Spirit of Adoption - Jodie Nixon

In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. - Ephesians 1:5-6

A common comment we receive when discussing Caleb's adoption goes something like, "This is a wonderful thing you are doing for him. His life will be so much better now." I understand and appreciate these types of comments and agree that it is good to adopt and that chances are he may have more opportunity in his life. However, a more detailed explanation of why Carrie and I have adopted must be communicated. Our motivation to adopt was not to do a good thing or provide someone opportunity. Plain and simple this is an act of obedience on our part. We were directed by God (separately I might add) to adopt. This is not our idea, it is His idea. His plan, not ours. The obvious question one can ask is how do you know God directed you to do this? Many people adopt who do not believe in God. This is a valid point. One of a few responses I have is that from the moment Carrie and I agreed we were to adopt, I have witnessed an organized, well designed plan that led us to Caleb. What I'm trying to communicate is that from the moment we said yes, we had very little input. We reviewed one adoption file, it was Caleb's. The 18 month process took 7. The financial requirements were provided without worry. This was an incredible lesson of resting in the will of God. This is my testimony. You can say that all of this can be accomplished without a God. And that is your right, given by Him. But what will you say on the day that Caleb stands and confesses Jesus Christ as His Savior and He tastes the waters of baptism? On that day we will know for sure, when we see Ephesians 1:5-6 come to fruition in Caleb's life. On that day, the evidence will speak for itself.

Here, In China - Our Journey Begins For Real

So today is Thanksgiving Day.  Our day is done, and my favorite boys are asleep in the bed next to me as I sit here and try to process the Wonder of our God.  Honestly, I really think that is an exercise in futility, as once again, He proves that his ways are so much higher, and His love is so much deeper and wider than we can begin to comprehend.  But, even so, who am I not to take a moment and revel is all His goodness, especially on this day of Thanksgiving.

Today was a very emotional day for me.  Not because we made any huge strides with Caleb, or because we did anything super special here in China.  And while I am positive that the fact that today is Thanksgiving and 2/5ths of my whole world is on the other side of it has played a huge part in the emotional rollercoaster that has been today, I think the majority of my emotional state is due to the fact that God continues to shower His beautiful love on me, and I am, once again, humbled by the fact that I am so undeserving.

Ever since we got Caleb (I will give you the details - give me a minute!), I have been singing the old hymn, "To God be the glory, great things He hath done..."  How wonderful a way to put into words what has taken place in the Nixon family over the last year!  Great things HE hath done for sure!  Jodie and I have shared with a few people that once we said "Yes" to adopting, God took the reigns and we have had little control since.  It has been so amazing to be part of this journey, and we are so very grateful that God chose us to parent Caleb here on earth.  It is so evident to us, and I pray to all of you and one day Caleb, that God has huge plans for this sweet boy.  And it is so humbling to know that we get to watch it all unfold before our eyes.

I have been putting this post off for several reasons.  One, I simply haven't had time.  I haven't wanted to waste even one second that I have had with Caleb.  Every moment I have while he is awake is a moment I can use to bond with him and love on him and attempt to make up for the 3 years with him that are lost forever.  And every night when he falls asleep, I have been right behind him!  Secondly, I know that I will never be able to get how I feel about the events of this week on "paper" in a way that truly captures the enormity of it all, so I am having trouble even starting.  Honestly, there just aren't enough words, even if I took all the words in all the languages across the world and put them together.  There simply aren't enough.  But I guess I will try.

So I guess I left off on Sunday night.  So Monday.  Monday, November 23, 2015 - a day we will NEVER forget.  We woke up early, but had until 12:30 to just hang and prepare for Gotcha Day.  We went up for breakfast with the rest of our group.  We were all so filled with anxiety and nervous energy.  Some of us couldn't even eat.  But we stayed up in the cafe for quite a while, getting to know each other a little better, sharing stories of how we got here and about our children, ultimately just trying to make time fly.  After breakfast, we came back to our hotel room to gather all the Gotcha Day necessities.  That was so hard.  I packed a bag for Caleb, then I repacked it 3 more times, hoping that it would be filled with perfection for him.  There was no way to know if he would have toys to bring with him, if we would be able to keep the clothing he came dressed in, if they would require a clothing donation should we be allowed to keep the clothing he came dressed in.  All we knew was that he, and the 4 other children from his orphanage being adopted that day, had a 7 hour drive to get to us.  We didn't know if they had come in the night before and were already somewhere in the city waiting to meet us, or if they had left Shantou City early that morning and were still en route to us.  All we knew was that we had to be in the hotel lobby at 12:30.  Finally, at 12:00 we decided to go on down.  We just knew that pacing the floor of our room wasn't going to do anything but help us lose our minds.  To our surprise, the other 3 families were already down there too.  It was kind of humorous actually.  We were all so ready.

