Summer Vacation

This crazy family went to D!sney World last week for our family summer vacation. (Going in June is nuts in and of itself because of the heat & humidity, but the crowds were RIDICULOUS!) I was smart enough not to tell the girls until just 10 days before we left, and yet that was too many days.  Megan had the suitcase to the car at least 3 different days ready to leave LONG before the day we were supposed to! They were far more interested in the character meetings than the rides, though.

Dad & I have vowed we're not doing that again.

 Mag!c K!ngdom

An!mal K!ngdom

in front of the "Tree of Life"

Megan's dream vacation was to go to the beach, so we made the hour drive (after 4 days of D!sney) to spend the afternoon at Cocoa Beach.  Megan LOVED letting the waves push her..she could have spent the entire week at the beach and gave up D!sney she loved it THAT much!  Dad sat on the sidelines...acting as photographer.

The next vacation will be for a shorter period of time and much more relaxing (like the entire time on the beach!) as this was too busy for all of us!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to our first TRUE pumpkin patch this weekend.  We accidentally went to the wrong one, but we were blessed when we drove into the lot and were handed a wad of tickets for Megan to be able to get to ride on rides we would not otherwise have paid for.  Besides, everything was for charity, so the pumpkins we bought were for a good cause.

Megan riding in the swing.  She LOVED it.

I think she'll love our summer "destination"

(and yes, its still a secret...) 

 Try 1 for a pic.

Rachel was pissed I made her keep her glasses on.

Megan was making her traditional "silly smile" face

I'm sure Rachel will be very proud of THAT picture! LOL! 

Hopefully that will teach her. (yeah right!)

Rachel laughing at me telling Megan she was making a funny face.

Megan giving me a much better smile! 

Megan riding in the barrel train

We also had a hay ride which was fun!

Rachel

Since I'm so far behind on blogs...and I have so much I'd love to post, I figure I'll start with Rachel and some things about my beautiful teen.

She loves to take self-portraits...here are a few!

