Celebrations

Today was a very special day! Today is Justin's first birthday and I cannot even tell you how blessed we are to be celebrating it with him. When we received his referral back in September one of my prayers was that he would not celebrate even one birthday without his forever family and God graciously answered that prayer. Since we have been home less than a month we decided to do just a little party at home with our immediate family and then next month we will have a bigger party with friends and extended family.

My second attempt at a 4 kid photo!

In addition to being Justin's first birthday, February today was also the one month anniversary of his gotcha day, so here are some photos to celebrate!

Brothers!

Justin has the best big sisters in the world!

Sometimes you just gotta make a fish face!

I can't believe it has been a month since this precious boy was first placed in our arms!

Overall Justin is doing great, but he still struggles with sleep. He has attached very well to Jason and I, and is starting to really love his big sissy, Jordan. We are now able to lay him down once he falls asleep, but he still wakes up multiple times a night and needs to be rocked back to sleep which can sometimes take an hour or more. He is also a very light sleeper and will sometimes still wake up when we go to lay him down which means starting the entire process over.

Since being home we have had Justin's initial appointment with the pediatrician and a visit to the International Adoption Clinic at Children's Hospital. Both appointments went well and we are happy to report that Justin is only slightly behind developmentally, but all of the doctors are confident that he will catch up quickly. Up next are a bunch of tests and specialist appointments for which we are praying for more good news!

At Home Update

We have been home for about two week now and since I want to be honest I have to tell yo that it has been hard. It is a different kind of hard and one that you can't truly understand until you've lived it. These two weeks have been some of the hardest I have ever been through so I can now say with certainty that international adoption is NOT for the faint of heart. 

Justin is doing well overall but his biggest challenge hands down is sleeping. Since coming home he literally will not sleep (at nap or night) unless we are either holding him or he is laying on us (next to us is not good enough - he must be in our arms or laying on us). Add in his jet lag and we are getting very little sleep, and during the week when Jason has to work I have to take on more of the night shift which has been SO hard. 

I took this pic on February 3rd at 1:21am. Justin was up due to jet leg and was playing. He loves bottles of all sizes and was playing with an empty 2 liter when he just crashed, so I covered him up and laid down on the couch to try to catch some zzz's (he slept for about an hour and a half). This was Jason's first day back to work and I was in tears that morning before he left. 

I took this next photo on February 5th during his morning nap. This was the first time I was able to get him to sleep and then lay him down with him immediately waking up. He is making very slow progress and most days it is three steps forward and two steps back.

When it isn't nap time or night time this baby is an absolute joy! He is happy most of the time and has the sweetest disposition. It is actually ironic because during his waking hours he is, for the most part, laid back and easy going, but as soon as it is time to sleep watch out!

My first attempts at trying to get a decent picture of four kids

Exersaucer time!

A certain boy is over the moon excited to finally have a brother!

The girls!

Travel Day - HOME!!

Today we headed home!

BUT, before I share about our 24+ hour trip home, no visit to China (or post about it) would be complete without a picture of a squatty potty:

Yes, most of the toilets in China are like this. Yes, that toilet is level with the  floor. Yes, you must hover over the hole in a squat position to use it (hence the name). Yes, toilet paper is optional (it is not on the wall in the stall - you either bring your own, grab it from the wall on your way in, or even buy it at the door). Yes, I had to use one (but only once - most of the places we went also had a stall with a 'western toilet').

OK, on to our  trip HOME!

This morning we were up super early (well actually we were awake off and on most of the night because we were so anxious to head home and we didn't want to be late and miss our van/flight). We had to be packed and in the hotel lobby with our luggage by 6am in order to meet our van and head to Hong Kong. It was dark and we spent the last minutes saying good-bye to Zhou and the other families as we all rode in separate mini vans.

We drove for about two hours and  watched the sun rise. Then we stopped at a gas station and switched mini vans and drivers (it was really strange but I think it had something to do with either the driver's passport/citizenship or vehicle license/registration and crossing from China into Hong Kong). Once we switched vans/drivers we drove to the boarder where we had to wait in a long, slow line of cars to get through immigration out of China which was immediately followed by a long, slow line of cars to get through customs into Hong Kong.

After we cleared both of the check points it was only about a half hour drive to the Hong Kong airport, which is massive.

Luckily we were on a flight with two of the other families so once at the airport we found each other and stuck together. We crossed a couple of really neat bridges on our way to the Hong Kong airport.