Before heading to the Civil Affairs building to meet our children, we had to go to the bank to exchange our final adoption fee, which we had all brought to China in the form of perfectly crisp, new $100 bills, into Chinese Yuan.  Boy, what that an experience!!!!!  I don't look forward to doing that again!!  We were in the bank for over an hour!  At one point, we were sitting there at the window.  The teller, who sat behind a wall of glass, had all our money and our passports on his side of the glass.  It was rather unsettling and a little nerve racking.  But, all went well and we accomplished what we had come to do.  Next stop, Civil Affairs.

We got to Civil Affairs a little later than was planned.  Our guide, Helen, wasn't sure if the children had arrived yet or not, so we just made our way up to the adoption floor to wait.  We walked through the door, and there he was.  I lost it.  It was him, in flesh and blood, right there in the same room as us.  I melted completely.  At that point, though, we weren't allowed to talk to him.  He was actually on his way to the potty with one of the nannies, and Helen had a few pieces of paperwork for us to look over before we could get started.  So while we looked over that, we got our cameras ready to capture him heading back to the room.  Here is our first picture of our boy (he's the little boy in the blue shirt holding one of the nanny's hands.):

At this point, I was a complete hot mess.  All the work we had done.  All the questions we had answered.  All interviews and applications.  All the hoops through which we had jumped.  All the dotted "I"s and crossed "T"s.  All the STUFF.  It had all lead up to this.  It was finally time to meet our sweet boy in person.  But I was a wreck!  What if he was too scared to know that this was all done out of love for him?  What if he didn't want to come to us?  What if...?  What if....?  What if...?  But there was not time for "What if...?".  It was time! Then.... ?  This.....

Our boy RAN to us.  And he hasn't looked back yet.  And we are blown away!

I can remember being pregnant with Georgia, scared to death that I didn't have enough love to give her considering breadth of the love I had for Samantha.  Of course, I did.  I do.  One would think I would've learned my lesson with that.  But, even so, this is different.  I know that I felt love for this sweet boy from the moment I saw his picture.  But throughout this process, there has been this underlying fear that I didn't have enough true Momma Love for him.  There was this fear that, since I didn't birth him, even though I wanted to love him as if I did, that I wouldn't.  But, man, I am so very much in love with this kid.  I love him 100%.  I love him as though he has been mine since day 1.  I love him as though God had knitted him together in MY womb.  I. LOVE. MY. SON.  And I am so incredibly Thankful.

More pics to come soon.  Please keep the prayers coming.  Pray for endurance.  So far this has been an absolute joy.  We have had NO issues.  He's eating well, he's sleeping well, and he seems to really like us.  And while I am loving this bonding time with him, I am missing my big babies something fierce.  We have been able to FaceTime with them every day, but it's just not the same.  I want to wrap my arms around them.  I want to introduce them to their brother.  I want to get on with life as a family of 5.  I want ... to go home.  But, we are only 1/2 way there.  We have just shy of another week here in country.  So please pray for renewed endurance.

Thank you all for your support.  Love you!

Here, In China - Saturday and Sunday

Saturday was our last day of touring Beijing.  The plan for the day was to visit the Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace.

First stop, Tiananmen Square.

Right there with Tiananmen Square, was the Forbidden City.  This place was HUGE!  We moved very fast through our tour due to the weather, so I missed most of the commentary about this place.  But, it was built for the Emperor, to glorify the Emperor.  I would love to go back on a better day weather-wise and be able to take it all in.  But, here are some pics:

For the Emperor, to glorify the Emperor.  So sad to think this was all build for just 1 man.

Every building had very detailed and beautifully painted rooflines.

The picture is very dark, so it's hard to see how detailed and ornate the ceilings are.

As you can probably tell from the photos, weather was not on our side.  We woke up to below freezing temperatures and freezing rain.  By the time we were done with our tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we were all so cold and wet that we didn't want to continue with anymore out door sightseeing trips.  So we had lunch and headed for an indoor tour of a silk factory. Unfortunately, the actual factory was outside the city, so we didn't get to see the actual making of the silk for which China is so famous, but we did get a lesson on the life cycle of a silk worm and how they take the cocoon of a silkworm, unwind it to get one very long strand of silk, combine it with several other strands to make silk thread, then weave it into silk cloth.  It was pretty neat, and, of course (as was becoming a pattern) we were given the opportunity to buy.  :)

After the silk factory, we headed back to the hotel to get a head start on the repacking process.  Then dinner at the Peking Duck restaurant, then back for the night.

