We had an amazing summer this year. Last year, we had just gotten home from China and were busy adjusting, not sleeping, and taking Selah to many, many doctors’ appointments. This summer, we decided that we were going to have some family adventures. We’ve always loved traveling, but never got to do much of it before due to our strict budget before having kids so we could pay off our student loans. Now that we have three little kids, we assumed that traveling (at least international travel) was off the table. We’ve always wanted to visit Europe and Israel, especially. But then we realized how much there is to see in America that we’ve never seen. God has blessed America with some INCREDIBLE beauty! So, we made two goals for our family. First, before the kids are all out of the house after finishing college, we want to visit all 50 states with them. Second, we want to attempt to see each of the 59 national parks in the U.S. The U.S. National Parks are absolutely amazing! They’re gorgeous, clean, and the staff are so helpful and educational. We think it’s a perfect way to travel the U.S. over the next few years.  We’re also going to try to see as many of the 417 national park sites that we can. These include more than just “National Parks,” but also National Historical Sites, National Seashores, National Military Parks, and many others. They are all amazing, but 417 is quite a lofty goal for us, so we’ll just try to see as many as we can. To help reach our goal within our budget, we started renovating a small pop-up camper to take with us on our travels. We loved working on this project, and we are so excited to camp at the national parks we visit. Just don’t laugh at us when you see us pulling a camper with a minivan.  

We had lots of stops on our big family road trip this summer. First, we drove through Michigan, with a stop in Ann Arbor to visit Dan’s cousin. We continued all the way up to Traverse City, Michigan, where we fell in love with the town, the food, Lake Michigan, the ice cream, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
 
On our first full day in Traverse City, we drove to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It was gorgeous, and the kids had so much fun climbing up the dunes and playing in the sand. It was amazing to see the three of them start to develop a sense of adventure. There were beautiful views at the top of Lake Michigan. After spending a few hours there playing in the sand and driving along the scenic loop, we drove to a little town called Empire, where we heard there was a nice beach on Lake Michigan. We had a picnic on the beach, and then we spent the rest of the day there. This beach was quite honestly one of the nicest beaches I have ever been to. The water was clean and clear, the sand was beautiful, and there was even a playground on the beach for the kids! We all had fun searching for petoskey stones, which are an amazing kind of fossilized stone that is only found in the area. We found a few and they are now treasured possessions. We had an amazing dinner in downtown Traverse City and what we still consider the best ice cream of our lives at a little place called Milk and Honey. We were sad to leave Traverse City after a few days, and it’s one of those places where we know we’ll be back! We had quite a few more adventures on our first annual epic road trip, but I’ll share those in another post. I hope you got to experience some of God’s beautiful creation this summer, too!

I know a lot of people were waiting for an update post when we got home, but we were so exhausted that I wasn’t able to update. I’m just warning you, there may be errors here since I’m still so tired and my brain isn’t quite working right.
 
Since we were able to update our flights, we woke up early on Friday morning (China time) in Hong Kong, packed up, and walked over to the airport. We went through TSA, had breakfast at Starbucks in the airport, and walked to our gate after getting a little lost in the maze of an airport. We only spent about 12 hours in Hong Kong, but the scenery we saw was beautiful!
 
We boarded our 15 hour flight and it took off on time. Selah did much better than I could have expected on the flight. We had upgraded to economy plus, which was amazing. Selah had a little space to even play on the floor in front of her seat. It made a huge difference. We had lots of different toys ready to pull out like Play Dough, magnets, stacking cups, and a DVD player with Kai Lan and a few Disney movies. There were a few times she cried, and I walked up and down the plane a little with her, but overall she did great! She slept for about four hours near the end of her flight. To her little body, we landed at 1:30 am in Newark, which was actually 1:30 pm.  We figured we would be forever at customs and immigration there, but it only took about 30 minutes. We gave them all of Selah’s citizenship paperwork, and Selah was officially a US citizen as soon as we landed. I have never been more appreciative of the freedoms and opportunities we have as Americans as after this trip.
 
Since our new flights had us connecting in Newark, Dan’s dad, stepmom, and two brothers were able to meet us at the airport. Dan’s brothers even left school early to meet us there! Selah loved meeting her family, and it was so great to see them all.
 
