Family Camping Trip

We decided since we were not going to do any vacations this summer that we would take a little weekend getaway at a state park. We were going to tent camp but our friends graciously offered their truck and camper. We drove about an hour to Oubache State park. It's a great park with a big pool and bike and foot trails. We had a wonderful time. We went from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon. Here are some pics of our time.

Before we got on the road Rob set up this stand for Abraham to sell some of our garden veggies. We have kept it up and he has made $4.25 so far.

Our campsite

Eden had fun crawling on the ground and getting dirty. She was busy putting rocks and grass in this cup when I said her name and she just smiled. I think she is starting to learn we want her to smile when the camera is pointed at her.

Abraham at the end of the big slide. Notice who is waiting for him...

Eden's Birthday

I made a Boston Cream pie for everyone else but used a little of the cake batter to make two small yellow cakes for the girls. I was supposed to use the chocolate frosting for theirs too but forgot and used the leftover vanilla pudding for their frosting.

Singing Happy birthday to Eden and Georgia - that is Lynette Georgia's Mommy sitting next to her.

Grandpa Eicher feeding Eden her cake - can't you tell she just loves it! ;) Georgia on the other hand really did love her cake and got right to it.

This is Eden asking to be all done. She was doing the sign language for "All Done".

Eden turned 1 on June 11th but we waited until my Dad and Ginger came to town to celebrate on the 19th. Her cousin Georgia turned 1 on the 12th so we also celebrated her birthday! Eden has not figured out how to feed herself yet so the little cake in front of her was a mystery. I tried putting her hands into and then put her hand up to her mouth but she just didn't get it. Grandpa Eicher then helped her out by grabbing bits of cake and feeding them to her with his finger. After about half the cake was gone she was done - she wanted nothing more to do with it. We had a great time celebrating with family!

Abraham turns 7!!!!

Abraham turned 7 on May 29th. We had his party on the 28th out by my in-laws pond. Rob's sisters and their children were there along with his sister who lives overseas - she is visiting for 2 weeks. We also had a few of his friends with their families joining in on the fun! The picture below is of the cake I made, it's called After Dinner Mint Pie. It's made with crushed oreos, cool whip, marshmallow cream and a bit of peppermint. You freeze it and then serve.

doing the water balloon toss - if they made it the basket was moved back. If they missed they got one more try and then were out if they missed again. Abraham won! They had a water balloon fight with the balloons left over.

The egg relay race - down around a basket and back to the line to pass the spoon and egg off to the next runner. We had a race with the adults too - boy we got competitive - well some of us did!

Opening gifts

Then a few of the Dad's stayed the night and camped out with their sons.

On the 29th we gave him his present which was a bike from his grandparents in NY as well as Rob and I. It's a pretty cool bike that he was thrilled about. Thank you - Mooie and Poppie, Oma and Opa.

checking it out.....

looking at the trick pegs...

yes it's a keeper....

Kindergarten Music Program

Abraham's first performance - singing with all the kindergartners. The girl next to him looking at the camera is Erin.

The night was all about being on a farm - so all the songs went along with that theme. This was the Chicken dance.

Abraham with his teacher Mrs. Hensch

Eden dancing during the performance

Abraham has had a great start to school. He has so enjoyed his teacher and he has done well with all the rules and homework etc. I'm glad for a good start for him. He is ready for the next step of all day school. I'm not sure I am ready. It seems like such a long day to not have my boy with me. I know I will adjust - it's another part of life and season we are going into. He is getting so big. He is such a help to me with Eden. He is beginning to help more around the house without being asked and he is growing to be such a great kid. I feel so blessed to have him in our family.

One Month!!!

Abraham put Eden in the toy basket and piled all the toys around her. She loved it. Doesn't she look like someone reading the newspaper or something.

Ha! Ha! Big brother playing games

Abraham wanted to stay outside with her on the blanket. I took this with the zoom lens from inside the house.

Tomorrow the 18th marks one month since Eden joined our family. I can't believe it's been a month already. It has gone much better than I had imagined. I read a lot about adoption beforehand and talkes to others who had adopted and there are horror stories about the babies crying all night every night. Eventually, these babies adjust and end up being very happy and content babies. So I was preparing for that and it has been nothing like that at all. The first few weeks we could tell she was just getting to know us and would look at us with that stare wondering who we are. Now when I go in her room to get her she will often have a smile for me. Getting her diaper changed is not such a traumatic thing anymore and she seems very much at ease with us. We feel blessed. She is such a joy!

The Many Faces of Eden

Eden is a very funny girl. She likes to mimic almost everything and sound we do. If you blow in her face she tries to blow in yours, if you growl like a lion she will growl, if you close your eyes tight she will close hers tight. It's very funny! It makes me wonder what she will be like as she grows up - doing this at 10 months makes me think she is very smart.

The other funny thing she does is makes all sorts of faces. The other day while taking photos of her I was able to capture a few - here they are.....

First Week Back!

Eden being read to for the first time (that we know of) she kept trying to grab the images off the page. She really enjoyed it.

Eden with her cousin Georgia who was born one day later. We told them they are going to be good friends! ;)

It will be a week tomorrow night that we have been back. It's been a pretty smooth week I have to say. On Monday after Rob left for work was the only time I felt a little overwhelmed. There was still unpacking to do, I was feeling the jet lag and I had to figure in a baby's schedule along with taking Abraham to and from school. I had a few times of being short with Abraham, I asked him to forgive me and told him how I was feeling. He of course forgave me and the day seemed much better after that.

Eden is getting used to her car seat which is good. We also took a walk in the stroller for the first time and she seemed to love that. I think we are all about over jet lag. Today was the first day none of us woke up around 4 or 5 a.m. Eden has been doing the best as far as the jet lag goes. It's probably because I don't let her sleep very long for her naps (2hrs.) before waking her up.

She has met most of her family that lives in the area. All her immediate family that is. Her Aunt's and Uncles Grandpa and Grandma just love her.

She is going to be dedicated next Sunday on Mother's day! Then she will turn 1 on June 11th.

We Made it Home!!

Friday morning (Thursday night in the US) we left Guangzhou for Beijing. We were planning on spending the night in Beijing and leaving for the US the next day. Once we got to Beijing we thought we would go to the American Airlines counter and see if they could get us on a flight with another airline. Over the phone 2 days earlier they said they could not, but we thought maybe when we are face to face with them they will give us a different answer. They first put us on stand by with Continental, we did not get on. Then they rushed us to United and we got on. We had to hurry though! Rob requested one of their workers to help us through the lines and he did. We went through the diplomat line at immigration and he rushed us through all the security lines. Once in the terminal we were actually running to the gate. We made it though! Before getting on the plane while we were waiting to see if they could get us on we quickly opened our luggage to grab extra diapers and formula since we were not prepared for our international flight being that day.

We were so glad we took the chance to try and get on. We basically went back to our original itinerary. Once in Chicago we had to clear immigration which took longer since Eden was traveling on a Chinese passport. We were given a whole packet of papers from the Consulate in China and told it was not to be opened until we got to immigration. So once that process was done we ran again to the American Airlines counter to see if we could get on the last flight to Ft. Wayne. Once at the counter we saw the flight had been delayed by about 45 minutes. It gave us just enough time to get our tickets and get on the flight. We have never had such a rushed and frantic ride home. It was worth all the running though because we were able to get back 2 days early!!!

We called Rob's parents once in Chicago and gave them a shock that we were going to be in Ft. Wayne in an hour! They were there to pick us up along with Rob's grandfather and his aunt and uncle. It was fun to be greeted that way!

Last night Eden seemed a bit overwhelmed by our house and actually was shaking when she saw the cat. Rob picked her up and talked to her calmly and showed her the house and she seemed to calm down after that. She slept until 3 a.m. we fed her and put her back down - she slept then until 9. I had to wake her after her first nap since her body thinks it's the middle of the night.

We are so, so glad to be home! Thank you for all the prayers and for all the excitement surrounding Eden's adoption. We are so blessed by you all!

On the plane from Beijing to Chicago! We are were heading home!

These are the other families with our agency getting their kids!

Family of 4!!

I bought this outfit when we were still living in Kunming 2 years ago. It was falling apart by the end of the day and I had to take off of her. It was a little small too. She wore it to the consulate and the swearing in!!

The Verdict

The Consulate received Eden's paperwork today and they are now saying they are 95% sure they will be able to issue her Visa before the 30th. However, that does not matter much now since our flight home was canceled. After many hours on the phone and then emailing our travel agent we will now be arriving home on the 2nd of May. It goes like this....
fly from Guangzhou to Beijing on Friday - spend the night
fly from Beijing to Shanghai on Saturday - wait 6 hours then board flight
fly from Shanghai to Chicago Saturday - spend the night
fly from Chicago to Ft. Wayne Sunday.

We may rent a vehicle from Chicago to Ft. Wayne on Saturday - we will see how we feel before we decide to take on the 4 hour trip. Rob and I did not sleep very well last night as we were waiting on a phone call from the travel agent. We both woke up at 3 a.m. and checked email only to find out the agent could not do any better than the above itinerary. It took awhile to fall back asleep as we pondered our trip back.

