2 weeks home

It's hard to believe we've been home 2 weeks now! It's definitely been a whirlwind, getting used to life with 2 toddlers. Anna has been an amazing big sister, she thinks it's hilarious when tackles her, and the 3 of them love to dance and play around.

There are definitely still a lot of transitions, getting used to me being mama, which he likes more every day, but definitely still holding me at a little distance many times. 

More and more he will relax and lean in for a hug and kiss, smile, and seem just comfortable in our family. 

The kids like to congregate around their little table often, coloring, playdough, or playing a game directed by Anna.

I took Asher to church for the first time to see big sister sing. We snuck in slightly late and left during the sermon, but it was nice to get out and see Anna, she did great!

My little firecracker has such an amazing heart and I love her. I love our new family, and seeing the great parts more and more each day.

Jet lag and getting settled

We've been home for 4 days now and things are gradually feeling settled, getting used to our new family. 

 

Our times outside have definitely been the best parts of the day. We are gradually adjusting to sleep- getting a little more each day. Asher usually sleeps at least a portion of the night in our bed, but is getting more comfortable in the pack and play next to us.  

He is definitely in love with his sisters. They allow him to see that it's ok to love us, ok to trust us. Jonathan went back to work right away, so other than laundry, much of the housework and unpacking has gone untouched. So yesterday I got brave and took the whole crew to the park. It was really fun, and Asher did great.

He still gets nervous if someone comes over and tries to talk to him, so we've mostly stayed at home and gone on walks around the neighborhood.  Today Jonathan took the girls to church and Asher and I stayed home. The loss of his sisters was NOT acceptable and he let me know it. I finally got us settled with some trucks on the front porch. 

We're all still pretty tired, but every day there's a little less fear, a little more smiling. Yesterday he grabbed my cheeks and kissed my face and I just about cried. I also got to take some time while he was napping and planted some mums with Anna. Ready for fall weather!

Home.

I may have resolved never to take a toddler on an international flight again yesterday, but we are home. Our girls love Asher so much, and he jumped right in with them. 

After all the changes, I'm hoping to not leave the house for a few days, as we get our nights and days switched around (I am writing this while wide awake at 2 am).

We are so grateful for all of your continued thoughts and prayers!

Best of times, worst of times

I have a love/ hate relationship with the US Consulate right now. We arrived at 8:30 Monday morning to take our oath to bring Asher home. This is the last step before they issue his visa and citizenship papers. Unfortunately, in our case there was a computer glitch. So instead of a one hour appointment we were there almost all day. And we left at the end of the day stressed, exhausted, and unsure if we were going to go home on Wednesday as scheduled.

Monday evening we went on a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. It was a beautiful night, and a nice way to take our minds off of the rough day. 

This morning we got up and headed back to the consulate. At breakfast we realized our story had made its way around as family after family came up and said they were praying for us. Determined to have a positive attitude, we walked back in and were told everything was fixed. We finished the processing, and were told they would do everything in their power to get our visa before we were scheduled to leave this afternoon.

We wanted to enjoy the day so we went to the Canton Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, pictured lit up above.  If you're amazing race fans, you'll recognize the "bubbles" they rode around in from last season.

We came back to the hotel and Asher napped while we packed. We even had time to take him swimming for the first time! 

We packed up, checked out of the hotel, said lots of prayers, and... Asher's visa was ready! I have never been so happy to see a passport. Tonight we're checking into the Hong Kong airport. Tomorrow we're headed home!

Exploring Guangzhou

Sunday we spent the day exploring Guangzhou. It is where the US Consulate is located, so all adoptive families have to get processed through here before leaving the country. It is also the second largest city in the world, at about 32 million! 

First we went to the Chen clan academy, a former school turned museum. The architecture was incredible. 

There was a calligrapher there who painted a scroll with Asher's chinese name, his date and place of birth, and his adoption date. 

Next we went to this area called Shamian Island. It's a former French settlement that was the former location of the US consulate when international adoptions first started. Now it's just a beautiful area with lots of trees and shops, it's a nice way to feel like you're out of the big city. 

