Laura's post with random thoughts...

Laura here, with my side of the story. I'm sure mom will write a blog, but by the time she starts I'll be asleep. So here are my thoughts now and she can add what she wants.
I don't even know where to start. My mind is a raging current, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives. So this will just be a stream of consciousness kind of thing and you guys will just have to try to follow the best you can. (It's probably not a good sign when the most eloquent part of the blog is a Blazing Saddles quote.)
Okay, here we go. Things are different in China and in America. Things I'm still trying to get used to:
1. The driving. In America we have traffic laws. In China they have traffic suggestions. Stop lights? One Way signs? Helmet laws? Police cars with their lights flashing behind you? Only foreigners and sissies pay attention to those. Also, no car seats. To be fair, we've only seen one traffic accident the entire time we've been there.
2. The stares. I'm used to people in America staring when I'm with Jaden and Katie. We either get the "you dang noisy kids" glare or the "aw, cute children" smile. Sometimes the confused "what are the family dynamics here" eyebrow raise. In China, we get some of the "aw cute" looks for the kids, but it seems like the adults get more attention. There's the suspicious "did you steal those Asian children?" look, the behind the hand "look, Americans!" whisper, and my personal favorite, the "oops, I was just taking a selfie, I didn't know there was a blonde girl behind me" picture. I wonder how many pictures of us there are floating around China right now.
3. The food. Surprisingly, I don't eat a lot of lotus root at home. David, our guide, did a pretty good job of guessing what we would eat, and the food has been tasty everywhere we've gone, but man, what I wouldn't give for some mashed potatoes and gravy.

On a different topic, I've had the best gig during this trip. I get to play with the littles, but I don't have the parental responsibilities. I can choose what I want to eat, and somebody else pays for it. Mom gets reservations at these amazing hotels, Dad hauls the suitcases, and I just goof around until I get tired, then I go to sleep. It's awesome. I would highly recommend it.
Okay. Mom's ready to write, I think. Peace out, y'all.

The Great Wall, Acrobat show and J's birthday

Today was a busy, busy day!  We got up early and went back to the buffet, to the kids delight.  It isn't my favorite buffet in the world but the littles love it.

After breakfast we met with David, our guide, and headed out to the Great Wall.  I knew the wall was in Beijing and so I assumed it wouldn't be too far away.  Bad parent award, I didn't bring anything for the littles to play with and they got bored on the nearly 2 hour drive.  Toward the end, J got car sick and gave us back all of the buffet breakfast he enjoyed so much.  At least in that regard, we were fully prepared.  Laura taught us that lesson many, many years ago!  When we got to the Great Wall, I also realized that I didn't have hats for either kiddo and it was really, really hot.  So 40 rmb later (about 7.50 usd) we had adorable kid hats.  Obviously we weren't the only parents to miss that step as every little booth had kid hats.  We got on the bus, which thrilled Katie!  (I get to ride a bus to the Great Wall!?)  Normally the ride is a matter of a couple of minutes but we got stuck behind a herd of recently sheared sheep.  The shepherd  had no interest in getting off the road or hurrying.  I found it hilarious that in a country that pedestrians don't have right of way, the bus and about 2 dozen others behind it, allowed 50 sheep the right of way.  Ha, next time I want to cross traffic, I know the secret...bring my sheep.  There's an allegory in there somewhere.  Every brick wall that we saw on that (really slow) ride Katie would ask Laura or me, "is that a Great Wall" to which the ever helpful Laura would reply "no but it is a pretty good one" or "no, that is the sub-par wall" or other equally enlightening responses.  Katie hasn't yet refined the Sanford child sense of humor and would nod and continue watching for the one Laura would agree was great.

