Our last day

It’s our last day in Zhengzhou, and we are very ready to get home to Miriam and Elijah and real life.  David continues to astound us and show us more of his little personality each day.  The first couple of days you would have thought we have a relatively quiet and reserved little boy.  But last night after his bath, more of his true nature started to shine through!

He was laughing, mimicking our speech, and roughhousing with Baba.  He got a very mischievous gleam in his eye and started testing his boundaries right and left.  In particular, he decided to start trying to hit and pinch at us.  Not very hard, and not at all in anger, but I think just as a release of pent-up energy and as a way to get a response.  We tried to consistently and firmly tell him no while re-directing him.  It worked for the most part, but I can tell we will have a ways to go in helping him slowly give up some bad habits in that department.

We found a small kid’s playroom in our hotel with some rocking horses and a ball pit.  David entertained himself for over an hour by stacking some buckets we had brought and putting balls in and out of the buckets.  He’s such a thorough and focused little guy, with amazing problem solving skills.  I was amazed at how advanced his ability was to figure out how to put the buckets together and organize things.

I’d say overall he is developmentally at about where an average 18-20 month old would be even though he’s almost 28 months old.  His gross motor skills, physical size, and speech are all at about that level.  His fine motor skills are more advanced, as well as his reasoning ability.  I haven’t yet observed anything that causes me any long-term concern in terms of his development.

Our guide took Jeff back to the notary office this afternoon to pick up David’s passport and other translated documents.  Everything is in order and we have everything we need to fly home tomorrow morning!  We are planning to leave the hotel at 7am, and should be back home in time for lunch with our other kiddos! 

I finally got some pictures of our little man coming out of his shell.  Enjoy!

Happily and intently playing with his buckets!

We call this the "bulldog" look.  It's one of his many smiles!

Aloof

Happy!!

Mischievous

Silly

He loves his bath!

Adoption Day

We feel like the blessings have only continued to flow for our family!  After nap yesterday, David woke up happy and we played in our room some more until we decided to try out the swimming pool.  We got to the pool and refused to allow us to even change him into a swimming suit.  After 5 minutes of sitting near the pool to see if he'd warm up to the idea, we gave up when he kept getting more agitated.  As soon as we left, he was happy as a clam again.  Splurged on the Italian restaurant in our hotel and David had pizza and pasta carbonara.  He ate both but preferred the pasta.  Much to our surprise, he picked up a fork and had a blast using it to both eat his food and transfer it from one plate to another.  We are learning that he is VERY neat in his eating habits.  He doesn't like to have anything on his face or hands.  When he was eating the saucy pasta, he would hold up his and every time he put a bite in his mouth for me to wipe off.  He also doesn't like food to be spilled on the table and will clean up any little crumbs before continuing to eat.  We're hoping he can teach some of these traits to his little brother!

Despite not liking to pool, he LOVED his bath.  Played quite happily in there with a spoon and plastic bowl, though he would only squat and not actually sit.  After jammies and some snuggles, we put him down a little after 8 and he went right to sleep with no fussing.  I had to wake him up at 7:45 this morning!

He ate a good breakfast of some eggs, porridge, fruit and milk.  He didn't seem nearly as hungry as yesterday, but was again very entertained by transferring his food from one bowl to another.  After breakfast we met up with our guide to return to the office where we picked him up yesterday to finalize the adoption.  We were there only about 10 minutes when they came out with our official adoption decree and made a little speech thanking us and the other family that was there for adopting our children and wishing us the best.  David was definitely calmer this time around, but as soon as we walked in he was clearly more nervous and withdrawn.  He only wanted to sit on Jeff's lap and was very suspicious of the two other children there.

