Last Weekend as a Family of 6...

I am missing William's 8th birthday during my trip to China. I cannot even begin to explain the great amount of Mama Guilt plaguing me because of this! Everyone says not to worry about, but a baby's birthday is a big deal, and he will always be my first baby. I am so sad to miss it.

We spent this past Saturday celebrating early and enjoying a weekend of sweet family moments. We drove up to the big Lego Store in Downtown Disney and he got to take his pick on the Lego sets. He was thrilled!

Lego Store! 

There was great debate over which set...this one was the winner!

Ice cream after lunch

We are so happy to live so close to Aunt BB and Uncle Gino!
Treats at the candy store. 

When we got home, he and Andrew sat down at the table and put together all 500 pieces in about 2 hours.

He requested a homemade birthday cake (chocolate cake with vanilla icing, "but, Mommy, can you make the icing look chocolate so we can trick everyone?")

As the days tick by, and I am now only 3 big sleeps away from flying around the world, I find I am hugging them all a bit tighter.  My life is small, but I love it. I love rocking my Rachel Beth as she sucks her thumb and drifts off to sleep. I love snuggling with Jacob when he finally settles down enough for me to snuggle. I love chatting with William and Andrew, playing games with them and reading big kid books together. And of course I love having Robert here during all of it...and the few quiet moments we have in between the kids going to the bed and me going to bed. I will miss them so much! I cannot even imagine 14 days away. 14 days.

But, on the other side of the world is my daughter who has never known the love of a mommy and daddy. She has never had a home. On Monday, she will have her "birth day"...her birth into her forever family. As much as I am aching for the babies I am leaving, I am also so anxious and excited to meet our girl and bring her home to this small life we love.

Laura Cate. I am loving that sprout of hair!

Laura's Palate

Our Laura was born with a cleft lip and palate. Cleft lip and/or palate is actually the most common birth defect. In the United States, 1 of every 600 births is affected by a cleft lip and/or palate. Some children are born with just a cleft lip, some with just a cleft palate, and some with both. There is also varying degrees and severity of the cleft (how large the openings are in the lip and mouth.)

Laura's cleft lip was fixed in China, when she was about 9 months old. However, her palate remains open. Although she has figured out how to eat with her open palate, she is unable to suck and chew properly. Food often comes out her nose and she cannot use basic "baby" items like sippy cups, bottles, etc, because she is unable to suck. She will have surgery when we get home to repair the hole in her mouth. I am thankful to have found an ENT I trust who will examine her a few days after we get home and then help us decide on how and when to move forward on her surgery. Laura needs her palate to learn to eat and speak properly.  However, the surgery is intense and painful. We are praying for discernment on timing.

Travel Approval!

Our prayers were answered when we received Travel Approval from China the morning of September 25, just one day shy of all the holidays in China! The notice came in an email with two possible travel dates. I am leaving for China in just 14 days, on Friday October 16. I will have Laura in my arms for the first time on Monday October 19 and she will be in her forever home and with her forever family on Friday October 30.

I have been slow in posting this news because I am still having a hard time articulating the many, many emotions running through  me right now. For us, our adoption journey has been long and twisting. We have had struggles. We have had surprises...good and bad. We have had dead ends and redirection. And now, finally, finally we have this sweet daughter waiting on us and in just two weeks and two days she will be ours. Really ours. In four weeks, she will be here at home with us. She will play on the floor with Rachel (and probably fight over Mommy's lap with Rachel.) She will watch her big brothers in wonder. I am sure she will have a favorite sibling...and I wonder which one it will be. For the first time in her life, she will have toys that belong to her. There will always be food to eat when she is hungry and arms to hold her when she is sad. She will have a family. She will have a home. We feel excited and relieved that she is finally coming home soon!

I feel absolutely in awe as I look back on the past few years and how the Lord has walked with us along this long journey. I look back at big shouts and small whispers. The giant leaps and tiny steps. At the many ways He has spoken to us and encouraged us and walked with us along the way. I remember telling my sister in law during a particularly rough patch that although there was sadness, His presence was almost palpable. I felt like He was sitting next to me. Truly, He works in us for His glory and to bring us closer to Him. I can say both Robert and I have come to more fully understand the power of prayer and the reality that He does answer. For all these things, I am so thankful to the Lord who called us to this blessed journey.

