2 days of pure joy and amazement

We love Guangzhou and love our new friends we have made here. I do beleive it is going to be very hard to leave our new friends we have met. There has been alot of laughter with our crazy American adoptive families and I have never felt so releived to have others around that are all going through the same thing. We Madison families have bonded very well and Tom and I truly  enjoy everyones company. We have some great stories to tell and memories for a lifetime!  Mrya, Mike and Will... Lisa, Wayne and Madison,  Angela, Scott and their beautiful entourage of children have been such a blessing to us the last few days.. Much love to you all!!!  We havent seen Marcie as much as her poor hubby has not been feeling well and we are praying he gets better very soon.

The last two days with our budding comedian have been the most amazing days.  Luke is taking off like there is no limit to what he can do. His sign language is incredible and he is learning at least 20 - 30  new signs everyday and retaining and using them. We can discuss alot of things now and it is crazy how fast he learns and that after one time of being shown it is stored nicely in his brain!!! 

Yesterday we went to a Famous Buddhist temple here called Six Banyan Temple and it was truly interesting to see what the religion of this country is.  Luke doesnt seem to have been taught any religion but has obviously seen it practiced as he can mimic what they do, but has no idea what for. He was again the photographer for our journey there and the boy has a great eye and is taking some amazing shots. I do beleive he is going to need his own camera back home, I will write that down on his wish list hehe.

After the Buddhist temple we went to a Jade market and got to buy some really nice good jade and it was wayyy cheaper then if you bought it in the USA.  Luke saw an artist there that was making ink drawings with his fingers and the artist let all of our kids try and he LOVED it.. he did pretty good too, he really does watch what all is going on and picks up quickly. 
After the temple our friends here wanted us to see a dried spice and also a meat market, really an experiance you cant miss when you come here but it truly makes you wonder about why and how they eat the things they do here... We saw some crazy things here and are pretty sure we scarred Luke some as he didnt know that the chicken he eats was actually once alive until we went to the market, he got pretty upset but just hasnt eaten chicken since then.  He was facsinated with what we saw and couldnt wait to show his mommy, daddy and his 2 new best male friends ever , Mr Wayne and Mr Mike all the things we saw. 

We ended our night with going out to an AMAZING Chinese dinner with Mike, Myra, cutie pie Will and Lisa, Wayne and the amazing Ms Madison and we had some great food and great laughs. I love the support of our little group and sure do hope we can stay in touch and stay close when we leave. It has been amazing to have such a support group here.  We are missing Julie and Eric and there gorgeous son Max as they are with another agency and we dont really get to see them. We spent alot of time in Jinan with them and they are amazing people. Hoping to see them again and spend some good time together before we leave.

Our time here with Luke is something I will treasure forever. There are moments when it is just so hard for me to look at him and wonder how no one could ever take to the time to teach him ANYTHING (like what a cat, dog, and mouse are..  how to tie his shoes.. that he was born in the year of the dragon, that he is a human worth loving..), he is so bright and has heart of gold. He has turned into a social bug and is making friends with everyone. He is just a joy and a dream to be around.... tonight as he was going to bed he told me he loved me for the first time and it  makes me cry to type it, his little heart is opening up and he  is truly letting tom and I in. Tonight we laughed and danced and giggled and tickled and played goofy games, he loves just being in the room with us being goofy and laughing until Tom and I have tears in our eyes. He cant understand how I can be happy when I am crying and he seems confused when I sometimes cry looking at him and I try hard not to do that, but he is so amazing that I cant beleive no one ever got to know how amazing he was for the first 10 years of his life. I  am truly blessed to be the one to be able to see this joyous little boy blossom right in front of my eyes. God is truly shining down upon us and I dont feel worthy of the joy. We know that this is not going to be an easy journey for us and there will be bumps in the road.... but seeing the smile the size of Godzilla and hearing his amazing laugh and giggle and seeing his eyes light up when he learns something new and seeing him just about jump out of his skin with excitement of flying home to meet his family....surely makes it worth any bumps that are to come. 

                              The happy Buddha at Six Baynan Temple

       Luke trying to throw the coin in so he can earn so good luck with wealth

                      The Buddhas of the present, past and future

         Luke copying the monk, he thought he was funny as heck doing that

 The artist at the Jade shop showing Luke how to do some of the artwork

                He really enjoyed doing it and did pretty well too

                                       A budding artist.....

 Lizard on a stick anyone? They say it is great for people with asthma.. am I thinking about eating it? umm.. NO

 We can always have some scorpion which they say is great to cure hot flashes and arthritis......

                       A Little Croc anyone?

                                    How about some snake???

 Wonder what the FDA would think of this meat market.. I have many more photos but they are too graphic

 Luke with his new best bud, Mr Wayne!!!! ( he thinks Mr Wayne rocks and we do too!)

