Grace just officially became a US Citizen!
Grace meets the rest of her family for the first time.
We are home after 3 flights and 30 hours and what a wonderful feeling it is! Grace had her Gotcha moment with her brothers finally!! We came down the stairs to baggage claim and there they were standing with pink "It's a girl!" balloons and big smiles and shouts of "There she is!" It was a little bit of chaos as you can imagine. They were there along with my mother and our dear friends Ed, Jaime, Zac and Amanda Cook. I immediately started boohooing like a baby and hugged them all. Grace was a little overwhelmed. She smiled at many of the boys and even gave my Mom a kiss on the forehead (to her great delight) but then had a bit of a meltdown. I was holding her, but she seemed to lose track of where Pat and I were and can you imagine her fear of another abandonment? So Pat took her and she calmed down and whenever she started to well up with tears, one of us would be there to reassure her that everything was OK. She had tears intermingled with smiles and all of our airport guests were very considerate of her feelings given they all just wanted to hug and kiss her!
When we left the ground in China Grace and I were looking out the window and I said, "Good-bye land of Grace's birth. Thank you God for allowing her to be born here and thank you that she can now come to America to be with us and to learn about you in freedom. May she come to love you and trust you as we do."
God worked out the pieces of our puzzle to get us home last night. When we got to Beijing we got into the loooooooooooooong Continental line to re-check our bags to Newark, NJ. We were at the very end of this line that snaked all the way to the front and we noticed after about 10 minutes that the line was not moving. While we were standing there, someone came up to me and said, "Come with me." Obediently we followed, not sure where we were going, but hoping it would help us get our bags checked a bit sooner. Grace, who hadn't seemed heavy all week, was feeling heavier than usual to my arms as we carried around her and our 3 carry-ons and tried to get our 4 other very heavy gift laden down bags checked. She took us around the corner to be next in line at another counter!
When we got to the counter, however, there was a note that said, "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but this flight had a late arrival and will leave at 6:40 and arrive 8:25". Oh boy. Our connecting flight was at 8:45. No way were we getting home as much as we asked, "Do you have any partnering companies that could fly us home?" It was not only too much for the translation, but it seemed hopeless. The best we could get out of it would be they'd put us up for the night in Newark and we'd fly out at 8:25 AM on Saturday. They also would give us 3 seats for the long flight from Beijing. What could we do but accept?
Once we were flying, we had some hope, however, that we might actually get home. We flew Eastward and picked up the jet stream and it helped us gain an hour and arrive at 7:40. Grace had the most beautiful flights. She didn't cry on any of them except during a couple BM's because that diarrhea we all prayed about has turned into a bit of constipation. But she slept from about 10 to 6 which was just incredible.
Once we landed, we hustled to immigration where we stood in the Foreign line because until they stamped Grace's paperwork at this port of entry, she was not considered an American citizen. We got in line and discovered to our disappointment that we were in the slowest line. Everyone else was moving but us. An attendant came over and said, "Here - go here" and we obeyed (again) and then watched as the line we had just come from start to move and we were stuck again. We ended up being the next to last people being served and we thought we were doomed. Well, I did. My optimistic husband, said, "You don't know if we've missed it yet," but it was after 8 at this point, and we were still not through customs.
Grace became an American citizen, and I couldn't even snap a picture (official rules), but we said, "Yeah! You're a US citizen!" and the man who helped us was very nice. Although he did say, "You know -- you didn't have to go through this line. You could have gone through that one over there." And he pointed to the area where it was totally cleared out of people!
We rushed then to baggage claim, paid the $5 for the cart. That's one thing China has on us -- they offer those carts for free! And we hustled to the Customs area. We were the last, and the man just smiled, took our declarations card and sent us through. It was now 8:15, and we saw a little desk with a Continental person and we told her how much we'd like to make it home. She started flying her fingers over the keyboard and said, "You're in luck. The flight is delayed by 15 minutes and you will make it if you hurry." She grabbed our bags right there and we flew! We picked up the train -- headed in the wrong direction! -- but made it to the gate at about 8:45. The flight was totally packed, and we found out as we boarded that people were waiting at the gate hoping to get on the flight. God got us home folks, that's all I can say, and we were so grateful!
Pictures were being snapped and we hope to post some later today. We're a bit groggy and Grace spent the night as if it was her mid-day so she took in a long nap but not much more last night. Pat and I tag-teamed a bit on the sleeping, but it will be rough-going for a while as we get her adjusted to the time change. A foreign correspondent was in our group and she travels a great bit and said, "They say, and I have found to be true, that for every hour time change, it takes a day to adjust." That means we have about 12 days to get Grace on our schedule and we'd appreciate your continued prayers in this regard.
