What a difference 3 weeks makes!!!

WOW!!! 3 weeks we've had our baby boy in our arms now. It still all seems surreal to Matt and me. I just stare at him while he sleeps, I can't stop myself. I feel so incredibly blessed to be this precious boy's momma. It's been an incredible whirlwind of a journey thus far, and I'm so excited for what's to come.

In the 10 days since we've been home we have seen quite the change in our little man. We kept him only at home for the first full week, figuring we wanted him to really get used to our house before taking him out and about. He has done extremely well!! This little boy just amazes us!! It is like he has been part of our family his entire life. He loves his brothers and man do they love him. They play incredibly together. He has learned how to play trucks, have crazy bath fun, play peek a boo and so much more!! Today he had his first time playing outside in the yard with his brothers. Micah and Elijah are two pretty awesome little boys, taking this little one into their brotherhood and not missing a beat.

Samuel has really began to open up his little personality and world to us. He communicates with us quite effectively, even without any words. We have gotten kisses this week and he even has tried to get his little legs moving fast enough to try and chase us. He has learned how to shake his head yes and no, and he has shown us that he likes to snuggle up, close into our neck, for us to sing to him. We are just in awe to see the rate in which he is improving.

He began to let us feed him baby cereal and baby food this week. Small bits at a time and it was a bit of a struggle, but it was a big step. He is drinking so much formula, I know his little body needs more to keep up with all the growing he's doing, let alone all the brain development and stimulation. He literally is growing right before our very eyes!! We have been measuring and weighing him often, and he is growing every day!! Quite remarkable.

Samuel has been around quite a bit of family and friends in the past 10 days, and just in the past 2 days, has ventured outside of our house. Again, unbelievable. He just takes it all in stride. No fits, just go with the flow, and checks everyone out.

Tomorrow morning we begin the next step in our journey with Samuel. We will head to Children's Mercy Hospital to have our first doctors appointment. We're not sure what all we will find out tomorrow, but can't wait to see what all the doctors can tell us about our miracle of a child. Elijah will be going with us and already has a list of questions for the doctor. Please pray that Samuel is able to be comforted as he will be poked and prodded I'm sure. We will be anxious to fill you in on everything we find out!!

Last Day in China to our First full day home

WOW!!! What a whirlwind of a last 48 hours! We have experienced in this time, immense joy, overwhelming exhaustion, and much love from friends and family. So here is a little peek into what has gone on for the last couple of days.

Wednesday evening we decided to get our last few pictures of Samuel in China. We had gotten him a little Kung Fu outfit that we wanted to get some pics of him in before we left. So we set off to walk the beautiful gardens of our hotel one last time. Our hotel also had some huge ornate Chinese chairs that were perfect for taking pictures in!! It was a beautiful night in Guangzhou, perfect to remember our last hours there.

We woke up at 4:30am China time, and set out on our LONG journey home. First was our flight to Beijing, a little over 4 hours. Samuel did great, playing the whole time. We had just a little time to spend in the airport before getting on the plane to head to the USA!!! We were excited, but wished we could fast forward the next 13 hours. We took 2, 2-3 hour naps on the plane, had our last chinese food, and Samuel did AMAZING!!!! He didn't fuss once!!! We couldn't believe how well he did!!

We arrived at JFK airport in New York at 1:30 pm eastern time, which to our chinese clocks was 2:30 am. We didn't know what to expect as far as our little boy becoming a US Citizen and going through customs, and I think we expected it to be quite the process. NOPE!! We gave them all his paperwork, they typed a few things in and within minutes our little emperor became a yankee doodle dandy!!

The next 5 hours would become VERY trying on our patience... We were exhausted from the long plane ride, let alone the time change. Samuel cried and screamed the entire 5 hour layover!!! YIKES!!! We were out of chinese milk drink, which was the only thing he liked, and we tried to find the sweetest milk we could find at the airport, and he was not having it. So needless to say, we were completely torn about the plane ride to come.

We stepped on board, and emotions just overwhelmed me. Matt fell asleep before we even took off, as well as our littlest boy. I began to think about seeing Micah and Elijah for the first time in 2 weeks, introducing them to this little miracle sleeping in my arms, and the tears began to fall. Eventually I fell asleep as well, and we all got a good nap from New York to KC. In fact, Samuel didn't even wake up until we were getting off the plane!!

