AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that's the sound of a chicken running around with its head cut off. For those of you needing a mental picture of what the last 24 hours have looked like for me, there you go.

I do exaggerate some. The boys and Kate have been packed for days. Tim and I packed clothes last night. So today has been electronics, sippies and bottles (who knows which one we will need?), diapers and pull-ups, toys, crayons and paper, CD/DVDs for kids, snacks, passports, & toiletries.

And I just remembered, I need to pack headbands and barrettes for my hair because it goes nuts in humid weather. Today was a case in point. Think Monica from Friends.

By the way, earlier today, I told Will that before we went to China we had to take our library books back. So he decided he is not going with us. According to him, he can live on peanut butter sandwiches and crackers for 15 days. He said since he is a boss he is allowed to stay home alone. Then he briefly panicked when he realized he couldn't go to the grocery store. But no worries, he realized that Daddy's car would be in the driveway. He could just drive that to the store if need be.

Are we going to pull this off? It feels like the Beverly Hillbillies go to China.

2 Days and Counting

In 48 hours I will be on an airplane on my way to Detroit. So why I am I playing on the internet?? Apparently, I am a pro at wasting time.

I think part of it is that this doesn't seem real yet. We started this journey in June 2005. We thought it would be about a year away. When we submitted our dossier to China in January 2006, things had slowed down, so we estimated it would be about a year away. When we were logged in two months later, it was about a year away. At every step of this journey, it has always been "about a year away". It is hard for me to get out of this mindset. It all feels very surreal, like I am packing for someone else, getting someone else ready to travel.

Am I excited to meet my daughter? Sure, but it doesn't seem real. Tomorrow morning I will wake up and I will still have a year to wait, right?

Continue to lift us up. Kate is probably back at the orphanage now and missing her foster family. Pray for her. This must be hard and scary for her. Who knows if anyone has told her what is going on, or if she understands any of it? I know that people say she won't remember it, but I really think she will. At least I think she will remember the feelings associated with it. Pray that someone will remember to show her our photos that we sent. And pray that we will get all of the things done that we have to do. Pray that culture shock doesn't hit us too bad. And that we don't all want to kill each other by the time we get there.

And pray for the families and children who are still waiting. We are so blessed to be where we are. There are so many who continue to wait...

Thanks for praying for us...

Many of you have responded to our request for prayer during our trip, so I thought I would post what I have so far. I will update it as more of you sign up. For those of you who told me to pick a day for you, I will very soon. I will post it here when I do.

Just a reminder that we will be 12 hours ahead of you. So if it says we are flying to Nanjing on Sunday afternoon at 2pm, it is really Sunday at 2am here.

Thursday, 10/9 - Whittle Family & Meadors Family
Friday, 10/10 - Ken H. & Dr. Williams
Saturday, 10/11 - Christy B. & Sheila K.
Sunday, 10/12- Natalie M. & Terry T.
Monday, 10/13- Mullins Family & Donna W.
Tuesday, 10/14- Marilyn K. & Linda B.
Wednesday, 10/15- Jeff & Maribeth H.
Thursday, 10/16-Gabbard Family
Friday, 10/17- Wright Family
Saturday, 10/18- Jenny B.
Sunday, 10/19- Virginia P.
Monday, 10/20-Charlotte and Kay, Kissinger Family
Tuesday, 10/21- Jennifer H.
Wednesday, 10/22- Shelley P. and Kristy R.
Thursday, 10/23- Beth H., Lydia & Pete M.

Again, thank you for being willing to cover us in prayer during this trip and lift us up to the throne. God is good.

PS. Only 4 more days!!!!!

The GP Kids (well, some of them anyway)

I had about a million roommates in college (ok, 10), but I lived with Shelley and Tara for 2 1/2 years. Along with Shannon and Stacie, we made up the GP girls. Doug and Greg also qualify as GP girls because they ate at our apartment a lot, but we won't go there right now. Anyway, among the 7 GP "girls" and our spouses, we now have 16 children with Kate on the way. Unfortunately, we don't see each other as often as we like, but today Tara and Shelley brought their kids to our house for lunch and a playdate, and then we went over to a local farm/pumpkin patch for the afternoon. The kids had a ball - hayride, corn maze, tricycle race track, spooky house, sandboxes, playground, etc. The only thing they weren't interested in was the petting zoo, and none of the mommies were complaining about that.

