I have put together a video/slideshow of our journey to Bring Mikayla Home. It is her movie and I hope you enjoy watching it.

***This blog has been a blessing to myself, I hope our daughter, and I have been told has been a strength to others.  am seriously considering stopping posting (or cutting way back) here, however I will leave the blog up for others to read as time goes on. Up until now this story has been MY side of a story on a journey to get to our daughter. Now that she is in our life, my side of the story is very much HER story and I don’t feel it is fair to have her life publicly exposed without her knowing or being at an age to consent. I will continue to privately blog for her, a way to diary her life for her. There is a possibility that I could change my mind and continue to post here but for now I am going to write with the mindset that this is it.

Wow, a long chapter of my life has been closed and a brand new chapter, maybe a whole new book, has begun. What an amazing experience it has been and will continue to be.

This chapter has been filled with lots of hard times, frustrating times, times that really tried my faith, and really tested a lot of who I was. Since the beginning I have been very emotionally wrapped up in this adoption and wanted our daughter more then anything. This was suppose to be a process of 8-10 months and it turned to be a few days short of 3 years. To those still waiting, please know that the wait is worth it and the pain does get less quickly although it does not go completely away. There is the pain that our daughter had to sit in a orphanage for 22 months while we were waiting for her and that pain will hurt for a very long time. I do not want to be cliché but I do want to encourage you to know that even though the wait is hard, maybe the hardest time you have ever faced, when that sweet child is placed in your arms the pain does fade.

I don’t even know where to begin this post. Let’s start at the most recent and go backwards. Mikayla is simply amazing and our first days home have been nothing short of joy and happiness. It is such an exciting time to wake up and see her smile as we pick her up, or play with her, or feed her. I am exhausted by nap time and have to take a nap myself to recharge, and then start over again for the afternoon. I will say by the end of the day I am looking forward to bed time, but I am forward even more to her waking up the next morning. I can’t believe that I will be any less excited as time goes on but I know it will happen as we get into our routines. You know the old saying, “the worst day fishing is better then the best day working”? I hope that I continue to feel that “the worst day parenting is better then the best day not having a child around”, I can’t imagine that part will ever go away. Not that I was unhappy before Mikayla, but I don’t think I could ever be less happy. I hope that makes sense, what I am trying to say is that Mikayla has brought so much joy to my life that even as time goes on and things aren’t so “new”, times are tough, and the days are dark, I believe I will still be a very happy man.

Mikayla gets up about 7 or 8 in the morning and first thing you see from her is the biggest smile. We carry her to our bed and she wants to start playing right away, of course we still are trying to wake up so we try to lay her down with us- yeah right! That is one thing she really does not like is to be laid down, even if you stay right with her or hold her she does not like it. After a little while of messing around in bed and watching some cartoons we get up for some breakfast (***I have to be fair and make a side note here, the second day I made it to the watching cartoons step but never made it out of bed until 11am- oops guess I needed my rest ) Her eating has gotten a little less and more picky now but she seems to like fruit an awful lot and bread like biscuits, rolls, french toast and she LOVES apple juice. She gets the cutest look on her face when she takes a drink of juice, it is sort of like a lip smack with a big refreshing smile. We then turn on TV and watch some of the kids shows like Elmo, or the more educational young children shows like Baby Einstein or Sesame Street. She loves to be entertained and held through the day. She does seem to becoming more of a daddy’s girl  since we have been home, so while I do cherish that, we are trying to encourage her to spend more time with MA. After some TV it is about lunch time so she will usually eat more fruit (a great friend left us a bunch of  food and fruit while we were gone) and maybe some chicken salad (we had some good chicken salad to given to us too), and after lunch it is a few more minutes of TV and then nap time (this has become a good part of the day as sometimes I take a nap too, I’ll have to check with the boss and see if I can keep doing that when I get back to work). The last couple days after nap time we have gone to the park, which she seems to really enjoy getting out and I think it quickly wears her out. She enjoys walking around and today we put her on the swings, slides, and spinny things- she had a blast. Then the rest is pretty routine- dinner, bath, and then bed.

Bedtime is a pretty special time for me. It usually doesn’t last long until she is asleep but I will take her into her bedroom and turn the lights real low while I feed her a bottle. Mikayla is my only child and will likely be my only child so I am cherishing the time that the Lord has given me to bond and experience the joy of having a little child in my arms falling asleep. It really warms my heart to spend this time with her and I know it will not last long. Every second of this time is as precious as a bar of gold and I would not trade it for anything.

Here are a couple pictures from our first few days at home, my next post will be about our experience in China.

We made it home safely on Friday evening! What an AMAZING trip it was (and exhausting too).  I promise to all the blog readers to put up a nice post in the next few days about being home, the trip, our daughter. Right now we are really taking time to just adjust to being home, the time difference, being a family, and getting Mikayla adjusted (we haven’t even unpacked yet, the kitchen has become the new “closet” with suitcases half unpacked everywhere, lol). Mikayla is doing very well with the adjustment so far and we are doing OK.

I want to send a couple very special thank you’s:

First, to Mike and Val- THANK YOU!!! We literally could not have made this trip without your support and watching things around here. I know that the “chore” turned into more than it was suppose to when the weather got cold and we are very grateful. Thank you for all the stuff when we got home, the gifts, the notes, the food. You guys have gone far above and beyond. And we were able to stay home all weekend thanks to your efforts!

To Dave and Susan- Thank you for the plane food on our depature and the home food when we came home. It was nice to not have to worry about finding something to eat or cook when we got home from the airport. The chicken salad was delicious and Mikayla loved it too (much better then the package chicken salad we tried to give her in Cincinnati ) The gifts and extra thoughts you have given us have been fantastic. You have been amongst our biggest supporters and have been great friends. We look forward to years of friendship as our daughters grow up together.

To all those who showed up at the airport to see us home- WOW, how exciting it was to see you when we got off the plane. I figured some people would be there but I could not have anticipated how exciting and energizing it would be to have a crowd of people cheering for us as we came through the airport. An amazing experience and once in a lifetime. It took us a couple hours to come off the excitiment of the evening.

Thank you again to all those who have commented and emailed while we have been gone. I have read EVERY comment and email and I do apologize for not returning emails but it has been crazy. It was so nice to read the comments from home while in China.

OK, got a few things to do before Mikayla gets up from her nap so I need to go.

Ahh, our journey of “Bringing Mikayla Home” is coming to an end and a new journey is getting ready to begin. We leave our hotel at 9:30 am on Thursday (that is 8:30pm on Wednesday for those back home) and begin the long trip home. This has been the journey of a lifetime, and if I live to a hundred I will never have a trip like it again, even if I come back to China. I am so thankful and humbled by the gift that has been given to us. I want to sit down when I get home and have some time and wrap up my thoughts and put up some more pictures. Thank you to EVERYONE who has posted comments and sent us emails, it has been great to read them and know that we have the support of our friends and family at home, and even people who we have never actually met.

Today was a day for shopping mainly, tomorrow is our swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate. I was going to go to the zoo with Mikayla while Starla packed but it will make the day too long. I think we all need to rest up tomorrow because the following 48 hours are going to be very rough on all of us. Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel, patience, rest on the plane so we can visit with family in CA, and just God’s grace to be on us for this trip home. We have really enjoyed some parts of China and others have been an “experience”, maybe I can write more later. We are going to be glad to get home though.

Wow, the days and time just slip away so quick. We arrived in Guangzhou on Saturday and had a pleasant flight. We don’t have free internet in the room (and I am not going to pay $15 a day for the hour or so I use it) so I have run down to Starbucks while she is sleeping, so this will be a fairly short post. It was Mikayla’s first airplane ride and she did wonderful. She didn’t care too much for being cramped up but other than that she did fine. I keep thinking of all the firsts she is experiencing with us (first plane, first time in a crowded airport, first time on a big bus, first time in a Walmart and McDonalds), just so many firsts and she takes them all like a trooper. She hardly fusses and when she does it is a pretty short fuss. It is nice to come to the White Swan hotel and see all the families that have adopted, some of our CCAI group that went to another province is here too so it was a nice little reunion because we last saw them in Hong Kong before we got the babies. It is cloudy here in Guangzhou, we thought the sun was going to shine today but it didn’t, we haven’t seen sunshine in over a week, literally.

Yesterday we filled out an hour and a half of paperwork for the US Consulate that our guide will take to the Consulate on our behalf tomorrow morning. Then yesterday evening we ate at the Cow and Bridge Thai restaurant, it was OK, not great. Today a bunch of people are having a few stomach problems though (us included) so I wonder if it was the food. Not bad enough to be considered “sick”, just “rumbling”. We also had the famous Red Couch photo, which of course meant a shopping trip before hand and then we also stopped on the way back from dinner. Stuff is so cheap here, like we got two traditional Chinese outfits for like $5, it is so cheap that it feels bad to bargain but it is fun too anyway. Starla got 5 Yuan off of a couple things which is like 85 cents or something.

Today we had our medical examination and Mikayla did wonderful and passed with flying colors. She is such a healthy baby. I do hear something in her chest from time to time and when she lays down (and she snores) I am wondering if she is a bit asthmatic. We will have to ask our doctor when we get home. This afternoon we are going to a Buddhist Temple, the Chen House (not sure what that is yet), and then a crafts place for… more shopping.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, just wanted to get the thoughts out there and throw up some pictures (I am behind on organizing them too), it really is crazy how quick life can get ahead of you when you have a child. Honestly, what is happening is when we put her down for a nap or for bed, since we are all in the same room and have to make it dark and quiet, we are falling asleep too. Which means I am going to be cranky later because I missed my nap so I could post to the internet So far the naps are my favorite part of parenthood, oh and the smiling laughing baby we have too.

Things we know about Mikayla: She does NOT like hats or hair bows, she does not like to lay down (even right after waking up if you try to lay her down she has a fit) and only lays down quietly when you are changing her, she does like to eat just about everything, she like headstands, she does like attention from other people but after a couple minutes does start looking for ma or da. She seems to be attaching to both of us but is a daddy’s girl, because of Starla’s knee she is not able to carry her much so I do most the carrying. She likes to look at herself in the mirror. Everybody just loves her so much because they all say how cute she is, and we must agree.

Our pictures from the first McDonalds visit have been emailed to me (thank you so much Lynn) and I just wanted to post Mikayla’s first McDonalds, the first of many many many many more. We got her a Happy meal that came with a little character that talks, in Chinese. We have NO idea what it is saying but it is a keepsake for sure.

She is napping now, it is time to start packing soon, we leave here tomorrow afternoon and have no idea how I am going to fit everything in our luggage. It will be a challenge for sure. I haven’t mentioned how small she is either. She is 23 months but she is fitting into her 12 month clothes, we figured maybe 18 month clothes when we were packing but glad we were prepared. She is a tiny little bean for sure and only weighs in at about 22 pounds. She didn’t really eat much for breakfast today, normally she eats anything and everything that is put in front of her. Overall I think she is adjusting well still but I think some of the happiness we saw all the time when we first got her was a protective mechanism. It is still wonderful to see what she has underneath, it is still a happy baby but one with some “spice”

We also received a bunch of official paperwork today such as her Chinese birth certificate, adoption paperwork, abandonment paperwork. Also a very unexpected report from Half The Sky that is in Chinese and we will have to have it translated, but when we opened it on the first page is a 4×6 color photograph of her when she was brought to the orphanage, still in her finding clothes. It was so very surprising and Starla and I almost both started crying in the room with everyone else. What an amazing gift.

Today was my birthday and I could think of no other way I would rather spend it than stuck in a hotel room because of the weather with our new daughter, truly. Today didn’t really feel like my birthday but this evening we went down to the hotel restaurant and had dinner. Starla had the Club sandwich that had an egg on it, Mikayla had pizza (which she didn’t seem to care about too much) and I had the buffet. The buffet had all kinds of good stuff on it that I probably can’t even remember. I had rib eye steak, some sushi and sushi rolls, and some eel. Oh then the good stuff, I tried spicy snake, duck tongue, spicy fried squid, baby octopus, turtle (it was still in the shell) and it had lots of little bones in it I really didn’t get much meat, some of the best scallops I have had, and some vegetables. The only thing I really couldn’t bring myself to try was the duck web (basically ducks feet) and that was because I couldn’t really figure out how to eat it and it still had the toe nail on it. This was exactly what I wanted to do, was to try some food I couldn’t get back home. It was an experience for sure, for the most part I wouldn’t search out most this food to eat again, however I would eat it again if faced with it. I am glad I tried these things. The waiters and waitress were having a little bit of a struggle it looked at deciding which one was going to give Mikayla attention. It was really a little flattering that they give Mikayla so much attention but also uncomfortable as we are in a critical bonding time and the Chinese women like to pick her up and talk to her in Chinese, which seem to confuse her a little bit. At one point we had 2 waitresses and a waiter at our table trying to hold her. I know they mean well and that they are as taken by her as we are but they really shouldn’t just pick up our babies.

Our guide most have told the hotel that my birthday was today, even though we had a little party the other day the hotel sent up a birthday cake for me, it was very nice and a nice way to end the day. Mikayla loves cake, and of course when we turned our head for just a minute the inevitable happened, we will let the pictures speak for themselves.

And for all the Mikayla junkies out there like me, here is the daily random Mikayla picture fix, she sure is WONDERFUL, I can’t wait to bring her home. China has been an experience but we are ready to come home now. She was actually a little crabby today for a while, which was actually a little bit of a relief considering we had only seen happiness and didn’t know if she would even show any other emotions. Oh, did I mention she is wonderful?

Today was another cold and rainy day here, it really is hard to enjoy the culture of the area when it is so miserable outside. Our group skipped the trip to Martyr’s park and instead just went to the Hunan Embroidery Research Center, aka the Hunan Embroidery Factory. It was actually pretty interesting, the intricate work that goes into these embroideries, they look just like paintings, so vivid and precise. First we toured a little museum area and honestly we were too busy looking and to far back to hear what was being said but there were embroidery pieces going back to I think 228 BC. There were some really neat 2 sided embroidery that was like in between glass, but the weird thing is that there was different patterns on each side but you could not tell there was anything on the other side while looking at a side- really cool.

Then we went into the “factory” area, which really was an area with about 10 women sitting at little stations hand embroidering. All the work is by hand and what they do is take a photograph and have an artist draw the outline onto the fabric, then they look at the photograph and match up the colors with the thread- very precisely. When they are done the embroidery looks just like the picture. They will even take a single thread and peel it down to a single strand if they need to get the right color and texture, very delicate work. We then bought Mikayla a couple keepsakes for when she gets older.

Not much else on the schedule for today, Mikayla is taking a nap and we will probably play around for a bit and then go to the dinner buffet tonight. She has been sort of grumpy today for the first time and we are not sure why, maybe she was just tired, maybe getting sick (I am fighting off something myself), maybe just now adjusting, it could be anything really, its just that it is the first time we have seen her like that. Nothing to worry about though.

Today we got up this morning and went to Walmart for supplies. One of these days I am going to learn to not leave the room without a camera. I had a small pocket camera that I carried when I didn’t want to carry the SLR around and it wasn’t available earlier and I didn’t want to lug the SLR along with the baby to Walmart since it was also the first time I used the Snugli to carry her. (I have later found that I think the little camera has either been lost or taken out of our room, I lost track of it days ago and just tonight had the time to look around for it. At least there weren’t too many untransferred pictures on it). Walmart here in Changsha is, well, different. First it just doesn’t seem as “modern” as home, it just has a feel of a discount retailer, maybe like a Dollar Store. This Walmart is 2 stories tall and is actually inside and above a shopping area, so it is on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building. We first went to the 3rd floor for diaper and clothes section and filled up on diapers. We were able to save a couple of the US diapers we brought for the trip home, since we have heard from many people that the Chinese diapers just don’t last as well and tend to have blow outs. Next was to the 2nd floor which was the grocery section for formula shopping. Ok, this is where the trip gets interesting. As we were walking to the formula section we had to pass by the deli section, the meat section, and the fish section. The deli section had your typical prepared foods, like fried chicken, chicken strips, fried duck. The next section was the fish section, which we didn’t go back into but as we passed in the aisle ways was live turtles and frogs… oh and remember this fish section wasn’t in the pet area. Next was the meat section which I had to go check out. On one side were some dried seasonings, dried duck with head attached (looked like an old rubber chicken). On the other side was bins full of different meats that people would just take tongs and scoop out how much they wanted of what. It looked very unsanitary. The next meat case had some meat in it with people telling the butcher what the wanted, all the while there was a tray of meat sitting on top of the case with people just grabbing the cuts they wanted. This tray wasn’t wrapped or anything, just a bunch of raw meat sitting out and people grabbing food off of it with their bare hands. Scary really. We finally found the formula and worked our way out of the store. Once we left the store we went to…McDonalds.

Yes, I caved and we went to the big M while here in China. It was really about the same as home but tasted just a tad different. It was nice to have a nice cold coke with ice. Since you can’t drink the water in China, you usually get a bottle of soda with no ice, at McDonalds they filter all their water and it is ok to drink. The big news here is that Mikayla has now had her first Happy Meal. I borrowed a camera from some other families and hope to get it emailed to me soon, I couldn’t pass up a picture of Mikayla’s first MickieD especially since it was in China. After that it was back to the room for a nap and me kicking myself hard in the pants for not bringing the camera, that’s twice this trip I have messed up and regretted not having it.

After nap we spent some time playing in the playroom and our room, and I was determined to make up for a lack of pictures so took some pictures of Mikayla playing. She doesn’t seem to like to play much with other kids, which surprises me considering the setting she came from, she just walks up and stares at them and doesn’t know what to do. She is most alive when it is just the three of us in our room then she like to be center of attention, ALL the time. She is turning into a daddy’s girl, but is also enjoying mama very much. In fact she now points to Starla and says “ma”, no “dad” yet. We had one little cry today which was my fault, she really is a happy happy baby. I am trying to do things to promote bonding and overcome some of the warning signs by holding her often, feeding her even though she can get food into her mouth on her own, trying to spend quiet time right before bed holding her and giving her a bottle.

