Hello from Xi'an!

My travels to China followed our entire adoption journey to the T, and by that I mean delays and drama! My flight out of San Francisco was delayed 4 hours. My 4 hour delay meant I wouldn't make my connecting flight into Xi'an. While I waited, United booked me on another connecting flight. No big deal, right?

Wrong! We made up an hours time on our flight to Beijing, which meant that United rebooked me yet again on a different connecting flight into Xi'an. So, I exited the plane, saw a United rep standing outside holding my name up, she told me I was rebooked and that I had to RUN in order to make the connection in only 35 minutes.

The details that unfolded are a good story, but I'll have to save those for later. All I will say is that I made it through customs, picked up my bag, re-checked it, took the train to another terminal, made it through security (downing the last half bottle of good ol' American tap water), and ran to my gate and made it in time. I was one sweaty, shaky mess, but I made it.

There's even more drama after that when I arrived in Xi'an and my guide wasn't there, but again, that will wait for later. I checked into my hotel around 1am local time and tried to sleep. A morning text from my boys at home woke me up, so I unpacked, showered, assembled gift bags, and just had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. I'm having wifi issues in the room and I'm thinking of waiting for my guide this afternoon for help because the language barrier is a difficulty when talking tech talk. For now, the lobby will work just fine.

I promise I'll post more when time allows. Please, please pray we can get the wifi up and running in the room. I may need to configure the airport express we just bought but I need to find a computer to acco plish that task. Hopefully they have a computer in the business office that I can use and see if that solves the problem. I haven't talked to my boys since I left SFO and I really hate the idea of not being able to hear their voices for a whole week until I get to Guangzhou on Sunday.

I will leave you with this... Today is what we call Gotcha Day in the adoption world. In just about 5 hours I will be driven by van to the city office where I will meet Hu Jing and take custody of her! This is the moment we've been waiting 3 years for and it's actually happening! I'm trying my best to "save face" as they do in China and not be an emotional wreck about it, but I am so excited I feel like my heart is going to burst!

Happy Gotcha Day, Hu Jing!

To my boys at home: I miss you so much! I'm so sorry the iPad won't work in the room and I can't call you. I miss hearing your voices! Take care of each other and I'll see you in 10 more days! I love you!

Off I Go!

I spent the night last night with an old friend from high school. She took me to the bank so I could get cash for my trip, we had dinner and we spent a few hours catching up. It was a relaxing way to spend my last night in the US. Thanks, ML! Thank you so much! I would have been nervous and stressed in a hotel alone with this trip ahead of me.

Now I've made it through security and I'm perched at the gate, ready to go. I'm flying United and so far I've been treated nicely. The flight will be 12 hours to Beijing and then I'll have a 3 hour layover until my 2 hour connecting flight into Xi'an. I covet your prayers for making it through customs and making my connection! I'll arrive in my daughter's province at 8:30pm Sunday night, local China time.

I've talked to my boys and said my teary goodbyes. Please pray for their health and safety while I'm gone. I've never been away from them for more than a couple nights.

To my boys at home: I love you more than you'll ever know and I miss you like crazy. See you in a couple weeks!

I should be boarding in the next 30 minutes. I'll post from the other side of the globe!

24 Hours

I'm in San Francisco and in 24 hours I will be on a plane for Beijing, with a connection to Xi'an, Shaanxi China! Oddly enough, my brother is leaving on a flight to Russia for work today, so a couple Martini kids are flying across the globe. Look out, world!

Words are few. I'm excited, nervous, stressed and worried. I'd appreciate prayers for safe travel, on-time flights, easy connections, no lost luggage, all those travel mercies. You could double those prayers for my brother too, please! :)

I'd also appreciate prayers for my husband and boys back home. Pray for their health and safety while I'm away. Pray that we can Skype easily (my iPad 1 will only do the audio call, not video, but I guess it's better than nothing). Pray for the boys to have fun with dad and grandpa when I'm gone.

Pray for all the obvious adoption details, that no paperwork is lost, that bonding goes well, that our Quiet Tiger and I stay healthy and that traveling with an almost 2 year old is as easy as possible. Pray that I'd connect with other adopting families, especially those with whom I've connected online.

I'm typing this from my iPad, so yes, I'll be blogging from China. And I should be able to upload a picture or two each day as well. I won't be able to adjust picture sizes, so bear with that, but you'll be able to follow my journey. After all, you'll only be interested in the pictures anyway.

I may post tomorrow as I'm waiting for my outbound flight but if I don't, you'll hear from me in China after I get some sleep. Hoping the trick of staying awake the entire flight will ease me into the China timezone. Worked for Flying to Japan in college, but I'm not that young anymore. Thanks for following me all these years and thanks for your prayers!

To my guys at home, Jaybird and Agents C and E, I miss you already and I love you more than you know.

Testing

Oh, please tell me this will work! I'm playing with Blogger trying to figure out how to blog and update pix from China next week. Bear with me as I play around with this post. ;)

What I'm doing is typing my blog post in Safari. Then I'm using the Blogger app to upload pix. Please work, please work, please work!

Turns out I won't be able to control the picture sizes, but for the most part, you'll get your updates. Oh, I wish I had a laptop!

Prepare

1065 days ago we began our adoption journey.  We lost our Nepal adoption and our China adoption has taken twice as long than estimated.  But ten days from now, I'll be sitting at the airport in San Francisco waiting to board a plane bound for China!  Excitement builds as does fear and stress.

While I love details and tend to do well with mild uncertainty and minor chaos, my plate is overly full these days.  Not to sound like a bad 80's phrase, but I'm stressed to the max!  In the coming days, there is much to prepare for.  Would you please pray that God prepares us and shows up for us every single step of the way (even in ways not listed below)?

Prepare Us:

• Prepare our hearts for the daughter He designed for us - Hu Jing, our Quiet Tiger!!!
• Prepare our finances for our travel and in-country fees and unexpected fees that may spring up along the journey
• Prepare me to meet the people of China and extend them love
• Prepare me for the moment I meet our daughter and take her in my arms
• Prepare me for bonding with our daughter
• Prepare our home where we will return (Jay and the boys will be here in the States and I fly to China alone).
• Prepare Jay for the moment he lays eyes on his daughter when we arrive back home
• Prepare Jay for bonding with his daughter
• Prepare us for comments and questions (both positive and negative) about our adoption and Hu Jing's special needs
• Prepare us to teach our daughter about Jesus
• Prepare us to raise Hu Jing to be the woman He intends her to be

Prepare our Boys:

• Prepare them for a new addition to the family
• Prepare them for my absence while I'm in China -- this is the longest I've ever been apart from my boys
• Prepare them for possible hard times as we bond and adjust once we are home
• Prepare them for the happy times and the privilege of having Hu Jing in our family
• Prepare them to be the best big brothers ever

Prepare our Daughter:

• Prepare her for a major life change
• Prepare for her journey to the Capitol of her province where I will meet her (this will most likely be a 12 hour train ride for her with a nanny from the orphanage - ugh!)
• Prepare her head and heart for the moment she will meet me and the bonding that will happen from that moment on - she is bound to be so confused and scared, angry and sad
• Prepare her for cars, trains, hotels, busses, airplanes - this will all be new to her
• Prepare her for adjustment to our family, even our dogs
• Prepare her for The Word and a lifetime (hopefully) of following Jesus
• Prepare her for an amazing impact on the world around her, through her story of adoption

More prayer requests will be updated as we get closer.  Thanks for joining us on this journey.  I am astounded that this is actually happening -- FINALLY!

Showered!

Yesterday, my wonderful friends threw me a shower!  I'm seriously humbled, grateful and honored.  Thanks, ladies!  Words can't express how thankful I am for each and every one of you who came.

Oh, the joy of opening all things pink!  GIRL STUFF!!!  Enjoy a few pictures.  I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the generosity, so words are few.  But thank you one and all for blessing me, my daughter and our family!

The hostesses.  KD, me and JL.

I LOVED the decor that J came up with!  These hung in her living room.

Kitchen decor

K made the entire spread.  YUM!!!

Loving all the PINK!  Notice the bamboo table runner.  J thought of everything!

Me and my dear friend CR.

Shower guests.  CT with 4 week old baby boy C, LM, CD, KD (hostess), me, KR with daughter "Big E," and CR.  Missing are 2 friends who had to leave early, EG and SG, but I'm thankful they came for a part of it.

Same group but this time, hostess JL is in the picture!

My friend KR and her daughter E drove HOURS to make it!  She and I go way back to preschool in Barrington together.  Absolutely honored that she'd make the trip.  Love you, K!  So thankful we're still friends after all these years!

Jay came by after the shower was over and he hit it off with E!  Jay is ready for his little girl!

TA!!!

Praise God!!!  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  We're going to China!  Yesterday we received our Travel Approval.

I will hold my daughter in my very own arms and look into her gorgeous brown eyes and hold her beautiful hands soon!  Our agency has requested all the appointments (in-province appointments to complete the adoption as well as US Embassy appointments to complete her citizenship).  Please pray we get the dates we requested (May 25-June 12) or EARLIER!

There are so many things that need to happen in the next couple of weeks that it is absolutely, positively overwhelming.  I'm trying to rest in the fact that God has it all under control and knows exactly what He's doing, with our best interests in mind.  I'd also appreciate prayers for all the details, large and small, to come together perfectly, that we'd have peace, confidence and strength to make it through this.  Pray that we don't miss one single detail.

After 1 failed adoption and nearly 3 years of trying to bring a little girl into our family, I can honestly say that this feeling is very surreal and I can't believe this is actually happening!