introducing

she's here!!!!!  our miracle, sarahjoy makiah, is in our arms and she is everything we prayed for.    after waiting for what seemed like an eternity today, we drove to the civil affairs office, walked up a flight of stairs, into an empty room and there she was, sitting on the bench with her nannies waiting for us.  she was with several other children from the orphanage but I knew just who she was.  and of course, she was by far the cutest one!   we didn't notice till later but of all things, what was on her little pants?  GUNS!  she'll fit right in with our family.   we learned that in fact she has been in foster care for 2 years.  which is a huge blessing and completely unexpected.  she appears to be a happy, active little girl.  so different than lydia who didn't say a word to us, sarahjoy has not stopped talking since we got her.  and she wiggles and squirms just like a good old fashioned 2 year old!  this afternoon it was almost like she was frantic and couldn't stop moving – i don't know if that is her way of grieving or if she is just going to keep us hopping!    she is really, really tiny.  not necessarily short, but super tiny.   we put on her 6-12 month tights and they fit perfectly on her little 2 year old body.  the first few hours i felt like I was going to break her if I touched her.   she reminds me of a newborn in that she just doesn't have any fat on her.  she also appears to have something going on in her rib cavity around her heart.  i am not sure if that is just because she is so skinny that you see things you don't normally see on a little body, or if it is heart related, or something new that we don't know about.  at any rate, she is ours and we love her and we will weather whatever storms we have to.   we went to dinner tonight at the hotel's chinese restaurant (as opposed to the western food restaurant which was less than edible).  she ate and ate and ate and ate.   and then it was bath time  which she was not terribly fond of.   i have to be honest, it is a bit frightening how tiny she is.  the mommy in me is worried about her.  we knew that she was going to be tiny, but when you see her naked little body it is alarming.    after bath time, she ate some more.  she loves her some goldfish.   tomorrow we go to her orphanage to get her passport.  if she is as active as she was today, it could be an interesting trip!  i told eric that at times, i feel like a new mom – it has been so long since I chased after a 2 year old, fed someone dinner, changed diapers, and dressed a little person.  but hey, it will keep me young, right?   enjoy the pictures!

a letter

to my sweet sarahjoy, in just a few hours, you will be in our arms.  we have prayed for you for so long, it is hard to believe that our prayers will be realized today.  you will be our little girl.  you will have brothers and sisters, and a mommy and daddy.  you will have a family and you will discover love. it's our wedding day.  we have prepared for you and you have prepared for us.  we will come together and become one.  and we will promise to love you no matter what.  you will be ours and we will be yours, when life brings hardship and pain and when it is filled with joy and laughter.  God is our witness and today, we will be bound together as one family.  though we come from opposite ends of this world, after today, nothing will separate us.  we are together.  you are our princess.  you are no longer alone in this world.   i know that there may come a day when you wonder about your journey, when you question its rightness.  and when that day comes i will remind you of the miracle it took to get you here.  i will remind you of God's faithfulness to provide what we needed.  i will remind you of God's mercies to bring us together and his perfect plan for us to be your family. we will discover again, that God created us to be together. i will also remind you of your sweet cousin makiah.  and why your name is like hers.  i will tell you stories that will make us all laugh and stories of how God works in the hearts of little girls.  i will tell you the story of how she lives with Jesus now but will always be a special part of who you are. i will tell you the story of how her mommy and daddy, in the middle of their pain and sorrow, gave us the rest of what we needed to bring you home.  that pain and sorrow will come but in the midst, God's grace and love shines brighter.    you are almost ours.  in just a few hours the journey will have come to an end.  and yet it is just the beginning.  of new life, of new love, of new hope.   we love you.  and we can't wait to hold you in our arms. love, mommy

