One Day at a Time

Thanks to everyone who continues to contact us through our adoption blog. Now that we're home and thoroughly jetlagged, we will probably update this every few days or so--maybe twice a week in total--as there is less news to share.

I want to ask you to be in prayer for Eden's bonding with mommy and daddy. We're in the days now where the rubber meets the road, and frankly, this is much more difficult than we imagined. I think Keri was wise in preparing for the worst in terms of grief, loss, language barriers and other factors, but you always think in the back of your mind, "Oh, that won't be us."

Well, Eden is a wonderful little girl and we love her dearly. She is sweet, kind, funny, focused and observant. She's so smart, and genuinely joyful at times. But two days ago she entered a new home in a new time zone (13 hours' difference), with a new diet, a new minivan (she'd never been in a car seat before yesterday!), and just two familiar faces in me and mommy. We're struggling to help her adjust to the time difference, and carefully balance the beginnings of behavior/tantrum control (don't throw your fork, sweetheart!) with an understanding that some of this is the only way she can express her frustration, grieve and begin to move on.

There is no book for this, no magic hotline to call, and though we have the best training and advice, I feel like an airline pilot landing a plane full of people for the first time--even with all the qualifications, it still makes you sweat.

Eden has good days and bad ones. We've seen some mighty tantrums in the last few days since getting home--probably among her worst. She'll lay on her back and just scream her little lungs out until she's near exhaustion. We'll hold out our hands to comfort her, but she'll push away until a certain point--sometimes 30-45 minutes--when she tires and begins to accept our love and affection again. What a picture of how God must feel with us at times--holding out His hands waiting on us while we scream about our wants and push Him away until we just give up... I never dreamed so many pictures of salvation would unfold in this whole experience.

I've posted just two pictures here--the very first one we took with Eden, and one that our friend Donna Houston snapped at the airport on our return home. They book-end an amazing experience, but they also are parentheses around Eden's beginning with us. As the days slip by and smells, tastes and sights of China fade for us and for her, I pray what is built up in its place is a strong bond of family in Christ between us.

May we kindly ask you to join us on our knees that the Holy Spirit will knit us together as family in the coming days?