Bringing Lucy Home – Lucy's Adoption Story

10/01/2015

We are HOME!!!

Sweet Home Alabama!! We are so excited to be home with Lucy!

We arrived by train in Hong Kong on Friday, September 25th. Hong Kong was amazing. We had all day Saturday to look around. We really enjoyed seeing the island, all the amazing architecture and mix of old and new. Our hotel was great and we couldn’t have asked for a better ending to our trip!

We even spent some time in Hong Kong Park. It was the place to be on a Saturday. Wedding photos, fashion photo shoots, fun photo opportunities for our family. A great open park in the middle of this large city.

We packed up at the hotel and headed to the airport Sunday morning at 930am Hong Kong time (830pm Saturday in Alabama). We were all ready to be back home and introducing Lucy to her new life in Alabama. I wish I could tell you the almost 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Dallas was as uneventful as our flight from Dallas to China, but it wasn’t.

About 8 hours into the flight my mom went to the bathroom. While waiting in line, I heard raised voices and turned to see my mom telling a man a few rows behind us “they are fighting”. Mom then got a flight attendant that didn’t know it was going on and next thing we knew a couple of people had been tasered. Not exactly what you want to happen at 35,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. I thought it was bad enough two people were so stupid they would get in a fight on a plane, but if I had only know what really happened at the time, I would have been much more concerned.

After the flight was over and we were in immigration with other families adopting we found out from a family sitting in the section behind us what really happened. A lady flying for the first time had a panic attack and was trying to open the door. Another male passenger ran up to stop her and she started hitting him, he was trying to control her when a different male passenger just saw a man striking a woman so he jumped in the defend the female passenger. Ended up with the female and one of the male passengers getting tasered and strapped into a seat until the flight attendants could sort out what had happened, then only the female passenger remained in restraints. Craziness at 35,000 feet. Thank the Lord that guy jumped in when he did. So sorry he got tasered for helping!

We made it through immigration in Dallas and when they stamped Lucy’s passport it officially made her an American citizen!!! We then caught our flight to Birmingham only to find some amazing family and friends waiting on us at the airport. Heith’s good friend, Rob Ingram, who is a professional photographer came and took photos of our arrival. THANK YOU SO MUCH ROB!!!

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We loved seeing friendly faces as we came down to the baggage claim area!

Today, Wednesday, is our first real day back on a schedule. Monday and Tuesday was a ton of day sleeping and waking up in the middle of the night. We actually made it out of the house today to run a few errands and Lucy was a champ! She is fitting right in with us. I know I mentioned this on Facebook, but not sure if I put it in a blog post. Lucy loves listening to music, specifically Ed Sheeran. We loaded her iPad with some music but she got on Heith’s phone and when she found Ed Sheeran she has not stopped listening to him. She only knows a few English words but tries her hardest to sing his song Photograph each time it comes on. It is so cute with her accent and only knowing some of the words.

Madison is also a big Ed Sheeran fan so I had recorded the broadcast of his show at Wembley. I played it for Lucy on Tuesday morning at 3am when we were all awake. I think we have watched it no less than 10 times since…. (we are actually watching it now)

We are doing good. Settling back in and getting on a schedule. Lucy’s first doctor’s appointment at Children’s Hospital International Adoption Clinic is on October 12th. Please pray that goes well as we will be there most of the day.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. We can’t wait for you all to meet Lucy!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 3:57 am Leave a Comment

09/25/2015

Having fun as a Family

We are all still doing great and loved Guangzhou! Sorry we haven’t been able to post in almost a week. We arrived in Hong Kong today and finally got reliable internet service. Our last hotel’s wifi would cut out mid-post and I finally decided I was wasting my time trying.

So I have a bit of catching up to do…..

Sunday we had time to shop with the group. It was what I would call express shopping. As a group of 10 families which consist of about 40 or so people went to four different places – The Jade Market, Pearl Market, Embroidery Shop and Chen Clan Academy. We arrived at the Chen Clan Academy first. These pictures will not do the building justice. It was amazing! The carvings in the concrete block and inside the building were awesome.

We were on tour for about 30 minutes and then we had 45 minutes to do some shopping there with local merchants. The place was amazing. Lucy and Madison really enjoyed seeing it.

We then went to the Jade and Pearl market, which was fun. It was fast shopping as we only got about an hour there as well.

On Monday we were supposed to go to the Guangzhou Zoo. It was raining (just like the day we went to the zoo in Chongqing) so we decided to pass on the zoo trip. By 5pm, the rain had stopped so we met our group in the lobby for a dinner cruise. That was fun and interesting. The entire cruise tour was in Chinese, so I hope Lucy picked up on a few things. The rest of us in our group that couldn’t speak any Chinese just enjoyed the food and the views. China’s big cities love the lights and they light up buildings, bridges and overpasses like I have never seen before. It makes the entire city glow. The more active the lights the better here.

Our guide told us to save electricity on 1/3 of the lights turn on each night but on holidays they run 100%. I can’t imagine what a beautiful sight that will be. I am hoping Hong Kong will do the same since one of the Chinese National Holidays start tomorrow.

