12/16 Life as we know it changes tomorrow

It is Sunday evening here in Guangzhou, China. We just sat in outdoor cafe by the Pearl River eating fried rice, quesadillas and listening to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" with lighted Christmas trees beside us. At the next table, a family from the East Coast shared a meal with their 10 year old whom they just adopted. We saw them earlier in the day and followed them around. We couldn't get up the nerve to speak to them but when we walked in the restaurant tonight and sat down by them we knew we had to do it. They said that it was going well and their daughter was adjusting to her new life.

Today as we shopped, we saw the babies pass one by one in strollers.
As we ponder our new life which begins tomorrow, our heart goes out to all the orphans around the world. Most of us have had the love of some family member -- a mother, father, grandparent, aunt or relative who raised us or cared for us. So many, like our Jen, have never had anyone. I think of the song from "American Tail" which goes something like...Somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight, someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight. To us this is the orphan's dream...of someone to care about them. Well we have been stargazing many a night since March -- waiting and loving and thinking of her and looking forward to this day. In less than 24 hours we will be united. We have been practicing our Chinese for that first meeting. We tried it out on a few shopkeepers and it is working with a lot of kinks.

We are having trouble seeing the blog or posting pictures at the moment but we can post -- can't see the comments either. But we hope to get pictures up after we get Jen. Sorry this post is kind of scrambled -- my thoughts are a mess. Kristy is still sick but we hope she will shake off the cold. Her heart raced a little today when the Papa John's pizza delivery guy went by on a bicycle. You can't keep a Wisconsin girl and her pizza apart for long...even in China!!

For me, the easiest part of the journey has been coming to China itself. This paperwork makes the trip seem like a piece of cake.

Tomorrow, we'll have Jen and so we will have a lot to post. Please pray that she will have courage to face all the changes that will come her way.

Thanks for checking in on us. We really appreciate your interest.

At 2:30pm our time (12:30 am Central) our little Jen will finally be home...10 years and 4 months after she came into the loving care of her caretakers in Zhuhai.

With the sight of so many precious babies rolling by, we are so thankful that her time has finally come as well.
With love from China

12/15 Arrived safely in Guangzhou

Kristy and I have arrived safely in Guangzhou, China. We are approximately 2 hours west of Hong Kong in the province of Guangdong. Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton city) is the ancestral home of many Chinese-Americans who immigrated to the US in the last century. This province is the home of the Cantonese people and culture. Our beautiful hotel sits right on the Pearl River which flows past us down to the sea and Zhuhai...our daughter's home on the sea.

We are so thankful for your love and prayers that have carried us thus far. One clear example of that happened on the flight from LA to Guangzhou. In the middle of the night, Kristy began to feel very ill from something she ate on the plane. Because we chose to fly a Chinese airline, our communication with the stewardesses was limited and we were riding in the economy section with mostly Chinese passengers. We felt alone and the only thing I knew was to put my hand on Kristy's shoulder and pray. And as I did so, I asked God to remember the prayers of so many of you and have compassion on her. The sickness passed and we made it safely off the plane and to our hotel. She is feeling better although has caught a cold. Hopefully that will pass as well.

How do you describe another world in a few short paragraphs?? This morning we ate breakfast at our hotel in a dining room overlooking the river. We watched other parents pass with their new children and thought about meeting our daughter in just a few short days. The whole experience is surreal...we feel like actors in a strange drama that is unfolding before us. On Monday, a child whom we have never met will walk through the door to begin her new life with us. We feel so insufficient for the task which lies before us but are certain we have been called to this. We are so excited and nervous as well.

A very nice store near our hotel is letting us post this today. We hope to post again before we meet her on Monday 12/17.