Anyway, we finally got to the area of the wall that we were to ascend and got on a ski lift (they called it a cable car but don't let them fool you, ski-lift is what it is!).  Jay rode with me and was not a happy camper.  I think if he'd have seen it before he got in, we would have been walking.  About halfway up (and 150 feet in the air) he started to lift the bar, yikes.  I was able to distract him and we made it to the top.  The guys were yelling something to me in Mandarin to which I smiled and waved.  Jay kept trying to yell back it them, "What?!  I can't hear you!"  As if hearing would have helped.  Whatever it was must not have been life altering, they didn't stop us and we didn't die.  One of them did roll his eyes at me so it was probably something simple.  :) Jay had seen the toboggan ride that would take us down while he was hoping not to die on the lift and wanted to go do that immediately.   He wasn't impressed with the history he was standing on.  We walked up steep stairs of varying sizes until we were at the top.  It was a perfectly clear, "fog" free day!  It looked like you could see forever.  It was very weird to think that 2200 years ago, someone went to work and said "Day one.  Lay the first brick."

It was still early in the day and the other busses that had been stuck behind the sheep didn't have a guide that cracked the whip and kept them moving like we did and so the wall was fairly empty.  Katie of course, had very little interest in the wall and I didn't let her down much as she is tiny and the openings for the arrows were at ankle height and plenty big enough for my tiny baby to crawl through.  In the US, they would have been netted or fenced off but I've never read about any Chinese children falling off the wall, so they must not have a problem with it.  I wasn't going to risk it.

After the requisite pictures, we headed to the toboggans.  Katie made me promise to be the one to take her which pleased this mama's heart, and so she and I got on our little toboggan careening down the mountain together.  Lest you think Disneyesque, I'll say there were no seat belts or safety harness but we lived and had a blast.  

Jay and Laura were just behind us and in true Laura style, she screamed halfway down the mountain.  :) she also had a hard time obeying the keep 35 meters behind the people in front of you and I have the whiplash to prove it!  No really, the collision wasn't THAT hard.

Laura didn't know that I heard her tell Katie, "On the next adoption trip, you can ride with me."

At the end of the toboggan ride we got another bus ride  (we are trying to keep all the transportation promises we've made Katie over the last few months and are succeeding)  and Laura finally got her ice cream that she has wanted the whole trip.  (Oddly enough, it was Burger King). We also got to see an off-brand Mickey Mouse dancing on the sidewalk at the establishment beside ours.  Tim asked David what Pseudo-Mickey was doing there to which David replied, "To attract people to the bar."  Um, because nothing says come into my bar like Mickey Mouse?  Jay stared at e weird dancing Mickey for a while and stage whispered, "I don't think that's the real Mickey Mouse!"

We had a quiet ride back to the city center and went to lunch at a family's house in Hutong.  Laura was worried that her kidneys were going to be harvested and I have to say, I was holding on to Katie tightly in the ride through the back alleys.  I couldn't help but think how much Tami and Felix would have truly loved this part of the trip.  The food was very good and Tim was a wonderful guest.  If you didn't know him, you may not have realized how hard he had to work to get that cabbage down.  I have the sweetest husband.

Next we drove like mad to make our 3:30 showing of the acrobats.  It was crazy.  Jay wanted to know, loudly, if any of the guys were going to be naked.  A family that also looked to be on an adopting trip turned around and gave me the evil eye.  So if you are on one of my adoption fb groups and reading this...we really don't take our 5 yo to strip shows routinely.  (I think he was thinking about the Tarzan show at Disney, really.). :) Katie, in Sanford tradition, fell asleep during the noisiest part of the show ( 8 motor cycles  driving crazy in a circular cage).  She slept through the exit, changing who carried her and the drive back to the hotel.  It is 4:30 am and she still hasn't awoken.  We were all exhausted!  She missed out on the birthday cake that the hotel sent up and the one we had ordered which came shortly thereafter. Jay was very sweet though and said to save her a rose.  :)

I collapsed at 7:30, an hour after Laura, leaving the guys up working in Legos.  :)

Whew!  Was that way more than anyone wanted to know?  Tomorrow should be much quieter.  We will eat, pack up and board the plane for a four hour ride to Chengdu!  Getting closer!