On Tuesday, the entire group loaded back on the bus at 11am to head to Shamian Island. It is a unique place in Guangzhou. I don’t have any pictures from there – not sure why I didn’t take any. The small island in Gunagzhou has a historic British influence. All the buildings look like traditional colonial or British architecture. Nothing you would expect in China. Yet all the shops are selling traditional Chinese items. We spent the day there shopping for gifts.

Just a note – each morning our guide was taking 2-3 families to the consulate for their visa appointments. Our appointment was for Wednesday. We were nervous and asking each family as they came back how it went and what to expect.

So Wednesday was here and we had to meet our guide in the lobby to head to the consulate. While I knew we had all our paperwork in order, I was still nervous for some reason. What if something showed up in her medical we didn’t expect? (this did happen to one of the other families and they will be her for 6-8 more weeks) What if I didn’t complete a form correctly? What if… I had tons of these what ifs.

We arrived at the consulate and our guide had prepared us well. We received our medical documents from the International Medical Clinic and thank the Lord – Lucy’s was clear! We headed across the street to the consulate and there were hundreds of people in front of the consulate. Our guide had instructed us to just stay close to him and keep pushing through the people. It seemed odd forcing or way through the crowd of Chinese people – almost like we were cutting in line, but in reality we weren’t. We just had to get past all of them to get in the American Citizen line which only had about a dozen people in it ahead of us.

When we got in the consulate, we had to pull a ticket with a number. Pure American style! We waited until our number was called and watched as the State Department employee reviewed our paperwork. She only ask a few questions like to see our passports and if our address was correct. Then after what seemed like an hour but was only a few minutes, she said have a seat and we will call you back up here. What the heck did that mean??? You know me – I wanted to ask that exact question but I thought I better not get the State Department employee upset with us. Our group had five families at the consulate that morning. Each family went up to the window and was told the same thing over and over. Then finally, each of us were called back up and we were told that all our paperwork was in order, we had to get fingerprinted (again – this is now the fourth time) and we were told our guide could pick up Lucy’s passport on Thursday with her visa in it. YEA!!

We spent the rest of the day at the Guangzhou Safari place. It was really cool. Not Animal Kingdom, but who can compete with Disney! The kids had a great time seeing the animals and we got to see pandas up close.

Thursday was a free day so mom, dad and I went out shopping without Heith, Madison and Lucy. I wanted to get Lucy and Madison some gifts from China for future birthdays and Christmas. Heith said he and the kids had a great time at the pool! (what is it about kids and hotel pools??) That night we got Lucy’s passport with her US Visa so she could travel home with us along with the packet of paperwork we turn in when we enter the US which will automatically make her a US Citizen. YEA! We can’t wait for that moment at DFW!

Today has been a relaxing day as we traveled from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. I know it is odd to call a travel day relaxing, but it has been. We took a shuttle from out hotel to the train station and then boarded a train to Hong Kong. It was great riding the train. I highly recommend it to anyone going from Guangzhou to Hong Kong if you are overnighting in Hong Kong before flying back to the states. We rode in the First Class Premium car (which only cost $30 more than a regular ticket) and had tons of space and a table between us. We enjoyed the ride, the view and the experience of traveling on a train.

When we arrived in Hong Kong we took a cab to our hotel, the JW Marriott Hong Kong. IT IS AMAZING!!!! The views are spectacular and the hotel is super nice. And of course, Madison and Lucy love the pool already!

I have so many pictures, I can’t wait to upload them all to share. Here are a couple from the past few days. I promise it won’t be a week before I post again. Thank you all for sharing in our journey to bring Lucy home!!!! We will be home on Sunday!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 12:49 pm Leave a Comment

09/20/2015

We are in Guangzhou!

We have made it to Guangzhou!

We said our final goodbyes to Chongqing on Friday. There was part of me that was really sad about leaving. This is my daughter’s birthplace, where I met her for the first time and where she became permanently a member of our family. It was impossible to stay sad though. Lucy could not be more excited about leaving and getting on that plane!

While traveling by bus to the airport, Lucy asked our guide for our agenda (she is my daughter!) She wanted to know: “How many days in Guangzhou?” (in Chinese of course) then, How many days in Hong Kong?” then the question none of us expected but should have: “How many days in USA?” Michael explained to Lucy that she would be in Guangzhou for 7 days and then 3 days in Hong Kong. He then told her that she would be with us in the USA forever. I didn’t really know what was going on but when Michael said that she screamed so loud everyone in the bus stopped what they were doing for a minute!

We had the most amazing guide, Michael, in Chongqing. He was very detailed and we all felt very prepared for what was going to occur each day. We could never thank Michael enough for his guidance and compassion during this amazing journey to make Lucy a Comer and bring her home.

Madison was mad at me for making him stop for the photo. He was walking with his new friends, Eli & Matt, and didn’t want to stop for pictures. The things moms make you do.

We got to the airport early so waiting in the terminal was interesting. Madison, Eli & Matt each pulled out ipads and started playing Minecraft. They started building villages or something together. They were in a world of their own and didn’t move until we were boarding the plane.

Lucy on the other hand, was entertaining the group with her music and dancing until we got her into Madison’s beats. Now we don’t know how to get them back. She is loving the headphones!!! She loves music as well so she, Heith and Madison will get along great! We weren’t really worried about Lucy on the flight, but it was the first flight she was taking with us. She was a champ. Worked on her coloring book until dinner was served and then looked out the window at the city lights as we landed. She was ready to be in her next city and see what all it had to offer.

