4 days down and 6 to go

Ryan has done incredibly well. He stops a couple times a day and points to a part of his body and says "It hurts mommy"! If you just looked at him you would never know he just had surgery on Tuesday. Sorry I didn't post this week but I have a wild boy who won't sit down! As a matter of fact I have to go right now!!!

Ryan's Surgery

Ryan is having surgery tomorrow morning. We are to be at the hospital at 6AM. It is suppose to sleet/snow 1-4 inches overnight so please pray for everyone to make it to the hospital safe and for the surgery.
I will post as soon as I can.

Long Time!

I know this update has been a long time coming but I just have been busy! I posted a slide show and I hope you enjoy it. It is my first smilebox!!! Wow, it was really easy...I will doing this all of the time now! I love it.

Just a little news, Ryan is doing wonderfully and sisters are too. He is having surgery on Dec 16 and I will keep a record of the event on the blog!

We have decided to start a family blog! I will post the link when I have it together.

Hugs!
Cindy

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We're Home

Hi All;

We made it home and everyone is adjusting the best we can to the time change and Jesse is adjusting well to her new brother. I will post some new pictures soon. Ryan David loves his new room he shares with Jesse. Haley and Lyla are thrilled to be home! Lyla could not wait to get our dog from my sister-in-law! Cole, our dog, is adjusting to a new kid. They both are a little scared of each other but I think they will be great friends.

Jesse does have a cast on her arm. My niece and her husband took this picture. with the caption "a safer way for Jesse" with her new blue cast! They are calling it a soft tissue fracture and they put the cast on for 4 weeks. She is suppose to be in a TaeKwonDo tournament in Oct. She did go to her class on Saturday morning. She is really handling everything very well. We are so proud of her!!

Thanks for joining our adventure to China and we have felt the prayers. We are so happy to be home. I will try to update every once in awhile with pictures of course. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. Haley and Lyla go back to school on Tuesday, Jesse starts preschool this week, Haley has to go to the doctor on Tuesday for a insect bite that won't heal (has had it for over a month) and has become very large, I call the commission for special needs children on Tuesday for Ryan, J. and I go back to work on Tuesday and Ryan will come with me and Jesse has several appointments over the next month with her arm.

Love and Hugs,

Cindy

Yangjiang

Not sure when I will write again. We go to Yangjiang tomorrow and leave on Friday for home. Our flight comes in at 6:22PM on Friday on Northwest from Detroit flight 1724. Hopefully the next post will be an update of us being home very soon!!!
Thanks to everyone for their prayers for Jesse. She is very very brave!
Hugs to all! Cindy

Jesse's pictures

Thought I would add the pictures of Jesse giving her hair to locks of love 2 days before we left to come to China!

Jesse update

She has an appointment tomorrow morning at 9:30 with the orthopedic pediatrician. My mom and dad took her to our pediatrician today and he put a splint on it so she can't move it in the sling. Dad said that he explained everything that was going to happen at the hospital to her before they got there and she did great. I asked if she has been upset at all, and he said it just hurts when she moves it. He has already prepared her for a case if the ortho doctor says she needs one.
Just two more days and then on a plane home, can't wait!
We go to Yangjiang tomorrow instead of today.

Jesse

Please send Jesse your prayers. She fell yesterday and hurt her elbow. She didn't tell anyone till later. It started really hurting in the night and my parents took her to the hospital. It seems that she has either dislocated her elbow or there is a fracture. She is in a sling and is in pain when she moves it. She has an appointment with a orthopedic doctor tomorrow morning. My mom called our pediatrician to see if they could get her seen by an orthopedic doctor today. Mom and Dad said she is doing well today, playing with her toys just a few minutes ago. I know she is in good hands. My mom and dad will go to any means to take care of any of our children, just wish I was there for her.

Pictures

Red Couch and Consulate Appointments

We leave in a few minutes to meet the other families to have the red couch photo and group photo! We will then go to the consulate appointment were we swear to take care of Ryan David and they will give him his Visa to come home!!

I will post pictures as soon as we get back. Patti's husband, Ben, and J. are going to try to get to Danny's bagel today...not sure how that will go. We found out last night it is about 25 minutes away!

Haley and I are feeling a little under the weather and I am praying it is just a slight cold. We are wishing for the days to fly so we can get home!!!

