Father of Four?!

Tim's thoughts on Father's Day 2014

Father of four!!!!

Cool.

I have to admit, I never saw that coming, but I couldn't be happier!

It has been especially nice recently because all four kids have both been home. Laura took her national boards recently and has a couple of weeks off, and Mitch has been working at the office this summer. There is nothing quite as special as all of us being home. Even when we are not all in the same room it just feels "right" to all be under the same roof. And Katie especially seems to be filled with joy when we are all home.

Laura and Mitch have been a great help with Jaden and Katie. I had arthroscopic knee surgery on Friday the 13th and we had to leave the house at 5 AM. Mitch drove Tracy and me to the surgery center, and Laura stayed home and took care of Jaden and Katie, which made all parts of the journey much easier! Then she took them to the YMCA pool at noon so we could nap when we got home :-)

And they have helped at other times, too, when we needed extra hands and eyes with the little kids. I had two visits to Tulsa for pre-op stuff last week, and Tracy and I had a nighttime CME meeting that we had to attend to be able to renew our Oklahoma physician's licenses, and Laura and Mitch watched the kids during those times.

Tracy and I even snuck a special dinner for the two of us between my pre-op visit and the CME meeting. :-). I honestly can't remember the last time just the two of us had a meal out, and it was a special treat.

I was thinking back to when we had two kids the other day, and I remembered a gift that Mitch gave us when he left to go to Stillwater in 2011, starting our relatively short-lived empty nest phase. That night when Tracy and I got back from Stillwater after helping him move in, we found that he and Laura had left us notes of love and encouragement around the house, knowing that we'd take it kinda hard that they had both gone off to college. Mitch had also gotten a figurine with a rooster and a hen looking over their babe chicks, and he had left a note saying "We'll always be your babies. Love, Mitch & Laura." Interestingly, there are FOUR babe chicks in that figurine. I didn't place any meaning on the fact that there were four chicks at the time, but now of course it takes on special meaning ... :-)!!

 

And another interesting thing that came to mind as I was looking back at the growth of our family was the day Tracy got her coat out last Fall when the weather started getting colder. It was the coat she had taken to China when we brought Jaden home, and in the pocket were two Chinese coins ... one dated 2009 (Jaden's birth year) and, as it turned out, one dated 2012 (Katie's birth year) ... :-). Of course when we left China with those coins in her pocket, we had no idea that Katie was even alive and waiting for us.

Katie has been home for 7 weeks now.  We are all continuing to settle into our new routine. Overall I think we are pretty settled, with the occasional hiccup or bump.

Jaden continues to mostly enjoy being the big brother. When we go to the playground at the YMCA he acts as Katie's protector and bodyguard. The other day there was a small dog that was not on a leash, and Jaden stayed between Katie and the dog as we walked past it, using his body as a shield. And if there is a bigger kid playing at the playground he will manage to keep his body between the other kid and Katie until he is sure that they are ok.

At breakfast the other day he didn't want Katie to have any Cinnamon Toast Crunch because "that is too big and pointy and it might get stuck in her throat!"

We took Katie to an audiologist just for screening (everything was perfect) and she was examining Katie and trying to do a test in her ears, and Jaden kept trying to get the audiologist to stop because "my baby doesn't like strangers." He finally decided at she was ok, though, and let her finish checking her out.

Since my surgery, Jaden has been acting as my protector some, too. He wanted to push me "a little" as I used crutches so I would be able to go ok ... when I explained that it would be better if he let me go at my own pace, he went ahead of me and pointed out all of the corners on furniture and other hazards that might hurt if I fell on them. Very cute.

Laura starts her rotations soon, and Mitch will be moving to Tulsa in the Fall to start med school, so we will all-to-soon be back to us and the little kids, but we are certainly enjoying all being home together while it lasts!


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For anyone who did not see it one Facebook, I made a video to celebrate Jaden's 500th day in our family. It has about 500 pictures of Jaden over those 500 days, and it can be found at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjzgveIrFb0

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Below is a blog that I wrote that was used by Love Without Boundaries.  It has my two favorite pictures of me and Jaden together.

For those who don't know, this is an incredible organization which works to improve the lives of orphans in so many different ways, including : providing funds for surgeries, providing special formulas, for babies that need them, providing schooling, funding foster care to help get more kids out of orphanages, etc. They also have a Unity Fund which helps families that have NOT abandoned their children pay for the medical care that they otherwise could not afford and their only option would be to abandon the child in hopes that he care would be given in the orphanage (certainly NOT a guaranteed outcome). In this way LWB is able to prevent these children from ever becoming orphans!

Without Love Without Boundaries and their supporters providing the funds for Jaden's surgeries, his orphanage director would never had listed him for adoption ... and Jaden would still be in the orphanage in China ... a terribly chilling thought.  I can't help but wonder how many other children might be listed for adoption if more funds were available. LWB will forever be on my gift list. :-)

LWB had asked for a couple of lines and a picture to go in a Father's Day special where they are going to have several LWB dads post on LWB's Facebook site, but I ended up with a multiple-paragraph entry and told them to just cut it down if they had to. Instead, they decided to run it as a "guest blog" on Friday which was a pleasant surprise for me. Anyway, I have included it below.


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“I’ll always be your son, and you’ll always be my dad.”
 This blog is written by Tim Sanford, an “LWB Dad.”   Tim adopted Jaden, who was in our medical program as Christopher.

Jaden came home January 2013 at the age of 3 ½. He celebrated his 5th birthday just a couple of weeks ago, and last week we celebrated his 500th day in our family. He has really thrived at home.

It has only been recently that he has started talking a little bit more about his time as an orphan, and the most common way he describes it revolves around feeling “alone.”  He tells us “I am very happy that you came to get me, and I’m glad you didn’t leave me alone any longer.”  He did tell us once, “I’m glad you got me, but why did it take you so long to find me?” … which was heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time. Another comment that always gets me is, “I’ll always be your son, and you’ll always be my dad.”

He went to China with us this April when we adopted his little sister Katie, and he likes to introduce her as “my baby.” He told many people in China that he is now a “gege” (Chinese for big brother) and also let them know that “I was from China, but now I’m from Oklahoma!”

On this Father’s Day (as I do on so many other days through the year) I stop and give thanks for Love Without Boundaries (and all who work there, and all who support their programs). Without the intervention of LWB, Jaden would never have been listed for adoption, and he would probably still be in the orphanage. That is such a chilling thought! I encourage everyone to PLEASE continue supporting LWB in any possible way.

This Father’s Day is particularly special since all four of my children will be home: Laura (age 24), Mitch (age 21), Jaden (age 5), and Katie (age 2).  Jaden truly loves being a part of a family, and he has really enjoyed taking on the title of big brother in addition to also being the little brother, grandson and son.

As a parting thought, I encourage everyone out there to consider adoption.  I had no idea that I had two children waiting for me in China until I opened my heart to the idea, and I have been immensely blessed by having them home!

Jaden is 5! :-)

Jaden turned 5 on May 30th.  Wow, how did that happen?  (As always, questions like "how did another year go so quickly" are answered “one day at a time.”)

It has been quite an amazing year for him and for us.  He has enjoyed it and has changed so much!  I was looking back at several pictures and have compiled some “then and now” pictures below.

Jaden has been in his family for almost 500 days now (it will be officially be 500 days on Wednesday, June 4th).  He was 1332 days old when we got him, so he has been with us for over a quarter of his life now.

(Incidentally, he will have been with us for half of his life on September 14, 2016 and Katie will have been with us for half of her life on February 25, 2016.)

Looking back to the time around his 4th birthday, at that time he was speaking about 200 English words (quite the accomplishment for having never heard the English language until four months prior).  And now he is essentially fluent in the English language (for his age).  There are still times when he pops up with ways to say things that make us stop and wonder “in what context did he hear that?”

