Unto Adoption

Category: Adoption

  • Zai Sheng, Goodbye

    Zai Sheng, Goodbye

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    In two days we leave China, heading home to Montana. Without a doubt, what we will miss most from our time here will be the other families that we have journeyed alongside, to our children. Most of the families here are adopting child number 2, 3, or 4 (even numbers 6 or 7!)… young, busy families already enjoying a season…

  • Baba Go Lai

    Baba Go Lai

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    “Baba go lai.” Daddy came back. Ever since another couple in our travel group taught us this Mandarin phrase, we’ve been repeating it often. Today we split up, to better accommodate the needs of each of our children. Husband braved the thick humidity to escort the girls to the local zoo, while I stayed behind with Little…

  • Homesick

    Homesick

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    China is great, but we’re ready to go home. I’m excited to cook and do laundry. I can’t believe I just typed that. Four more days. We’re thankful for the head-start on bonding/cocooning that we’ve had as a family of five here in China, but we also realize that Little Man’s transition to our home in Montana will…

  • Surfing

    Surfing

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    Little Man rode another great wave of grief this afternoon, after an abbreviated morning excursion to Shaimann Island to shop for souvenirs. We can all get pretty frustrated at our lack of language skills to understand each other. After trying everything else we could think of, we laid him in his crib where he almost immediately settled down…

  • Blame It On The Rain

    Blame It On The Rain

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    This morning Guangzhou greeted us with great big gloppy drops of liquid sunshine… good thing 4 out of 5 of us are native Oregonians. It’s no secret that I adore a good downpour. We opted out of the scheduled group shopping tour, instead exploring the immediate neighborhood and nearby park, just the five of us– sans umbrellas…

  • First Flight

    First Flight

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    by

    Mia
    in , ,

    I fear I sounded a bit like a whiny princess in my last post about leaving Zhengzhou. To be clear, I realize that we are not here for vacation, and any “hardship” we endure is absolutely worth it to bring home our precious son. For the record, we regularly pay good money to sleep under the stars[camp] and I have…

  • Guangzhou Bound

    Guangzhou Bound

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    This evening we received Little Man’s Chinese passport, so tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou for the last leg of our in-country adoption journey. I’ll be honest, I don’t think any in our travel group will miss Zhengzhou all that much. It’s hot, it’s smoggy, and it smells. It’s a working man’s city, leaving the glamour for the likes of Hong…

  • Celebrating Tantrums

    Celebrating Tantrums

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    In the adoption world, we celebrate strange milestones. We celebrate when our child cries after we leave, because it means they missed us. We celebrate when we get to change a poopy diaper, because it means that their system is finally regulating after a week of major stress. We celebrate when they bonk their head while playing, because they…

  • A New Normal

    A New Normal

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    by

    Mia
    in ,

    This morning Little Man woke up grieving. He has lost all that was familiar to him and is probably realizing that this little field trip, while fun, is not temporary. This is very normal, he just doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. It’s especially hard that as we work to establish our new normal, we are lacking any semblance of a…