Two of the kids were under 2, so I got to have a little reminder of what it is like to have a child that age again. I had forgotten (blocked out) several things. First, they put stuff in their mouths. Not sure how I forgot this one, since my kids were experts at finding things to squirrel away in the cheeks. Second, they need their naps. Toddlers get very grumpy when grown-ups forget naptime, but these two kids handled it like pros. They only complained a little bit. Third, they are precious!!! Spending the day with them only made me more anxious to bring Kate home. This is such an awesome age. They are constantly learning new things, and I am entertained just watching them. Tara and Shel, your kids are amazing! Thanks for coming over!

PS - We really missed the rest of you!

Preparations

There isn't much time left to get ready for our departure/her arrival, so last weekend we shipped off the kids to the grandparents' house, and I "nested". I may be paper-pregnant, but I am having some of the same symptoms as any other pregnant woman. I spent most of my time working in Kate's room.

I just love redoing closets, so I have been dying to tackle this one for a long time. We pulled out all of the old shelving (which was only 1 shelf), painted, and hung new shelves. Then I got everything washed, organized, and put away. I think it looks pretty good even if I do say so myself. And her little clothes are so cute!!! We only have 6 more days (wow), and there is still so much to be done. Packing is only the tip of the iceberg. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

This post has rambled on for long enough, but I wanted to thank those of you who have volunteered to pray for us while we are gone. I will make a list of the ones who have signed up so far, but there are still many days available, so let us know if you want to be one of our warriors.

WANTED: Prayer warriors

I have been thinking a lot about our trip to China (obviously). I am thinking that while we are there, I just want Kate and my family covered in prayer. We want God's guidance, good health, blessings, peace, and courage while we are there (and home for that matter). So I am calling on you all - my friends and family, as well as those of you I have not yet met - to pray for us. I know that some of you already are. You have sent me comments and emails telling me so. What I would like is to have at least one person/family praying for us everyday. We leave on Thursday, October 9th, and return on Thursday, October 23rd. Would you be willing to take a day to pray? Whenever we come to your mind, lift us up to the throne? If you are willing, send me an email or a comment with the day that you will pray for us. Our schedule is written on one of the sidebars on the right, so you will know where we are. I will try to post each day while we are gone so that you will know what our needs are. So, let me know what you think. I appreciate your encouragement even more than you know, and I value your prayers!

Ideas of things to pray for:
Our health, our safety, Kate's caretakers, Kate's attachment to us, the boys adjustment, the boys will travel well, my mom, patience for Tim and I, and our guides in China. I am sure I will think of more things as I go!

Christmas in September

We got an early present:) Yesterday our agency sent us Kate's Chinese medical paperwork to take to China with us. When it arrived it had a surprise in it - 3 photos of her that we had never seen! Well, actually we had seen one of them in black and white, but she is even more beautiful in color. It is my current favorite photo of her! I think I've decided it was taken between 12-13 months of age.

The other two were evidently taken the same day as the first two pictures we saw of her. We think these were taken in March. So now I am back to staring at her picture all day:) I apologize that I didn't get them posted sooner, but they required a bit of cropping and rotating.

Many of you have asked me about her cleft lip and palate, and I have tried to answer your questions. We have done a lot of research and reading about CL/CP, as well as talking to parents of cleft affected children and doctors. But the truth is, I have only seen unrepaired cleft lips and palates in photographs. However, I thought I would post some of what I know anyway.

For starters, no one knows for sure what causes CL/CP, but it is likely caused by genetics. CL/CP is more common in Asian people, kind of like other conditions are more common in other ethnicities. Her lip was repaired when she was seven months old, but her palate has not been repaired. The palate is basically the roof of the mouth. We think her gumline is also cleft affected because of a photo where she is smiling, but we aren't sure. We don't know exactly what her palate will look like, because they are all different.

