A blessed day in Guangzhou

Another  great day in Guangzhou.  Today we had a very amazing experience. We were able to meet a few Deaf woman here and a deaf couple here and we basically had a full DEAF DAY!!!! It sure has been a HUGE blessing as they have helped me to really be able to communicate with Elias so much better and understand so much more about him and who he is. We are still only truly just scratching the surface of learning who are children are. It has been a blessing beyond words to learn a bunch of CSL as it is really helping with Elias and he is opening up to me more and I believe finally starting to get that I am not just some strange lady that moves her hands in ways he cannot understand, but I am actually signing a different language. Today we sat down with a book and I showed him the ASL sign and he would happily teach me the CSL sign. I am truly truly enjoying learning CSL. I have always been a big fan of language in general so to be able to learn more of a language that my son knows is a blessing.  

Emma only knows a tiny bit of CSL so she is happily soaking up whatever we use with her.  Emma knows her numbers, letters, gets to concept of adding but does not know how. She knew some basic signs as she was only in school from Sept to Dec.  She has common sense that can border on brilliant hahah. The girl has such awareness and brightness in her eyes. She seems to want to really please mommy and I am no dummy and no that can end at any day. She does seem beyond thrilled to have a family and keeps holding me and kissing me and just loving on me with all she can.  Daddy actually got a good night kiss tonight and she was thrilled to kiss him goodnight.  She is such a love bug, reminds me of my love bug Paige at home.. I now have two snuggle bug girls.. yahooooo!!!!

I have not really mentioned too much that we are here with another family and our rooms are right down the hall. They too are on their second adoption and both of their sons they have adopted are deaf. So we basically have a large Deaf posse here and it is a blessing and a half.  I do not need to interpret and we are just having such a good time being together.  God has truly blessed my socks off by orchestrating  us two families being here together. We have become very close and it is a blessing and half to be able to be here with a friend that I have grown close to over the last few months.  Our families get along beautifully and we have laughed so hard. What a blessing. Thank you Lord. It has been great to have our own support system here and when one is struggling we can pick each other up. Tonight we ordered Chinese food and had a huge deaf gathering in their room. It was a night I wont forget and a time of just getting to chill and get to know each other more. 

Today we had the medical appointment for both children.  It is in a newer building and was more official than the last time we came here. Both kids checked out great. We were not sure about Emmas eye  sight as her paperwork said it was poor, although we have not seen anything that says it is. She passed the eye exam beautifully.  They both had a height  and weight check, eyes and ears,  a look over, and a TB test. We will get the results of the TB test on Monday.  I have a height and weight for both kids but need to convert it a measurement system I am used to first before I figure out their sizes hahah.  I can tell you that they are both TINY.. teeny tiny. Elias is I think in about a size 7, if that. Emma is wearing a size 5. My little pipsqueaks. J

Tonight as I sit here and type this I have two goofballs bouncing around in the bed. Bed time has been a little rough as Elias seems to have a hard time falling asleep and just relaxing enough to go to bed.  I cannot imagine what goes through both of the kids heads. Emma seems thrilled beyond thrilled to just have a family and someone to love on her. She cannot get enough love. Elias seems like he is trying so hard to adjust to what has been thrown at him.  Last night and today we met a Deaf Chinese couple and a few woman from the USA that are deaf and living here in China and they helped to explain to elias a little more about adoption and what is going on. He was under the impression he was going back to school here after break.  What a shock to the system to realize these strangers you have never met now claim to be your parents and live forever away and are taking you there on an airplane. I cannot imagine and it is hard for me to wrap my brain around what my poor children have gone through. The adoption process is not easy on children…… it is a rough thing. Yes I know it is the best for Elias, Emma and Luke to be adopted but wow it is crazy to have to go through it and to go through it as an older child must be beyond traumatic. I cannot imagine the pain, confusion, anger and just pure frustration at having no say in anything that happens to you in your life.  I pray for my childrens hearts and minds daily and pray for them to know God one day and that He and only He can take away the pain and help them to handle this crazy transition in their lives. 

