Er means “two” in Mandarin. Or so my children tell me.

Two days until Departure Day.

I might throw up. If one more person mentions the missing plane from Malaysia, I will for sure.

That reminds me… In the event of our untimely demise (wherein we are confident in our eternal destination, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ), all our earthly possessions should be split, equally, between Husband’s and my six siblings. (Attorney friends, did ya’ll hear that? This means you, Gerry, Mo, Cousin Kelly, Milan, Craig, & Sam.) This would be pretty easy to tabulate since the adoption has thoroughly depleted our liquid assets– NOT that I’m complaining… our boy is unquestionably, 100% worth it.

To be clear, my mounting anxiety is not due to fear, nor hesitation, in meeting our precious son. I can.not. wait. to embrace Little Man. Rather, my concern is that we will neglect to pack some critical piece of documentation from our THIRTY ONE PAGE CHECKLIST that might jeopardize the in-country process. I’m heavily relying on Husband in this arena, who famously received an “Attention to Detail” award in the military, years ago. God bless him, my opposite.

We’ll first land in Beijing and do some required sight-seeing (twist my arm), doing our best to shake our jet-lag before heading south to Zhengzhou.

“Gotcha Day” -which shall henceforth be referred to as either Adoption Day or Family Day- is actually next Monday. Oh, and Monday will be Sunday here in the States. From the moment we first see him, he will remain in our custody (forever and ever, amen). This is not the case in every country. We will finalize the adoption- legally making him our son!- within a couple of days of travelling to the capitol of his province, Henan.

The final leg of our journey will be in Guangzhou, at the US Consulate, through which all adoptions are routed. Upon landing on US soil Little Man will officially become a US citizen. (Again, not the case with every country.)

The kids and I are packed, Husband will take all of five minutes. (I’m not worried, gotta love that military training!) We are packing pretty light and hoping to carry on our smaller suitcases, checking just two large ones. In monitoring the Beijing, Zhengzhou, and Guangzhou weather, we have ascertained it will be downright hot to these four Montanans, and we’re able to pack lighter-weight clothing. Several families who have gone before us have had their luggage lost, so we are praying the airlines will permit us to keep our smaller bags.

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Today, I’m finishing the deep cleaning of our house (Husband took my sexy minivan to work so I’d be stuck here– I’m too afraid to drive his burly, manual transmission rig.), and tomorrow the girls and I are going to have some fun. We are ready.


Comments

2 responses to “Er”

  1. Wow, what an answer to prayer you are! Thanks so much for reading, praying, and reaching out. We will try to connect with you again when we return (we leave tomorrow– wheeeeeeee!) and start making a plan for his cleft surgery. We are leaning towards Dornbecher’s Children Hospital in Portland, close by our hometown (and supportive friends/family), but we are most interested in making sure he gets the best care possible.
    Thanks again!!

  2. Mia,

    We just found your blog on the CCAI blog site. We have been reading about your adoption journey and are so excited for you guys! We noticed that you are adopting a cleft kiddo from Henan. We adopted a little girl from Henan with CCAIs help back in September of 2012 – she is also a cleft baby! You mentioned in one of your posts that you are interested in any information about correcting clefts. We actually live near you (Idaho and have connections with Montana) and have had to learn about hospitals, cleft repair options, speech, early child intervention programs, etc… We know you are leaving soon and would love to share our experiences with you! Send us an email when you get a chance. CCAI is a wonderful adoption agency and you will have a great experience in China. God bless you as you travel! You will be in our prayers these next few weeks and the weeks following your return as you bond as a family.

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