Medical Check-Up

Max had his first medical check-up today. He weighed in at 27 pounds, and is 34" tall. We will go back in two weeks to begin redoing all of his baby shots. Even though the orphanage said Max had shots in China, our doctor (who is a 3x China dad) just thinks it's best if we do all the shots again. In the meantime, we get to do the poopie samples to check for parasites (oh what joy!). :-)

Blogger Vs. China

Just wanted to let everyone know that I *did* try to post on this blog while we were in China. Unfortunately though, the rumors were true and blogger was blocked....so I had to post our entire trip on the babyjellybeans site. You can click on Max's photo at the top left to read about our trip. I'll leave the babyjellybeans site up for a few more weeks, and will then order a keepsake CD and close the account.
Thanks to all who followed along on our journey. We very much appreciate all those who prayed for us and the other families during the trip. God is so good!

We are HOME!!

We are finally HOME and are now a family of 6! I never would have dreamed that we would be SO blessed with these 4 precious children. I am so thankful that we were chosen to be their parents.

We've been home 4 days now, and Max is adjusting well to his new home. The temper tantrums we experienced the first couple of days in China have all but disappeared. I think he has figured out that we are here to provide enough food and that we're pretty fun to be with. :-)

I need to put our little guy down for a nap right now, but will post some more updates soon.

We're On Our Way!

We're finally on our way! We've made it to LA and are now waiting for our flight to Tokyo. From there, we'll head to Beijing and should arrive around 9:15 p.m. on Thursday. Will try to post more from Beijing. :-)

Room - Revised

Ooops! Posted the pics without window treatments. This is the end result with simple window treatments. I had a very small amount of fabric left over from the quilt, so I tore it into strips and tied it across the curtain rod.

Max's Room

We *finally* have Max's room finished! We used Emily's old bed frame, but didn't have a headboard...so it just felt incomplete. On Friday I went to the Habitat for Humanity resale store and bought an old wooden door to use as a headboard. The paint on the door was peeling, but the wood was in really good condition...and for $30 it was a steal (I probably could have gotten it for less, but I was in a hurry). I had my step-dad remove the glass panel from the top of the door and then cut the door shorter for me. I then just spray painted it with a colonial red color and did the "wipe on-wipe off" thing with some burnt umber acrylic paint to age it. I flipped the door upside down for the headboard, so the part that shows is actually the bottom of the door. I am so happy with how it turned out! Oh and the r/w/b quilt on the bed is one I made (& my dad quilted it for me).

The wooden frames were just cheapos from the second hand store (both for $1). I did the same aging paint job on them as the headboard. All of the other furniture pieces are hand-me-downs: the drawer unit is the baby changing table we used for all 3 of the girls - w/o the changing part on top; the chair is one we've had for about 20 years; the table set is one that my step-dad made for Emily about 10 years ago (2 more chairs are in storage); and the lamps came from the piano downstairs. I think this is what I would call a recycled room! :-)

Last Day of School

The girls *finally* had their last day of school yesterday. ...hooray! All 3 girls made the A honor roll again. We are very proud of them....way to work those brains girlies!
It's hard to believe that Emily will be entering junior high this fall. - where has my baby gone? :-( Emily applied to be on the yearbook staff, and was excited to hear that she made it and will be going to a workshop this summer. This past week, Emily also tried out for the choir (one-on-one with the director), and just heard yesterday that she made that too. She also received a letter yesterday stating that she will be placed on the pre-AP math test track (which she had to meet certain criteria for)...so she has a big year ahead in school!
Allyson will be in all pre-AP classes as well this fall when she enters her final year of middle school. Can she really be almost 11 years old?!
Finally, Miss Claire will be entering 3rd grade. When did this happen?!
Wow...time really flies!

Little Emperor's New Clothes :-)

We *finally* did some shopping this weekend and bought our little guy some clothes and a couple pairs of shoes! Nothing like waiting until the last minute. :-) We didn't buy a lot - waiting to see what size fits best - but he has enough to get through a week at least.

Birthday Cake For Max

After reading numerous stories that the swine flu was causing travel delays to China, we decided to send a belated birthday cake to Max. It was seeming more and more that we wouldn't travel until later this summer, so this was our way of reaching out to Max. We also sent another camera just in case our first care package didn't make it.

Ann at RedthreadChina was kind enough to send an email stating that the cake made it to the orphanage, but that this particular orphanage was "very serious" about releasing information. In other words, they wouldn't share the photos. :-( I replied that it was ok because we just received confirmation that we are traveling next week. Then yesterday, I received the following photos!! I guess the orphanage had received confirmation that we are adopting Max?! Whatever the reason, I am SO thankful for these little blessings! And can I just say that I want to bring home the little boy with albinism as well!! I do hope he's on a waiting list somewhere!

Life School Musical

The Children's Choir at church had their spring performance on Sunday evening. The title of this year's program was "Life School Musical". Allyson was a teacher's helper, Claire was a cheerleader ("Love"), and Emily was a scaredy-cat drama queen. For those who know Emily, is this a FAR stretch from her personality, but she pulled it off so well. She had several "I feel faint" lines, and it was pretty funny watching her. Allyson and Claire also did a great job with their parts, and the overall program had a really good message. This was Emily last performance in the Children's Choir as she has now graduated past 6th grade (sniff). We're hoping a youth choir can be organized for kids her age, so they can continue to grow musically.

S'mores!

Last Friday, Randy went camping with his brother at Lake Eucha in OK. The girls SO badly wanted to spend the night there, but couldn't because they had choir rehearsal on Saturday. Instead, I took them to the lake after rehearsal just so they could have s'mores and ride in the boat. I think they had a yummy time!

Thief

We kept wondering why we had to keep refilling the dog's food bowl, when she's been inside most of the time lately. I walked by our big window one day and was startled by a bird quickly flying away from the patio. As the weeks passed, I continued filling the bowl, and would often see birds on the patio soon afterwards. I watched the dog bowl for awhile one day last week, and this is what I saw. Mr. Blue Jay had no trouble helping himself to the dog food. I only put a few pieces in the bowl and watched as the bird came and gulped down bite after bite. When the food was gone, the bird stopped coming by....but as soon as he heard me drop more food in the bowl, he was back. Little thief!

Consulate Appointment !

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! We are officially headed to China to get Max!! We received confirmation of our consulate appointment this morning. We need to arrive in Beijing on the 11th or 12th, and our consulate appointment is the 22nd....so I'm guessing we'll have Max in our arms on the 14th. WOOOHOOOO!!!!

I'll get the password to the jellybeans site to everyone soon. A fellow adoptive mom who used to live in China told me that blogger was blocked in China due to the upcoming anniversary of the Tienanmen Square event.