China - Day 3 (Hutong & Summer Palace)

We have two days of touring scheduled for Beijing, and we have been making the most of it! Today we visited the Temple of Heaven, the pearl market, a Hutong (meandering communities within the city made of 800 year old homes where people still live today), had lunch with a sweet family in the Hutong, toured the Summer Palace, took a dragon boat ride, and make a quick photo stop of the olympic village. Our feet our sore and we're just amazed at all we were able to see today.

I had told Canaan before our trip to expect to be stopped for photos by some of the Chinese people, and this is exactly what is happening. Our boy is a little celebrity here and has been stopped by multiple people for a photo with him. Today at the Temple of Heaven we watched as a school load of children were touring the area - and one of the teachers asked if we might permit Canaan to be the centerpiece of a photo they were taking of their students. Our sweet little introvert looked a bit pained in some of the photos, lol!  Teachers took his hands so that he would hold the hands of a couple of the students, and the students took time afterwards to practice their english with us. It was pretty much completely adorable and completely overwhelming all at once.

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Checking out the Temple of Heaven with our tour guide Jeremy.

It just kept going and going, even more so than the Forbidden City.

The Temple of Heaven is made out of wood! Amazing!

Our famous kid!

And then they asked Mom and Dad to jump in the picture.

More of the Temple of Heaven

A pedicab tour of a Hutong.

I could have spent all day wandering these streets taking photos! So much beauty!

The wedding photo of the sweet couple who shared a meal with us in their home today.

Whatever these were, they were incredible.

Gifts to us from the family. 

Hot tea on a steamy day... we are definitely in China! 

The courtyard area of the family's home in the Hutong.

Our sweet and hilarious host (who thought I was BJ's daughter, and have him two thumbs up when she learned I was his wife. Ha ha!!) - the one from the wedding photo.

This bird was learning to say "nihao". :)

Canaan at the Summer Palace.

So much beauty to take in at the Summer Palace!

This temple of the emperor at the Summer Palace was built upon an enormous man-made hill.

A tucked away side room at the Summer Palace. 

Sorry this is out of order - another image of the Temple of Heaven.

Canaan and I on the pedicab ride.

Dragon boat ride at the Summer Palace.

Just three days until we meet our Ivy girl!

China - Day 2 (The Great Wall)

We are on day 2 of our trip! We all did fairly well last night sleeping, and are thankfully quickly adjusting to the 12 hour time difference (we know that the way home will be a lot more difficult!).

Today we met our awesome tour guide David and explored the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, experienced a tea ceremony, and enjoyed views of the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park. I think Canaan said, "this is so amazing" over 100 times today.

The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall has a chair lift to the top and a toboggan (!!!) on the way down, which was so fun! We also loved that this section of the wall was much more remote and not as crowded as the section we visited in 2014.

China - Day 1 (Beijing)

Well, after over 24 hours of traveling, we have made it safely to Beijing! We took off from Cincinnati to Newark, than Newark to Beijing with no travel hiccups.

None of us were able to get much sleep (maybe 4 hours???) the night before our flight (which had us leaving home at 3:45am), and now we are basically pulling an all-nighter (it's 4pm here, but 4am back home), trying to beat this jet lag and be ready for touring Beijing with Canaan tomorrow morning. Our brains are complete mush, but we are so excited to finally be here in China and so close to our Ivy girl!

Canaan spotted the Statue of Liberty from the air, and once we landed we got an awesome view of New York from the airport. 

Almost there!

The Last Day

Today is our last day home before we get on that plane for China and meet our Ivy girl! It's such a surreal feeling, about to "give birth" with no baby bump to confirm the reality. Right now we are soaking up these last few hours with our little ones, packing, cleaning, and spending a lot of time in prayer.

I tell my kids all the time that courage is not the absence of fear, but action even when your afraid. We have our fears. We have been down this road before, and so we are a little less starry eyed - knowing how difficult this part will be for our little girl.

She has bonded with a foster family for the past year - something we are incredibly grateful for - and we know that because of this family, Ivy long term will be so much better off. This family is an incredible answer to prayer. In spring 2016, I wrote specifically that God would provide loving caregivers for our child. Through a non-profit Grace & Hope, Ivy has been sponsored by a sweet family, and given this incredible opportunity to be in foster care. It is an enormous blessing!

But the hard part for Ivy comes now in the saying goodbye.  My heart just breaks for her, knowing that this is coming in just a few short days. We are praying for her to have a peace beyond understanding, and for her to have courage and the strength to begin to trust us and bond with us. Please pray this with us - that she would have peace in this, and that even in her grief, she will begin to open up and bond with us during our time in China.

Please also pray for the safety of Ezra and Lainey while we are away. This trip is so unlike anything else - because we will be SO far away, and also unable to return home (because Ivy cannot leave until that visa is issued). Our kiddos are in the BEST hands, and we are praying that everything goes smoothly for them while we are away. I can't wait for that moment when we see them again in the airport and get to introduce them to their new baby sister!

Adoption Update

Goodness! It's been a wild few months! With the help of a medical expedite letter, we are now traveling to China to bring our baby girl home in just over 1 week! We leave June 5th!! We are so thankful to be able to take Canaan with us this time to China - primarily to help Ivy adjust and feel comfortable with us. He is so excited about the trip and is counting down the days! Ezra and Lainey are counting down too - since they will get to see family they love and get little gifts each day while we are away.