The only area where he tends to struggle is with gender / pronouns (he, she, his, hers, etc). In Chinese there is no gender associated with pronouns.  "He" or "she" would simple be “ta” and he was old enough that this was wired into his brain pretty firmly.  As strange as it seems to us for him to continue to struggle with this issue, we know that of course it will eventually be a non-issue.

His writing skills have come along amazingly well in the past year (when we got him he had never held a crayon), but he does still have a way to go on his reading abilities … but again that will be taken care of with time.  He will be repeating Pre-K to allow him a chance to catch up (and allowing us to have him an extra year at the end of his schooling!)

He continues to be a happy kid overall, being glad to go to school, glad to go to the office, glad to go to the park, glad to go to church, etc.

He especially enjoyed each of our trips during the past year.  He gets great joy out of going on trips and really likes to go to new hotels or to fly somewhere.  When we finished our 24+ hour trip home from China with Katie, we hadn't left the airport when he was saying “I miss the airport” and wanting to know when we would go on another trip!

The biggest event in his life as a 4 year old of course was going to China and bringing Katie home.  He was excited to become a Gege, and tends to introduce Katie as “my baby.”

He has done incredibly well as a big brother, sharing very well and for the most part accepting that his new sister will have to get priority for our time.  Admittedly he has been more needy and clingy at times (no surprise there), and at times will tell us “You have two babies” which is his cue that he wants us to “baby” him a little, too.

Lately he and Katie and I (Tim) have been going to the park at the YMCA while Tracy, Mitch and (when she is in Okmulgee) Laura go play racquetball.  Katie pretty much requires my full attention while at the park, and I was worried that this would be a problem.  For the most part, though, Jaden plays with whatever other kids are there and enjoys himself.  When he needs some Dad time he asks to go over to the swings so I can push him.  It has been good to see him working on his social skills and learning to interact with a variety of other kids.  One of the areas that he has continued to need to mature in has been his interaction with other children.

He was a joy to watch as he and Katie opened presents Friday night.  We went ahead and had them both celebrate together since their birthdays are two days apart, and rather than just ripping into one present after another he took time between presents to play with them.    (Although I do think that at his office birthday party he may have been a little more on speed-opening mode!)

Anyway, while it is hard to believe that he is 5 it is also hard to believe that is was only 16 months ago that we got to hold him for the first time.

HERE ARE THE "THEN and NOW" PICTURES 

First day of Pre-K

Last day of Pre-K

One month already and Jaden finished his first year of school!

Well, we've been home 2 weeks now and things are settling in.

I had my first  Mother's Day as a mom of four. I'm amazed by the fact that I have 4 kids.  I hope things stay as easy as they have been so far.  Jaden continues to do well as a big brother and the big kids continue to be supportive and helpful as well.

Some things are a little different now.  Just 16 months ago,  Tim and I were empty nesters with a quiet house and full cabinets.  How weird is that?  Now we have 6 people at the dinner table and a perpetual grocery list.  The house is decorated with pink stuff and Legos.

It is amazing how much more laundry we have.  Instead of the pretty little gazebo we had been considering we now have Fort Sanford and a plastic kiddy pool and a water table. 

Instead of my quiet oasis of relaxation, the bathroom is now an indoor splash park. 

Alright, so things aren't really just "a little" different.  :)  Would I do it all over again?  Absolutely.

Jaden finished his first year of school and did very well.  Our goal for pre-K this year was not that he would be a reader or comfortable in math but simply that he learn to enjoy school and start to learn social skills.  If he was given a letter grade for each of those he'd probably get an A+ and a B respectively.  He is still working on his social skills but then, aren't we all?  He has not developed the best "filters" yet and will repeat anything he hears at school.  Ugh.  He loved school this year (well, except Spanish) and even asked to go back shortly after returning from China.  He will do Pre-K again this year and will hopefully be ready to tackle more of the "academics."   Hopefully this time next year he will know all of his letters and numbers but even if he doesn't, if he is continuing to work on his first two goals, all will be well. 