We arrived in the hotel around 1000pm. It had been a long day and everyone was tired. We are staying at The Garden Hotel in Guangzhou. It is beautiful. Great amenities and really comfortable. Every room is a suite. Can’t beat that! We are going to spend some time tomorrow taking pictures of the lobby area. It is that impressive.

Saturday we had to meet our new guide, Simon, in the lobby at 9am to head to the International Medical Clinic to do our medical tests for Lucy’s visa to enter the United States. I had no idea what to expect. We got there and it was …. well strange. We waited as Simon turned in some paperwork on each of our children and got us registered at the clinic. We had passport photos made for Lucy’s visa application, then an eye exam, a ENT exam, an overall physical and finally had blood drawn for her TB test. She handled it all like a champ. I felt sorry for so many other families at the clinic. Their children where much younger and didn’t understand what was going on so they stayed upset most of the time. The workers at the clinic were all business. They never smiled at us or interacted with us unless it was necessary. Just strange.

After we got back to the hotel , we at lunch and decided to take a stab at the pool. We were not able to use the pool at the hotel in Chongqing. It was only an indoor lap pool and they were pretty serious about it. We had no idea if Lucy had ever seen a pool, would want to swim or if she would like the water at all. We already knew she loved the swimsuit we got for her and hoped she would like swimming.

I can’t wait until I can upload videos. We have some fun ones of the pool, but we have to stick to photos for now. Lucy wasn’t sure about the pool at first. There was a toe, then a foot then sitting on the side until she finally got to the point she could go to Heith in the water. She loves it! She doesn’t know how to swim and the way she acted at the pool makes me believe she has never been to one, but she will be swimming like a fish by next summer.

We did a little shopping today to get some traditional items for Lucy and our family. I am excited about the week to come because it will be more “vacation like”. Our consulate appointment is on Wednesday so we have free time on Monday and Tuesday to see some really cool stuff in this area.

It is time to head out to dinner. I hope you all have a great day!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 10:13 am 1 Comment

09/17/2015

Just a Normal Family Day!

Finally, a normal family day. No major event or swing of emotion. Well, I say no major event – there is one, but I will get to that last. Today was a full on tourist style day, kinda. We were scheduled to go to the zoo and to see Chinese buildings and artwork unique to Chongqing. We were looking forward to seeing the pandas and Heith was really interested in the architectural tour.

Apparently it rains ALOT here in Chongqing. We have been really lucky since we arrived and there has been no rain. That changed this morning and it has continued to rain all day. Not the thunderstorm type of rain but continuous drizzle that picks up to more than I would call sprinkling and back to a drizzle.

I was hoping it would stop by the end of breakfast, but it didn’t. So we still went to the lobby at 930 am to see if our guide had a plan B. When we arrived in the lobby, he asked each of us where our umbrellas where. Like I said – it rains here a lot. In our closets at the hotel, they provide umbrellas. We went back to the room to get ours but thought that was only to get us to the bus and back. We were waiting for the plan B. And we were waiting….and waiting…. and waiting. Oh – there is no plan B. Here in Chongqing you don’t change your plans at all due to the rain. We went to the zoo and walked around to look at the pandas and tigers – in the rain. So I don’t have a photo of the pandas. They were much smarter than we were and stayed in their house because it was raining. The rain didn’t seem to bother the tigers.

We stayed at the zoo for about an hour and then left for our next destination. We were all pretty wet but it is an experience we won’t forget. Lucy was loving the animals we did see and she took tons of pictures of them all. Madison was getting a huge kick out of hanging out in the rain with his new friends, Eli & Matt.

After we loaded back on the bus, we took a drive that lasted about 30 minutes to a place with some traditional Chinese Architecture and a museum of Chongqing history. It was very interesting. We were able to purchase some unique artwork that is only available in Chongqing. We also enjoyed not being totally in the rain even though the tour was 50% outside.

We arrived back the hotel at 130pm all starving for lunch. I broke down and we decided McDonalds was our best option. Yes – McDonalds! Get this – they still use real salt and put a ton of it on the fries. They tasted SO good, like the original McDonald french fries they were famous for before the government decided to help us all make better choices eating. OK, I will get off my soap box.

We have had a lazy afternoon at the room and even made one more stop at the mall, again! Lucy has been using her camera bag as a purse. She is so girly. She loves having a bag to carry her stuff around so Mom and I went to the mall and found her a cute purse. She is all about it and I can’t wait to see what she decides to put in it.

So like I said, it was just a normal family day with a splash of rain with actually one major event.

Today is Heith and my 10 year anniversary. We would not want to be anywhere else in the world than where we are now. What an awesome anniversary week – we added a daughter to our family! I already said this on facebook, but it is worth saying again.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend, love of my life and the best father in the world. I love you, Heith Comer!

We fly out to Guangzhou tomorrow. We will be there until the 25th doing paperwork with the US Government so Lucy can fly to the US on a tourist visa but more important automatically become a US Citizen when she gets her paperwork stamped in Dallas Immigration. YEA! It may be a couple of days before we have anything blog worthy.

Thank you all for the support!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 10:05 am Leave a Comment

09/16/2015

Orphanage Visit Day

Sorry I didn’t post an update yesterday. When we finally got back to the hotel to eat dinner and get the kids to bed, we were way to tired to think.

