For Ame and Jen

What's not to love about a 14 + hour flight when you have access to great TV?  The fact that there were only two episodes!  Fortunately the picture was much clearer than this one.

Land Ho!

We're here.  We're safe.  We're tired.  As a matter of fact I can hear Tom already sawing lumber as I type this.  Whoa, that one wasn't your run of the mill lumber.  He was trying to get through a redwood!  Tonight we are in a "non-smoking" room with two twin beds because that's the best way to luxuriate after a long day of traveling.  I've forewarned Maryn that daddy is going to snore tonight because he's that tired, and I might, too.  I've also admonished her that there will be no kicking, turning over, throwing her leg over me, etc.  When I'm done here I'll finish that admonishment with a kiss and an I love you.  I'll finish with that for you, too.

Put Them All Together They Spell Mother

Maryn sings in the children's choir at church, and today they did two songs, the second of which was a song for mothers.  When they went up to the front and stood on the stairs, they all stretched their arms out to make sure there was enough room for the hand motions.
M is for the million things she gave me.
O is only that she's growing old.  (Ouch!)
T is for the tears she shed to save me.
H is for her heart of purest gold.
E is for her eyes with lovelight shining.
R is right, and right she'll always be.
Put them all together they spell mother, a word that means the world to me.

When they finished, the remainder of the kids joined them at the front for the children's chat.  During the chat, they were asked if any of them could name something that makes their mother special.  An arm shot up from the back row, and it was attached to Maryn's body.  Without hesitation and with the utmost confidence and clear speech, she said into a microphone, "She's nice."  I'll admit there was probably a largening of my pupils, undetectable to the naked eye, as I waited to hear what she would say, but when she said, "She's nice," I merely had to agree.  I am nice, but seeing that she was immediately willing to risk going out on a very long, narrow limb to declare that to the world, now that was really special.

To all those of you who call me mom or fill a large space in my heart and would make me proud to call you my own, thanks for a wonderful Mother's Day.

We're Booked!

Our airline tickets are booked, and we'll be on our way soon.  As with any journey on the path to international adoption you wait and wait and hope and wait some more and then suddenly you're going and the world is turning faster than it was the 200 or so days or 3+ years or whatever the wait has been.  That's where we are right now.  So much to do, so little time, but life continues. Toby woofs at the back door, the dryer makes it's tumbling noise, and before long everyone is going to be hungry.  You mean I still have to feed everyone?

The suitcases are out waiting to be filled.  Things are getting crossed off lists.  We still need to get a few things written down in characters, such as our dinner menu.  Grilled chicken or grilled salmon, rice or boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli or steamed cauliflower.  That's what we stuck to on our last trip, and it worked beautifully.  Tom gets migraines, so he has eliminated from his diet many foods considered to be migraine triggers.  On the top of the list of migraine triggers:  Asian food.  We learned early on in preparation for our last trip that bu fang wei jing means don't cook with MSG.  I'm allergic to shellfish and can't eat spicy food.  As a couple, we are a Chinese food disaster looking for a place to happen, so don't look for any pictures of us enjoying any of the delicacies offered on sticks from street vendors.  Ain't gonna happen but have *Immitrex* and epi*pen, will travel.

We have a 14.5 hour flight ahead of us with an 8 hour layover in Shanghai followed by a 1 hour flight to Hefei.  When I see all of that written down it's enough to make me weep.  We don't have the luxury of flying at night this time, and we are going to be tired and wrung out, but there is a part of the travel plan that makes me laugh while I'm weeping.  We received a call the other night from Louise, our unofficially adopted, 20-something daughter from *China*, informing us that her mom and dad are going to meet us at the airport in Shanghai.  You might be able to figure out what comes next, but I'll give you a clue:  they don't speak English.  With our own extensive Mandarin skills, Tom and I will be able to say to them hold my hand, stay with me, you are being good, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, do you need to pee and several other general phrases necessary for our trip such as thank you, you're welcome, that's too expensive and I don't want any.

That darn language thing.  You notice it frequently has the word barrier attached to it.  We are lucky, though, because we've already met Louise's mom when she was here for six months a few years ago.  When we see each other again, we'll pick up where we left off.  We'll smile, we'll laugh, we'll hug, words that don't have barrier attached to them, and it will be wonderful to meet her dad.  Don't get me wrong, we'll be exhausted, and it's going to be tough to pantomime how much we love their daughter and what a great job they have done raising her.  But, we'll do what we can using the international language of smiling, laughing and hugging.

T-YAY!!!!