        Ms. Myra getting her thigh master workout playing with the kids.. she sure is fun!!!!

Our first day in Guangzhou

Our first day in Guangzhou was a little rough, not gonna lie to you all.  Luke was doing really well even after his first flight, hitting a new town and we only slept about 5 hours.  We went as a group to the medical exam and he was in good spirits and being his usual happy self. We went in the the crowded building and he did really well. We went back to the medical exam which I personally thought was a joke but we gotta do what we gotta do, China calls all the shots here not me!  So Luke first got weighed (with all of his clothes and jacket on.. hmm accurate huh?) then we went and the checked his eyes (not very scientific but it worked) looks like his vision is good. Next we went to the ENT section and Tom and I could not stop giggling. The hearing test is they squeek a rubber duck besides the childs head to see if they turn.. REALLLLLLYYYY?? SOoo ofcourse our ENT kept talking away to Luke and asking him 25 questions and we kept saying he is Deaf, he cant hear and gesturing that he cant hear ( our guide was busy with another family)  and she just kept asking away ( I am pretty sure she thought he was stupid as he just didnt answer her)... So we finally yelled to our guide and I had her yell to the ENT in Chinese that he was Deaf (after Tom and I gestured to her about 25 times he was Deaf and couldnt hear) and she finally got it after our guide yelled in Chinese that he is deaf... whew.... so the squeeking of the duck test he failed hahah. Hmm maybe he has hearing loss or maybe he just didnt like the duck who knows...? ha   After that it was time to get a strip down and the docs checked him from head to toe. be honest with you he wasnt to happy with this and it took quite some convincing to get him to realize he was ok.. Happy when that part was over.

Next our Madison agency families went to a room and filled out our paperwork that our guide will bring to the Consulate to make everything official, we are getting closer now!

After that we went shopping in Guangzhou with another family (Lisa, Wayne and Madison and we just adore them and are so happy for their love and support and friendship!)  and Guangzhou is a really neat place what a cool island we are staying on called Shamian Island, we really like it here.  Many adoptive families are here and there are alot more of the comforts of home here and alot of support from other families all going through the same thing.

Luke was doing amazing until we went into this one store and wanted a necklace, I left to go back to the room to hit the tiolet and when I came back Luke came running out of the store with a necklace of Buddha on him and he was soo excited.  I tought Tom bought it for him so made a big deal of telling him how cool it was. Only to return to the store to see Tom and the owner saying.. you didnt pay for that. Tom said he didnt want to buy it for Luke as it was very expensive and wasnt worth what the lady was asking. So far if we didnt buy Luke something he was great with putting things back, but I think since the lady put it on his neck and then I made a big deal out of how great it was, he thought it was his for sure.  Being a child that has never had anything the " this is mine" 'factor is huge for him. We tried to negotiate the necklace off of him and he wouldnt budge so finally I held him and Tom took it off of him, this started what would become a full fledged melt down and mind you when I tell you that Luke has been angelic and a delight since the day we have gotten him, but this did shake Tom and I up pretty bad. Thank God for the family with us that said this is sort of the norm and to just let it go and deal with it and not to get embarassed or upset and they patiently waited with us while Luke got himself together (it sure did take some time for that to happen) it felt like it was 3 hours of a melt down but in reality it was probably 30 or 40 minutes... Luke did come around and we went to lunch( he moped the whole way there but did go) by the time lunch started and we fed him a good burger and fries and some lamb kabobs he was back to his normal self and all was right in the world.  All in all it was a good day but it sure did make Tom and I realize that even though this little guy has been so resilant through this whole week, we have to remember he has had 10 really rough years of life and not one person has bothered to communicate anything to him in 10 years (they didnt even teach him how to tie his shoes... I mean geesh you dont need to hear to teach someone that)...  

So that was our first day in Guangzhou, it was a long day and not much sleep we had a few bumps in our road but the Lord has paved the way with his protection and we know that this journey is being prayed over and that our son is under the watchful eye of our maker and that we are one blessed family........ To be continued with our second day in Guangzhou soon!!!

 Our new hotel room at the Victory hotel on Shamian Island, Guangzhou, China

 My new pal Madison and Luke helping me fill out the paperwork

 Writing down Lukes weight

 Checking those ears that didnt respond to the squeeking duck.........

 Filling out our paperwork with our guide Connie, this paperwork is for the Consulate (important stuff)

                                               Luke and his new pal, Mr. Wayne playing tic tac toe!!!

                         Daddy and son in their Pittsburgh stuff!

 He wanted to wear dads jacket and loves pittsburgh already heheh

 you see many many bride and groom here, getting their "pre-wedding" pictures

 Lisa and Madison joined a group to play some Chinese hackey sack

                          Dont know what was up with this but took this picture for Aaron!

