Our journey to Drew

Christmas time!!

2008-12-23T13:29:00.004-06:00

Boy, do I have some cute stories to tell about Drew. Guess what he had started saying he wanted for Xmas last month? A baby sister! He heard us talking about it a while ago and he told his teacher at school that he was getting one! Wow his wish will come true in the near future. We have decided to adopt again, this time a little girl from Korea. We're just waiting on our homestudy to get done , our paperwork is done (much quicker, less painful than for China). The wait is still around a year or so though by the time it's all said and done, we're looking like probably 1 1/2 yr.
We took him and Riley to meet Santa and all that jazz too. The cutest thing is that he brought in his stocking and said he was ready to go , so Santa Claus could fill his stocking up with toys. Good thing I didn't let him take it with us there-haha. He was not even afraid of Santa, and sat right down on his lap without hesistation. He told him he wanted a transformer, but later changed his mind to power rangers. I had to "call" Santa and let him know this new change of plans.

We watched Frosty the Snowman on TV last week or so and he kept calling him "Krosty" instead. At first, I thought for sure he called him "Krusty".....again, too cute. Drew has really caught on to the idea of this Christmas thing, he knows he will get presents really soon. He's already counted his gifts under grandma's tree and ours. We were homefrom church a few weeks ago and he started singing Jingle Bells. It took a little bit for me to realize that he'd never heard this before or sang it for that matter. I asked where he'd heard that and he said at church. They were starting to practice for their Christmas program songs and Drew learned the chorus of it after the first time. The following Sunday night, during bath time he repeatedly was singing Happy Birthday Jesus over and over , yet again another song he'd heard. I should 've recorded it. This past Sunday evening was their program in which Drew was a shepherd. He asked me if he could keep his "costume" before we got there and ,"if it was going to be Iron Man". Of course I had to try and explain this concept to him, which I should've showed him pictures of shepherds-duh. He did great in it, though he was playing around and dropped his "big stick" as he called it. Don't you just love his hair in the pic too? I had to laugh even though he was so cute.

Still here

2008-12-23T13:23:00.005-06:00

Surprise everyone! Yes we are still laggin' behind with posting as usual, but we are still here and doing just great too. Since I'm so far behind here, I'll just mention the pics on here. We went to our friends to Pumpkin Hollow to feed the animals, take a pony and a hay ride, play on hay bails, and pick out pumpkins. Drew had a big time there, as you can see. For Halloween he was the bumble bee transformer. He almost wasn't though, as he had a bad day and was refusing to go trick or treating! Thank goodness he changed his mind, he loved every minute of it. By the time we were done, his little pail was full as could be. Guess I should throw what's left of it in the trash now.

Urumqi reunion at the river

2008-09-23T12:12:00.004-05:00

Two other families who also adopted and traveled to/ from Urumqi, China joined us for the weekend at my parents' house at Current River in Doniphan,MO. The Prescotts, John,Karen, Lily and Luke are from Springfield,MO and we visited them earlier this summer. The other family were the Morales,- Tonio, Becky, Vivi, Maya, and Tonito from the Chicago area. The Prescotts arrived early around dinner time and the Morales got there around 10 p.m. due to unexpected news and several stops along the way. Drew was getting so tired waiting for Tonito, that he told Scott to wake him up when he got there, however, he never did take a nap. So needless to say, the kids were running around trying to keep awake til they got there. At first meeting, Drew was a little quiet and stand off -ish, only b/c he was so tired and not sure how to react to them all being together. This changed quickly as all the kids jumped in their sleeping bags in the floor lying beside each other to go to sleep. This was such a cute sight to see. The only two left there in the morning were Drew and Tonito. Drew got up around 7 and came in our room to wake me up. The weather had been dreary and rainy that night they got there, and we weren't sure how it would play out the rest of the day for Sat. but it ended up not raining just being really cloudy. The kids played in the hot tub a bunch of times and we got to go on a boat ride, though the wind was a little chilly. They thoroughly enjoyed being together and playing the entire weekend. They all got along really well, with no fighting, no crying, and hardly any whining! Karen brought a pinata and the kids helped fill it with tons of candy which they later got to bust open. Man did they love doing this! The kids also got to roast marshmallows over the fire pit and make s'mores. As Karen said, it was pitch black and we only had some flashlights to see the fire, the kids, the food, and the river beside us. Thank goodness no accidents!
Sunday morning came too fast for us all. The Prescotts left early that morning around 7:00 but the Morales fixed breakfast for us and ended up following us to our home in Malden, an hour away. They were driving to St Louis to go to the zoo the next day, so they decided to visit for a little while. Drew was so excited to show Tonito his room, toys, and all the animals. Vivi, Tonito's sister loved the two kittens we have and held them the entire time making sure our puppy Copper didn't harm them. He also took him for a ride on his "vroom vroom" (his battery powered 4wheeler), which they both loved. They also got to hitch a ride with Scott on his new 4 wheeler, which they both wanted to go fast! We all ate leftovers for a late lunch, then they headed toward St. Louie. It's a good thing Drew didn't understand or realize that it might be a long time before he gets to see his little buddy again. Hopefully we will get to Springfield for the Chinese New Year celebrations, this would be a first for us & Drew. We all said that we will have to plan future "reunions" esp so that the family in Florida can join in. Well enjoy the pics!

Drew's updates

2008-09-18T12:54:00.002-05:00

Yes we're lagging behind in updating this blog. There's so much to talk about now, that I can't keep up and remember it all. Well I finally took Drew to the dentist about a month ago, yes I"m a slacker with that too. Anyhoo, his teeth checked out great, no cavities! Drew had to go back by himself and he wasn't scared nor asked me to go with him--this was one of the firsts. We were just amazed that he didn't have any cavities since he eats lots of candy. Drew loves going to school still. He also now goes to ESL class three times a week. Yesterday, we had our 6 month post adoption visit with our social worker here. Drew was such a ham and had us laughing most of the time she was here. First let me back up, Drew had a minor surgery last week (circumcision). So he proceeded to tell Rebecca our social worker that the doctor fixed his wee wee, among other statements.... He had to show her his bedroom and everything in it. He even showed her his stash of cash he has hidden in his underwear drawer. She was surprised we had more animals/pets than the last time she was here. Just recently we've added 2 kittens, and a puppy as of last week. So now we've reached our quota with 4 cats, 2 dogs, 4 rabbits, and 1 iguana. Maybe we should start charging admission or something.... Drew had to show off all his pets to her too. She was quite impressed with Drew's continued progress and how bright he is.
We're just thankful that he has adjusted amazingly well and secure in such a short time and is the perfect fit in our family. Well in one more day, we will be seeing two other families that we traveled with to Urumqi to meet our kids. Drew is soooo excited and happy, he can't stand it!!
They are meeting us at my parents' house at the river for the weekend. Yes it will be such a short weekend, but well worth it. The only downside is that the family from Florida won't be attending, good grief that'd be a long drive!

Time for school

2008-08-25T14:04:00.003-05:00

Well Drew started preschool last Monday with a slow start. He had been waking up early for the entire past 2 weeks prior to starting, however this day, he did not want to get up. He was sooo crabby. I had to prod him just to move an inch. He couldn't decide what he wanted for breakfast and we were running late anyway, so he stood in the kitchen and started to cry. So, the first day of school pics were NOT what I had anticipated. However, once we got to school he cheered up and was fine when I left. The next day, we took another pic b/c he was in his regular cheery mood, so he cheezed it up big time. Drew has been doing great in school so far, receiving good marks everyday from his teacher. She noted that he was a very good boy and a super listener! Last week, he came home and asked me who could come over to play with him, he was already bored at home with me. I told him everyone was at school or at the babysitters and he said, "no one play with Drew." Too bad his class doesn't last all day, it only goes til 11 a.m. I'll have to find ways to entertain him for the rest of the year.

Drew has his first gymnastics class last Friday. He loved it, to say the least. The first part of it was body conditioning and it wore me out just watching them. I figured he'd be tired by the time they got to the rest of it but he did great. He practiced doing hand stands, cartwheels, and a whole lot of jumping and running too. Everyday since, he asks in the morning if it's flip time. He wants to go everyday now. When we'd watch gymnastics on the Olympics, he'd say, "Drew can do that." We'd just laugh and let him go on.

Bonding time

2008-08-12T10:23:00.002-05:00

Last weekend Drew and I went camping with our friends the Lampes. Scott was working so he couldn't go this time. We drove to Sam A Baker state park on that Friday evening and was dark by the time we got there so I missed a few turns on the way. Luckily, it wasn't too bad though. Deer jumped across the road right in front of us before we turned to go into the campground too.

Drew loved this new camping experience. He got to roast marshmallows, even though he didn't like to eat them. They had paved roads and bike trails so we all rode our bikes alot too. The park presented a snake encounter program for the kids that we went to and Drew got to pet a snake, he didn't want to hold it just yet. He also swam in the river like a fish. Thank goodness he's taken a liking to the water! He told us that he wanted to stay 5 times camping, he liked it so much. He also said "babaw sleep here, bed fall down!" and laughed hysterically. I couldn't help but laugh too as he said this when we were going to bed one night. We both enjoyed the snuggle time we got since we had to sleep in the same bed. So after we got home the whole next week, he wanted to sleep in our bed. Yikes, Scott said not to get that started-haha.

Our trip to see the Prescotts

2008-08-12T09:49:00.004-05:00

The day after Drew's b'day party, we left bound for Springfield/Branson. We met the Prescotts, a family we traveled with in China. They adopted their son, Luke from Urumqi while we picked up Drew and they also have a 4 yr old daughter Lily who was adopted when we was about a yr old. We met for a late lunch at a nice Japanese steak house that was delicious. After that, we went to their house so we could visit more and the kids could play in their backyard. The kids loved it, as they got to jump on their trampoline, look for bugs and fish in their pond, and play in their treehouse. The next day, they rode with us through the animal park. I don't know who was more excited to see/feed the animals--me or the kids! By the end of it, all four kiddos were standing up, hanging out of our sunroof- thank goodness we had to go slow. We later had lunch at this pizza joint that had indoor go karts and arcade. This was Drew's first time for this and he loved it. John, Luke, and Lily came to our hotel to swim that evening, which all the kids really enjoyed. The next day, we spent in Branson going to the Titanic exhibit, which was really interesting esp with two kids..haha. I also got to go shopping of course at the outlet mall. That evening we went back to Springfield to have dinner at the Prescotts' house. By then, the kids really played well together and played hard too. Wednesday, we went to an animal show in Branson then met the Prescotts at the Branson Belle Showboat for dinner and show. At one point, Drew was sitting beside me and Lily was on my lap with Drew insisting on putting his arm around Lily's neck. It was toooo cute!! After the show, our boys still wanted to play with the kids so they came back to our hotel to swim and say their final goodbyes. We were so used to seeing them everyday, too bad we had to go home.

Drew's 5 !!!!!!

2008-07-29T13:59:00.005-05:00

As of July 15, Drew turned 5. We rented a huge blow up water slide for the kids to play on. Drew and Riley loved this thing. Drew got scared and intimidated when all the kids got here and started playing on it though. He doesn't like crowds of kids just yet, he' d rather have a small group or one on one interaction. We also had to get the spiderman slip n'slide out too for the little ones.

The week before the party, Drew asked every day when his birthday was (as it was on Tues and the party was on Sat.) Therefore, he thought or wished that he had 2 birthdays and turned 5 yrs old then 6 yrs old at the party. Whenever someone asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he'd reply, "spiderman presents." So... low and behold, that's what he got. He now has virtually most of everything with spiderman on it. We even got him a spiderman bicycle with training wheels of course. He now rides it around the block in the evenings and loves it. He thinks he is such a big boy now, just like brother Riley. The only thing now, he can't wait to turn 6!! He's growing up soooo fast already.....

Summer of fun

2008-07-29T13:11:00.008-05:00

There's so much to blog about and catch everyone up on about Drew and our family. He is doing really good as before, still eating every fruit and vegetable in sight, talking up a storm these days. He's practically lost all of his Mandarin and speaks only in English now. He won't answer anyone who speaks to him in Chinese but only in English as well. Drew still loves to go fishing, matter of fact he won the kid's fishing derby he was in in June. He caught a 6.9 lb rainbow trout to take the lead. He received a new fishing rod/reel, tackle box , and duffle bag. He beat hundreds of other kids in this tournament, though he truly didn't realize just what a feat it was at the time! The fish was so big Drew was scared of it. We're getting it mounted so that he won't forget this big day. Here are a few pics with his prize winning fish.

We took the kids plus my niece and a friend to the waterpark earlier this summer too. Drew was not too excited about this at first. Finally after lunch he loosened up and got in the water freely to play and asked to go in the lazy river again and again. He wouldn't go down the waterslides but he would act as if he was swimming in the ankle deep part of the wave pool. This was good enough we thought.

We celebrated 4th of July over at the river house, eating lots of food, playing in the river and shooting fireworks. Drew loved the sparklers that he could hold, though he had grabbed hold of a punk/lighter and burned his finger. I'm not sure if he had seen big fireworks before or not, as he didn't make too much of a fuss over them though he did like watching them. The pics of him and Riley doing fireworks at home somehow ended up above this post as well as pics of us at the river.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Six Flags with our friends and their little girl. Drew was happy to see the Looney Tune characters up close, especially Scooby Doo who was there. He actually rode a few roller coasters/type rides but didn't really like them. He rode the new Tony Hawk spinning roller coaster with Riley, Chloe and Felisa but said he didn't want to ride it again. The day was hot but the lines for the rides weren't that bad. It actually rained us out of the park at the end of the day so we headed back home sooner than planned. The pic is of their fake tatoos they had to have before leaving.

We also visited our local children's museum here in town. Yes, we have this here in our very small rural town matter of fact. It is called the Bootheel Youth Museum and is visited by hundreds year round. One of the pics is of Riley, Drew, Chloe and Sadie standing in front of the animal furs hanging on a display. Another is of the town grocery store that they liked to play in. The third is the big sized bubble maker.

School dayz

2008-06-09T12:24:00.002-05:00

Well Drew went to preschool all last week and even stayed til the end of the day 2:45 four of the five days. He said he liked it and had fun. All he could talk about was Mrs Traci and he even mentioned a classmate's name too. Last Friday I had to pick him up early from the Bootheel Youth Museum from their field trip and when I got there, he was running around holding hands with two girls who are twins. He had one on each hand and laughing. I wish I'd had my camera to take that cute pic. We later teased him about this and he knew what we were talking about, and he just smiled big and giggled. This summer school lasts the month of June only and regular session starts back in Aug. By that time we think Drew will be an "old pro" at going to school and getting into that routine. Drew is starting to interact more with his classmates now too, according to his teacher. He is a very sociable kid and so we figured it wouldn't take too long, he just has to get used to them.

I took Drew and a friend Chloe to see Kung Fu Panda yesterday. He was sooo excited and kept asking where Kung Fu was during all the previews before it started. If you ask him about the movie he'll tell you about Po and Tai Lung fighting, it's so cute to see. Now he keeps asking for money to go buy the DVD. We already are planning on that, just waiting til it comes out.
Oh yes, he also wants all the figures from McDonald's from the movie too. He's got two pandas and another character so far.

On another note, forgot to include a post from last week. We are now the owners of rabbits after seeing Austin's, we decided that the kids would love to have them. Riley has asked many times in the past for one anyway. So we bought 4 and 1 died the next day. They are the cutest things though. Drew runs out to check on them everyday. Scott built a big cage for them too so they are doing great. Hmm... now what other animals can we get to add to our zoo?....

More "firsts" for Drew

2008-06-03T10:44:00.004-05:00

Last week as usual, we were still quite busy. Drew got his first haircut, finally. His hair was over his ears! Everyone kept asking when he was going to get a haircut, it was getting bad. So my hairdresser, Nick cut it for free. He gave me my first haircut too so it was only natural that he cut Drew's too. I took pics of this as well and will post them soon. Drew was very quiet sitting in the chair, never talked or moved. He of course wanted Riley to get his hair cut too, if he had to do it. He always sure to try and get Riley to do the same as he has to do, such as going to bed, etc. So anyway, Drew looks so cute with his new do'. After this, we went to the movies, which was also a first for him. He looked at the screen and said, "big DVD". He still can't wait to see KungFu Panda , and still doesn't understand that we just can't go buy the DVD to watch here yet. The next day was Drew's first day to actually go "swimming". He got in and waded around, then later agreed to get into a little floatie boat that wouldn't tip over. He loved for us to push him around in this. He thought he was a big boy. He later got brave and tried to sit on this shark floatie which he fell off of and went under but Scott was there to pull him back up. He didn't like this so he didn't want to get back on after this accident, who could blame him?
We believe it won't take long for him to be swimming around this summer, as this was only the first day that he'd been in an outside pool and he was quite brave. He knows that his cousin Taylor is going to teach him how to swim and he is looking forward to it.

Last night at his friend Chloe's, Drew learned how to swing himself around or flip over the rings on her swingset. He was so proud of himself and he came and dragged me out to show me his new trick. He later got mad when he couldn't do this on our swingset at home because the rings are different. I told him that I'd show him how to do it and he was ok then.

So yesterday was his first day at summer preschool. I took him late in the day and he was fine to go but he didn't want me leaving. He "caught" me trying to leave and he kept saying, "Kimber, quit!" So finally Mrs. Traci just dragged him away crying as I left. However, after calling to check on him, I found out he quit crying as soona s I walked out and was fine. He got restless about an hour or so later and was asking for me so I went to get him. He had a paper with stickers on it and a beaded necklace with a smiley face sun on it. He immediately asked about the Spiderman DVD that I'd promised him if he'd be good at school,etc. He doesn't forget anything.... Right now he is at school again. He didn't cry at all and wasn't nearly as clingy as yesterday. Maybe we're making progress! So since he's not here, I have time to blog and clean his room-hhaa. He will get ESL tutoring this summer after his preschool class too. Hopefully he can stay focused long enough for the teacher. The other night while watchin E.T. for the 3rd night in a row, Drew said,"mama, two E.T., why?" He said it twice before I realized what he'd said. He continues to ask many questions such as, "what are ya doing?" He wants an answer for everything. He was getting the cat inside last night and he said, "get in there". He'd heard us say that before at other times, but then I hadn't said a word so he came up with that all on his own.
Speaking of the cat, he continues to love on them both everyday. The laid back cat now hisses and growls at him almost immediately now when he tries to pick her up and the other cat now is more easy going--who would've thought... He also loves on Katie, our dog everyday even though she bit him on the forehead about 3 weeks ago. Luckily this had healed up wonderfully, even though it looked horrendous.

Finally.... some pics!!!

2008-05-27T16:08:00.004-05:00

Here are a few pics of Drew since we've been home. He has the best time riding on his 4-wheeler and playing on his new swingset babaw put together for him and Riley. Scott has him saying "peace out" and making hand gestures too. This is the funniest to hear! He's already getting that Southern drawl'---hahha

Drew's first fish was a good sized blue gill. Here he is taking his first lessons from his uncle Mark.

More of Drew's adventures

2008-05-27T15:53:00.004-05:00

Well we had a very busy last week/weekend. Last Friday, Drew had to have a spinal tap done. He was a true trooper for this though. He only started to cry when they had to stick him for the third time in the hand for an IV and even then he never whimpered. He was sedated for the procedure, which only took <10 minutes. After that he had to lie flat for 30 minutes, then he got to pick out three "prizes" for being such a tough/brave boy. We then had to go to xray so they could get pics of his long bones. This was so funny because everytime he heard the machine go off, he would smile really big. We told him everytime that he had to smile for the pictures. It was so cute, he had the staff chuckling. Because he was unable to eat before the procedure, he was starving so we ate at Olive Garden (which he loves). He ate a large helping of salad, and most of his spaghetti. You would never had known he had anything done to him that day, thank goodness. We got home and he was ready to "vroom vroom" his 4wheeler. We have an appt with a pediatric opthamologist on 6/25 and the GI pediatric doctor on 6/13. He also has to get caught up on his immunizations in the meantime too. This should take a while to get completed though.

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to the river and stayed with my parents. Drew has been there before with me but this time, he got to go fishing with his new Spiderman fishing reel and go for boat rides. He absolutely loved being on the boat! He asked about "the boat" constantly when we weren't in it. We kept his life jacket on him the entire time out in the sun, so he has darker arms, legs, and his face is brown as a biscuit now even with lots of sunscreen. He also had a good time in the hot tub. He probably thought it was a big bath tub to play in!

Drew's citizenship papers finally came in last week so we've sent off for his Mo birth certificate and just today, applied for his SS# card, which takes forever. So, he will have the last of his official paperwork done very soon!

Drew and Riley both went fishing with Scott today. He got them up at 5 a.m.! Let me tell you that Drew is still going strong and has not had a nap all day and it is now after 7 p.m. He fights sleep so badly. He accidentally lost his fishing pole in the water, as he let go of it at some point. He told Scott, "babaw, kahn (look) spiderman,bye!" as it went under.
Drew is always saying "one time" to everything that is asked of him to do or try. So now we all basically answer for him with his famous one time reply, while laughing the whole time. He will try anything once, whether it's trying different food or giving out kisses to everyone. He also now asks, "what are you doing?" He's said this a few times here lately. He tells us all the time that he wants something that Riley has such as games, toys, anything and everything. He also told us that he wants a "big woof woof" like Austin's (his cousin). His uncle Mark told him that he'd get him one if it was ok with his babaw--thanks for that one!...haha He reminds us just about everyday that he wants a "big woof woof". Maybe one of these days he will get his wish.

Well the pictures are FINALLY uploaded to our computer folks, so be ready to see lots of pics of Drew and the rest of our gang!

Progressing right along...

2008-05-21T08:15:00.005-05:00

Drew continues to learn more things/English everyday and talks up a storm. He can now say 3-4 word sentences too. Here are some words and things he says on a daily basis- "What is it?", "I not know", "I love you big", "Come on Katie", "Look Mama", and much more. It's the funniest thing when he gets onto Katie our dog or one of the cats by telling them "boo!" (which means no in Chinese). He is now used to saying No and Yes as well to questions we ask him. He understands everything we ask of him and tell him to do, while answering or responding appropriately. His aunt Rose taught him how to play cards, the high /low game. He now knows the faces of the high cards and asks to play all the time. Today he started cheating a little bit though when he played with Nai Nai. He liked to pick out the high cards for himself and gave the low ones to her. That's what I call strategy! ...hahha
He asks about these folks Riley, Felisa, Chloe, Sadie, Uncle Mark, Austin- he usually asks me where they are everyday. He is now used to answering his own question of where everyone is, with answers being "school" or "shong ban" -(which is work in Chinese). He says vroom -vroom (meaning either he wants to go riding in the car somewhere, or he wants to drive his 4wheeler he just got 2 days ago).
He can clearly say anything you ask him to repeat, usually on the first try. Actually, he repeats anything we say , even when we don't ask him to. He wants to see Kung Fu Panda, he got the stuffed animal and the book at Kohl's and now when he sees the commercial he says "Kung Fu Panda, DVD!" I try to explain it's not out on DVD yet, we have to go to the movies to see it when it comes out. He can identify everyone by pictures as well.
Last weekend his Uncle Mark brought him 6 quarts of fresh strawberries. Drew ate all but those that I sent with Scott to work. He called him and asked him about the "big strawberries", meaning he wanted more!
Now, Drew asks to go to the gym with babaw everytime he goes. I showed Drew pictures of weightlifters/gym in a magazine when he asked where babaw was one day and ever since he now knows when he hears the word gym that he wants to go too. He makes the funniest motion with his arms as if he is lifting or pushing weights to show us what he wants to do. Now he says"pump it up" along with the motions, which is hilarious to watch. He eats more so that his muscles get big too. He makes a muscle with his arm to show it off too.

Well it looks like we'll be going to see a pediatric GI doctor in St Louis soon for his colon. It seems they want to do a scope just to see what all they "fixed" in China and to make sure it works as it should. He is doing bettter going to the bathroom too--after the Miralax episodes.
As far as his eating habits, they're coming along too. He now eats chicken nuggets and can pronounce them , along with McDonalds. He finally found a cereal he likes, which is Honey Smacks-he calls it mama's because it's mine. He continues to eat tons of fruits and some veggies though which is great. He prefers to eat the onions and peppers out of the meat dishes, so we have to remind him to eat some of the meat too. Some days he will eat fruits and snacks all day long, (not enough in my opinion), and some days he'll woof down tons of food/meals.
Last weekend, he went to his first swimming b'day party. He did actually get in the pool with his babaw, but didn't want to stay in it for too long. He'd been "practicing " swimming in the bathtub all week prior to this party. He'd basically let us know that he wanted to go swimming in his own way. So now that the party is over, he said he wants to go again! We'll see.... hopefully he will learn to love to swim and play in the water. We're going to the river this weekend again and he'll get to ride in our boat for the first time too. This should be fun to watch. He thinks our dog Katie can drive the boat-(he sees a pic of her sitting in the driver's seat and laughs all the time)!