Blessings, y'all.

Royal Zoo and the Imperial Mansion Marriott

Today was our first full day in Beijing.  We slept wonderfully on soft beds at the Imperial Mansion Mariott.  It is set up like an apartment which is great for family style travel.  We went and saw the pool but haven't ventured in it yet.  In our experience the pools are usually cold and I haven't gotten up the courage.  We need Gege here, he is usually Jaden's swim buddy.

We went down to breakfast at the hotel buffet.  It was a great mix of Western food and Chinese food.  Jay ate like he was starving and we had to remind him that we would come back tomorrow so he wouldn't continue to eat!  Noodles and fried duck breast seemed to be J's favorite while Tim did his typical Chinese breakfast of Fried noodles, fried rice and pork and beans.  Lots of options!  Jaden was thrilled with the dragon fruit.  (It is this bizarre looking prickly thing that has white with black polka dotted fruit.)  He kept saying, "This is the best dragon fruit ever!  I dream of this dragon fruit!"  As usual for everywhere in China--the coffee is what my dad would have said is "Gooood coffee!"  A "compliment" usually reserved for cruise coffee and old hospital coffee.

After that we made it through surprisingly mild traffic to the zoo.  It was very pretty but small.  The difference between our zoo at home and this one was interesting.  The area for humans was beautiful with running streams and gorgeous garden areas but the areas for the animals were spartan.  The animals could have been touched through the fences if you didn't care much about keeping your fingers.  Very different from home where there is always a big barrier between the animals and the people.  Katie, as expected loved the zebras.  We had to pull Katie back because she wanted to touch the Mama and Daddy Zebras.  Since they were biting each other,  I assumed she might look equally tasty.  I thought Katie would be glad later that we made her keep her remaining fingers intact.  ;)
Jaden ran around saying "Take a picture!" as he pointed at everything.   We watched the Lemurs for quite a while.  They were running around like, well, wild animals.  They had several babies riding on their mamas' backs.  Jaden thought it hilarious when one of the babies bit his mama on the butt.  He was trying to tell random people about the funny baby.  For future zoo goers...bring an umbrella.  In   places there were so many birds in the trees above that you needed it!  Yuck.

As always, Tim and the kids visited every bathroom in a 5 mile radius!

We went shopping after that to an indoor mall with hundreds of little stalls.  Jade, pearls, silks, toys--lots of bargaining to do.  Unfortunately, if you don't bargain you will pays several times what you should but there are a couple where it is inappropriate to bargain???  Our guide reinforced several times that we should bargain but then at one place he waved us off and said you can't bargain here.  I'm not sure how to know the difference.  (Any seasoned China shoppers, feel free to chime in!))
At each adoption, we have gotten jade crosses and Tim wanted to get one here also and so we bargained.  Who knows if we got a bargain but they seemed fine to us.  :)
As an aside, you may notice fewer pics of Jaden than normal; he has decided making weird faces is cool.  Jaden LOVES our guide, David Wang.

After that we went to one of the oldest noodle shops in Beijing.  It was very good.  Laura was sister supreme and practiced her left handed chopstick noodle feeding techniques.  She rocked it!  The kids are going to gain a million pounds.  (I may lose a few if I keep trying to eat with the chopsticks.)

Labor begin...

So much of pregnancy and paper pregnancy runs on parallel paths...everytime (for us) it has been about 9 months, for the most part I loved being pregnant, both came with moments of doubt and great fear, and both give you an incredible gift at the end.  Neither are guaranteed to be easy, neither I suppose, are even supposed to be easy, but God lets you forget the hardparts and eventually both are so worth it.

