Here is a quick update.  We took the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou China. We met Brooklyn's foster sister's  parents yesterday and traveled with them. They are a very sweet and are excited to welcome their first child. A fun little detail about the mom is she is half Japanese too.  When we first met I thought she looked partially Asian. Sure enough we discussed families and she mentioned her parents visiting Japan often....so of course I asked if she was Japanese. 

We currently are in Nanning, Guangxi Province in China.  It is here where we will meet our daughter for the first time. We were a little disappointed to find out that we won't leave the hotel until 3:00 this afternoon. It currently is 8:40. So for those in California it'll be after midnight before we receive her. Hopefully we will have been able to post pictures by the time you are up tomorrow morning.  We have been having a little trouble accessing the blog. We have to use a vpn to log into the blog and the vpn isn't always working. 

Thanks for your continued prayers. 3:00 can't come fast enough! 

Sorry it has taken a little longer to get our first travel post up, but the combination of a flight guffaw and jet lag have prevented us from posting any sooner.

So here is what we've been up to:  After a very nice flight from LAX to Shanghai, we had a 4 hour layover until leaving for Hong Kong.  As we approached our gate for boarding we were notified that our flight had been cancelled, and for no good reason.  Our guess is that there weren't enough passengers booked to make it a profitable flight so it was cheaper to cancel and send us to a hotel.  Getting re-booked on another flight, getting a hotel, and transportation, was very sketchy as hotel personnel didn't speak English, and didn't seem to care much about our predicament.

Waiting to board for our flight out of LA

We took a nap in the Shanghai airport

Luckily we met 2 sweet young ladies who were in the same predicament, and they befriended us, translated for us, and were super helpful.  Meet Candace and Fish! (Yes, Fish!  Often times Chinese will use simpler pronuciations of their names for the sake of their American friends.)  We spent a lot of time with these 2 on days 1 & 2 of our journey, and we were sad to part ways with them once we landed in Hong Kong.  Both girls are from Hong Kong and were in the U.S. going to college. Candace is studying at Cal Poly Pomona. Fish came to attend Pensacola Christian College for a couple of years and then transferred to Liberty University another Christian college in Virginia.  It was neat to not only have her help but to know we have more in common than just being stuck in Shanghai.....we have a love for Jesus Christ.  God is so awesome to have connected us like He did!  Candace and Fish were clearly God's grace to us in a potentially difficult circumstance.  Thank you ladies!

So we had been up for 26 hours, with some napping, by the time we got to the hotel around midnight.  And because we were booked on the 7am flight out the next morning, we had to wake up around 4am to catch the shuttle back the next morning, brutal!  To our frustration, we found that when we got to the airport that no one was at the check-im counters, because the first flight wasn't leaving until 8am.  So we could've slept another hour, but instead found ourselves loitering for an hour at the Shanghai airport because of bad info from our flaky airline. We are using the same route in reverse on our way home, with the same airline.  Needless to say, we are slightly nervous about this.

But on Friday morning, we made it to Hong Kong!  Hong Kong is a beautiful, clean city, but man is it hot and humid this time of year.  In order not to miss too much of our touring plans, we hit the ground running on Friday.  We braved the train, ferry, tram, and bus transit systems, and successfully navigated our way to Hong Kong island and made our way to the top of Victoria Peak.  This peak offers breathtaking views of Hong Kong:

On Saturday, we went to Disneyland in Hong Kong.  There are some striking similarities to the Disneyland in Anaheim, and some pretty cool distinguishing features, and about 1/3 smaller than Disneyland - Anaheim.  Again, the heat and humidity was pretty taxing, and we only lasted 7 hours there.  That is saying a lot, as we can go 4 days easy in California.  We enjoyed getting back to the hotel and enjoying the pool.  Here are some pic from Disneyland:

Grace tuckered out after Disneyland

So tomorrow, Sunday, we will be up bright and early and catch a train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, and from Guangzhou we will hop on a short flight to Nanning in the Guangxi province.  It is in Nanning that we will meet our sweet Brooklyn for the first time.  Our "gotcha day" is Monday morning, which is Sunday evening in California.  Please pray for Brooklyn and that her grief would be helped by a trust in her new parents and family.