We walked up the jet bridge, anxious to see our family, and wow what a surprise we had in store for us!!! There were about 50 people waiting to greet us as we came out the door!!! They were holding signs and flags. I knelt down and was able to hug my 2 big boys that seemed like I hadn't seen in forever. I'm pretty sure in fact, that they both had grown a foot!! Elijah was in love with his little brother from the moment he saw him. It was precious. Micah was quite unsure, and waited until I handed Samuel to Matt before he would get too close to me.

The next hour and a half we spent hugging, talking and sharing stories with all of our wonderful family and friends who had come to welcome the newest member of our family. It was so special to be able to share our Samuel with everyone. He did quite well we thought!! Thank you to everyone that was there. We couldn't have had a more perfect welcoming home.

We got home and the boys played and got to know each other a bit and then it was time for bed. Oh man, how was this going to go? I decided to put Samuel down first, because I knew his crying would wake his brothers if I did it in any other order. So I went in and rocked him for a bit, then put him in his bed and he was asleep within 10 minutes or so!!! Wow, that went much better than I had imagined!! I came out to find the other 2 asleep on the couch. It had been a long emotional day for everyone!!

Samuel only got up once in the night for an hour and ate and went right back to sleep and slept until noon!!! He got on the right time schedule quickly!!! So awesome!! The day was amazing!! The boys played well together the entire day. Elijah was intent on getting Samuel to laugh and giggle as much as possible. He is quite the BIG brother. He is so loving and good with his new little brother. He wanted to carry him around everywhere and at one point he took him to his bedroom to play, and much to our surprise we went in to find he had put Samuel up on his bed and surrounded him with toys. They were just both sitting there playing like they had been brothers forever. Elijah later fed Samuel a bottle for the first time, which he thought was pretty cool, and then Micah and Elijah entertained Samuel for his first bath. Micah loves giving Samuel kisses. It's precious. However while Elijah and Samuel played all day, Micah was literally glued to my hip. That was just fine with me!! Man did I miss my boys!!!

So as I said the last couple of days have been crazy, beautiful, amazing, and all according to God's plan. It has been quite amazing to watch His work in all of this. Matt and I just continue to marvel at the intricacies of His work in our family and lives. God is so GOOD!!

US Consulate, Smiles, and Laughter

This morning was our appointment at the US Consulate. We submitted our paperwork for Samuel's visa to enter the US. He is traveling to the US as a Chinese citizen, but once we land in the US he won't need that Chinese passport anymore! He'll be red, white, and blue! His visa will be ready tomorrow afternoon and then first thing Thursday morning . . . we head home! Amy and I have really enjoyed our time in China and the special bonding time we've had with Samuel, but we are ready to come home. We are anxious for Samuel to meet his brothers, family, and friends, and we know his brothers, family, and friends can't wait to meet him!

Seeing Samuel transform right before our very eyes has been amazing. Our little man is smiling and giggling! We found that he is ticklish under his chin. The belly laugh is priceless! Much to our surprise, he loves being tossed up over my head and even being held upside down! It's so much fun to watch him giggle that it's hard not to try it all the time. So in maximum moderation, we tickle and toss the daylights out of him :)

The dehydration issues are a thing of the past, but we still can't get him to eat any solid foods. So for now we cram as many calories in a bottle as possible. This ends up being a cocktail of formula, rice cereal, and milk drink (kinda like a Chinese Pediasure). We continue to try solids every day, but he has major tactile issues around his mouth. His medical reports said that he was eating rice and egg . . . but I am having a tough time believing that. I think it was one of those generic answers from the orphanage.

We have also noticed tactile defensiveness in his hands. Tactile defensiveness is something common in institutionalized children and a possibility we were anticipating. An orphanage is no place for a child. Just today he held his bottle on his own for the first time. This is something he surely had to do on his own in the orphanage, but probably with a smooth or familiar bottle. While trying to get him to carry his bottle over to Amy we noticed his hands were cinched tight. We realized our bottle has several types of texture and was probably overstimulating. With some hand-over-hand guidance he was able to overcome his defensiveness during that feeding. So the good news is that he is desensitizing, but tactile issues will be something that we will have to help with for awhile. We still have a lot of Micah's tactile toys, so we are anxious to get them out when we get home.

