Sweet, Sweet Caleb and His Gotcha Day

We have been blessed with such a sweet, funny little boy. He is constantly making us laugh with his funny faces he makes and his cute, sweet personality has made us both fall head over heals in love with him.  What a precious soul!

We met Caleb on Easter Sunday.  It was 4:00 in the afternoon here in Ch*na.  I am going to be honest - all through the last year of paper work, waiting and fundraising I have been a nervous wreck.  I honestly didn't know what to expect.  Caleb is seven years old and in that seven years has experienced so much life. I had many ups and downs with my emotions and Easter Sunday was no different.

We drove to the civil affairs office which is about 15 minutes from our hotel.  When we arrived, we found out that he was already there and waiting for us.  We took the elevator to the floor where we would meet our son for the very first time.  Hand in hand Nate and I walked into the room and saw Caleb sitting in a chair with a very solemn look on his face.  We walk over to him and I knelt down.  The worker from the orphanage said something and tapped him on the back, so he would stand.  She pointed to us and said "Mama. Baba", and Caleb quietly repeated her.  At this point, I was bracing myself for a complete breakdown, meltdown, freakout but instead what happened astounded me.  I noticed that he was holding the matchbox car that we had sent.  I asked him if I could see it.  He handed it to me and I smiled and handed it back.  Then, Nate reached into our backpack and pulled out a matchbox car and truck that we brought for him.  We opened it up and I put one on the small table next to us and pushed it towards him.  He smiled. Then, he pushed it back.  This went on for a minute or two and he kept smiling.  Then he got down on the floor and launched the car across the floor and laughed.  He then started jumping all over and smiling.  Nate got down on the floor with him and they started pushing the cars back and forth as fast as they could, and he was loving it!  Then, Caleb stood up and pulled out a deck of cards.  They were in his pocket.  He held them up to Nate and Nate shook his head to tell him "yes" he would like to play.  Caleb then proceeded to shuffle them like a pro and teach Nate a card game.  It was hysterical.

They continued to play and I had some time to talk with the women from the orphanage.  I asked a lot of questions about his routine and about the orphanage.  She told us that Caleb had been told about us and they have been preparing him for our family for the last 8 months.  She said that he was excited to meet us and that he wanted a family.

Our guide told us that they would not let us stay and play all day:-) so we needed to sign a custody paper so they could release Caleb into our care until our official paper work the next day.  She then told Caleb it was time to go and to say goodbye to the worker and director from the orphanage, so he turned around and said "bye bye".  And marched off with us to the elevator.

There has been no looking back for Caleb over the last couple of days.  He had a tough night last night, but even though it was tough, he didn't push us away.  Instead he let us comfort him and lay with him.  Our guide asked if he wanted to go back to say goodbye to everyone.  He said "no".  I hope and pray that he was treated well there.

Today I got to go to Caleb's finding place.  That is a different post for a different day.  It was so much to take in and my mind is still whirling.

God is so good!  Psalm 139:5 says "You hem me in - behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me".  God has definitely gone before us on this trip and everything about it has completely exceeded all of my expectations.  I am thankful that I kept listening to His voice when fear would try to consume me because we would have missed out on one of our greatest blessings.  He is always faithful when we follow.  Even if the road ahead is not easy, I know that we are on His road and there is no other place that I want to be.

A Finding Place

I sit here at 5:30 in the morning wide awake with many thoughts whirling through me head.  I thought that I better get some of them down so my kids can read this one day.  On Saturday, April 19th, we went to our daughter's finding place.  I have wanted to go here for quite sometime, it is always a mystery not knowing how all of the pieces fit together.  I felt that if we went, it might be one more piece that we can help her try to figure out and make some sort of sense of her first two and a half years of life - if that is possible.

On this trip, I was told by my agency that it would not be possible to find.  They said it would be too difficult, but my prayers were answer and God provided us with the BEST guide possible.  Her American name is Sherry and she is just willing to do anything for us.  She is truly willing to bend over backwards for us.  And she has such a great sense of humor.  

We started out knowing that this would be an 1 1/2 hour drive and that it could take up to a half hour to find the spot.  We knew the adoption documents stated that she was placed 30 meters east of the telecommunications bureau in Wugong county and that is what we were working with.  Our guide did not even know if it was the only telecommunications building in that county which would mean, we wouldn't really know where exactly her birth mother placed her.  

We arrived in Wugong county.  They found a telecommunications building and they stopped to ask several different people that kept pointing us back the same building.  We then stopped at a police station.  The police said that was the only telecommunications building in the area, so we knew that it was the right place.  We drove back to the building and got out of the car.  My hands were shaking and I felt like I didn't know what to do next.  I had packed several items to make a poster to hang at her finding spot.  My prayer in doing this was that her birth mom would get to see it and know that her daughter was okay.  That she would know that her daughter was alive.  She survived.  She made it.  We took the items from our bag and began to assemble this poster.  We had the finding add that had the date and where she was placed, a baby picture, a picture of her now and a picture of our family together.  We asked our driver to write out what we wanted to say.  It went something like this... "This baby was found here on in 2009 and was adopted in 2011 by an American family.  She is happy and loved."  We brought laminate sheets and then assembled it all together.  We took out Nate's compass and started to walk 30 meters east from the building and there on a corner in front of a cement wall there was a large pole.  We decided to hang the poster on the pole at that place, and then Nate and I decided to pray.  We prayed for her birth mom and prayed that she would find that poster and know that her daughter is safe and happy.   We prayed that she would know that her daughter is loved.  The tears were flowing, as they are now when I write this.  It was such a powerful moment that I didn't know we would  even get to experience, but God is so gracious.  And we are so thankful.  

