Grady Guoyu

Does it really take a surgery to update the blog?

2009-01-06T19:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently it does!!!

Grady had his cleft palate closed today, and according to the surgeon, Dr. Morton, he did really well during surgery and they had a lot of success closing tissue and muscle just like they were hoping to! Hopefully it will stay closed and the recovery will go well.

Grady pretty much hates surgery. He pretty much hates doctors. Despite his lack of food this morning, he was happily playing while we were in the waiting room. He had no idea what was coming.

Then we got taken to the back, and the nurse dared to check his vitals.

Then he got put into a gown, and was waiting around in preop. He got a little cuddly by the end. All the trauma and lack of food apparently started getting to him.

Finally he fell asleep. This was before any anesthesia or sedative.

Then we talked to Dr. Morton and met the very nice anesthesiologist. Ryan had actually talked to her yesterday because Grady got cold symptoms and a low grade fever, and we were afraid that surgery would be postponed. Fortunately, this did not happen.

After a little more than three hours, we were able to go meet him in the recovery room.

A little bit of morphine and he fell asleep.

He has been a little mad about having the no nos on his arms (he loves putting his hands in his mouth), but generally he's been ok. His brother came to visit (Jonah always gets worried when Grady has surgery. He doesn't like his brother to be in pain). Here he is showing off the gingerbread man he got in preschool today for doing his homework.

He is home with his daddy right now, and I know that he is sleeping peacefully in his own bed. He spent the night at "his best friend Jackson's" house last night (he never says "Jackson" only "my best friend Jackson"), and although it was very fun, between that and the trauma of the day, I'm sure that he is happy to be home. His sweet brother is resting as well.

I'm proud of my little boys. Sorry that Ryan is in none of these pictures! He was here all day, but he was taking the pictures and not getting bodily fluids all over him. That was my job!

Thanks everyone for the good thoughts and prayers. It's good to have another surgery under our belts!

Grady update (pre surgery)

2009-01-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

I'm using this time in the hospital while Grady is snoozing to put some things up on the old blog that I have been meaning to for awhile. I wanted to write some things that have been going on with Grady BEFORE the big surgery today.

The most exciting thing for me was the day that Grady started walking. It was Veteran's Day, November 11, 2008. Grady was in speech therapy and didn't want to do what the therapist wanted him to do (sign that it was his turn to play with the toys). So, what he did was stand up and walk away from her independently across the room. Now, I know that he was supposed to pay attention and do what she wanted, but I was absolutely so excited to see him WALKING INDEPENDENTLY!!!! After coming home at 18 months very weak and not able to sit independently, and months of physical therapy through early intervention, he could walk. :) Here is a video we got of that milestone in November.

Grady is 28 months old, and on his last physical therapy evaluation, he was at the 22-28 month level for his gross motor skills. He has finished physical therapy and will now be receiving different services through early intervention. Way to go, sweet boy!!

Another thing that happened was that we went to the courthouse in Brighton and completed Grady's validation of foreign adoption in Adams County, Colorado. I couldn't get good pictures outside the courtroom. Here is all we have.

Yeah, they're not great, but it was yet another milestone completed!

Here are Grady's adoption journey milestone dates. These dates are so important to me. Adoption is such a special way to join a family.

9/17/07: We got Grady's referral from Deneice at Chinese Children Adoption International
9/24/07: After consulting with an international adoption doctor, we sent our Letter of Intent to adopt Grady to China
10/17/07: We were LID (logged in with our dossier to adopt Grady!)
10/18/07: We received Pre Approval to Adopt Grady
1/2/08: We received the Letter of Acceptance to adopt Grady
1/21/08: We received Travel Approval to go to China for Grady
2/13-2/28/08: We were in China to adopt Grady
12/5/08: We went to court for the adoption validation

I'm so happy that he is in our family and that he is making such strides in his development and attachment! I look forward to celebrating our first year family day in February!

Jonah-isms!

2009-01-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

Another thing I wanted to document for later are some awesome things that Jonah says. I know that I can't keep track of everything, but some things just stand out. :) Jonah is very verbal and says some things that are just simply awesome!

When Jonah was very little (only 1) he was always really concerned about sirens. We told him that firetrucks, police cars, etc. had their sirens on because they were going to help people. One day, he dropped his toy he was playing with in the back seat. He asked me to pick it up and I reminded him that I never pick up toys while driving. After a pause, Jonah asked me if a fire engine could help him.

When we got the referral for Grady, we showed Jonah the picture of his brother. We were hoping that he would be excited that Grady was joining the family. I asked him if mama could love two boys. It just melted my heart when he said of course without a pause. He is a little boy full of love. Of course he sometimes gets jealous of his little brother, but all in all, he just loves him still.

One more quote that brought us a laugh happened on Christmas morning. Jonah was so grateful for every present he opened. It was so satisfying how happy he was. One thing I wish we could have caught on video is when he said in the middle of all the chaos, "Thank you, God, for telling Santa who makes good choices." Jonah already is developing such a pure trust in God. This helps him through his fears (and he does have a lot of fears). He uses his first memory verse from Community Bible Study's kids' class that he attends, "I am with you always, Matt. 28:20" to help him face his fears. And he has no problem talking to God. When there was a loud screeching sound in our house during one of Grady's physical therapy sessions and Ms. Sue, the physical therapist, and I were tearing through everything trying to find out where the sound was coming from, Jonah said, "God, please help us find the sound." Then he wondered why he was the only one who was asking God. He has so many deep questions like, "Why does God let tornadoes tear down people's houses?" and "Are dinosaur souls in heaven since their bones are on earth?" We don't always know how to respond to these questions since adults struggle to find these answers. But Jonah has no problem posing his questions to God. With his new fear that there may be scary dinosaurs in heaven (despite our reassurances that heaven is a nice place that he would want to go), Jonah once said out loud, "God, why do we have to die?" He was sad that God didn't immediately and verbally answer his question. I hope that we can live up to the challenge of teaching him what we can about his deep questions. He will probably be a student of God and these deep questions for years to come.

Christmas 2008!

2008-12-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was so awesome! It was great to celebrate as a family of four!!

We saw Santa three times (and wrote him a letter). This is how Santa knew to bring Jonah a Screaming Banshee (character from the Cars movie).

We went to Zoolights on Christmas Eve which is becoming quite the tradition.

We had a Happy Birthday Jesus cake after Zoolights at the Withers home which is also a regular tradition.
We had a wonderful Christmas morning at home, just the four of us.

Christmas dinner was with Dylan and Deb, but we didn't get any pictures!

We had a wonderful holiday season. We are a very blessed family.

Jonah update

2008-12-20T19:50:00.000-08:00

I wanted to also put up a post about new things happening with Jonah since our last post. First of all, Jonah LOVES farms. We went to several farms with playgroup, church, and as a family over the spring and summer and Jonah was totally into it.

This is Jonah running so fast through a farm that I can barely keep up.

This is Jonah on the wagon riding home with all his loot (vegetables). Seriously, he really is good at picking vegetables.
This is Jonah pretending to ride a tractor at a farm exhibit that was outside of the Children's Museum this summer.

Jonah, Jackson, and I also visited and rode on Thomas the Tank Engine in September. Always a hit!
Another thing that Jonah tried this year is basketball. That was very challenging. There are many skills involved with basketball such as dribbling, passing, and shooting. He finds that challenging, but it was a good experience to at least try out a team sport. Jonah still prefers swimming, but we may try soccer next year.
He did, however, like to receive the Y Sports participation medal at the end of the basketball season. Having just watched the Beijing Olympics a few months ago, he thought that they were all gold medal winners.

Our Big Kid is in Preschool

2008-08-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

Jonah officially started preschool on Tuesday. We went to the Open House the Wednesday before, and I left wondering what I was worried about. My child, the one who has only been pooping in the potty for about 2 months (although keeping his underwear clean for a year), inspected the boys' toilet, did all his business there (numbers 1 and 2), cleaned himself off, got himself dressed again, and washed his hands like a pro. He ate the snack, and inspected the toys. He is so happy that his "best friend" Jackson is in his preschool class.

On Tuesday, he was fine. I was slightly emotional, but much better than I was worried that I was going to be. Grady, Jackson's mom Marne, and I went and had coffee and a crepe at the Perk and Play coffee shop, and I couldn't believe how long Jonah was actually at preschool (2 1/2 hours can seem really long on the first day especially when I'm not really used to leaving him).

Here's some pictures of both Jonah and Jackson outside and inside the preschool (they would only smile in pictures of them together), and of the three of us inspecting Jonah's art work from his first day:

Jonah was pretty emotional (cried a lot and needed to be held) after he got home. Little things really set him off that day like his macaroni touching his grapes on his lunch plate. The wonderful thing is that he is so verbal he can tell me in great detail everything that happened with a little prompting on the way. For example, the teacher wouldn't let Jackson and him play with the dump truck, so they played with the bulldozer with another little boy whose name he doesn't know. There aren't wood chips but dirt on the playground, but there aren't trucks to play with outside. They sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" but didn't use motions on "Twinkle, Twinkle." You get the idea. So, I knew that nothing terrible had happened, but I know that my little boy has a definite streak of perfectionism in him. He was holding all the stress in of being in a new environment with new adults and kids and not really knowing what was expected of him. Then when he got home, it all poured out of him. I told him it's ok to miss his family, and that it's a wonderful idea to introduce yourself to new friends and get to know their names. We all went out for ice cream again to celebrate Jonah's "big kid in preschool status". By Thursday (preschool is every Tuesday and Thursday morning), he was a pro. He went in the classroom, I helped him find his nametag, he put it on a cubby, put his backpack in, went to wash his hands and sat down in the circle after a hug and a kiss goodbye. That's all our Jonah needs. To understand what is expected of him. My big 3 1/2 year old boy will thrive in preschool this year, I just know it.

Grady - Great news and he's two!!

2008-08-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Family picture at Grady's birthday party (8/16/08)

So, we had Grady's sedated hearing test on 8/13 (his second birthday), and he doesn't need hearing aids! I wasn't thrilled about putting him under again (and the hard part was this time I couldn't be there when he was put under which was not the case when he was put under for his surgery on 6/10 at Children's Hospital). The sedated hearing test took around two hours. When I went into the recovery room, Grady was really popular, and the nurses didn't want me to hold him. (I was so happy when they placed him in my arms so I could comfort him and feed him).

The audiologist explained that his hearing in his right ear is completely normal. It might even be better than normal, but she didn't continue the test beyond normal. The hearing in his left ear is slightly off, but she didn't think it was off by much at all. The reason could be as simple as the placement of his ear tubes. They will continue to follow him and have more tests because they want the behavior tests to match the sedated tests, but she really thinks that he will not need hearing aids. This is spectacular news!

He has definitely been making progress in his development although sometimes people don't notice, and it is painstakingly slow. The physical therapist is always very pleased with Grady's progress when she comes to see him each week. He is building up his endurance walking with one of us holding both of his hands, and he is able to walk a little bit with us holding one hand. He is able to stand for a few seconds alone. As far as his speech therapy, he is vocalizing to get our attention and to get things he needs, and he is able to use the "M" sound more consistently. He is able to do a few signs (although it is a lot of work, and he is very stubborn and only does them with much prodding). He can do "milk", "eat", and wave "bye bye", but this is a lot of work still to get him to do it. Instead of signing "more", he puts his hands in my hands to have me do it. I think he thinks that is what the sign is since I have been doing it for him, hand over hand, for so long. He is off the waitlist for speech therapy at Children's Hospital, and so the commute each way will now only be five minutes instead of thirty. I'm so proud of our little guy. I do get impatient for things to move more quickly sometimes. So many emotions all at once.

I was thinking about Grady's birthmother on his birthday. I wish I could tell her that he is fine and how much he is growing and changing right now. The gift that we have received from her is indescribable, and I wonder what she thinks of on 8/13 each year, the day that he was born and entered the orphanage. I hope that there is some miraculous way in the future for my boy to get to know his first parents. We did buy flowers to remember his birthmother by for his birthday. Grady doesn't understand yet, but Jonah knew that they were for "Grady's China mama." We'll see what Grady wants to do when he is more in charge.

Grady's favorite food ever is ice cream. His first toddler like temper tantrum occured after his June surgery when he had on his no nos. We were at the Macaroni Grill, and we were giving him some of the ice cream that came with Jonah's meal off our fingers. Boy was he mad that there wasn't more! So, for his birthday, we went to Red Robin for dinner and had ice cream for dessert. That definitely made him happy!

We had a joint birthday party planned for Saturday 8/16 with another little boy from playgroup named Connor who turned four the same day that Grady turned two. It was to be in our very spacious backyard and was to involve some actual games (like a three legged race). That was when the weather decided to be more Seattle than Colorado. Since living here in Colorado, we've become spoiled by the weather. It can pour buckets, but not for usually more than like 45 min and then it's done. Ryan and I have been at Rockies games at Coors Field when it seems like it is definitely going to rain out when the sun comes up, they lift the tarp, and they just start again. But on Friday the 15th and Saturday the 16th of August this year, it poured all day and the highs were close to 60. Connor's family was in the middle of a move to another suburb. Fortunately, my brilliant husband had the idea of asking the pastor and deacons at our church if we could move the party to the basement. Thank goodness they agreed, Ryan was still able to barbeque the brats and hot dogs under an awning, and the party went on. Both guests of honor enjoyed themselves greatly, and everyone else seemed to have fun as well. Enjoy the pictures that follow!

Mama, Grady, and Connor (the other guest of honor) and the cake

Sometimes all you need to have fun is a ball on the floor (notice the glee in his eyes - the child LOVES balls!)

Getting ready for the pinata

There were some games like Musical Chairs, and thank goodness my good friend brought the tent and tunnels, and Connor's mom provided a bouncy castle!

At first, Grady was unsure of the cupcakes that Mama and Melissa made...

But his opinion quickly changed

The other really cool thing that we just went by our 6 month anniversary of "Family Day". Grady came to our hotel room on 2/17, and he was officially adopted into the Self family on 2/18! What a miracle he is! Check out the "then" and "now" photos:

New Pictures!

2008-08-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

I have finally updated my website. Just a few months behind on that whole thing... Anyway, the pictures from the first three months of the year are up, including the trip to pick up Grady in China.

Check 'em out at: http://ryankself.com/family/pictures/gallery16.php

Update on our family and Love without Boundaries

2008-07-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've posted. Please forgive me for being so out of touch!!!!

Check out how well Grady is doing:

This picture is of him in the parent/ tot swim class. His lip looks so good (thanks Dr. Morton!) that people comment on how it doesn't look like he had surgery so recently and he looks so good. I didn't use to have much faith in plastic surgeons (I thought they were all about boob jobs), but I'm so happy with the great job that Dr. Morton did (and will do in the fall again). Plastic surgeons do really good work!!

And here is a picture of the boys at the Fourth of July:

Notice the tee shirts they made with Ryan at our friend Lana's house. She is so creative! We had a lovely Fourth of July at Georgetown again this year. It is so nice to do small town things for the fourth of July. There was a parade (with fire department and all), activities in the downtown, hanging out and playing games at James' parents house there, and watching fireworks from their porch. Thanks so much for letting us crash your family event yet again!!!

We are so happy to have Grady in our family. Here are some things we're currently trying to figure out.....

1. Incorporating Grady's birth culture and language more in our family. I recently went to an open house at the Joyous Chinese Cultural Center (Chinese language and dance school located at our adoption agency). We're thinking about that for the future. We also went to an open house for a K-8 Charter school located here in Aurora called Global Village Academy which has a bilingual Mandarin/ English program as well as an IB program. I know, I know... Jonah isn't going to kindergarten until 2010.... but what can I say?! We're trying to be prepared!! That school seems exciting, too. We also went to the Dragon Boat festival which they have the last weekend in July in Denver every year.