• She loves all things princesses...especially Cinderella.  She's OBSESSED with princesses.  I am SO SICK of princesses and princess movies.  Sigh.
• Her English has improved like you would NOT believe!!!  You can even understand her on the telephone now (something I was not able to do for a while).  She really is doing marvelously at English.  We're waiting to get the results from a test she took in early April that measured her English skills to determine her eligibility for ESL services.  They tested her in reading, writing, speaking and listening.
• She LOVES science.  In fact, she is doing so well in science that she is doing the same work that every other 8th grader is doing and she's doing well!  She's getting As & Bs.  In fact, she's doing well in math as well.  They do make some accommodations on word problems, but they have reduced the number of accommodations (at my request) in there and she's still doing well.  She's still struggling in Reading/Language Arts (duh!) and social studies as is to be expected.  However, she's very, very, very smart.  It can work in her favor in that she can do really well...but it can also work against (me!) in that she works the system when she doesn't want to do the work.  And sometimes she doesn't want to do the work.
• She loves dresses/skirts/girly-girly things.  She would love to wear make up, but I say no way. I do allow mascara and lip gloss, but nothing else.  She really does not need it...and she already looks so grown up, she really doesn't need it (besides its sometimes difficult enough to get out the door to school as it is!!!).
• Boys...she is NOT interested in boys at all.  And is the exact reason and argument I make for her not wearing any more makeup.  I'm very grateful she's not interested in boys...however, they don't feel the same way (and it drives her crazy that they are interested in her!).
• She loves to fix her hair.  Its not uncommon for her to fix her hair in at least 2 (or more) different styles (that I see!) before school.  On the weekends...there's no telling what her hair will look like after spending some time in her room! :-)  I suspect a potential future in cosmetology.
• We've figured out that she needs a lot of sleep.  So, bedtime for her is typically around 7:30pm.  We figured out that the amount of work her brain does to translate everything is tremendous.  When she doesn't get to bed as early, she will say that when she's in school the teachers just say "blah, blah, blah" and she doesn't know what they are saying.  However, when she has had enough sleep, she can understand what they are saying.
• She's loves mom time, but has really started loving time with dad, which is great.  In fact, we've moved to a period where she prefers to talk to dad about things over mom.  Kind of surprising, but I see this as a good thing.
• Rachel loves food.  In fact, there are no foods that she does not like.  Literally every meal she says "this is my favorite!"  Seriously.  Everything is her favorite.  We've had for the longest time problems with her overeating, which has lead to her gaining nearly 10lbs in the past year.  No, she's not overweight and we're not worried about that right now.  In fact, her having gained a little weight (while a pain that none of her clothes now fit!) makes it easier to find pants that do!  What we do want her to learn, however, is good eating habits.  We want her to know what are proper portion sizes as well as knowing that even though something tastes really good it does not mean that she should keep eating it.  I think--knock on wood--she's figured it out.  She's asking less and less for 2nd helpings.  And when she dishes up her own food, she's actually dishing up a reasonable portion.  I'm very proud of her progress in this area in the last few weeks.
• She also really, really, really loves sweets.  In fact, we don't typically have many sweets/candy/ice cream and this has been an issue for her.  So, we created "mom & dad's candy shop".  Since we have lots of candy from an Easter egg hunt at Megan's school and Megan's valentine's party, she can use her money to buy candy.  They are small, single serving helpings and she's learning how to decide how to manage her money as well. So, its a double positive here!!!
• I'm so not ready for her to be in high school next year.  And honestly, I'm not sure she is either.  But, she will be.  We hope that next year we will have moved because if we stay in this school she may just have to learn YET ANOTHER LANGUAGE.  I did not specifically ask, but to graduate from our high school students have to take either French or Spanish.  I would sure hope that ELL students would be exempt from that requirement...but common sense does not always rule here.  So, there is no telling.  Also, if we move to the district we want to, she may be able to take Chinese to improve her reading/writing of Chinese.  She's started becoming concerned with not remembering how to read/write Chinese.  I'm thinking the problem is more like there were a lot of words she NEVER knew how to read because her school was so horrible, but she's not at the point yet where I could say anything bad about the orphanage or about China. Yet.  One day she will, but its not yet.
• It depends on the day you talk to her, but she says she would like to go back to China as a translator.  Other days she wants to say in the US and do something else.  So, it's hard to say.
• Friends...this is one area she has really struggled with.  I think in China she was highly popular.  In America, she's "odd" and is not.  Its been a rough transition for her.  We had a very rough patch about Feb/Mar, but she seems to be handling it better when she realized she is not the only kid who doesn't have 100+ friends.  After we told her a million times--and she polled many, many people--she realized that people can be fine with only having a few people as friends in 8th grade.  Life has been better.

Okay, that's the most I can think of right now...I know there's many more things I can write about our teen...she's blossoming and overall doing fantastic.

Rachel is 14!!!

Rachel's birthday was Sunday. So she & I met her friend Hope (and her mom, Elissa) for an overnight birthday bash. Here are a few pictures...

My little model...we went into a little shop...she had to try on several masks. I see a trip to New Orleans in our future!

We surprised the girls with some "Qu-ah" dresses (as Rachel calls them). Both girls love to dress up, they were really excited and surprised with the dresses.

This one looks like they are waiting for their rides to pick them up.

What a princess.

Such precious BFFs

This was a favorite of both girls!

Rachel also got her ears pierced, something she's wanted to get done since shortly after she got home. In fact, the girls got them done together (although I think Hope wished she didn't because it hurt so badly!).

Rachel's First Day of School

Here is Rachel on her first day of American school. I had her dress in a little warmer clothes because she tends to always be cold and I was afraid she'd have enough distraction that I didn't want her to be cold, too. She came home telling me that her arms were hot, but her legs were cold. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but that's what she said. She's been wearing jeans but with short sleeved shirts. Overall, school is going well. The teachers have been fantastic. I've met with most of her teachers and all have worked with her (and me) to help us with her assignments and know what's going on. She doesn't know enough English to write down what the teachers say, but she will copy the assignments that the teachers write on the board. We spend anywhere from 2-3 hours a night on homework (UGH!), but we're managing. I'm hoping to meet with the ESL teacher this week to get some idea on what kind of modifications are supposed to be completed for her since she does not understand what she reads. Overall, though school is going well. We do have major hurdles let to overcome, however. And she's figuring out how to use the handheld translator in class with her assignments/tests. We're all navigating new territory and the learning curve is HUGE!

mid-August

Dang, I've been wanting to a better job of blogging...and again, the month is half over and I've not blogged. Shoot. Okay. Looking forward to the girls being in school so that I will have time to work on things like blogging! Geez. The days just FLY by!

