Gotcha Day

Today has been an extremely amazing day! 
We arrived in her province about 1:30pm local time.  We were supposed to meet Addie at our hotel at 4:30pm.  On our way to the hotel from the airport the orphanage staff called our guide to say they would be there about 3:30 instead of 4:30.  We were so excited and a little panicked because we felt a little rushed.  
We got to the hotel and got checked in to our room.  We took a few minutes to get some things situated and unpacked in the room.  We then headed down stairs about 3:20.  Our guide from our agency was there and she took us to a smaller lobby in the back of the hotel.  After about 15 minutes the 2 ladies from the orphanage came around the corner with Addie in their arms. My heart about leaped out of my chest when we saw her.  After saying hello they gave Addie to Ann.  Almost immediately Addie began to scream and cry.  She cried for a couple of minutes and I think one of the ladies reached for her, but our guide told her not to do that.  In just another minute or so Ann had her quiet and then she was asleep in her arms.  It was beautiful and I don't think the picture I took does it justice.  

We talked for a few minutes with ladies from the orphanage and then we headed upstairs to put Addie down for a nap.  They had left this morning about 9am and she had missed her nap at noon.  She was exhausted. However, shortly after we got to the room she needed a diaper change and after that she woke up and didn't go back to sleep until tonight about 9pm.

Other than when we first got her she really has not cried or fussed much.  She has smiled and laughed a lot today.  Her personality is great.  Lyndsay and Landon have showered her with love since we got her back to the room.  They are both really enjoying having a baby sister.
I have so much more to write, but it will have to wait.  We are all exhausted and have an early morning tomorrow as we go to sign papers and finalize her adoption.  
Thanks for praying for Addie and for us.  I look forward to sharing more details soon.

The day we have longed for...

Today is the day.  The day we have been longing for since early January 2011.  With every paper we have filled out, typed, notarized, had authenticated by the probate judge, secretary of state of Alabama, the US, and at the consulate, we were longing for today.  With every class we attended, every home study visit, with each step along the way we were looking forward to this day.  As we waited on various people and government agencies to do their part, we were longing for this day to arrive.  Even before we saw her face, and knew her name we longed for today.
This journey has been a learning and growing experience from the beginning.  We have had many good days;  encouraging words from friends, conversations with others who have been in a similar place, emails with just what we needed to hear.  There have been some hard days as well;  the "kind" lady at the US Secretary of State office(she wasn't hired for her people skills).  Finding out we need to have one more test and then finding out after we have it that we didn't need it, taking a few more weeks.  Then there was the waiting and waiting and more waiting.  There were times when we questioned why and wondered should we be doing this, but we knew that this day would be more than worth it.  Whatever we had to do, any test we needed, any hoop to jump through it was more than worth it. 
We have looked forward to seeing her face to face, holding her in our arms, telling her we love her.  The day is finally here and we can't wait to see her!  May 6th about 4:30 pm local time, 3:30am central time, we will hold Addie Mei for the very first time.  Earlier today we had a meeting with our agency and we received updated information and pictures.  Our hearts were overwhelmed as we looked at her beautiful face.  
I know tomorrow and the weeks to come will be a shock to her, but I hope she will know she is loved. We will be hers for as long as we are on this earth.  She has a family and someone to call her own.  In less than 12 hours Addie's life will change forever.  I'm sure that our lives will never be the same either.
As much as I hope Addie realizes our love for her, I hope that she realizes that she has a heavenly father who has done so much more so that she could be adopted into His family.  He sacrificed His only son, so that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ she could have a new inheritance and a new family.  In many ways this adoption mirrors that one, but in all honesty it doesn't really compare.  I hope just as we have longed for this day, one day she will long for the day when she will see her Savior face to face.


This is the first picture we got of Addie.  We will try to post some pictures and possibly a video tonight. Thanks for praying and continuing to follow our journey.

The Great Wall

Today was another exciting day here in Beijing. I started the day with another run up to Tienanmen Square. The weather was great for a run at about 5:30am this morning. By the afternoon though it was really hot. We had packed for cool weather here in Beijing, but it has been pretty hot. The last 2 days the temp has been around 91 for the high. It is also very dry here, very different from the hot and humid south we normally enjoy.
The highlight of today was the Great Wall. Landon has been looking forward to this for some time. It was a pretty amazing sight to see the wall snake along the top of the mountain.

We were at the Badaling portion of the wall and decided to hike up to the highest point of this section. It was steeper and more difficult to climb than we imagined. The kids wanted to climb to the top. I was very impressed when they reached the top. It was probably about 2 miles, but the fact that it was all incline and some parts were very steep made it extremely difficult. It was also a challenge that each step was a different size. One might be about 6 inches and the other about a foot. It is quite an impressive structure, especially when you consider it was done without modern tools, not to mention being on the side of a mountain.

