The Big Day Has Arrived

Nearly two years of waiting is about to end. We meet Eden in a few short hours. It seems the only one not nervous is Malia. She seems to have the attitude, “Let’s get on with it already, rather than just talk about this theoretical person!” Mom and Dad are thinking about the many unknowns… How quickly will she take to us? Was it hard for her to go back to the orphanage? What will she eat? Is she really not potty trained?... which when you think about it, make no sense to worry about. We just won’t know until we meet her.

Our update tonight will include a photo of our much-awaited daughter. Thanks, everyone, for reading this and lifting us up in prayer. It means a lot.

I (Paul) have attached a few pics of Chongqing that I took on my jog this morning.

Beijing

We spent today in Beijing to start off the trip with an orientation given by our agency, Holt. It was with a group of 12 or so other families who are all going to different provinces. The fun part was receiving a red binder with 2 new pictures of Eden and some more information on her. Malia was very possessive of the new photos and wanted to carry them around with her. One interesting thing we found out was that Eden only just joined her foster family in Dec 2009, which means she really hasn't been there for very long. And she was moved back to the orphanage a week ago to prepare her for us coming. What they've explained about that is this allows the children to start the grieving process of leaving their foster family before we get there.

Malia has been such a trooper so far, very cheery and sweet even though she is exhausted. She hasn't been napping on this trip, but totally konking out early in the evening. This morning she woke up at 4:45am, was going strong all day long, and then fell asleep riding piggy-back on Paul while we were walking through a crowded market down the street from our hotel.
















This video clip is from that market, and is not for the faint of heart. You can thank Paul for making sure it made it to the blog!

We leave for Chongqing tomorrow and will go meet Eden on Monday...

First Leg Complete

Snoring has never sounded so sweet.

Many of you know what a finicky sleeper Malia is, and thus why we were dreading the long international flight. We did everything to stack the odds in our favor - made sure she was generally on her regular sleep schedule on the last day, boarded a midnight flight so that Malia would feel naturally tired and primed to sleep, even brought some children's Benadryl as a last-resort option (don't want to create outrage among you paragons of child safety with that last admission). Well true to form, Malia did not like the sleep conditions on the flight - this despite the fact that she was able to lay almost completely flat and stretched out thanks to some body contortions by Mom and Dad to create extra space in our 3 contiguous seats. She finally did manage to get about 5 or so choppy and disrupted hours of sleep on the flight. We take that as a victory. Thanks for your prayers.

We're now at a transit hotel in the Seoul airport where we have a 14 hour layover (I know, it was the cheapest ticket we could find). Thanks to the wonderful generosity of friends and family, we had a some extra money to splurge on the private room where we could catch some extra shut-eye. And Malia is now sound asleep. We are grateful.

For those of you who have asked to know how to be praying day-to-day, I would ask that you remember Eliza's health. She's still a bit under the weather, and the plane ride didn't help. Hopefully, this nap at the airport will be restorative.

We included a little photo of our little insomniac on the plane.

Off We Go!

In a few hours we head out to LAX to go get our girl. Malia and I are both nursing colds and hoping it won't progress into anything nasty while we're there. We've received an outpouring of love and support as we've been preparing to leave and we feel like the most blessed people in the world.

We'll see you on the other side...

Update!

As I was just bemoaning the lack of communication yesterday, we got an email from Holt today confirming that Eden and her foster family are okay after the storm and that they appreciate us asking about them :)

We also got another picture of Eden at the SWI and some updated measurements! At 19 months she is 29 in and 22 lbs, which puts her at the 5% for height and 15% for weight. Malia's always been higher in percentile for weight too :) Going through Malia's old clothes today and I was surprised at how few things I could bring for Eden. Either the seasons didn't match up or it was so stained I couldn't believe I'd saved it! And some things I remember Malia having and for the life of me couldn't find. Well, I guess I have to go shopping! :)

Well, our agency still doesn't have any news for us, but they keep telling us "no news is good news". It's a little unsettling that they are so out-of-touch with Eden and her orphanage, also in the fact that we've gotten no updates on her since last November. I feel like I'm reaching in the dark trying to prepare for this trip. I'm packing clothes in the 6-12 month and 12-18 month sizes...maybe a few 18-24 month, but it's more likely she's small for her age. I'm bringing bottles even though I don't know if she's still taking a bottle, and I'm bringing diapers even though she may already be potty trained! I guess the M.O. is to be prepared for anything. I don't care, I just want her here :)

It's on my to-do list to learn some more Mandarin phrases, but when?? There is no time...I feel pretty overwhelmed with packing and getting caught up with work before we go. Rosetta Stone was a good learning tool, but more relevant for adult conversation, not so much for talking to your child.

8 days until we leave. 13 days until we meet Eden!

Devastating Storms hit Eden's County

These are the kinds of things that are so hard to not worry about when your child is thousands of miles away. We heard this morning that a huge storm hit Chongqing municipality, and Dianjiang county, where Eden lives with her foster mom, was one of those hit the hardest. Thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged and 39 lives have been lost. We're waiting to hear back from our adoption agency on whether Eden is okay and trying not to worry too much in the meantime :(

Please pray with us for Eden and all those who are affected.