I've been thinking about blogging...and all the things I've wanted to include. So let me post a few things that come to mind tonight. I teach a class next week, then Rachel & I start classes on the 22nd. Megan starts on the 29th. I'm not sure where the summer went. Sigh. But back to my list:

Megan

• She is reading at probably 1st or possibly 2nd grade level. She is instigating more and more reading opportunities. I'm not sure how much further she's going to be by the time she starts kindergarten. I'm scared to think about it.
  
• She's starting to express interest in math (Lord help me!). I've been dragging my feet so she has some sort of challenge in the future!!! Geez.
• She LOVES to build towers with blocks. As in she can literally spend an hour or more multiple times a day in her room building towers and pyramids with her alphabet blocks. I'm sure glad I didn't get rid of all of them!
• She's recently gotten into "decorating" her room (aka taking the bow hair clips and clipping them on her curtains, drawer pulls, picture frames, etc.) during naptime and/or in the morning after she wakes up, but before she's allowed to get up (before 6am)
• She's started asking for a clock in her room with hands so she can tell what time it is to get up (which she says is when "the hand is on the 6"...she determined that time...not us, but I'm good with that!!!).

Rachel

• Rachel's English is coming along. She's doing awesome! Its incredible how far she has come!!! She's doing amazing.
• She loves beautiful dresses (as in formal dress up clothes)
• She enjoys going to church and is making friends there.
• She loves crafts and drawing. She loves making bracelets with beads, especially.
• She hates to wear her glasses (Megan loves to wears her "just glasses"...still)
• She loves Americ@n foods especially pizza! She loves my homemade pizza--well, not MY truly homemade pizza as she's not had that yet--but there are various types of pizzas that we make at home that she likes.
• She's very excited about school...she'll be in 8th grade.

Okay, that's the best I can come up with at the moment...so I'm calling it good for the time being...I hope to update once classes start next week!

Recognition

When you adopt internationally, it is advisable that you readopt or have your international adoption recognized domestically. There are some states that do not give the same rights and priviledges to internationally adopted children as they do domestically adopted or biological children. We held Rachel's on Friday.

We were are after the very sohrt ceremony

The entire clan of support plus the judge in the background

July???

Oh boy, again, I am horribly behind on postings. We have been so busy. There were a couple of weeks in the past few that we had one or more appointment a day. Most were doctor/dentist appointments. We have Rachel going to youth group on Wednesday night (which means I go as well). We try to squeeze in a few water play dates with some of Megan's friends in there, too. We've been spending a lot of time working with Rachel on school work. We primarily work on English and math. You would not believe that she's only been home for 2 months when you realize how much she understands. Seriously. Everyone comments on it. She has a much more difficult time speaking English, but she understands a lot. When there are words she is trying to say, she often will spell it...yes, she can spell A LOT of basic English words. She really is SO SMART (2 smart girls...this could mean double trouble for us!!!!). We've worked really hard on pronunciation as well and many words she says are really clear. We had to have a "discussion" earlier this week about working on school-work. She really did not want to, and hasn't really wanted to much lately. But when she was reminded that she'll have 7 different subjects plus working on ESL and how many math topics she's not covered yet, she decided she was ready to work hard again. So, she's done really well this week. I've found some ESL games to help us that she likes. She does pretty good, but we've got a long way to go (of course).

Megan is in school 2 mornings a week during July. So we'll have a few more hours a week to seriously focus somewhat uninterruptedly. Hopefully we can make great progress in both ESL and math. That doesn't count the history and US geography things we need to learn (states & capitals, for example) to simply catch up. I know we cannot do it all...and it will just take time, but I want to be able to give her as much as I can before she is completely overwhelmed by just how much she does NOT know (that her classmates do).

