Kitchen Friendships

Some years ago we had a youth pastor that would talk about the levels of relationships.   I do  not remember all the specifics but the basics are you have different levels of friends and he related it to areas of your home.  I do distinctly remember the highest level of friendship and that is the point of this post.

The lowest level are front yard friends, those that you see in the yard and say hello and that is it.  Minimal conversation and very superficial relationship.

Then there are foyer friends, those that come in the front door but conversation is news / weather level.  They really don't fully come into the home.

Next are living room friends, they come in sit down and talk a while.  The relationship is a bit deeper.

Then the deepest level of friendship is the kitchen friend.  They come in and sit down at the table with you in the kitchen where the life of the family is.   These friends have a cup of coffee or tea, grab a bite to eat and the conversation is very deep and the friendship is very close.

Our kitchen is where life happens for us.  It is where we spend time as a family every day as we try to eat together every night and the kids all have breakfast together every morning.  It is where we have talked to our kids.  Where our kids have sat with their friends.  It is where we have played countless games of canasta and Texas Train Dominoes with our friends. It is where we have shared many meals with close friends.  It is where we spend time with our boys when they are home.

We are blessed to have a number of kitchen friends and are thankful when they come over and share a meal with us and chat around the kitchen table.  This weekend we took it to the next level.  We are currently in the process of repainting all our kitchen cabinets and trim and to say the least the kitchen is a bit of a mess.   So what does my loving wife do, she decides we need to cook a turkey that we have in the freezer and that two of our good friends that are single moms who have each adopted 2 daughters from China should come over to spend the evening with us and that each of them needed to bring their mothers along.    We dearly love these two ladies, their daughters and their mothers and were so thankful for the time together.   They came in jumped right into the kitchen to help get things ready no body even cared about the messy construction, the missing cabinet doors etc.  and we had a great time of fellowship and food, the girls played together, watched a movie and just hung out for a few hours.

So I believe that the saying about kitchen friends is very true and I am thankful for friends that are close enough to come into our under construction kitchen and share a meal with us. 

In other news yesterday was the 6 month anniversary of meeting Shaun in China.   6 months have flown by.  We have seen Shaun mellow out a lot, he has grown taller, stronger, his face has filled out a lot.   He is still a bit behind on talking but can name most of the family, is constantly saying Mom or Dad.  He loves us paying attention to him.  Overall he is a mommy's boy but he loves for daddy to be the one to help him with eating.  He still can be a stinker and get into lots of things but he has also learned to sit down and play and not constantly be on the move.   I believe he is going to have  great sense of humor, if you ask him his name he will look at you, smile and say Rar ra (Laura) and then just laugh at you.  He absolutely loves to go bye bye and hates it if either of us go anywhere without him.   We are thrilled that he is part of our family and love watching him learn and grow.   

We are blessed to be his parents and are so thankful that we were able to bring him into our family.

Well back to painting and completing the project at hand.

 

A little look at part of the kitchen that is done.  Imagine this side Sunday night with no doors and partially painted.

 

 

If you don't have many Kitchen friends I encourage you to invite a friend over, have a cup of tea and a snack and turn a foyer relationship into a living room or kitchen relationship.  You will be thankful that you did.

More Good News

Well this week we were finally able to get Shaun's MRI.   Delay after delay.    The test was scheduled a couple of months ago but the day before we were to go in the machine broke.   We had to finally get moved to another hospital where they could do the MRI under sedation.   So that took more time well Tuesday was finally the day.

So we went in and he went right to sleep and the test went well it took less than an hour.   However when it was time to wake up he went crazy, he was fighting, pinching, pulling hair you name it.   Mommy was the unlucky one that had to be in with him.   They finally had to give him drugs to knock him back out, next time he work up he was fine, just very groggy.

The purpose of this was to verify that the hydrocephalies (fluid on the brain) that he was born with had truly been healed and that there were no residual effects.  Today we finally received the results.   No signs of hydrocephalies, no abnormalities, no issues.   

We are so thankful for this news.    We are thankful that God has healed him.    So the little boy that was special focus with multiple special needs, is well and normal.  Heart, healed,    Head, Healed!!  God is so good.

