason's trying to teach Judah. I'm not sure who's winning. Might be Judah.
My boys are sleeping right now and I'm plugging away at the computer. I had coffee last night before bed and was wide awake at 3:30am...some of you got emails. lol
I probably should go and take a nap.
Have a good Monday. It is Monday, right?
Judah Day 5
Our spirits have been lifted tremendously just by being among the other families and being in the city of Guangzhou. We are staying in the Victory Hotel on an island and the area is just beautiful. Really I cannot tell you how happy we are to be here. We had lunch with our friends the Robinson's and they must have felt the same way. We are all just so happy to be together again with our children. These 4 kids (four families-four kids) are so sweet and each very special. Our Judah is probably the most outgoing of the group. He loves to play with the Robinson's little Jett. At lunch Jett would take a bite of something and give the rest to Judah. Jett is the oldest. He turned 3 in May and he's also the smallest. If you recall Jett was premature and found in a dump. He is so cute and a little sweetie. He is super small. At 3 he is a bit smaller than our Jakey.
Today we went to the clinic after breakfast and we had to endure Judah getting looked over by a couple of doctors. It seems that his current issue isn't the anus at all, but the testicles. One is significantly larger than the other and we're thinking now that is why he needs surgery. Sorry for the information, but that's what we're faced with right now. We have not had the pooping problems that we experienced two days ago and we are grateful. No watermelon for this kid! We doing a high carb low meat diet right now and it seems to be better. It's 2:30 and we've only had 2 dirty diapers today. That's amazing. Okay...enough about poop.
I love French Fries! We went to Lucy's for lunch. An American style restaraunt and I had a burger and fries and a cold coke (no ice). Judah shared a bit of my burger and he loves fries, but we have to be careful with greasy stuff. I got horribly car/bus sick this morning and the fries helped. Jason had a seafood/cheese/rice dish. At one point he pulled out a shrimp, legs, head, everything. Funny.
We also have a stroller now and that has been so nice. We walked around a bit and did a little big of shopping. I found a panda shirt where the panda's are doing kung fu. Also got Judah a shirt that says "Made in China." I realize that's crass, yet funny. It's mostly for Aunt Kristin.
We still have half of our day left. We are a happy bunch today. Judah is sitting in his stroller in our room looking at a book and shouting something in Chinese. Life is good.
Judah Day 6
We realized this morning that he has been calling Jason "Uncle". Apparently any male in the orphanage the children called "Uncle". I think it made Jason a little sad, but Judah will learn. Right now I guess I'm having an affair..with..my brother? Ewww. lol
Judah also calls everything a "chow go go"...a puppy. We pass by an elephant statue and he says "chow go go". We go to the zoo tomorrow and I'm pretty sure everything there will also be a chow go go.
I can see a church from our window. Gasp! I know. It had service this morning, but there was a no sandal rule, so we didn't get it. But I got a bulletin and we watched Bruce Almighty...that's the best we could do.
There is a lot of exercising going on, but little muscle growth. Jason being handsomely muscular gets stares. He smiled at a couple of younger ones today that were staring at us and they giggled as they past us. Back off ladies! lol He gets embarrassed easily, so he probably won't smile the rest of the trip.
We are going to a pearl market and pet? market in a bit. I'm not bringing home either.
I think we are getting Pizza Hut tonight. As must of you know I'm not a big pizza person, but I'm looking forward to it.
Last night we tried ostrich. Ostrich is actually a lean red meat. It was pretty good.
Okay, enough from me. Happy Sunday!
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