Wednesday, January 9, 2008
My Three Dads
Michelle here. Well, it seems that Coee has received a "bonus" by joining this family, more specifically TWO bonuses. We knew Trey and Dillon would love her. We expected them to accept her into our family and as their little sister. We were sure that they would be proud of her. They have far and quickly exceeded all of those and then some. What we did not know - what we have come to realize - is that Coee has Daddy and then Coee has two "mini-dads" in Trey and Dillon. I'll share a few stories to back this up:
1. While we were in Guangzhou, China - our last hotel, Terrell went out one night for something. I think he went to McDonald's to get dinner for Trey and Dillon. He was gone for maybe a bit less than an hour. When he returned, I had to breathe a sigh of relief. I explained to him that I had spent the whole time he was gone "in trouble" with Trey. Play by play:
Trey comes to me with a chewed-on airline ticket in his hand. It had been laying around the room but I hadn't decided if I was going to keep it or throw it away.
Trey: "Look what she had in her mouth!?" (in a very accusational tone and add a few !!!)
Me: "Yes, Trey. It's just an airline ticket. We don't need it. Soooo?"
Trey: "She doesn't need to have that in her mouth!"
So I finally decided to just throw it away.
Approximately 1 1/2 minutes later:
Trey: "She's hungry. You need to fix her some noodles!"
(So I go to fix her some ramen noodles.)
Approximately 1 1/2 minutes later:
Trey: "She's really hungry! Are her noodles ready yet!?"
Me: "No, Trey. I'm working on it."
Trey: "Look where she is!"
Me: "What do you mean Trey?"
Trey: "She's near the hard floor. You need to watch her!" (My "kitchen" was in the bathroom, connected to the bedroom, and the floor transitioned from carpet in the bedroom to marble in the bathroom. She was sitting at the transition.)
So that is when I realized that it was truly amazing that Trey and Dillon have made it this far with only Terrell and me as parents. How did we do it? But then again, Trey does have 12 hospital bracelets to Dillon's one. Maybe he is holding that against us.
2. Our first week home, I was giving Coee a bath. I think it was her first bath at home, where she could play as much as she wanted without me worrying that she is going to get the toxic water in her system. So I was letting her play and explore...and stand up in the tub with her hands on the side. Trey walks in, looks at the situation, looks at me straight in the eye very seriously and says "I wouldn't let her do that if I were you." Then he walks out of the bathroom. Two minutes later, Dillon comes in to see his little sister in the bathtub (i.e. check to see if Mom is doing anything wrong). She is sitting at the faucet end of the tub, which she just fit under without her head touching the faucet. Dillon looks at the faucet (she is sitting under) for a bit and turns to me and says "Do we really need that.... I mean don't you think she might hit her head on it?"
3. It didn't take Coee long to get a bit "spoiled" and prefer to be held vs. playing on her own, so we are working on reversing that. However, if Trey and Dillon see that she is not happy doing that, they will pick her up, "play" with her (for a very short bit) and then carry her over to me - aiming her up at me to take her. I'll tell them that she needs to learn to play with her toys on the floor with us in the room instead of thinking she needs to be held constantly. They are both consistent in replying "I don't want her to cry. She's not happy."
4. Trey and Dillon do not want Coee to go to daycare. Right now, her grandmothers are happily keeping her but she is set to start daycare next month. Terrell's mom (Momo) kept Coee yesterday. Terrell, Peggy and I were talking about daycare when Trey and Dillon walked in to the room. At first opportunity, Dillon turns to Peggy and asks "Did Coee cry today when you were with her?" She happily answered "No!" and smiled very proudly. He replied "See. She is going to cry when she goes to daycare, but she doesn't cry with you. You don't want her to cry, do you?"
Finally, I'm not sure if this is a "mini-Dad story", but it is pretty funny. As many of you know, Trey and Dillon and Coee sleep in the same room. Trey and Dillon are in Coee's official room and theirs are in the basement. When we moved in the house, they decided that they did not want to be that far away from us just yet so they moved into her room. (Terrell and I moved no less than six beds up and down the stairs during the first three weeks after moving in to the house trying to get the correct combination in "her" room.) Anyways, so bedtime can be a bit of an issue with two eight -year-old's and a newly home now one year old in the same room. We've talked to them about how she might cry a bit when we put her in bed but they just need to be quiet and still and she will go to sleep. They are good with that, but she does usually go to bed enough before them that she is asleep when they go to bed. A few nights ago, she went to bed the same time as them. We have started to put on classical music cd's in their room to help her sleep (Trey and Dillon would literally sleep to, during and back home from shopping trips as well as vacuuming IN their room - not Coee, but we are working on it.) So anyways, they all went to bed at the same time. We turned the classical music on, tucked everybody in and headed out. She began to cry. Apparently Trey had asked Terrell if he could sing to her. Apparently Terrell had said yes. I went back in a few minutes later. The classical music is on. Coee is crying at the top of her lungs. Trey is singing "O' Tannenbaum" to her at the TOP of his lungs. Dillon is in his bed saying "Trey! Shut up! She is not going to go to sleep with you singing to her that loud! Shut up!"
