China Update (and lots of pictures!!!)

Starting From the Beginning…

Friday afternoon we left our house and went to the Peoria Airport to start our Journey. When we checked our luggage in, the guy was putting on the tags and asked (out of formality) what our final destination was…I said LA with you guys (American Airlines), but ultimately China via China Southern Airlines. He said oh…wait a minute then. I gave him our itinerary and he was able to check our bags to Guangzhou (1st stop in China) but not to Nanchang. Little did we realize how important that would be later that night! After being delayed a bit more in Chicago, we flew to the LA Airport….giving us only an hour to run (literally!!) through the Airport, out of security, to the international terminal, to check in with a different Airline…only to find out that the ticket counter was closed. Thankfully the worker had pity on us as we explained our dilemma and she checked us in and printed our boarding pass. We ran to security, scrambling to hurry through and ran to the gate, just to find out that they hadn’t even started boarding yet. If we would have had to wait for our luggage in LA, there’s absolutely no way we would have made it to China on Sunday.


After about an hour in the air, Jeff reached down for his Laptop, only to pull out one that didn’t belong to us!! In the midst of our security scramble, I grabbed the WRONG laptop and Jeff grabbed the correct one, but didn’t notice there was already one in there. So here we are on the plane, with our laptop and someone else’s…oh the pit in our stomachs!! We turned it into the Airline, explaining the mishap. Hopefully, it will (somehow) be returned to the rightful owner.

Once we ended that 16 hour flight, we found out that our luggage never made it! Thankfully we had all the documents that we needed on our carry on.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, we got to Nanchang, our destination. Two hours later we met Abram for the first time. He came toddling into the Hotel Lobby with the orphanage director and Assistant director. They kept saying to him, “ mama, papa” and pointing to us. As Jeff bent down to his level and held out his arms, Abram walked right into his arms.

What were our first thoughts??? “This boy needs a hair cut”, “Wow, we weren’t expecting that”(in regards to him not crying)


Nap time and Bed time have been hard on Abram. Like most adoptive cases, he came to us with the clothes he was wearing, nothing else. My Children have special blankets, pillows, doll…that they treasure at bedtime, that they hold close. Abram…everything is new and as he settles down for the night, I think he realizes that nothing is familiar and he cries. Thankfully, he receives our affection and allows us to rock him and cradle him. But even then, we have had to let him cry himself to sleep.


In some ways, I’m doing some grieving for him. No special blanket, pillow, stuffed animal. No pictures from his past, it doesn’t even look like I will be able to visit his orphanage(so that I could take pictures, to show him some day). I just read a statement, “A child’s past is connected to his future”. So much of his past is unknown to us. We were able to ask the Assistant Director questions, but they were pretty generic answers. She didn’t even know the name of his special caregiver. I pray that God will fill in gaps that are beyond me.


One prayer request….could you pray that Abram will recognize us as Mom and Dad, by the time we travel home. He is such a busy guy and isn’t afraid to wonder off or go up to anyone(especially if they have food, or if they are Chinese….and there are a lot of Chinese here!! :)), waving hi & smiling at them.



One a different note, something that I’ve been praying for, is that Abram and Jeff will connect easily.
My reason for this prayer: Usually a 2 year old boy will start relating and connecting more with his father and I want them to have this special bond… Something that Jeff and Chase already share. I figure that once we are home, I’ll have lots of time with the kids(and to connect and bond) and Jeff’s time will be minimal. Well, on Monday, Abram started caressing Jeff’s face (I think he likes the feel of his scruff). Over and over and then with Jeff’s face between Abram’s hands, Abram leaned forward and planted a kiss on Jeff’s lips! It was such a sweet moment. Abram must have repeated this a half a dozen times throughout the day…but never to me. Am I jealous? Not right now, I know a prayer is being answered. Abram receives my love, but doesn’t respond back in the way that he does with Jeff….and that’s ok.

There’s so much more I could write, so I’ll try to summarize the last 24 hours…

Monday afternoon, we braved the streets of Nanchang and walked to the supermarket to buy some items, since our Luggage wasn’t in yet. The driving is completely nuts around here!! We have to watch out for cars, bikes, scooters…everything. We even got scolded my some women for not dressing Abram warm enough (The scolding is typical for China) as it was a cold afternoon. (When he came to us, he was bundled up like an Eskimo! 2 pairs of pants, boots with strawberries on them :), t-shirt, sweater and a heavy winter coat). Oh well, how do you tell them that his hat and mittens are in our lost Luggage?!


Tuesday, free day. We got a call that our Luggage was in and would arrive in Nanchang by the afternoon! Yeah!!! You can’t imagine our excitement!! Clothes, extra snacks, power converter for the computer and other items. We felt like kids at Christmas!!

In the afternoon, we went swimming. For it being Abram’s first time….not too bad, considering that Chase and Aubrey screamed bloody murder their first time!!

One last thing….Abram….He’s busy, busy, busy….but he gets winded easily due to his heart condition (which we found out that he’s never had any surgery). We can get him laughing and giggling quite a bit. And he is a typical two year old who has his own ideas and will let us know if we are in the way!!

Now, some pictures....

Abram getting finger-printed for some of our documents

Policeman “directing” traffic – not sure who’s even paying attention to him – they all seem to do what they want anyway!

some things are cross-cultural! :)
Fun at the pool!

cutting the temporary lock on our luggage that arrived this afternoon!

Abram & Mommy playing at the pool area

doing “laundry” in the sink on Monday while waiting for our luggage to arrive.

Love,

Jeff, Chelby & Abram