Official Adoption Day

Feb. 14th, 2017

The day after Gotcha Day, we had to head back to the Civil Affairs Office, finish out the paperwork we had started the day before and pay our big donation that we had to bring with us. We also met the director of the orphanage that Theo was technically with, even though he was in a foster home that is only made possible because there are volunteers to take the pressure off the over crowded orphanage.

We were there for a while, Matt took care of most of the paperwork and the payment and I just kept Theo busy and out of everyone's hair.

We received our official Adoption Certificate with our picture on it and his NEW name. Jiang Qing Jie officially became Theo Qingjie Heinekamp on February 14, 2017! We still had quite the road ahead in our 1 1/2 weeks left in China, lots of paperwork to be processed so lots of waiting but in the eyes of China, his first home, he was ours.

We left...after waiting half an hour for an elevator...they plan these huge high rise buildings without taking a lot of matters into consideration...like a mom holding a 3 year old for half an hour waiting for an elevator to get back down to our car!

After rest and lunch we decided to try another attempt at finding the Walmart, we found out from Jackie the reason we never found it was it was underground. OOPS...so I got out the carrier we had borrowed and strapped him in. He refused to walk outside of our hotel room and my arms were feeling it already from holding him everywhere. So we started out with our backpack mostly empty so we could carry stuff back. Their Walmart looks a lot like ours but with a butcher counter and meat hanging up and BIG fish tanks. We picked up water, some noodle bowls, snacks, and new tennis shoes for Theo. He slept in the carrier the whole time we shopped. He started waking up once we were checking out and that was not pretty, he didn't know where he was and he started pushing and clawing his way out of the carrier so I had to hurry out of the store get him out of the carrier so he could fully wake up and remember where he was. Then I put him down outside while I readjusted for the walk back and got super yelled at by an older Chinese woman because as I was putting him back in my carrier his pants were pulled up and he didn't have the approved layers of clothing on, even though I was carrying him so I was sweating and had my coat and his 3 shirts on :( Oy I was so mad, if you touch another person's kid in America it can get you a punch to the face but luckily we had Hong (the teenage girl pictured above) and she was able to talk to the lady while I got him snug and ready to keep walking...quickly...back to the hotel. Oh yeah, did I mention we got lost on the way back to the hotel underground in the street crossing tunnels ... with all of our stuff. Always an adventure!

(I totally should have worked out before this trip!!)

GOTCHA DAY

Feb. 13, 2017 - Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it had to do with all of our prayer warriors here at home but I slept the best I had since arriving to China on the night before Gotcha Day...that is only a God thing!

Our Gotcha Day was not scheduled until later on in the afternoon so we had a lot of time to burn...we walked around going the other way out of our hotel and that was so much more encouraging, we found some drug stores, some restaurants and a nice park. We paced holes in our hotel room floor and finally headed to the civil affairs office at 2 p.m. that afternoon. There was only one other couple with us and they were adopting a 13 year old. So we were hopeful it would be a calm setting as I've heard some can be overwhelming with lots of tears and mayhem.

 We got to drive to another part of Guiyang on our way and it was insane all the high rise buildings going up...all the little chantey houses being torn down to make room for them. Our guide had mixed feelings on all of this, he prefers the smaller buildings the more quiet setting for his family, he would like Indiana I think!

We went up to the 24th floor and waited!

Waiting

We hadn't been there that long and sure enough here he comes, walking in...not being carried but walking all on his own, big puffy coat and an uncertain look on his face. Not quite scared but a little unsure. He walked to stand beside me and he let me hold his hand. I didn't pick him up right away or scoop him away from his foster mom but just rubbed his back held his hand and then pulled out the big guns...suckers and my smart phone! Selfies are the way to any kiddos heart I am telling you. We soon had him laughing, making faces, eating snacks and sitting on my lap. I had the chance to talk to his foster mom just a little bit. They explained to me all the layers and his favorite foods. They explained he had had a "hair lip" corrected which we already knew and we believe she had only been his foster mom since right before we learned of him.

fingerprinting

We had to sign lots of papers, fingerprint all of our signatures, even Theo had to fingerprint some pages! While we were doing that his foster mom snuck out, he was none the wiser that she had left...we had no tears and he was ours! He let me carry him out of that office, sat on my lap in the van and that is that!