The month went by so quickly...I swear I blinked and now its July. We're taking family pictures tomorrow...hopefully I can get some posted tomorrow.

Witnessing Trust

We've taken Rachel to our (fairly new) church the last several weeks. I wanted to get her plugged into the youth group, but really did not know what they did and when. I talked to the youth minister a couple of weeks after we got home about getting Rachel involved. So, about two weeks ago, we took her to the middle school youth service. The church has a "mini" service for the youth where they have a "get to know you" game, sing some songs, then someone leads a lesson or sermon on a topic similar to what the pastor is teaching on then they break into small groups to discuss further. This "service" (called Cultivate) is during the service we typically go to. I've gone with her and will continue to do so until she feels comfortable going by herself. With summer starting, however, they will only have Cultivate every other week. However, they are doing a study on the Proverbs on Wednesday nights. Since she cannot read the questions (yet), we've done the homework together (I as well as her). They do the homework before they come (works in OUR favor!), then we discuss it in age and gender specific small groups (brilliant!). So this week's lesson was on Prov. 1-4. The questions are hard. They are hard for adults, but they are about growing in the Lord and the knowledge of His Word. Its a great study for me, in fact. The group was only 3 middle school girls, 1 newly graduated high school senior and an adult facilitator (well, and me).

Anyways, so we're looking at Proverbs 3:5-6 which are my favorite verses. The Message translation says them best "Trust God from the bottom of your heart, don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track." Awesome, uh? So, the question was asked about what areas do you struggle with fully trusting in God. In my attempt to have her answer the question, she simply said you just do it. Easy. I spent some time thinking about the verses and her answer. It made me realize that whenever it was that she came to know the Lord (I have get to find out when that was), she has had Him to trust in. She trusted He would bring her a family. That her family would love her for her and love the Lord as well. She's had few (if any) adults she could trust in her life since she's never had parents (that she remembers). It made me realize just how amazing she is and even with the incredible losses she's had in her life, how innocent and complete her trust in God truly is. And how amazing our God is. He cares for an orphan, watches over them and keeps them safe then answers her prayers for a family that loves God.

I think of those times while we were waiting to bring Rachel home where I would call or text my friend, Stacey, asking if we were on the right track. I felt like this was just too much. The obstacles kept popping up. The fear of what we were doing to our family, our Megan, our marriage. And she would always encourage me to keep going. That this was an opportunity to share the gospel to special girl. I always knew she would assure me that we were on God's path and to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And to think she would be such a witness of God's faithful and trust in God. It blows my mind.

The past week...

Honestly, I'm not even sure what to write. Crazy. The last 2 weeks have gone so fast. I guess that happens when you have 2 appointments a day! Rachel has been to the pediatrician, dentist, eye doctor, and pediatric cardiologist in the last 2 weeks. Then Megan had an appointment with the pediatrician, the dentist and the play therapist. I went to the dentist. Rachel, Keith & I all got haircuts. Then Megan's birthday party last weekend (why in the WORLD did I think it would be a good idea to have it the week after we got back? Stupid. But at least it was not at our house, I did have some sense at the time). Oh, and we had our first post-placement home visit. See why I've gotten no blogging done? Yeah. Crazy.

Rachel is healthy, the cardiologist was just to ensure everything is well (and it is). She & Megan are having so much fun together. It seems like they've kind of gotten into a "groove" with each other. They really do get along well and are getting to know each other. Rachel is so social. She does spend some time in her room, but she's spending more and more time with all of us in the living room. DH mentioned yesterday he thought her English had improved and it has. In one week. She is saying things more clearly. She is also attempting more words. It seems like she is doing better at understanding as well (as long as we don't talk TOO fast). She seems to enjoy most of the "normal" foods we prepare, although we are making a lot of rice (we went through 5lbs in one week!). I finally got the congee recipe the way she likes it. Congee is basically over cooked rice (Megan would never eat it). She does not like it with just water, she likes it with very salty chicken broth. I tried it 3 different ways before I finally got it right. And she happily stated "I very, very, very, very like" after the first bite. I didn't think I would EVER get it right (she probably didn't either)! There a few chinese type dishes that we have always made that are very popular with her as well. But, overall, she eats most everything (wait, she did not like my fried rice!). And she's asked for pizza at least 3 times this weekend! I guess she likes pizza (she fits in well!).