I remember being pregnant and calling on family and friends at the end and later looking back and seeing how much less fun it would have been without my "village".  Adoption is very much like that.  It is so awesome to see and feel the support at the end of this "pregnancy" too.  Friends to hold down the fort at the office so that we feel ok about leaving, friends to run over at the last minute with Chinese money so that you don't reach China completely without funds, friends to cry with about delays, family doing laundry and oh, the prayers.  Tim and I have felt the prayers and truly do take comfort that God hears those prayers.  The hard part is He doesn't always say yes when we want hiim to but then I don't always say yes to my kiddos even know that they are old enough to know the things they feel that they need.  Sometimes God must feel a little like we do with Katie lately.  Her new thing that is adorable, but probaby shouldn't be, is  her urgent "But I NEED it!"  Sometimes it makes me smile, sometimes it makes me sigh but all of the time I know that most of the things she "needs" are not really needs at all.  (I mean does anyone other than Katie and Laura really believe that we NEED sweets 5 times a day?)  Evertime she says that to me, I'm going to try to use it as a reminder that the times I think "But I NEED it!" toward God are probably equally non-urgent.

Ha, pregnancy brain hits paper pregnant moms too!  I just realized how much I am sort of rambling.  (Of course it could just be jet lag.)  :)

I am going to try to blog daily.  It probably won't happen, but I am going to try.

So...for today, we got up very, very early and the plan was to throw the kids into the car and let them go back to sleep for the hour trip to the airport.  They were all too excited to go back to sleep (well Laura may have if the littles hadn't wanted to talk her ear off!)  On the way we passed the casino and Jay said, "I can't believe God made a house of lights just so it would be beautiful!"  As signs and red lights, and building lights would come it to view, he would say with awe, "just beautiful!!"  Oh, to have the joy of a child.  We made it to the airport, flights were all smooth and the kids slept a little on the loong flights.

Our guide David was at the airport when we got there and got us to our hotel, (I have to admit that I enjoyed watching Laura's face in the Beijing traffic, hehe), we got checked in without problem and then went with our guide for a dinner at a local restaurant.  Very authentic.  It was very smooth and suprising easy the entire day.  No major meltdowns were to be seen (and the kids did great too).  So nice boring early labor as this final part of the journey gets ramped up.  Yea!

Tomorrow is supposed to be the Royal Zoo in BJ and the following day is supposed to be the Great Wall.  Hopefully I will have some more exciting pics to add down the road.

Jaden is such a character; we are trying to remember some of the Jadenisms as they happen but one of my favorite for today...After eating a ton a lunch just before the landing on the long flight today, he um, gave us back, the entire meal.  Even as I was wiping his chin, he said "This is the best day ever!  This is my favorite part!"  (I assume he meant the landing that the pilot had just announced.)  Sometimes his exuberance can be exhausting but oh, he does joy well, doesn't he?

So specific prayers for today...continued health.  Laura is still not over the exhaustion induced illness from her marathon ER rotation and forgot and brushed her teeth with tap water.  Oops, hopefully no repercussions from that.  Katie isn't thrilled with all the stares we are getting here, I'd love for her to be comfortable with or blind to the attention our big blended family is going to receive over the next 2-3 weeks.  Mitch is midway through his medical missions trip in Mexico and will join us afterward.  Prayers for my big kid as he navigates the long flights and the China subway system on his own to find us in a few days.  As always, prayers and good thoughts on Ian's transition.  I would love to be spared what I know some of the other parents of the older children's adoption have been through lately.  Adoption, like pregnancy, is hard.  Kids don't join our families without pain and tears and shouting.  I'm old enough to really understand that the hard parts really do eventually pass and leave behind great joy; I would just hope that as God metaphorically wipes my chin that I can remember that sooner or later, I'll be able to say "This is the best day ever!  This is my favorite part!"
Blessings, y'all.

TA and Leaving!!

Wow, it has been a crazy, busy few days!  We got TA (Travel Approval from China) on 5/21 and we are leaving at 5 in the morning tomorrow!!!  A 6 day turn around is nearly unheard of (and probably complicated things a little) but in order for Laura to be able to go and to have time to recover for her next rotation, we really needed the timing to be perfect.  God showed up in a big way and everything has worked out.  Tim has been an absolute rock.  He has kept us organized and kept us all on track with packing and getting ready. 

ONLY ONE THING LEFT!!!

While this is an incredibly exciting time, it is also potentially a very emotional, traumatic time.  Ian has had so much more time in the orphanage than the other two that he will have much more to grieve right now.  Later it may be a comfort to him to have memories of his time in China but for now it will make this much, much more difficult.  Ian's orphanage seems to be more invested in their children.  Most of the children have been given baby books of sort to take to their new homes, they really do seem to want the best for the kids.  Having had more attention and care probably makes it even harder to leave.  We know that it is ultimately the best thing for him; children are meant to have parents.  He may not see it that way at first.  Some of the others have kicked, screamed, shut down completely, tried to run off, refused food, or been defiant.  All of which is normal in an older child adoption.

I would love to know that I have a community praying us home safely.  Specific things to pray for would be for Ian to feel the love that we want to give him, for Ian and the littles to feel safe and protected, for the littles not to be jealous of their new brother, for us not to have forgotten anything important :), and for us all to have the patience and peace that will be needed. 

Stay tuned as the adventures unfold...

Jie Jie answers FAQ :)

 

Hey everybody. It's Laura. Jie jie. Big sister. Wawa. Walrus. I have lots of names these days. Anyway. I'm writing a blog post for three reasons:
1. I'm supposed to be finishing up my personal statement for my residency application and I am the queen of procrastination.
2. It's been awhile since mom posted anything. It's like she has 5 kids to keep up with or something. Whatever.
3. I get asked the same questions over and over when people find out about my family. Maybe some of you have the same questions. Maybe not. Either way, here's a little FAQ session for you all!

 

Q: Did your parents ask you before they started adopting?
A: I've been asked this so many times, for each adoption. And the answer is yes. Absolutely yes. This was a family decision from the start. It's one I'm glad we made, and I'm especially glad we made it together as a team.

 

Q: What's it like having siblings so much younger than you? Do you get confused for their mom a lot?
A: It's obviously a big gap, but I like to think it helped mom and dad to have older kids helping take care of the little ones. Yes, people think I'm Jaden and Katie's mom sometimes. Probably more often than I realize. But I guess I should be honored that they think I could raise such beautiful and well-mannered children. And to be fair, sometimes Jaden does accidentally call me Mama. So it's an honest mistake. Really it's only a problem when people call Mom "Grandma." (Seriously. Don't do it.)

 

Q: Your parents sure are brave/faithful/big-hearted/loving/generous to adopt so many kids, aren't they?
A: They are some of the most brave, faithful, big-hearted, and loving people I know. But I don't like the use of the word "generous." Yes, it's true, they are incredibly generous. They lavish us all with attention. But adoption isn't about being generous. Adoption isn't charity work. If your biological child was stuck in a different country all alone, would it be considered generous to bring them home? Of course not. It is understood that you would do anything you could to get your child, BECAUSE IT IS YOUR CHILD. Why should it matter where (or to whom) they were born? Sorry. I'll get off my soap box now. My parents are wonderful people who do everything they can for their children. Let's leave it at that.  :)

 

Q: Are you going to get to go with them to get Ian?
A: It looks like the answer is YES! It just so happens that the adoption is going to fall during my vacation month. As far as Mitch, he may get to go with us. He may have to join us after Gotcha Day because he has already committed to a mission trip during the time we're likely going to leave.

 

Q: How do you stand the cuteness every single day???
A: I don't know. I like to think of it as my superpower. But really I nap a lot, so maybe that's an adaptive mechanism to avoid constant exposure to the little balls of adorableness that are my bebbe siblings.
 

That's all I have. Hopefully mom or dad can add some cute pictures (because, really, we know that's why you read the blog). And hopefully you'll be hearing more from us soon!