Tomorrow (Thursday) there is a big "swearing in" ceremony at the US consulate. They basically group all the adoptive families together make them repeat something and then they issue the visas.

We are so ready to get home. Rob and I both feel like this trip has been a bit like labor - it's not fun, it hurts, it can be very long but in the end you get the prize of the baby. We are glad though that through this "labor" we have had our baby to enjoy along the way. We have been putting her on her belly for a few minutes a day and she is already so much stronger - she can hold herself up with her arms and she is showing signs of crawling. She loves to stand and tries to let go of your hands while standing. She will immediately fall over if we let go - which she then just laughs and laughs when she gets caught. It's a game.

Well thank you everyone for praying for us along this journey. It's almost over! Please pray for no more delays with the visa and our flights. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Another Issue

Well after Rob's consulate meeting they told us they were 90% sure they could issue the visa for Eden before our flight on the 30th. That was great news. Then this morning we found out our international flight out of Beijing was canceled. Rob read on American Airlines website that we can be reimbursed fully for the flight. So he has been on the phone all morning with a rep for AA from China and now he is on the phone with a rep from America. Hopefully, we will get out of here on the 30th. The next AA flight out of Beijing is on the 5th of May! Rob just came back as I was writing this. As of right now we are flying out of Beijing on the 1st to Shanghai, then Shanghai to Chicago then Chicago to Ft. Wayne on the 2nd. Yes that's right the 2nd! Oh my maybe our China rep can come up with something different!
Even with all this - we are still loving having our girl and so thankful God has blessed us with her. She has been so fun! She gets more and giggly with us as she gets to know us. She has been doing better with diaper changes and doesn't scream as much as when we first got her. So even with all the issues it's been good bonding time for our whole family. Being stuck in a hotel room though is beginning to show on Abraham. He just needs some space and more work to do. Our main source of entertainment for today (besides looking at Eden) has been to watch the Chinese men down in the parking lot try and remove a tree that was previous growing out of the concrete!!

Here are some more pictures of our lovely girl!

US Consulate Visit

This is Rob posting. I spent a good chunk of the day in the US Consulate and found a sympathetic woman named Brook, who evidently heads up the adoption visa process. She said that almost any time adoptive families have issues like ours, they are with our adoption organization, which wasn't encouraging. She did say though, that they understand that it isn't the adoptive families faults, and we have payed the organization so much money, that to be treated like this isn't right. She said they will do all they can to get our visas issued by the afternoon of the 29th, but she can't make any guarantees, and wanted me to understand that if it doesn't happen - its not the Consulate's fault.

Thanks to all who have been praying for us - please continue, and please also pray that we will rest in God's ability to work things out for good in His time. We are so ready to be home, but at the same time, the time we have been forced to have here as a family of four - with no distractions - has been wonderful. A lot of the families are taking tours of the area and shopping etc...but financially we just aren't able to, so we end up in the hotel room for most of the day. We eat either instant noodles (Ramen style) or peanut butter and jelly for lunch every day, and try to find something local for supper. (The two photos above are the grocery store we bought our noodles and bread in - we stood in line to pay for 20 minutes).

Abraham is still doing an hour or two of school work each day, and then enjoys running back and forth playing basketball in our hotel room with a rubber ball another family gave him.

Today, Erin and Abraham did laundry in the tub, while I was at the Consulate. We did venture out for a decent Chinese attempt at burgers and fries tonight - it was a nice change, but I can't wait to get back to some beef from my dad's farm - that's real beef.

Tonight as Erin and I were getting ready for bed, we kept hearing Abraham and Eden laughing. She was propped up on her elbows looking at him, and babbling at him, he would babble back at her and then she would crack up - which made him giggle. It went on for 10-15 minutes, until we finally shut them down. It was precious to see him finally enjoying a sibling.

Update - not much news!

We have not heard anything yet as far as our consulate date. We are not surprised since it's the weekend. We are hoping that by tomorrow we will know something. I thought I would post some new pictures. Enjoy!

This is Abraham and Caroline playing in the fish pond at our hotel in Nanchang (where we got Eden)

Abraham and Caroline, she was adopted 7 years ago. Her parents were back getting an 11 month old.

This is what happens when a loveseat turns into a crib and you are not watching when your 10 month old is falling asleep. After she got quiet we peeked over and this is what we saw. I moved the blanket after taking the picture.

Two other babies that were adopted from the same city Eden was. Notice Eden's fist in Olivia's face? That's the same Olivia I was talking about in an earlier post.

The other families in Nanchang who were also adopting. The families in the front row are from Spain. There is one family from the US who is missing.