Hague Rules Stink

Well I realize you non-adoption world people don't really understand, but I am putting this out there for all the others. HAGUE rules stink for the babies!! My sweet and happy little girl cried her little heart today at the medical appointment.

Since she is a Hague baby she has to be completely current on her immunizations before she is allowed to enter the US. So she had to get 5 shots today all at once. One in each leg and then 2 in one arm and 1 in the other arm. And trust me they aren't too gentle with the babies either. It was bad enough that they had to have 2 doctors examining her heart as they wanted to make sure that I understood she still has a heart murmur. I told them I already knew that and then they seemed Ok to complete the paperwork. Faith cried and cried and cried like we have never heard her cry :( It was so sad.


I gave her some Tylenol before we left for the shots, and then had a full body ready for her afterwards. She was wiped out after all of that and went right to sleep sucking the bottle. We then finished up the paperwork with our guide and paid the rest of our adoption monies. Oh and by the way if you are a Hague case be prepared to fork over some extra $$ for the required shots. The shots were $50USD each! Crazy. I had to dig into my shopping funds for those and my poor baby had to suffer with them-NOT FUN!


I realized that Shelby wore the exact same outfit as Faith had on today for her medical appointment last year. Too funny! Faith is just a big as Shelby was last year. Faith weighed in today at 21 pounds...big baby as everyone keeps pointing out to me. I happen to just LOVE my big baby :) Here are the 2 side by side on their medical appointment days in China. What sweet memories both of my girls are going to be able to share a lifetime full of :)




Also, if you notice there were no other adoptive families at the doctor today. That goes to show you how much adoptions have slowed down from China. Notice in the pics from Shelby's appointment last year that the place was packed and last year we used to always see a line outside of the clinic. This year, they literally had to turn the lights on for us when we arrived at the room marked for international adopted children. So strange at the dramatic difference.

Sheila and I spent the day with Ann from www.redthreadchina.com shopping-YEAH! We took the girls and had a great time. We are even going again tomorrow afternoon. CJ hung out with the boys and had a lazy day on the island. We are about to go to the park for the 800th time it seems. We sure are ready to come home!!

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Our day: Breakfast, Park, Church, White Swan playroom, Red Couch, Subway, Zoo, Bakery, Ramen Noodles, Massage-AHHH! And of course for your viewing pleasure...

Short and Sweet

Sorry but don't have much time to blog as I have a hot date with a foot massage again! We are eating ramen noodles in the room for dinner, did Subway for lunch, so that we could have room in the budget for more foot massages :)

I will just have to leave you checking the blog all day until I get a chance to post pics ;)

Pics from the Park

By the way, Travis and Shelby have become closer than ever during this trip. SO SO different from our last trip to China ;)

Laundromat-Not

We did our laundry today at Lady Bug store because it was the closest to the hotel. We already had a price list from Susan's Place that was marked "45% off", so we just handed them the price list and asked them to match the price. Worked out great. The total for all 6 of us came to $50 for a week's worth of clothes. Not exactly a bargain by my standards, but we were all out of clothes. I only brought 2 outfits for the baby that were 12-18 months and everything else I brought is too small. She is definitely ready to just move on into Shelby's clothes from last year that are 18 months. Love it as I already have lots of those :)


I am going to need to get a walker or one of those stationary play thingy for Faith when we get home. She loves to be in the walker and it keeps her happy and upright and out of all the stuff in the hotel room. I have a feeling she may be walking soon though, so I imagine that peace of being "confined" will be short lived ;)

We went to the Children's Amusement Park today and blew about $50 on the kids. It was fun, but I believe it was a little over priced if you ask me. The kids had a great time and we stopped afterwards by a fruit stand for some more of those yummy little oranges. I ate the whole bag today which was 10 Yuan ($1.75) worth. It was really about 20 of them. I can't seem to stop when I start :)


At least it was oranges and not chocolate bars I guess ;) I will have to post pics of the park later as it is on the other computer. I am currently using the free computer in the room at the moment. Sheila has the laptop in her room so she can call home frequently. The trip is getting to her to be away from her family for so long. I imagine it is pretty tough and getting tougher by the day. I told her today it is kind of like she is on that Trading Spouses show but at least she doesn't have to go live with a weird family. Then I really had to rethink that statement! She is having a good time and is certainly a big help, so I am very grateful to her and her family for the sacrifices made in order for her to be here with us!


We are about to retire for the evening. We spent the afternoon on the island just hanging out and playing at the park. We had KFC for lunch and Lucy's for dinner. I think I have gained at least 10 pounds already and we still have a week to go! We are going to go to church here on the island tomorrow and I am very excited about that. I can't wait to witness Chinese Christians worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ. He is wonderful no matter what country you live in!!

More on Baby Faith

Just wanted to post more info about our little one. She came to us in a couple layers of clothing. She didn't smell great for sure. She did have a brand new pair of squeaky shoes on though. She came with 2 ayis (nannies) from the orphanage. Neither one of them were her "special" nanny as they said her special nanny gets car sick. Faith's orphanage is about 5-6 hours away from here, so that is why we did not go to the orphanage.

It turns out that they did apparently give Faith something to keep her from having a bowel movement on the trip here so they would not have change a dirty diaper in the car. I had already heard from other parents that they may do this. Unfortunately this has been very tough on Faith in the digestive department. Her stomach was bloated and hard and very odd shaped when we got her. I really thought that she may have a hernia especially since her belly button pokes way out and she was very sensitive to touching her belly. Since she has now had a couple of BMs, her stomach looks normal now thank goodness.

Faith also has something on the back of her head that feels kind of like a marble under the skin. Looking at it it just looks like regular skin but there is something under there. I have no idea what it is or even what it could be. She is not sensitive to me touching it. Looks like the pediatrician back home will have to figure that one out for us.

Faith also had alot of congestion but we had a doctor listen to her lungs and she said they were clear. So I have just been giving her some cold medicines and that seems to have helped alot. She is much clearer now.

Faith's little bottom had some regular looking diaper rash and she also has some scars from diaper rashes before. Nothing looked too bad. However, on day 3 Faith broke out in blisters on her backside up high. I have never seen anything like this kind of rash or reaction or whatever it is. We had been treating it with Neosporin and then I also tried the Lotrimin stuff. I also switched to 2 kinds of diapers, and nothing has worked. It has only gotten worse and now spreading and peeling. So today I decided that she may be allergic all together to disposable diapers. We went to the store today and purchased cloth diapers and we are now going to try that for a while. Please pray for her little bottom to heal quickly and not get any worse.

As you saw from the pics, she was just a big lump of baby when we got her. Now she is a very sweet happy baby who thinks we are all crazy! She tolerates all the kids getting in her face and pulling her up and down. She can now crawl and she started "cruising" on the couch for me this morning. She is finally starting to cry for me now when I leave the room or put her down somewhere. She will go to Sheila just as much as she will go to me. I know that isn't the best thing for bonding at the moment, but it sure does help things right now. I will work on her attaching to only me when we get home. She isn't crazy about CJ anymore, but she will stay with him if she has to ;) She is blossoming out more and more each and every day. Obviously all your prayers are working for my sweet baby girl :)

Mexican Memories

Note to all who come after me... Pack and bring Taco Bell taco sauce with you to China!! I am thinking if I could at least have that to add to the food I could make an octopus stick taste like a burrito :)

How many more days until I can eat a taco again?!?

Touring Day

Today we started the morning off at the toy market and then we toured the Chen House. We went there last year so it really wasn't that big of a deal this year. We had our guide drop us off at the market place where we ventured out from McDonalds and had...Pizza Hut for lunch! It was really good and tasted very much like home. We had ice cream later as you saw from the pics below.

Then on the walk home, we passed a hair salon. So Sheila and I ventured forth and we both had our hair cut by the salon where no one spoke English. It was certainly an adventure. We started with about a 30 minute shampoo and head massage, then we had a full cut and style. All for a whopping $5 bucks! Hey we even tipped and left for under $10 each. They did a great job especially for the money. We may even go back just for the shampoo and style.

We wrapped up the evening with a dinner cruise down the river. It was great and we had alot of fun. The food was edible and we really enjoyed the event. We managed to hail a taxi back to the hotel and all was well with the world. It was so exciting Faith even pooped tonight :) YEAH!