We are also anxious to get Samuel to his pediatrician. We want to get his blood work done to find out if he needs any additional immunizations or needs re-immunized on anything. But we are more anxious to get his ears checked out. He has pretty consistent drainage from one ear and we wonder how well he hears out of either ear. His ears aren't red and he doesn't have a fever, so we aren't too concerned about infection. But ear issues are common in cleft children. I am suspecting ear tubes in the near future, but we'll see what the doc says.

Anyway, we have started gathering our things and packing our luggage. Two more sleeps on this side of the world and then we start our journey home! Here are a few pics from the last two days.

One week since Gotcha Day with Samuel

I woke up at 7am this morning and sat at the end of my bed, staring at the little boy who I have now been able to hold in my arms for an entire week now. What a difference a week makes. Today was a truly remarkable day for us.

Every morning Samuel has woken up and cried for at least 30 minutes, sometimes up to 2-3 hours. This morning, he woke up, sat up in his bed and reached his little arms out for me to pick him up. I waited for the cry, and it never came. Now this was a good start to the day!! We had some fun things planned, so it was nice to start out with a happy baby.

We went downstairs to attempt hailing our first cab by ourselves and successfully communicated through a card that we wished to go to the zoo. We arrived just a few minutes later, bought our tickets and walked through the gates. We put Samuel in his carrier and we were off. He was facing forward in the carrier and as we began walking, he was just staring up at me. I began to talk to him and smile, and then something this momma has been waiting and wishing to happen, he smiled back. Then he began to coo, and smile some more. I hollered at Matt to look, and he was able to see him smiling as well. As soon as he pulled the camera out, of course Samuel decided he was done with smiling for a while. But it was such a special moment, and I was so glad we were able to share that moment with just us 3.

The Guangzhou zoo was amazing. We had a wonderful time. The animals were out and playing. We were able to see a panda, and even feed giraffes!!! Samuel stayed awake the entire time and really looked around and was observing everything. He was quite the happy camper.

There have been 2 things that have concerned us quite greatly in the week since we've gotten Samuel, he wasn't having wet diapers and he has slept constantly, most of the time only staying awake for an hour or two at a time, and crying most of that. Today, our little boy showed us that in a week, his little body has finally began to catch up. He had very wet diapers for the first time today, and didn't even take a nap!!! Like I said, it was quite a remarkable day.

After some Pizza Hut for lunch, we came back to the hotel and had a few hours of play time with lots of smiles and giggles. It was so much fun, just watching our little man enjoy himself for the first time. He is really starting to warm up to us, and we are loving every minute of it!!

We ended this one week from Gotcha Day by taking a river cruise on the Pearl River. WOW!! It was a beautiful evening!! The weather was perfect, and everything is decorated for the Chinese New Year. This city is quite beautiful, and we got many pictures to remember it by tonight.

Well, the countdown is on. Only 3 more days, and then we begin to make the long journey home. I can't wait to squeeze and hug my boys at home, and I can't wait for them to meet their little brother. I can't wait to show Samuel off to all of our family and friends. This little boy is amazing in every sense of the word, and I think God has something quite special for his future.

A reprieve from The Angry Emperor

We are safe in Guangzhou! Our flight was smooth and was a major success! Samuel is the first of my boys to fly in a plane. He did great! We have been granted a reprieve from The Angry Emperor for the time being :)

Guangzhou is a very nice city. There are lots of preparations for the Chinese New Year next week. It is a much needed change of pace from Xi'an. Our hotel is spectacular. Top notch.

It feels like we have turned a major corner with Samuel. We haven't had any meltdowns since arriving in Guangzhou. For those thinking and praying . . . God is good! He is becoming more comfortable by the day. He is still very, very guarded, but it feels like he is beginning to find comfort in Amy and me. We are anxious for him to find enjoyment with us. He is still a very serious little man. We can't wait to see lots of smiles and the sound of laughter.

Today Samuel had the medical exam he needs to immigrate to the US. He had to have blood drawn. He was a real trooper. We walked around Guangzhou for a few hours after his exam. We did some grocery shopping and bought Samuel some shoes. We brought some shoes, but all of them were too big. The only pair he had was from the orphanage and they were actually a bit too small. So, we found some brand new stylish kicks for Samuel that fit!

Samuel had to have another mug shot photo today. I pulled out a mugshot from Sunday and was astonished. I included both pics on this blog post. These pictures were taken 6 days apart. I can hardly believe the change. This daddy is proud of his little man.