It's A Wonderful Life

During the first couple of days of having Hyrum, he would always want his shoes on.  I took them off when we got to the hotel room and he would have them back on within a few minutes.  This would repeat itself 3-4 times a day.  Finally I gave up and realized this is what he is used to - with the cold floors in the orphanage I am sure they had shoes on all day.  Last night after a shopping trip we came back and I took my shoes off.  He saw that and immediately took his off.  We came back from breakfast and the same thing happened.  He now runs around the hotel room without shoes.  We can't underestimate the power of example in our childrens' behavior. Another culture shock he will have to get used to....slurbberts.  At least that's what we call them - not sure on the spelling and didn't bother googling it. (Lips on bare skin and expelling air like a trumpet player to cause massive vibrations which lead to convulsive laugh...

The Adoption Certificates are in hand for both Hyrum and Bria.  The Walker family has two more children!!  They are both doing great.  The paperwork has gone very smoothly here.  My biggest worry being without Deanne this week was the paperwork, but she had it all perfectly in order before arriving in China and the guide, Ann, has been very knowledgeable and told me exactly what was needed every step of the way.  Deanne had a couple of snags on her paperwork.  Nothing that was her fault, it turns out that this was the first adoption that orphanage has ever done and the director had to bring new paperwork 4 times.  That delayed things almost a whole day.  I was worried that she may have to stay in Changsha longer so I made her call the guide to double check everything last night and it looks like it is still on schedule.  There was also a typhoon that went through Hong Kong today.  There were some flights cancelled there and I was wo...

This should actually be a continuation of the Bank of China experience in the previous post.  They just called me and told me they gave me 2 cents too much.  I changed $2,500 - so 2 cents is pretty insignificant, but it was in my favor and they are a bank.  If it was in their favor I would have just let it slide.  They first asked if I could come back down to the bank and I said I would come before 2:00.  They must have just read my blog post about how courteous everyone is here and decided to come to me instead.  They just showed up at my door to save me the trip....see what I mean? 

I spoke with Deanne last night and she wanted my to post the progress that Bria is making.  We are still counting down the hours before we are back together.  We figure we better make a switch with the kids when we are all together to even out the bonding process. Bria got attached to a chair and sat there most of the first day.  Deanne could only coax her out if she really, really wanted something else.  She even woke up in the middle of the night, got out of bed and went to the chair.  Deanne pushed two chairs together and put a pillow down for her and she finished the night out there.  Yesterday she was able to get her to stay out of the chair most of the day and she fell asleep while Deanne was holding her in the bed.  During bath time, Deanne was stroking her with a warm wash cloth - when she stopped, Bria grabbed her hand and told her to keep doing it.  Another sign of progress happened at a restaurant.  One of the waitresse...

I called Deanne last night after all the dust settled to share our experiences.  I feel guilty, but it appears that I had a much better day than she did.  Bria cried for 45 minutes at the registry office, then settled down when they went outside.  Deanne did what she could to make her feel comfortable at the hotel room, but Bria sat in a chair most of the time and wouldn't respond to tickling or playing of any kind.  Deanne finally ventured out to try to get some lunch, but as soon as Bria saw a Chinese person she started crying and reached for them.  It's hard for me to imagine any child not latching onto Deanne right away.  Hopefully today goes better. Hyrum cried for a few minutes after the handoff to me, but after a few treats and toys, he settled down and I actaully got a smile from him about 15 minutes into it.  The care giver was there for about an hour, then wisely slipped out without saying goodbye to him. ...

I will keep this short since we are running on about 3 hours of sleep in the last 50 hours.  Deanne and I are in China, however, we are about 500 miles apart at the moment.  She is picking up Bria in Changsha tomorrow morning at 10:00 and I am picking up Hyrum in Guangzhou tomorrow at 2:00.  We will be reunited Friday night at 9:00 back here in Guangzhou.   The flights went great - we had 45 mins to make our connection in Hong Kong and the airlines, Cathay Pacific, said it would be no problem and it wasn't.  They sent an agent to meet us and escort us to the other flight.  We went ahead of everyone else in security and felt like VIPs (for a few minutes anyway).  It wasn't very fun sending Deanne away to another city after being here less than an hour, but it's what we had to do to make this happen this week. We can't wait to get back together, so we hope this week goes fast. I got settled in the hotel roo...

In a previous post I expressed that I wouldn't want to wish this experience on my worst enemy.  After rereading that post I realized how that made adoption from china sound.  That was not my intention and I don't want to scare anyone away.  China is no more difficult of time consuming than any other international adoption.  Our experience has been very out of the ordinary, wrought with challenges along the road.  We not only had problems with the adoption process but in most other areas of our life.  This was the path the Lord chose to give us growth. If anyone is considering adoption please understand that most families have the normal roller coaster of emotions and challenges but it is not as difficult as ours has been.  There are many children in need of families and it will all be worth it, even in our situation.