From there we travelled to the notary's office, where we dropped off our paperwork to be translated and to request David's passport.  Oh, one funny story about the paperwork.  Our guide came to our room yesterday afternoon to fill out most of the paperwork, including having us put our thumbprints over several of our signatures and taking a handprint from David.  Just as she was getting ready to finish it all up, I pulled a box of juice from the fridge that spilled all over the floor and even on some of the papers.  We all freaked out for a minute until our guide assured us that nothing of great importance got wet and they could still all be used. We are grateful nothing was ruined, and we are all done with paperwork now!  All we have to do is go back tomorrow afternoon to pick it all up before we leave Thursday morning to head back to Beijing.

We took a taxi to the Walmart to pick up a few snack supplies and then went to the KFC for lunch.  That was a somewhat cold and wet experience as it was starting to rain much harder and the wind was blowing, and of course we had no umbrella.  David did not like the cold and wind, so we kept dashing from one cover to another trying to get to where we could catch a taxi home.  Jeff finally got one after standing out on the street corner getting soaked while we waited in a nearby store.

We were all happy to get back to the room and David fell right asleep when I laid him down.  Jeff and I appreciated a little nap too!  When David wakes up, we just found out that there is a kid's play area in the hotel that I think we're going to go check out.  We bought some ramen noodles for David, and some peanut butter and bread for us so we can just make dinner in our room to avoid the need to go back out into the yucky weather.

We just can't believe how smooth the last two days have been for everyone!  I'm positive there will be plenty of bumps in the future, but we are going to continue to enjoy the blessings of our son having such a wonderful start to being a part of our family.

Oh, before I post the pictures, I need to ask a question of those who have a potty trained boy.  How do you keep them from peeing all over their clothes when you have to hold them over the toilet?  It goes great when I can just plop him on the toilet seat, but when we are out and about and need to use the squatty we are having some troubles. :)  The poor kiddo works hard to keep himself dry, and then we go and hold him the wrong way so he soaks his pants anyway. :)

Ok, so here are the photos we have.  Again, sorry that the number and quality aren't great at this point.

                                                   Jeff and David at the registration office

Italian restaurant last night

Enjoying his fork!

Happy at KFC for lunch!

Our Sweet Little Man!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes indeed, we have our little boy!  We went to the lobby at 9:30am this morning to meet our guide and go to the civil affairs office to meet David.  She called at 9:20 and explained that because of the huge rain storm there weren't any taxis so she was walking to our hotel and would be 20 minutes late.  When she arrived, she called the orphanage officer who was bringing David and made plans to bring him to our hotel instead.  After waiting another 20 minutes in the lobby, the orphanage officer called back and said we had to go to the Civil Affairs office after all.  Fortunately, we were able to find a taxi rather quickly.

About 10 minutes after we arrived, so did David.  The minute he walked in the door, he started wailing.  The orphanage official handed him to me and walked away into a back office.  David spent the next 30 minutes crying inconsolably while I held him and tried to ask a few questions to the officer who clearly knew very little about David.  But it doesn't really much matter at this point, we'll learn what we need to as we go.  Just before we left, I was able to interest David in a small book with pictures of animals.  He wasn't exactly happy, but he was willing to be distracted by it until we got in a taxi to head home.

On the ride home he started pointing out the window and talking.  He also devoured a couple of crackers, though he still wasn't interested in drinking anything.  When we got up to the room, I sat him on the bed and opened a package of small cookies.  That was definitely the right choice of activities as he started stuffing them into his mouth and smiling.

After a few minutes, we started playing a game where we would hand the crackers back and forth to each other and laugh about it.  He has such a cute and mischevious little smile!  He liked to pass the book back and forth as well.  Jeff came in with some fried rice and noodles and he ate about 3/4 of the rice and some noodles.  Yep, we have one more kid who can EAT.  After lunch was playing on the floor with some blocks.  He LOVED playing with Abba on the floor and was quite happy there for about an hour as we played and also filled out a bunch of paperwork with our guide.  About 2:15 I decided it was time to try a nap, so we kissed him and laid him in his crib.  I put a blanket over the side facing us so he would have a little less stimulation.  He talked to himself for maybe 5 minutes and then fell fast asleep.  He is currently sound asleep holding his book in one hand and his juice in the other.

