Catching Up on Recent Events, Part I: The Boston Marathon

OK, now that I've manged to give you the low down on our biggest news story, (which, if you missed it, you can read below or click here), let me turn to other recent events and fill you in.



So, by the way, I ran the Boston Marathon last Monday, April 18th.  I qualified for it last year running the Tallahassee Marathon in 3:49:59, barely squeaking in under the qualifying standard for my age group.  The Boston Marathon is held on Patriot's Day each year, and in Boston (and in the world of running) it is a BIG DEAL.  I have never felt like such a celebrity in all my life, honestly.  It was exhilirating.  Not to mention, it was a fabulous weekend for me to get away alone, to catch up with old friends, run unexpectedly into another old friend, and get to know some acquaintances a lot better. 

I flew up on Saturday, and spent the first night with friends Tim and Sarah Leary, and their cutie-patootie little man, Zeke.  We have been supporting Tim and Sarah for a number of years in their campus ministries to students both here and overseas--but had never really interacted on a personal level--and it was really cool to have some time in their home to get to know them better and hear about their lives just a little bit.  An added bonus was that Tim had run the Boston Marathon several times as a "bandit"(someone who did not qualify for the race but hopped into the back of the pack to run the 26.2 miles "for fun" anyway)!  So it was great to pick Tim's brain about the course, race strategies, pre-race fueling, and the best way to get to the start without having to rise at ungodly hours and stand in the cold for lengthy time periods.  It was also great on Sunday morning to worship with Tim and Sarah at Park Street Church on Palm Sunday. While taking in the beauty of this old church in the heart of Boston, it was exciting for me to spot in the choir one of my former economics professors from my graduate school days at Hopkins SAIS in DC~Judy Dean. We got to connect after the service, and it was great to catch up a bit.

Park Street Church, Boston

Beautiful old sanctuary

During the service, I spotted in the choir loft a woman who looked exactly like one of my former economics professors in graduate school at Hopkins SAIS, Judy Dean.  As she sang with the choir, I was more and more convinced that, either Judy has an identical twin sister, or she is now living and worshiping in Boston.  Tim, who had gone down to the microphone to offer the closing prayer for the service kindly invited her upstairs to meet "someone who thinks she knows you from Hopkins."  Lo and behold, it was indeed Judy Dean.  Judy is the faculty member that helped a fellow grad student and me to inaugurate a graduate student investigative Bible study in her home 20 years ago.  How exciting for me to see her, and to hear that the fellowship taht we started so many years ago is still going strong today!   

After saying farewell to Judy (and promising to connect on facebook, which we have since done!), I set out into Boston to take in some sights and make my way to the race expo to pick up my race packet and my bib.  It was a gorgeous, clear, warm day--perfect for walking and stretching my legs after traveling the previous day.  I walked through Boston Commons and was excited to see the very pond and swan boats written about in the children's classic Make Way for Ducklings.  I snapped a shot and quickly texted it to Tom to show the girls.

Some other fun sights from my meanderings before the expo:

The history of the Boston Commons, and Paul Revere's ride

Signs of the marathon were all over town...much excitement in the air, and athletes
everywhere sporting Boston Marathon jackets from previous years' races.

Finally, I made my way past the finish line on Boylston Street and on the the expo a few blocks farther.  How exciting to see the very spot I would finish my (hopefully) slightly less than 4 hours of running the next day! 

After perusing the expo with a fellow Niceville runner, Anne Gwinnup (the expo was CRAZY--so much running gear, running food, running drinks, running clothing, and official (and expensive!) Boston Marathon logo clothing), I headed back to the Leary's on the T (subway) for a little bit of down time.  Tim then took me to my Bed and Breakfast a few miles away in Cambridge where I would spend the next two night--pre-race and post-race.  Cute rowhouse, near the campus of Harvard, owned by a woman who is a former-lawyer-now-artist/equestrian.  My room was on the 3rd floor, which I knew would be painful the day after the race.

I should have taken more photos at the expo to capture the vast size and the pure madness of all the booths, all the athletes, and all the excitement.  THis is just the entrance where you pick up your race packet, official T-shirt, and Bib #.

