Another Great Day!

This was suppose to be the first blog, but my email kicked it back because I had too many pictures.  

More about Kai

Dan and I both agreed that if this was our first adoption and it was just us and Kai, we would consider this a luxurious vacation...but we have Bei...and his jet lag.   Is it really wrong to force feed your 4 year old carafe's of caffeinated coffee?   You want a coke Bei with caffeine?...here have a six pack.   Okay, we didn't do it, but we contemplated  how we were going to get that kid to stay awake during the day, but finally today he overcame his jetlag and only took a 2 hour nap and went to bed at 8:00 p.m.

I was telling Dan tonight that I totally understand the concept of the Amazing Race.  I was telling him, "I think the show isn't as much about overcoming obstacles, but it is about how you can work with your significant other after you have been taken out of your element, you are totally exhausted and you are forced to be with one another 24/7, so you need to work together as a team.   And then Dan interrupted and said "yes, by the end of this trip we will have spent 384 hours together"...Huh?  What?   You are counting the hours???    It is a dirty rotten trick to throw families into this "total togetherness."   Luckily both Dan and I have a good sense of humor and are laughing at our idiosyncrocies.

Okay, onto Kai...he is so incredibly lovable!!!   We feel incredibly fortunate and that once again God has been so very good to us!   He is already getting spoiled by us holding him.   When we first got him, he would be content to lay on the floor...not so much anymore.  He wants to be held all the time.   I don't think he was held much by his foster family.   We are over the moon crazy for him.   And Bei is adjusting to him so much better than I imagined he would.   He is really accepting of Kai.  

Our guide Helen has been wonderful, we walked in the park yesterday together and she asked me if I am going to hire someone to help me with our the kids.   I told her no, that we would be fine.   She told me she thought I was really tough.   Ha!  She should have seen how tough I was the night before when Kai started screaming and arching his back.   I was ready to dial "911 Rescue" and shout into the phone "I'm in China and my child is crying and I'm an incompetent boob...help! help!"   Ya, I was really tough at that moment.   It lasted all of 60 seconds and I was ready to jump out of my skin.   God must know my limitations because he has given me the best baby of all times.   He is so peaceful and happy all the time with the exception of the 60 seconds that it took us to figure out he was hungry. 

One last thing is that Dan thinks Kai is starting to look to me as Mama.   He was holding him last night and when Kai heard my voice he started searching the room and squirming to get out of Dan's arms.   And he started to softly say "Mama, Mama".   We are very blessed!

Another Great Day Cont'd...

Enjoy!

Even more pictures!

 

More pictures!

 

Pictures!

These are pictures from Gotcha Day!   The picture of Bei is right before we left the hotel room to pick up Kai.   He had his camera ready and toy ready to give to Kai.    Kai was happy from the moment we met him. 

 

Can someone email me and let me know if these came through or if they are sideways.   Thanks!

 

Liz

Daddy's Boy!

Many of our prayers have been answered with Kai.   The first one is that he is truly the happy baby that he appeared in all the updates that we received from the orphanage.   God obviously knows my limitations because he gave us the easiest baby.  He is really as beautiful in person as he is in the pictures.   We found out why his cheeks are always so rosy, he is allergic to everything and his face looks like he might have eczema.  But he is sweet, sweet, sweet!   The other answer to prayers is that Kai loves his daddy!   Well to be honest he loves anybody, but it makes like so much easier that he will let both of us parent him.  

The day that we got Kai he was definitely grieving his mother.   They took him that morning from his foster parents and drove the 5 hours to Fuzhou.   They said he didn't cry, but all day he was saying "Mama" and then with us he would cry a little when he said Mama.   The second day he didn't say Mama anymore but there were a few times that he cried really hard...it is heartbreaking, but good at the same time that he is grieving.    He is a good sleeper at night,but he goes to bed at 11:00 p.m. just like they said he does.   Speaking of sleep...there isn't much of it happening around here except for the baby.  Bei's internal clock is off and we are having a hard time getting him adjusted to China time.   So we are up at all crazy hours with him.   One last thing I wanted to mention about Kai is that he is on the "Big Mama's Work Out Program."   Kai's fine and gross motor skills are significantly  delayed, so I've already put him on an excercise program to strengthen his muscles.   Everything from his neck muscles to his stomach muscles.  Let me describe his cute little body, think pillsbury doughboy.   You kind of just melt into him because he is so soft, his skin his soft, but then there is no muscle tone and lots of fat!   He has rolls of fat on his legs and a big cushiony butt.   Total opposite of Bei!   I'm wondering if Kai is one of the 56 Chinese minority because I haven't seen a mongolian spot on his little hinder.   Well we are all falling very much in love with him.

