Hope

We made it home.  God did this.  He is our peace and He is perfect.  His timing and providence are  perfect.  One thing I was reminded of on our great journey is that though He is, we are not.  Much of my life (Katie) I have spent trying to get things as close to "perfect" as I can.  God is now showing me that I am not supposed to try to achieve perfection but that I am called to dwell in hope.  Looking out at this world we won't find perfection anywhere.  But we will find hope.  Hope exists in the dark places.  Perfect would have been for Josiah to have been born into a family that loved him perfectly and unconditionally.  He would have never been abandoned.  But on the darkest of days, God had a plan for this sweet boy and hope was there.  Now Josiah is ours.  He has the hope of a family who will always love and take care of him.  We won't be perfect parents, but we can have hope in God that He will be our help.

Hope, though, is not happy thoughts or ideas.  It is not an attitude or a decision.  Hope is a person.  Hope is found only in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.  He came down into the darkness to shine hope.  He lived a perfect life, died on a cross for our sin, and was raised so that we could have hope to overcome sin and hope to overcome death.

This is a wonderful time of year to bring home our son.  Christmas is the beginning of hope.  It is the story of a baby born into darkness to bring us light.  It was the beginning of the kind of hope we can see with our own eyes and when I look at Josiah I see hope.  Thank you Jesus.  All glory belongs to you.

Isaiah 9:2 "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined."

Pictures of Josiah at home with us are coming soon!!!

Future Husker

U.S. Consulate Appointment

Today we had our appointment to get Josiah's Visa at the U.S. Consulate.  We had to swear an oath as a group and electronically sign a document.  Today made us much more aware of our privileges as American citizens.  When arrived at the Consulate, we saw multiple lines of Chinese citizens waiting in the pouring rain for a chance to get a visa to come to America.  We walked right in and were led upstairs (thankfully).  It was surprisingly an amazing experience.  This was the final step in our adoption process and we were all so excited to be done! After many, many months of waiting, we have fully adopted Josiah and are ready to bring him home!!  We are feeling very homesick and miss our daughters to the point of tears.  We are so thankful to our families who have taken care of them.

One of the blessings of this trip has been the opportunity to meet some amazing people from across the U.S.  We've developed some good friendships and there is already plans to try to have regular reunions.

A rainy day at Shamian Island

We are brining this to the U.S.

Typical look on Josiah's face

This man is writing the "Reynolds" name in Mandarin

The final copy

Cold day at the Guangzhou Folk Art Museum

Guangzhou Day 2

Today Josiah had his medical appointment in Guangzhou, which is required of all adopted children from China.  He was a champ.  He saw some nurses who weighted and measured him, an ENT specialist, and a general doctor.  He still has a cold, but no ear infection.  The doctor mentioned he may have bronchitis and may need to get an antibiotic when we get home.

We were blessed to reunite with all the Bethany families today as well.  We've made some good friends as we all experience this together.

At the medical appointment this morning we met some friends of my cousins Danny and Roy Gillham.  Jeff and Erin are from Colorado Springs and a few days before we left for China, Roy told us they were going to be in China adopting as well.  Never would have thought we'd run into them, but after striking up a conversation with a family in the clinic, it turned out to be them!  His providence is sweet!

This afternoon, Sheyan, (Bethany's China Staff) helped us get all our paperwork together for our appointment at the U.S. Consulate.  She is absolutely amazing at her job and was so patient with all the families.  It is incredible to see how she is able to handle all 17 adoptions.  In her 20 + years working with Bethany, she has helped literally thousands of families adopt from China.  We also found out that in those 20+ years, Josiah is only the 3rd child she has seen adopted from the entire Xinjiang province (Urumqi City).

The more time we spend with Josiah, the more we can see he was meant to be our son!  We love him so much and can't wait to bring him home.

Waiting in line at the clinic with our new friends

How much does Bobo weight?

Playing with my friend's giraffe

Imagine him saying "Heh?" in a high pitched voice as he leans in toward you!  So funny!

1st doctor appointment

Walking back from supper

Guangzhou

Today we traveled to Guangzhou which is located on the far southeast corner of China.  We had around a 5 hour flight from Urumqi to Guangzhou.  Josiah was a trooper.  He slept for about half of the trip.  We had a little challenge after arriving at Guangzhou as Josiah wet his pants and then puked on Katie while she was changing his diaper in the bathroom (without a baby changing station) right before leaving for our hotel.  We don't think he is sick, but pray for him in the next couple days.  We arrived at our hotel in Guangzhou which is arguably the nicest hotel we've ever seen.  Josiah is sleeping now and tomorrow we have Josiah's medical appointment at the U.S. Consulate.  We are feeling very homesick at this point, but feel excited to be in Guangzhou with the other Bethany families.  We are counting down the days until we can travel home. 

Here are some more photos from the last couple days:

My favorite part of the day

Swimming for the first time.  They made us wear these caps!

Beautiful clear morning in Urumqi

By afternoon, the smog is thick

Josiah's signature expression

Showing us how to use chopsticks

Getting ready to fly to Guangzhou

Leaving Urumqi

Are we there yet? 