We have always thoroughly enjoyed Trey and Dillon; seeing the world through their eyes, laughing at them, laughing with them, watching them grow. Having Coee in our family has multiplied that many times over. She is such a joy. It is so remarkably special to see Trey and Dillon enjoy her as much as we do. Dillon said it on the day after we got her in China, and he says it -out of the blue - all on his own - almost daily: "I'm glad we have Coee!" Aren't we ALL?!
I apologize for the lengthiness of this post and for the long lapse since my last post. We will do better!! I will be posting on the holidays and Coee's FIRST birthday soon.
Michelle
1. While we were in Guangzhou, China - our last hotel, Terrell went out one night for something. I think he went to McDonald's to get dinner for Trey and Dillon. He was gone for maybe a bit less than an hour. When he returned, I had to breathe a sigh of relief. I explained to him that I had spent the whole time he was gone "in trouble" with Trey. Play by play:
Trey comes to me with a chewed-on airline ticket in his hand. It had been laying around the room but I hadn't decided if I was going to keep it or throw it away.
Trey: "Look what she had in her mouth!?" (in a very accusational tone and add a few !!!)
Me: "Yes, Trey. It's just an airline ticket. We don't need it. Soooo?"
Trey: "She doesn't need to have that in her mouth!"
So I finally decided to just throw it away.
Approximately 1 1/2 minutes later:
Trey: "She's hungry. You need to fix her some noodles!"
(So I go to fix her some ramen noodles.)
Approximately 1 1/2 minutes later:
Trey: "She's really hungry! Are her noodles ready yet!?"
Me: "No, Trey. I'm working on it."
Trey: "Look where she is!"
Me: "What do you mean Trey?"
Trey: "She's near the hard floor. You need to watch her!" (My "kitchen" was in the bathroom, connected to the bedroom, and the floor transitioned from carpet in the bedroom to marble in the bathroom. She was sitting at the transition.)
So that is when I realized that it was truly amazing that Trey and Dillon have made it this far with only Terrell and me as parents. How did we do it? But then again, Trey does have 12 hospital bracelets to Dillon's one. Maybe he is holding that against us.
2. Our first week home, I was giving Coee a bath. I think it was her first bath at home, where she could play as much as she wanted without me worrying that she is going to get the toxic water in her system. So I was letting her play and explore...and stand up in the tub with her hands on the side. Trey walks in, looks at the situation, looks at me straight in the eye very seriously and says "I wouldn't let her do that if I were you." Then he walks out of the bathroom. Two minutes later, Dillon comes in to see his little sister in the bathtub (i.e. check to see if Mom is doing anything wrong). She is sitting at the faucet end of the tub, which she just fit under without her head touching the faucet. Dillon looks at the faucet (she is sitting under) for a bit and turns to me and says "Do we really need that.... I mean don't you think she might hit her head on it?"
3. It didn't take Coee long to get a bit "spoiled" and prefer to be held vs. playing on her own, so we are working on reversing that. However, if Trey and Dillon see that she is not happy doing that, they will pick her up, "play" with her (for a very short bit) and then carry her over to me - aiming her up at me to take her. I'll tell them that she needs to learn to play with her toys on the floor with us in the room instead of thinking she needs to be held constantly. They are both consistent in replying "I don't want her to cry. She's not happy."
4. Trey and Dillon do not want Coee to go to daycare. Right now, her grandmothers are happily keeping her but she is set to start daycare next month. Terrell's mom (Momo) kept Coee yesterday. Terrell, Peggy and I were talking about daycare when Trey and Dillon walked in to the room. At first opportunity, Dillon turns to Peggy and asks "Did Coee cry today when you were with her?" She happily answered "No!" and smiled very proudly. He replied "See. She is going to cry when she goes to daycare, but she doesn't cry with you. You don't want her to cry, do you?"
