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.

Grandpa or New Dad?

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." This little tidbit from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians sums up what I believe family to be. True family contains that love. 

Family has many different faces. There's the so-called traditional family made up of parents and children (Or as all Chinese students learning English recite, "Mother, Father, Grandmother, Grandfather, and Me"). Then there are the close friends with whom we have intertwined our joy and brokenness, rejoiced in triumph and cried in failure. Next we have the people we meet and had that instant, unforgettable connection, where our stories collided and we in turn received a new chapter to our personal story. Every one of us has our own unique families, made up of members from a multitude of encounters and situations.

If people are keys,
Then family's the box
And each of the keys
Adds more to the box,
So long as it's meant to be.
-Abigail Rose Lindner

The part of my family that shares the same last name consists of my mom and dad, my older brother, followed by me, my two teenage sisters, and soon-to-be-a-Lindner little brother. But it doesn't stop there. We have had the pleasure of having foster children come through our home. Friends stay for extended lengths at a time. Seeing the love and laughter that comes through all of this has given me first hand proof that both of those actions can truly break through any barrier. Our family was formed in special ways, to say the least. And although there has been hurt and heartbreak followed by such love, the light has always outshone the darkness. I find such joy in watching the different ways my family grows.

What a blessing it is having the Creator of the World, creating our family. He told us to love, so I myself, along with my family, will love at all cost. It is undeniably the most important thing we can do.

Quick explanation for the title. I snapped a picture of my dad using the computer with his glasses on the tip of his nose, literally the farthest point physically possible for the glasses to stay on his nose. Made me giggle and appreciate my parents. My 49-year-old Pops (and 39-year-old Mama...for the 9th year in a row) has a 26-year-old son and now a three and a half year old son. That takes a lot of guts, a lot of love, and a lot of obedience to our Heavenly Father.

~ Jenna

Finally got approval to travel to complete this little guy's adoption!

Picture mentioned above

Matthew James (soon to be the newest member of the Lindner family)

Matthew \m(a)-tthew\: (pron.) gift of God [Matthaios Greek]




Two notable events occurred for the Lindner family on November 11, 2010: Emma turned eleven and Matthew became a part of our family as we began to foster him. At the time, we believed the arrangement was only temporary, that this relationship would be setting Matthew up to become the official member of another family. Our assumptions were that we were only fostering him. Yet, here we find ourselves near the end of a long process to adopt our wonderful little guy.

Needless to say, Matthew has come a long, long, long way since that first glorious day. Seeing as he first came into our family on November 11, this probably would have been a more appropriate post at that time but, hey, everybody makes mistakes. :)

Quick Facts
Favorite form of transportation: subway
Favorite snack: peanuts and cheese sticks 
Favorite food: noodles
Least favorite food: vegetables (surprise, surprise)
Favorite drink: chocolate milk
Favorite word: Why?
Favorite phrase: (enter name), what're you doin' here?
Favorite TV show: Super Why!
Favorite pastime: washing dishes (seriously)


As of a couple weeks ago, Matthew was introduced to the Christmas classic, Frosty the Snowman. I'm not sure if the story interests him so much as the song that it inspired. Here's Matthew's version of the song:

Frosty the snowman was a jopsy happy coal

With a corn-cup pipe and a button nose

And two eyes make of coal

And, yeah, that's pretty much it. He doesn't sing the whole song.

At Metro (supermarket nearby, similar to Costco), Christmas music has been playing. The other day, the Frosty song began to play. Matthew stood up in our carriage and, at the top of his little lungs, began belting out the words. While he was singing a small crowd formed around our carriage. Unfazed, Matthew continued to sing. Everyone was smiling, laughing, and a couple people even clapped. One Chinese lady approached us and, in broken English, inquired as to whether he would also be performing the next song.
This is just another way he makes us laugh everyday.

I don't believe we've mentioned Matthew's preschool before, so now seems an appropriate time to do so. He has been attending a nearby center since September. Nearby as in, get outside, walk for about two minutes within our courtyard, turn left, turn left again, and boom, you're there. From ten to twelve each Tuesday and Thursday, Matthew attends a little place called the Lighthouse Center. With a semester gone by, his academic progress is super. His teacher made a point last week to mention his wonderful progress. According to her report, he now actually participates in class, listens to the teacher, and understands more.



The Matthew-Zachary relationship has been rocky.



In the beginning, jealousy kept Matthew from sharing his parents with Zachary, like he was afraid Zach would take them. Now, Matthew acts like his big brother. He cares for Zach, getting him toys, attempting to feed him, and all. They get along like brothers, and they fight like brothers. Mostly over toys. Overall, Matthew truly loves Zachary.

Thanksgiving 2013

This past Thanksgiving was our fourth consecutive year in which we've celebrated Thanksgiving in China. We never imagined that we would be here long enough to do that. My teacher, her husband, and son came to our home to join in the festivities. Accompanying them was another lady, her son, and her mother, who went to my teacher's church. Presently she is struggling through a divorce; it has been really hard on her and her family. This was also Zachary's 1st Thanksgiving and he loved the food.

The tree was brought out and decorated the day before we celebrated Thanksgiving (which was Saturday instead of Thursday), so that was there. We've improved the star on the top of the tree from being surrounded by gold-and-red tinsel stars to being wrapped up in gold-and-red ribbon, and abandoned any attempts to include my plastic blue drums (which got crushed). Going for a look classier than last year's, the ornaments are composed primarily of red bulbs and silver bulbs. And there's a Red Sox baseball tucked in there somewhere, in the spirit of sports and all.

