Pictures of our Adoption Group

Adoption Group at Jade Factory Lunch in Beijing

Ron & Carrie Matson, Sarah Croswell, Felipe & Cynthia Cruzado,

Felipe & Juanita Rivera-Tojrres, Me

Group at Chen Family Temple. Sarah & Isabella; Me & Kaleb;

Melaina & Anne Trent & Georgianne Obucina

Jonathan Zivan, Sarah & Isabella waiting for tour group to leave.

Cynthia & Hu Shi Yong, and Jonathan and Yi He Xi

Patrick & He Xi Wilson

John, Cherrie, & Jack Owen

Pictures of Guides / Orphanage Officials

Veronica, our guide in Guangzhou with Jack, Kaleb, and Melaina.

Nanny and orphanage official in Hefei with Kaleb.

Christina, our guide, in Hefei with Kaleb.

Michael, our guide in Beijing

Tuesday Night - St. Louis, MO

We're very thankful to all of you who have shared our adoption journey. We're especially thankful for your continuing prayers for Kaleb and our family. We see so many answered prayers in bringing him home with us.

I'll briefly update you on the completion of our trip. Friday morning in Guangzhou, Kaleb took and ENJOYED his first bathtub bath!! He did not want to get out. Now that was a quick answer to prayer :)  We took a fairly uneventful train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. I did take Kaleb back to the bathroom during the ride and was surprised to find an 'Eastern' style toilet (i.e. squatty potty) that opened to the tracks! Kaleb was no stranger to this type, but it was a bit strange to see the tracks going by below us. I did remove one of his shoes to accommodate the necessary maneuvers, and we were both a bit jolted as the train slowed and stopped. His shoe about went out the hole! But thankfully did not :) He slept the last hour or so of the train trip.

Once we arrived at the Hong Kong train station, David exchanged some of our Chinese money for Hong Kong dollars and a portion back into US money. Then we went to stand in line for a taxi ride to our hotel. The taxi's loaded up 3 at a time in a fairly quick manner, and we were soon headed to our hotel at a fairly high rate of speed. I didn't know how high, but David later told me @ 110 mph. It's amazing to me how close their traffic comes to hitting each other, but we didn't see accidents.

Once we checked into our hotel we went down to one of the hotel lobby restaurants and then hit the hay for an early checkout and scoot to the attached airport the next morning. So much for seeing much of Hong Kong! Kaleb did really well for a three year old on a 13 hour plane trip. He ended up sleeping 4 hours in the middle and a couple more hours at the end. We landed in Detroit, where he officially became a US citizen upon touching down upon US soil! We went through Customs and Immigration without incident. But the lines were pretty long. I'm so glad we have an uncomplaining little guy.

The end of our flight from Detroit to St. Louis was fairly turbulent. I was praying as I saw the clouds and lightening and held tightly to Kaleb. God reminded me of the passage where He spoke into the storm and calmed it. I remembered that all things are in God's hands. This time He calmed me, and Kaleb fell asleep shortly before we landed. Which was really good, because we ended up sitting in the airplane out on the tarmac at the St. Louis airport for the next couple of hours about 30 feet from our gate. Due to all the lightening strikes, they were not allowing ground crews to load or unload planes. He slept up until the time that we got off the plane and were welcomed home by a very dedicated and loving bunch of friends and family. The combination of 24+ hours without sleep and the relief of seeing our daughters and friends at the airport at the culmination of this '6 year adoption journey' resulted in me shedding a few tears of joy. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Home at last!

This is Kathleen.  I'm currently sitting on a couch downstairs hanging out with Kaleb, who is contentedly sitting on my lap drinking a capri sun and watching me type while "dancing" to the music I have playing.  He is pretty laid back and doesn't seem to be bothered by anything here except the dog, who he avoids touching.

Mom and Dad got in safely last night around 4:04, and had a crowd waiting for them...unfortunately they were stuck out on the tarmac for a couple of hours due to a lightning storm.  They eventually got off close to 7 pm and I am glad to be able to report that all the tears there were happy ones...Kaleb has been unfailingly happy so far and has been enjoying all the gifts people have sent.  :)  Below is a picture of him with some fruit that he got, where he is making the sign the guide in China says means that he is happy, in case that wasn't obvious.  :)  Below that are some pictures taken by a friend at the airport last night. 

