Two Days til Departure

Jasper set out on some serious errands today--new glasses for the trip (and he'll be wearing them all the time when he returns, so watch out for that! But at least it doesn't mean you need to fear his near-sighted driving any more), the big last check to the adoption agency to cover travel expenses and the orphanage donation, and the cholesterol check that means he can now eat Chinese food without worrying about his numbers, at least for a while, while we are away. 

The water heater is fixed, so we are ready to leave the house to my mom's care when she takes over in a few days, and I think the bags are nearly packed. We are way under weight and on the light side of baggage. Traveling in summer makes that much easier than facing the bracing Mongolian winter. T-shirts alone would not suffice then.

VBS starts tonight, and I get to see it in action after months of preparation for two nights at least before we leave. We've been praying for it for a long time, and I'm thrilled that it's finally here. Ruby is psyched too!

Over the weekend we visited the PA Renaissance Faire, and here are some shots. The day before I went into labor with Sapphire we had a great family day together as a family of three: lunch out after church and a visit to the MA/PA railroad. That was a lot less comfortable than our recent family day trip to the days of Queen Elizabeth I!


We've been focused on the Medieval period this summer as we do home school lite, and this was our brief jump into the Renaissance before we start Colonial America in the fall.

A Tiny Disappointment

I received an email from Ruby's foster care center that she will be leaving for Inner Mongolia to begin her part in the paperwork (she has to have a passport photo taken!) on the same day we fly to Beijing. This means we won't get to see her in the home she's known for 20 months of her life. This is disappointing. I had hoped that we would get a chance to meet her in surroundings she felt comfortable with, so that when we met her again in Hohhot, it would be less of a shock to her.

Not only that, but the idea of her going through 5 days of transition even before the big transition to come with us is distressing.  She'll be leaving her only home to go to an orphanage, and after several days there she'll be handed over to us.  One bright spot is that a nanny from Beijing who she knows will stay with her the whole time in the orphanage until we meet her.  The woman in charge of her home assured us that they won't leave her alone with strangers. That is a big relief, at least.

This is a tiny corner taken from a photo of a little girl who spent most of her 3 years in the Social Welfare Institute that Ruby will be at for those five days. I've cropped out the other little girl (who is going through her own massive battle for health with a new, loving family who writes about her here) to focus on the cribs and the suggestion of a bright mural.  I wonder if Ruby will be in this room or will stay somewhere with her nanny. 

We will still go to her foster center in Beijing to meet Grandma Li, her caretaker.  We will be sure to take lots of photos.

We're back home after a few days away (a visit to the Renaissance Faire and our parents' homes), and we're looking at the final stretch before we leave. Jasper will have some busy errands on Monday, and I want to bond with my luggage and make sure they are all at their best. I'd also like to finish painting the porch so that Ruby has a pretty house to come home to in a few weeks!

6 Days to Go

We have six days to finish getting ready. Today we learned that the water in our basement was not from a hard rain a few days ago--it was the leaking hot water heater. Thank goodness we discovered this before we left. A plumber should be here Monday.

Pearl and I have nearly finished painting the front porch. We've been trying to pretty up those front steps and porch all summer. I'd like it to be at its prettiest when Ruby gets here, not that she'll care all that much about appearances. I let Pearl choose between two blues, and wow, did she ever pick a blue! It's even brighter than when we were in the store, but it is pretty.  Sort of cobalt blue.

Now I need to go see what sort of copies I need to make of our dossier.

Airline Tickets

We got our first choice consulate appointment on Aug. 20th, so we could go ahead and buy the plan tickets. Sadly, in the time the confirmation for the consulate appointment to arrive, tickets to Beijing went up $1000.  We were a little flabbergasted about this.  The agency had suggested one price in their general paperwork, but the only direct tickets are double that.  The flights with layovers are not all that much better.

The today we tried to improve on what the travel agent found, and we unearthed tickets for $300 less each, so we are saving $600 from just waiting one day, and we still get a direct flight.  So, we're spending $1,900 more than expected, but we saved what we thought we'd be spending yesterday.  Phew. It almost sounds like a deal.

