Our blessings from China

Today was beautiful day in Ohio. I bundled up Audrey and Paul and took them outside while Andrew and Natalie were at school. As they were toddling around I was overcome with many emotions. Seven years ago today our son Luke slipped into heaven. It was the worst day of my life.....I was a changed person from that moment one. Usaully Dec. 18th is a cold, deprssing day and I can't wait for it to be over with. Today was different. I was able to thank God for these two sweet hearts that I get to call "my own." People say how lucky Audrey and Paul are be in our family. But many adoptive parents will tell you the same thing...........we, the parents, are the LUCKY ones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another amazing trip that brought another amazing child into our family

Well the trip is over but the adventure has just begun. Paul could not have done any better. Yes, he cried and screamed for the first 2 hours but some little ones will cry for days on end. This is a very stressfull time for these children. No one asked them if it was okay to take them away from the only people they know and force them into the arms of strangers. Yes, it was sad for me when just over night Paul totally rejected me. He was actually pretty hateful towards me for 2 days. I knew it was best to give him space and not force myself on him. I was so glad that he did bond to Ted because that gave Paul the security he needed to eat, drink, sleep and fill his diaper consistenly. He slept through the night every single night. Paul is terrific little boy. He loves to blow kisses and wave "bye-bye." He is a normal little boy who likes to be loud and rough but still has time to give his mom the sweetest, sloppiest kisses you can imagine. Now that he is letting me hold him and snuggle with him I know that in my heart that he is my son because he fits so perfectly into my arms. Paul is so independent that I have already forgotten that he is considered a special needs child. We had to laugh because our guide in Changsha kept referring to him as "disabled." Let me tell you, there is nothing disabling about this child. Ted's theory is that God gave him only one hand to slow him down just enough so that we can almost keep up with him. While being confined to the hotel room he was constantly opening and closing all of the doors and drawers. Throwing away good stuff in the trash while taking bad stuff out of the trash. The panda phone almost made it into the toilet more than once. This little guy is going to keep us busy!!!
Natalie was quite the travel companion. She only had a few moments of "the world should revolve around me." Over all she was a big help not only to us but to some of the other families too by helping to entertain their children as needed. Natalie totally perfected the use of the chop sticks while after 2 weeks Ted and I were still doing the "two handed" chop stick move if there was no silverware around. Natalie only caused one minor incident when she put the wrong code in the room safe and we had to have the hotel staff come in and unlock it. After that we insisted that only Ted could run the safe........she still insists that it was Ted who put the wrong code in.....hhmm???
Believe it or not I did not get as homesick as I did the last time around. I truly believe that God gave us such peace about this adoption that our worries were minimal. I did have a meltdown the very last full day in Guangzhou. I called home to Audrey and the first thing she did was cough and say "coughing Mom" as if to say "I'm sick and I need you but you're on the other side of the world." Right before we called Audrey we had also learned that Andrew's bad behavior had reared it's ugly head. So I went from being fine to " I need to go home now!! I need to have all of my kids back in my arms!!" I was pretty much useless and on the verge of crying the rest of the day. I'm so glad that I only felt like that for one day becasue it was not good!!
The trip home was bearable. In my opinon Paul did pretty darn good for a sleep-deprived toddler whose world has been turned upside down. He slept about 6-7 hours total on the long 13.5 hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago. The rest o the time we stuffed him with snacks while trying to keep him entertained. There was only about a 20 minute period when I wanted to jump out of the nearest exit..
Paul is already crazy about his big brother. I wasn't too suprised since he still prefers males. At Chicago's airport he walked right up to a great big black guy and tried to hold his hand. I quickly apologize to the man but he just laughed and gave Paul a big smile. Audrey came back to the house about 2 hours after we had been home. That gave Paul to check things out before "Princess" came in marking her territory. They actually have got along great so far. Audrey keeps pointing to Paul's short arm and saying "boo-boo" and "where did his hand go?" We tried to explain to her about his missing hand before he left but at her age I just don't think she fully understood until she actually saw him. She will learned soon enough that his little arm does not slow him down and that he hits just as well with that arm as well as he does with his hand (we think Paul and the naughty step are going to become well aquainted).None of the kids have held still long enough for a group picture. I will post more pictures in the next day or two.
Will we adopt again?? Only God knows the answer to that question. If we do it will most definitly a few years done the road. Hey, you can adopt from China until you are 55 years old so we have plenty of time to decide. All I know is that God hand picked both Audrey and Paul for us so if He has another child in mind for us we will trust in Him complety. I do know that if we ever adopt again he or she will be another special needs child. Thanks again for all of your comments and emails. Alison