Shaun is still a challenge, he is very active and very strong willed.   He has a temper and will bang his head when he is angry.  This is much better than when we started in April but there is still room to improve.  He hates wearing shoes and constantly kicks them off.  If he gets tired of cloths he just takes them off.  

Pray for us to have patience with him and pray for him to mellow out a little.   We were a lot younger the last time we had a 2 year old boy in the house and never had a child as high strung as Shaun.   We love him and he can be so sweet.  He has the cutest smile and can melt your heart when he wants to.

One thing is for sure, he will keep us on our toes and will keep it lively at our house.

In other news the girls are doing great, school is off to a great start and they are all fine.   The boys are doing well too.   Life is continually changing but that is good.

Thanks for all the prayers for Shaun and for us.

Praise be to God

Today was the day for Shaun's cardiologist appointment.  He did wonderfully and was very cooperative overall.   He got frustrated during the echo toward the end but did better than we ever expected.

Echo looked great.  EKG looked great.   When the Doctor came into the room he had a med student with him.  The Doc listened to Shaun's heart and handed the stethoscope to the student and said here I want you to get use to what a normal heart sounds like.    Wow words we have prayed to hear, "The Heart is perfectly normal"

We are so thankful that God has healed the two conditions that Shaun was diagnosed with.   He is doing great and we see progress daily.    We have one concern we are still watching but continue to pray that this too is no issue.

We feel so blessed and are so thankful for this good report.   We have seen God's hand in so many ways throughout this adoption and know that He picked Shaun to be our son.  I look forward to seeing how God uses him in the years to come.

Over the river and through the woods

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers house we went!

We were blessed to be able to travel over the long weekend to let Shaun meet his only living grandparent.   Mammaw loved meeting him and they hit it off within a few minutes.   Shaun took right to her giving hugs etc.   He was wonderful during our visit, not getting into things much at all, behaving and not throwing tantrums.  This was so nice for us.

We saw him focus on something for the first time, we went to a parade and he loved it, he stood for an hour holding onto a fence and looking at the floats etc.   Then he was so tired that he turned around to hug Mammaw and pointed to the stroller.  I placed him in the stroller and he promptly fell asleep.

The girls were able to get in some fishing and had a blast.  Maria caught the most, and hooked a huge catfish but it got away.  Shiyan caught a very nice catfish and Laura caught a nice bass.   We really enjoyed the time with family.

Shiyan with her catfish

The girls fishing



Girls Nascar Racing

one of Maria's many fish.

Shaun having fun at mammaws

Every day gets a little better.  Routines are formed, trust is built and progress is made.

Post Placement Visit

Well tonight was our 1 month post placement visit so we thought this might be a good time for an update.

Shaun is doing great.   He is adjusting very well.  Although he is still a very strong willed  and energetic 2 year old so life around here is a bit crazy most of the time.    Shaun is bonding well with everyone, he loves playing with the girls and spending time with his brothers and parents.   His temper is more under control but still something we deal with from time to time.   He is so busy and into everything but again he is 2! He learns new things almost daily, the latest are the ability to give hugs and to say Ba Ba (Daddy) and Ma Ma (Mommy) on  a regular basis.  He has also mastered No and Bye. 

We are all getting into a routine.   The girls are trying to wrap up their school year and get into summer  break.   They love helping with and playing with Shaun.   They are like extra mothers to him.

Shaun is sleeping well most nights.   We found that he did not like a quite room so a little background noise turned out to be a good thing with him.   Food has not been any issue, he likes just about anything you give him and is not picky most of the time.

As we saw in China he loves being outside.  However he must have never been on grass.  The first time out in the yard he sat down and cried but since then he has grown to love it and loves to play outside every chance he gets.

Well that is about it for now.  All is going well and we (Robin and I) are adapting.  There are days when he wears us down and we just collapse at the end of the day but that is OK.   We will post some photos soon.

Living in the Land of Gates

Well we have been back in the US for a week now and have been home since Tuesday night.   We are all adjusting.  Shaun does great wit the girls and Stephen.  They love playing together and we are seeing his behavior when with them improve greatly.

Bed time is another story.  This child does not need much sleep.  He can get by with a short or no nap most days and can stay up until 10 or 11 if he wants to.  If you put him to bed he throws a major fit, banging the head etc.   He some times wants to be held, other times just wants us in the room near him, figuring out what he wants is half the battle, getting him to go to sleep is the other half.  

Last night I fell asleep rocking him and he climbed down and began playing in his room.  He stayed up until about 10:30 when Aaron and his friends from college came in the house.  The kids were so loud I thought he will never go to sleep. Within a few minutes he was out and never moved.   Noise does not seem to be a problem and may actually be soothing to him.

Back to the title.  We feel like we are in training for a hurdle race.  We are constantly having to step over gates to get around the house.   The front stairs are gated, the back stairs are gated, the foyer is gated and then there is the floating gate that is used to keep him in or out of any specific area of the house.  We have had to start keeping our bedroom door closed all the time as he gets into everything in there, I guess we have a bit more child proofing to do.  This child is so busy and so curious and if one of us can not be near by to keep an eye on him the gates come into play.  Amazing how much one little 2 year old can change your routine and home.

Shaun loves being outside but apparently had not been on grass.  Last night we went out to play on the swing set and he cried any time his feet touched the grass.    Today he went to a picnic with us and did much better on grass and this afternoon he actually played out there while we planted our garden.   I am guessing I will have to fence off the garden as he has already tried getting in there to help me.

This afternoon we gave him his birthday gift that was too large to take to China.  The girls loved playing with his cars and garage more than he did.  The all had fun. Shaun loved playing with the box.

All in all it has been a great week.  Shaun has met all 3 of his brothers, his 3 sisters and his sister-in-law.  He also met second brothers girl friend and two good friends from college and he has done wonderfully with everyone.    He is smiling a lot and happy most of the time.   Eating is getting to normal which is a good thing.

We feel blessed to have Shaun as part of our family.  There are trying and stressful times none the less but we will get through those.

Tomorrow will be his first time in church.  We will see how that goes.  I have a feeling that one of us will be sitting out in the commons watching on a TV.

I have added a photo montage at the top of the web site for your viewing pleasure, it will show you highlights from the entire trip.

Have a great week.

The Journey Home

all the bags ready to go

Saturday was the day to head back to the US.   We were up at 5 am (4 pm Friday at home), bags had to be picked up by 5:50 and we had to be on the bus at 6:20 and headed to the airport.   Everyone was on time and we were off.   When we arrived at the airport we learned that the rest of the families were on another airline so Grace took us to check in with our airline.   At check-in we learned that our flight had been delayed by 1 hour which was OK since we had a 5 hour layover scheduled in Beijing.

waiting in Guangzhou

Shaun was not a good passenger on the first flight, he cried, screamed and fought us most of the way to Beijing.  The only time he was calm was when we were feeding him.

In Beijing he did fine other than he did not like to have shoes on.   Getting through Beijing airport is terrible.  You have to pick up all of your bags and get them on a cart and move to another terminal.   Robin got instructions from a lady and they were wrong.  They always tell you to turn left.  We bumped into another family that was traveling to Seattle and they showed us to the elevators.   It was about a 10 minute walk to the international terminal.  My luggage cart was so loaded and Robin was pushing the stroller.   We asked the information desk for directions and were told go 100 meters and turn left.   When we went what seemed like 100 meters the men’s room was on the left.  We started backtracking and found 2 others from our flight and several other Americans all looking for the place to check in for our flights. Turns out there is a little sign painted on the floor that a guy noticed and it advises you to go through the security line and check in on the other side.  We went that way and found the correct counter to check in for our flight. 

Check in went smooth then we were off to Customs and Immigration counters.  At Immigration we bumped into another family from our travel group and ended up having dinner with them since we all had time before our flights.

We made it to the gate and only had about 30 minutes to kill and then it was time to fly again.   Seating could have been better.  I had the window, Shaun had the isle and Robin had the seat across the aisle from us.  So daddy had Shaun duty for the long flight.   Overall he was a great passenger on this flight.  He slept some, ate, slept a little more.  He would not watch TV so keeping him entertained was fun at times.  He head butted me a few times, slapped me, drooled on me, cried some and screamed a few times.  But compared to flight number 1 he was great.

He does not like being belted in so on the landing approach to Seattle I just held him.  They asked me to seat him and I said last week he was a lap child so we are going to do it this way.  In Seattle we made it through the first step of immigration quickly and then they took us along with the famous brown envelop over to another counter that only had 1 agent working and he had a line of immigrants in wheel chairs.  He informed us that he had to take care of wheel chairs first and there were 3 others ahead of us after that.    Finally we had our turn and they processed Shaun and he became a citizen of the US.  He slept through the entire waiting and process.  The agent was very nice just he needed help at that area.

We had several hours to kill so walked around a bit, sat a little, called friends etc.   Finally it was time to fly to Boise.   Shaun was not a good traveler on this leg either, he hit and screamed unless you were feeding him Cheerio’s.   Thankfully this was a short flight. 

We met up with Andrew, Kim and the girls. It was so good to see everyone and to have 5 of our 7 kids in one place finally.   Shaun took to Andrew, Kim and the girls quickly and even warmed up to their dog.   He had so much fun playing that he stayed up until 10 pm and we had to force him to bed then. 

His first night of sleep was fairly good and today he has had fun spending time with family.

Robin with Shiyan, Laura, Andrew and Shaun

I have to say that in many ways this has been the most difficult adoption trip we have ever made.  It was hard leaving our other kids behind.  The boys all have their own routines so we don’t miss them as much but we missed the girls terribly the entire trip.   Robin has been sick with a bad cough since the day before we left for the trip.  I had the stomach thing in China and many from our group were also impacted by this stomach thing, I have never had anything like this.  Shaun has presented several challenges, his coping mechanisms seem to be eating and anger.   He has hit at us, slapped us, head butted us, etc.  He can be totally unresponsive at times and does not like English.   Often it seems he would have preferred to be with anyone other than us.    It is difficult when you are trying to love a child and he would rather be with anyone that speaks Mandarin.  He will reach for waitress to hold him he strains to listen to anyone speaking his language.   Then there are times when you get that laugh and smile and you know it is all worth it.   The anger is getting better, the laughs are more frequent by the day.   We still have a few more flights to make it home from this stop over and we pray that he does well on these.  

On the positive side, the weather in China was nearly perfect.  It was warmer than expected in Zhengzhou but overall good. The smog was clearer than we ever expected.  We had an excellent travel group and made some new friends.  The weather in Guangzhou was great, it has been the rainy season and had rained daily for weeks but during our stay we only had a few sprinkles.  We got out of the country before the earthquake hit, we had no major flight delays or issues.  So overall a lot of blessings in there too.  We are so thankful for the blessings and answered prayers from this trip. 

Today we have enjoyed time with Andrew and Kim.  We went out to see some sites and have enjoyed being together.

Andrew, Kim and the girls

Us on Table Rock overlooking Boise

Thank you to each of you that followed the journey and for those that prayed for us during this trip. 

Last Day in China or Lost in China?

Friday April 19, 2013

Today was mostly a free day so we were able to sleep a bit later than normal.  We met up with several other families for breakfast, were able to Skype with Andrew and the girls and then headed out for the day.  We decided to start the day walking on Shamian Island.  We got there early enough to see many of the locals in the park still doing Ti-Chai and other exercises.   Some ladies were doing fan dances, many were playing with hacky-sacks.  It was so good to just stroll around and enjoy the sites and sounds of the area.

guys playing hacky sack

man exercising with sword

 

 

I have to say we both really miss being on the island.  Being over in the main city is not nearly as nice.   We did not have any intentions of shopping today but did stumble into one great deal that we could not pass up so the girls are getting one extra gift from China this trip. 

Shaun was not a happy camper in the cab today, he threw a fit just about every time we got into a cab to go somewhere.

After strolling on the island we headed over to the pearl market just to browse around a bit.  When we arrived the taxi had brought us to an area we had never been. I thought he had taken us to the wrong place.  We walked around a bit and finally found the building we were looking for.   We looked around a bit and talked to this one shop keeper and asked where we could find food, I thought there was a Pizza Hut there but she pointed us out the back of the building, so we went out and into this little street market and walked around a bit, Robin in her infinite wisdom said go toward McDonalds, Pizza Hut is likely close. Sure enough we went around the corner and found exactly what I was looking for.  Funny part is we were about 200 feet from where we started, the directions we received were terrible. 

this mall is nothing but jewlery stores of all kinds

Pizza Hut menu sample

Pizza Hut was great, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Pizza and an order of fried rice for Shaun.  Pizza Hut here is amazing, they have anything from Pizza to Steak on the menu. 
After lunch Robin had to head to the little girls room so Shaun and I waited by Pizza Hut after quite a while I became concerned that she had not come back so we started down the hall to find her and realized that the restrooms were around a few corners and at that point I feared that Robin was likely lost.  She had no money, no passport only a hotel key.    Within a few moments we saw her back up by Pizza Hut.   She had made a wrong turn and received directions similar to what we received earlier in the day.

Oh one good thing happened while mommy was missing, Shaun finally decided to say Ba Ba (daddy), he just kept saying it over and over.  He did great this afternoon and has had so much fun.

full belly happy boy

Now that we were all reunited we headed down to the market area to stroll around a bit  At this market they sell everything you can imagine on a stick, frog, beef, chicken, pork, squid you name it they sell it and cook it.   We mingled around a bit there checking out the crowd and taking in all the sounds and smells.   Then it was time to head back to the hotel for the afternoon and time to pack.

shopping area.  Food below was here.

vairous foods on a stick.  No we did not try it.

Back at the hotel we learned that Shaun has quite an arm, he can really throw a ball and is pretty accurate but he can no catch at all.  He loves to throw a ball with either of us.   He is so full of life and energy.

On a side note we have had a number of folks in this travel group get the stomach bug over the past week. I believe I was first but it has been going around.  Several of the families started the journey home today so please keep them in your prayers.  I hope that they get well quickly and have safe travel back to their homes across the US.  It is sad to see the travel group start splitting up and heading home but that is the purpose of this trip, come get your child, handle the paperwork and get home and return to normal life.

Well I guess this is the final update from China for early in the morning we head to the airport for the 24 hours of flights to get us back to the US.  We fly out about 7:30 (Friday evening home time) and land at our first US stop about 6 Saturday evening.

Thanks for following along with us on this journey to bring Shaun home.  We will continue to update the site from time to time. We really appreciate all of you checking out our post and being a part of this trip.

 

Consulate Day

Thursday April 18, 2013

Today was the long awaited Consulate appointment.  We had to be up very early so we could get ready, grab breakfast and be on the bus headed over there for our 8:30 appointment.   You have to go through security to get into the Consulate area.  No electronics or camera’s permitted.

We all were seated and finally a lady from the Consulate came to the window and spoke through speakers to give us the rundown on what would happen, what paperwork we would receive and the process of coming home with our new child.  She then had us take the oath that all of our paperwork and information was correct to the best of our knowledge.  Kind of anticlimactic.  Then one family by one you go to the window and present your paperwork.   After the first few families I joked to Robin that someone had to go last, well guess what we got to go last.  Really did not matter as no one was going back to the hotel until we were all done in any case.

After the Consulate we came back to the hotel.  I had a meeting at 11:15 to go over all the travel items for the next couple of days.   Shaun finally took a short nap.   After nap time we took a walk down to the shopping area to pick up his stone etching. It turned out very nicely.   We checked out a few of the shop keepers and really did not find anything we had to have.   We walked across the street and checked out the Fashion Trade Center, it was a strange mall with a lot of empty stores and a number of closed stores. 

lady working on Stone etching like she did of Shaun.

Shaun was a bit restless so we went down to the outside play area in the courtyard of the hotel.  Shaun loved swinging and walking around. 

He loved being in the swing.

To wrap up the evening we walked down to a local Cantonese place and had a wonderful dinner.  After we got Shaun settled down we started the process of splitting things up between bags, trying to balance out the weight and to make sure any items we purchased are properly padded and cared for.   Hard to stay under that magic 50 pound per bag number but we should be able to make it.  So glad we brought our little baggage scale with us, it has been so handy.

he was spread out in the bed tonight.

Tomorrow is the last full day in China.  We head back to the US early Saturday morning here, Friday evening there.   We will be in airports or flying for just over 24 hours but then we get to see 4 of our kids and spend time with them.  We are ready to get home.  Pray for Shaun to travel well, he is still dealing with some temper issues and he does not talk much yet so communicating his needs is difficult at best.   We pray that he travels well and that he can sleep some on the flights but not too much.

