Home is Where the Heart Is

A Huge Welcome Home

Big Girl in Mama's Shoes

Laundry can be Fun

Spinning Easter Eggs

Eating Lunch with Dad

I may not be rich in material terms, but... I feel right in spirit, that's all that counts to me.
Amelia Rudolph

We have been home for over a week and things are going well. We have fabulous neighbors, friends and family that are making sure of it. It is amazing how much we have gained from the adoption process, and I am not just talking about a daughter. This has truly been a journey of faith and love. We have been given so much, probably more than we deserve. We have definitely not the same people that boarded a plane in January. We have seen how people live that have absolutely nothing, not even hope. Our troubles seem to pale in comparison.
Elainea looks so much different than when we first saw her. It is amazing, but she sounds different too. Her cries no longer ring with desperation and she laughs all the time. Her eyes are full of life and there is hardly any moments where the sadness comes back. The night terrors are calming down. She actually had one night where she only woke up crying only once. She still eats more than any one else in the family, and weighs three pounds less than her referral said she did after three weeks of continuous eating! Physically she looks more robust and is starting to get baby fat on her legs.
The biggest change we have noticed lately is in the sister relationship. Elainea initially saw Hannah as competition. This seems consistent with her history in an orphanage. She would watch Hannah and try to emulate her, but really did not interact with her. She would try to prevent Hannah from getting any food or attention that she was craving. This was heart-breaking for Hannah. Slowly her attitude is changing. She now likes to interact with Hannah and shows genuine affection for her.
The most amazing part of this is how much they are alike. Both of them are funny, outgoing, precocious, and delightful. They both have a special ability to make people happy. I would love to bottle each of their laughs and make it available for anyone having a bad day. No one could be sad when either one of them laugh.
This whole experience would make a great Mastercard commercial that would go something like this:
3 Roundtrip tickets to China - $3,000
4 day Beijing tour - $400
1 orphanage donation - $3200
Forever sisters – priceless.
I have to explain one of the pictures. Every year before Easter we break out the plastic Easter eggs and spin them on the tile floor. Do not even ask how we figured this out, but it is great fun. Hannah starts talking about getting them out the day after Christmas. We finally decided that it is time. Every one should try Easter egg spinning at least once in their lifetime!

We are finally home

A view of SLC skyline from the airport.

Elainea playing with toys.

Elainea doing a Brat Doll impersonation.

Trying to get Moms attention.

Playing with Daddy.

If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder.
Ray Bradbury

We finally arrived home last Saturday night. Since then life has been a blur. We wake up wondering what hotel and city we are at, followed by a short relief when we realize that we are home. We use the term “wake up” lightly as one child is on US time and the other is on China time. The parents have found a happy medium somewhere in the middle. Not that it does us any good with kids up 24 hrs a day.
The days are full of appointments and ‘catching up’ with all of the stuff we put on the backburner while we were in China. Most of all our days are full of laughter and fun as we get to know our newest member.
We went to the doctor to have all of the blood tests redone. They tried to draw blood from Elainea at the doctor’s office and gave up and sent us to the hospital. They successfully drew her blood so it was back to the doctor’s office to get her immunizations. Poor Elainea. She thinks we live out of hotels and spend the day on a bus, plane or in a doctor’s office!
We have some wonderful news. All of the American blood tests have come back and Elainea is healthy. She does not have any type of blood-borne disease. What a relief for our family.
Meanwhile, Elainea is blooming more and more everyday. When we first got her there was an air of sadness about her with intermittent spurts of tantrums or happiness, with an underlying layer of sadness. That is slowly going away. She smiles frequently and her eyes now smile. She is so funny and smart. She said her first American word yesterday “shoe”. (We are dismissing MaMa and DaDa because she came with those). She loves to take a bath and brush her teeth. She sits in her highchair at home, but forget it when you are out. She is so helpful. She will layout her diaper pad and diaper when she needs to be changed. She is a typical American girl because she fights to answer the phone. When it rings all the girls jump and race to the phone! Hannah knows better than to answer it, but she thinks it is fun to race Elainea to the phone.
When we arrived home we once again realized what wonderful neighbors we have. There were balloons on the mailbox and a huge sign on the garage welcoming us home. Some other dear neighbors brought us in a few groceries to get us by for a couple of days. This whole experience has changed all of us. We came back from China better people than when we left. No longer will we ever take for granted what we have in our lives. We have a reaffirmed belief in the goodness of people and are grateful for the wonderful friends and family we have.
Life is good for the Rockwell family and we again send out a heartfelt thanks to all of those people that helped us make this happen.

