10 Months Ago Today

Thankfully I have friends like Gayly who are much better at remembering these things than I seem to be, but I read on her blog earlier today that it was 10 months ago today that we were at the Civil Affairs building in Xian China to finalize the adoption of our new children. Wow, where has the time gone? It seems like it was just a month or so ago and then other times it feels like little Rebecca has been with us forever.

It's a little bit of a strange connection but I "met" Gayly through an online adoption forum when we had both posted notes about our children living in the Shaanxi province. Then later she mentioned something about the Starfish Home and from there a friendship blossomed. She and her family were planning on staying at the Starfish Home when they traveled and I had asked if she would deliver a present to Rebecca. Little did we know at the time, but there were all kinds of weird things that happened with their paperwork and coincidence would have it that we were in China at the same exact time.

Another little side note to this story, before I get back to the real reason for this post, is that Gayly had gone to China earlier and her husband followed a few days later. He was on one of the same flights we were and so we ended up meeting him on the plane. Oh, I should add that they were using a completely different agency than us. Anyway, we landed in Beijing where she was to meet up with him but something happened with the taxi driver - who didn't happen to speak any English - and somehow she ended up in a different part of the airport. Needless to say, Shawn and Gayly didn't quite catch each other that night. Shawn ended up going with our group and going to our hotel with us where our guide helped him get a room. The funny part to all of this, and of course I wouldn't have seen the humor in it had I not been able to find Brian on the other side of the world, is that we had just gotten checked into our room and the first thing I did was check my email and there was an email from Gayly asking if we had seen her husband. For some reason that just tickled my funny bone because here we are - they're from Kansas, we're from Kentucky, we met on the internet, had not met in person, other than us meeting her husband that same day and somehow he's ended up on a bus with us and heading to a hotel somewhere in a huge city and she has no idea where he is. We met via technology and here she is trying to find him via technology. Funny stuff. How did we make it before email?!

If you were following our story back when we were in Xian, you might remember that someone from the states road back to our hotel in the taxi with me, Emma and Rebecca on the day that I had taken Rebecca back for a visit. The same day she bawled her little eyes out for the entire ride back while also screaming for Amanda. Well, that was Shawn - the guy would could't find his wife in Beijing. Small world. But the thing I wanted to point out is that they are an amazing, God loving, orphan loving, people loving family who truly inspire me and I count myself blessed to be friends with them, even if I did meet them on the internet!

So, back to 10 months ago in Xian. This was the day that our adoptions were finalized. Poor little Rebecca didn't want much to do with me at this point in our relationship but she would go to Brian and she would interact with Emma. I can't remember how many American families were there about the same time as we were but I'm thinking maybe 5 families. There was another family with our agency that was there. Shawn & Gayly's appointment was about the same time as ours and I remember us talking up a storm like we had known each other for years instead of just a few mere months.

Getting ready to board the bus to the Civil Affairs office.



Taking her footprint for the papework and our fingerprints!

Poor little Rebecca was worn out, she was still so scared - and who could blame her. Everything she knew was gone and here was this weird family pushing their way into her space. By this point in the day, she had had enough.

Happy 10 month anniversary of adoption day little Rebecca! We love ya' baby girl!!!