Tuesday, April 3, 2007
A Live Wire :)
Well, it is early morning here and I am showered and ready for the day. That is b/c Miss Eliana Joy Lin won't let anyone else hold her without a huge fit. David says she may not like me alot yet, but that's relative, she likes me a WHOLE lot more than him...lol. She throws a huge fit if I am away from her and then stops the moment I pick her up or take her from David. I now know what all those adoptive moms are talking about when they say their baby was clingy! She is so cute though and has smiled and laughed some and been mostly pleasant, as long as things are going her way...sound like anybody you know??? Our adoption is complete, yipee! Handed over all our fees and did our interviews yesterday so she is officially ours! We are so blessed. We are missing our big kids a lot...Davie really is. She is doing well, but it is not really a relaxed setting. The drivers here are CRAZY so we have to hold to her tightly everywhere we go. We went to Walmart yesterday...3 floors. Last night we had our first normal night of sleep with everyone sleeping through the night, even Davie! No 3:30am snack last night. Jen, you were right...it's the 5th day and she is switched over. To my other half of group 123...can't wait to see you all and meet those baby girls! This is such fun! Blessings to everyone! Two more days until Guangzhou and SHOPPING!!! :) Much love.
Monday, April 2, 2007
My Girl
It is 3:30am here but I had to write about my girl. She is not happy about me at all! She calls out MA! from her crib and when I show up she does not recive me. When I pick her up she just gets mad and so I lay her back down where she then pretends that I am not there. She will not look my way one bit. It is intentional. I am not writing this because I am upset. I am so ok with this. I am writing about this b/c the Lord showed me that this is how many of His children are with Him initially. He comes to us, wanting to adopt us as His children and we refuse Him. We reject the love He has to offer. We want nothing at all to do with Him, often b/c He refuses to be who we want Him to be. He is who He is. He can't and won't change that. God is not hurt by our rejection of Him...He knows all the good things He wants to give us and so our patient, longsuffering Heavenly Father pursues us...He gives us good gifts, He allows us to enjoy all that He has provided for us, He waits for us b/c He loves us so and little by little many of us respond to His love. Often b/c of others who have trusted Him first. There is the beauty in having Davie here with us...she will be my witness. Davie has loved me from the beginning. She willingly received my love. Davie trusts me totally. Davie will be my witness to Eliana that Momma can be trusted! I LOVE THIS! Adoption is so much God's idea! I think everyone should do it :) God has shown me more of Himself...and I am touched and humbled. I don't mean that Davie did it "right" and Eliana is "wrong"...I mean that God is willing to wait for us to love Him. He is not intimidated by our rejection and in this adoption I get the priviledge to be like Him...unbelievable. I am not worried...I know that I want to only give to Eliana and to make her my own and I know that that will happen. This is not about attachment...she makes eye contact with me...when I sing...when she WANTS to :) this is about a little girl that NEEDS to be won over...and I'm not worried about that at all...I have a witness :) and I have my own mothering ability by God's grace and so stay tuned, I will keep you updated on the "winning over of Eliana!
She's Here!
Well, we have our baby girl! She is a little doll baby! We all loaded up in the bus to go over to the Cival Affairs Office to get the babies. When we got there they weren't even there yet...so I made a joke about false labor to the group :) In about 10 minutes 8 people walked in holding 8 babies. I am happy to say that I thought I recognized Eliana right away...and I was right! We all have a number and we are "Family #8"(the luckiest Chinese no.) and so we were last. A man was holding her and when he went to hand her to me she didn't want to come, but then she did and didn't really cry. We found out today that our babies have been with their foster mothers until today! After he handed her over I just hugged her and talked to her. She didn't really cry and even smiled a little bit at Davie. We are in our room and it is 9pm and she is in her crib or "crate" as Davie calls it. She has cried a lot and calls "MaMa", but it is not me that she is calling for. She doesn't want David to hold her at all, but doesn't really want me either. I bathed her...she was ok, but she didn't love it, she will though I'm sure. Tomorrow I will get in with her and that may go better. She drank a little and at some cheerios and for a long good while was pleasant and entertained, but then she just got tired. She definitely wants to be laid in her crib to go to sleep. She did NOT want me to hold her! Finally when I realized that I just couldn't please her I laid her down on her back and she was much more content...still crying, but not as much. Just fussing some, but if I tried to pick her up she was not interested, so I left her there and went about the room doing what I needed to do. Just a little bit ago she finally fell asleep. I must say that I am so grateful that her foster mother did not sleep with her! The fact that she likes her crib is an answer to prayer. Now, let me tell you about her...she has the most beautiful head of black thick hair! I can picture it long...but it is cut close to her head right now. It lays flat, but there is a ton of it. She has the sweetest little mouth...oh my goodness...I can't wait to kiss it, but I have to b/c of this darn cold! I'm not sure she would welcome my kisses at the moment anyway. She is tiny, but filled out nicely. She has 1 1/2 teeth. She has teeny little feet. Davie just loves her. I remembered so quickly how hard it is to have a 4yo with a new baby...they want to do everything for the baby and it is not always helpful :), but so so sweet. Ellie likes Davie and gave little smiles to her right away. David and Davie and I are still suffering from colds. I am not miserable, but David is, so please pray for him to feel better soon. The babies are all adorable. Ellie is not the youngest. There is one baby that turned 10mo. today. Tomorrow we will have a very busy morning that begins at 8:30 so I better go to bed. Of course there are photos above...just click on the one picture to see them all. Much love and gratefulness for your prayers and support. Sarah, Matt and Catherine....you are gonna love your new baby sister. She is just adorable! I miss you all and pray that you are doing well. Matt, I'm sorry you have a cold, too. I can't believe we all got it at the same time...! I will post later. Sarah, I want to hear all about your play....Catherine, I miss you and bought you something, but you will have to wait for your birthday to get it...another 13 days!