Closer to Home

Just a few pictures to hold you over until we get home. Paul loved playing in the park close to the hotel. He thought he was big stuff doing pull-ups. Natalie, as usual is the center of attention helping at our "tea party" (Ted and Paul were less than impressed with the tea party). Yes, Paul is starting to like me more everyday.....sorry for two of the same pictures....you know me and computers. My favorite picture is Paul attacking the Tigger. We were in the Swan room (play room for adoptive families at the White Swan) and Paul grabbed this Tigger that shook when you pulled his tail. Paul got very mad at Tigger and started hitting him and then started biting him.

Sorry no pictures

We made it to Guangzhou and we were greeted with the warm sunshine. It was about 75 and clear blue skies verses the cold and rain we had in Changsha. Sorry no pictures again. These computers in China are going to be the death of me. We will be here just 2 more full days and I don't think I can handle the computer malfunctions anymore ( it's probably alot of operator ere too) so I may not update much until we get home. Paul did very well on the flight so I'm hoping that we will see the same behavior for the long flight home. We will be sure to have LOTS of snacks for the trip home because as long as there is food in front of him he is happy. We arrived in GZ at 1:00 and got busy with the rest of the adoption paperwork right away. We had to have Paul's visa picture taken, his medical exam done and I had to complete the rest of the paperwork with the help of our guide. Praise the Lord the paperwork is almost done. We are all starting to get homesick for both Andrew and Audrey. We hope to enjoy our last few days in the warm China sunshine before we head back to the bitter cold.

Last Night in Changsha

I can't believe that this is our last night in Changsha. We will leave the hotel around 9:30 tomorrow morning for Guangzhou to finish up our adoption paperwork. We had another interesting day. Ashley, our guide invited us to eat at the restaurant where his friend's wedding reception was being held. It was interesting to learn about how most Chinese couples celebrate their marriage. Later on in the afternoon we went to a park that is kind of like an amusement park. It was very beautiful even though the weather wasn't the greatest. The highlight of the trip to the park was when a man approached Ted. He asked "can you help me?" His English was almost perfect. We assumed he was asking for money but Ted still asked "what do you need help with?" The man said "could you help me find a nice American girl?" Ted told him that he didn't have any American girls to just give him. Ashley thought that the man may have had mental problems but we couldn't get over how good his English was. It made for a good laugh. Later on Natalie started to act and Ted threatened to give her to the guy looking for a "nice American girl." As we were walking around the park Ashely told us alot about his family and also some of China's history. It was very interesting ( Rhonda....Ashley was excited that you asked about him....we met his wife at the wedding and she was a beautiful lady who seemed very sweet).

since tonight was our last night we couldn't resist getting another cake from the bakery where Ashley bought Natalie's birthday cake. Mmmm Good and the cake only cost $7.00. I can NOT believe how tight my pants are getting. With Audrey's adoption trip we felt starved most of the time. The food in Changsha is way too good. Ashley has been really good about ordering our food for us. I feel like we got a good taste for the local style of cooking with out getting anything that us American's would think was "way out there." Well, I may or may not post tomorrow since we'll be traveling plus I think we'll have Paul's medical exam as soon as we get there. So it may be a crazy day.

Pictures

Here are just a few of our pictures from the big photo shoot. These pictures are priceless. This photo studio is a MUST for anyone staying in Changsha. It is within walking distance of both the HuaTian and the Dolton.

