Jess Goes to China

These Made My Day!

Got a sweet email from a staffmember at NDFH today-- I miss you so much, Ganlu! She also sent over 2 new pictures of my boy. Looks like he's walking all on his own now. I'm so proud of you, baby!

How cute is he?

handsome samuel!

had to post these precious pictures I took of Samuel in the days before i left.

I miss China terribly-- I dream about it and the kids almost every night.

 

Restless.

At the end of my time in China, I was very sad to leave, but getting a little excited to go back to the US. I felt ready to see my family and friends, wash my clothes and dry them in a real dryer, have a bowl of cereal with real milk, etc. etc. I had a sneaking suspicion, however, that after a week of being at home, I'd be ready to pack up my things and go back to China.

I was right. It's been about a week since my return home, and the excitement has just about worn off. No offense, America... and no offense, family and friends, but I really, really miss my babies and my New Day family. If I had it my way, I'd be on a plane back to China and would come back and visit home again in another 6 months.

I guess that is one thing I am still learning... that there are seasons for everything and when your time is up you just have to move forward... for now, anyway. I hope I'm able to spend another season of my life in China some day.

Jetlag Log

Monday: 11 PM - 7:30 AM

Tuesday: 11 PM - 6 AM (and 2 hour nap during the day)

Wednesday: 2 AM - 6 AM

Thursday: 9 PM - 4:30 AM (and 3 hour nap during the day)

I don't know that I've ever experienced jetlag this bad before. I feel like I'm living in a fog and I cannot maintain consciousness... no matter how hard I try. I have not truly felt awake or "with it" since I've been home. I am literally in a battle just to keep my eyes open. I wonder if it's because this time I was gone for 6 months (instead of the usual 3 week vacation in Hong Kong). Whatever it is, I hope it goes away. I've been trying to keep as normal a sleep schedule as possible, but I find myself taking long naps during the day and I don't even remember ever falling asleep. 

starting to process

It's been almost a week since I left China. I have learned SO much there but have been "lazy" about posting/writing about it. I think it's because I don't want to really admit that I'm gone! I have loved being home and have been blessed to see my family and friends, but if I had money for a plane ticket back to China I would be on the plane right now! At the same time, I know God has His perfect timing and that my time there in China (at least this time around...) was up. I am excited to see how He will use my China experiences here in the US.

That being said, I will try my best to be diligent about posting things I've learned. I think I might split it up into different topics instead of writing several long posts. I promise to post some more pictures, too, even if they're unrelated to the topic at hand. I took around 4,000 pictures and so I've got a good supply!

Stay tuned :)

Taken on my laptop (p.s. look at my pretty bulletin board!):

home.

just a quick post to let everyone know i'm home safely. i have a lot of thoughts and will blog about them soon. here's a picture to hold you over :) this is from when I visited Shaun @ his foster family.

last full day (pictures to come later)

Just a short post. Today was my last full day here. It was wonderful. I did morning and afternoon preschool as usual. At around 4:30 PM, Ganlu went with me to visit Shaun at his foster home. Shaun is doing great. His foster family loves him SO much, and that puts my heart at rest. His foster mom says she'll bring him in the morning tomorrow so I can spend time with him before I go (I leave at 3 PM). I am so grateful for that.

After my visit with Shaun, I rode my bike back to the foster home, and was surprised by 60 people waiting in the backyard! Turns out they had organized a surprise goodbye party! It was a lot of fun. We ate dinner and had cake and chatted a lot. Then we gathered around and several people shared some very kind words and memories. I got some goodbye gifts (which included 2 t-shirts with my favorite baby boys on them -- shaun and judah!) I was overwhelmed (in a good way!) and felt so blessed by my New Day family. They even brought out some of the kids (Robert, Vincent, Ethan) to sing a song and recite a poem. That was really sweet.

After everyone left, I went to put my stuff back into my room and then headed over to the foster home to spend some time with the nannies. We chatted about going home and my family and when I'm coming back. That was a really special time. I have come to really love the nannies and just admire them so much for their love for the children. They are people I will definitely miss!

Now I'm back in my room and am about to start packing up a storm. Please lift me up during my travels. Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Hong Kong to spend the weekend with relatives. I will arrive back in the States on Monday evening! 

See you real soon!

Judah turns 2!

Today, we had a mini-celebration for Judah's birthday. We'll have a big party with all the other August babies at the end of the month, but we also wanted to celebrate on Judah's actual birthday. Judah turned 2 today. He is one of our miracle babies-- by all accounts he is not supposed to be alive today. He has severe heart disease and has been deemed inoperable thus far. I know that his Father put Judah here for a reason, and I cannot wait to see how this sweet boy continues to grow and make progress.

Happy birthday, baby! I'm so glad I'm still in China so I could share your special day with you.

matched.

My buddy Samuel was officially matched with a family today. I'm going to copy an email I sent to some of the past interns when I heard the news:

in the past couple months, samuel has been my little buddy. he has suddenly decided we are inseparable and wants me to hold him and play with him all the time. he is content to just sit on my lap and hug me (super cute). anyway, today after afternoon preschool, we were sitting on the sofa in the playroom and he had his arms around my neck and was just hanging out. ganlu comes in and guess what she tells me... he's been matched! his family is in canada and they got their PA today. i got to tell him that he has a baba and a mama! he was really excited (though i'm not sure he really understands the implications of it...) and wanted to tell his nanny right away! i am so happy that my heart could burst. this sweet boy has been waiting so long and needs to go home! hopefully he'll get prosthetics once he's adopted, too. so now on our website my buddy's got a star next to his name!

This is wonderful, wonderful news. Samuel has a family who knows the Father and who loves him already! It was such an honor to be able to hold this child and tell him he has a mom and dad. He was so excited. What happened right afterward, though, was really hard. Ethan came up to me and asked if he had a family, too. This is silly because he's been matched since April and skypes with his family every week. He skyped with them this morning! So I said, "yes, silly, you do!" I didn't see Robert on the other side of me. He ran up and asked, "What about me? Do I have a family?" Robert's papers are not even submitted by his orphanage yet. He has no chance of being matched until they are submitted. I had to tell him that no, he doesn't have a family yet. This broke my heart. Robert wants a family so badly and always gets SO excited for the other kids when we find out they've been matched. He has such a sweet spirit and I'm lifting him up daily that he will join a forever family soon.

tomorrow

Tomorrow, Shaun leaves to go to his foster family. Please lift me up because I am going to miss this boy so much. I know I'm going to cry, and I'm not a big crier. His foster mom has 2 foster kids now (Cooper is one of them! He's leaving in a couple months to go to his forever family). She is so good with them and I know it will be great for Shaun to have a family environment.

I can tell she loves him so much already. He isn't so sure about her yet, though. He only really wants me to hold him (although he just started getting used to his downstairs nannies and is doing so well with them) so it was hard. His foster mom came for the past 4 days to spend time with him and have him get used to her. He still isn't so sure and whenever he sees me cries for me to take him from her. I've been trying to keep my distance to help him with the transition.

Here's a recent picture of us. I am hiding behind him because I had a huge mosquito bite on my EYE and it looked like i had been punched in the face... and he is upset because his foster mom had just been holding him and he didn't like it one bit. So this is neither of our finest moments but hey, here we are:

Behind us is a half-finished bulletin board i've been working on for the preschool! I finished it today.

Anyway please lift me up and especially lift Shaun up. It will be a tough transition for him but I know he'll eventually be fine and do so well there. He leaves tomorrow afternoon. I am going to ask if I can visit their home next week (maybe the day before I leave China).