After the Great Wall we had an authentic Chinese meal at a place called the Jade Palace. Below the restaurant was a market where they sold everything you could imagine that was carved out of jade. The food was really good. They served it family style on a super large lazy susan. 

After lunch we went to Hutong Lane where we took a tour in a rickshaw. It was pretty neat to ride down the narrow street. At one time this was how most of Beijing looked. The houses and shops were extremely small. It is hard to imagine a family living in such a small area. We visited one home and my guess is that between two floors it was 75-100 square feet. Most do not have their own bathroom. They share a community bathroom with many other families.

I think Landon's favorite part of the day was when Mr. Liu, the persons home we visited, gave us a little Kung Fu demonstration. He had a lot of pictures of his two sons who also know Kung Fu. Landon really liked it when he gave him the sword and showed him how to swing it.

 Another great day in Beijing. We are looking forward to Tienanmen Square tomorrow. Then Sunday morning we will fly to meet Addie for the first time. It will probably be Sunday afternoon for us, but very early Sunday morning for most of you when we get her. We have enjoyed our time here so far, but can not wait to hold her for the first time. We appreciate you praying for her and us.

Beijing Zoo

We are still trying to get adjusted to the time change. We are normally ready to go to bed around 7:30-8pm, the bad part is we wake up at 3 or 4 am. We had a great day here Thursday. For me it started with a short run. I can add a new city, country and continent to my running list now. Hopefully I'll add 2 more cities before we leave. It was about 6am when I ran and the weather was great. Not much traffic when I started, before I finished the roads were extremely busy. I ran a loop to Tiananmen Square. It was pretty amazing to see. I look forward to going back on Saturday and spending a little time there. 

After my run I came back and we had breakfast and headed to the zoo. We eat breakfast at the hotel, and they have a mix of Asian and Western foods. Landon has become more of an adventurous eater, for breakfast today he had some sushi. I wasn't sure if he should eat it, but so far I guess we are good. Landon has also enjoyed the variety of hot tea for breakfast each morning. Lyndsay loves hot tea, but this is the first time Landon has seemed to like it. 

We took a taxi to the zoo. It was the first time the kids had ridden in a taxi. It was a  little wild, but I've ridden in a lot crazier. The zoo here was was extremely large. We felt like we walked a mile before getting to see the first animals. Both kids had a great time.

Lyndsay was excited to see her favorite animal, the giraffe.  It was eating and then it walked over towards us.

Landon enjoyed seeing the Panda bears. 

He also likes the reptiles. He wanted to see a king cobra, but there wasn't one here.

I think my kids were as much of an exhibit as any of the animals yesterday. They are both a little shy and introverted around people they don't know, but they both did great with the attention. They got lots of stairs and points. It was kind of funny.  Sometimes as we were watching the animals we would look beside us to find a group people watching us. A few people walked up and grabbed them by the hand and would begin talking to them. We have no idea what they were saying, not sure if they thought we understood them or not. They also had many people want pictures with them. They were great sports about it all. 

We had hoped to make to the Olympic sites, but decided everyone was too tired after the zoo. We came back to the hotel and rested for a little while before taking the kids to the pool. 

We are excited about tomorrow. We have Great Wall tour scheduled, and we are also supposed to go to the Hutong lanes and ride a rickshaw. Saturday is orientation with our agency and then Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City with our group.

We are enjoying our time, but are anxiously looking forward to Sunday and meeting Addie. We appreciate your prayers for us and for Addie as we have a lot of change to look forward to in the coming days.

Update

Here is a brief update of our last few days. Our flights on Monday and Tuesday went pretty well. We only had a slight delay leaving Detroit when the person towing the plane away from the gate turned too sharp and messed up the tow hook. It only took about 45 minutes to fix and then we were on our way. On the way to Beijing we were able to see the sun rise and set, that is always one of my favorite parts of an early or late flight. However, I have never seen the sun rise and set on the same flight until now. The kids are still asking why we never had breakfast on the plane. We had two dinners and a sandwich. They were both a little upset they didn't get breakfast on Tuesday. 
We arrived in Beijing on Tuesday at about 11:30 pm local time, about 10:30 am Central time. We found our guide, who took us from the airport to our hotel. Wednesday we just took it easy and tried to let our bodies adjust to the drastic time change. We had breakfast and then wandered around the streets near the hotel for a little while. After that we came back to the room for a little rest. The kids wanted to swim, so we headed to the hotel pool for a little while. After coming back to the room we cleaned up and headed out for an early dinner. We ate at a little restaurant near the hotel that served a mix of European food. Ann and Lyndsay both enjoyed some pasta, and Landon and I split a pizza. After dinner we wandered around a little more.
As we have walked the streets people notice Ann and I, but many of them just look at the kids in amazement. As we walked last night someone walked by and touched Landon's head. It was kind of funny because it was so nonchalant and the guy just kept walking. We walked through this 6 story mall. There were some local shops in the mall, but many that you would find back home; Gap, Nike, Columbia, Birkenstock, Vans and a few others. 
We finished the day with a little treat from one of our favorite places from home.

