Gotcha!

Today is the one year anniversary of when met Grace! It was just after 9pm or so, as I recall, it had been a really long day, and it didn't quite happen like we expected. Nothing did on that trip. And nothing has quite happened like we expected it to since! In fact, it's been far better than we could have hoped. God is certainly good!

In adoption circles, especially the ones we know of, this day is known as "Gotcha Day". Apparently there's some controversy over the term and the celebration (see that link if you really are interested), but we note it as a day of happiness and thankfulness. Just tonight I was telling Grace about it, how glad we are that we "got" her and that she "got" us! It's kind of like a birthday, I suppose, but as this was the day she was brought into our family, the family can celebrate twice as much--woo hoo! (we're her forever family, if you want another adoption colloquialism--but don't try to wikipedia that one). So in our family we have Chinese New Year, Sam's Birthday, Gotcha Day, Grace's Birthday, Anniversary, Kathy's Birthday, and Jon's Birthday all in about 2 1/2 months! Whew! Maybe you can begin to see why it's important to us, but we don't go all out.

In the past few weeks, as Kathy and I have retold the story to those that have asked, memories from our trip to China have become clearer once again. When we first returned from the trip I was so thankful to be home and really didn't want to return--ever--except to say so if I was being polite. But, like climbing a Colorado 14-er, after time passes, I find myself wanting to return someday. We've become more "aware" of China, more interested in her past, present, and future, and more concerned for her beautiful people that God also loves just as much as us--even though the East is so odd to the West.

Grace has been growing and developing wonderfully. She is typically a very happy kid, and is learning SO quickly! She loves music, books, and babies--dolls or real ones. Her best friend is doggie, and doggie's best friend is Grace now that she knows where the dog treats are and sneaks them to him whenever she can.

Here's G today sporting her new sunglasses Kathy bought for their upcoming trip.

One final note, I just realized that our last post (the Dead Blog post) alluded to a trip Brooks and I were taking to Europe. That trip did happen, and it was amazing. I only wish that Kathy, Sam and Grace could have come. Here is a link to a (I hope brief) blog about that trip. Not having reviewed it recently, I hope it doesn't leave you hanging in the end. :)

Well, since someone asked why we haven't kept the blog up to date, I thought I'd at least write this to let y'all know that this story has a happy beginning!

Dead Blogs! Dead Blogs!

This is June 4th, and our last post was back in March! Ooooh, bad bloggers, I suppose. Well, time for an update. After reading this update, you'll no doubt be able to FINALLY get the sleep you've been deprived whilst waiting for news--any news!

Let's start with some continuity material since the last

post: about Grace. Believe it or not, there is still more paperwork required once returning to the U.S. Grace has been added to my health insurance--more paperwork than you'd think. The adoption has been recognized by Colorado, and her "Colorado birth certificate" is on the way (both TONs of paperwork). So is her social security card (still more). And she's a bona-fide U.S. citizen, according to the immigration department. Yay!

Grace has been to the pediatrician, and on his recommendation, to a team that specializes in international adoption. Our doctor thought everything looked good, but that the team really knows what to look for, even based on which province

of which country that a child comes from. So we made the appointment and Kathy and the kids spent 5 hours with a team of a half-dozen specialists poking, prodding, x-raying, and taking blood.

Then we heard: nothing! We did get one letter from that team telling us what the bill was going to be, but we had to call 4 weeks later to learn the results. And they are: Grace is healthy. We had 3 concerns, some of which would have been quite serious, but the PA briefed me that we had nothing to be concerned about. Still, when we go for her 15 month checkup we'll speak to our doctor to confirm that interpretation. But at least we can sleep a little better now.

Speaking of sleeping, her mother commented that Grace has got to be the easiest baby she's ever met. Isn't that something that other mommies say about your children to be nice? I have to agree, however. Of all 21 babies I've ever met, she's the easiest.

You may recall that when we met her about 3 months ago, she wasn't sitting up (very long, that is). She is now standing briefly and just last week began crawling. Woo hoo, go Grace!

Life has not stopped on other fronts, either. Brooks played the caterpillar in the spring play (Alice and Wonderland--Kathy made the costume), the boys completed the school year (Sam's switching out of home school next year). Brooks finished another Upwards Basketball season. Baseball just started. Sam is now a lawn-mowing machine! We've had three birthdays (Grace, Kathy, me) and an anniversary. Mother's Day! My work feels as if it's getting geometrically busier. I sold my "baby" car that I had for 19 years. Boo hoo! Kathy has more cool diabetes technology to play with.

I think we can actually say that we're well on our way to settling in as a family of five and a dog. Speaking of dog, he's feeling a little neglected. If you're looking to lease a dog at reasonable rates, please let us know how we can help.

Oh, the other item that may be of interest to you pertains to my grandfather's 1946 B-17 crash in Italy and France (on the border). It seems that a group of dedicated Europeans is planning to honor the family members of the men who died in that wreck. This is really cool for me especially as I've kind of fallen into the role of (amateur) "family historian", and because of my Air Force connection with him. My sister's family of four, Brooks and I are planning on attending the dedication of a memorial, Lord willing. More on that later.