2. Figuring out how to proceed with Grady's current needs. We still don't know the extent of Grady's hearing and implications for the future. He is scheduled for an ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response test) on his birthday (8/13). Basically, he will be hooked up to electrodes and the test will find out how much he is hearing without requiring any response from him (hard in young children). We will see where to go from there. We will find out if he needs further hearing tests, hearing aids, etc. He is currently receiving physical therapy once a week and everyone is so happy with his progress!!! Today he was independently pushing around a push toy (even with an ear infection!) He is also going to speech once weekly. He has just starting using the "m" sound! They are anxious for the results of the hearing tests as well.

3. Caring about other orphans. There was a missionary at our church this Sunday who works with orphans in Myanmar. We would love to do something in another country with orphans for a year or two if it works out.... maybe when the boys are in middle school??

But this is the other main point of my post: We can all do a little something to keep kids from being orphaned in the first place!!! Many rural families put their kids in orphanages because they can't care for their needs. Some of the kids I played with in an orphanage in Morelia, Mexico were there because they were getting fed there. Many kids in China are put in orphanages because their families cannot afford their medical care. We'll never know if that was the case with Grady's biological family, but it is something I wonder about. I wish that we could tell his biological family about the care and love that he is receiving now and let him get to know them as well. However, this is not something that I can do.

However, something we can all do is contribute $1 for the new Love without Boundaries Unity fund. I know that many of you have heard about my admiration for Love without Boundaries. Before we went to China for Grady, I sent many notes on Facebook to help Love without Boundaries get a "cause" award from Facebook....which they won. They help orphans in China with their medical, nutrition, foster care, and education needs.

Now, they are raising money to provide needed surgeries for rural kids in China to be able to stay with their families!! Remaining UNITED with their biological families is what's best for kids! Please support this new fund.....

And there is a contest that we can all benefit from as well. :) One lucky person will win a beautiful coffee table book, some earrings, a Love without Boundaries tee shirt, and a gas gift card to 7-11!! All you have to do to enter this contest is send an email to info@lwbmail.com and say “I support helping rural children in need.” That will get you one entry. Putting this contest on your blog will get you five entries and making a You Tube Video will get you 50 entries. So, yes, I want those entries, and that is one reason for this blog post. However, I truly believe in Love without Boundaries and their mission to help orphaned Chinese children. They are my very favorite charity. And this contest got all of you another Grady update!

So, please donate to this very worthy cause and tell others as well. Here is the link for more information if you desire: Love Without Boundaries

To send your $1 to keep a child with his family, please send it here: LWB, 306 S. Bryant, Ste. C-145, Edmond, OK 73034

I'll let you know what comes of the hearing test!

Grady is doing well

2008-06-15T12:21:00.001-07:00

Here is Grady sleeping peacefully in his car seat in his crib on Wednesday night around 10 pm when I was on my way to bed. (Grady was to sleep in his car seat to keep his head properly elevated and to aid in healing). Jonah's bed is right next to the crib and he was sleeping soundly as well.

I went in to the boys' room at 6 am to check on Grady and give him his pain medication. When I walked in, I saw that Jonah was asleep, but in the crib all I saw was the empty car seat and Grady's no nos (arm restraints) splayed across it. He had gotten out of the car seat and the no nos and was happily lying on his back with his hands in his mouth. This really scared me because the surgeon had warned us that the no nos had to be worn to ensure a good recovery. So, I picked him up and took him into Ryan. Ryan inspected him for damage while I went to retrieve the no nos. There was dried blood on his hands which makes us think that he had his hands in his mouth for awhile. The outside of his lip looked fine, but we were scared to check the inside because we thought that we might damage it by lifting it up to check. We're hoping it's ok.

Later that morning when the plastic surgery clinic opened, I called the nurse to tell her about the Great Escape. She just asked if it looked ok and I said that it did. So, hopefully it's fine. Then I asked her about how much I was supposed to be feeding him since we had so much trouble getting him to eat from the syringe when we were home on Wednesday. She asked me how much he usually drank before the surgery and I told her that he had baby food and 24-27 ounces a day of formula. So, she said that we should be aiming for 24-27 ounces of formula a day. Nice.

Jonah had a playdate planned for Thursday. Some friends were taking him to the Museum of Nature and Science. Unfortunately, one of them got sick. Jonah was pretty disappointed about not being able to go, so I ended up taking him (we have a membership to that museum) while Ryan stayed home on formula feeding duty. We did manage to get some more formula in Grady that day.

Grady was feeling much better on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and was much more into playing. We all even went to a playdate with our playgroup at the park on Friday. Here's some pictures.

Honestly, this surgery recovery is really good for attachment purposes. We have of course been working on attachment since China. Children from orphanages have trouble attaching to their families because they might not know how to depend on adults for comfort. He has to depend on us for comfort, rocking, feeding, etc. and he seems to appreciate us even more than he did before the surgery. I was really, really nervous about this surgery recovery, but much like the adoption process, it has been much easier than I expected. Therapy and helping him learn things has been much more challenging for me than surgery. And it is a challenge that I truly enjoy.

The awesome plastic surgeon called on Friday night at 8 pm to check to see how Grady was. It was so nice and so totally above the call of duty! I was in the boys' room trying to help them with going to sleep (I was unsuccessful....Jonah ended up reading to Grady from his bed of his own accord which put them to sleep for which I was so grateful. What an awesome big brother!!!!) Ryan talked to the surgeon and asked if it would be ok for us to feed Grady with the bottle since eating and sleeping have been the major challenges post surgery. The surgeon said that creating suction would disturb the suture. However, Grady never has had suction or used any special cleft feeders. He uses regular baby bottles with a wide cut nipple. He just chews the nipple on the non- cleft side and gets the formula down his throat that way. His lip doesn't even close all the way. So, the surgeon said that we could feed him with a bottle if there was no suction. That has made things much easier, although sleep is still a little bit difficult since Grady wishes that he could put his hands in his mouth.

Tomorrow, Ryan is taking Grady to get his stitches removed. I will be taking Jonah to his first ever dentist visit. Apparently, we are a doctor- going family!! :)

Happy Father's Day to everyone!

Recovery from Surgery

2008-06-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

So, while we were in the waiting room where Grady was having his surgery yesterday, I got yelled at by the receptionist. Apparently, I was too far away when they called from the operating room. They just called to let us know that everything was going fine. That same receptionist had given us a pager (the little black circle thingies that they give out at restaurants), and had asked for my cell phone number, but she chose to just yell out "Self" instead.

After that, we were stationed right near the desk. So, we were right there when they said it was time to go see Grady in the recovery room (where people go to recover from being under general anesthesia). It took us awhile to gather up the pile of technology (computer, IPod, etc.). By the time we got back there, we could hear our little guy crying and he did look a lot different. He was also quite mad that he couldn't put his hands in his mouth due to the "no-nos" on his arms keeping him from bending his elbows. On top of that, he was quite hungry from not being able to eat since 6:30 am (we went back to the recovery room at 3:30pm. However, he was happy to have some apple juice. Here are some recovery room pictures:

Ryan and I just realized that we somehow didn't get any pictures of our overnight stay in the hospital room. Apparently we were too busy taking care of our boys. Anyway, Grady actually slept really well last night. Ryan rubbed his head (in his carseat in the hospital crib to keep his head elevated, which was good because he doesn't like sleeping in unfamiliar places) until he took Jonah home and then I rubbed his head for about an hour. He fell asleep at 9pm and amazingly stayed asleep until 3:15 am. (He even missed some pain medication and slept through some blood pressure checks, which is no small miracle.) He had his pain medication and fell back asleep again at 4:30 and stayed asleep until 6:30.

In the morning, the surgeon came by and was happy that he had been drinking some apple juice out of a syringe. We were discharged at 9:15 am. We came home to watch a Bug's Life.

After some sleep, Grady was actually trying to play and read this afternoon.

We're all pretty exhausted and after this morning, Grady has been much more resistant to having formula, juice, or water out of the syringe. In the morning, I'm going to call the plastic surgery department to find out how many ounces he is supposed to have every day to know what to work toward. If anyone wants to pray that he will get the nourishment that he needs for recovery and that the rest of us won't snap at each other out of exhaustion, that would be greatly appreciated.

