Got a hug!

That's huge in attachment parenting! I think we are really making progress...thank God!

Play Ball!

I wasn't able to be there for Jacob's t-ball game yesterday, so daddy brought the video camera. Enjoy these clips of our little star :)

Slowly, but surely

Christian is really having a difficult time. He is grieving pretty intensly, but it seems like he is crying less and less every day. Last night he went to bed without having a tantrum.

I am really getting to know him and it's getting easier for me to determine when he's getting overstimulated. We are trying to stay home, but there are things that we have to go out for. Yesterday we brought Jacob to school. He said he was ready and he missed his friends. I had to go into school with Jacob to pay his tuition and explain to his teacher that he may be overly tired or act out a little. While I was talking I noticed Christian was "zoning out". I left as soon as I could, but when we got home he had a tantrum that lasted 40 minutes. He fell asleep and slept for 3 hours. I had to wake him up because we had an appointment with the peditrician.

He woke up happy and I fed him lunch and whisked him off to the doctor's office. He was terrified at the doctor's office, so the exam wasn't as thourough as it should have been. He has gained 10 ounces since last week which is really good considering the calories he's been using for tantrums. The great news is that Dr Jude has confirmed that his heart sounds great and he does not have a heart murmur as was listed on his medical. Also, he doen't think that his dry skin condition is serious. He told me to continue treating him with Eucarin and it will probably go away. In China he was diagnosed with a skin condition called Ichydosis.

Even though the doctor's visit was stressful for him when we got home he was happy and we were even able to enjoy the beautiful weather on our front porch swing. Last night he really didn't cry very much at all at bedtime. He was up at 3am this morning though. He has a little belly ache. I really think we are making a some progress everyday.

The pictures are of Christian and his Godparents and Christian and I with our friend Mindy and her daughter, Paige. We met up with them on Sunday to return their truck.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

We're Home

After a very difficult 27 hour journey....we are home!

The train ride on Wednesday to Hong Kong was lots of fun! Our hotel was very nice and the view of Hong Kong was breathtaking. On Thursday morning we began our journey from Hong Kong to Newark, NJ. Christian wasn't very happy on the plane and cried for a few hours off and on. He was pretty much inconsolable, which was hard on mamma.

Immigration and Customs took a long time in Newark and we missed our flight to Houston. They re-scheduled us for the next flight which was about an hour and a half later. That flight was late getting off the ground in Newark and caused us to miss our flight from Houston to home. The next (and last for the day) flight to Lafayette was booked. I just about cried when I heard that news.

Thankfully, Christian's Godparents live in Houston and they came to pick us up at the airport. They even gave us their brand new truck so that we could drive home. We got home at 1:30 am on Friday. The trip home was long and difficult, but so worth the journey.

We are all still dead tired and the boys and I still have our days and nights mixed up. Daddy is doing much better than we are. That's probably good considering he'll be back at work Monday.

On our last day in Guangzhou we did the traditional red couch picture. We already miss the awesome families that shared this experience with us. Enjoy the pictures :)

Starting our journey home

This afternoon we leave on a train to Hong Kong. We will spend the night there and our flight leaves at 10:30 tomorrow morning for Newark. We have had such a wonderful time here in China, we are a little sad about leaving. We have met some great families and shared many laughs. We will always treasure this experience and we are so grateful that we all were able to be together for these past two weeks. I think Jacob has learned so much.

For the past two days we've been walking all around the island. We went to a jade and pearl market (which was very crowded and not much fun). We found a store full of squeeky shoes! We are bringing some home for a friend that has a baby girl. They also make them for boys, but we weren't going to get some for Christian. When we got back to the room I put the pink ones on him and he LOVES them. They squeek every time he takes a step. He was jumping and giggling. So....we're off this morning to get him a pair.

The food here is absolutely delicious. We had a traditional Chinese meal on Monday night and it was awesome. Jacob's meal came with Sprite, so now everytime we sit down to eat he tells me, "I'm a big boy now, I drink Sprite". Ummmm.....don't think so :). Jacob has 4 new "girlfriends", I've attached a picture of him with a couple of them :).

I've attached a few pictures of the last few days. The waterfall is in the lobby of our beautfiul hotel.

Please keep us in your prayers as we begin our long journey home. I'll send another post from Hong Kong if I can. If not, we'll see ya'll soon. Thank you for your prayers.

We're in Guangzhou

We're in Guangzhou.

The fast train was really nice. We enjoyed our ride very much. The only problem was that we only had 2 minutes to get onto the train with all of our luggage. A kind gentlemen helped us with one of our biggest bags and we made it onto the train in the nick of time.

Today Christian had his medical exam in preparation for receiving his visa to travel to the United States. Part of the process is insuring that he is fully vaccinated. Well, he had to get 5 shots and a TB test (which is another needle poke) this morning. He did much better then I expected. Actually, I've heard him cry much louder and with more force when we take something out of his hand. After his shots he was the happy boy that we've come to know.

There are so many adoptive families here. So far we've met families from Detroit, Colorado & California. We met a nice family who is adopting their 4th daughter through our agency. They have a set of twins from Korea. They are so cute. Jacob's preference was for blonds, but i think he is starting to have an eye for girls with black hair :)

This afternoon we are going to do some walking around and maybe a little shopping. I would like to get the boys some traditional Chinese outfits.

We took a couple of pictures today. Jacob really enjoys the yogurt here as you can see from the picture. The other picture is from Christians medical exam.