Another day

2008-05-02T14:57:00.002-05:00

Drew was asleep last night at 9:15 and guess what time he woke up this morning?
Well it was 9:00 ! Can you say sleepyhead? Yes , that's what Scott and Riley always called me because I never got up as early as they did, but now I can say Drew is the real deal here.
He woke up in a good mood and with a smile on his cute face as he usually does. Isn't that pleasant to think about? At least he's not a bear to wake up. He ate a banana and 1 1/2 eggs that Scott fried for him. We didn't make it to preschool again today. We only made it there once this week. We'll try again next week. We just got done going around the block, with him riding his tricycle and I was walking. It's been storming and raining here earlier and still sprinkling a little but we made it back. He just had to ride through all the big water puddles too. He has now just finished off another box of strawberries we just bought this morning. I only bought 2. For lunch, I made philly cheese steak sandwiches, which Drew loved the meat, onions, and green peppers. He ate a lot of the cut up pepper raw and then ate more that were cooked. He ate broccoli warmed up in the microwave as a snack last night before bed. Isn't that strange for kids to request this for a snack? Strange, but healthy.

He questions everything that he comes across in asking if it is his. He points to himself and says,"Drew's?" , or "woh, Drew's?" When we say yes , you would think we just gave him a million dollars! When he found all the toothpaste and toothbrushes we had for him, he counted it all and then jumped up and down when he knew they were his. When we started going for our walks around the block, he would go to everyone's mailbox and try to open them to get their mail. He didn't realize it was somone else's mail he was trying to get. When we get our mail, he immediately asks if it is his and wants some of it to carry and call his own. So thank goodness for junk mail, it's all his! He is happy to get it too. He has this thing for papers, pamphlets, leaflets, advertisements, instruction booklets, etc. He kinda hoards them in his room and hides them in his drawers and under his pillow. He likes to get them out and look or "read" them alot.

He talks all the time and is busy almost constantly, unless he's watching a movie or asleep-haha. He sings his little Chinese songs and phrases alot still too. It's soo cute to hear him talk. He is so cheerful, happy -go-lucky most of the time too. He loves to play hide-and-seek, especially with his Nai Nai (grandma). His little laugh is sooo darn cute! He likes to play fight/wrestle , play karate kicking with his baba too. He thinks it's so funny to beat him up and to catch his leg when kicking it up. He is so talkative and playful with us, but sometimes with new people he clams up. He tends to do this when we go to preschool to visit too. We wish that everyone could see him interact at home to see his shining personality and abilities. He now likes to tell us or remind us to say thank you, so he can say your welcome! When we tell him we love him, he says it right back with even more emphasis, it's sooo sweet to hear!

More catching up

2008-05-01T16:21:00.007-05:00

Well as you can read, there's not a lot of time to update this blog or read/catch up on our emails either. So we apologize in advance. Drew is outside at the moment with Scott so I have a few minutes to spare. He is continuing to adjust pretty well this week. Last weekend, he went to church for the 2nd time and did really well. He stayed in his Sunday school class with Riley the entire time as before and then went to children's church afterwards. We'll be glad when he gets used to going and when he really understands the reasons for going. He also went fishing for the 3rd time and had a great time. He reeled in 3 or 4 fish for his baba and he actually cast out and caught 1 himself! They were all large bluegill. He thought about keeping each one, and when we asked why, he replied with a biting motion and pointing to his mouth! He is turning out to be quite the little fisherman, just like his daddy. Forgive me for not posting any pictures lately, I haven't had time to upload any yet! Oh yes, last weekend was our niece Taylor's 16th b'day party. Riley and Drew had a big time dancing and running around there. Riley stayed out on the dance floor the entire time cuttin' a rug. Drew got a helping hand, or actually got carried around on his cousins' Austin and Jesse's backs while they were boogeying down on the dance floor. Drew loved this and wasn't shy at all.
This week we met his regular pediatrician too. He did great there, and was entertained by dad the whole time. They only flag we got was with his colon. They took an x-ray of it and it was really enlarged and full of stool. So now we have to give him Miralax to get rid of it all and see where we stand. We hated to see that his colon was so large, considering the problems/surgery he had when he was a baby. Well we have to go back in a week or so and get re x-rayed. There are a lot of what ifs and I can't help but think ahead and prepare for the unknown. Speaking of Drew's eating habits. He is still eating all kinds of fruits. In the mornings, he usually wants either strawberries, oranges, grapes, carrots, plums or bananas. There is no variance either here. Only Scott can get him to eat an egg occasionally. He doesn't like cereal, pancakes, waffles, donuts, any of that kind of stuff. Drew now bargains for pieces of beef jerky in the morning too. Today he forgot to get the piece but he ate a bag of strawberries and a bag of bananas. He now found out he likes canteloupe as well, so we can add it to the growing list. He now has this obsession with having his food in a plastic baggie. I have to put his fruit in a bag for him to carry around. He almost always eats every bit of it too. Even when we go anywhere we pack snacks of the same fruits for him to eat. He gobbles it all up usually too. I've never in my life bought so much fruit in such a short time, no kidding. We have to make extra trips to the grocery store just for fruit when he runs out. You would think that his bowels would be working great with all the fruits and veggies he eats too. That's what makes me wonder....
As far as regular meals goes, we've found he likes and will eat spaghetti, salad (loves all the veggies), any meat like grilled/barbecued or meat/noodle dishes, fajita meat/veggies, and stir-fry. Other than that, we've not had much luck. Oh yes, does ice cream count? He loves ice cream bars. He is good about trying something for the first time, but usually he decides he doesn't like it. So the list of normal foods that kids usually like such as hamburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, he doesn't like. So when we visit McDonalds, he will only eat french fries and drink coke. Yes he loves sodas--bad habit. By the way, forgot to mention that he still insists on eating with chopsticks too. Ever seen someone eat spaghetti with them? If you visit our house, you will. However, Scott has had him eat a few times with a fork when we ate out and I forgot the chopsticks anyway.
Drew is becoming used to his regular daily routine. He is quite used to taking a bath at night then getting settled down to go to bed. However, he usually also has to have a night snack of fruit, usually carrots or strawberries. In the mornings, he always tells me he wants to "vroom vroom" and making a driving motion with his hands, that he wants to go in the car somewhere. Two or three of those times, he told me he wanted to go see Tonito--his buddy from China. We already told him we would hopefully this summer but that doesn't make sense for a little heartsick 4 yr old I know. He loves to go out to my dad's work office too. He is the center of attention and always gets a soda out of his "yeh yeh" (grandpa), and usually some gum or money from his uncle Mark. Today he said, "see ya later uncle Mark" with no prompting at all. It was a funny surprise. He is also pretty good at going to different stores with me. He's been really good at them all, with no tantrums or whining for toys, etc. I'm waiting for that shoe to fall soon too... haha. Drew has really taken to the movies he got from the shower. He watched Green Eggs and Ham so many times, he says "Sam I Am" all the time! He also likes 101 Dalmations, and now Ice Age 2. He points and repeats words or phrases he knows in English when he hears them in a movie or on TV. That's great to know he recognizes it. He is continuing to learn English on a daily basis. He is such a fast learner and catches on quickly. He likes to call me by my name and says "Kimber!" 100 times a day it seems. Every now and then he adds in Mama! He thinks this is so funny.

Catching up

2008-04-24T18:40:00.003-05:00

This whole week has been really good for Drew. He has had zero meltdowns and has not gotten into trouble at all! We've been so busy that we've been slacking on getting this updated. The only fit he had was for grandma when he didn't want to sit in his car seat, but she won that battle too-no problems since. Tuesday, he visited preschool for a little while. He was a little timid (this was a first for him) with all the kids surrounding him. We think he will warm up to them as he gets used to visiting them more often though. Mrs. Belcher the teacher, who lives two doors down from us, brought him bubbles the day before so she was already his buddy. Later he had to ring her doorbell like twenty times so he could see her again. Yesterday, was his first Dr. appt in St. Louis. There is a physician who specializes in post-international adoption exams and the program is called F.A.C.E.S out of Cardinal Glennon. They just make sure everything is up to date and that your adopted child is on target healthwise and emotionally too. While we were there, we had our pictures taken by this photographer who does this magazine for Cardinal Glennon. So Drew's and our pictures will be featured, we were told.
Needless to say with the 3 hr drive, it was a long exhausting day for all, esp Drew. He did really well though considering there was no Mandarin translator available, and the fact that he ended up getting 4 shots and gave tons of blood for labwork. He even thanked the nurses when they gave him the band-aids to cover up the boo boos. I think he had like 6 or 7 band-aids on him! They had to poke both arms to get enough blood out..poor thing. He screamed and cried the whole time, saying "mama!" But as soon as it was over, he was fine, just ready to get out of there. He got a good report, with normal growth & development, it seems everything is fine, along with his earlier special need as an infant. He will have to go back in 6 months for a follow-up and the get the remainder of his shots.

It's getting a little harder to find foods that Drew likes. He's getting a little tired of the same ole' fruits and veggies at times. Tonight, he ate the spicy hamburger meat and really liked it, that was for the enchiladas. So, he had that and sliced cucumbers. What a combination, eh? He does like barbecued chicken and pork steak we found out last week. He ate alot of it!
Even some of the food that the report said he liked and ate while in China, we can't get him to eat here. Sometimes, I take him up to the Chinese restaurant here and the owner Fawn and her husband lets him eat whatever he wants there. When we visit there, it's pretty awesome to hear the conversations that Drew and Fawn have (not that I can understand, but Fawn tells me most of it). He told her that he knew my brother Mark was his uncle and that his house was messy and his refrigerator didn't have any food! I' m not sure where that came from, but we had to laugh at that one. He also told her that he basically understands most of what we tell him at home. So it seems that we have more trouble understanding him than vice versa. However, we are quite surprised to realize that it's not been as terribly hard as we thought it might have been in trying to communicate with him. We get used to hearing the same phrases and the same words, so we've figured out a lot in such a short time. Who would've thought?? I hate to admit this, but I will be sad not to be able to hear him speak Mandarin later when he loses most of it. It's soooo cute to hear him talk! He's so animated! He picks up English really quickly and repeats everything we try to teach him. Even the physician yesterday said she was amazed by how well his receptive language is for only being with us for 3 weeks.

BTW, bath time is still a breeze..... thank goodness! So is bedtime and he sleeps about 10 hours a night!!

Battle of the wills...

2008-04-18T13:21:00.002-05:00

Well Drew cried the first night without his baba. He kept putting off sleep even though he was wore out. So finally I had to call Scott (at work) so that he could tell Drew to go to bed/sleep and to leave the cat alone. Drew has this obsession with our one cat who is passive and declawed in the front paws. He constantly looks for her if she is not where he can see her, or is carrying her around to the point that she hisses and growls at him, or tries to keep her shut in his room or closet with him. We have to make him leave her alone-- no joke. So anyway, on with bedtime, he did sleep all night long then and every night since /after then too. He now likes me to lay down with him and watch movies before he goes to sleep. I know, I started a bad thing here. But I love cuddling with him and sharing time with him. I'm just glad he sleeps through the night and doesn't have nightmares. Scott's just glad he doesn't sleep in our bed!

We've had our battles with him pretty much everyday except for yesterday. He was very good all day long. We took him shopping for clothes and made a run to Wal-Mart for groceries, etc. Of course he got tons of stuff at all stores. He waited patiently in line for me to pay and thanked me for his stuff too. We thought this was sooo sweet!
Drew is very hard headed and strong willed. He is starting to realize maybe that he's met his match with us, especially with Scott. He can be the sweetest ever then choose to be onery the next. I suppose he is just still testing us in what he can get away with, (which isn't much here).
He is very stubborn and yet he knows when he's in trouble. He went to his room earlier b/c he wouldn't pick up the trash on the floor that I repeatedly asked him to do nicely. He later came out and said "sorry". So he does know when he's wrong.

Whew this discipline stuff is a whole new ballgame for mama here. I'm learning quite a lot, at a very fast pace!

