Signs of Life : The Brownie Chronicles

In just one and a half hours, we meet our group in the lobby and take a short drive over to the registration office.  Some of the kids could be there waiting for us.  Some may arrive later, depending on traffic.  Since Tian lives here in Zhengzhou, we are hoping that means we will either be there waiting or will arrive pretty quickly. My last thoughts before going are simply that Ken and I can't wait to love this boy!  We know this week will be challenging and beyond anything we expected.  We also know Tian will bring us joy beyond what we could expect.  In our hearts, Tian has been our son for almost one year.  Now it's time to teach him what that means to HIM. Tian, we're on our way!

We just had our travel conference call.  Ken and I are so very impressed with our agency, CCAI .  They have been amazing every step of the way and today, hearing from the founder/director himself, Josh, was a great comfort.  He let us know that he and his wife Lily have prayed for us and our kids by name from the beginning.  I'll share some of the wisdom Josh shared with us and that we will take with us on our journey: - Be positive! that won't be too hard for me - Be extroverted, at least for these few weeks in China. naturally - When you arrive at the airport and meet your guide, give them your brain! Your guide will be your social worker, guide, interpreter, advocate and best friend.   Hallelujah! I was hoping I wouldn't need it. - When the going gets tough (you're sick of the food, hot, ready to be home) just repeat, "I'm going to survive my 3 weeks in China!" I am going to survive my 3 weeks in China! - CCAI's goal is for families to have a smoot...

We leave in 4 days!! FOUR! In these final days, we are still waiting.  Waiting for our escrow check that should have been here weeks ago.  Waiting for our final travel itinerary and budget so that we know how much cash we need to take to China. As for the escrow check, it's pretty much out of our hands, so if it's not here by Saturday, we just won't have it.  Which stinks, because we really truly NEED that check! Ooh! Just as I was typing this, we got our travel itinerary!  Yikes! Our in-China costs were about $5000 more than we had predicted!  Sheesh!  The boys are worth every bit of it.  Since we finally have our numbers, we have some last-minute shopping and banking to do! Now back to the regularly-scheduled blog: Waiting and being strapped down to our last dime has forced us to depend completely on the Lord every step of the way. He has come through every time , most often in the last moments.  Whether it has been through old frie...

Today, I was reminded that friends, yes even if they are "just" facebook friends, matter. I posted (as usual) about being excited to be picking up the boys soon.  Over 40 people responded, even if just by "liking" my status update.  As I read through the names of people who "liked" it, my heart swelled.  Some of these friends I haven't seen in 5 to 25 years!  But when I see their name come across my wall, memories of them pop into my head and cause me to be so thankful for the people God has placed in my life, whether years ago, for a short time, or even just through cyberspace. SO, I decided to go through the list of people who either commented or "liked" my update today and share with you how I know them.  I started to post what memories pop into my head with each person, but there are TOO many! Randi: VCC, Cube homeschool friend and blogger/crafter extraordinaire!  Marni: my most bubbly, happy Dickinson neighbor! Laura: my bestest...

Since we got TA, I've had a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night.  Even when I'm wiped out, I lie down and get butterflies in my stomach thinking about the trip.  Or I'll imagine the boys lying on the bed next to me, sleeping while I stroke their black hair.  That thought makes me cry.  So, I've relied on going to Hulu.com and watching Jimmy Fallon followed by many clips of the show.  The commercial between each clip is normally when I drift off to sleep, unable to keep my eyes open any longer, normally in the 2 o'clock hour. This nighttime wakefulness leads to morning-time sleeping in.  (Acutally, I've been waking up at 6am with butterflies all over again, so I get up, do a few chores, then crash back to sleep from about 8-9:30.) Two mornings ago, I woke to find the Brownies up, having eaten breakfast, working on this countdown chain. We used to make these when the kids were small and Ken began traveling with Sprint. It helped them know how many "s...

Before I gave birth to each of my children, I knew their gender and had an inkling from the ultrasounds that they were reasonably healthy, but otherwise, had no idea what to expect, especially with our firstborn. From the moment the kids were born, Ken and I would talk, sign, and sing to them.  I can't tell you how many times I sang the Alphabet Song to those kids!  We played with blocks, signing the colors every. single. time.  We read picture books out loud and signed the names of all the farm animals over and over. At only a few months of age, each of our kids began to understand our words and signs.  "Milk" and "eat" were two of the first signs/words they recognized, of course! Somewhere between 10 and 12 months, they began to first sign, then talk.  Our oldest's first signs were "more" and "dog."  The other two first signed "more" and "milk" and "daddy." That first developmental year is full of ...

Yes!! TA! We have official travel approval! We will have verified dates at the end of the week, but for now, it looks like we'll be out of the US July 6 through 30.  That's a LONG trip, but we are SO very ready! I'll keep you posted about the details of the trip and will be posting information for those who want to meet us at the airport when we come home at the end of June. For now, we are simply celebrating!!!!