 

Shamian Island

Wednesday April 17, 2013

Today was a free day.   This morning we were able to spend some time with our friend Shiyan.   It was great spending time visiting with her.  This is the lady that our Shiyan is named after, she helped facilitate our first 2 adoptions.

Shiyan, Shaun and Robin

 

After that we headed over to Shamian Island.  This is the area where all the adoptive families previously would stay.   We have stayed on the island on our 3 previous trips.  There are many shops and places to purchase souvenirs.  We have gotten to know some of the shop keepers over the years.  But this visit was different.  Since the US Consulate moved off of the island and then the White Swan Hotel closed for renovations there are not nearly as many people there.   Many shops are closed and others have moved.  The shops that are still there will haggle and deal with you on items and that is fun for me.

a view from the island.

You know you have spent too much money over the years in the shops when you are in your second shop of the day and look on the side of the Pepsi cooler and see a photo of your wife wearing a Chinese outfit that the shopkeeper made for her several years ago.  Then in the same shop you go over to the picture frames and see the same wife again in one of the picture frames.   I told the shop keeper I needed a better deal since they were using Robin in advertising.   She treated me pretty fair on the items we purchased.

a photo of Robin that we found in a shop today.

 

It was sad to see that shops so empty and business so poor for these shop keepers.  We purchased several items we needed and were able to visit with several of the shop keepers we knew. Several shops told us we were the first customers of the day, I know they some times say this to try and get you to deal but it was slow most of the day, rarely anyone other than us in a shop at one time.  The island is beautiful and the flowers were in full bloom.   We had a great day on the island and enjoyed all the sites.

In the background the White Swan all covered up and being rebuilt.

  

shops along the street toward the White Swan.

It was sad to see the White Swan all covered up and under construction.  It was also sad to wonder what this area will be like in the coming years with all the changes and to wonder what will happen with the shop keepers. 

our traditional photo with the adoption statue.

On the island they have a lot of statues that show life on the island.   Above is a photo of us with the statue that depicts how they see the adoptive family.  American balding man with 2 camera's, overweight American woman, pushing Chinese baby in stroller,.   Gee that is not us at all!

This evening Shaun was wiped out so we decided to stay in the room.   We had never tried Papa Johns in China and since they deliver we gave it a try.  I have to say it was great.  After dinner Shaun was playing in front of my desk and after a few minutes I noticed he was asleep by my feet in the floor.  He has been sleeping soundly all evening,.

Tomorrow is our Consulate appointment so we are to be up early and on the way there.  This is the last official thing in this adoption.  Pray that the paperwork all processes without complications and that Shaun’s entry visa is granted so we can head home this weekend.   We are all ready to get back home and back to our routines.

Guangzhou Tours

Tuesday April 16^th.

Today we started off having breakfast with our friend Shiyan. It was great to see her again.   We then headed off on a city tour which was fun.

The first stop was the Six Banyan Temple.  This is the oldest Buddhist Temple here and is interesting.  There is a large tower and yes it is leaning.  Kind of the Leaning Tower of Guangzhou.  We saw many people burning incense and making offerings.  Some of the families had the blessing of the children, we along with a couple of other families toured on around while this was going on.  We learned some interesting history and saw some interesting things here.

Next stop was the Chen Academy (Provincial Art Gallery) and it also has some other name.  This was once a school for the Chen family and was turned over to the government some years back and is now maintained by the government.  We have been here several times and the art is always changing.  This was the first time we have been here in warm weather so we saw many flowers and plants.  Very nice.  While we were there we purchased a neat scroll for Shaun’s room and the artist Mr. Chen drew Shaun’s name, the date and location on it and signed it.  This will be a neat keepsake in his room.

 

On the way back to the hotel we had a scheduled stop at a government store where they sell Jade and other items.  There were a couple of key items we were looking for and we managed to find part of what we needed and in any case had a great time seeing all of the things that are not in our budget right now.  Good thing we both enjoy window shopping.   The hard part was keeping little hands inside the stroller and not turning over things that cost lots of money.  But we survived and got out with no broken items.

The afternoon was down time as we had to stay in the room and wait for a phone call with results of Shaun’s TB test.  All clear and we are good to go.   

This afternoon we took group photos which will also be a nice keepsake.  We have made some friends in this group and hope to keep in touch with them.