Busy days...

2008-04-15T13:24:00.003-05:00

Drew keeps us very busy everyday! I guess this is no surprise, except to me since I'm a new mom--haha. He's been riding his tricycle in the driveway and "racing" me on my bike again today. We also went riding this morning around the block. He made it the whole way but we took several small breaks on the way. When we got home, he had to tell babaw all about how he raced mamaw! He must have been wore out from this as he is in his room watching one of the movies Fawn got him. He has looked at all the movies in his room but hasn't watched them yet. He does like to watch them in the car but doesn't use the headphones much to listen to it. I suppose because he can't understand it anyway? Oh yes speaking of cars, he likes to act like he's driving it. He also likes to fiddle with the controls so now we've had to be sure and take out the keys and use the child locks on the doors! I'm sure he's never been in a car before. He doesn't like seat belts, of course what kid really does?
Last night we went to my brother's house to see them for a minute. Drew was taken back by my nephew Austin's dog Buddy. Buddy is a very big chocolate lab and very rambunctious! I let him out of his cage and it tore after Drew, wanting to play. This scared Drew as he ran through the house with Buddy at his heels about to run over him. However later he kept wanting to go back and look at him. He'd say woof woof and stretched his arms out as far as he could. He and Austin get along just great too. He loves other kids, especially boys. He followed him like a little puppy dog.
He continues to be fascinated with the cats, especially our black/white cat who is very passive and slow moving. He talks about her constantly and always wants to be holding her or making sure she is sitting beside him. Yes, she gets quite mad at him at times hissing at him. I don't know why she doesn't just run and hide better!
Drew's leg is healing up more every day-thank goodness. It just needed some air to dry up a little ( well that and no one pulling off his healed new skin each time as in China). I try to put stuff on it but he howls thinking it's going to hurt like it did before, so mostly I just leave it alone. The scar is huge-poor kid!!
Well tonight will be our first night without babaw here. He has to go back to work tonight--too bad. I'm really wondering how Drew will do without him here. He loves to snuggle up with Scott on the couch and fall asleep. I will keep you posted on this new venture.

Drew's first days home

2008-04-14T17:17:00.003-05:00

We've had a few days now to sleep and get some rest. Over the weekend, Riley slept in Drew's extra bed and the only thing that happened was that Drew got woke up by one of the cats-which scared him. Otherwise, he's done great sleeping. Last night he slept in his bed all night long, I had to wake him up this morning at 9:00 ! Boy, does this really help too! You'd think that we'd be caught up on our sleep too by now, but today I still felt pretty darn tired. I'm so thankful he is a good, sound sleeper so far. Well Saturday was our first trip to Wal Mart. We had to go get the necessities at least. Drew had just taken a two hour nap before we got there , so he was still in a daze. (I think we all were). Riley and their friend Chloe was sure to help make sure that Drew did get a toy though (like he doesn't have enough- haha). Today, we rode bikes in the driveway- he rode a tricycle and I rode my new bike. He got to hit the ball with the bat and liked it until he couldn't hit very many, then he quit. He got to play at the park for just a few minutes too. Oh yeah, today was the first time that he rode the lawnmower with his babaw. He absolutely loved this! (Too bad he won't love it in a few more years--Scott says). Yesterday we visited our preacher's family and he had a ball riding Cole's battery powered 4 wheeler. He wanted to go faster and also went for a ride on the big 4 wheeler. I figure it's only a matter of time before we have to buy one at Wal Mart.....
We continue to have visitors and many people asking when they can meet him. He has done very well and just gone with flow each time. He loves to say hello, thank you, good-bye, see you later and count to 10 in English for them all. He also repeats just about everything we say or tell him to say for us. He is learning all of the time!
Yesterday Fawn called and asked if Drew wanted to come to the restaurant and eat some crab and noodles. Of course he wanted to. He calls her "Aye Ei" just as he did to our guides in China. It's like rewinding our time in China... our travel group will remember this forever I would say. Has little voice carries quite far! Fawn told me that all the women in China are called this for "aunties" so it's just normal.
He had a good time there at the restaurant too. He ate a lot of noodles and pieces of crab that Fawn would pick out of the shell for him. She gave him a bag of goodies, cookies, snacks, a
Chinese letter pad, and 2 Chinese cartoon movies. He told her that he missed it over in China... mostly I think he was referring to his friends from the orphanage and those who were adopted the same time he was. He specifically said "Xin Zhu" which is his best buddy Tonito. I told him that we would maybe visit him this summer. He said, "no he wanted to go now." Gee, if only it was that easy.

Just a while ago, he ate a package of ramen noodles and a whole ziplock bag of cut up cucumbers. He would drop or dip the cucumbers in the juice and eat them. I told you he eats gross stuff! haha The women from our church are cooking us dinner all week and tonight it was pot roast, salad, rolls, and ice cream dessert (which Scott devoured). Thank you ladies!!! Drew later wanted to try the pot roast. He tasted of the meat and didn't like it. I think he thought it might have been lamb. He did eat a few potatoes though. And earlier, he ate tons of baby carrots. Good thing he likes his fruits and veggies!
Right now, he is sitting on his baba's lap singing the ABC song along with the LeapFrog fridge phonics magnet he got. It's so cute to hear, he keeps repeating it if he messes up. He sings his own version of it, instead of E-F-G, he says U-F-G.

We're HOME!!

2008-04-12T07:35:00.005-05:00

Well we made it home finally, no thanks for United airlines. We were smooth sailing until we go to Chicago on our last leg home to St. Louis. Drew did wonderful on all the flights home and between layovers--quite an amazing feat, I might add!. So our flight home was delayed then cancelled, and we waited for another flight on stand-by status. Finally after much proddding, and begging we got our seat confirmation for the 9:30 pm. flight to STL. Ok remember folks, we arrived in Chicago that afternoon around 2 p.m. and our original flight was for 4:53 p.m. , however due to the cancellations, etc we finally left Chicago at 10 pm. Thursday night! We drove home, arriving around 3:30-4 a.m.! We looked like death warmed over... even Drew had baggage and dark circles under his eyes. So we began our journey home from Guangzhou that morning at 9:00a.m. China time, and it was still 4/10/08 when we got home U.S. time! Talk about time traveling.... Oh yes, 2 of our checked lugagge didn't make it to STL so they had to bring it down yesterday to us! And the kicker is, that United called my parents yesterday asking if they needed tickets to go home! WEll duh... they answered their home phone!!

So when we got home, there was balloons and a welcome home sign on our door for Drew. He got excited and actually knocked on the door to go in- not realizing that this was his new home. The first thing he asked for was to see the kitties, then he asked where the "woof woof' was! We also found signs on Riley and Drew's bedroom doors and a basket of candy and balloons for both on their beds. This was from our great friends Felisa, Jeremy, Chloe, and Sadie. Of course Drew wanted to open the candy then, but instead settled for opening up some of his new toys he found in his room! We finally got to bed after 4:30! We all passed out quickly.
As soon as Scott woke us up at 12:30, we had a continuous flow of visitors to Drew. Later that day, he finally got to meet his big brother Riley. They've gotten along so far famously! Yay!!!
Riley has really stepped up to the plate in helping and playing with Drew and sharing everything with him. He is a very sweet kid. He even slept in Drew's extra bed last night. For dinner last night, guess where we ate? I hate to admit it, but we went to the Chinese restaurant! (Like we hadn't had enough of this for the past 2 weeks-hahaha). So our Chinese friend Fawn was anxious to meet Drew and they talked alot in Mandarin of course. He counted to 38 in Chinese to her, then got bored. He told her he preferred to be called his new name Drew. We were very happy to hear this. She said she'd help in any way she could, which is quite comforting to know!

New things

2008-04-09T00:26:00.003-05:00

So we've learned quite a bit from our trip to China as we've traveled to Beijing, Urumqi, and Guangzghou- 3 major cities. First, never drink the water here, not even in the hotel. We brush our teeth with bottled water. They don't serve you ice in drinks, you get cold or warm drinks/sodas. Coke is the major distributor here. The traffic here is beyond your imagination. They honk their horns constantly, bicyclers, buses, taxis, cars all just maneuver their way around each other within inches, with little concern for the others, including pedestrians. They park and drive on the sidewalks in some of the cities due to not enough parking or hardly any parking lots. You see these pedalers going down the street in busy traffic hauling tons of products or boxes on top of a bicycle! They must have good balance.... Squatty potties--first time to have to use these! They're just like going camping out in the woods and just using it in the bushes, except dirtier and stinkier. Everyone here thinks I (Kim) can speak Chinese. Most of the waitresses and vendors try to speak to me and ask questions. They find out quickly that i don't, some smile back, some snicker/laugh. Actually I'm beginning to wonder if Drew thinks I can speak a little Chinese too. He seems to say things to me in a lower voice and whispers in my ear alot. I just act like I understand-haha. They all ask where Drew is from and immediately ask how old he is, while commenting how tall/big he is.
The poverty here is also beyond your imagination. Even walking down the streets here, you can see people's laundry hanging out on the lines between the buildings. We had our laundry do the other day, so it could've been ours hanging out to dry!! No joke-haha. Scott says there's a lot of hoochie mamas walking around in China. They wear their tight jeans/pants and high heels and are busy talking and walking. It's pretty funny. At least here in Guangzghou, most of the people speak English, so that helps quite a bit. They really cater to visitors here in hotel too, which is nice.

Last day here in Guangzhou!

2008-04-09T00:09:00.004-05:00

So today is our last day here in this hot, sweaty, humid place. Don't get me wrong, we've enjoyed some time here but we're all so ready to go home!! We decided not to go to the pearl market after all. Instead, we just went out walking and shopping again for last minute things. Comparing U.S. money to Yuan RMB, when you exchange $100 in US dollars, you get $694 in Yuan. So keeping that in mind, you can blow all that money pretty quickly even though things are really cheap here. The other night, the 5 of us ate for $40 equivalent to US $. When we went to the grocery store, my two bags cost $60 in Yuan, which is about $9 in US money! Sounds good, huh? Too bad groceries aren't that cheap at home... So anyway, we bought a small Chinese tea set, a t-shirt and scorpion necklace for Riley, some small pouch/purses, bracelets, chops for Riley and Drew which are basically stamps, the top is their Chinese zodiac sign, and the stamp below has a picture of a dragon, their American name, and it written in Chinese characters also. Everywhere you walk, the Chinese vendors want to offer you a "good deal", or a "good price for you only today." Scott is good at jewing them down on prices, he says I'm a sucker. Oh the best thing we found for Drew is a pharmacy. This local owner told us of a pharmacy down one of the streets around here. Yahoo!!! I should've asked earlier, I just didn't think to--duh. So anyway we found gauze and tape, and the store owner had small 2x2 sponges. I had tons of neosporin, but they took it from my luggage at the airport I guess. I still have a little bit though and plan on changing Drew's dressing later again this evening and tomorrow on the plane home. We had to go to the clinic here at the hotel again this morning for a dressing change (before we found thepharmacy). Drew was being tortured here everyday , esp for the last 2 days-- he just screamed and cried b/c the dressings they use are quite primitive. They look like from the 70s, and don't use any non-stick pads or Telfa!! So everything they put on it, dries and sticks to his raw skin- then they have to peel it all away again!! I feel soooo sorry and helpless to see him have to change the dressings there, it's like being tortured again and again. Soo our advice is to never give your child anything hot to drink... which you probably already knew this. I wasn't thinking and it was my first catastrophe as a new mom!! I could kick myself.... Also, never have to use Chinese medicine or seek medical treatment here!!!!!! I can't stress this enough!!

So right now, we've been packing and packing for tomorrow. We may need to buy another suitcase to fit everything in. Most people here do this, in order to make it home with all their new things. You can buy suitcases here for like $10-15. We have to go to the American Consulate in an hour and doing our swearing in testimony. Tonight, we will have a farewell dinner together with everyone in our adoption travel group of around 24 or so families I believe. Some of them I don't even know or have not met yet either.

The dinner at the Cantonese restaurant was excellent! Even better, Drew insisted on sitting on my lap the entire time (which made it harder for me to eat-haha). It was really great to see all the families with their newly adopted children. Everyone looked sooo happy and glad to be going home. We just met everyone in our group down in the playroom to say good-bye. With all the kids running around, at least it wasn't sad. They didn't realize that that was really good bye this time! Look out America, Drew is coming home!!! As soon as we land on U.S. soil in Chicago, Drew will be a U.S. citizen-yay!!!!!! Oh BTW, Drew can say " I love You" in English!!!!!

