Sweet little charmer..

Tonight we are packing our bags and making preparations to return home. Eman and I are so ready. China has been fun - it has been so good to experience the culture that our sweet girl has come from. Lord willing we will return to visit again when Naomi is older and able to experience the culture too.

Here are some things we need you to know and understand about Naomi.

She has lived in an orphanage all of her life with a rotating staff of caretakers. She has never had a single person (or set of parents) to love her, teach her or take care of her. Because of this, Eman and I are working hard on our bonding with her - to form a parent/child relationship. We will need your cooperation and help in this endeavor. 

Our little delight has a smile that will melt the hardest of hearts (and I'm not just saying that because I am her mommy). If you catch her eye, she will turn on her charm with her sweet smile and probably  reach her hand out to you. You can say hello and touch her hand, but please do not let her touch your face. Once you have greeted, please ignore her, especially if you are a man. Men are fun and exciting to Naomi as she has not had many interactions with them growing up. I know that sounds a bit harsh, but we need to teach her appropriate boundaries as she does not have any. We need her to find her love and acceptance from her parents - not strangers (or even friends). These boundaries will loosen with time, as Eman and I see fit.

Until we feel like she has formed a true bond with us as her parents and understands appropriate boundaries and relationships, we ask that you do not pick her up, rub her back, tickle her, give her anything (including food or drink), change her diaper or anything else you would do for a friend's child. Believe me, I KNOW this is hard. If she needs any of these things, please either let me know or direct her to me (or eman). As her parents, we need to be the only ones supplying her EVERY need. 

For a few weeks (or longer) we will be staying home and keeping things very low key. This will be a time for us to introduce Naomi to our routine as a family. I expect her to regress a little bit once we are home. While Eman and I will still be with her, everything else will be completely different - smells, sounds, sights, food, the language. Everything! If you are bringing us a meal please only stay for just a few minutes (I am already grateful for those of you that are bringing something!). If you would like to come by and say hi, text or call first. If we say no, do not be offended. Eman, Naomi and I will be jet leg and exhausted for quite sometime and we may just not be up for visitors. We will also be making the rounds with Dr visits too, so may just be busy. Please be flexible and gracious with us.

Please also continue to pray for our family as our adventure is really just beginning. We are all finished (mostly) with the paper chase, but now we get to start the adventure of being a family of five and learning what that is all about. We will be continuing to learn who Naomi is while she learns who we are. 

Thank you for your support, prayers and understanding! Eman & Megan

Consulate appointment!

Today eman and I swore an oath to care for our little girl - to fulfill this adoption to the best of our abilities. We did this with a group of 10-12 other families in front of an US adoption official. It was pretty cool. I got a little bit choked up. :) This was the last step in being able to bring Naomi home with us to join our family. This was the easiest step out of all of the things we did throughout this past year. 

This has been a pretty amazing trip. I never thought I would go to China, nor that I would have a little girl! God has an amazing way of changing our plans and making them better than we could imagine.

I am so, so thankful for our agency! If we do this again, there is no doubt we will use Lifeline again. It is so nice to know that they are praying for you, encouraging, supporting and holding your hand through every hoop that needs to be jumped through! I truly cannot say enough good things about lifeline. I love them! 

I am also so thankful for my family and friends! Their support and encouragement has been what carried me through moments of frustration and disappointment. They celebrated and listened. I know that this will continue as eman and I begin the next phase of things with Naomi. These people have been indispensable!

I am also so very thankful for the many people, family, friends, acquaintances and complete strangers, that rallied around us and supported us financially. It is amazing to see how The Lord used these people to bring this little girl home! 

Lastly, I am so thankful for the perfect example of adoption that My Heavenly Father has laid out for us. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, we are grafted or adopted into His kingdoms. He made this possible by dying on the cross, then rising from the dead after being buried for 3 days! He paid the price for our sins using his body to be the sacrificial lamb. This made it possible for me (and you!) to live with Him in heaven for eternity! How cool is that?!

