Moments and Miracles

Eden really came out of her shell today. Man, we have a full-on toddler on our hands. Today was a real turning point for her personality-wise and she opened up big time. We had lots of smiles, giggles, grins, tickles and frolicking around. I think it was by far our happiest day and filled with many fun and memorable moments. But let me tell you about one absolutely miraculous one...

This morning we were preparing to leave Wuhan for Guangzhou. We left the room and headed to the elevator and as we got on the elevator there was a Chinese woman getting off on our floor. Keri did a double-take as the doors closed and we went down to the lobby for breakfast. Could that possibly be?...

By the time we hit the lobby we knew something was probably up. Keri, Eden and her mom went on to the restaurant while I went back up to grab Eden's pictures from our room (all the families put their kids' pictures on the door of the room since we were all staying on the same floor). By the time I got back to the lobby, I spotted the Chinese lady we passed just outside the lobby talking on her cell phone. She walked around the side of the building and spotted me out of the corner of her eye, then walked quickly away from me.

Now, understand that in the city we were in, we knew going in we were not going to meet Eden's foster mom. But Keri had been praying that by some miracle we might meet her. By the time we got to China Keri had stopped praying about this, but she had asked others to pray for this as well.

We met up again in the restaurant, which has a long glass wall on one side. I brought out the picture of Eden we had, which has a woman's arm in the photo wearing a white blouse with flowers on it. The very same while blouse that this Chinese woman standing outside the hotel was wearing. It hit all of us in an instant--this was Eden's foster mom and she had come to see us.

Keri ran outside and approached her with Eden's picture. She was a little scared, I think, that we would not want to see her. We did not know each others' language but pictures and smiles were exchanged and she eased a bit understanding that we were honored she cared enough to find us and come by to see if Eden was okay. She had come not wanting us to discover her and just peer in from a distance. I pointed at the dress in the photo and her dress--she smiled, "Ah!"... so that's how they recognized me. At this point, Keri and the foster mom (we never actually got her name) were in tears. Keri hugged her and said, "Waa-Eye-Nee, Shee Shee" which means "I love you. Thank you."

Without really thinking, she asked me to run in and get Eden, who was just settling down to breakfast with Keri's mom. We embraced, let her hold Eden for a minute and took a picture with her. She pulled out her cell phone and excitedly called her husband to tell her she had met us. She held the phone up to Eden's ear to talk, but Eden was a little dumbstruck by the experience. Then she pointed to us and told Eden in Chinese, "This is mommy, and this is daddy."

Next she pulled out a picture of her family for us to keep. It was really a "God moment." We could not believe it. Something we had prayed for happening right before our eyes. She walked off and Eden got a little upset. She turned to come back and comfort Eden, but this time mommy instinct told Keri not to let Eden go. Instead she took Eden up to the room for a little bit to cry it out (actually it did not last very long at all, she was back down in 10 minutes). I gave her my email address, she smiled again, nodded thank you, and was gone.

For a little while after that we were just beside ourselves. We second-guessed a little bit as well. Should we have let her see Eden and Eden see her? No, it was the right thing to do, and it gave Eden some closure (I know that doesn't make sense for an 18 month old, but really, Eden at that age can comprehend the difference between someone disappearing/dying and someone letting go, even if she can't express it in words yet). Yes, we decided, even if we had to start over with Eden today, it was worth it. And what a blessing to know this woman cared enough to seek us out. You could tell she just had a wonderful love for Eden and really missed her. Words can't express our gratitude to this wonderful foster mom and to know years from now we can tell Eden we had the opportunity to meet her and thank her... God is just too good!

I'm not going to post that particular picture on the blog to protect her identity, but that's a treasured shot we will keep away until the day when Eden starts asking questions and we can pull it out and honor her foster mom's legacy by telling Eden about her.

As for the rest of the day... Well, like I said, Eden just blossomed today. We really believe that seeing her foster mom had something to do with it--seriously, it was like a light switch was flipped after that. Now, she's still grieving, and later in the morning we had a good tantrum and grief spirt, but she was markedly healthier today emotionally than any other day since we met her. I kept looking at Keri saying, "Is this the same sad little girl we adopted a few days ago?" She had us cracking up wearing sunglasses, talking on her Winnie-the-Poo cell phone, and toting her backpack of toys around the hotel halls.

Before lunch we received her passport and our adoption certificate. It's official--she's ours! Then after lunch it was off to the airport. Oh, we did stop by this little banzai tree museum first because we had some extra time. Same story there... sweltering, oppressive heat, ancient Chinese history. We got some fun pictures though, and the 30-minute tour ended, appropriately, in front of an air-conditioner cooling off until the bus arrived.

By the way, about the airports.... Every city in China either has a giant, ultra-modern, beautiful airport or is building one. Guangzhou has one, Beijing has one, Wuhan is building one. I've never seen such nice airports. They are all HUGE and made of glass and just go on and on and on. The nicest airports I've ever been in have all been in China. Folks, we got to do something about our airports in the USA--I mean these folks are just so far ahead of us in the concourse/gate area/moving sidewalk department. It's sad, really, for us. Oh, did I mention they were crowded?

We arrived tonight in Guangzhou, and will be here through Tuesday. We have a medical exam for Eden, then some paperwork for the American Consulate, then our appointment and "swearing in" on Tuesday morning to finalize Eden's citizenship for the USA. We are staying at the White Swan Hotel, which is kinda famous for China's adopting families and apparently well known in general. It is ultra-nice. There are pictures of Richard Nixon and George Bush (Sr.) staying here in the guest book. The mattresses however are still rocks with sheets on them... oh well.

Eden just dozed off. She's had a very active day--in fact, she just plum wore us out. I'm contemplating some kind of crash-fitness program to get me into shape. Even watching her today was tiring. I kept wanted to open her up and see what kind of nuclear reactor was generating all that energy. Many China adopting families say this last leg of the trip is a turning point, and that was certainly true for us today. We're looking forward to leaving on Tuesday (which, by quirk of time-zones, will be a 37-hour day for us as we circumnavigate the globe for 20 hours) and arriving in Birmingham on Wednesday morning.

Tomorrow we're gonna catch David Platt's message from last Sunday on the iPod. He's in the middle of a teaching series on prayer, and what a great sense of joy to be in the middle of many answered ones today.