Finally, I'm not sure if this is a "mini-Dad story", but it is pretty funny. As many of you know, Trey and Dillon and Coee sleep in the same room. Trey and Dillon are in Coee's official room and theirs are in the basement. When we moved in the house, they decided that they did not want to be that far away from us just yet so they moved into her room. (Terrell and I moved no less than six beds up and down the stairs during the first three weeks after moving in to the house trying to get the correct combination in "her" room.) Anyways, so bedtime can be a bit of an issue with two eight -year-old's and a newly home now one year old in the same room. We've talked to them about how she might cry a bit when we put her in bed but they just need to be quiet and still and she will go to sleep. They are good with that, but she does usually go to bed enough before them that she is asleep when they go to bed. A few nights ago, she went to bed the same time as them. We have started to put on classical music cd's in their room to help her sleep (Trey and Dillon would literally sleep to, during and back home from shopping trips as well as vacuuming IN their room - not Coee, but we are working on it.) So anyways, they all went to bed at the same time. We turned the classical music on, tucked everybody in and headed out. She began to cry. Apparently Trey had asked Terrell if he could sing to her. Apparently Terrell had said yes. I went back in a few minutes later. The classical music is on. Coee is crying at the top of her lungs. Trey is singing "O' Tannenbaum" to her at the TOP of his lungs. Dillon is in his bed saying "Trey! Shut up! She is not going to go to sleep with you singing to her that loud! Shut up!"
We have always thoroughly enjoyed Trey and Dillon; seeing the world through their eyes, laughing at them, laughing with them, watching them grow. Having Coee in our family has multiplied that many times over. She is such a joy. It is so remarkably special to see Trey and Dillon enjoy her as much as we do. Dillon said it on the day after we got her in China, and he says it -out of the blue - all on his own - almost daily: "I'm glad we have Coee!" Aren't we ALL?!
I apologize for the lengthiness of this post and for the long lapse since my last post. We will do better!! I will be posting on the holidays and Coee's FIRST birthday soon.
Michelle
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
What goes around.........., thank you's, and miscellaneous ramblings
Well, we have certainly been lax in putting up new posts!
We have been getting settled and trying to get back into the swing of things: school for our boys, a birthday party for Coee (the weekend before her official birthday of New Years Eve), work, and all the other everyday tasks and duties we have.
I am going to let Michelle post pictures and our "goings on" since our last post. She will do that in the next day or so, with pictures!
This post is about something a little different.
As many of you know and some may not, I (Terrell) was also adopted. I have always known this and used to tell my Mom to tell me the story of "me"! I have also always been very grateful to the people who gave me the gift of my life:
1. My birth Mom and Dad, for having the compassion for a little baby to give him to a family who could raise him better than they were able.
2. My "real" parents who have given me all the love, support, compassion, and "life" that anyone could give their child.
3. My sister, who for a long time I didn't know how she could love me as much as she said she has, but through watching my boys with Coee, I now understand.
There was never a "getting to know you" phase for Trey and Dillon with Coee. As soon as they handed her to us, she was completely and forever, their sister. They wake each day wanting to take care of her and love on her.
I have never been so proud of my boys as how they treat Coee.
4. My wife, who puts up with all my crap and loves me anyway. I could never pick a better partner/friend/lover to go through this life with. She loves me when she doesn't like me much and loves me when I do things that make her shake her head wondering what she did to deserve this/me!
5. All the people in our extended family, including our Church and our friends, some close, some far away. We felt your support the whole time we were in China and you have made our return home a blessing for our family.
Two weeks ago, ok, maybe three.........Todd Brady, the pastor at FBC (First Baptist Church) in Paducah, talked about how an adopted child is like each of us to God. The baby does nothing to deserve the love that is placed upon it and just has to accept that love from the parents. I thought alot about that in the days since then and believe that is probably the best way to describe how an adoption works. But like God, the birth parents and adopted parents share a love for an innocent that is beyond my ability to put into words. They share equally in making and shaping the life of the child. If my birth parents hadn't had the compassion they did, I would not have had the incredible family I have now. And I just hope that I am able to give Coee the love and example of how to live her life with goodness that my parents and sister have given me.
As I write this, it sounds like I am making out this journey we are on to be special.......and while it is to us, it is also one that is shared by many people past and present. We are among so many: in our family, at our Church, our friends, our parent's friends, and the people that we traveled to China with to get children of their own, that have made this same journey and share this same love for their child, that we aren't special, just blessed.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us thru this journey to Coee. We have felt your hands lifting us through this when we were tired and been up for 36 hours.......... when Trey and Dillon had been together for 15 day straight, and couldn't think of a single thing else to do but aggravate each other(!)..............and when we had to deal with immigration and naturalization after 18 hours of flights and airports.................................
And when we received this precious little baby who was given to us by a mother of great courage and faith, hoping and trusting that her little child would be taken care of and loved and in a better place than she could give. As I was.
Thank you all, especially you, Mom, Dad, Tonya, Michelle, Trey and Dillon.
