Tomorrow Daniel!

So our journey to Daniel continues. Today, as we travel we continue to see God’s favor on us. A special thank you to our friend Kelly who decided to pray specifically for an upgrade in our seats; we got one! Our original seating assignments split us into two rows. When John asked them to rearrange and put us together I guess the only place they had three seats was a necessary upgrade. Thank you Kelly and thank you Jesus! Keep praying for favor. We are right now sitting in very comfortable seats, with plenty of leg room and all the amenities.

We saw Shawn Johnson (the American Olympic gymnast) in the airport in Dallas! Of and there are a bunch of Paralympics athletes on our flight. Cosette was star struck even though she knows none of their names or faces. It is impressive their feats of athleticism, and the things they overcome in order to be Olympians.

In a moment of clarity I remembered to tell Cosette about the water! I can’t believe we forgot to talk about that! Sorry if this is indelicate but for a few weeks we started teaching Cosette how to use a squatty potty,. We have been talking about all sorts of cultural things we might encounter; including staring that could happen because of the makeup of our family. How could I have forgotten about the water? Anyway, she now knows not to drink the water. The idea of tooth brushing with bottled water was a little hard for her to swallow, forgive the pun.

Another praise; when we arrive in Beijing we have to transition to a domestic flight on our own. It’s a huge international airport and I’m sure we can figure it out, but I was a little nervous about it. Well, our seat mate, beside John, is a Chinese business woman who lives and works in Houston. She is traveling on our exact flight Beijing to Shenyang! We don’t have to navigate the airport alone. Our God is one of big and small miracles!

Tomorrow morning (Monday for us, but Sunday evening for you) we will meet Daniel, 9 a.m. I’m excited about it, but also nervous. Recently John and I were talking about what it will be like when we meet Daniel. What do you do? What do you say? He will be a complete stranger to us, and more importantly us to him. Hugs will probably overwhelm and scare him. A handshake doesn’t seem appropriate. As we talked, coming up with ideas, games we can play, etc. we both were reminded that Cosette is going to be with us and that SHE will do whatever is natural and it will be exactly the right thing. She will break the ice between us and Daniel. We don’t mean to put undue pressure on her. We haven’t spoken about this specifically to her. We just know, based on her personality that this is what she will do.

I’ve been listening to my MP3 trying to block out the hubbub of the very active plane. One song keeps playing (it’s on shuffle): “When you call on Jesus, all things are possible.” We are living proof of that truth.

This evening we walked down to McDonalds to get some food for dinner. We really love Chinese food and would have happily indulged in a Chinese meal, but we were left on our own for dinner and were too tired to even THINK about finding a restaurant. We were walking, a little aimlessly down the block and saw the golden arches. We just couldn’t pass it. We had a quick bite, a bunch of staring, a big miscommunication about chocolate shakes and we were headed back to the hotel and bed in no time.

The pictures tell you how we are feeling about now. Must sleep! Keep in touch. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Tonya

"De plane! De plane!"

The bags are packed, the bills paid and the cat delivered to her temporary home. I think we are ready. Early tomorrow morning we get on the plane for China and our sweet Daniel! I wanted to send one last e-mail to remind you that our primary means of communication while in China will be our blogs. If possible, we will post to them regularly. Check in when you can and check out our progress.

Also check out www.CosetteInChina.blogspot.com. This is Cosette's (7) blog. Your kids might enjoy following along.

If you want to post a comment to our blog you have to sign up with Google first. At the end of a post click on "comments". Scroll down and click on "Sign up here". Follow the instructions to setup a Google account. Its free and easy to use. Basically all they want is a user name and password. After you have this account setup you can post comments.

We will meet Daniel on Sept. 1! That's Monday. Pray for his adjustment, and ours.

Blessings,
Tonya

Tired musings...

Thanks to everyone who has blessed us by choosing to help bring Daniel home! Not more then 6 weeks ago we determined that we still needed about 12 thousand dollars in order to adopt Daniel. Although we are not yet all the way there, we have no question that God is our provider and that he is providing.

Over the past few weeks we have experienced so many miracles. There are so many ways God blessed us though you. We have received prayers of blessing, the best gas lease in the metroplex, an unexpectedly high quarterly bonus, amazingly generous friends and family, and the list goes on. God has encouraged us by your love, humbled us by your generosity and challenged us by your extravagance. What amazing people we have in our lives! I pray that Gods blessings overflow in your lives as they have in ours.

