Nice People Everywhere ...





We are HOME and things are STILL going soooooooooo good!

Part of me feels like I SURVIVED our journey home.
In total we traveled on 3 air plane rides!
To my delight though, two of the rides were shorter than what I expected ... every minute COUNTS when you are on a flight with a one year old.

Although honestly, Jase did GREAT!
He didn't sleep a lot (a few hours in total), but he overall did a good job.

AND I am CONFIDENT that a lot of you were praying for nice helpful people on my flights and in the airports, and let me tell you it felt like we were SURROUNDED by NICE people.  Which quite frankly has not always been my experience flying.  Actually on some level the people were too nice because Jase was much more interested in playing with them ... then sleeping =)

One of my HUGE challenges which I had NO CLUE on how I would manage was the airport in Beijing.  I had to somehow get Jase, myself, my two carry-ons, my two suitcases, and my stroller out of terminal one, on to the free shuttle bus that takes you to terminal three, and then into terminal 1 where I had to once again check my luggage in (which I had to do threeeeeeee times - yikes)!

Well, a nice airport employee directed me to the shuttle stop and helped me push my airport cart - I have to carry Jase when I use the carts.  The shuttle came and it was 99% full, one of the couples being an adoptive couple I had met previously.  The dad helped me load my bags.  Once in the shuttle, a nice Canadian man offered me his seat which I gladly took.  This man was in China on business and was from Kelowna BC (5-6 hours or so from where I live) and once we got to the airport he went and got me another cart and helped me load up all of my bags =)  Yippeee, thank you Jesus!  I REALLY did literally not know how I was going to do that stop.

That story was repeated through each air plane ride and through each airport.  There really seemed like there were NICE people everywhere, who were so helpful to me, and so SWEET to Jase!

I had really one point on the flight from Beijing to San Francisco where I thought I am going to pass out from exhaustion, as Jase had only slept an hour so far on the flight ... and a simple prayer of "okay God, you are either going to have to make Jase fall asleep or give me MORE energy," and I felt renewed with strength to go on (Jase fell asleep a few hours later).

I am soooooooooo THANKFUL to be HOME!
I am sooooooooooo THANKFUL for our new AMAZING son, who I so adore!
I am soooooooooooooo THANKFUL for all of our jewels!
I am sooooooooo THANKFUL for my husband who so amazingly held down the home front while I was gone!
I am sooooooooooooooo THANKFUL for how well our transition is going so far, the only one who is struggling a bit is Kody!  He goes back and fort between adoring Jase to not quite sure on what he thinks about sharing his parents.
I am soooooooooooooooooooo THANKFUL for all of you who prayed Jase and I through every step of our journey of attaching, coming home, and now transitioning and more attaching.  It really was a GREAT trip!
I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo THANKFUL to my Creator and King who hold every detail of our lives in the palm of our hands, with such love and care. 



Comments

Ali Raney said…
We do not know each other (friend of a friend of a friend I think), but thank you for inspiring me with your story. I have been following along and it has been incredible to be a part of your journey of bringing Jase home.

I do a column on my blog every Wednesday about people who are going against the grain for Jesus, and in future I would love to interview you and Sam about your life! If you're interested in being a part, I would love to feature you and your family! (In future of course....take your time in getting back to me :)

All the best on your transition! You can check out my blog here: http://nothipenoughtoblog.blogspot.com

Ali
the smiths said…
Hey Maria! I can see you met my friend, Ali, virtually. :) She is an amazing woman! Praise God for how He makes all the pieces come together, delightfully. We serve an amazing Father. Praying for you all, Tam. xoxo
What an amazing journey to Jase, thank you so much for allowing me to follow along! It sounds like the Lord smiled on your trip, flight after flight . . . all the way home! And the smiling jewels awaiting you at the other end, wow!

Welcome home sweet Jase, welcome home!

Blessings from Texas~

Tina
Amy said…
Oh he is BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so far behind on blogs- but wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS on your beautiful son!!!
You asked about the flower bows- i got mine at Kid to Kid stores- do you have those? If not- let me know what color you need and I can mail them to you. :)
Amy said…
Oh and my email is block amy at hot mail dot com
Heather said…
Hi Maria! Glad to see you made it home ok. I was worried about your flights with the Japan earthquake (turns out we were flying over Japan about the time of the earthquake). Thank you for all of your support and companionship while in China--we are lucky to have met you and your beautiful son! We will be following your blog so that we can keep up on how you and Jase are doing. I order the hairbows from wholesalegirls.com (I order the headbands, flowers, and clips separate and hot-glue the flowers to the clips. It makes it really easy to mix and match that way).


Take care and God Bless you and your family :)
Heather, Jason, and Kinley
hoffmanngal said…
I can't tell you how much I thought of you on Friday and prayed that God would send kind and helpful people your way as you traveled. Praise God, He did. It was great getting to know you. I hope you can recover quickly from the jet lag.
Chelby