After unloading all my expo gear, I headed back into Boston on the T to meet up with Anne at the race participants' pasta dinner at City Hall.  We loaded up on pasta, salad, bread, and brought home with us Greek yogurts and lots of drinks they made available to the athletes.  Back to the B&B with a full tummy, anxious to get my gear in order for the morning and get into bed a little bit early. 

And...stay tuned for the next post...the actual run!

Isabel Faith: The Back Story

Wow, so much can happen in just a few short weeks...there is much to fill everyone in on in our lives!  Although there are many places I could start, I know the main thing you all want to hear about is this sweet child:

Dang Huanya, age 4, Luoyang City Children's Welfare Institute, Henan Province.  Photo taken on 4/2/11.

 
Yes, that's our daughter...that's our newest mei mei.  Isabel Faith Cantilina.  She has already stolen each of our hearts, and mine is all a-flutter with the thrill of knowing that she will soon (but not soon enough) be in our family, in our lives, in our home forever.

Let's take another look:

She has a pocket full of cookies that you can see if you zoom in.  (I don't know why someone is parked on the playground)

Her Chinese name, Huanya 欢雅, means joyous and elegant, with the 雅 "ya" portion of her name being the same Chinese character used for the name of God, "Yahweh."  I thought that was way cool. 

I know our news may have taken some folks by surprise and may seem sudden, so let me back up and give you the details... 

I have been eager and ready to adopt again for about a year now, roughly a year after we brought Lilly home.  Tom, while not opposed to the idea of adding another child to our family, was not convinced that we were ready quite yet to pursue another adoption, given that we had big things ahead with Lilly and her first surgery.  (Wise man.  God has blessed me immensely in giving me Tom and his calm, analytical, and logical way of looking at life.  I would have myself in heaps of trouble without him!)

So, I made myself stop thinking about children waiting for families and stop looking at their precious photos online because I was only torturing myself.  Instead, for the next year, I enjoyed reading other folks' adoption blogs and rejoiced with each family I saw welcoming a new child into their lives, sometimes two children at a time.

Besides, there was plenty to think about and do in our everyday lives.  You all know that if you have been reading along lately...never a dull moment around here. 

But, believe it or not, the day of Lilly's big surgery in Phildadelphia, while Tom and I were in the waiting room for all those hours, with nothing to do but spend time together waiting, we got to talking.  And Tom is the one who brought it up.  And the gist of the conversation was that, as long as Lilly came through her surgery well, we would start "looking" at children.  Some caveats:  we DO want to eventually be empty-nesters, so we were not really wanting to bring home a baby, or even a toddler (unless God made it clear otherwise).  

Incredulously, as Tom went for a quick walk and potty break, what did I do?  I went over to the computers in the waiting room and started looking at the profiles of waiting children.  Yes, folks, I did.  I felt a little sheepish, since Lilly was concurrently "under the knife" so the speak.  I looked at sweet little faces online only for a few minutes before I realized that my heart was too tied up in waiting for Lilly to be thinking clearly and I went back to my sitting, reading, praying, and waiting for Dr. Campbell to finish up with Lilly.  And, as you well know, the following weeks were just a little crazy with caring for LIlly post-op, caring for my mom and her big pneumonia, and getting back into the swing of normal life.  But I had a little stirring of excitement in my heart knowing that there was a good possibility that we could someday be welcoming another child home.

So, about a month ago, at the end of March, as I was browsing through profiles of children on our adoption agency's (CCAI) website, I came across these photos and this description:



"Dang Huan Ya, female, born June 5, 2006, was discovered abandoned on December 9, 2009...

...Her little face grew rosier and her weight also increased. Her physique grew stronger. Currently, Huan Ya’s personality is cheerful, lively, and active. Every day, she is joyful. She can walk freely. She can speak fluently. She can say sentences of 3-5 words long. She is basically the same as a healthy child. When getting dressed, she chooses the clothing she likes. When she has new clothes, she will tell other people. When guests come to the house, she knows to move the seats to allow them to sit down. When they leave, she says good bye. She basically can take care of herself. She goes to the bathroom to defecate and urinate. She can take off and put on an article of clothing. She likes to watch television and listen to music. Moreover, she can follow the beat to wave her hands and feet to. She can go up and down the stairs on her own. When she sees a stranger, she can take the initiative to greet them. She is a very cute little lady."

