Frantically posting pictures while we can

We are in Ghuangzhou now. Our Internet connection is better and the boys are sleeping so I (Daniel) am going to try and throw out some quick photos for you all.

Some of our boys enjoying our new room.

Jian Hou really likes his new sippy cup

It is really fun to shake wildly because it sprays water out.

Xiu Hui doesn't like the camera so it is really hard to capture a smile, but he was having fun this morning.

And we were able to grab a smile.

We had the tremendous privilege to visit the group home where Jian Hou was raised. It was really good for us as well as Jian. Here he is joining in with his house mates for one last snack time.

We will try to post more when we can. Thank you so much for your prayers! We really need them!

Daniel

"Hey, Look! They are alive!"

Yes, we are very much alive.  We have been having a lot of technical
problems and non working internet, not to mention sick children,
adoption etc.  Every time I have had  a chance to blog, (read 3 AM) I
can't get on the computer, as it is set up Daniel style. (black screen
with white characters waiting for command prompts...

But this morning, Daniel kindly set it up for me at 3:30 as I couldn't
sleep due to a dislocated SI, and now 2 hours later having completely
lost all that I typed, here we are again :)

So long story short :)

Beijing: Sick E, happy D, worried me, worried Daniel. The group toured
Beijing, we toured the hospital.  End of matter: E much better, mommy
and daddy now extremely sleep deprived.

Train:  Loved it, loved it, loved it!  Very doable.  Had unexpected
help, which was a blessing, see "sleep deprived"

Zhengzhou:  I make a taxi driver mad, and poor Grandpa and Kiki have
to bear it. We survive my butchered Mandarin and end up eating well!
Surprise!. We survive scooter mania and spend our very last night as a
family of four.

Gotcha Day:  Our boys come to us 3 hours apart. So thankful, so hard,
so blessed.  They have been very well loved, and they grieved
extremely hard.  However, hours later when we get back to the hotel
room, tiny bits of personality show through.  So precious, so smart,
so handsome!  We are in love :)  Jian glues to Mama, Xiu glues to his
Baba.  D and E do an amazing job, being kind, calm, and trying to be
friendly to Jian and Xiu.  They have taken their two new brothers so
far very much in stride, and are really, really enjoying the family
increase! I know it won't be pure filial bliss from this day forward,
but Daniel and I are so thankful for this answer to prayer.  We are
startled and  touched to  find that Jian and Xiu's dearest treasures
are photo albums of the family we sent them. They recognize us, (does
not make the grief any less of course) and know the albums by heart.
Jian shocks Mama by speaking full English sentences.  (In the Civil
affairs office, while weeping his heart out, he looked me straight in
the face and sobbed: "I want to go outside"
What?  Yes, he actually does know some basic English phrases.  Xiu is
the last child to arrive. He too grieved very hard, but he was so
very, very brave.  It is very apparent, that while both were loved,
their childhoods so far have been night and day. Xiu is old for his
age, both though are developmentally much farther along than I
expected.  Still both need very tender care and lots and lots of
cuddles.

Xiu loves to sing, in the sweetest little voice, Jian is hoarse with a
sore throat right now but he loves to sing too, he is a camera ham and
a charmer, while Xiu cries at the sight of cameras, but isn't afraid
anything else as long as his Baba is holding him :)

I must run, the gang of four is awake :) The adoption is finalized,
they are ours, we are so thankful!
Today we hope to see the Swallow's nest. Yesterday we spent the day in Nanyang.

Lovely Korean Air and a rough night

Another quickie post from my phone as I stand in boarding line to China. Korean air absolutely lived up to their excellent reputation. I will try to post about it for the Henan moms later. My poor littlest had a very rough night on the plane, thankfully he is a little better this AM. Still quite ill but lungs clear and 02 sats improved so I'm holding off on abx for now. His fever broke this AM. Please keep him and his exhausted parents :)

And we're off!

