We're Home

We got home yesterday. We were 40 minutes early into the Redmond airport, so very few people actually greeted us, but then people kept trickling in, so that worked out well and might have been less overwhelming for Ella.

There are some photos of her homecoming below.

We have so appreciated all the encouraging, positive emails and blog comments, also yesterday all the people who came to the airport to welcome Ella and who let us know they have been keeping up with us on this adventure by reading our blog. It is amazing to me how many of you care so much about our family and especially about our new daughter.

This will be our last post. Now that we are home, we are shockingly busy. The last 24 hours have been chock-full of unpacking, holding Ella, and cleaning (had to redo all the laundry due to residual mosquito repellent stink, and unfortunately while paying someone to do your laundry is affordable in China it is very expensive here. I actually considered looking into it ....). We have also been sleeping a little bit too much during the day and not quite enough at night. Getting these pictures off the camera and onto the laptop was quite a feat for our jet-lagged minds and bodies.

This photo was taken just off the plane. It was a good thing we landed early because those little planes are not good for my stomach and I was very sick. Every time the plane bounced I made a humming/growling noise in the back of my throat ... I think I was scaring the man across the aisle.

We were greeted with flowers and a balloon by my friend Barb.

With my brother Tim and Ella's cousin Amy.

Ella discovered the Lego table in the airport and played with kids from our church. Until that point at the airport she was very quiet and withdrawn ... I think she was scared and just not sure what was happening.

With several people from Robert's work.

With our friends Jim and Heather Knox and their four kids.

With my good friends Tara McSween and Maria Roberts

With Matt and Amanda Fisher and their daughter Emily, who is the same age as Ella (and thus Amanda has been a great resource for me as I prepared for Ella)

With Grandma Karin

American Citizen!

Ella became an official US citizen today when her feet hit US soil (actually, the waiting area near the baggage claim at LAX).

We had a hard flight with a lot of turbulence, two vomiting incidents and weird airplane food that was supposed to be "Western" (as opposed to Eastern) that we couldn't figure out, let alone eat.

Now we are in our Embassy Suites hotel room, after having eaten a double pepperoni pizza that wasn't great, but tasted like home.

We love America! even though Jasper says he misses China and loves it more because he loves the babies.

Stephanie

Red Couch Photos

We are getting ready for bed for our last night here. We spent much of today indoors in our hotel room, away from the incredible heat and humidity, and surrounded by the kids' favorite tv shows, toys and food (peanut butter and honey sandwiches .... for the 8th time this week). Just before dinner we met with Molly and Joe and agency rep Jocelyn for photos on the red couch at the White Swan hotel .... something all the adoptive families do. Then, trying to decide what to eat for dinner, we (with Kellie and Connie) tried a few different restaurants but they were all too expensive and had weird food (see below), like really really different. We really wanted to celebrate for our last meal in China, but Ella was starving, and then Jasper fell and scraped his knee, and Cyrus was sad about not wearing his new shoes, and there was no highchair available and the service was unbearable slow .... and everything got very bad very fast and we ended up going back to the hotel, leaving Maya with Kellie and Connie (where they waited a very long time for her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and french fries, of which she only ate the fries anyway) and Robert got us food from the Thai restaurant and I made the boys peanut butter and honey sandwiches. It wasn't the way we wanted to spend the evening, but I guess this is life with 4 kids. In China. Who love being here but also really want to go home.

Tomorrow morning we pack, and we check out in the early afternoon, go to our consulate appointment, then go to the airport. I am not sure we will have time to post again.

See you on Saturday, or soon after!

Group photo of our entourage on the famous red couch at the White Swan hotel. You can see Jasper is holding Ella's hand down and her other hand is just a blur. This is because every time the photographer Jocelyn said, "Ready, one, two, three" Ella smiled and waved vigorously. It was so funny it was hard for the rest of us to keep a straight face.

Family photo, Tadjiki style.

Ella and Molly and Joe's daughter Hope. Hope is a natural ham who smiles at every camera, while Ella is wondering why this little girl keeps trying to put an arm around her.

Jasper and Cyrus watching the ships on the river from the White Swan Hotel.

Jocelyn is making Ella smile by doing a Chinese nursery rhyme.

Yummy water beetles ... you can get them stewed or stir fried!

Leaving on Schedule

Good news ... we are leaving on schedule on Friday. Everything worked out yesterday with getting a new adoption certificate. We are so grateful that God answered our prayers.