August 2013

May 15, 2014 (Hasn't he grown?!)

He is still such a character.  When he and Tim left for church, leaving me and little sister behind, he came to me and very seriously said, "Now remember, don't let anyone in the house while I'm gone.  Wait, you can let in my people--Laura, Daddy, Gege or Laila (Laura's roommate) but nobody else!"  I think the Snow White video we watched last week really affected him.  :)

Mitch and Laura are both moving on to new academic challenges.  Mitch finished undergrad and is going to start med school in August.  Laura is about to take her part 1 boards for med school and is FINISHED with the book work!

Katie is growing every day.  She has had lots of firsts...she met her Aunt Tami and Uncle Felix, Nai Nai and YeYe, cousin Brody, Uncle Danny and Auntie, jumped into the pool (over and over and over) after watching her xiao gege do it, went to the zoo, had her first shopping trip with just the girls; how much her life has changed in just a month!

She is also learning some words now...Mama, Dada, Gege, Sister, Jay, kitty, pretty, UP!, dog, bye-bye, hi, Katie, that.  She understands many, many more and has found a few that she dislikes including "no" and "gentle."  We are still using some sign language with her to try to help her communicate until she can speak and she knows several signs...up, milk, more, ball.   She is enjoying books, especially Hop on Pop and Go, Dog, Go.  We had a major accomplishment today, she used the potty chair!  Whoot.  She is not nearly ready to potty train but at least we can start.  As far as her comfort level here, she still wants to be held if we are out of the house but is much more independent when we are home.  She is starting to be less frightened of strangers but we still have a long way to go on that front.  She doesn't get nearly as nervous out in public if people are talking to me and ignoring her, but if people want to try to talk her to she gets very anxious.  She has 2 doctors appointments (new patient physical and dental exam) coming up soon and I am not looking forward to them.  She is not likely to be happy when they want to examine her.  Prayers please!

One week home!

Tim here with some home-for-one-week thoughts

At 8:08 Monday night I turned off Jaden's light after we finished our last book.  (Tracy had already settled Katie into bed for the night, and Katie was either asleep or very close to it.)  And I realized that exactly one week ago (at just after 8 PM) we were landing at the Tulsa airport, ready to start the next part of our adventure.

And I realized that our home life has already settled into a new routine.  (Granted, some of the routine will probably change in the weeks ahead, like the midnight Cheerios snack that Katie likes to have and some other aspects of our routine.)

And I also realized that our perception of time is a strange thing ... For example, it sure seems like we have been home for much more than one week ... and while in some ways it seemed like we were gone to China for a long time, in other ways it seemed that our time in China went more quickly this time than it did with Jaden's adoption.

Anyway, thinking about these things set my thoughts in a one-week-home flight of ideas moment, so here are some random comments and observations that came to mind.

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It's a lot harder to do stuff one-armed ... holding baby in the other arm really tends to make tasks more challenging ... But that's certainly a good trade off!

Being awake at midnight or 2 AM or 4 AM when you child cannot sleep is really pretty easy to take with grace if you stop and think about how much you had been dreaming of having time with your child over the past eight months.

Love wins. (This is a repeat thought from Jaden's adoption blog, but every bit as true for Katie)

Jaden is a super big brother ... but Jaden still wants to be the "baby" sometimes
Jaden plays the big kids card for stuff he wants (certain toys or foods) ... "Big kids get to do this, but it's not for babies.  Sorry, Meimei"
Jaden shares really really really really well ... he shares his stuff better than I do.
Jaden is patient and waits for a turn when Katie is in our laps or our arms or is taking our attention ... usually with good grace

      

Oklahoma spring is great and it is great to share it with Katie.  This morning we spent a lot of time outside and for a while she just stood and watched the wind blowing the trees around.  It was cool to see her enjoying it so much.