Oh, and he peed and pooped in the toilet!!  Unfortunately I didn't realize his pants were overalls when I took him pee until it was too late, so they got a little wet. :)

The only two things that have been hard from the day were learning that he was returned from his foster family to his orphanage before we came to get him, and seeing his face all scratched up from another little boy in the orphanage who attacked him. :(  But his face will heal and from this point on he will never have to experience being separated from his family!

We are all so thankful and happy to have David here with us!  He is doing such a great job and we are loving watching little bits of his personality slowly emerge.  The orphange officer said he could say "baba" "mama" and maybe a couple of other words, but he has been talking away to us.  He even started counting with me!  We have the cutest and most amazing little boy in all of China!  I'm sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, we can only post iphone pictures at the moment.  I'll make a whole collage of good ones when I get home.

                                                   
                                                     Right when he was first handed to me

                                                               Our first family photo

                                                             Our official family photo

                                                Doesn't this sad little face break your heart?!

                                                      Reading the animal book with mama

                                              Starting to come out of his shell a little in the car

                                                                Devouring his rice!

                                                            There's my happy little man!!

Day 1 - arrive in Zhengzhou

We left our apartment at 8:30 this morning, and arrived in Zhengzhou at 11:45am.  Don't hate me all of you who travel from the States! :)

It was actually a really refreshing and relaxing day.  No small kids to be in charge of.  We could nap, read, take a walk, whatever our hearts desired with no need to worry about whether the kids would like it or not.

We meet our guide in the hotel lobby at 9:30 tomorrow morning to go to the office to get David!  We thought it would be in the afternoon, but we'll get him I'd guess sometime between 10-12.  Jeff forgot to bring the cord that attaches the camera to the computer for downloading pictures, but we've got an iphone.  Sorry the picture quality won't be all that great, but at least there will be some pictures!

Can't wait to update you all tomorrow when we have David in our arms!

On our way!!!!!

Cannot believe the day is finally here, but we are leaving in a little over an hour for the airport to go get our son!!  Miriam asked yesterday if I was SURE all the paperwork was really done - guess it's not any easier for her to believe it is finally time either.

We spend today in Zhengzhou and then tomorrow the orphanage officer will bring David to us!  Tuesday we finalize the adoption with lots of paperwork, and we're not sure yet what we will do on Wednesday besides pick up David's passport at some point.  We are of course hoping for a way to see Guang Ming, but will just have to wait until we meet the orphanage officer to talk about what that might look like.  My plan is to try to update the blog with pictures and info each day, so hope you all enjoy the journey with us!

Our New Son!!

Ok, we officially received our Pre approval today from the Chinese government for our adoption of Guang Ming! This means they have accepted our request to process our adoption for him. At the end of it all, they will give us a second final approval, but Guang Ming is officially going to be our son and we can let the world know!

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered that David's foster home was being sponsored by Bethany Christian Services. We were invited by them to begin to sponsor his foster home ourselves through their program. We of course said yes! As we began our sponsorship, we were able to view all of the bi-annual reports that the foster family wrote since they began their work as foster parents in 2009. Through those reports, we learned that David had been living with this same family since he was 7 months old! And in addition to that, he had been living there nearly all of that time with Guang Ming as his foster brother. We knew Guang Ming had been a foster brother to him when he was younger from our early orphanage report, but we assumed they had been split up over a year ago. When we learned that they had remained together and that Guang Ming was a loving and caring big brother to David, it created in our hearts a desire to see Guang Ming find a loving home of his own.

At first we thought our role could be as an advocate for him to help him find a family. We sent out emails and contacted some friends who we thought might be interested in adopting him. What I was NOT expecting was for Jeff to come home last Thursday night and talk about how God had been working in his heart to change his understanding of what it means to adopt and in that process cause him to seriously consider adopting Guang Ming ourselves! At the end of the evening, Jeff said, "I think God is offering us an invitation to make Guang Ming our son. It's not a command, but it's an invitation to step into the adventure of redeeming this little boy's life". Well, I for one have learned that when God is the one doing the inviting, the only sane answer to give is yes. :) So that's what we did, and as of today we are officially starting our journey to bring Guang Ming home.