Coming Home

Warning, this is a long one. But as our day was nearly 36 hours long, we figured, I’ll only hit the highlights.

Our day started at 4:45am with alarm clocks and wake up calls. We were told that we needed to be down by 5:30am so the bus could leave at 5:45am sharp to make it to the Guangzhou airport in time for our flights. The bus did leave at 5:45-ish. Everyone was in great spirits, but the loopiness was just beginning. You wouldn’t believe the jokes we were making on the way, everyone was happy to be going home after all this time.

Guangzhou has an elevated, ringed freeway system that encircles the city, and goes through buildings with surface streets beneath. There are periodic exits down to the surface.

We’d been traveling for about 20-30 minutes when the driver drifted over to the narrow shoulder. Our guide had just been briefing us all on how we needed to hustle when we got to the airport, but that there should be plenty of time. So why was the driver pulling over? Then we heard the engine repeatedly turning over, and catching, and then dying. Over and over. He made a call on the phone, and then we started rolling backwards! What was going on? We soon realized that, yes, the bus was broken, and the driver was going backwards to get the big tour bus out of the traffic (remember the narrow shoulder?) About 100 meters back was a two-lane off ramp. We coasted back to the off ramp, but then the bus was blocking both lanes of the ramp. Luckily traffic wasn’t that heavy yet.

The driver made some more calls, and I think our guide made some calls too. Another bus was on it’s way and it would be there in 20 minutes or so, and the plan was to transfer the baggage, and get to the airport (in plenty of time, of course). One funny part is that after all our wise cracking, and the bus breaking down, the driver asked for two guys to help push the tour bus out of the road so the lanes weren’t blocked. (It was funny that he thought two guys could move it!) Four of us hopped up and gave it the ol’ Guangzhou try and did manage to get it to the side. The picture is a little blurry, but hopefully will corroborate this crazy story. I’m sure you can only imagine where this is headed.

So the relief bus screamed up, parked in front of us, and we did a transfer of the baggage. Then the driver sped us to the airport at what seemed like 50-75% more speed than the other cars. It was like the Beijing traffic dance in fast motion!

When we arrived, we said good bye to the one family that had a different routing—instead of flying Guangzhou to Shanghai, they were first headed to Beijing. They were bummed about the longer route, but they were glad to be going home, too.

Getting to the airport, we really hustled with our guide over to a check in counter while our guide then raced over to a supervisor’s desk where she worked some magic. The check in agent where our group had been parked was frustrated that we didn’t have our passports (the guide and the supervisor had them), and we had 3 families to check in, all in about 4 minutes (before the flight closed, at 45 minutes before departure). I ran over to where the guide was and she was checking us all in there. You know how long it takes to get checked in for a flight sometimes. Checking 6 adults and 4 kids onto a flight in 4 or 5 minutes is literally amazing.

After we checked in, the other agents checked our bags, and it was off to the races again, this time to get through security and then go all the way to our gate. At security we got to go through the “I’m late for my flight gate”, and they whizzed us through. David commented that in the U.S. they’d say “sorry Charlie” and tell you to take the next flight. A good thing they didn’t in this case.

We made it to the gate, and were able to get on the flight to Shanghai. Grace was able to get a nap in on the flight, and things were so far going peachy. I think there must have been a lot of prayer cover, as we’d already had some close calls and some incredible allowances made to keep us on the tight schedule we ended up on. Much of the day, in retrospect, seemed to be providentially guided.

In Shanghai, which by the way is a crazy-big airport, I was tempted to go for a ride on the mag-lev train (advertised to go 30km in 8 minutes, not bad for a passenger train), but we stuck to our schedule. We had a few hours, but needed to get set on our international flight.

One funny thing that happened when went to go check in. We went up to the United desk to start the process. I told the man that we had two adults and a baby with a ticket to check in. The man said he only had middle seats left in the airplane, and no two together! I said “she’s 11 months old, what can you do”. He said “there’s nothing I can do”, but you can check with the folks at the gate. Something didn’t feel quite right. We were still like 4-5 hours away from our flight. That’s when Kathy had the smarts to ask “is this the flight to Chicago?” He said “No this is to San Francisco!” We had a good laugh over that one. It turns out that you go to a specific gate at a specific time to check into a specific flight. We were told to come back in an hour or so.

So after checking in and saying good bye to another family traveling on another airline, we went through security. Rounding the corner we saw a big long line snaking through the retractable belt pole thingies. Then a man approached and asked to see our tickets and passports (always makes me a little nervous, I don’t know why), and then ushered us all through the “VIP” line for passport control, and the VIP line for security screening. It really had a red carpet, too! Then after a short* wait (*-An hour? Two hours? That’s short in this day), we got some more VIP treatment by being escorted to the new gate after a gate change, and we got to pre-board before everyone else!

