Our First Day Together

Today marks our first full day together with our new daughter, with our new family of four!  The day was full of family firsts…watching our angel sleep, waking up to her sweet face, feeding her a bottle, exploring each other and watching her explore us and her surroundings, giving her a bath, going to the pool, singing her songs, taking her on a walk, watching her with big brother Liam, and discovering each other little by little…all of these firsts made for an incredible first day together!

Amelia slept soundly all night except for waking up once around 2:30 am where she started stirring in her sleep.  We realized this is when she would typically get put on the potty.  We learned that Amelia’s potty schedule is very structured, so we are trying to keep to her schedule and after 24 hours, she has had only one dirty diaper…amazing how early they can potty train children here!  We were in awe watching our angel sleep through the night and I couldn’t help but keep waking up to look at her.  By morning, we could not wait for her to wake up and we waited anxiously just to hear the slightest peep.  When she woke up, she was still quite hesitant with us again and she cried for a while.  To think how frightening it would be to wake up to a strange place and strange people for the first time, but Amelia quickly warmed up to us again and we headed out to meet our agency rep to complete more paperwork.

Our first stop was the registration office where we were presented with our adoption certificate…officially declaring us as the parents of Chun Mei! 

We made another stop to the notary office to complete some more paperwork.  Amelia sat in our lap so calmly the entire morning.  Big brother Liam helped to keep her occupied by feeding her snacks, handing her toys and responding to her requests.  Amelia is quickly becoming the boss of Liam—it’s so cute.  She is constantly pointing at him, handing him her toys so he could play with them too, and she’ll point at the light switch, look at Liam, and want Liam to turn it on and off over and over again.  When she can’t see Liam, she will point around the room and make a cute sound – clearly looking for her brother.  We have seen Liam mature so much just in the last 24 hours.  He seems to have grown protective over his little sister already too.  If I’m doing something that makes Amelia cry, Liam will yell at me.  For instance, Amelia hates to get her clothes changed (which puts a dent on my plans of an Amelia fashion show-ha).  So when I’m getting Amelia dressed, Liam will yell at me to stop.  Or when she’s crying, he’ll go find her lamby and hand it to her.  (Lamby is a little stuffed animal that we sent months ago in one of Amelia’s care packages and she seems attached to it.  All of the items that we sent to her were returned to us, including the 2 disposable cameras – which are now full of pictures.  Can’t wait to get these developed).  So it’s just melting our hearts to see Liam become the big brother he has wanted to be for so long!

Before taking a nap, we went on a short family walk where we snatched some cute pics of our little sweet cakes.  I sure hope she doesn’t get sick of the camera as Mommy can’t resist!

Another first for our sweet Amelia was going to the swimming pool.  We were a little fearful considering we were told in the notes from her foster family that she does not like bath time (which later that night  proved to be true when she wailed all the way through bath time).  When we got her in the pool, she was hesitant, but very intrigued.  The hotel has a small shallow pool-so it was perfect.  She would wobble around a bit, sticking one arm into the water at a time.  I was showing her how to splash and then Liam and I got into a splash fight...then Amelia tried to join in and instead of splashing me with water, she would just fling her arm in the air at me.  As I pretended to be splashed, she smiled, her first smile of the day.  For most of the day, she had been very quiet and serious, obviously still trying to warm up to us and her surroundings.  So playing in the pool was another break through moment for us.  So we proceeded to play this pretend splash game over and over again for the next hour as we ate up every smile she gave us!  In the pool and even throughout the day, Daddy has been her security and she seems most comfortable in his arms.  Almost the whole time at the pool, she just stood by Daddy’s side with her hands on his legs, not wanting to let go.  She already is Daddy’s Little Girl!