He loved the hotel I'm pretty sure he thought he was on vacation. He jumped on the bed and watched cartoons. He was a little unsure and we saw our first sadness when we tried to change his clothes but he felt the fuzzy goodness of his new jammies and cheered right up and believe it or not he slept that night!!

So grateful for such a positive and easy Gotcha Day!!

Beijing Day 2 and Travel to Guiyang

Feb. 11 - Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City and Summer Palace

Tienanmen Square is massive, it was a crowded day and there was still space for thousands of more people. It is surrounded by government buildings and home to the hall of famous people and national museum. There is a big China Flag guarded by guards in full uniform. Across the street from Tienanmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City which was most likely my favorite place we visited during our time in Beijing. The City goes on forever and ever, you walk through a new building and boom you feel like you are right back where you started with another huge square in front of you and the next building to walk through. The details are beautiful, the arched entryways are massive and they are closed off by this big iron red doors with beautiful brass/gold knockers.

Also, Chinese people do not wear sunglasses (brown eyes) or have tattoos or ear piercings...I fit right in!

We walked through probably 5 buildings and the further we marched to the back of the city the view got more and more beautiful, you know the emperor saved those rooftop views and the gardens for the most important people of his city.

Also, our poor group, there was a family of 5 who had 3 small children and the youngest  is a little blonde girl and they had people walking up to them, pulling on them, smacking their own children if they refused, just to take pictures with the blonde, white Americans. It was intense I think they might have been scared of Matt's beard we weren't bothered too much, just stared at a lot.

My most absolute favorite view!!

In the Gardens of the Forbidden City

The Summer Palace was built by the emperor as a gift to his mother and it has a very zoo/park feel to it. Lots of kids running and playing on bikes and scooters. The crowd was big when we went as it was a pretty day and the last day of the New Year Festivities so a lot of family traveled to celebrate the holiday together.

Summer Palace

Feb. 12 - TRAVEL DAY TO GUIYANG!! Woke up early to head to the airport. Arriving in Guiyang we felt hopeful, it was a beautiful day full of sunshine and Guiyang is basically built into a mountain and has a very scenic feel as you drive in with lots of greenery and mountains. It is small compared to other cities with only about 5 million people. We did not have our Gotcha day scheduled until Monday so this day was a long and emotional one, felt like I was going to puke or cry all day long. We were dropped off at our hotel by our guide and that was basically that. No here let me take you out to a late lunch/early dinner because you will in no way be able to order here in Guiyang because it is nothing like Beijing. No picture menus, nothing translated on Goodle Translate. We were given some direction to the nearest convenience store and that was about it. No warning that oh and you have to cross streets under ground and underground is going to be a smoke filled cell phone dealer hell. We ventured out after we got settled and were feeling good until we saw NO restaurants, NO convenience stores only a class of kids learning English that ran up to us to grade them on their lesson. (we found that if you go the opposite direction from the hotel it is much better) We walked out of KFC in tears because we couldn't even order there at first. It was the most humbling experience of my life (I think every person should feel that way at way at some point). Matt left me to wallow in my emotional tears in our hotel room and got brave at the next door KFC...for the whole week KFC tasted like survival to us.

Tomorrow -- GOTCHA DAY

Travel and Beijing Day 1

**We are HOME...but I am going to attempt to recap our trip for y'all so I don't forget anything**

Wed. Feb. 8th was a travel day! It was our first experience together going on a flight of that magnitude, think BIG plane for 12 hours..NUTS but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Good movie options, free wine or beer and they fed us 3 times. We also had the opportunity to meet a family that became our lifeline on the trip. They sat right in front of us and the rest is history as they say!

We arrived in Beijing Feb. 9...picked up by our guide Selina navigated the airport and immigration in Beijing, which is really just a madhouse...no lines, tons of people, tons of luggage, tons of nerves! We got settled into our hotel late evening on the 9th. We were able to get our VPN up and running so we could skype with the kiddos and that turned out to work so well for us, we were able to talk to them 2 times everyday morning and evening...it saved this mama's heart.

Feb. 10th we started what I will affectionately call our "honeymoon" stage of the trip. The next two days felt like a vacation to Matt and I. We had a quiet hotel room (even though we had jet lag so sleep was lost on us) and we got to explore a part of the world that I had no idea God intended for us to walk. Now granted there were many hours of "Oh my I'm going to puke we meet our boy in __ days/hours" but over all we enjoyed our time in Beijing.

