We are days from leaving our home and two of our 5, yes 5! children to head to China and bring home baby #5, boy #3. The journey to our sweet Isaac has been so completely different than our journey to Max. What was quick with Max has been slow with Isaac (home study, USCIS approval) and those long waits with Max have been unbelievably quick with Isaac. We waited 22 months for the travel paperwork for Max and 52 days for the same paperwork for Isaac. We officially began waiting on Isaac in June of 2013 and he will be placed in our care on March 24, 2014. We are so very grateful and freaking out just a little bit. We waited 903 days for Max although 3 months of that he was not actually on "hold" for us, but we knew he was our son. Our dossier for Max was sent on May 27, 2009 and we left for Thailand on May 30, 2011. Our dossier for Isaac was logged into China on Nov. 7, 2013 and we are leaving for China on March 18, 2014. It's crazy!
Our wait for Max was so long that it felt like he was present in our home long before he was actually home. The room was ready, clothes were bought, toys on the bed, books on the shelf and no Max. We talked about him constantly. I cried more tears than I can even imagine and the pain and hurt was so hard that at times I wondered if my faith would stand. God is faithful though and we emerged from the wait with our faith in tact and a stronger understanding of His mercies. This time around we are getting the bedroom ready days before we leave, and I'm not sure it will actually be completely ready when we leave. I have a pile of clothes ready to be washed and wonder if it's enough and although the suitcases are out they have yet to see a single item in them...although there are lots of things piled up around them so I guess that's a start.
Right now I am reminded of getting ready for Allison, baby #2. I wasn't ready, although I was ready. The toddler bed for Hayden was put up shortly before I delivered her, his crib had been up for months before his birth. I barely had an outfit for her when I went to the hospital because honestly how many outfits does a growing, newborn baby need? Hayden's dresser was overflowing. I was so happy to be having her, but she came into our family with much less of a splash than Hayden had...she has spent the last 17+ years making up for that I can assure you.
So in many ways bringing Isaac home has been like giving birth the second time. I'm thrilled to get him, I can't wait to hold him and touch him and feel his hair and see his smile and understand what the heck it means that he has a "low" voice as his paperwork says. If he does have a quiet voice I'm sure Max will teach him quite quickly how to be loud! By the same token, I know where this is all heading. I know that if the room is quite ready the world won't end and if he needs a few more clothes that's easily enough solved. He will be afraid and cry, he will need time to adjust and bond it will be a hard road and I know that we will look back, as we do with Max, and be thrilled we took that first step on the path that is leading us to him
We leave on Tuesday with Katie and Max. We are, again, flying on buddy passes and although it is a bit unnerving I figure we'll get there at some point and our boy will be placed in our arms on March 24 and a new chapter in our lives will begin. We will tour Beijing, some of Henan and spend time in Guangzhou and at the end of the process, the wait, the travel, the road, is a precious 3 year old boy who's been waiting for his momma for far too long, although he doesn't really know it yet!
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