they finally meet!

These two!!!

It’s Friday 10:30am (Louisiana Thursday 10:30pm). Isaiah is taking a nap and Ryan and Caden went out to do some one-on-one time. I am sitting in the dark so why not go ahead and journal. I am thankful I get the time to do this because I know it will be so valuable that I have this all documented one day. I am so forgetful these days, so to know the raw real emotions will really bring such a grateful heart when Ryan and I look back and think man….Remember that time…what felt so shaky in China was the start to one (of three) of the GREATEST THINGS in our lives, our children!  

We had fun yesterday. We had nothing to do so it was nice. We strolled to explore and came across a cute little area. A play area where they let us take the kids in and ride some rides and play. Isaiah looks up to Caden he copies everything he does already. From the slides to any little action big or small if Caden does it he does it. Caden melts my heart over and over with how sweet he is with him. He adores him. Wakes each morning with a LOUD WHISPER that I somehow cannot persuade him to turn it down a few notches…begging to wake Isaiah up to play. I love that Caden has a brother and adores him. I love that Isaiah went from not having a family to having ones that will love him for all of his life and always be there for him. It’s just a great feeling. So many good things ahead. Rocky start but we will get there….

We are leaving today to head back to Guangzhou where we flew in from Los Angeles. To be honest, the flight can’t get here soon enough. The change of scenery will be so nice. It is so hard to leave the hotel during the day, and Isaiah got a diaper rash from us feeding him to much for the day we got him (we didn’t know he was only eating rice cereal, rice, and yogurt each day). So that has confined us quickly and we have extreme cabin fever. In Guangzhou we get to take Isaiah and Caden to the zoo and do a few other fun things. So change is NEEDED. We are also extremely home sick. I get teary just typing “homesick”.  It is so wonderful yet so hard to be away from Lane, out of our comfort zone with a very strong language barrier and all in the middle of such a big change and of course every girl wants her mama deep down…whether 13 or 37 ;-) I am so thankful for FaceTime. Seeing Lane kiss the phone and smile at me every day keeps me going.

We were driving in the van today to do some final paperwork here and Isaiah reached for me and laid his head on my shoulder and just laid there on me. These little moments of affection go a long way for a mama trying to connect with her child. Adoption of a toddler, an orphan, is a process of people truly embracing God’s supernatural ability in letting him bind hearts to form a deep love, the same way we do when we hold that baby in the delivery room. Our delivery room moment just came two years later and we are catching up for lost time. Each day, tapping into the resources God provides for us. Some days I wake up and it’s hard and some days I wake up and the sun is shining so bright, Ryan and I are a strong team…we make a good one. I am proud to say that. Isaiah has woken up every day smiling at Caden. The peaceful face is a great sign that we are making him feel secure. I take no credit for that though…we prayed long and hard with many people that God would fill the room with His presence so that Isaiah felt secure and safe. Amen for those friends who can see the fruit of their prayers coming to life! I can’t thank you enough! It’s rare that happens. A lady here shared they adopted a little girl, same age, who cried all the way from the day they picked her up all the way back to the US. I can’t even begin to process the pain on both sides of that story. 24 hours was hard enough for us. That’s why I continue to ask for your prayers. Patience is so key here for all of us. Isaiah is learning to love us. We are learning to love him deeply and forever. It’s awesome.  

 

 

We smile, laugh, and relish every little thing that is joyful each day. Ryan and Caden were standing in the bathroom doing something and we have this glass window into the room from it, Isaiah saw them and ran up to it, waving saying HEYYYY and then blowing kisses (thanks GG) and it was so sweet.  I just stopped and adored that precious moment. It warms our hearts. I need a lot of those. Because they make me feel secure, they are my God winks. He is telling me, ‘Jeanne I am here with you. Just trust me and keep walking on the water…if you keep your eyes on me…I’ll lead you every step of the way’. Sigh….I find peace in that. I often tell myself peace is not the absence of trouble, it is the presence of God so when I really learn that secret I will have finally hit the jackpot. I am trying. I am trying. Getting closer. Adoption is dear to God’s heart they say, and it is truly life changing from the inside out. It turns your world all kinds of ways but my gosh what starts off messy and shaky and heart breaking becomes this thing in your heart.the realness and the calling coming to light. We were called to it, and HE WILL BRING US ALL through it… I will say I have learned so much in my last few days…about life. I thought I knew a lot…I couldn’t have been more wrong….Thank you God for opening my eyes. Thank you.  

They laugh non stop and Caden is so sweet!

Random play ride I have never seen before ;-) they loved it!

Please pray for a few things if you will or have a minute:

Peace : over all of us. We travel today and head home after that. I am asking for your deep prayers for a peaceful flight. That the children sleep, we leave 9:30pm so it can happen! Pray with us! Peace and sleepy babies..so they are rested. And so mom and dad can have rest too.

Isaiah has some food security issues so we have to be careful with what he eats. That has been hard on me and Ryan. He wants food all the time. We can’t deprive him of it, as we want him to trust us, but we have to monitor it in small bits so while he feels secure he isn’t upsetting his stomach with all the changes I food and environment. That has been hard. But it’ll work out. Pray for wisdom for us here, discernment too. Types of foods, patience, understanding. An orphan experiences a lot that is hard to understand, so we are trying to follow the text book ways so he feels secure, understands that he will eat again and never go without, and that he can trust us. This is a child who cried in his cribbed and likely wasn’t comforted. He doesn’t wrap his legs around me when I pick him up, so I am not sure he was held this way. The caregivers often are careful to not have the children get to attached. So perhaps this is why. I often rub his back, Ryan and I give him kisses, these are things he didn’t have before. He will learn what affection feels like, so please keep praying for ALL OF US, to receive and give love to each other. Bonding, continuously.

Me & Ryan! Luckily Caden is over jet lag and sleeping until 6:15 am now but I have been so sleep deprived. Ryan too. The changes, nerves, excitement, and intimidation of this all just stir me a little. I just want to make sure I am doing it all right…each time I start to over think…I remind myself – TODAY IS ENOUGH…pray and focus on today to get through as He promises for us…tomorrow has enough worries of its own. One. Step. At. A. Time. 

More GOD WINKS. They are so refreshing. They just make us have that peace we long for that we get when we are home around family and friends. So send those our way! His presence is serene, the winks are so comforting. 

Our arrival home. Lane to feel her place immediately and for Isaiah to just feel a sense of comfort in our home, among my family and friends. God promises to go before us, I feel He did that on the way to China and I seek for Him to do it again as we take our boy home. 

I am clinging to my Meemaw’s saying today…God is to good to be unkind, to wise to make a mistake, and when I cannot trace His hand, I can always trust His HEART. I know He is here with us. I do. My day is a little shaky today but HE IS HERE.  Thank you for your prayers. Please know I mean that from the bottom of my heart. So much more I could share but the page would go on and on…so Ill end here. Soon enough more to come..on to the next city and one step closer to home!