You’d think there wouldn’t be much to report on a 12 hour flight over the Pacific. Actually, we didn’t ever cross the Pacific. From Shanghai to Chicago, the normal route takes you over Japan and the Pacific, but due to the captain’s concern over a warning of a radiation cloud over Japan at our altitude, he thought it wise to spend an hour getting a new clearance to fly around the cloud. We did get that clearance, finally, and then, against a 70 km/h headwind we flew to Beijing! (So Howard and Beth, you guys lucked out getting to skip Shanghai! J) Being so far east and north of where we started, our new route took us over Siberia, the pole, and down over Hudson Bay, approaching Chicago from the North. The rerouting approval and the longer flight time made the total flight about 14 hours. Even though they explained a few times over the PA system and apologized for the delay, we didn’t hear anyone complaining about not getting to fly through the radiation. After the first couple of hours, Grace settled down enough to sleep. Kathy and Grace got some Z’s in; I got a in movie and a book.

The most exciting part (for us) about the Chicago connection was: Grace became a citizen! Also, it was another tight connection.

Touching down in Denver at 9:45 pm MT, and exiting the plane about 10pm (no one to drive the jet-way over to the plane), Brooks, Sam and Gramma were waiting for us at the top of the escalators. It was so good for us all to see each other again, and for the boys and Gramma to finally meet Grace. I noticed the on-lookers also enjoying our reunion. That felt kind of good.

It is nice to be home. Finally. Our hearts have been in China with Grace for far too long. It’s good to have them all back under one roof again. I rocked with her in the glider chair in her room last night. With great relief, it was the first time that I cried about this. As the jet-lag wears off who knows what will happen. Thank you, Lord. You’re the one who led us and saw us through this big adventure. Or should I say the first part of this big adventure.

Status

We made it to Colorado!  More crazy details later.  Jon's been up >36 hours, and we're all beat, so we'll make another post tomorrow.  For the other families that travelled with us, we had a wonderful time getting to know you all and your new additions.  We'll be in touch and share our pictures.

One More Day in China

The day before we left, Wednesday in China-time, we mostly chilled out. We came to breakfast later than usual, and really had no commitments. Having received Grace’s immigration papers and Chinese passport, now with the US Immigrant Visa inserted, the night before, we had pretty much no commitments except to be sure to check out of the hotel the night before and to get our bags packed for the bell boy to pick up before 8pm. It was strange to check out the night before (yes, we still slept in our rooms), and also strange to think about a packing strategy that allows you to sleep and get ready for a long day of travel.

The day was filled with shopping. One should note that when I use phrases like “the day was filled with”, there is an implied tax of baby naps, changing, and meals levied on every day, so the amount left for “shopping” is whittled down to about 2 hours. Here’s one last picture of us all at Starbucks. Again, you’d think that all we did was crave things that were familiar or American. Well, even though we started out more adventurous, I have to admit that it’s true. Looking forward to being back home is what allowed us to power through this day and definitely the next.

Lastly, we had dinner with a few other families at a local restaurant, and said our good-byes to the ones we wouldn’t see the next day.

Comfort Zone

Kathy, Grace, and I spent yesterday on an unscheduled and unplanned adventure! After her morning nap, we strapped her into the stroller and set out in search of gifts for our boys--we'd heard there was a market just north of us, off Shamian island. I like to think of Shamian island as the opposite of the "China town" you find in many large US cities. It's "Western-town" (no shutter-doored saloons, nor wooden sidewalks, of course).

Heading over a pedestrian over pass in some chilly wind, we finally found a 5-story escalatored market. Strangely, it wasn't what we non-readers were thinking. Every floor featured an array of herbal items and natural items. I'm talking hooved shin bones, antlers, dried sea horses, eels and other aquatic things. Many other things out of our comfort zone. But we pressed on deeper into town, looking for "gifts". Kathy wanted to turn back, but I was convinced that the elusive toy store was just around the corner. About 8 blocks north of where we started, we found an outdoor market area, with shoes, watches and underwear. We commented that we must be in the "food court, lingerie, Hello Kitty" part of the mall. :) Not many toys, though.

We did finally make it back to the island, and found some things here. We picked up Grace's visa to get her back to the US, and we spent a quiet evening in our hotel room with a Papa John's pizza.
That's about the day in a nutshell. Grace is still doing better and better with us. She still is a nap-champion, and is talking more and eating even more. Hopefully all that contentedness will get us through the long flights tomorrow.


If this video doesn't work now, try this link--things are kind of sketchy when posting from here:
http://vimeo.com/21098196

The Red Couch

There are 10 families in our group. This photo is of our Grace, Lyle, another Grace, and Mun, all from the same province. The red couch isn't like what I had pictured in my head. I knew there was some couch at the White Swan, and I had pictured a ratty old red couch with sagging, worn out pillows and faded fabric due to years and years of adoption photos. Actually, there are several couches, and as this is a nice place, they keep things up! Silly me.