In the past 24 hours Jonathan and Samuel have experienced China's mass of humanity. We've crammed into a rush-hour subway car. Jonathan fought and pushed his way into a packed Line 10 car as it's door slid shut behind him. We've waited in security lines to get into Tiananmen Square and ticket lines for the Forbidden City. Jonathan said "There must be 100,000 people here." Not sure if it was that many but I've never seen so many people there. And I've been to Beijing a lot. Oh, and the Beijing West Railway Station: the crush to get on our train to Xi'an. Wow.
But we made it. And we had a wonderful dinner with Monica.
Now we wait to get Eliza tomorrow at 4pm. We feel surprisingly nervous. We adopted Anna from Nanchang in 2008 and Lydia from Guiyang in 2014. But they were one and two years old.
Eliza is five. She's lived in an orphanage her whole life. It's been all she has known. She has friends there. And tonight is her last night there. Tomorrow she has to say goodbye to her aiyis (aunties), her friends, and her life there. She speaks Chinese. We do too but the boys don't and her communication will begin shifting to English. So many questions rush through our minds.
Will she grieve the loss well? Will she bond to our family? Will she be nice and polite but mourning on the inside? Will she be sad or angry? Will we be able to communicate well with her? How will her spina bifida impact her ability to get around, both in China and back in Texas?
Ten months of work have gone into tomorrow: updating our home study, waiting, getting our fingerprints done for USCIS, waiting, applying for the I-800, waiting, LID, waiting, applying for 20+ grants, waiting, LoA, waiting, TA, and then a flurry of activity. Plane tickets, travel plans, train tickets. Now we are here.
Despite the anxiety and questions, we are incredibly excited. For we have seen the power of love, God's love through us, in the lives of our two daughters from China who are orphans no more.
But we made it. And we had a wonderful dinner with Monica.
Now we wait to get Eliza tomorrow at 4pm. We feel surprisingly nervous. We adopted Anna from Nanchang in 2008 and Lydia from Guiyang in 2014. But they were one and two years old.
Eliza is five. She's lived in an orphanage her whole life. It's been all she has known. She has friends there. And tonight is her last night there. Tomorrow she has to say goodbye to her aiyis (aunties), her friends, and her life there. She speaks Chinese. We do too but the boys don't and her communication will begin shifting to English. So many questions rush through our minds.
Will she grieve the loss well? Will she bond to our family? Will she be nice and polite but mourning on the inside? Will she be sad or angry? Will we be able to communicate well with her? How will her spina bifida impact her ability to get around, both in China and back in Texas?
Ten months of work have gone into tomorrow: updating our home study, waiting, getting our fingerprints done for USCIS, waiting, applying for the I-800, waiting, LID, waiting, applying for 20+ grants, waiting, LoA, waiting, TA, and then a flurry of activity. Plane tickets, travel plans, train tickets. Now we are here.
Despite the anxiety and questions, we are incredibly excited. For we have seen the power of love, God's love through us, in the lives of our two daughters from China who are orphans no more.