My Wonderful Husband!

Daddy and Audie sleeping.

Daddy being silly with Anna.

Daddy helping with Alenia.

Daddy sleeping with Avery.

Daddy who built this doll house from Santa in four 16 hour days.

Daddy who designed this Christmas Tree Halloween costume along with Grampy.

I know that many people may not agree with me, but I truly do have the world's best husband. There are many, many reasons but I thought I would list my top eleven reasons (hey, I couldn't leave out #11) and a few of my favorite pictures.

1. He helps with the kids, cleaning and errands. Now, I have heard of men that don't, but I cannot believe that there are women who tolerate this!

2. He loves my daughter Allison from my first marriage as if she were his "own" child. He even tears up when he states that the only thing he would change was that he was her (only) father.

3. He will clean out the oven for me, the one chore I really, really hate.

4. He comforts me when I need it. A few days ago I was in tears (rare for me) because I was missing my baby (dog) Princess, who has been gone 8 months.

5. He will rub my feet and back whenever I request it with no complaints.

6. He works hard at his job to give his family a nice life.

7. Before we adopted, I watched a show on Oprah with Lisa Ling about Chinese orphans. I bawled all the way through it and made him watch it that night with me again. He agreed with me right then and there that yes, we would adopt a little girl from China. When I came to him about Anna and Audie, he fully jumped on board.

8. He wrestles, tickles, and rough houses with the kids. Which, by the way they love!

9. He makes late night runs for ice cream, carpet cleaner or anything else that may be needed. in a bustling househould of 7!

10. He loves our children endlessly.

11. About one week before I left for China to adopt Audie, we realized we needed our POA certified AND authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in Chicago. He drove there the next day(11hrs) and was at their doorstep when they opened the following day. He then drove all the way home, another 11 hrs.

I love my husband and I do realize how blessed I am to be his wife!!

Becky

Become a Mifan Mommy (or Daddy)

What is a Mifan Mommy? Please click on the link below to be directed to Kay Bratt's blog that explains all of the details.

http://kaybratt.blogspot.com/search/label/Mifan%20Mommy%20Club

This story really touched and deeply upset me. I cannot even begin to imagine my children or any child living like this. Please help if you can, it would mean the world to me!!

Becky

Pictures!!!

Princess Sister Bear loves brownies!Princess Anna!

Priness Avery!!

Train conductor Audie with purple fingernails!!

A perfect tea party!

Avery and Audie driving!!

Anna and Avery

Audie's first time to play with Play Doh. He loved it.

So serious!!!

Do you think he'll hate me for this later????

What's a trip to the park without Sister Bear in time out???

Higher Daddy!!!

Daddy getting his butt kicked by four kids! A grand total of 160 lbs!

Anna loving her Fancy Nancy dress up dress for Valentines.

Sister looking like an angel in her Fancy Nancy dress for Valentines.

Tonight my husband went to see a movie that he had been really wanting to see. There is no way I was going to watch Watchmen, so I stayed home with the four little ones. Allison of course went out with her girlfriends. I think once she has her license, we will never see her again!! :(

Allison has joined the swim and dive team!! This means she gets up at 0430, goes to swim practice, showers at school, goes to school and then on M-W-F she goes to diving practice after school. She is doing fantastic, she loves her new school and is really starting to make some great friends. We are so proud of her!

I told the little ones we were going to have a tea party. First fingernails and toenails were painted, including Audie. He saw his sisters getting theirs painted and he wanted his done too. I don't make a big deal out of "boy" vs "girl" things. I will just let it occur as it will. Then the girls put their dresses on and Audie put on his train conductor outfit! The girls got a touch of make up and lip stick and then it was time for the party! We had lemonade and brownies to every ones delight. They were served using the finest Princess/Prince manners. The girls love it when I called them Princess Anna, Princess Avery, and Princess Alenia. Audie was only interested in the brownies on the serving plate. We had a wonderful snack, danced to Elton John and just giggled. All I can say is I am the LUCKIEST mom to have these fantastic five kids. I am in awe in God's choice to let me be their mother. I am blessed and forever grateful!!!!

Enjoy the pictures which date since we arrived home!

Becky

Birth Mother

I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post. We are still adjusting to having four little ones and me from jet lag. Uhhhhh.....................

We were in the Guangzhou airport at the Japan Airlines counter getting ready for the long flight home. We walk up with two luggage carts loaded, three kids, me and our guide. The line was very long and we were already starting to push the time due to another families trouble with their seats on another flight. We wait patiently while the line moved very slow. I noticed a young and chic woman with a hand held radio monitoring the line. She was wearing a uniform for the airline and had her hair cut short to chin and very modern. She kept watching us and I kept thinking, why don't you go and open up another counter!! We finally made it to the front of the line and had our bags weighed, pass ports checked and our guide escorted us to security and said good bye. The young chic woman who was monitoring the line was "herding" us through to security. I figured she was thinking no way can this woman board this plane by herself with three kids. She would walk a few steps ahead and then stop and wait. She kept staring at the kids, which by this point I almost completely oblivious to (see earlier post on Avery and the attention she attracted). As we approached security she told me "Thank you for adopting our Chinese children". I was taken back slightly and said that I was grateful for the opportunity and very lucky to be their mother. Then she said, "No, thank you very much, they are very lucky to be adopted by you". She was looking at Anna and Audie; Anna more so and I looked at her face and I saw tears. She quickly dried them and then went through security herself and handed us off to another manager who helped us get on the plane first.

