We meet you at long last little man!

With emotions running pretty high, Phil and I and Ryan had to wait until 2pm today (Monday) to board a bus for a way-too-long bus trip through heavy traffic to a building I would have missed in a busy downtown area. We went with 2 other families from our adoption agency (and bonded in the wait, LOL), but we were told 39 (!) families were to be at the China Affairs office today. It was loud, chaotic, confusing, and all kept trying to glimpse for their child through a curtained doorway where the children waited to be brought out one at a time to meet their new "Mama" and "Baba".

And then - it was our turn! Yan stepped out of the room, and... ran back in, LOL. He was totally dazed by the commotion, as were most of the children. They finally got him to come back out, and he was totally non-interactive. We wondered if he could speak at all. So little, so scared, so frozen.

But within 10 minutes... the real Yan started to emerge, LOL. Yep...I have little doubt he's ADHD or it's equivalent! What a talkative, LOUD, constantly laughing and giggling, LOUD, and SMART little boy! We had to do paperwork with him in the office after we returned to the hotel, and finally headed for our room. He started to jump up and down and yell. The interpreter said he was saying "hurry up! hurry up!". ;-D. He also told her he'd like rice, fish, cake and cola for supper ;-D. He's already
learning some english tonight!

"Joshua GuanYan Xander Bruckner" [name editted since adoption day] will become our forever son tomorrow morning! [Joshua means 'Jehovah Saves' and Xander is short for Alexander which means 'helper of mankind' and 'brave'; Guan translates to orphan from Dongguan City and Yan translates to fire or energy ].

We are going to call him "Joshua GuanYan" [name editted since adoption day] as he learns his new name. It turns out Yan is pronounced "yen" as in "hen"; but with a tonal up note.

It's so wonderful to finally meet this very special young man we've been waiting to meet for over a year! I can't wait for all of you to meet him too :-).

In China!

I'm so sorry to be so behind on updating this blog. But between major
jetlag and computer troubles, and not being able to find a way to post
directly to the blog, I finally found the email address to do so indirectly ;-D.

It took us 42 hours to do the 25 hours of travel we EXPECTED to take to get to Beijing! We made it smoothly to Tokyo (the third flight was 11 hours long - UGH!!). But after we boarded in Tokyo, our plane had a warning light come on after it backed up from the terminal. Over 3 hours later, they announced the problem wasn't fixed yet and curfew was upon them, so we HAD to get off the plane, move quickly through customs, get in busses, and go off to a hotel! :-O The Tokyo airport closes at 11pm for the whole night apparently.

As you may imagine, we were quite tired and upset to be having to get a visa to enter Japan when we wanted to be in China!! But all was arranged before we even left the airport. The people were very nice, the food incredible, the room very comfortable. We flew Japan Airlines the next morning at 10:40am. But... after backing away from the terminal, the pilot announced that due to strict airspace regulations in China, we were not alowed to leave Japan for another hour! Since the flight was 4 hours and 20 minutes long, what a RELIEF to finally land in China! :-). We missed our planned Great Wall tour, but got to see the Forbidden City and Tianneman Sqaure today (Saturday here). Tomorrow we take a 3 hour flight to Guangzhou!

We received updated information and pictures of Yan today. They claim he is still about 33# but now 101cm tall???? So he grew from 30" in March to 40" now? Maybe ALL of the clothes I brought for him are too little?? (I brought 3T, 4T and 5T). We'll have to wait and see before we buy new for sure.

Hopefully updating will be easier from Guangzhou!

Planning, Packing and Chaos

We have our intinerary almost finalized, the plane tickets have been purchased, endless lists have been made by me, Cindy, and promptly hide themselves hours later, our main computer is blacking out and threatening to die forever, and chaos seems to have the upperhand these days :-}. And boy does the house reflect that - piles of paper absolutely everywhere! Today I have NO idea how we can possibly be ready to fly to China on 12/2!!

Our biggest prayer needs right now are that God will please watch over allll travelers. Robert's caregivers as they travel this weekend. Our daughter's caregivers (whoever the backup one will be - we don't even know yet!!) as the one travels back to Montana this weekend. And Phil as he drives through an expected snowstorm to take Robert to his aunt and uncle's house just before we fly out 12/2. And of course, prayers for safety over all while we're gone. So many needs!

But, as Phil suggested, we have a motto for this trip. "It's not about me". It's about a 4 yr old in China who may need a loving, adoptive family, but who will be facing HUGE losses and changes in his small life. I would guess he's never been out of city life, to a place with seasons, let alone snow! I would guess he's never been on a train or plane. And I have to wonder if he's even been told yet that he's to be adopted by Americans?

We plan to arrive in China near midnight 12/3. On 12/7 we will meet our new son for the first time. And on 12/8, he will officially become a forever child of ours in this country and China if the judge approves. Wow.

The rest of our time in China will be dealing with ever MORE paperwork, medicals, application for a Chinese passport, application for a US visa, etc. Hopefully God grants Phil and I the time and personal energy to devote to reasssuring this little one also.

I GREATLY look forward to the day when Phil and I and all FOUR of our children are safely home, together, relaxed :-). Piles of paper and lost lists, or not!

Financial Update

International adoptions are shockingly expensive.  But as we're finding out first hand, the money doesn't go to any one place/person.  It just adds up very, very quickly.

