Remembering Gotcha Day

As I snuggled with Lily on the couch this afternoon, listening to her read, it seems impossible that she has only been ours for a year.  This time last year, we spent our last day without her.  I had not held her yet or heard that pitiful howl as she grieved.  I had not touched her hair, held her hand, or heard her giggle.  A year later, I can't even imagine a life without her in it.

I remember the night before we met her, I don't think any of us slept.  I just kept wondering what it would be like once she was really ours.  I prayed and worried about her most of the night.  Before sunrise, the big kids piled in our bed and we talked about what might happen when we met Lily.  None of could really imagine what would happen.  We were all excited but also really nervous.  We knew our lives would never be the same.

Snuggling early, early in the morning.  Our nerves would not let us sleep. 

As the time came when we knew that Lily had left the SWI (orphanage) and was on her way to us, I sobbed.  I already loved her and my heart broke for the life she was leaving.  Would we give her everything we could?  Love her?  Take care of forever?  YES!! but she didn't know this yet.  She left all that she knew and it broke my heart to think of how that felt for her.  

We went to the buffet for a very early breakfast since we had been up for so long.

Mary Ashtyn and Reece chopstick fighting to pass the time :)

Nervous Mama and Baba...hurry up and bring our girl!!!

Back to the room to stare out the window and wonder if one of the vans had our Lily Joy in it.

Some of her toys waiting for our little ladybug.

Waiting in the lobby for our Lily...this was so agonizing!

Watching and Waiting for the first glimpse of the little girl who had stolen our hearts nine months ago.

As we sat in the lobby growing more anxious by the second, our guide (Aggie) called to tell us that heavy fog had delayed the van!!  More waiting!!  AAAHHHH...it was terrible.

Four sad Bambergs went back to the hotel room once again to wait and try not to have a panic attack.  Well, that was probably just me, but it was bad.  Aggie knew how disappointed we were and called to invite us out for lunch to a traditional hot pot.  We definitely needed a distraction.

So thankful for the time we spent at the restaurant with Aggie and our driver, Rocky.  We were laughing so hard at ourselves trying to spear our boiling food with chopsticks, the clock actually started moving again :)

Aggie ordering for us.

Aggie's Mom was our server.

Here comes the boiling pot, Aggie was protecting Reece :)

The hotpot

Lamb and peanut butter sauce...everyone liked it but me!

LOTS of food

Reece ready to cook his lunch.

Trent concentrating to catch his lunch from the hot pot!!  LOL

They felt sorry for the kids and just brought them rubber gloves to eat their lunch :)

Beautiful building on the way back to the Sheraton.

All kinds of transportation in the streets of Hohhot

We made it back to the hotel, more than ready to finally see Lily.  We got back into our room and the phone was ringing.  Aggie let us know that the van with our sweet girl was five minutes from the hotel!!!

Our first glimpse of our daughter, no words can describe how it felt to finally see her coming through the lobby doors...

For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him! 

(1 Samuel 1:27)

Blessed by the year that God has given us with our littlest miracle.

To Be Continued Tomorrow...It's Gotcha Day!!!!

Remembering Inner Mongolia~A Year Later

For the past several days, most our of conversations have started out with..."this time time last year".  It has been so much fun to share memories of our China trip.  

Once we made it to Hohhot on Friday, we had to wait the entire weekend before we got Lily.  We loved getting to spend time in Inner Mongolia.  We were able to visit a Buddhist temple and the Inner Mongolia museum.  We even braved walking down the street from our hotel to eat by ourselves at a restaurant where NO ONE spoke English.  We were so proud to get food that we recognized and were able to eat!!


We were so anxious to get Lily, but I'm glad we got the time to tour Hohhot.  We fell in love with Inner Mongolia.

We saw so many beautiful buildings as we drove through Hohhot...when we had our eyes opened.  Traffic was scary!!

Inside one of the buildings at the Buddhist temple

One of the temples

Streets of Hohhot

Inner Mongolia Museum

Aggie (our guide), Reece, and Mash checking out the museum.

All smiles...love them!!

Family pic in the museum

Our little family

Our big family :)  We don't have a clue who they were, but they wanted to be in our picture!!  It was so funny!

LOL

They made our trip so perfect!

A year later, this pic doesn't even look right... where is our Lily???

 

Museum Entrance

View from the Museum

More views of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia

Sheraton Lobby

Our solo trip to a restaurant, jet lag was catching up with us very quickly!  My babies were so tired.

Thank goodness for picture menus...pizza and chicken fingers, please!!!

After a full weekend, we were so ready to finally get Lily.  We spent Saturday and Sunday seeing Inner Mongolia and wondering about our sweet girl.  It was one of the longest weekends of my entire life :)

November 24, 2011

It's been one year since our family of four left for China to become BamFam5!!  This year has gone by so very quickly!  It really seems like yesterday that Trent's Mom and Dad took us to the airport before dawn on Thanksgiving morning.  We were all so excited as we jumped out of the van for a few more hugs before we hurried in to check our luggage and find our gate.

Thinking back to the other 2 airport trips...everyone in both of our families went with us when we left for Russia for Mary Ashtyn.  Airport security was nothing like it is now, and everyone sat at the gate with us until we were ready to board.  Our Russian princess was the first grandchild on both sides, so we were all sooo excited!  Three years later, airport security had changed drastically in just a few months.  We left for Kazakhstan in December 2001, just a few months after the terrorist attacks.  My Mom and Dad stayed home to keep Mary Ashtyn while Trent's parents took us to the airport.  I will admit that it took several nerve pills to get me on that plane, leaving my sweet girl and missing my brother's wedding was horrible.  Trent's parents couldn't get anywhere near the gate this time because of the tight security.  As we got in line to check in, we looked back to see Mr. Tommy sobbing...we ran back for more hugs.  We knew Reece was worth it, but we were all terrified!

The trip to China was so easy for us!!  With both of the big kids going with us, it was much easier to get on that plane.  Although our Thanksgiving lunch was airplane food, we didn't mind at all!!  We were on the trip of a lifetime, on our way to bring home the sweetest Chinese treasure.

First plane on our long trip to China

Early morning breakfast at the Birmingham airport

Long wait in Chicago with very few Americans...reality set in, we're going to CHINA!!

Our new Chinese friend, George.  Trent and I were meeting other parents traveling to adopt and looked up to see George talking to the kids...they were totally freaked out!!!  LOL

Looking great after a very long flight to China...waiting for the final flight to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.

We loved every minute of the two weeks that we spent in China and we can't say enough about the perfect little souvenir that we brought home, Lily Joy ChunHang Bamberg!

 Snuggling on the couch watching Christmas movies one year later,

so thankful for our sweet miracles!

To celebrate Lily's Gotcha Day, I'm going to try to post some pictures that we never got to share while we were in China.  Start reading here if you'd like to read our posts while we in China last year.

Sweet Memories

On Monday, November 5, Trent's Daddy lost his battle with cancer.  The last two weeks have been so hard.  Although he had been sick for a long time, it's hard to say goodbye to someone we love so much.  The hardest thing is watching the people I love most in the world hurting and not being able to do anything to make it better.  My kids are just so sad, my husband is heartbroken, and my mother-in-law is lost without her best friend.  We all miss him so much.

We can take comfort knowing that he's in no more pain and that we will see him again.  When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!!

The sweet memories that we have are even sweeter now.