3 Months Later...

 

This is the face of the beautiful, vibrant, adorable girl who we have the blessing and privilege of raising!!!! We are truly blessed!!!

 

We hear it often said that she is so blessed to have us as a family!!! The truth of the matter is, it is us that continually reap the blessings!!!!! 

 

I thought that rather than writing a bunch of stuff, I would just outline our past 3 months by way of pictures...so fun!!!

 

Having said that, I have always tried to make a point to be real with everyone and never sugar coat our lives!! These past 3 months have been TOUGH!!! It has been extremely rough gaining an instant 1 year old and learning how to manage a family of 5. In the past three months, there has pretty much been at least one sick kid a week, and we have had many trips to the doctors! We have had sleepless nights and exhausting days...the laundry is always on "back order", chicken nuggets have been the dinner meal far too often, and the dishes are usually right where they were left :-)!!! Regardless, we wouldn't change a thing, and we feel as if Ellie has been with us from the start!! She is a perfect fit to our family, and only an all powerful God could orchestrate such an amazing thing...To God be the glory!!! 

 

Enjoy the pictures!!!!

 

First full day home asleep in her crib...the sleep didn't last long, but it was surreal to see her lying there finally at home!!!

 

We arrived home late October 30, so we were prepared for a little "trick or treating" on October 31st...of course she had to be a ladybug!!!

 

All ready for her first bike ride...she LOVED it!!!

 

"Are you sure about this daddy?"

She loves taking jogs with daddy on Monday's and Thursday's!!

 

First (of many I'm sure) drum lesson with daddy!!

 

Drew's 4th birthday party...Pirate style...Yo Ho!!!

 

Ellie loves to find her way under chairs and tables!!!

 

Got her ears pierced!!!! She looks adorable with cute little pearls in her ears, and despite getting them pierced, I STILL had someone think she was a boy...I tell ya!!

 

 

Getting out the Christmas decorations...the boys put the Santa hat on her and she loved it!!!

 

In early December we had to take a trip to Oakland for an appt. for Drew. I happened upon this amazingly cool playground where there was a Chinese Junk Boat to play on (just a mile from his doctor...been there countless times and never knew about this playground)!! You can tell by Ellie's knees that she LOVED crawling all around!!

We even went next door to the community center and found over a hundred Chinese adults playing ping pong!! There was a school next door that had mostly Chinese kids and they loved playing on the playground with Ellie!! It was so fun and I felt as if I was back in China!!

 

Ellie's favorite spot in the house...under the kitchen table :-)!!

 

At the Bass Pro Shop getting ready to see Santa!!!

 

"Hmm...I'm not too sure about this whole Santa thing..."

 

"I think I'm my brother Drew's favorite person to play with while Jeremy's at school!!!...He's crazy and makes me do crazy things, but he's a lot of fun!!!"

 

"I love playing with my new kitchen while mommy cooks!!"

 

"Just chillin' with my big brother!!"

 

"I might have to be rough and tough with my big brothers, but I love to carry my purse around the house!!! Being a girl is so much fun!!!"

 

At Impact Sports with Drew...this was the only picture she was still enough to take!!! She loved all the play structures and mats to crawl around on!!!

 

Picking up Jeremy from school is one of the highlights of the day!!!

Ellie learned to walk a couple of weeks ago and loves holding her brothers hands!!!

 

 

At church with favorite "big sis" Jamee ("Yay-Yay")

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year!!! January 31, 2014 marks the first day of the Chinese New Year!! We celebrated with the Eby's and the Liu's!!

 

Family day trip this past Saturday to Point Reyes to see the migrating Grey Whales and Elephant seals (in the background). We are thankful that Ellie (like our boys) is a great traveler!!

 

"This is the rocking chair that my Gramps made my mommy when she was my age..."

 

"I have the coolest big brothers..."

"And a pretty crazy family!!!..."

 

Together, we are all blessed!!!

 

We have enjoyed a whirlwind of a past 3 months with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (a trip to San Diego), Winter Camp (with the "big kids" at church), and much more!!! We look forward to this continuous road ahead with our sweet Ellie Mei!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 "Good Wishes"/Prayer Quilt

I thought I would just send a quick note to remind you all about the 100 "Good Wishes"/Prayer Quilt.

The concept is super simple, but I know some of you were a little confused, so hopefully this will help.

Basically, you just need to provide a square of fabric (8 inch square-new or used)...you do not need to quilt the square or add anything to it...of course if you already have, no worries.

We will be taking all the squares and patching them together to make a quilt.

In addition to the square, please attach a note, prayer, verse, etc. for Ellie. With the note, include a small scrap (like 1 inch or so) from your fabric, so that we can see which person sent which fabric :-)...if the fabric has a special meaning, please note that as well!!