Here are some new photos. Enjoy! Today Jocelyn does a lot of running around for us, while we do whatever we want (that is one thing I will miss about being in China ... so much down time) and tomorrow we pack up and have our Consulate appointment, the final step in the adoption.

Ella and Daddy

Connie, Kellie and our rep Jocelyn

Ella enjoying some American French Fries

Stephanie and her four beautiful children (We are an amazing thing to behold in China - with their one child policy)

Gentleman asking for money

Cyrus in the middle of the shopping area

Cyrus in front of large aparment building near popular shopping area

Jasper chilling with his new sister

Ella sleeping like a baby

Maya with her swollen mosquito eye - She is looking like her normal beautiful self today

Funny Story ... and Prayer Request

The other day Maya was tired after doing some shopping. She leaned against me in a taxi as we were going back to our hotel and said, "Mom, there sure are a lot of Chinese people here!"

I said, wondering if the driver knew English (probably not), "Yes there are, Maya ... 1 billion!"

We are ready to come home. There is one small problem with our paperwork, unfortunately. When they did Ella's adoption certificate they forgot to put her American name. So our CCAI rep is trying to get it fixed right now. By the time you all wake up and read this, we will probably already know if we will be able to fly out on schedule Friday .... This typo affects when Ella can get her passport. So you can see how important this is.

One more story. At breakfast when I was feeding Ella I was trying to get her attention ... I stared into her eyes and slowly moved my head forward to gently butt against her forehead. To my surprise, she moved HER head forward and butted it against mine. Then she reared back and did this funny quiet chuckle she does when she is pleased with herself. I was congratulating myself on teaching her something new, when Jasper saw us and said, "That's what I do with Ella!" So I guess I know where she learned that.

OK, I can't resist. One more story. I posted a message online asking the new parents of Ella's little friend Chun Yun to contact me, saying just that I had a photo for them. It was such a long shot. It was entirely possible that they would not even see my message, and I did not know their names or how to contact them. I had no idea that his mother would respond right away! They are from Boise! Amazing that they live so close! They have four daughters already, and they sound so excited to be adopting Chun Yun.

OK, just one more story. Maya got attacked by another mosquito, this time just under her right eye. It is really swollen, about half shut. When we walk around together, people see her and actually recoil. I can just imagine they are thinking I am here to adopt her, an older Chinese girl with a terrible rare eye disease. The funny thing is, Maya has no idea. Her smile is so sweet.

We miss you all and can't wait to see you.

Barbara, thanks for the tip in bringing the kids' favorite snack food. We have plowed through most of it and it really helped. I just wish I had brought more Cheerios and applesauce .... I didn't think about Ella eating it, too!

Stephanie

Ella's Birthplace

Kids from Ella's village.

These folks had never seen an American before.

Two leaders of the village and they gave me their address and are looking forward to future correspondence


I purchased ice cream for a large group of kids

One of the older woman of the village

Four year old boy who was best friends with Ella and helped to take care of her while in the orphanage. His face lit up when I showed him the photo of Ella. He is to be adopted as well in the next few months.

Entrance to Ella's orphanage

Future of Scrolls From China

Even though Scrolls From China is really just in its infancy of growth - Kenny and I are planning on beginning a foundation within the next several months. The purpose of the foundation will be to give training and employment to older orphans as they have to leave their respective orphanages at the age of 16. Having a job is paramont to life. Ever been unemployed for a while during your life? I was - and it isn't a good feeling.

We will begin forming the name, 501(c)3 process and completing the necessary steps to establishing this foundation. All dontaions will be tax exempt. Scrolls From China will begin giving monies from the purchases of all art pieces to the creation of this foundation plus individual money given to each of the artists.

I implore you to see if there is any way that you can contribute to this new beginning. Please consider and be in prayer regarding how you might be able to help. When all of the details are in place I will send out an email with more specifics.

Kenny has a gregarious personality and his parents and both siblings are all doctors and know many business leaders in China. They are helping him kick start the foundation with money from their personal savings accounts. Kenny is a Christian and does his work due to a desire to help orphans. When he was younger his parents had him in orphanages as they traveled around the country serving communist China - for doctors were needed to travel around the country where they were directed by the government during this time. Kenny laughs that he is the shortest person in his family because he ate food from orphanages as he was growing. He is now 34.

I would also encourage you to pray for Kenny. He is an amazing man. He also desires to find a wife but it is difficult in his line of work. A woman would have to be very sacrificial to be with him. He dated a woman for many years but she broke it off five years ago because she couldn't stay in China and he didn't want to move to France.

Kenny I know that you are reading this - we give you our prayers and our hearts.