Adoption Day - Learning Our Girl

Good morning little one. We have been doing this dance with you now for about eighteen hours. You are a sweet little girl. Eager to please. Even more willing to learn. And it seems like maybe you have a lot to learn.

Today, your orphan status will change to "Loved forever!"

Yes. Really. You will have a family to call your own.

I know the day didn't exactly start out the way we thought. Here is where we found you this morning. Maybe you fell out of bed but more likely, the bed was too soft for you and you were able to sleep better on the floor.

How frightened you must be although you have an excellent game face and haven't shown us much emotion. Yet.

Back to the Civil Affairs Office for two interviews and some signatures assuring

China that we will never abuse, neglect, nor abandon you. We promise.

Look at the shadow across her face. At one point Joy began to tear up. We quickly got our guide to tell her that we were not leaving her. I don't think she has any idea what is happening. Sure, she has a mommy and a daddy. But what in the world does that mean? She has no frame of reference. At all.

Hugs and kisses. Soft words and smiles.

It's all we can do for her right now.

The notary asked us, "Why do you want to adopt her when you have so many others?" Flustered is an understatement here. Operating on basically zero sleep, we left that hanging probably longer than we should have. "Because we love her? We want HER to have a family? We love children?"

Apparently our stupor and consequently our answers were satisfactory as we got a nod and a signature. We returned to the big room and waited for our guide to pay the fees on our behalf.

Joy MeiNi.

 

You are a Peterson.

 

Officially.

 

 

 

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Part 2 The Meeting - Where Hearts Are Joined

We spent about an hour in the meeting place.

 

Joy kept looking around. When we went to sit down, we put her on

the couch between us as she appeared to have a wandering spirit.

Bubbles? Do you know about these?

Here. Daddy will show you. He has had twenty-three years of practice.

A wonderful first step. She is willing to try whatever we ask.

One of my favorite pictures from today.

 

What emotions must be swirling deep down in those dark beautiful eyes?

 

She has absolutely no idea what is happening.

 

My heart is breaking for her.

 

One of the parts of older child adoption is grieving

for them until they learn to grieve for themselves.

The slinky was quite a mystery.

We had an opportunity to ask the Assistant Orphanage Director questions about our daughter. Honestly, we got the feeling he was making most of it up. No allergies, no doctors, she greets all the nannies, that is about it. They didn't allow her to do much physically because of her heart condition.

We asked for a picture. She called him Uncle.

Ah, China. I will always remember you for the two fingers. Peace baby.

Too many children have arrived at our home with the ubiquitous black bag. Joy's life in the black hole consisted of the gifts we had sent and two outfits from the orphanage which I believe was generous.

The source of the funny walk? Shoes that were ten sizes too big. The director apologized. He said she had sandals but they were not very nice and this is what they could find for her. It was all I could do to not take them off of her.

Joy seems to accept our affection.

 

We are wondering if she will cry.

 

When will she trust us with her heart?

 

With older children, we try to be respectful and let them take the lead.

 

 

Next post, I will let you know how it is going and what

we think we know after twenty-four hours together.

 

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Part 1 The Meeting - Where Hands Are Held

We were told to wait outside the playroom and they would bring her to us.

She was very interested in what else was going on in the room.

It was noisy and other children were crying.

Y

My first impression? She was bigger and thinner than I had imagined.

And she had a very odd walk.

Time freezes in these moments.

We just looked at each other wondering what to do next.

The assistant director who brought her pulled out the

photo album we had sent to explain who we were.

The room is large and maybe ten or twelve other families where meeting their children.

After we found a place to sit, she discovered the backpack.

The favorites were the flashlight and a toy that spins.

Joy has quite the cheesy show-my-teeth grimace type grin. She flashes it at absolutely everyone. At this point we are happy that she is not wailing like most of the rest of the room.

She commandeered the camera resulting in

a whole bunch of pictures that looked like this.

The girl may look like she is in total shell shock but she has a sense of humor.

I was ready with my list of questions.