First Day Feb. 10 - Great Wall and Jade Factory

The Great Wall was breath taking. The size of it alone is enough to take your breath away and then as you start to walk it and you see the details that were all made by hard working hands so many years ago it's hard to comprehend. There are different fortresses along the wall, there are so many stairs (some steeper than others and none the same size) and there are also little ditches all along the paths and stairs for drainage (so detail oriented) Matt was brave and obviously in better shape than me because he went up another fortress even taller than the one we all stopped at, on the steep side. I stayed at the one below and ended up being photographer for others visiting the same site. The air quality is not all that great plus it was cold so my chest was on fire. So much respect for those that made that guarded that wall and made that climb regularly.

After the Great Wall we went to a Jade factory where we had our first big meal in the restaurant upstairs and then got to take a tour and see how pieces are made from Jade. The food was good everywhere we went in Beijing and we had Selina to order for us which was sooo helpful, we never went hungry in Beijing! (different story at our next stop) The detail in the pieces made in the Jade factory were beautiful, jade comes in so many colors and types, I had no idea. We got to watch a guy making a "Happy Family Ball" it is a big chunk of Jade that they then carve into 3 separate balls (sometimes more layers) to represent the generations of a family.

We were happy for a nap and then another big dinner after our first day of site seeing.

From this expectant mama's heart

Can I be so raw and real right about now? I haven't just sat down and spilled my heart in words in a very long time. It seemed too hard, that we were spilling so much into something that to be honest I could not see coming to completion. We started this journey 6 years ago. This feels like the longest pregnancy of all time. I have prayed for a child that I knew nothing about, I prayed for a birth mom that I knew nothing about, I prayed for a country that I knew nothing about. Y'all I KNEW NOTHING!! You know who knew all of this while I was praying, God. He knew my son, he knows his birth mom, he knew he was from China. I kept praying, I kept researching, I kept saving, I kept talking my poor husband's ear off about how adoption would not leave my heart it was ingrained in my every fiber.

We are less than a week from traveling to Beijing China where we will begin the 15 day journey that is bringing our Theo home. I am terrified if I'm being honest. America is not looked super highly upon by many right now so traveling abroad feels scary, we know no Chinese (although we got some good laughs practicing some phrases we hope to master before we arrive), we will be leaving our 3 kids and 2 pups for 15 days, we will be taking a 3 year old boy from all he knows. I find myself pouring out prayers to God in what can only seem like verbal vomit to his ears. I am so scared and heartbroken for my boy. I love him so much already, I think that happens after 6 years of praying for someone. He has had no time to prepare for this change, we are taking him away from all he knows and throwing him into a hotel room with 2 strangers, we are bringing him home to a new country where everything smells, sounds and looks different. The fear and uncertainty he must be getting ready to feel leaves me in tears and shreds my heart...I cannot imagine this being my little Garrett in his position but at last that is where we are, a 3 year old boy is about to come into a family and for that to happen there has to be great loss.

I cannot help but think we are on the brink of a lifetime experience that will put a permanent mark on the timeline of our life. There will always be before children, there will always be before this house,  there will always be before China and there will always be after China. This last one is where all the work starts. Yes, we have put in 6 years of money, paper cuts, conference calls, training, home study's and sleepless nights getting to this point but the work starts AFTER China. This is where we as mom and dad, sister and brother, grandma and grandpa pour our hearts and soul into a little being that has no idea what those roles mean in a little one's life. We start the task of making up for lost time, we start the work that is healing the brokenness and restoring what has been lost.

We start sharing about a God who heals the broken hearted, who knows our whole story and loves us anyway, we start sharing this God with a little boy who needs him more than he needs us. I won't be able to give him all the answers when the time comes to hear about where he comes from, although over our 15 days in China I will do my best to get as many of those answers as I can. He will need to learn to trust a God that knows his whole story, he knows what was going through his mama's heart when they were separated or she decided to give him LIFE, he knows those first days and he was with him through it all.

My heart feels like it can hardly fit inside my chest as I write this. There is such a feeling of expectancy, almost that of that last week of pregnancy when ever twinge might be the moment. It's that feeling of not knowing the details but knowing that I will never be the same when he is placed in my arms!

Travel Approval!!

This week was a crazy good one in our adoption world. We were still trying to figure out if our Article 5 even every got picked up because most people said we would get an email saying it had been picked up well...we never got one. So here I am still thinking maybe it didn't get picked up....it's a holiday week so our agency was closed Monday BUT we got the call on Wednesday with fantastic news of TRAVEL APPROVAL. 