We leave for China with hearts full of the blessing of friendship. Thank you.

Continue to pray for us. Monday we will meet Daniel. He will immediately join us and stay with us throughout the three weeks we are in China. Although it is not likely, we are praying that we can meet Daniels foster family. We understand that he has been with them for the past 4 years. Continue to pray for Daniels adjustment, and ours. He will be experiencing so much change, honestly it’s more than I can really imagine, and yet he will be living it. May God’s mercy and grace abound.

On our first trip to China my mom and dad traveled with us. It was such a blessing to have them along. My dad passed away unexpectedly less then six months after we returned home making that time together in China even more treasured. As I prepare for this trip, I find myself missing daddy more than usual. Daniel was my dad’s name and now our son’s name. I feel sad that the two will never meet.

Well its midnight and I must go to work tomorrow. So, goodnight my friends.

Tonya

One Week...

Only one week to wait! Yes, next Saturday we will board the plane at DFW early in the morning, three planes and 23 hours later we will get off the plane in Shenyang, Liaoning, Peoples Republic of China! After a nights sleep we will wake up and head to the civil affairs building where Daniel should be waiting for us. From then on he will be with us! Amazing, in just over a week we will be a family of 4!

I have made my comprehensive ‘TODO’ list and feel really good about our progress. Daniels room has been transformed into the packing room. It’s piled high with this and that, things that need to go into somebody’s suitcase. The scene is strangely familiar. How well I remember packing for our first trip to China. Thank goodness this time we don’t need to pack diapers or formula, bottles or blankets! All that baby stuff took a lot of room.

Have a great weekend!

Perspective

A dear friend of mine committed suicide today. It has been a heart-wrenching day. Please pray for her dear husband and young son. My friend was a warm, kind, and generous person with a ready smile. I cherished her ability to be silly and have a good laugh and be serious and talk about the deep and important things in life too. Over the past years she had been burdened with cancer over and over again and faced it each time with faith in her Maker and a determination to get well. Unfortunately, in a moment of despair she decided could not face the future with this unrelenting disease. I love you Julie. I miss you already.

One thing is for sure; God has put my minor financial woes into perspective.

Tonya

The "Bad News"

Well, today we got the bad news. We knew it was coming; anticipated it as much as we could but it still knocked the wind out of me when I read it. Because we have to stay in China an entire week longer then a normal adoption trip (required by Daniel’s Province) AND because we are bringing Cosette with us AND because Daniel is a “kidlet” instead of a baby AND because we are not traveling with a group, our in country travel expenses are going to be $8100 rather than the previously quoted $5000. When we started last November the quote was $2800 but early this summer it went up to $5000, now $8100! That was a huge and difficult pill to swallow. Oh and by the way, the bill arrives on the 19th and it’s on the 26th. How’s that for notice? Breathe Tonya, breathe.

I did some stress eating (popcorn and a piece of chocolate cake) then I snapped at Cosette a couple of times then finally I spent some time in prayer and I am starting to feel peaceful again. I don’t know what God’s doing but I do trust him and I know we will have the money needed when we need it (which is like um right now).

Keep praying with us!

Tonya (for John, Cosette and Daniel)

2 days til 40
6 days ‘til school starts
11 days ‘til we leave for China
13 days ‘til we meet Daniel

CA and Plane Tickets

We have had a busy couple of days. After waiting 6 days (that’s 6 business days, it was actually 11 days instead of the normal 2 to 3 days) we received confirmation of our U.S. Consulate appointment (CA). We could not purchase our airline tickets until we had CA.

After two very intense days trying to find better fares, talking to 4 different travel agencies, with much encouragement from John and a lot of prayer I finally purchased our very expensive tickets. It was a very frustrating two days but God continues to assure us that HE IS IN CONTROL of all these details, and HE will provide completely for Daniel’s adoption.

We will fly out Saturday morning, Aug 30 at 7:46 a.m. and we return Friday, Sept. 19 at 4:11 p.m. It’s a really long trip! (I was hunting for a photo for this post and found so many great photos I couldn't decide so...)