Amelia is such a chubby, little peanut.  Sounds sort of contradictory, but it’s true.  She has such chubby arms and legs-we just want to eat them up.  When we first learned of Amelia’s measurements months ago, she was normal for weight, but almost off the charts low for height.  Now it all makes sense…our little girl is extremely bowlegged.  So this takes almost an inch off her height.  Amelia can walk, but it’s still a bit unsteady.  It’s the cutest thing to watch those chubby, bowlegged legs, her little body and sweet face, wobble around!  She much prefers to be held or in the stroller, but I’m sure she’ll practice walking much more in the days ahead!

It was an amazing day…a day full of discovery, a day full of moments, big and small, which all added up to the perfect first day together!

GOTCHA DAY!

The day finally arrived! We can’t even describe the butterflies that were in our stomachs starting at 3am when we woke up. It must be such similar emotions and nerves as those that are experienced by parents about to go into labor. But for us, we were about to give birth to a toddler, to a child from the other side of the world, to a child whom we had stared at photos of for the last 4+ months, to a child whom we knew had likely already grown attached to her caretakers from her last 16 months of life, to a child that has only known the sights and sounds of her birth country…and to a child who has not been growing in her Mommy’s tummy for the last 9 months, but instead, has been growing in her family’s hearts for the last 5 years!

We went to the registration office at 10:30am this morning where we would meet our girl for the first time! When we arrived, there were some ladies caring to a baby at the desk in the big room where we sat – it didn’t dawn on us for 10 or 15 minutes that it could be our Amelia as we couldn’t see her face, she looked so small, and we had been anticipating some momentous occasion where her nannies come out from hiding to deliver Amelia to us. Our assistant Cindy talked with these women for 10 minutes or so and after wrapping up some paperwork with the ladies, Cindy came to us to tell us that this little girl was in fact OUR girl. As soon as the caretakers walked her over to us and we could see her face, we then knew for certain it was our Amelia. As soon as they handed Amelia over to me, she began to cry hysterically – she was very scared seeing our strange faces and her whole body trembled with fear. Although this was difficult, this is what we expected would happen and most parents adopting from China have similar experiences. However, what we weren’t prepared for was that she cried straight for the next 4 hours and no hugs, kisses, toys, food or smiles could console her. It broke our hearts, but after we learned more about Amelia’s history, it all made sense. It turns out that our girl has been living with the same foster family for all of her life with the exception of at most 1 month where she lived in the orphanage. So it’s clear that Amelia’s fear and sadness was coming from experiencing yet another huge loss in her life...the loss of an attachment she had grown for the last 16 months. We learned that her foster home was one in which there was one family whom took in multiple children at a time, to care for them until they could be adopted. The women that brought Amelia to us were workers from the orphanage, who had only known Amelia for at most 4 weeks of her life and most of the information we learned about Amelia had been communicated to them by her foster family.

So for the next hour and a half, Ben and I took turns trying to console Amelia while the other completed a bunch of paperwork…it was a bit hectic to say the least. Liam was such a good boy and the whole time he stayed by our side, he was patient and quiet and was our little helper. One funny incident that occurred was when I got fully thrust into motherhood...here in China, children don’t wear diapers—instead, many of them wear clothes with slits along the back and front and when they have to go to the bathroom, they are held over the toilet. So, our sweet Amelia was wearing this same form of outfit and as she was sitting on my lap, I felt a warmness on my lap…yes, my new precious daughter peed on me. I was then directed to the bathroom, where there was a hole in the floor (China’s version of a toilet) and I was told to hold her over the hole…it will go down in the books as one of my first memorable bonding moments with Amelia!

We left the Registration Office to head back to the hotel and Amelia continued to cry (scream, wail) for the next hour and a half. We finally laid her in her crib and she was asleep within 10 minutes. When she woke up from her 2 ½ hour nap, she was still unsettled with us, but not as bad as earlier in the day. When she woke, I was laying on the bed next to her crib and she must have just stared at me, studying my face, for 15 minutes, with eyes so serious and so hesitant. Throughout the rest of the day, Amelia continued to warm up to us little by little. We took her on a long walk and she sat quietly in her stroller the whole time.

