Day Thirteen...Goodbyes are hard

How do you close the door on three years of your life?

You don't. You let go of the control and allow God to do what He needs to do. 

I have to back up to Friday, Sept 9, the day before we left for Guangzhou.

I didn't post about it back then, but we had our "official" goodbye before we left for Guangzhou to pick up Silas. I knew that I didn't want to have the "ugly cries" when he was here because I didn't want to scare him. So we had a night of fellowship with the whole team and then spent some special time with each other that night. 

The boys

The big kids

The best friends that anyone could ever ask for. There are not enough words in the English language to describe the relationship that has grown over the last 5 1/2 years between these four people. As we go back to America, there are two large chunks of our hearts missing...our friends in East Asia and our teammates, who are more than equal to family in our eyes. As we go back to family, we are leaving family behind. Our lives will never be the same. And I thank God every single day for blessing our lives so richly and deeply!

We praise the Father for the new team that He has given. Our two families have been through thick and through thin together, and we all know that nothing will be able to replace that, but God has done an amazing job of PROVIDING!! Our hearts are full knowing that our dear friends will be very well taken care of. He has provided three families (one not pictured) that are so rich in knowledge and experience and love for the Lord. He has provided kids that are so close in age which will yield friendships that will last a lifetime for them. If we have to go, I couldn't ask for a better situation to leave behind. God is so faithful! Please be in prayer for the G family as they adjust to their new home, their new city and their new teammates. Father has very big plans for their next term and we are so excited to see how He will use them for His glory!

From the day we started...

To now...Thank you Father for how you have worked in our lives and grown us together!

Fast forward exactly two weeks to now Day Thirteen. We had such a fun night with our team and we woke up and shared breakfast together and got ready to go. We gave really big hugs before we left the house because we knew things would get crazy at the airport, (which they did) and went on our way. 

One last family picture. Our sweet kids look so grown up!!

One thing I have truly missed about America is my car and the radio. Being able to get in my car and go for a ride and at any time have the Word of God and uplifting music in my ears. We were blessed to have friends that were able to drive us to the airport in their cars. As we rode, we laughed and talked and at first it was just another day. And then all of a sudden, the kids calmed down and it was quiet, and there was the radio. And I heard these words...

"Hold it all together
Everybody needs you strong
But life hits you out of nowhere
And barely leaves you holding on

And when you're tired of fighting
Chained by your control
There's freedom in surrender
Lay it down and let it go"

A song I've heard many times, but in that moment, in the quiet, even though I had been so focused on all the happy of our adoption and all of the good things, the truth was that there is this world of unknowns stretched out before me, and those words cut to my heart and the lump in my throat grew bigger and bigger. I didn't want to cry. Silas was sitting beside me. Justin was in the other car. I had to keep control. 

And then she turned around. The woman in my life who has been my constant. For the last three years she has been by my side. We have walked hand in hand into a battle and have fought tooth and nail to hold each other up through it. We have faced the storms of culture stress and all that includes, of which I could never accurately paint a picture. We have been totally helpless together and in our weakness God's glory has been brilliant. We have been a team in the purest sense of the word. We have laughed, cried, been angry, hurt, forgiven and stronger together. Our hearts have been bound together in a way that I never dreamed could happen. And she turned around. And she gave me that look. And I lost it. 

Fortunately, Silas thought it was hilarious that I was crying and it didn't phase him in the least bit and he gave a much needed sense of humor to the situation.

We are so thankful for these guys that helped us so much with our luggage and so much more! We love you guys!!

We got through the airport craziness and had to say goodbye with lumps in our throats in the rush to security like we had figured would happen. Sean was definitely having a hard time and it showed through complete defiance as we tried to get him to stand in line. Once we were finally through security and at our gate, our boys released their built up sadness and we just let them cry. Even Silas was asking about "big sister" and said he wanted to go back to their house.

We are thankful for friendships that are hard to leave. It means that we have loved well.

And now we just begin the next chapter. God will be with us all through every step of the way.

Thankful for this play area in the Beijing airport while we tried to find some dinner.

 We made it to our hotel, which was amazing and the perfect way to spend our last night in Asia.

We finally got a hotel with a bathtub and Silas got to experience his first bath. He loved it!!!

Stay tuned for our adventure to the Great Wall!!

Day Seven

Today was the last day of our very first week together.

The hotel that we are staying on is on an island.

Not really an island like you would think of an island. It's surrounded by a canal and then a river on one side, so you can only access the area by bridges. That's what makes it an island. But it's beautiful.

