Xi'an

I can’t overstate how helpful it has been to have two sweet girls here who speak Mandarin!   Graci and Cali have made Conner’s transition into our family so much easier on all of us.  This afternoon, after an incredibly emotional, beautiful, heart-wrenching day spent at Conner’s orphanage and music institute (this will be a blog post of its own), we came back to the hotel and told the kids we needed to all spend some downtime in our rooms.  Conner asked to go in the girls’ room.  The boys did homework and rested, we watched shows, blogged, and packed, and Graci, Cali and Conner watched TV and qq’d with Conner’s friends from school.  When I went to check on them, the girls started giggling uncontrollably and told us how funny Conner was.  He was qq-ing with a friend and his friend asked what he was doing.  He said, “I am watching chick-flicks with two babes!   They are very beautiful.  Are you jealous?”  The girls thought that was pretty great!  (;  We have been told that he is very witty and has quite the sense of humor and that is definitely proving true.  (:

I’m going to backtrack a few days and blog about our time in Xi’an.  We started our trip in Xi’an so that Cali would have the chance to see some of her loved ones.  Cali has a biological grandmother and auntie that we were able to meet when we adopted her and she wanted a chance to reconnect.  The only day they could meet us was on Sunday, leaving us a free day on Saturday.  As you know, Jeremy and I have been advocating for a sweet, 13 year-old-boy referred to as Cameron.  A week or so before our trip I put two and two together and realized that Cameron’s orphanage was in Xi’an.  Thinking that I would for sure be told “no” but feeling the need to try anyway, I contacted Mike from findMe International and asked if he would talk to the director of his orphanage and see if they would consider letting Cameron spend a day with us.  I made it very clear that Cameron was to know that we were there to adopt another boy but that we would love to spend some time with him while we were there.  To my amazement, the director agreed.  Our goal in doing this was to find out a little bit more about Cameron for those who might be interested in adopting him, to generate some more interest in him, and to give him a day out of the orphanage. 

I really felt the Lord’s hand in this “day with Cameron.”  First of all, the fact that we were even traveling to his city was pretty amazing.  Secondly, we found out that Dave Peters, director of the documentary “Find Me” (the film that our family is in) just “happened” to be arriving in Xi’an the exact day that we arrived.  He was there to film a segment on the LeSeur family (one of the other two families in the film) who “happened” to be adopting their second child the same weekend as us.  Because of Dave being in the city that day, he was able to come to our hotel, which just “happened” to be right next to his (this without any planning in a city of 12 million people) and give us a camcorder to film our time with Cameron.  He then met up with us that night to film a little segment about our day.  We were also able to meet the LeSeurs, who are the sweetest, most genuine couple and together have a good discussion about adoption.  Dave took the footage we had and put together a short little film to be shared on social media.  Please take a moment to watch it and consider sharing it in any way you can.  We are DESPERATE to find a family for this sweet young man.  He is a GEM.   Sometimes just sharing these videos can completely change the life of an orphan.  I shared “Emily’s” video on facebook and to my complete delight, a beautiful friend of mine from Tennessee saw it and asked for more information.  To make a long story short, that friend, Sarah, is now officially matched with Emily.  It amazes me to see how the Lord can use small and simple things to bring to pass His eternal purposes.  I love it!  And believe it or not, while we were there to pick up Cameron, we asked about Emily and were able to actually meet her!  She is so precious and so happy to have a family.  I asked her if she had any questions and she said, “How soon can they come?!”  I explained that they would be there that very day if it were possible, but that completing all of the adoption paperwork would take many months.  She understood, but was disappointed—just so excited to have a family! 

Instead of blogging about the day with Cameron I will just give you a link to the short film that was done.  Just click HERE.

On Sunday we were able to meet up with Cali’s grandmother, auntie and uncle, nephew and a great aunt and her son.  They treated us to a lovely Chinese lunch and showered Cali and Graci with gifts.  It was an emotional day for Cali.  I think she felt all kinds of feelings when she said goodbye to them—all the way from sorrow to relief.  After they left we were blessed with a visit from Duna.  Duna was like a mother to Cali in many ways.  She worked at the orphanage for much of the time that Cali was there and Cali loved her very much.  We had a great visit with Duna—she is a very special person who does so much good.

Again, we are so grateful for the many opportunities we were given in Xi’an—from spending time with Cameron to meeting Emily to reuniting with Cali’s loved ones to meeting the LeSeurs….  It was a beautiful two days (despite extreme jet lag) that will always remain in our hearts.

--Christianne

Parker and Taylor are exhausted!

Arriving at Xi'an at 3 a.m.  The kids were SO happy to finally be at the hotel!

Meeting Emily

Our family with Emily and Cameron

Cameron

Beautiful Emily

Having fun at the Terra Cotta Warriors

Parker at the Terra Cotta Warriors

Lunch with Cali's China family

Spending time with Cali's China family

Lunch with Cali's China Family

Visiting with Duna

Duna and Cali