July 26th

It has been one week since we have been home with Julia. It has been a great week with our new addition!

With China being 13 hours ahead of us, we are still struggling with jet lag. I really think the first 4 to 5 days were just a blur. Even though I work a midnight shift, it is still challenging. Jake & Grant continue to stay up all night.


Julia is doing great! So far, since the second night she has slept in her crib and takes naps in her room. We are soooo happy about that! She has her first doctor's appointment Monday 7-28-14 and our first post adoption visit with our social worker, too.

I wanted to post some special thank you's tonight.

Our family has been blessed by some of our church family members providing meals or being invited for dinner this week. I want to thank Sandy M. for starting a meal train for our family. I cannot say enough how this has helped us out.

I also want to say thanks to some ladies in our church: Shannon, Michelle, Susan, and Karen for throwing us a beautiful shower 2 days before leaving for China. Unfortunately, I didn't get everyone in the picture since we took it at the end of the shower. I regret not taking it at first. The shower gifts provided a lot of things for Julia I would of not thought of before. What a blessing.

Since I work midnights right now, I work with a very small amount of people. Still, I have been blessed by many of my co-workers from my Laclede family, some I don't see too often. The last night I was at work before our China trip, our security guard and friend Tim and his girlfriend, Leta gave Julia some beautiful dresses. My friend Susan W. had dropped a gift for Julia on our porch the day we got home. I was so touched by their thoughtfulness.

Last night in our mailbox, we received a gift card from my Laclede family. Thank you to: Tracy B, Brian, Lillian, Aaron, Sue P, Lisa D, Laura R, Cynthia C, Mary & Todd L, Julie D, Doug, Mike S, Tammie B, Ronnie, Amy, Montay, Judy, Linda V, Jan, LaSandra ,and Dexter. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness, generosity, and kindness. I hope to try and bring Julia to work next week.

I'm sorry I didn't post my days for a while. Nick and I sat down tonight to catch up and post all the previous dates to share.

July 21st

Today, I wanted to share our adoption story.

In 2011, my heart was broken as I spent time in the orphanages in China. Most of my time was spent at the Social Welfare Institute in the city of Chenzhou, Hunan Province. As a parent and a person who lives in the USA it is hard to put into words the experience of working in the orphanage. There is such a need for the orphans to be loved on and to be adopted. I wish I could send everyone on a trip to spend time with these children. The organization my friend Shannon went through and led was through visiting orphans.org . Visiting Orphans goes to many countries to love on orphans. I cannot recommend it enough!

China, like many other countries, are filled with orphanages. I was told on this trip that the Guangdong Province where Julia is from has the largest number of orphanages.

After the orphanage mission trip in 2011, Jake started talking about adopting a baby sister. Jake wrote a letter to us a year later in 2012, asking us again to adopt. During those times it really touched our hearts that he felt this way, but we dismissed the idea.

After Grant, our youngest son attended a week long church camp in 2013, he had a serious conversation with me about going to China and adopting a little girl.

During these times of persuasion from our kids, deep down I felt we could offer another child love in our family. However, I was fearful, not thinking about God getting us through the long adoption process. During these times, Nick never said no to the idea of adopting; it was more my fear of the unknown stopping any process from happening.  

The church we attend has many families who have chosen the adoption path. Whether it was domestic or international, large or small families, their stories, their children, have touched our hearts.

As a growing Christian, I know I should have a desire for the scriptures to confirm what I do in life. When considering Julia, we prayed, and looked to the Bible by studying adoption. Here are a few from both Old Testament .. Moses-adopted by an Egyptian princess (Exodus 2:1-10); Samuel-fostered by Eli-(1 Samuel 1-2); Esther-adopted by Mordecai (Esther 2:7) and the New Testament-Son of God incarnate, Jesus Christ was adopted by Joseph and Mary (Matthew 1:18-25). God establishes  parents raising another ones child as well as parents who are not blood relatives being acceptable to adopt a child. The ultimate of course is God adopting us as his children through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ paying for our sins on the cross, we are spiritual orphans no more. (Galatians 4:4-8) (Romans 8:14-17),  After studying, we knew that this was our opportunity to place all our trust in God and to obey. During this time of consideration I was scared knowing that Julia had a special need.  I noticed during this time of consideration, when I was at work or home Bible verses would pop in my head. Here are a few...Trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding, (Proverbs 3:5); I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13); Jesus looked at them and said "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."(Mark 10:27).

And so, our adoption process was started in August 2013. 

July 20th

Julia's Birthday was today she is 2!

Coming home last night made us all get so excited and wound up. Today, the boys slept all day since they didn't go to bed until 4:30 am on July 20th.  My parents came over to meet Julia. She let them hold her and we had a great visit.

After their visit we all took a long nap. Later that evening we went over to Tony and Lisa's for a delicious meal. It was great to visit talk about our trip and to have Julia there with us. Julia did well, we got her a decorated cake and sang Happy Birthday. It was fun to see her innocent face.