I'm sure Mom will be updating some time once she recovers from jet lag a little more, but until then, thank you again for all of your prayers. :)

Thursday

Headed out to our Consulate Appt. today before 8 a.m. and were the last people in our group to finish. The joys of being at the end of the alphabet.  :) At least that's my guess. Since we are I-600 and the rest of the Great Wall families at I-800, we have a bit different process and had an additional interview tagged on at the end. Just basic stuff, how things were going, how long have we been in the process, were we happy with our agency, if we had any questions. It seemed strange to have a separate interview for such inconsequential (in my opinion) questions. Kaleb bonded with another little girl in our group (the other Anne from MO's little girl) over sharing cereal on the bus this morning. Then he was excited to see her a bit later at the buffet breakfast and wanted to get out of my arms and run to her stroller to say hi. It was very cute.

At the consulate they had a children's play area. They had a little playhouse, and baby 'jumper' disk-like thing like they have in the church nursery, and a little tykes workbench. He loved the playhouse and watched bigger kids playing in it to start with. When he found the workbench, he had fun trying out the tablesaw. Then he wanted some water. David correctly guessed that he wanted to use it to pour in the little bowl like areas, so he wouldn't let him have it. When Kaleb realized he wasn't going to get the water to play with, he took a drink of it. Then he proceeded to spit the water into the bowl thing. David started laughing - he knows how to get what he wants one way or another.

Our time here seems to revolve around food and outings. We're going to need some serious exercise when we get back home. Some of our biggest laughs as a family have come while watching Kaleb's pants fall off as he walks. Poor little guy - I cinch them up with a belt as tight as I can without being uncomfortable, and tuck his shirts in to give him more bulk. But inevitably he needs to walk or run with one hand holding his pants up. We may look for some suspenders later. In the hotel room he seems to be able to entertain himself for long periods pouring water from cup to bowl to other container, and then to stir up paper, napkins, whatever he finds.  He's also getting better at crawling up on things to access whatever he wants. So things are getting put higher and higher around here.

We also went on the subway with our guide this afternoon instead of to the museum since no one else showed up for that. We went to find a grocery store and found some crayons and paper, some candy and crackers. No coloring books, but it's possible we went to the wrong store. It was pretty complicated with changing subway lines, etc. and David was distracted with Kaleb. So I doubt we'll try it again on our own. We may go again tomorrow morning with the guide though to the other store.

Well, off to supper for us! We'll probably get to write again tomorrow. Have a great day!

P.S.  We seem to be short of pictures of David with Kaleb. So this should help out.   :)
1.  Kaleb and Jack
2.  David & Kaleb racing Jack
3.  David & Kaleb Lychee Bay Park

Wednesday

Long day out touring today. First stop - Pearl Market. This is the place that many jewelry businesses around the world come to buy pearls and other jewelry wholesale. So the prices are very good. I had googled buying pearls last night and what to look for, so I knew the basics. But other than that, I pretty much listened to our guide and the salesclerk and told them what I was looking for, and what I liked. Then we went to Lychee Bay Park - a very large and pretty park with canal ways throughout and waterfalls, etc. A group of teenage girls came up to our group, and one of them asked David why we had Chinese children with us. After he told them, we had adopted them, they kind of absorbed it for a minute. Then our guide came up and explained a few things to them in Chinese, and they then went up to each family and said thank you, etc.

Afterwards we went to a Chinese Restaurant in a park near our hotel. Our guide ordered several different dishes for us and we had our own little buffet. Everything was really delicious and inexpensive - all 3 of us were able to eat a lot of food for about $13 US total. I've been trying to find a store that has stuff for kids to play with, but without luck. Just basics - coloring books, playdough, bubbles, etc. It's probably here right under our noses somewhere close. I may ask our guide about it later. She's pretty busy with so many families to take care of, and to get to their various appointments, transportation, - not to mention so many details with paperwork, etc...

Tomorrow we head to our consulate appointment where we go through some sort of ceremony where we swear to take good care of our children and never abandon them. Sarah (another mom in our group) went through her appointment a couple of days ago. Her friend came to the ceremony too, and they all dressed up. But she said that it was just someone behind a 'bank tellers window' sort of thing, that had people repeat after her, etc. - rather anti-climactic. She has adopted from the Ukraine before, and she said their ceremony was a much bigger deal there. I'm not sure that we have anything 'scheduled' for tomorrow other than our respective appointments. Then Friday we get Kaleb's Visa and take the train to Hong Kong, where we stay overnight and take a flight out on Saturday. We'll see how Kaleb does with a 13 hour plane trip to Detroit, then another 2 hour trip to St. Louis. We're very excited to see everyone back home!

Hope your Wednesday goes well. It seems strange to be finishing our Wednesday up just as you're about to start yours.

Tuesday

Kaleb is acting like he feels a ton better. He actually wants to get down and run around a bit instead of us carrying him all the time. Unfortunately his cough sounded quite a bit worse last night. His fever is gone though - so that is great! But since it's chilly and drizzling a bit today, we opted out of the trip to the botanical gardens.  We may take a short stroll to a local park if it stops raining a bit later. Another group that went to the Safari Zoo yesterday said that we should try to go there if it works out before we leave. They said it was similar to the San Diego zoo, but had lots more animals, and the train goes in through the animals. They had to stop and let a giraffe cross the tracks.

Kaleb continues to enjoy music. He starts dancing and singing when he hears music. He also pretends he's playing a trumpet, and does the drumming thing with chopsticks - which he is pretty adept at using to eat as well. We also found a 'Kiddy Land' on the 4th floor of the hotel. They have a nice outside playground and pretty pond area, and a small inside room with a kitchen play set, and legos, etc. He loved the big lego set. It kept him entertained for quite awhile.

Our guide was telling our group about the 'Han' people and their history the other day and mentioned the various minority groups as well. Then later at a shop, someone asked us if Kaleb was a minority. We said we didn't know. But he did seem to fit our guide's description of the people from the northern part of China. They tend to be very tall. I guess we'll see.  :) My guess is with the way he eats, we may see some major growth before too long.

The three of us walked to a restaurant for supper last night and had an older lady who latched on to David begging for money. Then she started pulling at my sweater. It's hard to know if people are pan-handling or have a real need. Our guide had told us that people here are very persistent and that we should keep walking. The woman was not happy with us.

David & Kaleb are currently drawing together. David showed him how to trace around a knife, etc. I guess we need to start thinking about things to keep him occupied during the flight. So far he's been pretty content during short trips.

Well, it's almost lunch time, so I guess we need to figure out what we're going to do today. Such decisions we have :)

Monday

From Ann:
Today went pretty well so far. I'm afraid that Kaleb is going to expect these elaborate buffet breakfasts every day when we get back. David said he wouldn't mind it either. :) Even though Kaleb still enjoys eating, he doesn't seem as intent on eating everything in sight, or to freak out if we take food away. So that's good. We also have heard him use the words bus and car when pointing to the appropriate vehicles, so American words are creeping into his vocabulary. 'Go figure' that they're things with wheels - such a boy.  :)

The open-air medicine market was interesting, but each stall pretty much started to look the same after awhile. There was an altercation at a stall across the street that even had policemen involved and a lot of loud unhappy voices. Kaleb seemed pretty upset by all that. So I handed him off to David, and he seemed to feel more secure. Then we transitioned from open markets to a high fashion european style mall area. Our guide said that one of the stores, Kikikoo, had good clothes for kids. So we headed in to look around. David and I agreed on a pair of pants after searching for the right size - 80/46 (whatever that is). Then we hung out waiting for the other parents to finish shopping. Kaleb was pretty done with shopping - so we rode up and down the escalators until the others were ready. He really liked that. We saw where the Pearl Market was, but it was time for lunch. So we headed to Lucy's on Shamian Island.  Lunch was good, but took quite awhile, so we ended up needing to head back to the hotel shortly after we finished lunch. I think we'll probably go to Shamian's Island again either tomorrow or the next day.

When we got back to the hotel, almost the first thing that happened was that Kaleb wanted to put on his new pants. I asked David if he had shown them to him, but he said he hadn't. I didn't even think Kaleb had paid much attention while we were shopping. They fit him really well since they have a smaller elastic waist than the other pants we have for him here. They are also lined with flannel, which is good, because he loves to stay warm. It's still been pretty chilly and cloudy here. But we haven't had more than a few sprinkles while we've been out and about. I also found a nice little red jacket at the bottom of David's suitcase yesterday that I had forgotten about. When I put it on Kaleb, he LOVED it. He came over a couple of times to give me big hugs right after I put it on him. He still hasn't taken it off from our outing today.

Kaleb & David are currently napping. I'm sure the cold is a big part of his sleeping so much lately. But I'm hoping to have a nap in his schedule for the forseeable future. Good for him and me. :) We'll see how that works out.

From David:
Kaleb had his arm looked at for the TB test this morning and all was good. Then we went to Medicine Street which has a lot of dried plants and animals for medicinal uses. In the same area they also had the live scorpions, fish, snakes, chickens and probably other things. This is where I had the fried ants and it seemed to taste like burnt wood.

Kaleb slept well last night and was more active today although he napped this afternoon and is still fighting the cold/cough.

A few more pictures:
1.  Live scorpions. I didn't have any of these but I did try some fried ants. (Did not taste like chicken.)
2.  I like these two!
3.  Kaleb stretched out during nap time. I think he's comfortable with a big bed.

Guangzhou - Sunday

We attempted to clean the boy again today. Although he enjoys pouring water, he does not seem familiar with or happy with water on him. Mama was again the recipient of his ire, even though David was holding him while I attempted to wash him in the sink. I was wondering if the hotel management was going to come knocking at the sound of loud crying coming from our room. David thought we might be able to wait until we get to St. Louis to clean him again, but I think otherwise since that is a week away.  Before the dreaded washing, he was very happy and content. So much so that dad thought we maybe should wait until tomorrow morning before upsetting him. But who wants to begin the day that way - not me. He promptly fell asleep afterwards.

Kaleb still has the cough, but his fever over all seems better. So we went with the tour group today to the Chen Family 'Temple'. It's one of the oldest forms of Cantonese architecture in Guangzhou. It was the home of a wealthy family at one time. It has ornate carvings, and lots of bonzai trees, and other plants in its gardens. The embroidery was amazing, as were the ivory and bone carvings. Afterwards we went to a 'government store' and an older man made a calligraphy 'chop' of Kaleb's name. This is what is still used for signatures in China. Then we went to a local restaurant and were able to try a variety of different area foods. It was very good. Then some of us went to the local 'Wal-Mart' called Carrefour, so mom's could get formula, diapers, etc. It didn't really remind us of Wal-mart at
all.

Tomorrow we have to check his TB test, then we're heading to a Chinese herbal medicine street (scorpions, etc.) and Shamian Island and the Pearl Market. Hope the weather is better than the forecast. It has rain listed for the next several days, but it didn't rain while we were outside today - so that was good.
Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy seeing China more this week.  It was really nice to get out with the other families today. We think our hotel is really nice too, but it's better to have a mixture of going out and staying in I think.  :)  Have a good day!

Guangzhou - Day One

The airport in Hefei is quite different than what we are used to - no shops, etc.  While we were waiting for our flight the lady beside us offered an orange to Kaleb. We had already found that he loves oranges at our breakfast buffets. Then a lady behind us got into a conversation with him. She asked him where his momma was. He got a big smile on his face and pointed to me and gave me a huge hug. Then she asked him where his baba was and he smiled and patted David. Pretty sweet. We pretty much shock half the population wherever we go :)

We wondered how he would do flying for his first time. He gripped the arm rests on both sides. But that was about it. After all, he's dealt with much scarier stuff, what's the big deal about flying anyway.  He fell asleep during the flight, and only got a bit cranky when we sat him up to tighten his seat belt during turbulence. On the bus to the airport we were the last ones on and had to stand holding on to little things hanging from the ceiling. When they started up we both lurched toward the back. An older lady immediately got up and offered her seat to David and Kaleb. David said they asked him something which he thought meant father and he smiled and said yes - then they all
laughed. So he's not sure what he did to cause all the laughter.

Our flight was delayed to Guangzhou so we ended up getting to our hotel about 11:30 last night and to bed after midnight. This morning we went to the medical exams and to get a picture of Kaleb for his Visa. With shoes, layers, coat and hat, Kaleb weighed in at 27 lbs. and is 35 inches tall. The doctor was very nice and stated that his heart murmur is gone - so that confirmed what we have already been told.  His fever is back to 102 today and he still occasionally has a cough.

The China Hotel in Guangzhou is really nice. For the most part, I'd say he seems much more comfortable with us here. But he doesn't like it if we separate from him for awhile. David walked ahead of us out of one building which distressed him. Then I needed to leave for awhile late this afternoon and he wanted to go too. Then I remembered that giving children your watch, or something else helps them believe you'll come back for that item. I guess it may have helped some, or David's distractions did.

A lot of the other families have had sick kids too. One of the babies in our group is really pudgy. I guess the Chinese people have been pretty 'gaga' about fat babies. They took a really long time at the picture area today because they couldn't see both the baby's ears because of her fat cheeks. I'm not sure why they needed both ears in the picture, but they ended up putting something behind her ears to make them stick out. That will be quite the story for her to live down someday :) Hope you are all well.

Friday morning

Kaleb is 'out' again - which is probably good. Even after all the sleep he got yesterday, he slept through the night pretty well too, he still has the cough though, and we're not sure about a sore throat. I took his temp. once when he got up around 3 a.m. and it was 100.2 then again a little while ago and it was 101.8, so it's down from yesterday. He's also acting more like his happy little self. Praise the Lord! Thanks for the prayers!

Last night I was able to email the doctor at SLU who reviewed his file and prescribed the scabies medication for us, and she was able to give us some helpful information. She thinks we're doing all the right things, which is comforting to hear. I'm thinking this is where having other kids is probably helpful. She also told us what to look for and what to do if we see some other symptoms.

I only brought a limited number of outfits for Kaleb because of our baggage limitations, and the fact that I had no idea what size he was. So we have washed things, but I'm wondering how many layers I need to put on him before we go to the airport later. I guess this is where it helps that almost everything is big on him. He'll end up looking like the little boy in the snowsuit on 'A Christmas Story', where his arms stick out and he can't put them down ;) The outfit that they brought him in the first day is very warm, but I took him to our hotel
restaurant in that yesterday, and we were getting even more looks than normal. I think it maybe screamed 'country bumpkin'; and he seemed a little sad about it. He seems pretty happy when we put him in the 'American' clothes that we brought instead. It's a sad commentary when a 3 year old can feel 'judged' by his clothes. Of course it's just a guess on my part, I could be way off.

The people in the hotel are probably mostly business people, but even most of the people on the streets around here seem to dress very stylishly. David thought the cars look pretty expensive too. I guess we have the same thing in America - quite a jump between the rich and the poor. I don't know if they have much of a middle class or not. We also noticed that some of the people who work in the hotel that speak English, seem to have a distinctive British accent. I even heard one with an Australian accent, which was kind of funny.

I don't remember if I wrote about our going to the wrong Holiday Inn the other day. But while we were walking, one (probably teenage) girl with bright red hair started talking in English to David about Kaleb. When David gave her the card about us adopting him, she disappeared for a minute and came back with some food item that she had bought from a street vendor for Kaleb. It was very sweet of her, and of
course Kaleb liked the food very much.

Well, David is getting all the cuddle time - it's my turn now :)

Thursday

Thursday morning from Ann:

Yesterday Kaleb had the fever and a bit of a cough - but he acted OK. Last night around 3 he woke up with a very croupy cough, 102.7 temp and a messy diaper. He was pretty miserable, but he really doesn't cry much. He's a trooper for sure. Then he laid down on the bed and didn't move for awhile. Which he has not really done - he doesn't nap, he just goes to and fro very happily playing usually. We figured he would perk up a bit when we went up to the buffet breakfast. After all, food is one of his favorite things. But when I brought him food, he just looked at it. Then he lost his cookies. Poor little boy. Now he's cuddling with daddy on the bed. You can tell he's just not feeling well. So no zoo today for us.

While he was acting OK yesterday and David was napping a bit, I took Kaleb to see the swimming pool. He didn't seem to have much of a reaction to it. My guess is that he still wouldn't be too thrilled to get in it since he freaked out a bit about taking a bath. We ended up just cleaned him in the sink with a washcloth. We'll just need to work up to some things gradually.

He's showing his, "I want my own way - side" today. Dad has 'been on his list' for not letting him do a few things. We get quite the looks sometimes, but they are pretty short-lived. David also got out the plane that the Winfield's gave us for Kaleb. Kaleb didn't understand  that David had to help put it together, then he was not happy about David showing him how to use it. Pretty much the life of a 3 year old. The plane is pretty much in shreds right now - it didn't last very long. But he still is having fun trying to put it back together and tying pieces together.

He is very friendly usually, but the last couple of times that our guide has come up, he gets very quiet, and just wants to stay close to me. I wonder if he thinks she's going to take him away from us. Our guide is adorable by the way, and has curly long black hair - obviously her curling iron still works.  :) She's probably in her 20's, very stylish and bubbly. She also has a good mind, and is good with details. We were obviously distracted the day we got Kaleb and she noticed that for my birthdate I wrote 2012 for the year - which anyone could see didn't make sense.

Tomorrow we should get Kaleb's passport around 5 in the afternoon, then head off to the airport for our flight to Guangzhou. Hopefully he will be feeling better by then. We're ready for some warmer weather and sunshine. We are also ready to be back home. I think all of the traffic, smoke, people, etc. is probably pretty strange for a little boy from a poor farm.  Wonder if he'll sleep tonight after all the sleep during the day.

Thursday evening from David:

Tough day for the little guy. He's been pretty brave, but we have seen tears. His temp. at 7:30 p.m. was 103.1. He is pretty determined not to have anymore of the Pediacare, and we decided that we're not going to push it at the moment. He's been sleeping a ton, and his temp. has gone up and down a bit without medicine. At supper we saw a stray tear rolling down his face. But he will do a brave smile for us. We don't know if it's just his sickness, or if he's dealing with some grief as well. Can't imagine how confusing this must all be for him. Please continue to pray for him.

More pictures!

It is about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. We've had a pretty quiet day. Kaleb had a fever and cough this morning so we cancelled the planned outing to get him rested up. The day has been rather cloudy (maybe a little smog as well) so not real inviting. He has been acting pretty well so we're praying that it doesn't get any worse. We're attaching some pictures we took this afternoon. He seems to ham it up when the camera comes out. He stopped eating for the pictures which is a big deal because he is serious about his eating. If all goes well we'll see the zoo tomorrow. There is a park close that we'd like to go to, I'm going to try to go and get pictures even if Kaleb and Ann can't.  Friday we finish up some paper work and then in the evening we fly south.

For all of the Chinese that Kaleb speaks Ann and I still aren't fluent. (what a surprise) We're pretty happy when we pick out the words for going to the bathroom. He says words a little different than what the books show so it's hard to look them up.

It's Official!

Sent March 7th, 8 am, China-time

This was all I got written yesterday that didn't disappear, but I thought I would send it anyway. Kaleb is now a Wagner! We spent about 3 hours at the Civil Affairs Office finalizing the adoption paperwork, getting things notarized, taking pictures, interviews, and waiting. Now all that is left is getting us home! Which means a passport for Kaleb from his province, then a Visa from the American Consulate in Guangzhou.

 

While we were waiting, Kaleb was pouring on the charm and having fun playing with the two ladies from the orphanage in his city. We love his laugh - it's very contagious. He also seems to have 'attached' to us already. He seemed very quiet and concerned on the trip with our guide to the Civil Affairs Office and didn't want anything to do with anyone but 'momma' (me) and 'babba' (David) at first. Another little girl at the Civil Affairs Office today was really crying - she had been up all night too. She may have had an ear infection. Kaleb was very concerned about her - it was sweet.

 

This morning Kaleb woke up with stuffed nose, congested cough and 102 temp. So we're staying put and cuddling today. Which is great by us - but we hate the reason for it. Please pray for him not to get worse. The ladies at the Civil Affairs Office were concered that we didn't have him bundled well enough since he's been weakened by his 'heart condition'.  We did have him in two shirts and a coat and a hat with a hood. It will be interesting what the doctors here will have to say about his health. I'm pretty sure he just has a mild cold right now, his appetite is still good :) The computer here is wonderful to have, but pretty slow. We also keep 'losing' the things we write you each day. Which is a bit of a bummer. So I really am not sure what you know and what you don't know. Because we did tell you :)

 

The pants that Kaleb was falling out of yesterday were size 2T. I have him in 24 Month sweat pants today and they actually fit him about right. He's extremely tiny obviously. Little feet and hands. He's very smart and has pretty good dexterity - likes to take things apart already and quite the talker! He was singing last night, "Wo mamma", which we think means "My mamma".  Precious words to both of us. David has taken care of all the laundry. He washed it in the tub last night and hung it up to dry. He's also trying to blow dry some of it with the bathroom dryer and iron it the rest of the way dry. We've been getting lots of sleep since he's used to sleeping with it dark, and we lay down with him and fall asleep - at 8 p.m.! He usually gets
up at 7.

 

This email has taken really longer than normal to write with the little guy crawling all over me and trying to type, etc. So I'm going to cut it short here. We'll try to write more later. 

 

P.S.  By 'Doctors here' I meant doctors in the United States. We don't plan to go to doctors in China unless really necessary.

Skype

Hey,

This is Kathleen and I just thought I'd send an additional update today as Kristine and I got to chat with Mom, Dad, and Kaleb last night via skype.  Unfortunately our connection wasn't great and I don't think they could catch a ton of what we said, but we could hear and see them alright, so it worked for us.  I have to say, Kaleb is adorable. Very energetic, talkative, and happy.  He was chattering away the whole time (although none of us could understand him of course), and laughed a lot, so hopefully that will last once he arrives and adjusts to the new culture, language, etc...  It sounds like there haven't really been any tears yet, except when Mom and Dad tried to take some food away from him.  Despite that, Mom said he has been sharing well, and on skype he kept trying to give her a drink from his cup and we could see him "playing catch" with Dad so it looks like that is true.  :) 

Mom said the size 3T clothes he had on were just falling off him; pretty small and thin, which wasn't really unexpected.  It does sound like he was taken care of well in his foster home though, and he can do some counting in Chinese and has pretty clear speech for a 3 1/2 year old (or at least enough that other Chinese-speaking people around him are laughing at the things he is saying).  Dad says he also enjoys singing so we're hoping this musical inclination means he won't mind the piano being played at all hours at our house...   Apparently there was a translator who was around when Mom and Dad were showing Kaleb pictures of our family, and the translator said Kaleb was very excited to know he had two sisters and a "brother" (Christopher).  Needless to say we're happy to finally have a brother as well.  :)

Kaleb: Day One

I composed a nice long email (a literary masterpiece) and when I sent it the web page went comotose. I don't think it sent; if it did then ignore this one. Attached is a picture of Kaleb adjusting the TV. He loves to push buttons so we've had to limit some of his activities. Don't worry, we'll try not to get carried away with the discipline just yet.

Hope all continues to go well there. God has certainly answered prayer today. We miss you and love you. Now I'm ready to come home.

The Great Wall

Sunday in Hefei

We are now in Hefei! Uneventful flight. It's raining, and has been for awhile. The guide thinks it will continue for a few days. She says that it's their rainy season here. We are the only parents she is helping in Hefei. Since it is raining, and the Civil Affairs Office has something important going on there tomorrow; Kaleb will be brought to our hotel room tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m.

Christina (our guide) suggested that we have candy and toys to give him, since he will probably be crying, "because we don't look very Chinese". We're getting pretty used to that. When we were touring Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City in Beijing, we had several people stop and want to get their pictures taken with us (well, me - but then David too). The other parents in our group said that the next time it happened, they were going to take pictures of the people taking pictures of us. Evidently the darker hair color that I tried out didn't last very long, I'm pretty much blonde again.

In other news, David has been able to access a language menu on this hotel's TV, so we can actually understand what is on TV again! Unfortunately I think the difference in electrical connections may have fried my curling iron. It's not heating up anymore, even though we were using an adapter. We may head to the local mall later and get supper and find some candy for Kaleb and a curling iron for me.

They just brought a crib and a stroller to our room. David thinks the crib is circa 1949 :) It doesn't look like it would hold anyone older than a couple of months old - sturdiness-wise. Maybe kids sleep differently around here. My guess is that he will probably be sleeping with us in the King Size bed.

I realized that I didn't respond to all of your questions. Jet lag doesn't seem to be a problem so far. We did wake up about 2:00 last night, but we fell asleep again pretty quickly. Maybe something loud happened in traffic outside the hotel. Traffic isn't quite as bad as I was expecting, but I had heard it was pretty crazy. There doesn't seem to be much leeway for pedestrians - it looks like cars have the 'right of way' and people know it.

From a later email:

We ventured out this afternoon to find candy for Kaleb and returned victorious - hope he likes it. While we were at the store we actually saw a witch 'doll' with blondish hair. I noticed that she had a wart on her nose though, and didn't look a thing like me.  :) The curling iron at this particular store was about $35 U.S. (as opposed to Chinese money), so we'll look at the Wal-Mart place tomorrow. I'm so glad that dad can do the money conversions in his head! It has been freaking us out a bit, when we see huge numbers on things such as lollypops. We know that can't be right. So we decide how much we think it should be, and that we won't buy it if it they ask us for more money at the checkout counter. It turns out that the price was 'per pound', and was about what we thought it should cost. This seemed like a 'regular' store with regular prices, and I didn't see any customers bargaining at the checkout counter. So we think we were doing things OK.

This particular store is only about a half a block from the hotel and it has about everything you could think of in it. The bottom floor of the store looks like a Macy's. When you walk in it has a perfume / jewelry section. But there is a grocery store section towards the back of the store. Then there are several other floors with clothing, appliances, a kid play area (looked like you needed to pay for it though) and a KFC. So that's where we went for supper. We were confused at first because we couldn't find a counter to order food, although we could see people eating. It turns out we were on the second floor of the KFC, and we needed to go down a level. They were all very helpful, but didn't understand us much better than we understood them. They handed us a menu with pictures from which we could point at what we wanted. Unfortunately, they didn't give us drinks - so we didn't communicate that very well (even though we pointed to the pop and David made drinking motions). We also thought we were getting 2 two-piece chicken meals. But we ended up with two bags that had one piece of chicken each and that was all. So we went back downstairs to the grocery section and found potato chips that were 'potato flavored' as opposed to sweet & spicy, or barbeque, or something else.  So ends David & Ann's Great Adventure for today. Tomorrow our REALLY Great Adventure begins!