12/10 Into the wind

As a child, my father often told us about his years in the Navy...how he sailed to far away places. He told us of being at sea at night and watching the glow of the phosphorus in the wake. He told us about the Mediterranean and the places he sailed to. But one thing I especially remember was the stories about those carrier planes. The courage and daring of the young pilots taking off and landing on a ship at sea. In the days of prop planes and steam catapults, the ship had to maneuver to provide the planes maximum lift for takeoff. And so when it was time to launch, the order went out to bring the planes up the elevators, ready the flight deck and turn the ship into the wind.
And so here we sit, strapped in and ready on the catapult...ready to fly off into the great unknown of parenthood. We don't know what to expect but we are trusting that all will be well.
Adoption is a great thing and the new life that awaits Jen surrounded by the love of her family will be worth whatever lies ahead.

We are off to China...

12/7 The great paper chase is almost through

If you have ever adopted internationally, you know what a mountain of paperwork the whole process requires. There are documents for your adoption agency, your state, the Federal government and the country you are adopting from. Fingerprints and fingerprints again, forms, visits to the notary, seals, fees, certifications and authentications. Doctor visits, shots, financial statements and clearances of all kinds. There were trips to the consulate, documents sent to Chicago and Washington and Houston. Long hours of preparing documents phrased just so to communicate exactly the right thought. The matrix grows ever larger with time. At times we felt like we were fishing with lots of lines in the water...just waiting for something to bite. Fedex, UPS, USPS and by personal courier, our documents crossed America. All along the way, we met and talked to people who spoke a kind word of encouragement. Touched by some aspect of our story -- knowing that a child would be coming home. Then there were the late nights, the hours spent peering into every nook and cranny of the Internet looking for some glimpse of our daughter.

In the Internet age, I got the crazy notion that somewhere out there we would find her... and we did. 5 years ago someone snapped a picture of a little girl sitting in a chair

with one foot pointed out...watching her friends play musical chairs. The picture sat on a long forgotten web site just waiting for us to find it. We'll never have those years back but it gives us a window into her world and where she's been all this time. It is further confirmation that she has been loved and cared for. We are so grateful for that. It is almost time to transfer the flag of her life -- from her caregivers to us. We are so thankful that a camera shutter caught our little sweetheart. It is a window into her world on a happy day long before this all began.

12/5 We've a got a ticket to ride

Our tickets arrived tonight!!!! We're flying out on Dec 12 -- just a little over 1 year since the whole process began. In black letters her Chinese name is printed on that ticket from Guangzhou to Los Angeles. It is hard to believe. Last March 2nd, an email arrived on what was just a regular Friday evening. It was the waiting child list from our agency with her picture. I got up from the computer, went to our bedside and cried. In the intervening months, there have been lots of tears. Now the tears are tears of joy...for her and for us. The wait is almost over.

For Thanksgiving, we went to the beach to mark the holiday and make a final memory together before Jen's arrival. We drew a big heart in the sand with her Chinese name and the words in pinyin "wo men ai ni" which is "we love you". The tide washed away those words but nothing will ever wash away the love we feel for this child across the sea. To our precious Jen Hope: we love you so very much and hope that someday you will understand that God moved heaven and earth to bring us together

12/4 Whale song

I marvel how the bonds of love have grown so strong as we wait with a great ocean between us. Like whales in the deep, our song has gone out...wafting its way into the depths and across the wide Pacific...calling to a calf far, far from us. And in the quiet moments, we hear the faint echo of our child's song...coming from across the sea. We are swimming hard now, with all our might, to close the distance, to meet her in the shallows of the South China Sea. With anticipation and joy that can't be expressed, we look forward to that happy moment when we will be united

12/2 Love needs no translation

We are leaving for Guangzhou in 10 days and can't wait. We bought our tickets and just finished up the little remodeling project we've had going since August. Her room is finally ready.

As we were buying an electronic translator in Chinatown on Friday, we told our saleslady that it was for an adoption. When she didn't understand the word "adoption", we typed in "adopt a girl" into the translator. When she saw the translation, a big smile came across her face and she reached across the counter and hugged us both. And in that moment, we were reminded that love is universal -- it transcends nations, languages and cultures. There at an ordinary store in our little corner of the world, we shared together the joy of knowing that a child who was once an orphan had become a daughter. We shared the joy of knowing that love needs no translation.