Jonah played in the backyard today, went to swim lessons, and tomorrow a friend is taking him to a museum. We are so lucky to have such great friends to help us here so we can focus on Grady. For that, we are very grateful.

Grady will be getting his outside stitches removed on Monday and will stay in the "no-nos" for about two weeks. I'll update more later.

The Rest of Our Lives...

2008-06-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I was going to post a picture of Grady with his hip helpers, shorts that help keep his hips close together when crawling and pulling up to strengthen his hips. I haven't gotten a good picture of those lately, though. I promise that I still will! However, I did get a couple of pictures of Grady at his favorite place to play which is pulled up at the bathroom mirror. He has convinced Jonah that it is a fun place to play as well. He also does squats, and goes up and down at the mirror. It's like his own little exercise class.

Jonah is enjoying going to swimming lessons. It is a "big kid" thing. The last time he was in swimming lessons, he was in the water with one of us in the parent/ tot class. Now he goes all by himself (with five other little girls and guys including his friend from playgroup, Solomon). The other exciting thing about swimming lessons is that he has a boy teacher "just like me." He has been in art class, gymnastics class, baby and me class, zoo classes, and classes at the nature center, but he has never had a male teacher. Now he idolizes "Mr. Todd."

Surgery!

2008-06-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

We're in the waiting room right now while Grady is in having surgery. He already has his ear tubes in, and is in the middle of getting his cleft lip closed. We will be going into the recovery room while he wakes up from surgery when it's all done.

We were already in there while they were putting him to sleep with the mask. He was crying and then his little eyes closed, but even when he was asleep, he was fighting to put his hand in his mouth (the position he prefers to sleep in). He will not enjoy having his "no nos" on his arms; tools that will keep his arms straight so that he will not be able to put his hands in his mouth and mess with his stitches. He should have those on for about 2 weeks.

After the recovery room, we will be checking in for our overnight stay in the hospital on the 6th floor. They will teach us how to feed Grady with a Breck feeder because he cannot use his bottle. He will be fed through a syringe.

Ryan and I were just talking about how we are going to miss his big open smile. But of course it's all for his good to have his lip closed.

Here are some pictures of us checking in and getting ready to go back for him to be put under anesthesia.

Adjusting to being a family of four

2008-03-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

So, everyone wants to know how things are going now. I'm sorry that we haven't been very faithful in continuing to blog. I'm planning to do better now. :) I have just got my head above water enough to continue this blog. Thank you notes will follow shortly, I promise.

We are so happy to be home with our little boys. We are so blessed with our little family. I'm slowly but surely developing a routine, and our kitchen sink looks like much less of a disaster area now (although the laundry room does not!!)

Adoption is such a miracle. God put this little boy in our family, and so far, he seems to be fitting in well. He is a happy boy (many people notice this when we're out), and a giggler. He and Jonah are sleeping well together in the same room at night. Jonah loves to play with his little brother.

I hope that we can be worthy adoptive parents. So many things that we are responsible for. Can we do a good job of passing along his Chinese heritage? Is going to a Chinese church, celebrating Chinese holidays, and attending events with other adoptive Chinese kids enough? How can we celebrate his birth parents and answer his questions appropriately? Wow. What a challenge.

However, we are so very blessed to be in this position. How cool is it that there was a little boy on the other side of the world who needed a family and there was a family here who wanted a child just like him!!

Grady is doing well with his physical therapy which he is receiving through Early Intervention. He has gotten really well at crawling. Next blog, a picture of Grady in his "hip helpers" (to strengthen his hips) and pulling himself up (which he is also getting good at).

His first surgery is cleft lip closure and placement of ear tubes. That is scheduled for June 10.

I promise to keep up with blogging better!

Yaay for Home!

2008-02-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

So, we got up at 3:00 in the morning Beijing time, hopped on a plane to Hong Kong, hopped on a plane to LA, and then hopped on a plane to Denver to get here at about 4:00 pm Denver time. Granted, there was a line or two to stand in as we waited to transfer airline companies, gather luggage, board planes, and naturalize a foreign citizen.

Forgive us if today's post is a bit short, but we've been "on" for just too long today, if you can even call it today at this point.

All Good Things...

2008-02-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

My apologies in advance for the brevity of this post, but I must pack for our exodus from the People's Republic of China. My wife, having taken some allergy medicine, is surprisingly passed out on the bed as I write this.

To begin today, we all went down to the Guangzhou zoo to have a little peek at the animals, especially the oh-so famous pandas. Katie and I saw the pandas in their Chengdu habitat about eight years ago, and we thought they were the laziest, most annoying mascot the WWF could have possibly picked ("They're too lazy to procreate?"we asked in disgust), but Jonah was interested, so away we went.

All we could say was "Erm... maybe they're dieting, Jonah" as we walked past emaciated animal after animal in their cages on the way to the pandas. Not the most uplifting trip, to say the least. Finally, when we made it to the pandas, there was one just sitting there in the middle of his cage, just chillin'. By then, Jonah had pretty much lost interest, anyway, so we headed back to the entrance, none too impressed.

Cheryl, our good friend from the Colorado via Newcastle, had to catch her flight right after we got back. She was invaluable in helping with so many things, and we were really sad to be saying goodbye to her after spending so much time together and relying on her so much.

In the afternoon, we all packed in to the consulate and swore that we wouldn't abandon our newly adopted child, which meant that the US gov't could give us his visa to enter the country. Having never seen a US visa before, I gotta say that it's one thing the US does right. I mean, you look at the US Dollar vs. the British Pound, or something, and you're, like, "What, creativity taking some time off that day, America?" Not so with the visa. That's something that a foreign national can look at in his or her passport and really look forward to using... until they visit any number of major cities at night, that is...

Anyway, back to packing some luggage. At this point, I'm just throwing crap into suitcases knowing that there is no such thing as clean and dirty at this point, and that we're all really looking forward to getting the Sam Hill home. We make a 30 minute hop to Hong Kong, a 12-hour marathon / skip to LAX, and then a little jump to DIA where our good friend will be waiting to drive us home and subsequently disinfect her vehicle.

Selfcrest, out!

The Red Couch

2008-02-26T04:53:00.000-08:00

So, today was the big day for the Red Couch photo. For those of you scoring at home who may not know the power of the Red Couch, let me lay it down for you. Legend has it that at the White Swan hotel, on Shamian Island in Guangzhou, there was once a Red Couch. Upon that Red Couch were put some of the first adopted children for a photo. Regardless of the mist that time has put upon this tangled history, today was our day to join in on this special event.

We took our little guys down to the White Swan dressed in their finest attire and snapped away like mad.

After we did a little quesadilla lunch (a favorite of the blond one), we headed back to the hotel for some nap time and then a little walk off the island to the nice little chunk of Guangzhou paved over as a pedestrian mall. Quite the mall is is, too, and one that the local population obviously takes much pride in.

All in all a lovely day. We also found out that our visa paperwork was all good, so that means we're off to the consulate tomorrow for the oath ceremony, our last step in the whole visit. Thursday morning, we fly back across the ocean.

One step closer to bringing home Grady

2008-02-25T05:31:00.000-08:00

This morning, Katie went to the guide's room to fill out the paperwork necessary for Grady's US Visa. Ryan, Cheryl, Jonah, and Grady went to play in the playroom at the White Swan with some other families from our agency.

Jonah really does like Grady. He was worried that we were going to leave him in Lanzhou. When we were packing to leave for Guangzhou, Jonah wanted to know if we were going to leave Grady there. Then he wanted to know if we were going to leave him on the plane. I told him not to worry, and that he was in our family now and we won't leave him anywhere. We already went through the things we have at home for Grady: a car seat, a high chair, two little kid beds (a Pack N Play and a crib). This morning, he was whispering things to Grady. We're pretty sure that they're going to be joint conspirators against us soon.