DH goes back to work tomorrow. Its Megan's last week of school. I thought she was done last week, so I scheduled yet another appointment for tomorrow afternoon. So, that could be very fun (not!). I guess I should update on sleep. Megan continues to fall asleep by herself at night and sleep all night by herself. (YAY!) Naptime is a little more tricky, though. If we think she can make it until bedtime without a nap, we let her "rest". However, more times than not since I've been home, she's really needed a nap. So, we tell her that we are going to rock her to sleep (takes about 10 minutes), then she can "rest". (She has slept anywhere from 2 to 3 hrs and us waking her up.) Resting really means that she stays on the bed, but has a whole list of rules (that are repeated at bedtime). The rules are: no making a tower, nest or fort with the pillows & blankets on the bed; no getting off the bed; no taking things off the dresser; no taking off your shirt (that typically happens within the first 5 minutes no matter what); and no taking off your socks (we actually have stopped putting them on her b/c they are usually starting to come off before we leave the room!). The rules have continued to evolve as she attempts different things. For example, it used to only be "no tower" on the bed, but then one day she made a "nest" so that was added. Then a few days later she said she made a "fort", so that one needed to be added as well. She is so funny. She can recite the rules, but always wants us to repeat them again before we put her in bed.

That's the best I can do tonight...I'm sure there's tons more that I should be mentioning, but its completely escaping me right now.

Thursday travels

Well, I can't believe it's already Tuesday. Man. Time flies fast when you sleep so much! Rachel has been taking a 3-6 hr nap every afternoon. I've been napping about 2-3 hours every day. Yesterday, neither of us napped. Rachel fell asleep at 4:30pm and I couldn't wake her to skype with her friend, L, at 7pm. She ended up sleeping all night. I fell asleep on the floor about 6:15pm, I just could not keep my eyes open! I did get up and skyped L to say Rachel was not waking up, even though I tried multiple times. L was very disappointed (as was Rachel this morning!), but I think her parents helped her understand that we are still recovering from traveling.

Okay, to let me start with getting up Thursday about 6am (China time...5pm Wed home time). I had worked on most of the packing the night before, so I was in pretty good shape to meet our guide at 10am. In fact, we got out of the room a little early as I was hoping she would be there early (but she wasn't). We loaded up and headed to the airport. I again asked the guide to explain to Rachel what was going to happen...that it was going to be a VERY LONG day of traveling. She was very excited to meet DH and Megan. We left Guangzhou a little late, so it was close to 1pm. Of course Rachel kept telling me that she was hungry. I could do absolutely nothing about it as she did not want a clif bar. They finally were able to serve lunch around 2pm or so. By then Rachel was famished. We got to Seoul about 5pm local time. Our flight didn't leave until 8pm, so I figured we needed to get Rachel something to eat besides she said she was hungry. We got some KFC (which was an interesting experience as well as it was upstairs several gates down from ours), but she didn't hardly to eat anything. I was not hungry at all, and we ended up throwing most of it out (unfortunately). We got to the terminal for our departing flight and Rachel was so nervous we were going to have a seat as the flight was full and she kept seeing all these people lined up to get on the plane yet we were not lined up yet. I don't know how many times I had to say "its fine. We will have a seat." I had gotten some water for the flight (you can never have too much water!), only to find out after we went to get on the plane that we had additional security to go through and we could take no water on board. Man, a never opened bottle of water went into the trash. What could be more frustrating???