After visiting for awhile, we rechecked our bags, went through the LAST round of TSA, and ate in the United lounge because of our United credit card. At that point we were pretty exhausted and cranky after being up for 24 hours, but we made it to our next flight from Newark to Cleveland. Selah and I slept during the hour and a half flight, and we walked from our gate to baggage claim.  We spotted Levi and Ezra first, and they started sprinting towards us. It was the moment we had been waiting over two weeks for, and the four of us were tearing up as we hugged. Then we looked up and saw our friends and family in our adoption t-shirts with amazing signs waiting for us and welcoming Selah home. It was truly one of the most beautiful sights we’ve ever seen. We are so thankful that Kate Oren was able to document this moment with her photos! We hugged everyone and introduced them to Selah. She was a little shy but warmed up quickly and started smiling at everyone. As exhausted as we were, it was one of the best moments of our lives. To see the people we love after what felt like such a long trip away was amazing, but what was even better was what this meant for Selah.  Just a very short time ago, this precious little girl was without a family at all. Now, she is a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece, and a friend. She is loved and cherished, and the display at the airport represented this drastic change in her life.
 
We all drove home and Selah used a car seat for the first time in her life. In China, they do not use car seats, so while we were there, she sat on my lap in the vans we used. She was fine in the car seat at first, but about halfway home she was pretty over it. She screamed and cried for a while until we got home. When we got home, Levi and Ezra eagerly showed her around the house, and she ADORES them. They make her laugh and she was so comfortable playing with them. It was absolutely amazing to see them interact. Selah even tried to imitate some of the words Levi said to her. She is going to learn English so quickly!
 
We took Selah outside, and she obviously had never walked in grass before. It was hilarious to see her discover it. She was so tentative and lifted her knees high when she was walking, and then she wanted to be picked up. The boys started picking flowers for her and giving them to her, and she was thrilled. Levi and Ezra are both amazing big brothers. They brought Selah toys and stuffed animals to play with, read books with her, brought her a juice box and snacks, and were so attentive.
 
Bedtime was pretty difficult, especially since Selah is used to sleeping on a different schedule. We finally were able to put her to sleep after a lot of tears at 11. Unfortunately, she was back up at 1:30, and I walked her to sleep for an hour. Then she was back up at 4:00, and Dan took a turn and then we switched around 6 when I got up with her for the day. We are so exhausted; we’re hoping to be able to have a normal sleeping schedule soon!

We’ve been in China for exactly two weeks. We are really getting close to the end! We leave in three days, and we can’t wait to see our boys.
 
This morning we woke up early for our 8:30 consulate appointment. We were very fortunate not to have to wait in the very large crowd in front of the consulate; there was a special, short line for American citizens. The amount of people attempting to obtain a visa to America was insane. There were huge crowds of people who want to come to America. We are so blessed in ways I never understood before.
 
Thankfully, we were second in line for our consulate appointment. We filed some paperwork, Selah threw a couple of fits, they asked us a few questions, and we took an oath that we will always care for Selah. There were no photos allowed in the consulate, so we don’t have any pictures to post from that part of our day. The individual at the consulate then informed us that there was a computer problem in Washington and that they couldn’t issue any visas, but that they were working around the clock to fix it. It freaked us out a lot. We asked our guide about possible delays, and she said the longest she had heard of was an extra week. That was pretty scary for us to hear!
 
We talked with the other people in our group, and everyone started requesting prayer. We joked that this computer doesn’t stand a chance with all of the people praying for us all. At about 5:00, we heard that the computer was fixed, so hopefully tomorrow afternoon our visa will be issued and we can head over to Hong Kong where our flight leaves on Saturday. If there are any delays, we did build in some extra time before our flight just in case.
 
We spent some more time in the pool this afternoon where Selah finally let us take her in for a few minutes. She’s getting braver and braver by the day! With a few other couples from our group, we went on a river cruise along the Pearl River tonight. We ordered pizza from Papa Johns (third night in a row) and had it delivered to the pier and took it on the boat. It was a beautiful little tour and we got to see the sunset and all of the downtown buildings lit up.
 
Tomorrow we check out of our hotel, pick up Selah’s visa (hopefully) and then head to the train station for Hong Kong.  We are so excited to be so close to the home stretch, but we are going to really miss the other couples in our group! They are amazing people with amazing kids who have been an incredible encouragement to us throughout our time here.
 
Thank you all for your continued prayers! We’ve really been feeling them these last few days! Selah has slowly had better evenings and has been trusting us more and more. It’s hard to believe she has only been with us a little over a week. We’ve been telling her “wo ai ne” (I love you in Chinese) and today she said it back to us with a smile. There are so many hard moments, but ones like that really pull you through the rough stuff to remember the forever with our little girl.

