Let go of your ambitions. Come, let’s change the world. -St. Francis Xavier

We received our final travel arrangements today.  Thought you may be interested.

7/23 Off to Pittsburgh for the night before our 5:45am flight
7/24 Leave U.S. for Beijing. 
7/25 Arrive in Beijing 
7/26 Tour Beijing.   This will be our 27th Wedding Anniversary.  What a way to celebrate!
      Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong Tour, and Acrobatics show.
7/27 Tour Beijing. 
                Great Wall.
7/28 Depart Beijing for Zhengzhou 
7/29 Today we will meet our daughter.   
7/30 Today Dang Yu Qing will be officially adopted into our family
7/31 Free day.  Hopefully visit Kaifeng SWI
8/1 Free morning, official paperwork in the afternoon
8/2 Free day, receive Belle's passport
8/3 Leave Zhengzhou for Guangzhou 
8/4 Paperwork Party
8/5 Medical day.  Physical for Belle
8/6 Consulate appointment 
8/7  Receive Belle’s visa packet. Depart Guangzhou for Hong Kong for an overnight
8/8 Depart Hong Kong for the USA.
WELCOME HOME BELLE!

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” ― Henry James

It is amazing to see the girls re connect.  I'm not sure that is the right word because they walked into the rooms and acted like one of them had just gone to the kitchen and came back.  It seemed like a natural connection that had never been broken by mere distance.  But enough of my ponderings....

We started out on Sunday, in the rain.  Lovely.  And it rained, and it rained, and it rained.  It rained really hard at times.

By lunch we had sun peaking out.  We stopped for lunch in Walterboro, SC at a place called  Duke's BBQ.  And it was GOOD! It was 'Take Grandma after church' good.  

Between the rain showers we finally made it to Edisto.  

Our house wasn't ready yet and our friends either weren't there yet or weren't home so, of course, we headed to the beach. When our house was ready, we got there and unloaded.  Then discovered there was no a/c in our house.  We called and got a new house.  Poor Matt had just carried the last of our luggage up the stairs in the first house.  So he turned around and lugged it back down the stairs.  

We reconnected with our friends and had dinner together.  We decided we would go to the beach together the next morning.

Big brother Tom was a good sport while ALL the kiddos buried him in the sand.

Do you see his head in the upper right corner?

Happy guy!

Moms and dads with varying degrees of tan.

The girls had reserved times for pottery painting.  Serenity had to consult with Katie about what to wear.  She decided Justice Sparkles may be just a 'bit' overdressed,

The girls had a great time painting their ceramics. 

Crafts By the Sea 

Dinner that evening was at Whaley's  It was really good too.  It was a neat seafood joint.  Kelly and I went to town on the oysters.  They were some of the best ever.

After dinner we all came back to our house and just visited.  The evening ended with 'Uncle' Jason watching cute kitty videos with the kids.
Wish you were all here.

“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.” ― Jamie Tworkowski

I awoke this morning at 5:43 with something of a start.  WE LEAVE TOMORROW FOR EDISTO ISLAND!!!!!!  I was awash with both anxiety and excitement.  

Come on, admit it.  You guys think we are just a little nuts to be undertaking a week long beach vacation RIGHT BEFORE we go to China for two weeks on an adoption trip. I know you do because, truthfully, so do I.  But I have never been accused of being level headed and having a firm grip on reasonable and rational thinking.  I mean, honestly?  I'm a 46 year old women adopting a 19 month old baby! At a time plenty of friends are welcoming grandchildren, I am actively pursuing an tiny tot halfway around the world.  How rational and reasonable can I be?  But then again, I never want to be so level-headed and rational I miss out on the wonder all around me. I want to run headlong into life embracing the mystery and beauty of all it can be.

So why a week at a beach in South Carolina?  Actually this is a very important trip, for many reasons.  But the 4 biggest reasons are(in order of age):

1. Grace

2. Serenity

3. Katie

4. Madeline

Four little girls that shared their first months together.  Our Serenity has no known biological connections.  These girls share a history, a story.  Serenity calls them her "China Sisters".  I love that.  This trip is a chance for them to all reconnect and nurture the bond they share.  Now on the cusp of double digit age, it involves lots of giggling and squealing. But it is all good.

And the parents?  Well, let me tell you, Oy the support!  It is so special to share something so precious and intimate as those first moments with your child.  When we first started thinking about adopting again, these were some of the first people we talked to.  When we were considering which special needs we were comfortable with.  Boom, text Kelly. Noreen was quick to offer to help us with adoption travel since she works for a major airline. Think Belle may have Thalassemia, Michelle is in the know since she is 1. a pediatric nurse and 2. has two kids with different forms of Thal. I mean how awesome to have that kind of support?  

And the dads, well the dads do what dads do.  The joke and guffaw and love being crazy uncles to the kids.  Jason makes sweet tea, Don cooks low country boil, Jim and Matt love to talk sports. And Jim has helped us arrange our trips to and from China.  

