A Child Lost in China A Child Found in China

Today we left the safety and easy-going nature of the island and walked over the pedestrian bridge to check out the local markets.

Incredible.

The infrastructure here is remarkable to me. How goods are transported via bicycle piled 25 boxes high, shop after shop selling everything from frog legs and dried seahorse to auto parts and underwear. It amazes me how it all comes together to sustain such a large population.

Anyhoo, it's crowded......crowded being a HUGE understatement. You move with the throngs of people or you get run over.
Keeping tabs on 6 boys in that.....well, let's just say we are brave to give it a try......brave.....or crazy stupid......I'm not honestly sure which one.

And after I tell you what I am about to tell you I can say it was definitely crazy stupid.

We had a great walk though and after about 30 minutes we were headed back to the island for a slurpee from the 7-11and that's

when.
it.
happened.

Jacob had to go to the bathroom and mercifully after a few minutes of looking we found a public restroom right before the stairs to the pedestrian bridge.
John took him in and I corralled the other 4 kids off to the side to wait.......
wait.....hold on.......4 kids?
and
then
I
realized
.....there were only 4 others.

Where
was
Justin.

I immediately start calling shouting his name and frantically searching everywhere, my eyes were darting from face to face looking for him amongst the sea of people my heart pounding out of my chest.

Nothing.

He was gone.

I had even managed....in my crazy momma yelling..... to get John's attention all the way in the bathroom{yes...that's how loud I was. He could hear me all the way in the bathroom through all the noise of a busy Chinese sidewalk street.}

Do picture this scene clearly in yo head.
Ya know, me standing there holding onto all those little hands in a sea of Asian faces screaming {and I do mean screaming}
"Stellaaaaaa" "Juussstttinnnnn" over and over and over again,
voice cracking in fear,
ever increasing in volume,
you get the nightmare picture.

It's making my blood pressure rise and a lump form in my throat just recounting these few minutes.

And the crowd that gathered.

Oh.
The.
Crowd.
That gathered.

All huddled around me staring at me in confusion.

Awesome.

Like we aren't a spectacle enough.
Some were yelling something back at me in Mandarin, some were gesturing, most were just standing there watching this white woman with all those boys lose her ever-loving mind smack dab in the middle of the street.

Finally Jason had the where with all to go look up the stairs of the bridge that we were about to cross back over and sure enough.....

there
he
was
browsing some wares that were being sold on the bridge.

Thank you Jesus.

He came down at which time I wanted to hug him, yell at him and find a baby carrier that would fit his 8 year old self in it and carry him the rest of the trip.
The crowd then began to dissipate but not before I got a lecture or two from some elderly women that I did not have Joey and Jacob dressed warm enough.
Hello.
It's 68 degrees and they are wearing pants, a long sleeve shirt and a coat.
We are good.
Thankyouverymuch {though I do find their concern slightly endearing. What must they think of us.}
So all is well, we applied for their passports today at the police station and played at the park again this evening.

I would share more but I have to go and count kids again.......just to make sure I didn't lose anyone....
not that I would ever do that.

Home in 10 days.....with all 6 children.

At Which Point My Heart Stopped

Yesterday evening after we had settled in and it was nearing their first bedtime with us I took them into the bathroom for a bath and as they were undressing(and giggling excitedly about the fishing poll) Joey took off his shirt and
my
heart
stopped.

I was ready for his scar from his surgery but what I also saw was this

stuck to his belly button.
I had no idea what that was as he was gesturing to me whether he should take it off before he got into the tub.
Was it stool?
Was it heaps of dried blood?
Did he have some sort of open wound under that bandage?
No stinkin idea.

On the inside I was incredibly concerned for him.
On the outside I was all smiles and acting like it was no big deal.
Anyhow, it turned out to be some sort of potion that they put on that bandage to help with motion sickness for his car ride over from the orphanage.
I guess I should be grateful there wasn't like a dried sea horse or something in his ear drum.