When we arrived on Saturday, our guide gave us a schedule for the week. That schedule showed us going to the zoo and participating in an architectural tour on Wednesday. We found out on Tuesday that the scheduled had been changed and we would be visiting the orphanage on Wednesday instead. When we asked Michael about the change he told us the visits to the orphanage were dictated by their schedules and they wanted us on Wednesday not Thursday. The other two families’ children came from a different orphanage, so they were going on their visit in the morning and we were to meet Michael at 2pm to go on our visit.

We woke up Wednesday morning excited about the visit but also nervous. What would Lucy think about us going back? Would it upset her? Would she think we were going to leave her there? We had all sorts of expectations about the visit. We brought a large bag with us from home with donation items for the orphanage and bought more after we arrived here. My mom helped me pack them up in bags to take with us that afternoon.

Lucy slept with Madison Tuesday night. They were so cute asleep in their bed. She has been sleeping great! When they woke up, we went down for breakfast. They had a new bond which didn’t seem to be there before. She wanted to sit beside him and do whatever he was doing. Madison is so excited to be her big brother. While we were at breakfast, we got a minute to speak with the other families. They were getting ready to leave for their orphanage visit. Michael, our guide, came into the restaurant to check on everyone. When he stopped by our table to confirm out 2pm meeting time, I asked him to tell Lucy what the plans were for the day and see if she had any concerns. He told her and she seemed excited about going back. I also had Michael tell Lucy that we were going to get her friend Delaney a gift and he did. She seemed really excited about that!

Since we had free time in the morning, we headed out to the mall. We have been to the mall more here than I have been in a year in Birmingham! I wanted to get one additional gift for Lucy’s foster mom since we would be meeting her and also Lucy’s best friend – Delaney. We wanted to get a small gift that Lucy could give Delaney since it will be a while before they see each other again. (we do know who is adopting Delaney and have been in contact with her new family. We will definitely keep the girls in touch.) Lucy was ready to shop!

After shopping and a quick lunch, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to leave for the orphanage. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I started getting the donation bags and gifts together and realized Lucy was packing a small bag. It was a bag that came with her Matilda Jane outfit. She was putting some of the shorts, shirts, socks and other new items we brought with us for her. I honestly thought she was packing to go back and misunderstood what Michael told her. I tried to get her to stop and even unpacked the bag twice telling her that she would be coming back and staying with us. She is a very persistent one and ended up packing a smaller amount of items than originally packed. I decided to let her take them and then Michael could explain.

When Michael arrived to pick us up we let him know we had a gifts for Delaney – one from Lucy and more important, a gift from Delaney’s adopting parents. He immediately called the orphanage to make sure we could see her. They said we could. The drive was supposed to take about an hour. Traffic was terrible. It took us an hour and 40 minutes to get there. The orphanage called Michael several times about our location and when we were going to arrive. Lucy took full advantage of having someone in the car for over an hour that spoke Mandarin. She was talking to Michael non-stop on the way there. We enjoyed hearing what all she was saying as Michael translated for us. Per Michael she told him she really like her new family and she was ready to fly to America. She was also excited about seeing her friends at the orphanage so they could meet her new family. She was talking so fast and hardly let Michael answer her. We decided after 3 days being with us and not having someone who understood her she was going to get it all in during that drive.

As we got to the edge of the city we exited the highway and started climbing a mountain. The area was beautiful. Michael told us about the area and how there was a National Park (or equivalent) with many hiking, camping and resorts located on the mountain. We passed beautiful resorts and the area was so different than what we had been exposed to in downtown Chongqing. We turned in an area and there it was -Love Manor.

We then turned into a courtyard area that looked like we had just arrived at condos. There were four large buildings and cars parked in front. Michael explained to us this was the foster housing on the property. In China, foster care is different than in the US. Children don’t leave the orphanage grounds, they just move to a different area of the orphanage. If a couple agrees to be foster parents, they get the apartment for free. The foster dad still works his normal job and the foster mom is employed by the orphanage. Free housing in this area is a BIG deal!

We got out of the car and there were members of the Love Manor team there to meet us which I recognized from Gotcha Day. The Assistant Director greeted us and introduced us to Lucy’s foster mom. We then proceeded to head to her home and see where Lucy has been living since January. (Lucy just moved from the main orphanage to foster care at the beginning of this year). As we walked up the sidewalk to the building Lucy grabbed my hand and held it tight. She has not been a big hand holder yet (we have tired) but at this moment she decided my hand was the right one to hold. We made it up the stairs to their home on the second floor. She ran inside to show us her room. We must have taken a thousand photos in there. Lucy also was talking photos. We gave her one of my old digital cameras to use and I can’t wait to see what all “Lucy Cam” has to show us. It will be interesting to see what she found photo worthy.

She was talking away to her foster mom and the other members of the Love Manor team. I asked Michael what she was saying and he laughed. He said she was telling them how much fun she was having with her new family and what all she has done since she left on Monday. I could tell her foster mom was emotional, which was great because it is so awesome to know that someone else has been loving on her and she was not alone there. We tried to keep up with what all was going on in the room but it seemed to be all happening so fast. Lucy had a room to herself over the past several months because her roommate had been adopted. We were told her foster brothers were at school and her foster dad at work. Which all made sense.

