We're back in the USA!

It feels so great to be back! Let me just say that we totally felt your prayers on our long plane ride back to Portland! Mika slept a good 2 hours on the flight to Tokyo, and then on the 9 hour flight to Portland she slept 45 minutes. But she was totally content and had no meltdowns on the plane! This was huge! We were so afraid of her losing it and disturbing all the other passengers with her loud cry. So, thank you for your prayers...God heard and went way beyond our expectations!

Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport, and drove us to Robin and Dave's house (my sister and brother-in-law). Robin and Dave are incredible - we are still blown away that they took our 3 kids for the 2 weeks we were gone! I'm thinking they're going to get some serious jewels in their crown for this one! And, of course, we are all staying with them for the 5 days we have here in Portland- that's right, 10 people under one roof!

It was so fun seeing Mika meet Annie, Noah and Kiana for the first time! She loved them and they loved her back! Normally, Mika is pretty shy around new people, so were were concerned about how she would respond to the kids. But again, God moved beyond our fears, and has woven our family of 6 together (it still sounds weird saying that!). We were thrilled to see Mika put her arms up to Kiana to hold her - this means our eldest daughter will continue to be our family's babysitter!!!

Our biggest challenge and thing to pray for is Mika's sleep - or lack thereof. As I mentioned earlier, we had to hold her or put her in our bed to sleep in China because she cried so loud and so hard. Last night, she continued to cry and I finally got her out of her crib at 11:45 pm and tried to get her to sleep downstairs. She is an extremely fitful sleeper - I think she has sleep apnea. SO, I ended up holding her on the couch from 11:45 to 7:00 am - no sleep for me, but she at least got some rest. I was thankful to get her on this time zone the first night, even if it meant me not getting sleep. Rich was gracious and took over for me at 7:00 so I could catch some sleep.

This afternoon is the turning point when Mika will need to begin the process of learning how to fall asleep on her own in her crib. The girl can cry long and hard! Will you pray that she will be able to learn this skill and actually get some sleep? And would you pray that Rich and I would adjust to the new time zone quickly? I guess we'll be adjusting to a new time zone in Indy in 4 days...oh well!

Tonight we head over to Mom and Dad's for a late Christmas dinner -can anyone say prime rib??!!! I love the fact that our entire family will be together!

Again, we are so thankful for your prayers - it's extremely humbling and encouraging to know how much you care! Thank you!

Last Night in China!

It's a strange feeling knowing you are leaving the place where your daughter was born and raised for the first 16 months of her life. Although we would love to bring Annie and Mika back to China someday when they're older, reality says otherwise. We have tried to soak up as much as we can of this culture and this country, so hopefully we will be able to impart that to our two Asian Sensations.

Mika is about to embark on an incredible journey - meeting her brother and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents....she'll be seeing her home for the first time...meeting all our friends...experiencing the frigid winter of Fishers, Indiana....going to church and staying in the nursery...so may firsts. Would you please pray for her transition into her new life? We so appreicate it!

We had a very low key day - 2 naps, a walk in the park, McDonald's take out for dinner, watching movies on the t.v. that we've already seen a dozen times, and packing. Mika's starting to wind down - that means she's starting to get cranky! Hopefully, she will be able to sleep well tonight. We leave the hotel here at 6:00 am, and our flight leaves for Tokyo at 8:30. We then take the long flight to Portland, OR and stay with my family for 5 days.

Would you please pray for us?

• for our flights - that Mika would be able to settle down and sleep some on the plane. Her cry is so loud, so we know we will not be making friends if she meltdowns a lot. Pray that RIch and I would be able to get some rest on the flight, too, and that we would have patience with Mika
• for Kiana, Noah and Annie as they meet and adjust to their new sister. Pray especially for Annie as she has to share us with Mika now

• for our transition to west coast time - that we'd be able to adjust quickly


• that Mika would learn how to settle herself during her sleeptimes
• that God would protect me (heather) from having any Meniere's attacks on the flights

We so appreciate how you all have been lifting us up before the Father while we've been gone! We will continue to update you as the weeks go on through this blog.

.

Good Times in Guangzhou!

Good Morning from Guangzhou!

May I just say that Mika is becoming a Daddy's girl?!! It is so cute to see her follow Rich around and snuggle with him! Usually when he shuts the door to the bathroom or leaves our hotel room there's a moment of crying. I, of course, love seeing this as I have a Mommy's girl at home. (tee hee!) Right now Mika is pounding on the bathroom door while Rich takes a shower - hilarious!

