Waiting (impatiently) on the home front, narrowly missing You Tube fame

Since I don't plan on venturing too far from this computer anytime soon (except to get WTs to bed), I figured I'd burn off some nervous energy (which is in abundant supply) by talking about  our wedding weekend.

The girls were slated to be flower girls in their cousin's wedding which took place last night.  As a quick aside, it is interesting to note that the last time our family was in China, C was a flower girl in our friends' wedding.   So if someone would like to ask her to be a flower girl in about six months, we would be happy as that would signal another trip to China!

Now, this wedding was a source of no small anxiety for me.  As you may have noticed, I did use the plural for girl.  That means the veteran, C, and the wildcard, K.  Let me add that the wedding was outdoors on property that had a phenomenal view and...dirt, lots of dirt.  And the girls would be wearing white dresses.  Can you envision why this might promote a sense of dread?

The rehearsal went really well, so I was hopeful that K might do okay.  She did give me a good reminder, however, when she broke loose during the final run-through, running down the small hill to the site of the ceremony where I was waiting for her, shouting at the top of her lungs, "I have to go shi-shi!!!!!" (which is the equivalent of going "number 1").  Mental post-it note reminder: make sure she goes to the bathroom before the wedding.

For whatever reason, she had a really bad night/early morning, waking up on and off from 2am until she finally got up at 6am.  Which of course meant that mom had a bad night/early morning.  Add to this that I was sharing a bed with C who kept kicking me during the night.  When I asked about that the next day, she said she had a dream she was sharing a bed with one of her aunts (Jewell or Joy or another one of her 5 "J" aunts) and she was kicking her leg for fun.  Uh huh, real fun.

Flash forward to about 10 minutes before the wedding is due to start.  I tell K that I will meet her down the hill just like we practiced.  As I turned to go with M in tow (who, by the way, offered to be the "handsome boy" in the wedding), K let out a huge wail and yelled "I want to stay with MOMMMMMYYYYYY!"  Trying not to melt into the dirt and create a mud puddle, I tried to calm her down and reason with her.  Nothing seemed to work.  The mother of the bride, my sister-in-law, tried to reassure me that if it didn't work out, it would be totally fine.  I also know that the bride will be totally understanding because she is the opposite of a bridezilla, which I have no word for right now, but she's really really sweet and understanding.

I really want K to do this, for my niece, but also for K.  I want her to overcome this and buck up like a trooper.  I decide to pray with her, thinking that might work.  She calms down and I ask her if she's ready to stay with her sister.  She responds with, "Nooooo, I want to stay with MOMMMMMMY!" At this point I am pleading in my mind to God, ready to make all kinds of promises He will laugh at because He knows me. 

An idea enters into my head (thank you God) to wait at the bottom of the hill to the side with K.  When the wedding party walks by, she can then join her sister for the short walk down the aisle.  I talk her through this and she seems like she might be okay with the idea.  I know it's a long shot, but it's worth a try.  As we are sitting waiting for the nine bridesmaids to file past, (I had a long time to think)  I suddenly had visions of K going down the aisle and doing something that will end up on You Tube.  I could just see the video going viral, titled "Meltdown after the maids" or "Flower girl faceplant," or "Agony in the aisle," or something like that.

The time came for C to file past.  I stood K up and asked if she wanted to go with her sister.  She nodded yes, joined her sister, and walked down the aisle like a champ.  Thank you Jesus!

The bride was beautiful, and the wedding was wonderful (kudos to my nephew for officiating like a pro!).  For my part, I have a special reminder of that day.  Remember when I was sitting to the side of where the bridal party was walking past? The day before, the bride warned me not to let the kids walk through that area.  You see, it had poison oak there.

Itchy and scratching and waiting to see my boy!!!

Stairs, lots and lots of stairs

Yup today’s big event was the Great Wall. Always impressive to look at, not always easy to climb. Although, I must admit, it was much nicer this time than last. Last time I made the mistake of deciding to run the stairs of our 26 story hotel three times the day before. It was 100,000 degrees outside last time while today it was cool with a great breeze. And last time there was Kara. She fell asleep in my arms just as we started climbing, and I had to climb with a sweaty pile of dead weight. Amazingly, I didn’t have a ton of pictures taken of me like I did last time. Gabriel seemed to really enjoy the wall. Why would I think that? The fact that he was near vibrating as we got there and then took off like a mountain goat risking the wrath of the father as he disappeared from sight, those might be clues.

Conquering the Great Wall

Great Wall Defenders

Also, went to a couple of tourist trap/history type places. They were interesting for learning about things like the making of things out of jade and a certain type of pots and other items made out of copper. We went to another Chinese restaurant for lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner. Pretty good pizza and at least some of us really like the Chinese food.

Not too much else to say about today, but here is a picture of my favorite translation for the day:

Here are some pictures from the previous day's activities:

Arriving at New Day Foster Home

Delivering goods

From the other side of the world

Wow. This is weird. Normally it is the better half that writes these blog entries. Unfortunately, that beautiful lady is at home with the three younger ones while I am here in China with the two oldest and, shortly, the soon to be youngest. I write this after our second morning here. We're all tired from time change and the added fact that the beds, well the beds… Let's see what the boys have used to describe them, G- "Why did they take so much time to put rocks in these beds?" D- "Concrete" G- "Solid steel with a sheet over it." So what has happened so far? Flight- pretty uneventful, but did meet some neat people. We met one guy on his way to North Korea to do work on water systems so as to reduce waterborne diseases. He's part of one of the few openly Christian groups allowed into the country. And he's retired from Anchorage FD so you can imagine we enjoyed talking. Yesterday, after a meeting going over all we were to do this trip and then getting rid of most of the money I carried with me, we headed off to New Day Foster Home to deliver goods we'd gathered together (thanks CG!) and enjoy a brief visit. We finally made it there at nap time, but at least got to see a few of the kids awake. It's a great thing they are doing there. Got back from there to have a few moments of rest before heading off to the acrobatic show. There I got rest once again, though I tried not to! It really is very impressive, kind of reminiscent of a Cirque du Soliel show. After that a group of us headed off to the Chinese restaurant just down from my wife's favorite place, the hypermart. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, but some of our meat and potato friends weren't as thrilled.  As is often the case in other countries, the English translation may not always be spot on.  My favorite from yesterday, "Determined to pot all love." I saw it on a building as we drove past." I was guessing it was maybe a restaurant or a "collective", but then I remembered, I'm not in California any more.

En route

It's just me, nothing to get excited about.  Just thought I'd inform those who care that the last I checked, the guys were over Alaska, ready to fly over Russia. (Thanks Ann for the flightaware.com info. ).  They should arrive in Beijing at 1:20am.

When I dropped off the guys this morning, I wondered if the boys were disappointed that their mom was less weepy than she was rather jubilant.  I know, such a mean mom! Of course I will miss the three of them, but the sense of relief and excitement that they were on their way ruled my emotions.  It felt like all other aspects of life were put on hold (as much as they can while still caring for WTs and 3OS) until this day.  I have all kinds of things I'd like to get accomplished while they're gone...and I'm caring for the WTs...with one mini-helper...yeah, yeah, dream on momma!

Hopefully James will be the next one posting!

Brief calm amid the chaos

Okay, truth be told, it really isn't that chaotic around here even though the guys leave tomorrow for China (and are not completely packed yet).  Maybe it's because life in general is chaotic around here...

It's really hard to believe that within days that are not marked by triple digits, or even double digits, our boy, the one who will turn the Wonder Twins into Wonder Triplets (thus allowing me to keep the abbreviation "WTs," although suggestions have been given to call them "Triple Threat" or "Triple Trouble") will be with his dad and two older brothers (OSs = Older siblings).  It's been almost a year since we first saw and fell in love with him and started the process, quite a long gestational period (not as long as 5 years with K, but long enough for us).  Now that this paper pregnancy is drawing to a close, we are very eager to see the "fruit" of our labor (and this labor has been filled with its share of pain and anxiety, but no stretch marks, yessssssss! except for on our patience...).

We, of course, have been doing what we can to prep the WTs, but there's only so much a pair of three- year-olds can comprehend.  Then again, I think M is comprehending enough.  We talked about where L.B. will sit at the table, in the car, how the little boys will share a room, etc.  All was well until I said, "And you will share your toys too."  To which M replied, "I don't want to do that.  L.B. is a stranger."  You see, it's all about peace and harmony and brotherhood until it comes down to the toys.  That there is a deal breaker. 

Once in China, the blog will be highjacked by the father, though you can expect me to chime in with my two cents.  :)  Here's to the start of another great adventure...

Our son is coming home! A more than a dozen egg day, and...the power of Pull-ups

If you checked in to the blog last week, you already know the great news that our son is coming home to us next month!!!! The guys are leaving the end of this month and will be home with L.B. the middle of next month.  We are overjoyed (and a little overwhelmed, wasn't I going to learn Mandarin???/) that he will be with us so soon.  We are particularly grateful that he will be home sooner than later as he has been moved from his foster home (where he has been most of his life) to the government orphanage.  I can't imagine how difficult the transition must be for him.  Little does he know what awaits him...

So you may be wondering, what happened to that other blog entry??  In a bizarre mishap, I ended up e-mailing a message to the blog that I sent out to a small group.  I never knew I could do that until I saw it on the blog.  The problem was, I had a lot of identifying info about our son which is a big no-no at this point to post publicly.  Oooopsie! I hide my face in shame.

Okay, that wasn't me...and this kid has no shame!

As we anticipate growing our family again, I was reflecting on the amount of food that has been disappearing from our house lately...and how it is only going to get worse.  Today was a "more than a dozen egg" day.   I used 11 at breakfast alone, and that was just for the five kids!  Throw in some hard-boiled eggs for lunch, and that put us at 17, eggs that is.  Against my strictest orders, the children have completely disobeyed and are, gasp, GROWING!  Look at these boys:

and this muscle man

Add in a silly girl...

 and another one...

If you think about it, stop and pray for our newest son.  That poor baby doesn't realize how much his world will be changing.  Not only will he get parents and three older sibs, he will be forced into a trio with these two......

Pretty scary stuff!!!  Good thing he doesn't know what is really waiting for him. 

 This is the picture of the kids we sent to him to break him in gently.

Someone around here is turning three this week!!! It was our plan to work on potty training while the guys were in China.  In anticipation of that, we bought some "Cars" pull-ups to be used for that "event."  The boy took one look at those underthings and said he wanted to use them.  I explained that in order to use them, he had to keep his diaper dry all day.  Now, up to this point, there had been no desire on the part of the boy to be potty trained.  We weren't getting the "readiness" signs that you read about in the potty training books.  All we were getting were the "I could hardly care less" signs.  Imagine my surprise when the kid pulled it off.  Wait, that doesn't sound right.  Imagine my surprise when the kid stayed dry all day! That little stinker had the ability the whole time and decided (sooo true to his independent spirit) that he would potty train himself! Forget the "power of the one ring" (for all you "Lord of the Rings" fans), this my friend, is the "power of the pull-up."  May it reign (until we transition to underwear).

So...now that we only use diapers for night time, here is another use for them, being the "reusing" kind of family we are:

I'm not sure who will be blogging about this next trip, but rest assured, we will be more than happy to show off our newest son!!!!!

Some long lost pictures

In looking for some video of our "gotcha day" with Kara, I found some pictures from China that I have never posted.  Way back when I started this blog, I didn't know how to post the pictures, so all my old entries are pictureless.  Unfortunately, the bulk of our China pictures were on the hard drive of an old laptop that no longer works,  They are now on flash drives that we do not currently have in our possession (but hopefully will get soon).  To those who know us, e-mail me if you want the link to see the gotcha video.  I can't load it here as it is too big.

Before I show the pics, I do want to say that we should find out this week when the "boys" will travel to China to get LB!!!! We are hoping the end of this month is you can believe it!!!

Okay, this is not a China pic...but I had to slip in this photo of "Micah Mouse"

 This is the famous "red couch" picture.  All adoptive families must travel to Guangzhou as it is the only city to issue immigrant visas.  So the place is crawling with "conspicuous families."  The White Swan (nicknamed "The Baby Hotel") was where we and many other families stayed.  They have a playroom in the hotel sponsored by Mattel.  One day we returned to our hotel room to find a gift from Mattel - a Barbie holding an Asian baby!! No lie!  So on this couch are the two kids who were with us the entire time we were in China.  You can see how much they were enjoying the red couch photo shoot.

 We were in a group of 20 families total.  Only three families adopted from Beijing, the rest flew out to their various provinces to get their kiddos.  Here are the moms and kids with the paparazzi.  Hard to believe, but this really is in the inside of the hotel.  And that is a waterfall to the right.

 We wandered around to the local outdoor markets and found various delicacies...I think the bags on the floor had dried worms and there were bags of dried seahorses on the second shelf.

 Dried snakes, nummy!!!

 Sea stars and snake skins

 Really big flies (I was glad they were dead and not buzzing around my head)

 Little did Micah know who would really be doing the pushing around...

 Little Miss Money Bags...she is walking around with three money bags (noticably empty of the thousands we brought over there!)

When we get the other pictures I will be sure to upload them (I mean, some of the thousands) and be one of those obnoxious people who force you to view their vacation pictures!  But really, won't it be worth it to at least see "The Hypermart" and the lady who wiped Kara down after we were horrible parents and took her out in the rain???  See this entry for that story http://froislandfamily.blogspot.com/2010/08/no-good-very-bad-parental-units.html
(It was August 4, 2010).