What we didn’t expect was that we would end the day with her not only smiling for the first time, but giggling, playing and seeming safe and comfortable in the company of her new family. When we got back to the hotel, we set her on the bed and we started feeding her some Gerber Puffs and Liam started playing with some soft balls. He shared them with Amelia and as he and Ben played catch, Amelia became very excited and engaged. To Liam’s luck, his new baby sister likes to play ball too! After about 20 minutes of playing, she finally cracked her first smile…which then led to her first giggle, and many more adorable, scrunched-face smiles that we could not get enough of!

When it was time for bed, Kerry held Amelia in her arms, hummed ‘You Are My Sunshine’, and Amelia was out within a minute. She is now lying peacefully in a crib right next to our bed. What a perfect ending to an incredible day! We can now pray that with each day we spend with Amelia, her fear and loss will be replaced with love, security, and the confidence in knowing that the family she is now with will be her family forever and she will never have to experience loss again.

One More Day

In one more day, one more night…our lives are about to change forever. One more day until we will hold Amelia in our arms, kiss those sweet cheeks and whisper, “you now have a family – a mommy, daddy and brother to love you the rest of your life”. One more day of waiting, anticipation and feeling our hearts ache with the yearning to meet our daughter. One more night of daydreaming about what it will be like to rock Amelia to sleep for the first time. One more morning where we’ll wake up for the day with hope that the day will come that we no longer have to wonder or daydream any longer. One more day of living as a family of only three. One more day where Amelia will live amongst the noises, smells and sights of orphanage life, of life without a family of her own. One more day where Amelia’s foster/orphanage caretakers will kiss Chun Mei and will likely feel sad that they, too, have only one more day. One more day until Amelia will be welcomed into her forever family with the love of so many. One more day until God’s path that has led us down this journey for so long, will unveil itself with the miracle of creating not another life, but the miracle of creating a family…OUR family…our Forever Finney Family of Four! One more day!!!!!

Knowing we have only one more day has felt so surreal, especially because of the whirlwind we just went through here in China! Our day on Saturday started at 3am in Hong Kong, when we were unable to sleep any longer, feeling the effects of jet lag, full force. We took a taxi at 5:30am to the train, a 6am train to the airport and an 8am flight out to Beijing. We arrived Beijing at noon, took an hour taxi to the hotel and arrived at 1pm. We then discovered that the Great Wall was 1-1/2 hours away, so we immediately got into yet another taxi for the long drive to the Great Wall. Needless to say, by the time we arrived at the Great Wall at 3:00pm, we had zero understanding of what time zone we were in and it was even difficult to comprehend the incredible beauty of the Great Wall of China. No matter what exhaustion we felt though, seeing the Great Wall was well worth the trip and it was a chance of a lifetime we could not miss! Liam’s favorite part was the cable car ride up the hill . It can be so funny seeing sights, especially historical ones as this, through the eyes of a 4 year old. The whole time we’re walking the Great Wall, Liam is begging, “Can we go back onto the zip line”. Go figure!

After a very quick 1-1/2 visit at the Great Wall, we had to meet back up with our taxi driver to take us back to the hotel. This time, it took 2 hours due to traffic and by far, this was the longest 2 hours of the trip so far. We were exhausted, considering it was 5pm and we had been up and on the go since 3am! Luckily, Liam has been such a trooper, really amazing actually. He slept the whole 2 hour ride back to the hotel and there was no waking him up by the time we got to our room, so he was out for the night! And his Mommy and Daddy soon followed!
Once again, we awoke at 3am unable to sleep. It’s becoming routine now where right about 3am, we hear this little voice say, “Daddy, daddy, I’m ready to wake up now.” Liam’s funniest line of the trip has been, “Guys, I’m still on Minnesota time.” When we first heard him say this out of the blue, we didn’t realize that he’s quoting a line from the movie “Rio”, which he has watched probably 5 times now on our playbook. Funny how this movie line is so timely for Liam now.
Sunday morning we had a great time touring The Forbidden City. For those not familiar with China, The Forbidden City is where the Chinese Emperors lived dating back hundreds of years ago up until the early 1900’s. This palace is huge…it’s the size of 9 football fields long and 7 football fields wide! It’s now used for tourism where thousands of people visit each day.

