September 24 - Packing

We are packing this evening in preparation to head to the airport early tomorrow morning. We cannot wait to get home to see all of you (especially the boys) and to introduce Laikyn to all of you. Speaking of the boys (all parents like to talk about their kids, right), we are very proud of them and of all the reports we have gotten back on how they are doing. We love them all very much and are honored to be their parents (yes, I understand that they will pull this blog out sometime in the next couple of months when they do something that may not make us so proud). It is fun to watch them grow and begin to mature. Every year brings with it new challenges, but also new enjoyment as we watch their character develop. I asked Tyler to really step up while we were away and help his grandparents with his younger brothers and from the reports we have received, he has done exactly that (hopefully those reports were accurate and no one was just trying to make us feel better about being thousand miles away).

Other notes: Laikyn took her first trip to a zoo and enjoyed it. We also went to the US consulate today to take the oath and get her visa (so it is official). Also, China does not allow any social websites like blogspot, face book, etc. So, my sister has been kind enough to take our entries and post them to the blog and then send the comments back to us via e-mail. I say that to thank her and also to let you know if there were any grammatical errors, then they were probably her fault.

We hope to see you all soon.

September 23 - In Motion

One of the not so comfortable parts of this trip has been the constant motion:

- Seven flights-over 16,000 miles (34 hours in the air)
- Over 20 bus trips in very congested, stop and go traffic (some with poor air conditioning)
- One dinner cruise up and down the Pearl River
- Countless hours walking

Dramamine is a must for the those who have the potential to get motion sickness.

September 22nd - Honest Questions

While shopping today, we went into a little shop and spoke to the female owner for over 1/2 hour. Here is an excerpt from that conversation(shop owner's words):

You adopt this baby?
Did you know special needs?
Did they not send you a picture first?
And, you still came here to get this baby, why?
Do you have other children?
Do they have any disabilities?
Then why adopt her...why not have your own beautiful girl without problem with mouth?
You know I do not think they will never be able to fix her mouth.
You cannot send her to school in US, can you?
Here in China, she would not go to school.
In China, she would never find husband, never get any land, etc.
Some people from U.S. are crazy.

Believe it or not, we enjoyed this conversation and for actually having the opportunity to answer some of the questions that I am sure many of the people we pass on the street are also wondering about (now, it also made Molly want to adopt every child in China that has a special need). Maybe we will share more about this conversation at a later date.

Other developments: Laikyn loves to go swimming. We have taken her every day. She ate pizza last night. We took the famous "red couch" photos with the entire group tonight and she sat there and smiled and grinned the whole time. The current count for changing poopy diapers - Mommy 15 & Daddy 0.

September 20th - Truly Blessed

All adoptive families have there last stop in China in Guangzhou (the US Consulate is located here) and many of those families stay at the White Swan Hotel. Now, while in Zhengzhou, we could walk a mile in any direction and pass thousands of people and never see another Westerner (Zhengzhou has over 2 million people in the city limits). People would stop and stare at us until we literally passed out of their line of sight. Here in Guangzhou it is a different story, we have over 50 other families staying at this hotel that are also adopting. There is a form of a bond with these families and you get many of the same conversations: "Where are you from," "Where is your child from," "How many children have you adopted," etc. Each of these families story is unique and each adoptive child is unique and beautiful in there own way. Laikyn is one of the very few children that has stands out from the others due to her open cleft (many children have already had the cleft repaired). But, as I have stated in some other blogs, she stands out in a lot of other ways as well. It seems like everyone we pass or talk to comments about her smiling, giggling or her overall joyful disposition. We thank God that He has brought us to Laikyn and we thank Him for everything that makes her unique and beautiful and that includes her cleft. Yes, she will some day soon have that cleft repaired (God willing), but without that cleft, we probably would have not had the opportunity to ever meet her, let alone take her home as a member of our family. And, along with the cleft, we get to see all of those unique things on the inside...her overflowing curiosity, abundance of joy, how she is so quick with a smile or laugh and, yes, we would have to throw in a little bit of orneriness (she has to have a little bit to keep up with her brothers). Also, after today with her mommy, I would say she may also have some form of an inner desire to shop. I am only kidding, however, Molly has been spending time with Laikyn every day and telling her what a blessing she is to us and she has also been reading her Psalm 139. We know that God did knit her together in her mother's womb. She has been fearfully and wonderfully made and we get to see His handiwork every day as we interact with her. We have been truly blessed.