I found this I posted on Pappy's (my dad) Facebook wall April of last year: "Hi, Pappy! I just listened to a Focus on the Family broadcast on which they interview James Dobson re: his new book "Bringing Up Girls". His overwhelming findings after 3 years of research was that girls need to know they are loved by their dads and dads have to constantly tell them, hug them, kiss them, etc. especially during the "awkward" stages when many dads shy away from their girls. Everything I heard made me realize yet again how BLESSED I am to have a dad like you. I never ever once doubted that you loved me and thought I was pretty great, even when I was behaving badly and felt down on myself. You always showed us affection (funny, but I vividly recall car trips where you would reach back and pat us on the knee) and gave us unconditional love. Your love made it easy to understand that God, too, loves me even when I'm at my ugliest. May the Lord richly bless you for t...

I'm pressed, but not crushed; Persecuted, not abandoned; Struck down, but not destroyed. I'm blessed beyond the curse because His promise will endure and His joy is going to be my strength. Though sorrow may last for the night His joy comes in the morning. -- Trading My Sorrows, Darrell Evans Down. Weary. Dismayed. Disheartened. Weighed down. Worn. In my years, I've learned not to use the word "depressed" lightly.  When I'm feeling down, I don't say that I  am depressed.  I won't say it here today, either, but I feel like I'm certainly feeling  physical  as well as emotional effects from being "down." Over the past few weeks, I've been unmotivated to get up, get dressed, and get out.  I'd rather stay home and in my PJs.  I feel like a fat blob, which doesn't help the getting dressed and getting out. Since this time last year, I've successfully dropped every outside obligation other than church and immediate...

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.  -Proverb Last night, I was Google-searching for photos of the Sanming SWI (my actual search was "Sanming City orphanage") and happened upon some photos of a girl I recognized from pictures with Travis.   The pictures linked to this blog from the Olson family.  (The Olsons blogged about our connection here:  http://olsonfamilymatters.blogspot.com/2011/06/friend.html .) A quick scroll through the blog and I recognized the parents as well.  Just the night before, I had spent hours surfing every corner of the Sanming City SWI 's website and saw a video of this family visiting the SWI and getting their daughter.  (I had skipped through it though, and didn't see the photos of her with EnEn.) They linked to a Picasa album of the orphanage and there was our little EnEn, playing with Yi Hong, now named Madelyn.  As I scrolled through thirteen photos of those two playing together, I w...

In my last post, I shared my internet search for info regarding Travis' home.  Well, I was wrong about him living in the Jiangle County.  I was also wrong in my January post showing the "castle" SWI. Perusing the Chinese website for Sanming City SWI, I found photos that are certainly from his home.  I've put out some questions (in three different languages, mind you) to find out where the "castle" SWI is compared to the white building where Travis lives. Sanming City SWI On the homepage, there is a slideshow of 4 different photos.  One of those is our son!  Why wouldn't he be their poster child?  Look at that face! That smile! Rockin' the 'hawk! My heart was racing with each click and I found more and more photos of Travis.  The photos were exciting, but as I continued to explore, I found even more about him and his life over the past 2 years.  I noticed they had a "profiles" section.  Clicking through those, I saw his profi...

In all my searching for Travis' SWI, I found even more information on Tian's. Here are my favorite pics: Ariel view of ZZ SWI. I instantly recognized the architecture from pics of Tian. Compare these with the pictures below of Tian. These two are of Tian with his foster mom. This is Tian with Xia, who works in Colorado for CCAI.

Preface: New Information: I learned that Travis is NOT in Jiangle County SWI. He is in Sanming City, but not in the "castle" SWI.  See my next post for the story.  So the entire blog below is null and void, but I'm going to keep it here for posterity. Way back in January, I blogged about where I thought Travis "EnEn" was living.  Now I am 95% sure I was wrong. Over the past few days, I've been scouring the Internet for some information.  Any information.  Tian's SWI is in a large, well-traveled, urban city in a providence where many adoptions occur.  He was in the Lily Orphan Room that is operated by our adoption agency.  Because of these factors, we have a lot of information about his orphanage.  We know the location, we've seen a lot of photos, heard stories from other adoptive families and travel groups, and even received a video of Tian in his SWI.  Travis, on the other hand, is from a more rural, remote city that isn't often v...

This is an anti-entry because I really don't have anything specific to say, but have a LOT on my mind. We are waiting for TA.  We're at the official "earliest" we could get it, so the jitters have hit!  God has worked everything out in His timing.  I trust that and am also letting Him know the DEEP desire of our heart...to get TA tomorrow!!  That would truly be amazing.  The rest of our fellow waiting families are as giddy as we are and also hoping (and shaving body parts/pets, and soaking Reeses peanut butter cups in rum, etc) with anticipation for the TA news.  It's nice to have people with whom we can wait.  I hope we get to meet at least some of them in real life. On another note, I took the kids and a couple of their friends to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  We loved it!  I could totally see why some adoptive parents cringed over a few parts, but overall it was very good.  We all agreed it was better than the first.  We're looking ...

