Xuchang- passport app, finding spot, and orphanage visit

Later on the 26th, we got to travel into Mason's city, where he was found abandoned and was taken to the local orphanage, where he stayed for 2 months, before being transfered to Shanghai through the Baobei Foundation.  It took a little over an hour to get there from the capitol city of Zhengzhou.  We had several steps to conquer this afternoon while in his city of Xuchang.

 First of all, we had to go apply for his Chinese passport, so he can leave with us for the States at the end of the adoption trip.  The waiting room was crowded with curious Chinese onlookers, curious about two white people with a Chinese baby.  Fortunately we had a guide with us from our adoption agency to help with the language barrier.  We pretty much followed her, while she filled out the paperwork, and then we signed our names.  One long hour later, we were out of there.

The next stop was to his finding spot, aka, where he was found abandoned.  I will not share all the details here, but he was abandoned in a very public place, away from transportation, so it was safe and busy, where other people would be able to easily see him and make sure he was taken to the local orphanage.  I do want to ask that you don't judge his birth parents.  China is not America.  There are different laws in China, and there are important cultural differences.  His birth parents loved him...of that I'm sure, as I've observed several key elements in his abandonment story.  Please do not say, "Well, how could they just abandon him?", because it's just more complicated than that.  Mason will grow up with us honoring his birth family who gave him life, and who continued to give him life, until they took him to a safe place to be watched over.  I can't imagine the pain and anguish that his birth parents had to endure, and probably still endure, in giving their son, now our son, a chance in life.  I wish they had a way to know that he is now part of a family, with a mom, dad, 2 sisters, and 1 brother, and that he will live in America, in a loving home with good schools and great opportunities.  I hope that they will somehow find comfort that their little boy has been handed over to a family who love him dearly!

The final destination before heading back to Zhengzhou was Mason's orphanage.  He was only there when he was 2-4 months old, so I was extra excited when we got permission from the orphanage director to tour part of their facilities. 

                                          The orphanage, picture taken in a moving vehicle.

                                       A scene from one of the roughly 10 rooms that we saw.

                                                           Cribs, cribs, and more cribs

This is a room similar to the room Mason was in when he was here.  There were 3 incubators lining each side of the room, each holding a preemie.  In the middle, the cribs held small babies.

The nannies were all very sweet and were doing the best they could with the resources provided.  That being said, this experience at the orphanage has been life-changing, and even though I don't feel it appropriate to put my thoughts fully onto this blog (it's one of those you had to be there to understand), I wanted to wrap up each of those babies in a warm blanket and take them home with us.  Apparently this orphanage only had 13 adoptions last year, although it is the end of February, and I believe they've almost reached that number, with 5 new adoptions taking place next week.  We probably saw at least 50 kids there, and there are probably more who we didn't see.  I'm grateful for these nannies for doing the best they can, but I'm also that Mason didn't spend much time in there.  I pray those other sweet children will find families soon!!!

 

It's a BOY!!!

On Tuesday, February 26, we officially became a family of 6 as we were handed our Certificate of Adoption!!!  It was all very simple, and for some reason I thought it would be a more formal affair, perhaps with more paperwork to sign.  The official read of the name of each child, and the family came forward to collect the document.  So there you have it, after many many months of hard work, paperchasing, and stress, Mason Kai Schiller is now officially ours!!!  On that day, there was one less orphan in the world!

Gotcha Day/Family Day

On Monday, it was a BIG day for the adoptive families.  This was the day that they met their new child(ren) for the first time.  We also had to sign a 24 hr guardianship form, stating that we will take care of our child(ren) and not abandon them in the next 24 hours while they process the finalization of the adoption.  Even though we already had our Gotcha Day with Mason, twice, it was still exciting as we watched the other families, one by one, receiving their new darlings!  There were probably around 12 families there, and the groups were from America and Italy.  I expected a lot of screaming and crying (from the children), but it went very smooth and calmly.  We were the first group to arrive (3 families in our specific travel group), so we got to watch each of the families receive their child(ren) as the different orphanage reps arrived.  one family in our group received a sweet little boy who's orphanage was a 3 1/2 hour drive away!

                                   Two future Italians waiting for their families to show up.

                                     Anxious parents waiting for their child(ren) to show up.

                               Our new friends, the K family, with their new son, Zak (child #6)

      Some other new friends, the A family, with their new sons, Griggs and Hagan (child #8 &9)

                                               And of course, the Schillers on Gotcha Day!

Goodbye Shanghai!

It was mixed emotions as Chris and I took Mason to the Hongqiao airport in Shanghai to fly on China Southern Airlines to Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, the province where Mason was born.  Shanghai is the only city that Mason has ever really known since he was 4 months old, and I don't think we'll be back there anytime soon, as it is just too expensive to travel, and logistics with 4 kids at home will make it very difficult.  Perhaps when he is a teenager!

On the other hand, leaving Shanghai means that we are making big progress in this adoption process and each day gets us closer to when Mason will officially be a Schiller (for better or worse, kiddo!)

The flight was just a little under two hours, and Mason did beautifully, only fussing a little.  He really enjoyed looking out the window around take-off and landing to watch the houses and countryside outside.  We brought a bag of tricks (ok- really toys) to keep him occupied, and he enjoyed those.  Then the flight attendents handed out the lunches, which were very Chinese, and Mason gobbled down all of his noodles (adult serving size) and half of Chris'.  Chris nor I dared to eat that stuff.

First airplane ride!

 

After we landed, collected our bags, and got ripped off by a taxi driver (I don't know enough Chinese to argue back to him about the price, so we just paid the extra money and dealt with it), we arrived at the Crowne Plaza Zhengzhou.  The hotel lobby is beautiful, and the room is...well...it's okay and it works.  It smells like, well, hmmm...like the horrible pollution outside (will show pics of that later).  We are now a part of a travel group, and a small one at that with three families (one from Illinois adopting a 4 1/2 year old son, and one from NC adopting a 14 month old son).  Tomorrow is what is known as "Gotcha Day" or "Family Day" when most families, except for us, go meet their child(ren) for the first time, sign a 24 hour guardianship agreement before the adoption is finalized, and take their new child(ren) back to the hotel with them to start the bonding process.  Even though we have already experienced our own Family Day with Mason, we are so very excited to watch these families become more whole, as their new loves enter their lives in the flesh.  I know that this process will be hard on many of the children, as it has been the parents who have been pursuing this dream and have been waiting for months, and sometimes years, to hold their new child, and some of these children have not been told what is about to happen, and all will grive at some time in their own way.  I just pray that the transitions go as smoothly as possible for the new family members and their parents!!!

The Day that felt like a Year

Saturday was an extremely difficult day. Mason was grieving hard after seeing and saying goodbye to a former ayi (domestic worker) at one of his former Healing Homes the night before. He woke up in the night calling for her and was very grumpy the next morning, as it took a couple of hours for him to go back to sleep. We have no idea if that was related to what was about to happen, but it at least shows that he was already under some stress. Chris was trying to feed Mason some apple slices for breakfast, when he threw up a little bit (He actually vomited on himself and me BIG time the night before in the taxi on the way to visit his former Healing Home) and was very upset and throwing fits.

I finally decided to take him upstairs in our friends' house to take a bath. I was holding him with the front if his body against the front of mine. After reaching the top of the stairs and entering our guest room, he had been fussing, but then he really started to hit me before his body stiffened, with his head pulled back. His eyes went upward and his body started shaking. He was having a seizure! Now mind you, he has never had a history of seizures, only a concussion from a fall that happened a month earlier, and I had never been around a person having a seizure, and especially not my own child. I quickly came down the starts and called for Chris and my friend, telling them that he was seizuring and we needed help for him ASAP! I laid him flat on the carpet, and after around 30 seconds, the seizure stopped as his entire body simultaneously stiffened before he fell asleep. Is he sleeping? Is he unconscious? Is he breathing? He was asleep and breathing (!), and we were scared out of our minds. I quickly called a Baobei contact and also a friend, who sent her driver over to our house to take us to the hospital.