Speaking of pooped, we all are so I am going to retire and go to bed. Thanks for all the kind comments and thoughts and prayers from everyone. We are starting to miss home about now :(

Day 5 or 6 or 7 or 8

Or Whatever day today is! Boy it sure is hard to keep track of what day it is around here when you aren't going to work and your days and nights are backwards than they normally are. I thought I would do this post in honor of the boys' school mates back home. I know the teachers are watching the blog, so hopefully they can put some of these "cool" pics up for the kids in their classes. (Teachers: You can click on a picture to blow it up for the class to see)

Here are some of the sights and FOODs around China. Anyone care for octopus on a stick? What about some fresh chickens hanging on the wall? I know, Caleb and Travis' favorite-Chinese McDonald's! The boys tried the purple and green ice cream cones-YUM! But we don't have any idea what flavor they really were.

Caleb and Travis miss all their friends, but honestly they don't really miss school :)

Mountain Park

Today we went the other family here that are relatives of our friends from church to the Mountain Park. Sheila and Heather were both crazy enough to walk up the mountain, but we opted for the trolley up and the cable car down. Guess she gets cheescake tonight and I have to eat oranges ;) We then did lunch at the Cow and Bridge Thai restaurant that we had heard so much about.

Brian has that restaurant figured out so when we got there, they tried to trick us and give us the very expensive dinner menu. But Brian insisted on the cheap lunch menu and it was great. We enjoyed a nice almost Chinese dinner for a change. Obviously Chinese food here is the same as at home being priced twice as much at dinner time than lunch time. And I thought that was just a dumb American thing!

We then went to the park and then up to the room where we talked Faith into crawling!! She is so much more active today than she has been the entire time we have had her. She was bouncing off the walls on the bus today and Caleb said, "Mom, what is wrong with her?". He thought she was having a fit or something since he had not seen her do hardly anything until today. Obviously it didn't take her long to get as crazy as her new family :)

Weather is perfect here. 70s during the day and maybe around 60 at night. Only a light sweater or jacket is needed at night. We were almost smashed today on the highway by a big truck, so obviously you guys are praying for us or I am not sure we would still be here today! Keep praying these drivers are nuts around here :)

UH-OH Look Who's Crawling

And this from a baby that was just a big lump 3 days ago! Amazing what some love and attention will do for a child :) Who knows we may have her walking before we get home!!

Quick Bullet Post From Me

• Faith is an angel baby

• She is finally starting to come out of her shell
• Faith has started to whimper now when I put her down-YEAH
• Unfortunately Faith isn't too fond of her daddy anymore, but at least she is showing signs of actually liking or disliking people
• Don't tell CJ, but if she likes me better...I am OK with that :0)
• Shelby is still being the nice big sister
• Travis has been very whiny, but that may just be from exhaustion at this point
• Faith had her first french fry today
• Shelby is really enjoying her Wahahas again
• We had fun shopping today
• We had McDs for lunch, Lucy's for dinner
• If you have 2 small children, DEFINITELY bring your double stroller!!!!!!
• I love my double stroller
• I use my double stroller every day
• I could just kiss Kim and Michael for finding my double stroller for me :)
• Don't forget to pack Baby Shampoo- you know the tearless kind
• Don't forget to pack some small scissors, but not in your carry on luggage! You may get detained in Tokyo and then they confiscate your small scissors :(
• God is amazing
• Adoption is wonderful
• My family is the best :) I will even include my favorite sister who traveled across the world just to help me out (well and maybe shop too :)
• We miss vegetables
• I have eaten about 20 of those small baby oranges- really no kidding
• Faith has eaten 2 full size jars of baby prunes and still....nothing :(
• Faith will not eat anything "solid" except for the cheerios and those fruit puff thingys
• She does eat congee. Good thing my mom bought me my fancy rice cooker.
• I have the cutest kids ever. Everyone on the island thinks I am crazy to have 4 kids :)
• I wouldn't change a thing about my wonderful family and all the blessings God has given us.
• We are going to have the best Christmas EVER as a completed family of 6!