I'd like to end our posts with some of the humorous signs/clothing that we have come across.  For whatever reason, it is "cool" in Chinese culture to wear clothing with English phrases, even though they may have no idea what they actually mean.  Here are a few we ran into today:
      Hat that read:  Supply Monday - "What Might"
      Shirt that read: The Night Music for Desire - Good Tunes
      Shirt that simply stated:  "ACNE"
      Also ran into a Disney employee whose nametag read "Fatrick"

We thank all of you for your prayers.  We can't wait for Monday morning

Our New Journey to Brooklyn

     Well I believe it's been a couple of years since I blogged last.  It has been so long I forgot how to work this site and needed my daughter to set it up.  Man I am getting old!  I am thankful for teenagers who know technology better than I.  

     Moving on to the purpose of this post....we are going to China again!  We are adopting a beautiful baby girl who will be 2 in July.  We will meet our precious daughter, Brooklyn on Monday, June 29.  Here in the states it will be Sunday evening as China is 15 hours ahead.   We are beyond excited to bring her into our family.  This time the whole LaCroix family will make the journey to meet their newest sister.  As Doug and I discussed adoption again we both agreed that we just couldn't leave anyone of them behind.  It will be an adventure we will not soon forget, I am sure.  Although it may be a little chaotic at times, I hope that this will be a sweet time for our family as we travel across the world to add Brooklyn to our family.  

     Here are a few details of our adoption process this time.  We began applying to adopt at the beginning of October with the same agency we used when adopting Jack in 2011.  We loved our agency and knew we didn't want to use anyone else.  The paper chasing part of our journey was completed in January and was sent off January 30th and logged into China's system on February 2nd.  We were requesting a girl this time around.  It began to be apparent that we would possibly be waiting to be matched for over a year.  Our agency is so great and popular that they had many clients ahead of us in the process waiting to be matched with their child.  It was quite different than our wait with Jack....we were matched within the first month of submitting our application.  One day in March we received an email from our local home study agency asking if we would like to look at a file of a little girl named "Lilly" from the agency they partner with for international adoption.  We decided it wouldn't hurt to look at her file.  Well the rest is history and within a few days we were switching agencies so we could pursue adopting "Lilly".  Brooklyn was an infant when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was treated.  She is noted as having some developmental delays.  We have a few videos of her walking holding someones hand.  We are not sure if she is able to walk unassisted at this point.  We will soon find out.  The first day we saw her file was March 19.  The time has flown by so quickly and now we leave in less than 48 hours to meet our girl!

     I also want to share how faithful the Lord has been to us through these last few months.  On March 17 a friend specifically prayed that we would receive a match and would be able to travel in July.  I had shared with her that the timing of travel would be better for our schedule to travel during the summer months before school started in the fall.  Hannah will begin taking some courses at the community college this year and I didn't think the teachers would excuse a two week trip to China!  Even better we get to leave at the end of June.   Nothing is too hard for God!  About 11 days ago we found out that our agency had another family traveling at the same time.  Not only was this family going to be traveling with us, they are adopting Brooklyn's foster sister.  These girls have been together since infancy with the same family.  We were praying that we would receive travel approval in time so that we could travel with this family.  God said Yes!  I am so thankful we can travel with them.  It will be such a blessing to our baby girls to have one another as they ease into their new families.  This leads me into a few prayer requests:

1. Pray for the foster parents who have loved Brooklyn and her foster sister.  They will be losing both on the same day.  We are so thankful they have loved our daughter for her first 2 years of life.
2. Pray for God's grace on our large group as we travel.  We are starting with 7 people and coming back as 8.  It is a little intimidating.  
3. Pray we stay healthy
4. Pray our plane itineraries won't be disrupted and that our luggage makes it to us in China
5. Pray that Brooklyn's visa will be issued on Friday, July 10.  We are scheduled to fly out on the 11th.  We need the visa for her to travel.  The US consulate has had some computer issues lately and have had families stuck in China for extra days costing them more money and time away from home.  It looks like it's working out, but it could always get backed up again.
6. Most importantly please pray for Brooklyn.  She is leaving the only family she has known.  I can't imagine the grief and sadness she will experience.  I am so thankful she has been loved by this foster family but it may make her grieve tremendously.  Please pray that she will trust us quickly and will be comforted by us.  

     I hope to update the blog as often as I have energy to.  I'm sure Doug will take a few turns as well. Thank you for your love, support and most importantly your prayers!  We serve an amazing God and I am so thankful I can trust Him!