 
Katie likes to swing ... and Jaden likes to push her or to swing next to her and to tell me when her swing is slowing down.

   

Love wins.

God is good. (This is also a repeat thought from Jaden's adoption blog, but every bit as true for Katie). :-)

Based on all of the pictures that we had ever seen of her before the adoption, we wondered what her personality would be like and if Katie would ever smile ... and if so how long it would take ... now she smiles and giggles all day long (reference previous two comments)

Katie likes to laugh when she hears Jaden laughing, and sometimes they will just go back and forth laughing at each other.

Katie has already learned several words ... Mama, Dada, Gege, Sister, kitty, doggy, pretty, up.

Katie was unsure of the cats at first, but she warms up to them quickly and "kitty" was one if the first words she added once we got home.  It is taking her a little longer to get used to Doug, which makes sense since he is about 140 pounds of giant furriness.  But she is making great strides about Doug and is ok to stand near him now as long as one of us is nearby.  She actively seeks out the cats and will go over to them when they are lying down and will talk to them and try to pet them.

   

An 8:00 bedtime is awesome sometimes ... But the challenge is getting the kids asleep first ... Just sayin'!

Cheerios at midnight is fun if you have a 23 month old to feed you.

Love wins.

Katie slept very soundly in China ... Not so much here so far ... She is more likely to wake here, although she does tend to sleep more soundly once the sun comes up (which matches the sun being down in China) and sometimes we have to wake her in the mornings to try to get her on Oklahoma time.

If Katie wakes in the night she usually lies quietly in bed and does her adorable leg kick thing (or sometimes she does an arm flop) ... Sometimes she pokes us or pats / rubs our arms or backs.

I really thought we were done with these!
   

... And I certainly did not foresee driving around Tulsa looking at several locations for the perfect nipples.  (Wow, did I just type that?)  Anyway, I don't remember the style of bottle nipples being a problem with our first two kiddos, but part of that may be due to the fact that they were not still needing bottles at 23 months of age.  Unfortunately Katie had not been fed any solid foods at all at the orphanage ... when we first got her she had no idea what to do with solid foods.  Tracy started working with her, and she made progress quickly but at times she would just hold solid foods in her mouth ... sometimes we would get little bits of solids back from her several hours later (she would just hold food in her cheeks and would not be willing to get rid of it until we offered her more food at the next meal.)

Katie's entire face crinkles up she she laughs big or smiles big.  It is adorable.

Love wins.

Katie giggled at Laura all the way home from the airport.  Katie is in a back-facing car seat and Laura sat in the far back.  At Glenpool Laura said, "my face hurts from smiling so much."  :-)

Katie's first interaction with Mitch was not so smooth.  She had not had any exposure to males at the orphanage other than her surgical team, and she had been been very leery of me for 10-12 days in China and has continued to be leery of other men.  So it was odd that she just walked over and sat in Mitch's lap when he got home from college ... She was happy and relaxed with him, at least until she saw me enter the room and she realized that Mitch was not me!  ... Not a happy surprise for her, in case you are wondering how she took that realization.

Katie likes dresses, but she especially seems to like the dress on Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
 
She continues to be shy and standoffish with most people ... She still needs to cocoon from people and figure out this new world she is in with all of its new sounds and sights and smells ... So : sorry to everyone who wants to meet her and hold her and talk to her and touch her, and if we run into you at walmart and we try to shelter her, please understand.  Thanks.

And one final thought ... I miss Hong Kong and China, but you've got to love being home in the good old USA!!

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig!

Tim here with the coming-home-blog.  (Lots of exhaustion, so no guarantees that this will make any sense!).

Random, Daddy moment shot:

THE FINAL HONG KONG DAYS

Saturday we moved from the Disneyland Hotel to the Sky City Marriott near the airport, the same hotel that we had stayed at two weeks ago during our overnight layover, and also the same hotel we had stays at when we were getting ready to fly home with Jaden last year.