Guest Blogging from Sheila

Well today after breakfast we went out shopping with Ann. Now this is something I know how to do:). To shop we left the island (aka compound). Donna told me to be very afraid, but since there is not so many people out during the week, it wasn't bad. We bought jewelry and electronics. Ann is great because with her you don't have to worry about getting ripped off.

We also ate at McDonalds, again. My weight watchers leader would be horrified to see what I've eaten the last 6 days. I've not exercised much since getting on the airplane but at least we try to walk everywhere we can. My favorite walk is around the block to get cheesecake!! I can't wait to get back to the Y and my fitness schedule. I truly miss my Zumba class!

Faith, Shelby and the boys are doing great. We all take turns loving on the baby. Faith will reach for me but after I am holding her Donna will say something to her and she looks confused as if to say wait I thought you were already holding me. Its good we look and sound alike.

Well I going to go and get a massage tonight so I'll go for now. It sure is tough being away from my family and friends for so long, so I'm trying to make the best of it!!

Thanks for all the cool comments, it makes it a little less lonely over here,
Sheila

Laughing at Last

breakfast

Exercise Park

Various pics for your viewing pleasure. We visited the park that is mainly full of exercise equipment for adults. Sheila was loving that and I think she tried out every piece. At one point she had the whole neighborhood stopping to watch her-scary! Not very many blonde women who really "get into" the exercise routines around here. Obviously it is fun to watch ;)

Oh and we found the relatives of some friends from church that are here. I knew they would be in China at the same time, but who would have known we would share the same guide and stay at the same hotel?! Jophy has officially retired from the adoption guide services and she has turned us over to our new guide, Grace. Grace will be with us the rest of the trip.

Enjoy the pics! Oh and so far Shelby is still enjoying her new sister. She takes good care of her and kisses her all the time :)

She is Ours

Today we had the official interview to "accept" Faith as our daughter to love forever! We had to answer a few questions and then agree to never harm or abandon her-well duh :) I don't think the thought has ever entered our heads. Anyway-She is OURS forever now.

I do believe we have the best baby on the island. She doesn't cry or complain or anything. She has been eating congee today and drinking a little bit of Wahahahas. She won't have anything to do with formula, but I don't really have a problem with that considering that she is 16 months old. I plan to get her hooked on chicken nuggets and french fries quickly ;) Just kiddin (sort of) but I did go ahead and buy her kind of formula today when we went to the pseudo Walmart here today. We spent $100 US Dollars there and had a buggy overflowing. I guess no different than home, but we bought enough goods to last us 2 weeks here.

We even bought Faith a walker for the room since she needed somewhere to sit. Reality set in as I have no idea what you do with a baby anymore. I had her in the room going OK what do I do with her now?!? I love holding her but it is really hard to accomplish anything that way, so we opted for a walker for in the room some.

Really enjoying all the comments. Sheila and CJ and I all take turns reading all of them. We love knowing you guys are thinking of us and praying us home safely. Oh and just to CONFIRM that Faith is MY baby girl and meant to be with me forever...Please note how my baby girl soothes herself to sleep-no kidding! Same two fingers, same hand :)

God is great all the time! All the time, God is great!!

Amazing Day

Well she sits up, she eats Cheerios and those fruity puff thingys, she won't touch a bottle or a noodle. She is a little sick and coughing, but we met a doctor at dinner time and she listened to her chest for us. She said she didn't think I should give her antibiotics unless she runs a fever or gets worse. Her chest scar looks great. She has a huge belly and is cute as a button! She weighs probably about 20 pounds and is in size 12 month clothing and a size 3-4 shoe. She can bear weight on her legs but not walking or crawling yet. She hasn't cried yet for real, just a wimper here and there. She is baby babbling and playing with toy rattles. She is perfect :)

Precious Baby Girl

GOTCHA!

I think we had the smoothest Gotcha Day ever! For your viewing pleasure may I introduce you to the cutest chubby cheek Straight you have ever seen :) She is perfect and obviously a Straight. Check out the label that was already sewn into her clothing when we got her: Straight Goods! Talk about meant to be :) We are a very happy family of 6! Praise God!!