Once we arrive home, we will see our doctor at the international adoption clinic. From there, we will see doctors and therapists who will assess her palate, lip repair, speech, ears/hearing, and several other things. We do not know how many surgeries she will need, but we anticipate palate repair, ear tubes, bone grafts to repair the gumline, and lip and nose revision.

For those of your who still have questions, ask away. We are not embarrassed by her cleft or your questions. We do, however, ask that you be sensitive to her when she is home. She may or may not be comfortable with her lip, and she will learn to understand English rapidly. Sometimes kids pick up on subtleties that adults think they will overlook. We think she is absolutely beautiful just like she is, but we want her to be comfortable with herself and happy with how she looks.

For those of you interested in learning more about cleft affected children, here are some links where you can find out more. There are many more out there, but this is to get you started.

http://www.cleftadvocate.org/adoption.html

http://www.widesmiles.org/

And by the way, little Susannah is home now. God is good. All the time.

Proud Mama

I have to take a minute here to brag on my boys. As many of you know, they are not perfect children, but they are awesome. The past couple weeks we have had several reasons to brag, so I thought I would share. (This is especially for you grandparents/aunts/uncles out there.)

I'll start with Will. When I picked him up at preschool one day last week, one of his teachers stepped outside with me to talk. Now, I've never had a "discipline" conversation with his teachers, but I know that he is familiar with the timeout chair there, so I was thinking maybe that was the subject of the day. Instead, she tells me that he is an incredibly creative child who has an amazing use of color in his artwork. Wow! She even told me that another teacher had commented on his butterfly in the classroom. Seriously, a month ago he would only color with the blue crayon, now he is the talented art student. Who knew?

Then yesterday, the dust build-up in my house was out of control, so I told Will he could help me dust. I meant this in a "mommy's little helper whose work I will go back and fix later" kind of way. I figured he would help for like 10 minutes and then go play. Apparently his second hidden talent is dusting, because he probably shaved thirty minutes off my furniture polishing. He would run a dust cloth over everything and then I would follow up with the polish. Then, he finished first, so he did all of the window sills (well, most anyway), and he dusted the air intake vent in the living room. It was covered in filth, and he ran that cloth across every single slat. It is spotless now. Unbelievable. The best part though was when I was bragging on him. He got the cutest grin on his face. It was his "see what a good boy I am" smile. So funny, especially if you know Will.
And have I mentioned that he loves to read too?

Now on to Ben. On Monday, Ben came home to tell me that he was the Star Student of his class this week. Apparently, he got the award because he worked very hard. He loves school and loves learning new things, so to be rewarded for this just made his whole week I think. He got a certificate and everything. He was so proud. He says that he is the line leader for the whole week, and on Monday he got to pick first at "choice time". He got to play on the computer all by himself, which to him was the best part of the whole deal.
Mimi has been here some this week, and I suggested that Ben read to her while I finished up something on the computer today. I hear him read all the time, but she hadn't heard him in several weeks, and she was amazed at how much he had improved. He learns new words all the time. It is so much fun right now. Except I have discovered a few drawbacks to this whole reading kid thing. For one thing, he can read menus now. Ordinarily I would consider this a good thing because it is less work for me, right? Except that now he knows EVERYTHING on the menu, including things that I normally leave off when I read it to him, like ice cream and potato chips and soft drinks. And he tells his brother. On the bright side, he can read the grocery list to me when we are shopping. Anyway, such a smart boy! I have two wonderful sons, and I am very proud of them both!!!

And for those of you wanting a Kate update, we got some photos today that I will try to load tomorrow. I am way sleepy right now, so check back in later.

Update on the family I told you about last week. They were supposed to leave China last night and arrive here today. Hopefully that went according to plan and they are home safe and sound. Read their blog for the whole story, but God has moved in a mighty way to bring that little girl home!