First of all, I am sorry if you had to endure one of my many emotional breakdowns during the last month. This adoption business is not for the faint of heart...I don't think. We haven't even actually adopted anyone and it's nearly done me in already.
The Lord provided every desire of my heart, in His own way and on His schedule. And things are working out SO much better than I could even have ever planned them.
Last Monday, 11/25, our TA finally showed up at our agency. Later than I wanted but sooner than I'd been told to expect. I expected to have confirmation of our Consulate Appointment by Tuesday night, and was pretty sure that by then it would be too late to arrange to travel before ~12/5. However, our agency notified us on Tuesday morning (11/26) that we needed to be in Gaungzhou by 12/1. AHHHHHH!
I immediately called a travel agent who arranges tons of international adoptions last minute. He had an itinerary ready within half an hour. The only problem was that Beau's mom's visa was supposed to have been stuck in Chicago over the Thanksgiving holiday. Insert HUGE MIRACLE! Thanks to our amazing courier and probably divine intervention, Beverly had her visa processed overnight. Ask me about this story sometime! I cannot believe it actually happened!
I am SO thankful for the friends who rallied around us during our few days of preparing for this trip. We have a friend staying at the house with Reese, friends who watched Henry one day while I ran a ton of errands and will stock our fridge before we get back, friends who invited us to Thanksgiving dinner and helped decorate our house for Christmas and might put up our tree while we're gone, a friend who drove us to the airport and will pick us up when we get back, and COUNTLESS friends who have prayed for us and encouraged us from the beginning. We can DEFINITELY feel those prayers over here!
We made it to ATL around 9:45 on Friday night and easily checked in for our Korean Air flight. This flight left at 1am Saturday morning and was just over 15 hours to Seoul, Korea. WHOA! The plane was pretty nice and I'm SO glad we flew out at night because it felt totally fine to do absolutely nothing the entire time. We all slept here and there. Henry was SO precious the whole time! We had a 2.5 hour layover in Seoul. We changed clothes and ate a quick breakfast (? chicken breasts at 6am ?) before our 4 hour flight to Guangzhou. As we neared Guangzhou I started to feel SO anxious. Like we were crazy. I wasn't sure anyone was even picking us up at the airport! We made it through customs with only a minor hiccup. No one ever handed us our entry forms! And besides Henry's spontaneous outburt of "Jesus Loves Me" and Beau wanting to take group pictures despite the MULTIPLE signs saying "NO PHOTOS", everything went relatively smoothly. We were all relieved to see our guide on the other side of the customs area. Aron is SO sweet! She is from inner Mongolia but has been working with Small World and Lifeline for the past 7 years. She is a wealth of information and calm! Our travel group this week is very small (2 couples vs the 8 couples in the Foster's group last week) which means our waiting time will be minimized. And then next week the 2 more couples arrive from their provinces and one of them is the Eakers!!!
Aron checked us in at the Garden (BEAUTIFUL!) and as we were milling around the lobby the Foster family walked in from their morning touring. SO SURREAL! To finally see them in China just like we had dreamed of 15 months ago. Lily looks amazing! She was so peaceful and looked like she'd always been a part of their family.
We walked around the gardens outside with them for a while and then Brian took Beau to a grocery to get some things. Henry and I came up to the room so I could unpack the ABUNDANCE of things I had packed for us! We were supposed to have dinner with the Fosters but I was dying of extreme nervousness and exhaustion so Beau and Beverly went and got some Cantonese takeout (YUM!) while I gave Henry a bath and got him ready for bed.
We ate and then everyone passed out (@7pm). Beau and I woke up at 3 this morning and by 5 decided to get up and do a stretching video (picture Beau and me stretching to p90x in a hotel room in China at 5am - HA! Never would have predicted that!) Then we showered and made coffee. I am SOOOOOOOOO glad I took up all that valuable suitcase room with my french press and 2lbs of coffee and 3 boxes of creamer! I cannot emphasize this enough, haters! Coffee is good!
Henry woke up around 6:30 and now he's dressed and we're going to wake up Beverly and head on down to this life-changing breakfast buffet we've heard so much about!
We have a meeting at 10 for paperwork and then we leave around 2 to GET JAMES!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned!
packing
packed
in the international terminal
outside the international terminal
waiting in Seoul
on our plane to Guangzhou (the people behind us got up and took our photo, too...guess we'll get that a lot)
let's go the Ch*na!!
with Aron on the way to the Garden
pulling up to the Garden
SO excited to see this in the lobby!
Brian & Erika showing us around
Beverly sleep-walking
feeding the koi
a tour of the room
Beverly's is right nextdoor and is identical except it has twin beds instead of the king.
this glass wall has an electric curtain for privacy
Isaiah 42:16
This is my verse for this adoption. I wrote it on the window between our room and the bathtub.
OK! Erika just texted and we're about to meet up for Breakfast. SO CRAZY still that we're having breakfast with friends, in China! And then they'll be at the zoo today while WE ARE MEETING JAMES!
Thank you for your continued prayers! Today is HUGE!
No comments:
Post a Comment