We're learning that although Mika is very shy in groups, she loves interacting with people one on one. Gosh, she sounds like me! Anyhoo, it's been fun seeing her get involved a little with other people and just being carefree. A welcome change from our first few days with her where crying was the norm.

The pictures I posted are from our sightseeing day and there's one of us eating at a Chinese restaurant- the waiters were amazed at how she shoved in the noodles! This girl can put away the food. We call her our little sumo wrestler...notice the pictures of her in her diaper! We never thought we'd see a chubby Chinese girl, but we've got her. Adorable!

In about 5 minutes we're taking a photo with all 12 families and then we're having a time of prayer for our girls - specifically we'll be praying for their attachment issues, and just praying God's protection on them. Feel free to join us in praying for Mika and all the girls and boys that have been adopted on this trip....however God leads you.

Later on this afternoon we'll go to our Consulate where Mika will be sworn in as a US citizen - they do this as a group. We're not allowed to take pictures so you'll have to imagine that scene in your mind. I'll write more later!

December 28th - Guangzhou , Guangdong Province

It's a gray, rainy day here in Guangzhou, and that doesn't help with the feeling of wanting to be home. But the good news is that we've only got 4 more days until we fly out! We just miss our kids at home. Hope it's cool to say that, and that those feelings do not take away from the excitement of having little Mika with us. She is definitely a feisty little butterball! We love how she snuggles with us!

Yesterday, we all had to take our kids to get their medical examination - this is something the US government requires for anyone applying for a visa. We laughed at how there were several signs in the building saying "Quiet Please" while many children were screaming their heads off! The check up was fairly uneventful besides the fact that the doctor could not understand why Mika was on the special needs list. It will be very interesting to see what our pediatrician discovers once we are home.

We've learned several things while in China:

• there is no such thing as personal space in a city of 10 million people


• never serve your daughter noodles on a plane ride when she is wearing her cute "santa" dress with the fur collar - it did make a nice trough, though


• you will feel like a movie star wherever you go out due to your Chinese daughter and your blonde/brown hair


• Chinese women and some men feel free to tell you when you have not dressed your child properly - mostly that you have not dressed her warm enough or that some small slice of skin is showing. Funny how things get communicated when you don't speak the same language


• Chinese people are warm, gracious people

Tomorrow our guides take our paperwork to the US Consulate and then we get to go shopping - whoppe! I've got to hone my bartering skills by then! Funny how the thought of shopping makes one happy! Then on the 30th we will go to the consulate ourselves with Mika to make it all official.

Christmas day and beyond!

We are learning more about our little Mika everyday. Who knew the girl could down 5 tangerines in one setting? Or that bananas are her favorite food? Or that she won't have any part of drinking milk or formula? We discovered that somebody must have taught her how to say "bye bye" and wave. She is responding to her name now - which is a good thing since we can't pronounce her real name! Despite the big bag of toys she has to play with, a fork covered in plastic from KFC is her favorite toy. And have I mentioned the volume of her snoring and crying??!!

We started our christmas day by going to the People's Park - it was so refreshing! Since everyone lives in apartments here, they build these incredible parks where people come to walk, excerecise, do tai chi, play cards, badmiton and simply hang out with each other. We love seeing all ages of people just being with each other. We got looks from several people, number one because we are blonde and light brown haired. (If you want to feel like a movie star, come to China!) But people also stared or stopped us because we did not clothe our daughter adequately. What that means in China is that we didn't have 5 layers of puffy clothing on her, and we made the mistake of letting some skin show near her ankle - whoops!

We also visitied a porcelain shop as this province, Jiangxi, provides all the porcelain for China. And, of course, we got to stop at KFC for our Christmas lunch! After a little nap, Mika and I went out for a walk around the city - I love all the different sights, sounds and smells...well, maybe not the smells. People were extremely friendly and were waving to Mika and trying to get her to smile. Our little bunny is pretty shy, so I was happy to see her interact with some people.

Our Christmas dinner was "spaghetti" at the western restaurant here at the hotel, and then we headed up to our room to play until bedtime. Speaking of bedtime, that is our biggest challenge right now. Because Mika cries so loudly, we can't let her cry for any length of time. She always wants to be near us, so putting her in the crib has not been a happy thing for her. At home, we would just let her get used to soothing herself to sleep, but her, we can't. We tried for to let her cry for about 7 minutes a couple nights ago and guess what happened? The people in the room next to us started banging on the wall and turned up the volumed on the t.v. Again, whoops! So, little Mika is having to fall sleep in our arms, or come in bed with us if she starts wailing in the middle of the night. Did I mention I'm a light sleeper??!!