We spent Thursday booking flights with an amazing friend who's dad offered up his Frequent Flier mile rewards to cover our flights...I don't think I can ever actually communicate with words what this means to our family. 

So we are officially booked and leaving for China February 8th!! 

 

** Photo from his Forever Family Celebration...we were able to order a care package to be sent to him that included a photo album, translated letter from us, stuffed panda, and a cake to celebrate with his orphanage/foster family friends. **

Answers to All of the Questions we Received this Christmas

We have I800 Provisional Approval, we received our NVC Letter and were able to apply for Theo's DS260!!

Say What?!?!?!

As a member of this crazy International Adoption world I get those acronyms I know what that means in the grand scheme of our journey to our boy but I know a lot of you do not and I wish I could sit down with each one of you and explain how this whole process works and that although it's scary and expensive and sometimes unknown holding Theo's picture tight with the hope of him in my arms makes it worth while!

So here I am to answer a couple of the big questions I've been asked over this holiday season of gatherings.

1) When will you travel?
           We hope February! Chinese New Year is January 28 and that is a big deal in Theo's country so things slow down a bit as people take off to celebrate. We don't know what that will do to our travel approval dates but I am anticipating  a bit of a delay. We are currently waiting for Article 5 pick up, that means our agency has a contact that picks up this document from the Consulate and takes it to the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) This is scheduled to happen next Thursday January 12, after that is delivered it's roughly 4-6 weeks until we receive our TA (Travel Approval). Once we get TA our agency calls to discuss travel dates and we start booking flights while they put together our in country package based on our appointment schedules in country (this includes in country hotels for 3 cities, guides to help us navigate our adoption appointments and other needs in country).

2) How long will you be in China?
           We will be in China for 2 weeks probably 12-15 days depending on appointments and since he is 3 we have to wait for an additional test to be read before we can leave. We spend the first 2 days in Beijing site seeing, making friends with our travel group and getting used to the time change before we pick up Theo. (Some might not understand this but to us it is important to try and get as acclimated and caught up on the time change and cultural norms before we pick him up as it is going to be such a whirlwind for him and we can't be running on fumes...that will come later in the trip) We then travel to his location, Guiyang City in Guizhou, where we will immediately meet him and he will be with us for the remainder of our trip. We stay there for roughly 4-5 days to complete the adoption in his province. We then travel to Guangzhou where we spend the remainder of our time completing the adoption process there where the US Embassy is located. We will be reunited with our travel group here and get to meet all of their children as well. It will be nice to have a bit of a support system and some friends while we spend the last week or so completing all the necessary steps to travel home.

3) Does he speak English?
           No :) We will be preparing some flash cards/ laminated feelings, needs, communication sheets to help us along the way.

4) How much is this costing you? How much do you have left?
           We desire to be an open book in this process, at the same time we don't want to sound woe is me and declare how much we are needing to raise to get over to him. So I will post this here and that is where it will remain. The total cost of this adoption will range from $25,000-$30,000. Now don't let that freak you out, we are not paying for a child we are paying for the process and the people who are helping us get to him, the people who have translated our documents, who have written our home study, who are coordinating logistics with orphanage and government entities on our behalf!
            We saved for YEARS before we finally applied with our agency, we depleted that account when we sent our dossier to Africa basically starting the China process from scratch. Luckily we received some program credit when we transferred over which was such a life saver! We got through the whole first half of this process on juggling money already in savings and checking and by putting away gift money and the such during the process. Now we are in the travel portion and it's a BIG chunk of the whole cost and to be honest it's a bit overwhelming. We have roughly $15,000 more to pay in the next month/month and a half. This includes our in country travel package, airfare and the last big program fee that is paid while we are at one of our adoption appointments in China. We have just under $5,000 raised through our Lifesong matching grant/story page donations. This will go directly to our agency for our in country package and we have a grant that is under review today!
          If you feel lead please use the Lifesong link on the sidebar of this page to donate directly to our adoption account (it is tax deductible), that will be sent directly to our agency after this week in preparation for our TA notice!!! If you cannot give we totally understand will you please pray? Pray for the board that is reviewing our grant application today, please pray for our Theo and for our kiddos as we prepare to become a family of 6!!


THEO WE ARE COMING FOR YOU!!!!