10 days past gotcha..

So far things have been going quite smoothly with our little mei-mei. She is a sweet, smiley little girl, most of the time. She is a pro at digging in her heels and we have had several round abouts with her. Eman and I have been learning a new parenting style with this little girl and I know the learning curve has not gotten steep yet..

Right now, the most difficult thing is missing the boys, second not having a true form of communication with Naomi. She understands our tone, but not necessarily words. Today she has begun to mimic me on more words. I tell her regularly "mama ai ne" (mama loves you) and she will whisper it back to me. It is so sweet! I don't know if she is just repeating it to herself as a confidence builder or if she is just mimicking without knowing what it means. 

I expect the curve to spike quite dramatically when we get home. First off, Naomi will be in a completely foreign environment - new smells, new sights, new people, new language, new lifestyle, new time zone. 100% will be different except me and eman. Mama and baba will still be there, until eman goes back to work. 

Second, mama will no longer exclusively be at Naomi's beck and call. She will have to share me with two other children that also need to be loved and cared for. This means that I will not be able to carry her around everywhere - she will need to get herself around a little bit more.

Which leads me to number 3 - Naomi cannot walk on her own. She is not strong enough nor does she have enough balance or confidence to make this happen. The lack of balances makes Naomi very nervous and panicky. In the orphanage, she sat in a walker throughout the day. Our doggy, Coco, loves to stick her long snout into little faces and tends to knock little kids down in her exuberance. Naomi has had zero experience with dogs, so this will lead to more panic and fear.

I think this will all add up to creating the perfect storm..

Until that time, eman and I are enjoying our sweet smiley girl. She is growing in her own confidence and as well as in us. 

Thank you Jesus for this sweet girl!! 

China!!

Well, we have arrived, had a sleep and breakfast. Now we wait. Again. I should be a serious pro at this, by now!! We will meet our guide at 3:30 to go to the Civil Affairs Office to get Naomi. Until then, we will hang out, organize ourselves and maybe do some walking around. 

Our day was excruciating long yesterday - we woke up at 4am, left our house a bit after 6 to drive to Seatac. Checked into our flight about noon, left Seattle at 2. We landed in Beijing about 12 hrs later - I think it was almost 5, but don't remember. :) the flight was loooonnnngggg!!!!! I am nervous to do it again with a two year old! The seats are narrow! My poor hubby just fit, thankfully we volunteered to sit at the bulk head so had lots of leg room and space to stand and stretch. The crew was very polite, the people on the plane very quiet, including the few children and infants. Again, makes me nervous!! 

We had a long layover in the Beijing airport, our flight was delayed an hour, too. Eman and I were so exhausted at this point - both of fell asleep on the floor and made quite the spectacle of ourselves. We were so happy to finally land in Xian and meet our guide. I almost cried from sheer exhaustion when we met her. It was amazing to get to the hotel and flop on the bed. We both passed out quite quickly after having a bath and snack. Our bed is HUGE. Celine (our guide) said they pushed two beds together for us. :) We have a view of the coy pond which is quite lovely.

Breakfast is buffet style. There was much of the same style breakfast foods that we eat, minus all of the sweet rolls, plus lots of vegetables, noodles, congee (we tried it and didn't love it..), and other stuff that I don't remember. Each item is labeled in English and Chinese. Lunch and dinner will be on our own. More later - eman wants to take a walk.

We just came back to our room from a little adventuring. We wondered around our hotel, which is very nice, btw, and then out on the street. Lots of brown sky/smog and crazy traffic, horns always blowing. We crossed over the street on a foot bridge and watched traffic for a while. It is amazing to see motorized bicycles weaving in and out of traffic, loaded down with whatever - sinks, windows, stacks of boxes, etc. also, lots of mopeds and scooters, none of the riders wearing helmets, either. We saw several with a dad driving their little child somewhere. On our way back to the hotel, we crossed the actual street. That was an adventure that made my heart race! We crossed with another more cautious Chinese couple. It felt like we nearly were run down, but I think that was just my nerves. :) traffic slows but does not stop for pedestrians. Traffic laws are suggestions and I don't think they are ever followed, especially by the motor scooters. 

