A Journey for Our Daughter

We are Mark and Kari. This blog was created for family and friends to follow along on our adventure to Nanning, China, for our daughter, Thea QiuXiang. We are home now, posting updates about our own little Wonderful World as a family of 7!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Updates . . . FINALLY :) (Scroll Down)

Working on updates today . . . FINALLY!
First 4 days home with a husband who has HORRIBLE jet lag
+ Holiday and family visits (awesome)
+ Son vomiting and jet lag husband panicking (China bird flu? China food poison? Airplane food poison). Mark ACTUALLY googled "vomiting" to try and self-diagnose . . . you can only imagine his findings!
+ Husband gone for business trip post-China days 4-8
+ 7 suitcases to unpack
+ 5 kids to feed (one of whom doesn't eat what we eat!)
+ 3 trips to the grocery store
+ golf, baseball and tee-ball
+ orthodontic appts. and pediatric appt.
=
no time to post updates or check e-mails! I did draft the entries and will get them posted by tonight!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

First Four Days HOME - Lazy Days, Holiday Fun

Well, as you can see in the photos below, Thea is a happy, happy girl.
Our first 4 days home have been a whirlwind. Mark has had an awful time with jetlag. I mean aweful - feeling sick constantly, not able to stay awake during the day and getting up in middle of the night. For three days in a row, he slept 6-8 hours during the middle of the afternoon and then woke up in middle of the night at 3 or 4am.
As for me and the kids, we're adjusting well. I've been getting up much earlier than normal, but that will change soon enough. Kam and Thea have been waking up anywhere from 5a-8a. If Thea wakes up before anyone, she reads or plays in her room. She hasn't tried to wake me up yet. I always wake up because I hear her in the bathroom brushing her teeth and washing her face (something she does immediately after waking up every single morning).
The kids are just enamored with Thea. They try to do everything possible to please her. They share their food, bring her new dolls or toys constantly and just love on her. She has been very open to their affection and seems to reciprocate most of the time. Janie loves to crawl in the chair with Thea each morning and then play Barbies. Aunt Em and Aunt Kathy each bought Thea a new Barbie. It is not something my girls have played with before, but seem to have fun with now that Thea has an interest.
The 4th of July holiday was nice for all of us, except Kam. He spent the afternon playing with our neighbors, then came home with a stomach ache. He ended up in his room for the entire evening, getting sick several times. My nieces, Julia, Elli & Helana visited. After having fun in the backyard, we all walked down the street to see our city fireworks. Thea loved everything about the evening. When she was tired, she showed us that she wanted to go to bed.
Mark was completely paranoid about Kam getting sick. He actually googled "vomiting". I sat along side of him, not quite sure what would make us feel better or confident that he didn't catch anything in China or on the plane. Good news is that Kam was only sick for about 8 hours. After a good night's rest, he was back to being an active 8 year old.
We spent the holiday weekend swimming at Grandma Linda's pool. Our weather here was perfectly clear skies and gorgeous for two days in a row. Thea LOVES, loves, loves the water. She has us in complete and total awe of her willingness to try new things.
No issues YET. I know they are coming, but for now things are great :) Another update soon.


Fourth of July evening, having fun with glow necklaces (notice Mark's beautiful glow earrings!)


The clan, having fun coloring each morning.


Morning routine. Thea and Janie enjoying fruit and a little TV before the running around begins!

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Photo Shoot After Church :)




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Photo Shoot After Church #2 :)



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Saturday, July 5, 2008

Landed and Home Photos

HOME - Details, details, details!
Well, the official word, based off of Thea's expression is - She is happy with her home :) The airport greeting was a little overwhelming and she didn't want her photo taken (as you probably noticed in the hokey t-shirt family shot!) Even though she acted kind of shy and nervous, she had a smirk on her face. Outside of the terminal, as we waited to load up our car, she pointed to each of the kids and said their name. She had a HUGE smile on her face the whole way home in the car.
Once we arrived home, Thea was a little reserved, kind of quiet. I think that lasted all of 10 minutes. Janie and Eva took her up to her bedroom. It was the cutest moment ever. I videotaped as Thea looked around at the Chinese characters and read them. The characters on the wall when you walk in the room read "QiuXiang's little room" (Jenny's excellent idea). Thea was beaming when she read that. She was spinning around, looking at everything and smiling. Since I was videotaping, I didn't get the Kodak moment in a picture to post :(
We had friends and family visit for hours, which certainly helped us stay awake! Grandma Carol blessed us with a full blown feast, Aunt Kimmy and Grandma Linda contributed to the great food and Aunt Janet had a big, beautiful "edible basket" delivered. It was full of chocolate covered fruit and the kids loved it. Later in the evening, Jenny came over with her husband and sweet little baby to help with the translation. Thea listened to everything I asked Jenny to tell her, but she did not respond at all.
Aunt Kimmy gave Thea a My Twinn doll and Aunt Kelly brought over a precious Asian baby. They were a big hit. I was really proud of Thea when she let Janie hold her baby for a while. Actually, I was really surprised. Before adopting Thea, we had a list of questions answered by the orphanage director. One question was "What is Qiu Xiang's favorite toy?" The response was "She does not own a toy, but would love to have a doll someday".
My normal overkill on the photos just didn't happen (sigh). I was in a complete daze. I might have even been truely sleep walking :)
Once our company left, our troop headed upstairs to get ready for bed. It was an amazingly smooth time, as everyone was exhausted. Thea climbed into bed, we said prayers (she giggled), all the kids kissed her goodnight and 20 seconds later, she was OUT.
The morning began at a different time for everyone. Mark woke up at 3am, Thea and Kam around 5:30 and then me. Getting adjusted to EST will be an ongoing challenge for a while!
Another update in a few days. Have a safe and happy 4th of July.
Mom, does she speak? If we crouch down like this, will it help?
I think this means she likes her new babydoll from Aunt Kelly and her new home.
My 3 girls with 4 of my nieces. Now 7 girls on Grandma Linda's side!
To Aunt Janet - THANK YOU for the chocolate covered fruit. YUMMY!
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From Guangzhou, to Tokyo, to HOME!!!

After a LONG 22 hours in route, we are HOME!!!

Our trek started by meeting in the hotel lobby at 5:30a. I'll spare you the details, but you can imagine the happiness and outpouring of love we received from an 8 year old boy and 9 year old girl with only 5 hours of sleep :) I have to admit that I wasn't a picture of joy myself! However, the lack of sleep, believe it or not, was part of my big plan to get back on Eastern Standard Time!

Our flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo was great. The only little "snag" we had was barely making it on the flight from Tokyo to HOME. Once we arrived in Tokyo, we had to go through security again, with our 7, yes, I said 7, carry-on bags. I, of course, chose the line with the "trainee" security guy with an attitude. Is it just me, or is there someone else out there who ALWAYS picks the line with the slowest workers? Happens at the grocery store, the bank, and anywhere else I have the opportunity to choose my own line! Arghh. Oh well, anyway, we had to run from security to our gate and made it as they were announcing that the gate was closing!
On a better note, I wanted to mention our great seating arrangement. From Guangzhou to Tokyo Kam, Thea and I sat together and Mark was across the aisle. Behind us sat a fellow adoptive mother, her 10 year old son and the 12 year old daughter they had just adopted. Behind Mark was the grandma. The mother, Pam, and I talked between seats for quite a while during the flight. Kam introduced himself to her son, Ian. They played Nintendo DS together for most of the flight.
Pam and I had so much in common (she also has a 6 year old son at home, adopted from China 2 years ago and a 5 year old daughter). The boys had a great time together and BONUS . . . (at least from Kam's perspective), they both spoke English! :) I asked the mother where they were headed after Tokyo. She told me her flight number - it was the same as ours! Then I asked for their seat #'s. We were in seats 60 D,E,F & G. Their family was in 59 D,E,F & G!!! Out of more than 600 passengers, we were seated right next to eachother! ! This was not a coincidence. I have more to say on that in another post. Kam and Ian enjoyed playing games together, drawing together and watching movies together for most of our 12+ hour flight. Kam was so happy. Mark was able to sleep for most of the flight (whateverrrr). Thea enjoyed movies and slept on and off as well. She was an angel, no issues the entire duration!
As for me, well, I don't sleep on airplanes (not without medication anyway :)). I was trying, hoping, praying to sleep through "27 dresses", "Horton Hears a Who", "Definitely Maybe" or assorted episodes of "Cash Cab". I would have paid to sleep through the airline instructions on how to keep from getting leg vein clots!! In short (well, not short, I don't do short, remember?), by the time we landed, I had been up for almost 36 hours straight.
On arrival, we were greeted by Ben, Janie and Eva, both Grandmas, my sister Kim, my nieces and awesome friends! If you know me, you won't be surprised that I arranged for the kids and I to wear hokey matching shirts. Mark boycotted his matching shirt at the last minute and I certainly wasn't up for a rebuttal at that point.
We arrived at 1:45p and had to stay awake until bedtime. My next entry shows pics of our first "1/2 day" home :)

Goodbye Guangzhou, off to Tokyo!



I love pics above the clouds. Kind of freaks me out and makes me happy at the same time :)

Photo for PaPa Mark. I was trying to capture the golf course in Tokyo as we landed.

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We Landed!

At least someone got sleep!
Home with our FIVE kids FINALLY :) (hokey, I know . . . I know, but fun)
Our WELCOME committee :)
Benjamin is an optimist. Yes . . .all 32 lbs. of him believes he can be a helper and push our 300 lb. cart!
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