I had a hard time thinking of things to ask.

 

We kept our expectations low which was hard because of course we are comparing this experience to meeting Joshua last year. But we have been richly blessed again with another seemingly easy going and happy child. Joy looked like she was in shock and there were a few moments when we wondered how connected she was. She reminds me a lot of Micah who always seemed like he was spacing out when in fact he was taking everything in and processing all that stimulation in his own way.

 

Goodness, what a brave girl. She had a five hour car ride this morning from her orphanage. Her world completely turned upside down and backwards when she left all the life she ever knew. Which seems like it was pretty limited.

 

Our physical worlds have joined together. We pray that our hearts will bind together as we fall in love.

 

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Transition

We have reached that magic stage of labor when birth becomes imminent. I assure you that our checkbook is fully dilated and 100% effaced.

And worth every penny.

Sure, we are changing Joy MeiNi's life for the better but the greater gift is ours.

Because somehow, I believe we need her even more than she needs us.

Birthing children in any form is life-changing like that!

Touchdown. China style!

We made it safely to Guangzhou and were waved through customs. The three people in front of us were not, so that left us feeling like we must look pretty non-threatening after 30 hours of travel.

The Garden Hotel is indeed lovely. We have a fabulous skyline view out our window on the fifteenth floor.

Outside there are fountains with ravenous fish who follow you around.

Joy will enjoy feeding the fish, I'm sure.

We made a trip to the convenience store for extra water and got the lay of the land.

Guangzhou is a city of twelve millions people.

We toured the fourth floor and saw this bed calling our name next to ...

The pool. I hope Joy will enjoy the water.

After the tour of our surroundings, we hit the proverbial wall and had to go lay down. Bob slept for a few hours but I popped back up after the fog cleared to start unpacking and to get organized for our 2:30 appointment.

We pulled it all together and were nervous, excited, and ready to meet our daughter.

With traffic at a standstill, we were the last of many families to arrive at the Civic Affairs building.

She is everything we hoped she would be.

A pure and lovely gift from God.

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Late Night, Early Morning, Here We Go

Around 11:30 pm , we decided we had better start packing some clothes before we ran out of time as the alarm was set for 3:30 am. By 1:01 am, we were officially ready to go to China. Two suitcases and a couple of hefty carry-ons filled to the brim including markers, a tea set, stuffed animals, and play dough. Packing for little girls is hard! Boys are easy. If Joy doesn't like to color, we're in trouble.

3:30 came quick and required a wake up shower with a shot of coffee. All was on schedule until....

Crocodile tears dripping from a certain little Chinese boy's face at 4:15 appeared on the scene. That was more than this mother's heart could take. Safely tucked in mommy and daddy's bed with a sister close by, he managed a very weak smile.

It is HARD leaving. It just is.

What a guy! Semi-awake at 5:00 am.

Yep, that's me wearing the same thing as last year. If I am going to spend 28 hours in the same clothes, I intend to be comfortable, sacrificing style all the way!

Grandpa and Jerrod are the best chauffeurs.

On time, putting the pedal to the metal after the crocodile tear delay.

Today is car, bus, plane, and even train!

Good-bye Boston! See you in about twelve days.

During our four hour layover in New York, we toasted our journey to Joy. Ahem, kids that is apple juice. Uh, no not true. Actually it is fortification for the next eighteen hours with 300+ of our potential new friends. That's what strangers are, right?

Made it safely to Hong Kong and while you all are greeting the Lord's day, we are awaiting the last leg of our trip to Guanzhou, China. Amazing that in less than twenty four hours we will be meeting our new daughter. Surreal.

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A Stitch In Time

Cora's hand had a run in with some scissors.

Resulting in a few stitches which have now fallen out.

Who was on the other end of the scissors?

A brother.

Accidents happen, now don't they?

Posted From My Ipad which is what I'm thinking about taking to China instead of lugging my big old laptop. Ha, how times have changed.....who knew a laptop would be big and clunky?

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