First Meltdown

And it is from Shelby-not Faith. When we arrived in Guangzhou last night a whole lot of memories came flooding into my own brain. I can only imagine that some of these same memories must have come back to Shelby. We have always wondered how much Shelby remembers of China. I don't know of anyone personally or very many at all period who have brought back their adopted child so soon to China. So this was a wait and see run for us as we had no idea what to expect from Shelby.

Well I can tell you that she certainly remembers some things. When we went into the first squatty potty yesterday, she immediately held her arms up for me to hold her. She knew exactly what to do and how to do it in there. And trust me she hasn't seen one of those since we left China! Needless to say her mind was spinning last night by the time we sat down at Lucy's for dinner. She clung to me for dear life the rest of the evening. She barely sat in her chair to eat some dinner.

Now all of us adoptive parents know the difference between a regular normal child meltdown versus an adoption related meltdown. Well right after dinner, Shelby unfortunately went into full adoption related meltdown. She first took a bite out of Travis and then just melted. I left the restaurant by myself and took Travis and Shelby back to the hotel. By the time we made it to the room, she was just a big melted puddle. It was sad to see her this way as it has been a long time since she has had a meltdown. She cried herself to sleep :(

I know this is very tough on her and I am not naive about that. I don't really know how to help her deal with all the memories except for continue to show her unconditional love. Please pray for us today as her world will be completely rocked today as we meet her new sister for the first time.

We Are Here in Faith's City

We arrived safe and sound today in Guangzhou around 6PM. We took a neat little train ride (hour and a half) from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. We are staying at the Victory again like we did last year. Our rooms are wonderful especially compared to the last hotel. Sheila and the boys have a room with 3 single beds in there and plenty of space. We have a suite with a king bed and a BABY CRIB! We went to dinner at Lucy's and haven't seen hardly anyone at all here on the island. It looks more like a deserted island. Hopefully there will be more people out and about tomorrow.

Reality of why we have traveled across the world is sinking in again. So far this journey has resembled an exotic vacation, but that is not why we are here. We are here because we have a little girl-OUR little girl-waiting for us to come and take her home. Things will definitely change tomorrow for everyone. I am praying for an easy transition, but as with Shelby, I realize it may not be so easy. Please keep us and our baby girl in your prayers today. Oh my goodness...only one more sleep before our lives are forever changed :)

Last Day in Hong Kong

We started off at McDs of course. However, we splurged and let the kids eat cheesecake and brownies for breakfast-YUM! Yes, this was served at McDs. Then we were off and running on our own. We found a great park with a playground. The kids had fun and it was really pretty. They had birds and flowers everywhere. The weather here is awesome. It is around 70 degrees everyday. Sheila and Jophy say they are cold all the time, but I must have already gained a few pounds since I am quite comfortable :)

We then visited the malls and did some window shopping. Sheila found the Nike store. I was happy to find a Toast Store. Just plain fresh baked breads-YUM! Here are some pics for you guys. Sheila had her very first encounter with the squatty pottys and Shelby had her own kid's pottys!

We are about to be off to the train to Guangzhou. Jophy will be here in a minute.

Pics From Sheila's Camera

What Was I Thinking?

As I lay wide awake here in China at 4AM here were some of my thoughts...Is Faith going to be "healthy"? Has Faith ever been loved on? Is my heart going to be able to hold all the love I have now for my husband AND my four children? Is Shelby going to think she has been replaced? Will Caleb and Travis feel "left out" now that the girls will need my attention even more? Am I strong enough to do this? Does God really think I can handle this? Does Faith even know what real food is? Will she just still be only taking a baby bottle? Is that really healthy? Will I know how to comfort her (and Shelby) at the same time? Will Shelby like Faith at all? Will they grow up to be great sisters? Will Travis be good with Faith and have better luck with her than he did with Shelby? I wonder if I can just ask Lucy's to make me some Mexican food? How much money have we really spent to get us here? Will we be a great family of 6? Does Faith have any idea that her entire world is about to change? Is Faith going to be loved on her last day at the orphanage?

Was this really what we WANTED for our family?---Yes

Are we HAPPY to be blessed with another child?--- You bet

Is this the RIGHT thing to do?--- Absolutely

Is this what GOD called us to do?--- Without a doubt!