The Fanning Four

3 years ago at 6:20 pm after 15 hours of labor followed by an emergency C-section, this beautiful bundle of joy came into our lives. She was 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 inches long. Today she is 28 pounds and 30 something inches tall. She can walk, run, jump, climb, do gymnastics tricks, speak very long sentences, knows some of her abc's, some of her numbers, all of her colors and many of the shapes. She likes to make up stories as she "reads" to us from her books. She sings to us and even makes up her own songs. She's very neat and we sometimes find her cleaning up her room. She likes to make parties for us. She builds schools, dams, and houses with all of her "stuff". She can ride a tricycle and a scooter. She swims with floaties on and is trying to swim without them. She says God lives in her heart and tickles her. Her favorite foods are fruit, green beans, chicken, fries, and pizza. She loves going to the pet store to look at the animals. She has many im...

I hit a wall Saturday. I was so sick, tired, frustrated, you name it, I felt it. Bethany had been "mad" at me for days. She kept telling me she didn't love me and didn't want to play with me. Caleb cried/screamed when I held him, only wanted to be with Tom. Things had been getting better before I got sick, but being sick put a temporary stop to the progress. I didn't want to get them sick and I was too exhausted to fully engage with them. I felt helpless and just wanted to crawl in bed and hide under the covers. Fortunately, Tom let me do that Saturday morning. He took the kids to his parents house and I crawled into bed and covered myself in the big, fluffy, down comforter. I needed that time to get over my cold and to get over myself. I prayed a lot. I slept a lot. I thought a lot. I knew that even though I was sick, I needed to suck it up and be present with my family. Even though the kids kept telling me they didn't want to be with me, they needed me to be...

How's it going? It's going ok.... It's really hard to have perspective when you're tired and have a cold. Yup, I picked up a cold along the way so now I'm a sniffling mess. Caleb is mostly happy. He smiles and laughs a lot. He likes to throw things and drop things. He has this mischevious grin- I told Tom, that boy's going to be trouble! ; ) Bethany says Caleb's a Gator. There's no hope for me! I am surrounded by them. I will stand strong though- Seminole forever! Caleb's sleeping in our bed. He cries a lot when we leave him in the pack and play (in our room). We want our sleep and we want him to feel secure so into the bed it is. Rules we had with Bethy don't apply here and that's ok. Caleb likes the car seat, doesn't complain at all. I hope it's always that way but I know better. He's super attached to Tom. When Tom's not around he's attached to me.  : ). He's eaten baby food a couple times which is a huge succes...

Early yesterday morning Bethany said, "You're his parents. You're my parents too." This about sums up our life now. Trying to figure out how to do that and do it well, while coping with jet lag. Our last night, spent in Hong Kong was nice. We saddled Caleb up in the Ergo and headed out on the subway to downtown Hong Kong. We wondered around for a few hours and Caleb didn't make a peep- he was mesmerized! Our last meal was pizza from and Indian woman at a pier in Hong Kong. Go figure! Our flights home went really well. Caleb had only one fairly short screaming fit on the 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Detroit. Not bad! The rest of the flight, he was great! The only really difficult part was immigrations in Detroit. All in all it took close to an hour and a half to make it through all the steps. Caleb screamed for about an hour of it. We couldn't find hot water to make a bottle. People were staring at us like we were a freak show. The man behind us may...

Hi from Hong Kong! We haven't seen much of it because it was naptime when we got here but what we've seen from the taxi is beautiful. It looks like we won't get to see much while we're here but the Big Buddah statue is across the street and we may venture out that way. Caleb is doing much better with me! Yaaaaaaay! He has let me hold him multiple times and even reached out for me to hold him a few times on the train ride. When we got to the train station this morning, Caleb FREAKED out!!! He screamed and cried almost the whole time until we got on the train and I gave him a bottle. I think maybe he thought we were leaving him. It's hard to not be able to use words to reassure him. Other than that, he's doing great. He really likes dried mango and has been muching on that It's a good step towards eating. He's so funny. He makes this big production out of opening his mouth and taking a bite of whatever we're eating but he either doesn't even put f...