It's so crazy to think that two weeks from now we will be in Beijing, just days away from seeing Ivy for the first time and holding her in our arms. It's been such an incredible journey to her - and we are just so grateful and in awe of what God has done to make this all possible.

This adoption has been so very different than Lainey's - and even though we have done this once before, so much of it is new territory for us. Our hearts just break for our little girl - we are fully aware of how difficult this transition is going to be for her. In addition to all the medical care she will need to receive once she is home, she is also losing the foster mom, dad, and sister that she has been with for over a year, and having to adjust to new faces, English (though we do know enough Mandarin to get by), a new time zone, and just SO much change. It will be a lot for a 3 year old little heart and mind to process, and we are praying that she might have a supernatural peace through all of this.

Please pray especially for her in the next few weeks, but also for her foster parents as they say goodbye, and for us to have a safe trip free of illness and issues. Pray for us to be able to meet Ivy's needs and that she will feel safe with us and loved by us. Pray for the little ones we are leaving behind - that they would be safe and healthy as well while we are on the other side of the world for nearly 3 weeks, and for those taking care of them while we are gone!

All The Things

Cooking meals, homeschooling, creating time for each of my people, working, and keeping the house clean (enough)... my usual... is just one small part of all that my brain is processing right now as we prepare for Ivy. Bullet Journaling helps a ton, but I still feel a bit like my mind is on a hamster wheel, thinking about (in no particular order)...

• Where we are in the process, analyzing each step and trying to figure out when we might be traveling (June????)
• Preparing Lainey emotionally for this big change, sharing a room, sharing her toys, and making sure she really gets it that there will be enough love to go around. 
• Creating a family photo album to introduce our family to Ivy 
• Writing a letter for her foster family
• Preparing her new room, clothes, etc.
• Stocking up on little toys to leave in gift bags for the little ones when we are gone (they will get to open one little gift each day that we are gone)
• Creating our packing list and trying to remember all the little things that were helpful to know the first time around (plug adapters, extra toilet paper, shower caps, etc.)
• Wading through immigration paperwork, and assuring that every line is PERFECT in order to not cause any delays because of minor mistakes
• Downloading Chinese cartoons from YouTube and loading them up on this little guy.
• Learning Mandarin (as much as possible, any way) and preparing emotionally for the frustrations that are sure to arise from the language barrier
• Creating emotion & potty cards to help Ivy communicate with us
• Wrapping up our grant paperwork
• Creating / buying gifts for her foster family and her orphanage caregivers
• Learning all about her medical conditions and where to turn for help
• Preparing the paperwork for the international adoption clinic so we can get in to have her assessed soon after we return
• Checking in on our medical insurance to get ready for all the visits and specialists
• Praying through her transition and the loss she is about to experience once again
• Applying for our Chinese Visas
• Preparing to take time off of work
• Helping prepare Canaan for his role (he's coming with us! Whoop!), as well as preparing him to experience China (learning all about the Great Wall, etc.)

Saying all this sounds a bit like complaining, but really even with the heavy load, it's all still so exciting that we are getting so close now to our baby girl! Aaaaanndddd... if you want to bring me all the coffee and all the hugs, I'd be okay with that. ;)

Introducing Ivy!!!!

J A N U A R Y   11:

I sat down at work, bursting inside but keeping calm on the inside. Just the day before we received THE call, the one we'd been waiting for for over a year. We have A LITTLE GIRL! An absolutely beautiful baby girl. Our daughter!!!

I don't talk about our adoption much at work, and wanted to keep this news quiet for you know, at least 24 hours. As I sat there waiting for the others to arrive for a meeting, my sweet co-worker turned to me and said, "I had this crazy dream last night that you came into work today and said, 'we've been matched with a little girl.'". I said, "Wait, when did you dream this?". "Last night." I whispered in complete shock, "We got matched YESTERDAY!" And then of course it all came gushing out as I shared with her photos of our new baby girl.

Some fun facts about our girl:

• She is currently living in a foster home (we are SO grateful for this!)!
• She turned 3 in November, exactly one week after Ezra's 6th birthday and one week before Canaan's 8th birthday - her birthday is smack dab in the middle. 
• She is already potty trained (can I get an Amen?!). 
• She likes to CLEAN!
• She loves playing in water and riding her bike.
• She can use chopsticks and she isn't a picky eater (she loves RIBS and roasted peas).
• She likes to be outside (she'll fit right in with this nature-lovin' momma)
• She is active and a thrill seeker, and loves to ride with her foster dad on his m-o-t-o-r-c-y-c-l-e (Jesus be near).
• She has an 8-year old foster sister with downs syndrome that is also being adopted by a Holt family, so we'll be able to hopefully keep the girls connected! 

These days all of the children adopted from Ch*na have some medical or special needs. Our newest little girl is, of course, no exception. She has vascular malformations (which have the potential to be much more complicated than we originally thought), and she also has either a PFO or VSD heart defect, the paperwork is unclear - but either way we know that somewhere in her heart is a hole.

We are so thankful that we will be able to provide her with the best possible medical care, as well as be her forever family!