Heading Home!! Of course we are being videotaped at this moment!
Audie and Sister Bears first meeting!
Three cuties dressed up at the White Swan.
Our travel group "red couch" picture.
Our red couch picture. Can we saw little Emperor??
Giving Jie Jie a kiss!
Getting a kiss from Jie Jie.
The reaction of having to sit AND wear a seat belt. What is this woman thinking??
My little Prince.
We have made it back home and there really are no words to describe how wonderful it is to be home again!! We had a very busy last couple of days in China with the medical exam, consulate appt, shopping on the island and off, the swearing in ceremony and packing to come back home. The medical appt went fine until they wanted to look in his mouth at his cleft and then when they were verifying that his testes had descended. He did gain all of the male understanding from our travel group men. Then we went to the park, dinner at Lucy's and a little shopping. The next day we basically repeated the eating at Lucy's and playground and then took a taxi back to the hotel. We had one day left to shop, so we borrowed a stroller and hit the stores. I was buying a present for each one of Audie's birthdays until he turns 18. This way he receives a special present from China each year. I was also doing a little shopping for me and friends and the rest was for the LWB Art Auction. I spent my last Yuan and called it a day. The next day we had the swearing in ceremony at the US Consulates office. Audie was not happy to be having to be still, but as soon as it was over he was great. The sad part was they said that they did 3,590 Chinese Adoptions last year. It was 6100 2 years ago when we adopted Anna. To tell me that there are less children to adopt is true, but definitely there are more than plenty to be adopted. Most of the adoptions we saw were SN kids, which was great. Our favorite part of the last part of the trip was playing at the playground, seeing the older, SN kids play with their American parents sitting with them. It was truly beautiful.
We did finally try and have Anna use the Chinese tolilets. I figured she really had to go, she is Chinese and sits in that squatted position often. We go and she immeditaly wets her dress, socks, shoes and underware. We throw the underware and socks away and put on one of Audie's pullup on him. Great problem solved. Then we are ate Subway as the kids were not very intersted in many of the interesting dinner choices tonight and Avery tells me she really has to go potty. There is no "western" toilet in sight, I have no more pull ups as Audie hasn't had any accidents, so what do you do???? Why you remove Anna's pull up and tell her she is now in Comando and to be very careful with her dress, pull Avery's dress up, panites down and apply pullup and then pull her underware back up. All in the middle of Subway!! Thank you very much, we are now almost a traditional Chinese family.
Back to the hotel to pack all our luggage, make sure I have each child's suitcase and back pack filled with endless toys, snacks, and changes of clothes. I went to bed at about 1045 pm and the was up at 0415 am for the 38 hr day!!!! The kids were not happy to be waking up so early, but to hear we were going home to Kansas made their frowns turn into smiles. Audie of course was oblivious to what was going on. We made it to the lobby on time, had breakfast on the bus and made it to our first flight flying Japan Airlines. They were very nice and helped escort this mother of three to the express boarding line and the wonderful flight attendants helped everyone get situated. Anna sat across the aisle from me where we could still hold hands and I could help her as needed. Which was fine and then a very tall Asian man had the seat next to her and the first and only tears of the trip went off. And it was a big one, of course the flight attendants came and offered her everything under the sun to make her happy. Eventually a Handy Mandy episode did the trick. The flight went well for everyone. Audie and I had our expected battle of having to stay sitting down with a seat belt on, but he was perfect aside from that. Next, Tokyo to Atlanta. The plane was nice, big, spacious and thank goodness it had individual TVs for each seat with many different choices. Anna and Avery quickly figured this out, but Audie was not interested. They had the option of Cantonese or English, neither which he understands. I did give him Benadryl and had a very restless nap trying to sleep on me. This is just another small reminder of what orphanage kids go through, they are not held while they sleep. Never!! My bio kids would just melt right into me, as well as other kids who have love and nurture from day one. Avery woke up and I laid Audie down in his and Avery's seat for a stretched out nap and he did that for about 3 hrs which was nice. He did enjoy the classical music we were listening to with shared headphones. Anna on the other hand had the seat next to her empty and she sprawled out and slept 8 hrs!!! Boy if I could bottle that and sell it, we'd be rich! I unfortunately cannot sleep in airplanes! How people do that is amazing to me. I try every time I fly and the longest I make it is 2-3 minutes top. Needless to say when we got off our last flight from Atl to Wichita, KS I was almost euphoric. I hadn't slept in 31 hrs and there was my husband and daughters Allison and Alenia waiting on me. Audie met everyone with a hug and kiss, Sister Bear was no longer mad at me for being gone and even Allison was happy to see me and meet her brother. We went home and had Taco Bell and then everyone crashed. Audie and Alenie slept in their beds in their shared room and it was precious. The next morning, Allison begged to take Audie to her school in his Chinese Outfit to show him off and he completely ate it up!!! Then he happily went back to Daddy! This kid is amazing!
