Watch out America, Matthew is coming!

3 years and 8 months. That is how long we have lived here in China. I have seen many friends finish their college education in that time. Get married. Move across the States. Travel abroad, and then repatriate. I have also seen many friends come and go from the city of Xi'an.  A little under 4 years without leaving a foreign country is a long time. But boy oh boy has it been an adventure, to say the least.

3 years and 4 months ago Matty was brought into our lives. 3 years and 4 months later, our family has gone from 6 to 7 (I had to count out each of us on my fingers to figure that number out). And now with a U.S. Visa in his passport, we have the ok to head back to America!

Once his little feet are firmly planted on U.S. soil, America gains one more U.S. citizen. He's a great addition if you ask me but I may be partial.

Last week my parents and Matthew headed down to GuangZhou in southern China to obtain Matty's Visa from the United States Consulate. This originally scheduled 6 day trip was quickly turned into a 10 day trip. Abby, Emma, and I held down the fort and cared for Zachary during this time. As much as we all wanted to go, financially it wasn't in our best interest. What's a family without a few sacrifices, right?

Zachary learned to walk

while they were away!

This caused my coffee intake to increase significantly.

Both relief and exhaustion the night of my parent's return

The second day they were there (a Monday) they needed to complete a routine medical check to ensure that Matthew was healthy enough to travel to America. Due to some paperwork misunderstandings, Matthew's latest blood work results were deemed invalid and he needed to undergo a fairly extensive blood test. This unplanned test needed 3 days to process. Their appointment with the consulate was originally scheduled for the following morning. That obviously needed to be rescheduled (not always an easy task). The doctor also said that if this test came back with a certain result they would then proceed to do a more invasive test. The doctor was fairly confident we would have to do said invasive testing, but by the grace of God all tests came back as we had hoped, no extra testing needed. Appointment now scheduled for Monday, they had an extra weekend to kill before getting his Visa. Monday came, all documents and cleared medical report given to them and they agreed to expedite the process from a usual 3 days to just 24 hours. Tuesday afternoon they had Visa in hand and got on a plane that night to return home.

Now comes the fun part of packing our belongings in faith and trusting that we will be able to fly all 6 of us living here back to America. There is lots to be done and I am positive that we will all have at least one breakdown leading up to our departure...but that's expected. The thought of repatriating is both exciting and scary, bitter and sweet, spicy and sour (not sure how that applies but it sounds Chinese and I'm hungry).

I cannot wait to show my new brother the ocean. Abby can't wait to show him a library. Emma can't wait to take him to the craft store (I've been gone so long I don't even know if they have Joanne's or Michael's anymore). My mom can't wait to have a backyard or clean grass for him to run on. My dad can't wait to take him to his first sport's game. Derek can't wait to teach him how to chest bump, to be his lone big brother and to teach him all the big brother things (while growing up under 3 older sisters has its advantages, it'll be nice having his older brother).

See you soon, America.

Mom and Matthew at the goldfish pond

Matthew and his Visa

Dad and Matthew on the Pearl River Cruise

Matthew  using his charm on the local folk

Making friends on ShaMian Island, Guangzhou

Perfect pose

Pearl River Cruise

Matthew's Adoption is Complete!

Our 2 1/2 year process in the wonderful world of adoption is complete! Long KeYue has a forever family and is now Matthew James George Lindner [Matthew (Gift of God) James/George (Allosso/Lindner Grandfathers) Lindner]. We traveled to ChangSha, his birth city, to finalize the adoption. It has been an exciting and tiring week.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon after a short plane trip. Hunan province is southeast of Shaanxi province where we live. Our appointment with Civil Affairs wasn't until Tuesday morning, so, what do you do with a 3 year old, 2 fourteen year old daughters, and a 23 year old daughter until then? We hung out at the pool, found Metro (store with foreign food), went for a run on the treadmill in the health club (Jenna & me ~ because we don't run enough chasing Matthew, not), the girls did some homeschooling, and we crashed for the night pretty early.

First thing Tuesday we headed for the Civil Affairs office.  We filled out mounds of paperwork and signed each and every one, went through an interview with a government officer in charge of international adoptions, sat for our "official family photo", unloaded all of the cash that we were VERY nervous carrying around to pay for the notary & orphanage donation. We also met a nice family from France who were adopting a little girl.

Filling out paperwork

Interview

Matthew's hand print makes it official!

Notarized Certificate of Adoption

Walking home from Civil Affairs

Wednesday we did a little sightseeing. Since we have been living in China for so long, we are very comfortable getting around on our own and opted not to use a tour guide. The history museum (my pick) was closed for renovations so Tangerine Island it was! It is famous for the gigantic statue of Chairman Mao's head when he was a young lad.  He went to school and worked here and frequented the island in the hot summer. Anyway, the island was pretty, it is spring now in China and everything was starting to blossom. Nice for us because Xi'an is still quite cold.

Thursday was our visit to Matthew's orphanage (thankfully one that he was only in for 3 months because that's when we began fostering him). We were able to meet with the Director of the ChangSha Social Welfare Institution, the Director of the Medical Division, and visited the Butterfly Hospice (http://www.butterflych.org/). They are an amazing organization that provides palliative care for orphans. Check out their page to read about what they do. The director invited us to stay for lunch and they spoiled us with delicious food in the cafeteria! Emma especially enjoyed the double-boiled frog! (she was the only one in our family who did!)

Staff from the orphanage treated us to lunch. Two of which have been to our home in Xi'an on multiple occasions. The man in front of Rick is the man who brought Matthew to us 3 1/2 years ago.

The director of the Changsha SWI

We head home tomorrow (Friday) after we receive Matthew's passport. Hotel life isn't for us, we are very ready to head home!

So very, very grateful to be finished and that Matthew can now travel outside of the country!  We just love this little boy!

                                                                                                                    ~ Cheryl

They have had it with pictures for the day.