Giveaway winner...

We are going to have to do this more often...how fun!!!!  You guys had some great guesses and have given me some good ideas for our next pictures!!!

The winner is....

Sherwin and Amber

(send me an email at wearechinabound@gmail.com with your address so I can get your Solomon Beads earrings in the mail :)  Congratulations!

Home 1 week today....

A post is coming...I promise :) I just haven't had much computer time...the kids started their homeschooling while we were in China and we are now in full swing...everyone is doing AMAZING!!

I leave you with this for now...our MIRACLES!!!!!!

Oh...and how about a GIVEAWAY just for fun...be the first to name the item in this picture and you will win a pair of Solomon Beads earrings.

Hint: How do you get 6 kiddos...3 of them being 4 yr. olds, to sit still long enough for mama to snap a decent picture????

HOME!!!

I promise I will be posting very soon.  Everyone is doing AMAZING!!!  There is no sweeter sound than to hear my boy calling, "Mama...Mama"...oh, how I longed to hear his precious voice...it's beautiful music to my ears.

We are trying to get our school schudule settled and then you can expect a long updated post :)

Final thoughts...

We leave TONIGHT to come home...we are soooooo excited!!!

First...PRAYER REQUEST...I guess all of my kiddos at home are sick...would you please pray for their healing?

These are our random thoughts for the last few days....

~Did we tell you, I can't remember???  2 really fun things about Gotcha day???  The room we received Solomon in was called the Dan Feng Chamber...THAT is Cana's chinese name and now her middle name...how cool is that!!  Also, we received Solomon on his baby sister's bday..think I mentioned that already, though.

~Don't chinese people ever get tired of chinese food!  We are desperate for a Farmer Boys burger :)

~Thank God for Papa John's pizza :)

~Have I mentioned that our boy is really busy??

~The traffic is unbelievable!  Cars everywhere, motorcycles everywhere, pedestrians everywhere...the are no traffic rules..everything goes!  The pedestrian does not have the right of way and you will be run over EVEN if you are on the sidewalk.  The lines in the streets are just a suggestion and no abides by them.  There are traffic officers directing traffic at the main intersections but they can do little to control the mass traffic.

~None of the cops carry guns but the armored bank guys have shotguns and automatic guns.

~The rain has been random but when it starts, watch out!!!! The thunder rumbles and the skies literally open up and a flood of rain follows!!! We went for a walk the other day and there was a bunch of thunder but we really didn't think the rain would come...well, uhhhh...we were wrong! (check out the video!)  The streets were flooding within minutes.

~We had a blast people watching at all of the different markets. All I can say is wow! I had no idea that there could be so many things in one place!  Electronics market, toy market...


~We have met some very precious new friends while in China.  It always blessed me to see how the Lord intertwines families from all over the world.  Each of you will forever be a part of Solomon's first days with us and we are honored to have met each of you.  We can't wait to watch your peanuts grow!!

~Day 12...we were granted to opportunity to have lunch with the Amazing Judy as we all so lovingly call her.  Amazing is an understatement!  She is in charge of all of the guides for our agency AND she is the main contact person for anything related to adoptions for our agency.  This mama got very emotional as we spent time with her.  You see...it's because of Judy and Sabrina and our Lord that we have Cana!!  Judy worked VERY hard to get our girl home.  She wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and she fought for our family!!  THEN, she did the same for our boy!!  She kept telling us that she was just doing her job and that's when I lost it!! She went above and beyond and risked a lot to help our family...most agencies would have said, 'sorry, we can't help you' because it's very risky to oppose/challenge decisions made by chinese officials. We are forever thankful for all she has done to help us bring our babies home!!!!!

~Day 13...Our sweet amazing Judy took us to visit a local village today.  What a privilege to be able see how the local families live and to learn the history of their village!  All I can say is that we are very spoiled and blessed to have all that we do.  Paul's thoughts on the village...check out the pictures...the buildings were so close.  The government has been tearing down many villages to build high-rise apartments and to expand their cities.  This particular village is right on the edge of the city and the government has tried to take it over but the villagers have fought and have successfully protected it.  They desperately want to preserve their village history & they know it will be lost forever if it's torn down.

