Wow oh Wow oh Wow.. where to begin!!
We have had the most amazing amazing amazing days here!! ( I truly dont beleive I have the vocabulary necessary to explain all that has happened here). We are in love with our little man and today he is learning how to love back. He gave his first hug to Tom today after seeing Tom hug me (he was so not sure why we hugged) we told him we hug because we love each other.. he JUMPED up into Toms arms with his arms out saying I LOVE YOU DAD!! then to me.. I lOVE YOU MOM!!! He is wanting to hold hands now and sign I love you a ton ( just since yesterday). Tom and I have laughed so hard the last few days we never ever imagined this trip would be like this. We thought it was going to be 2 long hard weeks of being with a stranger who doesnt really want us here. This trip for us couldnt be much further away from that. God has truly made a match made in Heaven. We are so in love and he cannot wait to get home and actually see his family back in America (other then on skype). Although he is quite addicted to skype!
We spent the last few days touring around Guangzhou. We hit a dried food market, a scarry scarry meat market, a pet market (Luke didnt know what any of the pets where called, not even in Chinese) You better beleive he knows the signs for them all now. We spent yesterday at a park with our beloved pals from Madison. Another match that our Lord so made in Heaven. We have laughed and laughed and laughed some more with our Madison travel mates ( I am pretty sure our faces will be on posters here when we leave heheh). We have made friendships that without a doubt will last a lifetime. Luke is soo attached to the other 2 men in our travel group that he gets upset when he thinks of them leaving. He is such a guy... but a guy with a heart of gold. We are so anxious for our friends and family to see this blessing of a boy!!!
Today we had to stay in our room for an hour while our guide did our interviews at the Consulate and she called and said all was great and we are ready for our Consulate appointment today. We leave at 2 to head to the Consulate and take our Oath promising to always take care of our boy and to love him forever.. That is going to be the easiest thing I have ever done as we love him to pieces already. We truly didnt expect to feel for him how we feel now and it is mind blowing how well he is doing. He is pure joy from the moment he wakes until he goes to sleep. For a boy that knew nothing a week ago to a boy that can have great conversations with us just one week later. His signing is still increasing at a rate that is astounding for me ( and I work with Deaf children on a daily basis) and we are watching his language blossom right before our eyes!!!
I have to get off to head to the consulate now and will try and post more later as soooo much has happend in the last few days (allll great stuff)
here are a few picks from our last few days will post more later...
I am the pillow fighting champion of China!!! Whaoooo soon to conquer the world!!
Some of the dried foods (if you can call them food) in the market we went to
Ohh man does he liek spaghetti!!
It was a watch party! Luke got to pick out his very first watch and it was quite an amazing moment!
All the kids with their new watches!!
The literal sea of people in the market, keeping an eye on 1 kid was not easy. whew
Luke petting his first ever dog!
Tom and I with our new found friend Jana, she just moved to China from NC and is Deaf, what a sweetheart
Our little gang, part of theWorrell family but not the whole crew (soon my babies soon!)
Luke and his daddy on the work out equipment in the park
He loves to exercise
Tom and Wayne on some kind of Chinese exercise/ torture device heheh
Me and Tom in the park, it was so pretty there
us being goofy!!!
We are some seriously strange people, we know!
Luke and Wayne calling for Mike.. that was a riot
Me and Ms Madison, my pal
Tom and Luke on his 1st amusement park ride
Mike and Wayne ( I am pretty sure they hate each other heheh ;p~)
The girls, Lisa, Madison, Myra and Me
Tom and Madison they sure are goofy
Hmmm what can I say.. We are enjoying each others company and there is ALOT of guy love to go around hahahah
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.
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!
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.........
Xin Hai's name in Chinese!
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