Right before we left the US, we received a new video of Caleb from our agency.  America World has a missions department as well, and there had been a missions team (most of them from Georgia) at Caleb's umbrella orphanage for the week prior to our arrival.  It was so awesome to get this video and only made us more eager to get to him.  Well, come to find out, this team was flying back home on Sunday, but had an over-night layover in Beijing Saturday night, so they were staying at our same hotel.  So after dinner, we were able to meet the team, along with 2 other families from our group also adopting from that orphanage.  What a blessing!  We were given new pics, new videos, and heard all kinds of new tales concerning our kiddos.  Then the team prayed over us, our children, and our families.  It was such a sweet time of community with our sisters in Christ and was such a wonderful gift from God.

Sunday came, and it was time to fly to Caleb's province.  We woke up to chilly temps, but so far so good.  We got to the airport, checked luggage, paid for weight overages, got our boarding passes, said good-bye to our guide, Eve, then boarded our plane.  By now it was snowing pretty good, but things were moving forward, so we stayed hopeful.  We ended up needing deicing before we could take off, but take off we did!  

Snow piling up on the window of our plane.  

The deicing machine getting our plane ready to take off!

More deicing going on.

Thank the Good Lord!!!  We heard later that a crazy number of flights were cancelled that day.  We were so very thankful to get off the ground and get to Guangdong!  We arrived at the airport and were greeted by Helen - the most phenomenal guide in China!  She has been doing adoptive family guide services for more than 30 years.  She has it down to a science and knows what we need to do, when to do it, and exactly how it has to be done.  Add to all of that the fact that she is an absolute mess!  She has us in stitches constantly.  I already wish we could pack her up and bring her home with us!  Helen took us to our hotel, went over a few specifics, then took us to lunch at a Noodle shop downtime street.  Oh!  My! Word!!!!!  These noodles!  They were soo good!!!  Plus, it was so cheap!  Jodie and I could've shared because it was so much food, but even without sharing, we ate lunch for less than $7!  Yes, I do see more of this in my future!  We will, after all be here for 10 days!!!

The best noodles I have ever had - evah!

After lunch, we headed back to our room to unpack, settle in, and rest.  Tomorrow was going to be a very big day!

Here, In China - Thursday and Friday

I know I promised I would update the blog while we were gone, but, honestly, I just haven't had a chance until now.  Once we landed in Beijing, our guides kept us moving in an effort to help our bodies adjust to the time difference.  It was good though, because it also helped keep our minds off of what was coming.  For me, it really did help me settle in and breathe while we waited.

So here is the play by play.....

Tuesday night (Crazy to think that was a week ago), we said our "See ya laters" to the girls as we tucked them into bed.  Talk about TORTURE!  That was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do.  Everyone was so sad that we had to be separated for 2 weeks.  Sam took it a little harder than did Georgia, but even she finally gave in to her drooping eye lids and fell asleep.  We had a few more things to do before we could leave, so we got busy.  Then it happened - I got a text from the airline letting me know that our flight out of RDU the next morning was going to be delayed by an hour.  Houston, we have a problem!  I appreciated the early notice, but that was no good!  Our layover in Detroit was only 37 minutes, so we were going to miss our international flight.  But, Delta made good on it and moved us to the 6AM flight out of RDU.  But now it's 12:30, and we have to leave the house by 3, so why even bother going to sleep?  So we didn't.  But, all was well.  It was just God showing up, to take a risky situation and make it golden.  Our flight left on time, landed in Detroit on time, and gave us a 4.5 hour layover instead of a 37 minute one.  So, we, and our luggage, made it to the international flight just fine.  We landed in Beijing around 2:30 in the afternoon, but had to wait for a few more flights to land, which would deliver a few more members of our travel group.  Then we made what turned out to be only about a 4 mile drive to our hotel, only it took an hour and a half I think.  So, we didn't get to our hotel room until around 10 that night!  Talk about a long day!  I think we had been awake for close to 48 hours by then.  So, needless to say, we slept just fine that first night.

Friday, we visited the Great Wall.  It was covered in snow, and was absolutely amazing!

After the Great Wall, we had lunch, served family style.  Our guides ordered for us, and it was pretty good.  I was pleasantly surprised!  In the same building as the restaurant, was a Jade Market.  So we took a tour, learned about Jade, got to see some workers carving the jade into artwork, then had a chance to shop!   :)

From there, we went to the National Park, also known as The Bird's Nest.  This is were the Olympics were held a few years back.  It was pretty neat to see.