We were not able to arrange any travel through AA, and therefore we couldn’t take advantage of the generously offered miles from our friends (thank you). AA’s flights simply didn’t work for our itinerary.

Our countdown continues…
5 days ‘til 40…
9 days until school starts
14 days until we leave for China
16 days until we meet Daniel!

Oh, our Chinese vias arrived Thursday... everything is falling into place.

I want to say thanks to those who have donated toward Daniel’s adoption. You aren’t seeing our “chip in” account grow because most of you have sent checks directly to us rather then using PayPal, but the total is growing and we are humbled and encouraged by your love and friendship.

Tonya

The Countdown...

7 days until I’m 40...
11 days until school starts...
16 days until we get on the airplane for China...
18 days until we meet Daniel!

Adoption Day Remembered... 5 years ago today!

An exerpt from my journal in 2004...
(pictures THEN left and below... NOW right)

On August 11, 2002, I held my baby Cosette for the first time. The day began with a flight from Beijing to Guangzhou, China. My mother met our adoption travel group at the airport in Guangzhou and we traveled by bus to the government building where we were to be given our baby. I remember my mom telling me about a dream she had about Cosette. I don't remember the whole dream, but I do remember one distinct detail. She said that in the dream Cosette was able to speak in fluent English. We had a good laugh together about that one. The bus ride seemed like an eternity. Sally, our guide, was telling us what would happen once we arrived, but I couldn't process her words. Too many other things were going on in my heart and mind. As we arrived John was video taping trying to make sure we got establishing shots of the building or something. I remember wondering how he could think clearly enough to run the camera. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. We walked into the building and were waiting for an elevator when a group of Chinese women walked into the building each holding babies. Our hearts jumped as we scanned the babies to see if ours were there. But these were not our girls.

We were then ushered into a room where we were to wait until they called our names. One at a time each family would be called out of the room, and return moments later with a precious child. I was fighting tears as we waited for our turn. Then, finally, Sally called our names. I felt as if the world went into slow motion, each heartbeat palpable, reminding myself to breath. We walked into a hallway and were asked to proof read Cosette's adoption decree. I remember saying out loud, "You're kidding right? You expect me to read and comprehend this?" They did. On the move again, we rounded the corner and set our eyes on our precious child. The lead nanny was asking us something in Chinese. Sally translated: she wanted to know if I knew which baby was ours? Did I know her????? "YES!" I said, pointing toward Cosette, "right there. Please may I hold her?" fighting back tears and trying to remain calm and respectful. It seemed like an eternity before the director place her in my arms, although in truth it was fairly immediate. The emotions I felt the moment her skin first brushed my hand as I reached for her are almost indescribable. I felt very unworthy and so incredibly blessed. Excitement, fear, unbelievable honor, abundant joy... I remember thinking how soft her skin was, how chubby her little legs were, how much hair she had, how red her lips were... we spent the next hour or so getting to know our new daughter. These moments would probably all be a blur if not for my sweet mom. She had the video camera running the whole time! We have every precious moment recorded. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Mom.

It wasn't until we walked out of the Civil Affairs building later that afternoon, Cosette snuggling in my arms, that relief finally came. You see, after a decade of disappointments and heartache it had been difficult for me to really believe I would ever have a child to call my own. On the plane ride from the US to China I had a nightmare about being told we could not have Cosette and having to go home with empty arms. Honestly, I just couldn't let myself believe it would ever really happen. As we walked out of that building with our baby in my arms I finally allowed myself to believe, tears streaming down my face, that Cosette was finally MINE!

That night in the hotel I hardly slept. I just couldn't keep my eyes off my precious baby. She was perfect in every way. I remember thanking God over and over and over, completely overwhelmed by this blessing He had given me.

Our years together have been marked with so much joy. Cosette has blessed our lives completely. This journey has taught me many things, but above all else Cosette is a constant reminder of how much God loves me.

