First trip to beach

We continue to adjust with Hannah.   Her condition is becoming more clear now but we much to deal with.    She is making progress in some areas and not so much in others.   The good news is she is very happy and smiles most of the time.  She is easy going and seems to like life here.

Still a lot of doctor appointments to work through.   We fired one doctor that was not very helpful and had zero bed side manner.  So much to work through.

We recently took her for the first visit to the beach.   She was not wild about the sand but loved the waves splashing on her. 

She gets along well with the other kids and is a very good eater most of the time.  She prefers Mandarin over English.

Here are a few pictures of her having fun with everyone.

just getting to the sand.  

first time in the surf

this girl has amazing strength, dont mess with her.

Wow we started a year ago

This weekend was our first road trip with Hannah since being home.   She actually did much better than expected.     She stays in the car seat and does not fuss about it and was overall cooperative.  I worried that being in a hotel again might scare her but it did not.

This adoption has been so hard in so many ways.  There is so much of her story that is not ours to tell, it is her story and she can decide what to share down the road.   I want to say we know so many that have dealt with much worse than we are dealing with and we totally acknowledge that.    But in any case dealing with her issues and delays has been stressful on the entire family and has drained us.

Part of the trip was visiting one of our favorite churches and it was as if the pastor was speaking directly to Robin and I.  Add to it that this was the first time in a long time that the two of us were in worship with just the two of us.  All of the kids were in various parts of children and youth so it was nice.    After the service we walked up to visit with Pastor Ike and he asked how Hannah was doing and we told him it had  been hard, he immediately wrapped his arms around us and prayed over us.  Wow that was humbling and so uplifting.  We both walked away in tears. 

It was worth the drive just to get the words of encouragement not to mention that we got to visit with our Son, Daughter In Law and grand daughter.  Such a relaxing and fulfilling weekend. We enjoyed time with the kids and some good food.  Also it is always great to hold any of our grand kids.

holding our sweet grand daughter.

Hannah at dinner

On the drive back home we were talking and realized that it was right at a year ago when we first saw Hannah's file and photo.   So tonight I had to look and it was on September 5th when I first viewed her file and on September 10 when we started the process to adopt her.   Hard to believe that a year has passed. 

So many times during the process and since we met her in July I have wondered "Why us God".   Why did you pick us to adopt her?   Did we miss your message?  Did we make a mistake?  Did we get out of your will?   But I keep coming back to the clear message that we saw from God that we were supposed to adopt this little girl.    I keep coming back to the fact that if God called us to adopt her then He will help us through it.    On the really hard days that is all that keeps us going and I guess that is where faith really kicks in.  If we can do it on our own strength then it does not take much faith. 

We still don't fully understand all that is going on with Hannah but we see some progress.   We continue to work through a long series of doctor appointments with one specialist after another and each step reveals a little more.   As we get the full picture it will help us to give her the care she needs it will also hopefully help us understand what we can do to best help her adjust and learn.

For now we wait and we pray.   For now we trust and lean on our faith and trust that we followed God's calling on our family and trust that He will provide for our needs and her needs.

Here are a few pictures from the trip to lighten up a heavy post.

all of us out for a great dinner.

Aaron captured this great picture of Hannah.

The girls with the baby.

Shiyan being fun as usual.

Progress Report

Progress is slow.   Hannah continues to adapt to life here.   She is getting use to being in her room.  She smiles a lot more and some days talks more.    She loves being with the other kids and eats virtually anything you put in front of her.

We still deal with waves of grief at times where the crying lasts for a while. 

She has bonded well with both of us and with the kids.   She loves meeting new people and loves music.

The past 4 weeks have been a series of doctor visits with many more to follow.   One of particular interest this coming week.   We hope to learn more about what is up with her eyes in a few weeks.

Some days are hard but most are improving. 

here are a few photos from today.

 Joshua loves being the big brother.  He carries her around if he needs to.   Today he was giving piggy back rides.

 Eating some chicken at our favorite BBQ place.

 Riding the bull

 A rare chance when I got all the kids to pose for a photo. 

Tonight at dinner we met an older couple.  The man served in Korea in the military and fell in love with a little girl there and wanted to adopt her but the wife talked him out of it.   They came to our table and talked with us and about why we adopted from China.  We told them a bit of our story and how we have been so blessed through adoption.