We then walked around and watched the people.  A group of three people walked up and the one was a young women that had grown up in Wugong and then moved to Xi'an.  She spoke a little broken English and asked us what brought us here.  We explained and she thanked us for visiting their town.  She was very sweet and they all kept thanking us. We had many stares-more than in the other parts of Ch*na where we have been.  Sherry told us that we were probably the first Americans to ever come to Wugong.  It was a very poor area.

We felt that something to give to our daughter was important - something that she could hang onto from her birthplace.  We walked into a few stores up the road from that place but they didn't have anything that would be really special.  Our guide walked us into the telecommunications building and tried to find something with the name of the building on it, but they didn't have anything.  We walked back outside and she took us around the corner and there was a little shop.  We walked inside and there was probably 15 women sitting at sewing machines making blankets, pillows and scarves.  The ladies took us to the back and there was a room filled with items that these lovely ladies had made.  Everything was so beautiful.  We settled on a pink silk throw pillow. They put it in a bag and that bag had the name and address of the telecommunications building on it!  

After we purchased the pillow and said "goodbye", we walked back out and decided it was time to go. It was hard to leave.  This was my daughter's birthplace.  This is where she would have lived and grown up and life would have been hard.  God had a different plan for our sweet girl.  I am thankful that He did or we would not have the opportunity to raise her and love her.  But my heart also aches for this amazing women who carried her and took care of her for the first week of life and I imagine, struggled with the decision to leave her.  

See I believe in my heart of hearts that her birth mom cared deeply for her.  And we will continue to pray that she finds that poster on that little corner that for most people in this world means nothing, but means so much to me, to Nate, and to her birth mom.  That corner is where my sweet girl's life was changed forever.  That corner is where a mother's heart was broken when walking away from her sweet baby.  Someday I am sure that my daughter will stand at that corner and try to make sense of it all.  My prayer is that above all, she knows that her Creator had a very special plan for her life.  And even if all of the pieces never completely fit together, that she feels she fits because she is created in His image and His love for her exceeds any love her birth family or her family has for her.      

Finally Meeting Caleb!

We have Caleb! He is doing so great. He was very shy when he first saw us and i thought he was going to have a hard time. We had some gifts for him and he just sort of stared with a very concerned look on his face. We then pulled out a few match box cars and started playing with him. He started smiling and got down on the floor with Nate. They were laughing and playing for quite a while, then he pulled our a set of cards. He started shuffling them, handed a stack to Nate and fanned them out and proceeded to teach Nate a card game.  He has the best personality. He has a sense of humor and is already making us laugh. He was really hyper when we got to the hotel and I think it was his way of dealing with this major change. The orphanage said they have been talking to him about all of this for the last 8 months and he really wanted a family and was so excited to meet us! God is so good - He kept reminding me of the fact that He always goes before us. Our new little man is already sleeping after only 10 minutes! Thank you for your prayers - we felt them today!  I will post again soon with more details of our day - this mama is exhausted!

We are here!

It has been quite some time since I have posted here!  It has been a few crazy months.  We are now in Chi*na and in just over 24 hours we will be meeting our son!  I will try to stay up to date here for those of you that are following along!  Thank you all for you love, support and prayers.

Bringing Caleb Home

I love seeing the excitement on my kido's faces at Christmas time, and I look forward to it again this Christmas.  But even with all of the excitement and happiness, we can't help but feel a little piece missing.  It is hard to explain unless you have experienced having a child on the other side of the world.

We constantly pray that God will send a special angel to watch over him and love on him.

I often wonder what he is thinking or feeling.  In September we sent him a care package and in it was a photo album of our family and a teddy bear with our family picture on it.  A few weeks later, we received a picture (very unexpectedly).  In that picture he was hugging the bear with a very genuine smile on his face.  I wonder if he is happy to know that his family is coming for him or if he is nervous or if he is scared.  Caleb has gone through more than most of us will in our entire lives.  More than anything, we want Caleb to know unconditional love.  We want him to feel safe and secure.   

Every child deserves that.

Having trouble viewing the video click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3Sd3-q1_g&utm_source=trigger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=You_Tube_Ready

All donations are tax deductible

LOA

It has been a crazy few months with little time to update here!  Everyday we are praying for Caleb and are longing for him to come home.  And now, we have LOA (Letter Of Acceptance - basically a letter from his country saying that they accept us to be Caleb's parents)!  Our agency tells us that we should be able to travel within the next 2-3 months.  And this means that we get to share his picture...FINALLY!  So here he is, our sweet Caleb.

Happy Birthday Sweet Caleb

Today has been a busy day.  I made breakfast, cleaned the house, speech class for my daughter, dropped the kids off at my mother-in-laws, then off to work.  But in the back of my mind through out the craziness of the day, I could not stop thinking about my little boy.  Today is his birthday.  He probably just woke up a couple of hours ago.  I wonder, if anyone will celebrate his birthday with him today.  Will they even tell him it is his birthday? Will anyone tell him how completely special he is and how much he is loved?  These are the things adoptive moms think about when they can't be with there for these important moments.

If he were here, he would have opened his eyes to a room full of balloons covering his floor and streamers hanging from his doorway.  He would have come downstairs to his favorite breakfast and lots of hugs and kisses.

Today I am praying that Jesus, the one who loves him more than we ever could, is the one that makes him feel loved and special.  So Happy Birthday Sweet Caleb!  We love you already and cannot wait to spend many more birthdays with you.