In the afternoon, we went to get Grady's Visa photo and then took him for his physical examination. Cheryl stayed back and napped with Jonah (it's impossible not to fall asleep next to that kid if you are next to him in a hotel room...he radiates so much heat!!). When I told Jonah that we were taking Grady to the doctor, Jonah wanted to know if they were going to fix the hole in Grady's mouth, and I told him not yet. Jonah is so protective of him. Here are some pictures from the doctor's visit.

Grady has been sitting up for longer and longer periods as well...although he does fuss a little about it. Here's a picture of the little cutey.

Tomorrow, our guide, Grace, takes all the paperwork to the Consulate for us. After that, all we need to do it the oath and we will be able to leave China with our son!

Hooray for humidity!

2008-02-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

Cheryl got here in the middle of the night last night just as we had hoped (mentioned in the last post). It is so nice to be here all together!

Also, it's lovely to be here in Guangzhou. It is humid and nice here in southern China in February (we're grateful to not be here in August). We were able to get out in the warm rain today. So pleasant!

We got up nice and early like always (the life of parents!) and went with the group on the bus to see a Buddhist temple, a cultural house called The Old Chen house, and shopping (I really wanted to get traditional Chinese outfits for the boys...I'll try to dress them up and post pics of that soon!)

Ryan also got us Starbucks during the boys' naps (so far we are able to get them to take naps together.....yay!), and we went out with the group to an excellent Thai Restaurant. Since we're in a total rut of what to eat at Thai restaurants, the four of us (Grady doesn't eat table food yet) shared some excellent Pud Thai and Massaman curry...I think Cheryl likes the old Self Thai favorites!!

As promised yesterday, here are some pictures from today:

This is Ryan and Jonah enjoying the pleasant atmosphere when we were at the temple.

While we were at the temple, Grady fell asleep on me. It is heaven to be holding that kid and taking care of him after waiting for him for so long!!

What a good daddy!!

This little boy is definitely getting more comfortable with us!

Hungry little boy wearing his daddy's hat

This is especially for Grandpa George...he's already a little baseball player!

Tomorrow morning, Katie will work with the guide and other families from our group to get all of the paperwork for Grady's visa together. The plan for now is for Ryan, Cheryl, Jonah, and Grady to go to the park playground during this. In the afternoon, Cheryl will stay at the hotel while Jonah has his nap, and we will go to get Grady's physical and his visa photo done. After all of this, our guide Grace will take all these things to our consulate appointment on Tuesday. We're not going to be here very much longer..we're leaving early Thursday morning...so we'll see many of you Coloradoans soon, and you know we will definitely come back to the great country of China in the future!!

Guangzhou

2008-02-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

Thank the Lord we have made it to Guangzhou!!!! Cheryl isn't here yet, but will be here at about 1 am. It is SO wonderful to be here! First of all, it is the last step in our journey before we make the long trek home as a family of four (all Americans come to Guangzhou to satisfy the American citizenship requirements of their adopted Chinese children at the US consulate here). Jonah especially is extremely excited to be back home to his own bed, his food, his friends, his toys, etc. Also, Ryan and I as we were being driven to Shamian Island (in Guangzhou where all the expensive hotels are - we're staying at one near the consulate) both noticed that Guangzhou is quite similar to Shanghai. Of course we adore Shanghai...the part of China where we used to live, and so that is something that we really like about Guangzhou.

It is darn good to be out of Lanzhou. There really isn't much to do there at all, and we had to stay there for awhile to wait for everything that we needed to have processed to finish. Of course, that is where Grady officially became our son (adoption date 2/18/08), so that does make it special. As a side note, for any adoptive parents reading this who will be going to Lanzhou to complete their adoption, my word of advice is: BRING SHORTS AND A COUPLE OF TEE SHIRTS (even in the winter)!!! Yes, it is cold in that part of China, but at the Sunshine Plaza hotel, they keep the heat up!! And since you will be there with at least one young child, you will be spending plenty of time in that hotel, and you will want some clothes to keep cool. I'm telling you, I'm writing this from my nicely air conditioned room at the Victory Hotel here in Guangzhou, and boy does it feel good to this long sleeved shirt wearing mama!!!

We had more adventure than we would have liked leaving Lanzhou. Our flight was supposed to leave at 4:10 pm. The guide, Yisha, told us to be ready to leave at 2. Since it is 45 min-1 hour to get to the Lanzhou airport from where we were staying, this seemed strange. Then she told us to be ready at 1:30. Then at 1:10, when we were in the room getting the boys ready for the flight (diaper for one, potty for the other, etc - we were planning to be down checking out by 1;15), the bellboys knocked on the door and told us to go down right then. We were downstairs before the other family (who I'm assuming was following the schedule which we were previously given). After we checked out and loaded into the bus, the bus driver drove way out of the way to get more gas. Then we got to the airport. Then the real fun began. Yisha took our passports and went to check us in. You had to buy the infant lap tickets (one for our family, two for the other - they brought their 14 month old son and were adopting a 12 month old) in a different place than Jonah's child ticket and our adult tickets. After running around all over the place with this other guy who was from a travel agency and was supposedly helping Yisha get the tickets, she came back over minus one infant and one adult ticket. So, she loaded us all over to the security area (6 adults, three babies, and one three year old). We were waiting for the rest of the tickets. Yisha and the other guy were running between counters, and somehow got the wrong tickets again. We knew that there was a direct flight from Lanzhou to Guangzhou leaving at 8:30pm, so we were thinking that maybe the people with correct tickets could go through security and hopefully get on the plane (this flight had a stopover in Xi'an and was supposed to arrive in Guangzhou at around 8:30 pm) and the others could come on the later flight. By this time, we were lucky to have not missed the flight but heard over the intercom that the flight was delayed one hour. So, everyone but Cheryl, Grady, and Katie went through security. More running around. One guy was demanding that we re-buy the tickets and Yisha was adamant that we not spend any more money. Finally, we had boarding passes. While going through security, Grady had to be wanded by the security guard, and every carryon bag that we had had to be opened and resent through security. During all of this chaos, Yisha is yelling to me from the other side of security that there is a problem with our boarding passes, but some guy from the airlines will be at the gate to get everything straightened out. Yeah right. So we get to the gate, and the other family isn't being let on the plane because their boarding passes aren't coming up as valid. I got Jonah, Grady, and I got through and took them onto the plane because they are both tired (missed naps) and hungry. Ryan stayed back to help the other family since he speaks some Chinese. I got on the plane a little teary eyed from the ordeal, and convinced some people to move so that our family can be together. At the last minute, everyone but Cheryl, Dean (the father in the other family), and their newly adopted daughter Mia got on the plane. There is an extra seat (but not enough for both adults). Apparently, Dean's boarding pass eventually worked, but they wouldn't let him on the plane with Mia because hers didn't and so he and Cheryl stayed behind with her. Ryan tells me that he told them to go find Yisha who was taking a plane to Shanghai. I also knew that Cheryl had the emergency phone numbers given to us by our agency. However, Dean didn't have the bottles, formula, diapers, etc. for Mia. Sheesh!!!!!

So, when we got into Guangzhou, and were pleasantly surprised to see that our luggage had arrived as well (we were seriously doubting it), we immediately asked the guide here, Grace, about Dean, Cheryl, and Mia. She tells us that Yisha called and said that they should be on the flight arriving shortly after midnight and should be getting to the hotel around 1. I really hope so!!!

Tomorrow if we wake up in time, we'll go explore the city a bit. We have never been here before. There isn't any official business to be completed until Monday. I will also include some pictures in tomorrow's post. For now, though, there has been enough excitement, and I will try to sleep some while the boys are, too.

Friday

2008-02-22T05:08:00.000-08:00

I know it's Friday because the carpet in the elevator says so. Everyday, the wonderful people here at the Sunshine Plaza change the elevator carpet to meet the stringent naming requirements of the day. Today was supposed to be the day we got Grady's Chinese passport, and, thankfully, things went off without a hitch. We need that Chinese passport to get his American passport on our last and final leg of the trip, which starts tomorrow when we fly to Guangzhou.