I  am getting ready to go to bed and am struck by how blessed I am. I am a mom with 6 gorgeous children and 6 beautiful blessings from God.  How lucky can one woman get. I have a husband that is beyond amazing. A family that thinks we are nuts ;) but loves us and our beautiful children immensely.  Friends that love and support us. A church family that loves us and supports and prays for us and we are blessed to be where God has placed us.   Thank you Lord for blessing us so much. Thank you Lord for preparing our childrens hearts and minds to receive us here in China.  Please continue to pray for us and our family (here and in China.) We are missing our children at home a lot and it is hard to be so far away from them and I wish they were here to experience this journey together as a family.  Paige is soon to loose her first tooth ever and we are not there L  Tommy had his first school dance ever and we were not there L  Luke had an amazing field trip to the Franklin Institute ( I love hearing his stories after he gets home from a field trip) and we were not there. BUT we have family there that are loving on our children and taking such good care of them and that helps so much.  Good night everyone from the country of China.

      I  have a ton of new pictures I just need to get them off of the camera and into here.

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!

Ni Hao from China!!!!

Ni hao from China,

We are here in Harbin! The winter Ice and snow festival is underway and we are the lone Americans except for our travel pal and adoptive mom partner, Theresa.  It was a long way to get here but our flights from Newark were nice, long of course but totally uneventful.   Don’t know that Iever watched that many movies or tv in my life haha. Watched some good movies from our very nice plane and United did a good job. We had fancy monitors on the back of each seat and could watch whatever we wanted. I did feel sorry for Tom for as high tech as it was none of the movies had captions, unless you wanted Arabic captions… go figure…. Tom played a lot of games on his monitor and apparently won world Championship in poker hahah.    We flew into Beijng without a hitch and then had about 6 hours to sit and wait for our next flight. Only problem was for Tom and I the time in Beijing was about 2 in the morning in America and we had already flewn one day and had not yet slept so staying awake to keep an eye on your luggage was rough. I didn’t make it having had been so sick that I passed on the seats waiting for the plane and slept about 2-3 hours that way while my poor hubby starred at me.  I am still not well, but the air in Beijing was beyond frightening.  It was like being at a huge campout with a million fires burning at the same time. Believe it or not that was the air quality IN the airport. You could not even see outside really it is so thick. VERY SCARY.  Our flight to Harbin was short and uneventful and we met up with our friend Theresa on the plane.  It is nice to be here with someone else and not just Tom and I. 

W e arrived in our hotel at about midnight and tried hard to get internet only to find out that there is not internet to get. Very frustrating. We have no outside communication with anyone at this point and our phones are useless clocks as well. 

Today we ventured outside since it says it is actually like a heatwave here for the ice festival as it was 5 degrees outside and not the normal 50 below. We heard tomorrow might be 12 degrees, SHORTS people shorts hahahh…  It is not good air quality here either and my lungs are not liking it. Very smokey and smells like campfires burning too. I tried to use my nebulizer machine and we darn near set the room on fire (twice) seems my nebulizer must not have survived the flight well and turns into  a smoking burning, flaming machine when plugged in (no it is not the plug the converter is good.) sooo no nebulizer. 

We went out with Theresa today and hit the streets. We were armed with underarmour and layers and did pretty well staying warm. The place is pretty cool with ice sculptures everywhere. We hit several huge under ground malls.  You could buy anything there and tons of it. We hit super Walmart (yup even up here in what seems to be the ends of the earth (pretty sure that it doesn’t get much colder in the world then where we are, it is only above freezing 3 months out of the year here.) We got some drinks and snacks for the room and some yogurt for me as I am having a hard time finding something I want to eat.

We meet our guide, Lynn tomorrow and she will take us to the bank to change over our money and then we will go meet our Emma. I cant believe it is here, the time is really come to meet our kiddos!  I know I cant post this probably until Wednesday when we hit Guangzhou but want to keep track of our journey so I am writing it in MS word and will snag it over to a blog post when we find something that looks like internet!  Ok going to go rest for a bit and chill as tomorrow starts a big day!!!!!

Good night from Harbin!

It is really happening!

It is official, we have tickets to CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are down to the home stretch and our children will soon be home.

This is such a strange feeling as we have waited for so long, YET there are a million things to be done (OK a million is a tad of an exaggeration , but I do have a 5 page list of things to do and my hubby has a 2 page list.. that is about a million things when you leave in a week hahah!

Our kiddos are so excited that they are bounding off the walls! They are also afraid and having some anxiety about mom and dad leaving. If you could say some prayers for our 4 children at home, Aaron, Luke, Tommy and Paige, while we are away I would greatly appreciate it. We know that they will be loved in immensely while we are gone, but it is still a scary feeling to think your parents are going thousands of miles away and communication is minimal.... and that is if we can borrow a laptop and if we can get a vpn put on it and it works.

Paige is afraid and crying she is going to miss us, but then darn near jumps out of her skin when she looks at her sisters bed which was just set up yesterday next to hers.. :) she came in my room this morning and said "I expected to see Emma in her bed when I woke up".  Wishful thinking sweet pea but soon enough!  Paige has already claimed her and Emma's room as "Girls Only".. Paige is too too funny, she said tonight. " Momma soon there will be 3 ladies in the house.. ohhh watch out boys we are not so few now hahahh." It is definitely a boys and mans world in the Worrell House.. Sorry to tell Paige that it still will be too.. 5 boys to 3 girls when we get back home! She keeps going on and on saying she is going to have a "twin" sister. Both girls are 6 years old and both girls are about the same size.. So yup "we are twins." Love it.. Blond hair, black hair, blue eyes, dark brown eyes, Deaf , hearing.. those are not important to Paige.. being a sister is what it is all about! and Twins to boot! :)

Tommy is anxious and been having some bad dreams about mom and dad's trip so he is a little stressed, plus in pure Tommy fashion he thinks he needs to hold down the fort while we are gone. He has never had that "I am a kid mentality" Tommy is always trying to handle everything.  He is taking on the added weight of knowing Luke is afraid and Luke wont have as much fluent signing at home with mom and dad not here. I told Tommy that Pop Pop and Granma did such a great time last time that Dad and Mom had to make changes to match what they were doing as it worked better than what we did hahah :)  Tommy is very excited for his new sister and brother to come and has been working hard on getting his semi-football team Luke and Paige) ready so they can add two new members :)

Luke is so excited he is going to bust a gasket!  But at the same time he cries every time he looks at me or thinks about us leaving. He said "I know that good comes in the end.... but it is scary right now." Very smart comment from my young boy!  Luke has not really separated from us since he has been home.. not even to go to a friends house.... so he is more than nervous about 2 weeks of no one to stalk.  Note to self remind both pop pop and granma that they could become his new stalking targets and if he does they need to not make too many quick turn arounds as they will knock over their shadow if they do. :)

Aaron is off at College and busy starting his final semester of his junior year at Valley Forge Christian College! My digital media major is doing amazing! Aaron is praying hard for us on this journey and he is solidly grounded at college, but has mentioned it is sorta scary knowing your parents are so far away. I know he will cover us in prayer while we are away and that is always a blessing to know your child is praying for you and his siblings. We are hoping to be able to sneak Aaron home when we get home but not sure we can work that out for the first of Feb! The kiddos are all going to want to meet their new cool big super cool, super smart and super tall brother, Aaron.

PLEASE pray for our Elias and Emma. As exciting as this journey is for us, it must be beyond scary to them. We are not sure if Elias has been prepared for us to come or not, we are praying he has been but have no way of knowing until we meet him. If Elias is prepared he still wont fully understand what this crazy rapid change that is going to happen fully means.. Leaving his foster family, his friends, his Deaf school, his country, his language, his food, his culture, his everything behind has to be a huge shock and a huge overwhelming event for a young child to deal with. Pray for his ability to handle the changes that are about to bowl him over. We know for sure our Emma will have no clue what is about to happen to her and for a little girl 6 years old that has no language or education and no idea what is coming, to just be handed over to strangers that dont even look like anyone you have ever seen in your life and taken away from all you have known, good or bad, that has to be horrifying. Please pray with us as we have been praying for a long time, that God will prepare their hearts. That they will feel comforted and know that we are there to love them. Pray that we can handle whatever reaction they have and that we handle it with wisdom and grace. God give us all the courage and strength to go through the transitions that are yet to come.

Tom and I will travel to the northern most part of China and it is COLD there.  Harbin has an average January temp of 50 below.. ouch.. if you know me I am a summer beach girl and freeze my patoot off below 70 and that is not cold haha.

These are from the Harbin Ice Festival that will be going on while we are in Harbin. We are really going to be on a whirlwind shoot in and out of Harbin and doing a ton of adoption stuff so I am not sure how much of this we will get to see and it is beyond frigid there so not sure if we will brave this too much but we will surely check it out. From my understanding this is all outside of our hotel window pretty much.  I dont want to miss the opportunity to see something like this, but not sure what we can fit it in and how our little girl will be doing. We arrive late Sat night in Harbin and will meet our daughter on Monday so we are hoping maybe Sunday if we are not too Zombified from the full 24 hours or more of traveling to get there and the crazy huge time change, that we can fit in a little ice and snow festival time.

After we leave Emma's province we will fly to Guangzhou China to meet our son!

Totally different environment and atmosphere in just a few short days and Emma's province only gets above freezing 3 months out of the year so she is going to hit culture and weather shock before she even leaves her country.   We will meet our Elias and start the paperwork to get the passports and Visas's and medical appointments and what not.

Please pray for us during our journey and if you could continue the prayers after we get home we would appreciate it, for that is truly when the hard part of this journey starts. Becoming a family does not happen over night, learning how to be a family member is not a natural instinct to a child that has never had a family. Learning to trust people when your trust has been shattered by every living soul in your life, is not easy!!!!. Learning to not over eat (for never having experienced knowing that there will be food there when you are hungry) and that you dont need to hoard food is a process that takes time. Learning that your parents are not just another set of care takers in your life that will come and go and that they are actually your "parents" is NOT always easy to grasp and accept. For our children already at home learning that their new siblings are not a cool new pet or an exchange student that has come to visit and that they really are staying here is not always an easy thing to accept either.  Learning that the thing in the bathroom really is made to put your human waste in and that toilet paper goes in that thing too.. is not an easy concept to grasp.. learning that you dont need to suck pizza up off your plate like it is noodles on chopsticks.. not easy..

 On a lighter note:::: just watching your parents starve trying to use chopsticks and not doing so well actually getting much in their mouths can be a great way to get some laughter going...

I could go on and on but I am pretty sure you get my point by now.. We covet and need your prayers!!!!!!!Thank you for following us this far on our journey and all of your prayers, love and support. Put on your seat belt ladies and gentlemen and buckle up for the ride as we are about to kick this journey into high gear!!!!

                                            Here they are.. two children that are Orphans no more! 

                                                                           Our loves,

                                                                          Our babies,

                                                                  Elias and Emma Worrell!

            We say goodbye to the Worrell family of six for we soon become a loving family of 8!

Big News!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boy oh Boy and Boy oh Girl Do I have a TON to post about!

                                  IT's a BOY AND a GIRL!!!

Yes folks your read correctly. We are soon leaving to bring home Elias and we will also bring home our precious Emma. We have known we were going back to China at some point for a daughter and Paige has prayed faithfully for 3 years for her sister Emma and we have found our precious Emma!!!!!!!!!!

Emma JUST turned 6 years old on December 27th 2012. She is Deaf and living in Northern China. She is a cutie pie! See for yourself!!!

We will leave in hopefully leave in about 10 days to bring our children home! We are trying hard to get through this last part of the wait and I know I posted before that I was fine with it but that was 3 weeks ago and I am done with waiting haha. Trying hard to hold it together as we know we will get approval any day now to head out and bring our two newest additions to our family home! Today is day 21 of our wait for travel approval..it is painstakingly long but we are praying our way through it!

Please pray for us as we embark on this journey. We are still short funds and awaiting results of a possible loan and a possible grant which we are in need of and need to get them quickly. Praying that they both come through. We have applied for all the grants we could, held every fundraiser we could, sold everything we could. Now we just have to trust and pray as it gets down to the wire to travel.

Please Pray for our children here as we leave them behind to go bring home their new brother and sister, it is not easy to stay home while your parents travel thousands of miles away to bring home new siblings 2 weeks later. Pray for our trip that we stay healthy (we both are not healthy right now) and that we have smooth flights. Please pray for a smooth meeting of Emma and then flight to Guangzhou and a smooth meeting of Elias... Pray for Tom and I as we head to Harbin China to brave the 35 -50 below temperatures there to get Emma and then head to 65 degrees in Guangzhou. Pray for a safe flight home.  Pray for the adjustment of our family as we go from a family of 6 to a family of 8.   We are beyond excited!!!!

                Our Handsome Elias is COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Our Beautiful Emma is COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last family photo as a family of 6.. the next gathering we shall be a family of 8 and we cant wait!!!!!!