Cruising down the river

2008-04-08T08:47:00.003-05:00

Earlier this evening we had dinner and a cruise down the Pearl River. Drew really liked it. At dinner, he ate 4 small ears of corn-which is great to know, as we will have tons this summer at home. The buffet consisted of all different mystery meat and vegetable dishes. Most of it was not edible in my opinion. I had a fish meatball on my plate, and it smelled gross so of course I didn't eat it. The cookies and ice cream were the best food there. Actually the ice cream here in China is delicious! It is very creamy and rich. So back to the cruise, it was breezy and nice. The view was great on all sides, that part of the city is all lit up, including all the buildings, and the other boats, and the railing, etc. They really believe in using a lot of electricity for lights over here-haha. Well it is bedtime on Tuesday here and tomorrow is our last day here. We leave China Thursday morning (Wed. evening US time)!!! So tomorrow (Wed here) we are going to a pearl market shopping and later to the American Consulate to take an oath and get Drew's visa. We'll be busy all day long... whew. Well Drew keeps asking when we're leaving to go home, which is great and also about the kitties at our home. He wants to know why the big kitty has to take care of the little kitty. He then asked who is taking care of them now? He is soooo full of questions... it isn't funny!

Zoo outing

2008-04-07T21:42:00.004-05:00

Monday, yesterday we went to the zoo. Boy was it hot!! Those poor animals...I was expecting worse conditions for them, but it wasn't as bad as I thought for some. Drew wanted to see the tigers first. He kept asking where were the tigers? We have a local guide who also contracts out/ works with our adoption agency CHI, her name is Rebecca. She speaks Cantonese, which is spoken here in Guangzhou and Hong Kong mostly, and also speaks Mandarin. She is one no-fuss lady. She puts Drew in his place quick! (Scott really appreciates this no-nonsense type of personality). She told Drew to stop asking her stupid questions, (basically to hear himself talk or to get attention with silly questions). He said he understood this-so he quit. He asked about the lions we saw, she told him that the male lion has more hair around his head and the female doesn't. He then asked , why on humans do females have more hair than males do on their heads-(just the opposite)? She said this was a very good question and smart question esp for his age. She said he is very smart and his mind is always processing information, she said he will be a very good smart student in school. (We sure hope so)! So, at the zoo, we saw lions, tigers, leopards, monkeys, bears, deer, sheep, kangaroos, giraffes and a few other small animals. This place wasn't that big so it didnt' take that long to walk through it all. Thank goodness, because we were all ready to get on the bus with air conditioning!! They ordered Papa John's pizza for us to be delivered to our hotel room when we got back for lunch. We were so tired after getting back, we took a long nap the rest of the afternoon. We finally got back out of our room, that evening and went shopping. The clothes here are pretty cheap, esp if you can bargain with the locals too. You can buy men's polo shirts for like $14 US dollars which is close to $100 RMB/Yuan. These shops have all kinds of Chinese souvenirs-of course targeted at American tourists.

Drew was trying to teach Scott and me some Chinese this morning when he woke up. He would say something and Scott would try to repeat it, Drew would just laugh and laugh. I'm sure he thought we were retarded in trying to speak Chinese...LOL. Drew is picking up English really really easy. He basically repeats everything we ask him to say in English. It's sooo cute to hear him!! He asked Rebecca when we were walking back into the hotel yesterday, how long we were staying here and when were we leaving to go home? Isn't that great!!??? Yesterday we had to take him to get his dressing changed again and the nurse got onto me for taking the bandage off (it was sticking to his skin) before we got there. Drew wouldn't let it just air out, he wanted it covered again and his shorts back on. Scott thinks Drew keeps thinking someone will take his things away from him so he is careful to keep some of them to himself and/or hidden such as toys, etc. So anyway we have to keep giving him antibiotic, it's strawberry flavored and he doesn't like it. He will drink it down though with a little bribing of a piece of gum. He's gotten used to that pretty quickly. The hotel gives out these Barbie dolls with American barbies holding a Chinese baby, which was put in our room the other day. Drew wanted it and Scott told him no. Of course I didn't care either way as I'm sure Drew has no idea that there's a difference between some girls/boys toys,etc. He just sees them as new toys and he probably has never had much to call his own anyway. So he stashed it away in the suitcase for future reference I guess.

Oh BTW, Drew decided at the zoo that he wanted to crawl into Vivi's stroller, I guess he got a little lazy walking. So this is why you see him in a stroller that he can barely fit into in the picture above! haha

Well at 3:00 we're all meeting down in the lobby for pictures. These should be really good I hope. I'll share them with you soon I promise! We're all going on a dinner cruise later this evening too here on the Pear River. This should be fun and very scenic.

First full day in Guangzhou

2008-04-06T07:15:00.005-05:00

So today was our first real day here. Good grief, it's HOT and HUMID here! The weather was dry and just warm in Urumqi so quite a difference. Everything is green and lush here, the trees, grass, flowers, and plants are just beautiful. It looks so tropical and pretty. We are sweating our tails off here. Elsie, our guide is from this city. She said that this city has a population of close to 12 million people!!! Can you imagine? We're staying at the White Swan Hotel ..... very nice and scenic. The back of it is just glass windows and it's view is breathtaking out on the Pearl River. The breakfast is served on the first floor and with the river view. Felisa, I had dumplings today for the first time here in China and they were sooo delicioius! There's soo many shops on the lower level too. This surrounding area and shopping is targeted to tourists, especially adoptive families moreso. Everywhere you look around inside and out, you see all these families with their Chinese babies or kids-- no joke. It's kinda crazy...
There's a waterfall and a large pond with koi fish inside the lower level too that's just beautiful too. Earlier today, we had to take our kids to get their medical exams done. This only consisted of their height, weight, ENT exam, and physical exam lasting only a few minutes. I got pics of it all. Drew weighed 20 kgs and was 111 cm tall. He's so much taller than most the kids around here we've seen! He's going to be big....
We did a little shopping today too. There's these shops everywhere with tons of Chinese things. Most of them have an American name title and do laundry too, which is lots cheaper than laundry at the hotels. We had lunch at Lucy's which serves all American food! Yum... first restaurant with normal real food and iced tea. (We've only had coke or water since we've been here). Last night and tonight we ate at this nice Thai restaurant that was to die for! Very good!
We had Elsie show us where to buy groceries. WEll this was quite a walk away and we saw the very poor locals selling their roots, spices, and LIVE animals in tubs, cages, etc. I took pics of dried seahorses, shrimp, deer hooves/legs, snake skins, among other things. The live animals consisted of turtles, chickens, rabbits, scorpions-lots of them, fish, eels, snakes, crawfish, and other things I can't remember. This was the first time I've seen cats anywhere in China... they were sitting around the shops, supposedly as pets... So at this grocery store, it was like walking into a sauna-- it was not air conditioned and just opened up out into the street. However, I did find deodorant, the old roll on kind. I got Drew some drinks, snacks, and flip flops. He loves these dried seaweed things--looks like beef jerky but only green and crunchy. They smell and taste gross. He likes the chips too , which aren't bad if you get the right kind. He ate the pear immediately after finding it in the bag too. He also thanked me for buying all the things he likes. He now says "thank you", "bye bye", "see you later", in English as well as counts. He understands most of what we say and tell him to do. He picks up so very fast. Elsie made fun of me for only buying 1... guess she was right. Drew definitely is used to eating weird things... he ate this gross very fishy whole fish dish last night and it reeked severely. He ate lamb kabobs one day and devoured them. He is finally getting an appetite here in the last few days--thank goodness. Well tomorrow we're supposed to be going to the zoo-- that should be an adventure. I hate to think of those poor animals... where's PETA when you need them???

Drew's airplane adventure

2008-04-06T06:55:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, we flew here to Guangzhou, which took close to 4 hours. Drew had a very unfortunate accident. After he woke up from a nap, he got a cup of hot tea. Well this tea was scalding hot and he was holding it and blowing on it. He spilled this on his lap and started screaming of course. Scott was sitting next to him and pulled his pants down to see his leg. I scrambled for my first aid baggie I brought, which of course ended up not being near enough of what we needed. I took Drew to the bathroom and was shocked to see that his left thigh had 2nd degree burn which covered the entire width of his leg and down into his inner thigh. The skin was all gone and that which was left was blistering up! It was a ghastly sight to see. He was just standing there in the bathroom crying and I was getting papertowels wet to cover it. I opened the door and started yelling for Elsie our guide to help. She was excellent and told the attendants that we needed first aid supplies. Well there were none to be found as far as first aid. They tried to give us some kind of oily looking salve to put on him, which looked like yellow gel. Of course I didn't trust this. I asked for ice and it took a few minutes for them to understand why we wanted ice... duh!! I was really afraid that they wouldn't give us any. So we sat holding an ice bag to his leg and trying to soothe him as best as we could. We still had 50 min. left to fly!
This was no fun! I started crying just b/c he was so upset and I knew he was in pain. He kept telling Elsie that it hurt and asking when it would go away. Scott asked me why I was crying. I couldn't help it though. None of us had any children's pain reliever with us, it was all in our checked luggage so we had to wait until we got those to get him some Motrin or anything. Thank goodness he had stopped crying by the time we landed. He asked for his friend (Tonito) Zhu Zhu
and of course his parents brought him to us and he stood in the seat infront of us and held Drew's hand through the opening. It was soooooo heartbreaking and cute at the same time to see his friend comfort him. The night before Drew helped Tonito climb up a slide several times and now it was his turn to return the favor. So the good thing is that there was an inhouse doctor and first aid clinic here at the hotel we're staying in. He saw them here and got it debrided and cleaned/dressed. He cried a little at first but quit quickly. He told Elsie that he was a good boy and didn't cry. We told him that he was sooo tough! They gave us vitamins and antibiotics for him too. We had to go back today for a drsg change, it actually had seeped through it and the drsg was falling off by then. Drew was such a trooper, he didn't flinch or cry today. Last night, Drew started acting like he had a hard time walking with it, but he was only playing and milking it for all it was worth! haha He just laughed and laughed. Tonight when we put his pjs on, his drsg was already seeping through. He's glad he doesn't have to take a bath at least since this happened. He will have quite a scar from this I'm sure though.

Day 4 & 5

2008-04-04T08:37:00.004-05:00

We got a little behind on posting here. We've been soooo busy! So here's to catching everyone up. Thursday, we went to the International Grand Bazaar here in Urumqi. It really is bazaar, some of the things they sell-haha. It's this huge place to shop, most of it is outside and involves a lot of walking. They had everything from knives, scarves, Uiygher hats, jewelry, local food, clothes, antiques, alot of junk, etc. This is how the locals make a living doing this. There were so many duplicate "stalls" of the same items. Urumqi has TONS of fruits and nuts, there were carts and carts of this stuff everywhere. Actually we didn't get to see a whole lot of this place b/c Drew had a crying fit so we had to go back to the bus and sit. We sat there for like 45 minutes, so we missed out on a lot of bargain shopping.
Later that afternoon we walked over to one of the department stores here around the corner to the grocery store in the basement. There is a dept store on just about every corner here, and they have a huge grocery store in them. These stores are about 4-5 levels high and sell really high priced makeup, clothing and everything in between. They are about equivalent to a large dept store at home, with more levels and lots more stuff to buy, higher prices too. Anyways, Drew got to pick out some snacks at the grocery store. He got some potato chips that were a little different but not bad and he ate them all. He got some candy (which tasted awful) too.
This place had alot of weird stuff, like raw squid, whole cooked ducks, tons of fresh seafood/fish, all kinds of meats. If I knew how to cook good Chinese food, this place had all kinds of seasonings,rice,sauces,noodles--too bad huh?
Another thing, Drew asked our local Chinese guide named Wendy, which he calls "auntie" in Chinese), if we had a car. She told him yes and he asked if it was black. (We were on a bus, and he was looking at the cars going by). We told him that Baba and Mama, Nai Nai all have a car. He was happy to know this. I later asked Wendy if Drew's foster family had a car or if Drew had ever ridden in one before? She said they did not, as most people don't unless they are rich enough to buy one. We found out today that Wendy is only 24, and I asked her if she had a car or drives. She looked at me and said,"I'm only 24." "I don't have a car." Therefore, we concluded that most people here can't afford one. Drew told her later that he wants to go on a plane. I said that he'd get his wish soon enough! BTW, Drew drives Wendy and Elsie (our adoption agency Chinese guide) nuts everyday with all the questions he asks them. He always yells out for them and constantly wants to talk to them. He has to be the center of attention. He is very very verbal.
Oh yes, one of the families and I took a taxi to find their little boy's and Drew's finding place.
To make a long story short, it took well over 1 1/2 hr to do this, mine took the longest. I was looking for a shop next to a hospital. Well we finally got introduced to a Chinese woman who helped us at the clinic there. She called her daugher, who spoke English and translated for me! That was sooo nice of her to go out of her way for me. Anyway, come to find out, the original flower shop in which he was found, was no longer there-but another one was it's neighboring shop or took it's place due to construction of the roads. So, I took pics and video of this. BTW,never get sick or go to the hospital while in China. You wouldn't believe the ancient, primitive buildings,offices, equipment, everything they use! Just ask me about this later,.. I could go on and on.
So today, Friday, we went on an extra day trip to see Heavenly Lake up in the mountains. It was really beautiful up there. I was glad it didn't take any longer than it did to get up there, as I was starting to get a little woozy. It took us > 2 hrs to get there. Drew loved walking around and climbing on the rocks. In the parking lot of the place, we saw this money walking around. It musthave been somone's pet we thought, although it didn't look very friendly. It kinda looked like a baboon. My camera wasn't working properly, so all the pictures that I took up there are not on my SD card for some reason. I'm so bummed. There was a lot of snow on the tops of the mountains of course too. We ate lunch there at this Muslim restaurant. It was very good. Drew ate 2 skewers of lamb and some shredded potatoes in this sauce stuff. It was kinda like Chinese food in a way. That was the most he's ever eaten all week at one sitting. Most of the time, all he eats for breakfast and dinner at the hotel is watermelon. He loves it! Well the other night, we ate at this Uigyher restaurant next to the hotel and all he ate out of the food was the onions. He'd pick them up with his chopsticks (which he can use proficiently) and put them in a bowl of water to rinse them off and eat them. It was pretty gross. He has terrible table manners, he makes such a mess and gets it all over him. He is really good about letting me wipe his hands and mouth off though. We'll have to work on the table manners when we get home... haha.
Well this is our last night here in Urumqi, Drew's hometown. It's kinda sad to think he may never return to his homeland. Well I hope he does, or wants to maybe later in life. Earlier, this evening we went to park across the street to let him play. They had all kinds of play equip set up today. There were tons of people over there... you would not believe. Anyway, as we were walking on the sidewalk, a lady kept saying Xin Suo (his Chinese name), so we stopped. She could speak a little English but not enough to have a conversation. She told us that she was Drew's teacher!!!! (at the orphanage) What are the chances of running into someone that he knew from the orphanage, while out on the street with us? Oh my.. I was so excited. So after she and her son walked on, I realized I must take a picture of her, so I ran after her for one. So, now I have a picture of Drew's teacher!!! Too bad the other 3 families weren't with us, they could've asked if she was their childrens' teacher too (which most likely was, or at least knew them for sure)!
Drew had a very good day today and evening. He was pretty darn good, never ran off, and no crying, bathtime was fun too-which makes our day a lot easier! haha Well we are headed off in the morning to fly to Guangzhou (pronounced Gwan-joe), the last city to visit!

Finally... Some more pics!!

2008-04-02T21:04:00.004-05:00

Well we finally had time to upload some pictures last night so I'm going to try to put some on here before we leave to go to the Grand Bazaar. There's just a mix of things we've done over the past 3 days, and maybe a few from when we were in Beijing.

Day 3

2008-04-01T19:11:00.004-05:00

It is Wed morning just after 8:00. It just now gets light outside here in Urumqi. They keep the same time as Beijing but they actually don't start their day until like 2 hours later, it's really confusing. Right now, it looks like a ghost town outside our hotel window as everything is quiet and closed. We have a really good view of the city buildings and the park across the street from us. So Drew and the rest of the kids are used to going to bed at 10:30 p.m. and not going to his preschool til after 9:00 a.m, a late start for the rest of us. They're used to taking a 2-3 hour nap in the early afternoon according to the reports. However, he's not been able to take a nap like that since he's been with us. So he wears himself out playing all day and by night time, he's exhausted. He is still sleeping right now actually. He loved his spiderman pjs he has on, (thanks to the Duffers to them)! His friend Tonito (Xin Zhu) and his sister Vivi came by last night right before bed time, and they played good. Drew shared his toys and gave him some stickers too. He had to include his mama and baba in this, as he placed a sticker on each of our foreheads too! He fell asleep pretty fast last night, on his own and slept even better than the previous night. It seems he's a good sleeper, so far. Well our schedule is to go to a museum today at 11. So I'll post more later folks. Well we had to go to the museum later in the day instead of the morning so we were free til then. It was really windy so Scott bought Drew a kite and was trying to fly it, though Drew wanted to run the other way and so the kite kept falling to the ground. He wouldn't listen to Scott, and tried to run off away from him. Scott had to grab him and get onto him. He kinda threw a fit, so we had to go back to the hotel to calm down. Earlier in the morning before breakfast, Drew tried to throw a can of coke out our window. We're on the 23rd floor here. Of course he got in trouble. Then, he tried to tear up some Yuan money, and yet got in trouble again- then he tried running out of our hotel room, which really got him in deep. So... needless to say, our day hadn't started out real good. It seemed that he was trying to test us most of the day. However, each time he would calm down and get over it. Before we left, Drew got in his bed and said, "I'm laying down", according to Scott. He did lay down and wanted to take a nap but we had to leave for the museum. He actually fell asleep while there, his Nai Nai (mamaw) held him while he slept. We later went to a real Pizza Hut for dinner. It was delicious, just like home. Really this was the first real "American" home style food we've had since here. Drew told Elsie our guide that he didn't like pizza but he did eat one piece. He had Scott get him a bowl full of veggies and fruit from the salad bar and he ate most of it. This was the best he'd eaten all week for us. Maybe he's close to a vegetarian? haha

Also a first for him, (not to be gross), he had a bowel movement while at Pizza Hut! I realize this is not something normally to get excited about... however with his earlier colon problems and diagnoses, I was worried as he hadn't gone all week! And... also....Drew had his FIRST bath tonight with NO CRYING or SCREAMING!!!! ( The first night, he only put his feet in the tub, last night, he stood screaming and crying as we tried to wash him off). We had Elsie remind him several times today that he had to have a bath tonight. He said ok, but we'd heard that before.... Let me tell you he was truly dirty and very very stinky!! He had a BIG time in the tub, squirting Baba and Mama with the water from the rubber duckies. He laughed sooooooo hard and soooo much. We just loved it!! He got us really really wet, but we didn't care. He is really in a great mood tonight.

To big brother Riley

2008-04-01T06:44:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to let you know that Drew is ready to meet you and ready to wrestle a lot with you and dad. He likes to run, play fight, and loves to play with balls, is good at catching and kicking them too. Maybe you can show him how to play soccer and he can be as good as you are someday. Drew can show you how to eat really good with chopsticks, he's an expert!! Hugs and kisses to you, we LOVE YOU Ri--Man!!!!!!!!! By the way, Riley, we know that Drew is truly your brother because he has a problem with warts on his fingers too, and he is SO Hard - headed--- JUST LIKE YOU ARE!! hahaha

Day 2

2008-03-31T20:47:00.006-05:00

Good morning to all! Drew slept through the night in his rollaway bed. He got a little restless in the wee morning hours, probably b/c he was hot. I got up and took off 2 layers of pants he had on from yesterday. Yes, he had 3 layers of clothing on from top to bottom! They really bundle these kiddos up over here. Drew finally woke up around 7:20 this morning. The first thing he reached for on the nightstand was the disposable camera he had yesterday. He loves to take pictures! He got the picture album out and started looking at it again. Scott pointed to our pictures and asking who we were. He pointed to me and Drew would reply Mama, he pointed to Riley and he replied "guh guh" (which means big brother in Chinese). He recognized Nai Nai and Yeh Yeah(grandma and grandpa). The whole bathing issue was a tug of war you could say in which he won. He did not want to take a bath at all last night or this morning. Finally, Scott got him to sit on the side of the tub and put his feet in. So they splashed around and made bubble bath beards. Scott was getting our laundry together to send off, and put Drew's clothes in it from yesterday. He pulled out the sweatshirt/jacket from the pile, I'm sure he thought his baba was maybe trying to throw away his clothes? Before we ate breakfast, Drew wanted to go down the hall to see our Chinese CHI guide Elsie. He told her he wanted to go outside to the park again to play. We told him ok, but after we ate. So needless to say, baba took him outside just now, while I am blogging for a minute. Well gotta go see them play and going shopping too.

Let's say shopping in China is a little different and difficult. Mom, Drew and I went to this department store, which was at least 5 levels. The bottom was a grocery store and other things. Basically this place was an equivalent to a major mall in the U.S. and just expensive if not more. So when you wanted to purchase an item, the clerk had to write it down on a slip of paper and you had to take it to a cashier at a different spot, then after you paid, you had to go back to pick up your things. This is quite a change from shopping at home. We found Drew a pair of shoes, which light up. Yes I know their not the greatest, but he liked them. He also picked out mickey mouse socks. The ones we brought are too big, as are the rest of his clothes. We later found the toy department and he of course picked out some toys. Lastly, he picked out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltles DVD movies, a music CD, and a comic book--these are all in Chinese! Interesting, eh? So coming back to the hotel, he fell asleep in the taxi so we thought he'd take a nap in the room. We put in this movie of the turtles and he never fell asleep. We've been lying in bed eating and playing. He and Scott have been playing hide and seek in the closet, and wrestling. Drew is a very active, assertive little boy. He knows what he wants and he lets you know it. He sings songs in Chinese sometimes and it sounds sooo cute. I just love to hear him speak in his little voice in Chinese. Most of the time, the only word I recognize in all of what he's saying is either Mama or Baba. But hey, I guess that's the most important words anyway!!! Alot of the time we just say ok to him, unless he's getting into some trouble and we tell him "Boo" which means No in Chinese. We know just the very very basic words to communicate and at times we have trouble with that. That doesn't seem to affect how he interprets us though, I think we have a good thing going here. Oh yeah two more things, Drew LOVES gum and loves to pass it around to everyone. When he chews, his dimples just shine!! And we think he is very very smart indeed as he can already count to 5 in English. Scott has been working with him on this and it's only the 2nd day we've had him!!!

Our first meeting!!

2008-03-31T05:05:00.003-05:00

Well we've had quite an exciting, nerve racking, long day today. Well actually my nerves were working overtime and Scott was A-ok as usual. Just got back to the hotel, it is 6:00 p.m. now Monday evening. We left here this morning before 10 a.m. to meet our Drew. We went to the Civil Affairs office and when we got there, the kids were already there in the room. However, Drew was no where to be seen. Of course I panicked and wondered if they forgot to bring him!

Thank goodness not, he was there, just in the bathroom. He was very quiet and shy at first, he stood over to the side trying to hide from us. He stood there and got tears in his eyes for a few minutes as there was a lot of noise going on in the room with the 3 other kids meeting their families too. The room was quite small of course. First Scott gave him some bite sized chocolate chip cookies which he ate a few of. We showed him his backpack and he perked up immediately. He continued to unpack EVERYTHING in his backpack, every little nook and cranny pocket was emptied out. He had a ball with everything he could find to drag out of there. Then the other kids came over to check out all his neat stuff, we all had a good time sitting there in the floor as the kids went through all the toys. Let me tell you that he LOVES his BABA-- (his daddy), he wants to be beside him at all times and only wanted to sit on the bus beside him. We did switch seats coming home and he asked to sit by his dad, but then he settled for me I guess. He only wants his baba to hold and carry him too. Scott says he weighs a ton! hahaha

We were walking down the street waiting at this office, and Drew wanted a balloon. Well he not only got a balloon, he got 2 more toys and juice to drink. He was very happy with that. We realize he doesn't truly understand what is going on, as he asked the Chinese tour guide who was taking him back to the orphanage. She told him he was staying with his mama and baba. He said ok. Just to tell u as I'm writing this, Drew found his MP3 player and wanted me to get it started for him. He is into EVERYTHING! He is a Very inquisitive little boy to say the least. He opens everything he can get his hands on or into. When we first just now walked into the room, he walked straight to this laptop and turned it on!! I'd say he knows how to use a computer....

