Bringing home our Potato bug!

As, I'm sure you've noticed, we are using nicknames.  This blog is public, even though I know mostly family and friends are reading this, I want to protect our privacy.  This blog is to share our journey to adoption.  I also have to respect my children's privacy and think about what they would want exposed to the world as well.

Now back to our sweet Potato bug!  From our last post I shared our loss in the Ethiopia program.  I actually no longer look at it as a loss.  If we hadn't started there we would not be where we are today.  It was where we started our adoption journey and it's where I thought we were meant to be but it was just a detour that will always be special for me.  After years of waiting and talking with our Ethiopia case manager, we started asking questions.  Could we consider another country?  We actually had options.  However Ethiopia was the only country we had ever considered so we really didn't know where we were going to go next on this journey.  So we just laid low, stayed the course in Ethiopia and took a break from thinking.  I think I was still processing the loss.

But life goes on and you do your daily thing.  On one weekend in March (2012) Gamer and I went to Ikea to stock up on everything we didn't need.  It seriously is the store of I don't need that but it's $1.99 and I want 10!  We were cruising through the kid section with Boom Boom and then BAM, I knew where we were going next!!  Well I didn't know it then but the seed was planted.  I was looking at the toys and saw the soft baby dolls they had.  They had a Caucasian baby, an Asian baby, and an African American baby!  I grabbed all three and went running to Gamer with this big goofy smile and presented him with our family!  To seal the deal I showed them to Boom Boom who proceeded to grab all three and smother them in kisses!  However he preferred the Asian baby, it was his favorite. So we bought all 3 and went home with our new family.  I didn't say out loud that I was thinking of China and Gamer didn't acknowledge it either, we just let it lie there.   He humored me and bought Boom Boom some new babies.  But the seed was planted!

Boom Boom and his favorite baby.

Then another seed was planted!  Actually it was a blinking neon sign that we could not ignore!!  I started noticing that I was getting the Chinese newspaper every Friday.  It probably came for about a month when I finally really noticed it.  I think the first few I just tossed, not even looking at it.  One day, it was on my doorstep again and I looked at it.  It was the China Daily.  Why the heck am I getting the China Daily?????  I don't even get the Times or any other newspaper.  I asked my neighbors if they got it and no one else did,  just us.  Again, why????  It really was strange!  We started getting it a few weeks after we purchased the Ikea dolls.  So every Friday I checked and every Friday we got the paper.  I felt kind of cheesy saying it out loud but I told gamer that I think we should consider China.  He asked why?  It really wasn't on our list of countries we considered.  Well I told him, the signs, everywhere there are signs!!  The Ikea doll and the China Daily....come on, it's obvious!!!  

I love Gamer and his willingness and trust in this crazy ride!  He goes with the flow and says "yes dear" a lot!!!!  So I called our Ethiopian case manager and told her we wanted to adopt our second child first!  We had always talked about adopting two from Ethiopia but now felt our second child was going to come from China.  And it was a boy that was calling for us.  I could just feel it.  We were still going to wait for our baby girl from Ethiopia but felt she wasn't  ready for us. Her brother was the one that was calling us, LOUD AND CLEAR!

Ok, if you're still thinking this is cheesy, it gets better!!!  We joined the China program and within a month we found our son.  Our little Potato bug.  Seriously the minute I saw his file photo I new he was ours!

Potato bug 6 months old

Potato bug at about 18 months

 Boom Boom was so excited to announce he was going

to be a big brother!

Loving his stand in brother.

We found our Potato Bug in April 2012.  We had a trip planned to Norway and Italy in June and were going to be gone for 6 weeks!!  So we scrambled like crazy people and got our Homestudy done and approved before we left!  We managed to get the ball rolling before we left which was a huge relief.  Again, as I mentioned before I'm not organized.  If any of you have ever read an adoption blog you will be impressed at the detail.  Mine will not do that.  Sorry!  I suck at acronyms,  I'm horrible at remembering dates, and all my adoption paperwork is in a plastic tote.  That's it.  There will be no cool dates that list my adoption step by step, date by date, and acronyms that you probably wouldn't understand either.  Your welcome!  So any whoozle, back to my Potato bug.  We got back from our trip and had to compile our Dossier.  A Dossier is your life in a file.  It's your medical, financial. and a every little detail about you and your family.  We got that completed and sent to China.  Unlike Ethiopia, China was cruising along!!  We got in the system, we got approved, we were actually moving closer and closer to bringing home our son!  We got more updates and cute photos!

A birthday celebration!  Hoping it was his.

In the first week of May we got our travel notice.  Once you get this, it's happy crazy town!!!  You travel around two weeks after this notice.  Even though it was a bit overwhelming and I had a lot of ducks to get in a row I always looked forward to my friday China Daily.  It stopped coming.  After receiving this paper for almost a year, it was my comfort, I looked forward to it.  It was my connection to Potato bug and I was a really sad that it didn't come anymore.  I thought it was a fluke the first week. Maybe my mystery paper delivery person was sick and missed a paper for the first time in a year!  But it never came again, that was it.  And then it hit me.  Potato bug planned this whole thing!!!  He somehow knew we needed HIM as much as he needed us.  He planted that seed at Ikea,  he sent that Chinese paper, and once he knew the plane tickets were bought he knew we were coming.  The end.  No more paper needed!

China bear (he has since named it that) and his little back pack waiting for him.

On May 20th, 2013 at 2:21pm the phone rang that our son was on his way up to our hotel room.

 Potato bug with is mama and baba.

Potato bug's nannies that cared for him for the first 2.8 yrs of his life.

Gamer officially adopting Potato bug as his son.

Madre officially adopting Potato bug as her son.

Potato bug accepting us as his mama and baba.

Adoption is hard.  When you're in the process, the time from finding an agency to bringing home your baby seems like 500 years!!!  Especially if this is your first time.  It's overwhelming, it's scary at times, it's like waiting for Christmas morning every single day until you have your baby in your arms.  It's a leap of faith, it's hope, it's a growing family.  Adoption is awesome!  

So glad we listened!