He is settling in & Some China Highlights

Since I didn't have much time to send updates for Makenna to add here while we were in China, I am going to try to do a blog post about it now. Asher is napping restlessly today, so if he wakes up I might have to make it shorter than longer.

He is doing well also. He is a pretty good sleeper so that is helping me with this overwhelming feeling that I keep having. This wounded child needs so much from me, from us, I feel this huge responsibility. Then of course, there is my other children that still need mama too. He sleeps with Jay and me, so my sleep isn't as good as usual, not that it was always great before. I am getting used to having him there, he is quite the snuggler and squirmy sometimes too. He loves his bottle and my time snuggling him with it before bed. Then after eating he takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to fall asleep. I am just enjoying it. I sing him lullabies and hymns and pray over him. He likes to lay right on top of me for a few minutes, as if I am holding him in the Ergo carrier. Then he switches back to the mattress. Then a few minutes later he demands to come back on my chest. And we do this back and forth for about 30 minutes. It is quite sweet and cute to be a part of this.  I am not sure what he is doing, other then learning about his world and his new mama, if he can trust her. I keep gently telling him, "Night, Night Asher".. He knows what that means and cover him back up with blankets. But even so, it takes all that time to unwind. When he is finally done with his antsiness and ready for sleep he is out all of a sudden out, in a matter of a few seconds. Pretty funny how he does that.

He is very smart and picking up signs quickly. I need to learn some more. I know it will likely be a long time until he is talking well, even after surgeries. But, I think he will feel less frustrated that he can communicate and be understood than all the grunting he has been doing.

Okay, here are some China highlights:

Some of my photos are still on my other computer, but here are a few.

Asher didn't eat much while in China, but he did love those instant (Think Top Ramen only better) noodle I made in the hotel room.

This was us at Asher's "Finding Place", which also happened to be at the gate of the orphanage. He was found at 6 AM, 3 days old, wrapped in a traditional red blanket (which no they didn't keep for him) and a note attached to him with birthday. I was having a difficult time standing there, as I was trying to understand what his mother might have been feeling and how scared he must have felt.

This was us about to have dinner at the famous Lucy's on Shaiman ilsand in Guangzhou. I actually liked the restaurant. Lots of cheap food choices, we could eat outside, and the wait staff spoke English. The food wasn't too bad either.

I don't know the name of this restaurant, but I did not eat there. I took a few photos of just some of the things you could choose to eat, they let you pick and made if fresh for you. Some of the choices included, snake, silk worms, red crab, eel, a fish that looked like a sting ray and many large fish.

This was right after our Ceremony at the Consulate. He would be a US citizen as soon as we landed on the US soil. Happy Day!!!! And we were leaving the next day to Hong Kong.

This was at the Hong Kong airport. The cute little girl was Charlotte, another family we met through the internet and hooked up with in Beijing and Guangzhou. Charlotte and Asher were cute watching the airplanes.

This was Kendra and Charlotte and Asher and me, right before we said "Goodbye"..

Home Sweet Home

I am sorry I haven't posted since being home. And "Thank You" to Makenna who posted the few posts while we were in China. I couldn't access my blog so I just gave her bits and pieces of information and she put it together for me.


We got home later afternoon on the 30th and it took a good 4 days to get over jet lag. It was an exhausting flight home, which I did not sleep at all and he slept maybe 5 hours on the 2 flights combined, poor guy. I think finally Asher is adjusted to the time difference. Up until last night he was waking up at night and sometimes staying up for 4 hours at 2 AM! But Jay had off until yesterday, so I did sleep in with him and tried to nap each day. But now we are trying to find a new normal and I am trying to take just one step at a time and not think about all that I really have to accomplish in my day and add an adorable toddler on top of it all.


He is one happy and fun little guy. Everyone in our home wants to be and play with him, but I am trying to hold them back just a bit as he still needs to bond with Jay and me. I think with all our children and some of them being adult children, he is getting a little confused as to who his parents are, but we will get there.

We also went to the peditrican yesterday. They tried to take some blood to get over 20 tests done on him. They poked him 2 times and were only able to get about 3/4 of what they needed as his veins wouldn't give anymore. We go back tomorrow to try to get the rest. 3 of us held him and kept him from kicking and squirming. For a 23 pound boy he is sure strong!! He put my hip totally out from the way I held him during the blood draw. Of course, my back has been yelling at me on and off from our flight home anyway, this was just the last straw. Good news, I go to the chiropractor tonight, so hopefully I can walk without pain soon.

We need to get a clean stool sample to make sure there isn't any parasites in his body. This is going to be one challenging task as he wears diapers and it can't touch urine or the diaper. The details as to our attempt at doing it are a little too much information that most of you probably don't want to hear, but just trust me it is interesting. So if you think about how to pray for us, it would be that this test would work without much more difficulty.

He also got a TB test which will get read tomorrow, but so far it looks okay. Then he is supposed to see the Cleft Doctor next Tuesday. We are still trying to get our insurance coverage updated for the referral to be approved, so more prayers for that would be appreciated as well. Even though we gave them all they needed, he still isn't showing up in their computer system. It should be easy to fix, but each day we wait we lose another day for the referral process. If I have to reschedule this appointment it will likely be middle of January or early February due to the holidays and a busy doctor's schedule.

We also have an appointment for an evaluation for the state covered therapies. This is not until January 10th, again because of the holidays. But they could approve him for speech, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and a Dietician up until age 3, which would be free for us. Then when he turns 3 we will use private therapy as needed, through our medical insurance. We have great medical insurance due to being in the military, but the co-pays do add up so anything is helpful at this point. Plus the therapy would all be In-Home Therapy, which to me as a great benefit at this point. We already go to Speech, OT and PT for a couple of our other children a couple times a week.

Asher is doing great! He is a sweet baby. I feel so blessed to have him in my life, in our family. I am still processing the truth that he is ours. When I was filling out paperwork at the pediatrician for him yesterday they wanted family medical history. I almost answered all the questions as if he was my flesh and blood. I already think of him that way. My prayer is continued that his heart would be healed from the abandonment and trauma that has been in his short life already, and that he would come to truly feel I am his Mama and Jay, his Daddy.

Look at that that smile.
"Asher" means joy, happy. I think his new name suits him well!

how is he doing?

Asher is doing amazingly well, and is starting to come out of his shell and show us his personality.  He seems to be very strong willed when he does not get something he wants, and he will try to grab everything in sight. But he is understanding "No, Asher" and shakes his head along with us and usually stops, well if we are right with him he does. He is also very sweet, he LOVES to snuggle at bed time. (Which I am totally fine with.)  He does not talk much yet, (probably due to his clef) besides "bye-bye" and a few other little words, mostly he just bables and laughs.   

Lenea absolutely LOVES being a big sister!  She keeps asking us, "Am I being a good sister?" =) 

Thank you all for your prayers, they are definitely being felt. Sorry I don't have many photos yet, it takes a LONG time to load them onto my little Netbook.

Asher and Lenea having a backpack race. =)

Us on adoption day!

He is here!!!

I cannot believe Asher is finally here in our arms!! He is such a sweetie, and is bonding to us already!

He was so brave when he first saw us and didn't even cry!

I do believe they saved the cutest baby in all of China just for us!

First smiles and laugh!
So precious!

There are now one-hundred, forty-five million orphans in the world, minis ONE!!!!
Stay tuned for a more detailed update soon!

So far to find you

Beijing #2

Yesterday, we took about a 15 minute walk from our hotel to The Temple of Heaven, which is an old alter from the 1400s Ming Dynasty emperors. In modern times, the Chinese have built a beautiful park surrounding it which is a common place for locals to hang out. When we first walked in there many different groups of people doing some activities. We saw people with hacki sacks, sword lessons, dancing, and doing various games. There were also many people who were writing with water and long sponge tipped brushes on the ground.(Angela had told us about them and said they were writing prayers.)

One of the neat things was seeing a very large group of people exercising, like line dancing. Others would walk up and join in, while others stayed for what seemed like hours. Chinese are very into exercise. On the walk there we saw one of the "parks" that just sits on the side of the road for anyone to jump on and do the equipment. They were things we didn't recognize but they did have an elliptical. I even got on one the leg swinging ones, it was quite fun and really stretched my legs and hips good.  These people are in shape! You don't see many overweight Chinese at all.

On the way to the Temple of Heaven we got to see life on a typical Sunday for Chinese in the area. It seemed to be market day where many people brought their vehicle (whether horse drawn cart or automobile or bicycle) to sell their goods out of.

We also saw many repair people that sit on the street helping others. yesterday we even saw a lady with an old style sewing machine fixing clothing right on the side walk. We saw many bicycle repair people, fixing old rickety bikes that no one in America would touch, but for these people it was the only they have transportation. 

Than at 2:30 p.m. Angela drove us to the airport for our flight to Wuhan. (Asher's Provence) We are in Wuhan right now!!  And this morning, in just a few short hours, WE GET TO MEET OUR SON!!!!!  We have waited for this day, for what seemed like forever, and now IT"S FINALLY HERE!!!  We hare going to go to the adoption center at about 10:00 a.m. China time!

People exercising in the square

Beijing!

Today, instead of paying an expensive tour guide we decided we could attempt to conquer some of Beijing on our own. =)
So we had heard about some Hutong Rickshaw tour that were pretty neat so we decided to ask the concierge (he speaks some English) to get us a taxi and have the driver drop us off to the location we wanted and we would pay the rickshaw drivers (who claim to speak English) to take us around the Hutong neighborhood and lake (it would cost us about $60 just for that tour. A Rickshaw is sort like of a carriage pulled by a bicycle.
So, the taxi who spoke no English at all (we were at his mercy) took us on a 45 min drive (we got to see Tiananmen square along the way) and dropped us off at what appeared to be a Hutong neighborhood (old traditional neighborhoods with brick/dirt type streets and usually no cars allowed) .
So he points down the street and tells us to go down there with his hand motions. We pay him the fee and start walking down the street. Our very sweet Korean guide whom we had yesterday (Angela) told us when we got out of taxi there should be Rickshaws waiting for customers and we should only take the ones in uniform who have been licensed to drive them and really knew what they were doing. She said sometimes there are others who say cheaper price but don't speak English and don't take you on very good tour and they are not licensed.

.

After walking 10 min (down what appeared to be an alley of only Chinese people and many shops) we were thinking we might be in the wrong place. We do finally see only one Rickshaw and he tried to stop us, but we could tell it was the type Angela warned us about, so we kept walking.

We finished the street of vendors (maybe 20 minutes) Then we found a potty (not a squatty this time, thankfully) After, we were not sure what to do. There was no lake and no other Rickshaws waiting for customers. We were told there would be lots!

Jay remembered he saw some police and a sign for station and thought maybe they could help. We walked another 5 min down that way. We enter the station and find one of the officers could speak broken English. I tried to explain with motions and words I thought she might understand, and she guessed that we wanted to rent bicycles at the rental place we passed coming in. Umm, I don't think so, have you seen the bicycles drive in Beijing, a City of 19 million people? Scary...!

So we said thank you, and left. Beginning to feel like we were in a fish bowl with all the stares we were receiving. But really, the people of Beijing mostly seem very respectful and we never felt threatened, in the least.

As we were about to turn back down the street we began, I noticed a sign for an ice cream shop that had a sign written in very good English writing (with Chalk, so had to be done recently). I thought, we should ask them if they spoke English. The worker didn't but pointed us to 2 gals that were sitting at a table chatting. One of them was Chinese and spoke pretty good English and the other was Australian who spoke great English and Chinese. They communicated back and forth for about 5 min and the worker young man went and got us the original Rickshaw we saw when we entered that neighborhood. We had to laugh, it was a nice older gentlemen who was going to only charge us 30 yuan (about $5) to drive us the location we needed to be (he new where it was) and it was a 15 minute bike ride. Poor man, I don't think he knew what he was getting himself into as had to drive all of 3 of us good size Americans against the wind to this street, where Yes, indeed was a tour guide Rickshaw place...
We gave him a big tip for his hard work." Thank you Sir. "

We walked across the main street (scary in itself, remember traffic and while they do oblige to pedestrians some, not totally) and then we walked and within a few minute another Rickshaw was offering us a tour. It was indeed the one we were looking for. He was a kind, again older man. He got his work out, driving us for 45 minutes around this lake and through some older streets and shopping centers, some as old as almost 500 years. he pointed out what he said was his house too. He did speak English, but oh so hard to understand it.. We often laughed if we didn't get it.

We got to see quite a few little things, including go into a traditional Hutong home, which still has a family living in it. That was cool to see.

When we were done he dropped us off a shopping street. Lenea liked the Rickshaw and she was a big trooper while I spent a couple hours bargaining and shopping.

Thankfully I brought some snacks and we ended up finding a McDonald and even saw  McDonald delivery boy! He drove a bike and had a Box like Backpack thing he wore on his back with the food in it. He was off before I could get a photo, too bad.
We thought we would try some french fries. Before doing so we needed the toilet. There was a line and only one filthy squatty potty in it, with sticky urine all over the floor. What a stinky humerus sight to hold Lenea over this potty. I was not  a happy camper, and Lenea did great!

After leaving there, we needed to flag down a taxi, we were pretty adventured out. It was much more trafffic in the city streets by now and we had a hard time fiding one. It took us about 30 minutes to find one vacant. we saw some get out and we ran.
whew we got in. After all was done he charged us about 3 dollars less for the drive,since he took a shorter way.

we came back to hotel and I paid for a Traditional massage. The girl came up to our room.  Much different than I am used to to in states, but it felt good, but she didn't speak English besides, "okay, and "money". So she did not ask me if I had any sore spots, she barely touched my still aching neck. It is better than before, but trying to keep up on it before we get Asher in 2 days!

Tomorrow we are going to attempt to walk to the Temple of Heaven, which we are told is a 10 min walk from hotel. Find a place to eat lunch and maybe do a little shopping and then Angela will take us to airport about 2:30!!

We will get to experience Chines flying and planes and travel to Asher's city!!! So excited!!!