We will be making a scrapbook of all the notes to keep as a memory for Ellie.

Doing a quilt like this is a special tradition in China for a new baby, so we thought we would carry that out, and since there are so many of you who have been so instrumental in our journey to bringing her home, we would love for her to know who all of you are :-)!!

We originally had the due date for the fabrics as Oct. 20, but since we were gone in China, things got put a little on hold, so no worries if you haven't sent one.

If you are here in Lodi, feel free to give it to me, send it in the mail, or put it in Tim's box.

If you are in San Diego, you can either mail it to our parents, or give it to them in person :-).

If you live somewhere else and need to mail it, message me and I will give you the address.

We made it home and made the news!!!!

Well after almost 48 hours of travel, we FINALLY made it home!!! And what a sweet homecoming it was!!!

The cool part is, it was all captured on video (not for reasons we would've ever wanted, but hey, I guess God wanted to use an emergency plane landing as a way for all to see our adoption story)!!! What a blessing that although you couldn't all be at the airport to see Ellie come home, you could see it all captured on video via the news!!!

Tokyo-To-SFO Flight Makes Emergency Landing In Alaska « CBS San Francisco

So...let's see where I left off on our last blog... Oh yeah, Tokyo, Japan!!

We had fun playing in the play area, then boarded our flight!!! I can tell you that at this point, we were so ready to be at home and see our boys!!! We were also exhasted from almost 24 hours of travel thus far... Just 12 more hours to go and then we were home...

But God had far different plans!!! About 5 or so hours into our flight we started experiencing some heavy turbulence! We were eating dinner at the time, and let me tell you it was a little bit like eating dinner while riding a roller coaster... Had to hold our food trays and drinks down :-)...

Then it settled down and a few minutes later we heard a bang followed by a rumble (kind of a similar sound and feeling to when the landing gear comes down). Tim had the flight tracker on his tv screen and we noticed that the plane had started descending. I immediately felt the terrible feeling that something was wrong!! A few minutes later and more descending, I asked Tim to go ask the stewardesses. He said they didn't know, but all of them seemed chipper, so not to worry. We then noticed on the flight tracker that the airplane had diverted from the original path and had turned towards Alaska.

At this point I wish I could say that I had great peace and a steadfast faith that everything was going to be okay, but I was genuinely scared!!! I just wanted to see our boys and give them a hug one more time!!! Tim stayed incredibly strong throughout the whole ordeal and I was so thankful for that!!! After a little bit, I had to go to the bathroom and mustered up the courage to go despite being very afraid!!! While in  the bathroom I began to think of what I would tell the boys if they were with me... I started smiling and sang one of our favorite songs that we sing as a family (a camp song Tim and I learned when we were younger taken straight from the book of Isaiah), "Fear not, for I am with you! fear not! for I am with you! fear not!  For I am with you says The Lord!!!"

I am thankful that although my initial human response was fear, I was able to get to the place (after a long while) where I could carry out Philippians 4... "Do not be anxious about anything..."

After what seemed like a very long time, the captain came on and shared that the loud sound we heard was an engine problem and that we were okay and the engine was still working, but we needed to make an emergency landing in Cold Bay, Alaska. Yikes...still totally freaky as we were over the ocean and Cold Bay was the closest to land we could get (we prayed hard that the engine wouldn't fail)!!!

We then landed and were told that we had to stay on the plane for at least 6 hours due to the fact that there were no customes in Cold Bay...

I can tell you that it was nice to be on a plane that had individual TV's and the airline did it's best to keep us comfortable and fed.

After what seemed to be an eternity, we were finally able to get out and walk on land...woo hoo!!! They bundled Ellie and I up in a blanket and comforter for the cold walk down the stairs to the shuttle bus. It was freezing outside, and I, being a California girl had my flip flops on :-)!!! It was totally beautiful too!!! I have always heard that Alaska was beautiful, and I can now attest to that!!! We then boarded a little shuttle bus and drove about 100 ft. :-) (maybe a few feet more, but not much) to the Cold Bay School. There were 8 kids total in the school (Cold Bay's population is around 100).

The school was gracious enough to let all of us use their internet because none of us got reception, so up until now we had no way to contact our families!!! I felt so bad to hear that my family had already drove the hour and a half to get to the airport because the flight said we were on time...of course by this time it was already 2:00 PM and our flight was supposed to land in the morning. Thanks Gramps and Gramma for entertaining the boys ALL day and night in San Fran!!!

Oh, I left out a funny (at least funny now) part of the story... While we were on the ground sitting on the plane, Ellie started having an allergic reaction and broke out in hives over her whole body. Of course we had Benedryl, but it was in the checked bag because it was too big of a liquid item to go in the carry on.