This is our last day in Guangzhou. Yesterday afternoon we went swimming. Caleb was very scared at first but we got him in and he loved it. He stayed in a couple hours. He is rejecting me more and more but this is to be expected and I know it will get better in time.   I took some time yesterday afternoon, while Caleb was sleeping to walk around the island. It really is a beautiful place. For our anniversary dinner, Tom had Subway and I had some spaghetti from Lucy's (a restaurant that has western food). Even though our anniversary dinner was less than "romantic", I am thankful for my husband and for four amazing years. Even though it's not perfect, being in a hotel room with my husband, some average food for dinner, and my newly adopted son is a pretty great way to celebrate the wonderful life God has given us. Hopefully our next four years will be just as fun and full of adventure (minus the adding more kids part). ; )   Caleb's stomach is feeling MUCH better n...

I found a shop with "free internet" on the island. Of course I will buy a little something to be nice. It's very frustrating not having access to internet and skype. At least I found a place to check today. It's very hard for me to not be able to write more often or to see Bethy. I am missing her a lot today. Caleb has been a bit fussier today. He still needs to "do his business". We started giving him medicine to help with that. Hopefully he will feel better after that. He is VERY attached to Tom and never wants me to carry him. He screams if i try. He does like when i feed him and will play with me just fine. I expected this and it doesn't hurt my feelings too much. : ) We had our appointment at the US consulate today and everything was fine. They excused our paperwork error which saved us an extra appointment- we were very lucky! We went to the playroom in the hotel and Caleb had a lot of fun in there. It's interesting to watch him because he ...

I am not even sure what day it is, let alone when the last time I updated the blog. But here we are, alive and thriving. Happy Birthday to my Dad, by the way!! Hard to believe that four years ago we were singing happy birthday to you at our wedding rehearsal dinner and look at us now. Hope you have a great day!! We are doing fabulous. I am not sure when the grieving will come but Caleb is doing wonderfully. Today he is even more playful and smiling. He wants to be held almost all the time but we have been able to put him down some, especially in the hotel room. He is eating ok but we think he may be a bit clogged up so he's not eating as much today. He did eat some watermelon at breakfast this morning which is great since he has little experience eating solid foods. He is sleeping well, makes good eye contact with us, is interested in everything. He hated the bath this morning. He was a wreck during the medical exam today. The medical exam is just simple but he was still terrifie...

Caleb slept for almost four hours yesterday at his nap time. We ended up waking him up. He woke up with no crying and we had a bottle ready for him. I got to hold him and feed him and he did a great job making eye contact with me. At one point he raised his little index finger and I kissed it. A few seconds later he lifted it again and I kissed it again. This became a "game" and he repeated it again when we gave him his night bottle. It was adorable and a great step towards the long journey of attaching. While he was finishing his bottle, Tom started bouncing a beach ball off my head and we got our first Caleb smiles and giggles. He loved it. From there, we continued to play and have fun. We had Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner. Caleb put a fry to his mouth but wouldn't try it. He doesn't eat solid food- obviously something we will be working on once we get home. It really was a dream day. We got to skype with Bethany and my Mom and Bethany was so excited she could h...

Caleb was much warmer towards us this morning. He saw us and knew us. He played with us and we even got some smiles. He was ok as long as we weren't holding him. We didn't push it. There was a lot of paperwork to do. Once the final signature was put on paper, he was officially ours. The handoff was tearful from both Caleb and his orphanage director. She thanked us and we thanked her. He has been so loved. He came with several outfits, new squeaky shoes, a bottle, milk, rice cereal, diapers and toys. We are so blessed by this generosity and love.   He was handed off to Ba Ba (Daddy) and he was very upset. He kept pointing towards the door that his caregivers had gone out of. But as soon as we got in the van, he settled down. He loves the van and all the things he can watch out the windows. Before long he was snoring away on Ba Ba. We stopped to get some food to go and are now at the hotel. Caleb Shen Lai is asleep in his crib. We expect another hour of sleep from him and then...

