New Family Blog

We have been home with Lee for almost 3 months, and now we have a new family blog with a bit of an announcement. From now on all posts will come from our family blog: http://livingthroughleaps.blogspot.com/ Blessings, Tasha

One Month Since We Gotcha...

One month ago, an extremely scared little boy was handed over to Joey and I. I won't lie, he is still scared at times. Not of us, but afraid that we will hand him over to someone else. He seems to relax more and more each day, and we are so eternally grateful for having this little guy in our family. Being home with him does wonders for his anxiety, but he still gets clingy at times. I don't mind, we have alot of holding, rocking, snuggling, etc... to make up for. The children absolutely adore their little brother, and he, I believe, feels the same about them. I won't say that the wait for Lee to come home wasn't hard. Honestly, it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. I will say, however, that having him home has been a breath of fresh air. I have never once felt like I was just babysitting him, and it is hard to believe that he was ever not with our family (except for the times when he feels alarmed for whatever reason and just clings to us... well mostly me). Each day he seems to open up, and it gets better. I can't wait for the day when he feels comfortable and at ease with the fact that our family is forever, and that we aren't going to leave him. We had pizza and cupcakes tonight to celebrate Lee's one month anniversary of gotcha day.

Heading home with our van full of kiddos!

Brothers :)

Since coming home, we have added FIVE temporary guests to our household. Hoping to find them all homes once they are old enough. We are bottle feeding them in the meantime :)

So glad to have our little guy home. Thanking God for choosing us to be his forever family. Blessings, Tasha

Home Sweet Home

After 32 hours of travel, we are finally home in Louisiana. Blessings, Tasha

On our way...

... to the USA!! We are packed and ready to go, go, GO!!

Blessings from China, Tasha

Last few Days in Guangzhou

We are currently taking a small break from packing. We head out to Hong Kong tonight, where we will stay overnight and take a flight early in the morning. We have one layover in Japan and then we head straight for Houston... hopefully. Our layover is rather short, so we are hoping our first flight arrives on time, so we can make the connecting flight. A couple of days have gone by, so I will fill y'all in on what we have been up to. First, we went to the Pearl Market.

The market is floor upon floor of jewelry at whole sale cost.

After the Pearl Market, we traveled to Shamien Island for some sightseeing and a bit of souvenir shopping. This is a Catholic Church on the island. Shamien Island, as we are told, was influenced by Portugese trademen. The island used to be closed off to Chinese people, and only foreigners were allowed. They used the island as a trading post.

The island today, is a hot spot for wedding photos. Here is a couple getting their photos done in front of the Catholic Church. There were alot of models taking photos for ads as well.

There are several statues throughot the island too. Lee managed to find some friends...

On the fourth of July, we went to the City Zoo...

We took group pictures. The battery on my camera was going low and the camera wasn't working right. After the group pictures, we went to our room and found the backup battery, and then went to the hotel's garden where I managed to get a couple pictures of Lee in his silks.

On the 5th, we had our Consulate Appointment. Cameras are not allowed at the Embassy, but I took a couple of pictures of Lee in our room.

So now, we are going to finish packing. Not sure when our next post will be. We should be arriving late tonight in Hong Kong, and then heading out early in the morning probably won't leave much time for posting. Please pray that we make our connection and make it home ASAP. We miss our little ones so much and can't wait to be with our entire family under one roof. Thank you! Blessings from China, Tasha

First 2.5 days in Guangzhou

Our hotel in Guangzhou is really nice. Lee did great on his first airplane trip. He seemed to have even enjoyed it. He loves to sit on mama's lap and have our undivided attention. He is seriously just a ball of sweetness, spunk, and intelligence. I am just amazed everytime I think about all he has endured recently and how his little light has shown through it all. He is making it really easy for us. Lee giving his Daddy kisses at the airport:

Okay, so I got a little sidetracked with gushing about our little one. Back to his plane ride. He spilled chicken, rice, and gravy all over me and the diaper bag, and kept pulling the shade up for the person in front of us who was taking a nap. LOL We almost considered naming him Dennis, but we think Lee suits him just right. Like I said earlier, he really seemed to have enjoyed the flight. Our hotel is really posh. I feel like we don't fit in here at all, but the amenities are just what we needed at this point of the trip. We are tired. We are incredibly homesick. We miss our babies. The hotel has a Mc Donalds and 7 Eleven right outside, so we don't have to go far to search for cheap food and water. It also has a Starbucks in the lobby and a shopping center. I would post pictures of our room, but we have had underwear strewn about, drying. Sunday was our first full day in Guangzhou. We started the day off with a tour of a Buddhist Temple (where we ran into Connor and John), the Chen House, and then a little shopping to end the tour. The Buddhist temple has a huge tower that is leaning so you can't actually go inside of it, but the surrounding areas are very pretty. It felt kind of strange to see these HUGE golden statues that people worshipped. I am so grateful that we worship a living God. The leaning tower:

The golden statues:

Lee was already tired of touring. Look at that face! LOL

The Chen House used to belong to the Chen family (largest family in China) until the government took over. Our guide says the family was very happy that they took over the care of the home because it has rather expensive upkeep. I can easily believe that, because there are porcelein statues and figures all over the roof. Not to mention the painting and upkeep of all of the carvings in the doors, screens, and eaves of the home. The workmanship put into this home is simply amazing.

After the tours, we went back to the hotel for a short break and then Joey and I ventured off on our own to Mass. The church was huge, and the architecture of the inside reminded me alot of our church at home. The only difference, our church at home is constructed of wood, and this church was all stone and alot bigger. I think one of the things that amazed me the most about this church was that there was no air conditioning and yet it was PACKED to the brim. Every seat was taken. Stools in the aisles were filled. It was HOT, but it was beautiful. There were ceiling fans blowing, so it did help a little but not much.

If you would have told us we were in Africa and not China, I would have believed you. We were definently the minority in the church, and so was Lee. I don't know if there were people visiting from Africa or if they lived close by the church. Our guide says there is a large population of people from Africa in Guangzhou. We also noticed alot of people from the Middle East outside of the church. During the offering of gifts, alot of people lined up to bring rice, oil, purified water, toilet paper, grains, beer, etc... for the priests. There was someone filming the offering, which is why I don't know if everyone there actually lived in the city. It almost seemed like they traveled to bring the gifts, but I could be wrong. Regardless, it was a beautiful sight to see so many people together from different parts of the world, woshipping our Lord. I need to add that the music was AMAZING! There were so many voices lifted up, and it just sent chills down my spine. Lee did well for his first Mass. I was so happy to have experienced it with him in China. After Mass,we spent a while trying to hale a cab and eventually we met our group for dinner at a Portugese restaurant. The food was delicious and the company was great. We really do have a great group of people that we are sharing this trip with. After dinner, we walked through the shops with the Pierce family. We have dinner with them almost every night. They have two beautiful girls, who we have grown quite fond of. The are so precious! Today, we started the day off with our medical appointment for Lee. All of the families went today. The children took visa pictures, which Lee had to be woken up for. He wasn't very happy about that, so he has a crying picture. Then we went into a waiting room. When the doctors arrived, they had 3 stations for us to visit: ENT, weight and height, and general examination. Lee was 24 pounds! He is thin but tall!

After the medical exams, I came back and took a nap while Joey brought Lee on a little excursion in the baby carrier. Lee, up until now, hasn't been letting Joey do alot with him. He prefers Momma's arms but he is learning that Daddy is pretty darn awesome if I may say so myself. Joey said he whined a bit, but as soon as they headed down the hallway for their little adventure, he was easy going and enjoying it all.When they got back, Lee was sleeping so Joey set him in the bed next to me and left to do paperwork with our guides. When he came back, we headed out to Shamien Island (where all of the adoption stuff used to be located) for dinner with friends. It was John's birthday, so we celebrated with cake after eating dinner at a restaurant called Cow and Bridge. It has really good Thai food. I think I would eat there again in a heartbeat. Hands down some of the best food we've had since arriving in China. We sat Lee and Connor next to each other, and they each had a menu. It was so cute to watch them point out the food to each other (it was a picture menu) and have little conversations. It makes me so happy to see them together, and to know the special bond they share. Lee has called him "ge ge" which means "big brother." So sweet! After dinner, we walked about the shops and chatted with John, the Pierces, and Jaimie and Kevin. It was a really nice evening. We shared a cab back with Jaimie and Kevin and their little girl, Mazzy (who is just oh-so-sweet and beautiful). The cab ride was interesting. We had a few near hit instances. I think it is just better not to pay attention to how they are driving, because it is scarey! We are safe at our hotel now. Tomorrow, we have a pretty relaxing day planned out. We are going to the pearl market during the late morning, and then have nothing else planned for the rest of the day. We'll probably take Lee to the playground or maybe go back to Shamien Island and take a few pictures. Maybe shop a bit for his traditional silk outfit for the group pictures. Blessings from China, Tasha

Zhengzhou

Today we took the camera out as we walked through Zhengzhou. Our destination was the park. I think I had mentioned before that the sidewalks are shared with scooters and bikes. Walking pedestrians are expected to move out of the way for both the scooters and the cars. There seems to be a universal honking language between the cars, scooters, and people. A few of our friends have joked that there is a 6th sense among the people here, and they seem to know exactly where to go and when. The park is quite serene and very beautiful. There are paths around a lake with paddle boats to rent, a butterfly garden, a street fair, and gazebos. Lee really enjoys the butterfly garden. He was very tired towards the end of our walk, and he fell asleep in the carrier. He is sleeping right now as I type this. I have been taking a nap with him everyday and as a result it is harder for me to sleep at night, so today I opted for bloggind while he sleeps, in an effort to go to bed earlier tonight. A note for those of you who are traveling to Zhengzhou and either have the option of choosing your hotel or just want to save a little more money: The Crowne Hotel and Holiday Inn Express are right next to each other. If you stay at the HIE, you have breakfast at the Crowne, and they also share the pool and workout facilities. Our friend who is staying at the HIE says the rooms are very similar. Enjoy the pictures! Blessings from China, Tasha