We have been getting settled and trying to get back into the swing of things: school for our boys, a birthday party for Coee (the weekend before her official birthday of New Years Eve), work, and all the other everyday tasks and duties we have.
I am going to let Michelle post pictures and our "goings on" since our last post. She will do that in the next day or so, with pictures!
This post is about something a little different.
As many of you know and some may not, I (Terrell) was also adopted. I have always known this and used to tell my Mom to tell me the story of "me"! I have also always been very grateful to the people who gave me the gift of my life:
1. My birth Mom and Dad, for having the compassion for a little baby to give him to a family who could raise him better than they were able.
2. My "real" parents who have given me all the love, support, compassion, and "life" that anyone could give their child.
3. My sister, who for a long time I didn't know how she could love me as much as she said she has, but through watching my boys with Coee, I now understand.
There was never a "getting to know you" phase for Trey and Dillon with Coee. As soon as they handed her to us, she was completely and forever, their sister. They wake each day wanting to take care of her and love on her.
I have never been so proud of my boys as how they treat Coee.
4. My wife, who puts up with all my crap and loves me anyway. I could never pick a better partner/friend/lover to go through this life with. She loves me when she doesn't like me much and loves me when I do things that make her shake her head wondering what she did to deserve this/me!
5. All the people in our extended family, including our Church and our friends, some close, some far away. We felt your support the whole time we were in China and you have made our return home a blessing for our family.
Two weeks ago, ok, maybe three.........Todd Brady, the pastor at FBC (First Baptist Church) in Paducah, talked about how an adopted child is like each of us to God. The baby does nothing to deserve the love that is placed upon it and just has to accept that love from the parents. I thought alot about that in the days since then and believe that is probably the best way to describe how an adoption works. But like God, the birth parents and adopted parents share a love for an innocent that is beyond my ability to put into words. They share equally in making and shaping the life of the child. If my birth parents hadn't had the compassion they did, I would not have had the incredible family I have now. And I just hope that I am able to give Coee the love and example of how to live her life with goodness that my parents and sister have given me.
As I write this, it sounds like I am making out this journey we are on to be special.......and while it is to us, it is also one that is shared by many people past and present. We are among so many: in our family, at our Church, our friends, our parent's friends, and the people that we traveled to China with to get children of their own, that have made this same journey and share this same love for their child, that we aren't special, just blessed.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us thru this journey to Coee. We have felt your hands lifting us through this when we were tired and been up for 36 hours.......... when Trey and Dillon had been together for 15 day straight, and couldn't think of a single thing else to do but aggravate each other(!)..............and when we had to deal with immigration and naturalization after 18 hours of flights and airports.................................
And when we received this precious little baby who was given to us by a mother of great courage and faith, hoping and trusting that her little child would be taken care of and loved and in a better place than she could give. As I was.
Thank you all, especially you, Mom, Dad, Tonya, Michelle, Trey and Dillon.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
First full day back in the USA!
Well, we have had quite the first day/day and a half since we got home.
First of all, while we were in China, Michelle's Aunt Rhonda (Beyer) passed away. She had been battling cancer for the past couple of months and she passed away on Thursday (I may have my days mixed between our China days and Paducah days). Michelle and our family loved Rhonda very much and are very sad about this for Jerry and their kids (Robert, Ryan and Jennifer) and our family as a whole. We have had a pretty bad year on this side of the family healthwise this year.
We got our wake-up call at 4:30 am on Friday morning (2:30pm Thursday Paducah time) in Guangzhou for our 8:30 flight to Hong Kong. The flight is pretty short non-eventful for Coee. We then get ready for our 11:30 am flight out to Chicago that will take about 14 hours and 09 minutes. We have dreaded this trip for so long with a small baby that hadn't ridden in a car very long, much less an airplane for that long. The flight went amazingly well and Coee was great. I had two empty seats on my row (Michelle and the kids were the entire middle row behind me) so when it came time for Coee to go to sleep, I made her a bed next to me and she slept for 4/5 hours. Trey and Dillon also slept for 4 hours or so. I slept for maybe an hour and Michelle probably didn't sleep that long. We arrived in Chicago on time and were met with the rude awakening of US immigration! We went down an escalator and saw a sea of 500-600 people waiting to get through customs and immigration. In China, they have about 12 lanes set up for this and even on our big flight into Beijing, it only took about 10 minutes total to get thru customs and immigration. In the US, they had about 3/4 lanes open and way too many people to get thru there. I could see this taking hours!
About 3 minutes into standing in line, a guy came to the crowd and shouted for "anyone with small children, follow me"! I felt like the old Budweiser commercial "I love you man"! He took us (3 or 4 families) to a special room for our immigration processing. It only took about 10 minutes and we were on our way. Coee was now an official citizen of the US!