Changsha's Wal-Mart

Well, we've had an interesting Saturday to say the least. First we went to a lookout mountain where we should have been able to see a birds-eye view of Changsha...but it was too cloudy so we didn't see a whole lot. There is some kind of military building there also and Ashley told us not to take pictures of the building or we would be shocked ( we think he meant shot.....either way we didn't take a picture of the building because we did not want to be shocked or shot). We walked over to the lookout and all eyes were on us. I looked at Leigh and asked her if we were the "sight to see" or what. There was a group of college aged kids staring at us so HARD that I finally waved at them so their eyes would blink. They all started laughing and saying things about Natalie being a beautiful girl. They we talking pictures of us with their camera phones. Ashley took a group photo of us and the Fresina's and one of the kids asked if he could take a photo too. We thought he just wanted a photo of us.....no, he had all of his friends pile into the photo. It was so fun. These young adults were full of life and so pleasant. Then we headed to Wal-Mart. I was so mad at myself for not checking to see if my battery was charged on the camera so I only got a few pictures until the battery went dead. I did get a good picture of the dried squid and the pile of black stuff for 25 rmb. Mike got the best pictures though of the fresh food section. The caption for his pictures was going to be "NO this is NOT the pet section.” The smell in the fresh food section was horrible. The trip to Wal-Mart was just as entertaining as any of the tourist attractions we've been to.

By the way Paul is doing great. Today is most he has acted like he might actually like me. I even was allowed to hold him in Ted's presence. I will post again later tonight once I have the CD of our photo shoot from yesterday. Oh, by the way we are staying at the HuaTian...it is anawsome hotel. We are totally in love with some of the staff.

Bowling in Changsha......part 2 of Friday

Our trip to the hotel's bowling alley proved to be quite interesting. First of all we were the only ones in there and attendant spoke little English. He apologized that his English was so bad, I apologized that my Chinese was so bad ( he laughed....but I'm not sure at what）. He had a hard time finding shoes to fit Ted. Needless to say the size 12's that he found had seen very little time on the alley. What we thought was the most entertaining part of our afternoon bowling was that the attendant stood behind us almost the whole time we were bowling and clapped for us every time we threw the ball. Remember we were the only ones there, so it felt a little strange have our personal cheering section. The picture of Ted trying to bowl with Paul shows the attachment that is going on between them...Ted couldn't even put him down long enough to throw his bowl. Paul would rub my ball for good luck but that was about all I could get out of him. As I'm telling you these stories about Paul's favoritism to Ted please know that I am fine with it. I've read all of the adoption books and know that at this age kids can only bond to one person at a time. If I hadn't read these books I may be more upset.

Oh, one thing I forgot to tell you about out photo shoot this morning.....our guide said that the photographer wanted to know if they should "fix" Paul's arm in the photos ( were they going to airbrush him a new arm or what....I don't know). I said no of course not, this is who he is and it doesn't bother us. I'm sure this is just one of many strange questions we will receive here and once we get home.

In the spot light!!

Natalie and Paul had their big modeling debut. We went to a local photographer who specializes in kid photos. It was so much fun. Both Natalie and Paul dressed in traditional Chinese clothes. Natalie even had here hair done. Those of you who know Natalie can imagine how much fun she had getting all "dolled" up. Paul was not as thrilled as Natalie. He is still literally attached to Ted's hip......so Ted's extended leg is in all of Paul's pictures (they said they will just crop Ted out). The photographer and his assistant worked very hard to get Paul to smile......but the did get some really great shots. Paul is even wearing the traditional "cue" in some of the pictures ( long black braid). We were a little concerned when they put a pig-tail on the top of his head for his last set of pictures. The pig-tail was very cute on Mary but not so cute on Paul. Natalie was absolutely beautiful. We will get a "story book" of the photos , calander, framed photos, bookmarks and a CD with all of the photos for about $100. We will get everything tomorrow night so I will try to upload from the CD. Natalie made a little friend while she was getting her hair done. She was 5 year old and too cute. She had to practice he English on us and proceeded to count to 10 and then she said "may I use the bathroom" in English......how funny. She then told the translator that Natalie was very pretty and her skin was so light. Natalie had to show of to and counted to 10 in Spanish. I explained to the translator that we have alot of Spanish speaking people in the USA so our kids are encouraged to learn Spanish. The translator thought it was funny that Chinese children are being taught English while American are learning Spanish. The photo studio had a play area just for the kids. Natalie had fun playing with Mary. Mary thinks that Natalie is so funny. Natalie likes playing with Mary because she doesn't hit her the way Paul does. Yes, Paul is the bratty little brother. Paul didn't play in the balls for fear of leaving Ted's leg. Today when I took Paul on a walk by myself we stopped at a store. The clerk tried to hold him but he said "NO, MAMA!" and clung to my neck, so I do know that he likes me (just as long as Ted is not around). I may post again tonight, it's only 2:00pm here. We'll see if we doing anything exciting between now and bedtime. Thanks so much for the comments!!!! I read all of them. Congrats King family on your TA!!!!!!! We almost made it back to China at the same time.

