Scary Santa

Isn't it amazing how little ones aren't fearful (usually) of other children? We went to both of AJ's grandparents for Thanksgiving and AJ was fast friends with all of his cousins. He watched them so closely. They were wrestling and sitting on the dogs and running down the stairs. He was enthralled.... but with his aunts and uncles... not so much. And Santa, oh my tears of terror. Yesterday I took all the kids to get pictures at a nearby orchard. The setting is very cool. They have a sleigh and reindeer and pine trees and of course Santa. Well, my 15 and 12 year old boys were not that ecstatic about Santa either, but for other reasons I'm sure you can guess. They are waaaaay to old for Good Old Saint Nick. I put Jared (15) behind the sleigh, Jake (12) and Danielle (9) in the sleigh and AJ (2) on Jake's lap. Since AJ was already crying at this point, Santa thought he would be clever and stand behind the sleigh with big Jared. ONe look at that red suit, white beard and black boots and AJ was fit to be tied. He obviously has never seen Santa or heard of him so he's genuinely scared. AJ doesn't know that Jolly Santa is nice and spreads Christmas cheer. AJ was definitely not cheered. So, Santa, being the wise man he is stepped outside and we got AJ to quit crying for about 30 seconds and the photographer snapped the picture. I must say that the older children were warned by their father before we left not to make faces or cross eyes. They were to be ready with a plastered on smile at any moment for the click of the camera. Aron knew how much I wanted these pictures to turn out. They are going to all of our friends and family announcing our new little one. The big kids did rise to the occasion, donning their matching outfits, and obeying the photographer and even smiling. Yippee. They will definitely be on Santa's good list this year. But, walking out the door my 12 year says " do we have to do this next year?" I, of course, use the age old parent answer, "we'll see!?" He knows deep down that probably means "yes". I don't know, maybe I am asking too much making next year's 16 and 13 year olds sit with Santa. Then again, I still believe!!

Playdough on the dashboard

Things I haven't done in a long, long time...
1) Make homemade playdough and have to put it on the dashboard to cool because we have to go go go.
2) buy industrial size wet wipes.

3) change a poopy diaper in the van in the Meijer parking lot

4) sleep with a 2 year old in my bed

5) put a 2 year old on my shoulders

6) trim tiny toenails

7)buy chicken nugget happy meals with orange pop

8) carry a 35 pounder on my hip

9) crawl on my hands and knees

10)slide down the pvc pipe slide at the park...ow hurts your butt!

11)wipe snotty noses like 100 times a day

12) cherish every smile, tear, tantrum and hug... time goes sooooo fast!

AJ went to see the plastic surgeon

There's an older movie called Doc Hollywood starring Michael J Fox. He wants to be a plastic surgeon in California and on his way across country finds himself stranded in a podunk town in the middle of nowhere. Well, once he gets to California, the office he goes to work in is very posh and almost futuristic. Well, the Clampits, I mean Palmers went to the plastic surgeon this week and it reminded me of that movie. It's located in the Amway Grand Plaza with valet parking no less. Let me tell you, we parked in the ramp across the road. I just couldn't bring myself to use the valet parking in my 2002, dust covered grocery getter. We entered the building by the concierge desk for the hotel. There is a huge chandelier above a spiral staircase and of course, Danielle yells "look at that chandelier!" 10 decibals above normal. Then, it's a sprint to the elevators between Jake and Danielle. After a couple of wrong turns we finally find Dr. M's office. I must say the receptionists were very nice and very cosmetic if you get my drift. Everyone looked like they walked out of a Vogue magazine. I did feel a little frumpy until we met Dr. M. He is so kind and so generous and so GQ. He looked AJ over and his assistant took oodles of pictures of AJ's arm. He was so positive and so gentle. He was surprised that we've only had AJ for a month now. AJ seems to be adjusting quickly and bonding too. Dr. M wants to show the pics to his colleagues and call us back. He thinks that he can get AJ's arm looking pretty good other than some of the scarring from his first surgery. Dr. M wants to wait 6 months... no hurry because he wants AJ to bond and understand English a little better. Dr. M also said that he would work with us and our insurance to get these procedures done at a price we can afford. Isn't that wonderful? He is so kind. It seems that he is using his talents to help others and that he is blessed for it. I've been told that he offers his services routinely and that he's helped many many children. We are so thankful. God really provided a wonderful doctor for AJ. ...We left Jake and Danielle in the waiting room... (Jared was at basketball practice) When we came out, Danielle had helped herself to the bottled water and candy on the counter. She had a soar throat of course. I'm sure those citified folk had a good chuckle after we left. Oh well, what can I say? I like being countryfied with my wrinkles and brown spots and thin hair and thunder thighs and saggy....oops. You know what I mean!! Hee hee