 

 

Then for the evening we got to do something that we have always wanted to do but never taken advantage of, the Pearl River Dinner Cruise.  There are many lighted buildings, bridges etc. along the Pearl River and it is neat to see.  The weather was less than perfect it was foggy and raining a bit but we still had fun.   You have not lived until you are on a boat loaded with Chinese people that are all hungry and the buffet line opens.  Our guide Grace pushed us into the line and said “welcome to China”  The best way I can describe it is throwing a candy bar on an angry ant hill.   People here fight for their spot in line, a side effect of so many people.  People were pushing and shoving to get in line.  They treated us Westerners a bit better and would hand us plates, chopsticks etc. but it was still a fight.  The food went in a hurry.  This little old lady in front of me piled a huge amount of rice on her plate and then covered that in noodles and then piled everything else above that.  Her plate was as tall as round.  I did not even make it to the dumpling line in time it was wiped out before I got there.

Shaun did wonderfully on the cruise, he got upset a few times but over all was great.  We took him up on the top of the ship for a few minutes when it was not raining and he loved that so much. This boy loves to be outside.

Well it has been a long day so time to log off for tonight.   Tomorrow we spend time with our friend Shiyan and then off to one of our favorite places Shamian Island.  We will shop there and hopefully get to eat at one of our favorite places.

We are missing our girls and ready to get home to see them.  I have never been ready to leave China before but this time I want to get back to the rest of our family.

 

Medical Exam

Monday April 15^th.

Today was our first full day in Guangzhou.  Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and is one of the locations that house a US Consulate.  It is the only Consulate in the country that handles immigration to the US so all US adopted children have to come here to get their visa to travel to the US.

Part of that process for adults, children etc. is to have a visa physical to insure that they are healthy enough to enter the US.  Today was Shaun and the rest of our groups turn for the physical.   Children under 2 are exempt from the TB blood screening.  Guess what he is now over 2 so we had to get the full screen.   He was a trooper and did extremely well through the process.

After the medical we came back to the hotel and then he cratered for the day.  We would not take a nap and was extremely disagreeable most of the afternoon.  Finally a trip to the play area calmed him down.   Daddy got to spend over an hour with others doing paperwork that is required for our Consulate appointment later this week.   The next big official step is the consulate appointment where our paperwork will be approved and we will get the visa for Shaun to travel home with us.

Today at the medical exam one family had a scare with their child, as something came up on the exam that was not in their approved paperwork.  We were so broken hearted for them as they had to deal with this.  In the end all should work out and they will hopefully be able to leave on schedule and bring their precious daughter home as planned.  There are so many twists and turns in adoption.  The government red tape seems endless and they often nitpick paperwork which complicates everything for the families.

This evening we ran into our friend Shiyan in the lobby of the hotel.  We look forward to spending more time with her later this week.  Our group went out for a great Cantonese dinner tonight, it was some very remarkable food.

On a good note this was the first full meal that Daddy was able to eat since Thursday.  So thankful that this issue seems to be passing finally.  On a bad note, we have two other dads in the group down with the same issue, pray for them too.

We continue to see Shaun’s personality come out more each day.

I hope you have enjoyed following along on this blog.  You know this was created mostly for our benefit.  Blogging requires us to take time during the adoption journey to document things that will some day let our children see a glimpse of what we went through to get them home as part of our family.  If you get something out of reading along then we are blessed, hopefully all the facts and details are not too boring for you but again it is mostly about telling the story of bringing Shaun home and that requires details.

Have a blessed day.  Tomorrow is the city tour and the Pearl River Dinner Cruise so we do look forward to that.

Hello from Guangzhou

Today was travel day to Guangzhou.   We had to be up at 5 am Sunday local time (4 pm Saturday at home if you are trying to keep up).  Shaun must have felt like something was amiss last night as he slept very restlessly and tossed and turned all night.  I am sure he noticed we packed up the toys and clothes. 

As usual Shaun fell asleep on the bus headed to the airport but woke up when we arrived for check in.  It takes a while to get 9 families checked in for flights but our guides did a wonderful job of getting us through everything and into the terminal.  

First Plane Ride

We were impressed with how well Shaun traveled.  Although it only took him about 5 minutes to figure out how to unbuckle his seatbelt.  He sat like a little trooper and slept a while on the flight.  