Sheesh.
They coulda told me as my doctorate education in Chinese medicine is a little rusty.

A Public Service Announcement

If you plan to travel abroad
please note the voltage of your hair care products before plugging them into the wall.

Less this happen to you.

and you are forced to meet your children with bad, uncurled hair.

Officially Ours!

Today we headed back to the Civil Affairs office where after completing our 1 day "Harmonious Period" to make sure that we still want to adopt them(we didn't need a day....we didn't need a second, they have been ours in our hearts and minds for months, their adoption became official and final in the eyes of the Chinese government.

They are ours.
Praise the Lord!

Yesterday.
Where to even begin.
Hands down one of the most intense days of my life.
I'm not sure I have the brain capacity at the moment to even try and describe what that experience was like.
Scratch that. I know I don't.
There are no words.

We arrived around 2:30 and after a few incredible minutes of watching family after family be united with their child I was about ready to ugly cry. It was ahhhhmazing.
There is a curtain that separates the parents waiting area from where they keep the children until their name is called and not too long after our arrival there about 8 feet in front of me peaking out from behind that curtain was Jacob.

Be still my heart.

He immediately recognized us, smiled and waved.
Precious does not even begin to describe that moment in time but the look on his face is something I will never forget.
He bopped in and out of our view from that tiny crack in the curtain over the next couple of minutes each time smiling and waving more frantically and the anticipation was truly almost too much to bear. And then all of a sudden it was our name being called and out came our sweet Joseph.

Oh.
My.
Gracious.

It took the official a few minutes to remember/realize that we were also waiting for Jacob and they quickly then brought him out too.
Time stood still.

Pictures
come
to
life.

From then on out it is kind of a blur of fun, snackage, candy, toys and stolen hugs.
We then boarded the bus to head to the CareFour(oh my goodness I hope I can find the words tomorrow to try and tell you about that experience!!) they jumped right into our arms and have never looked back.

The last two days....though absolutely exhausting.....have been nothing short of miraculous. Everyone has adjusted remarkably, they are the happy, easy going kids I thought that they would be....just much, much smaller. None of the clothes I brought for them fit. Jacob is manageable size wise but Joey is as itty-bitty as itty bitty can get. I need to make a run to the toddler department some time soon.

They are a whole lotta love wrapped up in two tiny packages. 

A few more

Did I mention how amazing they are?
Ok.
Good.
Didn't want you to miss that, because they are indeed amazing.
Gotta go, in about 1 hour they are officially ours!

Gotcha x 2!!

I know, I know, I'm sorry!
I fell asleep while watching them fall asleep!
Ack!
Here are some pics, I haven't even begun to go through them yet.
They are AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, HAPPY, perfect in every way.  More soon, we are on our way to Civil Affairs to finalize their adoptions.  
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah wait, are you still reading?! Go check out the pictures!

Gotcha Day x 2 T-3 Hours

The bags are packed.
The camera is ready.

And I am in complete disbelief that this is really about to happen.

My stomach is in knots and I feel like I am going to puke and cry all at the same time.
Oh hang on, that wasn't very poetic was it?
My bad.

We are going to head out to play some hackey bird and badmitton to pass the time and shortly before 2pm we will head over to the White Swan to board the bus that will take us to the civil affairs office where the boys will be waiting.

Oh gracious, praise you Lord for this tremendous gift.

The itinerary has us going to the CareFour to pick up some snacks and such right after we get the boys and then we will come back to the hotel probably around 5pm so pictures will be forthcoming sometime after that.....ya know......if I can peel my eyes off of them for 5 minutes to upload the pictures.
We'll have to see. :)

Gotta go, I'm tearing up again right here in the lobby and people are going to start to wonder why that American woman is boo-hooing all over herself.
And if by chance you are wondering what I forgot to pack.....
it's the waterproof mascara.
Argh.