I am blessed!
Tonya

Olympic Mania

With the Beijing Olympics starting tomorrow I thought I’d post a few fun links for the kids (and big kids too):

Official 2008 Beijing Olympic website: http://en.beijing2008.cn/

Official website fun page: http://en.beijing2008.cn/funpage/

Coloring sheets: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/olympics_coloring_pages.htm

Basic info about China: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/introduction_to_china.pdfAll about the

Olympic Games: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/all_about_the_olympic_games.htm

Flag coloring sheet: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/colouring%20picture%20china%20flag.htm

Family Tree

Family Tree

We’ve added to our family tree
A stronger one to make,
A child from another plant has
Become our new namesake.
Just as a limb is grafted from one
Tree onto another,
It alters and improves the plant
Making it unique and like no other.

Our family tree has been improved
Adoption made this so. For love,
Much more than bloodlines,
Is what makes us thrive and grow.
We chose to share our life and
Love and all the joys to come.
Our family tree has blossomed
With the arrival of our cherished one.

Author unknown

The Teddy Bear Room

This weekend our closets all threw up into the house! We were rearranging furniture, hanging mini blinds, cleaning windows, purging files, shredding, reorganizing, etc. Can you say NESTING? The problem is, the kitchen/dining room now look like, well I’m not sure how to describe the piles. But I have a bit of work to do before we can have a meal at the kitchen table again.

We made the final decision NOT to redecorate Daniels room, which used to be the nursery. We decided the teddy bears will stay. Honestly, we all have such deep attachment to the teddy bears; we just couldn’t pull them down yet.

When we were struggling with infertility, miscarriages and failed domestic adoptions; back in the “dark decade”, the Lord asked me to take a step of faith, to do something that showed him that I believed his promise to give us children. I decided to decorate the nursery as my step of faith. Everyone told me not to do it, especially my therapist. But I was determined. My in-law’s came to Texas and we spent the week putting wallpaper up, sewing curtains, shopping for furniture, etc. It was a fun week and I LOVED the result; the Teddy Bear Room. That room became my respite from the world. For years I had my quite time sitting in the glider in that room. It became such a sweet place where God healed my broken heart.

Of course years later God gave us Cosette and the Teddy Bear Room became her nursery. Her giggles filled every inch of that room for 5 years. Last summer Cosette wanted to redecorate. She wanted a loft bed and of course HOT PINK. So she decided to leave the Teddy bears behind and moved into her new room.

This weekend the Teddy Bear Room has gotten a face lift; it has grown up a little, and is going be Daniel’s room. Here’s a picture. We are still working on it, looking for an appropriate rug and a toy box. We look forward to God filling that room with happiness, laughter and more great memories.

Be blessed,

Tonya

TRAVEL APPROVAL

We received our Travel Approval today! AND we were able to request earlier consulate date so our trip moved a week sooner! We hope to leave Aug 30, that only about 28 days away. Until the consulate appointment is approved this schedule is still tentative, but much more likely! YEAH. I better go finish Daniels room.

This is a very long trip because Liaoning requires a 10 day stay in their Provence.

• Aug. 31 (Sun)---Arrive in Shenyang and stay at Trader’s Hotel.
• Sept. 1 (Mon)---Meet Daniel!
• Sept. 2 (Tue)---Go through adoption proceedings (registration, notarization).
• Sept. 3 (Wed)---Transfer to Dalian City by bus to apply for Daniel’s Chinese passport. Stay at Ramada Hotel.
• Sept. 4 (Thu)---Visit Dalian City Social Welfare Institute.
• Sept. 5-7 (Fri-Sun)-- Sightseeing in Dalian City.
• Sept. 8 (Mon)---Return to Shenyang.
• Sept. 9-11 (Tue-Thu)---City tours and local sightseeing (Benxi Water Cave, Imperial Palace, Mausoleums, Botanical Gardens)
• Sept. 12 (Fri)---Receive Daniel’s Chinese passport and transfer to Guangzhou. Stay at Victory Hotel.
• Sept. 13 (Sat)---Free day.
• Sept. 14 (Sun)---Visit Safari Park.
• Sept. 15 (Mon)---Visit Chen Clan Academy
• Sept. 16 (Tue)---Complete medical examination and review visa paperwork.
• Sept. 17 (Wed)---Consulate appointment (BLAS guide will deliver Daniel’s U.S. visa application paperwork to the Consulate).
• Sept. 18 (Thu)---Oath-taking ceremony in the afternoon and receive Daniel’s U.S. visa around 4:00 p.m.
• Sept. 19 (Wed)---Depart for home.

Tonya