Samuel in his new home

Samuel is now here in his new home.  He has been adjusting pretty well.  His sleep is still majorly off and he constantly wants to go outside.  We've had a wide range of lots of laughs and tears.  He has definitely turned our world upside down in a good way.  

Consulate and Park Day

 On Tuesday, Whitney left about 7:40 AM for our appointment at the U.S. Consulate.  This was our last paperwork step over here in China.  Only one parent was required to go, so I stayed and hung out with my genetically related children, Emily and Joshua :) It's been nice to still spend some special time with them during this adjustment period to having Samuel.

 We have all enjoyed being able to start our day with a great breakfast and hangout in the mornings.

 We explored the hotel a little bit and fed some bread to the the fish.

 The consulate appointment took about two hours and afterwards we decided to hit the streets and attempt to find one of the city parks.  Above is a pic from one of the restaurants displaying some animals hanging in the window.

 The stroller is the sure way to put Samuel asleep for his nap.  He napped for our whole walk to the park.

 This park had some really pretty architecture.

 We got Samuel a little push toy airplane that they were selling in the park and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

 We have come to love all of the exercise equipment they put in the parks out here and we are convinced that we need to start doing this in the United States.  Samuel wants to be right in the middle of the action.  He is also mimicking everything we do lately and it's fun to watch.  He mimics how we use our phone for Face time, how we use the room key to open the hotel door, and he even grabbed Whitney's deodorant and was acting like he was putting it on as well.  Hilarious to watch him and how his little mind is observing everything we do.

 Mama and Samuel doing some exercises together.

 Emily and Joshua enjoying some workouts that utilize your own body weight.

 This park still had some decorations out for Chinese New Year.

 It is now the 'Year of the Monkey' in China, so they had a fun monkey theme going in the park.

 Again, Samuel wanting to be doing just want his big brother and sister were doing, eating his rice up on the couch.

 We found a traditional Chinese outfit for Samuel and Whitney went around the hotel doing a little photo shoot session with him.  Good stuff.

 Samuel and his panda bear.

 We ended the day by eating dessert for dinner at one of the restaurants here at the hotel.  Samuel definitely likes chocolate and he also fed me (Brian) several scoops of his ice cream.

Emily with her little platter of chocolate delights.  This may be my last chance to blog for this trip.  What an amazing experience this has been on so many levels.  We are so grateful for the countless prayers and support of so many friends and family that have made this possible.  Often when I look at Samuel, I think about everything that's transpired in order to make sure this little guy was able to grow up in a family with a future.  We are about to close this chapter, but we are excited about being able to bring him home and introduce him to his new community back in the United States.  Please pray for our travel tomorrow.  It is going to be a long day for sure as we will leave here at six AM for a 2 hour van ride to Hong Kong, waiting at the airport, 15 hour flight to Chicago, four hour layover and then a final 2 hour flight back to Houston.  Samuel is a squirmy little three year old that is not really interested in electronics at all, so we will need a lot of God's grace to make it through tomorrow.  God bless you all!

Guangzhou City Zoo (also recap from Saturday)

Here is a quick recap from Sunday (We were unable to access the internet for a while):

Saturday was a bit of a recovery day.  Emily is doing better and we think is on the mend.  She ate a little bit of apple sauce and was able to hold it down.  She rested all day in the hotel room.  Whitney took Samuel to his medical appointment by a US approved doctor which is part of obtaining his Visa.  They did a physical exam and drew blood and everything checked out well for him.  She went along with another family we’ve gotten to know from Georgia who adopted a four-year old boy.  

Joshua and I did some homeschool/hotel school together as we discussed his science homework over the universe.  We also spent sometime exploring the hotel together.  We were walking in this one area that all of a sudden had a little river running through it which my son apparently did not see.  The next thing I know Joshua is walking in the little river and wipes out in it.  I am pushing Samuel and am so tickled I literally fall over on the ground laughing.  Meanwhile some lady behind us was just staring at us probably thinking, ‘these silly Americans.’

Samuel experienced some grieving yesterday.  He took kind of a late nap and Whitney was forced to wake him up to prevent him from being up all night.  When she woke him, he went into a mode of crying out for his nannies and crying non-stop.  I was out trying to bring some food back for everyone.  We both held him to uncosolable tears and screaming.  It was difficult to have to endure through that with him but also probably a healthy thing as he continues to try and embrace his new normal.  We have been doing a lot of new things and I know he’s been distracted a lot and his senses have been on overload but you can’t ignore the grief and dealing with the loss and fear that he’s feeling.  We have to continue to unconditionally love him and show him that we are here for him and prayerfully overtime God will unite our hearts as a family.  

Sunday - Trip to the Zoo

 Samuel sported his first ball cap as we prepared to head out on our excursion.

 Breakfast time!

 Samuel enjoyed walking around at the zoo with Mr Jack (our guide) and Josh.

 Here they are again cruising along.

 Family pic with a little lake in the background at the zoo.

 In the kids zoo area with our friends the Elrods from Georgia who are also with Gladney.  There son, Jaxsun, is in the middle.

 Feeding some type of grass to the goats.

 One of Joshua's first times to hold Samuel.  Samuel maybe tiny but he is built like a rock.

 Chinese deer.  These things are tiny.  You would have to hunt these with a pellet gun I think.

 Bro time on the couch with some Chinese Mickey D's.

 Sister getting in on the fun.

 We had heard about this cool little playground at this mall near the hotel so we went and checked it out.

 They had quite a good time.

 Lots of giggles and excitement.

 Samuel behind the wheel.

 Samuel and Emily.

Joshua, the lady's man, hanging out with the Elrod girls.

Transition Day

Today was our transition today from Nanchang to Guangzhou.  Samuel got his cool little Chinese Visa this afternoon so he's good to travel.  So we spent about four hours packing up our little basecamp of 9 suitcases, 4 backpacks, 2 borrowed fans, a crib, a highchair, a kids potty, and a little bath tub and just in the nick of time we were ready to head out for the airport about 1:00

 Here we are checking all of our baggage into the airport.  Security was a lot of fun too.  We had to extract Samuel out of his stroller and send him through metal detector and he flipped out.  They had to stand him up on his own with the airport official doing the little wand all over him and he was doing the classic 'no-breathe' it's about to blow blood-curdling scream.  Yikes.

 We had a little time to grab a quick lunch at the airport.

 Of course we get to the gate and our plane is delayed so we get to figure out how to entertain a bouncing ball of energy for an extra hour or so.  Then Emily came down with food poisoning and you can use your imagination how fun that was on an airplane.  So began a rather 'nightmarish' segment of the journey.  Whitney is in the back with our sick daughter while I am trying to calm a screaming little three year old who can't understand why his ears are hurting him and wishing he had bought like a case of milk instead of being cheap and only buying one.    So yeah that was pretty miserable and we couldn't help but think, '14 hours of this in a few days?'

Boarding the airplane.  Another first for Samuel.  It hit me that this little guy's brain must be on sensory overload.  He is experiencing so many 'firsts' right now it's incredible.  This will most likely be his first time to ever leave his province where he was abandoned and lived in the orphanage.  We did finally make it to the hotel last night around 8:45.  Please pray for Emily as she continued to throw up throughout the night at the hotel.  We are a little concerned about her dehydrating at this point.  Thank you.

One last little closing clip.  Josh and Samuel had fun together upon finally arriving at the hotel and playing chase.

Day Number Four

Day Four with Samuel began with some playtime with his Dje Dje and his Guh Guh with his new building blocks we got for him at Wal-Mart.

 After breakfast Mary took us to a beautiful park in downtown Nanchang, called 'The People's Park.'  Since most people live in these high-rise apartments, the cities in China build these huge parks where people can come and exercise, play badminton, enjoy flowers and trees and God's creation.

All over the park, people were engaged in different types of recreation from playing with these big yo-yos to tops to Tai Chi to badminton to stretching and on and on.  We saw people writing Chinese characters with water on concrete tiles all over the park which was beautiful.  Below is a video of a group of ladies dancing together.

We took a moment to rent a little motorized boat that you drive around in this little river that ran through the park.  It was quite entertaining and it cracked us up to see like little five and six year old kids driving these boats and ramming them into the bank and other objects.

Mama and Samuel on the back of the boat.

Family shot in our little Chinese boat.

Another pic of the family walking through the park.

Holding Mama's hand through the park.

Emily and Joshua falling in line with the soldiers on the streets of Nanchang.

We stopped by a store where they sell hand-made porcelain items.  Nanchang is famous in China for their porcelain art.  We purchased a plate made by a local artist to preserve some of Samuel's culture and help him to understand his roots as he gets older.

We went for about a mile walk from our hotel to the city square and loved seeing all the different street venders cooking, selling things, etc.  Below is a cart where they would cut pineapple into spiral shapes and sell them on a stick.

This is the city square of Nanchang called August 1st park where there was a famous uprising on August 1, 1927.

Josh, Samuel and Emily posing for a picture on the steps of the square.

The square was full of life with grown men in their 40s and 50s flying kites everywhere, kids skate boarding, people walking, etc.  They were selling little toys for kids, so Emily got a streamer, Josh got some bubbles and Samuel got a little pin-wheel.

We all agreed that Samuel's province is a really neat place with a rich cultural history and beautiful places and people.  We are wrapping up our Nanchang section of our trip and are about to head out for Guangzhou for the next leg.