Our Forever Home

On May 26^th, Amelia Mei was born in our hearts forever.  On September 26^th, we became a Forever Family.  Now, in just over 24 hours, our Amelia Mei will be our new little American and will be Forever Home!

Our Consulate Appointment went without a hitch, which was such a relief coming from the nightmare experience we had in Kazakhstan!  We were only 1 of 4 families there, so we were in and out in a matter of an hour.  We’ll receive Amelia’s US Visa today, then we’ll take a 3 hour (yikes) drive to Hong Kong where we will stay overnight near the airport.  Our flight leaves direct for Chicago from Hong Kong at 11:45am on Thursday.  We’re a little worried about this flight home considering our Amelia Mei does not like to sit still one bit.  Just traveling in a taxi for 10 minutes has been like trying to tame a monkey…she just bounces around from one thing to another, so curious about everything around her.  We will sure be glad to be back to car seats once we’re home!  Luckily we are using American advantage miles to fly business class home and believe it or not, it was cheaper to use miles to get Amelia her own seat than it was to pay outright for a lap ticket.  So hopefully come halfway through the flight, our sweeties will be ready for bed and will sleep the second half of the trip in the full reclining seats of Cathay Pacific (we shall hope)! 

Although we are so excited to see all our friends and family and to finally get back home, we are so thankful for the time we have had as a family here in China.  We thank God for watching over us as we’ve traveled five different cities, taken 4 different flights, traveled numerous long car drives (without car seats and seat belts, surrounded by crazy driving vehicles, bikes, mopeds etc), as we’ve managed daily life with different foods and non-English speaking waiters/waitresses, as we’ve gone to the bathroom where the toilet is a hole in the ground, as we’ve been raising two children out of a hotel room for three weeks, and throughout all of the wild and crazy adventures we’ve taken along the way.  But most of all, we thank God for keeping our family safe, happy and healthy, for giving big brother Liam so much adaptability, flexibility and love to go along for this wild ride, for making our family complete with our sweet Amelia Mei, and for helping our daughter to open her heart up to her family more and more each day!

As we reflect on our journey, there are so many countless little moments that have made us laugh and which are the little moments that have gotten us through, even on the hardest of days.  These moments have given us memories to last a lifetime, and here are just a few…

…The first time we laid our eyes on our sweet girl, we laid eyes on her bare behind.  She was being held with her back to us and her lovely yellow outfit had a huge slit cut up around the butt and up the front.  Moments later, she was in our arms and peeing on her Mama’s lap!

…Liam’s great dose of jet lag—telling us continuously, “Guys, I’m still on Minnesota time!”, quoting the movie “Rio” at all times of the day and night.

…Liam’s first taste of a Chinese bathroom.  He had to go sooooo bad, but considering our 4 year old boy still likes to sit to go pee, he stood at the hole in the ground and stared with stage fright.  After 5 minutes of staring at the hole, an American man 2 stalls over yelled “Western Toilet now available” as he exited the stall of the only ‘real’ toilet in the place.

…Our numberous dinners at Pizza Hut.  This has become our restaurant of choice and although it takes about 15 minutes to explain - we want pepporoni and cheese only...once the communication is underway, the pizza comes back tasting better than any pizza we've ever had!  After a day of eating out at authentic Chinese restaurants with Ben’s friends in Shenzhen, Liam basically starved himself and had barely eaten a thing.  The next night, we went to Pizza Hut and Liam ate en entire 9” cheese pizza all by himself.  We’ve never seen our skinny little guy eat so much in one sitting before!

…Liam continuously asking “Why does my baby sister stink so much?”  Yes, it’s true, our sweet, adorable Amelia Mei has one of the stinkiest little bottoms we’ve ever come across.  Daddy thinks it’s 17 months of no wiping…yuck.  Mimi and Nana…are you SURE you want your granddaughter all to yourself?  Ha!

…Trying to maintain Amelia’s potty schedule and doing it ‘China style’, where we have to hold her legs up, with her back to our legs, and hanging her over the potty.  She is lacking a bit in the aiming technique!

…Watching our little 17 month old girl out-eat her big brother at nearly every meal.  She has quite a huge appetite and we have yet to find anything that she DOESN’T like.  Daddy even had her try a small taste of beer last night and she leaned in for more  (don’t worry, we stopped at one sip).

…Seeing Amelia’s new talent of making the ‘Chewbacca’ sound – it is quite impressive!  She makes the cutest babble noises and they typically start out very high-pitched and then it will turn into a deep, manly like babble.  She is now babbling all the time and the one word she'll say over and over is "Mama!"

…Taking walks, which with two strollers, becomes a huge challenge.  With everywhere we walk, there are flights of stairs.  A ramp is a rare find here in China.  So, as we’re walking along and reach a staircase, one of us carries Amelia, each carries a stroller and on we go with our walk, huffing and puffing the whole way.

...Walking along and not knowing if you're stepping in puddles of rain or a child's urine.  Here in China, it is completely fine etiquette to squat your child on the side of the sidewalk to allow them to free their bladder...and other matters.  We witnessed it first-hand on many occassions...thus reason for the outfits that many children wear with holes along the bottom.

…Feeling paparazzi follow us everywhere we go, as everyone wants pictures of our very own blonde-haired celeb-Liam!

…My writing the blog almost each day in the dark, while my two boys and Amelia sleep soundly behind me.

…All of the creative ways we’ve tried to have fun as we’ve spent hours on end in our small, pretty toy-less hotel room.  Such as Liam and Ben playing badminton on the beds; Liam and I playing kung fu, jumping from one bed to the other while giving each other karate chops; taking turns giving Ben “zurburts” on his belly-making Amelia laugh over and over again; in-the-dark flashlight Uno; watching our son give us dance performances to Justin Bieber’s “Baby Baby”, with him doing all sorts of break dancing moves across the beds; trying time and time again to get Liam to do his homework (which his teacher was so gracious in preparing for him for our trip).  Each time we tell him all of his friends are doing THEIR homework, and each time Liam’s come-back is “Well the other kids aren’t traveling around China to get their sister”. 

 

-Tickle time, pillow fights, hide and seek and more.  Although surrounded by so much history and deep culture, our simple play times together and watching Liam and Amelia play and bond have been some of our best family times yet.

Although we have had memories of a lifetime here in China, we are most excited for all the memories that lay ahead for our family and for those we will get to share with family and friends!  We will always look back at these days in China as some of our fondest moments together as we’ve not only traveled miles from city to city, but our hearts have traveled miles into each other’s!  Very soon, our Amelia Mei will be Forever Home.  And today and each day ahead, we will cherish life as a family, and no matter where we go in life, as long as we’re together, our family will always be OUR FOREVER HOME!

Today we dedicate this song to our Amelia Mei:

“Feels Like Home to Me”, by Chantal Kreviazuk

There's something in your eyes
Makes me wanna lose my self,
Makes me wanna lose myself in your heart,
There's something in your voice
That makes my heart beat fast
Hope this feeling lasts
For the rest of my life

If you knew how lonely
My life has been
And how long I've been so alone
And if you knew how I wanted someone to come along
And change my life the way you've done

It feels like home to me
It feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from
It feels like home to me
It feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong

A window breaks down on lumdard street
And a siren rings in the night
But I'm all right cuz I have you here with me,
And I can almost see through the dark there is light

Well if you knew how much this moment means to me
And how long I've waited for your touch
And if you knew how happy you are making me
I never thought that I'd love anyone so much

It feels like home to me
It feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from
It feels like home to me
It feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong

It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong