Everyone bites the dust...

Was great to have my parents and one of my sisters and a dear friend at the airport to greet us. So wonderful to hug our kids and have them finally meet Caleb face to face. Really have no words to describe...Certainly feels good to be home. Felt longer than 2 weeks. Have survived almost 48 hours back at home. All but Rod are now on antibiotics, which I don't like, but gotta do it this time...But still managing to get unpacked, do laundry, etc...
The first day things went really well. Caleb really loved playing with Austin and Naomi. And they have been great helpers. It is so great to have older kids now to help with a little one! Makes such a difference! So have a couple kids then wait a few years and have a couple more! My dear sister-in-law brought us dinner, Mexican food and fresh strawberries, it was awesome! She also made some wonderful pesto sauce which we had on our pasta tonight. So Caleb got to meet another aunt and uncle and 5 of his cousins. Also papa Freeland came, Booma Freeland was sorely missed. It does feel empty with out her.
Didn't get out of bed until 10 today. But I was up with Naomi at 3 then Austin woke me up at 7, 8 and 9. I told him tonight that he may not come into my room until after 8:30 tomorrow unless someone is bleeding or can't breathe. We got Caleb up and he was not happy. I sat with him while he rolled on the floor. I left for a minute and then he was almost under our bedskirt making a little sucking noise. He makes a little sucking noise and like to have a blanket up over his face or near his face to go to sleep. I didn't want to "punish" him as he was just having a hard time, but I thought maybe he just needs to go back to sleep, which he did until 1 pm. With the time difference and him being sick and grieving, that is probably just what he needed.
Austin and I had a dr. appt.in the afternoon which I thought Caleb would be asleep during that time as I also need to go to Target to get Caleb some smaller clothes. But Naomi played with him and he was fine the whole time we were gone, then he wanted me to hold him for about half an hour, while I was trying to fix dinner of course. But that's ok...
After dinner we went for a short walk. Caleb does scream if you take a toy away or something else he really wants. We will have to work on that soon. But for a little while we need to give him what he wants, most of the time, so he knows we will meet his needs and he can learn to trust us, feel secure and attach to us.
Feel bummed we will probably have to miss Easter service at church, as Easter is a glorious day! Certainly seeing Easter in a different light this year. "God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ...and it gave him great pleasure...He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son..."Eph. 1:5,7 WOW! So blessed and thankful!

Sitting in Seattle...

I'm going on 30 hours of being up with no sleep, let's see if I can write anything coherent! Spelling will probably be bad! But what else do you do an in airport with free internet access and a very long layover? Blog of course! Maybe I can get the pictures up that wouldn't work.
It is now 10:20am in China, Caleb is in his stroller asleep, poor guy!
This morning was rough! We were kind of late getting to the airport. Our guide really had to weasel her way to get us all checked in quickly. So I was very sad and disappointed to not really get to say last goodbyes. But I'm sure there are a few people who we will really stay in touch with and maybe evedn visit. Caleb screamed from the time we were in line at the airport and most of the first flight. Needless to say I've had trouble with bonding today. But Rod has been so patient with him and me. He is so excited that Caleb is a citizen now and ALL the paperwork is behind us. But be sure and ask him just how much paperwork he actually did! Then on our flight from Beijing to Seattle he fell asleep even before we took off, slept a couple hours while Rod and I watched "True Grit". Then he was up a few hours then slept 5-6 more, so that was great! And he has done pretty good since we have been in Seattle. We desperately tried to get an earlier flight, there just weren't any. Why in the world is Fresno an international airport? Oh well...Had a taco salad for dinner. It tasted soooo good!
Our poor little girl at home is still so sick. Can't wait to get home to her and the other young man also. Now Caleb has a rash on his face and some kind of eye infection. So I got him a Dr. appt. tomorrow afternoon at 4, hopefully I will be out of bed by then. So I guess the Freeland house will just have to be quarintined for a few days...But I'm praying I can go to church for Easter. I would be very sad to miss it.
Picture of the market we went to, pictures don't do it justice! It was quiet an expereince! Thos e who live near us will have to see Rod's video.
The other picture is the famous "red couch" photo for those who have adopted from China.
About an hour and a half until we leave Seattle and Rod wants his turn on the computer. Thanks for all your prayers and comments and reading about our journey!

Leaving China

I was almost done with this whole long post, then it disappeared! So frustraing!!!
So now I have to try and reemeber everythig I wrote and I should be in bed as I have to get up at 4:30AM! Please pray for us as we have an EXTREMELY long day tomorrow. We leave the hotel at 5:30am, fly to Beijing where we have a 5 hour layover, then fly to Seattle where we have a 9 hour layover. We are supposed to arrive in Fresno around midnight. We will be doing 2 days in 1 day. I can hardly wait!
We did go to the market today, I'm so glad we did. It was really cool especially for our last day to really be "in" the culture and feel more like foreigners instead of just being in the tourist area. It was like an extreme Winco. ANything and everything you could ever want in bulk. Except I don't know what most of it was. I did see lots of dried herbs, animal hooves/legs, snake skin, dried frogs, live turtles, live scorpions (they put them in soup and they were big!), rabbits, kittens, ducks, baby chicks...all kinds of stuff.
This afternoon I finished up my shopping. I knew I was done when I felt like I had seen the same things a hundred times and just did not feel the need to buy anything else.
Tonight was dinner with our whole group. It is sad to be going our separate ways.
After dinner Rod wanted to walk by the church one more time. There is a Christian church right by our hotel (registered of course). It has a gate around it and we were just standing outside the gate lokking at it. A nice man started talking to us in english and invited us in. They were having choir practice. They had prayer and Bible reading first, then we had to leave when they were still warming up. But it was so cool to be sitting inside a Christian church in China. Now I have a specific one to pray for.
So we are at the end of this part of the adoption journey, its hard to believe. All the paperwork, waiting and waiting, frustration, joy, anticipation, so hard to describe.
So blessed that we have been able to do this. We are so thankful for everyone who has prayed for us and helped us in so many ways along the way. Thank you is just not enough!

Guangzhou

It is soooo nice here! White Swan Hotel is wonderful! It is much more peaceful here and relaxing. That is why I havn't been blogging, I have been shopping! Also yesterday I wasn't feeling well, but better today.
Yesterday we went to a folk art museum. Its was really neat and very different than what we have seen in the other two parts of China we have been in. The first picture is the front of the building. Pictures of course don't do any justice to all the carving and architecture. Then there is a picture of us standing in front of bamboo. And a picture of a huge ship carved from animal bone.
Tonight we went to the same Chinese place we went last night with the whole group, tonight we just went with the family we were with in Wuhan and another couple we have been hanging out with a lot who got twin girls that are soooo adorable! One family lives in Michigan and one in Indiana. We may have to take a road trip!
Today we had our consulate appointment. It went pretty well, just kind of long for the kids to be there, along with the long bus ride there and back. No cameras were allowed, nothing really to take a picture of, but just really neat to stand there with about 20 other American adoptive families and take the oath for your child, pretty cool! Yesterday Caleb did great, no fits. Today he made up for that.
Kind of going out of order in the day...
This afternoon went shopping while Caleb and Rod took a nap. Caleb is still sleeping and eating good. We'll see how that goes when we get home.
Can't believe we just have one day left. Very anxious to get home to our kids and own house, getting tired of the hotel room. But sad to leave China, having a good time here in Guangzhou, and saying good-bye to our new friends.
Its hard to believe it will be almost Easter when we get home. I think it will have a new and different, even deeper meaning for me this year.

Ok, so here is a pictur eof the orphanage and the other two we are at the Yellow Crane tower in Wuhan. It was pretty neat.
Caleb made it through his first lfight, he did great, he just ate the whole time! Then he screamed most of the way to the hotel from the airport, about 45 min.
This morning we had to get him visa pictures and a medical exam, it went well. Then on the way back we stopped at Starbucks, YUM! It is actually a little more exzpensive than in the US.
It is very nice here in Guangzhou. The White Swan hotel is wonderful. We are right next to a river, kind of on an "island". It is much more peaceful and quiet here. Very nice change of pace! Nice areas to walk around in, lots of shops. Can't wait to go shopping!
Its been grea to meet back up with the rest of our group and see everyone's babies. Plus at this hotel there are lots of other adoptive families. So amazing! Each one has a special story.
Off to a meeting now...

Orphanage visit

I was still able to go to the orphanage while Caleb took a nap. We took a taxi, it was crazy! You would think there would be soooo many accidents but I have only seen one the whole time we have been in China, I found out on the way I would be taking a taxi back to the hotel by myself, yikes! Our guide was taking the dad and his tow teenage sons (the family we have been hanging out with)for a boat ride on the Yellow river. It was scary but I survived. Not able to upload a picture right now, will keep trying...
We got a tour from the director, so didn't interact with the kids like I thought we might. But I did get to pass out suckers to one classroom of severely disabled chldren.
The babies crying in a couple of rooms was sad. I wanted to hold them. I was very glad I went. Was neat to see but also sad. The orphanage DESPERATELY needs special nipples for the cleft lip/cleft palate babies. Our son was fortunate to have one, but now they are all out and can't even get them here. So if anyone would like to help in this way I want to try to send a box of them soon after we get back.
We are doing great today so far.

Unconditional love

Another layer of understanding this process for me and him...he started crying as we were getting ready to go down to breakfast, crying uncontrollably. I had to bring him back up to the room. He rolled around on the floor, at times wanting to touch my hand or for me to hold him and then pushing me away, sometimes both at the same time.
But for heave's sake, I'm his 4th mommy! He doesn't know that he is stuck with me forever. That I will never leave him. We found out he had actually been in two foster homes.
I had a bit of my own grieving too. I can't fix this or take it away. I have to walk through it with him. Another picture of God. How we reject Him, turn away from Him, then cling to Him. Yet He is always there, always loves us no matter what. He understands! He had to abandon His own son, so that He could adopt me! Was it a huge sacrifice, was it hard, was it messy? ABSOLUTELY! But was He still in control, was He still right there? OF COURSE!
Please continue to pray for us!
Rod went to a museum with the group and we stayed here. It has been better with 2 bottles and lots of snacks, TV on.
This afternon during his nap I may go to the orphanage. Caleb only spent about 2 weeks there. But I still feel drawn to go, to better understand the plight of the orphan. And even if we come back here, I don't know if I will have another chance. It might do me in, but feel like I want to/need to do it.
Got to talk to our kids. Starting to miss them more. One more week til we go home.

1st 24 hours

Here is the picture of us meeting him.
We have ALL made it through the first 24 hours of having Caleb in our lives. I slept well last night but feel kind of tired. He slept well last night and easily went down for a nap this afternoon. I may join him... I'm still waiting for the "storm" to hit and trying to brace myself. But he is eating well, seems happy and is having fun playing with the toys we brought him.
This morning we had to go back to the adoption center and have a short interview and go over the paperwork I filled out last night. All this paperwork will then be notarized and will be our adoption certificate. So it was pretty much finalized today. Still hard to believe! I thought that he or some of the other kids would have a lot of trouble going back to the place we picked them up yesterday but there were 6 families there today and all the kids did great!
After we finished there we went to a grocery store. We got Caleb a couple of little books in Chinese and they have the english word for the item also, water and of course I had to get a couple of things from the bakery. I chose a couple of different bread to have with our "Ramen noodles" for lunch. The bread were good but very different from American breads or the breads I make. But I had some bread this morning that tasted like banana bread.
It has been raining here today. We may venture out for dinner tonight since we ate at the hotel restaurant last night. Things are pretty cheap here for us, but for them it is expensive. Inflation keeps getting higher and they have a 63% tax rate. I will never complain about ours again!
We are really enjoying getting to know and spending time with the other Bethany family that is here with us. They brought their 2 teenage sons and 3 1/2 year old chinese daughter with them. Their sons are great and have taken pictures for us and are great with all the little kids. Very nice family. They live in MI, I think in Grand Rapids.
Well I think I'm going to reat a little while I have the chance. I'm sure everything is going so well because of all your prayers! Thank you for your love and support!

Last day in Beijing

Today the sun was out, blue sky and windy. The wind blew a lot of the smog away. We went to the Forbidden City, Tiannemin Square and on a tour in the Hutong district where we rode on rickshaws. It was really neat. My favorite thing we have done. We actually got to go into a residents house and he talked to us and we got to ask him questions through a translator. His oldest son is a Kung Fu instructor in Houston.
The Forbidden City is HUGE. We walked and walked. It was pretty crowded. Many of the structures had hand paintings on them and many pieces were covered in gold. It was build in 1420. All the buildings put together there were 9,999 rooms, because 9 was considered the perfect number.
It is also amazing when we are on the bus and just looking at so many interesting things. Tall buildings EVERYWHERE, many of them apartment buildings. The driving here is kind of crazy, its every person for themselves whether you are driving, riding a bike or walking.
This evening we had Peking duck with another couple from our group. No one in the restaurant spoke English, but we figured it out and everything we got was good.
Going to bed early tonight and hopefully get some sleep as we may not get much the rest of the trip. We have to leave the hotel at 5:30 am to catch our flight to Wuhan. There is another Bethany family that got there today. We havn't met them yet as this is their 2nd adoption and they took the Shanghai instead of the Beijing one. We will get Caleb in the afternoon. I'm nervous, excited, scared...and I don't know what else! It still seems so surreal and just unbelieveable. Who am I and what am I doing here? Please pray for us tomorrow! I know God is faithful and He will continue to be with us on this journey. Doesn't mean it will be easy, we are just trying to obey Him...

Ni Hao from China

Woo-hoo I got on here! We started out pretty exhausted on wed. morning as our flight got canceled. So mom had to pick us up and take us back home as our flight would not leave for 5 hours. I tried to sleep a little but didn't really sleep. Then back to the airport to fly to San Francisco instead of Seattle. Then straight to Beijing. The flight was long, Rod slept way more than I did. I only slept probably 1-2 hours total. But I read a lot. Couldn't put down "Choosing to See". Awesome book!
We got to China, minus one piece of luggage. It wasn't anything major, but still wanted to get it if possible. It arrived this morning thank goodness!
Yesterday we ventured out to the local grocery store. We needed to buy bottled water as you can't drink the water here. The store was pretty neat. I tried to post a picture here but it didn't work. Maybe now it did...
Then last night we went to an acrobatic show. It was pretty neat. Then had some great Chinese food at our hotel.
This morning we were up early to go to the Cloisonne factory which are hand made and handpainted items made from copper and the Great Wall. The Great Wall was crowded but very impressive! I tried twice to get a picture on here, but it wouldn't work.
It has been very interesting and neat to be in our son's birth country, just been trying to take it all in...
Tomorrow we go to the Forbidden City, should be very interesting...
Monday afternoon we will get Caleb, its hard to believe its almost here!