We go to Lyla's and Jesse's orphanage tomorrow. I am hoping for the details today! We told her this morning and she said "YEAHHH!!!" then the next thing was..."Oh, I am so Nervous!" I think we made the right choice to wait to tell her.

Oh, the girls talked to Ms. Georges' class (Haley's class) and Mr Wakeman's class last night using Skype! The girls did great answering the questions! Mr. Wakeman is setting up another talk tonight with Ms. Hardesty's class (Lyla's class)! Hope it goes well tonight too!!

Pictures later! Hugs, Cindy

Pictures in Guangzhou and Airplane

We are having fun walking Guangzhou despite the rain. Thank GOD for taxis so they can take us back to the hotel!!!! We all 5 sit in the back seat with the stroller and bags! I think we could have fit Jesse in there too if she was with us.

I haven't talk with Jesse since Friday coz she is staying at my niece this weekend! I am missing her so very much even if she doesn't miss us! I get to talk and see her in the morning!

Today is Sunday so I am feeling like we are almost home. We really only have four more days here because Friday we will be traveling all day! Wednesday we are going to Yangjiang to visit Lyla and Jesse's orphanage. Our coordinate in China, Kathy, spoke with us a couple of days ago and told us the director is very excited about our visit! They told her they would look through their files for additional information too! I am not really looking forward to the drive but I am looking forward to the visit! We have gifts, candy, and a photo album of some of the girls from this orphanage. We have all of the family pictures from the reunion we had in July.

We are going to the Toy Market in a few minutes!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! I am looking forward to seeing you all very very soon!

In Guangzhou

Despite the warning of a Typhoon hitting Guangzhou and coast of China, we made it to Guangzhou safely! Ryan David loved his first airplane ride! He laughed and smiled the entire trip, which is a very good sign for the long way home!
We are doing great in Guangzhou but can not wait to get home!
We did the medical and the forms for the consulate today. We spent the rest of the day walking and seeing old friends in the shops.
more later and hugs,
Cindy

Next post from Guangzhou!

We will be heading to Guangzhou later today. We leave the hotel at 2 PM, go to the Civil Affairs office to pick our his passport, then to a turquoise factory, and then to the airport for a flight to Guangzhou! Pray for a safe, uneventful, calm, first flight for Ryan David and the rest of the family traveling!

Jesse

Jesse, we miss YOU!!!! Love and Hugs Mommy!!!!

more pics!

Baby room in orphanage

family with Director
front of orphanage (Very Big Orphanage)
family w/ director in front of orphanage

The pictures above are from yesterday.

Today has been the best day!!! Ryan David is so smart and clever. He will keep his sisters on their toes. He has been so well behaved today. We have had so many priceless moments in the last 24 hours. He holds my hand instead of me grabbing his. He waits when I ask him too. He has put his head on me so many times in the last day, I just love it!! He slept with me last night and he did cry for about 2 minutes. He just went to sleep for his nap. We shut the curtain and I was playing hearts on my computer on the bed. He watched a couple of games and then laid down on the bed and went to sleep! NO TEARS!!! We watch him in amazement. He takes all of the crayons out of the box, colors for awhile and then puts each one back in the box when he is done. He watched Lyla color and he tried very hard to stay in the lines. I am here to say, he is one smart cookie!!!

We really have no communication problems. He will let you know if he doesn't want something. We have been watching baby signing times and at lunch time he did the sign for eat! He has been doing the sign for "more" for a couple of days.

We visited the Yellow Crane Tower today. This tower was reconstructed 1984 but the original tower was constructed 1700 years ago. There was a boss man that provide a priest with food and drink for a year and in return the priest drew a crane using an orange peel on his wall. He told the boss man if he says a poem the crane with come off of the wall. This brought lots of people to the boss man's business and he earn a great deal of money. After 10 years, the priest came back and told the man he had earn his money and it was time for the crane to come off of the wall. The boss man became sad and he decided to use the money he had earned to build the tower. Hence, the Yellow Crane Tower (yellow because the orange peel made the crane a yellow color) Now, is this story is incorrect, let me know, coz I was trying to listen to our guide while two of my children were running free!! But I think I have the basic facts straight away!

Oh and there were 180 steps to the top of the tower. And did I mention that it is HOT in China!

I love my spaghetti!