Apart from that, we didn't do a whole lot, honestly. Jonah and Grady took long naps, Ryan and Cheryl took half-asleep semi-naps with them, and we didn't leave the hotel. I think the guide, Yisha, thinks we're a bit lame. The other family here went out for a trip to the museum, but we didn't really think that the kiddos would be that interested in seeing fossils and relic coins. I mean, Jonah has really been into Qin-era legalism and it's roots in the Lanzhou area as opposed to the more commonly assumed Confucian relationships that are assumed to have driven the first emperor of China, but he just didn't seem up to it today.

With that, I leave you video of the day's events:

Happy Lantern Festival!

2008-02-21T05:35:00.000-08:00

Today is Lantern Festival, and the boys are somehow happily sleeping! The fireworks are going on right now and probably will all night. Jonah loves the fireworks...he's never seen them before. Myself, I always love a good Chinese holiday! :)

We went to a lovely dinner tonight at a jiaozi (dumpling) restaurant. It was delicious!!

Then we went out and explored the town with the lights and lanterns and people. It was a lovely night to walk around, and not cold at all (a big change from when we were trying to walk around by the Yellow River).

Jonah also lit a few sparklers in celebration, and he really liked that....and he shared with other kids around him.

Yes, he was safe with all of us adults helping him...see our guide Yisha helping him there.

We also received the adoption decree, Grady's birth certificate, and his abandonment certificate in Chinese and English and with many copies today. Yesterday, we got a copy of his finding ad (before kids can be adopted here in China, a finding ad has to be placed here in the paper to see if biological relatives can be located) and his vaccinations. All we still need paperwork-wise here in Lanzhou is Grady's passport. How cool to be moving on with this adoption process!!

Finally, a bit of video from our day:

Adjusting to life as a family of four

2008-02-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our new little family:

We are spending a lot of time here in the hotel. We have gotten out to walk around a little bit and see the city. Grady gets a lot of exercise with us...we're always making him play on his tummy and go after toys as well as sit up. He is getting more comfortable with us. One thing with this not being able to see the blog here in China is that I can't remember what happened yesterday versus today and what I wrote yesterday versus today. If I didn't tell you yesterday, Grady is now putting his legs underneath himself and putting a little bit of weight on them when we hold him upright. So, that's good. Really it seems like he is getting more comfortable, learning new things, and changing by the minute.

Also, some of you out there must be praying, so thanks for that! Jonah didn't have nearly as much trouble with people petting him on the street today. The new plan is to have him ride on Ryan's shoulders everywhere, thus rendering him above the fray.

Here is a picture of Jonah with his buddy Cheryl. She misses Dan, her husband, and I know that you must miss her too, Dan. Sorry for not putting up more pictures earlier! And thanks again for lending us your wife. Her help here is invaluable!

Ryan and I both think that the pollution here is getting worse. At least that's what it has seems like in our time in Beijing and Lanzhou. However, we haven't been here since 2001, so everything in China is different!! We went on a walk by the Yellow River today, and it was totally hard to see things because of the air pollution. However, here is a picture that we got of that. Note that the background is maybe 300 yards away.

The last picture is one that I took of our boys asleep last night. We are one blessed family!

Waiting for paperwork

2008-02-19T04:00:00.000-08:00

These days we are in Lanzhou waiting for paperwork to process. We are waiting for Grady's Chinese passport (he will travel home on a Chinese passport with an American visa) and the adoption decree and other adoption documents. I think that is pretty much what we are doing this week.

So, as promised, here are some pictures of Jonah and Grady together:

This is from yesterday morning. As you recall, Grady came at 11:05 pm, so Jonah met him the following morning (Monday the 18th). Jonah was so excited to meet his brother!

This is from the same morning after Jonah got his clothes on.

This is this morning (Tuesday the 19th)...Jonah was having fun pushing Grady around our hotel.

Grady is doing better. We are giving him real baby formula with rice cereal in it. He likes it, and is eating, sleeping, and digesting well! :)

He is liking us more and more. He likes to be held and he leans into us. Today when I was putting him down for his nap, I put him down like we have been doing, and he cried until I picked him up. I stroked his face and held him and he almost fell asleep in my arms. He wasn't pleased when I laid him back down again. I stroked his face and helped him go to sleep. That was wonderful. He is a really cuddly little guy! :)

When playing, he is showing us he can do more things. I think some of the issue was that he was so scared before...he still can't do many things, but we hope he'll be able to do more and more especially as he gets more used to us. This morning, he was able to pull himself to a sitting position (a tripod sitting position) from the floor where he was prone. His favorite thing to do with the toys is push them away, move forward a little bit after them, and then push them away again. He did get up into a traditional crawling position and rock a little bit, but he doesn't crawl from that position.

Jonah is doing pretty well. He sometimes gets a little jealous and puts his hands in his mouth and whines a little like Grady, but he does like that he knows how to do things that his brother can't do. He gets the most jealous when tired, cold, or hungry. The very hardest thing for Jonah right now is that he doesn't like all the attention he is getting for being a blond little kid outside in China. He doesn't like people constantly coming up to him really close to his face to talk to him, pat his head, or stroke his hands. He is actually relieved to just be at home at the hotel playing with his toys, which for those of you who know Jonah is not usual for his social, active personality. We're trying to block the way and give him a little more space away from people when outside when possible. Poor little guy...how hard to get a brother and deal with sibling rivalry issues as well as culture shock issues and be away from home at the same time!!!! We have been able to have good playtime with him, however, and he was very excited when we went to KFC today (he wanted the comfort food of french fries) because they had a little play area there. We have to be in Lanzhou until Saturday night waiting for things to process, so if need be, we might visit there again.

Tomorrow, our guide Yisha is taking us on a little walk by the Yellow River. Until then, thanks for the well wishes and prayers! :)

We have our son!!

2008-02-17T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, they finally arrived yesterday at 11:05 pm!! They supposedly left Qingyang at 7:00 in the morning and hit traffic. Either way, we were glad to see them. I was in the other room checking on the sleeping Jonah when they came by. Here is a picture of the little guy when I came back into Cheryl's room:

The hotel is extremely hot, so they started shedding layers. The orphanage director is the smiling gentleman with the black leather coat, and I asked if the two women were nannies. They aren't nannies, but some type of orphanage officials. They had brought many of the clothes that we had sent in the care packages even though we had said that it was ok to donate them to the orphanage. They also brought two disposable cameras that we had sent which are full of pictures! We can't wait to get back to the US and get prints!! The orphanage director also asked for one of the pictures of our family which we had sent in a photo album for Grady Guoyu to keep as a memorial.

Grady Guoyu wasn't crying, just looking around stunned and sweating up a storm. The kid had been dragged on a bus for a very long day!!

After they shed some layers, they let us hold him. I was definitely teary eyed at this point. Our guide, Yisha, was asking the questions that I had written to ask at this day, and she was writing down the answers in Chinese. There was also a Guardianship agreement that the orphanage director had brought for us to sign. It was crazy in there, and Cheryl was doing her very best to take pictures, and here are some of the best ones I could find today. Really, it's hard to get pictures of him and of us where we aren't blocked out by all the action in the background.

At this point, he got fussy, and the officials said he needed a bottle. They set him up on a bed with a bottle. Here is a good picture of him.
He was pretty stressed out by now with the action, the people, the camera, and the noise. He was trying to stroke the side of his face and was hitting himself in the face. He did let Ryan and I stroke his face. This is how Ryan was able to get him to sleep later as well. It seems to be one of the self-soothing measures he used in the orphanage.

One thing about having the officials instead of the nannies bring him to us is that they were not able to give us very specific information about him. They told us that they call him Guo Yu and that he doesn't have a nickname. Since he doesn't really seem to respond to that name, we've been calling him Grady. (I know that I have a bad accent in Mandarin anyway!!) They didn't know what made him sad, happy, or scared specifically, just all the babies in general. It is disappointing to not know specifics but we do understand that the nannies are really busy. Yisha was surprised at the formula they made for him/ left the rest of the bag with us. She said that it is milk formula with sweetener but it is not for babies and does not contain vitamins and minerals that babies need. He seems fat, but not healthy fat, just chunky fat with no underlying muscle. So, we are giving him actual formula, and soon we will try to add rice cereal. I tried to give him a melt in your mouth Gerber star fruit flavored snack, but since he isn't used to being fed anything besides a bottle, he was not pleased. When we get back to the States, I'm sure that the pediatrician will have some ideas about how best to meet his nutritional needs.