Just a few low hanging electrical wires.. No biggie. 

I am amazed by how few young children we have seen - so different than in the US where you see kids everywhere you go! I don't know if they are in school or just left at home? When we were headed back to the hotel, we saw more young teens. 

In 2 hours, we will have our girl..!! The hotel has a little crib in the room for us to use. I have her blankie and cozy bear all ready for her. Our guide showed us a video she was able to take of N. Celine was up in Yulin City for a training hosted by the CCCWA (Chinas adoption officials, etc). The video shows Naomi playing in her walker with a little boy next to her. The boy takes a toy from Naomi. She, very promptly, whacked him in the back of the head! Ha! She apparently has some spunk and knows how to look out for herself! This also confirms my nervousness of getting an untrained (by my polite American standards) two year old. She has definitely trained herself by orphanage standards. ;)

Week 2!

We are officially on the second half of our trip! We arrived in Guangzhou tonight and oh boy is it muggy here!!! Wow. I think this will be my fall back if I am EVER tempted to move to the south. ;) I think I will be borrowing a stroller for the rest of the week. Being all copied up to Miss Naomi in the sweltering heat does not sound so fabulous.

We were told that the garden hotel would be the nicest hotel we would ever stay at and this does not even prepare you!! We pulled in and Eman told me he needed to go buy a couple button up shirts to wear through the lobby. It is insanely fancy! I would like to take the suite layout back home to use for my master bedroom suite - just a quick remodel, right?! ;)

From what we have seen so far, in the dark, this city is much more fancy than Xian. Eman compared the two as of Xian is Spokane and GZ is LA. While heading here, a bright red Ferrari past us..! I am a small town girl - is it totally obvious? Lol

This week has been a huge learning process. We are slowly learning about who Naomi XinYu is and probably will be doing that for a long time. But, here is what we know so far. She is so stinkin cute, not many can resist her. She is quite reserved in public and/or new environments. When she is comfortable, she will talk and giggle. Her language is not really Chinese. She does have a few Chinese words that our guide was able to translate for us, but a lot of it is gibberish. I don't know if it is her own language or maybe one that was understood by other kids in the orphanage too?

She is smarter than I think we have discovered yet. She likes to play the helpless card and have us feed her and help her drink - she is fully capable of doing both. We are really trying not to play into that, especially with drinking from her cup. She does not know how to use a spoon, although she will try (ie play with it). And, all of these things and everything else, is all on her terms. We are also trying to not allow her to be the boss in all situations. She needs to know that eman and I are in charge and we will take care of her - she is no longer the boss, she is the child.

She is a typical 2 year old and LOVES to push boundaries especially when she is feeling naughty. We have had a few "mommy really is telling you no and she really does mean it" instances. For instance, tonight on the airplane when she kept trying to unbuckle her seat belt while we were landing. Uh, no, child. You have to stay seated and buckled for this part.

She is in the clingy suction cup stage where she only wants to be with me. Oh boy, this is hard. I am the one that pushes away when someone becomes to clingy or needy. Thank goodness The Lord has given me a true love for this little cling-on and I understand that she is still figuring out what is going on. Eman and I have been trading carrying duties more and making her sit with daddy for a while after she stops crying. Then she can come sit with me. But, usually, she remembers that she DOES actually like her daddy and doesn't feel the need to come back to me to feel safe.

She is super wobbly and startles very easily. The startle has gotten better, but her wobble will be there until she gets stronger all around. She can sit up well unsupported, but likes to lean back. She is supposed to be able to crawl, but we haven't seen that yet. I think that falls into the I don't want to category, so I won't. She can not stand on her own or walk. She can walk along things for a few steps before she gets tired. We are trying to encourage more moving to get those legs stronger.