We then had to re-check our bags to get them to Nashville, which we did and they all got re-checked without a hitch. (more on this later)
We had a layover of about 3 hours, the kids were hungry and we had been up for about 21 hours or so................good times.
We got the kids fed and watered and set out to find our gate for departure to Nashville. The video screens showed the flight on time and leaving from gate F1. We got to that gate and it was crowded for another flight so we made our way across the aisle and got our 3 kids, 3 carry on bags, 4 backpacks and spread them out in our little area. I took a nap for about 45 minutes and our kids (Coee included) ran free in our gate area! I am sure the other passengers were thinking bad thoughts about our parenting skills, but we didn't know them, there wasn't a DFS (dept. of family services) Office in the airport and we just really didn't care!
About 15 minutes before we thought we would board the plane, we gathered up our stuff and headed across the aisle to our gate. When we got there, I was a little alarmed that the flight information on the digital board was for another flight and it wasn't to Nashville. I went to the desk and asked what was up and she informed me that she had announced on the louspeaker that the flight to Nashville had been moved to gate 4. We then moved our traveling circus to gate 4. The flight information on the board there showed the flight was going to Iowa or some such place. I then proceeded to ask about our missing flight to Nashville. She informed me that it had then moved to Gate 2. Finally we found the right gate. Michelle then decides that she needs to change clothes and change Coee for our triumphant return to the South side of the Ohio River! We had about 3 minutes before boarding to get it done and she did it!
Michelle and Coee slept for the 1.5 hour flight to Nashville.
When we got to Nashville, a big group of people were waiting for us and it was a huge relief to finally be "almost" home! There were tears, hugs and kisses all around. Everyone was kind of excited to see Coee and she did great and wasn't overwhelmed at all.
After all the initial hugs and chit chat, we set about finding baggage claim. Neil, Chad and I went down to baggage claim and got two of our checked bags. The other 3 were missing and I had to fill our a claims form. The baggage lady (bag lady?) said that many flights were overloaded and they had had to pull quite a bit of luggage all day.
We (20 of us) left the airport and went and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was great food with great people. Coee showed out and made quite a first impression on everyone!
After dinner we said our goodbye's and drove home. We got home at 10:00pm and got to bed about 1:00 am (our little travel extravaganza had lasted for 35 hours with about 2 hours sleep for Michelle and I). Michelle's cough found it's way south with us and she couldn't sleep until about 4:00am. She did 3 loads of laundry and watched Grey's Anatomy!
I slept until 8:00 or so, the boys had to be woken up at 10:30 for Dillon's final basketball game. Michelle and I went to the basketball game and then got ready for the visitation services for Aunt Rhonda at 3:00pm. Dillon also had his basketball awards banquet this afternoon and my mom took him to that.
After the visitation we then went to Mona's house for food and play for the kids.
It is now 10:53 and all is quiet at our house. Everyone is asleep, the boys downstairs with Chad and Ethan, and Coee and Michelle are in our bed snuggled up, and Michelle isn't coughing.......................life is good.
I will take some pictures tomorrow of Coee at our house and post them. She has been a big hit with everyone and has assimilated into our life so quickly it is simply amazing. She only fusses when she is hungry and is such a good baby.
We were hoping to be at Church tomorrow, but the funeral for Rhonda is at 11:00, so we won't make it this week. We will see everyone from Church next week and if you want to come see Coee, our house is open!
Thanks everyone again for all the support during this time of our life. It has truly meant so much to us to hear that people enjoyed reading our blog and keeping up with what we were doing. We had many people tell us tonight at the services that they had watched our story and were touched by it. That means so much to us, I don't even have the words.
God is good and it has sure been quite a Journey to Coee! We are so lucky to have this precious little girl with the big smile and big voice!
Amen.
First of all, while we were in China, Michelle's Aunt Rhonda (Beyer) passed away. She had been battling cancer for the past couple of months and she passed away on Thursday (I may have my days mixed between our China days and Paducah days). Michelle and our family loved Rhonda very much and are very sad about this for Jerry and their kids (Robert, Ryan and Jennifer) and our family as a whole. We have had a pretty bad year on this side of the family healthwise this year.