We ended up going to Shanghai United, which was about 45 minutes away in Puxi, the other side of Shanghai, but it has American or American-trained doctors, and is also the same hospital that saw Mason after his fall/concussion a month earlier. Mason slept the entire way there, of which we were grateful. We kept checking to make sure he was still breathing. We were so overwhelmed. Mind you, Chris and I are scared, hungry (no breakfast), gross (just threw on some clothes and glasses), and scared...again.

After initially briefing the doctor and the nurses took their time finding a vein to take blood to check in the lab (really...a long time, with Mason screaming the entire time), the results came back that all of the lab work looked normal and that he would need a full work-up to see if there's another problem somewhere (or it could be a one time random occurrence...but they are unsure at this point). He wasn't running a fever, and I know it's not unheard of for children to have a seizure due to the fever, so that wasn't the cause. Since we are going to Houston with him (Yay for awesome medical facilities in Houston!) in a couple of weeks, they said to just wait until we get there to do the full work-up (MRI and other tests), since its safer and more accurate in the States than in China, and he didn't seem stressed to find out the reason that day. They did give us some tips and medicine that will stop a seizure, should that happen again, especially since the next week we will be in Henan province, without good medical facilities available.

An interesting fact, though, is that a seizure isn't considered major unless fit is more than 20 minutes in length...I can't imagine. So Mason's 30 second seizure was pretty mild. I had no idea.

The seizure occurred around 8am, and we left the hospital around noon. Fortunately a wonderful Baobei volunteer Noelle, who also watched Mason for the last 3 weeks before we arrived in Shanghai, met us at the hospital, and since she lived close to the hospital, she invited us over for some food before heading all of the way over to Pudong again. We are so grateful for her! Then, she allowed us to use her driver instead of a stinky taxi, so that was also appreciated. We got home and immediately started to pack for the next day's trip to Mason's home province, as the doctors gave the ok for us to proceed with the adoption trip as scheduled (whew!). We were utterly exhausted but out of time, so rest didn't happen too much for us that day.

This morning we will leave on our trip to officially begin the adoption portion of our China trip, as Mason takes his first airplane ride to Zhengzhou (pronounced jin-joe), Henan...One of the poorest provinces in all of China, where we will meet up with our travel group and Chinese rep from CCAI (our adoption agency).

Healing Homes

During the course of Mason's stay in Shanghai, he has lived with 4 different Healing Homes. First, the Leow family, then us, then the Naville family, and then the Armstrong family. All four families loved him, and he loved them! We were utterly devastated when Chris' job situation forced us to leave Shanghai and return to America (and believe me- we tried everything we could think of to stay in Shanghai, but it wasn't the Lord's plan), but we were so happy that a wonderful Healing Home was found to take care of him for the majority of our time away until we could arrive for our adoption trip and join him to our family together!!!

Thank you to the Leow, Naville, and Armstrong families for everything you have given Mason, and mostly for your love to our sweet baby boy! I am so elated that I was able to spend time with each of you during this week in Shanghai. You will always be a part of our extended family, and Mason will grow up hearing about your roles in his childhood. To you all, we are very grateful!

Mason and a few of the Leow  family, who took care of him during the time of his surgery at four months of age until we first got him at almost six months old.

Mason with Jane and France (Naville Fam, who watched Mason for about 7 months)

Mason and Leo

Mason with the Naville's 2 ayis (domestic helpers), Leo, and France

 

Mason with Noelle Armstrong, who watched him for the last 3 weeks before I made my way to Shanghai for the adoption trip!

 

Chris' Arrival!

Daddy is here!!!

Thursday was a wonderful day, as Chris arrived in Shanghai around 3pm, and made his way to us around 5pm. He was able to sleep around 11 hours total during his combined flights (lucky- I got literally 2 minutes of sleep on my flights) and arrived here safely. Mason sort of noticed him but was busy getting his toy-playing on, so he didn't pay too much attention to dad quite yet. 24 hours later, and Mason is just loving Dad and their play time together.