As for the actual travel, I have what can only be described as peace that surpasses understanding. I will be traveling alone to China for our Laura. Because of the demands of an already large family, Robert will stay home with the children and take care of their daily needs while I am gone. I believe it is because I know he will be here with them that I feel peace in going. We thought it best that Laura bond with me first since I will be the primary caretaker once we are home.

Although I am at peace with our decision regarding who is traveling, I do feel a lot of sadness about leaving all my loves. As a stay at home mom, I literally never leave. Not for longer than a few hours anyway. So, this will be new and very different and I know I will miss Robert and all my babies like crazy while I am gone. I am thankful for cell phones and video chat and text messaging. All those things will help. However, I know when I am traveling home on the 30th, I will be aching to hold them all!

As you think of us over the next few weeks, I would ask you to pray for Robert and the children here at home. That he would have endurance and never ending patience as he fills the rolls of Mommy and Daddy for two weeks. Please pray for Laura as she goes through an incredibly hard transition. Although we love her already, we are strangers to her. She will be leaving all she knows. Pray she attaches to me in China and feels safe and loved. Please pray for a healthy and safe trip for Laura and me! And pray for this momma's heart, that the Lord will continue to reveal Himself to me as I travel alone and provide me with comfort when I am missing my family at home.

Blessed by your friendship! Thank you in advance for your prayers! Much love. xoxo

Catching Up

Clearly, I am not the world's best blogger...frequently, I'll think in the middle of the day, "I should write tonight about..." and then evening comes, all the children are finally asleep, and I do not have enough brain activity to attempt to blog. So...here is an effort to catch up on our activity.

Our big boys started school a few weeks ago. After two years of schooling at home, we are giving public school a try. So far, it is wonderful! We have a delightful neighborhood school. Robert is able to take them to school on his way to work and I pick them up shortly after lunch. The school day is shorter here (than it is in Texas), which is so much easier on the kids.

First Day of School

I was particularly anxious about Andrew's transition. He is such a home body! The child would stay in his pajamas at home everyday if he could. But, he loves his teacher. She is an answer to many prayers. He has enjoyed school very much this year. He gets in the car bubbling with excitement and stories to tell me about his day.

Andrew's class pet. He enjoyed taking care of him for the weekend...although he decided guinea pigs are too stinky for us to have as pets at our house. I am glad for that decision. :) 

William has always been excited about school. He is delighted to be going to school as well, but we expected that from him. He is always eager to learn new things and meet new people.

My big boy working on his homework. 

While the big boys are at school everyday, the littles and I enjoy some uninterrupted baby time. It has actually been nice to have a few hours a day to do toddler/baby centered activities without any guilt about neglecting the needs of my big kids.

Taking a walk on the bay.

This is Rachel's hilarious "Say Cheese" face. Goofy girl.

Update on Laura and our adoption timeline: we spent about three and a half weeks waiting on approval from USCIS. Once that came in, our paperwork was sent to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou where they will issue an Article 5 and then China's CCCWA will give us travel approval. We are expecting our Article 5 on Monday. China has a couple of national holidays coming up. A three day autumn festival the last week of September and then National Week the first week of October. Paperwork will not move during these holidays. We are praying we have travel approval before the autumn festival. We would very much like to have our travel on the calendar next week and be traveling during the middle of October.

In the mean time, we are getting ready for our new addition! We put together a car seat and bought an extra high chair. There is a crib that needs to be assembled sitting on the floor of our study. I have a stack of clothes to pack and bought Laura a little red, white, and blue outfit for the day we visit the U.S. Consulate.

We were so excited to get a little snapshot of our girl. Another family who visited the orphanage a few weeks ago, took this picture. The baby sitting on the mattress in the diaper is our Laura Cate! We were so happy to see her looking well. We also found out from the same family that Laura is in a Show Hope room of the orphanage. Which means that instead of being cared for by the government institution, she has been cared for by the ministry of Show Hope.

Snapshot of Laura from August 2015

Show Hope will be able to share more information about Laura's medical history and also give us any photos they have of her once the adoption is final. It will be wonderful to have a few more pieces of her history. Can't wait to hold her!