I should back up and tell you that when we checked in at GZ, we found out that Rachel & I were not seated together. The attendant suggested I check at the gate to see if they can move one of us and get us together. Well, they could not. There was not one seat open on the flight. As we were getting ready to board, I started praying that someone would be kind enough to switch with one of us so we could sit together. In fact, the attendant who I had talked to was the one who scanned our boarding pass to get on the plane. He said "I sure hope you can switch seats" as he scanned us in. I just said "yes. me, too". Okay, so we get on the plane. There was a lady sitting by herself in row 38 (one was us was 38, the other 36). I explained to her the situation and asked if she would move. She didn't entirely understand what I was asking, but eventually she agreed to move. Whew. She even moved her luggage in the overhead space (yes, just 2 rows up...but same seat "B"). So, I was thanking God for answering our prayer. The man sitting by the window came, so we got up so he could get into his seat and suddenly the lady is back, saying she is supposed to sit in that seat. She squeezes past both of us and sits down. At this point, Rachel is very confused. I'm ticked. I asked an attendant to help me as she had agreed to move. The attendant attempts to ask her to move again, and she just got rude. The attendant--trying to get the plane off the ground on time--asks me if we can just sit in our assigned seats and she would help us change when we got off the ground. I absolutely insisted that she tell Rachel in Chinese. Well, she didn't know Chinese and she wanted us to just sit down. My mama bear came out and I said, you need to get someone over here to explain to her in Chinese that we are not going to be separated the entire flight. Everyone around us was watching the interchange as I was NOT going to do it until Rachel understood it was not the entire flight. Finally, a young lady sitting the row 37 said she would explain it. While at the same time, I asked the attendant if she would ask the man sitting in 36C if he would be willing to move to 38C (my seat). He was an older gentleman and he said that was fine. So, we got to sit down together. And I prayed blessings over that man many times on that flight! After we got off the ground, the attendant came and asked if I was satisfied with where we were sitting. I said, yes, we're sitting together and that's what I needed. By the way, Korean Air ROCKS!

I could not sleep on the flight. I was hot. Rachel was cold, of course. (She had 2 shirts, a sweatshirt and 2 blankets on.) I just could not get comfortable long enough to sleep much. I think I maybe slept 30 minutes. Rachel was able to sleep quite a bit, so that was good. I watched C0untry Str0ng (great movie!), True Grit (also very, very good!), Gulliver's Travels (okay), The Kings Speech (awesome!) and The Black Swan (very, very weird--and I sure wished I could have had that 2 hrs back!). By the time we landed at LAX, I was beyond exhausted. I figured LAX would be bad, but I honestly did not think it would be THAT bad. Let me just say that I will NEVER fly through LAX internationally EVER AGAIN. Ever, ever, ever. I don't care how much more it costs me, I will not do it. We waited well over an hour to get through customs/border security. Once I gave the agent Rachel's "brown packet" (aka her immigration/adoption paperwork to make her a citizen), he told us we needed to go down to the new immigrant section, but he only vaguely pointed in the general direction of where we needed to go. I would guess we were on row 40 or 45 or so. So, I walked down to about row 20 and stood there waiting to ask the agent where the new immigrant line was. Well, the agent who helped me was going on break (or something) and he says something to me about why I was standing there, then directs me to row 1. I get down to row 1, the guy literally squeaked out TWO WORDS: "sign here" to Rachel, then stamped her fingerprint over her name. Then he said, you can go get your bags and come back. Okay, well, considering our bags had been sitting out there for well over hour, I honestly had no idea where I supposed to be looking for my bags. I started looking on one carousel where it said the bags were from Korea. Well, they weren't there. I finally asked an airline staff member "what if we can't find out bags?" He asked what airlines and directed me to the right area. Good. Bags gotten. We went back to the "new immigrant" area. There was another agent there as well this time. He grumps something about "stand in that line" to us. So, we stand there...I could see the first man was working at the computer right in front of where we were standing, but it became evident very quickly that this line was for the signature and fingerprint, which we had already done. When it came to our turn, I just said "we've already done that part. This man is working on our packet." He growls (literally) back, "well, SIT DOWN!" I--being tired--say "well, no one said anything about sitting down. How was I supposed to know?" The guy working our packet then waves us over to him (about 20 seconds after Rachel sits down). He again says nothing, but hands us her passport with a piece of paper shoved in it. I guess we were done and asking them to be helpful or even the least bit friendly was too much to ask. Geez.