Drew had a big time passing the beach balls around in this office we were in today, we were in there for hours!! He got it out and wanted it blown up. He was laughing out loud while throwing and catching that around. He also kept asking for ice cream, preferably chocolate according to our tour guide Wendy. So finally later, his baba took him to buy a chocolate ice cream bar which he ate all of. He seems to be very independent. He likes to play with the other kids at times, and other times, he just wanted to sit down and look around,or draw pictures at the table by himself. He can definitely entertain himself pretty good. Ok I'm going to post some pics for now, and will do more later. It appears since we've been in the room, that he can speak a few words in English it sounds like. We shall see.... Oh yeah, his dimples are sooooo darn cute!!!!

Ok here's the rest of the day events. After we got back to the hotel, Drew (Xin Suo-his Chinese name) wanted to go outside so we walked out to this (concrete) play area/park across the street from the hotel. He wanted baba to hold him, actually stopped in front of him and held his arms out for Scott to put him on his shoulders! He got to ride these little animals car-like things. He didn't want to get off of it after it was over. He locked his legs around it, but did not throw a fit at all-thank goodness. He then saw this kiddie train-which of course he wanted to ride. Once this was over, he jumped out of it and got into another cab of the train to ride again. So we're walking around here and there's this man selling balloons, he spots him and immediately gets excited. So you know he ends up with yet another balloon! After this, we walked back to the hotel to eat. Just to let you know, you would have thought he had eaten out with us a thousand times before. He did so wonderful. We found out he likes watermelon, tomatoes, broccoli, meat, not a very picky eater-yippee!!

On the road again...

2008-03-30T02:02:00.001-05:00

Well folks, we are now in Urumqi, Drew's hometown. Just got into our hotel, would you believe this place says you can't drink the water still? I brushed my teeth with the water at the last hotel we were in.. b/c I forgot! Hopefully I won't kill over anytime soon. We had a 4 hour flight here from Beijing. I slept the majority of the way, thank goodness. We haven't been sleeping well since being in China--it seems all of us want to wake up in the middle of the night. Basically we run on a lot of adrenaline I guess. We're meeting with our guide Elsie in an hour to alot of paperwork. We were told that we will be leaving in the morning at 9:40 going to the some Civil Affairs Office to meet our children at 10:00 a.m. We're still going to ask if we can visit their orphange, but it doesnt look good at this point. They already said we can't meet the foster parents.... what a bummer. So it is Sunday afternoon 3:00 here , which makes it late Sat. night 1:00 a.m. there? I will be a basketcase by tomorrow morning. Scott reminded me that today/tonight is our last night of freedom with kids. I hope that I can sleep at least a little bit still. haha Elsie is going to help translate to our kids tomorrow when we meet them which will be wonderful in explaining to them what in the world is going on. I hope he likes his new name too.
All of the families with us here are soooo excited too for tomorrow, the big day. I just pray that it goes as smooth as possible for the kids' sake. So, be thinking of our family, Sunday evening, because it will be our Monday morning here!!!

The Great Wall and beyond....

2008-03-29T06:08:00.004-05:00

Today we went to Tianamen Square first. Everywhere was crowded, so many tour groups were there, including Chinese. There wasn't a whole lot to see there, we just stood around the concrete pad and looked around to the various buildings. Our guide told us that 100,000 people could fit standing inside the square. Of course we got a pic of the famous portrait hanging of the emperor Mao too. From there we walked to The Forbidden City. This place was humongous, with sooooo many different buildings to see. A funny thing about being there was that the Chinese people kept crowding around and taking pictures of the daughter and son of a couple in our group who were blond headed. They would place their Chinese children in with them for several pics. You would've thought these kids were celebrities, no kidding. It got to the point where it was quite tiring. When we were walking to this place, there was an older Chinese man walking toward us, he stopped at a trash can and blew his nose right into it with kleenex! We were so surprised... and repulsed. Just had to share this gross tidbit...
Ok so from there, our guides took us to this restaurant to have roasted duck and other Chinese food. The food there was probably some of the best we've ever had. Talk about delicious!!
From there we walked to our adoption agency's office here in Beijing for a short film. After this, we were bound for The Great Wall. We had to ride over an hour to get there too. However, they did take us by the Olympic park, so we got to see where the opening ceremony will take place.
Today was pretty dreary and foggy while touring the wall. There was snow and ice on the ground and some covered the steps to/from the wal which made climbing that more difficult. These steps were very uneven and some were probably 12" high and others were maybe 4" high, they all varied in size. This made it quite harder for my short legs to hike up those steep , deep stairs. Do you feel sorry for me yet? haha Well Scott climbed up to the 2nd highest point which was forever long. Before you even got to that point, the visibility was very very poor due to the fog. I took several long breaks in getting myself up there, I huffed and puffed, thought my heart would pound out of my chest too. However, I told myself that if these older people could do this, that I would too. My legs were already sore starting out, and now they're much worse!
I'm so out of shape... Anyway, it was so weird to think that we actually got to go see this place, let alone get to climb a part of it. This was quite an experience, which we will never forget! I will post pics later, because we were late getting back to the hotel so I'm getting a later start here. We're so tired, we're about to drop! (It is Sunday night 7:30 p.m. here). Ok we were so tired and just ordered room service. Let me tell you, I ordered a cheeseburger/fries, Scott got a club sandwich/fries. I took one bite of it and I'm here to tell you it was not beef. The menu said it was 100% beef, I think it lied. It had a wang to it, tasted weird and foreign. Scott tasted and said he thought it tasted like ground up duck. His sandwich had cucumber on it, ever heard of that on a club? BTW, we leave in the morning at 6:30 to head to the airport to fly to Urumqi!!! YAY!!!!The time is almost here to meet our Drew!!!

Updates of travel

2008-03-28T02:18:00.010-05:00

Ni Hao everyone! That means hello if you didn't know this. Well it is Mar. 28 here just affter 3 pm. Just got back from doing tours today. We went on Hutong tours riding in rickshaws, The Temple of Heaven, the drum tower, a kindergarten school with lots of beautiful children who were outside on their conceret yard and playing duck duck goose,and we ate authentic Chinese food too. We're meeting at 4:15 to go to a Chinese acrobat show. Good thing it's inside, b/c it's awfully chilly here and it's been raining most of the afternoon. We're doing great! We met a few more couples who are here adopting their children too, however not from the same province as Drew. We have a Chinese guide named Elsie who works for our adoption agency out of their Beijing office. She is very sweet and helpful. You should see all the people here and the traffic is hectic at most times , there's lots of buses, taxis, and many bike riders who ride in the middle of traffic, very brave people and I guess they're just so used to doing this. Oh yeah, I had a couple of Chinese people come up to me today and start talking, of course I couldn't say anything, I just smiled and shook my head acting like a dummy. It was pretty funny as we all laughed about it, Elsie our guide had to laugh and help me out. We saw many McDonald's , KFC restaurants,Starbucks,Pizza Huts around here too. We are being well taken care of, and everyone is friendly. However, when you're out walking around, there's all these vendors putting their products in your face wanting you to buy it. You just have to keep walking... Oh yeah today was my first day of experiencing a squatty potty (bathroom), believe me, we are very fortunate to have regular toilets in U.S. These aren't everywhere but in public there's quite a few of them used I guess- our hotels have regualar toilets of course. We saw ducks hanging in a window today that were skinned and raw, such a lovely though eh? Well I'm goinging to try to upload photos later if I have time. BTW, our blog is censored over here so it's a little bit more work in getting around it to our blog. I think I got it figured out ... I have to go to the blogger website and it was in Chinese, so I had to pick English to read it! How funny is that?? Well just now, someone knocked on our room door, and the person gave me this cake! I suppose it's a b'day cake, my b'day cake! yay!!! Well I' m adding to this post as we just got back to the hotel from eating dinner.it is 9:45 pm. . We really enjoyed the acrobat show especially b/c it was all kids,no adults. Well we better got off here, we need our beauty sleep.

We're here finally!!

2008-03-27T06:56:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone back home, just thought I'd let you know that we made here to Beijing all in one safe piece. We arrived right after 2:00 -China time, so it would've been about 1:00 a.m. there. We didn't get to the hotel til after 5 though. Yes I am dog tired too! We did take naps on the plane but geezzzzz. We just went and ate at this restaurant in our hotel. It was Chinese food and they didn't give us forks to use, but only chopsticks and a soup spoon. I had shrimp fried dumplins which I loved,and congee just to see what all that was about. I knew that Drew eats it quite a lot on a daily basis. It's basically just rice that been cooked a lot of water for a long time. I had it plain but sometimes they put meat, veggies, or fish in it. I wasnt that brave just yet. The menu had things listed as intestines, shark fins, fish and seafood dishes but it all sounded like it wouldve been gross when you looked it, then I wouldn't be able to eat it. My dad asked the Chinese waitress to sit down and show him out to use those chopsticks. She declined to sit, but did try to teach him with using them. We all laughed out loud on that one! Oh yeah, our flight to Beijing was packed and alot of them were Chinese coming home or to visit. We sure saw a lot of adorable kids--too bad I couldn't just bring them with us too. Well going to bed to hopefully catch up on some sleep and jet lag.

CHINA Bound!!!!

2008-03-25T19:49:00.003-05:00

Whew... the countdown is on! We leave here at 4:00 in the morning to drive to St. Louie. We're all packed too, that's an amazing feat. The butterflies are already buzzing in my belly.... JUST REMEMBER on March 31 in China time, we will get Drew!!--that is called Gotcha Day in the adoption world! So, since China is 13 hours ahead of us, it will be late evening on March 30 U.S. time--get it, got it? Please be thinking of us and praying as we make this amazing journey of a lifetime to our son! I will try to keep everyone posted as much as possible here.

Updated itinerary and flight arrangements

2008-03-24T22:45:00.002-05:00

FYI~our itinerary was updated (scroll down to Our Itinerary to see the changes) and we changed our flight arrangements coming home (see Flying our lives away post) so that we fly into St Louis 5 hours earlier! Yippeee!!

Packing woes...

2008-03-24T22:19:00.004-05:00

Well the packing has commenced finally, as of today (for all my family and friends who were worried we'd have to go naked). I'm not a very good packer as I had to borrow a bigger suitcase for all our junk. Therefore, we each have a very large one that's packed to the brim. Well here's a pic of the toys we're taking for Drew and his new backpack. I know I'll surely forget something, maybe I have too much already? I hear there's a lot of good shopping/bargains to be had though and chances are that we'll have to buy another suitcase to bring all of our new items and souvenirs home. I think my brain is in overload right now thinking of anything and eveything, what ifs, don't forget this or that, etc. Scott assures me that everything will be just fine. I just need to breathe now....

From The Waiting Child

2008-03-21T19:13:00.003-05:00

I saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with her
I played pretend you'd chosen me.
I'm happy for the baby,
yet inside I"m aching miserably
I want to plead as you go by,
"Does no one want a child of three?"

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn't my turn yet.
I recognize you from last year!
I knew I'd seen your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no-one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new
A nurse came in and took MY hand
And then she gave my hand to you.
Can this be true? I'm almost six!
And there are infants here you see?
But then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was me.

by Debbie Bodie

The big brother

2008-03-21T18:56:00.004-05:00

This is the last weekend we will be able to see Riley before we leave for China so Scott went and picked him up from school. They had a little conversation between them then and had to share it with me. Scott had already been discussing our leaving to pick up Drew to Riley again, and he wanted to tell me what all was said while Riley was still listening. He said "he knows we're leaving Wednesday to go pick Drew up and that we'll be gone for 14 days". He said "Riley said he's excited to get his brother home." I said ,"well that's great!, now you know he won't be able to talk like you do or like we do." Riley said, "yeah, I know all that stuff too. He then asked,"will you still love me?" (Which rather floored us) We told him "OF COURSE, Always and Forever, no matter what, that would never change." He seemed content to hear this and said ok. We later explained that Drew may be scared at first and asked if he would help him out. Scott said,"you know Riley, that he might be scared to sleep by hisself since he sleeps with his family there now,will you sleep in his room with him?" Riley replies,"yeah, OR he can sleep with me in my room, he can just come in there and wake me up." That would be wonderful if it pans out that way. (However, I plan to co-sleep with Drew for a while as he is used to sleeping with his foster mother).

We have our final detailed itinerary!!

