Home Sweet Home!

We've been home two weeks now, and thanks to A LOT of help from friends and family, we are beginning to settle in nicely!  We were welcomed home with balloons, gifts, banners, as well as a clean house, a mowed lawn, countless meals, and even laundry done by very dear friends and family.  Thank you to all of you who have served us so sacrificially - we are incredibly blessed to live in such loving fellowship!

God was incredibly kind to us on our plane ride home, as it was smoother than I would have ever guessed.  Our very sweet rep, Jocelyn, took me to the airport and went all the way to security with me.  These women became such dear friends and helped us navigate everything from completing critical paperwork, to ordering our food for us.  We were utterly dependent on them at all times.  

While in the ticketing line, Jocelyn and I got into an interesting conversation about names and their meanings.  She was educating me about different chinese characters, and I asked her what Grace's Chinese name meant.  Apparently "Miao" (her first name) means "beautiful" and "Shan" means "graceful".  Considering we used Grace as her first name and Mei as a middle (also meaning beautiful) I thought that was pretty sweet.  I pressed a little further and asked what "Shan" meant - Reed's first name.  She responded, "Goodness, Kindness, or Blessed."  We choose the name Reed for it's meaning - blessed.  What a sweet gift from the Lord to discover this!

Our first flight was delayed for 3 hours, and we were fortunate enough to sit on the runway for the entire time.   That was perfectly fine with me as Grace was peaceful and then sleeping on my lap.  Upon our arrival to Shanghai, we collected our baggage and went in search of the American ticketing counter.  About 10 minutes after we arrived, I heard a voice say "Laura?".  I looked over, and it was Sun - the volunteer who had fallen in love with Grace at her foster home, and had been working with her since she was 4 months old!  He had no flight information for me, other than I was supposed to be in the airport 3 hours earlier.  The airport was easily twice the size of DIA and he had walked up and down praying that the Lord would lead him to us, which he did!

He very generously took us out to lunch in the airport, and he and his wife had made a beautiful book filled with pictures of Grace that he had wanted to hand deliver.  What a precious gift for us, and for her to have someday!

After he left, we let Grace run a bit, and found an IKEA playground to play on.  At one point a cleaning lady stopped and came over and just stared at Grace intently for quite some time, almost as if she recognized her.  When Grace would throw down a toy, she would smile and hand it back to her.  She hardly acknowledged us, although I greeted her in Chinese.  She just remained fixated on Grace.  I couldn't help but wonder - did she have to give up a baby at some time?  Is she wondering if Grace could be hers?  I knew the chances were slim, as we were so far from her birth city, and yet it made me wonder how many of these sweet women we'd met were grieving the loss of a baby they'd had to give up at some point.

So thankful for Mason!

Grace only had one serious meltdown, but it did last a good 20 minutes of full fledged yelling and screaming while strapped to me.  It felt more like an hour.  Unfortunately, we happened to be in the ticketing line and then customs, so we got LOTS of very unappreciative stares glares, as I know the fellow travelers were all hoping we weren't on THEIR flight.  One guy actually turned around and said "I hope you aren't sitting in 22E."  "Nope!" I replied in a rather sing songy way - "20E!".

We finally boarded our plane at 9:00pm and were fortunate enough to sit in the first row of economy with extra floor space!  After take off I spread a blanket on the floor and laid down with Grace while Mason got in one more episode of Captain America.  I'm not sure what people thought, but at that point I was so exhausted I really didn't care!

Our only hiccup was at LAX, as we had just over an hour to go through customs,  immigration, collect bags, re-check them, and leave the airport to go to a different terminal.  We probably needed at least three.  I'll spare all the details but God provided a wonderful lady from American who met me to tell me they'd help make arrangements for us to stay in Los Angeles overnight, as we couldn't possibly make our flight.  As it turned out, she wound up running through all types of security and stops with us and got us to our plane.  I told her just to leave the suitcases - I didn't care about them, just desperate to get to Denver!!  They closed the door on plane behind us and off we went - praise be to God!

What a welcome sight!!! 

Grandmas joined the welcome home committee!

It was so wonderful to get home and I've only had a few nightmares about being separated from my family since our return.  ;-)

The first week was spent trying to get over jet lag, which was absolutely horrific.  For all of us.  Those of you who stopped by can verify it's true.  ;-)  No sleep leads to fussy, crying babies (all day and hours of the night), and massive temper tanturms, which in turn had a domino effect on the other littles who'd been left at home, and a very discouraged mommy.  I'm trying to repress those memories.  I fondly nick named sweet Grace "Helen".  (Think The Miracle Worker)  As Travis said, the gospel is messy and so is adoption!  It's not for people just wanting to do something nice for children.  ;-)

3 am

6pm

At one point in the exhaustion I found myself feeling a bit frustrated.  Resentment was creeping in over selfish things - that I couldn't sleep in my own bed, make a phone call, or go to the women's breakfast at church.  But then God gently reminded me that I couldn't count the cost.  That laying down my life was what I was called to, and this wasn't about my comfort.  And most importantly, that love is NOT a feeling, as I wasn't always feeling terribly loving during that week.  The verse the Lord brought to mind was 1 John 3:16 - "This is how we know what love is - Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."  Nothing I was going through could compare to the pain Jesus experienced in shedding his blood for me.

Week two has been gloriously different - thankfully!  We've been to the doctor, ENT, and had our first home study follow up.  We've also had a friendly little fever/headache/vomit virus work it's way through the family, so we should be set for a bit.  ;-)  Both Reed and Grace are doing beautifully with their siblings, and their siblings adore them.  They've also gotten over their fear of the dog, and now like him, which is helpful.  Both have stopped screaming for the duration of our car rides.

Reed is continuing to blossom before our eyes.  He smiles and laughs, now has 3 words, has begun signing, and will wave bye-bye.  He's also gained 3 pounds and his night terrors have become almost non existent.  We give God all the glory!

Little Gracie is making tremendous strides as well.  Hers have not been so much developmentally, but emotionally.  She will go to Travis willingly now, and will snuggle and hold him.  She has also gone to sleep the past two nights without me rubbing her back or holding her hand!  I got to sleep in my bed for the first night.  ;-)

Next week we start up school, and Travis will head back to work.  This season of having him home has been bliss!  We seem to be staying afloat with two parents here full time and all the loving help we've received.   I asked Travis how we were possibly going to manage all of this (plus schooling and cooking!) with him back in school and work.  He said we are going to need extra grace from the Lord for sure.  It actually got me excited to see how the Lord will provide.  Stay tuned and pray for me if you think of it!  ;-)