Most hotels we've been to have Gideon bibles in their nightstands

Our Son

I haven't blogged much since we've been here.  Josh has been doing most of the posting because he is much better at it than me so I've been  playing, napping and packing etc.  I am brought to tears as I type.  I love our new son so much.  The emotions I've experienced are very comparable to being in the hospital after having a baby.  There is pain, many emotional ups and downs, and much, much joy.  Pain knowing his caretaker is experiencing loss, pain that he could have been left abandoned and never known a family or the love of God, pain that he is confused and having to learn a new language and will always maybe feel a little bit out of place.  These emotions are coupled with unspeakable joy.  Joy that Josiah is ours forever, joy that he has a place with us not as an orphan but as our son, and joy that I can experience the blessing of being a mother of 4!!  We love him more than words can say.  He is so full of life and his laugh is contagious.  He is very very busy!  He loves touching everything and making funny noises.  His favorite form of entertainment is taking the lids on and off of different bottles and containers.  He loves peek-a-boo but we have to be careful about that game because "boo" means "no" in Chinese!  He never sits still unless he is asleep, but once he is asleep he is down for the count!  Josh is delighted to have a child that will fall asleep in his arms.  He is all boy and tough and rough at times when he is playing but always looks to make sure its ok before he tries something too crazy.  Right now he is unpacking our stuff as we pack and jumping on and off my lap so my writing is probably a little scattered.  I thought Hannah was a walking tornado when she was 1, but I think he has her beat!  (Love you Hannah bear!!) He is going to really mess up some doll houses when we get back!!  He is also very wobbly as he walks around and climbs and bumps into things on purpose.  It is taking some getting used to.  At first I thought he was going to give himself a head injury every 30 seconds but he is pretty good about catching himself just in time.  Initially I had one hand on him at all times.  Our plane ride to Guangzhou may be interesting getting him to sit still.  It will be good practice for the 13 hour plane ride home!

On the Great Wall of China

I didn't get this posted the other day but here is some video of us on the Great Wall.  The audio isn't great because of the wind.

Urumqi Day 5

Today was our 5th day in Urumqi.  Lily took us to a museum today to learn about the XinJiang province and the different ethnic people groups that live in this region.  We were amazed that there are over 46 different people groups living in this province and city.  We saw artifacts from over 2500 years ago.  It was a really neat experience to see and hear about the history and culture of the city where Josiah was born.  

After the museum we spent a half hour in the People's Park of Urumqi.  You would not normally see hundreds of people hanging out in the park on a sub-freezing day in Hastings, but that is exactly what we saw in Urumqi.  And they weren't just hanging out.  Most of them were older retired people that were singing and dancing to different styles of music and there was also a group of people that were exercising on some equipment in the park.  It was a lot of fun.  Definitely a unique experience that I guarantee you won't see in Nebraska.  There was a journalist and cameraman there and they were all excited to film us dancing with them.  Hilarious.

After the park, we drove through a Uyghur neighborhood which is one of the minority groups in Urumqi.  It was interesting to see several mosques in this part of the city and in China.

This afternoon we are packing as we fly to Guangzhou tomorrow to prepare for Josiah's medical appointment (Saturday) and visa appointment (Monday) at the U.S. Consulate.  We will also be meeting back up with the other Bethany families in Guangzhou.

Here are a few pics and videos from today:

Xinjiang Regional Museum

Stroll through the park


We came upon this huge group of people dancing in the park.  It had to be around 25 degrees outside. Crazy!

Yes, that is us dancing!

Yes, that is the journalist filming our dancing

Katie w/ a traditional Uyghur dressed dancing man

Anyone hungry for lamb?

A mosque in Urumqi

Time to play

We are doing great.  Today, (Wednesday) is our a free day for us.  We are waiting for his passport to be processed and we are expecting it to be done by Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.  We are just hanging out at the hotel today and Josiah is napping right now.  We were able to FaceTime his sisters and grandparents today which was special.  Yesterday, Lily, took us to an indoor shopping center that had a children's play area.  It reminded us a lot of a "Children's Museum" area.  Josiah had never played like this before. He was a little timid at first, but began to warm up and interact with the other kids quickly. Here are some pics and videos from yesterday.

Breakfast

He feels the same way as his dad about shopping

New shoes!

Lunch

Gotcha Day videos

Here were the moments captured on video:

Gotcha Day Round 2

Thought I'd share a few more photos with you from this afternoon and evening.

Singing my favorite songs to Josiah at the police station

Shopping Trip

Our first dinner date

Bath Time

Why do I have to go to bed? 

Gotcha!

Words can't express the joy we feel today as we met and adopted Josiah Haibo Reynolds. His adoption is official and he is now a Reynolds!  I only have about 10 minutes before we go to one more appointment at the police station this afternoon, so I will just post a few photos.  Everything has gone very well so far and we are bonding quickly with Josiah.  He is already calling Katie "Ma Ma".  He is a cute little boy and is already smiling and laughing.  We will update everyone on our day in greater detail later tonight (morning in the US).  He can't wait to meet his sisters!!

One prayer request, Josiah has a bad cold so pray he would get better quickly and that we would be protected from getting sick the next few days.

Here are few photos from our first couple hours with Josiah!

Just meeting Josiah for the first time. 

Riding to get Josiah's visa photo

Playing with mama

His adoption is official!!

Another car ride to the notary.

I'm worn out!

Napping with mom