Okay, so customs/immigration done. Next we had to wheel our bags out through yet another layer of security. I'm not exaggerating when I say that line we were standing in was at least half way across the terminal. And there were 2 other lines equally as long. Sigh. It took another 15-20 minutes to get out of THAT line and out the "door". Somehow we were supposed to know that this exit was to go both outside and to re-check our domestic bags. Yeah. Right. I asked the agent as she handed me our passports back...she also grumped "yes. to the right." Nothing was marked and I was scared I was going the wrong way...because once you get out, there's no turning back! Well, we hurried up the ramp and around the corner. I did find a nice AA staff who helped us with our boarding passes (they reprinted them...I don't know why), got our bags on the belt and then told to out the door and to the right. Well, there were 2 sets of doors...and I wasn't sure if we were supposed to go outside of what. Eventually we figured it out...to the next terminal--in the next building. We got into the next terminal building to see (literally) the security line upstairs again half way across the building and snaked around on the other side. I couldn't believe it. Oh my gosh. So, another 45 minutes before we got through that line. I'm so tired at this point. Rachel is people watching (who can blame her!) and lagging several steps behind me the entire time. By this time its already after 4pm and our next flight was boarding at 5:35. I was a bit stressed thinking, how are we going to get through this line that fast? As we got closer to the security area, I tried to explain to her that she's going to need to take her shoes and jacket off. She kept saying "no". I kept saying "yes". I was in no mood to try to negotiate with her. When it was finally our turn, the agent was trying to be all smart asking me if she spoke Chinese (what do you think, idiot? She young, has a Chinese passport, and an IR-3 visa at that meaning she becomes a US Citizen when we land in the US). Then he says "ni hao" (hello in Chinese) so poorly even I could not understand him! And something else and I never did figure out what the heck he was saying (but I think was "shay shay" (aka thank you))...Rachel's looking at him like "what are you talking about?" Anyways, she did take the coat & shoes off, reluctantly. It was 5pm before we got on the other side and I got some coffee. I tried to explain to her that in the US, they do not feed us on the plane. She kept saying she was not hungry. I kept trying to say, we need to get something to eat. I knew what was going to happen...she was going to turn to me shortly after we boarded and say "Hungry" and there was nothing I can do about it. So, I got her to get some pringles (for $5!) and a she picked a pepsi to drink. I didn't think she'd drink it all, but I wasn't up for a fight. So, I drank my coffee, she had some pringles and then we boarded the plane. Sure enough, about 10pm she says "hungry". I offer the clif bar I have, she says "no"...and I just said there is nothing else I can do.

I had prayed that God would give us a great tail wind and we'd get in early. Thankfully, he answered my prayer and we got in about 20 minutes early. DH had just gotten to the airport and was shocked when I called him and told me we were already here. We got our bags and were home by midnight. My awesome friend, Stacey, had come to stay with Megan while DH came and got us. She was so kind to bring Rachel some pjs--washed and ready to wear--as I had realized on the way home that I didn't have any at home for her at all. What a relief that I didn't have to go digging in our bags to pick out a dirty pair of pjs for her put on! I got Rachel situated in her room (she was stoked to get to sleep in her own room!) and got to bed myself. It was about 12:30 when I crawled into bed. ah.

I came home to a new Megan! Seriously. We had started a few new things to help her sleep shortly before I left, and I think they helped her while I was gone to not completely freak out. In fact, within a few days of me leaving, she had started sleeping all night by herself. And before I came home, she started going to sleep by herself! So, I came home to sleeping in the same bed with DH all night for the first time since we got Megan! What a special blessing to come home to!

So, as you can tell our travels were loads of "fun", but we are home. We're all adjusting. I'll write more that later.

We're home

We made it home...I think we walked in the door about 12:15am on Friday morning. Both Rachel & I are still dealing with travel fatigue, time zone change and jet lag. The family is still getting used to each other, but things continue to go well.

I'll post more about our flights another time. I also have more pictures to share...in a few days, hopefully.

Hotel Pics--Sat AM

Some pics....view from the hotel window. The Chinese World Trade Center is directly across the street and the view from my window.

I'm so far behind!!