We had applied for a grant from Shaohannah's Hope and an interest-free loan from ABBA.  Both places reported that donations are down while requests are up significantly.  We did not receive funding from either source.  As reported earlier, we were blessed with a $3000 grant from our international adoption agency  :-). And [updated 11/28/2009] we have received $10420 in private donations.  WOW! And THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Our estimates WERE fairly close, except for postage (lots of Express mailings needed), not knowing we'd need our newly-turned-18 yr old son cleared and fingerprinted, and now TRAVEL. We vastly underestimated travel [estimated $5000 and it will be closer to $10,000 for Phil, I and Yan]! But God is good and it's not going to stop us from traveling, PTL :-). And in an extra praise, we had committed a small budget to our 18 yr old's getting to go to China with us if the airfares were low enough. He gets to go!! An early high school graduation gift, LOL.

We still want to get more creative in our fundraising options, and develop an idea or two that will help other adoptive families of special needs kiddos as well!  Any and all ideas are welcome! The needy children are so very, very many!  I greatly urge all who ever read this blog to please support adoptions of special needs children around the world?  They are truly "the least of these", in my opinion and experience, but blossom and can bring incredible joy and insight to those who get to know them. 

Travel Approval!!!!!!!!

Just when the wait got so very longgggg, Travel Approval has been granted by China, and we are allowed to go in December to finally meet our future son!! :-) I'm sure it's going to take a few days for my brain to stop spinning and get down to serious travel plans, packing, and preparations for the children and critters we have to leave behind in good hands here. But wow! PTL!!

Please keep praying that God has it all worked out already as to the whens and wheres for each one in our family next month. But also that He watch over little Yan and help prepare his heart for some incredibly huge changes in his life. LOL - we're in Montana and Yan is in southern China in a subtropical climate. The snow like we got yesterday alone (14" in one storm!) will be a huge shock! ;-)

The Hardest Stretch?

If we stick with the roller coaster analogy, we're to the point now where the ride has had loads of ups and downs and unexpected twists and turns; some fun, some stomach twisting, some boring, some aggravating. But about now, we're just wanting to reach the end and get back on the ground, so to speak!

We first learned about Yan 9/4/08. Over a year has now gone by. It's wayyyyyy past time to bring him home. Our lives have been "on hold" since May... not wanting to make appointments or travel plans until we know when/if we get to go to China! We have now waited 7 weeks for Travel Approval (TA) from China to go get Yan. The wait was "helped" in the rush (on our part, LOL) to get our newly-turned-18 yr old son cleared via background clearances, a home study update, and fingerprinting at the federal facility in Helena, which happened at long last the day before. Yes - ALL adults in the home prior to a child's immigration must be cleared, even if they were underage when the adoption process and all previous clearances happened before immigration day! So we've been hopeful we'll have our oldest completely cleared by the time TA arrives... it looks like he will be.

We know God has the Timing for travel under His ultimate control, but we pray it will be soon now! Thanks to all for your prayers on this longer-than-expected journey!

Yan - you have quite a lot of people now who are anxious to meet you! :-)

And a Child Shall Lead Them....

WHY does God allow “special needs” in children? Why do some children “suffer” from their special need? Or DO they?

I’m becoming more convinced daily that God has great and wonderful Purpose behind all He allows. And most (all?) that He allows that first seems bad to we mere humans, is meant for our good on the eternal scale.

Down Syndrome children are becoming an endangered species now. I raise my hand high as one of those who used to be prejudiced against them. But God let me get to know three very special ‘Downies’ in our church. And Randy Alcorn’s book “Deadline” was an eye opener. These kids tend to be so forever child-like, and yet also so wise spiritually. It was because of God’s opening my eyes that I then had the courage to say “Yes, Lord” to adopting our Robert, even when “they” were predicting his IQ might never be higher than 50. No, Robert is not Downs, nor is Yan, and I’ve often wondered why God taught us so much about Downies if He wasn’t going to call us to adopt one? His ultimate Plan remains to be fully revealed in our lives!

But an experience with a sweet, Godly Downs woman in our church deeply touched my heart. She recently learned about Yan’s adoption-in-progress. She clapped her hands in joy, and said “Oh Goodie! HE will be my next tithing project!”. Since she has a low-income job, we appreciated her joy, but hoped she’d forget the offer, since she surely could use the money herself. But no. Two weeks later, she tracked us down, and handed us a wadded up $20, and assured us she’s praying for the adoption. What a Blessing to us! What an encouragement and support just when we needed it that day! God used that young lady, I’m certain.

We have encountered so much negativity over this adoption (you’re too old, you’re too busy, you know nothing about Yan, you should be saving the money for your other children/retirement, “someone else” should adopt him, why him when there’s soooo many who need homes [so why bother seems to be the message], why can’t China help their own, that one has too many potential problems, etc, etc). The amazing thing is, though we DO have many others praying for the adoption, which we greatly need and treasure, she was among the very few to offer such pure, unquestioning, excited joy and support for this adoption. As she left us that day, with tears in our eyes, Phil whispered “And a child shall lead them”. She taught us a valuable lesson that day. Actions DO speak very loudly. Her physical support as well as her words greatly encouraged us. And we will try to “pass it forward” to others even more so now.

You, too, can greatly encourage families involved with saving Downs Syndrome orphans! They ARE wanted children! Please see http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=9b08ab7214bb71b4b33e33&skin_id=1602&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
about Reece’s Rainbow, which is a nonprofit trying to help Downs orphans of the world find their forever families. Please consider helping? Or maybe handing $20 and a word of encouragement to a family God brings to your attention that is trying to adopt a special Downie. Thank you!