We also had our swearing in appt. at the US Consulate today.  This is always and emotional time.  It's the final stage of our adoption...getting Solomon's Visa so he can come home!!!  We aren't allowed to take pictures inside of the consulate but just imagine a large room with over 50 families AND their children...crazy loud but crazy exciting, too!!
 
Day 14:
Today will be packing, checking out, AND COMING HOME!!!!! We are so excited and can't wait to hold our babies and see our family & friends.  We have missed everyone so much!  We are still in awe of all that our Lord has done...I'm still having a hard time processing all of it...this has been an incredible journey!!! Thank you for all of your love and support...you will never know how precious it has been to us!!!

PICTURES: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/?saved=1

Day 9

Things are a wonderful slow pace here on the island. We've really enjoyed being able to walk around and not worry about being run over :) Today we went to the shopping mall. Let's just say this wasn't an ordinary shopping mall...we are talking hundreds and hundreds of stores. We also went over to the jewelry mall...again, like a bazillion shops!! Apparently there is a mall for everything you need. We asked our guide to take us to see 'real' China. We wanted to see the local markets so he took us through some streets. It was so fascinating! We walked through the herb market...OH MY!!! Again, hundreds of small shop's with thousands of herbs. There were lots of street vendors selling different animals like dogs, turtles, bunnies, and chipmunk's...YES....chipmunk's!! Oh ya...gotta check out the picture of the black ants...they eat these for medicinal purposes.

On a wonderful note, we had Solomon's TB test read...negative...phew!! We weren't worried that he had TB but a little worried he might come back with a positive test because he does have the antibodies to prevent TB. If he had tested positive, we would not be coming home friday so we are very thankful!

We were blessed to meet a family that has just adopted TWO almost 3 year old boys (they also have one 3yr. old boy at home :) These boys are precious and one of the peanuts has the same medical needs as Solomon so it was really neat to talk to mom to mom about it. We had a great dinner with them!!! Please be praying for this sweet family! The other brother has a very, very serious heart condition and will need care as soon as they get home...pray that surgery will even be an option for this beautiful one!

Solomon continues to amaze us with how well he is doing. He seems to be attaching to both of us which is an answer to prayer. I was a little concerned because he is so happy ALL the time but he's finally have little spouts of grieving. It typically happens if he gets hurt. The tears will just flow and flow. It's a good thing, really! It seems that when he has an ouwie is when he is the most vulnerable...he can't stop the tears. It's actually a precious time of bonding!

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/

Day 7 & 8

End of Day 6
While we are enjoying ourselves we are READY TO BE HOME!!!!! We miss our babies at home so much it hurts!!! We love you guys so much and can't wait to scoop each of you up and YES, T...this mama can scoop you up still...just watch me :)

We had quite and adventure getting to Guangzhou. On our last day in Fuzhou, a typhoon decided to arrive. It was headed straight towards Fuzhou with the hardest hit area being Jinjiang (this is Solomon's province..it's about 100 miles away from Fuzhou). We just had rain and some light winds. Our guide told us that Jinjiang was flooded but that they are 'pros' at being prepared for typhoons. Because of the weather flights were cancelled and delayed, including ours. Thankfully ours was only delayed once but I will say that 6 hours in an airport with a very BUSY boy was challenging. Then you put that very BUSY boy on a plane at 10:30pm, you'd think he's fall asleep...NOT A CHANCE...did I say BUSY already???...he had to push every button a zillion times, take his seat belt on and off, look over all the seats, put his tray up and down....he ultimately crashed 10 mins. before the flight landed ;) We made it safe and sound to our hotel...3 rooms later and we were settled in for the night or, uh...morning...it was like 2 am!!!

Day 7
Medical Exam day...can I get a HUGE wwaahhh??? This is where all newly adopted kiddos have to go to receive a very basic medical exam before the US will allow them into the country. Since Cana's adoption in '07, OUR US Government has decided that it's a fabulous idea to inoculate all children coming into the US from China. We are NOT talking just 1 or 2 shots...more like SEVEN SHOTS. We are not given the option to wave these shots either!! Paul & I had to hold our precious baby boy down while he received 6 shots and a TB test. One shot in each arm and 2 shots in each leg. Needless to say, our boy was not very happy with daddy but they finally made up this morning & all is good minus his fever!!