Every year we laugh about the same stories.  The nervousness at meeting the girls, the hallway parties, Dean eating squid, McDonalds, Chinese hot dogs, the trip to the zoo.  It is a reunion in every sense of the word. 

And to add to the fun?  There are now 3 'to cute for color tv' Chinese little brothers thrown into the mix.

The first thing I said when I found out that our consulate appt was Aug 6 instead of July 31 was, 'Well, God must think Serenity's reunion is pretty important too.'  Hey! Who am I to argue?  

"The dandelions and buttercups gild all the lawn: the drowsy bee stumbles among the clover tops, and summer sweetens all to me." - James Russell Lowell

Ok try not to be to surprised.  I love Summer.  I love most everything about it. 
July is especially precious to me.  We have so much to celebrate in July.  We have anniversaries and birthdays.  It is great. 
This year marks:
9 years Serenity has been in our lives. 
2 years Nikki has been officially part of our family(She and Dean were married July 9, 2011)
10 years Serenity has been on this Earth
27 years Matt and I have been married
77 years Poppy has been on the planet.

For those of you keeping score at home, Matt and I were married on Poppy's 50th birthday.

This year we will add Belle's adoption celebration to the calendar.
See why I am loving July?
By way of official celebration for the first two on the list we took a family outing to Dave an Buster's.

I got a little choked up when I thought about the fact that this will probably be the last meal we have together for several weeks.  And the last meal we will have as a family of 7. 

I love to have all three of these guys together.  They are so funny.  I can't believe how grown up they are now.  It seems like just yesterday.....anyway my favorite quote about parenthood is...wait this is good, you should probably write it down, go get a pen and paper.

"The days may be long but the years are short" 

 See I told you it was good.  Since I am sure you didn't get pen and paper(you know who you are) just cut and paste.

So Summer.....all to soon to be Fall....but that is a conversation for another time.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon. Martin Luther

I read a great deal online about adoption and parenting.  You know the old joke? 'Before I had children I had 6 theories on parenting.  Now I have 6 kids and no idea.'  Ya it's kind of like that.  But we do want to be prepared. Belle will be 19 months when we receive her.  Think back to when you had a child that age.  Now imagine what would happen if they were taken from everything they have ever known and had to re-adjust.  I can't begin to understand how scary it must be. 
People have been asking what we need. And what we and Belle need more than anything is prayer.  Pray for Belle.  That she will be as healthy as she can be for travel, and that her heart will be open to us and the grieving will not be too hard on her.  Pray for her caregivers, because I believe with all my heart, they love these kids.
I read this online about praying your first days home and I thought, if you were so inclined, you may like to read it. It is a nice template.
How should I pray?

Busy, busy, busy Professor Hinkle from Frosty the Snowman

Been a busy few days.  Between the usual activity at our house, Matt and I have had some trip planning to do.
Now if you know me at all you know I love to plan a trip.  It is kind of like a sport to me.  Researching and searching for the best prices and deals.  But this time, friends, it was rough.  I'm not sure why it was so much harder.  Maybe because there was less wiggle room for travel arrangements, maybe because there was so much at stake this trip but booking flights was tougher.  I spent 2 days looking for flights.  Let me re-phrase that.  I spent 2 days looking for flights to get home!  Getting to Beijing in no problem and were relatively inexpensive.  Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeesy.  Getting home? Not so much.  But I did find them and book them.
Then hotels.  Usually the agency books them but since we have been saving points on several hotel credit cards we wanted to use them to pay for our stays and to do that we had to book them ourselves.  This trip will involve 5 hotel stays.
1- Hotel airport the night before our 5:45 am flight paid for with cc reward
2- Beijing hotel tbd by agency so we are not sure yet which hotel it will be
3-Zhengzhou (and this is the important one because this is where we will be for our first days with Belle)
    Crowne Plaza Zhengzhou
Paid for with cc rewards
4-Guangzhou for the American part of our adoption
   China Hotel Guangzhou
  Paid for with cc awards
5-Overnight in Hong Kong for flight home! I'm still working on that one!
And those are just the travel arrangement!  The agency is booking all our in country flights.

Is your head spinning yet?  Ya, me too.  And that doesn't even begin to take into account the things we are doing in the house to prepare for our latest blessing.

And can I tell you?  It is all so amazing.  It's just a different kind of labor.  Just my way of bringing my daughter into my world.

I don't care how much money I gotta spend, Got to get back to my baby again The Boxtops

We heard from our agency.  Consulate appointment is set for Aug 6.  Counting backward, we get Belle July 29, and we head East July 24.

As much as we want to get to Belle as soon as possible it works our well.  Serenity gets to see her "China Sisters" at the annual reunion that takes place from July 13-20.

So a week at the beach, 2 weeks in China, sounds like a plan.