bodner003

I am finally getting a few minutes to sit and write about our day yesterday. There is so much to share, so much to process. As I write this, we are sitting in the Beijing airport. We thought we had a flight out this morning but apparently, the wrong flight was booked. Long story but here's the short... We are able to get on a flight today at 2:30, traveling to Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia, Emily's originating city. She was abandoned in Inner Mongolia and the law says our "gotcha day" and adoption paperwork has to occur there. We will meet Emily in our hotel lobby 24 hours from now and will have her forever. FOREVER ours. Unreal. Before I write anymore, let me say that Brady is fine. We are pretty sure his nose is not broken but his sweet face is very banged up and swollen. We are calling his little incident "The Great Fall" (which happened at The Great Wall). It was scary but once again, God has been faithful in maintaining a clear (but bumpy) ...

I am tired. My thoughts are jumbled. Please don't expect anything exceptional or inspirational. :) Our hotel room is very comfortable and we have everything we need. Our bodies have not adjusted to the time difference. It is 4:30pm on Friday right now in Beijing. We just got back to our hotel room and Seamus and Brady are conked out. Our day was extremely adventurous and we are glad to be in our room. We woke up this morning to a breakfast buffet downstairs. The spread is elaborate. There are foods covering several tables. Omelets and Belgian waffles? Not so much. How 'bout "salted fish" for breakfast? The choices were amusing to say the least but we were happy to see some traditional American style options as well. I ate bacon, corn on the cob, fried rice, and a chocolate muffin with a cup of coffee. Our sweet guide, Heidi, met us in the lobby after breakfast and we drove to The Great Wall of China. It was truly the most magnificent man-made thing I've ever seen....

We made it to Beijing! It was a long haul but we are finally here. The long flight was actually nice. It was pretty empty and we each had our own row of 3 seats! So we sprawled out, watched movies, and slept comfortably. We thought we’d be flying east from D.C. but it turns out we traveled north through Canada, crossed the arctic ocean, and passed over Russia to get here. We basically went “over” the globe to get here. Because of this path, it has been sunny since we left our house Wednesday morning. We got to Beijing around 3:30pm (2:30am CST). We actually traveled with the sun so we basically skipped a night. Our bodies are very confused by the fact that it’s been daylight for about 24 hours. Our very sweet guide, Heidi, met us at the airport and drove us to get some bottled water before heading to our hotel. We are staying at the Inner Mongolia Grand in Beijing and it is very nice. Brady's a little disappointed that there aren't any English t.v. channels. :) Heidi...

It is with great anticipation and excitement that we write this letter to you. As you know, we will be traveling to China tomorrow to finalize our adoption and bring home our daughter, Emily Hope! We are deep in the trenches of preparing for her arrival. We feel like a big part of that preparation is to prepare YOU for her arrival as well. There are so many unknowns and we love all your excitement and questions about her homecoming. We feel it will be beneficial to Emily if we can be open about our expectations of friends and family upon her arrival. We have gone through extensive training with medical doctors, psychologists, therapists, and social workers. We have learned what we can expect from adopting an orphaned child, as well as how to cope with expected behaviors. You have been hearing so many great things about Emily but we don’t often discuss the ugly realities of what she has been through. In the first 2 years of her life, she has experienced great trauma. She has experienc...

If you need to get in touch with us during our trip to China, here are the best ways to do so... Email. Seamus and I will both be checking our email accounts daily while we are there. Viber. This is a free app that you can download on your phone. It allows you to text and call others who have the Viber app, all for free! Seamus and I both have this app on our phones. Facebook. I'll be on Facebook at least once a day and you can message me that way if it's not an emergency. Skype. We plan to Skype daily with our younger kiddos back home. We'll be Skyping from my account so if you're looking for us, we're at LauraLoman1. Or you can search for me by email address ( lauraloman@yahoo.com ). If there is an emergency or you need us immediately, please feel free to text or call us as you normally would. It will cost us $1.99 per minute to talk on our regular line. To receive a text from you, we will only be charged 5 cents. It costs 50 cents per outgoing text, however. If t...

We are leaving for China in 11 DAYS!!! Want a peak in to what we'll be doing when we get there? As you know, we fly out of New Orleans on March 26th. We will go to Beijing first. We will spend one day touring The Great Wall. We will spend the next day at Emily's foster orphanage. Yes, we will be spending an entire day with her, in her own environment, even before our official "gotcha day". It's a little unheard of and we are beyond privileged to have this opportunity. The next day we fly to Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, which is the province where she came from. "Gotcha day" will be the 31st. At that point, we never have to separate from her again. That week we will be working on her passport and some sightseeing in her province. That Thursday, we will visit her original orphanage, see where she was abandoned, and acquire any information we can. After several days there, we will all fly down to Guangzhou, where the American Embassy is. We will...

Flights are booked! All of the events over the past year have led up to this one moment. The moment we board that plane. We received TA (travel approval) and our CA (consulate appointment) this morning. I knew why our social worker was calling. I saw her number on my phone and my stomach dropped. It's the moment every international adoptive parent waits for. There are a lot of calls that we wait for. A lot of them are good. Some aren't so good. But the call where we find out we have TA is THE call. The emotion felt when we hear "TA" trumps all other. It's the moment I literally felt God giving me a high five. VICTORY! Victory. That's what this is. God vividly revealed to us that adoption is his number one priority. He adopted us. He calls us to live a life that points to who He is and what He does. He adopts. So we adopt. He called us to live out what He has done. This past year... the events, emotion, heartache and joy have all lead to the victory that He pro...

"Good morning... with some wonderful news! Your article 5 was picked up today and overnighted to the CCCWA!" This is the text I received from our social worker this morning. This means Emily's visa is complete and has been sent to the adoption department in China. We now wait for TA (travel approval). The expected wait for TA is about 2 weeks but these have been coming in under a week lately. Once we receive TA, we schedule our consulate appointment and book our flights! Best case scenario... We fly out on March 19th, "gotcha day" on March 24th, consulate appointment March 31st, fly home on April 1st. Likely scenario... We fly out on March 26th, gotcha March 31st, consulate appointment April 7th, fly home April 8th. Worst case scenario... Fly out April 2nd, gotcha April 7th, consulate appointment April 14th, fly home April 15th. Hoping to announce soon that we have TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!

We will be traveling soon. We don't have exact dates quite yet but we know we're close. It's important to reflect on what we expect out of our "gotcha day" and beyond. We have been trained throughout this process, to expect the worst and hope for the best. If I'm being honest with myself (and now with you), I often gloss over what probably will be. We see adorable pictures of Emily. We talk about her like she's always been a part of our family. But Emily's reality is very different from the way we sometimes view it. The truth is harsh and ugly. Emily has experienced more trauma in the 2 years she has been alive than most of us will experience in a lifetime. Emily was born premature, with a heart defect and cerebral palsy. She was abandoned days after her birth and was immediately institionalized. She spent 6 months in an institution where she likely had little attention. She was uprooted about 6 months later and entered the care of Harmony House, hundr...