Tim asked the flight attendants if they had any, and of course they did, but it was in the "lock box." In order for them to get it, they would have to put the plane in lock down mode and lock the pilots back up in the cock pit (no problem if we were flying in the air, but we were on the ground...). They made an announcement to ask others on board, and all the Benedryl that people had was in pill form. We decided to chop up a little piece of one pill and put it in her bottle, but of course she wasn't having it!!

She was super itchy, and I really didn't know what to do!!! When we finally got off the plane and arrived at the school, I decided to ask the principal of the school (who also happened to be the teacher, special ed teacher, and janitor of the school...lol!!!!). She was the sweetest, kindest lady ever!!! She got on the phone to contact the small store (who had it, PTL!!!), and then called another lady to go pick it up. The Benedryl arrived within 3 minutes I think!!!

I then went in to the small classroom of 8 kids to say thank you!!! The principal/teacher/janitor asked me to share with the class about our adoption and all the different parts of China we went to!! They all LOVED Ellie and thought it was so cool that we adopted her!!! They even got my email address so they could write to us!!!

I told them that although she is Chinese, she becomes a US Citizen upon touch down into the U.S....how cool is that that she "technically" became a US Citizen in the small town of Cold Bay, Alaska (although since there is no customs there, it didn't become official until San Fran). The kids at the school thought that was so cool!!!

I joked with Tim that there would probably be reporters when we arrived in San Fran, and I guess maybe we could spread the word about the orphans that way...little did we know!!!!

Soooo, we finally boarded the new airplane and as we watched the people try to transfer our check on luggage into the new airplane using tractors and forklifts, the most beautiful rainbow Tim and I have ever seen appeared in the sky...It was a full one!!! Our God is big, mighty,  and faithful!!!

As we headed back to San Fran, I can honestly say that we were soooo exhausted!! The Benedryl conked Ellie out, so she slept the whole way home!!! We tried to sleep, but it was difficult...

Arriving in San Fran, Tim and I realized that it had been almost 48 hours of travel (From Guangzhou, to Beijing, Beijing to Tokyo, Tokyo to Alaska, and Alaska to San Francisco) with no sleep...

We got off the plane over 12 hours later than was scheduled, headed through customs and immigration, then to the baggage claim... we were so excited to finally see our boys!!!

We headed to the waiting area only to be greeted by our boys, my parents and about 12 cameras and reporters all waiting for our story.. welcome to America Ellie!!! :-) (They apparently had already heard about Ellie from the kids at Cold Bay school that the reporters had talked to!!!)

What a homecoming!!!! And as I said, you couldn't all be there to see the homecoming, but because it was all captured on video, you can see it now!!!

As a side note...we are all completely exhausted... emotionally and physically!!! I honestly don't know how many days it will take for us to feel "normal" again, but we're so glad to be home!!! Ellie's doing great, and is enthralled by her big brothers!!!

Making the most of our time on the plane!!!!

Finally our family of 5 together!!!

Biggest brother holding me!!!

Big brother giving me my bottle!!!

Super Hero's and an adorable ladybug!!!!

Looking adorable!!!

Welcome Home!!!!!

Greetings from Japan!!! Almost home!!!!

Boy, these last couple of days have flown by soooo fast!!! It is hard to believe that we've only had Ellie for a week and a half...so much has gone on!!!!

The smog lifted this morning and we actually saw blue skies above Beijing!!! Thank you all for praying!!! There are some dark clouds here in Tokyo, but nothing too serious...woo hoo!!!

We are getting ready to depart on our final flight of our two week trip (7 flights all together...yikes!!!). Ellie has been a trooper for sure!!! The first flight to Guangzhou, she did amazing (all except the fact that she stayed awake the whole time) :-)!!! 

Our trip to Beijing last night was really rough!!! Our decent lasted 40+ minutes, followed by a 20 minute taxi...Ellie cried through the whole thing :-(... We then arrived at our hotel at almost midnight to get a quick sleep and be ready to go by 4:30 am...yikes!!! Unfortunately Ellie was in a lot of pain last night (we can only guess her ears from the flight), so she cried most of those 4 hours...needless to say, we are extremely sleep deprived!!!

Given our lack of sleep, the 7 flights in 2 weeks as well as staying on the 15th and 17th floor of two of our hotels...the elevator rides, and plane rides and little sleep have made our world be a little loopy!!! Please pray that things will go back to normal quickly when we get home, and the room would stop spinning...lol!!!

Please pray that we would all sleep on this next flight to San Fran (especially Ellie)!!!! Pray that her ears would not bug her (so far all our Delta flights have been amazing, so she did great on the flight here to japan)! 