Our agency said there is a chance that not only will we get to visit Ruby's foster home (which we will certainly do), but we might also get to go directly from that visit to the airport with her and the nanny and fly with them to Hohhot.  Then we wouldn't have to say good bye to her, which might be confusing for her.

I realized we have something planned for nearly every day until we leave, and that does not include the packing and finalizing, but we don't want to miss any of it.  Pearl finished up her swim lessons today. She made so much progress, and I'm really proud of her! We also get to celebrate my dad's birthday with the family.

Thanks for all the prayers for patience and peace that you've made on my behalf.  They have been much needed and appreciated.

Lists

I have lists of recommended things to take. (They seem a little over kill. We do not need baby washcloths when we are going to hotels with washcloths.) I have lists of things to pick up, but it isn't long since I got nearly everything in the last weeks. I have a handy chart to show who is keeping the girls while we are gone (a big thanks to those family members!). I have lists of what I packed because, once it's in there, I'm probably going to forget about it and look again. I have a list of things to do for Vacation Bible School since that's quickly approaching too. We'll leave on the third day, but the girls will get to go at least one more day.

This may not show from my previous paragraph, but I'm feel much less scattered than I did last night when I was blundering around, trying to make a VBS bulletin and pack suitcases and email folks to handle things I won't be able to do any more at VBS since we'll be in China!

I may still be a little scattered, though, since nothing I try to write really hangs together in a paragraph. I'll have to work on that.

TA at Last!

I really needed the relaxing time in under a gorgeous sky this morning while Pearl had her first swim lesson, but on the way home at 2pm I started to wonder if Jasper would have news. He didn't but I didn't have long to wait. The call came on the cell just as I was ringing up the agency to see what could possibly be wrong. Nothing wrong now. (I'm purposely  restraining my use of exclamation points).

One of the agency's employees specializes in arranging travel, and she said we could go Aug. 1st (next week!) or Aug. 8th. We opted for the 8th. I think we could have done the 1st, but I don't know if my family would have still liked me by the end of that week. This way we also get to participate in Bible School for the first two nights, and I'm directing it, so I can get it started and answer those first night questions.

Now we're tentatively scheduling the girls' caregivers while we are gone.  Pearl got a little sad when she realized she wasn't going--she knew this, but it sunk in deeper, I guess, with all this. Now she's fine. I sold her on all the fun she'll have with family members in our absence. I called to request prescriptions for us and Ruby. Otherwise, I *think* I have most of what we'll need already squirreled away upstairs.

The date is soon, but it means I'll be home for the start of the semester and the VBS closing will cover one of Jasper's missed Sundays.  God's plans were great!

Preparations

It seems that parents blog about their adoption journeys when they are able, and I've got a lot of catching up to do. We began the process with prayer and research in August of 2010, and we applied to our agency in February of 2011.  Now, nearly 17 months later, we are preparing to journey to Inner Mongolia to meet our new daughter. She has a minor special need which may require surgery when we get home. Our other daughters are eager to meet her (or as eager as they can be at 2 and 6), and our church is ready to welcome her home too.

Last year was a lot of paperwork. This year has been a lot of waiting. We were able to be matched with a child in December of 2011, but the match didn't happen until April of 2012. I knew that the shared list had come out the night before, but in the rush to get to co-op I forgot to check my email. The email with her first pictures sat unopened until our social worker called Jasper around noon to see if he'd gotten it. I came home from co-op with the girls to find a fairly rattled Jasper. He'd been surprised. I skimmed over her information and photos while our daughters fought in the background. It wasn't the normal silent, tear-filled exuberance I see in other families' referral moments! But it was the next step in a journey.

Now I'm gathering supplies for the trip, reading adoption books with the girls, and trying to be ok with the fact that I will almost certainly miss the first week of class at my university.  We'll get the date for travel in about a month. We'll be more than ready for it then!!

This is how we met Ju Er: