Here WE go!

Did you know that God answers prayers?  We prayed that someone would come forward and either travel to China with Deanna or help watch our 4 children.  God answered in a big way.  In fact, one saint from our church answered both!  After discussion with her husband, Kris offered to leave her work and her family to join Deanna on a trip to China.  She also gave us an alternate choice of just coming to live at our house for two weeks so that Matt could go instead.  We are SO HUMBLED by your generosity Kris McClelland!

In the end, we decided that Matt should really be there for the adoption and help with the bonding.  We also decided that we would not feel comfortable leaving Hannah for two weeks with someone she didn't really know.  So, we made our decision ... we're taking the whole family to China!

I know what you are thinking ... you're crazy!  The kids are going to miss school, Nathan's food allergies, kids throwing tantrums due to lack of sleep, the extra cost.  The list goes on and on.  Here's the good news ... our kids are going to experience a new culture, our family is going to have some serious bonding time, everyone is going to be there to welcome Maelee into our family, and Micah will get to celebrate his 8th birthday in his home town of Shanghai.  How amazing is that?!
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Once we made our decision to take the entire clan, we urgently needed to get U.S. passports for Micah and Hannah.  So, on Tuesday, October 11, Matt took a day off work and we all drove up to Chicago in our bus.  The U.S. passport office is downtown so we all got to experience a little bit of life in a big city.  The day was full of blessings: open air lot close to our destination that was willing to park Bertha, arriving with 30 minutes to spare, and SAME DAY passport printing.

In addition to the getting the passports, we also used the day as a mini boot camp for international travel.  We got to practice lots things during the few hours we we were there.

Going through security at a government building (yes .. each kid thought it was a good idea to bring a backpack and water bottle with them)

Waiting quietly for our number to be called

Walking single file down the street

NOT staring at beggars and others

Crossing the street without getting ran over (Micah) or having an anxiety attack (Nathan)

Walking to a destination when you know where you are going (e.g. Buckingham Fountain)

Walking to a destination when you have no clue where you are going (e.g. The Bean)

Holding your pee when you are in rush hour traffic downtown and there is nowhere to pull over ... thankfully we didn't have to practice the bottle technique which is common overseas.

Getting through a Seven Eleven without knocking everything off the shelves or throwing a huge fit

NOT letting a stranger borrow our cell phone

Celebrating the issuance of government documents!