Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Given an incredible gift.

I thought I would share with you an incredible gift that Dave and I received on Sunday. We have been debating whether or not to take the boys to China with us.
The Pros are: 1) trip of a lifetime,
2) they get to be there for their sister on Gotcha-Day,
3) very educational,
4) still with Mommy & Daddy (i.e., Mommy wouldn't worry about them)
5) get to practice their Chinese
6) I'm sure they would have alot of fun in China and with the people of China

The Cons are: 1) the vaccine debate (do them, or risk it)
2) the cost of the extra 2 round trip fares to China
3) the length of the flights, and how to keep just-turned-6 year olds entertained
4) Alex's fussy eating habits. What would he eat in China?
5) not being able to do all of the sight-seeing that Dave and I would like to do. (For example, getting a picture taken at the Great Wall of China, is different then actually getting to climb the Great Wall of China!)
6) keeping track of them, while at the same time, taking care of Jade-Rose's needs.
7) trip of a lifetime, but will they remember it? (The only thing that I remember of age 6 is getting in trouble on the playground because I was mean to Marta Munoff)

Initially, we were not going to bring them. Then, every time I thought I about that I would cry. God forbid, anything would happen to them while we were gone, I wouldn't be able to get to them because I would be on another continent! I guess I am too much of a mother lion to risk my cub's protection.

So, then we said, OK! Let's bring them! I felt better emotionally about this, and we tried to focus on the Pros List, but you can see our Cons list is a bit longer and stronger, and I wasn't feeling better with my rational mind.

I have been praying about what to do. There are very few people in my life that I would trust with the boys. Not necessarily because I am too over-protective, but they are TWIN BOYS, and that IS a factor. They are good boys and loving boys, but they are BOYS multiplied exponentially. There is a bit of "handling" of them. We don't have any family in Florida to watch them. Most of our friends have jobs and their own families, so I would never want to impose on them. So, you can see how we were feeling a bit stuck.

Just a couple of days ago, I literally said to God, "OK God, I am leaving it up to you. I will wait to see what you want us to do with this question. If you want someone to watch the boys, you will have to show them to me."

This past Sunday, we went to the Peace in the Park festival and there were many booths along with music. One of the booths was of the Magnolia School. The boys went there for a few months this year, and their teacher Miss Pam was there. She is also the boys Sunday school teacher at our church. We were all standing around and talking, and I was asked how the adoption was going, and then Pam volunteered out-of-the-blue, "If you need someone to take care of the boys I would be happy to do it." You could have knocked me over with a feather!

Pam is one of the few people that I would trust with the boys. She already knows them very well. She knows how they behave and what they are capable of. Her kids are grown, and she is very, very responsible. Especially because we also know Pam through church, I felt this was a gift from God. If we just offer up our problems to Him, he comes up with a better plan then we ever could. Gotta love that! Now that we are getting closer to the time of travel, this is a wonderful gift and a great worry off of our minds.Thank you Miss Pam (and God)!


2 comments:

  1. I understand your concern with taking two 6 year old boys with you. When we traveled to get our 2 year old son we did carry our 3.5 year old daughter. So glad we did, it made my son's transition so much easier. She is now 6.5 and does remember small details and hopes to return to China for vacation again. Just plan, pray, and go for it. We took backpacks for each kiddo & had new items in them to entertain on the airplane. We did eat at a couple of McDonalds in China and always got happy meals to introduce a new toy along the way. I'm sure you can pull it off if you can financially afford the tickets, passports, and extra effort.

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  2. Hey there, Saw this post and your listserv post. We did not take our (then) 5 yr old to Kazakhstan and part of me wishes we had. But Kaz. is another land and a difficult one at that. For our most recent adoption trip to China, we took both kids ages 6 yr and 10 yr and glad we did. It is not a hard trip as far as adoption travel goes. One of our kids like McDs and doesn't stray to far when it comes to food. The other will try anything at all. We just had talks before we left saying he had to experience new things and try things and he did! The kids did great and were a help, I think, to our newly adopted 4 yr old. You can go back to the archives on my blog and read posts in end of March and April or you can look up the tag "travel" for our experiences. Any ques., just ask!
    Heather

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