There are so many things that I've taken pictures "for the blog" and so many things Megan is doing that I want to get on here. But quite literally, every week since July I've had something demanding my time. The dissertation took up June, July, August, September and most of October. The end of October was our first garage sale. Then the beginning of November we had a Scentsy fundraiser which lasted until mid-November, the BBQ Bash, then it was Thanksgiving...followed by graduation (and mom & Katie's visit)...followed by Christmas. Then I taught a class the week after Christmas. Then January...which was spent getting ready for a consignment sale, and spring semester starting. February held play dates for Megan and the consignment sale. March was again, teaching another one week class, faculty meetings for me, a lot of over-time for Dad and the March garage sale with a little travel preparation sprinkled in. Then Monday, April 4th, we received approval to travel! This past week has meant airfare decisions/purchases, shopping for clothes for Rachel and some packing. Of course, the semester is not over for me, yet. So, I've been grading papers, reading discussion board posts as well as keeping up the house--make that catching up on the housework from a whirlwind few weeks!

So, at this point, I'm leaving for China on April 21st and getting Rachel on Easter Sunday! What a sweet surprise. Ian was born was Easter Sunday and Rachel joins our family on Easter Sunday! It fills my heart with joy. I'll come home May 5th. I don't know any additional details, but Dad will home until May 23rd. I know we will enjoy having him home those weeks! And I plan on blogging while traveling...I'm hoping to find time! :-)

New picture of Rachel!

China is known for having strange backgrounds for referral pictures...I guess this is her orphanages! So I see a future model??? :-)

Being Real...

Maybe some are wondering why we have opted to adopt from China again. And maybe even more some are wondering why we have chosen to adopt a teenager from China. I have had people ask me “why not adopt a teenager from here?” And maybe others are wondering the same question.

There are many reasons why we feel this child—YangLan (soon to be Rachel)—is the child we want to bring into our family. First, we do not want Megan to be the only Chinese person in our family. Why does this matter to us? Well, sometimes adopted children feel like they are “different” because they are the only one in their family who does “fit” or doesn’t look like someone else. Does that mean Megan will feel this way? No, but she might. And we want her to have someone who has a similar heritage as her in our family.

Second—and potentially most importantly—is Rachel’s age. See in China, on an orphan’s 14^th birthday, they “age out”. They are no longer eligible for services and can no longer live in the orphanage. For a child—age 14—who has lived in an environment where everything was done for them (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.), they have little to no survival skills. There are several different non-profits that offer programs at some orphanages to help children have a trade skill for when they age out. These trades may be ironing, laundry, computers, etc. And I would venture to guess that with the American child labor laws, few—if any—are able to work in factories. This leaves few other options for them to survive, prostitution being one of them.

We never expected to adopt from China again. In fact, back in 1998 or 1999 when I first felt called to adopt from China (and began praying for our daughter in China), I believed we only had one daughter in China. When we began the process to bring Megan home, I firmly believed we would only go back to China to visit—one day. However, since we got home with Megan, I’ve wanted her to have a sibling. With her continuing sleep problems, we really felt adding a child younger than Megan may not be the best solution for us. Besides, we are not getting any younger! I’m not sure if at my age I want to do the baby-thing again. I’m not saying starting to parent a child who has 13 years of history before us is going to be easy, but I’m going to venture to guess she’s sleeping through the night! LOL. However, once we truly discussed and decided to pursue an adoption of an older child, I realized all these years I have been praying for both Megan and Rachel. How amazing is God?!

I’ve also recently realized that most don’t know the story of Megan—well, the part I can share! When we shared with our friends and family that we were beginning the process to adopt from China, it was a little more than a year after Ian had died. Within about six weeks, God brought us over $21,000 to completely fund the adoption having done virtually nothing! Now, we had to wait for over two years to bring her home, but we never questioned whether we were on the right path because we knew this was God’s plan for at that time. This time, we are not questioning God’s timing because we know Rachel can’t wait much longer—she turns 14 in September! We are trusting He will handle the finances this time around, too! So, we are doing things like the ipad giveaway, selling hair clips, garage sale, consignment sales, selling t-shirts, applying for grants, working overtime, etc. to obtain the funds to bring Rachel home.

Introducing Rachel

First, if you have attempting to purchase raffle tickets for the ipad, I'm having some paypal issues. I hope they are resolved very, very soon.

Second, when we got home from our SD trip, we had a CD of pics of JiJie, who's American name will be Rachel. Here are a couple of our precious big girl. She looks so grown up in these pics. They were taken late August.