We have travel approval - TA is the appropriate jargon, and we were notified Friday, May 4.  That means we'll be seeing our darling's face in person very soon, and we are so excited at our house.  In the morning I told Tom if he got a phone call from our agency telling him the TA was received, he had to call me at work.  His response was something along the lines of don't you think I'd call you?  He also reminded me that if he called me and couldn't speak everything was okay.  When I hadn't heard from him by 1:30 p.m., I sent him a text with a frowny face saying "Hey, remember you said you'd call me."  Ten minutes later I was paged to take a call, and my frowny face turned into a smile knowing it was the call I'd wanted.  Tom did pretty well managing to strain out a whisper of, "It's here," before starting to laugh and cry at the same time.  That's my mushball.  Well, pull yourself together, mushball, we've got a lot to get done in a short amount of time!  Tom picked up Maryn after school and waited to tell her until she got home so we could tell her together.  Of course, I wish we had her reaction on video because it was priceless.  She was sitting on the floor in her room packing her bag for her Brownie campout, and her face went blank while she took in and translated what Tom said, and then she jumped up and screamed.   We then called our agency and heard the good news again together.

It wasn't until the next morning that I realized we received our travel approval on May 4, three years to the day that we received the call telling us about a precious 7 year old girl now called Maryn.

Article 5 Has Arrived!

Well, our Article 5 hasn't actually arrived, but it rhymes, and it certainly makes you want to read more about what an Article 5 is and find out if it's inside this box.

An Article 5 is part of the mountain of government work that needs to be completed to bring our darling home.  An email arrived at 2:47 a.m. telling us that the Adopted*Immigrant*Visa*Unit at the U.S.*Consulate*General*Guangzhou has finished processing our child's Article 5, and our file is ready to be returned to our adoption agency's facilitator today.  Another domino has fallen.  Give me a "woohoo!"

Next, our agency delivers the Article 5 and our confirmation letter to the pooh-bahs in Ch*na who will issue our travel approval.  Once the travel approval is issued, our agency will request an appointment for our immigrant visa at the consulate, and when we have the appointment, we can finally answer the most popular question...When are you going to Ch*na?  Just so you know, we really want to be able to answer that question for you.

So, what was in the box?  There are businesses in Ch*na that send care packages from waiting families to their children.  We used a very kind, busy woman named Ann at Red*Thread.  We sent our family photo book, a stuffed toy and candy to Ann and also arranged to have her deliver a disposable camera, treats for the nannies and a cake to our daughter.  Ann sent us an email on April 2 telling us she would get our package delivered after the Ch*nese holiday.  After that we stalked the email to see if there were any pictures from the cake party, but the cupboard was bare.  Monday morning Tom woke me up at 6:05 by leaning down to my face and whispering loudly and rapidly, "The pictures are here!"  I made it to the other side of the house in world record speed and saw our beautiful girl with a beautiful smile standing over a beautiful cake with some of her beautiful friends seated around the table.  Sure beats caffeine in the morning to get your day going.  A giant, Ch*nese birthday candle was ablaze on top of the cake, and she was wearing a crown and a smile.  What a smile!  When Louise saw the pictures of the cake with the Ch*nese characters on the top, she said, "Why it says Happy Birthday??"  We chuckled, but it didn't matter because it sure made the event into a party.  I was even able to send some of the pictures of the kids to another waiting family so they could get a glimpse of the two girls they already love and are eagerly waiting to bring home.

Contents of the box:  a cake, a party and smiles.

Planting Seeds

Toby and I have some new walking friends.  Two of them have two legs and two of them have four legs, and that adds up to every leg of our daily walk being a whole lot more fun.  We met this winter walking on the golf course, and it didn't take long to realize that not only do the dogs get along beautifully, but the people do, too, and now we arrange our time to walk together whenever we can.  The other day we met for a walk before I had to pick up Maryn from her after school swimming program and Molly, one of the human friends, brought a freshly made bag of Chex*Mix for me to give to Maryn because she knew she'd be hungry after swimming, and she thought she'd like it.  That was really nice of her to do that.  I gave it to Maryn when I picked her up, and Molly was right, she did like it (except for the cashews) but the best part  was when Maryn said, "That was really nice of her to do that."  She said it twice with sincerity.  She got it!  She noticed and was grateful.  The next day I told Molly that Maryn loved the snack and wanted me to be sure to tell her thank you, and Molly got it, too, because the first words out of her mouth were, "You're planting seeds everyday."  We make an effort to plant seeds everyday, and it's the greatest reward to see some of them taking root and growing.  Experiencing gratitude, letting it soak into yourself and declaring it out loud, that's good for the soul, and so is a walk in the woods with friends.