Lots to Celebrate!

The last few weeks have been filled with busy fun crazy days! We spent a few weeks driving all over while the 7th and 8th grade bball teams at Peoria Christian Middle School both went to state! We went to the games because Piper was cheering and they were a lot of fun!

On February 9th Mack turned 2! That night we went to a bball game for Piper and ate Chinese, then on the 13th we had all the family over for cake and ice cream. He is doing so well, talking and so happy all the time. I can't believe 6 months has passed. It has made a huge difference in his confidence and security.

Also Cole and Piper had their birthday this week. Cole's 18 and Piper's 14! Time flies. They are all doing great. We are getting ready to celebrate our first high school graduate. He is amazing and I am so proud of him. He is so smart and responsible. I Can't wait to see what his next step will be!

Four Months Home!

It seems ridiculous, even to me, that I have not posted anything in 4 months! Honestly where has the time gone - and yet it feels like an eternity since we've been home. I will just give a short recap. The first few weeks were a blur. When we came home my 89 yr old Grandmother was very ill and ended up passing on Sept. 28th. It was a very hard week. My parents were by her bedside in Iowa and we were at home, sleep deprived and jet lagged and wondering when and if we should visit. We did finally visit a few days before she died. I was able to let her know I got home safely and she met Mack. So did my dad who hadn't seen him yet. A week later I was with all my dad's family celebrating my Grandmother and enjoying each others company. The next few weeks consisted of earning Mack's trust and helping him and Luke get along. Mack is like a little tornado at age 22 months, it doesn't take much for him to destroy something. Helping him learn the boundaries at home took alot of time too. But, as the weeks went by everyday got better and better. Thank you so much to my friends who stepped up while my mom was gone and sent meals, gifts and took Luke! I really appreciated it!

Now it seems we've gotten over the hump! The boys are getting along so much better and the trust factor between Mack and each one of us has improved alot. He had surgery on Jan. 3 (circumcision and hydrolectmy) and unfortunately for him every time he goes through something hard it is a great bonding moment for us! We love him so much and have enjoyed his little personality emerging out from behind a very cautious little boy! He is loving and thinks Luke is so great. He mimicks everything he does. But, I must say the busyness has been difficult for me. I have had to really buck up and realize this is a temporary time in my life and God has blessed me with the chance to spend time with, and create a loving home for these little guys. I don't do it in my own strength though... the Lord has motivated me to put my own personal desires aside and spend time with them right now! Seriously they are fighting right now and I wonder why I haven't done this before now :) Ugh!

We had Mack dedicated on Christmas by my Uncle Tom. It was special to have my sister's family and cousins from out of town. His 2nd birthday is Feb. 9 so that will be the next milestone! We are so happy he his part of our family! Yea God!

Home Sweet Home!

It's Missy.. we have been home for 24 hours now and it's starting to feel "normal". I mean physically speaking. I was up at 3 and Mack was up at 4:30. We both took long naps. Hopefully tonight will go better. But, to back up a little this is how our trip home went.

Wednesday evening at 7 we boarded a mini-van and headed to Guangzhou airport. When we got there we checked in normally, but starting through security we got hung up in a large crowd of people at a total standstill. No one was moving through the "wellness check", yes they could check you for fever and one of our travel mates did get checked, but that wasn't the hold up. Apparently there was some kind of problem and they weren't letting anyone through. We stood there for 2 hours with military police and all sorts of other authority types going through the crowd. We could tell they were taking pictures because there were flashes of light on the othe side of the wall. You know me...I had all sorts of things going on in my head. Ultimately we got in, through customs/immigration, sweating and running to our gate literally the last people on the plane. We arrived in Hong Kong at 12 midnight checked into a hotel attached to the airport at 1 and slept til 8am. When we woke up everyone was texting us pictures from Pumpkin Fesstival and we were wishing our way home! We left Hong Kong at 12:35pm and arrived at 2:15 pm the same day Thursday, Sept. 16th. 15 hours in the air and only two passed in time from getting on the plane and getting off the plane. The trip was fine, we couldn't sleep and Mack climbed all over Dave, but his demenor was good. He didn't scream alot and he did sleep 5 hours. When we got to Chicago we had to go through immigration and for us this is special because it is the moment Mack becomes a US citizen. Dave said he will write about this later. He hasn't been feeling well since we left China. We once again barely made our connection but once in the air it felt so good to almost be home! We were greeted by our dearest family willing to miss the PF and greet our little guy!:) Luke came running with a balloon for Mack and the biggest hug that brought tears to my eyes saying, "I'm so happy mama."

Today has been more getting to know each other. Mack is very fond of the older kids. He was only with them a couple hours last night but when they left for school he cried at the slidding glass doors waving goodbye. He and Luke have done well...Mack knows no boundaries so this is something we will work on. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouraging words to us while we were gone. It was so hard for this mom to leave 4 kids behind. Because my extended family is going through a hard time a lot of people stepped up to help my kids and I can't say words that would express my gratitude. More importantly I want to thank Cole, Shelby and Piper for being strong when things felt very insecure and for persevering when things got tough. You are all very responsible young adults and I'm very proud of you. God called our whole family to bring in these two little Chinese boys and you have embraced this calling sometimes better than me. When I feel insecure you all encourage me in different ways! Thank you!
We will keep posting as we learn new things about this new addition to our family.
Missy

Yes, I Cried!