P.S. Troy, I didn't have any problems uploading my photos today. I don't know why.....I did the exact same thing that I did the last time........but keep checking your email

Paul's got a new ride

Sorry but the today's photos will be delayed again . Oh, how I hate computers sometime. Anyways we spent our best $25 in China so far on a stroller for Paul. He is killing Ted's arm (mine too on the rare occasion that I'm allowed to hold him). There's a baby store right by the hotel. We put him in one of their strollers to see how he would react. We assumed that he would cry if we put him in one, nope, he loved it. We pushed him right out of the store in it and went on a long walk. After the walk we pushed him right to our room. Of course he started crying when we got him out. Ted agreed it was money well spent.
Paul is doing better everyday. Today he almost tolerated me. He did say mama many times throughout the day which totally melts my heart. Ted is still the BIG #1!! He can't even go to the bathroom without Paul crying for him. Who knew that Ted was so likable.
I feel kind of bad because we can not pronounce Paul's Chinese name correctly. Yesterday I tried to have our guide teach me how to say his name. He explained that Chenzhou has it's own dialect so Paul probably wouldn't answer to the way he pronounces his name ( which he didn't). This morning our waitress was "all over" Paul as usual and I told her that he was from Chenzhou. Her eyes lit up as she told me that she too was from Chenzhou. I told her that we have been unable to say his name. The very first time she called him "Zhi Qiang" he turned toward her and smiled. For the rest of our breakfast she would walk past saying his name and he would stare right at her. It was pretty cool. He is a terrible tease with all of the waitresses.
We had an interesting experience this morning while we were out sight-seeing. Our driver had dropped our guide off at his office and parked right on the street. The traffic kept moving around us so we assumed that it was okay to park right on the street. Shortly after, the police came over and was firmly speaking to our driver. Our driver doesn't not speak a word of English so we had not idea what was going on. He jump out and was showing the police his license. The officer was yelling and pointing....the driver got on his cell phone and was talking very quickly........meanwhile our guide was nowhere to be found. It was quite entertaining for us. Our guide finally showed back up and jumped in the van, I don't think he wanted to get involved. He was even taking pictures for Mike ( the other guy in our group). Mike was loving every minute off it. The driver finally got his ticket and was allowed to leave. He apologized to us, little did he know that was the best part of our morning tour. His ticket was 100 RMB ( about $8) which our guide was going to have to pay.
Our food in Changsha has been great!! Our guide ( Ashley.... a guy) has been very good about ordering our food for us. After our few meals in Beijing and knowing that all of our good junk food was in the suitcase at home we thought it was going to be a long 2 weeks of eating. We have not had a bad meal yet. Tonight we had American food in our hotel restaurant. Natalie and Ted ordered personal pizzas. They were pretty good except for the fact that they had snow peas on them. Hmmm?? Today I also found a place close to the hotel that sells Diet Pepsi ( yahooooo). I thought I would have to wait until we got to Guangzhou to get any Diet Pepsi. There is plenty of Diet Coke but not DP. Tomorrow, Paul and Mary ( the other little girl in our group) are scheduled for a photo shoot at a local photographer. I guess they dress the kids up in traditional Chinese clothes and make actual hard back books from the pictures. The price is even fairly reasonable.

Happy 6th Birthday Natalie!!

