China Here We Come!

We are off to China today!!! .  This month has been a mixture of stress and anxiety, and I'm relieved that everything is finally taken care of and we will be on our way soon!

Our Schedule This Week!
Flying out at 6am Friday
Layover in Chicago
Arriving in Hong Kong at 8pm Saturday night

Flying out of Hong Kong on Sunday Afternoon
Arriving in Chongqing Sunday evening

Getting Vivi on Monday!!!

Some recently asked questions...
Will you go to the orphanage and visit Vivi before you take her with you?
Nope.  On Monday, we will meet at a government office.  The orphanage director and a nanny will bring Vivi there, hand her to us, answer some questions we may have, and then leave. We take her back to the hotel, cuddle with her, bribe her Gerber puffs, and pray she doesn't think we are too crazy.  China gives you a 24 hour 'trial' to determine if you want to go through with the adoption (of course!), and then you sign the official papers. That's it. No courts. No judge.  No visitations.  She's ours from the first minute. 


Will you go to the orphanage to visit?
Yes!  We will go on Thursday, and we are so excited! We will spend a few hours seeing where she lived, meeting all of her nannies, and loving on some sweet kids.  Our goal is to get as much information as possible about her life in the orphanage, so we will be able to share that with her when she gets older.


How long will you be there?  
Thirteen days!  The first week will be in Vivi's home city.  We will be working on getting her passport ready that week.  The next week will be about getting her ready to be a US citizen once the plane lands on US soil.  Both cities are VERY large.  There are Starbucks near both of our hotels (amen!). Her province city has 30 million people!  The embassy city, Guangzhou, is huge and there are some American comforts I will be excited about... like speaking to others in English and Mexican food.


Will Vivi speak any English?
No... but  most 18 month olds don't communicate verbally anyway, so we aren't too concerned. ;-)


Are you nervous?
 Nervous... excited... panicked.  I am SO excited to get Vivi.  I am a little apprehensive about going to China.  I am PANICKED about leaving Camden and Caroline.  Sweet Camden operates the best in his regular environment, and when he is surrounded by his typical peeps.  If I leave Caroline to go shopping for an hour, she welcomes me back with "Mommy, How I missed you!"  Sister has no idea I can be gone longer than that.  They will be staying in Bville for the majority of the time, so I think that will help things immensely. I'm hoping that will help things immensely. 

Oh... and I'm terrified of the squatty potties.  I had a horrible run-in with one in the Swiss Alps 15 years ago, and I still have PTSD.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Google Squatty Potty. It's scary.
 

Why haven't you shown pictures of Vivi on the blog or facebook?  
Vivi has a large black birthmark that covers half of her face.  It's very cool looking.  If there wasn't a chance of melanoma, I would have a lot of hesitation about removing it... but cancer stinks, so Miss Vivi will have her nevus removed next year. We've been a little protective of our Vivi because of the nevus.  Not everyone sees this gorgeous little girl that we do... and ya'll she is TRULY stunning.  Some people will only see the nevus and not my beautiful Vivi...or they will just see her as some random Chinese orphan... not as our daughter.  I hate that.  My mama bear heart just cannot take people's ignorance right now, so we have kept the pictures close to our heart and have 'ooohed' and 'ahhhed' over her with friends and family.  When she is in our arms and is officially a McDonald, get ready for a TON of pictures of our sweet Vivi  because we are SO excited to share them on here!


When can we see her???
I will post pictures of our sweet girl as soon as I can pending on how well the internet works.  When we get home we will be at home trying to show Vivi how a family lives together.  Vivi has been in an institutionalized environment, and with that comes some unorthodox ways we will parent once we get home.  In her world, anyone who has walked into her orphanage has been there to take care of her.  She has no concept of a mom and dad and no concept of what a family unit is supposed to look like.  Our first goal when she comes home is to work on attachment.  We aren't talking attaching as in she is 'letting someone hold her' or 'reaching for someone she likes'.  That's not attaching... that's just tolerating or liking someone.  We are talking about a God-created, powerful attachment to another human being. 
We don't want to just 'be liked or tolerated', we are wanting to create that powerful attachment meant for a mother/father and their child.  Vivi is not used to the same two people meeting all of her needs.  Therefore, we will be the only ones who will hold Vivi, hug her, feed her, change her diaper, etc.  This is so important in the beginning for attachment.  This could take weeks or months, we don't know.  We basically have to train her to know that not any random person you meet is going to meet her needs... because this is mommy and daddy's job. Every parent adopting a child from an institutionalized setting does this when they get home, so this is not some 'new idea' that we are going to try out.  It's just routine when you bring your child home, but I know it may hard for family and friends who are not familiar with international adoption to understand.  So don't be surprised at first if we have her high-five you when you reach out to hold her.  You will have plenty of time for hugs later on down the road!


What can we do?
Pray, ya'll.  On top of everything else, we have this crazy flu season and the weather possibly causing delays.  Pray for Vivi Cate because her world is about to be ROCKED.  She is about to leave her whole world, and although we may provide her better life... she doesn't know that. Pray for safe travel, sleep, easy transitions, health.  and pray for our little ones here... who I am going to miss like crazy.  Thank you Lord for FaceTime and Skype!

Also I'm trying out the blogger app, so if the layout looks funky, I will fix it when we have wifi in China! Hong Kong here we come!