International Delight: Days away

The countdown has begun! We were granted Travel Approval on July 28^th and packing has already commenced. Judes room has become packing central!

I can’t believe I can actually type this now, but we will be traveling in just a matter of days to bring our sweet boy home! There are so many emotions that come with this final step. We are excited, nervous, anxious, and of course scared. While I am a strong proponent for adoption, I also know its not all daisies and butterflies either. Adoption is hard, always. It’s a life long Hard. Our first son still has hurts we push through and he always will. Jude will certainly be no different. As we prepare to embark on this long awaited travel, I am certainly aware of the costs it is taking on the many hearts involved. From our perspective we are gaining a long anticipated and truly loved son. Someone we have adored from afar for too long. But for everyone else, it has a much different feel. His birthparents most likely think of him often, their choice, their options. I dare to speculate that they walk by his place of abandonment often, thinking of all of the "what ifs". As a parent, I can only imagine how much grief they endure daily. They will never know what happened to him, who is kissing his cheeks, who is holding him at night, who is walking with him as he traverses life. Then there is his foster family. He has been living with them and gaining insight into how a family works. I am sure his foster parents and siblings will have a lot of heartache watching him leave to never return. China does not allow us to have any communication with the foster family, we don’t even get to meet them and thank them for their kindness and selflessness in taking him in and loving him until a family of his own was found. We are very fortunate in that we found the family adopting his foster brother. They live in North Carolina and we plan to keep the boys in communication as they grow, but no longer will they share the same room, the same toys, the same life. And least I forget, our sweet Jude. We were told that he has been told about us, we sent pictures over to him several months ago, and hopefully he is getting used to our faces. But, no matter how much they show him or talk to him about what is about to happen, which I doubt is a lot by the way, he wont be prepared. How could he be? How could any of us if put into his position? His entire life, everything he knows, sights, smells, faces, places, bed, foods, language, everything will be changing. He is going to grieve, not only the loss of familiar caregivers who were the closest thing to a mother he has ever known, but he is loosing everything he is familiar with in life. I have been praying for his little heart. That somehow Jesus helps to calm the fears and provide peace through this transition and for the remainder of his life with the tough questions we will likely not have all the answers too.

Like I said, adoption is hard, and even despite all the ups and downs Jay and I have gone through to get to this little boy, our struggle, heartache, disappointment, and loss are nothing compared to everyone else’s in Jude’s story. As we close in on our departure, please pray for all the people and hearts involved.

In other news, “nesting” is really hitting the Reichert household hard. We have completely re-modeled our home (before and after pics below)

, obtained a state of the art security system, have thrown out lots of unneeded/space occupying items, and have begun to clean and organize like its no bodies business.