He doesn't have any real muscle tone. It seems that he spends his days mostly propped up in his crib. If you hold him upright, he bends his knees up and doesn't attempt to stand or put his feet underneath him. He has good head control, and can sit by himself for short amounts of time, although he does occasionally get tired quickly. This morning, Jonah and I were playing with Grady on the floor, and he did attempt to go after toys that were a little far away from him. He can move a little but not with a traditional crawl. He doesn't babble or make many sounds. He does make some sounds with his lips, so I've been playing with him with those sounds. Really, I think that having better nutrition and more one on one interaction will help him catch up....and we will provide whatever else is needed to help him catch up developmentally.

Today was our first day as a family of four trying to get ready in the morning. Thank goodness Cheryl is here!! We had to meet in the lobby at 9. Cheryl and Jonah stayed back here. Jonah is tired of being fawned over, and taken pictures of (the life of a blond kid in China). He had a great time with Cheryl playing with trucks and trains and coloring in the hotel.

Ryan, Grady, and I went with our group to have our pictures taken for the adoption decree, and Grady's picture taken for his passport. After that, we went to the provincial office to sign paperwork and pay fees. Unfortunately, we were busy with that and didn't get many pictures. Here are the ones we got:

The last picture is of the orphanage officials and the orphanage director with us. They also gave us a photo album. It was a very nice gesture. It has some old pictures of him.

Also, if you are wondering why he still has his split pants on, the reason is that we had learned that you should try to minimize the changes at first and leave the clothes that he came in on for the first 24 hours. The sweater that he has on in this picture is the one that I sent him in the last care package which they brought him to us in.

Well, that is probably a big enough post for today!! While writing this entry and uploading the pictures, I was looking at how scared Grady looked at first. We have only had him for less than a day, but I think he is getting more comfortable with us. He does seem to like being held because he leans into us. He definitely likes having his face and his head stroked. We are so happy to finally be together and to be getting to know each other as a family. Tomorrow, I will post some pictures of the new brothers together.

We're in Lanzhou

2008-02-17T03:47:00.000-08:00

So, we casually got up this morning, had breakfast, and boarded the plane to Lanzhou. We talked about the time we had to get things ready for the big day tomorrow and wondered what we would write about in the blog tonight.

After we landed in Lanzhou, we got on the bus, and our Lanzhou guide, Yisha, said to look at the schedule that she was passing out because there were a few changes. Well, I looked and saw that it said that we would be receiving our children (there is one other family in Lanzhou with us who is adopting a baby girl who just turned one on Tuesday) at 4:30 today. We were quite surprised and nervous. So, we got to the hotel in Lanzhou and quickly packed the gifts for the orphanage director and the nannies and got everything ready..... bottles, sippy cups, clothes, diapers, medicine, stuff for Jonah, our pajamas, and waited. Yisha came by to chat a little about her family (she was probably trying to keep us from getting too nervous). I rewrote the questions that I had for the caregivers.

Then we just waited.

And waited some more.

Then Yisha came at 6 to tell us that they were stuck in traffic in the mountains and were going to be another 4 hours.

So, we took Jonah for a walk outside. We saw this awesome exercise park with both children and adults exercising.

Now Jonah is asleep and we are still waiting. Hopefully we will be meeting our little boy in a matter of hours!!!! I will update again tomorrow.

-Katie

Great Wall of China

2008-02-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

Katie says she is sure I am posting what she says, putting the pictures where they go, and labeling them. I am good at all except that last bit, but will caption any pictures that seem ambiguous :) She also reports the pictures are smaller, so hopefully that will help with the viewing. I remain your Blogmaster, Kris

For our last day in Beijing, we were busy!! After breakfast, we went to a jade factory and then to climb the Great Wall. We were extremely bundled up as you can see, but we shed some layers with the exercise we were getting from climbing all the uneven stairs. We didn’t know how far Jonah could make it, but as Cheryl put it, he is an animal!! He just kept climbing and climbing (usually with his hands and his feet). He would say, this is hard to climb, but big kids can do it and I can get to the top. He is one tenacious little climber!! He was able to climb a lot more easily than the adults, and he did get almost to the very top before collapsing with exhaustion. He also loved it.

After that, the poor little thing was exhausted. We went and got lunch and then had a 30 minute walk through the Ming tombs. It turned out to be a nice little walk in the park, and Jonah had a good time with a little boy named Andrew who is with the group and here to get a little sister.

However, after that, Jonah was so tired….he just wanted to get off the bus, eat, and sleep all at the same time!! We drove by the Olympic complex and saw the buildings which look cool even though they’re still under construction. It is pretty interesting to be here when they are getting ready for the Olympics. Everything is being fixed up and redone….even the metro smells new. (They’re building new lines).

However, when we got back, we had to take Jonah to Starbucks for hot chocolate (he needed milk), muffin and a sandwich. He was so tired he had a huge temper tantrum all the way back to the hotel, and then practically fell asleep on me while trying to eat at the same time. Missing a nap after climbing a large amount of steep, uneven stairs is possibly not exactly the best idea! Thank goodness Cheryl is here and can help with him so we don’t have to miss more naps due to adoption appointments or anything!

Tomorrow morning we leave for Lanzhou, Gansu province, the capitol city of the province where Grady Guoyu is and we get him on Monday….yay!!!

Arrival and Beijing

2008-02-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

Katie wrote in her email today that she is paying by the minute to access the Internet and has no access to Blogger. They are tired but all is going well. Below is her narrative unedited and I have tried to fit in the pictures where it seemed appropriate. More tomorrow we hope! Kris

Sorry I’m so delinquent in writing. We’ve arrived in Beijing. I would hope so by this time!!

Anyway, we’re super proud of Jonah. He’s really taking things in stride on the long trip. He slept ~1 ½ hours on the plane from San Fran to Beijing. He was pretty much passed out while we cleared customs and met up with the other CCAI families. We were so excited to see our friend Cheryl!!

We came to the Peace Novotel Hotel. It’s definitely a much swankier place than we Selfs are used to….Jonah better not get used to such luxury! Katie was trying to make the little guy feel at home while Ryan and Cheryl went out to try to get us some Chinese food. They came back with French Fries for the little guy (he was already taking his shower and missed out) and some excellent Chinese food for us. Jonah woke up once last night, but we were able to get him back to sleep (with the help of our trusty Tylenol)!

Today, we had the breakfast which was included with the hotel and then went to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city with the group. I really like Tiananmen Square, and its size is definitely impressive. Jonah started singing Jesus Loves Me right by some soldiers at one point (why he picked that song out of all the ones he knows is beyond me), but with no repercussions! ☺

After Tiananmen, we went into the Forbidden City. That place is also enormous. It is laid out in a straight line following feng shui, and you go through one gate and enter a courtyard that looks much like the one you left. Jonah had a great time there. He could run around, and managed to make friends with a few little kids and play with them. You can get a long way with ”Ni hao” and “Hi” if you’re three. He played ball with some kids, held hands for pictures, and tried to teach one little boy “Ring around the Rosies” (he didn’t understand). Jonah did run into one “little emperor” (what the one child policy only children are sometimes called) who was not interested in sharing his ball, however.

The guide then took the group to have some Sichuan food, which was excellent. Seriously, you can give us pretty much any Chinese food (and lots of other kinds of food as well), and we’ll be happy!! ☺

At that point, we split off from the group tour and came back to the hotel so Jonah could take a nap. He went to sleep without an issue. Cheryl and I went off in search of adventure while Ryan manned the fort here back at our hotel, and almost got roped into buying some overpriced tea after a few complimentary glasses and some free tea cookies…after narrowly escaping, we picked up some drinks, toothpaste, laundry soap, and excellent fruit snacks and made our way back. ☺

This evening, we had Beijing duck for dinner. Cheryl was extremely excited about the certificate they gave us authenticating the duck. The restaurant has actually counted every duck they have served since 1860 something. It was gaudily decorated, and even had some type of pillar that was roped off so people couldn’t touch it like the nice things at the Forbidden City…but the food was good!