Water Cube, where the swimming trails were held.

Olympic Flame

After that, we were all very tired, but it was still too early to go to dinner, so we visited a Chinese Tea house called Dr. Tea.  There, they lest us taste 5 different kinds of tea, and explained the benefits of each.  Then, of course, we were given the opportunity to shop!

By now, we were all just toast.  So we finished off the day with dinner together, and then it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

You've All Asked, Sooooo.....

So other than, "Do you have your dates yet?", the question we get asked the most... "Will you change his name?"  The answer is yes.  We will change his name.  We have known his name for some time now, but have been keeping it a secret for a while - not sure why.  Maybe it's because things happen to disrupt adoptions all the time.  They just do.  So maybe we were keeping his name to ourselves in an effort to protect ourselves in the end, should the unthinkable happen.  I don't know.  But......

Tomorrow, while we sleep, our paperwork will make one last journey.  The contacts that our agency has on the ground in China will pick up a document called Article 5 from the US Consulate in Guangdong and forward it to the child welfare agency in Beijing.  The Article 5 is the US government's final approval of the adoption - showing that we have jumped through all the hoops, dotted all the i's, crossed all the t's, have all our ducks in a row, and that they are all quacking in unison.  Once the powers that be in Beijing receive our Article 5, they will issue our Travel Approval (TA), which is basically our official invitation to come get our boy!  We are sooo close!  Based on the processing trends of the last couple of weeks, I expect to get our TA early next week, and we hope to travel November 18th.  We were hoping for the 11th, but it's looking like the 18th is more likely.  

All of that to keep you caught up, but also to say that we think it's safe to say this thing IS HAPPENING.  So, without further ado.......

We will name our son Caleb Lewis Nixon.

Caleb, because it is our prayer for him that he will live his life with confidence in God's ability to overcome all obstacles on his behalf.  Also, that he would always have the courage to stand on what God has said regardless of the opposition.

Lewis is Jodie's dad's middle name.  This was chosen to honor God's redemption of Bill, and Jodie's relationship with him, and also looking forward to Caleb's own salvation and redemption.

We are super excited about all that God has planned for us and for Caleb.  This journey has been and continues to be one of faith, humility, and blessing.  We are honored to have been chosen as the family for such a remarkable boy, and we know without a doubt that he was hand picked for us.

So what are we doing while we wait?  (Besides biting fingernails, checking emails 1000 times per day, counting the days, hours, minutes....)

Happy Birthday to Caleb!!!!!

Last weekend our boy celebrated his 3rd birthday, so, of course, we did too!!!

Though we missed a few folks, it was so great to celebrate Caleb's birthday, and his becoming a Nixon, with the rest of our family.  What a blessing it is to have the support that we have.  It has been awesome to have watched the love for a child we haven't met develop in the hearts of everyone we hold dear to our hearts.  We are incredibly grateful.  So, Happy Birthday, Son!  We love you!!!

We did send him a package, but have no confirmation that he has received it yet.  In the package, we sent a Build-A-Bear doggy, a blanket, a Wolfpack hat, some art supplies, and some blocks.  We also sent a photo album with pictures of our family and his new house.

That's all for now.  Please keep praying with us over this journey.  Thank you for all your love and support.  It has meant the world to us.

Settlin in for Our Final Wait

Ha!  Yeah right!  There is nothing settling about this wait!  This is the wait that every adoptive family is waiting for!!!  The final wait - the one that ends with the official invitation from China to come get your child!  We are here!  I have finished all of my homework - nothing left to do but pack!  And while that is the greatest feeling of all, it's also so hard to know that all that stands between us and our son are a few more people shuffling a few papers around from one place to the next, and there is nothing we can do to speed it up.  But, there's plenty to do here, so I will be able to stay focused and busy on this side of the earth while I wait.

On a happy note, we got an update on him today.  Updates mean new pics!  Yay!  He seems so happy and healthy.  It did this momma's heart good to see them.  The updated file also says that he is doing great and it looks like he has grown a bit since December.  And now, we can get this kiddo clothed!!!!

I am overwhelmed with joy, excitement, and wonder!  But I am also finding myself in states of panic and anxiety.  Y'all, this is going to be SOOO HARD!!!  But, like Jodie keeps telling me, it's like a bandaid - it's best to just rip it off and keep moving on.

My words are few today, but only because my thoughts are everywhere!  They float from him, to the girls, to work, to my home, back to the girls, back to him, to that list of things in my head that has to get done, to that shopping list of things we have to purchase for our trip.  It's a lot!

