Family Day Eve... March 22, 2013

Hi everyone--

Tonight, I brought out the three photo albums with pictures from our trip to China, and I asked Ellie-Kate if she wanted to look at them. She didn't really want to, but she searched for pictures after we got her in Kunming. She liked to view the "baby Ellie-Kate" photos. However, she still seemed uneasy about any indication that (a) we had a life before she joined us and (b) she had a life before she joined us. As we were praying tonight, I praised God for something related to our trip, and she opened her eyes and asked, "Why are you praying about that? It was so long ago." We want to be honest, and we want for her to understand what has happened so she doesn't have any surprises as she gets older. Yet, she is so resistant to the whole idea. As far as she is concerned, she's the youngest BAP family member. She was born to be the little sister in our family, and that's that. (She would like a little brother, but that's another story!)

Four years ago today, I remember flying to Kunming. What a flight-- people standing up and opening the overhead bins as we were ascending into the air. Wow! The Kunming Walmart was another culture shock. Yearning for something in our comfort zone, we tried to find a Pizza Hut (like the one that we found in Beijing), but we found Pizza da Rocco's instead. I wonder if it's still there. We were always the only ones in the place, when we were there. However, it was so wonderful to meet Rocco-- an Italian who spoke wonderful English and Mandarin and who was such a tremendous host to us in Kunming. When we got back to the hotel, the girls went to sleep, and I pondered the idea that our new little girl would finally join us in the morning. With a usual "birth," one would enter the hospital and endure medical procedures that would result in a baby. With an adoption, it's so different. I had no idea what to expect... either in terms of the paperwork and procedures or in terms of her reaction to us. Would she cry at the idea of leaving all that she knew? Would she smile and say "Get me out of here?" I thought of pragmatic questions... What did she usually eat? Did we bring the right size of clothes? Would she bring the disposable cameras that I sent in order to get pictures of her life in the orphanage or any of the other items that I sent for her?

I didn't sleep much. We had traveled around the world to meet our little girl, and I prayed that everything would go smoothly. I wanted to be able to savor as much as we could while also taking care of the legal, logistic, and pragmatic details. Our guide, who served as our translator, had done little to prepare us. The books had filled my mind with things to fear, not reassurances about the process. Most importantly, I wanted the moment that I first held her to be perfect, special, etched in my mind forever... Just a few hours later, when the night transitioned into the morning, that moment would be as I hoped and prayed.

More memories tomorrow... Thanks for caring about our family!

Christie