Leaving China & Home Sweet Home (2.13 & 2.14)

Today we wanted to highlight our trip home from China and our little one's entry into the U.S. and what that day looked like as we departed China on February 13, and arrived in the airport in New Jersey on Friday, February 13th. (Gotta' love how those time zones work!) Below are our reflections from journaling that long trip home with little peanut and our arrival home:

Friday, Feb. 13th- Leaving China- Homeward Bound!

Today is bittersweet. Today we leave for home, back to where all things are familiar for us, but where nothing will be familiar to our daughter. We will land in a country where freedoms exist-where we can again use the internet and Facebook without anyone blocking it or tapping into our conversations, where we can worship freely and can raise our daughter to love the Lord and where she will have the opportunity to attend church freely and learn about a loving God who gave His only son for her. A country where foods that we love will be easily accessible, but will completely unfamiliar to her.

Though we are so excited to bring her back and introduce her to her new family and friends, a part of us feels like we are leaving a piece of our heart in China…. and that’s because we are. We loved China before this trip and even more so now, as we have learned so much about this beautiful country and its people, its customs, its beliefs or lack thereof in some cases, its amazing food and tea, and so much more. Today we leave the country that gave life to our daughter and where she grew up for the first 18 months of her life.  We leave wondering who her birthparents are and wish they could see how well she is doing and that’s she is going to be ok.

It’s going to be a long trip today and we have no idea what’s in store in the long hours ahead. Today we leave at 5:30 am to take a van across the border into Hong Kong, to go through customs, and then head to the airport. Poor “B” had no idea what in the world was happening at such an early hour, as we had to wake her up to head out.

We were all supposed to have one van per family, but then one of the vans got stuck in customs and couldn’t make it across the border, so we shared a van with another family. It was just fine and we certainly didn’t care and had to laugh at how the next few hours went with our little ones. When we got to the border, we had to get out of the van and head through customs on foot, as apparently, you can only have a certain number of people in a van and be able to drive across the border. As we waited in line to get to the customs building, we had to laugh hysterically as all of the Chinese drivers in the various lines waiting to get one step closer were just laying on their horns as if that was going to change something. It was like a horrific symphony of various vehicle horns all with their variety of pitches-- as if fussy children trapped in a van trying to cross the border wasn’t enough, this just about did us in.

We tried to get a video of the moment, and this was the best we could do, but it seriously doesn’t do it justice as to what we had been hearing just moments before we tried filming it:

Once we reached the building, we headed inside to go through customs 

in China before entering Hong Kong. 

(sorry for the very rough iPhone photo that was technically not supposed to be taken--shhh) Things went smoothly and then we jumped back in the van to enter Hong Kong. Immediately upon entering Hong Kong, we went just a short bit and then the road system switched and we were driving on the left side of the road. It was pretty amazing how smoothly they set that transition up! 

In about a half hour, we arrived at the airport and with luggage in hand, headed to the ticket counter. When we arrived at the counter, we unfortunately found out that our flight had been delayed 3 hours and that due to this, we would not make our connection in Newark, NJ and were being booked on the next flight out which wasn’t until the next morning, since the other two flights were late night flights and were all full.  They offered us standby, but we couldn’t quite imagine waiting in the airport for standby flights for over 5 hours with a toddler. A free hotel room for the night and food vouchers sounded much more appealing in the moment.

Once we talked with the airlines, we made the best of it and then settled down in the airport for our next 4 ½ hours until take off. We contacted family and everyone to let them know that we wouldn’t be arriving on Friday night, which unfortunately caused a few changes to a few people’s schedules who were planning on meeting us at the airport.

Thankfully, we found a neat play area for “B” for a little while and then had lunch and let her nap and then it was time to board our plane for the U.S.  

We weren’t sure how she would do or how his next 15+ hour flight was going to go.  Once we got settled on the plane, just as she had done on her other flight, she fell asleep before take off.  Again, I think this was a blessing!

The next almost 16 hours were ticking by so slowly and this time around having a little one, I didn’t have as easy a time watching a movie to distract me and help pass the time. 

The hours seemed to creep ever so slowly and finally “B” fell asleep with what seemed to be her “night time” sleep. During this time Nate and I fell asleep too, holding her and letting her stretch out in her seat.

For anyone adopting internationally, I HIGHLY encourage buying your child a ticket for a child seat and not a lap pass. You will NOT regret that decision. It was worth every dollar to purchase a child’s ticket and have a seat and for us to have the extra room not only for us, but for her to stretch out, play, stand, etc. for the long ride home. She did so well it was unbelievable. Between either playing calmly or sleeping, it was a pretty uneventful flight with her which we found to be amazing. She even slept through the bad turbulence that almost gave her mom a heart attack.

She was asleep again when we landed (thank goodness because with all of us being sick, it did a number on our ears) and we had to wake her in order to take her through immigration where she would immediately become a US Citizen upon entry.

We gathered our things and headed off our plane into brutally cold 11 degree weather that was a bit of a shocker after leaving 75 degrees at our last stop in China.  We headed to customs and at the point of entry was asked for the brown envelope which contained her adoption paperwork provided by the US Consulate.  

We were ushered to another section of immigration and in less than 3-5 minutes approximately, she was given the green light to leave and with that, Miss Bri became a US citizen in New Jersey. I guess you can now say she’s a Jersey girl. (haha)

It was off to gather our luggage and head to get things arranged with the airlines for a hotel. Because she was a little stir crazy and we had to get a few things accomplished, we may or may not have created a little suitcase cage against the wall to keep her contained. (Like I said, this may or may not have happened. :) 

We bundled her up, pulled our coats from our luggage and headed to catch the van to our hotel. We settled in for the night and definitely had a little one that was not too keen on the whole “sleeping” thing and was definitely showing signs of jetlag.  We had a quick dinner, bathed “Bri” then tried to get rested for the next day’s early flight.

We are so thankful for the safety and how well “B” did while traveling. It is good to be back in the U.S. and we can’t wait to see friends and family tomorrow.

Sat- 2/14/15- Valentine’s Day & The Love of Family

We had an early morning departure of 6:30am to catch our next flight, so this year’s Valentine’s Day is going to look a little different. I can think of no greater day to celebrate arriving home with little “B” and for her to meet her extended family who will show her love beyond words. What a beautiful day to celebrate the love of family and belonging.

We headed to the airport early this AM to catch the first flight out to Richmond and then couldn’t wait to introduce Little Miss to her new family.  We landed in the airport a few minutes ahead of schedule, as we were to arrive at 10:20.  

Again, Bri did amazing on this flight and we couldn’t have asked for a better trip with her. I cannot begin to give God enough praise for how well she traveled over this entire last two weeks and particularly the last 36 hours of flights and travel.

When we landed, we had to do a diaper change for little one, called our family to let them know we had arrived, and then we were off to see our parents, family, and friends.  We are so thankful to Leah O'Connell at Firefly Photography, as she was SO flexible despite our flight cancellations the day before. We are so glad she took photos at the airport so that we would have these for Bri and our family. It is so important to us that we are able to show her just how much she was loved and prayed for these past few years and this was just one of those moments you can't capture on your own.

It's still hard to believe we left this airport a few weeks ago as a couple and today arrived as a family of three!

Our parents were there waiting along with fresh chocolate chip cookies, a few gifts for little one, and some balloons and signs. 

We all had to laugh, as Little One did not like the giant panda balloon (which is quite comical, really, since it's one of China's national animals) even though we all thought it was pretty cool.  Let's just say that one got deflated rather quickly upon arrival. I guess a giant panda balloon that is the same size as you might be a little scary, huh?

 For the first 30 minutes, it was back to her usual stare-down. She wasn’t quite sure what to think and definitely was determined not to show any personality. It was what we expected and anyone would expect from a child with her background and who had no idea that these were her relatives and friends.  

She quietly watched everyone and just let us hold her and then relaxed on the couch, until around 20-30 minutes later when she decided she was ready to walk with her daddy and then suddenly the personality began to come out.  

That was when we began to capture more of who she really is and her extended family was able to see the real “Bri” we had begun to see the last several days.

After spending some time with family and friends, we headed to baggage claim 

to pick up our luggage. 

As we left the airport, we took a moment to pray as a family and with friends to thank God for all of His good blessings on both her life and our trip and all that we’ve seen His hand so graciously a part of, throughout this entire process.  We know that the journey is not ending, but only just now beginning and the weeks and months to come will continue to show new things and new challenges; yet, moments of new joys, new smiles, and new moments that only God could orchestrate.

We exited the airport and though we knew the car seat was next (which most adoptive families know is THE worst part of the entire traveling since children have ever been exposed to them in China), we were also ready to grab lunch.  Since it was Valentine’s Day and restaurants were already swamped with long waits, we decided to do a quick lunch and grabbed Chik-fil-A.  (you can’t get much more southern and American than that, right? Not to mention, this momma couldn’t wait to get her hands on something with ice and a sweet tea!)

During lunch, more and more of her personality came out and she became a little ham for everyone at the lunch table.  After we left lunch, we are blessed to say that the whole car seat thing went fairly well and we only had two minor meltdowns on the way home, which is pretty remarkable. She fell asleep drinking from her bottle on our way home (as she hasn’t quite learned the knack of the sippy cup).

When we pulled in our driveway, we were surprised to see a sweet banner and flowers that friends had left for us to welcome Brielle home.  

When we went inside, our stairway had also been decorated for Bri with Valentine’s Day balloons.  

It may not have been the typical Valentine’s Day that one is used to having, but it was the best Valentine’s Day for so many other reasons. Little one, it’s so good to have you home, even if it’s still a new place you are exploring and trying to figure out.

Welcome Home!!

A BIG THANK YOU to each of you who made our return home special and welcomed us and our little one back with open arms. There are so many individuals we could name who orchestrated little details to make our acclimating back into life as a family of three so much easier. To those who made banners, welcome home signs, put food in our fridge, diapers on our steps, prepared meals, prepared showers, attended showers, loved on "B" and us and have encouraged and most importantly prayed for us during this journey- we cannot begin to express our thanks to each of you adequately. We are forever grateful for your acts of kindness and never forget that God sees each of those sweet and selfless acts. BIG hugs from our family to yours. We are blessed beyond measure.