Today is June 1, the day we will celebrate as Travis' birthday.  I wish I could feel more celebratory.  The truth is, the boys are always on my mind, so today is no different.  The other truth is that I'm a little sad. I'm sad about the circumstances that surround adoption.  I'm sad for Travis for all the unanswered questions, including what day he was born.  I'm sad for his first family that they felt they couldn't care for a deaf son.  I'm also sad for them as I know they are wondering about him, especially around the time of his birth.  I pray Travis will retain some memories of his first year.  I'm sad that we aren't in China already. Today, at the orphanage, Travis' birthday won't be celebrated.  Not because he's in an orphanage, but because Chinese people don't celebrate a 3rd birthday.  They celebrate only a few select milestone birthdays.  Even then, it's not like our extravagant American celebrations and it's ...

If you'll remember my recent post listing the alphabet soup of hoops our paperwork is going through, you'll know that Article 5 is the last leap before Travel Approval! Article 5 has been picked up by our agency in China! Now that we have A5, TA will come anywhere from June 13 to the 27th.  Of course, we are praying for the 13th AND trusting God's timing. After we receive TA, we could leave for China in as little as 9 days or as much as 14 days.  That puts our "leaving for China" date somewhere between June 22nd at the earliest and July 11th at the latest.  We will be in China for a little over 3 weeks! When we get TA, our agency sets our Consulate Appointment, which is the appointment we have with the US Consulate in Guangzhou during our final week in China.  From that appointment date, they work back to set our date of departure from the US.  We can't wait to get that news!!

As Beth Moore says (roughly as I remember it), following Jesus is a wild ride!  He does not disappoint. Friends hosted an absolutely fabulous shower on Sunday.  Tons of friends came by and brought me to tears with their generosity. My amazing hostesses and friends. College friends that drove 4.5 and 2.5 hours to come! Our families had fun visiting until very late. The fam respresents Wouldn't have been the same without my dearest friend. Ken even made a short appearance <3 So many friends, old and new. Wish I could post them all here, but just check facebook for the album. Then today, Who God is and what He does blew me away yet again.  Just the night before (Monday night), Ken was feeling very burdened by the lack of funds still in our adoption budget, specifically the amount we had for our international flights.  Flying 5 people TO, then 7 people home FROM China is not cheap!  And with as little as 9 days notice flying i...

Red lantern at the DFW Dragon Boat Festival Around the Brown house, we've been preparing to visit China as well as become a multi-cultural family with Chinese-American sons/brothers. Part of our preparation includes learning about China, Chinese culture, and Chinese-American culture.  Here are a few fun things we've done in the past couple of months. DFW Dragon Boat Festival Visiting China exhibit at Ft. Worth  Museum Planting rice at museum exhibit Trying Asian foods (and eating with chopsticks for practice) At the Dragon Boat festival, the kids loved watching the Kung Fu performances.  I had a hard time getting a good picture of it but below is a photo from the Shaloin Temple we plan to visit in one of our sons' provinces.  Henan province is the birthplace of Kung Fu and the Shaolin Temple is the center of that birthplace.  We are looking forward to that visit. Photo Credit: http://news.cultural-china.com/

"Out of our hands" seems to be the running theme in our lives in 2011. The sale of our house? Out of our hands. The speed at which any government agency decides to process our paperwork? Out of our hands. Getting updates on our boys? Out of our hands. This week, even more minor issues have popped up that are (you guessed it) out of our hands. All throughout the day today, I was either emailing or on the phone with someone checking on something : First, the CIS office, checking the status of our case.  I was thrilled to hear back from our officer (he rocks, by the way) that our case had arrived at NVC (National Visa Center) just this morning!   As a side note, our case files weighed in at 26 pounds!  That's 13 pounds per kid.  Seriously, US government?  Does it require 13 pounds of paperwork?  Are the boys tucked in there somewhere? Second, I called the NVC to see if they did, indeed have our case.  They do, but now need 24-48 hours to proce...

It's Mother's Day. I will celebrate the many blessings that come along with that: My own mom , a mother-in-law whom I love and am daily thankful for how she raised her son to be a good husband, and my own life as a mom of three kids that I love so much it hurts. But 2 of my 5 children are a half-world away.  Today leaves me thinking about their "moms." Tian and EnEn have 3 moms : Birthmom Tian and EnEn were each born to a mother (obviously).  I've been thinking of them a lot this week.  Curious to know if China celebrated Mother's Day, I did what any good researcher would do and googled it.  It's becoming a popular holiday there, but isn't celebrated all over China yet. Still, I wonder how often they think of the boys? When Tian's mom left him at a busy underpass, he was just a week old.  I wonder where she hid to keep watch over him until he was found?  As she goes about her day, does she scan little toddler boys to see if any of them...