We'll plan to do a little sight seeing tomorrow. Maybe the zoo and the Olympic sites. 

We're off!

We are on our way to getting our baby girl! It's so hard to believe this day is here. The last week as we have prepared to leave has been a mix of emotions. It has been exciting as we have counted down the days. As the last couple of days have come and gone it has been hectic and stressful at times as we have made last minute preparations. As we gathered the paperwork we needed it has also filled us with great emotion and excitement of seeing our baby girl. As we looked over the dozen or so pictures and remember how our hearts felt when we saw her face the very first time.
As we prepare to leave we are looking forward to so many things. Of course we are all looking forward to seeing her. We look forward to seeing some of the history and the sites; The Great Wall, Hutong Lanes, the Forbidden City. Landon is stilling looking forward to a moon cake. For me, I look forward to adding a new continent, a new country, and 3 new cities to the places I've ran.
Watch the blog over the next few days as we hope to post pictures and updates of whats happening.
This post was typed on my phone so please forgive and misspelled words or grammatical errors. It's almost impossible to proof read on here.

Adoption

We are counting down the days until we see Addie for the first time. We are so excited. Adoption is a topic we have talked about a lot lately.  Most people have questions of how it works? Why Adopt? Why there? Why not here? Others ask about the progress, how much longer? Any new pictures? And a host of other questions, and we usually try to answer  to the best of our ability. We love to talk about adoption. We love to tell our story and how everything has happened, and how God brought Addie into our lives. As we have walked through the last 16 months I have seen and experienced God in ways I never imagined. We have watched as details were worked out at just the right time. It has not all fit into my plan, and some of it I'm still unsure why it happened the way it did. But we have seen so clearly that God has been in control of each detail, even when we felt like things were out of control. 




I love when we talk to people and they ask why we are adopting? Why spend the money? Why travel so far? There are a few questions I really don't like, but these are my favorite. I can tell them because this is what has been done for us. Galatians 4:4-7 says, "4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” 


To adopt Addie we could not just show up and say we want her. There is a process, things have to happen in order. When all the steps of the process are complete and the right time has come we can bring her home. In much the same way when the time was right God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us. He has given us the right to be sons and daughters of God. This changes everything. We are given a new a heritage and a new inheritance.


 As beautiful as the picture of adoption is don't miss the fact that life did not start well for Addie. At about three weeks old someone left her in a box with a change of clothes on the doorstep of an orphanage. She was left alone and abandoned. She had little hope and no future. There was no one who would call her there own. Statistics tell us she would have aged out of state care and become involved in drugs, crime, prostitution, or trafficked. Her life was not looking good. But all of that is about to change. We will go and make her apart of our family. When no one else wanted her, we said we do. I will love her and care for her for as long as I am on this earth. In that moment that she legally becomes ours there will be a huge change. She will have a new family, she will have a new heritage, and a new inheritance. Its more than just a change in citizenship, she is a part of our family. We are anxiously waiting this day.


In this I hope you see this is exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. Just as there are cost involved in earthly adoption, there was a price to be paid for our redemption by God. The cost was extremely high, it cost God his only son. There needed to be a perfect sacrifice. He lived the sinless life we could not. He came into the world as fully God, yet in the form of a baby and he was fully human. No other person that has ever walked the earth met the qualifications needed to redeem mankind. When we are adopted into his family everything changes. We are given a new heritage and a new inheritance. We can call on God as Father. Romans 8:15-17 tells us we are children of God. And since we are his children we are his heirs and joint heirs with Christ. Salvation is not the end of God pursuing us, but the beginning of a relationship that will last for eternity. What we want people to see is the reason we adopt is because we have been adopted by God. Its not that there is anything about us, it is all about the God we serve. In 1 John 4:19 it says, "We love because he first loved us."


The question I would ask everyone is have you been adopted by God? Not have you signed a card, walked an aisle, or said a prayer. Do you know God as your Father? Of all the questions in life this one is of great importance, because the impact of it is not just here and now, it's for eternity.