Gotcha Day

Max is on his way to meet us…

We are heading down to the hotel lobby to meet everyone and catch the bus over to our meeting spot.

See you soon buddy,

Family

Cedar Point - Zhengzhou Campus

The marathon day of travel had one significant positive effect. We all slept overnight on the first night in China.  This may not sound like much, but we walked into our hotel room at what should have been 2 in the afternoon on Friday, but it was 2 in the morning Saturday.  When Sarah and I first came to China to pick up Maddy we slept the entire flight over and consequently could not sleep at night for the first several days of the trip.  Turns out that exhaustion helps to reset the clock!

Maddy woke us up a little before 7am and we went downstairs to have breakfast at the hotel.  It would be an understatement to say that being in this hotel again with Maddy exactly two years after round one is strange.  First off, much is the same but the hotel is undergoing renovations.  The entire wing that we stayed in with Maddy is currently being gutted and remodeled (there is a new Hilton down the street and it looks like Crowne Plaza is feeling a little competition…). We are on the other side of the hotel in a completely remodeled room.  Extra bonus - the air conditioning works. The only thing that kept Maddy from shivering too much after our nap today was the warm puddle of urine soaking the bed and her clothes. Eating breakfast here is very strange because it is very easy to have a meal with Maddy right now, and the last time we were in this hotel we were 'sub-par' in our parenting skills. Not to say that we should be on the cover of Parenting Magazine (still proud to say I have never opened that thing), but we at least know how to feed the girl.  The breakfast buffet has the same food, but different Chinese people staring at us with a kind of 'WTF?' look on their faces. Solid.

Maddy was an absolute traveling champion yesterday and the family that we had planned to accompany today on some local sightseeing dealt with a few flight delays. As a result of this, we really had nothing to do except make sure to stay awake. Before we left for the park I flipped on the TV and found the Royals game on Fox Sports One.  They were up 4-0 in the 3rd. Within 2 minutes of my turning the game on, Baltimore scored a run.  TV off. Time to go to the park (I have only watched 2 & 2/3 innings of the Royals this post-season because I am cursed when it comes to KC sports). If they want to win it all they have 14 days. After that, I am back in the U.S.A.

The park trip began with re-introducing Maddy (and her overprotective parents) to the sidewalk motorcycle/scooter drivers.  I remember advice from Michael Hill from our last trip - just walk straight at them and make them swerve around you.  Nothing like playing chicken on a sidewalk with a 20-year-old on a scooter to really get the blood flowing. Needless to say, Maddy was in her stroller and will basically remain there whenever we are on the MotoCrossWay.

The park was almost exactly as we remembered it.  Sarah was trying to tell Maddy something and I looked down to see a little boy (maybe 8 or 9) standing about 36 inches from her derriere and just staring.  He occasionally looked up at the back of her head, but he was clearly enjoying her 'backside' much more.  I decided to just engage him and wave in a very exaggerated manner. His eyes bugged out a little bit and then I noticed that his older sister was about 2 steps behind him and staring just the same.  We exchanged awkward pleasantries (the whole language barrier thing) and a nice laugh and went our separate ways.

Living in SE Michigan now we are constantly bombarded with how great Cedar Point is. It sounds like DisneyWorld for dudes who like roller coasters.  Currently the cheapest ticket to Cedar Point appears to cost about $87 bucks for a day pass.  We found these little numbers for a grand total of $5.90:

I was not about to let Sarah have all the fun.  Most of my family and friends know that Maddy and I love to fly in planes…wait for it…

Cedar Point probably has a pretty sweet eclectic mix of music, but this place had the pseudo-creepy song you hear in my flight video and the entire time Sarah and Maddy were burning up the track (a track that had real life oil spots, mind you) the loudspeakers were blasting some Gangnam Style.  We finished it off with a stroll around the lake and two additional run-ins with Sarah's little Chinese fan club.

The rest of the day has consisted of lunch with the Allen's and further attempts to stay awake. They arrived and it was surreal to be sitting with our old friends from trip #1 getting ready to adopt #2.  So comforting.  We took a brief outing to the hotel pool - I will save that for another post as it deserves some explanation. Understand that rules require a swim cap (we now own three) and Sarah only brought a two-piece swimming suit.  The gawking continued apace.

That brings us to now.  I am righting this god-awfully-long post because if I start to read I will fall asleep and my goal is to make it to 9pm.  Sarah is curled up with a very tired little one who was - once again - a real trooper today.  Our good friends stopped by Max's healing home today and saw him.  Their little man has already left the healing home to go back to his orphanage in preparation for gotcha day - now only about 36 hours away! Sounds like Max is doing well.  He has no idea what is about to hit him.  I say this in jest because we know we will work to make his life much better but I think we also have a healthy respect for what he is about to endure.  It is worth remembering the look in someone else's face just two years ago:

But what a difference love makes:

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." -Khalil Gibran

Any thoughts, prayers, or well wishes right now that are sent our way should be directed to Maxwell.  We are ready. We have been waiting. He is in a place right now where he has friends and experiences love, but not in a way that can be permanent.  Not from his family - but he does not know this.  The next part of Max's journey begins in a few days - unbeknownst to him. It will be nearly two years until we can say that he has been with us for 'most of his life'.

Alright this has gone on long enough and I am even quoting people.  Time to stop.  Must go and get rest so that I can continue to preparations to scare the tar out of my son in few days.  We received the final report today about him.  The word 'introverted' was used.  Hhmm. At least it also mentioned that "It is difficult to comfort when he is angry, he may throw things, just let him calm down by himself. He has never seen anything he is afraid of. He can walk, run and crawl."