All the kids took a nap that day while Daddy and I tried to unpack my mess and wash 10 loads of laundry. We had Chipotle for dinner and it was fabulous! No cumin or chipotle seasoning for over 2 weeks! Then I took my sleeping pills and went to bed. Audie woke up at 1230 and I gave him some Bendaryl and then slept until 7 am. We are all still out of schedule on our sleep schedules. That day we took all four kids to get their hair cut, to target-2 baskets and then back home. This evening Audie was up from 1230 to 4 am, I benadryled him again and he finally went back to sleep at 4 am. I am one tired Mama. This evening everyone was benadyrled about an hour before bedtime. Audie cried immediately when he figured out it was time for bed. I told him firmly in English and ESL that it was bedtime and not to cry. He stopped for about a minute and then did it again, I repeated myself and he's been asleep since then. We'll see what tonight brings.
Enjoy the last couple of days of pictures and hopefully my next post will be about me sleeping like log (and my children)!
Becky
Back to the hotel to pack all our luggage, make sure I have each child's suitcase and back pack filled with endless toys, snacks, and changes of clothes. I went to bed at about 1045 pm and the was up at 0415 am for the 38 hr day!!!! The kids were not happy to be waking up so early, but to hear we were going home to Kansas made their frowns turn into smiles. Audie of course was oblivious to what was going on. We made it to the lobby on time, had breakfast on the bus and made it to our first flight flying Japan Airlines. They were very nice and helped escort this mother of three to the express boarding line and the wonderful flight attendants helped everyone get situated. Anna sat across the aisle from me where we could still hold hands and I could help her as needed. Which was fine and then a very tall Asian man had the seat next to her and the first and only tears of the trip went off. And it was a big one, of course the flight attendants came and offered her everything under the sun to make her happy. Eventually a Handy Mandy episode did the trick. The flight went well for everyone. Audie and I had our expected battle of having to stay sitting down with a seat belt on, but he was perfect aside from that. Next, Tokyo to Atlanta. The plane was nice, big, spacious and thank goodness it had individual TVs for each seat with many different choices. Anna and Avery quickly figured this out, but Audie was not interested. They had the option of Cantonese or English, neither which he understands. I did give him Benadryl and had a very restless nap trying to sleep on me. This is just another small reminder of what orphanage kids go through, they are not held while they sleep. Never!! My bio kids would just melt right into me, as well as other kids who have love and nurture from day one. Avery woke up and I laid Audie down in his and Avery's seat for a stretched out nap and he did that for about 3 hrs which was nice. He did enjoy the classical music we were listening to with shared headphones. Anna on the other hand had the seat next to her empty and she sprawled out and slept 8 hrs!!! Boy if I could bottle that and sell it, we'd be rich! I unfortunately cannot sleep in airplanes! How people do that is amazing to me. I try every time I fly and the longest I make it is 2-3 minutes top. Needless to say when we got off our last flight from Atl to Wichita, KS I was almost euphoric. I hadn't slept in 31 hrs and there was my husband and daughters Allison and Alenia waiting on me. Audie met everyone with a hug and kiss, Sister Bear was no longer mad at me for being gone and even Allison was happy to see me and meet her brother. We went home and had Taco Bell and then everyone crashed. Audie and Alenie slept in their beds in their shared room and it was precious. The next morning, Allison begged to take Audie to her school in his Chinese Outfit to show him off and he completely ate it up!!! Then he happily went back to Daddy! This kid is amazing!
All the kids took a nap that day while Daddy and I tried to unpack my mess and wash 10 loads of laundry. We had Chipotle for dinner and it was fabulous! No cumin or chipotle seasoning for over 2 weeks! Then I took my sleeping pills and went to bed. Audie woke up at 1230 and I gave him some Bendaryl and then slept until 7 am. We are all still out of schedule on our sleep schedules. That day we took all four kids to get their hair cut, to target-2 baskets and then back home. This evening Audie was up from 1230 to 4 am, I benadryled him again and he finally went back to sleep at 4 am. I am one tired Mama. This evening everyone was benadyrled about an hour before bedtime. Audie cried immediately when he figured out it was time for bed. I told him firmly in English and ESL that it was bedtime and not to cry. He stopped for about a minute and then did it again, I repeated myself and he's been asleep since then. We'll see what tonight brings.
Enjoy the last couple of days of pictures and hopefully my next post will be about me sleeping like log (and my children)!
Becky
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