Finally welcome home pictures

Well, the time has come to wrap this blog up! God has been so faithful and we are in love with our little boy Shepherd. Here are some final pictures on "his" blog and I will continue to keep up with our family blog here.
Thanks to the always present photographer Rebecca Smeltzer for our welcome home pictures at the airport. We had an incredible journey home giving me renewed hope that we could do this again! We had a PERFECT trip, and while this may come as salt in the wound to those who have btdt and can't get over the awful traveling experience, all I can say is try again! Never know! (sophie's was less than ideal, started with vomit on me at 4:30am...it didn't get much better) Anyway, enjoy all the pictures and catch me over at the family blog sometime.

I took Shepherd to the park, a 3 yr old girl kept asking about his hand. She was so frustrated with my answer "he was born that way" "he grew that way in his mommy's tummy" she kept looking with disgust and pointing and following him around, finally I said"what do you think happened to it?" she said " I think it fell off on the ground" and started to look at the ground. I said, well, you wanta look for it? and she started spreading mulch around searching (and leaving Shepherd alone). Now, what would have happened should she have found a little hand?? Or, wonder how the dinner conversation went that night?

Friends along the way

FuXia and Shane

Anna and FuXia (foo sha)

Sophie and YoYo

Anna and Katie

Our friends from our city are in country adopting at the same time we are. It is a special time for us to have some friends to share our journey to our children.  Shane and Anna's younger son, YoYo is Sophie's BFF and FX is their newest addition to their family. You can read their amazing adoption story here.  How kind of God to set this up! It is a hard transition for YoYo and for Sophie, them having a buddy to hang out with and play with has been an EXTREME comfort to them both. 

Orphanage visit

I wanted to write about the orphanage visit a little.

on the way to the orphanage, great picture of is left hand, you can see he actually has a palm, you'd never know how wonderful having that bit of palm helps him. Praising the Lord for this small way of making his life easier.

construction as far as the eye can see everywhere, exactly like it was in 2006 bamboo in scaffolding...

I feel so blessed that we were able to go and see where Shepherd lived for at least 1/2 of his life and to meet those who took care of him. It was a massive drive through traffic, awful awful and more awful. I about lost my cool when I realized I was going to run out of suckers and fruit snacks. Thankfully, there's an app for that. Well, not *that*, but, for distraction.  The iphone worked wonderfully to keep Sophie happy and therefore me happy. Shepherd, I'm his happy right now:)
Anyway, we drove up into a green hillside full of farmland and banana trees, this orphanage is a removed from the city, yet only two minutes away from the dirty crowded streets. It's like it is set apart, in a good way. I am so happy he had a "remote" place to be, the only green and beauty I saw anywhere. A social worker from the orphanage greeted us and showed us around.  This orphanage participates in a Half the Sky program and you could tell that it was a clean place that seemed happy. My favorite part was meeting Shepherd's preschool teacher. She was so beautiful and happy and clearly a joyful person who adored children, and loved ZiChen, Shepherd. He loved on her and gave her a kiss:-) such a flirt! I loved looking into the classrooms and seeing the wee little chairs and funny little decorations and especially seeing his name on the wall. I LOVE that there are places for orphans, the alternative isn't nearly this lovely.

after thinking he might have to go back and sleep.

this led to the sleeping room, not a plan, wouldn't talk to the ayi here who's in charge of that, I wonder why! lol

this is his fish, with his name written on it on the bottom, outlined in black.

Shepherd's bed, a board with a bamboo "mattress" a hard bed is a good thing to the Chinese...let me insert here that Shepherd is in LOVE with his cozy new fluffy pillows in our hotel.

