Well, I can finally and truthfully say that we are leaving next week! One week from tomorrow actually. What a relief! We can count the days until we meet Charlie on our fingers now! The seemingly endless timelines we have had really wore me down, but I am finally just choosing to trust that God's timing is best. There were many days in this wait that I was so tired of praying that I just asked my kids to pray for me. I know that God doesn't want us to quit seeking Him, asking Him, or leaning on Him, no matter how long or hard it's been or how useless our prayers seem at the time. Now that I am almost to the other side of the wait, I can see that, but in the middle of it there were days that I couldn't. It has been such a relief to give up the bitterness and get excited about our trip. I am sad that we will only have 2 weeks home with Charlie before Sam and Kate go back to school, but maybe God knew that this mama couldn't handle longer than that! Ha!
In the past couple of weeks there has been a mess with the US Consulate issuing visas for the newly adopted children, and many families were stuck in China for several extra days. This pushed back some people's Consulate Appointments and created a short-term back log. Hopefully now all of that will be straightened out by the time we go. Also, our friends that traveled on June 10 said that things have been very chaotic, emotional and hard for them. Both families are adopting 2 kids, and it's been rough, especially during that first week. So, even though we all thought it would be "ideal" for us to go together, they said they feel like it is probably better that we will be going on our own.
Kate told us that she wants to go visit her orphanage while we are there. She said she wants to see the workers and show them how much she has grown. We are definitely going to try to do that, it's only 1.5 hrs from where we'll be in Guangzhou. If Charlie is having a hard time, then I will just stay at the hotel with him while Stephen and the kids go to Huizhou, but I would love it if we could all go together. Please pray for that. Here is Kate with her buddies 6 years ago, a month before she was adopted.
In China we think that we will have access to the internet, but there are firewalls and sometimes it can be hard to get on Facebook or Gmail. Make sure to sign up to follow the blog and you'll receive a notification every time we post.
We are not planning on doing an "airport party" upon our return. I know many people do that, and I love their pictures, but after much consideration and discussion, we are just going to have family at the airport. I kind of wanted to have a big group, but Stephen felt like we should keep this particular event as small as possible. Charlie will only have seen pictures of his grandparents and aunt and uncle, so it will also be easier for him (and not quite as chaotic) if there are just a few people there. It will absolutely be overwhelming, there is no way around that, but this may minimize that just a little bit. Thanks for understanding! We will definitely take pictures and certainly share them!
If you'd like to know how you can support us through this transition once we are home, I went into some of that in It Takes A Village. A good friend of mine, and fellow adoptive mom has graciously set up a meal plan for us, so let me know if you'd like to be added to that. We would LOVE for you to meet Charlie after we've been home about a week, and we are completely open to visitors. Everyone who adopts chooses what they feel is right for their family, and with our situation we feel like this will be best for us. We want to be home a lot, so that he becomes familiar with his new home, but we also don't want to be too ALONE. He needs to physically learn our home (which can be difficult when you're visually impaired), and emotionally learn to be comfortable here. Learning what a family is takes time. Keeping his world small for a while will make it easier for him to adjust to the huge changes he will be going through.
I so appreciate your support, prayers and just taking the time to read these posts and following along in our journey. We can't wait to update you each day of our trip. Adventure awaits, and it's finally upon us!
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