Family...

Comes in all colors, from every corner of the world. That is how it is in our family. And that is how it is in the family of God.

I LOVE my family...both of them!

Packing

Always a struggle for me. I never know what to wear or what others will be wearing so i feel like it is such an overwhelming task. When i went to Haiti, at first i was frustrated that we had to always wear skirts. Mostly because i had NO skirts...I just don't wear them. But in the end it was so easy to pack everything because the weather was always HOT and i could only choose skirts. Simple living...It was beautiful.

I have borrowed a friend's travel guide on China but it is a bit old. Does anyone have any recommendations on a good guide book? This one was Lonely Planet. It was good so i may just go get a newer version of that. I was going to just use this one but so much has changed in China, that i found the guide book showed places that are no longer there etc.

And packing for Aimee is the hardest part. I can only really guess her size at this point. And so i need to bring enough clothes for roughly 2 weeks and in multiple sizes just on case some don't fit. And it all has to fit in our bags because we are only bringing 1 each due to our in country flights... Ugh!

Well, the one thing i know i will not leave behind is my Bible. God has carried me around the world so many times for His great purpose, and he will carry me yet again to a new unknown place. He is always gracious in His patience with us. He always shows us His love in other places by the amazing people we meet who want nothing more than to serve him. And He carries us through the tough first moments as parents to a toddler who's world has just been turned upside down. I need all the help i can get with that one.

So many people can't wait as soon as they get there to meet their kids and take them to their hotels with them. And not that i don't want to...I cannot wait for Aimee to be a Koby. But the moment i have that new child in my arms and the chaos begins, i just want to get out of Dodge so to speak. Our experience with Juli first taught me this lesson. In Russia, after you go to court, you have a ten day waiting period where you stay in the hotel and go back and forth to visit your child. As new parents to this experience we were so saddened by this...every time we would go visit her we had to leave her behind. But then the day came when we would just visit her for the last time. Our lives changed forever in that moment and i am not talking changed as every new parent does. We were suddenly in possession of a child who was terrified of her surroundings, only knew us, understood nothing we said, screamed ALL night long if we weren't holding her...and at times we would put her down just for a couple of minutes and she would scream so loud that at one point we heard footsteps coming to our door of the hotel. Now being in a country like Russia where many people think Americans adopt children for their organs, we did not want any trouble. So hold her we did....for 6 more days and all the way home on the airplane as she screamed and others moved their seats in disgust.

Therefore, i now think the policy should be in every country that you get your kid as you board your plane home. LOL But it is not and so we will see what this new venture brings for the Kobys. God is good...ALL the time!

Traveling...

Well, we finally know we are heading to China! Aimee Grace is coming home on August 5, 2010 forever to be a Koby!

We are so excited to meet her, especially Juli. She said she wants to get matching Chinese outfits for them to wear. I think she is going to be surprised by how much like Elias she will be. Steeling her toys, smacking her, following her around pestering her. But she will discover that for herself. I just hope she doesn't have her expectations that high. I have been trying to prepare her for her reality check.

In the meantime, we are getting Aimee's room already. I decided to paint it red and cream with white chair rail. It is so pretty...very Asian. It will be perfect for all the little collectibles i will buy to decorate with.

I am above all amazed that i will be traveling to the Orient. It has in my mind for so long been such a place of wonder and beauty. I know i will not be going outside of any cities, and i am disappointed in this, but just to go to that part of the world will be such an amazing experience. I have had the privilege of traveling to so many countries in my lifetime, England, Israel, Jordan, Russia, Ethiopia, Dubai, Haiti... but i never did imagine i would get to China. I don't know why. Perhaps it is because as a child it was always considered the farthest place on earth. The place your parents would always joke that you should try to dig to when you were at the beach.

I love to watch Bizarre Foods with Andre Zimmern. It is a great show. You learn so much about other cultures and the truly bizarre, often gross foods they eat and consider delicacies. I one episode, he traveled to China. And i do not remember too much about it because it was quite some time ago, but one of the foods he ate was a seahorse on a stick. Weird foods like this were sold on the side of the road from carts. And there were all kinds of odd things on sticks too, not just seahorses. So, i was telling Juli about this and she insists she will eat a seahorse while we are there. And i do not doubt it either.