Our Little Traveler

Here's my little traveler in Petra, Jordan. They had a great day there.  One of the other women took charge of the camel-riding party and haggled for rides. Pearl rode a camel named Suzu.


I'm told she hasn't been homesick once, but we do talk every day, and her days are full.

Now they are in Jerusalem. Today they saw the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount.

They were also going to see the Garden Tomb. This is not the actual tomb, but it is from the same period. What a great thing to do during Lent.

Bean-worthy

One way we prepared for Pearl's trip to Israel was by reading the passages from the Bible connected to the places she would see.  Through this study she discovered that her favorite Bible passage is Matthew 5:1-12, the beatitudes.

When we got to the beatitudes she paused, blown away by its message and beauty. She spent a long time thinking about it.

Last week I was thrilled to hear that she had an opportunity to lead the tour group's devotions while they were actually at the Mount of Beatitudes. Here she is reading the scripture aloud right where those verses were first spoken.

Their first stint was in the northern area around Galilee, and Pearl and her daddy were able to walk down to the Sea of Galilee from their hotel each night for an evening wade. They ate fish from the Sea and toured the area before heading into Jordan. They were a little nervous about leaving Israel, but their first night in Jordan was glamorous. Instead of telling me about the sights, they spent our Skype time telling me about the fantastic food and desserts the hotel had.

Today they woke early to drive the three hours to see Petra. This was the day I was most excited about.  In case you fear we overlooked it, we did watch Indiana Jones, The Last Crusade in preparation for the grand stone cut facade of the Petra temple. A woman on the trip is posting short blog entries and lots of pictures of my daughter.

Meanwhile, back here in PA, the little girls have been working to earn their way to the Hands on House in Lancaster. This requires bean-worthy behavior, which, I have to say, had been a little sparse up until today.

Whenever they do a particularly loving sisterly act, they get a bean. This has resulted in some sweet moments, so maybe they are learning. You can see the little sisterly love adding up in those pint jars. Oh for it to run over!

Today Ruby requested a 'stay in our jammies' day. This is probably the only day we'll be home during this fortnight of family separation. Tomorrow we are going to see "Little Red Riding Hood" performed on my campus stage.

Congratulations for finishing. You earned a bean!

Trip Day 1: Pediatrician Office and Airport

How should one fill the day before a late evening flight and everything else is taken care of? Sapphire took care of that one. At 9:45am she took a hobby horse stick and bopped a wooden wall hanging sitting securely on a door lintel.  The wooden plaque plunged into her hairline, leave a deep wound that would require 6 stitches. By the time I got down the steps she was crying, asking for a band aid, as if that would fix it. Meanwhile, her daddy was collecting her shoes.

Jasper rushed her to the pediatrician, and I finished getting ready and made it in time to hold her down for the stitches. This is the second time I've had that honor. There was a lot of screaming, but she didn't struggle.






Pearl was *very* distraught about her sister's pain. I think she broke out in hives over it, if I've identified the hives properly. Ruby no sooner saw her post-op big sister's new band aid than she slapped the sticker the receptionist gave her onto her own little forehead. It was pretty cute!

Once she got home, she was fine and in need of a princess dress. 

I, however, felt a great deal of stress to finish everything that needed to be done before I left. My husband was very helpful in being supportive and keeping the kids busy. After returning home twice because I had forgotten things, I headed south to Dulles, and realized that this was the same route we had traveled last August to meet Ruby. This time, however, there was not an enormous snarl on the DC beltway, and I made great time. Remembering the stress of that drive, I realized that at least this trip did not see me traveling to meet a complete stranger and convince her to love me, and then, regardless of my success, lug her back across the ocean.  That was one pessimistic way of looking at that trip before we met Ruby; of course we were greatly blessed during that trip.

In comparison, this is all very easy. So now I'm on my way to Reykjavik for 2 days of touring. I hope to post photos of what I see there. 



Finally, here's a photo of Pearl's mini collection, proudly displayed at the Collinsville Library's mini museum for all to see. If you can't quite make out what she is showing, they are plant tags. She love small things.

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.

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.

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: