we have both of our beautiful children!

It has been awhile since I have typed a blog entry and mostly due to no internet in province. We are now in Guangzhou and it has been whirlwind the last few days. We flew for almost 5 hours from Northern China to Southern China with our little sweetheart, and now have Elias all within a 24 hour time period. Where to begin….

Our very first few minutes with our little Emma

Going through her backpack with me

very much liking "Her" stuff

First picture with Mommy and Daddy

A little while later back at our room.. Yup she is a cutie pie!

truly a little beauty inside and out

She saw alot of pics of me and the kiddos on my Iphone doing this pose, so she wanted the same!

When we were brought to the adoption center to meet Emma she was already there and we saw her in another room and were told to just keep walking.. hard to walk right past your new child let me tell you… they did bring her into the room within a few minutes and told us how smart she is and that she can lipread Chinese and trust me she can.. So at first I thought well she must hear a lot as Chinese is a tonal language and how can she understand what is on their lips when half of it is the tone. Well she can and she does very well with it. She resonded to what was asked of her in Spoken Chinese. I did ask her in Chinese sign language what was her name and her beautiful little hands started signing. We have a backpack with items we brought for her.. THANK YOU BEYOND WORDS LINDA FOR THE TWO AWESOME BACKPACKS!!!!!! Emma immediately started going through hers and was astounding us with how calm, cool and collected she seemed and her smarts shine through. The girl is literally brilliant and I am not exaggerating. It is beyond obvious the second you meet her just how smart this little one is. She is sweet beyond words. Very respectful, obedient and playful oh my word playful!! She loves to snuggle with me and comes to me for Eskimo kisses, hugs and to be held all day. She is quite the lovebug. She is not sure about any love from daddy yet and gets nervous when he tries to hug her or hold her so daddy is just biding his time, but she surely does look up to daddy and like to fool around and play with him. Emma spent her quick 24 hours in her province with us happy, laughing and just a pure pleasure to be around.

We quickly did paperwork and were off on a plane with her within 24 hours of meeting this little one. She flew like a champ and just had one meltdown when she fell asleep on the plane and had to be woke up to land.. hmmm think epic deaf freak out with eyes shut and screaming like a crazy woman.. she was beyond horrified and I think she has more then likely never in her life fell asleep one place and woke up in another and she was exhausted and wanted to lay down. Poor thing screamed for about 20 minutes and had the whole plane starring at us, but there was not a darn thing I could do. She eventually got herself under control and we got off the plane. After  that she was Emma again, funny, happy and just going with the flow.

Today we packed Emma in a car and went to meet our handsome little man, Elias. He was not at the adoption center yet when we got there and we were all alone as they do not really do Family day on Wednesdays, we are a special case.  Elias came in crying, I have not experienced that before and as a mom, it is heart breaking to watch and he does not know us so there was not a lot we could do to comfort him. He was shaking so bad and just silently crying. I kept trying to tell him it would be ok and he just kept nodding and trying so hard to be ok. Oh my momma heart just broke for him.  I do know that him crying is a good thing, that it means he has been loved and knows what a family is, but is  hard to know that you are ripping him away from those that love him.  Leave it to our smart emma to know what he needs. She apparently found the DS we packed for him but were not going to bring to meet him and she opened his backpack and handed him the DS. Of which she has never seen or used one and  then continued to show him how to work it and just almost sit on his lap and kept telling him it would be ok. OH MY WORD AND MY HEART!!!!   Emma and Elias sat and played on the DS while Tom and I took care of a little paperwork.  I asked a few questions about our boy and they gave me some things of his. They did hand me over a note from his birthparents that our guide quickly translated for us. They also gave us a photo of him as a baby. WOW he was and still is a cutie pie.   We were handed his finding ad and a schedule for him and few notes about his personality and then a few more papers and we were outta there.   We were asked if we wanted to go get some things at the store but opted to do that that the next day as Elias was really struggling and we did not want to push him.  He sat like a trooper in the car with emma about ½ an inch from him and starring at him saying, is this my older brother? Are you his mom and dad? You are my mom and dad right? So the 4 of us will be together? She is smart as a whip and just turned 6 years old, but is wise beyond her years.

We got back to the hotel room and Elias was just sitting around looking at the backpack we got him and then Tom took the football out of his backpack and Elias eyes lit up. Tom threw the ball to him in the room and Elias squeeled. They had a catch for about 30 minutes and Emma got right in there.  A great ice breaker and a great way to see him start to breath a little bit.  Elias went through the backpack his foster family sent him with and he gave me a few awards from school and a photo album that we sent him but in the back is all photos of him with his foster family and his school mates.  Poor sweatheart just sat there silently sobbing as he looked at the photos. I cannot even imagine what he must be going through, the pain, the confusion, it just must be blinding. But through it all he has been a sweetheart, a little gentleman, a very obedient little boy and just a doll. Very quite and not signing much, but he will nod in understatement or just sorta stare if he has no idea what you are saying. 

God has blessed us so much on this journey. We are blessed to have such amazing children at home that are holding down the fort while mom and dad are thousands of miles away meeting their brother and sister. We are blessed to have our family’s love and support and help (oh and I mean help… as you can ask my father in law and mother in law as they are staying in our house with our kids ands dog for 2 weeks) and our church family’s support and all of the blessings and prayers of our family and friends. We know without God this journey is not possible for us. God orchestrated this whole journey and knew what would happen.  It has been a faith building journey and one that has truly only just begun as we know start the process of becoming a family. 

Our very first glimpse of Elias coming in to meet us

He was trying so hard to be brave but was shaking violently and crying silently

That little face says what this day is like for these precious children.. many people say "Oh the children will be greatful they are being saved.." to many of these children we are taking them from those that love them and all they have ever known.. the pain is great and intense,

still trying so hard to just do what he was being told to do

Emma knew he needed a distraction

First photo with both of our beautiful new children

Daddy having a catch with Elias and Emma

our two snug bugs.. emma will not leave Elias side... she is firmly attached to his hip!