Well, this is my last post from China, thank goodness. We have had a nice time but it's nothing like a vacation, it's work mixed in with a little vacation like sight seeing. Of course the highlight was meeting my son for the first time and we will bring home many great memories. Dominic is ready to see his daddy and sisters and for some familiar food. He has done a great job, I'm so proud of him and am glad we brought him. He was so helpful in helping transition Nathaniel over to us. I think he made him feel more comfortable and now he has a new little brother to bring home and show his sisters.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers for Nathaniel and the rest of my family, and for the other families here in China. We felt all of your prayers on our journey and couldn't have done it without out you and of course God! :-)

We would love to see anyone who wants to come to the airport. Our flight gets in on 2/28 at 10:30 pm. Nathaniel is doing really well in new situations and with new faces so I don't think it will freak him out too much. After we get home we will see how things are going but I think we will stay low for just a few days. The only thing we are going to do is not let anyone hold him for a while until we feel like he really knows Bob and I are his primary caregivers.

Thanks too for all of your kind wishes and comments. Bob has told me people have left messages for us, I haven't been able to read them unfortunately but can't wait to when we get home. I have really enjoyed "blogging" while we have been here and hope you all have enjoyed it too. I tried my best to add interesting pictures, I have so many but could only add a few at a time. I apologize to anyone who has agonized over my grammar and sentence structure. I've been a mommy and haven't written much in 8 years, scary thought!

Alrighty then, pray us home prayer warriors!!

Love to all!

Katie

I decided to send another picture so you could see how cute Nathaniel is in his little Chinese outfit. He is doing great. Yesterday he did his first sign for "more" and today he added the sign for "eat". We are going to try and use sign language as best we can with him because of his palate. He is also using his pincer grasp more. Today was the first time he fed himself by picking up food and putting it in his mouth. I'm fairly certain he fed himself bottles at the orphanage but I don't think he was ever allowed to feed himself anything else. He is like a little bird. He opens his mouth up and wants me to dump the food in as fast as possible. I'm trying to work on some of these orphanage feeding issues. This morning he did refuse to eat something by turning his head away. This is great because I want him to be confident that there will always be something to eat and he doesn't have to fill up as much as possible because there might not be another meal for awhile.

He is also so strong. We've noticed that his legs are much stronger than the first day with him and he is just starting to be interested in climbing things. There's not much to climb here but I'm sure he will love our stairs at home. He is busy, busy, busy and wants to see and feel and experience everything.

Something else I've noticed is that when he gets hurt he will now come to me for a kiss. Before he would just whimper and look down kind of sad and then toddle off. He is starting to come to me when he wants something versus crumpling into a pile on the floor and throwing a tantrum.

Just some observations.

Love to all,

Katie

Today was our "red couch" photo. It's a tradition that all adoptive families have their picture taken on one of the red couches here at the White Swan. All of the children are also lined up on the couch for their own photo by themselves. I'm going to really enjoy having these pictures in the years to come, a great way to remember some of the wonderful families we've met. The 13yr. old I mentioned in my previous post also allowed us to take pictures of her. There is one of her with the other younger kids and one with her parents, pretty neat.

In the pictures notice the little boy sitting to Nathaniel's left. His new name is Grady and he is also 18mnths. He was in an orphanage in the North and it sounds like was neglected pretty badly. He has no muscle tone, can barely hold his head up, is not even close to sitting and only wants to be on his back. His parents said he did not turn towards the nanny when she called his name at the orphanage, he can hear but they said he was just never interacted with. When they were given "formula" they said it was basically creamer with a lot of sugar. The poor little guy has lots of baby fat, I'm sure from being given many bottles of sugary creamer, but no muscle. His mommy said when he is over stimulated he will repeatedly hit his head with his hand. They have had him a little over a week now and already they are seeing progress with muscle tone in his neck and he is not hitting his head as much. He also has the best little smile. His mom has been "wearing" him non-stop in a front pack and he is doing really well with that. What a great new family he is with now!

Goodness moment of the day --

I met a family here in Guangzhou, husband and wife and their adopted daughter. She is 13 and is a special needs child/teenager. I can't get these people out of my mind. Their daughter that they adopted has a very terrible story. She has visible burns all over her face so bad that part of one of her eyelids is melted together so that she cannot fully open one of her eyes. Her face in a word is "melted". Her hands are also badly burned and I cannot really get a good look at them because she hides them, but it looks as if she does not have any fingers. Her new father I overheard mention that she was held over hot coals -- just terrible and heartbreaking. Really I don't want to know what happened, I just know she is an example of "the least of these". I mean really, she is burned almost beyond recognition plus she is an older child, not a cute little cuddly baby. Her new mother and father saw beyond the "special need" which is absolutely obvious and always will be and they don't care. They have taken their hearts and given them to her and want to love, love, love. These parents adopted a baby 2 yrs. ago from China with a cleft lip/palate just like Nathaniel's and they saw this girl. God placed her on their hearts and here they are 2 years later to add her to their family. Wow. Please keep them in your prayers. I talked with the father today who told me he doesn't care about her "special needs" but he does care about the discipline issues they have already been having. She is very head strong which I'm sure she has needed to be to survive and I'm sure she wants a family but how hard would it be to be taken from everything you know and placed on a farm in Ohio. She has the world at her fingertips and a family that wants to love her so pray that God fills that family with grace. I wish I could show you a picture, not to show off the "girl that was burned" but to show the goodness, you all know what I mean. I decided not to take one out of respect.

I am going to try and send a picture of another family in the group that adopted a 2yr. old from Tianjin. She is very mall and looks like a 12 mnth old. I think they said she is only 14 pounds. This little one has scoliosis and spina bifida. She will need a few surgeries and physical therapy to get her going but I think she will be fine. She is soooo cute, big chubby cheeks and lovely little lips and a smile that is terrific. They are an awesome family and have a 4yr. old biological son. The mother is from Bogota Colombia and she brought with her her mother and a cousin. They all speak English great because they've lived in the U.S. for a long time but it's a hoot hearing them speak Spanish to each other. Her husband is from Texas and the little boy, Andrew, is bilingual but is just starting to use his Spanish. Their Chinese baby will also be bilingual. How cute will that be, a little Chinese girl speaking Spanish and English!

Today Nathaniel had a physical exam which was a joke. Basically we know he is Chinese! Other than that I learned he is now 23 lbs. When I got him he was 20lbs on the hotel scale so I guess he has gained 3lbs., the kid can eat!

Well, Good night. Talk to you tomorrow.

Katie

We are here in Guangzhou. The families that we started with in Beijing are all coming together again here and let me tell you we are one haggard looking group! A couple of the families have been in the Northern part of China in the mountains. They are exhausted and so glad to see other people. They said they have been stuck in their hotel room for a week without anything to do. In Tianjin we at least got out a bit even if it meant having the life sucked out of us by the very air we breathed!

We are at the White Swan hotel and it is beautiful. There are so many families here adopting children. It's a mix of adoptive families and other families on vacation I think. While we were eating breakfast at the gigantic buffet I was thinking about this hotel. It really is a holy place. I know, "give me a break Katie" but really it is. Almost every family stays here while waiting for their appointment with the consulate. Can you imagine all of that goodness in one place over and over again. All over you see families bonding with and enjoying their new little one. There is also a kinship between all of the adoptive families. We may not know each other but we sure know what each has been through.

Today we ventured outside of the hotel. It was raining a bit but not much and the weather is really nice, just right. When we stepped off the plane it was like we were going on vacation. There are palm trees and greenery everywhere versus the gray, smoggy rubble of Tianjin. We can actually breathe. We walked around a little park area with bronze sculptures, stopped in shops to look at the "stuff" they were selling and even went to a 7-eleven to stock up on water. Tonight we meet up with our original group of about 7 families and get to go to a Thai restaurant. Looking forward to that!

Thank you all so much for your prayers, they truly are carrying us through this journey. We are really worried about the plane rides x 4 to get home. We leave this Thursday, so that would be Wednesday back home. Little Micah the little guy I asked for prayers for who was grieving hard for his foster family is doing great. He has a wonderful family now and they are trying so hard to help him through this time. Each day is a little better for them I think.

Love you all and talk to you later!

Katie (no time to spell check, sorry!)

I hope you can see the pictures I sent this time. The first is a pic of our Tianjin group in front of the orphanage. I left Nathaniel with my dad at the hotel because I didn't want him to be confused. The orphanage director wanted to know where he was so Wendy, our guide, told her a little fib and said he was sleeping because he was up most the night. Whatever works!

The next 2 pics were at the lantern festival we went to yesterday. There were hundreds of people and they ALL wanted to see Dominic and the other children in our group. People were asking to have their pictures taken with him and even sneaking pictures with him, kinda leaning in a little too close while a friend snapped a quick photo. They really wanted to hear him speak but Dom wouldn't say a word he was so freaked out. I don't blame him.. Everyone was nice just inquisitive. It was a really neat experience, I'm glad we went. The baby dressed like an emperor was too cute. The mama seemed okay with having his picture taken.

Love ya all

Katie

Last day inTianjin

Today is our last day in Tianjin. I have mixed feelings about leaving. Tianjin is such a tough place, not very pretty, smells bad, everything looks as if it's in some stage of construction but it's also the birth place of Nathaniel. This is a big deal. This is where he was carried for 9 mnths in his birth mama's womb. This is where he was abandoned at #10 building at 13 days old. This is where he was cared for by nannies who I'm sure loved him and did their best. This is where I first touched my son and got to see with my own eyes how wonderful and perfectly made he is. I am sad and happy for him to be taking him out. He of course has no idea and I'm glad. I want to have some memories to give him so I was thinking about what I might say . I will say how happy I was to come here and meet him and claim him as ours. I will say the people we met along the way from the taxi drivers to the waitresses were so unbelievably kind and helped make our experience wonderful. I might say a bit about the rotten conditions and the smog that stings my face and eyes but it won't be much. I want him to have happy memories even if they are the memories I tell him and not the ones he actually remembers.

Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou and stay at the White Swan hotel. This hotel is where I think most if not all of the adoptive families stay because the Consulate is in Guangzhou. It caters to families so I think our stay might be a little bit easier there. We fly out on the 28th. I wish it was tomorrow.

Talk to you later :-)

Katie