We also thought we would take the opportunity to remind you that when we come home Ellie will need a chance to adjust...her world has been knocked upside down this past week and a half!! She has been ripped from the only home she has ever known, has been taken away from a people group she has only ever known, and has travelled more in this week and a half than most people do in years!!! Ellie needs to learn to trust Tim and I as her mommy and daddy! She has to learn that we are the ones who will take care of her needs! In her world as she has known it these past 2 weeks, we are the only familiar faces and voices to her. She will need time to learn who all of you are and know the difference between her mommy and daddy, her new brothers and friends and family. 

When we arrive home, I will mostly have Ellie in the Ergo baby carrier when we are out and about (as I have here in China). This is for two fold...one, it is a great way to bond (as close to my womb as she will ever get), and two, we need her not to be held by all of you just yet... I know you all will want to love on her, and there is definitely time for that!!! She just needs time to trust US first...we hope you all understand this!!! 

Words cannot describe how thankful we are to all of you for joining us in this journey, and we can't wait for you to meet her and to hear of our great adventures!!!

We love you!!! See you all soon!!!

Fun from the playroom at the Tokyo airport!!!

Getting some exercise before the long journey home!!!!

Please Pray!!!

We are here in Guangzhou, and the plan is to have our Consulate appt. Monday morning, fly to Beijing on Tuesday evening, and then fly out of Beijing Wednesday morning to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to San Francisco. 

We are watching the news, and it appears that they are canceling flights right now due to the smog in Beijing (let me tell you that it is awful everywhere!!!!!).

We also are hearing of more storms to hit Japan (we just missed the typhoon by a day when we came). 

Please pray that there would be a strong wind to come to Beijing to help reduce the smog, and that all our flights will not be cancelled!!!

Also please pray that we will miss any storms headed to Japan!!!

Thank you in advance for your prayers!!! We can't wait to get home for you to meet our sweet, sweet baby girl!!!

Our Adventures in Xi'an :-)!!!

Xi'an (pronounced Shee On) is the capital city of the province where Ellie is from (Shaanxi). We arrived in Xi'an on Sunday afternoon and left Friday evening. 

During our time in Xi'an we were able to see and experience lots of fun different things!! After getting Ellie and having a few appointments, we were able to have a couple of days of free time to explore as well as a day where we got to tour the Terra cotta soldiers.

In our free time, we had fun taking in all the sights and sounds of the city. We even ventured out to the "underground world" of the subway!!! We had so much fun!!

On Wednesday we got to go to the "8th Wonder of the World!" The Terra Cotta Soldiers are life size soldiers that were made over 2000 years ago during one of the Dynasties. They were buried underground, and in 1974 a local farmer unearthed them while digging for a well.

It was so cool to see an actual "archaeological" find!!! The museum is open during the day, and then the archaeologists dig during the night and in the morning. They are still uncovering more!! 

Due to the fact that the government of China owns all the land, the farmer never got any compensation  for finding the soldiers, nor any recognition. It wasn't until the 1990's when President Clinton came to visit that he inquired about the farmer. After that, the farmer became famous and now works in the museum signing autographs (we got one) :-)!!!

We had so much fun in Xi'an and will never forget our time there!!! Enjoy some pictures:

This is us on the Subway...we made it, and all packed in :-)!!!

We did as the locals did and crossed the crazy traffic!!!

This picture is for you, Kari, and for the Listers :-)...gotta love the Canadian gear in the China mall!!!

Only in China can you find a whole section in the department store for Ping Pong paddles :-)!!!

In the "Underground World" where you can walk to get to different places under the street, we found a vendor who sells and makes these cool flutes!!! They are beautiful and he played "Jingle Bells" for Ellie :-).

Here we are in front of the vendors underground :-)!! We definitely found some cool finds!!!

We of course had to stop at McDonalds to get some soft serve ice cream...Ellie LOVED it :-)!!!

Here we are outside the Terra Cotta soldier factory where we saw how the soldiers were made over 2000 years ago, and how they make replicas today for souveniers.

This is inside the place where the soldiers were found. There are 3 different sites where the soldiers were found. This first site had the most soldiers that have been unearthed.

This is Tim in front of the "Kneeling Archer" (all the soldiers have different ranks). This kneeling archer was the only soldier left in tact with only a small piece broken off his foot.

Tim did some bartering outside the site and was able to get all of us some souvenir soldiers :-)...way to go Tim!!!

Reading stories with daddy :-)...

For our last dinner in Xi'an, we were so tired after lots of days of touring, so we decided to order a hamburger from the hotel cafe...this was the "American Burger..." lol!!! It was a large patty of some mysterious meat, some cheese, and a sunny side up egg. We've never had one of those in America, and most certainly will never have one again in China...lol!!!

What a blessing it was to spend so many days in Xi'an! We loved experiencing the culture and had fun trying to be a part of it in a small way!!!

Next stop, Guangzhou!!!...