Getting Eliana!!!
Well, we will leave in about 35 minutes to go get Eliana Joy Lin! We are sooo excited! We will post photos later and now that we are in Jiangxi I can view my blog and hopefully fix my mess ups! Thank you so much for your comments. They mean so much. Bunches and Bunches!!!!
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Sunday in China
Today was a good day. We began with the wake up from Davie at about 4am. She is such a good sleeper, but she keeps waking up really early. At about 5:30 I stopped telling her shhh and finally got up too. We ate breakfast at the buffet which includes American types of food along with a traditional Chinese breakfast. They seem to eat dinner for breakfast so I eat the American foods. Davie is feeling much better today, her fever is gone, but now David and I also have a cold. I can't stand the thought of not being able to kiss Eliana because I have a cold, so I am asking the Lord for healing...by tomorrow :)! After breakfast we went to the Harvest Church in Beijing. It is a church service for foreigners only. It was ok...the speaker was no Pastor Jon! The worship team was all made up of folks older than David and me...I told him we could retire there and still sing on their worship team. The music was fine, but made me appreciate home more. The songs had sweet lyrics which I loved. After church was our visit to the jade factory. I am now wearing a beautiful bracelet that I will someday pass down to Eliana. We had a sweet girl helping us. It was a good shopping experience. Then we ate lunch at the Friendship Store. Our meals in Beijing are all traditional Chinese food. They put many dishes of food on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and then we get some of whatever we want. I am not very adventurous so I don't eat much, but manage to eat enough. I am ready for a good ole hamburger though. After lunch we spent several hours at the Great Wall. David and Davie climbed to three towers together. I chose to stay at the bottom and wait for them. The steps are very uneven and very very steep as you will see in the pictures. It is very hard to climb the wall, but Davie stayed with her daddy the whole way and did great. In those types of things there is no better daddy than David. He is so patient and tireless. After the Great Wall we went for our Peking Duck Dinner. One of the gals at our table will eat anything. Go Amy! So we have her taste things and tell us what it is and if it is good. Most of us fill up on the fried rice. The final activity of today was the Chinese Acrobat Show. It was a show of young students who performed amazing acrobatic feats. It was phenomenal! Davie fell asleep during dinner and didn't wake up for more than 3 minutes during the whole show. I'm betting she will be up again at 4am tomorrow. So tomorrow is Eliana Joy Lin's Gotcha Day!!!! I cannot believe the day is finally here. I have gone through so many emotions during this process and finally being here in China is quite surreal. I have loved having Davie with us and seeing China through her eyes. She has won everyone over of course and has made friends with Conner, the oldest son of the Hedricks. Our group is wonderful. Not a loser in the bunch! :) It is going so well for everyone. A note to the rest of our group coming on Monday...it is quite cold and windy in Beijing. You will need a good coat for sure. We had lots of wind and a "sandstorm" yesterday, so one must be prepared for anything! I have thought a lot about how tomorrow is going to change the lives of our two youngest daughters. Davie will lose her position as the baby...makes me a little sad. She has been a marvelous daughter so far...my dream China baby come true. I hate to see her grow up, but she must. Tomorrow Eliana Joy Lin will gain a family. She is our daughter that I never even knew to dream for. I am the most blessed of women. Why God has been so good to me is just the evidence of His grace. I am not worthy of His blessings and yet He pours them out lavishly. Tomorrow is going to be amazing...I guess I must go to sleep to be ready for all that Abba has for me. God Bless you all. My heart is full...satisfied in my Lord. Thank you so much for your prayers...don't stop! P.S.If you have left us comments I have not been able to access them up to this point. They say that will change when we leave Beijing. I miss home, but am loving China. If you need to reach me my email works so you can try that. Much love!
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