We had a great last couple of days in Hong Kong and got to meet up with some special folks  ... a friend had arranged for us to meet with some of his friends in Hong Kong.

On Saturday we got to go into Hong Kong itself via the subway system to meet with an American who came to Hong Kong for 6 months about 30 years ago and has not managed to leave yet.  He took us down to Stanley, which is south of Hong Kong ... It used to be a quiet fishing village, but not any more.  He took us out for lunch and then we did some shopping at the local market and also at a mall, and then he took us on a tour of the MaryKnoll House which is where the Hong Kong Walk to Emmaus weekends are held.  It was very special to be able to connect with the Hong Kong Emmaus experience in that way.

On Sunday Jaden and I got to have a great 2+ hour Dim Sum meal with several families who live in Hong Kong.  I had never had a meal like that ... Basically there were lots and lots of Chinese dishes brought out and placed in the center if the table, and each person chose what they wanted to have.  (We had a meal similar to that after we toured Jaden's orphanage last year but that one had lots of entrees set in the middle if the table ... This was more like a large variety if snack sized foods and was much much much better.)   We got to try small portions of lots of different dishes.  Combining great food with great conversation made for a very special brunch.

We went to the hotel pool the last two nights we were in Hong Kong, and Katie showed that she continues to want to emulate her brother by trying it jump into the pool after he did the first time and by splashing wildly after he splashed.  Both kids had a great time, and Sunday night Jaden jumped into Tracy's arms about 30 times, each time delighting Katie.

Jaden and Katie spent a lot of time playing together in the hotel room, playing chase and tickling each other with squeals and giggles.

(Jaden has still been trying to work out what being the big brother for Katie will look like ... He also wants to be our baby, and has taken to telling us often that we have "two babies" now.  Tracy explained that we actually have four since Laura and Mitch will always be our babies, too, that no matter how old our children get they will always be our babies.)

Then it was time to pack up and prepare for the marathon day of 24+ hours of travel time.

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THE LONG TRIP HOME ...

9:00 AM Monday (Hong Kong time) = 8:00 PM Sunday (Tulsa time)
Heading out the door to go to the airport.

9:20 AM Monday (Hong Kong time) = 8:20 PM Sunday (Tulsa time)
Wow, what an amazing sense of déjà vu I had when we walked into the airport terminal this morning ... Our flight out of Hong Kong two weeks ago was a domestic flight on Dragonair, so we went to a different entry than we went through today. the door we came through today  is the same one we used when we were coming home with Jaden, and once inside we walked down the same long ramp into the terminal.   I was totally taken back to 15 months ago.  :-)

12:40 PM Monday (Hong Kong time) = 11:40 PM Sunday (Tulsa time)
And we're off!  We took off 15 minutes ago on the way back to the good ole USA.  The flight time will be 14 hours for this leg, then we will have the processing of Katie's paperwork at Customs and Immigration in Chicago where she will become a US citizen, then a layover in Chicago, a flight to Tulsa, a short drive to okmulgee and we will be home!  It will be a very very long day.

There is definitely a part of me that is not wanting to leave yet, but another part of me is ready to get this trip behind us so we can find a new "normal" and also so Katie can meet the rest of her family.

Jaden has starting talking more about going home in the past two days or so.  He is definitely ready!  He has missed his other siblings and he likes to tell Katie (and lots of total strangers, too) about his "sister Walrus" and his "big brother Gege Mitch" ... He says those names like they are titles.

7:00 PM Monday (Tulsa time) = 8:00 AM Tuesday (Hong Kong time)
We are so exhausted, but everything has gone well.  We are on the plane to Tulsa and should be there in an hour.  We did not get as much sleep on the long flight as we had hoped.  Katie slept a total of about 5-6 hours, 3 1/2 of which were in the bassinet that was mounted on the bulkhead wall.  She is such a wallower when she sleeps that she kept waking up because there was not enough room to roll around.  Jaden did not sleep nearly as well on the flight back as he did on the flight over.  And the parents grabbed a few hours total.  It's a bad sign when you are trying to keep up with your sleep time and you keep adding 8-10 minute naps to your total.

