Tuesday -- She is officially OURS!

  This morning was back to the civil affairs office.  Each family is given 24 hours with their child, and then we have to come back and sign the official documents stating that we want to proceed with the adoption.  They make an adoption certificate and give it to you as well as notarize all of the papers that have come through their office.  So, there were more signatures to sign and red ink stamped thumb prints.  When it was all said and done, Bethany became a Jacobsen!!

We left that office and went to the place where we got her passport picture taken and then went next door to the final office of the day where we applied for her passport.  Now all the paperwork is done in this province, and basically all we have to do is wait for her passport to be issued.  I think we pick it up on Friday morning. 

Back at the hotel, we decided to eat in the room and try to get Bethany to take a nap.  She wasn't too happy about being in bed, so after a few minutes of fussing, I got her up and she let me cuddle her while she went to sleep.  I thought she'd wake right back up, but she stayed asleep even when I put her in bed, and then slept for over 2 hours when I finally woke her up.  I'd gotten concerned that if I let her sleep too long, she'd stay awake during the night.

We went for a walk in a nearby park, which was interesting.  There were tons of seagulls at the lake and people feeding them and taking pictures.  David (our translator) told us that the seagulls migrate here to Kunming for the winter from Siberia.  It's pretty strange to see so many hundreds of seagulls when there is no ocean nearby.  

The other fun thing to see in the park was the dancers.  In one area, there were groups of 6 - 20 people (mostly older, retired people) doing various kinds of dances.  One lady wore a traditional dress and headdress, but most of them were just in everyday clothes enjoying the afternoon.  They weren't doing it for show, although they didn't mind people walking by watching.  David says that they dance for exercise.  Each group had their own sound system with their chosen music playing loudly.  They had particular dance moves and faced each other in a circle.  I guess if you wanted to do a different dance, you just go join a different group.  The last group we saw were pairs doing a couples-type dance, but it wasn't just men-women pairs....  you apparently just found someone to dance with and joined in.

We liked the park, but our arms are WAY out of shape when it comes to carrying a 19 lb. baby!!  We finally had to go back because we were so tired!  ha! 

After a short break in the room, we headed out again for supper.  I was so sleepy by that time that I literally started into the crazy-dream sleep mode sitting in the restaurant waiting for our meal!!  Dan said he saw my eyes closing and knew I was about gone!

We let Bethany play in the bathtub again, and got her ready for bed.  Just like last night, she took half her bottle, fell asleep, stayed asleep when I put her in the crib, and slept all night!!  I keep thinking that somehow this is just TOO easy!!  But, I'll take it while we get it!  I had already gotten ready for bed, too, since I was so tired I could hardly hold her to give her the bottle.  I went to sleep just minutes after she did, and actually slept for almost 8 hours without waking up in jet lag!!  -- Praising God for things continuing to go so very well!!!!

Gotcha Day - Part 2

When we left the office with Bethany, we headed back to the hotel room and played with her for awhile.  She enjoys looking at the toys and especially likes the one with sounds and lights, of course.  It also speaks Chinese!  Before too long we decided to have an early supper downstairs in the hotel restaurant.  We ordered congee for Bethany (rice porridge), and she ate some.  Maybe it was the food, but it seemed like supper time helped to relax her a little bit more.  After she got full, she propped her foot up on the table.  When I tickled it, she laughed for the first time all day!  It was the cutest chubby chuckle!!!  I had been holding her and hadn't eaten anything myself, so Dan finished and took her from me, and she didn't cry at all and had lots of fun with him looking at Christmas decorations around the restaurant and lobby.

We came back to the room after a long, slow walk and played with her on the floor.  This time we put her down on her tummy since she was in a pretty happy mood.  I expected it to make her mad, but she rolled all around on the floor and had a good time.  I don't think it will be too long before she starts to crawl.  I doubt that she's had much opportunity to learn to crawl, because at most orphanages, the babies are kept mostly in their cribs or some type of baby seat.  It's sad but understandable because there just isn't enough staff to watch a whole bunch of babies scoot around on the floor.

When she got fussy, we decided it was bath time.  We'd been told that she regularly had a bath.  She LOVED it, and her personality came out even more!!  She splashed and laughed and made funny happy goat sounds!!  It was hysterical!  

So, after her bath, we got her pjs on, and I got her bottle ready.  By the looks of her cheeks and the rolls of chub on her legs, she doesn't miss a meal time!  She surprised me, though, and didn't finish all of it before she was sound asleep.  I decided to see if we could get her into the pack-n-play that the hotel had set up for us, and Dan helped me ease her down into it.  She stayed asleep, and with the exception of crying out a few times, she slept all night!!  The whole transition is completely blowing my mind!!  She is doing AWESOME.  I know that lots of people are praying for us, and it is just going so well.

Gotcha!!!