I e-mailed her description and photo to Tom at work for him to take a look, and went about my day.  Later in the day, when we were on the phone discussing our usual afternoon logistical details ("how is your afternoon shaping up?  What time should I plan for dinner?  etc...) I hesitatantly asked "Did you get my e-mail?"  He chuckled and said "I wondered when you were going to bring that up."  Yes, he got the e-mail, and yes, he thought she looked like a perfectly wonderful little girl.  Yes, I should go ahead and request a look at her full file from CCAI.

So, before I embarked on my normal afternoon tasks--get kids from school, get kids to various activities, get dinner on the table, etc--I sent off a quick e-mail to Pam at CCAI requesting her file.  Pam said she'd add us to the list of families waiting to review it.  I figured we probably would not ever get a chance to see it because surely someone ahead of us would go ahead and submit paperwork to begin the process of adopting her. 

Less than a week later, however, Pam did e-mail her file, and Tom and I spent a few days reviewing it, discussing it, praying over it, asking followup questions about her.  There was much to ponder.

• She is just 10 weeks younger than Lilly, so she would be a virtual twin.  This could present some unique parenting challenges.
• She is quite a bit older than Lilly was when we brought her home.  And she was abandoned at a much older age--age 3.  This could also present some unique challenges and differences in her ability to bond quickly with us.
• While physically she is in good health, her "special need" is a diagnoses of "low intelligence" or "below average intelligence."  Her file shows her significantly delayed globally--gross motor, fine motor, verbal, emotional/social, intellectual. 

The first two issues didn't take long to think through.  The idea of these two sweet girls each having a sister nearly the same age, with the same heritage, growing up in the same forever family just fills me with joy.  Although I know the adjustment could be rocky, I suspect that Lilly will rise to the occasion and she and her sister will be good friends and playmates for one another. 

The third issue is, I suspect, the only reason Tom and I even had a chance to see her file.  I'm sure a diagnosis like this--and the unknowns it entails--makes many families hesitant.  (Again, I am blessed with a man with good sound knowledge and wisdom and i trust him completely).  Tom looked through her file, her developmental tests, her CT scan (brain looks normal), and watched her video, and he feels completely comfortable bringing her home.  We suspect that her delays are primarily environmental, rather than pathologic, in nature, and our hope is that a stable, warm, nurturing family environment--probably coupled with some early intervention education--will be just what she needs to catch up to age-appropriate developmental milestones. 

We talked to each of the kids separately about the prospect of having another sister, and they were each pretty excited.  Jared said "that would be cool!" and Anna said "Really?  Wow--ok!"  Lilly took a little longer to grasp what we were saying, but in the end she was fully on board declaring her excitement to share her toys, her room, and "give her cheerios" (she remembers Anna giving her cheerios when we first met herin China).  With regard to her possible intelligence issues, Anna put it best, when she asked about her special need, saying emphatically and matter-of-factly: "Oh, we can help her with that!!"

That is, indeed, our hope, and so we stepped out in faith and, on April 6th, we submitted our letter of intent to adopt Dang Huanya on  and we are stepping out in faith.  That being said, we have also had to decide that, even if Isabel is truly delayed and has no hope of ever truly catching up, we are ok with that too.  God will equip us with what we need for whatever circumstances we might face.

So, I am now in the throes of feverishly doing the paperwork as fast as humanly possible, all the while getting ready for our move this summer (more to come on that), getting ready for Lilly's next surgery (next month), and just doing normal life as my big kids' school year draws to an end in just over 3 weeks.

So, with many more things to tell you about in recent weeks (like, oh yeah, I ran the Boston Marathon (bib number 18883) last week!) I will sign off here for now, and leave you with this sweet video of Isabel, taken while they were administering a developmental test on her: