We have barely begun the next step in our process. We have scheduled our first meeting with our homestudy agency. It is kind of strange, however. For the first meeting, they want us to come to their offices in Dayton (without the kids). I must say, I do homestudies as a side job, and it is confusing to me why we would be going to somebody's office to do a HOMEstudy.
We get a lot of questions or statments that compare our first adoption process to this one. There are definitely similarities but differences as well. We are using a different adoption agency and a different homestudy agency. We are approaching this with some mild trepidation because we had such a good experience last time, especially with our former adoption agency. Here is a major difference. The last time, during the paperwork process, we were given a call EVERY MONDAY by our adoption worker. This current agency only calls once per quarter. That is strange to me. Thankfully, the experience we gained from the first process is already guiding us through this one.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Application tidbits
While earlier this month we completed an online application, there was some additional paperwork to complete (there's ALWAYS additional paperwork to complete). We were able to get that completed and sent back out to Portland. It will hopefully arrive there in tomorrow's mail. From this point, we will wait to receive a serious packet of information to complete (see, I told you). We have talked about setting artificial deadlines for ourselves in order to help facilitate the completion of paperwork. Going back to when we first met in college, we have done most paperwork-related things at the last minute. Because there is no official deadline for any of this to be completed, we must generate our own, or next year at this time we might be typing about the paperwork we still have to complete.
Friday, December 05, 2008
IT'S OFFICIAL!!!
I am tired and don't feel good, but I felt it was important to get something up here on the day that we have made our official decision. Today as of about 4:30pm EST, we submitted our application to Holt International to adopt a child from the country of India. As a family, we are excited but know that there is a very long road ahead for us. Because of India's adoption rules, this process in many ways will be more complicated than our adoption from China. India gives preference to Indians living within the country first, then to non-resident Indians living in other countries, and finally the least preference to non-Indians. Whereas China discourages (for the most part) in-country adoptions, India very much encourages them. By definition, we can only qualify for a special needs and/or older child. We have had two people from Holt tell us that we should expect a child at least 3-4. It remains to be seen how this will all play out. That is good by us!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Will you follow me?
Dear friends and family,
On the same day that our family made a verbal commitment to adopt our next child from India, the country has come under horrible terrorist attacks. If you are following the news, you have seen the scary, despicable acts committed by radical Hindus and targeted against Westerners. We must pray for this country of India. Though it seems so far away, the reason Westerners are being targeted is that they are most likely to be Christian. Our brothers and sisters are falling for no reason other than they proclaim Christ. This is real persecution.
This whole thing has certainly given me pause. I am convinced that God is directing our path to this country. I am also convinced that we have more to do in India that simply pick up a child. It is EASY to sit here in my warm, comfortable bed late at night and tell God I will go where he sends me. Will I follow?
On the same day that our family made a verbal commitment to adopt our next child from India, the country has come under horrible terrorist attacks. If you are following the news, you have seen the scary, despicable acts committed by radical Hindus and targeted against Westerners. We must pray for this country of India. Though it seems so far away, the reason Westerners are being targeted is that they are most likely to be Christian. Our brothers and sisters are falling for no reason other than they proclaim Christ. This is real persecution.
This whole thing has certainly given me pause. I am convinced that God is directing our path to this country. I am also convinced that we have more to do in India that simply pick up a child. It is EASY to sit here in my warm, comfortable bed late at night and tell God I will go where he sends me. Will I follow?
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Suddenly, they're everywhere
Greg typing:
Maren and I are getting close to making a decision on where we will be adopting. Trying to discern the Lord's will at times can be tricky...at least for me. I sometimes have trouble figuring out if what I am "seeing, hearing, and feeling" is from the Lord (something like, "He who has ears let him hear.") or if it is more like I have a thought, desire, whatever, and then see/hear/feel stuff to back up my own created idea. That is sort of where we are right now.
Several days ago, while praying in the car going to work, I was struck by the thought of adopting from India. I don't think I have any preconceived wishes/desires about adopting from India, so the thought was a bit unusual. When I came home and talked to Maren about it, she was definitely open to the idea. As we have begun to explore it more, the idea seems to be gaining ground. One of the ways I have begun to try and test this thought (is it from God or from me) is to try to seriously consider adopting from other places...especially the United States (probably more about this in a future post). Honestly, those other ideas do not seem to be right within my spirit. I don't mean that I am considering other places to be defiant to God, but rather to try and sense with the Spirit what I should know. It is not right to say that I am repelled by the other thoughts, but there is a curious (or not so curious) feeling of emptiness with those thoughts. The only way I can think to describe it is in a word picture. When I try to think about adopting from places other than India, I have this mental picture of standing all alone in a room with one window but the door open behind me. When I think of adopting from India, my mind is filled with architecture, people, sounds, sights, and images of connecting with believers in that far away land. I must confess that at this time I am reading a book called God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew so it is entirely possible I am being swayed by that (or is that why Brian Mease handed me the book when I asked him for some light, free-reading material????!!)
So, what is the point. The point is this...You know how after you get pregnant for the first time (Ok, yeah well not speaking from personal experience in the truest sense of the word) you look around and suddenly people are pregnant everywhere and everyone seems to be talking about being pregnant? That is a little like what is going on now. I am now seeing Indian people all over the place. The news suddenly seems filled with stories from India. I don't think I am allowing this to affect my thinking on the whole thing, but it has been an interesting observation. Even tonight as I was reading the Sunday paper, several pages in was a story with the byline of New Delhi which is where we would fly into most likely.
Once we make an official decision (and in my mind, making an official decision includes my signature to some sort of contract of sorts), we will post the details. That being said, we are eager to go where we are sent whether even more half-way around the world than China or 20 minutes away to our county Children's Services.
Maren and I are getting close to making a decision on where we will be adopting. Trying to discern the Lord's will at times can be tricky...at least for me. I sometimes have trouble figuring out if what I am "seeing, hearing, and feeling" is from the Lord (something like, "He who has ears let him hear.") or if it is more like I have a thought, desire, whatever, and then see/hear/feel stuff to back up my own created idea. That is sort of where we are right now.
Several days ago, while praying in the car going to work, I was struck by the thought of adopting from India. I don't think I have any preconceived wishes/desires about adopting from India, so the thought was a bit unusual. When I came home and talked to Maren about it, she was definitely open to the idea. As we have begun to explore it more, the idea seems to be gaining ground. One of the ways I have begun to try and test this thought (is it from God or from me) is to try to seriously consider adopting from other places...especially the United States (probably more about this in a future post). Honestly, those other ideas do not seem to be right within my spirit. I don't mean that I am considering other places to be defiant to God, but rather to try and sense with the Spirit what I should know. It is not right to say that I am repelled by the other thoughts, but there is a curious (or not so curious) feeling of emptiness with those thoughts. The only way I can think to describe it is in a word picture. When I try to think about adopting from places other than India, I have this mental picture of standing all alone in a room with one window but the door open behind me. When I think of adopting from India, my mind is filled with architecture, people, sounds, sights, and images of connecting with believers in that far away land. I must confess that at this time I am reading a book called God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew so it is entirely possible I am being swayed by that (or is that why Brian Mease handed me the book when I asked him for some light, free-reading material????!!)
So, what is the point. The point is this...You know how after you get pregnant for the first time (Ok, yeah well not speaking from personal experience in the truest sense of the word) you look around and suddenly people are pregnant everywhere and everyone seems to be talking about being pregnant? That is a little like what is going on now. I am now seeing Indian people all over the place. The news suddenly seems filled with stories from India. I don't think I am allowing this to affect my thinking on the whole thing, but it has been an interesting observation. Even tonight as I was reading the Sunday paper, several pages in was a story with the byline of New Delhi which is where we would fly into most likely.
Once we make an official decision (and in my mind, making an official decision includes my signature to some sort of contract of sorts), we will post the details. That being said, we are eager to go where we are sent whether even more half-way around the world than China or 20 minutes away to our county Children's Services.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Marvin K. Mooney
Greg here:
One of my favorite children's books that was read to me many times was "Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now". The opening of the book goes like this: The time has come. The time is now. Just go, GO! The book goes on from there to describe how some unseen Dr. Suess character orders another character to go. The book never says exactly where Marvin is supposed to go, but presumably he figures it out at some point in the story. We can assume this because the book finishes up with: I said GO and GO I meant. The time had come, SO...Marvin WENT.
Ok, lest you think I am drawing my marching orders from a children's book, rest assured that I am listening to someone so much more intelligent. However, there is much about this story that rings true for our family at this point in our lives.
Most of you know that we have already adopted a little boy to add to our two natural children. This blog was originally started to chronicle that story. Well, while that story is many chapters from being completed, a sequel has been started. Just a few weeks ago, within about 24 hours, Maren and I both suddenly became certain that God was again calling us to adopt and that now was the time to begin moving forward. So, like Marvin in the story, we are going. Also similar to the story, we don't yet have a concise idea of where we are going, but we are confident we will receive our particular marching orders soon. When the end of our story is written and someone looks back and learns that we were told to "GO", I also want the end of our story to read, "So, they went".
One of my favorite children's books that was read to me many times was "Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now". The opening of the book goes like this: The time has come. The time is now. Just go, GO! The book goes on from there to describe how some unseen Dr. Suess character orders another character to go. The book never says exactly where Marvin is supposed to go, but presumably he figures it out at some point in the story. We can assume this because the book finishes up with: I said GO and GO I meant. The time had come, SO...Marvin WENT.
Ok, lest you think I am drawing my marching orders from a children's book, rest assured that I am listening to someone so much more intelligent. However, there is much about this story that rings true for our family at this point in our lives.
Most of you know that we have already adopted a little boy to add to our two natural children. This blog was originally started to chronicle that story. Well, while that story is many chapters from being completed, a sequel has been started. Just a few weeks ago, within about 24 hours, Maren and I both suddenly became certain that God was again calling us to adopt and that now was the time to begin moving forward. So, like Marvin in the story, we are going. Also similar to the story, we don't yet have a concise idea of where we are going, but we are confident we will receive our particular marching orders soon. When the end of our story is written and someone looks back and learns that we were told to "GO", I also want the end of our story to read, "So, they went".
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The Journey Home
We left Guangzhou in a hurry last Friday afternoon. We went to the swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate expecting a quick deal, only to learn that in honor of National Adoption Day, they were doing an extra special ceremony for us. Oh, joy. They had the Consulate General, all the adoption processing workers, and tons more people present in honor of the occasion. They gave a great long political speech, acknowleged all the agencies present, swore us in, then wanted photos with everyone. We left before the photos since we had a bus to catch.
Our bus from the hotel had been in an accident and was unable to retrieve us. This greatly complicated matters. It was now rush hour traffic, so the taxi we had called had slow going. We were starting to get concerned because we still had to get back to the hotel, get our bags from the room we had left them in, catch another taxi, then get to the hotel the shuttle bus would leave from. We were accompanied by Qin Lei to the shuttle bus. When we arrived, we threw our stuff onto the bus, sat down, and it started moving. Whew! That was close!
We arrived in Hong Kong six hours later. It was supposed to be a three hour trip, but there was a traffic jam from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Misery. We had to pass through immigration to get into Hong Kong, dragging our four bags and child with us. We were dropped off in the middle of Kowloon, near another branch of the Metropark Hotel. We were at least near something we recognized. The staff there was helpful in helping us find our hotel on a map so we could tell the cab driver where to go. We flagged down a cab and went to the next hotel.
In the lobby of the hotel, we checked in and were given our room key (an actual key) and the remote to the air conditioner. When he saw all of our bags, he commented that our bags would not fit into our room, so he would upgrade us to the super room for free. Hmmm. There were only four bags. We had to go outside to the next lobby to get to the elevator. One was out of service with electrical difficulties. As the other elevator descended, every other floor or so, the display would read, "Out of Service." Greg told me to just not look at it. We rode the elevator to the 11th floor, found our room, and discovered that my parents' bathroom is bigger than the super. There were 2 single rock hard beds in there, a night stand, a tv, a small fridge, and a scary bathroom. It was actually clean, but still didn't look right. At this point it was 11:30 pm, we hadn't eaten any dinner, and wanted to be out of the hotel by 6:30 am to get to the airport on time without stress. So we just went to bed. Greg got very little sleep.
The alarm went off at 6 am. We got dressed, packed up, and went down to catch a taxi to the Airport Express train station in Kowloon. We had hoped to find a McDonald's on the way for breakfast, but the one we saw was inaccessible from the road we were on. We arrived at the train station and discovered that there was a United counter there that allowed us to check our bags all the way through to O'Hare. What a relief. We caught the train (they came every ten minutes) and relaxed on the way to the airport. We checked in at the airport and then found some breakfast. Food was a very good thing at that point.
Elijah had broken out in a rash a few days earlier. We had tried a dose of Benadryl but had not seen much change. We did not have infant Benadryl with us, which I would definitely take the next time! We stopped in the pharmacy at the airport and talked with the pharmacist. He sold us a bottle of Polaramine, which is an antihistamine. He cautioned us that it might make him drowsy, but that it should help with the rash. I'm not sure it did much with the rash, but what a bonus that it made him drowsy!
He slept for half of the trip to Tokyo. We had bulkhead seats, which allowed room for him to play. They gave us a bassinet for him to sleep in safely on the floor which he was too big for. He tried to turn over, found himself stuck, and freaked out. We got him resettled, but he was done sleeping there.
We had plenty of time to catch the plane from Tokyo to O'Hare. We did not have the bulkhead seats we were hoping for, but ended up next to the only open seat on the plane. What a blessing. He slept for most of the trip. He only fussed for maybe 5 minutes of the entire 11 hours on the plane and was quickly settled.
Once in Chicago, we had to collect our bags, get through customs, then get Elijah through immigration. That took a while, but he is now a US Citizen. We had had to recheck our bags, then get from the International Gate to Gate 1 at the exact other end of the airport. We got to our flight, sat down, they closed the doors, and we left. Whew! We barely made that flight! It was only 50 minutes from Chicago to Columbus, and we were so excited knowing that Kailey and Justin were waiting for us at the other end.
Arriving in Columbus, Kailey and Justin met us outside security with my parents. We ate at the Wendy's there, then headed for home. As anticipated, Elijah was not impressed with the car seat. He had never been in one before and really objected to being restrained. The first 10 minutes of the trip were really noisy. We turned on some music, and he settled right down.
That was the hardest leg of the trip. Greg and I were both exhausted since we had had so little sleep in the previous 48 hours. Greg drove halfway home, then I took over. We got home safely by the grace of God at 9 pm. Thank you for all your prayers for a safe journey. We all slept well that night.
Our bus from the hotel had been in an accident and was unable to retrieve us. This greatly complicated matters. It was now rush hour traffic, so the taxi we had called had slow going. We were starting to get concerned because we still had to get back to the hotel, get our bags from the room we had left them in, catch another taxi, then get to the hotel the shuttle bus would leave from. We were accompanied by Qin Lei to the shuttle bus. When we arrived, we threw our stuff onto the bus, sat down, and it started moving. Whew! That was close!
We arrived in Hong Kong six hours later. It was supposed to be a three hour trip, but there was a traffic jam from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Misery. We had to pass through immigration to get into Hong Kong, dragging our four bags and child with us. We were dropped off in the middle of Kowloon, near another branch of the Metropark Hotel. We were at least near something we recognized. The staff there was helpful in helping us find our hotel on a map so we could tell the cab driver where to go. We flagged down a cab and went to the next hotel.
In the lobby of the hotel, we checked in and were given our room key (an actual key) and the remote to the air conditioner. When he saw all of our bags, he commented that our bags would not fit into our room, so he would upgrade us to the super room for free. Hmmm. There were only four bags. We had to go outside to the next lobby to get to the elevator. One was out of service with electrical difficulties. As the other elevator descended, every other floor or so, the display would read, "Out of Service." Greg told me to just not look at it. We rode the elevator to the 11th floor, found our room, and discovered that my parents' bathroom is bigger than the super. There were 2 single rock hard beds in there, a night stand, a tv, a small fridge, and a scary bathroom. It was actually clean, but still didn't look right. At this point it was 11:30 pm, we hadn't eaten any dinner, and wanted to be out of the hotel by 6:30 am to get to the airport on time without stress. So we just went to bed. Greg got very little sleep.
The alarm went off at 6 am. We got dressed, packed up, and went down to catch a taxi to the Airport Express train station in Kowloon. We had hoped to find a McDonald's on the way for breakfast, but the one we saw was inaccessible from the road we were on. We arrived at the train station and discovered that there was a United counter there that allowed us to check our bags all the way through to O'Hare. What a relief. We caught the train (they came every ten minutes) and relaxed on the way to the airport. We checked in at the airport and then found some breakfast. Food was a very good thing at that point.
Elijah had broken out in a rash a few days earlier. We had tried a dose of Benadryl but had not seen much change. We did not have infant Benadryl with us, which I would definitely take the next time! We stopped in the pharmacy at the airport and talked with the pharmacist. He sold us a bottle of Polaramine, which is an antihistamine. He cautioned us that it might make him drowsy, but that it should help with the rash. I'm not sure it did much with the rash, but what a bonus that it made him drowsy!
He slept for half of the trip to Tokyo. We had bulkhead seats, which allowed room for him to play. They gave us a bassinet for him to sleep in safely on the floor which he was too big for. He tried to turn over, found himself stuck, and freaked out. We got him resettled, but he was done sleeping there.
We had plenty of time to catch the plane from Tokyo to O'Hare. We did not have the bulkhead seats we were hoping for, but ended up next to the only open seat on the plane. What a blessing. He slept for most of the trip. He only fussed for maybe 5 minutes of the entire 11 hours on the plane and was quickly settled.
Once in Chicago, we had to collect our bags, get through customs, then get Elijah through immigration. That took a while, but he is now a US Citizen. We had had to recheck our bags, then get from the International Gate to Gate 1 at the exact other end of the airport. We got to our flight, sat down, they closed the doors, and we left. Whew! We barely made that flight! It was only 50 minutes from Chicago to Columbus, and we were so excited knowing that Kailey and Justin were waiting for us at the other end.
Arriving in Columbus, Kailey and Justin met us outside security with my parents. We ate at the Wendy's there, then headed for home. As anticipated, Elijah was not impressed with the car seat. He had never been in one before and really objected to being restrained. The first 10 minutes of the trip were really noisy. We turned on some music, and he settled right down.
That was the hardest leg of the trip. Greg and I were both exhausted since we had had so little sleep in the previous 48 hours. Greg drove halfway home, then I took over. We got home safely by the grace of God at 9 pm. Thank you for all your prayers for a safe journey. We all slept well that night.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
We made it!
Hi all,
Just a quick note to let all of you know that we are home safely. We will still be adding a few things to the blog to wrap up our detailing of the trip. Those will happen over the next few days and into next week. Thank you all for your prayers and support. They were invaluable.
Just a quick note to let all of you know that we are home safely. We will still be adding a few things to the blog to wrap up our detailing of the trip. Those will happen over the next few days and into next week. Thank you all for your prayers and support. They were invaluable.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Flying Home
First, let me say that this post is not from Greg or Maren but from Amy Haney. Several people have asked me when Greg, Maren, and Elijah will be flying home, so here is your answer, based on the flights they posted. I went to United.com and checked the lengths of their flights to convert all the times into Eastern Standard Time in parentheses. I have no way of confirming that they make it onto their flights, but you can follow their flight status at United.com. Please keep praying for their safe and timely return!
United Airlines 890 Nov 18 10:05 am HKG (Friday, 9:05 pm EST) to 2:50 pm NRT (Saturday, 12:50 am EST)
United Airlines 882 Nov 18 5:55 pm NRT (Saturday, 3:55 am EST) to 2:14 pm ORD (3:14 pm EST)
United Airlines 1123 Nov 18 4:10 pm (5:10 pm EST) ORD to 6:24 pm CMH
HKG=Hong Kong
NRT=Tokyo
ORD=Chicago (O'Hare)
CMH=Columbus
United Airlines 890 Nov 18 10:05 am HKG (Friday, 9:05 pm EST) to 2:50 pm NRT (Saturday, 12:50 am EST)
United Airlines 882 Nov 18 5:55 pm NRT (Saturday, 3:55 am EST) to 2:14 pm ORD (3:14 pm EST)
United Airlines 1123 Nov 18 4:10 pm (5:10 pm EST) ORD to 6:24 pm CMH
HKG=Hong Kong
NRT=Tokyo
ORD=Chicago (O'Hare)
CMH=Columbus
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Changes and Growth
So you have heard about our lovely dining experience, the rest of today was pleasant. We played down at the playground some more. It is going to be so hard to go home to cold weather from here. Not that that is enough motivation for me to consider staying for even a moment, no way! I am so looking forward to being home! I am glad, however, that Elijah has a playset coming for inside the house. Thanks, friends for the gift!
Elijah continues to grow more comfortable, more animated, more relaxed. I have heard from parents with kids who are in school that they frequently hear from the teacher that they are model students who never talk back, pleasant and cooperative. This sometimes surprises the parents. It may be that their extremely talkative child at home is reported to be silent in school. I wonder if it does not come from the level of order and discipline needed to keep chaos from reigning with a large group of children. Many of the children have to hold themselves in check to keep from getting into trouble. Some of these children also keep to themselves because of their personality; they are just too shy in a public setting to really shine. I don't think the children in orphanages ever really get to relax and be themselves. I frequently hear that children adopted from orphanages do not act at all like the description they got from the orphanage. The orphanage reports they are shy and quiet, but the parents get to know a vivacious, outgoing child. I wonder if there isn’t just a freedom that is good for children that comes from being within the safety, the protection, the love of a family that allows them to completely relax and be who they were created to be. Now I am not condemning orphanages. In fact, I wonder if they aren’t actually preferable to the developmental needs of children rather than our country’s foster care system that is so disruptive and destructive to the development of attachment and bonding with multiple placements, but that is another essay for another day.
It has been interesting to observe some of Elijah’s behaviors that were obviously trained into him by the orphanage. It has also been fun to watch him learn new behaviors that demonstrate freedom. When he first came to us, he was completely passive at mealtimes. He would let me spoon things into his mouth but refused to feed himself. It was like he did not know how. I would give him his sippy cup, and he would hand it back, open his mouth, and wait for me to help him drink. He had been taught to be passive to make it easier for them. Yesterday he fed himself his entire breakfast (liquid yogurt through a straw, a sliced banana, a boiled egg, and a whole lot of strawberry covered Cheerios.) When we change his diaper, he was very passive; now he rolls and giggles and plays. Maybe passive in that case was better. After he is changed, he just lays there. He doesn’t get up to carry on. I’m not sure what that was all about, but I ‘m sure he was taught to stay where he was placed. We just keep inviting him to go on. We want him to learn to live within the freedom we can afford.If you really think about it, we do the same thing with God. He sets limits for us, because within those limits is freedom. There is safety if we stay within the behavioral boundaries God has set for us. But how often does God give us freedom and invite us to do something, but we just sit there and don’t move? How often do we remain passive waiting for God to do it for us, when he is inviting us to participate and carry on. There is great joy to be found within the freedom given to us by God.
Another thing that has been very interesting to watch has been how Greg has responded to being Elijah’s rock of safety during this transition. It has been hard for me, since as many of you know, I absolutely love little ones and generally am pretty good with caring for them and being able to comfort them. Working in the toddler room Sunday mornings gives me a lot of opportunities to be with this age group and help settle a whole lot of upset toddlers going through a difficult transition. To finally get the child I have been praying for for a decade, only to have him want nothing to do with me was hard. I kept reminding myself that the connection would come. We will have him for the rest of his life and Daddy was going back to work. He would learn to trust me soon. That is already happening. Our general experience and learning on toddler development is that small children need to learn to trust and love before they can do much else. Toddlers stick with their safety zone (a parent), especially in unfamiliar settings. The secure ones will explore their environment, then return to contact with their safety zone for a recharge before going back out again. With our other two children, I was the primary safety zone. With Kailey, I was the only safety zone. That is a role I am comfortable in. Greg, not so much. It is a very demanding roll that requires immense patience and a level of tolerance of goo.
What we did to help Elijah start to learn to trust me too was to have me be his source of food. The theory was, if he sees me as his source of food, he will begin to see me as his source of other things as well. We let him stay with his rock as needed. When we pushed his safety zone and insisted someone else hold him, we paid for it. We have learned just to let him feel safe and move out on his own. At the playground yesterday, there were a whole lot of people there. Elijah gripped tightly on to Greg and was not happy to be set down. He did not feel safe there yet. We let him remain in Greg’s arms until he told us he wanted to get down. Then he would play and return to Greg, and then play some more and return to Greg. It was classic. Last night at dinner, he put his arms up to me to pick up…from Greg’s lap. We looked at the light show together. It will be interesting to see how this relationship continues to develop over the next 48 hours as we head home, and then transition to his new home.
Greg and goo is a funny thing. Moms of toddlers tend to be dotted with various toddler donated decorations. Greg is the one who is the recipient of this decoration right now. We have these “Nutritional Biscuits” that Elijah likes to snack on. I’m not really sure what they are, but they look like a sugar cookie and are very fortified with various vitamins. I do not think they have much sugar in them, but then, my Chinese isn’t very good either. Kailey liked them; Justin gave it back to me after one bite. Greg has now said he will not touch Elijah while eating one any more since they create such a lovely beige goo. Elijah has had a runny nose since we got him, so that has to be dealt with. Greg has changed most of the diapers and done most of the potty trips. You should have seen the look on his face when I mentioned cloth diapers at home to facilitate the potty training! I think Greg has grown some in dealing with way more drool, runny noses, and mushy food than he ever has before! He still hates it, though.
It has been a time of growth and a shifting of roles for all of us. We have had to rely on God as we take on new jobs. Greg asked me to remind him of the Fruits of the Spirit at times when he is dealing with Elijah (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.) Good things for all of us to remember and exhibit as we parent. So now we tell each other to get Fruity.
Well, I need to wake the guys up. We need to eat breakfast and pack. We have to check out of the hotel by noon, leave for the consulate at 2:15, and prepare to leave for home. We were planning to take the train, but all the tickets were gone by the time we tried to buy them. It worked out though (doesn’t it always when God is involved?) We are able to take a shuttle van that will drop us off near our hotel. The trip takes an hour longer but leaves an hour sooner and is half the price of the train. We should get to Hong Kong by 10 pm tonight. We will then sleep in a hotel in Kowloon. Tomorrow morning, we will take the Airport Express metro train to the airport, then fly home. Oh, I cannot wait!
I don’t know that we will have anymore computer access until we reach home, so pray for safe travel for us, please! I’ll update when we are stateside Saturday evening.
Funny, but I don't feel more clever
Greg> Maybe I need to sleep on it. Maybe I need a little more. Whatever the problem, the only thing I feel is a bit of upset stomach. We went out to dinner tonight with our shopowner friends. It was a VERY nice time. It was the owner, his wife, their 2 year old daughter, and his sister. The brother and sister came into existence before the current laws against multiple children. This family is just a wonderful family. My wife and I will truly miss them when we leave. While we are looking forward to going home, we are not looking forward to saying "goodbye" to them tomorrow. Sitting outside on the sidewalk outside of their shop many nights reminded me of older America where people used to sit on their front porches and interact with their neighbors. Now, we don't even have front porches. Such a shame. By now, some of you are saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get on with it already. I know there is something juicier in here than all this schmaltz." Well, I wouldn't say "juicier", but it was really not what I expected. So, as we are deciding what we are going to order, Maren and the other ladies went to show the river to the kids. He leaned over to me and suggested a few soup orders. The lighting was very bad as we were outside and it was mostly dark. I looked at the small print on the soup card, looked even more closely at what he was pointing at, stopped breathing momentarily, and I am also pretty certain my heart stopped beating. I mopped the cold sweat off of my forehead and worked like mad to keep my right leg from rapidly bouncing up and down involuntarily. You see, I am a firm believer that pigs would really prefer to keep their brains. What do I need with them? I have my own brains. OK, OK, OK. Stop it. Just stop it right there. That is mean. Very mean. I am halfway around the world and you are making jokes about me having my own brains. Kick a guy while he's down why don't you?! Anyway, my friend said that an old Chinese saying is that eating pig brains makes a person more clever. And I am thinking, the reason it is an old Chinese saying is that somewhere along the line they learned it was a joke played on them by their big brothers. This is very similar to my big brother hiding my nice afternoon snack of plum and saying that mom told him my afternoon snack was a banana and that I had to eat it. That also was very mean. It took me something like and hour and half to put that 'naner down. (I forgive you big bro, but I can still feel that nasty, squishy thing in my mouth!!!). So anyway...he looks at me with poorly veiled humor in his eyes. And to my total amazement, I heard my mouth say, "OK". If I had been outside of my body looking at me, I would have stared at myself with my mouth wide open.
He then said that only he and I would get it and that the wives and sister would get a different soup. He pointed to another. I looked at it and thought, “No problem my wife likes duck. She will eat…” Oh man. He can’t be serious. He is serious. That isn’t duck soup. It is duck KIDNEY soup. Oh wow! Oh, that will never do. But I can’t tell him “No.” That would be rude, and he did say they would like to take us out to dinner and we did agree to go. I did what any self-respecting, yet polite husband would do. I told him not to tell her what kind of soup it was! He laughed heartily.
So anyway, our soup was delivered. It had a lid over it. I opened it up. It looked really good actually. That is probably because it looked like a cup of tea except in a bowl. I thought maybe I had hit it big and the brain part was more blended into the liquid as opposed to being, well, as opposed to being brain. At just that moment, my wife returned. I did something I really shouldn’t have done. I went fishing. Not out on the river, though given a choice…! Nope, I went fishing in my bowl. My wife leaned over to see what had arrived, when even in the dark lighting, she recoiled a bit and said, “That looks like ‘brain’. She then took off her lid, and there was no momentary hope for what stared her in the face could only be described as “kidneys floating in soup”. (That could be a bit for David Letterman’s skit “Will It Float”. If you are ever watching and the object to guess as to whether or not it floats is duck kidneys, bet on them floating.)
So, I finished all my soup! Right down to the last bit of grey matter. Well, I guess technically I didn’t finish all my soup. It turns out that Elijah really likes brain soup! To my credit, I really only gave him the equivalent of two spoonfuls, while I myself finished all the rest. Oh yeah, one more thing. I pulled out some large very dark block looking thing. I leaned over and asked my friend what it was. He wasn’t sure but assured me I was supposed to eat it. I took the plunge and put this very strange thing into my mouth. I bit down and had the distinct feeling that this must be what eating a cork plug must taste like. I tried chewing for quite awhile, but the thing didn’t even really change shape. It just sort of existed in my mouth. I finally leaned over and asked again if I was supposed to eat this thing. He scooped some out of his, put it into his mouth, chewed for awhile and then spit it out. He never could identify it except guessing that maybe it was some sort of Chinese medicine. Oh goody.
Maren finished too. She finished looking at her soup.
Now, about that clever thing. . .
He then said that only he and I would get it and that the wives and sister would get a different soup. He pointed to another. I looked at it and thought, “No problem my wife likes duck. She will eat…” Oh man. He can’t be serious. He is serious. That isn’t duck soup. It is duck KIDNEY soup. Oh wow! Oh, that will never do. But I can’t tell him “No.” That would be rude, and he did say they would like to take us out to dinner and we did agree to go. I did what any self-respecting, yet polite husband would do. I told him not to tell her what kind of soup it was! He laughed heartily.
So anyway, our soup was delivered. It had a lid over it. I opened it up. It looked really good actually. That is probably because it looked like a cup of tea except in a bowl. I thought maybe I had hit it big and the brain part was more blended into the liquid as opposed to being, well, as opposed to being brain. At just that moment, my wife returned. I did something I really shouldn’t have done. I went fishing. Not out on the river, though given a choice…! Nope, I went fishing in my bowl. My wife leaned over to see what had arrived, when even in the dark lighting, she recoiled a bit and said, “That looks like ‘brain’. She then took off her lid, and there was no momentary hope for what stared her in the face could only be described as “kidneys floating in soup”. (That could be a bit for David Letterman’s skit “Will It Float”. If you are ever watching and the object to guess as to whether or not it floats is duck kidneys, bet on them floating.)
So, I finished all my soup! Right down to the last bit of grey matter. Well, I guess technically I didn’t finish all my soup. It turns out that Elijah really likes brain soup! To my credit, I really only gave him the equivalent of two spoonfuls, while I myself finished all the rest. Oh yeah, one more thing. I pulled out some large very dark block looking thing. I leaned over and asked my friend what it was. He wasn’t sure but assured me I was supposed to eat it. I took the plunge and put this very strange thing into my mouth. I bit down and had the distinct feeling that this must be what eating a cork plug must taste like. I tried chewing for quite awhile, but the thing didn’t even really change shape. It just sort of existed in my mouth. I finally leaned over and asked again if I was supposed to eat this thing. He scooped some out of his, put it into his mouth, chewed for awhile and then spit it out. He never could identify it except guessing that maybe it was some sort of Chinese medicine. Oh goody.
Maren finished too. She finished looking at her soup.
Now, about that clever thing. . .
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Quiet Day
On Wednesday, Elijah was a bit fussy, so we decided to keep close to the hotel. After breakfast, we took him over to the playground for a long play time. There were lots of parents and grandparents with their small children out playing too. It is funny to see a baby in split pants going down the slide. Imagine the skin sticks on that one! I put Elijah in jeans and a tee shirt to cut down on the comments. One child there was wearing quilted split pants, 2 shirts and a jacket. There was only one other tee shirt there. The rest were wearing long sleeves. Bizarre.
The people were very friendly. One grandpa spoke to Elijah in Cantonese and encouraged him to go down the slide. Elijah listened and did what he was told. He moved Elijah from element to element physically at times. Elijah did not object, but didn't seem thrilled either. At one point, he put Elijah on the teeter totter, and Elijah wasn't happy. We helped him off, gave him a quick hug, then helped him back on. He was very happy then. The child outlasted 2 other children on the teeter totter, then Greg pushed the other side up and down for a long time, then a girl about 5 years old got on. This teeter totter is metal and bounces off of tires buried into the ground. When the 5 year old got on, Elijah was, of course, not heavy enough to counter balance her. So she started pushing harder until he went all the way down. They were bouncing off of the tires, Greg was holding Elijah on, and Elijah thought it was wonderfully fun. His face lit up, and he laughed and laughed. He's gonna love Kings Island!
This afternoon I got Elijah's Chinese name Qing Zu Bin written in characters and framed in his room. I want him to be able to recognize his name in Chinese as part of his heritage. It looks great.
Yesterday they issued his passport, today our travel coordinators will go to the consulate appointment at 9:30 to apply for his visa. We do not have to go, but we do have to stay in the room in case they have any questions or need us to come down afterall. They say that does not happen often, but it does happen. Tomorrow is our swearing in. The group for swearing in is a large one, so they are splitting into 2 groups with us in the first one at 3:30. Gee, I wonder why the group is so large this time? Odd. We will be going to the swearing in with all of our luggage since the train station is right across the street from the consulate. We will be leaving Guangzhou on the 6:20 train, arriving in Hong Kong shortly after 8. We have a hotel in Kowloon for Friday night. We will take the Metro Train Airport Express to the Hong Kong Airport to fly out at 10 am Saturday morning.
We have a 3 hour layover in Tokyo, so I had emailed my friend Paul from high school who lives in Tokyo to see if he could meet us. Unfortunately, he will be in Bangkok, Thailand. I am so bummed. I haven't seen him in years.
Our time here is rapidly drawing to a close. This is our last full day, and I imagine tomorrow will be spent packing. I am so looking forward to returning home. Thank you for all your prayer support. I'm sure that is part of what is keeping me sane. God has truly sustained us during this adventure in our lives.
The people were very friendly. One grandpa spoke to Elijah in Cantonese and encouraged him to go down the slide. Elijah listened and did what he was told. He moved Elijah from element to element physically at times. Elijah did not object, but didn't seem thrilled either. At one point, he put Elijah on the teeter totter, and Elijah wasn't happy. We helped him off, gave him a quick hug, then helped him back on. He was very happy then. The child outlasted 2 other children on the teeter totter, then Greg pushed the other side up and down for a long time, then a girl about 5 years old got on. This teeter totter is metal and bounces off of tires buried into the ground. When the 5 year old got on, Elijah was, of course, not heavy enough to counter balance her. So she started pushing harder until he went all the way down. They were bouncing off of the tires, Greg was holding Elijah on, and Elijah thought it was wonderfully fun. His face lit up, and he laughed and laughed. He's gonna love Kings Island!
This afternoon I got Elijah's Chinese name Qing Zu Bin written in characters and framed in his room. I want him to be able to recognize his name in Chinese as part of his heritage. It looks great.
Yesterday they issued his passport, today our travel coordinators will go to the consulate appointment at 9:30 to apply for his visa. We do not have to go, but we do have to stay in the room in case they have any questions or need us to come down afterall. They say that does not happen often, but it does happen. Tomorrow is our swearing in. The group for swearing in is a large one, so they are splitting into 2 groups with us in the first one at 3:30. Gee, I wonder why the group is so large this time? Odd. We will be going to the swearing in with all of our luggage since the train station is right across the street from the consulate. We will be leaving Guangzhou on the 6:20 train, arriving in Hong Kong shortly after 8. We have a hotel in Kowloon for Friday night. We will take the Metro Train Airport Express to the Hong Kong Airport to fly out at 10 am Saturday morning.
We have a 3 hour layover in Tokyo, so I had emailed my friend Paul from high school who lives in Tokyo to see if he could meet us. Unfortunately, he will be in Bangkok, Thailand. I am so bummed. I haven't seen him in years.
Our time here is rapidly drawing to a close. This is our last full day, and I imagine tomorrow will be spent packing. I am so looking forward to returning home. Thank you for all your prayer support. I'm sure that is part of what is keeping me sane. God has truly sustained us during this adventure in our lives.
I'll shout it from the mountaintop...
This entry was actually written last night and saved as a draft to allow more time to be sure in my heart this was OK to post.
I don't even know if this post will see the light of day. Pride for me is insidious and I can't be sure of my motives sometimes. I really believe I only want to praise God, but pride is such a master of disguise. So I will type it, sleep on it and continue to pray about it. Know that if you are reading it, it comes after a lot of prayer and reflection.
Today was a spiritually difficult day for me. I woke up questioning a lot of things. In addition, the day with Elijah was actually much more typical of interactions between a two-year-old and his parent. Namely, I would tell him to do something, and he would refuse...usually with attitude. I would direct him to not do something, and he would continue...always with attitude.
I went out tonight to stop and talk to a shop owner who we know is a Christian. He was not there. I started to head over to the other shop where we have made genuine friends with the owners. This may sound weird to a lot of you, but I truly felt compelled to continue my walk by myself and not go to talk to them just then. I didn't know where I was headed; I just simply walked and prayed.
I ended up sitting on the bank of the Pearl River looking out into the river and praying. I was letting God know that there were aspects of our trip about which I was very disappointed in myself. I had wanted to make a bigger impact and felt like I blew it.
As it happens, I was praying with my eyes open. A lady approached me in a very friendly fashion. I recognized her as someone with whom I had had a brief encounter about a week ago, also next to this river, and also while I was praying. As she had the last time, she offered to provide me with some things that I was not interested "purchasing". As before, I politely declined. This time produced a slightly different result, however. Whereas last time she quickly vanished into the night when she saw I was not accepting, tonight she moved about 7 feet away and stood looking at the river. I stared at her with a growing sense of disbelief, humor, and love. The disbelief was connected to the opportunity God laid before me at the very moment I was expressing a sense of failure towards Him. The humor (I am not sure this is exactly the right feeling) had to do with the simple awe of God and how He works sometimes. And the love was for her person, not her "profession".
I motioned her over and invited her to sit. What she got was not what she expected. I simply began to talk to her and about her. I showed interest in who she was as a person. She asked me some questions about me. Somewhere around this point, she stated that we were friends and that she would no longer ask me to buy what she was selling. I told her that I did what I did in life because of Jesus. To my total surprise, she had never heard of Him. Never heard of the Bible either I soon found out. It is one thing to read about something like this and entirely different to experience someone who never has heard about Jesus. I did the best I could to present her with the Gospel though the language barrier did make it difficult.
Various sources have verified that such sharing can be construed as a crime here including a source living in country. Despite this, she listened and did not brush me off. I would love to say that the whole thing ended in a dramatic fashion, but it did not. We talked for awhile longer and she got up to leave. I got one last chance to encourage her and remind her that she was loved. I continue to pray for her and that her experience with me will be part of a series of events to lead her down a better path. I am also grateful to the Lord for edifying me at just the moment I was reaching out to Him and feeling like a failure. He teaches me so many lessons about how to be a father to my own children. He is...He simply is.
I don't even know if this post will see the light of day. Pride for me is insidious and I can't be sure of my motives sometimes. I really believe I only want to praise God, but pride is such a master of disguise. So I will type it, sleep on it and continue to pray about it. Know that if you are reading it, it comes after a lot of prayer and reflection.
Today was a spiritually difficult day for me. I woke up questioning a lot of things. In addition, the day with Elijah was actually much more typical of interactions between a two-year-old and his parent. Namely, I would tell him to do something, and he would refuse...usually with attitude. I would direct him to not do something, and he would continue...always with attitude.
I went out tonight to stop and talk to a shop owner who we know is a Christian. He was not there. I started to head over to the other shop where we have made genuine friends with the owners. This may sound weird to a lot of you, but I truly felt compelled to continue my walk by myself and not go to talk to them just then. I didn't know where I was headed; I just simply walked and prayed.
I ended up sitting on the bank of the Pearl River looking out into the river and praying. I was letting God know that there were aspects of our trip about which I was very disappointed in myself. I had wanted to make a bigger impact and felt like I blew it.
As it happens, I was praying with my eyes open. A lady approached me in a very friendly fashion. I recognized her as someone with whom I had had a brief encounter about a week ago, also next to this river, and also while I was praying. As she had the last time, she offered to provide me with some things that I was not interested "purchasing". As before, I politely declined. This time produced a slightly different result, however. Whereas last time she quickly vanished into the night when she saw I was not accepting, tonight she moved about 7 feet away and stood looking at the river. I stared at her with a growing sense of disbelief, humor, and love. The disbelief was connected to the opportunity God laid before me at the very moment I was expressing a sense of failure towards Him. The humor (I am not sure this is exactly the right feeling) had to do with the simple awe of God and how He works sometimes. And the love was for her person, not her "profession".
I motioned her over and invited her to sit. What she got was not what she expected. I simply began to talk to her and about her. I showed interest in who she was as a person. She asked me some questions about me. Somewhere around this point, she stated that we were friends and that she would no longer ask me to buy what she was selling. I told her that I did what I did in life because of Jesus. To my total surprise, she had never heard of Him. Never heard of the Bible either I soon found out. It is one thing to read about something like this and entirely different to experience someone who never has heard about Jesus. I did the best I could to present her with the Gospel though the language barrier did make it difficult.
Various sources have verified that such sharing can be construed as a crime here including a source living in country. Despite this, she listened and did not brush me off. I would love to say that the whole thing ended in a dramatic fashion, but it did not. We talked for awhile longer and she got up to leave. I got one last chance to encourage her and remind her that she was loved. I continue to pray for her and that her experience with me will be part of a series of events to lead her down a better path. I am also grateful to the Lord for edifying me at just the moment I was reaching out to Him and feeling like a failure. He teaches me so many lessons about how to be a father to my own children. He is...He simply is.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Everyone's Got a Water Buffalo
Today we decided to go on another adventure. After breakfast today, we, another family, and Qin Lei took cabs to another zoo. This one was called Xiangjiang Safari Park. In the cab on the way there, Elijah basically shut down. We think he was scared something bad was going to happen. It wasn't naptime at all, but he just started sucking his thumb and went to sleep. When we got there, he actually had teeth marks on his thumb, so we really think the ride stressed him out.
We were in a separate cab from the others and had difficulty meeting up. While we were waiting, we saw these little rodents, maybe mice, maybe gerbils, coming out to eat scraps. They would come right up to people. Greg had one touch his foot. It was so odd. While we watched these rodents run around, we had an older lady come very close to us and simply stare us down very disapprovingly. We aren't exactly sure why, but she was not subtle and she stayed a long time. There were other people at the next table over, so we weren't in a bad spot. It was really sort of strange.
At Xiangjiang, we were amazed at some of the things we saw. They allow you to have your picture taken touching a full grown white tiger, parrots, tiger cubs, camels, mini horse, on an elephant, and a few others. Clearly they do not have the liability issues we have in the US! They have the largest collection of white tigers in the world here and are a major breeder of white tigers. They had a white tiger show that actually started with 4 bears doing tricks--without muzzles on. Then they had 15 white tigers loose in a cage with 2 handlers. It was neat to see, but part of me kept thinking how wrong it was to force those animals to do silly things for our entertainment. The cats seemed a bit grumpy about it.
Elijah seemed to like the elephants the best. We got to buy bananas (10Y or $1.25US for 2 bunches) to feed to them. They were contained behind a fence and then a hot fence, and you just threw the bananas to them. Elijah thought that was great.
We then rode on a tram that carried us through a huge area with roaming animals. Some were contained behind hot fences (like the lions, tigers, and elephants.) The rest just roamed freely across the road in huge enclosures. A dozen giraffes, water buffalo (I just could help bursting into song when I saw them), deer, wildebeasts, ostriches, emus, peacocks, and so many I did not recognize. Elijah really liked seeing all the animals and was very vocal, pointing things out and squealing.
We took the bus home, which was infinitely cheaper than the cab that got us there. Elijah fell asleep for part of the trip, but it was a more gradual, natural nap than the one on the way there. When he woke up, the old ladies on the bus were indicating to us that we should have more clothes on him and should stop him from sucking his thumb. One reached over uninvited and pulled his chest carrier over his legs. We had heard about such rudeness prior to coming but it is fairly strange and irritating to have it happen in person. Another family here with us have experienced strangers on the street pulling their daughter's fingers out of her mouth. As for the clothes, I'm sorry, but I have to repeat that it is over 80 degrees here and we are carrying him all day. He would roast if we put him in long pants and a long sleeved shirt like they seem to want him to wear. Their children sweat.
On that topic, I have to say I am completely amused by the populace here wearing long sleeves, long pants, and sometimes sweaters or jackets, and then air conditioning their rooms to be comfortable. That just kills me. Short sleeves and short pants are so much cheaper than air conditioning. Whatever.
As an added note, we want to thank various family members for suggesting they give us our Christmas presents early this year in the form of cash. They thought it might be useful on our trip. They were right. We decided to use the cash on adventures rather than stuff. We are very grateful to them for the ability to create memories while on our adoption trip.
Here are pictures from today:
We were in a separate cab from the others and had difficulty meeting up. While we were waiting, we saw these little rodents, maybe mice, maybe gerbils, coming out to eat scraps. They would come right up to people. Greg had one touch his foot. It was so odd. While we watched these rodents run around, we had an older lady come very close to us and simply stare us down very disapprovingly. We aren't exactly sure why, but she was not subtle and she stayed a long time. There were other people at the next table over, so we weren't in a bad spot. It was really sort of strange.
At Xiangjiang, we were amazed at some of the things we saw. They allow you to have your picture taken touching a full grown white tiger, parrots, tiger cubs, camels, mini horse, on an elephant, and a few others. Clearly they do not have the liability issues we have in the US! They have the largest collection of white tigers in the world here and are a major breeder of white tigers. They had a white tiger show that actually started with 4 bears doing tricks--without muzzles on. Then they had 15 white tigers loose in a cage with 2 handlers. It was neat to see, but part of me kept thinking how wrong it was to force those animals to do silly things for our entertainment. The cats seemed a bit grumpy about it.
Elijah seemed to like the elephants the best. We got to buy bananas (10Y or $1.25US for 2 bunches) to feed to them. They were contained behind a fence and then a hot fence, and you just threw the bananas to them. Elijah thought that was great.
We then rode on a tram that carried us through a huge area with roaming animals. Some were contained behind hot fences (like the lions, tigers, and elephants.) The rest just roamed freely across the road in huge enclosures. A dozen giraffes, water buffalo (I just could help bursting into song when I saw them), deer, wildebeasts, ostriches, emus, peacocks, and so many I did not recognize. Elijah really liked seeing all the animals and was very vocal, pointing things out and squealing.
We took the bus home, which was infinitely cheaper than the cab that got us there. Elijah fell asleep for part of the trip, but it was a more gradual, natural nap than the one on the way there. When he woke up, the old ladies on the bus were indicating to us that we should have more clothes on him and should stop him from sucking his thumb. One reached over uninvited and pulled his chest carrier over his legs. We had heard about such rudeness prior to coming but it is fairly strange and irritating to have it happen in person. Another family here with us have experienced strangers on the street pulling their daughter's fingers out of her mouth. As for the clothes, I'm sorry, but I have to repeat that it is over 80 degrees here and we are carrying him all day. He would roast if we put him in long pants and a long sleeved shirt like they seem to want him to wear. Their children sweat.
On that topic, I have to say I am completely amused by the populace here wearing long sleeves, long pants, and sometimes sweaters or jackets, and then air conditioning their rooms to be comfortable. That just kills me. Short sleeves and short pants are so much cheaper than air conditioning. Whatever.
As an added note, we want to thank various family members for suggesting they give us our Christmas presents early this year in the form of cash. They thought it might be useful on our trip. They were right. We decided to use the cash on adventures rather than stuff. We are very grateful to them for the ability to create memories while on our adoption trip.
Here are pictures from today:
Monday, November 13, 2006
Medical Appointment
We had another easy day today. This morning we ate a quick breakfast, then went to the Medical Exam. It is a short cursory exam, but we did learn a few things. He is up to date on his vaccinations, so we do not even have to think about those. He is now 24 lbs, and almost 32", so he has grown since his last update we received in July. His hearing seems fine and his ears are clear. One of the doctors who checked him (there were 3) checked his special need and did not have much to say about it. He asked us what we had observed, which boils down to: we aren't sure. Elijah handled it very well. He only fussed a little and settled down quickly with a few banana toddler bite puffs. He loves those.
We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the island, poking around shops and talking with people. We also let Elijah play at the playground. His gross motor skills are on target, as are his fine motor skills. He seems to have been well taken care of. He knows what to do to have his nose wiped and his teeth brushed.
We finally got pizza for dinner last night. It was disappointingly bland. What I would do for a LaRosa's... To avoid the problem we had had the night before, we called at 4 pm to order delivery at 6 pm. To get the price over the amount needed for free delivery, we also ordered a half dozen bagels to eat for lunches. We were able to find some Skippy Peanut Butter in the store, so that made for a good lunch. Figuring out smooth from crunchy was a little tricky when the words are all in Chinese, but I managed.
For dinner tonight we returned to the Rose Garden on the river. That is where Greg ate chicken knuckles. He chose Cashew Chicken tonight, that I think tastes great, but is way too spicy to eat more than a bite or two. Elijah had Chicken Congee and a jar of baby veggies. I had beef stir fried with noodles again. It is so funny to go to one of these restaurants. You see things on the menu (that is pages and pages long, to the point of being overwelming) that just make you cringe or laugh. We have seen Pickled Plasma, Roast Duck Chest, Duck Chin, Chicken Feet in a sauce, Pig Lung Soup, Shark Fin Soup, and, of course, Chicken Soft Bones. Studying a menu that is in Chinese with enough English that you know should be taken with a grain of salt makes it very difficult to make a good choice for dinner. The Chinese do not use articles and frequently mix up their prepositions, in addition to these complications, they flat out misuse or misspell words. Once I find something on the menu that sounds edible, I tend to keep ordering that same dish. It is just easier that way. Fewer surprises. When I am handed one of these 8 page overwelming menus, I just remind myself that I only have to find one dish to eat.
We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the island, poking around shops and talking with people. We also let Elijah play at the playground. His gross motor skills are on target, as are his fine motor skills. He seems to have been well taken care of. He knows what to do to have his nose wiped and his teeth brushed.
We finally got pizza for dinner last night. It was disappointingly bland. What I would do for a LaRosa's... To avoid the problem we had had the night before, we called at 4 pm to order delivery at 6 pm. To get the price over the amount needed for free delivery, we also ordered a half dozen bagels to eat for lunches. We were able to find some Skippy Peanut Butter in the store, so that made for a good lunch. Figuring out smooth from crunchy was a little tricky when the words are all in Chinese, but I managed.
For dinner tonight we returned to the Rose Garden on the river. That is where Greg ate chicken knuckles. He chose Cashew Chicken tonight, that I think tastes great, but is way too spicy to eat more than a bite or two. Elijah had Chicken Congee and a jar of baby veggies. I had beef stir fried with noodles again. It is so funny to go to one of these restaurants. You see things on the menu (that is pages and pages long, to the point of being overwelming) that just make you cringe or laugh. We have seen Pickled Plasma, Roast Duck Chest, Duck Chin, Chicken Feet in a sauce, Pig Lung Soup, Shark Fin Soup, and, of course, Chicken Soft Bones. Studying a menu that is in Chinese with enough English that you know should be taken with a grain of salt makes it very difficult to make a good choice for dinner. The Chinese do not use articles and frequently mix up their prepositions, in addition to these complications, they flat out misuse or misspell words. Once I find something on the menu that sounds edible, I tend to keep ordering that same dish. It is just easier that way. Fewer surprises. When I am handed one of these 8 page overwelming menus, I just remind myself that I only have to find one dish to eat.
Random thoughts, Part 3
1. Snot is every bit as bad as I remember it.
2. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration would have a field day here.
3. If you think the station identifiers on your TV are obnoxious, you should see them here. They are larger, not see through, and generally move and change. I have seen one large one rapidly and dramatically change its appearance every second or so. I just watched another bounce across the TV screen like your marquee setting on your screen saver (you know, when you have words bounce to the edge of the screen and then all around.
4. Friends are important when you are at home and more so when you are on the road.
5. I often find myself lowering my voice when talking about Christ at home. Not right, but it happens. I am trying to avoid commiting what seems like shame or worry. It is entirely different to have to look around you before you talk about Christ due to concerns about my own welfare as well as that of the person I am talking to.
6. Talking to a shop owner and his wife about how both Maren and I drive and have cars when neither of them can do either in large part due to cost, drives home just how rich we are compared to most others in the world.
7. I can't decide if I feel like a slug for bargaining or if I am OK with it because that is the way around here.
8. It is cool to think I have made a friend half way around the world.
9. The place that served me up a plate of juicy chicken knuckles serves up a mean cashew chicken...but it is not for the timid in terms of spice. The waitress was impressed with my consumption.
10. A James Bond Marathon sounds cool until the dumb thing runs for two straight weeks on about the only English channel we receive.
11. James Bond's gadgets are still cool no matter how many movies of his you see in a short period of time.
12. Gee, I am starting to understand better why our trip ended up happening the way it has.
13. It is bizarre to see 10 different brides in rented gowns getting their pictures taken outside day after day.
14. CNN reported a day or two ago that McDonalds is looking to China to supply their restaurants. If that includes the beef, Mickey D's will go bankrupt in America. I don't know what it is exactly but it sure is different.
15. There are 600 McDonalds in China. I think 124 of them are within walking distance of our hotel.
16. Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time (Stephen Wright).
17. I spent a lot of time wondering why I volutarily was going back to diapers.
18. Not me Lee, my kid!
19. I still can't stand the diaper thing.
20. It is already definitely worth it.
2. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration would have a field day here.
3. If you think the station identifiers on your TV are obnoxious, you should see them here. They are larger, not see through, and generally move and change. I have seen one large one rapidly and dramatically change its appearance every second or so. I just watched another bounce across the TV screen like your marquee setting on your screen saver (you know, when you have words bounce to the edge of the screen and then all around.
4. Friends are important when you are at home and more so when you are on the road.
5. I often find myself lowering my voice when talking about Christ at home. Not right, but it happens. I am trying to avoid commiting what seems like shame or worry. It is entirely different to have to look around you before you talk about Christ due to concerns about my own welfare as well as that of the person I am talking to.
6. Talking to a shop owner and his wife about how both Maren and I drive and have cars when neither of them can do either in large part due to cost, drives home just how rich we are compared to most others in the world.
7. I can't decide if I feel like a slug for bargaining or if I am OK with it because that is the way around here.
8. It is cool to think I have made a friend half way around the world.
9. The place that served me up a plate of juicy chicken knuckles serves up a mean cashew chicken...but it is not for the timid in terms of spice. The waitress was impressed with my consumption.
10. A James Bond Marathon sounds cool until the dumb thing runs for two straight weeks on about the only English channel we receive.
11. James Bond's gadgets are still cool no matter how many movies of his you see in a short period of time.
12. Gee, I am starting to understand better why our trip ended up happening the way it has.
13. It is bizarre to see 10 different brides in rented gowns getting their pictures taken outside day after day.
14. CNN reported a day or two ago that McDonalds is looking to China to supply their restaurants. If that includes the beef, Mickey D's will go bankrupt in America. I don't know what it is exactly but it sure is different.
15. There are 600 McDonalds in China. I think 124 of them are within walking distance of our hotel.
16. Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time (Stephen Wright).
17. I spent a lot of time wondering why I volutarily was going back to diapers.
18. Not me Lee, my kid!
19. I still can't stand the diaper thing.
20. It is already definitely worth it.
20 Observations and Updates on Elijah
1. He loves to suck his thumb. He does it when he is sleepy or stressed.
2. He was made to have a blankie. He wads it up to hold it, strokes it, snuggles with it, loves it.
3. He is ticklish almost everywhere.
4. His whole face lights up when he smiles.
5. His belly laugh is wonderful to hear.
6. We have a better understanding of why he was banged up when he came to us. He has no fear and moves fast.
7. He is healing nicely. Most of his scabs are gone and are not being replaced. He is cleaner, softer, and looking better each day.
8. He does not seem to experience pain. We have seen him wacked upside the head with a plastic toy 3 times with no reaction. He jumped from standing off the bed and landed on his bottom and just got up and walked on.
9. He throws himself bodily into space without care as to where he might land. We have seen him jump off park benches. (Fortunately Daddy was standing there to catch him!) He will also be standing there and just drop to the ground.
10. He wears 12-18 month sized clothing.11. He now weighs 24 lbs and is almost 32 inches tall.
12. He is coming alive more each day. He is also starting to be more flexible in who can hold him. I got to hold him yesterday without him crying, he also kissed me.
13. He shares very well with others. He got hit in the head with a toy yesterday, then went right back to share with that child. He also understands the concept of trading. Look out in the toddler room, though, he knows how to defend his space if needed.
14. We will need to child proof when we get home, that is for sure. He is becoming more and more inquisitive and loves things with buttons!
15. His coos are adorable; his cries are pathetic.
16. He wakes up like bear, but give him five minutes, then he is a sweet as honey.
17. He will taste darn near anything, but knows what he likes. Ice cream is high on his list. That's my boy!
18. He clearly says words, we just do not understand him. That must be very frustrating for him.
19. While I wouldn't go so far as to actually call him potty trained, he is certainly well on the way. We'll take that!
20. He is smart, energetic, strong-willed, loving, and is the perfect addition to our family.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Picture test
We have been having trouble with a new camera card. We are attempting to use our old card to work with the pictures. We also have to go about it in a different fashion. If this works, the picture you see is of morning assembly at a local school. This assembly happens every Monday morning. 
In defense of myself!
Greg>
OK, I have taken some friendly harranging for my post about "chicken soft bones". The messages have basically been to the tune of "You dork. What did you expect when you ordered something called "chicken soft bones. When you order bones, you get bones!" Well, in defense of myself, that doesn't exactly work in translation. I fully thought that what they meant to say was "boneless chicken"...you know, something like "soft on bones". It even crossed my mind that what they meant was "chicken with bones in it". It never ever crossed my mind that I would literally be served a plate of chicken knuckles. The closest thing resembling meat on these things was a few generous pieces that had some cartilage still attached. I gnawed on about 12 of them to suck whatever precious juices out of them I could and then gave up the task as very much not worth the effort. Besides, my ability to ignore the fact that I was siphoning joint juice began to give way. That is when I concentrated on eating my dinner of onions. Let me put it to you another way. When I saw a sign advertising "Died Coke", I didn't think they would serve up some R.I.P. Coke or that it was only for the deceased. When they said they were spraying "Mosquito Medicament", I didn't figure they were trying to make the poor ailing mosquitos feel better. So, laugh all you want. Anyone can eat a tasty chicken leg, but how many of you have dined on succulent "Joints of Fowl"?
As an off-topic but humorous note...On our way home from McDonalds today, we crossed a crosswalk of a one-way, single lane street. We clearly had the green walk signal, and traffic was clearly stopped. As we got to the other side and began walking up the sidewalk, we had to...get this...get out of the way of 3 motorbikes as they jumped the curb, drove up the sidewalk, and ran the red light. As I looked back, a traveling companion asked if I had given them a dirty look. I chuckled and said, "No, I was just looking back to see that it was indeed a red light and that we are, in fact, on the sidewalk!"
OK, I have taken some friendly harranging for my post about "chicken soft bones". The messages have basically been to the tune of "You dork. What did you expect when you ordered something called "chicken soft bones. When you order bones, you get bones!" Well, in defense of myself, that doesn't exactly work in translation. I fully thought that what they meant to say was "boneless chicken"...you know, something like "soft on bones". It even crossed my mind that what they meant was "chicken with bones in it". It never ever crossed my mind that I would literally be served a plate of chicken knuckles. The closest thing resembling meat on these things was a few generous pieces that had some cartilage still attached. I gnawed on about 12 of them to suck whatever precious juices out of them I could and then gave up the task as very much not worth the effort. Besides, my ability to ignore the fact that I was siphoning joint juice began to give way. That is when I concentrated on eating my dinner of onions. Let me put it to you another way. When I saw a sign advertising "Died Coke", I didn't think they would serve up some R.I.P. Coke or that it was only for the deceased. When they said they were spraying "Mosquito Medicament", I didn't figure they were trying to make the poor ailing mosquitos feel better. So, laugh all you want. Anyone can eat a tasty chicken leg, but how many of you have dined on succulent "Joints of Fowl"?
As an off-topic but humorous note...On our way home from McDonalds today, we crossed a crosswalk of a one-way, single lane street. We clearly had the green walk signal, and traffic was clearly stopped. As we got to the other side and began walking up the sidewalk, we had to...get this...get out of the way of 3 motorbikes as they jumped the curb, drove up the sidewalk, and ran the red light. As I looked back, a traveling companion asked if I had given them a dirty look. I chuckled and said, "No, I was just looking back to see that it was indeed a red light and that we are, in fact, on the sidewalk!"
We Corrupted Him Today
We got up this morning, ate breakfast, then went to church. Today we sang 2 songs in Chinese (one was the same as last week. I'm impressed with myself for recognizing it.) We also sang I Exalt Thee and Victory Chant. As the sermon started, Elijah became very unhappy with his lot in life. We had to leave the service to go to the courtyard.
Out in the courtyard, we got into some neat conversations. One was with a mom from Texas, a fellow believer who is here getting child #6. She is adopting a 2.5 yo boy with missing fingers. The rest were local people who wanted to know where we were from and how we got a boy. One did not seem to know anything about adoption. At least one said she was a Christian. It continues to be hard at times to talk to these people since our lives and culture are so different from theirs. When they asked how many children we have and we responded three, she commented that our house would be very crowded. I didn't want to tell her that we have 4 bedrooms and a big yard. Another couple here was asked a similar questions: How many rooms does your house have. He answered 3. She said, "Oh, very big." He clarified, "That is bedrooms, not just rooms." She said they had something like 8 people living in 2 rooms.
After church, we walked over to the nearby McDonald's for lunch. We completely corrupted Elijah by feeding him 3 chicken nuggets, french fries, and some ice cream. The burgers are not quite the same here, but the fries are identical. When my mom took Kailey and Justin before they left, Kailey ate 10 chicken nuggets and Justin had 8. Kailey announced that while they are at my parents' house, she does not want to eat out at all! Nana has to cook every single meal. Well, maybe halfway through the week they could go out to get some Sesame Chicken. There certainly isn't any of that dish here!
They have returned safely to the US. Here are the emails they sent us upon arrival at my folks' house:
From Kailey
We got back a little bit ago. I slept a whole lot on the plane [note from Nana – about 5 hours]. On the second plane, I looked out the window the whole time. It only seemed like it took a little while. On the big plane from China, Hannah from the ballet school was sitting in the nest section. I did not see here until we got to the airport in Chicago. I thought “that looks like the girl from my ballet school.” When she looked at me, I waved and she waved back. We kept seeing her and her family in the airport. Well, got to go to bed.
From Justin:
I love you mommy. I will see you in a week.
So, the bus from Guangzhou was not as advertised. We did all have to leave the bus to go through customs and immigration – that meant hauling all of our stuff ( no carts) through an unbelievably crowded and confusing immigration processing center, then coming out the other side to find that our next transportation was in a seven person van with two more travelers and all of their luggage. That whole process took 45 minutes and we barely made the plane. It was extremely frustrating – and we were very worried about missing the plane,
I have sent you info about sleeping in the airport in Hong Kong – you may want to explore this more. I googled hong kong airport sleep. I think your only choice is to go to Hong Kong Friday night. I am exhausted – more tomorrow.
******
We had already decided to take the train back to Hong Kong Friday night and stay at a hotel there. We have our reservations and will take the MTR train to the airport on Saturday. We should be home Saturday between 9-10 pm.
Out in the courtyard, we got into some neat conversations. One was with a mom from Texas, a fellow believer who is here getting child #6. She is adopting a 2.5 yo boy with missing fingers. The rest were local people who wanted to know where we were from and how we got a boy. One did not seem to know anything about adoption. At least one said she was a Christian. It continues to be hard at times to talk to these people since our lives and culture are so different from theirs. When they asked how many children we have and we responded three, she commented that our house would be very crowded. I didn't want to tell her that we have 4 bedrooms and a big yard. Another couple here was asked a similar questions: How many rooms does your house have. He answered 3. She said, "Oh, very big." He clarified, "That is bedrooms, not just rooms." She said they had something like 8 people living in 2 rooms.
After church, we walked over to the nearby McDonald's for lunch. We completely corrupted Elijah by feeding him 3 chicken nuggets, french fries, and some ice cream. The burgers are not quite the same here, but the fries are identical. When my mom took Kailey and Justin before they left, Kailey ate 10 chicken nuggets and Justin had 8. Kailey announced that while they are at my parents' house, she does not want to eat out at all! Nana has to cook every single meal. Well, maybe halfway through the week they could go out to get some Sesame Chicken. There certainly isn't any of that dish here!
They have returned safely to the US. Here are the emails they sent us upon arrival at my folks' house:
From Kailey
We got back a little bit ago. I slept a whole lot on the plane [note from Nana – about 5 hours]. On the second plane, I looked out the window the whole time. It only seemed like it took a little while. On the big plane from China, Hannah from the ballet school was sitting in the nest section. I did not see here until we got to the airport in Chicago. I thought “that looks like the girl from my ballet school.” When she looked at me, I waved and she waved back. We kept seeing her and her family in the airport. Well, got to go to bed.
From Justin:
I love you mommy. I will see you in a week.
So, the bus from Guangzhou was not as advertised. We did all have to leave the bus to go through customs and immigration – that meant hauling all of our stuff ( no carts) through an unbelievably crowded and confusing immigration processing center, then coming out the other side to find that our next transportation was in a seven person van with two more travelers and all of their luggage. That whole process took 45 minutes and we barely made the plane. It was extremely frustrating – and we were very worried about missing the plane,
I have sent you info about sleeping in the airport in Hong Kong – you may want to explore this more. I googled hong kong airport sleep. I think your only choice is to go to Hong Kong Friday night. I am exhausted – more tomorrow.
******
We had already decided to take the train back to Hong Kong Friday night and stay at a hotel there. We have our reservations and will take the MTR train to the airport on Saturday. We should be home Saturday between 9-10 pm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)