Good morning from Changsha

Hello everybody, it is 5:12AM here in Changsha, China. I will try to update you as to what we have been doing and what we will be doing. Yesterday, Rachel and I went to the Civil Affairs office and officially started all the paperwork. We also went and had Josiah's passport photo's taken. It was pretty uneventful at the civil affairs office, and we were able to finish up a lot of paperwork that was intended to be done today. We will need to go back to the civil affairs office again today for some interview type questions. They will ask us things like, "do you still want this child" "did you know about his special needs before you came here" "Do you promise to love him and take care of him the rest of his life"

 

Yesterday we also got to have, what I consider, some of our first fun time together. We all went swimming. Josiah loved it. Last night we also went out to eat at a really nice western/chinese restaurant right next door to the hotel. One of the things that has been really hard to judge is how much food to order, as you might expect, the chinese do not stuff themselves like we do :)

 

Josiah has been doing great and he is really bonding with his new family. We have had some times where he is testing us and trying to push his limits, but we have worked through those things and have been getting better. One thing that he is having a problem with is that he thinks it is funny when he does something wrong and we laugh...he will then continue to do this for as long as he thinks its funny. For example, dropping his fork on the floor, over and over again. Considering some of the issues some children have, I will take these little power struggles any day.

 

Paige and Paris continue to do well, although, they have been a little bored. I have not felt very adventurous since we got here, I am more about getting my family through this adoption safely and return home soon. As we spend some more days in Changsha, I am sure I will feel more like getting out and exploring. The scary part is trying to get through traffic. If you end up in front of a car, they will run you over. As you might expect, with 6 people in our group and 1 of them being in a wheelchair, I am not looking to press my luck playing human frogger.

 

Well I am sure there are a million things I could be writing about, but I am running out of time and want to make sure we are not late to our meeting this morning. I am not sure if I have written this in the past but I wanted to make sure everyone knew. Josiah is very small. Most of the clothes we bought him were size 5 or extra small and they are falling off him. I would suggest if you are buying him clothes...buy size 4T. Also, he loves coloring books and I think he will love doing things like puzzles, bigger puzzle pieces. Yesterday, he really amazed us by writing numbers 1-30, with his feet no less :)

 

Andrea has told me that the picture came through so I will try to post some more. Although, with all the hustle and bustle of this trip, I have been forgetting to take pictures...sorry...try to do better.

 

Reporting from China,

 

Brian

We are in Changsha

I am falling asleep on my feet so this is going to be a short message...and I don't know if they are making it to the blog or not. We are in Changsha, we have had Josiah for a little over 24 hours and I don't know if he could love us, or us love him, any more than we do. He has not left my side since I got him, and as you might expect, that makes me very happy. It has been an eventful 24 hours; I have been pee'd on, thrown up on, and he spilled his water on me on the plane...but I love him so much I don't mind. We are in Changsha and we officially start the process tomorrow so please have us in your thoughts as this is a critical step in bringing him home.

 

Brian

We have Josiah

I don't know how long the internet will be working, but I wanted to let you all know that we have Josiah, and I think he loves his new family very much. At first he wasn't real sure, but by the end of the night he didn't want to leave my arms. He kept me up until midnight wanting to play instead of sleep, but Im sure he is going through a lot right now. Some things I already know about him: He loves watching TV, he loves making people laugh, and he doesn't like it when you touch him if he doesn't want you touching him. I will try to post a picture but I am not sure it will work. As for the rest of us, we are all doing well-ish. Paris is having a hard time with the Jet lag and has been wanting to go home aleady. Hopefully over the next few days things slow down a little and she can catch up on some sleep. She does not like the smells here. Hopefully Changsha is better for her. I will try to post when I can but we are moving at 100 mph and I don't know when I will have time. For the next 2 days we need everything to work out well with Josiah because we were not supposed have him and I am not sure what impact that will have on all of our travel. We met the man from his original orphanage last night who will be taking him on the plane and we need to give josiah back to him tomorrow morning. A lot of things need to work out in order for that to happen. Please be sure to think of us often...love you all.

 

  Brian

We are in Beijing

Hello everybody. We are in Beijing. The flight was long, but very uneventful. The kids did great, even after a few pre-flight jitters. I hope to write more tomorrow, but for now we need to get to bed...we are going on about 3-4 hours of crappy sleep in the plane. It is hard to believe that we will be meeting Josaih in about 12 hours. Awesome!!!

At the airport

Made it through security no problems...waiting to board...flight leaves at 5:45 central time. 2 more hours....detroit here we come :)...then on to beijing

Running a test

This is just a test to see if I can email posts to the blog.

China Bound

Da Jia Hao-Hello everybody. It has been a while since I have posted any information, but I wanted to make everyone aware that we are leaving for China tomorrow to bring Josiah home. It has been quite the adventure and we are all looking forward to going. We should be meeting Josiah for the first time on Saturday around 2PM China time. I will post more as we start the trip tomorrow and as we meet Josiah.