It's 7 AM and we kept the family up way too late last night with giving presents and getting to know Grace. I hope they sleep in this morning, and I hope Pat and I can take a few naps today and start to mess up, if you will, Grace's sleeping pattern. I've never been happier to be home, however, with fresh running water, ice for our drinks. fresh fruit to eat, and even lettuce to eat -- all things we didn't have on our trip. And of course, the best is being home with my dear boys who have been waiting longer than us to see their sweet sister.
We'll keep you posted about her adjustments and ours! Home sweet home!
When we left the ground in China Grace and I were looking out the window and I said, "Good-bye land of Grace's birth. Thank you God for allowing her to be born here and thank you that she can now come to America to be with us and to learn about you in freedom. May she come to love you and trust you as we do."
God worked out the pieces of our puzzle to get us home last night. When we got to Beijing we got into the loooooooooooooong Continental line to re-check our bags to Newark, NJ. We were at the very end of this line that snaked all the way to the front and we noticed after about 10 minutes that the line was not moving. While we were standing there, someone came up to me and said, "Come with me." Obediently we followed, not sure where we were going, but hoping it would help us get our bags checked a bit sooner. Grace, who hadn't seemed heavy all week, was feeling heavier than usual to my arms as we carried around her and our 3 carry-ons and tried to get our 4 other very heavy gift laden down bags checked. She took us around the corner to be next in line at another counter!
When we got to the counter, however, there was a note that said, "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but this flight had a late arrival and will leave at 6:40 and arrive 8:25". Oh boy. Our connecting flight was at 8:45. No way were we getting home as much as we asked, "Do you have any partnering companies that could fly us home?" It was not only too much for the translation, but it seemed hopeless. The best we could get out of it would be they'd put us up for the night in Newark and we'd fly out at 8:25 AM on Saturday. They also would give us 3 seats for the long flight from Beijing. What could we do but accept?
Once we were flying, we had some hope, however, that we might actually get home. We flew Eastward and picked up the jet stream and it helped us gain an hour and arrive at 7:40. Grace had the most beautiful flights. She didn't cry on any of them except during a couple BM's because that diarrhea we all prayed about has turned into a bit of constipation. But she slept from about 10 to 6 which was just incredible.
Once we landed, we hustled to immigration where we stood in the Foreign line because until they stamped Grace's paperwork at this port of entry, she was not considered an American citizen. We got in line and discovered to our disappointment that we were in the slowest line. Everyone else was moving but us. An attendant came over and said, "Here - go here" and we obeyed (again) and then watched as the line we had just come from start to move and we were stuck again. We ended up being the next to last people being served and we thought we were doomed. Well, I did. My optimistic husband, said, "You don't know if we've missed it yet," but it was after 8 at this point, and we were still not through customs.
Grace became an American citizen, and I couldn't even snap a picture (official rules), but we said, "Yeah! You're a US citizen!" and the man who helped us was very nice. Although he did say, "You know -- you didn't have to go through this line. You could have gone through that one over there." And he pointed to the area where it was totally cleared out of people!
We rushed then to baggage claim, paid the $5 for the cart. That's one thing China has on us -- they offer those carts for free! And we hustled to the Customs area. We were the last, and the man just smiled, took our declarations card and sent us through. It was now 8:15, and we saw a little desk with a Continental person and we told her how much we'd like to make it home. She started flying her fingers over the keyboard and said, "You're in luck. The flight is delayed by 15 minutes and you will make it if you hurry." She grabbed our bags right there and we flew! We picked up the train -- headed in the wrong direction! -- but made it to the gate at about 8:45. The flight was totally packed, and we found out as we boarded that people were waiting at the gate hoping to get on the flight. God got us home folks, that's all I can say, and we were so grateful!
Pictures were being snapped and we hope to post some later today. We're a bit groggy and Grace spent the night as if it was her mid-day so she took in a long nap but not much more last night. Pat and I tag-teamed a bit on the sleeping, but it will be rough-going for a while as we get her adjusted to the time change. A foreign correspondent was in our group and she travels a great bit and said, "They say, and I have found to be true, that for every hour time change, it takes a day to adjust." That means we have about 12 days to get Grace on our schedule and we'd appreciate your continued prayers in this regard.
It's 7 AM and we kept the family up way too late last night with giving presents and getting to know Grace. I hope they sleep in this morning, and I hope Pat and I can take a few naps today and start to mess up, if you will, Grace's sleeping pattern. I've never been happier to be home, however, with fresh running water, ice for our drinks. fresh fruit to eat, and even lettuce to eat -- all things we didn't have on our trip. And of course, the best is being home with my dear boys who have been waiting longer than us to see their sweet sister.
We'll keep you posted about her adjustments and ours! Home sweet home!
All Together AT LAST!