2008-03-20T14:32:00.002-05:00

We just received our final itinerary today with hotel arrangements, tours, schedule, fees, etc.
Looks like we're staying at the Wangfujing Grand Hotel in Beijing which is located across the street from the Forbidden City. While in Urumqi, we stay at the Hoi Tak Hotel, which is a 5 star hotel. Then in Guangzhou, we get to stay at the very famous 5 star hotel The White Swan which is located on the Pearl River. This hotel is rated as one of the best there and so adored by adoptive families. Looks like all 3 have swimming pools, so I hope Drew will like that. Also looks as they all have a spa too! Oh yeah, momma's getting a massage too. Bring it on!!

Flying our lives away

2008-03-19T17:45:00.007-05:00

We have our flight arrangements, just waiting on a couple of seat assignments still. We leave Wed. Mar 26 (2 days before my b'day) from St. Louis to Chicago at 9:37 a.m. From there, we leave at 12:35 p.m., arriving in Beijing on Mar. 27 3:05 p.m. (Interesting how the time changes everything, eh?) For our flights back home, we leave Guangzhou on Thurs. April 10 at 9:15 a.m. to Toykyo,Japan getting there at 2:30p.m. We leave from there at 4:40p.m. , to Chicago arriving at 2:19 p.m.-U.S. time. Then, we fly to St. Louis arriving at 6:11 p.m. Guess what the big kicker is? It's still Thursday April 10!!! Talk about pulling an all nighter...good thing my old body is used to the torture from working swing shifts. Here are some more interesting figures I wanted to share. I just found out that from the start of our flying adventure from St. Louis to Chicago, to Beijing, then onto Urumqi to get Drew, then to Guangzhou-that the total air miles we rack up is 10,388 miles! That's all before we even get to leave China to come home. However, coming home, it will be a total of 8,358 miles just to St. Louis. Gee, too bad we don't invest in some frequent flyer miles.... Did I also mention that on the last two flights I was on, I got air sick? Man I hope this isn't going to be one big pukefest. Drew will be so grossed out!! haha Let's hope those scopalamine patches work!!

Legacy Of An Adopted Child

2008-03-19T17:17:00.007-05:00

Once there were two women who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother

Two different lives shaped to make you one
One became your guiding star, the other became your sun

The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name
One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears

One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do
The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you

Now, which of these two women, Are you the product of?
Both, my darling, Both, Just two different types of love
~Unknown

Another conversation

2008-03-12T21:39:00.002-05:00

Tonight Riley is staying with us for his normal Wed. visit. Well earlier today we rec'd gifts for Drew-which were 2 picture frames. One was magnetic with a baseball field, and bases, home plate that held the pic in place; the other was a nice voice recordable frame. Riley thought this frame was just the coolest. He had to record his voice a few times on it. The last message he recorded was of him whispering,"Kimber, I love you and Drew too." I could barely make it out after he told me what he said. Wasn't that the sweetest? We explained to him that we would be leaving in 2 weeks to pick up Drew. I got a calendar and showed him all the dates and so on. He said ,"you mean you have to be gone for 14 days,why?" I told him that he would see me next Wed again but wouldn't see me after that until we got back with Drew. He just sat there smiling the whole time.

Ever heard of Urumqi, China?

2008-03-12T16:04:00.005-05:00

Now you can officially say you have! It is pronounced as Oo-roo-moo-chee. It is in the most northwestern part of China. See if you can find it on the map. Look at all the countries it borders too. This is where our son Drew is from. He currently lives with a foster family during the weekends and at night, while attending a preschool type program at the Urumqi CWI (orphanage) during the day.

More pics from shower

2008-03-12T15:44:00.003-05:00

Here are some more pics from the shower day. The cake was just fabulous and delicious! Kudos to Ms. Billie Gail for it. Don't you just love the pic of me in "the hat". My friend Felisa left this minor detail out of her plans that she told me, when I got there, she proudly exclaimed that I had to wear this thing!! Luckily Riley also volunteered to put the hat on, so I couldn't resist a Kodak moment. I don't know how we got all of Drew's gifts home and into his room, but we made it fit. Here's also a pic after we unloaded all the stuff! Can you find his bed??

Proud moments

2008-03-11T13:23:00.002-05:00

I was still thinking about the past weekend with the shower and everything and forgot to mention how proud we were of Riley. I had thought he would have shown an inkling of "sibling rivalry" because of the shower, even though Drew's not here yet. I wasn't sure he would understand that the gifts we receive would be for Drew or not. I had asked him a couple of times through the weekend if he wanted to go to the shower and he changed his mind each time. So I was really wondering if he might see all the presents and think, why does he get all the presents? However, I could not have been more wrong--thankfully. Riley is a true trooper, and a very kind hearted kid anyways. He never once said or acted in anyway envious or sad of all the attention and gifts that Drew got. However, we realize once they are "true brothers" playing, this might all go out the window at times... haha.

Shower Day

2008-03-09T18:26:00.009-05:00

Today, we were given an adoption shower for Drew by my very bestests of friends! Man they really worked hard on getting it all together. I almost felt guilty for not being there to help set up-haha. My friend Felisa raided my house of Chinese/Asian decor to use. My mom donated these beautiful Chinese silk bed linens that she bought while in China two years ago which were used to cover some of the tables. Felisa tied chopsticks together with a red ribbon and attached a label that had different sayings and our blog address as party favors. Oh yes, they made me pose with this hat on which to me looked more Vietnamese than Chinese but they didn't mind, they just wanted pictures. We had pictures of Drew everywhere and I made a "Welcome Drew" scrapbook page for everyone to sign for Drew to see. It all turned out so wonderful! You should've seen the cake, it was 3 layers- all different kinds, with red icing decorated with cherry blossom flowers, chop sticks and 2 miniature USA flags and a China flag as toppers. We had crab rangoon, spring rolls, teriyaki chicken on a stick, Asian dip/chips to eat. Man, he made out like a bandit too! He got 3 BIG Tonka trucks, Riley got 1 as well- which was great. He got a denim bean bag and a duffle bag with his name stitched on them from his "grandma" Shirley- she even got Riley one too. He has enough art and craft supplies to make tons of projects; lots of DVDs, booster seats, clothes, an MP3 player, books, toy chest, a table and chair set that matches his room, VTech/LeapFrog learning toys, balls, and much more! I wonder where we're going to put it all, it looks like his room exploded today. I couldn't take pictures with my camera because it turns out I'm a big dummy and had the battery in wrong so it wouldn't work... DUH!! I found this out after I got home and my dh Scott showed me. Whew, I must have been nervous or something..hmmm... Luckily my dear friend and my niece took lots of pics for me so I'll post them as soon as I get them. Well let's see, it's now 17 days and counting til we leave for CHINA!! Drew and the rest of us are so very fortunate and lucky to have such a supportive and caring group of friends and family. I can't wait for him to meet them all!!!!!

Oh yes, have to tell you two more cute stories about Riley that happened today at the shower.
My friends from work had all went together and got Drew and Riley the Tonka trucks. While he was hugging Ms Shirley for his presents, I asked him to thank the other 4 ladies as well. Therefore, he ended up hugging each one and telling them thanks for the truck. When he was done, he acted like he was exhausted ,was ready to run off and said, "Whew, am I done?" It was so cute and he ran around the table to hug them all.
Also, Riley walked up to my friend's mom (whom he doesn't know really well) and said, "Hey, you know I'm getting a brother?" She said, "yeah, that's what this is for."He said," yeah, I know, and I like his room, it's SO cool ."
How cute is that????

Chicken store story

2008-03-08T21:29:00.004-06:00

I just had to share this funny tidbit with you of Riley and his friend Chloe's (who's 5) conversation about buying a chicken. This morning, apparently my dh Scott was talking about buying baby chicks at Orscheln's and so of course they both got excited and yelling that they wanted one. Well Riley called his mom and asked for her permission and she agreed. Then it was Chloe's turn to call her mom and here's the conversation... "Mama, can I have a baby chicken?" "Scott's taking us to buy baby chickens, so can I have one?"(Of course, she's secretly thanking Scott for this grand idea). "Riley's getting two, but I only want one." Her mom asked where he was getting them and Chloe replies,"at the chicken store." I just laughed to myself when I heard her say this, and thought that was the cutest thing ever. The sad part is that she couldn't have one unless she kept it here-of all places. We have no room, no extra time for another pet as we have our dog Katie, 2 kitties, an iguana, and a hermit crab! Scott says we have a small zoo already... haha. Well we ended up with 2 chics and 1 little duckie!

The little helper

2008-03-08T21:22:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Scott and I went to pick Riley up from school early due to the snow. Well as soon as he got in the truck, Scott started talking to him about Drew. He told him that we were going to get him in a few weeks. Later I tried explaining that when he gets over here, he won't be able to talk in English because all he knows is Chinese. I asked Riley if he was going to help him learn English, and he just grinned big and said Yeah! He said," he can only talk Chinese because he's from China, but when he comes to America, he talks like us." I just had to agree with him and laugh.

Our itinerary while there

2008-03-02T19:12:00.013-06:00

Here are our confirmed itinerary dates:
Wed. Mar. 26...We leave from Chicago enroute to Beijing (we have to get to St Louis first)
Thurs. Mar. 27..Arrive in Beijing approx 14 or so hrs later (it's a day later in China)
Fri. Mar. 28......Sightseeing in Beijing: Temple of Heaven in the morning; lunch at Dai Jia Cun Restaurant, Hutong tour and the Chinese Acrobat Show in the afternoon.
Sat. Mar. 29.....More sightseeing in Beijing: The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tianamen Square
Sun. Mar. 30....Fly to Urumqi, China (Drew's hometown)
Mon. Mar. 31...We receive Drew!! Do adoption procedure (registration/notary) in afternoon
Tue. Apr. 1.......Free day
Wed. Apr 2.......Sightseeing in Urumqi - museum
Thurs. Apr 3.....Sightseeing in Urumqi -Local market
Fri. Apr 4.........Get all paperwork back and complete ACS paperwork
Sat. Apr 5.........Fly to Guanzghou
Sun. Apr 6 .......Free day or sightseeing in Guanzghou
Mon. Apr 7.......Drew's medical exam, visa photos
Tues. Apr 8......American Consulate appt at 9:00 a.m. , farewell dinner
Wed. Apr 9.......Take oath at American Consulate about 6 p.m.
Thurs. Apr 10..We fly home to Malden!!! (Do you believe it will still be April 10th when we back back to the U.S. because we lose a day?.... weird.)

Oops I forgot...

2008-03-01T14:23:00.009-06:00

Sorry everyone, I just took it for granted that you've seen the beautiful pics of our Drew. Gee, what was I thinking? So... here it goes.... trying to load them. Hang with me and keep your fingers crossed!!

These photos of Drew were the first ones I laid my eyes on and fell in love. These were on our adoption agency's waiting child list back in Oct 07. Look at those dimples!!

We're going to China!!

2008-03-01T13:23:00.003-06:00

Today we received an email from CHI (our adoption agency)that our consulate appointment has been made ( in order to finalize the adoption and receive Drew's visa) and that we are able to finally make our flight arrangements! Yippeeee!!! Therefore, it looks like we will be leaving here on Wednesday, 3/26/08 and coming back on Thursday 4/10/08. We have so much to do before then. Yikes! What a long plane ride it will be. This I don't look forward to at all. I will post when we have final flight times made. The travel agent was out of the office this afternoon so I guess we'll wait til Monday. Wow I'm so excited! The time is finally coming to where I will officially be a mommy. Now that sounds like music to my ears at last. Everyone please bare with me, as I will be a basketful of nerves by the time we travel. Now all I have to do is PACK! What a job that will be. I always tend to overpack, I'm such a clothes horse. I wonder how many lbs our suitcases will end up being... hahaha.

Looks like it's going to rain soon

2008-03-01T13:11:00.002-06:00

Today it's quite sunny and pretty outside, however, I'm referring to the adoption shower that my friends are giving me in a week! It appears that it's all coming together quickly. We ate at the Chinese restaurant last night and while there I had to grill the owner with questions about translating the language and everything. I'm probably about to drive her insane. I was there with my friend who is coordinating the shower plans. Looks like we're having Chinese food to eat at the shower too, yay! I'm not sure I'm suppose to know this or not but Fawn (the owner) gave my friend a deal on the food, chopsticks, and fortune cookies...sweet! I didn't realize there's so much planning that goes on for this type of occasion. Who knew? I'm Sooo excited!!!