After we came home, we decided to try and put her in her crib. After feeding her and drinking her bottle we put her in the crib. The boys were playing under the crib and we sat in her room for a while, talking and laughing.  I think she really liked that. After a while, we turned on the night light/fan my friend Susan bought her, and gently walked out. We listened for any cries and noticed she was talking a lot. It sounded so cute! We kept cracking up outside her door. We waited and I checked on her 30 minutes later, she was asleep.

It was such a blessing to have her home by her birthday!

July 19th

Today at 5:30 am we left for the Guangzhou airport. As we were waiting to check our luggage in at the airport, Julia's pull up apparently wasn't on properly,  I started feeling warm liquid running down my hip and leg. It was all okay though, I rinsed out my shirt and side of pants, put 2 pull ups on her and a new set of clothes for her. We were good to go.

The 3 hour flight went great, then we had to re-check all our baggage in Beijing and go through security three different times in three different areas there. We also had to get all our luggage and go through check-in again. (This was challenging but thankfully Hainan Air had someone leading us to luggage and the check in area.) I found it strange we had to do that because both flights that day were on Hainan Air.  Two hours later, we ended up back on the same plane.

Our flight from Beijing was almost 13 hours. Overall, Julia did great. She had a few times of screaming out. I'm sure she was uncomfortable, but not too bad. We landed at Chicago O'Hare and that is where she became a US citizen.

After our flight, we rented a car and Nick drove home from Chicago. I know this was so challenging for him, we were SO tired. The first two hours of the drive the three kids and I were instantly asleep. Nick had to stop and get an energy drink. I did offer to drive but he said no. The last 2 hours were better, we all woke up and enjoyed the beautiful drive. We were back in the USA! It was a beautiful day, the thing I noticed most was the clear, clean air. The air smelled so good. It was amazing!!

When we got home we were pleasantly surprised by our home being decorated by my sister-in-law Lisa and my brother-n-law Tony welcoming Julia home. It was beautiful! They also stocked our fridge with milk, juice, cereal, pizza and some gifts for Julia. Our nephew, Sam and took care of our house. It felt so good to be home and our home was so well taken care of.

Julia slept good in our bed. In both hotels in China, we slept on a king size bed. Our bed at home is a queen, which looks more like a twin after being in a king. Two dogs and a cat wanted to sleep on our bed too. They all ended up on the floor, except for Julia.

Thank you ALL for praying for us! The trip and adoption process has been amazingly smooth.  We have felt your prayers and God's protection on this journey.

July 18th

Last night we got a call from Eva saying we had a driver for today and to pick a place to go. Another pleasant surprise! Unfortunately, Eva had hurt her back and said she couldn't take us today but her supervisor, Judy could.

For the last three nights, Julia has been real fussy for nap time and nighttime. I thought maybe she might have an ear infection. Judy got her checked out and her ears looked fine. I was relieved about that.

I will say Julia has really attached to me (which I'm thankful for) but sleeping is what many adopted children struggle with. We have seen some of that now in Julia. Today, I noticed her putting her hand on the mattress, feeling it then looking at the palm of her hand. From what I've heard and I've actually seen in the Chenzhou orphanage, and I did confirm with Judy, her mattress was a bamboo sheet with plywood under the bamboo; quite a difference from a normal mattress.

We decided to go back to Shaimen Island today. After a nice lunch at Lucy's (we were ready for American food now) we headed back to a shop called "Amy's" unfortunately, she wasn't open. It started pouring down rain and we decided just to come back to hotel.

I started packing with Julia. We are all excited to leave tomorrow.

July 17th

I think Julia is becoming really comfortable with us. Today at breakfast, she was singing and moving around in her high chair like she owned the restaurant.

Eva told us yesterday that our adoption agency paid for an additional day of transportation to do some sightseeing.  We were touched their gift. I have enjoyed working with Wasatch Adoption Agency, especially Kathy Junk, and Marilyn Cypers. They have guided us through this year. I will never forget their patience, kindness and expertise in the adoption process.  I would highly recommend Wasatch as an agency for adopting.

Today, Eva recommended us going to Yuntai Garden at Baiyun Mountain. Yuntai Garden is a beautifully kept botanical garden that has a nice view of the city of Guangzhou. Next to Yuntai Garden was Baiyun Mountain. We took a cable car to the top for another great view of the city. We really had a wonderful time.

 After lunch, we were wiped out. Between the heat here, traffic, getting to our hotel, it depletes our energy.

July 16th

Today was our long awaited US Consulate appointment. We were thankful Eva picked us up at 7:40am. When we approached the building, there were two long lines. One side for people waiting for their Visa's to travel to the US and one side for immigration to the US. I was thankful we went to a door with no line...the adoption line. It was such an early morning for us, I didn't take many pictures with my phone, which I regret.

By the time they were ready for us, there were 16 families waiting. Unfortunately, we couldn't take our cell phones or cameras inside. We took an oath that all of our paperwork was correct and truthful.

We received a lot of Julia's paperwork today. One interesting piece was her finding ad annoucement when she was born. She is such a beautiful girl. I often think about her mom and the decision she made for Julia. It is heartbreaking when I think about what she went through, how she thought someone else might have better resources to care for Julia.  I am thankful we are Julia's family. She sure does belong to a family who loves her.