We got our wake-up call at 4:30 am on Friday morning (2:30pm Thursday Paducah time) in Guangzhou for our 8:30 flight to Hong Kong. The flight is pretty short non-eventful for Coee. We then get ready for our 11:30 am flight out to Chicago that will take about 14 hours and 09 minutes. We have dreaded this trip for so long with a small baby that hadn't ridden in a car very long, much less an airplane for that long. The flight went amazingly well and Coee was great. I had two empty seats on my row (Michelle and the kids were the entire middle row behind me) so when it came time for Coee to go to sleep, I made her a bed next to me and she slept for 4/5 hours. Trey and Dillon also slept for 4 hours or so. I slept for maybe an hour and Michelle probably didn't sleep that long. We arrived in Chicago on time and were met with the rude awakening of US immigration! We went down an escalator and saw a sea of 500-600 people waiting to get through customs and immigration. In China, they have about 12 lanes set up for this and even on our big flight into Beijing, it only took about 10 minutes total to get thru customs and immigration. In the US, they had about 3/4 lanes open and way too many people to get thru there. I could see this taking hours!
About 3 minutes into standing in line, a guy came to the crowd and shouted for "anyone with small children, follow me"! I felt like the old Budweiser commercial "I love you man"! He took us (3 or 4 families) to a special room for our immigration processing. It only took about 10 minutes and we were on our way. Coee was now an official citizen of the US!
We then had to re-check our bags to get them to Nashville, which we did and they all got re-checked without a hitch. (more on this later)
We had a layover of about 3 hours, the kids were hungry and we had been up for about 21 hours or so................good times.
We got the kids fed and watered and set out to find our gate for departure to Nashville. The video screens showed the flight on time and leaving from gate F1. We got to that gate and it was crowded for another flight so we made our way across the aisle and got our 3 kids, 3 carry on bags, 4 backpacks and spread them out in our little area. I took a nap for about 45 minutes and our kids (Coee included) ran free in our gate area! I am sure the other passengers were thinking bad thoughts about our parenting skills, but we didn't know them, there wasn't a DFS (dept. of family services) Office in the airport and we just really didn't care!
About 15 minutes before we thought we would board the plane, we gathered up our stuff and headed across the aisle to our gate. When we got there, I was a little alarmed that the flight information on the digital board was for another flight and it wasn't to Nashville. I went to the desk and asked what was up and she informed me that she had announced on the louspeaker that the flight to Nashville had been moved to gate 4. We then moved our traveling circus to gate 4. The flight information on the board there showed the flight was going to Iowa or some such place. I then proceeded to ask about our missing flight to Nashville. She informed me that it had then moved to Gate 2. Finally we found the right gate. Michelle then decides that she needs to change clothes and change Coee for our triumphant return to the South side of the Ohio River! We had about 3 minutes before boarding to get it done and she did it!
Michelle and Coee slept for the 1.5 hour flight to Nashville.
When we got to Nashville, a big group of people were waiting for us and it was a huge relief to finally be "almost" home! There were tears, hugs and kisses all around. Everyone was kind of excited to see Coee and she did great and wasn't overwhelmed at all.
After all the initial hugs and chit chat, we set about finding baggage claim. Neil, Chad and I went down to baggage claim and got two of our checked bags. The other 3 were missing and I had to fill our a claims form. The baggage lady (bag lady?) said that many flights were overloaded and they had had to pull quite a bit of luggage all day.
We (20 of us) left the airport and went and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was great food with great people. Coee showed out and made quite a first impression on everyone!
After dinner we said our goodbye's and drove home. We got home at 10:00pm and got to bed about 1:00 am (our little travel extravaganza had lasted for 35 hours with about 2 hours sleep for Michelle and I). Michelle's cough found it's way south with us and she couldn't sleep until about 4:00am. She did 3 loads of laundry and watched Grey's Anatomy!
I slept until 8:00 or so, the boys had to be woken up at 10:30 for Dillon's final basketball game. Michelle and I went to the basketball game and then got ready for the visitation services for Aunt Rhonda at 3:00pm. Dillon also had his basketball awards banquet this afternoon and my mom took him to that.
After the visitation we then went to Mona's house for food and play for the kids.
It is now 10:53 and all is quiet at our house. Everyone is asleep, the boys downstairs with Chad and Ethan, and Coee and Michelle are in our bed snuggled up, and Michelle isn't coughing.......................life is good.
I will take some pictures tomorrow of Coee at our house and post them. She has been a big hit with everyone and has assimilated into our life so quickly it is simply amazing. She only fusses when she is hungry and is such a good baby.
We were hoping to be at Church tomorrow, but the funeral for Rhonda is at 11:00, so we won't make it this week. We will see everyone from Church next week and if you want to come see Coee, our house is open!
Thanks everyone again for all the support during this time of our life. It has truly meant so much to us to hear that people enjoyed reading our blog and keeping up with what we were doing. We had many people tell us tonight at the services that they had watched our story and were touched by it. That means so much to us, I don't even have the words.
God is good and it has sure been quite a Journey to Coee! We are so lucky to have this precious little girl with the big smile and big voice!