The assistant director said something in Mandarin and Michael told us we were going to tour the rest of the property. They told Lucy to tell her foster mom goodbye. My heart broke for Lucy and her foster mom as I knew they would more than likely never see each other again. I still don’t know if Lucy truly understands that yet. Her foster did though and she was emotional.

Then in came Delaney. Lucy’s eyes lit up! You can tell there are very close friends. Lucy gave her the gift with the message on the bag that said “See you in America”. Then she wanted to get her little packed bag. She started pulling the items out and was talking so fast. She was showing her each item with such pride. First a pair of socks we purchased the day before still in the wrapper, then her two Barbie Dolls she got at the toy store, then the two pair of sunglasses (one was too big for her so we bought new ones that morning) then all the snack items she had picked out in the grocery store. I was so relieved. She never thought we were leaving her at the orphanage, she just wanted to show Delaney her new items. What happened next I would have never expected after our adoption training. We have been told that adopted children tend to hoard things because they have never had items to call their own. Lucy was still speaking so fast and without any translation needed we all realized she was sharing with Delaney. She put the socks in her gift bag and then started getting her to pick one of the Barbies and one of the pair of sunglasses. Lucy then put all of the snack items in Delaney’s bag. I couldn’t hold back the tears and felt guilty that I didn’t let her pack everything she wanted to bring. She want to share her new belongings with her best friend.

The Assistant Director said something to Michael and then we were told we had to move forward with the tour. We all made our way downstairs and I gave Delaney the gift bag from her family in Washington. She smiled so big! I took more photos outside even though I knew they wanted me to move on. We then walked up the hill to see the rest of campus.

Love Manor looks like a small college campus. All the buildings are the same architecture of the foster apartments. They have a hospital onsite, multiple dorms so they can divide up children by age and gender. The school is onsite and the vocational program for orphans not adopted so they learn a trade prior to moving out. (it is very rare an orphan gets to go to college) Lucy held Madison’s hand as we made our way up to her school. I was focused on the buildings and listening to what all Michael had to say about the place our daughter has lived since 2011. We made it to the doors of her school and she ran in. She was excited to show us her classroom and the music room. The school was a little dark since it was closed. Michael explained to us that the Director told him they had a teacher’s education day and school ended at lunch that day. We followed Lucy through the halls and Michael translated what she as saying about her school. She loves school and especially music. When we got to the music room she sat at her desk and we snapped a quick photo.

When we were leaving the building we took another family photo on the steps.

As we walked away from the school the director told us goodbye and we finished the tour with Michael. I had been so focused on what all they were telling us and understanding as much as possible about Lucy’s life I had not noticed something – where were all the people? Love Manor is home to over 1,000 orphans. Add to that the caregivers, grounds keepers and other staff there must be at least 1,500 people on this campus. We had not seen anyone other than Lucy’s foster mom, Delaney, the Assistant Director, the Head Nanny and the couple we turned in our donations to in the parking lot. No children, no one. Where were they?

As we continued to walk we finally saw one person. A nice lady from the dinning hall came out and said “Bi Xiao Yuan!” (that is Lucy’s Chinese name) Lucy definitely knew her and she went over to give her a hug. Michael said the lady told her goodbye and to enjoy her life in America. We then walked past a police officer at the gate (he wasn’t there when we came into the school area) and he wouldn’t smile or speak. He just stared and we keep walking. It was a very strange feeling.

We ended our tour at a coy fish pond. It was beautiful and made just for the children of Love Manor. As we drove away, Lucy seemed happy. Michael was great and took us to see a waterfall that is part of the national park so we could take a family photo.

He then took us to the rivers that are an important part of the Chongqing economy. They are HUGE and where the two rivers come together to form one even larger river was impressive. We didn’t arrive back at the hotel until after 7pm. The kids were so tired. Lucy fell asleep on Madison on the way back. It was an amazing day and one we will never forget.

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 11:12 pm 1 Comment

09/15/2015

Lucy Rachal is officially a Comer!

It is official – Lucy is a COMER!

We departed from the hotel at 2pm to drive to the Chongqing International Adoption Center. It was another crazy ride in the bus. As Heith describes it – “the lines are just a suggestion… the bigger vehicle always wins.” I have never seen anything like this in my life. People will just cut across 3 lanes of traffic not caring if anyone is coming their way or just change lanes because that is the one they want to be in. I guess that is what you have to do when you are in a metropolitan area of 32 million.

When we arrived at the adoption center, we completed paperwork and had our official China adoption photo taken. They then did an official ceremony which made Lucy a Comer. I couldn’t help but cry when the official said “Bi Xiao Yuan is now legally your daughter”. We have video of the event, but can’t get it to upload here. I will post when we return. The official from the agency was really nice. They gave us a beautiful set of chopsticks to remember the day and will be creating us a photo book of the day. It was so awesome!

So we are now officially finished with all the paperwork in China. The other families are waiting on their children’s passports to be created, but we already have Lucy’s passport since she went to the US in March.

We then headed back to the hotel. We decided to venture out to a local restaurant tonight and it was great! I am making a list of all the things I want Heith to learn to make. Some of the foods we have tried since we arrived I have never seen on a menu at American Chinese Restaurants.