When we arrived in Guangzhou we were greeted by Grace whom we have worked with in the past.  It was great to see her again.  We had to walk about 10 minutes through this huge airport to where our baggage van was and then a bit further to our bus.

On the way to the hotel we heard the run down for the week.  We have a lot ot things to do this week.   We were told about all the people in town for the Canton Trade Fair, this is the largest trade show in China and one of the largest in Asia.   They told us how packed the hotels would be and that this is why we had to stay in Zhengzhou another day.   When we arrived at the hotel the rooms were not yet ready so we ran out for a quick lunch. Shaun was introduced to McDonalds.   He loved the fries but did not like the Chicken nuggets until we covered them in catsup, he started off licking the catsup off and then took a bite.  He did fine as long as he had catsup.

When we arrived back at the hotel rooms were ready, I went over to provide the desk with my Marriott Gold Rewards card and our guide quickly talked them into a free suite upgrade for me.  I did not even ask since they had told us the hotel was over booked.   We ended up with a huge room with a king bed, sitting area with a lounge chair, couch, huge HDTV, office area, etc.  Shaun has lots of room to run and play now and we have a little room to spread out.

One angle of the suite, from the sitting area.  Office off to the left.  Glass bathroom behind that.

This afternoon we walked around the area to check out local shops, etc. also the trip to 711 to stock up on water and other essentials.  Tomorrow is the medical exam for Shaun, likely some shots and a TB test so we are not looking forward to that and hope that he is not too scared.

gate near the hotel

If feels good to be back in Guangzhou. 

view from our room, a ton of appartments nearby.

Oh, Robin and Shaun are both better.   Daddy is still pretty sick.  Pray for healing.

One Cheerio at a time

a bit of a smile

Statue in the main hall of the museum

This has been a week filled with change.  Shaun has had his world rocked but he is not able to realize yet that it is in a great way.  He will have so many opportunities in life and a family that loves him.  Right now our job is to be the best Nannie he has ever had and to care for him and love him like he has never been loved before.

 

One of the things often seen with children as they are adopted is the hording of food, toys etc.   This week we have been learning to take one Cheerio at a time.  The early part of the week Shaun would grab two handfuls of Cheerio’s at a time and would eat them until you took them away, and then cry when you took them.   We started the process of teaching him to take 1 at a time from my hand.  We would count E, R, Sun etc.  Chinese 1,2,3.   I noticed today that Shaun trust me enough to take one at a time and to stop when he is full.  Progress, we are building trust in many ways.  He knows I will give him what he needs and knows that he does not have to hord.n We will continue to watch this miracle that God is performing right before our eyes.

Today as we were out and about we interacted with several local people, interesting the responses we get.  One man spoke some English and was very curious about us adopting.  At the museum a number of school kids came up to Shaun to play with him and to touch him.   A college age couple wanted their photo taken with us.  Then as we walked back to the hotel a man that was opening a gate stopped smiled and gave us a thumbs up.  Most of the locals understand that these children need families and are happy for them.  They say to us that we are so kind and we respond that we are blessed.  

Some of the school kids that stopped to play with Shaun

This couple wanted their photo taken with us.

 

 

 

Today consisted of a trip to the Henan Provincial Museum.  We were able to see much of the history of the province and to learn about the past here.  Once long ago elephants roamed freely here along with camels etc.   We saw much beautiful primitive art, it was a very nice day.  

The Henan Provincial Museum

 

As usual the hotel room is very hot so after Shaun’s nap we went for a walk in the park.  It was also very nice and crowded with people.   There is one section that is a little pond with gold fish in it.  There are tons of people there fishing and catching these.  They put them in buckets and take them with them. Not sure if they eat them or make them pets but they are small.  It was funny watching the people catch them, they yank them up out of the water and over their heads and onto the dock.  Poor little fish.  

View from the park

Tonight is packing night as we have to be up very early tomorrow to head to Guangzhou for the final leg of the trip.  We look forward to some new sites, seeing a few old friends and some better surroundings hopefully.  Zhengzhou is a nice town but very crowded, smoggy and hard to get around.   There is also not a lot to do near the hotel.

Tomorrow is a new day, Shaun will take his first airplane ride, he will leave the province of his birth for the very first time and will be introduced to many new things as he embarks on this new life.