Although The Forbidden City was amazing in itself, we have to admit that the real memory we will take away from our visit here was not the palace, but instead was watching our son turn into a complete celebrity! Just about every person of Asian ethnicity that walked by us, literally turned their heads to stare at our boy. We were getting such a kick out of this, but it didn’t end there. As we walked through the palace, one by one, people stopped to ask if they could take pictures of Liam. Some, however, didn’t even ask, and within seconds, Liam would all of a sudden be looking at a camera lens right in his face. Many people even dragged their children to stand next to Liam so they could get their picture together. No matter how much their own child cried and screamed, getting that picture with Liam seemed to be their number one priority! We think we had just as many people taking pictures of Liam as they were of the palace. Crazy!

After our morning in Beijing, we departed for the airport at noon and we’re now awaiting our3pm flight to Zhengzhou…the city where we will meet our daughter for the first time!
Although our stay in Beijing was a whirlwind of 24 hours, it was amazing to see the city that is the capital of our daughter’s birth country. No exhaustion or jet lag can take away from the excitement and happiness we feel in our hearts knowing that the real fun of our trip is about to begin. In one more day, one more night, our lives will be touched, they will be transformed, by the love of one little human being, the love of our sweet Amelia Mei, and the love of our Lord Above!

We Made it Safe & Sound!!!

Let me start by saying a 15 hour flight is nothing to complain about when you’re flying business class on Cathay Pacific! Ben had enough American Advantage miles from the past 10 years of traveling to Asia for work, so we were able to upgrade to business class. For the first time ever, I’m thanking him for all of those long business trips because flying business class was such a treat! It’s taken me 36 years to have the pleasure of riding in such class, but for Liam, it took only four. We were spoiled! Who couldn’t enjoy a seat that reclines completely flat into a bed, having a personal TV with unlimited movie selections, free wine that was limitless,flight attendants to wait on us hand and foot – with drinks, food, and even warm towels to refresh! The attendants kept addressing Liam by name and tailored to his every need…Liam felt like a Prince! He was so excited and comfortable and to our pleasure, Liam slept for 10 long peaceful hours while we slept and enjoyed the pampering of business class!

We arrived Hong Kong late Friday night and checked into our hotel, but since we were so wired after sleeping so much on the plane, we decided to take a midnight leisurely stroll through the extremely busy, crowded, partying streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong. We walked to the bay and quickly took in the beautiful views of Hong Kong Island. We hope to come back to Hong Kong during the 6 day holiday as it’s one of our favorite cities in the world!

We finally went to bed at 1am, but we all three awoke 2 hours later unable to sleep any longer. So we’ve been hanging in the hotel room ever since, about to take off for our 3 hour flight to Beijing. Liam is so excited and giddy – he’s been such a trooper already. Lately when he’s really excited, he does this dance, which we call his jig -- so we’ve been seeing a lot of the Liam Jig ever since leaving Chicago. We just hope this good mood continues in the next 3 weeks to come!

More to come from Beijing…

Two more days until AMELIA DAY!

Amelia, Here We Come!

Today is the day...we'll be on a jet plane heading to our daughter's birth country in just 5 hours!!!!  Ok, I had to take 10 deep breaths before writing more - did I say 5 hours?!!!  As I write this, my heart is filled with excitement and my mind is spinning with last minute details.  Ben is weighing the suitcases and as I write this, I'm yelling out to him "Yes, I really do NEED to bring that pair of shoes for Amelia and yes, I NEED to bring those 10 dresses and 10 hairbowes!"  Yes, I admit, I'm bringing about three times as many clothes for Amelia than I am for myself...but they're all so small - that's my excuse anyways!  So, Amelia and I each have a suitcase of our own and then the boys, being typical boys, have quite easily fit all of their stuff together into one suitcase :). 