The trip is going well. Jonah is getting along swimmingly with Cheryl who he hasn’t seen for a long time and everyone is healthy and happy. Jonah keeps asking when we’re going to get Grady. Like when we were in the airplane, he said, “When we get to the airport, will Grady be there?” And this morning when he woke up and asked his customary Jonah question, “What are we going to do today?” and I told him, he wanted to know if we were going to get Grady afterwards. He alternates between excitement to meet his brother, and worry about how things are going to be. This morning he said, “All my toys are special and he can’t use any of them.” However, we are all so excited to meet the little guy…only three more days!!

Tomorrow we are going to the Great Wall, so hopefully I’ll have more to write then!

Test Post

2008-02-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

This is Kris Baker, Katie's sister and assistant blogmaster in charge of forwarding information sent from China. This is a test post to make sure everything is in working order before Katie, Ryan, and Jonah leave for China.

Katie says they will arrive in China on February 14 and will probably not have news until the 15th, so I guess you will all hear from me then.

Bon voyage, Katie, Ryan, and Jonah

Where the heck have you been?

2008-02-10T19:11:00.001-08:00

I know that we have been delinquent in writing lately. There's been so much going on!!!

Here is Jonah with his friends at his birthday party.

I had two baby showers. One was given by the sweet ladies in my Bible Study who all brought delicious appetizers and got me a gift certificate to Supper Solutions (one of those places where they make the food for you and you have it in the freezer to just heat up). That should definitely be a godsend when we're all home, jetlegged, and trying to form a cohesive family of four!!! Thanks, girls! Such a sweet night!! Also, thanks to Marne for picking up the meals for us and putting them in the freezer while we're in China!!

The other was last Tuesday night. My friends Lana and Melissa (from my Stay At Home Moms Meetup Group) surprised me with another baby shower! That was tons of fun, with more great food, lots of gift certificates to Target (the majority of them have already been spent on the medicine cabinet we're taking in our suitcases for the four of us), some very nice presents (for Jonah, too), and lots of people signed up to take Jonah out to play and bring dinner to us! Apparently, I looked grumpy.....I wasn't grumpy! I was genuinely surprised!! I sometimes have trouble having people spend money on me and being the center of attention is all!!

We also celebrated Jonah's third birthday party on the 6th! He had a party at Funtastic Fun on Saturday with playgroup and church friends, and he really enjoyed the indoor ferris wheel, swings, ball pit, and bouncy thing, not to mention the icing on the cake. Then on the 6th, we played at the Children's Museum with friends. He's definitely a little challenging these days as a new three year old, but he is also trying to figure out how the whole getting a brother from China thing is going to work.

More pics from Funtastic Fun.

Here's the birthday boy at the Children's Museum!

Besides that, there has been some frantic buying of necessities (such as the large quantity of medicine and toiletries, etc. previously mentioned), packing, laundry doing, and house cleaning in preparation to bring home our second little son!!

I wanted to let you know a little about the itinerary that we have received from our agency as to what we're going to be doing on our trip:

2/13: Fly to China (leave at 6:15 Denver time). We're flying through San Francisco to Beijing

2/14: Arrive in Beijing around 3:30. Joyful reunion with Cheryl and hopefully a good night's sleep!!

2/15-2/16: Tour of Beijing

2/17: Fly to Lanzhou (provincial capitol of Gansu, the province Grady Guoyu is from) where the Chinese adoption will take place

2/18: Receive Grady Guoyu in the morning in our hotel and sign Guardianship agreement. Hooray!!!! :) There will be other forms to fill out and in the afternoon, we will go have our family's Registration photograph taken.

2/19: Go to the Registration office and finalize the adoption. Whoohoo!!! :)

2/20-2/22: More paperwork to be completed, some free time, and some optional tours. We'll just see how things are going.

2/23: Fly to Guangzhou (formally Canton). The consulate in Guangzhou is where all the American visas for the adopted Chinese children are processed.

2/24: Free day

2/25: Grady Guoyu's physical exam and visa photo.

2/26: Consulate appointment. We don't have to even go. We had to have this scheduled before we could buy our tickets, but our agency rep. will just deliver our paperwork to this appointment for us.

2/27: Go to the consulate in the afternoon to take oath and receive Grady Guoyu's visa.

2/28: Fly home! Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Denver. Whoo!!

I don't think we'll be posting again until we're in China!! So, to all friends staying at home, please check this blog for updates and pictures while we're gone! (I'm trying to post this post via email so we'll see if that works!) To my online friends from the Yahoo adoption groups, I hope to meet some of you in Beijing or Guangzhou! Yay!!!! We're going back to China, and this time we're coming home with a son!!

Also, for those of you that are praying types, we would appreciate prayers for an easy transition of Grady Guoyu into our family, that our trip would go as planned, and that Ryan, Jonah, and I would have the patience needed for this trip/ adding a new person to our family! Thanks!

-Katie

Waiting for an itinerary, but some details

2008-01-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

So, I don't have a very dynamic writing style like Ryan, so I will just do more of a "facts" post.

We purchased our plane tickets on Thursday! Yahoo! We are leaving Denver on 2/13 at 6:15 am and arriving in Beijing on 2/14 at 3:35pm. After collapsing and hoping that Jonah gets some sleep, we will be on some type of agency-organized Beijing tour on the 15th and 16th. On the 17th, we will fly to Lanzhou (province capitol of Gansu where our son Grady Guoyu lives). After that, all I know is that we get him on the 18th, spend some time in Lanzhou finalizing the adoption and getting him a Chinese passport, and fly onto Guangzhou (southern Mainland China). In Guangzhou, we deal with all the American requirements, oath ceremony, visa, etc. We will fly from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to LA to Denver on the 28th....should be no problem....two kids, two parents, right??!! We will arrive back in Denver around 4pm on the 28th.

We know that God is taking care of us in this adoption. One truly significant way is that our dear friend Cheryl Felmlee is able to come to China from the UK to help us with our boys during this trip. This is the only way that we felt that we could bring Jonah and be fair to what Grady Guoyu needs. We think that Grady will have a lot of needs nutritionally and health-wise, and we weren't sure that we could adequately focus on both boys' needs alone. Cheryl had a dream that we were in China together, and it is actually coming true!! Ever since Cheryl offered to come with us, I feared that every email I sent with more requirements (it is not so easy to get a physician's release and a notarized release for the adoption agency in the UK) would mean that she couldn't go. She really has gone above and beyond in doing what needed to be done to be able to come with us. Her tickets were purchased on Thursday as well, so it will be the five of us over in China!

I will be participating in a conference call with our agency on the 1st at 1pm. At that time, I should have a more clear itinerary to share. For now, let's just say, this has been my first attempt at a blog post!

Travel Group 1311

2008-01-21T13:10:00.000-08:00

We are now part of travel group 1311. We don't know if anyone else is going to be in our group, even though lots of people will be adopting at the same time, but the fact that we might be the only people going to Lanzhou might make us a travel group of one (family).

Katie and Ryan visited Lanzhou in early 2001. We were stuck there waiting for train tickets between visiting Xiahe and Chengdu right before Chinese New Year. This time, we'll be stuck there between Beijing and Guangzhou right after Chinese New Year, but we'll be getting a better souvenir this time, so it's all good.

Ryan does remember the wicked good lamb kebab sandwiches available in the streets, and they had a nice little open air market, but we honestly stood in line a lot of our time there trying to get tickets out. How could it not be more fun with a grouchy blond three year old who's missing nap time and a another little boy shocked into silence by how weird we look?

Welcome to Our Blog

2008-01-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

This is where we'll be sharing information about our adoption of Grady Guoyu. We're planning on traveling to Beijing on Feb. 13th., and we should get him shortly after that in Lanzhou (Gansu province, for all you geography majors out there). We're just waiting on our official CA (consulate appt., which should come in in the next 1-6 days).

Stay tuned...