Okay, I will immediately admit that I cried today. Of course, everyone in our group laughed about "my allergies" but even our Chinese guide new better and said, in perfect Chinglish, "No, no, Misser Nitch-uhl-sun, you kwy-ing". Today was the day we took the "oath" on behalf of Mack that allows him to be a legal immigrant and become a U.S. citizen. Actually, the "oath" sounds impressive but it is really just us raising our right hand, along with maybe 50 other families, to affirm that everything we have written about ourselves and Mack is true. So, it was what happened in advance, over the last 18 months (in our case) that really mattered. So, basically I begin crying when the gal said raise your right hand. I barely repeated a coherent word of the "repeat after me"--thankfully Melissa was the rock or else they might not let Mack in the U.S.

Backing up, we arrived at the U.S. Consulate after a 35 minute bus ride. You might have a picture in your mind of a stately mansion or government building surrounded by a tall fence protected by armed guards. Instead, imagine pulling up to a business office in the downtown of a moderately sized US city. Take a few escalator rides up about three levels, show your passport, walk through a metal detector, and you are in the immigration office of the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, Peoples Republic odf China. We then waited for about 30 minutes for an agent to say "CCAI (our agency), parents of Guo Yuhui, please go to window 23". The agent compared copies of our passports submitted with the immigration application to our actual passports just to make sure we were the real parents per China's records. I then signed one last document and we returned to our seat. After another 30 minutes, the adoption director of the consulate came out to speak to all the families. She, I believe, is an American of Asian decent, and along with her staff of about five people, they will process about 3,000 adoptions this year. About 65 per cent of the adoptions are for children with special needs. Other U.S. Consulate offices around rthe world process another 7,000 adoptions a year. A few years ago, the Consulate in China processed maybe 7,000 adoptions and only 30 per cent (or so) were special needs. So, the trend is fewer babies being placed and more placed (as a per centage) with special needs. She proceeded to walk us through "Frequently Asked Questions". The one thing that really struck me was when she said "When you are in a foreign country, and you have lost your passport, or you are in a hospital, or you otherwise stuck, WE WILL HELP YOU (emphasis mine)". It may not seem like much, but when you are far from home, it is nice to know that the arm of Uncle Sam works mightily through a 5 foot 4 inch Amer-Asian woman. I almost started to belt out "God Bless America" but she got us started on the "oath" which is probably why I was softened enough to cry. Hey, when you are a long way from the place you want to be, and the people you want to be with, even a rock like me is gonna crack.
We fly to Hong Kong late Wednesday night and fly home Thursday evening. This is likely the last entry until we hit Pumpkin Festival. Warm- up the Neil Diamond baby, "We're Coming to America!"
Dave and Missy and Mack (sometimes Yu Hui and sometimes Luke when I forget which Asian I am shouting for).

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Visa Approved!

Well, the big news of the day for us is that Mack's visa application was approved this morning.  I do not know all the technical and legal words, but basically this allows us to bring him to the United States.  Tomorrow, we go take the oath of citizenship on his behalf, which not knowing all the technical/legal words, means he is a U.S. citizen when we land in the in U.S.  So, we are feeling quite good about being essentially done and essentially heading home (in our minds, we are probably already home).

We had to wait in our room until mid-morning in case there were visa problems.  When we got word that we were all clear, we went for a stroll around the local markets on the island, stopped by Starbucks for lunch, and picked up laundry.  A pretty typical day regardless of where we seem to be.  Mack took a brief nap and then around 2:00p.m. we headed with our group via bus to the local pearl market.  Melissa did pick up a few knick-knacks and then we walked back to the hotel.  As for Mack and I, our only purchase was a Slurpee from 7-Eleven.  He loved it but I think he will like a cherry Arctic Rush Freeze from DQ even better.  After our shopping excursion, Melissa and Mack played in our room while I went to play squash with the boys from another adopting family.  We have the recreation staff a little perplexed now because they never know if we are coming in to exercise, play squash, or play table tennis.  At 6:00p.m. we loaded another bus with most of our group to head to a dinner cruise along the Pearl River.  I was not very excited because I heard the food was "unusual".  I have already had my share of "unusual" so I would have preferred something like an all you can eat Pizza Hut buffet.  In the end, the food was fine because it was no more "unusual" than anything else we have tried while here.  The cruise was about one and a half hours and was visually spectacular because of the city's architecture, numerous bridges, and well-lit skyline.  As well, there was a brief magic show, which was pretty entertaining.  The best trick was a gal swallowing six razor blades individually, showing an empty mouth to the crowd, then swallowing/working a string down her throat, and then retrieving six razor blades tied to the string.  I could hardly watch.  The best was one of the dads cautioning the kids to "not try this at home".  Given that he spoke English and most of the kids speak Mandarin, I am not sure the joke was nearly as funny to them as it was to me.  After the dinner cruise, we returned to the hotel for more time in the hotel playroom, as well as another competitive round of squash and table tennis.  We are now settled in for bed, having had a bottle (Mack) and baths (Mack and Dave--separate).  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice, so we plan to be by the poolside for the better part of the day.  Then, it is off to the US Consulate in the afternoon to take the oath--I hope there are no history/geography questions.

Take care.