I apologize to start with. I am posting this from my iPhone so it will have to be short. :) We are at the ATL airport waiting to board our flight to Seoul. The boys are super excited about the planes, the people, the shiny lights and most of all ... The automated trash can.  Ha. Shall we just say hand washing is in their future? Yes, I know what sort of mom lets her kids play with a trash can? Hey, they are happy and staying near me. That is good ;). We started this trip in a Mr Bean Holiday way. For example, Thursday night the littlest was up with a fever and I didn't get him rocked back off to sleep till 5 AM. So I when I was startled await by an early morning phone call, I started up staggered wildly to the phone not even sure what the noise was and managed to knock an oil painting off the wall onto my head, knocking it out of its frame. So there I am standing they with a frame around my shoulders babbling into the phone to the hapless caller "it is a painting! The frame? In the sink oh no stop the painting!" I frantically held into the painting whilst the caller (after a puzzled silence) informed me about a flight. Somehow I made it back to the bed still with the frame and painting and woke up my husband so I could babble incoherently about it again. And them I woke up and we had a good laugh! Unlike the paintings whose ill fate it is to be on the same continent as the laudable Bean, our painting was fine. When I was awake enough, I reframed it :). We started by going to ATL yesterday and had an absolutely lovely evening with my sister Amana and Nirmal. This morning has been fairly uneventful, minus one bonked head when the oldest tried to jump down from his seat at the breakfast table, wrong tickets for my dad, and a very sick little E (please pray for this flight he has a fever and a very sore throat and runny nose--poor baby!) and a few temper tantrums on the security line. Thankfully security did everything they could to help us so it wasn't that bad.
When we went to check in online, we found to our delight that Korean had assigned us all seats together in the bulkhead center. Very kind and thoughtful. I am sure the extra space and double escape aisles will be a blessing with our almost 3 year old and our 19 month old.  Kiki (our nanny) is being a fantastic help and so is my dad though he never misses an opportunity for any corny jokes. ;) I may try to post more later but this phone is a slow way to go. We appreciate your prayers! I don't know if reality has set in for me yet, I've been so busy, but sometimes today I have teared up knowing that finally, finally we are on our way to precious Xiu and Jian.

Only one more night in our own beds...

...for a long while! I shouldn't probably even be posting, but needed to take a breather from cleaning and packing :)  We recently moved to the South, so I know it is crucial to have the house as spotless as possible before going on a long trip: new, old, brick, or wood, you always have to be alert for the insects that thrive in this climate, and no way am I leaving a "happy place" for them! Thankfully we have never had any problems in this home, but I am not taking any risks! :)
The last few days have been fun, crazy and I can't seem to keep my mind functioning at all.  I walk somewhere, and wonder why? I tell, Daniel "Oh yes, we packed that .... I think...but I have no idea where" 
I have tried to minimize our luggage. For our family of 4 becoming 6 for 21 days we are down to two medium suitcases around 35lbs each, two small to medium dufflebags, two very small to small backpacks and my oldest's beloved "Trunki"  (a tiny Melissa and Doug child's travel case that doubles as a ride on toy) 
It doesn't sound terrible, but I am still trying to pare down...the train trip from Beijing to Zhengzhou is entirely on our own and I know as much as I need those two suitcases, I am probably going to hate them! :)  I am no fan of lots of luggage, especially when I know we will be pushing through large crowds going up and down staircases and having to jam them in overhead luggage racks and then repeat. So, I am going to try to attack the luggage one more time.
Yesterday, the boys and I had the fun of setting up "beds" for the two newest little ones.  Yes, we plan to have them sleep in our room as we want to be quickly available for comfort and security, so that is two pack and plays we have crammed in there, plus a chair for mommy or daddy to sit in at 2AM... real furniture just wasn't going to fit!