Today we are flying out to Guangzhou to meet up with the rest of our travel group. Our American Consulate is there, and we will be doing lots of appointments and paperwork while we're there. And I'm sure we'll find time for some shopping, too!

Gotcha Day and Life with Mika

Hello and Ni Hao from China!

This is the first time I've been able to access our blog...hope it works!

We arrived in Beijing on the 20th...spent the 21st sightseeing. We got to attend a ex-patriot service that reminded us of home - same worship songs and everything! After some lunch, we headed to the Great Wall. Let's just say we were very thankful to have been there before in the summer time - the wind chill factor was -10 degrees that day! Needless to say we didn't stay too long, but we did make it some serious steps before we headed back down.

We left for the airport at 5:30 am on the 22nd with two other families. We were supposed to fly out at 7:30, but our flight got cancelled! Did I mention that this is the day we were going to get Mika??!! God sent us an angel - a Chinese man who saw our lost looks at the gate and offered to help us out. The airport wasn't too keen on translating English, so we were extremely grateful to have this guys help! He got us into a line where we got booked on another flight a couple hours later. We just kept praying that we would still be able to get Mika, even though we were getting in much later than expected.

God answered our prayers! We were able to briefly stop at our hotel and then it we walked across the street to the Civil Affairs Office. When we got there, the two other families babies were already there. It was so fun to see these first time parents get their 8 month old girls! We had to wait another 45 minutes for Mika to arrive - they said she had a 4 hour drive from her orpahange to the office. We heard footsteps in the hall, and we went to the doorway to find our little girl entering the room! So adorable in her blue puffy outfit!

We knew this was going to be a tough day for Mika, and we were right. They handed her over to us, and she started crying...and continued to cry for a good part of that first day. Thankfully, she slept well that night in her crib.

The next morning (the 23rd) we had to go back to the Civil Affairs Office where they asked us if we would like to keep Mika - a resounding "yes" was said! She totally started to warm up to us, and became quite a snuggler! Oh, I need to describe her a little more...she loves her food, and even has a gut! She'll fit well into our family in that department (tee hee!) She's strong - both physically and emotionally. We think she is going to hold her own among her siblings and maybe even give them a run for their money!

Today, (24th) we continued to learn more about Mika. One being that she is teething in a big way - thus all the crying, drooling, hands in the mouth, etc.. The poor girl seems to be in pain quite a bit. Have I also mentioned that Mika has one of the loudest cries I have ever heard??! I had to even put my earplugs in as she was snuggling and screaming in my ear on the bed! Good times! She's just warming up to be a singer like her Mommy, right?!!

We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner of Pizza Hit tonight. Mika had two peices...I told you she likes to eat! In a few minutes we're meeting the other families to sing Christmas carols - we tried to get a piano, but no luck. Accapella singing rules tonight!

We leave tomorrow!

I can't believe we actually leave for China tomorrow afternoon! The craziness of getting everything together, and packing is done. Annie, Noah and I (heather) arrived in Portland, OR yesterday - it was a long, grueling day thanks to the weather. But we are here now and enjoying life. Rich and Kiana are flying in at this very moment (thanks Mom and Dad for picking them up!).

Here is our Itinerary for our time in China:

* Dec. 19 - depart for Bejing
* Dec. 20 - arrive in Beijing
* Dec. 21 - Beijing sightseeing; Great Wall
* Dec 22 - GOTCHA DAY! Morning flight to Jiangxi; meet Mika Dundore in the afternoon!
* Dec. 23 - Civil Affairs Appointment
* Dec 24 - sightseeing and shopping
* Dec. 25- Christmas in Jiangxi
* Dec. 26 - Flight to Guangzhou
* Dec. 27 - Sightseeing & shopping
* Dec. 28 - Medical Exam and Consulate Paperwork
* Dec. 29 - Consulate Appointment
* Dec. 30 - Pick up Mika's Visa
* Dec. 31 - Free Day in Guangzhou
* Jan. 1 - Depart for home!

We arrive back in Portland at 7:00 am on January 1st - Happy New Year! We'll be staying here for 5 more days and then we'll all fly back together on Jan. 6th. We'll arrive back in Indy at 3:21 pm, Jan. 6th.

We'll try and keep you posted as to how Mika is doing throughout our trip. Thanks for praying for us!