We are fortunately able to re-use most of the paperwork that we had to gather for David's adoption. We are hoping that in a couple of months all of the updates we need will be complete and everything will be submitted to China. From that point, it is about a 4-5 month wait for China to go through their process. In other words, we are likely going to be able to bring Guang Ming home sometime this summer! We don't know yet if we will be able to meet him while we are on our trip to adopt David, but we sure hope so!

Here are some more pictures of our handsome little man! He is 3 years old (born August of 2008), and he was born with his left eye shut. Don't really know much more than that about his medical background, but he is a smart and loving little man who is really curious about the world around him and loves playing with other children. His foster family says he asks "what is that?" about nearly everything. :)

I'll leave you with the conversation I had with Miriam when we asked her about adopting Guang Ming.

Me: Miriam, how would you feel if we brought David's foster brother Guang Ming home and made him a new brother as well? How would you feel about having two new brothers?

Miriam: Good! I like that! (then a considerable pause) It also makes me feel a little confused.

Me: I can understand that! What makes you feel confused?

Miriam: Well, I just don't think most people do things like this!

Me: (with a great deal of laughter) You are absolutely right baby girl! Most people do not do things like this. Aren't we SO BLESSED that we get to love TWO brothers when most families don't even get to love one??

Miriam: Yes! (I can't even tell you how much I love that kid!)

More pictures of our boys together! These pictures are from this past spring

This is Elijah's favorite picture. He is always asking to see "chick gege (big brother)"

Guang Ming in September

Look at this handsome little man!!!

New Pictures!!!

Courtesy of our boy's foster home, we have new pictures!! We are not yet officially allowed to "announce" and post pictures of our newest family member, but for those of you in the know, I bet you'll be able to spot him. :)

This is the last time you'll ever have to wear pink, I promise :)

Halloween

Ok, so I know I'm a little late on the Halloween post, but I've been a little distracted lately. We bought our plane tickets and are headed to get our little boy on the 27th!! A little sad to not have him for Thanksgiving, but happy to know everything is falling in place and he will be home SOON!!

So this year we were riding in the car, and I asked Miriam what she wanted to be for Halloween (secretly chanting under my breath, "say princess, say princess" because I figured that costume would be easy). Without a minutes hesitation she says "a crow!". So I stammer out something about how maybe she could wear black tights and a black shirt and I could try to find her some feathers, but she just said, "I just want to be a crow!".

Upon arrival at home, I was looking around our living room and spied some decorative scarecrows lying around, and intuition from on high hit me. I turned to Miriam, pointed to the scarecrow, and asked, "is that what you want to be!" "Yes!" she says, "like I said, a crow!" Well I was more than a little relieved that I wasn't going to have to pay for therapy 10 years from now to uncover why my 3 year old wanted to be a large black bird for Halloween. So we happily went shopping for the right accessories to turn my baby girl into the world's cutest scarecrow.

And Elijah, you ask? Well....ummm...ok see the thing is that he's barely two so he doesn't really care and it took a lot longer to figure out Miriam's costume so....well....ok so he wore a pair of batman pajamas and Jeff safety pinned some black material to the back to make a cape. But he's the cutest little batman-pj-wearing little boy I've ever seen! There might be a therapy bill in the future for him.

Our neighborhood friends invited us over for a little Halloween party, and they did an AMAZING job decorating their home, making themed treats, and generally letting the kids have a great time. Then we went trick-or-treating to the 4 apartments of our friends in the neighborhood.

Here are my sweet kiddos looking absolutely adorable!

Please ignore Elijah's demon eyes, I forgot to format it first

Ok, seriously, cutest scarecrow ever!

Jeff showing off his awesome carving skills with a June pumpkin

Miriam with the spider cupcake she made. I would have taken a picture of Elijah's, but well he wasn't interested in decorating once he got handed something covered in frosting.