CCAI

As soon as we knew we wanted to adopt a Chinese baby, we got in touch with Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI), our wonderful (seriously...beyond wonderful) adoption agency to get the ball rolling. Up to this point (and we've been through a lot with them up to this point), we love Love LOVE CCAI! They are so patient, caring, patient, knowledgeable, and did I mention patient? If you ever considered international adoption for your family, I highly recommend them.

They have patiently and kindly guided us through every step of this adoption process, and believe me...There are MANY steps to this process. I once heard it stated that international adoption is the most complicated bureaucratic process known to mankind (and I wouldn't doubt that it is), as we have filled out more paperwork than I ever had for any single goal (including college), as we sort through the information that both the Chinese and American governments require from us. I don't want to discourage any of you, if you've been considering adoption because it is sooo worth it, but you really have to be dedicated to the "job" on this one.

So we put our pedal to the metal and took a very aggressive approach to "whipping" through this long process. In the end, our journey to adopting will have taken 14 months long.

If you have the chance, go to CCAI's website at ccaifamily.org, and click on "Waiting Child" profiles. I just wish I could take them all, don't you?

If any of you have even a slight interest in Chinese adoption, please don't hesitate to contact me for more information (okay- infomercial over)

Baobei Foundation

So I would love to explain how we "found" Mason. In Shanghai, there is a wonderful foundation called Baobei Foundation run by expats in the city.
Băobèi [bou-bey] Mandarin (宝贝) - Noun
1.) A precious or priceless treasure.
2.) Affectionate term for infant.
3.) Darling.

They work with several orphanages in China by bringing in certain orphans in need of surgery, often those with spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and other gastro-intestinal problems, and helping these babies get life-saving surgeries, followed by providing "Healing Homes" for these babies to recover in Western-style families until they are hopefully internationally adopted. These funds are purely donated from individuals and organizations, mostly in Shanghai; however, you can also make a donation through the website baobeifoundation.org

It is a truly amazing organization that has helped save many many lives here in China, and is run by unpaid volunteers. They also have the help of many families who serve as Healing Homes for these precious babies, who use their own money to pay for diapers, formula, clothes, etc, and don't get paid for their services.

So how did we get aligned with Mason? Mason was about 4 months old when he was brought to Shanghai from the Henan province to have surgery for his meningocele (form of spina bifida), right around the time we became interested in adopting (see previous post for THAT story).
We had met with one of the Healing Home managers to say that we were interested in becoming a Healing Home, but that we also wanted to adopt a child. We preferred a boy, around a year old or younger.

About two months later, we were approached to watch a little boy, 5 months old, named Timothy, while his Healing Home family went to Singapore for vacation during Chinese New Year, as these babies can't leave Shanghai while they are under the guardianship of Baobei. Chris and I purposely didn't plan any trip in the hope that a baby might come that could join our home, so it didn't take long to say yes. Then I asked the crucial question of, "Is he available for adoption? Is he a possibility for us?" "Yes, he is a possibility for your family" is the wonderful answer we received. So January 18, 2012, Timothy (soon to be renamed Mason) was delivered to our home/our family/our hearts with all of his gear (Baobei provides highchairs, carseats, etc) and continued to stay with us past the holiday for the next 5 months! We are so very grateful to all of the Baobei volunteers- current and former, for all of the wonderful services they provide for these sweet children. The Baobei Foundation will always have a special place in my family's hearts, and we will always be grateful!! Mason (known on the website as Timothy) has a picture on their website under "Baobei Babies ---> All Baobei Babies at www.baobeifoundation.org

Mason when he was Timothy, around 4 months old

Reunion Day

February 18, 2013 will be forever etched in my brain as reunion day...The day Mason is finally in my arms, once and for all.