We will update more as we can.  Thanks for checking in on us.

Home One Week

Well we have been home  a week now and are adjusting.

Hannah did great on the van ride to Hong Kong.  She loved looking out the window and seeing the country side.   The trip across the border was uneventful.

When we got to Hong Kong we had to wait for our airline to open their one and only ticket counter. So we stood around a while.  Glad I pushed back on our agency suggesting that we leave at 5 am.  6 was more than early enough.

The airport was interesting we walked miles looking for fast food.  Robin was done with Asian food.   We got food, found our gate and started the trip home.

Hannah did great on the first flight.    Getting through Seoul was a royal pain.  The security folks wanted to take all the souvenirs out of our carry on bags.  Do they not know how long it took to pack those in there just right bubble wrap and all.   Robin finally said "Mam you have 5 minutes wrap it up"  and they did.   By the time we go to our gate it was time to board so we did not see much of that airport. 

Now the 14 hour flight.  Hannah did great.  She ate, she slept (kicking mommy a good bit), I finally held her and she was fine.  She slept until we woke her up.

on the long flight.  She was a good girl.

We got into Atlanta 40 minutes early.  We made it to immigration and let me tell you USCIS Atlanta is the WORST I have ever seen.   We had to go to the foreigner line so she could immigrate and after that long line they pulled us aside to another area to process her paperwork.   After 2 hours of standing / sitting in immigration I finally asked for a supervisor.  The officer that was in that area was not very happy that I wanted a supervisor.   He pulled our paperwork and finally we were cleared to go find our baggage that had been running around for 2 hours.   From here we got out to see Aaron, Karen and the kids. 

We were so glad to be back in the US and to see Hannah meeting her family.   We spent the night at Aaron's and made the journey home Saturday.

not too bad looking for being up and in transit for about 30 hours and after 2 hours of fighting with USCIS.

Meeting Shiyan the baby whisperer 

Nanna with grand baby.

this was on the kitchen table from our great friends who took care of the house.  Also food for us to eat.  

Meeting Stephen

Meeting Anna. 

This week has been a time of adjustment.  The first several days she did not sleep well at all.  Finally by Wednesday night sleep started and we are finally getting some rest.  We had our first doctor appoint with her and are preparing for many more in the coming weeks.   Some of our concerns have been clarified and may not be issues.  We have issues we will be working through with her but feel confident that she will have a good life here.

Pray for Hannah and for all of us as we continue to adjust. 

Thanks for following along.  We will post more updates but not as often. 

Thursday last day in Guangzhou

Today was pretty laid back.  We were able to sleep in since we did not have to meet our guide until noon.   Hannah slept until we woke her around 8 this morning.   She still is morning at times but is doing somewhat better. 

We had our last big breakfast in China.   The breakfast buffet here is plentiful things like Spinach and Salmon Omelet, noodle soup, french toast, mushrooms, dim sum, smoked salmon, smoked duck and lots of things I did not try. This hotel was not nearly as nice as the last one.  the Westin is over priced, the rooms are not set up for families but we were blessed to have enough Marriott points to pay for this one for the week and got a free upgrade due to my status with them.  So we wont complain about the price.   It will be hard to go back to cooking for ourselves and getting back into our routine.

I wonder how Hannah will handle 27 hours of vans, planes and airports.   We have to be up tomorrow at 4:30 am and down stairs by 5:45 to head to Hong Kong by van.   To put this in perspective this will be 4:30 PM EST Thursday for you back home.  We fly out of Hong Kong at about noon and go to Seoul and then to Atlanta.  We get into Atlanta around 7:30 Friday evening.

We are all ready to get home.  Please pray that Hannah travels well and that we can get a little sleep.

Today we went back over near the China Hotel to pick up one last item.  We had to take the traditional stairway hotel like we did when we were a CCAI  family. 

Stopped by the China Hotel and had to get a picture by the stairs.

Guess what another quick stop at McDonald's.  I had to run in and get chicken nuggets for the two little ones.   Hannah actually loves Chicken Nuggets.

Next stop Six Banyan Temple. We have been here before and it is worth seeing.  This temple leans, like the leaning tower of Pisa.   We saw Buddhist praying and burning incense.  They also leave food for the gods, wonder if the gods ever come get the food.  Joshua had many questions about why people were praying to these idols. 

