Thank you all for praying for us. God’s grace covered us in so many ways. So many of you have cared, called, and prayed and we are very grateful for you going on this journey with us.

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The first leg of the trip was the long flight over the ocean. Theodore fell right asleep and so did we since it was 10:30pm or so. I awoke to a gps map on a screen in front of me and it had our airplane and how far we had traveled. I was thinking,”Oh I hope we’re halfway there or more!”

Instead much to my dismay  it said 231 miles traveled and 9,500 miles to go –

I wiped my eyes and thought it must say at least 2,031 miles! But NO!!! We hadn’t even flown out of the province! So about 13+ hours to go. And to be honest the trip was every bit as long as that moment of realization.

The crying from Theodore  began soon after. The lady in front of me stood up and talked in Mandarin to me shaking her fists and head with a long cold stare before she sat down.

I just shook my head and said I am so sorry. But if I knew Mandarin I would have liked to also of added:

• Ma’am, we just picked him up from an orphanage.
• He’s 2 years old- have you ever traveled with a 2 yr old that just came from an orphanage?
• He is thirsty but for some reason won’t drink- perhaps because China Southern airline doesn’t serve fresh squeezed JUICE!
• He is pretty angry right now and sleepy and confused. Can you blame him?
• And for heaven’s sake, ma’am, my son and I don’t speak the same language.

The hours ticked by. It seemed that out of the 500 passengers, 498 were asleep.

I proceeded to bounce him (Blake would have helped, but while we’ve made great strides Blake still can not touch him) in the back of the plane for many hours.

This is the point where I began saying to myself, ” I actually don’t have what it takes to do this.” It was like I was 8 centimeters dilated – the point where I always want to turn back but am not able to since the baby has to come out. I am not sure how, but I wanted off this plane and I wanted off right then.

I joined Theodore as the tears started flowing from me at this point feeling helpless to not be able to stop the crying and sheer exhaustion. The stewardess tried to help, but didn’t understand my language when I asked for fresh squeezed juice.

This was when I heard in the quiet of my heart,  “Catherine, you have enough faith as a mustard seed.” It wasn’t a question but a declarative sentence.

I said,  “Yes, I do have that much faith, Lord.”

Have any of you ever seen the size of a mustard seed?  Our 3rd child, Sophie Blake, received one in a locket for her birthday from her Tallahassee family this May. And folks I am telling you it is tee tiny! About the size of this period at the end of this sentence.

So we (the Lord and I ) settled on that. I feel helpless but I have enough faith as a tee tiny mustard seed and that He is working in this moment in this plane with my precious new child.

I went back to remembering my go to verse for this whole adoption. “My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness.”  2 cor. 12:9

This whole thing was His idea, not ours. And He gets any credit/ glory for anything good in it. We are weak, but He alone is strong.

So there in the moment of talking to the Lord an angel appeared (in the form of our adoption friend, Rob). He was taking his new son to the restroom. He said over the crying Theodore,”Is there anything I can do to help?” It’s helpful that he speaks English. 🙂

I said, “Yes. Benadryl please. I didn’t want to wake y’all to ask.” Blake and I tried to find some in China but since it was all in Chinese we weren’t sure what to get. 😳

He said , ” I ll be right back.”

20 minutes later, Theodore was asleep.

The power of modern medicine.

The rest of our journey was much more manageable and we were thrilled to touch down back in the south at Memphis International Airport the next morning.

On a side note, I want to share that Blake and I got be a part of another miracle in that our new friends’ (Rob and Karen) son began crying uncontrollably before we boarded our LA flight headed to Atlanta together. So much so that the airline said they couldn’t board and would have to wait until the next day to fly out. Blake and I begged God for healing and silence over their dear son and in an instant after nearly 30+ minutes of crying he silenced. They boarded the plane with 0 minutes remaining as the gate closed.

I know I already posted this pic, but here is my ANGEL in the night beholding Benadryl.

P.S. I didn’t really ask the stewardess for fresh squeezed juice, but I came close. 💙