Again, I thank you for your support.  And, again, I beg for your prayers as we prepare to go.  This wait will be the hardest.  This wait carries the most weight of all the waits.  This wait.....  Please continue to join us in prayer over all that is heading our way.

Love you all!


I'll leave you with a new pic of our little nugget:

China said YES!!!!

New News!
So last Wednesday, around 1:45pm I received a phone call letting us know that China had approved our request to adopt our little guy!  What an awesome day that was!!!  After I was done running laps through my church (I was still at work), and once I was able to compose myself, I called Jodie and gave him the news.  From there, I went to the girls' school to celebrate with them.  Sam took one look at me and knew why I was there.  She is such a tender heart.  She ran over to me, wrapped her arms around me and we just stood there, in the middle of her classroom - with children all around us, and cried happy tears together.  I will never forget that moment.  Typing about it brings me to my knees.  So I left there and went to find Georgia.  Her reaction was different, but just as awesome.  She wanted to run laps around the school like her momma!  They are both so very excited about their brother coming home.  We couldn't be more thrilled about how this journey has come together!

What's Next?
I knew when Jodie told me that he would have a meeting in SC last Wednesday that that would be the day we'd get the call, because the driving force of how long the rest of this story takes is totally dependent on how quickly you get the signed approval into the hands of US Immigrations for further approval.  Because he was out of town Wednesday, we couldn't send it off until Thursday, so they should've received it on Friday.  We only lost a day, so no big deal!  So, based on that, the number crunchers on all the China Adoption support pages tell us that our preparations for travel should look something like this:

USCIS (Immigration) dropbox -                                           09/18
approval in 2 weeks -                                                            10/02
GUZ (number assign to his immigration case) in a week -  10/9
National Visa Center Letter cabled to US Embassy             10/13 or 10/14
Article 5 (final approval from US) drop off                         10/15
Article 5 pick up                                                                   10/29
TA (Travel Approval issued by China)                                11/5 - 11/9
Little Man placed in our arms FOREVER                           11/23 or 11/30 depending on TA

We are SOOOOOOO CLOSE!!!!!  Assuming our Forever Family Day is 11/30, we would leave the US on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and would fly home, our son in tow, around December 9th.  So, even if it takes a week or 2 longer than the estimate above, WE WILL BE A PARTY OF 5 BY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!  I AM OVER THE MOON!  BOUNCING AROUND ON CLOUD 9!!

Introducing.......
Since we have received the approval from China to adopt this specific child, we are able to FINALLY share his picture with all of you. So get ready - Little Man OVERLOAD coming your way!

With tears on my keyboard, it is my most wonderful pleasure to introduce to you......

Li Yi Xiong - soon to be     ?            ?      Nixon.  Haha!  That part remains a secret.  LOL.
But here you go.  Feast your eyes on this handsome young man!

Can you stand it?  I sure can't!  Haha!!!!  I CANNOT WAIT to get my arms around him!

How you can pray

There are so many ways you can be praying us through this final leg of our journey.  Our understanding is that Yi Xiong has been with the same foster family since he was a newborn.  He will be 3 on October 24th, so we are getting ready to rock his little world.  My heart breaks for him already, and for the family who has cared for and loved him for the past 3 years. This is going to be so hard for him.  He won't understand that he was never going to be their forever child.  He won't understand that he will be ours.  He won't understand that this is what is best for him in the long run.  We will be robbing him of everything he has ever known.  And he will grieve.  Deeply.  Did I say DEEPLY?  So that right now is our biggest prayer need - that God will be working in his little heart, preparing him for what is ahead, and funneling peace directly from Himself right into Yi Xiong's sweet little self.

Another way to pray is for our final stretch towards our financial need.  Currently we are about $3500 away from our need, so again, we are very close!  Every time I think about how God has provided financially throughout this process, and am amazed all over again, and I have no worries about that final little bit.  We are so thankful to everyone who has come alongside of us supporting us financially.  Your contributions have been truly amazing!

Finally, you can pray over our travel.  Prayers for safety, health and strength while we are gone.  Prayers for mercy and grace as we help Yi Xiong transition to life as a Nixon.  Prayers for my parents and friends has they care for Samantha and Georgia.  Prayers for grace and mercy on behalf of their teachers while we are gone.  Prayers for Samantha and Georgia themselves.  This will be difficult for them, but I am hoping to have enough planned that they stay busy and distracted.

Thank you!

There aren't enough words in the English language to express our thankfulness to everyone who has supported this journey.  Your prayers, gifts, inquiries about where things stand...  They mean the world to us.  To know that we are not alone on this walk is very comforting.  So thank you.

Now, KEEP PRAYING!  He's almost home!!!