The Prayers Have Been Answered

A Street by the White Swan Hotel

Girls playing in the hotel room

Playing in thr Swan Room

Had to have a red couch photo

Hannah at the Pearl Market

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
Ursula K. LeGuin

Now that the crisis is over we should elaborate a little on the events of the past few days. We are all in LA and recovering from the flight. We ate a huge pizza and enjoying the fact that we do not have to boil the water before we brush our teeth!Now to fill you in… in a nutshell we found out the day before we had our consulate appointment and were to fly home that there is documentation that Elainea has Hepatitis C. We were at the conclusion of a celebration dinner with the other five families that have shared our journey, when our guide came to us and gave us Elainea’s immunization record and told us that it states that Elainea was not vaccinated for Hep B because she has contracted Hepatitis C. We walked back to the hotel crying as we knew this changed everything.We immediately set an appointment to get Elainea’s blood checked. We know that not everyone can understand our decision making process or perspective on this, but we needed to do what was best for our family and for Elainea. Having Hepatitis C would classify Elainea as a special needs child. We did not apply for a special needs child because we understand our own abilities and limitations. We still would have accepted her given some other type of issues, but this one we really needed to consider. This was one of the greatest challenges we faced as a family.During this process there was a silver lining. I can not begin to tell you how touched we are by all of the love and support. After we heard that she could have Hep C a friend told me that “It may be hard to see God’s hand in all of this, but keep in mind that God does not make mistakes, just people do.” Well I am telling you we did experience God in all of this. God planned the special group of families that would travel together and become friends. We saw God when our family group celebrated a Sunday devotional together to celebrate Him and the miracles that we just received in our adoption children. We saw God when we prayed with the Baptists when we received the news. We saw God when we received a sacramental blessing from three Priesthood holders in the LDS faith. We saw God when we received a flood of emails of support from our family, friends, agency, and soon-to-be friends. We saw God when he gave us support when we prayed for his grace to be with us. God was with us when we trusted his will and took our leap of faith with only preliminary results.
Finally we can say that even though there was the trial, eventually the grace of God allowed for the completion of our family.
We will post more about the return home tomorrow. For now please accept our sincere thanks for all of your love and support.
Sincerely,The Rockwells ~ Joe, Pam, Hannah and Elainea

A Leap of Faith

Whatever with the past has gone, the best is always yet to come. Lucy Larcom

We took a huge leap of faith today. We finished processing the paperwork and for better or worse she our offically our girl and will be coming home with us! We based our decision of the preliminary test results due to the fact that we are faced with the Chinese New Year and the whole country will shut down in a matter of hours, and the final results will not be available until after the shutdown. That puts us in China for another week if we did not request her visa this morning.
We are flying into LA tonight and will return to SLC on February 17th at 6:07 pm. We will talk to you again when we are in the States!
All Our Love,
The RockwellsJoe, Pam, Hannah and Elainea.

A Ray of Hope

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.Dale Carnegie

Based on the volume of email we are receiving we know that many people are awaiting to hear news on our situation. Although we are not out of the woods yet, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for Elainea.
The preliminary results are back and they are very favorable. We still are waiting for a DNA marker test which should be back in about twelve hours. When these results come back things are going to happen in rapid fire succession and so we may not be able to post the results for a while. If the results come back negative then we will be able to bring Elainea home with us. If they come back positive then we will need to spend several hours "undoing" paperwork before hopping on a plane home.
We just received word that Grandma made it home safely and that helps us feel better. Hannah misses her Grandma and can't wait to see her at the airport. Speaking of Hannah Joe and I have to say that we have an awesome kid. She has been so understanding of the circumstances and has been so brave about everything. She flairs up every once in a while, but for the most part she has handled this situation with a strength and courage that is not typical of a four-year-old.
As far as Joe and I are concerned we are doing as well as can be expected. Between crying a river of tears, fighting back nausea and praying on our sore knees we are working through this whole thing. In the mean time Elainea is blossoming. She has the funniest personality! When she smiles she does it with her whole face bringing happiness to those around her. Her laugh is totally contagious and she looks up to her big sister and tries to do everything that she does.
Elainea still eats her weight everyday, but there is small gaps between the perpetual snacking now. She is getting very picky about what she eats and so we are going to have to reel her in once we get home (hopefully).
We have packed our bags so we can hit the ground running tomorrow. We strategically packed Elainea's things on top so they can be gathered to go back with her if need be. We love her so much and can not picture our lives without her at this point. The Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs is asking us some very heavy questions such as: "Would you like to stay for another three weeks to get another referral", our resounding response is 'no'. If it comes to that we need to come home and regroup and continue on from there. We need to work through what will be an unconsolable loss of one of our daughters. We thank all of our family and friends and look forward to seeing you soon.

On pins and needles

Well another day has passed and we hopefully the next one will go by faster. Time is going by so slow for us and we await the results of Elainea's blood test. This experience has tested all of us in every way. It has tested our faith, character, relationship and patience. The thrill of visiting this place is gone and now we are just marking time until we find out which direction ours lives will take. We have struggled with the idea of keeping Elainea. We love her so much already, but we have to consider all of the ramifications of such a choice. This is the worst kind of torture a family can go through. I do not know how we will find the strength to give her back if it comes to that. We appreciate all of the emails of support we have received from everyone. They mean so much to us. With your thoughts and prayers and the strength of God we will make it through this tragedy. We will post again when we get the results.....

A bump in the road home

It looks like we will be staying Guangzhou for a couple of extra days. We ran into some unexpected health considerations with Elainea and we need to wait to get some lab tests back.
We ask that you all pray for us and her as the test results will determine if we bring her home or not.
We are being very well taken care of by our agency, guide and other families within our group. The outpouring of love and support has touched us so deeply and we will forever be grateful for the special care that the other families have given us.
They have all gone to the consulate appointment and we will remain at the hotel for two days until the results get back.
We will keep you all informed of any news that we may get.