Giddy Up!

It's been over a year of paperwork and waiting and hoping and loving a little girl that we've never met and we leave in one week. One week. It's finally here.

On Feb 1, the kids started the paper chain countdown.

When this paper chain runs out, on Feb 17, K-Man, Q-Boo, and I will board a plane for China. We will do a much more complicated, twenty-four hour version, of this:

Back at home the boys, Middle Child and Wild Child, will start their own paper chain.

It's kinda cool.  The paper chain is color-coded to each kid and to gifts inside this box:

Every day while we are gone, when each kid pulls his paper chain off, he will also pick one of the color-coded gifts.  The boys are so super excited about this that they keep asking exactly when it is that we will be leaving. Really makes a girl feel loved. :) When the paper chain and the gifts are finally gone, they will find this sign:

Luna's Welcome Home banner (each kid was responsible for a section of drawings. I betcha you can figure out which ones:)

Remember Lovegood, the gift that I bought for Luna, Christmas 2014, when she was just a "maybe" and an "I'm following my sign posts" and a "dare I hope?" Remember her?  She's packed. She'll go to the Civil Affairs building to meet Luna with us.

I even ordered these amazing dolls from A Doll Like Me.  She matched the girls' skin tones, hair, and eyes from photos and discussions with me.  Q-Boo's doll even has a scar for a belly button, like she does.  They come with hats and bows and tiny glasses.  Adorable.  I've been on her list since last June and the dolls have come in just in time to take with us to China.  I'm doing everything that I can to keep them secret from Q-Boo until we get there. We'll give them to the girls as soon we are all finally together.

I'd been holding it together, refusing to get too excited, waiting patiently on the time to pass. <points to self>  Watch me not freak out. I'm okay.


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So, here’s where we are in this story: The hat has been shoved down tightly over the head, boots have been laced up, the horse has been saddled, the cinch has been tightened, weapons have been loaded, checked and doubled checked, and then stowed in saddle bags. Rations have been packed, the bedroll has been attached securely behind the saddle, the coat is zipped, the cinch is rechecked and tightened again.  And then the music stops as our protagonist stands silently, reigns in one hand, both hands on the saddle, the only sound is the wind as it pushes bits of hair around the protagonist’s face.  What’s happening?  Well, since I’ve been in this position, now more than a few times in my life, I can tell you what’s happening.  You’ve been there, you know.  The protagonist is overthinking the coming journey and overthinking can suck the joy right out of every experience. Yes, it’s going to be hard - all the best, most worthwhile, journeys are. 

(And, if you aren’t gonna see yourself as the hero in your own life’s story, what is the whole damn point, anyway?)

There I am, another life ago.  

 I'll get there again but, for now,

the kids are my horses (and my art.)

                                                     

                                                                                                                     

That had been my situation for a while, overthinking had become my perpetual position, and it was stealing the joy out of the whole deal.  Then, a completely unexpected email popped up from my adoption agency.  Someone from the agency had visited Luna's orphanage and taken photos and another video of her.

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Next, someone posted this video, "Children of the Moon,"  to one of my albinism pages.  I KNEW that they were called "Children of the Moon,"  I KNEW that she shines for a reason, but I could not find the evidence, anywhere. Finally, there it is.

Right. I am no longer interested in any thing other than getting my girl.  Overthinking is done. Joy has descended.

Mount the hell up and let's go!

Hang on Luna, I’m coming as fast as I can get there. <laughs out loud>

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Parking Lot Moon

Travel Approval!

(Can I just take a moment and tell you how good it feels to write this post? It does, it really, really does.)

We have Travel Approval! This is the last step before we buy plane tickets, we know when we're leaving but before I tell you all about that, let me get us caught up...

Well, there were a bunch of moons. Let's start with this one, the one that we saw on the way to the beach at Thanksgiving:

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"Vacation Moon"

Dec 3
Found this post from 2011. I'm there, again.

 Oct 11, 2011

 <beats mail person to mailbox>

 <thumbs frantically through mail>

 <tosses junk mail>

 <thumbs through mail again>

 <cracks recycle bin and peeks inside, maybe it was mixed in with junk mail?>

 <$%^&% ! No, of course not!>

 "ACK!!!!" <throws large fit inside of her tiny head> "I WANT MY PAPERWORK!"

 <sigh> Think it'll work?

On Dec 7, our  I800 Approval came in.  Earlier, we'd filled out an I 800a which basically was requesting permission from US Immigration to adopt a child internationally.  This form is the permission to specifically adopt Luna.

On Dec 8, our NVC letter came. Issued by the National Visa Center, this letter tells the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China that we've been deemed eligible to adopt. (Our agency said that we could wait up to two weeks for this one so I was surprised to see it, so soon.)

On Dec 12, Luna's ornament for the tree came in.  I love this thing.

On Dec 21, I finally finished Luna's stocking.

There's a hurty hanging from my mantle.

Dec 24

You guys, I've been brave, tomorrow I'll be brave again, but right now there's a hurty hanging from my mantle and a lump in my throat. She should be here. It'll probably be just another day for her and she'll have no idea that people, literally 1/2 way around the world, feel such feelings for her. It's hard to explain to other people why there are tears on your face for a child that you've never met. But there are and to the people who get that and who continue to be there, thank you.

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"Christmas Eve Moon"

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"Christmas Moon"
(gift from K-Man)

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"Shūshu D Moon"

On Dec 29, we received our Article 5 which is issued by the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China and informs the CCCWA (the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption) that we've met all US government requirements for adoption. It, then, asks the CCCWA to issue our travel approval.  Travel approval is issued by the CCCWA and is our invitation to come to China to meet Luna and complete the adoption.

On Dec 30, we received a new update on Luna which told us, basically, that she was only a tiny bit bigger than Q-Boo, that she had received our album and letter, that she "...was very happy about going to America...she loves fruits the best such as apple, banana, grapes and pears...she is easy going and she likes singing, among her peers she is one of the ' big sisters' who knows to take care of the little sisters and brothers." Yay! I'll take any information that I can get. Perhaps, most amazingly, I also received a phone call that Luna's orphanage had agreed to a video chat and that they wanted to do it the next evening. The next evening.

Dec 30

Soooooo, do you think that Emily Post could tell me what would be appropriate to wear while SKYPING with my daughter in China? Regardless, we're doing it. Tomorrow

night. Breathe, A-Girl.

So, at 8pm the night of the 31st, for us, and 10am the morning of the 1st, for her, this appeared on my computer screen:

Dec 31

Ok! We spent about 40 minutes on a three-way chat with Luna. She looks and sounds wonderful. Her favorite colors are red and green and she wants a watch. She said that she could be my little teacher for learning Chinese and she is all set and excited about flying from Hangzhou to Guangzhou and then to the United States. They seem to be doing a really good job of preparing her. Her teacher asked us about Q-Boo, they could tell she was from China and they wanted to know if she would continue learning Chinese with Luna and the rest of us. Q-Boo counted to ten for them in Chinese. Luna told us to hurry and come get her. <huge smile> Now somebody hold me down, I may just swim on over there, right now! Happy New Year to you guys, I'm having a great one.

That really was the gist. She seemed very okay. She really seemed interested in Q-Boo and waved at her and the boys. After we'd all paraded in front of the camera, she asked specifically to see Baba, again and he put his smiling face right into the camera so that she could get a good look at him. It was chaotic and loud and hard to follow anything that was said -three little pictures (with multiple people in every picture) with another language and about a three second delay, and my kids going nuts around us- but it was awesome.

I was so glad for our Chinese lessons, before we'd even established video contact, I could hear them talking to her about "Māmā, Bàba" in excited voices. They kept saying "nǎ yīgè" which roughly translates to "that one," so I assumed that they were pointing to the camera, "Mama and Baba will be there, on that camera," or something similar. I understood her when she said "I love you" in Chinese and we ALL shouted it back. Then, I answered "you're welcome" in Chinese to something that she said and she gave me a thumbs up. I understood when our interpreter would translate words that I knew like, "Guangxi" and "teacher" and all the family words. We referred to Q-Boo as mèimei and the boys as gēgē.  We've learned a LOT in less than a year.

She was also small and tiny and insecure. It made my heart hurt. A lot of it was more scripted than I wanted it to be, "Tell Mama and Baba that you love them." " I love you, Mama and Baba." But there were times when she definitely was "there" and definitely interested- it's a cultural thing that children do not make eye contact with adults out of respect plus she's photosensitive and the lights of the cameras and my living room light over my shoulder etc. had to be hurting her. So, those times when she was wide-eyed and searching in the camera meant more than the times when she'd kinda cave in and hide behind her hair. She heard our voices, she said that she could see me, she knows that we are real and that the orphanage people are "in" on this which can be important to a child not feeling "stolen." She heard us tell her when we'll be there - "right after Chinese New Year, in about a month and a 1/2," she understands that there is a language issue, she understands about the huge plane ride and that the US is very far away. We videoed it and we showed it to the family at our New Year's, they kept talking about what she understood and didn't understand and finally I said, "What she for sure understands, at this point, is that she better keep those orphanage people happy." That's as much the truth as anything. So, it was very good...and made me more desperate to get there.

We don't have to wait much longer to get there and, from now on...

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"DGar Moon"

...because on January  8 , 2016  we received Travel Approval.

I can now tell you that we have approval to leave February 19 on a big ole' plane. We'll fly from Alabama (to ATL) to Detroit and then chase the sun west...for hours... until finally and actually, the next day, we'll land in Shanghai, China. 

I have so much to do...so much...until then!