Amen.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Day 13 in Guangzhou- Our last night in China!
Well, we have finally reached our last night in China. We are all ready to leave and to get our 14 hour flight over with. We have a wake-up call for 4:30 in the morning and our checked bags will be picked up for us and taken to the airport at 5:00. I think we leave the hotel at 5:30 for the bus ride to the airport. There are 3 families of us left flying out tomorrow.
We have most of our stuff packed, but are trying to get everything packed tonight so we don't have to worry about doing much at the wee hours of the morning.
Today we went back to Shiamen Island and did our best to help the Chinese economy. We bought lots of traditional outfits for Coee in several sizes for her to have as she grows up. We also bought enough "squeaky shoes" to last her for a couple of years (I think she now has a dozen pair at least).
We also bought a few other things and were carrying so much that people were trying to sell us more suitcases to haul it all.
Late this afternoon we went across the road to a mall called the "Friendly store" and were once again shocked at how much shopping is available in this city. On the first floor there was a Ferrari car dealership, so Trey and Dillon got to see a Ferrari F-450 up close. There was also a Maserati dealership, and they had a nice Maserati setting out on display. Inside the store, there was a Rolex area, a Hermes area, several British watch manufacturers, and just a whole lot of very expensive brands in the area of watches and make-up.
On the second floor there was Mens wear, luggage, etc.
On the third floor there was sporting goods (badmitton and tennis are the main sports along with basketball)
On the fourth floor there was jewelry and a grocery!
On the fifth floor there was womens wear
On the sixth floor was Baby stuff
All the merchandise was very high end and we even bought oreo cookies and M & M's at the grocery!
The boys were very excited to get the US candy!
Trey and Dillon have been working on their homework alot the last few days and have a plan for the plane of working on 1/2 of the remaining papers, watch a movie, then finish the rest of their papers.
We will see how that goes............
Coee was once again a hoot today! She is awesome as long as we are going somewhere or doing something. If we have to stand and be still for a long time, she gets a bit restless, but no more than any other 11 month old. If you are shopping with her, you will never know she is around until you hear her cackling laugh or her cute little yell that you will become all too familiar with in the next few weeks and months.
We didn't take any additional pictures today, so it is just an informational post!
Michelle may post her version of today when she gets Coee to sleep.
Thanks again for all the thoughts, prayers, support and love that you guys have sent our way the last few weeks. We need a few more to get us through tomorrow, as it will be the most trying day for all of us, but also the most rewarding as we get back to familiar soil and to our wonderful family and friends!
We have most of our stuff packed, but are trying to get everything packed tonight so we don't have to worry about doing much at the wee hours of the morning.
Today we went back to Shiamen Island and did our best to help the Chinese economy. We bought lots of traditional outfits for Coee in several sizes for her to have as she grows up. We also bought enough "squeaky shoes" to last her for a couple of years (I think she now has a dozen pair at least).
We also bought a few other things and were carrying so much that people were trying to sell us more suitcases to haul it all.
Late this afternoon we went across the road to a mall called the "Friendly store" and were once again shocked at how much shopping is available in this city. On the first floor there was a Ferrari car dealership, so Trey and Dillon got to see a Ferrari F-450 up close. There was also a Maserati dealership, and they had a nice Maserati setting out on display. Inside the store, there was a Rolex area, a Hermes area, several British watch manufacturers, and just a whole lot of very expensive brands in the area of watches and make-up.
On the second floor there was Mens wear, luggage, etc.
On the third floor there was sporting goods (badmitton and tennis are the main sports along with basketball)
On the fourth floor there was jewelry and a grocery!
On the fifth floor there was womens wear
On the sixth floor was Baby stuff
All the merchandise was very high end and we even bought oreo cookies and M & M's at the grocery!
The boys were very excited to get the US candy!
Trey and Dillon have been working on their homework alot the last few days and have a plan for the plane of working on 1/2 of the remaining papers, watch a movie, then finish the rest of their papers.
We will see how that goes............
Coee was once again a hoot today! She is awesome as long as we are going somewhere or doing something. If we have to stand and be still for a long time, she gets a bit restless, but no more than any other 11 month old. If you are shopping with her, you will never know she is around until you hear her cackling laugh or her cute little yell that you will become all too familiar with in the next few weeks and months.
We didn't take any additional pictures today, so it is just an informational post!
Michelle may post her version of today when she gets Coee to sleep.
Thanks again for all the thoughts, prayers, support and love that you guys have sent our way the last few weeks. We need a few more to get us through tomorrow, as it will be the most trying day for all of us, but also the most rewarding as we get back to familiar soil and to our wonderful family and friends!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Day 12: Guangzhou - Michelle edition
Well, I have bypassed my nightly 20 minute coughing fit (to the point I can't breathe, talk and sometimes end up throwing up.) Nice. It only happens immediately after I get Coee down for the night. Who knows.