This will be a short post because today was pretty uneventful (thankfully). We took a bunch of medicine this morning, and praise Jesus we are feeling a little better! We know we’ve had so many people praying for us, and we really felt that today. Thank you!
 
We spent the morning in the room playing with Selah. She loves bubbles and play dough. She thinks blowing bubbles and popping them is hilarious. We took sandwiches from Starbucks at the hotel up to the playground to eat for lunch. Selah got a little brave and we helped her down the slide. I’m pretty sure it was her first slide experience. She really liked it!
 
We went to the pool in the afternoon. She likes splashing her hands in at the side of the pool, but she got so scared when Dan held her in the pool with him that we had to go back to the room. It is so hot here, and the pool felt great!
 
Selah started watching a few of the DVDs I brought today. She really likes Kai-Lan. She talks Mandarian with the DVD and laughs. It’s so cute. We’re still working on getting her to sleep tonight. We’re hoping that day-by-day she becomes more trusting of us and a little less scared.
 
Tomorrow is our consulate appointment, which is the last appointment we have on our trip. Then, we wait for her visa and can come home! Only 4 more days!

I didn’t write a post for yesterday yet. I know people were looking for it, but honestly, I was out of energy and feeling pretty discouraged. Now, Dan and I are both feeling pretty sick. Selah is still having a hard time at night, and one of us has to walk her for hours to get her into a deep enough sleep to lay her down. So, this post is not going to sugarcoat anything, and I’m going to be honest.
 
We started out the morning with Dan still pretty sick. We ate breakfast and Dan slept most of the morning. Selah and I played and took a walk downstairs in the hotel to the Starbucks. The crazy lady who keeps following us was there and started to try to talk to Selah and follow us. It was more than I could handle. So, I let her have it. Let’s just say she stopped following us and is now scared of me.  Sometimes my temper gets the best of me.
 
I started feeling a little sick in the afternoon, but we decided to go on the group outing to the wholesale market and Shamian Island anyway. It was good to get out. The wholesale market was huge! There were so many jewelry vendors. We got Selah a little jade necklace to give her when she is older.
 
We walked around Shamian Island, which is beautiful, but it was incredibly humid. We picked up a few souvenirs and took some pictures and came back to the hotel. Our group ordered pizza and ate it on the little playground area at the hotel. It is so good to all be together and support each other.  God provided such a great group for us to travel with, and they all have amazing kids. Selah started getting upset after a little while (evenings are very hard for her), so we left and went back to the room and started the hours-long process of calming her down enough to sleep. We think that she is desperately afraid that we won’t be here when she wakes up. If she wakes up during the night, she frantically searches for me and grabs my arm. This little girl has experienced a lot of loss in her little life, and we can never completely understand the extent of the fear she must have. There were a lot of tears from all three of us last night, to be honest. It’s so, so hard here. I went through 39 hours of labor with Levi, and this is by far much harder. We love Selah so much (she is so special, smart, sweet, and brave), but we want to be home so badly. We miss Levi and Ezra, our families, Chick fil a, and drinking out of the faucet (among other things). Please pray that we have the strength to make it through the next few days, that our health improves, and that Selah continues to learn to trust that we will always be here for her.

Dan woke up not feeling well again this morning, so we decided to skip our touring for the morning. Dan slept most of the day while Selah and I played and tried out the pool. She liked slapping her hands on the water at the edge, but she was really scared when I got in with her.  She was really cute discovering the water for the first time, though!
 
Dan being sick is really hard for him (because, well, he’s sick), it’s hard for me because it means I am taking care of Selah by myself, and it’s hard for Selah because she’s not bonding with him as well. Since Dan has been sick, she’ll only let me hold her at night, which is now a couple of hours of pacing back in forth in the room until she feels comfortable enough to fall asleep, and then about 30 minutes of the same thing until she is in a deep enough sleep to transfer to the bed. She was up scared at 4 am this morning, too, so I had to do the pacing thing for a while again. I am absolutely exhausted.
 
A lot of people in our group are feeling sick, whether it be from food or sicknesses. Please pray that they will all feel better to finish out the trip and return home! All of the couples here are amazing, and we are so blessed to have them along with our family and friends back home as a support system during the hardest two weeks of our lives. Thank you for your prayers!

 
Today was our first day in Guangzhou. We had to wake up early for Selah’s medical appointment, which was unfortunate since Selah was up until about 2 am. She still has a hard time going to sleep. But, we found out from our guide today that what she is crying for at night is milk (which we didn’t know what she was saying in Chinese), so hopefully tonight she’ll be a little soothed when we give her a bottle at bed time.
 