Signing off one last time as a mother of 4,
Sonia

A Lookie-Loo Around Our Hotel Home

Alternately titled:
How I Managed To Shove All That Stuff I Packed Into A Hotel Room

Sonia's Snack Shack.





Bathtime fun(monkey scrubber didn't fit into a suitcase so he came over tied to my head as a hair accessory....on the advice of a friend. Genius I'd say. Pure Genius.)


Book Store


The Suitcase I haven't unpacked yet.



oh wait, you weren't supposed to see that.
Disregard.

John's Bistro



Pharmacy



Joey & Jacobs clothes drawers



Wait that was really cute.....let's say look at that one again...
Joey & Jacob's clothes drawers



We sent them backpacks awhile ago so I am assuming that they will show up with them. In lieu of that we have packed a few special things into these gift bags instead of a backpack.



Two new toothbrushes


And that concludes our tour.
More later.
I have to go renew my membership in Overpackers Anonymous.

Adventures in China

Today we wanted to get off of the island and do a little bit of exploring since tomorrow will be mostly dedicated to getting ready for the boys by 2:30......oh wait.....never mind.....we've been ready for the boys for about 10 months now.

Well nonetheless, I remembered other families talking about a really fun childrens park somewhat nearby but in my non-existent book of wisdom I didn't know the name of the park,
nor how to get there,
nor retain the ability to speak Mandarin in order to explain where I am trying to go.

So you see my dilemma. 
And well, you know what they say...
when in doubt,
call your guide.

So there I am
in the lobby
I call Helen and begin to explain the things I've seen at this park.
The childrens rides,
the paddle boats,
the badmitton playing
and she immediately knows what it is I am trying to convey.
Bless her sweet little heart. 
So Helen gets on the phone with the front desk clerk, tells her where it is my previous unsuccessful pantomining was trying to convey, and 5 seconds later we are in a cab headed to the park.....that I still can't remember the name of.
(and yes, I'm sure I did look like a dork trying to act out paddle boating and badminton in the lobby....but we won't dwell on that. Plus I'm sure my entire performance was picked up on hotel surveillance cameras so it'll probably end up on Y-tube one day so you can catch it there.)

We had a fantastic time mostly driven by one word:

Hackybird.
Or is it two words:
Hackey Bird?
I dunno.
Regardless, you got to get you some of this.



A bit like hackey sack of course....only with kind of a feathery bird thing coming out which somehow makes it ten times more fun than a plain ole sack.



All in all we had a great day!



A little hackey bird with the locals, a few rides, watched some tai chi......still need to look up how to spell tai chi.....some badmitton and that was our day today.
(We won't go into tonight which involved dinner at Lucy's with Lilly's family which basically involved my children doing everything but hanging from the rafters.....which I'm sure they would have done...had there been actual rafters.)
But again, we won't go into that and instead we'll hope that they will agree to have dinner with us another time so they can prove that they do indeed have manners......somewhere.




Tomorrow's the big day!

The View From Here

Being here now
I see them.
I see them everywhere.
I see them when they were babies in these precious little Asian faces.
I see them as toddlers with their split pants.
I see them as teenagers walking with their friends.
But I also see her.
And I see him.

This morning I was standing in front of our hotel room window drinking my coffee and taking in the sights.

And I saw a mother emerge from her high rise apartment building with her baby wrapped up tightly against the cold.



Maybe she was on her way to work.
Maybe she was on her way to the market.
Wherever she was headed in that moment
I saw her.
I saw both of them.

I saw them and what it must have been like that day.
Did they too emerge from their home one morning with their precious, sick little boy in her arms.
Wrapped up tightly against the cold.
Clutching that baby boy so tightly to her chest.
What must it have been like that day.
What must it have been like to leave your baby.
What must it have been like to have loved him for so long
and
then
leave
him.
It is more than my head or my heart can really grasp hold of.

So instead I will just simply love.
I
will
love
them.

Today is January 16th, 2011.
Their last day as orphans.