We had a good day today. Trey and Dillon are a bit behind on getting their school work done so we did several stretches of uninterrupted worksheet time while Terrell did a bit more shopping for me. The whole group had dinner together. We took pictures of each of the families, discussed that we need to keep all of our girls in touch since they came from the same orphanage, and said our farewells. It's amazing how quickly and close you become with these families, but we are sharing a monumental happening within our families halfway around the world.
Did you know that the tap water in China is not for drinking? I mean nobody in China drinks straight out of the tap. Every one of our hotels has provided a hot pot in our room. They also provide two bottles of purified water per day per room. Before using the tap water for brushing our teeth or any consumption, you have to boil the water for three minutes. Even when you are in the shower, you have to keep your eyes and mouth closed because you can't get the water in your body. They don't purify their water to a consumable state. It felt like the right thing to do in the first two hotels, but it is hard to believe that we are in a super-nice 5 star hotel, and can't drink the water. Amazing. Between making bottles, brushing teeth, making hot chocolate and ramen noodles and washing dishes, I have kept the hot pots majorly busy.
I know we have said it before, but it is truly amazing how lucky we are. This is a city of 12 million people. There are tall buildings after tall buildings after tall buildings. There is public transportation, a subway, HUGE multi-level malls, but there is no heat in most apartment buildings (which is where the large, large majority of the population lives. We have seen ONE house the whole time we have been in China. One.) People do not have washers and dryers. Every single apartment has an expandable clothes "line" outside its' window or balcony, with clothes hanging to dry. Many, many apartments have meat hanging to dry right beside the clothes. We have seen beggars, many of them. We have seen homeless people sleeping on the curb - right next to the street- in the middle of the day with no shoes on. Sound asleep. We have seen women with the stick over the shoulders balancing two baskets of bananas and clementines to sell - right outside our hotel. This trip has certainly opened our eyes to the world. You can see it on t.v., but it doesn't do justice until you have seen it with your own two eyes. The contrast is amazing.
We are gearing up to head home day after tomorrow. I am looking forward to being home and seeing everyone, but I am not looking forward to the fourteen hour flight and twenty-four total hours of travel time. Please keep your prayers with us as we travel, that we have a safe trip and Coee does well on the long trip home. We love you all!!
Michelle
We had a good day today. Trey and Dillon are a bit behind on getting their school work done so we did several stretches of uninterrupted worksheet time while Terrell did a bit more shopping for me. The whole group had dinner together. We took pictures of each of the families, discussed that we need to keep all of our girls in touch since they came from the same orphanage, and said our farewells. It's amazing how quickly and close you become with these families, but we are sharing a monumental happening within our families halfway around the world.
Did you know that the tap water in China is not for drinking? I mean nobody in China drinks straight out of the tap. Every one of our hotels has provided a hot pot in our room. They also provide two bottles of purified water per day per room. Before using the tap water for brushing our teeth or any consumption, you have to boil the water for three minutes. Even when you are in the shower, you have to keep your eyes and mouth closed because you can't get the water in your body. They don't purify their water to a consumable state. It felt like the right thing to do in the first two hotels, but it is hard to believe that we are in a super-nice 5 star hotel, and can't drink the water. Amazing. Between making bottles, brushing teeth, making hot chocolate and ramen noodles and washing dishes, I have kept the hot pots majorly busy.
I know we have said it before, but it is truly amazing how lucky we are. This is a city of 12 million people. There are tall buildings after tall buildings after tall buildings. There is public transportation, a subway, HUGE multi-level malls, but there is no heat in most apartment buildings (which is where the large, large majority of the population lives. We have seen ONE house the whole time we have been in China. One.) People do not have washers and dryers. Every single apartment has an expandable clothes "line" outside its' window or balcony, with clothes hanging to dry. Many, many apartments have meat hanging to dry right beside the clothes. We have seen beggars, many of them. We have seen homeless people sleeping on the curb - right next to the street- in the middle of the day with no shoes on. Sound asleep. We have seen women with the stick over the shoulders balancing two baskets of bananas and clementines to sell - right outside our hotel. This trip has certainly opened our eyes to the world. You can see it on t.v., but it doesn't do justice until you have seen it with your own two eyes. The contrast is amazing.
We are gearing up to head home day after tomorrow. I am looking forward to being home and seeing everyone, but I am not looking forward to the fourteen hour flight and twenty-four total hours of travel time. Please keep your prayers with us as we travel, that we have a safe trip and Coee does well on the long trip home. We love you all!!
Michelle
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