We met up with all five of the other couples adopting from our agency (three of us were in Guiyang last week and the three others were in different provinces adopting up their kids from other orphanages) and loaded up in a bus to head to our medical appointments. It was pretty busy in the medical office. We were led to a section of the office just for adopting families where we had to go into different offices assembly-line style for different things (ENT, general exam, and a blood/TB test). Selah was VERY brave and only cried a little when they took blood. As long as her TB test clears, we will be cleared for our consulate appointment on Wednesday! As busy and crazy as the medical office was, it was amazing. This small little room was FILLED with families adopting orphans from China. Along with the six families from our agencies, we met lots of other families who were also adopting. There was a lot of Jesus’ love in that room! It was uncomfortable, chaotic, and filled with tears. If you think about it, isn’t that what serving God is all about?
 
After the medical appointment, our guide took all of us to the Wal-Mart to load up on supplies for the week such as water, diapers, formula, and snacks. This Wal-Mart was also underground, but much nicer than the one in Guiyang. It looked cleaner than most of the Wal-Marts in the states! We bought four cases of water to last us (hopefully) the remainder of our trip (we can’t drink the tap water here), a sippy cup and a toy ball for Selah, and some Chinese snacks that Selah likes (she asks for “wo she ma” ALL the time).
 
After we got back, we played in the room for awhile with Selah. She is really opening up! She talks on and on in Chinese and cracks herself up. Her smile just lights up the room. When she got bored, we explored our hotel a little. This hotel has a pool, a little playground, a Starbucks, and a garden. It’s amazing! We’ve never been in a hotel this nice. It is a welcome respite from last week. We are excited to go swimming with Selah for the first time tomorrow.
 
We ventured out to find a noodle place for dinner with three other families. It turned out to not be a great experience; we had a woman follow us the whole way and then sit and stare (without eating) the entire time we were there. It was so uncomfortable that we left halfway through our meal. She followed us out of the restaurant and asked us to buy things for her. We just walked back to our hotel and she stopped. It was definitely a weird experience.
 
Now we're still working on getting Selah to sleep. Bedtime is so hard for her, She is so happy all day and then really fears bedtime. Pray that her little heart would be comforted and that she will know that Dan and I will always be here when she wakes up. Thank you all for your continued prayers!

Selah had a little bit of a difficult night; she was up in the middle of the night and it took us a long time to calm her down and get back to sleep. In the morning, unfortunately, Dan started to not feel well. We think he was coming down with what Selah had earlier in the week. I filled him up with Zofran and vitamins, and he slept most of the morning while Selah and I packed. Late in the morning, Selah took a nap on my back (her favorite place to sleep, as uncomfortable as it is for me) and then our group loaded up our luggage to head to the airport in Guiyang.
 
We stopped for about 15 minutes at the city center in Guiyang. It has a very pretty riverwalk area and a traditional temple where there are few merchants selling local goods. It was good to have this last little outing with our group in Guiyang. Without the other two couples with us this week, we would have had a much harder time. We are SO thankful that we could walk this journey with them and their little girls this week!
 
We are so thankful for the city of Guiyang because it is where Selah was born and spent the first two years of her life. We took lots of pictures so we can show Selah that chapter of her life when she is old enough to understand.  Life is not easy in Guiyang. We have never felt more appreciative of the things we take for granted in our daily life in America. We have it pretty darn good. We were, however, happy to move on to the next phase of our journey in China because it means we are that much closer to home.
 
Our flight was originally supposed to take off at 4:10, but it was delayed until 5:10, then 5:25, then nobody mentioned ANYTHING at the airport until about 6:50 when it started boarding. Then, we got on the plane and they announced that there would be another delay and we wouldn’t be taking off until 8:00. We finally arrived in Guangzhou at 9:15, then we walked off the plane and boarded a standing room only bus with all of our stuff and kiddos and took a jerky ride to the terminal. We waited for awhile for our luggage, waited awhile for our driver, and then waited awhile to check in to our hotel. Finally, at about midnight, we are finally in our hotel room in Guangzhou, even if we did all miss dinner (except for a roll on the airplane that had a surprise of beans in the middle) and are more than a little cranky about the delays today.
 
Selah did very well on her first airplane ride ever. She was a little scared and threw a fit and cried when Dan went to the bathroom. She is still scared that when one of us leaves we might not come back. We’ll be spending the rest of her life showing her that we will always be there and will always love her.  Early tomorrow morning, Selah has her medical appointment. Please pray that this will not be too traumatizing for her and that Dan feels healthy tomorrow! Thank you all for your prayers!