Sorry, no pictures right now. I'm having problems uploading them to the blog tonight. I did email the photos to my brother and SIL and they will add them whenever they get my message..so check back later. Paul is still doing great most of the time but having sad moments throughout the day. Ted is still most definitely his favorite. If I can get him away from Ted and just he and I go on a walk he is fine with me. He even called me MA once while we were alone when he was trying to get my attention. As soon as he sees Ted he totally rejects, it is almost funny. Even if Ted is holding him and I try to give him his cup he cries and shakes his head but if 10 seconds later Ted gives him the same cup he will almost guzzle it down. I don't really have hurt feelings because I know that he likes me in his on special way and he will get things figured out eventually.
We have learned very quickly that Paul's favorite pastime is eating. He goes happy-crazy when we walk into any restaurant. This morning he almost jumped out of Ted's arms when he saw the high-chair. If we don't have food for him the second that he's in the chair he gets mad! We have decided that he needs a full body bib. He sticks everything under his short arm's armpit...utensils, sippy-cups, even food. Him missing his arm does not slow him down at all. As many of you know I am Type 1 diabetic so I use needles for giving myself insulin shots. Well last night I had got side-tracked and didn't dispose of one of my needles. Paul grabbed it the second he saw it. Ted looked everywhere for it thinking that Paul had dropped, no he had it stuck under his arm (yes it had a cap on it). We'll know to look there the first time from now one. He likes to have his arm completely out because he uses it all of the time, plus he likes to feel everything with it. He gets lots of stares, but we get stared at all of the time being that we're the only white faces in the crowd with a Chinese little boy. Natalie gets lots of long stares and is pointed at quiet a bit. I don't think shes noticed yet.
Our guide brought the most delicious birthday cake for dinner tonight to celebrate Natalie's big day. A few of the waitresses sang happy birthday in Chinese while we sang happy birthday in English. It was pretty cool. She was all smiles and I don't think she will ever forget her 6th birthday.
One funny thing about our trip is that our guide calls Ted "Andrew" (which is his middle name). You may remember when we adopted Audrey our guide could not pronounce "Ted" or "Theodore" so she called him Teddy the entire trip....to the amusement of our group. Well today our travel mate, Mike, asked Ted if his real name was Andrew or what because the guide keeps calling him Andrew. Ted explained that his passport reads Theodore Andrew and he's assuming that this guide can't pronounce him name right either so he just continues to answer to Andrew. It makes us feel like our son Andrew is with us every time the guide says his name.
Another thing I forgot to mention yesterday.....after we had all of the adoption papers signed the Auntie director told up that Paul was a naughty boy and he had a bad temper. I just thought it was funny that she told us after and not before the papers were signed. She does want us to send pictures of him to add to the scrapbook that I made. I had actually saved back a page to go into the album to decorate and send with one of the parents who are going to Chenzhou in the future when they adopt their child.
Well, I'm sure Ted has everything under control back in the room especially since Paul won't let me do anything but I should still head back.

Paul has a new hero and his name is dada

Wow! I believe that somebody has been praying for us since my last update. Paul woke up at 4:30 this morning (only because Natalie was up and looking for potato chips) and he was a completely different person. While he was sleeping he must have decided "well if these people are who I'm stuck with I guess I better make the most of it." As I said last night he refused to eat or drink anything, well right away he decided to drink a whole sippy cup full of water and downed about 12 or more ritz crackers. I had Ted hand him the crackers and everytime Ted would hand one over Paul would flash this silly, silly smile. After awhile he got of my lap and explored the room. He was talking a giggling. Natalie had him coloring. He thought he was big stuff. After a couple hours we even started to hear "NO Paul" from Natalie, he was feeling comfortable enough to show his naughty side. He ate everything in sight at breakfast and lunch....we can see why he is such a big boy. We did our official adoption paperwork this morning. It was kind of strange because he still liked me before the adoption but he hasn't had anything to do with me since. Ted is his HERO! Ted is the only one who can carry him, feed him, change him etc. He screams if I touch him. I know this is all very confusing for him so I am not taking it personal at all. I'm just glad that he likes at least one of us right now ( okay so he loves Natalie too, just not me). Paul's favorite thing to do so far is to run as fast as he can in the hotel lobby. The faster he runs the louder he giggles.

P.S. I meant to say in my last message that the Auntie director was very receptive to the four care packages that I brought. She even asked if I knew when XM's family was was coming. I told her next week and she smiled real big.

We have Paul!!!

At 4:15 this afternoon we finally met Paul. He is being a real trooper. At first he was very scared and he was crying very hard and very loud!! He seems to settle down fairly quickly so I am taking that as a good sign. He wouldn't have anything to do with Ted or Natalie at first but after about 2 hours he was starting to watch their every move. He refused to eat or drink anything but I'm too concerned because he is BIG BOY!! He is much bigger than I was expecting. In the picture where he is sleeping he is holding onto the clothes that he came in from the orphanage. It's sad but understandable since that is the only thing he has that is familiar to him right now. He had been clasping onto them for dear life since I changed him into his PJs.