Everything happened so fast and I was dreading the three flights home and how the kids would do, especially Audie who completely disagreed on sitting down and wearing seat belts. Oh, how I wish I would've taken five minutes to talk to her. I bet I could've gotten the details from her. Did she have a boy or girl? When was she born? When was she abandoned? Where was she abandoned? Why was she abandoned? Did she have a special need? When we arrived in China I saw so much poverty, unlike anything we have here in the US. I felt a deep level of sympathy for the parents who have had to or had the choice made for them (by their parents) when deciding on keeping a child or not. I had envisioned most parents who abandon their children as farmers from the country side or poor market and factory workers. Not a chic, beautiful, modern woman who had a professional job with the airlines. I know, how did I KNOW she was a birth mother? I just did and my heart ached for her as she obviously ached for her child and wished her a life as she saw my children living.

As much as I hate the one child policy in China, after visiting you can understand how the government made this decision. There are sooo many people (1.3 billion) and less farm land than we have in the US. They import a lot of rice, wheat and soybeans from the US. Also, they help supply food to North Korea.

My perspective has changed a lot since meeting this birth mother and I pray that her child is living the life she wishes for her. I have a new image to add to the one in my head on what my children's birth mother looks like. I hope to be lucky enough to return one day and talk to her, which I know is very unlikely. I will use this lesson to not make harsh judgements on people having to make decisions few ever have too.

Becky

Thank Heaven for Home Sweet Home

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

A beautiful day!!

A very happy boy!

Cute Panda!!

Ice Cream!

More banana's please!

Two goof balls!

Today was the second best day we've had in China!! The first being Audie day of course!! We woke up this morning and we're able to talk to daddy and all of the grandparents! The kids were very excited to talk with everyone and the grandparents we're very happy to talk to Audie for the first time. We then went to the Safari park with our travel group. We took a 45 minute train ride through a safari like setting seeing everything from camels to zebra's and everything in between. The kids LOVED it. Of course Avery attracted some more attention. We then divided up and the kids and I went exploring on our own. We feed elephants! You buy banana's and toss them a small distance and then the elephants eat them. Once they realize you have banana's to feed they stand there with their trunks up and mouths open!! It was so much fun, and elephants are Avery's favorite animal. We then went and saw the Panda Bears!!!! They were just so cute. Anna and I agrees that we should take them home!!! The kids got panda bear hats. Needless to say a Caucasian women pushing a stroller (best decision made all day was to rent a stroller) with one blond child and two Chinese children all holding pinwheels and wearing panda bear hats attracts a lot of attention. We then went to the safari's nursery and saw baby white tigers, baby black bears and baby chimpanzee's. Too cute for words. Then we joined the Chinese tradition of using the bathroom. We just sat down on a bench and Audie starts to cry (his signal he needs to go to the bathroom when he doesn't know where one is). I have two choices, gather everyone and everything up and look for a bathroom or have him pee into the bushes!!!! Just as I tell him to go and I look away so it looks like I don't know what he's doing, our guide walks up. She just laughed and said it was fine. I think we did better than the one woman I saw today who took her daughter JUST outside of the eating pavilion to have her pee on the sidewalk. Whatever it takes to make me feel better!!

We then went to island and ate cheeseburgers again at Lucy's. FYI, NEVER order the "beef stroganoff " at Lucy's. I have the cutest video of Avery and Audie. Wow, can we say "Little Emperor"!!??!! Then it was off to the play ground. The kids had a blast. They definitely needed some time to run wild and burn off some energy. There were also many other adoptive families with their newly adoptive children which is always so nice to see. Audie was a little tentative at first, but he quickly followed the lead of his sisters. Avery made new friends, most of which did not speak English. We then did a little souvenir shopping for our family and some for LWB's art auction. Then we went and a had dessert next to the White Swan, we had a wonderful strawberry tart and a not so wonderful chocolate dessert. The chocolate dessert had a unique taste to it and even Avery didn't like it and if she didn't like it, it must have bad. However, Audie had no problem finishing it off!! We picked up our laundry which was wonderful to know we had clean clothes for the rest of the trip. The girls at the shop helped me get a taxi and the girls took a bath first with the new duckies we acquired and then Audie followed. All three are now in the bed watching The Little Mermaid. I truly could not have asked for a better day. Of course if my entire family was here that would've been better.

Enjoy the pictures!

Becky

Guangzhou

He LOVES chocolate ice cream!

Cotton Candy!!

Three cuties!!

How many "Victory" signs do you see?

One tired boy!! The first night with us!

First bath with us!

We left our hotel early this morning and headed for the airport. I finally got our luggage down to 5 bags and didn't have to pay the excess fee for being over weight. Yeah!! The kids looked really cute all pulling their suitcases through the airport, of course we attracted a lot of attention once again. Audie was not impressed with the fact that he had to leave his seat belt on for the flight, but other than that he did really well. We arrived at the Holiday Inn and got situated in our room and then took a taxi to Shaiman Island and dropped off laundry then headed to Lucy's!! If anyone has ever been there, then you understand. The cheeseburger was great, but the Ketchup was very sweet and had a unique flavor. I would guess maybe all spice or cloves??? The kids were happy, it was a beautiful night so we ate outside. It was so nice seeing so many other adoptive families. Not to be the only one was very nice!!

Audie continues to do very well, he did get mad at me twice on the airplane and once in the hotel room. I timed him on the second cry on the airplane~20 seconds and he was over it!! He will completely ignore you if you have just made him mad. ;) It's kinda funny. He still hits anytime something doesn't go his way. We have a little work cut out for us!!

Tomorrow we are going to the Safari Park, which I'm sure will be interesting. I'll try to post again tomorrow night. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

Becky