More Firsts

We left Zhengzhou yesterday and flew to Guangzhou. Laikyn did well on the flight. She did not cry at all, but she also did not sleep (she is very inquisitive or squirmy as her mom likes to say). Already looking forward to that 13 hour flight home (can anyone say Benadryl...and I'm talking about me). We arrived at our hotel close to 10:00 last night. Laikyn slept well...we had to wake her at 8:30 this morning to go down to breakfast (another amazing breakfast buffet). At 9:30, we headed over to get her physical exam. Again, she did extremely well (especially considering the heat here). She is a tiny thing. She weighs in around 20 pounds and is currently wearing size 12 month clothing even though she is almost 16 months old (however, she has worn some 18 month outfits). It is going to be about 97 degrees today and is very humid. The hotel has two swimming pools (sorry, boys, I know you would want to be here to swim in them) and Laikyn put her feet in this afternoon.

Molly is a little homesick and she wants to go on every tour available to help the time go by faster. I on the other hand would rather stay at the hotel and relax. Tomorrow's tour includes the "Old Chen House" and the "Provinicial Arts and Crafts Shopping Center." Monday is a trip to the Pearl Market (you can get pearls at about 25% of what they cost in the states). Tuesday is the Pearl River Cruise and Thursday is a trip to the Guangzhou zoo. We will probably end up doing a couple of them. We just haven't determined which ones yet.

Finally, they have several "optional" group dinners planned. One is a traditional Thai restaurant and another is at a local Chinese restaurant. However, they also have a Subway, Papa Johns and Starbucks within walking distance. I think all of you who know me know what I am leaning to, but we do like to spend time with the group, so we will probably be good sports and go with the others (plain white rice anyone).

Daddy's Girl

Well, it has officially happened! Laikyn is already a daddy's girl. I didn't even get 3 whole days before it happened. She loves being near him. She snuggled up next to him for her bottle today. She cries when he walks away and she giggles for him all the time. (maybe she thinks he's funny looking...hmmm) He kisses on her all the time. (I am starting to get a bit jealous) The only thing he hasn't had the privilege of doing is changing one of her 6 poop diapers!!!!! She tries to do things that he does too. We bought her a stroller at Walmart and she loves going for rides. Of course it has been a bit rainy here, so we have been inside a lot. It is amazing to watch more and more of her personality (and attitude) come out everyday. She has an incredible appetite. We have been exposing her to many American foods, none of which she doesn't like (except yogurt and ice cream). I think we may have to do something about that!!!
We were considering taking her swimming today until we witnessed the "hocker" at the pool. It is custom here to "cleanse" yourself by letting it out wherever you are. So, I think we will hold off on the pool for now. We should be getting Laikyn's passport tomorrow before flying out for Guanghou. (her first plane ride........should be interesting. I think if we have plenty of food, we're ok)
Meanwhile the boys back home are doing well. They went out with grandma to build-a-bear and made their sister a cute little bear. She's wearing "frilly" socks, pink skechers, a jean skirt, and an Ohio State shirt. (what else would we expect!)

September 15th - Making it Official

We spent the morning at the registration office and notary office making the adoption official. We spent the afternoon shopping (perfect for mommy and daughter, not so much so for daddy). We could tell so many stories about our trips to the Lotus Center, Wal-Mart & Pizza Hut...let's just say all of them were very interesting.

We will spend three more days here in Zhengzhou. They are free days for the most part for us (paperwork processing for our CCAI reps). We are planning to go to a local park, maybe more shopping and maybe Laikyn's first swimming experience. They have a huge swimming pool here at the hotel. Speaking of the hotel, it is very nice and the breakfast buffet dwarfs any buffet I have ever been to in the States. There are very few westerners in Zhengzhou and very few people that speak any English. We could have been our own tourist attraction yesterday while shopping. White couples (several of the men over 6' tall) adopting Chinese babies with special needs. We fly to Guangzhou on Friday, which is more western (and has a ton of shopping). We will spend seven days there before getting Laikyn's Visa and heading home.