Madison is even trying to learn how to use chopsticks!

We are back in the hotel now and all pretty tired. I can’t help but add one more photo to this post because I want to share this with you all. Right now – Lucy and Madison are laying in the bed watching a movie. It is like they have been together their entire life. Now if we could just 20150915_204214_resized figure out what all she is saying to us….

Tomorrow will be the orphanage visit. We will go to Lucy’s orphanage so we can see where she has been living since 2011 and meet her nanny (hopefully). We aren’t really sure how Lucy will feel about going to the Orphanage. We don’t want her to think she has to stay or be scared we will leave her there. I am going to ask our guide to try and explain the purpose of our visit and give her control to pull the I don’t want to be here any more card. Please pray that Lucy understands why we are at the orphanage. We hope to take many pictures since this place is such a huge part of her life.

I will update after that visit tomorrow afternoon.

Good Night!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 12:59 pm 2 Comments

09/15/2015

WE HAVE LUCY IN OUR ARMS!

I don’t really know where to start. We are so full of joy and love. I will try to get it all in this post.

There are two other families here with us in Chongqing – one from Helena, Alabama and one from India (North Carolina originally). We all loaded in a bus to head out to the Chongqing Adoption Registration Administration Center. The ride to the agency was an experience. The lines on the road don’t seem to matter much and whoever is the biggest vehicle wins. I just stopped watching because I was convinced by the time we got there that we almost wrecked 20 times and just got lucky.

When we arrived at the building we took an elevator to the 14th floor. The agency closes for lunch from 12-2, so they weren’t back open yet. We only had to wait few minutes and the doors opened for us to come in. We had just walked in when the elevator opened again and there where the two children who the other families were adopting. No one was prepared to take pictures or video. It happened so fast. The children were just there and in their arms. I immediately started crying because I was so happy for the families and it was such an emotional moment for us all. We were then told that Lucy was coming from a different orphanage and she would not be at the agency until 230pm. To be honest, I was a bit relieved. I had time to compose myself and be better prepared for her arrival. I also understood how it would work since I just watched it happen with the other families.

Madison began counting down the time and calling out how many minutes where left after the clock hit 220pm. It was like a movie when he said it was 230pm. The elevator stopped at our floor and out come three ladies and LUCY! They walked past us and went to our guide to ask which family. As soon as Lucy turned to look she said “Baba” and came down towards us. I hugged her but to be honest, she wasn’t studying me. She immediately went from me to Heith and said “Baba”. We had been told in the bus ride over that Baba meant Daddy. She didn’t want to let him go. When we sat down on the benches the Nanny handed us a small bag with a few of her things. Included in the bag was the photo book we sent her. Lucy pulled the book out and started pointing at the photos. “Baba” she said again and then pointed at the photo and then to Heith. She then said, “Gege” (pronounced Gu-gu) and pointed to the photo of Madison and then actually to Madison. She pointed at the photo of me and said “Mama”, and pointed at the picture. She looked but didn’t point at me. It was only then I realized that she didn’t recognize me. I had my hair pulled back (the humidity here is doing wonders for the hair – it is BIG) and I looked different than she expected from the photo. Heith pointed at the picture and said “Mama” and then pointed at me and said “Mama”. It was then she decided she wanted to come sit with me and see what I was all about.

We had the opportunity to talk to the Assistant Director from Lucy’s orphanage, Love Manor, and one of the nannies that helped with Lucy’s care. They answered many questions about her daily care, food she liked and other general questions. During that time Lucy discovered Heith’s phone when he pulled it out to snap a quick pic. She took it from his hand and immediately wanted to take a selfie! She went straight to the camera ap and held the camera out to take the picture. She definitely knew how to work the phone.

We left the office and returned to the bus for the ride back to the hotel. My mom took a video of us leaving the building and Madison decided to take this opportunity to be interviewed on camera. I love him so much!! We are trying to upload the video but it is taking forever. Hopefully I can attach it on a different post.

I am sure the bus ride back was just as eventful with all the other cars as the ride there, but I couldn’t tell you about it because were just focused on Lucy and what she was doing. My sweet mother in law had purchased her an iPad. She was loving it on the bus ride back and she insisted on sitting by Madison and Heith. She loves her Baba and Gege.

At the hotel, things went great with Lucy. We went to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant and she did great. We were struggling to figure out what she wanted to eat so I got small portions multiple things from the buffet. She smelled many things and ate a bit of most things I had put on the plate. When the waiter came to the table he spoke both English and Mandarin. I told him that we weren’t sure what she wanted to eat so he asked her. She told him she wanted a beef patty. They didn’t have anything like that on the buffet. So we made another sample plate to see if she would eat something different. Next thing we knew the chef had made her a burger and had it delivered to the table! Lucy had ordered her first dinner at a restaurant.

She wanted to sleep with her Baba last night. Heith said all night either her foot or arm was touching him. If he rolled over her little foot found his side or leg again.

We woke up this morning around 545am to Lucy saying “Baba”. We could not be more in LOVE!

Today we are going back to the Adoption Center a 2pm to sign all the documents so Lucy will officially be a Comer! We will update again after that visit.

Thank you all for following our journey!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 2:14 am Leave a Comment

09/14/2015

It is “Gotcha Day”!