Here is one of the first pictures we saw of our beautiful girl

This is from November of 2014

Our little Jack-O-Lantern

 

Yesterday marked our 1 year anniversary of meeting our son Jack.  Today is the official adoption anniversary of Jack Zan Biao LaCroix. The year has flown by!  We love our little guy and am blessed to have him here.  He has grown up so much this last year.  He went from diapers and bottles to underwear and feeding himself.  It is amazing how the Lord is faithful to hear and answer prayers.  Jack has truly been grafted into our family and we LOVE him dearly!  Thank  you Father for showing us a glimpse of our adoption into your family!  I don't have a lot to say, but lots of pictures to share of our last year together.

Jack's first ice cream experience

First beach trip

First climb

First surgery

Happy after anesthesia

First birthday party

First Easter

First Egg Hunt

 



Bryce Canyon
 

First camping trip

First trip to buy a Christmas tree!

Boardwalk

 

Celebrating with our travel buddies!

So cute!

One year ago today......

It has been one year since we first laid eyes on Zan Biao. I remember receiving the call from CCAI around telling us we had been matched with an 11 month old boy with a malformed right ear and hearing loss. We didn't know how severe the loss was. I sent Doug all the info we received from our agency. It didn't take long for us to decide. By that evening we were passing  pictures of our new son.

Looking back we had no idea what our journey would look like.  However long, hard and trying it has been.....he is worth it all! He needed a family and God chose the LaCroix's to be Zan Biao's before the foundation of the world. We feel extremely blessed to raise him in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory! 

As I am posting this, Jack is in bed at our hotel.  We are on our first beach trip with Jack.  He is talking and singing in bed.  How I love to hear my sweet boy sing and talk, feeling so secure with our love.  We love you Jack!!!!

Life with Jack

I know it has been a very long time since I blogged last, sorry for those who have been disappointed. Life has been very busy as we got through the holidays, vacation and starting school back up.

Jack enjoyed his first Christmas. He quickly learned the art of opening up gifts, following his big sisters and brothers example, he enjoyed it very much. He learned how to fellowship with family all day and share his toys with his younger cousins. He got to go to Grandma and Grandad's house for the first time Christmas Eve and loved it!

We had our annual Tahoe snow trip in early January with the LaCroix family. We had only been home 3 weeks before packing up for a long drive to Tahoe. We were a little nervous how Jack would react to sitting in a car seat for so long. He had just been introduced to being restrained by a car seat a few weeks earlier, now we were strapping him for a five hour drive. Yikes! What were we thinking? Not only that, how would Jack sleep in another new environment? He was sleeping well at home now and we were going to whisk him to a new place. Again, what were we thinking??? Well, all our worries were needless. Jack did as well as could be expected for a 21month in a car, whether new to car seats or not. He also slept great! Dark closets in the corner of a house do very well. Having lived in an orphanage, Jack did not see much. His short life had been very confined. We were opening up so much to him, Christmas, a family and snow! Wouldn't you know it, there was no snow in Tahoe. For the first time in 10 years of going to Tahoe, there was no snow!! Maybe next year Jack will be able to have the joy of playing in the snow. He still was introduced to God's beautiful creation, Tahoe is really beautiful without the snow too.

The biggest change for our family is homeschooling with a toddler again. Not a toddler who has been here from the beginning. One who is still a little unsure and who doesn't prefer to ever be alone. Jack is spending a lot of one on one time with each of his siblings taking turns playing with him throughout the school day. This way I can help whoever needs help and Jack is happily (most the time) playing with a sibling. The other kids enjoy the time too. We are chugging along, still trying to iron out some of the wrinkles, but we will get there. 

We also were told that Jack was testing positive for Hep B and C.  This was a complete shock to us.  The B, we knew probably was a false positive because he had been vaccinated for Hep B.  The C however was the concern.  Well after a month of thinking he had the virus, we tested him again with a more conclusive test recommended by the specialist.  We found out last week he does NOT have Hep C!!  I cried tears of joy when I heard the great news.  I know the Lord would sustain us through this if he had the virus.  However, I am very thankful that he doesn't!!  Praise God!!

Over the last several months Jack is understanding most of what I say and he has picked up some new words. Maybe not always identifiable to the untrained ear, but this mama understands. These are the words Jack can say:

mama

more

please

tractor

water

bottle

got you

poo poo

potty

vacuum

yes

dada

Casey

sissy

attempts Hannah

Below are some pictures over the last couple of months.

Celebrating New Year's with the Tsudama clan

Sitting outside the skating arena

Ice skating in Tahoe in lieu of skiing

Jack making silly faces at our annual dinner at Cottonwood in Tahoe

Rip riding with his big sister

Happy Chinese New Year!