And you know it's a long flight when you look at your watch and feel very thankful that you "only" have 4 1/2 hours left in the flight.

For whatever reason, Katie has decided in the past two days that I am ok to be around, and she has let me hold her lots!  I think that maybe Tracy bribed her, because Katie ended up sitting with me for a lot of the long flight over from Hong Kong.  No complaints, here ... That will always be a very special time and memory for me.

Like I said, though, everything has gone well.  The flights have been on time and the kids have traveled very very well.   I just wish that there had been more sleeping.

However, we have had MUCH more sleep than we had when we brought Jaden home ... He had a TOTAL of about 90 minutes or so as I recall during the entire travel from Hong Kong t the Tulsa airport, and most of that was on the last flight ... so that when we got to tulsa he was in his wake up weird and freaked out zone that he has when he has to wake up before he is ready.

Katie is being restless in this flight and Tracy has been singing to her most of the way to keep her calm and settled.  Having a 13 hour time zone change does weird stuff to you.

We are looking forward to getting to the airport and seeing friends and family.  And we are looking forward to sleeping in our own beds, too!  Then comes the challenge of settling into a new routine.  There is no way to know how long that will take.

We will plan to limit Katie's exposure to other folks until she is settled in, so please be patient folks.  We will share her with you once we feel she is ready. :-)

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers.  Please keep 'em coming as we enter his next phase.  (Tracy here, I'm proofing this for Tim before adding to it and posting.  I'm leaving the last typo.  I assume Tim meant "this" next phase but "as we enter His next phrase" is also accurate!)

ARRIVAL AND THE TRIP HOME

Tim is now asleep as it is 1:30 am and he handed me the baton, so to speak.  We got to Tulsa just a few minutes late and I had to wake Katie as we stood to gather our stuff. So glad that she doesn't wake crazy like someone else we know.  :). We had a really cute outfit to change her into but I assumed that anyone waiting would rather a rumpled outfit with a smile.   It was so wonderful walking down the terminal and seeing people and balloons awaiting our arrival!

Katie got to see family and friends and didn't even cry.  She stayed tucked under my chin but didn't seem too panicked at the excitement.  She didn't exactly show her bubbly side but for her to be able to look back later and see the homecoming,,,priceless.  Our worry was that the would let the entire county hear about her displeasure at having to be put in a car seat and that just didn't happen.  She was fine with it and actually, before we were even out of Tulsa, she was charming her sister with peek a boo and giggles!  Jaden was so, so excited seeing so many of the people he has missed.  (On the way home though, he did say he missed the airport.).   Another worry we had was our pets.  The cats look fat and happy (Thanks, Gael!) and Katie did just great with them.  She offered to share her toy with Xiaomiao the cat.  We still have yet to see if she likes 140 lbs of slobbery dog, we'll work on that this week.  :)

Tim and I can't thank everyone enough for the many ways everyone helped out.  The prayers were felt and answered every step of the way.  Coming home to the mail checked, animals happy and bread and milk available...just wonderful.  I told Tim on the last leg of the journey that we were finishing up the easy part...I'm ready to start this new leg of the journey though.  Please continue to pray for us and to be patient with us.  My prayer requests center on the changes in all 4  (whoa, 4?!) of my kids' lives.  Laura is about to enter the last finals week of med school, Mitch is about to enter his last set of undergrad finals, Jaden is working hard learning this new birth-order position and Katelyn Ann Sanford is going to have to learn a whole lot in the coming weeks and months.

If you still have prayer time left, please think of the kids we had to leave behind.  There are so many just waiting on their family to show up.  And if you've felt a little tug somewhere along the line during our adoption journey, stop and really pray over whether or not your child may be one of those waiting.  We'd love to help you find him or her.
Blessings!