Then this evening we met for dinner at a local restaurant, which was of course very good. Chinese food just tastes better in China- who woulda thunk it? Quick note on table seating here, the local restaurants we have been in have round tables with a lazy susan in the middle where all the food gets shared amongst everyone. This is so that everyone can share but also so that everyone can look at everyone else. Since there were enough people for two tables our guide told us he would order spicy for one table and regular for the other table- we picked spicy. In hindsight, when our guide who is from Hunan province picked to sit at the non spicy table we probably should have taken the hint. It really was not too hot though except for the Kung Pow Chicken with it’s red peppers in it. We also had some Brazilian beef, broccoli, corn, spicy eggplant, some kind of spicy soy dish, and fried rice.  I will say by the time dinner was over, everyone’s noses were running from the spice and the fluids were quickly leaving the glasses. Mikayla just had corn, fried rice, and rice conges- all of which was non spicy, what kind of masochists did you think we were? We still have not found anything or anytime she won’t eat, a perfect fit for us

God has some sense of humor though, he gave us a daughter that snores. Some of you will know the irony and the humor in that I just keep looking up and saying with a smile, “really, funny huh?”

I want to also say our in country CCAI guides have been FABULOUS! I have always heard good things about them but it is so true. I am really not to happy with the US staff but I have to say how happy I am with our CCAI decision. They really do take care of everything for us, here in Changsha and Guangzhou it is Jason and Raymond. The good thing about them is that they seem to think of everything, big and small. When we went to dinner tonight for example, he called the restaurant ahead of time to see if they had enough high chairs. They only had 4, which worked out anyway. He called the local market and told them they needed to buy more formula and diapers, called Walmart to see which ones had Western restaurants nearby. The examples could go on and on, there are countless times everyday that you see the things they do that you don’t “see”. They answer any question we have no matter how big or small or stupid and they answer with enthusiasm.  It is great to see their faces first thing in the morning and the first thing they ask is how you are and how is the baby. Really top notch so far and on the ball.

Thank you everyone who has left comments on the blog or emailed. I have read all of them and they are very nice to see. Sorry I haven’t replied individually to you all.

This was a pleasent evening, after we got back from all the paperwork we put Mikayla down for a nap. A couple other dad’s and myself and our guide took off to find the local photo processing place to get the pictures developed on the cameras the orphanage returned to us. It ended up being just across the street and we should have them returned on CD tomorrow. When I got back I layed around for about 15 minutes and just when I decided I too was going to take a nap I looked over at Mikayla and her eyes were wide open looking at me. Well, I couldn’t just ignore her and hope she went back to sleep so I put my hand in her crib and she held my hand back. She actually pulled herself to me and I decided to get her up, she had slept about an hour. I tried to get her to lay down with me in bed but she was done laying and started playing around. She sure is a joy to play with (and lots of energy). In fact we found some documents in the bag from the CWI that was in Chinese with several different question- one was “What makes her happy” and the answer was basically “when she is playing”, another one said “What makes her unhappy/sad” and the answer was basically “when she is not playing”. So that should give you an idea of what kind of busy days we are having. Her favorite game right now is carrying things back and forth between us (and sometimes teasing us by pretending like she is going to give it to us and then running away with it) and also she loves to be tossed around and tickled.

This evening we had a birthday party for a guy in our travel group who’s birthday was yesterday (on gotcha day, can you believe it?) and for me for my birthday this Thursday. All the families gathered in the play room, sung happy birthday and also had birthday cake. I have received the best birthday present I could ever have and also got to celebrate my birthday in China- I guess Starla is off the hook this year

Mikayla continues to eat everything and anything we put in front of her, we have yet to find anything she does not like. Oh and she most certainly does love birthday cake and lots of it

Tomorrow is the trip to the local Walmart. It’s a good thing too because we only have like 4 diapers left from the US and we need to save as many of those as we can for the trip home. Someone (that would be me) forgot to pick up diapers Sunday when we got into province and the group made an impromtu trip to the local market. I got formula and rice ceral but for some reason I was thinking we had diapers, which we do but needed to save as many as we could.

Sorry, no pictures tonight. It’s funny how quickly time priorites change, 2 days ago I would spend however long was needed to transfer pictures, sort them out and get them ready for a post. Now, I just want to get the post up so I can chill out, decompress, and get ready for tomorrow. Laters……