To paraphrase: "What happens when an unstoppable force (Maddy) meets and immovable object (Max)?"

We shall soon see...

c

We made it!

30 hours later…

Maddy was a great little traveler. The only real tears were from the bloody nose she had on the final flight of the day.  I have no pictures, which means there is very little interest :) in long running commentary.

The only notable quotation from today would be Maddy's first experience with a 'squatty-potty'.

Maddy: What this?
Mom: A 'different' type of potty
Maddy: [suspiciously looking out of the corner of her eyes] But why?????

Zhengzhou has grown significantly since we were last here - but the smog is still stifling to the lungs.

Have to go stay awake all day…

go Royals!

Two Years On...

Hard to believe we have had this lovely little thing in our lives for two years.  It is hard to remember what life was like before her arrival.  It is only fitting that as we celebrate the blessing that Maddy has been (and continues to be...) we are in the final throes of preparation to get her a brother.  Yep, we leave for China in 16 hours to pick up our Max...

Last time we would have sent you a picture of bags packed and ready to go at this point.  Right now, I think I will settle for 'painting you a picture'.

Imagine three full bags with food, clothes, toys, and gifts....

Now imagine 70% of the contents of said bags strewn across the floor of your room....

So the blogging season officially starts today for TeamRoark.  Next step is 24 hours of continuous travel (including a 14.5 hour flight) with a busy little girl named Maddy - age 4.

See you on the other side of that one...

Next update from China...

c

June 2014

June 2014

Picking up Sophie from the airport

College students and toddlers both like naps. 

Soph is still smiling after a week with us. Amazing!

Visiting the Toledo Zoo

"Umm… I don't think so."

Toledo zoo got the thumbs up from us!

L.O.A.

Letter. of. Acceptance. 

China's official "yes, you're approved to bring this boy home". It arrived at the end of July- 64 days into the wait. We waited an excruciating 121 days for Maddy's LOA. I am still scarred. Comparatively, this seemed fast. 

With this very special paper's arrival, we were only 10-14 weeks away from being in China. So for anyone doing the math… it's time to go!  

Practicing our "happy" faces. 

Pain? Excitement? Mom promising ice cream for taking a picture? It's anyone's guess. 

About A Boy

A few months after bringing Maddy home, Chris and I began to talk about a sibling for her.  If we were matched with a child before our one year anniversary, Maddy's dossier could be updated and re-used.  In the spring, there was a file of a little girl that we requested from our agency.  We didn't get it but our agency reminded us that we needed to have our medical checklist on file to view child files. So, Chris and I took a precious hour and headed to one of favorite spots Buster's to make out our check list (to use the lingo-MCC). After meeting amazing children and families from our travel group, we found ourselves more open to certain conditions.

It's no secret that my husband wanted a daughter. We have 4 nieces- now teenagers- who are the best things since sliced bread and he always wanted a girl just as neat as they are.  And by neat, I don't mean tidy, I mean cool. Definitely, not tidy. So, when we began our journey to Mads, we were pursuing a daughter.

This time, I asked Chris if he saw another daughter in our family. But he paused and thought.  Some friends of ours were adopting a little boy, Tate and we were following the journey.  And gosh darn it,  was he adorable. So, we marked 'either'.

In the following months, we reviewed a few files that we saw on our agency's website. We almost said yes to a little girl about a 1.5 years younger than Maddy but something wasn't right. In about August, while reviewing another file, we realized it wasn't the children, it was us.  After our move and new jobs, we weren't in the right place emotionally and decided to place our MCC on 'hold" and just focus getting our family settled in and feeling secure and happy.

Fast forward to December. Sometime in early December, Chris asked me what I wanted for my birthday because while a month away, I take a long time to think. I spent a few days thinking and finally had the courage to ask to begin a new dossier in January. Even if it took the whole 6 months and we had a long wait to referral, I wanted to be ready for our next child. I had a feeling he or she was out there.  A few days later, I received an email from our agency asking if we wanted to unsuspend our MCC or completely remove it and start again later. Chris and I discussed this to which he answered "if we are going to start a dossier next month and just re-do the MCC, why not just use this one?". So practical, that one.  However, we agreed that I would revise it to exactly the picture God had painted for me.  (Secret:I knew it was a boy. I had for a long time, so much so that I referred to our next child as 'him'.) So I updated our MCC and went on my way, thinking, where I would start in January and how we should settle in for a long wait since I was so specific.

Exactly 1 week later, CCAI's phone number showed up on my phone. What?!? Most likely something went awry with our MCC or we needed to get something for the follow up of Maddy's paperwork, right?  I was at work so I couldn't' directly take the call but listened to the message. A file?! After a quick page to Chris, we agreed he would call back and then let me know what was going on. I planned to hear from him that evening- whenever I got home- when we could discuss things further.
Nope. Within 15 minutes, I had a page "where are you? Need to talk to you now." Whoa, something must be big if he's coming upstairs out of the OR suites.

And big it was. The look on Chris's face when he walked into the back conference room told me pretty much everything I needed to know. He had seen our child. But even more convincing, his first words were "it's a boy".  Sure enough in my email inbox sat pictures and information about a nearly 1 year old boy. And from the moment I saw his eyes, my heart melted. Just like Maddy, we knew, there's our son. For the following 24h, we looked at his file, called our friends and colleagues (again, work comes with benefits) and scouted out resources.  By the next morning, our decision was made. This time, Chris made the call and had the fun of hearing "congratulations on your new son!".

What a wonderful Christmas present.