All of the buildings are from the late 1800's and early 1900's. They were built mainly by the French and British expats during a time when foreigners were not allowed to live in China. But because this city was one of the biggest trading ports in the world, it was the only place they were allowed to be. But they were only allowed to live on this "island." So, it has a very western, colonized feel to it. Much like Savannah, Georgia!

When you are here, it doesn't really feel like China at all. Except for the whole Chinese people everywhere kind of thing. :) 

There are two churches on the island and both of them are still functioning churches. We saw in passing one day that there was a Chinese/English service at one of them on Sundays and so we decided we would go. What an opportunity to be able to take QiLong to a church service in his own setting and his own language with his own people before we take him in America!!

 The worship part was a little more emotional for me than I realized it would be.

I don't take it for granted when I hear the Lord's name being lifted high in this country!

When we got back to the hotel, we talked with QiLong and told him about who God is and how much He loves us. And we talked about how we would go to church every weekend and sing songs about him and worship him. We pray for this sweet boy to know Jesus someday.

After church, we walked around for a bit, looked at the lobby of a different hotel and headed back for lunch. I thought these pictures were so cute of them with their chopsticks. Sean wants to be just like his brother and have everything that he does.

We had a paperwork appointment this afternoon. The boys were napping, so Stephen and I went and got that done. And then we met up with some other adoptive families to go have dinner. It was fun and it was great to be with other families. Unfortunately, Justin began feeling sick shortly after we got there and is still not doing well. At least one of our family members, if not morre, have been sick since August. I am so frustrated with illness, especially right now. We could use some PR's to stay healthy and good to go. We still have a week left here!!

I didn't take any pictures of tonight with the other families, except for this one on the way there.

QiLong's first taxi ride!

All of us get a little car sick, QiLong especially, so we were just ready to get out of that thing.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to go back and visit QiLong's orphanage. We asked him today if he wanted to take us to his school so we could meet his teachers and his friends and he said yes. So please be liftint that up about him being back and school and leaving and what kind of emotions that he could potentially have about that. And ask that Justin's tummy will feel better so that we can actually go visit!!

Hopefully I will have some more pictures!!

Day One

Our first day as a family of five was truly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine! The Lord totally came through for us today. There were no tears, there was only joy. I feel a little guilty saying that it feels almost like a fairytale. Words can't even begin to describe how surreal this day was. He has tested a few boundaries, and keeping up with 3 boys is a little bit harder than we realized, especially with one that is so curious about everything, so we are tired. But he has responded very well to our redirection and seems to be so happy to be here. He was prepared very well and he has been taken such good care of. We are so thankful. I will keep my words few, because I for once don't have many. Just so much gratefulness and awe at my loving Father who is faithful to His promises. All of the glory and honor are His.

We received this picture from
the orphanage director
while they were on the way.
He is looking at our pictures.

Last family of 4 picture

So nervous!!

A little nervous at first

But then we made our way to the couch and he
realized Daddy had a phone.

And the rest of the time he was all smiles.

                       

This moment, on the way to dinner, was our first meltdown.
Silas was tired and so Justin picked him up and that broke
poor little Sean's heart. It was a hard moment for all of us.
We made sure Sean got to sit beside Daddy at dinner and all was
well from then on. We will make sure we have naptime tomorrow too!
But on the bright side, Silas was showering Daddy with hugs during our walk
and even gave him a big kiss!!

 As we walked, Silas watched everything. He was quiet as a mouse and you could see on his face the look of deeply taking in all the sights and sounds. His world became a lot bigger today.

He likes pizza!

So in love with this!

Ready for bed!

Bedtime was a little tough in the beginning. But we made it through. Sean was so tired and so I rocked him to sleep to give him a little extra loves. A couple of times while I was rocking Sean, Silas sat up and watched us. So when I laid Sean down, I told Justin to bring Silas over to me and he let me rock him too for a good while. He eventually wanted to go lay back down, but it was a sweet time. I pray that he will fully embrace our love and someday know the Father's love that reaches far deeper than mine ever will.

We couldn't be more blessed. Goodnight!!

THANK YOU to all of you who were lifting us up on this day! We couldn't have made it without our cloud of witnesses surrounding us. We literally felt the armies of angels around us several times today. The gift of your prayers is PRICELESS!!

Here is to a restful night of sleep. Tomorrow is a new day with new challenges I'm sure.

We will be returning to the same place we went to today to sign our paperwork. 

Today we are only his guardians. Tomorrow, he becomes our son.