My good friend LaReen came along with me for moral support and was a great help. We had an interesting time trying to explain directions to the taxi driver, especially because none of us knew the area of Shanghai where Mason was staying (including the taxi driver). Well, we eventually found it, and I gave the driver a decent tip (tipping isn't generally expected in China for most services), and he said he would wait for us to bring us back (and bring himself back to his usual territory). Thank goodness for LaReen and her mad Chinese skills!

So we walked to the home where Mason was staying and knocked on the door. I was excited but not nervous, as I thought I would be. I planned on playing it "cool" in front of Mason, not forcing anything and allowing him to get used to me before getting too close. Well, that wasn't necessary. His Healing Home (foster) mother answered the door holding him, and within a minute, he reached out for me to hold him and called me "Mama". Ahhh- my heart melted. The two of us interacted beautifully, and the whole thing went better than I expected. Like a dream, really!

The two of us got to know each other a little better, and then it was time to pack up his things and head for the taxi. He was really quiet on the ride home, sitting in my lap (There aren't seatbelts in most taxis here, and carseats aren't required), and he eventually fell asleep. 

Back in my arms again, at last!!!

The Adoption Decision- mvt II

Note: mvt I to this story starts below, and will make more sense if read in order.


FAQ- How did you decide to adopt?
Well, it goes a little something like this. Chris and I had been in China for about 4 months, and my eyes had been drawn to four beautiful babies that I had met through church friends in that time. The first was Paul, whom we met at the airport that first day, when our dear friend Tracey so kindly picked us up from the airport. She was helping care for him as his Healing Home until he was adopted. Later at church at met two other families who had Chinese babies through the same foundation as Paul came through. (Paul has since been adopted by a Canadian family!). My dear friend Suzanne had already adopted two sweet little girls, after having two bio sons, and my awesome friend Brynna was in the middle of her daughter's adoption, after having 3 bio kids. So this concept of fostering, which I later learned was termed 'Healing Home', which I'll explain later, was very intriguing to me. One night when Suzanne and her lovely family had us over for dinner, I brought up some questions regarding adoption and their girls' foundation and was entranced. This was awesome! Well, Chris...not so much. "I don't want to adopt. I'm not interested at all, but if I were to adopt, it would be a boy."  Wait, what?  He said 'if'?  That's very interesting. We'll, it was still a curiosity to me at that point.  I wasn't instantly "sold" on the idea, although it didn't take long. The idea of adopting a Chinese baby (and well, Chris said boy), so Chinese baby boy kept popping up in my thoughts...like almost obsessively. Where was this coming up from?  I mentioned it to Chris, but nope...not interested. Alright, well I can respect that, and I'm certainly not going to try and force this type of decision on him, but those thoughts would not. go. away!  So finally I prayed about it, and yep- That's what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to adopt!  Wow!  Really?  Ummm...Have you met my husband Chris, who is a good man, but cannot be persuaded easily once his mind has

been made up (I can totally look back and see Heavenly Father saying, "Just you wait and see what I 
can do. Lol"). Okay, maybe He wouldn't say 'LOL', but you get the point. So every nice in a while I 
would bring the topic up again, and Chris had the same response. Oh goodness...How are we supposed to do the Lord's will when my husband isn't in board with this. I kept praying over and over to see if we were really supposed to adopt when one day I was reading in my scriptures and something big hit me. I'm not going to go into the details here, because its so very personal, but I realized that I was praying for the wrong thing. I already received my answer, loud and clear, so why did I keep praying to find that out!  So I realized, I need to change my prayer to ask for my husband's heart to be softened and to get the same answer I did, even though he wasn't praying about it. (Remember, he wasn't interested). So finally it was on one of our weekly date nights, and we were out walking, when I brought up the topic once again (He was so patient with me, even though I could tell he was getting tired of me bringing this up again and again). He had a business trip coming up that next week, so I just asked him to take a little time just to think about it and pray about it while in his trip. "What if the answer I get is a no", he asks. Whew!  Sweating time and a leap of faith. I 
responded, "If the answer is no, then we won't adopt, and I'll leave it alone; however, I need you to 
truly be open to Heavenly Father's answer to you and accept it if it is a 'yes'". Fair enough, and we left it at that. Chris left on his business trip, and I prayed so hard, this time for the right thing, for his heart to be softened and for him to receive the same answer I KNEW I had received. 