As he seriously doesn't do well with strangers waltzing around our humble abode, Brodie was transferred downstairs to have a haircut and a good wash at the pet shop right outside our south gate.

The guests came at around 4 pm, and the turkey completed its roasting about 5 pm. The fowl was done at a later time than expected (Cheryl started cooking it at 10:30 am and thought it would be done at 3:30 pm), so dinner was postponed by about 1 1/2 hours, but hey, good things come to those who wait! In the end, the turkey was delicious.

The funny thing was, our guest were supposed to come around 2 pm... around 3, they still weren't here. I sent a text to my teacher to ensure everything was okay. Sometimes, in translation, things get mixed up. Here we were cooking all this food, and then my teacher texts me back, "We are eating lunch and we will be there at 4."

Um, what...?

So I text her back, "Lunch? You do know we make a lot of food for Thanksgiving."

"Really?" she replied.

On Thursday, I filled her in on all the food we would be having, and she was excited about it. But, here she was having lunch before coming here or Thanksgiving dinner?

Having said all this, the dinner went great and everyone ate plenty. This was their first Thanksgiving dinner.

(A quick history note: During the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the Indians, turkey is not known to have really been consumed. A colonist mentions having caught wild fowl, but not necessarily turkey. We don't really know. It's possible, but we couldn't know for absolute certain. For more information, this article written on Thanksgiving Day, 2013, provides a few more facts.)

Matthew, being a people-person, especially enjoyed the company of two boys around his age to play with and other adults to gain the attention of. In the nature of boys, they were loud, but they didn't make a huge mess or go off the walls, so it was a-okay. He doesn't play with kids his age too often (he mostly plays with his older sisters), so he really enjoyed the opportunity. So did we. :D

It was a true blessing to our family being  able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our Chinese friends.

Our turkey just fit

The finished product

My teacher

Things That Happen On Our Walks

Hello, blog readers!

 So, yesterday Baba, Matthew, Zachary, and I went to buy peanut oil (we had to go all over the place because no one near us had any, which is weird as they use it often in Chinese cooking). After about thirty-maybe-more minutes, we found it in a big crowded market. Small bottle for 35 yuan.

BUT that's not important.

 While wandering back to our apartment complex, we encountered a group of boys who were enjoying themselves with a game of ping pong. Baba used to play ping pong quite often back at Shaanxi Normal (which he attended before he went to his present Chinese school) and occasionally now. Baba asked one of the boys (English name: Jason) if he could play. [As in, he pointed at the table and asked, "Wo ke yi ma? 我可以吗? Can I?"]

He asked me to take some pictures whilst he was playing, which I did.
I also took an almost-three minute video. :) Because it was easier to just move the iPod around rather than repeatedly take pictures. There was too much movement for proper pictures. The photos would have been blurred.

 At Baba's suggestion, we are now posting the video.  :D See, here it is! Enjoy.

~Abby


 

Children of China

Living in China, we have had many opportunities to work with orphans.  It started, as many know, a little over three months after we arrived; God put Matthew into our lives. Matthew means 'Gift from God'.

Matthew was born with HIV and was quite little in size when he came to us. When we first heard about him he was in an isolation room with little to no care. Due to lack of education about HIV, people were afraid to care for him. Now, three years later, he is a healthy, happy, handsome little boy. We are looking forward to completing his adoption and getting him back to the US, where he will be seen by a specialist and we can know exactly where he stands medically.

We started the adoption process for Matthew a couple of years ago; presently, we are in the final stages. We never thought we would be starting over at our age, but we are so glad we were open to Matthew. He is an amazing little man!  To us he is our son, but it will be a relief when it's official!

Cheryl and Jenna volunteer each week at a group foster home here in the city. This home cares for and nurtures children with special needs.

We have also had the opportunity to bridge foster a wonderful little girl for almost 4 months, preparing her for her forever family. She was divinely matched with a family from our home church. We got to meet her forever family when they came to China. Today, we are still able to keep in touch with them. It is a privilege to see one of these little ones on the other side of adoption. She is in a very special family, and their kindness toward us has truly touched our hearts. This is how great our God is: We were praying for a Christian family to adopt this little girl, and they were praying the foster family taking care of her was also a Christian family. God is so GREAT!



As for an update on our other foster boy, Zachary. He has been with us since June and is doing wonderfully. We are not miracle workers at all. Our works have been simple: we have loved him, hugged him, and fed him. He now weighs twenty pounds (ten or so kilograms) and eats like crazy. There are few types of food he does not like. Italian has been his favorite food thus far. Zachary still has a long road ahead of him, as he has a number of health issues and the poor little guy is fighting. It is truly amazing how far he has come in just the 4 short months he has been in our home. Zachary means 'The Lord Remembers'. The world forgot him but the Lord remembered him, and took him out of a horrible situation. He is a very special little boy and we hope he will have a forever family of his own one day soon. Until then, we are happy to love him!

He is scheduled to start his HIV medication next week which should help him a lot. We have been waiting for him to be in good enough shape to start his course of treatment with anti-retrovirals.

In September, we had the pleasure of having the leader of Matthew's orphanage come to our home. Such an occurrence is most unusual -- to have the leader of a Chinese orphanage visit your home. He brought Matthew to us three years ago and had not seen him in person since. Although Matthew doesn't understand all of this, we were glad to have a picture of the two of them. We send them monthly updates and we have had a good relationship with this orphanage.

We have been so blessed that God has put us in China at this point in time and has brought  into our lives these precious children. We are so thankful to all of our family and friends; without them, all of this would not be possible.

Thank you for your prayers and support,

Rick