Life at home Nov.13,2008

AJ is adjusting to our family. Our social worker (actually our friend) said that our oldest would fall in love with him first. He was the most hesitant about the adoption. He's 15 and into a lot of activities. What teenager wants to have his life disrupted by a 2 year old? Especially one with a funky arm as we call it. Well, let me say that AJ and Jared are forming a special bond. In fact, last night AJ was mad at Aron and me because we made him stay at the table to eat instead of wandering around and playing. AJ was crying "Gu Gu", which is "big brother" in Mandarin. He wanted Jared to rescue him. What a little smarty pants. I told Jared in no uncertain terms that he was not to give in to AJ. He needs to learn how to mind. Today in the cell phone store he threw a fit in my arms because he wanted to play with something breakable and I scooped him up to hold him. Well, he threw his head back and started to cry, very loudly, I might add. So I laid him down and let him cry and guess what? He was done in about 3 mins. He got up and took off his coat and started flirting with the sales lady. He's trying to figure out life, isn't he? His little mind must be whirling right now. Totally new family, house, rules, weather, food, bed, pets... You name it, it's different than he's ever known. I must say, we are very, very optimistic about the transition. AJ is very bright and he loves us. We can tell. I went to a baby shower a couple of nights ago and my husband said AJ stood at the door crying,"ma ma, ma ma" for what seemed the entire night. My husband did what any desperate dad would do, he fed him a popsicle. Aron said that AJ ate it like a piece of corn on the cob. He made a complete mess of himself. It worked though! He stopped crying. We are looking forward to the holidays this year. We are so thankful for our family and our relationships and all God's blessings. Take the time to tell those you love that they are important to you. Let them know how much you care. We are so grateful for all of you. Thank you for supporting us and loving us. We love you!

The flight home on Nov.1

We boarded the bus to the airport at 5:50 am on Nov. 1. AJ did a really good job. In fact, all of the kids did really well. As I mentioned before, we had 9 families in our group. We met some really wonderful people. They are all regular folks like us...teachers, construction workers, nurses. Nobody rich or famous, just hardworking, warm hearted people. Did you know that there are about 143,000,000 orphans in the world? Wow!! It seems overwhelming. It's sometimes hard for me to think about the extravagant ways people spend their monety. I mean, why do we build $5,000,000 homes? Wouldn't a $1,000,000 home be more than adequate? Why do we drive $40,000 vehicles? Wouldn't a $20,000 vehicle be enough? Why do we think more is better? Don't get me wrong. I'm all for capitalism. If you have talents and resources and gumption, you can make a lot of money. It just seems sometimes our priorities are out of order. I mean, do I really need that Diet Coke every day? Think about it...that's about $400 a year I could do something else with... maybe help someone in need. I don't know, having a Diet Coke is not a luxury is it? I don't really need it. Anyway, something to think about. The family who stole my heart was a gal named Jody. She brought her mom with her to China to pick up her daughter. Her daughter is Lena, a beautiful 13 year old who was kind and warm and funny and soooo thankful. Their first day together they went to the mall and let Lena pick out her own outfit. She slept with the clothes on her pillow that night. Just a simple pair of jeans... see what I mean about priorities. We take so many things for granted here. Jody and her family will have a pretty big adjustment I think... language and culture and Lena will be their oldest at home. So they adopted out of birth order. Amazing. She's my hero!! Would you pray for them? Thank God for people like Jody and Dave.