As soon as I got done post the last post, our phone rang. Go time!   We could hear him crying as we came off the elevator. He took one look at us and started to wail. He cried almost the entire time we were with him and had a horrified look on his face. He took the stickers we brought  but wanted no part of the toys we had. We didn't dare hold him. Tomorrow there will be no option and we hope that once we say goodbye to his orphanage staff that he will be able to calm down and get to know us.   It is a very good sign that he is so attached and loved by his caregivers. This should mean he will be able to attach well to us. His orphanage direcotr brought us a photo album of pictures (she worte a note in the front for him), a jump drive full of even more pictures, a chinese fan, and a large book about the orphanage. She was so kind.   You'll notice in his pictures, that he has a scraped nose- part of life as a boy I suppose! : )   We appreciate your prayers as we get him...

So we're riding in the van on the way to the train station and our guide casually says, "Oh, did I mention you're going to meet your son today?"  *GULP*   Apparently, Caleb is a pretty anxious little guy and cries a lot when unhappy (and is not easily consoled). So they decided we should meet today. If it goes well, we will keep him over night. If not, he will stay one more night with the orphanage director and we will get him tomorrow morning at 9am for good. He arrived yesterday so he is well rested. He was taking a nap when we got here and they want him to have time to wake up before we meet him, so we're just waiting for the call. It is 4pm here and 3am central time. At least I don't have to spend all night worrying about it, although I was up at 3:30 am this morning (I took a morning nap).   There's a little crib in the room and we've selected a few toys to take down with us when we meet him. We're prepared for the worst and know that it ...

I woke up at 3:30am this morning unable to sleep. My always kind husband got up with me and we talked for about an hour. It's a little over 24 hours until we meet Caleb. I am nervous but excited. So much to process and experience here that my mind is having trouble resting. He is trying to rest now, although I fear my typing is probably keeping him awake.   When I opened the internet, my usual tabs came up. One is the Upper Room Devotional: http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/  . Today, the devotional began with this passage: Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." -John 14:18-20 (NIV)   Yesterday during orientation, our agency representative said, "For them (the childred we are adopting), their life begins now." And while we know,appre...

Good Morning Everyone- it's actually night here in Beijing. But for you, it's morning. We had our orientation with our agency this morning. We received updated pictures and information about Mister Caleb. He's as cute as ever and we were happy to learn that his daily schedule almost exactly matches Miss Bethy's! So, if we can shift him into Central time with that same schedule, we'll be great! We found out that Caleb will be in the orphanage again tomorrow and will be traveling during the night to meet us. Long and tiring trip for him.   Thanks for your prayers by the way... We just got done skyping with Bethany and I am sending this blog post from our own laptop in our room. Our problem is fixed! Still no facebook and I can only post blogs from email, but we'll take it!   After our agency orientation we went out to lunch and then headed to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It is huge and grand and FULL of people. It was neat to learn some of the histor...

Good morning from Beijing!  We had a lovely day yesterday. We woke up at 4:30am ready for the day. Jet lag..... The breakfast buffet at our hotel was wonderful- waffles are a welcome sight when you're in a foreign country! But they also had hundreds of other foods too- all wonderful.  We ate a lot because we knew we would need the energy for our climb up the Great Wall. After breakfast, our guide, John, picked us up right on time and we headed to the Great Wall. It was an overcast day with chance of rain. The drive was nice and we got to see some of the countryside in China. It took about an hour and a half to get there and we enjoyed talking with our driver. I highly recommend him if you are coming to Beijing in the future. John Yellowcar is his English name. We took a cable car up to the wall. It's like a ski lift chair and it assaulted both Tom and I. I have a blue and purple elbow to prove it. I tried to reamin calm on the ride up but it's not for the faint of heart, t...