tomorrow, tomorrow, i love you, tomorrow

so.  we're here!  taiyuan (tie-u-an), china - the capital city of sarahjoy's province.  we flew in this morning (note: NO extra baggage fee!) and have spent the day hanging around and preparing for our little girl.  the hotel rooms is, well, a bit miniature.  so we have had to be creative in how to get all of our stuff in here and also be able to walk.  however, it does have a huge mirror that takes up the entire wall of the shower - not quite sure what that is for but it might make for some fun bath time with itsy bitsy.  taiyuan is a smaller city than beijing, a mere 15 million people.  we will receive sarahjoy tomorrow afternoon and officially 'register' the adoption.  then we will take her to datong (dah-tohng), her hometown, on tuesday to get her passport.  makes sense, except that datong is a 4 hour ride from here.  so she will come to us tomorrow via a 4 hour ride, and then we will turn around on tuesday and take her back (4 hours) and then return (4 hours) the same day.  our guide said the business we need to take care of in datong will take about 10 minutes.  seems seriously inefficient to me and downright tortuous for sj but oh well, we got to do what they tell us!  let's hope itsy bitsy likes sitting on laps and looking at books. eric and i are both feeling a lot different this time around.  i can't really put my finger on it - maybe it is simply that ignorance is bliss and so there was not nearly the aprehension with lydia as there is with sj.  we know a lot more of what the possible difficulties are, and beings that lydia was the absolute most perfect and easy adoption, i suppose we are anticipating that at least a few of those difficulties will come our way this go round. we are also all alone in taiyuan.  there are no other families with us - just me and the lover staring into each other's eyes all.day.long.  i am afraid come wednesday we will have run out of things to talk about!  it is freezing outside so we are sort of sequestered in the (miniature) hotel room.   we feel a bit isolated.  lonely.  disconnected from the outside world (NOTE:  we love comments on the blog!!!!!)  unlike last time when we were with 2 other families adopting from the same city as us, this time we are it.  no one to talk to, no one to share experiences with, no one to video or take pictures while we are getting sj, no other little girls to play with (or note how much cuter our little girl is than them...)  i feel a bit like a caged zoo animal with throngs of visitors staring at me.  so far they aren't throwing me anything good to eat (HELP!!!  get me out of here!  i need a diet coke with ice and fajitas from chili's!!!!!!)  however........................WE ARE GETTING SARAHJOY TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!   we are so excited.  a new daughter, tomorrow!!!!!!!   a new little sister, tomorrow!!!!!!!  we have been talking, praying, waiting for her for two years and tomorrow it will all culminate in being handed the little miracle we have been given by God.  it is a bit surreal but as i sit in our (miniature) hotel room and the (miniature) metal crib is right next to our bed it is becoming more and more real.  we have her toys set aside, her snacks put away.  her blanket folded in the crib and her dollies ready to receive some love.  tomorrow, exactly 24 hours from now, she will be in our arms.  wow.  i know i have said it before, but we are so thankful for all of you.  so many of you have contributed financially to this journey and for that we are eternally grateful.  we absolutely could not have done this without your help.  tomorrow, your investment will be realized.  i hope that in some sense you can feel the excitement.  and many, many of you have prayed for this moment.  your prayers are what have brought this miracle to fruition.  thank you, thank you, thank you.  i cannot wait to let you see our miracle in our arms. (and please note the serious lack of people in the pictures as well as the flag blowing straight out...did i mention it is FREEZING!!!!!!!  even 20 million people in beijing know better than to be outside.)

you may be in china if...

.....there are continual horns honking at all hours of the day and night .....being violently shoved doesn't even phase you .....the smoking section in the restaurant is larger than the non-smoking section .....the parking garage has a polished concrete floor and is immaculately clean .....there are noodles and red beans at the breakfast bar .....you ride a bike weaving in and out of 5 lanes of highway traffic .....every third car is a volkswagon .....high rise apartment buildings surround you as far as the eye can see .....you are from a small city, population 10 million .....the government controls whether you heat your house

summertime!