We know that in the care home where our little Jian has been living a Nanny has always stayed in the sleeping room with all the children, and it appears that our little Xiu has shared a common room with his foster family in their village.  To us, even though they are two years old, they are our "new babies" and like "new babies" we want them to learn that they can trust their parents, that their parents are there for them and ready to comfort them.  My mother always said, "when you comfort your child and hurry to care for them, you are teaching them what God our father is like--He is tender and kind to us in our weakness, and loving."

Like as a father pitieth [his] children, [so] the LORD pitieth them that fear him.--Ps 103:13

As we head out on this life-changing journey, I am so thankful for our tender, kind, loving Father!  He knows we cannot do this on our own, He knows and understands our fears, and cares about our griefs and joys.  "I have not given you the spirit of fear," He says, "but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind"
We are so grateful to all those who have prayed for us, taught us and given to help us be here today.  You are all loved.  We feel your support and thank God for you.  We are so grateful for the amazing, very human, very real adoptive families we have been privileged to meet (some only online), thank you for your encouragement and all you have taught us.  It is hard to comprehend that in less than a week, our so very beloved Xiu and Jian will become part of our family forever.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!

There is no shadow of turning with Thee!

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not!

As Thou has been, Thou forever wilt be.

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

[Chorus]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

[Chorus x2]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

M. Redman

Tentative Timeline for China :)

June 1--Leave for Atlanta
June 2--Fly from ATL to INC (Seoul, South Korea)

June 3--Arrive in Beijing (we "lose a day" going and "gain one" returning, due to the 12 hour time difference :)

June 4-- Likely do a little touring to help the little guys reset their body clocks

June 5--Take the High speed train from Beijing to Zhengzhou

AND THEN....GET READY FOR IT!!!

JUNE 6--GOTCHA DAY!!!! (BOTH BOYS!)

June 7--Adoption Registration Day, try to get Jian's passport--This is the day the adoption becomes official!
June 8--Travel to Nanyang, Henan to get Xiu's passport

June 17--Consulate appointment in Guangzhou, Guangdong

June 18--US Visa's

June 20--Leave Guangzhou, fly to Seoul and then to Atlanta

June 21--HOME AGAIN, GOD WILLING :)

Now, I need to get back to packing, pronto, pronto!!

TA!

For those of you on Facebook, you know our good news already! We got our TA on Wednesday...a record setting wait of 4 weeks and 1 day by our count, but technically we found out 4 weeks and 2 days...
The last week has been difficult.  Our agency, CCAI, told us that they had never had a family go past 4 weeks, and in fact we later found out that apparently no one has ever gotten past 27 days.  For non-adopters, this may sound like no big deal. But when you know there have been over 10,000 adoptions with this agency before you, same government, same system, same rules, and the average wait for TA is normallyl 10-14 days the anguish starts to set in.  "Are we losing the adoption? Has something happened here at the very, very end?" 
I made myself wait past 4 weeks and finally called our agency, trying not to cry.  "Do any families not ever get the TA? Do adoptions fall through at this point? Do we need to refile paperwork?"  The rep was super kind.  She told me that we had set a record for waiting and they were very sorry but it appeared to be due to the incredible changes happening at the CCWA as they switch from paper to electronic records.  She said "I know this isn't much, but our reps in China think that there is a packet of TAs coming soon...and we hope yours in there!"  Most of all she assured me that no one doesn't get a TA.  That was so comforting.  Even if the wait was long, if there is hope of completing the adoption at the end, we can endure, but as I was losing hope it was so hard to press on.  I hung up full of hope and very encouraged.  In fact, I stopped my obsessive 2 minute refreshing of my phone's email app that I had been doing for the past 3 weeks.  I played and snuggled with my littlest who had woken early from his nap, and it wasn't till an hour or two later that I noted that there was a new email--WE HAD A TA!!! I stopped and had a cry and thanked God.  Since then we have been madly working to find flights for 6 going and 8 coming.  More about that later, we still don't have tickets...white knuckled suspense on this end.  Oh! Yes, we got our confirmed CA Thursday AM and I will post those dates as soon as we have confirmed flights, God willing!  Pray we get the flights today, please.