I want to give you a tentative itinerary of our upcoming adventure, so here it is:

September 22nd, 3:45pm:  Depart for Hong Kong
September 23rd:  Layover in Hong Kong overnight
September 24th:  Depart for Beijing
September 24th/25th:  Tour Great Wall & Forbidden City
September 25th:  Depart for Zhengzhou--Amelia's province
September 26th:  GOTCHA DAY!  We'll meet Amelia and she will immediately come into our custody!
September 26-30th:  Tour Amelia's province; wait for Amelia's passport processing
September 30:  Receive passport; Depart for Shenzhen
September 30-October 6:  Tour Schenzhen & Hong Kong (this is the period of the Chinese national holiday-Festival of the Moon)
October 6:  Depart for Guangzhou
October 6-13th:  Complete adoption process (ie paperwork, medical review, consulate appointment)
October 13th:  Depart for Home Sweet Home Chicago
Forever Home ETA:  October 13th, 2:00pm!

We are so excited!  Big Brother Liam's first trip across the world begins TODAY--with the destination of a lifetime...to get his forever baby sister, our very own sweet Amelia Mei!

Hold on tight sweet Amelia Mei...your Forever Finney Family is coming for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About to Share Our Hearts, Our Love...

With only five days left until we leave for the journey of a lifetime, we have been busy, busy bees preparing for our trip and preparing our home for our new little one!  Getting Amelia's room ready, shopping for clothes, hairbowes and all that fun girly stuff--and preparing our home, has all made it feel so real!  Although many days, it's still so surreal that after 5 years of waiting, we are now only 5 days away from leaving for China and 9 days away from meeting our daughter!!  As part of the preparations, we have been putting the final touches on Amelia's room.  The decor probably looks familiar to many of you since we still had everything saved from 2008 when we did up a girls nursery, thinking we were getting a girl from Kazakhstan at the same time as Liam.  Luckily everything worked in this house and the colors of pink, brown and green await our little sweet cakes...

Besides getting ready for Amelia, we have been cherishing time with Liam during our final days as a family of only three!  Amazing how just saying that brings tears to my eyes.  There is no denying how anxious and excited I am to bring home our second child, but I never thought I would feel this emotional about savoring time with my "baby" boy.  Friends have always told me the mixed emotions you may have when you realize you will soon have to share your love, your heart, your time-with someone else outside of that one little human being that has been the center of your universe and the essence of your heart for so long.  Although we've had to wait a lot longer to grow our family than we would have originally chosen, we now realize what a blessing it has been.  For 3 years now, Liam has been the center of our every day and we have just been so blessed to have had so much time to dedicate all of our being to loving him every day.

I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the special times we have cherished with Liam these last few weeks.  We spent a couple days in Lake Geneva, WI and had such a great time...

We also spent a weekend in Michigan taking Liam to his first Detroit Tigers Game and his first University of Michigan, Wolverines football game.  The weekend was a complete blast, even despite the severe thunderstorms in Ann Arbor, the fact that we got drenched and had to evacuate Michigan's stadium due to tornado watches...BUT, we still loved every minute of it!  Plus, the Wolverines won even though the game was called early, so that made for a very happy hubby!  After that weekend, Liam has become our little Wolverine and after begging Ben for a whole, well, 20 seconds, to be a Wolverine for Halloween, his proud Dada said yes - how could any Michigan alum say no to that--regardless of how much the costume cost! :)

We have also enjoyed watching our boy grow into such a little athlete.  He loves going to the range with Daddy, playing football in the backyard and his favorite lately has been t-ball.  The boy just LOVES sports!

So although we are cherishing time with our boy, we know whole heartedly that our hearts are beyond ready to be shared with another little precious human being...with our sweet Amelia!  We just can't wait to have a daughter and finally a baby sister for Liam!  Liam is so excited as well.  He has asked for so long now "Mama, why don't I have a sister or brother like my friends have"?  He's really at the perfect age and he's beyond ready to have a sibling.  We know Liam will be such a great big brother with his kind nature, his fun-loving personality, his HUGE, sensitive heart, and his way of making us all laugh like crazy.  Liam, I'm sure, will be Amelia's favorite person in the world.  We talk about Amelia all the time and Liam says he wants to help push Amelia in the stroller, he wants to read her books, sing her songs, and show her all his toys.  When Liam is being bad, we threaten him by telling him he's going to have "diaper duty" and he doesn't like that one bit.  We pray about Amelia all the time together and when Liam prays for her, he says "Dear God, please keep Amelia healthy, keep her safe, and keep her strong."  Ugh, praying together has become a sob fest for mommy!  The other day Liam said, "Mama, if Amelia cries when we get her, I want to give her a present to cheer her up."  Oh, my heart melted.  So sweet!  I just can't wait to see him take on his big brother role!

Liam WILL be coming on the trip to China with us.  It was such a hard decision as we know it will be difficult either way, but we ultimately just could not imagine being away from Liam for 3 weeks.  Plus, we know how amazing it will be to have him be part of our first 3 weeks of bonding with Amelia, and as a family, we will have the experience of a lifetime! 

So as we pray every day and thank God for the family that we are today, we also pray with all our hearts for sweet Amelia Mei who is waiting in Nanyang, China, who is about to be poured with the love of three huge hearts...three hearts that cannot wait to share their love!!!

AT LAST...TRAVEL APPROVAL!

We are so excited to say that we officially received our travel approval this last Tuesday, September 6th!  It has taken this whole week to determine our exact travel dates, but it's official...we will be on a jet plane heading to China on September 22nd, whoohooo!!!!  Our "Gotcha Day" of when we meet Amelia for the first time (and when she comes into our custody) will be Monday, September 26th.  Our consulate appointment is scheduled for October 11th and after a 22 day trip in China, we will arrive home on October 13th.  Amazing...we will be holding our baby girl in our arms in just a of couple weeks!

It's been quite a roller coaster of emotions this week.  When we first received the call with our travel approval on Tuesday, our agency informed us that we would be leaving next Wednesday, the 14th.  Then after 24 hours of excitement, anticipation and a sleepless night, we were then informed that all of the consulate appointments were booked for the remainder of September.  Our hearts sunk.  Basically, every family adopting has to end their China trip with a visit at the US Consulate.  So after hearing that we could not leave next Wednesday, our agency then told us we would have to wait for the next travel group, which was not scheduled until October 5th (ugh, October 5th, that's another long 4 weeks away)!  What we didn't realize is that there is a national holiday in China, the Moon Festival, October 1-7th, so the government offices are closed during this time.  This is why the next travel group is not scheduled to leave until after this time.  So after thinking for the next 24 hours that we would not leave until October 5th, our agency then proposed another option (phew)...we could leave for China sooner (yay), but we would have to stay for the national holiday, which would mean staying in China for a total of 4-5 days longer than the typical adoption trip.  This option would also mean we would not travel in a group.  After thinking about it for a long, well, ONE minute, we told our agency to go ahead with the earlier option.  Considering how extremely anxious we are...the sooner we can get to our baby girl, the BETTER!!!!!!!

So we just received confirmation on Friday that the consulate approved our appointment and we will travel September 22nd-October 13th.  We are actually excited to experience being in China for the national holiday, especially since we will be spending it together as our family of FOUR!!!   

We will send more details soon.  In the meantime...bags are getting packed, Babies-r-Us has a new regular customer, safety gates are being installed, clothes (and more clothes) are being purchased, emotions are running wild...and many happy tears are being shed over here at the Finney household :)!