I need MORE!!!

Pictures from the Yellow Crane Tower

Just facts no pics (for now)

Thought I would take this post to remember things that have happened over the last few days. Hope I can remember everything!
First, Laura Beth reminded me of the Snoopy connection! The van we have had all week has Snoopy seat covers! We could not believe it when we opened the door to the van and saw them. I want them for my van!!! I just knew we were in the right place at the right time! I love those God moments!!

We received several bags of stuff from Ryan David's foster mom and from the orphanage. We had sent a journal for the foster parents to write in. They returned the journal in the bag and they had made several entries. Our guide read and translated the entries to me today. The foster dad made most of the entries. He spoke of how proud he was on Zheng Pu and how they treated him as their son. It spoke of how they were very happy he was coming to America and having the opportunities he would have. They have been showing him the album we sent him and told him he would be riding in a plane, train, ship, and subway to get to America.
They also said he was very spoiled and he would get mad if he didn't get his way. This was mentioned numerous times in the journal! (side note....like we hadn't figured out yet, boy is he strong willed!) I will write more about the journal later, RD is asleep and it is dark in the room. I need my notes!

The director of the orphanage gave us a photo album of RD from when he was a baby to present. It is a very precious gift. He loves looking at the pictures. We will make copies when we get home so he can have them to look through. We received our film back today from the two cameras we sent. It looks like they were taken at the orphanage on two different occasions. There is one little girl in a picture and our guide said she was adopted last month from a family in America. I will post to the Wuhan group to see if anyone knows her.

Oh, for the adoption community, you will realize the importance of this next section!!! He made poop!!! Sorry but it is a big thing for your child to be regular!! At breakfast Tuesday morning he grabbed his rear in! I told J. he has to go and he took him to our room!! He is so funny! He does great with going to the bathroom. Oh, that was one of the things from the journal, the foster mom said we will need to train him on the western potty! We didn't know he didn't know and he has been using it sooooo we did good training him!!! LOL!

We went to McDonalds yesterday for ice cream and I wish I had brought my camera! RD was so funny eating his cone. I think it may have been his first ice cream cone! He loved it and wore it and I did too!!!

We did go to a huge store yesterday too and bought a stroller! Let me say AMEN to strollers!!! He loves getting in it and going for a ride. He does really well and doesn't try to get out of it at all. Now if he is lose somewhere, he is like the Tasmanian devil! So everyone watch out!!!

I think he is getting really frustrated with the rules of the Lowe gang. Everyone wants to push buttons to the elevator and open the door to the room. He does not get taking turns and boy can he have a fit! He was trying to get under the table at the restaurant we ate at today and he had a little meltdown. On the elevator this morning, there were a lot of people and I didn't let him push the buttons. He had a meltdown all the way to the room. Then he wanted to open the door but it was Lyla's turn. She was going to let him do it but I told her it was her turn and he has to learn or he will be expecting it his way all of the time. He has already learned so many things in such a few days, I don't think this will be a issue for long. I am not the mom that can let stuff slide because a child cries. Even if he is new to the family. It will make it harder on him and us if we are not up front with the rules. He has already stopped hitting for the most part! The good thing is his meltdowns only last for about 3 minutes and he is done. He can be in a full cry with tears and yelling to laughing. I always hug him and tell him he is a good boy!

We went to the orphanage today. It is huge! There are 600 children with 200 staff. Half of the children are in foster care. The children in the orphanage are special need children. There is one entire floor that is set up like a hospital. Most of the children we saw today were mentally handicapped. They have two large rooms that are sponsored by Half the Sky. There are 3 children per staff member and they keep that nanny their entire time they are in that room.

The orphanage was heartbreaking....there were so many children who will not be able to be adopted. They are so precious and it just breaks my heart.

I will end for now. Thanks again for the comments and emails. We are so happy that RD is in our family and we are able to share our journey with you!!! We are ready to go to Guangzhou and then home!!!!

more pictures

The first time we met!
Playing cars with Haley!
Putting Haley's hand on our face playing in the van!
You have to say this is the cutest little boy you have ever seen!
Wuhan from the Civil Affairs office.








The girls and the boy coloring at the Civil Affairs office!


I like to color!!!! And I am left-handed like my daddy!!


Are we done YET!!!!!!


Yeah I get to bug Haley again!!!!