Our journey in faith to adopt this little boy Josiah from China

Josiah, or Yang Heng Hai, was an orphan from China who is a wonderful, patient, sweet, and ingenious little boy who was in need of a family. We felt the Lord calling us to bring this beautiful child into our family, and He provided beautifully. Some people would call Josiah a special needs child. Others, a child with special needs. To us he is just special. Josiah was born without the use of either of his arms and had 2 club feet. However, Josiah has been able to overcome these things and do many amazing things.



Saturday, October 15, 2011

Quick Post

Today we are going to the zoo, I hope Josiah does good...he has kind of been in a bad mood.
 
Brian

Some Pictures

I am not sure how many pics I can send at a time so I will send a few at a time...Enjoy!!

Pics

One of the things we really noticed in Changsha is that about 80% of the population was very very good looking. I think it must be some well kept secret :) Here are a few of the people I was able to take their pictures.

Friday, October 14, 2011

We are in Guangzhou

We have arrived in Guanzhou. The hotel we are staying at seems like it should be for royalty. We walked in and we were like wow. We had Josiah's medical exam today...it went great and he was absolutely perfect. I did notice today at the doctors office that one of his legs is longer than the other by a few inches. I don't know how much of a problem this will be for his walking but we will see. Guangzhou is extremely beautiful. Palm trees, blue skys, and waterways. It is a lot more western as there are many different nationalities here in the hotel. The people have also been very nice here and a lot more people here speak english. Plus we are back together with our other Holt families.
 
Our plane ride from Changsha was a little rough...first it was late, then the plane was so small I could literally almost touch both sides. Tina got sick after the flight, and today Paris has some stomach problems. We are going to be eating some McD's for lunch and then we are going to go out to eat with the group tonight. Some good news, our documents said that we needed 600RMB per person, but today we found it was only 600RMB per adult. That saves us 1800RMB/$300.
 
Tomorrow we have a free day, and Monday we are back to the medical exam place to check Josiah's TB test. So far it looks good, nothing raised or discolored. It was a little scary in the Dr. Office because they were a little confused with Josiah's limitations. They were trying to get him to grab a ball with his hands, but he couldn't...obviously. 
 
Sorry McD's has arrived...gotta go...some american food yee-haw!
 
Brian

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Last day in Changsha

Hello everybody. Today is our last day in Changsha and I must say I am going to miss it here. The hotel staff has been great, very helpful, and very polite. We even received a letter from the woman who cleans our room, it said, "Dear sir and madam: Welcome to Dolton Hotel Changsha. Your room we have cleaned for you. It's very kind of you. Your Chinese is very good. Wish your baby will become more and more lovely. Best wishes for your family. Lily" This note was written all in English.
 
Our plan for today is to pack up all our stuff. After being here for almost 6 days, we have gotten pretty spread out with our stuff. But Rachel is awesome, what would take me 4 hours she will do in an hour. At 5PM we will me our guide and driver in the lobby where she will give us a bunch of paperwork, and Josiah's passport. We will then drive to the airport and take an hour flight to Guanzhou. This is where we will finalize our adoption and apply for Josiah's Visa. We will be there until Wednesday night. Right now the Guangzhou trade fair is going on so it will be very busy. Please ask the Big Man to watch over us as I really don't like big crowds especially while trying to keep track of my family. We will be in Guangzhou for 5 days, then take a train to Hong Kong, then fly out Thursday morning. I know I may have written this more than once, but just in case you don't want to go back and look.
 
Josiah is still doing very well. He does have his moments, usually when we are eating. It will be nice to get him home and give him some structure, plus we don't want him freaking out in a restaurant. Every morning he wakes us telling me that he loves me and then yells for Paige. Last night about 3:30AM I woke up to find him not in the bed next to me. The other night he did fall out of bed, so I looked on the floor, he wasn't there. Then I looked up and he was in the cot next to my bed. He has made us laugh so much, Rachel especially has laughed a ton as he seems to like making his momma laugh. Well I need to shower again as I have not stopped sweating since I got here in China over a week ago. I don't know how much I weigh these days but I am sure I have lost weight. My next post should be from Guangzhou...see you then.
 
Oh I almost forgot. Josiah can move his fingers in both hands. It isn't very strong, but when I pull on his thumb he pulls back with his thumb. Also when I pull open his fingers, he will pull them back...all this is very light, but he can move them. Plus I asked our guide to ask him if he can feel when I touch his hands and he said yes.
 
Brian

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

More Pics

These pics are from today...this is how it has been most of the trip...just a lot of laughing. Just a few minutes ago I got on the cot in our room and it folded up on me and both me and Josiah couldn't stop laughing. In one of the pics, Josiah put a piece of bread on his head and just started laughing. We have been trying not to laugh at him when he does something he shouldn't, because he will do it over and over if you laugh....but this one we couldn't help.

Pictures

Some Pics