Today is Gotcha Day! Sorry we haven’t updated since we arrived in China.

After traveling for 27 hours, we arrived in Chongqing. The flights were all great and timely. I cannot say enough nice things about the team at American Airlines. Our flight from Dallas to Shanghai was awesome. Great plane and great flight attendants. If you are flying to China, I would highly recommend that route and airline. They made the flight (all 16 hours of it) very comfortable.

We arrived in Chongqing around 840pm local time. Our guide, Michael, was waiting for us at the airport. He got us to the hotel and assisted us checking in. The hotel is wonderful and we have done well sleeping even with the 13 hour time difference. Yesterday morning we met Michael so he could show us around. I can’t believe how big Chongqing is and how many people live in this area. Downtown is home to a little more than 9 million and the metropolitan area knows as Chongqing has a total of 32 million. There are people everywhere!!!

Madison was ready to explore! He has a FUJI Instamax camera so he started taking photos for his journal. The locals seemed pretty intrigued with Madison. People stop walking and just stare at him. Didn’t seem to even bother Madison at all. He is so excited about being in China.

Madison is loving Facetime. He has been on Facetime with his Gigi and his friend Cason daily. He even showed Cason around the breakfast buffet at our hotel. There is no telling what others thought about him walking around with his iPad showing the food displays.

Our guide, Michael, took us to the grocery store, the mall and Wal-Mart. Now, this isn’t your average Wal-Mart. There is a Wal-Mart employee in every section. They are happy to help you make a selection and answer questions. They also sell live fish (not in the pet section), chickens and other items you wouldn’t expect to see in a Wal-Mart in the US. It was definitely an interesting stop.

We have enjoyed trying new things so we have a better understanding of what real Chinese food taste like instead of basing everything on the food we have in Chinese restaurants at home. Our favorite so far is the dumplings. They look just like they do on Kong Fu Panda and are great to eat! Can’t wait to figure out how to make them ourselves at home.

It is currently 915am and we are meeting our guide in the lobby at 1000am. We have to complete some paperwork and then will leave for the Chongqing International Adoption Center at 130pm to meet and bring Lucy back to the hotel with us. We can’t wait. I will try and update again tonight with photos tonight.

A special thank you to my friend, Denise. She helped us all the way from the US get our VPNs working. That is the only way I am on this blog now. Thank you so much Denise!!!

We so look forward to sharing our next update with you all.

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 1:34 am 1 Comment

09/11/2015

What happened next was definitely GOD!

As I read my post from last night again today, I realized I left out some details that are too important not to start this post with. We owe a huge thank you to a few people. First, Robyn Kown. Robyn spent hours on the phone with me answering question after question when we received Lucy’s file. Robyn has been a wealth of information for us and she and her family have been supporting our journey to Lucy ever since. Second, Amiee Gautremaux. Several days after we received Lucy’s file, my phone rang and there was Amiee on the line calling from Biloxi, Mississippi. We have never met, but she heard I was considering adopting a child with a similar medical condition as her daughter. Amiee took the time to call a complete stranger and provide us with information. She has continued to follow us since. Dr. Robert Record, who took a call from me about Lucy’s medical file. We have also never met but he saw Lucy while at camp and was able to give me details and photos not contained in her file. Last, but not least, Maryann Pledger who called me (we also have never met) and shared her China adopt on story. The four of you will always hold a special place in our hearts!

So, when I stopped writing last night we had sent our Letter of Intent to China on June 8th. We were told the next step was for China to review the letter and give us a “Pre-Approval” and then we would wait on our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China. The timeline showed the Pre-Approval process taking 1-2 weeks and the LOA process taking approximately 3 months. Here is where we realized God was driving our adoption process and we no longer were (we are good with that!). We received our pre-approval in less than 24 hours. We couldn’t believe it. Not even a full day later! Then on July 10th we received our LOA!!! What? Only one month! There is only one way something like this happens and that is the Lord . We had multiple conversations with people about the process going so fast because I was thinking maybe the agency padded the times a bit so we wouldn’t get anxious, but this wasn’t a China thing, this was a Comer Family getting to Lucy thing orchestrated by God!

I think back to the months and months of waiting on the Haitian government and how discouraged I was. I am pretty sure I said some pretty negative things about the Haiti process because of the wait. That was not Haiti’s fault – it was mine. When we were trying to adopt from Haiti, I was trying to drive this entire process myself. I was not praying nearly enough about it and for sure wasn’t looking for God’s wisdom in making decisions. I was so aggravated that things didn’t move forward in Haiti and blamed the government for it all (sorry Haiti). The reality is, God knew all along our daughter wasn’t in Haiti – she is in China and was just waiting on us to come get her.

As soon as we received our LOA, we immediately filed our US Immigration paperwork. Each of the next six steps/processes we had to go through were just like our LOA – occurring faster than the average time. Then it happened, on August 27th we received a call from Lifeline that we had TRAVEL APPROVAL!!! China had opened the doors and said “Comer Family, come pick up your daughter!” It has been a bit of a blur since then. We were off to the races to get things done and as we sit here tonight we know we are ready.

We are flying out in the morning. Bags are packed and we are ready!! My sweet in-laws are coming to our house at 3am to drive us to the airport. (Thank you Joe & Debbie!!) We will be traveling for 26 hours (as long as there are no delays or flight changes). On Monday, September 14th, we will meet Lucy for the first time and on the 15th she will officially become a Comer.