 

Bei is doing great with the exception of the sleep issues.  The day we got Kai, Bei was a champ.  Yesterday he displayed a little jealousy but Dan and I team up and work it out so I get to spend alot of time with Bei.   As everyone knows Bei is very much a mama's boy.   Dan and I are doing fine but we all need sleep...please prayer!

 

One last comment is regarding Fuzhou, the city where we are located is very beautiful.   Fuzhou is surrounded by mountains and our hotel is on a lake.   There appears to be money here in Fuzhou and we saw beautiful huge homes.   Something we did not see the first time around in China.   Our hotel screwed up our reservations and they upgraded us to a two bedroom, three bath suite...sweet is right!   The people here are so incredibly nice and accomodating.   They made some men move in the restaurant that were going to smoke, we had not asked them to.   The chef at the restaurant came out and introduced himself and wanted to make sure the food was prepared to our satisfaction.   It has been a very positive experience with the exception of the sleep issues.  Please keep us in your prayers!  

 

 

We will send pictures later today.

 

 

 

 

  

It was a great day, we have our baby Kai!

We will blog later as we are exhausted! Here is one picture from Dan's
cell phone. Kai is a beautiful and happy little boy!

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Swirl...

A picture with our new camera!

When Dan got home today, he didn't say anything but I could tell that he wondered "what the heck did I do all day today?" Would it have been acceptable to say? "I swirled..." The dog chasing the tail type of swirling...I really need to close the deal. I keep thinking of "one" more thing to go into our suitcases, so then I have to go shopping and the bags just weren't getting closed for good. So tonight while Dan and Bei were in bed, I think I have finally finished packing. Anything that didn't get into the suitcases, we will buy!

This week I am going to make a special point to spend lots of time with Bei. The dynamics of our relationship are going to change forever and I want this week to be a special and positive week for the both of us.

Please keep us in your prayers in the next couple weeks. Here are a few things that you can prayer for our family:

Safety for our trip.
Everything is on-time
Peace for our decision to take Bei to China...I'm still uneasy about this decision.
Kai's foster family
Kai and an easy transition to us.
Easy transition for Bei...what the heck...include me and Dan into that too!
That we all stay healthy during this trip.

Thank you for all of your support!

China Itinerary Updated

This is what I imagine Kai's expression is going to be when he see's us for the first time.

I'm updating this post with our more detailed Itinerary that we received from our adoption agency.

We are the only family in the Province the week of the adoption. It will be very odd not to have the 6 other families that we traveled with last time. We definitely will miss the companionship of our friends.

Here is our itinerary for China:

Friday 04/23 Depart U.S.

Saturday 04/24 Arrive Shanghai

Sunday 04/25 Arrive Fuzhou 11:45 - Meet Kai at 3:00 p.m. at Civil Affairs Bureau

Monday 04/26 Adoption Legalized

Tuesday 04/27 Shopping - We won't go shopping unless we really need something...I hate to shop!

Wednesday 04/28 Sightseeing Tour to Xihu Park

Thursday 04/29 Sightseeing Tour to Xichan Temple

Friday 04/30 Get Passport

Saturday 05/01 Fly to Guangzhou - Stay at White Swan

Sunday 05/02 Sightseeing Tour to Yuntai Park

Monday 05/03 Sightseeing Tour to Chen Family Temple

Tuesday 05/04 Kai's Visa Pictures and Medical Examination

Wednesday 05/05 Consulate Appointment

Thursday 05/06 Oath taking Ceremony

Friday 05/07 Go to Consulate to pick up passport at 3:30 Leave for LAX at 9:00 p.m.

Saturday 05/08 Home sweet home at 1:00 p.m.

Can you spell S T R E S S E D?!?!?!

All the trials and tribulations are worth it!

Most people would NOT describe me as a "controlling" type of person, however when it comes to driving and travel...watch out...I'm a notorious backseat driver (Dan is honestly a saint) and for travel I like to be in control of the itinerary from start to finish. On Tuesday, we received the green light to go ahead and make our travel arrangements. Now a normal person would allow the adoption agencies travel agent to set up the flights and hotel...NOOOOOOOO...Not me! I want to be in control! Since I can't sit in the cockpit and tell the pilot to watch out for that bird and why are you driving through the clouds? And do you see that airplane off to your right 1000 miles away? I being the travel controller have to make all the arrangements myself. Do you see how I am???? I'm a fool.. prior to Tuesday I didn't realize what a big fool I was, but, let me expound on this fool concept and you will see it unfold before your eyes.
After reviewing several different airline search engines, I have determined that we are going to go with Delta which works for us because we want to use Dan's miles to upgrade to business class. Let me preface this next statement with the fact that my cell phone which is my only phone is only half charged at best. And I can't find my charger anywhere...I think I left it at my brothers house over Easter...ugh! So I call Delta's SkyMiles phone number and proceed to work with an agent to get our flights booked to Shanghai because honestly how long could it take to reserve 3 tickets??? The first thing I find out is I can not use Dan's miles because the tickets go from $1500 to $3,000 if we use miles...what? Hello? What kind of system is that? But hey, I'm working with them and I might as well just complete the reservations. TWO AND HALF HOURS later all three reservations are completed along with a lap seat coming back from China for the baby. The 2.5 hours was not without sweat, since the gal put me on hold for VERY long increments of time and I'm very worried that my battery is going to go dead! Plus, I have a 4 year old that needs attention! At least, this representative would come on the line and check back with me every now and then. Okay, so I gave up 2.5 hours of my morning...but I'm in control! Call my dad immediately after I hang up with the airlines because he had surgery on Monday and my battery basically goes dead after talking with him for 5 minutes. Whew...that was a close one. (BTW, my dad is on the mend, but prayers would be appreciated).
So, I run out get a phone charger and charge my phone. In the meantime, I talk to Dan and we both don't like one of the times that we have for a certain leg of the trip coming back. We want to switch from 8:00 a.m. to a noon flight time. No biggee right??? Call them, they put 12:00 on the E-ticket and we are good to go...well not so fast Charlie...Here is how it really works; I called and told the lady that I want to change flight times and she tells me, "well we are going to have to void the current tickets and replace them." Ahhh....that doesn't sound good, I'm not so sure about that. What if we can't get those same flights, but she assures me we will, because our seats will become available...basically she says it is easy peasey...my feelings of control are starting to wain at this point. But, I said okay and she told me she would have to put me on hold, but to stay on the phone. Can you already tell I'm a fool who is totally not in control???? So I'm put on hold and I realize I didn't mention the lap seat to her which was dealt with differently then the other three seats, but I'm on hold and there is nothing I can do to get her attention. I have this nervous energy and don't know what to do with it...I'm so praying for her to come back on the phone to me and check on me. Well an HOUR and FIFTEEN minutes goes by and I am still on HOLD!!! PANIC sets in because I realize I have NO CONTROL! There is no way that I can contact this lady and I imagine that she has voided my tickets and left for the day! I decided to walk over to my neighbors at this point and to call Delta using my neighbors phone and try to raise holy hell! As my neighbor opens the door...there is a voice on my cell phone. This is what she said, "Sorry to have kept you waiting but I had to get my supervisor involved and she decided to put in a waiver instead of voiding and replacing, so I'm going to transfer you to the reissuing department." Click...transfer happens..."Hello can I help you??" At this point, I am in blabbering don't know what has just happened mode and I finally asks are my tickets still there? "Yes, they are ma'am" At this point, I am grateful and I say just please leave them as they are.
So you think I'm done do you???? My trials and tribulations are over??? Well that is now how life works when you are trying to be a controller...I had more lessons to learn! After I get Bei to bed, I still have to make hotel reservations. So I go on-line and decide on my first hotel and put in the information and wa..la...I get the good old error message that there is something wrong with processing my credit card. Do you know where this is going??? So I call Hotels.Com and tell them I'm having problems processing my credit card and they also receive the same message. I knew right away what the problem was...my credit card company put a fraud block on my credit card! I had to call them and they have an automated system that will release the fraud block if I could only answer three easy questions. Push 1, 2 or 3 based on the right answer. Easy enough for someone who knows how to use their brand new cell phone, but for someone who doesn't, you are screwed, screwed screwed! (BTW, I tried to read the cell phone instruction manual and the font size is a 2!) It all got figured out, but I learned a valuable lesson yesterday...next adoption...after receiving the green light, the first call is going to be to the travel agent...they can be in total control! Poor Dan, I still haven't given up on the backseat driving thing yet...