Five of us!

I'm (April) still in amazement! Something we began 2 years ago is finally finished. It is true all of the waiting seems so small now that we are home, like labor pains. I can still remember the delivery room for my two birth children, laying there awaiting to hear their first cries, holding my breathe until I heard them. Helena's delivery room was shared with six other families who I will hold dear to my heart. We sat once again awaiting, fighting tears back. I just wanted my little girl. I wanted to hear her cry. I wanted to touch her and know that she was real. I wanted to kiss her head and tell her that, "Mommy is here". When she walked through the door she seemed so small. I stood and gazed upon her, she wanted nothing to do with me but being a Mommy I had packed Cheerios and a sippy cup. She loved that!

Helena has a beautiful smile! She loves to smile. She also loves to give kisses. Her brother and sister love the kisses. God has once again truly blessed me! His love is amazing, he is the one that brought us to this point in our lives and I am so glad that we were faithful and followed his plan. Some days his plan seemed so far out of reach but in the darkness his light was shining. Which brings us back to our newest addition, her name is Helena, and her name means, light. She was a shining light that never went out of our thoughts.

People ask, "why did we want to adopt?" My family asked this same question. People would see us with our other children and tell us that we didn't need to adopt. I believe Jeff and I started our adoption journey about 14 years ago. After we were first married we looked into adoptions and adopting from China, but I was only 18 at the time and you have to be 30 to adopt from China. Our lives got busy, with college, work and children. BUT God brought us back to that place in our lives. I have had five miscarriages, five babies that I'll meet in heaven. That one sentence holds so much emotion, those feelings are hard to explain. I had three miscarriages after my son and that was when I had to ask God why. I knew he was wanting my attention and I just wanted another baby. So March of 2006, I finally turned 30. April of 2006 we began working on our home study. Helena was born July of 2006. God never fails to amaze me! God knew before I was born that I would have a child from China, he already knew. It took me 30 years to figure it out.

I am so thankful. So many people helped us during our adoption. Some helped by donating money others helped by praying for us. Thank you! Those two words can't describe how thankful I am. I want to thank Jeff entering this journey with me. It was an awesome experience that we got to have together, it wasn't easy and some days we thought we couldn't go any further. But I'm thankful that he never gave up on my wild dreams. Thank you. In our family, I'm the dreamer and he tries his very best to make them happen. I'm also grateful for my two little ones that supported our thoughts of adopting and each day they too grew very eager to meet their sister. My daughter Kallie was so brave when we went to China, I was so proud of her. My son Aidan, was himself and is now wanting his brother. Thanks Mom for watching them! I was able to thank Helena's Nanny and the director for her care. I would like to thank the family that sponsored my little girl while she was in foster care.There is one person who I'll never be able to truly thank and that is Helena's birth mother. I thank her for giving me my other little girl. Her mother was very brave and I believe that she truly loved her. Because she did not have to do all that she did to place Helena where she was found.

Thank you all for following us to China and watching us at home! God has been so good to us!

Update

Hi Everyone. Very sorry for the long delay in posting some new pictures. We are all doing well and adapting nicely. Helena is a wonder and the whole neighborhood loves to see her. The kids have all made up pretty well with only a little jealousy to report thus far. I'm not sure how long we will keep this blog up and running. I may start a new one that may reflect some of my thoughts as well as a page to update the happenings within our family. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.

Home

No pictures this time. At least today. After 30 hours of buses, airports and flights we made it home last night. Helena did a great job with not one tantrum. She was wonderful. It was a pleasant flight back and Continetal treated us very well. They gave us an extra seat so we had the whole row to ourselves. The kids were obviously excited to see us and we were as well. It is adjustment time and we are all quite a bit tired. I will try to post some home pictures over the weekend. Thanks and God Bless.

Last Day

I think the pictures say it all. The top picture is our group that adopted from the Hubei province. We spent the entire time with these families and it has been a wonderful experience. What a great group of people. The second picture is with our guide Lineker. He has also been with our group the entire time. I cannot say enough good things about him and his wife Amy. Just great people. His coordination skills are just amazing. If I owned a business and needed one guy to run the show he would be it. The last picture is what everyone wants to see : Me. Just kidding. Helena being her funny self. She really is just great. We could not be anymore fortunate than what we are to have her. We want to thank God for that blessing. He has been good to our family and we have seen so many prayers answered. Well this is the end of our transmission from China. I hope you all have enjoyed it and will pray for us as we travel home and for the country and the victims of the earthquake. Thank you all and God Bless you.

the Barnharts

Medical Exam and Shamian Island

Well we have some free time today so I will continue to post. You will probably wake up today to hear about a strong earthquake in China. We are all ok. We did not feel anything here in Guangzhou. Helena had her medical exam today and the whole thing is best described as chaos. Crying children everywhere. But it was still fun. Afterwards was shopping on Shamian Island which was quite nice. The bartering system is pretty fun but reminds me of buying a car. We are going to take a taxi back Tuesday evening to shop a little more. We have ordered from Danny's Bagels tonight : a large pepperoni pizza. I'll tell you how it is. We had a chinese dinner last night with a wonderful group of New Yorkers! What a wonderful family. It really is great to share this experience with so many people. We are anxious to get home but will also miss this place and the experience it has been. Thanks for reading along. God Bless.

Guangzhou

We are in Guangzhou and what a difference a city makes. It is very tropical and very western-friendly (not that the other places weren't) which I think makes everyone feel comfortable. We are also reunited with all the families with started with in Beijing. We have had the oppurtunity to meet so many wonderful families with this group and begin friendships that we think will last a lifetime. Helena has changed so much since we have arrived. She is comfortable with Jeff now and they are play buddies. She really feels like ours now however strange that sounds. We have the doctor's visit Monday and consulate appointment Tuesday. Then that is it. We leave on Thursday with an incredibly long day to get back. We have both lost 10 pounds or more since arriving here so that is actually a good thing. Kind of an expensive diet though. We will miss this place but are ready to come home to our family. If we do not get to post again thank you for all your prayers and support. And for following along. We will definetly post when we reach the States to end one journey and begin another. God Bless.

Last day in Wuhan

It is our last day in Wuhan. Saturday we are off to Guangzhou and the last stop on our journey. We have enjoyed Wuhan but are also ready for a change of scenery. Jeff and Helena are starting to interact more and we are finding she has quite the temper. We are starting to hit the wall a little and are getting a little home sick. Jeff is battling a toothache and a cold. It has been a wonderful trip though and we are so happy to have Helena with us at last. We think she will fit in just fine with our family. We will post again when we get settled in Guangzhou. Thanks for following along.