Adoption Update

We have finally decided on a name for sweet girl! When discussing what we should call her, we wanted to honor both our family tradition of naming our children after people we love and her Chinese history by using a name with the same meaning as her Chinese name. We have decided on:

Laura Catherine

Laura is in honor of a sweet family who have been dear friends to me for the majority of my life, and to Robert since he met me. I love that famous quote about friendship: "A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words." Truly, this precious family is that to me and so much more. Catherine is in honor of her Chinese name, Jing, in that it shares the same meaning, "virtuous". I imagine we will call her Laura Cate...much like we call her sister Rachel Beth. Andrew, however, has said he will call her "Cookie". 

We were blessed to receive an update on our girl today and she is doing well! She and her sister will be able to share clothes for sure. Their sizes are similar. Her orphanage said she likes to play outside and likes sleeping with a blanket. She is standing and walking with support and can say a few words. We cannot wait to get her home! 

I was also so excited to meet a fabulous doctor last week! Those who know us well know we have been having a hard time with finding a doctor here in Tampa. I took Rachel Beth to a new ENT last week (she had an ear infection even with her tubes!) and we really connected with him. He was fantastic with Rachel (first time she hasn't screamed her little lungs out in a doctor's office in a long time) and he chatted with me about Laura's palate repair after we talked about Rachel's ears. For the first time since we moved here, I left feeling completely confident in our medical care and I am so thrilled to have a good doctor to see Laura when she gets home. This was one of those worries that I knew I needed to not stress over, but I was having to lay it daily at the feet of Jesus because I was nervous about bringing Laura home and disliking all the doctors I had met! This doctor, and his equally wonderful nurse and staff, are an answer to many prayers. 

Our paperwork for Laura Catherine has moved from China to the U.S. government and we are awaiting approval. We are praying to travel at the end of September/early October, but that would involve the U.S. working faster than usual. We are so glad that travel is out on the near horizon and we will have our baby home soon. 

Last Days of Summer

We only have two weeks left until school starts. I can't believe the summer is almost over. We have had a summer of change with our move to Florida and the adoption excitement. It has been such a wonderful summer! Whether we were off exploring our new beaches 

Fort Desoto Park 

Watching the storm blow in at Caspersen Beach

or staying at home setting up train tracks in the kitchen, 

we were always having a good time together! So often I get the passer-by's saying things like "You have your hands full!" or more negative things like "I bet you can't wait for school to start." But, truthfully, my children (and my husband) are my favorite people and I treasure my time with them. We have so much fun together! I will miss my big boys when they head off to school!

Registering for school. 

In two weeks we will navigate through more change as William and Andrew start school at the local public school. The boys are anxious about the new school but Robert and I are hopeful that is is going to be a great year! I have been praying daily for their teachers and for their little hearts to be brave as they head into a new classroom, with all new faces. William and Andrew are best friends to each other, so just the spending of the day with new children and not each other will be something different for them. Although I will miss them, I am confident this will be a great year and am excited to be involved in their school community. 

We have lots of fun filling up our last two weeks of summer! Before we know it, the first day will be here! 

Introducing

Our agency called us on Friday, July 10th as I was out running errands with the kids. They had a file they wanted our family to review...a little girl they thought looked like a perfect fit for our family. About 20 minutes later, I saw her face and knew I would bring this girl home. Her sweet round face and prominent forehead reminded me of my other babies already at home. I forwarded her picture to Robert who was at work. He said when he saw it, he audibly gasped in a meeting and then told his coworkers he had just seen his daughter for the first time. We are thrilled to introduce her to you! We are still working on her English name, but here she is...name coming soon! 

Zhou Hui Jing

Born: June 22, 2014

 

A few things we know about Hui Jing:

* Hui means intelligent and Jing means virtuous. (It is pronounced "we ching.") 

* Her birthday is just 6 weeks after Rachel Beth...so Rachel has a new "twin" sister.

* She was born with a cleft lip and palate. Her lip has been repaired but her palate remains open. We will need to have it repaired when she gets home. 

* She lives in the province of Henan.

* We hope to travel in about 4 months to bring her home. We are thrilled we will have our family complete under our Christmas tree this year. 

Two days after we saw her picture for the first time, while at church, we met a family who just got home with their son who is also from China and who also was born with a cleft lip and palate. We are  continually blessed by the encouraging people God places in our lives. It is especially encouraging to meet people who are a few steps ahead. 

We are thankful for the opportunity to bring this sweet girl home as our daughter and can't wait to have her home!