So this is when the tears come in, even when I type this. Chris comes home from his business trip, everything seeming normal, until the kids are put to bed, and we sit down on our couch. Now, Chris is not a man of many words, and certainly not a man to begin many conversations, so when he looks over to me and says, "I need to talk to you about something", I was immediately focused and curious as to his conversation starter. "OK". He goes on, "I was laying down on my hotel bed at the end of a busy and exhausting work day full of meetings and presentations when I started thinking about adoption, as you requested. All of a sudden I heard a voice saying 'trust your wife'. I was laying there taking that all again when the voice out loud repeated it a second time a couple of minutes later.

'Trust your wife', and I knew in that moment that we needed to adopt."  Oh my goodness!  Did he really just say that?  Did he really just tell me that he got his answer with an audible voice?  Who hears a voice?  I have only heard a voice similar to that at my best friend Amy's funeral telling me that everything was going to be okay, back when I was 20, but when I get answers to my prayers, it's in another way completely. After crying and hugging, Chris was totally on board from that moment on!

The Adoption Decision- mvt I

Many people, upon learning we are adopting a Chinese baby (well, toddler now) ask how we got to this point. What made us decide to adopt?  I am always happy to answer these questions, because I'm still in awe that our paths have been guided in this direction.

Since jetlag is messing with me, and I show no signs of going back to sleep any time soon, I might as well share our story to adoption. I have been meaning to for some time now, but life has been crazy busy, plus there's been a lot of up and down moments throughout this journey, which is sometimes hard to relive while describing our amazing journey to this point of being 4 hours away from being reunited to my son, Mason.

FAQ- Did I always know I was going to adopt?
Not at all. I always had respect for the act of adoption and felt that was amazing way to form families, when a birth family experience would be a difficult life for the child. I do believe, when possible, that a child is usually better off with their birth families, but I also understand that there are circumstances when that is not the best case. From time to time throughout my almost 11 year marriage to my husband Chris, I would think about adoption, although not necessarily for our family. I just loved hearing about the miracles that took place and watching The Lord work his wonderful ways through adoption, and in fact, at one point in time I used to watch a TV show on TLC or Discovery Channel or something similar that was about families who adopted. I was very touched by these stories, but I still never really considered it for myself, but there was a certain thought every once in a while in my head that if we knew of a situation where an adoption was needed, maybe we could step up and help, but it was not something I would dwell on, and in fact, I don't think I've ever shared this with Chris, but the seed had been planted.

Okay, so fast forward to 2011...We had 3 beautiful bio children, and we were blessed to never have any fertility problems...In fact, quite the opposite. Our 3rd child was an IUD baby!  We thought we were done at 2 daughters, but Heavenly Father had other plans for us. I really believe He has an awesome sense of humor, and I wonder what His thoughts were when we said we were done at two.  "Oh yeah?  You think you know what is in store for you?  Just wait and see what I can do. Try doubling that!"  When I look back and think about how life would be without our cutie IUD Zac, I just feel so grateful that The Lord had different plans for us, because I just can't imagine life without that little guy in our family!  But anyways, back to 2011...no, I take that back...Let's go back further to 1982-ish. I was 4 years old when my family and I moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for my dad to work as a physicist at Aramco. We were there for 4 years, and that experience helped mold my life in such a wonderful way. I was immersed in a new culture at a impressionable age, and even though we lived on an American compound, life was very different than America. In fact, I remember that it took me quite some time to transition to life back in the States, and I kept mixing up which days of
the week begun the school week, begun the weekend, when church was, etc, because Friday is the

Holy Day in Arab countries. I was also used to their money system and had to relearn dollars and cents, etc. So I have heard that children who lived an expat life frequently become expats as adults. Alright, so let's fast-forward to 2011 when Chris' company asked us to move to Asia for Chris' job. We were asked to move somewhere in Asia for 3-5 years, and boy did I jump on that!  We considered the different cities around Asia where we could live, and Shanghai ended up the most reasonable place at the time, because Chris was supposed to be focussing his work efforts mostly in China. It took us one day to say yes, but we both knew when we were first asked. I know my childhood experience overseas prepared me for this.