Cuddling up with Grandma and Gracie

Fun with the cousins at Casey's birthday party

Casey turns 8!

Settling in at home

We made it home!  We left Guangzhou at 10:15am on December 14 and arrived in Fresno at 11:00am on December 14.  Crazy, we arrived in Fresno before we left China.  It was a total of 17 hours of travel time, with 11 hours of that time being the non-stop from Hong Kong to San Francisco. We were extremely nervous how Jack would fly, especially with our last experience with him flying very fresh on our minds.  People were praying for us and it was evident that God was merciful toward us.  Jack handled the flight wonderfully!!  He started out with an hour and a half nap.  He was then up for about 7 hours or so.  Our seats were not all together on this flight.  Doug and I had the middle and window seat of our row of three, with Hannah and Aaron directly behind us.  A sweet American Chinese woman was on the aisle.  We had asked the flight attendants for help to get the four of us together.  We were told it was a full flight, and most likely no one would give up their aisle seat for a middle seat.  It turned out that there was a middle seat at the bulkhead with good legroom.  The flight attendent offered that seat to the lady.  She checked it out and said sure.  Therefore, we were able to have an extra seat for Jack.  This was a great blessing for our traveling.  Jack sat happily and played between Doug and I for all those hours.  He never fussed. We were even able to watch a movie while he sat and played.   A few other adoptive families were on the same flight having to walk their babies around the plane.  Jack was a little angel.  When he went to bed, he fussed a little more, but nothing to complain about.  Truly a blessing from the Lord. 

When we arrived to the Fresno airport we were greeted by our family and friends.  It was such a great reception, we had so many people celebrating our adoption of Jack. Casey and Grace were the first to greet us.  As we were making our way to the crowd I was getting teary.  Surprisingly, once we hugged the kids I was not emotional.   Our sweet boy was a full of tears.  He was so happy to see us.  Oh, how I love and missed him!!  Grace was just her bouncy little self, excited to be with us.  We got home around lunch time.  Our plan was to stay up until evening.  It was very hard.  We were sooooo tired.  Doug took a nap for a couple hours and I dozed for a little bit.  We wanted to stay up because we missed Casey and Grace so much, we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible.  Aaron sacked out early missing dinner.  Hannah stayed up til 8:30, yet her eyes were very heavy.  We all were in bed by this time.  Jack woke up around 11:30 and a few times after.  We fed him a bottle.  He fussed for a little bit, then stayed asleep until 9:00am.  For the jetlag, I think we all did pretty well.  We felt well rested the next morning. 

First thing on Thursday morning was getting a Dr.'s appt. for Jack.  He has been very congested and coughing and throwing up the week before.  We saw the Dr. and Jack had an ear, chest, and head infection. Poor baby!!  This is why I say the Lord was merciful!  Jack didn't fuss when flying with all of these infections!!  I can only attribute this to my gracious  and kind God and His people praying for us.  Needless to say we started him with strong antibiotics.  The improvements were evident that night.  Jack went to bed again around 8:30, woke up for a minute around 11:00.  We didn't even  need to go to his room. Morning came and needed to be woken up by Doug around 9:00am.  I hope this trend continues! 

We are so glad to be home.  We had a great time meeting new friends in our travel group.  A bond that will last a lifetime.  We feel truly blessed to have gone on this journey with all of them. 

The picture above captures what our last few days have been like.  Jack is soaking up the love and attention he is receiving from his brothers, sisters, mama, and daddy.  This son of ours is no longer an orphan, he was chosen and loved.  He is now a LaCroix with all the benefits of being a member of our family.  He didn't do anything to be chosen.  Just like I have done nothing to be chosen by my Lord and Savior.  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intentions of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:3-6.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8-9  This journey has been one worth traveling. Forever our lives will be changed with Jack.  Our greatest hope is that God would be glorified through this earthly adoption, knowing that our eternal adoption in Christ is far exceeding.  Secondly, our hope and prayer is that Jack will be chosen of God to be His child with an eternal inheritance. 

If I don't have the opportunity to blog before Christmas, may you all be blessed and celebrate the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ!

Elise and Jack with Dani and Eli on the Pearl River Cruise

Jack and Eli

The day before leaving

Our travel group

Jack looking at his favorite thing from the airport gate,  "cars"

Killing time on the moving walkways at the Guangzhou airport

Our happy flying boy

First night at home, playing w/ sister Gracie

Cheesing it up

Sweet brothers

Daddy changing his first stinky diaper :)