Entrance to temple

notice how it leans.

Lotus flower.  We had Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf yesterday.

The three Buddha's 

lady praying

part of the grounds

another building with yet another god.

interesting tree

us at the temple

here are a couple of videos from  last night showing the skyline and today at the temple.

It was so hot we did not stay out long.  The heat index here is 112 with actual temp of 99 but humidity is through the roof.

Saw this building from the road.  I bet there is a great view from here.

these poor guys dumped their load in the street and had traffic backed up.

This will be the last post from the trip.  We will try to catch you up next week on how the trip home went.  Thanks for following along during our journey to bring Hannah home. 

Fried Pigeon

The saying is that in Guangzhou they eat anything that fly's except an airplane, anything that swims except a submarine and anything that runs on the ground except a car.  Today we ate fried pigeon.  More on that in a few paragraphs.

This morning we want back to Shamian Island again.   We had to stop at the White Swan for bathroom break and took a few additional photos.

So many cars here and on top of this they have a subway system and a ton of buses.  15 million people in Guangzhou

We passed by the China Hotel.  We have stayed here the previous 2 trips.  The have added a Dominoes and a Burger King.

These old cars are stored at the White Swan.  Very nice.

Another look at the Coy Pond. 

Maria took our photo here.  David had Hannah.

We hit a few shops to finish up our shopping list.  Helen's, Michael's then Amy's.  Amy had our stone carvings ready of Hannah and our grand kids.  We will give the ones of the grand kids to their parents.  They turned out great.  Amy is a calls us brother and sister and upgraded us to the large size carvings. 

The stone carvings.  The picture does not do this one justice.  

Nora

Hattie

Grayson

After shopping Amy had to help do Hannah's hair and we took a few photos outside.

Amy and her daughter putting another pony tail in Hannah's hair so she would be cooler.  Chinese women just jump in and help with your kids.

The next stop was the pearl market.   This place is like a mall full of jewelry stores.  The have great prices and one of the items I wanted for Hannah was a string of pearls and matching ear rings for her 16th year gotya day.    This is the mall where Robin got lost 6 years ago.  This place brings back bad memories for her.  Today we stayed together and no one got lost.

yes all of these sell jewelry and it is easy to get lost. 

Looking at some jade

check out all the pearls

stringing the necklace.

knotting each pearl.

one of the side halls.  easy to get lost here.

After the Pearl Market we went out for Dim Sum.  This meal was covered in our tour fees so we were able to enjoy some great tastes.   We had various dumplings, noodles, meat etc. but the highlight was fried Pigeon, (taste like chicken).  The skin was crispy and great there is not much meat and it is very greasy.    We broadened our taste buds a bit.

some of the Dim Sum.  the ones closest to me were the best.  Shrimp and Pork

Fried Pigeon

Two Pigeon heads.  No we did not eat these but some people do.

Then back to the hotel for a break and then out for a walk.

I want to go on record as saying "I HATE MCDONALDS"   and we have been to McDonalds 3 or 4 times since Saturday.   I may stop in a McDonald's once a year and am not a fan.    Robin has been tired of Chinese food and craving McDonald's.   So this evening for dinner the kids got KFC (The passion fruit drink was great) and Robin had McDonald's.   I went up to the executive lounge and grabbed a few things.   I get it, Chinese for Breakfast, Chinese for lunch and most nights for dinner.   We have been here for 2 weeks and yes it can get a bit old. But I am of the mind set that we are here with the best Chinese food in the world and we should experience it.   Robin has agreed to a Ramen house for tomorrow night.

Have we mentioned it is HOT here.  Today it was in the 90's by the time we left the hotel at 9:30.  By the time we headed back at about 3 it was supposedly 104 outside.  My phone only showed 99 but this combined with 100% humidity and as soon as you step outside you get wet. 

The trip is winding down.  Tomorrow is our last day here and we leave for Hong Kong very early on Friday from there to Atlanta and then home after we pick up the other kids from Aaron. 

We are very anxious to see the other kids and for them to meet Hannah.   We see improvement with Hannah every day and she is doing things that we did not expect to see this soon.  Keep praying for her and for us.