I know there's more, but it is almost 11 and I'm tired. Tomorrow we take Naomi to see the embassy Dr to have a medical exam done. They will test her for TB among other things. Tuesday is our consulate appt and that's all I know for now of the weeks plans.

How many days has it been now? I've lost count..

I am so turned around with my days - what day of the week is it?! Email is sketchy, face book nonexistent, but Instagram works. Weird.

Today we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda for a tour. It was very beautiful - I love traditional Chinese artwork!! the Buddhas are not such a big deal to me, clearly, but the craftsmanship was incredible! There were huge murals carved out and pieced together out of different colored jade, different ones carved from Koa wood that covered two or three walls and then also painted murals. All told stories of the masked monk's life or journey to becoming the "Enlightened One". There were also some that were of the laughing Buddha (the big fat one) or the Goddess of Mercy. Both of these are the two most favorite Buddhas.

The pagoda tower is 7 stories tall. It is not the original though, it is actually the third one constructed. The first two came down because of the ground shifting. It is also taller than the original. All of the buildings on the grounds are built in the traditional Chinese architecture. There are no nails holding the pieces together - they are all tongue in groove style, nestled and cut to fit just perfectly.

One of the stores/shops/whatever had statues of the astrological chart and we were given cards to figure out what year of animal we were born in. Once that was figured out, they gave us a free "chop" with that image. A chop is a piece of marble with a design carved into the end to create a stamp. I was able to get a card stamped for each of our kids as well as one for eman and myself. They then tried to get us to buy one (or more) from them. No dice. We bought overpriced ice cream instead. :)

The weather was perfect today for touring - it is warm, but also a nice breeze that made it very comfortable. I was carrying Naomi, so took no pictures. Eman was the camera man.

Tomorrow we will take an hour drive to see the terra cotta warriors. I don't like the hour long drive, but am excited to see this. We will also do a tour on how they are made.

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Gotcha

Yesterday we got Naomi!! We met her at the Civil Affairs Office along with at least 20 other families. It was noisy and chaotic and HOT. Many of the kids were crying while parents shook toys, talked to them and did what they could to make their babies stop crying. It was overwhelming for me, I cannot imagine how these little children were feeling!

Naomi was also very overwhelmed and tired. She let me hold her when we first got there. She would reach up and touch me, smile and lean in as if for a kiss or to bump her head against mine. Her nanny was also there. It was hard to see her nanny crying and sad - she would have to walk away from time to time. Made me sad too.. I think that Naomi was cared for and maybe even loved by this woman. They had gotten her a new outfit and shoes to bring her in. Cute, pink and, again, hot. We stayed for about 30 minutes before heading to Walmart to get a few supplies.

Walmart in china is like our Walmart but times 3 or 4. Yesterday was Sunday so our guide said it was especially busy. If it had not been so crowded, it would have been fun to stroll around and check things out. However, I don't feel like Celine is a stroll around type - she is all business. Eman bought a box of Oreos with pink filling, maybe strawberry? We also got some little cracker snacks and formula. Naomi wanted nothing to do w the bottle Eman made her. She made a disgusted face and promptly spit the nipple out. She will, however, drink water from a sip cup. She did not like the pumpkin congee that Celine picked out for her, either. She ate a piece of bread and a gummy vitamin. We also gave her one of those puff things that babies eat and she cried with it hanging out of her mouth. Guess those are a no-go too..

We gave her a bath before bedtime and she seemed to enjoy herself, but had a grip on the handle. She is very nervous to fall backwards. She let me wash her body and get her hair wet without a fuss. She started to complain though as I was rinsing the shampoo out. She was very happy to be snuggled up into her towel after bath time. She sat with eman while he dried her and would stare at him and then smile. He absolutely won her over before bed. He laid her down next to him and played peek a boo and "booped" her nose. She would laugh and then reach out her hand to boop Eman's nose, noise and all. She is an amazing mimic and picks things up quickly.

She also likes the stacking cups I brought. Both Eman and I have had fun playing with her with those. It didn't take her long to figure out how to stack them together or to set them out in a line. We handed them back and forth, stacked and unstacked while Eman got dinner. Then she played again with Eman.

Please pray for continued bonding - today we go back to the civil affairs bldg to do paperwork. We will be there all day, for the most part. We will see her nanny and the other orphanage worker again to ask more questions. Naomi also has a yucky sounding cough that we were told started on the train ride here. She has had a couple flegmy coughing sessions during the night, but hasn't seemed to wake up from them. I am praying that neither eman or I get sick too and that hers goes away quickly.

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And the journey begins!!!

We are on our way, Naomi Xin Yu!! Our journey to China is now underway. You probably will have no idea your world is soon to change until you are bundled up and headed to the train station and even then you, most likely, will not know how things will change. I pray you are not scared for long, that you will feel safe with us quickly. My heart is full of emotion and my eyes keep filling with tears, threatening to spill over. I think your mama will be a hot mess before you even come through our doors!! 

God has provided for you to come home in ways we could never have imagined. He has provided for us at the last minute - exactly when we needed it. We were short almost $2500 days before we needed to leave, and given the last $1000 in the bank parking lot! We were expecting to have a wild adventure of local taxi drivers and foot exploration instead of trustworthy drivers and paid tours. But God provided! He moved people's hearts to be more than generous to bring you home! You are loved more than you know, little girl!! There is no other explanation for all of this, then God loves you - you have worth! You have so much worth. We have paid a great price for you, to ransom you from a life that no child deserves. But Jesus has paid the ultimate ransom for, not just you, but all of us!! He has made us a part of the most beautiful adoption story!! He died on the cross and rose from the grave 3 days later, paying the ultimate price, ransoming us from sin and death. He has given us the opportunity to become a part of His family. All we need to do is believe in Him and follow His word! We will soon whisper this story to you as we hold you and rock you! We will sing and dance together in celebration of His great love!  

Your little world is going to expand very quickly. Here are some pictures of our morning as we head towards you..

Your brothers are ready for you to be home - they have been counting down!

Five days..

My lovely daughter,

I will be laying eyes, hands and lips on you in five more days!! I can hardly wait to do all of my mommy duties of loving, cuddling and smooching you up!! I have been praying for you so much these last few days. I know our first week or so could be a little tumultuous.. I have been praying that our sweet Jesus has been whispering His plans into your heart - plans of a family that just cant wait anymore to love you! I have been praying that He has  been preparing your heart to receive love and to give it in return. I have been asking Him to give you strength as your world changes forever. My sweet, your mommy has been praying the same thing for her heart too! But do you know what is so very special about our Sweet Jesus? He has been preparing our hearts for each other from the beginning of time! Isn't that amazing?! He knew this moment would come and knows exactly how it will play out. This gives me so much comfort!!

My little Naomi, I am so excited to nuzzle your sweaty little neck for the first time, to smell your hair and kiss your head. I am so excited to see you smile and hear you giggle! I wonder what your voice will sound like? Will it be soft or squeaky? I cannot wait to sing to you and rock you in my arms - to squeeze you tight, tight enough that you know my arms will always be there to squeeze you again and again! I cannot wait to hold your tiny hands in mine, to marvel at your little finger nails, to tickle your feet and to rub your back! I cannot wait for you to experience what life is like with a mommy who loves you desperately, to have a daddy that will always protect you and two big brothers that will smash heads on anyone that picks on you! They have been planning for months! :) They have also been coloring pictures, practicing their story books and setting up toys to help you settle into the role of little sister! They are not only ready to defend and protect you, but to love and care for you too!

Oh my love, you are going to change lives! Do you know how important you are??!!  Our Heavenly Father has big plans for you and I, for one, am so excited to see His tapestry unfold.

Five more days, Naomi Xin Yu. Just five more days. Are you ready because we sure are!!!