Laikyn is still doing great. She is sleeping well (about 10-11 hours/night without making a sound) and still smiles and giggles a lot. She seems very content and has a good appetite. A couple of small concerns: she has developed a little cough and has not had a "poopy" diaper in the 48 hours since we got her (whoops, you can stike that last concern. I guess that there is a lot that can happen when Daddy takes so long to type).

Miss you all.

Gotcha Day (September 14th, 2009)

Well, for those of you who like to read, I could probably write a novel about our experience today (I will try to shrink it as much as possible).

We left the hotel for the Registration Office at 10:00 this morning. What was a little surprising was walking into that building and immediately seeing that four of the children were already in the room (four out of the eight families adopting). We recognized Laikyn right away and walked over to her. Many of the other children cried (to be expected leaving their caregivers that they have had for over a year), but Laikyn did not make a sound. She appeared to be checking everything out. She came to Molly with no cries or screams. It immediately seemed like she was where she belonged...in her mom's arms. She also came to me with no issues and everyone else started commenting her happy and curious disposition.

Her caretakers/nannies were there with her and you could tell how much they loved her. They kissed her a bunch and even though there was the language barrier, they kept coming over to us and smiling and doing things like giving us a "thumbs up" sign. Even the director of her orphanage was there and he kept coming over as well. Again, although we could not verbally communicate, it was like he wanted to express to us how special of a little girl we were getting. When the caretakers and director left, we could see them looking at us with Laikyn (at the time we were with her outside by a little pond and waterfall). I think they were checking one last time to make sure she was going to be well taken care of. We are very thankful for them and the care they provided for her. We have many pictures of them to make sure we/Laikyn can be reminded of them and their love for her.

Baby firsts: fell asleep in daddy's arms on the way back to the hotel. Sat straight up on the bed when room service brought lunch and basically lunged for the plates. Had her first french fry along with her rice congee. She looked at pictures of her four brothers and pointed to them and smiled. Mommy is getting ready to give her first bath. One thing we have not witnessed yet is her first cry.

At times, it seems that God's blessings can just overwhelm you. In a day full of busyness and emotion (beginning with Terry telling us how wonderful the boys have been and how much everyone has offered to help with them), we want to make sure He gets the praise and thanksgiving He deserves.

19 hours! (and counting)

In just 19 hours we will be new parents to Laikyn!!!! (ahhh) We are in the capital city of the Henan province. This is where she was born and now lives. We flew here from Beijing at 10:30 this am. (1hour, 20 minute flight) We are staying in the Crown Plaza Hotel (very nice), however they would like it if you not flush toilet paper, but throw it in the trash!!!! I guess with 2 million people in this city, we don't want any kind of sewer problem. This may take some time getting used to!! We have already decided that we don't want Chinese food again for awhile. (Thankfully we found Italian for lunch) Bill and I are rejoicing for what tomorrow holds for us. I am bursting with joy and it's contagious around here as the other families are too!
Gotta go, our cribs are being delivered!!!!

September 11 - Beijing

We made the mistake last night of getting in from our flight and falling asleep at 6:30 pm here. Needless to say, we woke up at Minight and were wide awake.

Today we toured all day: Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Silk Factory, etc. It was fun and imformative, but also meant that we were one day closer to getting Laikyn (now 2 days to go). The best part of the day for me was spending time with Molly and that is really one of the best parts of this trip...being able to spend so much time with my best friend as we go through this whole journey together. It is amazing when you think that your love for someone is so great and yet it continues to grow every day. I know that just as we love raising our children together, we will also love growing old together and growing more in love every day.

More touring on tap for tomorrow: Olympic Village, Great Wall, etc. and then we leave Beijing on Sunday to head to Zhengzhou.

Miss you all.

Saying Goodbye (for 16 days)

We are writing this blog from O'Hare airport in Chicago. We are preparing for that 13-14 hour flight to Beijing. Saying goodbye this morning to the boys was difficult (Molly made it to the airport before she started crying), but being away from them for 16 days gives us the opportunity to really reflect on how much we have been blessed. We love and cherish all four of our boys greatly and thank God for them every day and for the great opportunity (responsibility) he has given us to raise them. We are also extremely blessed to have parents that will watch and care for the boys while we are gone. We are very thankful to them and to all of you for offering to help in any way while we are away and for praying for us, the boys and baby Laikyn.