Touring Beijing

Sent a little after 9 pm, March 3rd, China time
We just got back from a full day of touring. It was pretty cold here and one poor mom-to-be in our group had conserved on packing to have more room for diapers and formula for her 7 month old daughter - so no coat! She said that she's usually 'warm', but I got cold just looking at her. Especially in the snow and ice climbing the stairs of the Great Wall in the mountains. Which was amazing by the way - and a little scary coming down, not to mention quite the work out going up. I think that it will be felt tomorrow. Best work out on 'doing stairs' that I've done in awhile..We also went to a 'restaurant' that had an amazingly good buffet at our table, but ended up being a 'jade factory' too. One of the guys there gave us a tour, and showed us everything we could ever want to know about jade. It was pretty cool. I usually only think of jade as green - but they also had purple, red, blue, and white, as well as many shades of green.

David found a big chip in one of his teeth after supper tonight. So we're hoping that doesn't cause him any problems. That would be a major bummer. Well, it's a little after 9 p.m. and I think we're going to sleep a little early if we can. We need to be in the lobby, ready and checked out before 9 for our flight to Kaleb's province in the morning.

China at last!

This was sent on March 3rd, 8:00 am China time.
We made it! Thanks for writing. I saw that we had a few texts once we landed last night. But it said roaming charges would apply, and we thought that maybe roaming to China could add up pretty fast. :) We were a bit surprised that we even had service for our US phones. They have not given us our Panda phone as yet, but we got in pretty late, and we were pretty wiped out. I hardly slept at all on the plane, although I tried. Not too comfortable. I slept well once we hit the hotel though, which I thought would probably help with jet lag.

The trip was very good and uneventful. We were able to watch lots of movies - they seemed to feed us pretty often, which I'm sure was to get our bodies ready for the new time zone we would be in. I did have a short amount of time toward the end of the flight, after I had dozed awhile that I felt pretty sick, but David found the sick bag, which I breathed into awhile and started feeling better pretty quickly. Of
course I was praying, and David probably was too. :) No fun, hope that doesn't happen again. Not sure what was going on - but it seemed worse when I closed my eyes, so I kept them open after that. Wasn't sure if it was a motion sickness thing, or stomach something - so debated between Pepto or Dramamene. Didn't do either. Since I had a window seat and was awake most of the time I kept checking for the northern lights. I did see something kind of light and hazy, but didn't see color - so am not sure if that's what it was. I also saw a really bright light that I couldn't figure out, but that seemed not to move and seemed pretty high up. When I asked David about it later, he said it was the light on the planes wing. So funny!

We got through customs without issues although the lines were really long - and there were a lot of them. One of their guards directed a bunch of us in a long line for foreigners, over to a line for Chinese
nationals. We felt a bit out of place there, but saw a blonde that got through our line ahead of us and didn't have problems either. :) Our 'Great Wall' agency person was standing with a flag and there were 2 other families on our plane that he was waiting for too. One couple and their parents spoke Spanish, so our guide had someone talk to them on the phone. The other couple reminded me a bit of Andy & Michelle Bullar - about their age. They've been waiting on their referral for 6 years too. They're getting a little girl.  We're all at the same hotel. But we didn't see them at breakfast. There were two restaurants to choose from (American and Chinese). We, of course, went to the American style. Pretty empty, but lots of food at the buffet. Some of it American, lots of it not. I tried some rice congee, since I had heard it's a common 'comfort food' here. It was pretty much watery warm rice - not too much taste. The rest of the things I tried were very good too. Loved the fish. It was a little strange eating fried rice for breakast, but very good.
David's currently flipping through cable channels and found a 'Chinese Idol' show. I don't think he's found anything in English as yet. We're very thankful that we have access to gmail in Beijing, but we
couldn't access the blog for some reason. In any case, we would appreciate your updating the blog if
you would. I am a little brain dead as yet, and we will be heading off to exchange our American money for the Chinese variety and go tour from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. (It's currently a little after 8:00 a.m. Saturday which is around 6:00 p.m. your time Friday).