10 words to describe today… freezing frozen chilly bone-numbing sub-zero icy frosty bitter wintry arctic   so forgive the typos.  my fingers are still recovering from hypothermia.  as are my thighs and nose.   a full body snowsuit would have been appropriate for today.  our best educated guess was the temperature was around 10 degrees with the windchill well below zero.       however, we are strong, tough, and willing to sacrifice our appendages for a few good pictures and some memories.  so we ventured onward to the forbidden city, tiananmen square and the great wall with a stop at the olympic park.   i was thankful we had been to all three sites before as i was not exactly in the frame of mind to meander around enjoying the wonder of it all.  and we took far less pictures as my finger had a hard time even pressing the button.  eric forgot his gloves at the hotel so he bought some from a street vendor – i believe the word she used to describe him was 'stingy.'  pops would be proud of his bargaining skills.  and it gave our group a good laugh.   we fly out tomorrow morning to the capital of sarahjoy's province.  i met an adoption guide today who was from sj's city.  her description...'much colder than here.'  o yeah baby.  the long underwear and i are becoming fast friends.  in fact, they might be permanently stuck to me after the next 6 days.   should look great under a bathing suit this summer.    speaking of summer………….i could really use some about now.   **pictures are being very slow in their cooperation (probably because they are freezing)  so i will figure that out and have some more for you tomorrow!

china!

well...we're here!!!!!  we arrived safe and sound.  and boy, let me tell you that video monitors in the back of every seat is God's gift to the international traveler.  let's see, i watched 'little miss sunshine' and 'dinner with the schmucks', a few episodes of 'the office' a couple of 'hoarders', a biography of beyonce, and made it through half of 'eat, pray, love' before i decided i didn't need to follow julia on her quest to find herself.   a few naps thrown in there and some (uneaten and completely disgusting) meals served and we were here!   the trip truly was night and day from last time.  flying direct from newark was wonderful.  wondering if 14 hours on one flight is the longest around.  i suppose i could ask the jovial cast of pilots that are sitting with me in the wireless cafe, eating and drinking themselves into oblivion (lest we think gas prices are why airline prices are going up!)  but alas, they are deep in discussion of where the best bars are around the world.  so comforting knowing these guys are flying our friendly skies.      being in china is not nearly as 'weird' as it seemed on our first trip.  it almost seems downright normal.  like we belong here.  and..................make sure you are sitting down........................i ate a chinese meal for dinner.   or at least i did until i had something crunchy going on in my mouth and then the chopsticks were down for the count.  but until then,  i was enjoying some minced garlic/pork thing and pineapple rice.  i'll admit, it was actually pretty tasty.   and in case it had any calories in it, i am fairly sure they were all burned by me trying to use chopsticks.  no wonder the chinese are so small - who the heck wants to work so hard to get food in your mouth!  give me a fork for crying out loud!   eric is checking out the treadmills in the hotel.  we won't talk about how obnoxious that is that he would even think about exercising while we are halfway around the world.  i think that puts him in some sort of freak category.    tonight we are gunnnig for a good night's sleep.  i am hoping to make it till 8:00 before i hit the pillow and instantaneously go to dreamland.  tomorrow brings some sightseeing in beijing - great wall, olympic venues, tiannamen square, forbidden city.  we will be donning our long underwear and all other outerwear items we brought - highs in the 20's.  perfect weather for this beach girl spending all day outside! : )   thank you so much for your prayers.  i was truly at peace while flying and we are here safely.  eric and i are enjoying our time alone before we meet sweet sarahjoy.  of course, we are super excited and getting moreso by the hour, but i suppose the advantage to having 4 young ones at home is that we can savor the couple of days we have just the two of us.    so thankful for all of you.  we'll update tomorrow with some pictures!   and to my sweet kiddos..............mommy and daddy love you to pieces and miss you!!!!!!!  we went to a store today and saw a chinese wooden spoon but decided you all probably wouldn't want that for a souvenir.  : )  be good and have fun with grammy and pops and grandma!

test

just checkin' to see if this works!