I gave the "auntie director" the scrapbook of the Chenzhou children who are now living with their forever families. She had tears in her eyes and said this was the best gift we could have given them. They looked at each page and pointed at each child talking a mile a minute....in Chinese of course. I'm so glad that so many parents decided to contribute photos of their children. Well I should head back to the room, I left Ted with 2 sleeping kids.....hoping that they both sleep the rest of the night.

One more day until we meet Paul!!!!

Hi! This message is going to be short and sweet because the hotel is having problems with their computers so I am using one of our travel mates laptop. We went to Tianamen Square, the Forbidden city and the Great Wall. I'll just explain what's going on in the pictures: I'm enjoying a Starbuck's vanilla latte at the Forbidden City (can you say tourist trap). Ted is haggling a store keeper at the Great Wall for "Genuine-Immitation" Rolex. Natalie and her new best friend Makenzie with a waitress at Peking Duck ( we were lucky enough to watch our duck being carved). This is a picture of Natalie before she and Ted made it to the top of the Great Wall. We even bought T-shirts that said "I climbed the Great Wall."

Well tomorrow is the big day. We fly to Changsha in the morning and should meet Paul in the afternoon. Please say lots of prayers for Paul...tomorrow is going to be great for us but very confusing for Paul. I'll try to at least post some pictures tomorrow. We'll see how everything goes.

What a Crazy day!!

You know how you think you've got everything all planned out but then life throws you a few curve balls. The last 24 hours have been all curves for the Homan family. It all started on Thursday night with a phone call from our travel mate, Stephania, from Berne. She asked if we knew that our 9:30 flight out of Ft. Wayne had been canceled. NO, we did not! She told us to call United and get on the 6:00 am flight, that was the only flight to chicageo. While I was on the phone with the airline Ted woke up Andrew and took him to the neighbors, because we would now need to leave the house at 3:30 am.

we were very tired as we left the house and just a little behind schedule. We drove in rain the whole way there. As we were getting out of the van we realized that we had left one of our suitacases at home (that's what I get for bragging about feeling confident with the packing this time around). The suitcase that we left had all of Paul's supplies and all of our food. Sorry Carrie B. but you won't get to see Paul in any of Riley's cute clothes. At least all of this stuff we can buy in China. ( Don't worry Chenzhou waiting parents, I still have all of your care packages).

So once we got inside we learned right away that the 6:00 was delayed until 8:00. It went all down hill from there. Chicago had a major snow/ice storm...nothing was coming or going...we were stuck. Over the next 6 hrs we went back and forth with the ticket agents trying to figure out what to do. At one point we were all most positive that we were not going to be able to go to China until Monday, which would have thrown off all of the scheduled adoption paper work.

As a last chance , we switched airlines from Ft. wayne to Chicago, but that too got delayed. Stephania, Natalie and I were back down at the ticket agent while Ted and Nick ( Stephania's son) waited at the terminal. All of the sudden we hear "last call for the Homan and Taylor party", here the flight was now going to Chicago and we had found out that the Beijing flight was delayed just long enough for us to make our connection. We had been at the airport for 8 hours and we almost missed our flight!! We still had to go back through security, but we had become friends with everyone at the check point since we had went in and out of security many times, so they breezed us through. We didn't even take the time to put on our shoes back on we just RAN!!!We got to the the gate and Ted and Nick are the only ones there, the doors were locked but Stephania told the one remaining clerk that WE HAD TO BE ON THIS FLIGHT! So they opened the doors and let us on. Praise the Lord!! Once we got to Chicago things went pretty smooth. We ended up getting on the Beijing flight shortly after we arrived. Stephania had called the adoption agency to say that we were going to make our flight. The agency told her that they had put our a "BIG" prayer request for the families trying to get to China, on the agency's web board. THANK YOU so much for your prayers CWA>

We did have to set on the plane for over an hour while they de-iced it and tried to find a new pilot (the original pilot's flight into Chicago was cancelled). We did not mind waiting, we were just so happy to be on the flight. With all of the craziness we were only 1 1/2 hours behind schedule. We're praying that the rest of the trip goes alot smoother.