So June 2011 we land in China, and I remember looking out of the plane before we walked onto
China land and thinking, "What did we just do?"  Well, that thought quickly changed as we almost
immediately loved the city, our new friends, church, the adventures, etc. We loved Shanghai!

Ramblings of an exhausted and excited mother

Here's a jet lag picture of me. 

Eeek!  It's not pretty, but this blog is meant to document reality, both good and bad, of this adoption trip. This was taken after 2 flights- Houston to Chicago, Chicago to Shanghai, for a rough travel time of 20 hours. 20 hours without sleeping, and that's on top of only 4 hours of interrupted sleep the night before I left. Last night I was able to sleep 6 hours, although in several chunks, and then I got in a good 4 hr nap this afternoon. 

Church this morning was amazing!  It was great to see good friends, although several were still away on vacation (Chinese New Year) or had repatriated when we did, and I also got to hear many uplifting lessons and stories, many focused on personal revelation and the Holy Ghost. There were some good reminders in there!

Afterwards, I came back to my "hotel" (aka my friends' home) and made some ramen that I bought last night. It hit the spot, and then I was down for a much-needed nap. 

Tonight I went over to a friends' home with my close buddy LaReen for dinner. It was fabulous...both the food and the company. There are many good good people in this world, and I've been so fortunate to meet so many wonderful people so far in my life!  I have been very blessed!

12 more hours and I will be on my way in a taxi to the other side of Shanghai (Puxi) to reunite with my son. I know that he's not yet officially my son, but he has truly been my son since I first saw him as a baby. I am told that he's extremely intelligent (I'm sure he gets that from me....oh, wait...), and extremely active. More than one person who has seen him in the past couple of months emphasized the 'extremely' active part, so we'll see how he compares to my other active children. On the other hand, I have been told that he is very social (He's always been that way), that he is obedient, and that he loves to color, and will sit for up to an hour at a time coloring. Yay!  That should help with the 5 flights he will take before landing in Houston (broken up over a couple of weeks, might I add). At 18 months old, I think that's amazing!  Especially because my older kids don't always have that long of an attention span. 

I got some fruit for him today, and made a point of buying bananas, since I'm told those are still his favorites. I am also told that he is a very good eater and will eat anything. All of my kids are good eaters for the most part, so he'll fit right in at the dinner table. I do remember Mason being a good eater for me, when we first got him at 5 months old. I would blend up all sorts of food for him, including green smoothies (green leaves, usually spinach and fruit), and he just gobbled it all down as quickly as possible. 

Anyways, I can feel my body and mind starting to fade, and I really need to be rested as much as possible before taking over the caring of Mason tomorrow morning. I hope this post makes some sense, as I'm pretty fuzzy brained right now. Thanks for following along with me in this amazing and monumental journey. Tomorrow's post(s) should contain some awesome pictures of our reunion. 

Goodnight world!

My 4 kids

Soon to be reunited

The travel journey begins

After 2 flights, with travel time total equalling around 20 hrs, I am finally in Shanghai, China!  I am exhausted but excited!  Today is Sunday, and I am looking forward to going to church will lots of my old friends here. I am so grateful for my awesome friend Jen and her family, for allowing us to stay in her home while we are in Shanghai!

I have to start getting ready soon, so this post will be sort of basic, but I guess each journey begins with a step--and boy have I stepped!  This is my last day to be without Mason, and I hope I can rest up enough to keep up with our active 18 month old!!!

I will try to post more of our adoption journey-up to this point- and additional feelings later tonight.

More to come (including reunion pics) in the coming days.