Both Lily and Phoebe were very happy. We have been talking about kids/babies who don't have mommies and daddies for weeks now so the concept of adoption wasn't foreign to them. We had also been watching videos of young children and babies from the adoption agency with them. We had explained that each video we watched was of a child who lived at an orphanage and was waiting for a mommy and daddy to adopt them. Lily has asked several times over the last few years if we could adopt and last weeks she asked again, saying, "I've always wanted to adopt."
So, after all the kids were up from their naps, we all sat down in the family room to talk. Phil told the kids that we have been praying for a while about God growing our family. And that we wanted to let them know that we think God is leading us to adopt a boy or girl from another country.
The girls were so sweet. Phoebe wants a boy and Lily wants a girl or both. So, whenever anyone talks about the brother or sister, Lily adds, "or both". HAHAHA! (I agree, Lily.)
We told the kids that they could ask us any questions they think of and tried to help them understand that the child we get will be their brother or sister (or both). It's similar to when Mommy has a baby in my tummy - this child will be a brother or sister just like that.
Some how the girls already knew the child would be from China. We asked them how old they think the child will be and Lily said 2 and Phoebe said 3 or 8 and then Lily said maybe 6. And if she's 6 then they'll be twins. HA!
They asked good questions about how the child will speak our language and why we have to wait so long and if the child can get used to our food. At bed tonight, the girls talked all about the room situation. Lily said that if we get two, then the boy can stay with Phoebe and the girl can stay with her or the boy could stay with Titus or Lily and Phoebe could share Phoebe's room or her room and on and on and on - it was so cute!
The other thing we talked about after sharing the fun news was that our family would be making some sacrifices to help pay for the adoption. We told them it was going to cost more money that what our family has and that we have to trust God to provide. We also are going to do a fun thing for our family to feel motivated to make sacrifices (we're motivated, but to help us be encouraged...) and that is when we introduced the poster.
While the kids were sleeping I made a pie chart for our family. Each time we want to do something (like go out to eat or get coffee or buy a little extra) we are going to stop and think, "would we rather put this money towards getting our child/ren home?" and if we say yes, we can take one slices off the chart and fill in the number that the "something" would have cost. Then Mommy will take that money out of our bank account and put it into our "special" savings account for the adoption.
Tonight, Lily asked if buying two children would be more expensive than just one and asked how we could get that much money. First, I clarified that we aren't buying children. We have to pay a lawyer to help us file all the legal documents so we can officially bring our child/ren home. And yes, two children are more expensive to bring home but that we could trust God to take care of the money. She said she has $8! :D Bless her heart!
After we told the kids about the adoption and answered all their questions, we read books. I had stopped at the library while they were napping to pick up a small stack of books about China adoption. We read, I LOVE YOU LIKE CRAZY CAKES, EVERY YEAR ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, THE RED BLANKET, FINDING JOY, and RED AS A DRAGON.
Lily soaked it all up. Phoebe and Titus loved the babies. (Actually, Titus has been extremely enthusiastic about the babies. A few times he's cried this week - teething and tired - and he motions for baby and points at my computer. Then he'll quietly snuggle with his doggie on my lap and watch video after video of kids at the orphanage. As soon as one ends he'll whine for another one. Today he fell off the bottom step and bumped his head on the floor. I gave him his doggie but he still cried but as soon as I sat down at my desk and popped on a video, he was happy again.)
I wondered how much Lily and Phoebe understood so we asked them some questions. One of them was about what color hair they thought their sister or brother would have. Lily said Daddy's color or maybe blond. Phoebe said dark. It will be interesting when they figure out that all Chinese people have dark hair and eyes. Lily said he or she would have brown skin and Phoebe said yellow. :) It will be fun to find out "what we're having"!
After we finished reading books, Lily ran upstairs to start making party decorations (that girl loves to party and wanted to make tons of things to celebrate this special day)! She only had time to make a baby out of construction paper before it was time to leave for dinner. Phil and I decided we were going to go to a Chinese restaurant as a family.
It was funny watching all the kids try the foods. Lily really enjoyed the egg drop soup that Phil ordered. She rapidly ordered Beef Chop Suey because that is her favorite (although I informed her right before her meal came that it would be very different than Mommy's version). She was very disappointed... poor girl. She liked the vegetables towards the end of the meal, but she was not thrilled that the beef and gravy weren't like Mommy's version. Phoebe had said all along that she wanted "a drink and rice and that's it!" but I convinced her to get chicken and broccoli. She ate more than I expected but also wasn't thrilled with it. I told the girls that our child would be very familiar with these foods and we needed to at least try them and not act like they are gross because our child would think these things are good and our food is gross. All of us will have to make an effort. Later in the meal, Lily asked if our child could just try and get used to our foods. :)
Then we ordered sugar donuts!!! I ate them like they were going out of style when I was pregnant with Lily. Oh man! They are like oil and sugar. I could only eat one - at best. (Which is fine since I am really trying to lose weight - now even more than before dinner!) The rest of the family was able to polish off the entire plate of TEN! Titus was covered in sugar from head to toe. The waitress got such a kick out of him.
Lily really blessed the waitress... asking her how to say certain things in Chinese and then trying to repeat it... HYSTERICAL! Phil was a good Daddy and tried along with Lily. I knew I couldn't say anything so I kept my mouth closed. Phoebe tried to say the Chinese words, too. And then there's Titus who barely speaks English and pops his head around and clear as day says goodbye in Chinese. Everyone laughed REALLY loud! We took the kids picture with the waitress and then she ran and got her iphone and we took their picture again. HAHAHA!
The waitress explained that the restaurant had the word Dragon in the title because in China, dragon implies the top or the best. Lily wanted to know how they got the paper stuffed into the cookies. That, the waitress didn't know. Lily said I could look it up in my cookbook (um.... what?). I told her we could look it up on the internet. Phoebe told her she liked her earrings and Lily said she liked her long hair and the waitress said she liked the kids' hair color and Chinese people only get black hair. She said she looks forward to see us next time. (After the mess we left under the table, I wonder if she'll be so quick to say that next time!)
Lily was sweet when she prayed before bed... it was something along the lines of: Dear Jesus, please provide the money to get two... or one if it's what you want. And if your will is that we have two... or one... then we'll be happy with two... or one. Amen.
One of the stories had a dog named Lily!
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