We cannot thank all of you enough for supporting us in this journey. The gifts, well wishes and especially the prayers are so appreciated.

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 2:30 am 1 Comment

09/10/2015

How It All Began

Lucy at Camp in Mississippi in March 2015

We are so excited to introduce Lucy Rachal Comer to the world. But first, lets start at the beginning…

We are the Comers. Heith Comer, Aimee Comer, Rod Reedy, Jasmine Reedy, Madison Comer and soon to join the family – Lucy Rachal Comer.

Our adoption journey to Lucy started in the summer of 2013. Heith and I had kicked around the idea of adoption, but keep pushing it aside for different reasons. We attend Church of the Highlands and one Sunday morning that summer Pastor Chris did a brief introduction to a local agency, Lifeline Children Services, that assisted families with foster care and adoption. Pastor Chris challenged the audience to consider foster care or adoption, if their heart was lead to do so. After the service, we had a much more serious conversation about adoption and decided to schedule an appointment to further the discussion with Lifeline.

After we met with Lifeline, we knew we were in. We had some decisions to make – domestic or international adoption. We wanted a child over the age of 3, so the best option was international adoption. (all of you who know me know why the age of 3 was important….. WT&P by themselves!) So then the next big decision was what country. Lifeline had a list of countries they serve and encouraged us to take our time making this important decision.

Within a week we contacted Lifeline and informed them we were selecting Haiti. We were extremely excited about the decision and the process starting. It was now October 2013 and we started reviewing the timeline to adopt from Haiti. We were determined to beat all the stats and have our home study, US Immigration paperwork and dossier sent to Haiti in record time – and we did. I probably drove our sweet social worker crazy over those months because we were determined to get our file sent on to Haiti so we could be matched. Our file did go and our social worker told us we had completed that phase of the process faster than any other family she had assisted previously. We just knew that everything was falling in place. Then we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited…….

Eight months went by and nothing with our file in Haiti. It was then December 2014 and the Prime Minister of Haiti resigned over rumors that the President was going to cancel elections. (which he did in January) Things started looking even worse for files moving forward with some regularity. We were heart broken. To be completely honest, I question the entire decision to adopt. Maybe we weren’t supposed to adopt. Maybe that wasn’t God’s plan. Where we just driving and not following His plan for our family? We started praying.

In January 2015, we made the decision to change our country to China. We had to redo the home study process and the US Immigration process. So it took until May 2015 to get our dossier sent to China so we could be matched. We had previously completed a form for the agency that listed what, if any, special needs we would be willing to accept in a child. I will be honest, it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. How do you decide what special need, if any, you may or may not be ok with. They told us to be very honest on the form. We were and selected that we would only be ok with minor correctable needs.

Then it happened. On June 2nd we received what is called a Log In Date. This is the date China acknowledges our file is active and the agency could present to us eligible children that met our profile. I was on Facebook and saw a child who came to camp with Lifeline in March 2015. I asked our social worker about her. Her name was Lanie. The agency told us that Lanie was already “on hold” by another family but we could see her file. We received it and started reviewing immediately. While reviewing Lanie’s file I saw a photo of another girl who attended camp with Lanie and asked our social worker about her. She pulled up the photo and immediately said – THAT IS LUCY! She was so excited we were asking about Lucy. She told us Lucy was available and we could review her file. We received her file on June 3rd and put her “on hold”. Lucy’s photos were contagious. She had a smile that made us smile just looking at her photo. It was like we already knew her. There was just one thing – she was not on the minor correctable list. She did have some medical conditions we were unfamiliar with and to be honest, after Master Google told us about it – it scared us.

I wish I could tell you we did the right thing and started praying about it, but we didn’t. We were absorbed by what all Google was showing and all other locations I could find information. Our fears did take over and on the evening on June 5th we emailed our social worker and took Lucy’s file off hold.

We went into the weekend thinking so much about Lucy but confident we made the right decision for our family. That was until we were at church on Sunday, June 8th. Pastor Dino was preaching and I don’t know what the other 1000+ people in the audience where doing during the service because he was just talking to me and Heith. Seriously – what were you people doing? It was like Dino had been in our home for the past week and understood all our fears and most of all told us to stop worrying about what we can’t control – GOD HAS THIS! As we left the auditorium, we were not saying anything to each other and then right before we made it to pick up Madison, I asked Heith “Did you think he was talking to us?” Heith said yes and we didn’t make it out of the Highlands parking lot before I hit send on the email to our social worker that we wanted Lucy to join our family.

Thankfully, no other family had requested her file and on Monday, June 9th we sent our official Letter of Intent to adopt Lucy to China.

Check out our next post to hear what happened next….

Thank you to everyone reading our blog. We appreciate your interest and support to bring Lucy home!

I couldn’t end my first ever Blog Post (I would have sworn to you this would never had happened) without saying that my dear friend Helen Gilliland would be so proud. She always encouraged me to journal or blog, but I just laughed. She gave me a journal every year and offered to create me a blog and I still just laughed. I am sure she is getting a huge kick out of this now. We love and miss you Helen!!

Posted By acomer@robinsmorton.com at 2:25 am 1 Comment