One of our checked bags made the alarm go off. So, this Chinese guy asks Aron, "Is this your bag?" uhhh... yeah. Well, the swords we bought for the boys set off the alarm. Imagine that. The gentleman opens the bags and takes out the swords and says"It's okay...they not sharp". Aron wanted to crack up. Not sharp? They're swords for crying out loud. But, we were thankful because the boys have wanted swords for a long time. They were almost confiscated in Tokyo too, but Aron sweet talked the little Japanese lady so off we went. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it for yourself, but AJ slept 8 of the 10 hour flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis. He actually likes it when you just put him down. He's not a big snuggler. Darn! So, we ended up putting him on the floor in front of our seats. I think he was able to stretch out and the hum of the plane lulled him to sleep. He only woke up for meals and a little playing. I'm sure many of you were praying for us. Thank you!!! We are so grateful that we didn't land in Grand Rapids exausted and pulling our hair out. AJ did great!!

We were welcomed home by family and friends and a big sign that my crazy father in law made that said,"Welcome home Aron and Heather and a boy named Su... we love you". Of course, I blubbered like a baby. It was so sweet and we felt so loved. It only took about half an hour for AJ to warm up to the kids. He was running around and laughing. It was a beautiful meeting day. We flew out of Guangzhou at 8:30 am on Nov.1 and arrived in GR at 7:30 pm on Nov.1 but China and GR are 12 hours apart. To our bodies it was 7:30 am Nov.2. We actually traveled back in time. Go figure. It was wonderful to be back with our family and the kids fell in love with AJ almost immediately. Let me say that AJ has already blessed our family and will continue to teach us how to love. He's provided us with way more than we have for him. He's incredible. We really feel like we're the blessed ones. If you have the opportunity to love an orphan, I challenge you to go for it. You'll never be the same. Blessings to you all. I'll try to get some pics posted soon.

We live in the boonies! Nov.12, 2008

You know that you live in the sticks when the computer guy comes out and checks out your house and tells you that you can't get wireless internet because we can't reach their towers. Well, he says maybe if we put a 15 foot pole with a satellite on the roof we can reach the tower. You know you're a redneck if you have a 15 foot tower on your house. No way!! I haven't posted because I wanted to upload pictures and this darn dial up we have won't do it. Aron came home and insisted that I at least update our blog a little. Evidentally, I have a small following at his work place. Isn't that funny? Aron is almost always right in our house, which drives me nuts!! He is very knowledgeable about a lot of topics and I am basically a technical nincomepoop. I think he's a little bitter about my fan club. Hee hee. I'm soaking it all in. Just kidding.

Anyway, I wanted you all to see the pics of the resort we were in our last few days in China. I'll figure out how to upload them soon. Last time I went to McDonalds and used their wireless. It cost me 2 bucks. Not bad.

Our final stop was Guangzhou China. It was basically a resort type area. The US consulate is there and we received AJ's visa to come home on Thursday Oct.30. We had Friday free so we tried out the pool and did some shopping. It was so relaxing. The best part of the day was actually in the evening. We agreed to go on a dinner cruise the day before but started to have some second thoughts. We still needed to pack and get AJ to bed early. We had to leave the hotel at 5:50 am the next day to come home. Well, we went on the cruise. One last hurrah... and it was fabulous. We ate on this really cool boat with only about 50 other people. We went up the Pearl River and back down. Talk about light bill!! Oh my goodness!! Every building was lit up, some with moving billboards on them. The bridge was three different colors. It was so nice. Only 4 couples went and we had so much fun talking and looking at the lights. We even went up to the observation deck. I was a tad bit nervous with AJ up there. I repeatedly told Aron that he was not to let AJ walk. He had to be held the whole time. I think Aron was a bit ticked that I kept reminding him. He's not a total imbicile. My mother bear instincts were in overdrive. He knew that and just said," I know Honey." We had a wonderful time. The food wasn't great but I survived eating once again rice and noodles. But the cruise was so worth the $15 per adult we spent. We still made it back to the hotel by 8:00 pm, packed our previously 2 checked bags... now it's 4 checked bags, and had them in the hall for the bellboys at 9:00 pm. What a trip!! The trip of a lifetime really. So many different people occupy our world. I would love to go back to school and study people groups. It is so interesting what makes people tick, isn't it? All I know is that we have a lot more in common than we have differences. Everyone craves God, family, belonging, friendship... love, it makes the world go round.