The reality of going to China is finally starting to set in.  I walked into my bedroom today and walked right into the suitcases sitting in the middle of the floor.  It struck me that I am finally going to get my children.  My 7 year wait is almost over!  I started to feel that little flutter in my stomach and I realized that I was beginning to feel the excitement.  What a good feeling that is.  I still have some concerns that something will go wrong but I am giving in more and more to faith. It is so nice to begin to feel peace again. We will be getting our itinerary on Tuesday at the latest.  I do know that we can visit Hyrum's orphanage.  I told Doug he can't go without me!!  I don't want to miss that experience.  Bria's orphanage won't allow visits so we will be satisfied with the thought of some day in the future visiting her home town.  Outside of the normal routine of appointments I don't know what else will be on...

After a very hard experience we have gotten all the appointments necessary and flights re booked and paid for.  We are on our way to China!! We are headed to China on Friday the 23rd of September.  It took some creativity and thinking outside the box to get it put together but we did it. Oh, and I forgot, more paperwork and money.  We both fly from Salt Lake to LA on Friday then on to Hong Kong and GuaGuangzhou.  It will be a long trip but I have seen some that were longer.  Once in Guangzhou Deanne will go to Changsha to pick up Bria and Doug in to Guangzhou to pick up Hyrum.  We will spend the week apart doing paperwork, touring, and getting to know our children.  Friday evening Deanne and Bria will fly to Guangzhou to meet up with Doug and Hyrum.  We had to split up so that we could get both of the children before the Chinese holiday.  We will have fun for a week with each other then have our consulate appointment the 11th of Octobe...

Well it's been quite a week around our house.  We got news Tuesday after booking airline tickets that the US Consulate in China did not have any appointments available for the week we needed.  We tried a few other avenues to get an appointment but had no luck.  We wanted to give ourselves any chance we had so finally Friday evening we cancelled our tickets.  It was a difficult thing to do and cost us $560. We are still home and won't be going until October or November.  We will be contacting our agency next week to see if we can get an appointment in October but if not we do have one for the middle of November.  Many questions arise now with this change and we have no answers for any of them.  We will have to take some time to think everything through and make some decisions.  It has been extremely difficult for several reasons but the most obvious being the disappointment of not going to get our children.  I know this expe...

I was hoping that we could wake up running this morning.  Much like the rest of our process we have run into another road block.  The consulate has on more appointments available for September and the earliest they can get us in is October 11.  That would put us in China over a month with 10 children at home.  One of those weeks would be purely sight seeing because all US and Chinese government offices are closed the first week of October.  Our next option would be to stay outside of Guangzhou if we travel in October but that is not even an option for other reasons in our family.  So we are only left with 2 real options.  One, travel in November and miss Thanksgiving with the kids (bummer, but no deal breaker), or continue to go forward as though we go in September exercising great faith that all will work out and we leave on Saturday as paid for and planned.  Miracles happen!  We have chosen to keep getting ready as though we fly...

We have 7 total days to get ready to leave 10  children home and pick up two more in China.  That leaves for a very busy week.  Now if that was all that I had going, no problem but we have had some big issues with school and getting things together with that.  I have also found that some of the needs academically are more demanding than expected. These things have been weighing heavily on me as well.  The best part of it all - I got the flu on Saturday.  I was down all day and when I tried to get up to get some things done I would start to lose it.  I have always said that I can still function with a bad cold but give me a stomach ache I am done. The family, mainly Doug, got a lot accomplished while I laid in bed.  More and more things are being crossed off the "To Do" list, not because they are getting done but because they are not going to ever get done.  This is when I decide what is really important.  Who cares if my toil...

We spent most of the day putting together travel arrangements.  We leave next Saturday the 11th and come back on the 29th.  What a busy week this will be. It still hasn't really set in emotionally that we are getting two more children.  It has been such a long hard wait that I had to turn my heart off.  I just hope it turns back on very soon. :)  I'm not worried, it will probably be very tender towards my children and all the others we leave behind.  I just wanted to give an update.

WE GOT TA!!!! No matter how weak our faith is Heavenly Father is still there.  I would know because my faith failed me yesterday, completely! I got an unexpected call from our agency this morning and they were able to get our TA.  I can not say enough good about our China Coordinator and the in country director from our agency.  They went far more than the extra mile. We in no way expected this.  From what we knew yesterday there was no chance we would go this month.  I didn't want to get out of bed this morning and face another day.  I had to make some very difficult decisions, I thought.  Now this miraclous surprise. How grateful I am. I woke up singing "Glory" and wondered why I would be singing that.  I was in no way on the outside praising God.  I guess my spirit knew.

Yesterday one of the children was working on their vocabulary. They had to choose an antonym from a list of 4 options.  (For those that forgot, antonym means opposite.) WEALTH And the answer of choice: TAXES!