It's kind of a tradition to take pictures with this statue on the island. Asher loved it.

Mostly we just enjoyed walking around and bonding with our beautiful boy!

Moving on...

Yesterday was Asher's last day in his hometown of Guiyang.  We started off the day skyping with this crew.

I miss them like crazy.

 It finally stopped raining, so we were able to get out and walk around more.  

We stopped for some dumplings on the street. Asher slept through the first half of lunch. 

Then we had to check out of the hotel and head to the airport. Our flight was delayed so we got to wait there for 6 hours. A very long day. Asher was a champ through it all. They had an awesome kids play area at the airport, so it was fun to see Asher just being a kid after hanging out in a hotel room all week. 

We had our first episode of little old ladies swarming us at the airport, pointing and talking very heatedly about his leg. My mama bear instincts wanted to be angry for their reactions, but I know it's a different culture, so I just walked away, a little heartbroken for the things our little guy will endure at times.  We finally got onto our plane and arrived at our hotel around midnight.  This is how everyone felt! 

Today we had our medical appointment for the US consulate. They do a basic medical exam on all immigrants to the US at this office before visas can be issued. There were A LOT of adoptive families there, so it was a little overwhelming but we got through it. 

Looking forward to a little downtime this afternoon. Tomorrow we get to explore the city some more before our consulate appointment Monday.

Rainy days and waiting...

The last 2 days we've spent waiting. A typhoon hit southeast China and Vietnam Wednesday so we've been getting some of the outer bands of rain. Which means, for the most part, we're confined to our hotel room. Which isn't all bad- we've definitely been seeing more of our little man's personality. 

Today we went out to the more mountainous area of Guiyang, which is where we believe Asher is from. It was rainy, but still beautiful. 

Our travel group. These people will always be so special to me as we are all going through this emotional process together. 

We hiked up a road and soon found a swarm of monkeys. Some of the older ladies like to feed them so they are not shy at all. Asher loved it and giggled the whole time.  

We have one more day here, tomorrow afternoon we get Asher's passport and finally get to head Guangzhou to begin processing through the US Consulate!

Exploring Guiyang

Today we got the chance to explore Guiyang. It was neat to explore the area that is where Asher was born and soak as much of it in. It is not a small city, full of high rises everywhere, lots of honking day and night. Grief really hit our son hard this morning, so it was good to get out and not be confined to the hotel. 

We walked through a few parks that had some organized tai chi or dancing exercises for the older women.

Then we turned down this path to see a temple and ran into tons of older couples dancing in the courtyard in front. When they stopped, they completely swarmed the other couple we were with. People are very curious about us, we get lots of stares and people take our picture every day. We have seen no westerners here at all since we've been in guiyang. 

We found a neat government building from the 1400s down on the river, surrounded by some gardens.

This afternoon we finally got to get out of the city. Except for Guiyang, Guizhou province is generally known for being more rural and mountainous. Our guide took us to this beautiful cave park. 

We took a boat trip into these amazing caves. Asher loved it and was talking nonstop the whole time.

Overall it was a day of ups and downs. Asher had a foster mama that loved him so much which is wonderful. But he missed her. It's also a day that I got more eye contact, he held my hand, and he called me mama. 

It's official!

Today we are officially Asher's parents. We signed lots of paperwork and then the adoption was finalized. 

We were joined by two other families and helped by several staff the last 2 days who have been wonderful to work with. 

After that, poor Asher was wiped out. He fell asleep in the van again and then we carried him in the hotel and laid him down and he didn't wake up for a couple hours. 

Jonathan went and grabbed some yummy street food for lunch, and then we relaxed in the afternoon and celebrated another in our travel group's adoption of 2 sweet 10 year olds. 

For dinner we went to a great local restaurant where Asher showed us he knew how to plow his food

Then enjoyed a nice walk home exploring the city. 

Now it's mostly waiting. We stay and sightsee until Friday when Asher's passport is issues, then on to Guangzhou with a few days of processing through the US consulate.

Asher is slowly feeling more at ease with us and we pray it continues!