Fly baby Fly

Well this picture should tell you everything you need to know about our boys very first flight!!!

 Look at me and Daddy on my first plane ride, I am wayyy to cool!

 Watching the instructions being signed in Chinese Sign Language on the tv screen

 Holding on to daddy during take off for a little bit of assurance that all is just fine

Luke working on my search a word and Tom doing Sudoko


Well The moment was finally here, we got to head towards the airport for Luke's first ever plane ride. We met a few other families all from our providence and traveled together on the plane with Lisa and Wayne and their cutie pie, Madison and we also flew with John and Cheryl and their two precious children. We also met a few other adoptive families on our flight.  Luke was so excited yet nervous at the same time to be heading to the airport that he didnt know what to do with himself. I must say I was so nervous with how he would handle it that it was making me crazy.  He was amazing!!!! We had to take a shuttle bus (very very crowded) over to our airplane and then walk up the ramp to get in the plane. Luke held my hand as we made our way up the ramp. He had our boarding passes and found our seats 9d e and f.. the boy found them and took the window seat, Tom showed him to buckle up and then just watching his face became Tom and my past time for the next 15 minutes as the excitement built for him. He just couldnt wait!!!! When the engines came on his face lit up and he was sooo excited! When we started to taxi out he just held onto Daddys arm but was filled with excitement. I love watching him when he gets so excited. The joy in his face when we took off was one of those American express commercial moments as they say.. PRICELESS!!!!  We had a 2 hour and 15 minute flight and it was night time so nothing really to see out the windows. I was beyond exhausted and had taken a dramamine then also a Benadryl as I had an asthma attack when we got on the plane due to all the smoke in the airport. So I pretty much drooled on myself for the next 2hours while Tom and Luke talked an talked and then played search a words (the boy can actually find words in there) and then Tom taught Luke how to play Sudoko and he loved it. He finished a few puzzles too.  When it came time to land he was again filled with excitement and couldnt wait to land and see what new adventure would be brought to him.........

Sorry it has been so long

Wow where to start, I have decided since so much happened I will post several shorter posts then one cray long, as we never know how long I can be on here before we need to go do something (Like feed our bottomless pit of a son heeheh).

Our last day in Jinan was a frigged yet lovely day there. Our guide is one in a million and all of us would have loved to have brought her home. Tom and I were very very sad to leave Missy as she is truly an amazing woman with a heart of Gold.

Our last day we went to a place that is pretty famous in Jinan called Diamond Lake. It is truly beautiful and peaceful there and we enjoyed it as our last day in Jinan using the day of peace and quality time with our son to just hang out and chill out in a gorgeous park. Luke is truly a techy guy. He has become my photographer and takes most of the pictures we have so far, he has a great eye and catches some pretty cool things on camera. 

Our day ended with the drive out of Jinan, it is truly a heart wreching drive through some really poverty stricken areas. Luke was nervous when we hit the poor areas as we kept telling him we were going to the airport and it is hard to beleive there is an airport through the area we drove to.  I will post on my next post about his famous first flight as I need to go get our laundry. We are truly blessed with an amazing boy and he has already captured the hearts of all he has met here in China with us. We get stopped by just about everyone that is Chinese to tell us how Handsome our son is. He is truly a very handsome boy. Our guide says he is almost so handsome that he is pretty like a girl hahah.  We had a great final day in Jinan. I would like to say I was sad leaving Jinan but to be honest it is hard for me to say I will miss the place where our son was not treated well and basically ignored for 10 years of his life.  We are so sad when we think of what his life would have been like for him here, our guide told us she is pretty sure when Luke turned 14 here in China and was no longer able to be adopted his future would be very very grim, she actually said " I shudder to think about what would have become of him if we did not bring him home" Everyone keeps telling us how blessed Luke is to have us, but trust me we are the blessed ones. To see the world through his eyes is such an amazing exepriance. When just about everthing you do is for the first time it is amazing to see his eyes and face and reactions to some of the most simple things. (IE when I licked the envelope to seal it he was in awe that it had glue in it to make it stay shut and talked about that for over an hour...)

 Our goofy boy getting ready to leave our room and tour then hit his first plane ride!!

       His adoption registration certificate ( a very very important peice of paperwork)

                              A gorgeous building at Diamond Lake

 Our famous photographer of a son took this of his Mommy and Daddy

Luke took this of the boat, he liked it!

 Me and our amazing Guide, Missy

 Luke and his daddy checking out the statues

 Just a pretty view of Diamond Lake

 Us all together under the sign that says Diamond Lake on our last day in Jinan, China

 The drive to the airport, it is amazing how poor the Villages are, it is heart breaking

 people actually  lived in these

The lived here too, there were people living in this section

We are sooo in love and Blessed from above beyone words!!!!

I know I havent been the best of bloggers since we have gotten Luke but it has been a whirlwind. As I type this our precious gift from God is asleep in the bed behind me. We just had a conversation about the newspaper that got delivered to our room and we discussed the President of China and the President of America and even though I know he doesnt know what a President is he figured out they were important people in the world. He also figured out that Obama is where we are going to soon.

We spent today touring Jinan. What an interesting city, soo crowded and old and to be honest sorta dirty but it is full of history..We started our day with a great tour of Baotu Springs, this is a place that Jinan is famous for. We had a great time looking through the springs and just enjoying some amazing Chinese culture and history (even though it is aobut 20 degrees outside) we had an amazing day, it is truly fun and a joy to see things through Luke's eyes.

Today was a day of many firsts for Luke, he saw TV for the first time, had his 1st ice cream cone and saw Baotu Springs for the 1st time, he learned for the first time his zodiac sign and that he was born in the year of the Dragon, our guide was upset that Luke did not know anything about this and what that meant, she said "all Chinese people know this" well apparently Luke wasnt worth teaching in the orphanages eyes...

We were told in the orphange that Lukes paperwork says he is mentally retarded, well Tom and I couldnt help but laugh in the Directors face (not very appropriate I am sure) but hello this boy is SOOOOOO smart it is darn near scary.  He plays memory games like nobodies business, can have pretty in depth conversations in ASL (interesting since he knew about 2 year old level sign language in Chinese when we met and can only read and write in Chinese on a pre-school level too) but he is writing a ton for us in English,  he was never exposed to English before, he is just THAT bright!  Our days and nights are filled with awe and laughter, no it has not all been a bed of roses, as Luke has a ton to learn that our guide that he should know as the other children she has worked with for adoption seemed to know these things, even the children she helped that were deaf knew things he doesnt know, But it seems that since no one at the orphange could communicate with Luke they just didnt bother to teach him things. It is scary to think of what he would be doing now if someone taught him something for the last 10 years..but I must say it has pretty much been as close to a bed of roses as one could get!!!


Today Luke wanted to know what he could do when he gets older (this started because we were talking about Aaron being away at college,) I am not sure he gets what college is exactly but he knows it is school and Aaron is  older and there learning. Tom told him he could do whatever he wants and become whatever he wants, he said " I cant I am not allowed" When Tom told him yes you can do anything he still didnt beleive him. Tom told him a 3 rd time and started squeeling with delite that he could become something.  He is such a deliteful boy so full of joy and quick to laugh and be goofy. We love watching his delite in things we so take for granted on a daily basis. 

I could go on and on but I am getting exhausted and tomorrow we go to get Lukes Passport and then will tour Diamond Lake and then head to the airport, we are seriously going to miss  our guide, Missy as she is a delight  and a joy to be with, I cant imagine our guide down south being this dynamo.  Wish we could take her with us heheh!!!  Luke is going to miss her too, he is no dummy this girl is so nice it is hard to beleive she is real!

We are excited to say that Thanks to a friend we are going to meet a woman in southern China that is Deaf and a native to China but also knows ALS and CSL.. We cannot wait to see someone Deaf as that hasnt happened since we have been here. I am curious what Luke will think of her!!!

Ok I am off to sleep and ready to see what joy tomorrow will bring as we get Luke on the plane for his first ever plane ride of his life!! I can tell you that it made my heart break and elate when we packed his suitcase. Break because he looked at me packing his clothes and our clothes and pointed to his things and said " you are packing my clothes too?" (it makes me so sad to imagine how he must feel so worried we are going to leave him and not want him, I cant imagine how this must feel to a child but to think about it makes me feel so sad I feel like my heart is broken to just imagine even a little what that must feel like)I said of course you are coming on the plane with us.. the boy darn near jumped out of his skin with excitement, he squeeled and did the cutest happy dance ever. I got a huge hug (he normally will not hug) and he just kept giggling and laughing. I told him "Luke you are my son and you will always be with me and daddy) he just giggled and smiled even bigger.. hard to beleive one could smile that large, sooo big that both his eyes vanished hhehehe....

Ok off to sleep with promises to blog more soon, off to our next leg of this amazing journey!!!

 Baotu Springs, Jinan China

                                   Is that a happy face or what!!!!

                                 Our happy Jack and our awesome guide,Missy!

                                                    Tom and I at Baotu Springs

                                               He is such a handsome guy!

                                                      Luke and his Daddy!!!!

          Luke with his first Ice Cream cone ever!!!(I think he might have like it.. what do you think?)

                                                    Me on the bridge at the Springs

                                         Getting all decorated for Chinese New year!!!!!