More Surprises!

The other reason that we took the trip to Oregon was that we bought a car for Nick! The kids didn’t know, so we had some dicey moments not talking about where Noelle and I actually were on Sunday and Monday – when we were actually driving home!
The reason we bought a car in Oregon is that my very generous brother bought a new car, sold his to his mother in law, and we got hers. Basically, they gave us an awesome deal that we just couldn’t say no to. I like to say that God and Uncle Adrian provided Nick with his car! But….that meant a long drive for Noelle and me! We got up early on Sunday morning and took off. We drove down into California and turned East at 80. For lunch we stopped at In n’ Out, Ter’s favorite place to eat in the world. It was awesome, I must admit, and I’m not much of a hamburger fan!
During the long drive, Noelle and I had a lot of time to talk. Some new information emerged about her life in China and about Noelle herself. She told me that she had some sort of white spot on her cheek when she was younger, and that they didn’t think anyone would adopt her until it healed. She also said that they loved her a lot (who wouldn’t) and wanted her to stay, but when she got to be 7 years old they thought she needed to be adopted before it was too late.
By far the most emotional moment came when I asked her if she ever wondered about her “China mom”. She had never mentioned this, and I always knew it would come up someday, but I thought maybe I would broach the subject while we were alone and free of distractions. I didn’t know if she would look at me blankly or answer (as she did once before) that “I don’t have one”. That isn’t what happened. She said, “Mom, I think about it every day.” And burst into tears. She said, “I don’t like to talk about it because it makes me cry.” She said that she thought that her mom wasn’t married and that’s why she gave her up. She was so broken up, my heart was breaking for her. I said, “Do you want me to tell you what I think?” She nodded, tearfully. I said, “I’m not sure, because we can’t know for sure, but I think that she loved you very much so she took you to a place where she knew that you would be taken care of. Maybe she wasn’t married, or maybe she already had a child – in China you can only have one, you know. Anyhow, even though we don’t know who she is, or where she is, we can still pray for her.” She said, “How can we pray for her…we don’t know who she is!” I said, “God knows who she is.” She said, “God knows people in China?” I said, “Absolutely, God knows everyone all over the world. Just like He knows how many hairs are on your head (they had studied that at Zion a couple of weeks ago), He knows every person on this earth. So every day we can pray for your China mom, that He keeps her safe and that she comes to know Him. I told her that I am always here for her to talk to about these things and that all adopted children wonder about their birth moms and it was normal for her to have those feelings. Poor baby – I just hope that I handled it well.
We had lots of fun bonding on our trip - but oh how great it was to finally pull into the driveway on Monday night! I told Ter that it’s a lot further when you’re the only one doing the driving!
All the kids were so happy and excited to see us, and when we told Nick that was his car, he was so happy! He kind of fell against the car and I gave him a hard time about denting it before he drove it. Since then, he has driven around the neighborhood a bit, and also is studying “the book” so he can take his test to get his permit.
Anyhow, I already posted as many pictures as I can for today, so I’ll post a few trip back pictures tomorrow! Still working on catching up!