Giving Thanks

This was somewhere on the first full day we were home.  Which was a Friday…I think.

It really was all a haze, a blur, a fog.  Not sleeping for 30+ hours and then being teased with five teeny hours of sleep was tough.  The not sleeping continued for a couple more days which was brutal.  The kind of brutal where I couldn't form full sentences or think of how we would ever put on clothes again let alone do the 12 loads of laundry to have clean clothes.   But we poured more coffee and just soaked in the fact that James was really with us in our house…so very thankful he is with us.  There have been so many moments over the past five days where I am overcome with thankfulness. 

Thankful that instead of praying for him as were separated by continents, I am able to pray over him as he is wrapped in my arms.  One night we put James to bed and then came in the girls room to talk and say prayers and it hit me right there in that moment.  All those nights…every night for the last 21 months…we have prayed for our son with our daughters.  Every night prayers for who he would be, prayers about protecting him, prayers for his health, prayers for the process to quicken, prayers for preparing him to be in our family, prayers for his nannies to love him, prayers for our own preparation, prayers for our trip, prayers for him to know our love even before he knew us.  All those prayers…answered.

Thankful for all the joy he is experiencing and for all the overwhelming joy he is bringing to us.  This kid is funny.  And thank goodness he thinks I'm pretty funny too.  So we laugh a lot.  Since we've got to keep things simple for him while he adjusts to everything, you might not get to see this side of him but one day you will.  Oh what a ham.  

Thankful for all he is learning.  He is so smart and is already saying so many english words, using the sign language we've taught him, and observing everything going on around him.  Nothing gets by this smarty pants.

So thankful that he is experiencing the love of family.   Sometimes he must feel smothered with all the hugs and kisses and tickles he gets from us in a day.  But he doesn't show it…he genuinely seems to just LOVE it. 

So thankful that he is showing us more and more of himself.  The more he trusts us and his environment, the more comfortable he feels to be himself.  His whole two year old tantrum throwing self…crazy to be celebrating a tantrum right?

So thankful to be making memories with him each moment.  I do feel sad that I missed two years of him - two years of my son's life.  I can only imagine how precious he was a teeny newborn, how adorable he was at his first birthday, how wonderful it would have felt to hold him when he was so small.  But I'm so much more thankful, grateful, and joyful that I have him now.  He is so beautiful, so smart, so funny, so brave, and so mine.

I am so thankful.

Getting ready to leave China

Our last full day in china was Wednesday, the 23rd.  It was another spectacularly beautiful day.  Two of the other adoptive families had their consulate appointments that morning so we had a leisurely breakfast and began packing and then we they were through, we went to Shamain Island.  This small island is just a bridge across from downtown Guangzhou and is full of colonial buildings and tree-lined streets built by France and the United Kingdom during the 19th century.  It reminds me of a much smaller, mud less populated tranquil New Orleans.  In the more recent past, the US Consulate was located on the island along with a large hotel where most US adoptive families stayed out of convince to the Consulate.  Now that the US Consulate has moved and the hotel is under renovation, the island's shops and restaurants have suffered and only a few are left.  We strolled the beautiful streets and saw many Chinese couples having their wedding pictures made as well as several magazine photo shoots.  We also had lunch at Lucy's, the first all-American restaurant (besides fast food) we've seen in China.  It was a really nice day.

Later we gathered with friends for dinner at Tekila's for Mexican.  (Can you tell we are just a little tired of Chinese food?)  It was the perfect way to end this memorable, magnificent trip.

This is Caroline and her precious little girl.  Caroline and I have a few mutual friends in common and had been introduced by them earlier this year when we realized we were at similar points in the adoption process.  We emailed questions and encouragement for several months, spoke on the phone several times and then got to meet in person in China.  It was so much fun and I'm so thankful for such a sweet gift! 

Our last night in China

These are our precious friends The Abells who we've been with since Chongqing.  Amy and I had known each other just a little before China but actually met in person in at the Beijing airport.  Going through this together will grow your friendship in a hurry.  We are so thankful for this family!

Thursday we woke up and zipped up our bags.  Then we headed down to breakfast..

LaLa enjoying some dragon fruit.

This is James' breakfast…congee cereal, a steamed sticky bun, and some bacon.

Also anything else I'd feed him.

Saying goodbye to our guide Milo at the airport.

The first and only time James' will use his Chinese passport.  Once we get to the States, he will be a US citizen and this passport will just be a souvenir.

"Uh, did you just say we are going to be on this flight for 13 hours?"

Getting' comfy.

My Rockstar traveler.

Mad it Seoul which has a fabulous airport complete with live concerts and

a Hello Kitty Cafe.

I never get tired of reading the translations on various products.

The tag line on this shortbread cookie, known as a Margaret, says 'We made Margaret with Mom's Love."  :)

On the way home, James' decided to start giving exaggerated kisses with a loud Mmmmmwahhhhh!

He also decided to say his first words in English (besides Mama) which were Dada, Uh-Ohhhhh, tickle, LaLa, and shoo-weee which he says like Do-Way.  It makes me laugh so hard.

So basically this kid couldn't have been any better on the looooooooooooong trip home.  He didn't cry at all in three airports, three flights, two layovers, and a long delay.  He did, however, cry and scream the ENTIRE way from Memphis to Jonesboro because he had never been in a carseat.  Since he sat in my lap the entire time we were in China, he was so mad and hurt that I strapped him in that awful contraption.  

This is our very tired family selfie at around 2:30 am.  So thankful to be home!

We assumed that after being awake for so long, we would all crash into bed.  Wrong.

James was so scared of everything in our house, he, I mean we, didn't crash until somewhere after 6.

We want to thank everyone for all their prayers during our trip!  We are so grateful to be home safe and healthy but most of all, to have James home with us!  It's no doubt that God's grace and your prayers carried us through this journey but now, the real adventure begins and we would love your continued prayers as we transition to our new normal.  Thank you!

Gorgeous Guangzhou

We've had more busy, fun, memorable days.  So Monday we went to the Guangzhou Zoo with the three other families in our 'travel group'.  Here are the moms and our precious little boys (and my precious girls too).  The other three families left their big kids at home.  Aren't we cute?  :)  Oh and our wonderful guide, Miko, says we are the first group she's ever had to be adopting all boys. 

 

The zoo was very nice, although I think the Chongqing Zoo had more beautiful landscaping and exhibits.  But both had great animals including...

More pandas!

And I kinda loved that they had a turtle exhibit.  It was full of Red-eared sliders and box turtles.  Basically it was what my girls would like our backyard to look like.

Now this zoo did do one thing differently which we found out when we went to see Ellenies favorite animal...snakes.

The picture does not adequately depict all that is going on.  You can probably find 4 or 5 of the white bunnies hopping around.  Can you see the 3 or 4 chickens?  Is this an American farm exhibit?  Nope.  They are theside show.  They are really the next meal for the 4 or 5 GIANT pythons that are also in there!!  Every snake got to live with its own live prey.  Every tank had chicks or mice or even live baby moles.  It was sorta National Geographic cool and sorta not.  

So after the zoo and naps, we had to get ready for our big night out on the Pearl River Cruise.  Isn't there one in Mississippi too?

James loves to be in the carrier and I definitely think it's done wonders for our bonding.  As a solid 30lb sack of sugar, he is not doing wonders for my back.  Love every minute though.

My sassy molassies before we set sail...

And after we were cruising. Isn't it beautiful?

We finished the night off with ice cream which he just could not understand.  So delicious but so cold!

Today, Tuesday, was our next big day!  The whole reason we came to Guangzhou was to come, in person, and submit our adoption papers from last week along with a gazillion other pieces of paperwork for James' US Immigration Visa.  It's a big deal.  Like he will be a US citizen when his feet hit US soil in Atlanta big deal.  At that moment he has all the rights and freedoms of a US citizen big deal.  So we had our picture made outside.

We will pick up his Visa tomorrow, Wednesday, and be able to fly home Thursday.  I am having mixed feelings about leaving.  I think James probably is or will too. :)  Brad and the girls are ready to BE home.  Now, I can't wait to have James home and begin our new life with him, but I have really enjoyed China.  Probably much more than I thought I would.  I've loved the exciting energy, the friendly people, the rich history, the interesting street scenes, the beautiful architecture, and the delicious food. 

There's always so much to see, to process, to understand about a new place and just too little time.  These pictures are all from today as we went to a late wholesale market and then walked to our neighborhood grocery/ department store - so much color, texture, beauty.  If only you could hear and smell these pictures as well...

After all that stimulation, We needed to find our Chi so we went back to the garden at our hotel.  Love this sweet picture of my sweet chickadees.

And now the one you've been waiting for...

So thankful I get to see this smile about a hundred times a day now.  He's the best part of China by far.  So blessed to get to bring him home.