My heart is full to overflowing.  It really is an amazing journey, and it just keeps getting better!  Adoption experts say that sometimes the parents and child have a "honeymoon" period that has the potential to crash when the new wears off.  I know we're functioning on adrenaline right now (because it certainly wasn't a long night's rest that kept us going!  Ha!)  So, this honeymoon phase might take a downward spin, but ---  right now this little girl has captivated my heart, and we are loving every minute!

In Yunnan province, "Gotcha" takes place in the afternoon (unlike the Guang Dong province when we got Emily right away in the morning.)  We got up and had breakfast at the hotel, then Skyped with the kids back at home.  We met the other Lifeline family at noon and along with our translator/guide, David, took our lives into our hands as we walked 10 minutes to Wal-mart.  It most definitely isn't anything like our Wal-marts here.  In fact, the meat market on the first floor (3 floors total) was very reminiscent of a Mongolian meat market that I frequented years back.  (whole sides of pork hanging, cow stomach for sale....etc.  -- not your typical Wal-mart fare!  :)   ) 

At 2:30 we met in the hotel lobby and took the van with David and our driver to the civil affairs office.  When we got there, 2 families with other agencies were already there and had gotten their little ones.  We watched from the sidelines (it's amazing how people you've never seen before can just about make you cry when you see them with their new children!)  Then Bethany came in along with the little 8 year old boy from the same orphanage that the other Lifeline family is adopting.  She let me take her without much fuss, but you could tell she was wary!

She is just as chunky as her pictures look!   She was fairly interested in the toys we brought out and stayed distracted for a few minutes.  We took some pictures and sat down on the floor to play.  Dan had to go start the masses of paperwork, so I kept her and we played.  She was happy enough, but pretty reserved.  When Dan came back, I had to go add my signature and red-inked thumb print beside his on the mounds of papers on the desk of the official.  Bethany started to cry when we made the shift, but we quickly pulled out a pink pomegranate sucker and she popped it in her mouth and promptly became a sticky mess!!  So, she settled down pretty quickly and really didn't get too upset again after that.

I'm not sure if you can see close enough, but Bethany has the sticky sucker in her hand right now.  :)

She is just the cutest thing ever, and I am SO very thankful for the way that it has gone so far.

This is a picture taken by someone at the office that will be part of our adoption certificate.

The newest Jacobsen!!!

Allow us to introduce.............  Bethany YiShin Jacobsen

In July our agency sent us the file of a BABY girl!!  Yes, I'd said that I was finished with diapers!  (of course Emily had proved me wrong with that one already because she was NOT potty trained when she came home!)  We had had no plan of adopting a baby.... our plan was to match with a boy or girl just slightly younger than Emily.  Yet again, God's plan was different from our own.  When we got her file, we prayed for her, prayed for us, prayed for unmistakably clear wisdom.  Several days later, we filed our intent to adopt little Bethany.  Soon we'll bring her home to brothers and sisters who can't WAIT to kiss her chubby cheeks. 

Isn't she the cutest little chunk?!!!

Here we go again!!!

December 9th is Emily's official Gotcha Day anniversary.  This coming Wednesday marks 2 years since we took Emily kicking and screaming from the civil affairs office in China and she became a Jacobsen!  As far as the calendar goes, since her Gotcha day was a Monday, then Monday the 7th marks 2 years in a sense.  Guess where we'll be on Monday, December 7th?!  Back in a civil affairs office in China for the Gotcha Day of another precious little Chinese girl!!  The exact week--- two years later.  God's timing is amazing.

Last year about this time, Dan and I knew that God was leading us to adopt again from China.  We were busy with the holidays and didn't start the application with our agency until the end of January, officially starting our home study in February.  I never dreamed in a million years that it would go this quickly.  10 months down the road and here we are again....  in an airport on our way to bring home Jacobsen child  #9!!  Incredibly mind boggling!  And, yet, every single time I saw Emily soaking up love and thoroughly enjoying her life in every way, I couldn't help but think of how VASTLY different her little life had become.  Sure, some other family might have adopted her even if we had not.  She might have been thriving in someone else's home just like she was thriving in ours.  BUT, we would have missed out on hundreds of blessings without having followed God's plan for US!!!  And, I wouldn't miss this one now for anything in the world. 

People say, "You can't save them all."  No, we most definitely can't.  But, if God asks us to be a part of impacting the life of one more, then let me be first in line.

Dan and I head into this adoption with fewer grand ideas of how it will be than we did with our first adoption.  Realism hits hard sometimes!!  :)  Adoption is ALWAYS hard, because if a child had not had to face some type of terrible trauma, or --at best -- difficult circumstances surrounding his/her story, then adoption would never be necessary.   So we move forward with fear and trembling, with excitement and frazzled minds!!  ..... but most of all with a very clear conviction that THIS is what God is asking us to do, and so here we are...again!