A Waiting Child

Have you ever shopped for a head of lettuce, steaks in the meat section, a new bike for one of your kids or a bunch of bananas? What do you look for? Do you pick up the item, look at, smell it, compare it to others around it? And, then, you probably pick the one that meets your criteria and basically looks the best to you. Isn't this the same thing most of us would do if we had the opportunity to pick out a child that was going to be our little girl or boy? So, why go through a waiting child program to adopt a child with special needs instead of the traditional program? Why sign up for a child that may look differently, may need extra medical care, surgeries, etc.?

Well, about two years ago, China changed their adoption criteria - making them much more strict. So, there was a flood of dossiers that came in before these changes were made causing a large back-up and a very large increase in the waiting time to adopt a child through the main program (the waiting time went from a little over 1 year to as much as 4 years). The wonderful offshoot from this was many people decided for the first time to take a look at the waiting child program. They were driven there because the wait time was much less, but what they ended up finding were beautiful children in need of someone to love them and care for them. They found children who may have been abandoned because their biological parents could not pay for their medical bills or, quite possibly, because of the way they looked. Well, we were two of the parents who went to the waiting child program, at least initially, because of the reduced wait time, but what we found were all of the things mentioned above and so much more...We found a little girl who had just turned a year old. A girl who was abandoned when she was 1 day old. A girl who has an open cleft lip and pallet that is in need of surgery or a number of surgeries to repair. A girl that we already cherish, love and thank God for and a girl we can't wait to hold in our arms. We also found a little girl that has been very well taken care of and we are thankful for those caretakers (from the updates we have received, the caretakers love to dote on her and give her a lot of attention). We have attached a picture of this little girl we have found and we can't wait to introduce her in person to all of you.

Ready, Set, Go!

We are preparing to leave for China in 6 days (and 2 of those days will be spent camping at Pokagon State Park) to finalize our adoption of Laikyn Luoshan Hope Turnwald and bring her home on September 25th. We hope to be able to blog throughout our time in China, so people back home can track our progress. But to start, a little background information:



Why did we choose to adopt: Basically, we are selfish. I know when people think of adoption they usually think what you are doing is noble or selfless (and this may be true to a point), but outside of our faith and each other, nothing else brings greater joy to our lives than our four children. So, adding another child is really adding more joy to our lives (and, yes, we understand that we are also adding more of the other things as well: chaos, accidents, illness, etc.). And as I think about it, it means I will also need to find a hotel that allows seven people to a room for any future family vacations (everyone knows that I am way to frugal to pay for two rooms). We also believe that adoption is close to the heart of God. He has adopted us as His children, and, regardless of how unlovely we may have been, he poured out His grace onto us and into our hearts (maybe more on this in a later blog).



Now, if we were big believers in fate or irony, we would tell you that it is so ironic that we will be adopting Laikyn almost exactly (maybe exactly) 9 years to the day from our daughter Myka's due date (she was stillborn 2 and a half weeks early on September 1st, 2000). But, we do not believe it was fate; rather, we believe that God's plans are not always our plans and His ways are so far above our ways. So often, we want to follow our own paths that we map out for our lives and always lean on our own knowledge and experience, but God is funny in this way, He wants us to follow Him and trust Him with our lives, which means trusting Him with all of the circumstances and details of our lives (Proverbs 3:5-6).



So, please pray for us while we take this journey. Pray for our boys back home (and those taking care of them - thank you so much) and for their health and safety. Pray for us that God would work out all of the details that could cause stress or anxiety. Pray for the health of Laikyn and us while in China and on the trip home. Pray for the day that we meet Laikyn in person for the first time and, even if there are tears and/or screams, it would be such a great, joyous occasion for us. Finally, and most importantly, please pray that God would use this entire time to teach us. We want to listen to Him and learn from Him and as Philippians 4 says: we do not want to be anxious about anything; rather, we want the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.