We were blessed to get to see Shepherd's "finding spot". We didn't get this opportunity with Sophie. It was a "real" day, not some "Oh wow, isn't this amazing, we are here for you, here is where you came from, look, here is where you were abandoned, someone found you, we are all in love and crying" No, it was I gotta find a bathroom and get some lunch and I pray that Shepherd is as potty trained as he seemed when I decided to not put on pull ups any more...There will be *that* day, but when you're in this day, you know you have to wait for the right day for all of those thoughts to become felt deeply.  I only had a second to pop out of the car and go "here I am, the very spot" and then herded back into the vehicle with cars zooming by. When you are in these moments, you gotta put on your big girl pants and save the crying for another day, cause today, you gotta just be the mommy.

"let's go mommy, hurry up"

 

 

getting ready to leave, Shepherd seems to have no affection or hate for this place, it seems he was only passing through 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Sister

Another special thing Sophie gets to do is watch Tom and Jerry on the ipod while Shepherd takes a nap.

Sophie gets to have special time during Shepherd's nap, watercolor, drawing, even coloring on the mirror with markers.

What will he come with?

"What will he come with?" This is an odd, but honest question from a friend of ours.  (totally fine question, see this post) I thought for a moment and said, "Nothing, he's an orphan, he doesn't own anything, he has nothing to bring when we adopt him."  And there it was immediately that I thought of my own adoption in Christ Jesus.  I bring NOTHING with me...and even if I try to bring something it is filthy. I began to ponder a little more...I thought, you know, the first thing a family wants to do is take their newly adopted child home wash and clean him and put on his new clothes that they have prepared for him.


...BUT, I was reminded of something EVEN greater on Shepherd's gotcha day...


You see, Shepherd did come with something, he had a small gift bag with little treasures that we had already sent for him, a foretaste if you will, for his life to come.  A magnadoodle, cookie monster, unopened stickers (maybe he's like katie thompson? lol) , and a picture album that we sent to him to show him all about his new home prepared for him and who was waiting to love him miles away. And when Shepherd came into our hotel room, we showed him where to take his shoes off and we washed his feet.

this is sophie embarrassed by her tears welling up inside.

Isn't this GOOD NEWS? O Taste And See that the Lord is GOOD; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8  Dear friends, as a good friend once said, "we can't savor what we won't taste".  You have supported adoption, but will you take an orphan in? Put your "yes" on the table and see where He leads you.

Gotcha Day

I want to write something amazing here to remember for later, but, I am about to hit the floor and am running low on extra brain cells....

Shepherd was tearful and very scared when we got him, but, we sat down quietly and didn't move him around for several minutes.  When our guide came over he brought a few of the gifts that we had sent him in his care package.  Immediately when Shepherd received Cookie Monster, he settled down and grabbed hold of it...it looks well loved:)  He also loved having a red Dum Dum sucker and I think that helped as well.  He had some first words in English, "help" "Baba" "Sophie" and maybe a "please".  He was VERY bashful to say these words out loud, I am sure they sound funny rolling off of his tongue.  He is able to do most things without assistance and we are seeing that he is rather frustrated when he cannot do something with his left hand.   I think a kind person has been helping him learn how to do some basic things.  He is VERY smart, shy, reserved and taking it all in right now. I put him in bed and he went to sleep as Sophie told a story.  Sophie is doing as well as one can expect, I think she wants him to be ready to talk and run around and play right now with her. (isn't this what all older siblings want from their new brother or sister?) So, she is trusting us even though her little heart wants it all right now, she has learned to wait and she is doing well with it.  I have to go to bed as well, Steve's blog will likely be getting more pictures and better information as I am the parent who he has chosen to cling to, which is completely fine with us and we are so grateful that he is able to do so this early on.  I could go on and on and on about little details.  Oh, one more thing, I do NOT think he has a gross motor delay or speech delay. The only motor function is due to his missing left palm, hand, and that seems pretty likely to me, maybe some good OT to him a boost and me some pointers.  He is tiny, but not SCARY tiny like he might blow away. His 18-24 month gap shorts fit him perfectly, which is A LOT bigger than I had predicted.  It seems that ALL of our gotcha day moment and day prayers have been answered and our hearts are FULL.