These past two years

Emily's first days (but especially nights) at home were rough.... but then we hit a major turning point and her adjustment and attachment to us as her family went SO well after that.  She went from being basically non-verbal into a VERY, VERY talkative little girl.  For quite some time, no one other than our immediate family could understand her!  :)  That didn't slow her down, though!!  Once she realized that people would interact with her when she talked to them, she never looked back!!  She started speech therapy this past August and is making even more improvement every week.

Emily loves being loved!!  She is affectionate and most definitely craves attention.  She loves being part of a big family, because that just means that there are more people to talk to and get attention from!! 

Emily's first Christmas with us

One year later (with our other Jacobsen cousins)

As soon as she was communicating, she was making it clear that she wanted her hair to grow long!  Apparently she had not appreciated haircuts in the orphanage, even at age 3!!  So, we've never cut her hair, and she loves it long!  For over a year, she was obsessed with "pony hairs" -- her name for pony tails!  Lately she's gone through a stage of not being too excited about brushing it, but she still doesn't want it short!  It's been amazing to watch her blossom and thrive at home!

Emily's first "pony hairs" were so tiny.  :)

She also loved to fix other people's hair!

Friday, December 20th!! Headed HOME!

    Here I am, trying to see if I can actually finish up the chronicles of Emily's first days with us BEFORE we hit the one year mark!!!  Truthfully, though, it was almost exactly one year ago this very hour that we first had Emily in our arms (screaming loudly!!)  Due to the time difference by China being on the other side of the world, even though it's still Dec. 8th, 2014 here, it is December 9th in China right now!!  What an incredible year it has been!  But, first to end the journey......

   Friday, December 20th, 2013 --  We got up early and went quickly through the shower routine, packing all the last-minute items as we used them for the last time.  I was feeling a lot better, but still trying to take it easy so that I'd be able to last all day--- (this was going to be a LONG day!)  We took all of our luggage down to the lobby and checked out while it was still dark outside!  Then, we went to the restaurant for our last breakfast buffet in China!!

      After we finished, we took one more little walk around the lobby and took some pictures.

We got someone to take this one of the three of us--

  And, then, almost before we knew it --- we were off to the airport.  There was one special family who would be traveling all the way with us.  They were back in China adopting the little friend of their sweet Chinese daughter that they'd taken home one year prior!!  They were with us for both legs of our journey-- from Guang Zhou to Korea, and then Korea to Atlanta.  From there, they would take another short flight back to their home state, but Dan's parents were going to pick us up in Atlanta to drive us back home to Alabama.

  We'd predicted much of Emily's behavior and were right on target!  She wanted nothing much at all to do with me in the airport, sticking VERY close to Dan, but still giving him fits at times.  She knew that something was up, and she wasn't sure what it was, and didn't like the fact that she wasn't in control of it!

   Emily hated the seat belt and screamed when we made her stay in it!  (We had certainly anticipated that one!!)  We were able to get her interested in a few snacks that she had proven to enjoy.... one being raisins in the cute little snack boxes.  She loves to pick them out one by one (which takes LOTS of time, and we certainly had lots of time on our hands!)  Cheeri*s and Fruit L00ps were another thing which she finally had discovered were yummy once she got over her stubbornness and decided that she'd give them a try.  We also had come armed with several snack milk boxes that she liked, as well as some pretzel-type crackers.  And, when the airline food arrived, she was interested in what was in all the little packages.  So, food itself kept her busy a good part of the time.

  When we got to Korea, we walked around a LOT.  There were several kids' play places, and we spent time at each one of those.  We hung out a good bit with the other adoptive family as well.  Our lay-over was about 6 hours, which certainly was not ideal.  We were quite worn out by the time we could get ready to board our second and last flight.

Here's the plane that would take little Emily to her new country!!

   The flight from Korea to Atlanta is more than 13 hours long.  That seems like an eternity when you are in the middle of it!!   But, in our years of going back and forth across the Pacific, we'd chosen that flight more than once, and it has come to be our preference.  At least you don't have to clear customs on the west coast and then STILL have another flight or 2 left staring you in the face before you see Alabama again!!!

   We were so tired that we all 3 did sleep some.  Once we all fell asleep at the same time, and Emily rolled over from our laps where she was stretched out and fell in the floor!  She did her share of fussing a good bit, and of screaming some..... but over all, it could have been much worse, I guess.  We basically tried to do as much pleasing her as possible!!  One of the social workers had reminded us that you can work on dealing with behavior issues later..... the name of the game on the plane was survival!

   We were overjoyed to touch down on American soil!!  Going through immigration took a good long while.  Finally we proved that all our paperwork was in order and that we were legally bringing a new child into the country!!  So-- we headed out to find Grandma and Grandpa!!!

In this picture I was hanging on to Emily to keep her from following Daddy

 into the men's restroom!!  She did NOT like having him out of her sight!

Here we are -- somewhat haggard and worse for the wear, but back in America!!

  Adoption agencies warn parents that there is a great temptation to think that-- now it's all over!!  We have achieved our goal..... the adoption is FINISHED!!!  All the hard work is done!!!

  The truth is, it is just beginning!!