CCAI Travel Group #1859 - Take Two

June 1, 2012 - O.k. today we put all the little munchkins in their Chinese attire and took pictures. Here is our entire travel group.....

And here is each individual family.....

The Kruse Family - from Kentucky

The Salmons Family - from Florida

The Pinheiro/Lau Family - from Texas

The Dutter Family - from Indiana (yay Hoosiers!!!)

The Craney Family - from Illinois

The Gates Family - from Ohio

The Teagarden Family - from Kansas

The Cary Family - from Colorado (plus Deb, their travel companion that helped out with their older son)

And here is some of the Penner family.....

Can't wait to get home and take a full family picture

As you can just about imagine the chaos that ensued when we tried to get all the kiddos together for a picture......

Umm, yeah, this picture pretty much sums up Lucy's demeanor....Oh we have our work cut out for us when we get home! : )

 After pictures we just kind of messed around in the hotel room. We picked up Lucy's visa and immigration paperwork (a brown envelope that we have been told numerous time NOT TO OPEN. It is kind of a running joke within our group.....Are we supposed to the open the brown envelope????? ha! The immigration officer at the airport is the only one allowed that privilege). We then said good-bye to the first set of families leaving for Hong Kong. It was kind of sad saying good bye. We have all gone through this experience together. We have swapped diapers. We have eaten together. We have swapped medicine and helpful hints on how to bond better with our children. We have spent the last 15 days and nights together. We have a common bond. It is like saying good bye to family not knowing when we will see each other again. Thank goodness for email and blogs and other such technology to keep up with these children and families. With that being said, it was sad to see them go, but it makes me excited to be only one night away from the start of our travel home. We are packed and ready to leave tomorrow morning for our first flight back to Beijing. We will spend the night in Beijing close to the airport and leave early Sunday morning for our flight to Minneapolis. It is going to be a long two days. Thinking about returning home makes me a little nervous also. We had dinner tonight with another family that is leaving tomorrow and we were talking about our transition back to home life. I am nervous we are going to go backwards with the progress we have made with Lucy. As Jason pointed out, Lucy is going to see different parenting at home than she saw here. This may bring her back to her grieving spells and she may regress back to her initial reaction to us. So, I am gearing up for what may come our way once we get home. I just met another adoptive mom in our hotel lobby tonight (from another agency) that was talking about her frustration that her daughter wants nothing to do with her and will only go to her husband. She said she is just angry. I told her my story and that her feelings are very real and I could totally relate. I did tell her that over time her daughter will get better. It just takes time. It can be frustrating to have this picture in your mind of how this whole process is going to go and then it completely not go that way. Again, a reminder to me that I am not the one in control of it. I am trying to learn whatever the Lord is trying to teach me in this. I am reminded of a quote from Jen Hatmaker in her book 7 (Warning: I will be quoting from her frequently) "...international adoption is not for the faint of heart. It's like the first year of law school where the main objective is to weed our the slackers." Ha! I see so many similarities again to my relationship with Jesus. How many times does He try to draw me close to Him, as His adopted daughter, and I resist because I like my comfortable place. Why take me out of what I am comfortable with? Why try to change my situation? The day we took Lucy into our arms, she lost everything she knew for the past 2 years of her life. Jesus tells us we must die to gain. We must lose everything in order to become His disciple. Well, Jesus knows, just as Jason and I know, that taking Lucy into our family is better for her than being put on the streets when she is 14. She doesn't understand that fully right now, but hopefully in the long run, she will understand that taking her out of what is comfortable now will be what is best for her in the long run. This is exactly what Jesus does with me sometimes. He takes me out of my comfort zone for my own good! I cannot see what the future holds, but I do know my Savior, my Father, my Jesus does know the future and He has my best interest in mind. I just need to stop resisting His call.

So many people have said thank you for sharing this journey. I want it to be very clear that this is God's journey. He just asked us to join in on the fun. : ) I hope our story has pointed to the only One who can receive all the credit and glory for this amazing process of adoption. He created adoption when Jesus came to die on the cross for us so that we could become a part of His family. I enjoyed writing about it....to journal each day as it happened and to remember the highlights, but I also wanted to share our story because maybe it is for someone else. Here is a quote from the book 7, by Jen Hatmaker (again!):

"Our stories affect one another whether we know it or not. Sometimes obedience isn't for us at all, but for another. We don't know how God holds the kingdom in balance or why He moves a chess piece at a crucial time; we might never see the results of his sovereignty. But we can trust Him when He says press on, cling to hope, stay the course. He is always at work, even if the entire thread is hidden. I might just be one shade of one color of one strand, but I'm part of an elaborate tapestry that goes beyond my perception."

This is why I have this blog. This is why I wanted to share our adoption story. And it doesn't end here. The story will continue.......

Soli Deo Gloria!

*Now I must go to bed so that I can get up early in the morning to make our first flight toward home! Yay!!!! : )