Hong Kong airport

After check in and luggage check we grabbed a quick lunch with our friends and soon it was time to head to our gate and board the plane. Our plane had 3 rows (2 aisles) - the two outside rows each had 3 seats and the middle row had 5 (I think). We were assigned one of the outside rows and when we booked our flights we booked the two outside seats (plus a lap baby because a regular one-way ticket/seat for Justin would have been almost as much as one round trip ticket) and left the middle seat open in hopes that no one would book it and we'd have the whole row to ourselves. Well, our flight was totally full so our seat was bumped and we ended up with the window and middle seats while another passenger had the aisle. People, it was so tight! There really is no leg room on a plane and I'm short! I know the guy next to Jason was loving the idea of sitting next to a baby for 14 hours (and one of the other families from our travel group was right behind us, but their daughter had her own seat). Happily (for everyone), the guy was able to move to an open seat on the other side of the plane in a row with two other adults so we ended up with the row to ourselves and were silently thanking God for the small miracle.

We took off on time and watched out the window as Hong Kong became a tiny, beautiful island below us (and I must admit that I got a little teary as I thought about how far away Justin was headed from his homeland).

And then we flew. And flew. And flew. For 14 hours. With an 11 month old. It was a looong flight, but Justin did fairly well all things considered. He slept off and on during the flight, but he would not sleep if we laid him down on the seat between us so one of us had to hold him the entire time which meant neither of us got much (if any) sleep (sleep issues will be the topic of future posts). I can't remember how we passed the 14 hours, either because it is mostly a blur or I have blocked it from memory, but somehow we survived. As we touched down in Chicago I was so relieved - I honestly have never been so happy to be on the ground in my life. We were so close! Only one more short flight and we'd be home!

Once we landed we had to collect our luggage and make our way though customs and  immigration. All of this went smoothly and relatively quickly and when we turned in the famous brown adoption envelope at immigration Justin became an official American citizen! Yay!

We then headed to the check-in counter to recheck our luggage for the final leg of our trip and then we headed to the food court to grab a bite to eat. After we ate we had a couple of hours to kill so I checked with the airline desk to see if the  flight leaving for Columbus an hour before ours was full or not (hoping that we could switch to the earlier flight be and be home sooner). Unfortunately, that flight was booked so we had to wait for our scheduled flight (which was also almost full). We spent the time hanging out at our gate and  trying to stay awake. Finally, they started boarding our flight and soon we were in the air bound for Columbus.

The flight from Chicago to Columbus was short (hallelujah!) and within the hour we were touching down in the Buckeye State. I was so anxious and excited to be home I almost couldn't stand it! We absolutely could not wait to see our other 3 kiddos! We missed them so much! As soon as I caught sight of them I was a blubbering mess.

And it is here that I need to insert some news that still makes me a little sad to this day: I do not have any official pictures on my camera from our homecoming at the airport nor do I have a big group photo from the airport :(  (where was Jamie when I needed her!?) Thankfully, we do have some great video footage taken by Jason's parents (yay!) and quite a few phone photos taken by our families (mostly my sister - so grateful).

But even without lots of official pictures we had a wonderful homecoming with many friends and family!

The kids had each made adorable welcome home signs to hold as we came through the gate.

made by big sister Jordan

made by big brother Carson

made by big sister Corinne

made by cousin Tyler

And lots of the most important people in our lives were there to welcome us home (unfortunately, I don't have pictures of all of them but here are some of them)!

A big sister (for the third time) who couldn't be more proud

Grammy with her new grandson

Grandma with her new grandson

Aunt Weazie with her new nephew

For those of you who wanted to but couldn't be at the airport here is some video footage shot by my mother-in-law (who did a fabulous job I might add)

First photo as a family of 6!

After all the hugging and crying it was time for us to head home as a family of six, so once we collected our luggage and loaded up the van we started for home. It was probably after 9pm by this time and we had about a 45 minute drive home. Ya'll, we were SOOO tired. As in, more tired than we have ever been in our lives and can hardly keep our eyes open tired. Jason drove and my job was to stay awake in order to keep him awake and with God's protection we made it home safely. Looking back we probably should have arranged in advance to have some of our family/friends drive us home, but we also wanted to ensure that our newly formed family had some special bonding and catching up time. Our total travel time today (from when we left our hotel in Guangzhou to pulling into the driveway at home) was well over 24 hours, but because of the time difference we technically left China and arrived home on the same day/date.

We got the three older kids in bed by 11pm and Jason and I were so exhausted we could have fallen asleep standing up, but our newest little addition had other plans. He was wide awake and ready to play because he was still on China time (basically 12 hours ahead of Ohio time). Hello baby jet lag! I can't remember much after that, but I think Jason and I dozed on the  floor while he played and then we finally got him to sleep for a couple of hours and then we took turns grabbing snippets of sleep while he slept.

Can I just tell you how amazingly blessed we are?! We adore this new little man, and we are so humbled by all of  the love, support, and prayers of our friends and family who have been there for us since the very beginning of this journey which started 16 months ago. There really are no words for how grateful we are and how much we love and appreciate each and every one of you.


For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

~Romans 8:14-17