On a fun note: We had REAL Chinese food last night. We had to climb 6 flights of stairs but it was worth it! Our guide took us to a little mom & pop place that he called 'homestyle' chinese food. We can't wait to go back!!!!

Day 8
It has been raining pretty much non-stop since we got to Guangzhou which leaves us with not much to do. It's still warm but wet. We've ventured out a few times and have just enjoyed walking around the island. Shaiman island is a wonderful, relaxing environment. Almost all adoptive families stay here and it's fun to meet everyone!! BTW...for those traveling soon, they've moved the adoption dept. of the US Consulate to the island...YAY!!!! It's right outside the White Swan.

We will be meeting some families that I met on-line for dinner tonight. It will be fun to meet all of them and their sweet kiddos.

Love to each of you!!!! Thank you for all of your prayers!

PICTURE HERE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/

Day 6

Today is our last day in Fuzhou...we will be heading to Guangzhou tonight to finish the American paperwork so we can bring our little man home. It's always an emotional time when leaving your child's province. While we are super excited to be one step closer to home, the realization that our boy is leaving his birth home is definitely a tough one.

We did upload a some new pics. and videos from yesterday here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/?saved=1

We are loving all of your comments!! Your support and love for us is amazing!!!! I can't wait to print out all of the comments and put them in Solomon's journal...what a treasure!!!

Everyday we wake up so excited to see what we are going to learn about our son. He is an amazing gift from the Lord. I am still having such a hard time processing all that God has done to bring Solomon to us...it is so incredible that is hard for me to wrap my brain around it. When and if I do, watch out for a really long blog post...LOL!! I think about the day we first learned about him and how his photo literally took my breath away & had my heart racing a million miles a minute and how God clearly told us this was our son and that He would provide EVERYTHING to bring him home AND then to watch God provide all the way up until we were boarding the plane..AMAZING...UNBELIEVABLE...sooo BEAUTIFUL and sooo totally our Lord!!!!!!! Oh, how this mama feels so undeserving but sooo completely blessed and definitely filled to overflowing!!

Will post more once we are in Guangzhou :o)

Random thoughts from China (Paul):

- Giant Panda's and fast trains are cool. They should put Giant Panda's on the fast trains.

- Stacy thinks all the Chinese girls are staring because we are two white people with a Chinese baby, I think that they are all checking me out.

- It's raining at home, bummer, we can't go to the park. It's raining in Fuzhou, a Typhoon is coming!

- Solomon really doesn't like to go to bed. First night he was very compliant and slept in his crib, second night he started in his crib but was very nervous about it, next couple of nights refused to lay down and we had to hold his head while he passed out sitting up.

- Solomon has flushed the toilet about 98 times so far today. Hey, where's my toothbrush?

- Solomon likes to throw things, he throws everything.

- Was Houdini Chinese?

- I learned how to tear the head off of a fresh shrimp, peal off the body and legs. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it twitched.

- Playing video games from China with a 300+ ms ping time isn't as much fun as my sub-30ms pings from home.

- Jinjiang is a large exporter of shoes. I wonder if Solomon had stayed if he would have ended up working at one of the shoe factories. Jinjiang is called the "China Shoes Capital" and makes almost a billion pairs of shoes each year. http://www.cn-jif.com/main.asp

- Ham? That's NOT ham. Pig blood soup, stir fried bamboo shoot, grilled goose breast with pepper, fried fungus with celery. Do they eat this stuff?


Random thoughts from China (Stacy):

- It's fun seeing him mimic what we say and pick up new English words. Very early on he started saying "Paul" and we kept correcting him to say "Daddy" instead. But we learned that "Paul" actually meant up!

- He is really enjoying going all over the place and is always saying "let's go!"

- He has the best smile!

- I was very excited to get my wonton soup until I saw the baby shrimp floating in it :(

- It's interesting to me how they preserve things that they display in various places. At the museum, they had a couple that were over 700 years old laying in a glass coffin full of formaldehyde. All of their skin was still intact! At the Panda display they had all of the different stages of baby growth compared to Panda growth. It looked like actual babies in formaldehyde jars.

Day 5

4am: There are only 2 reasons to get out of bed this early... 1) cops at the door tryin' to chisel me out of my case-dough wantin' to cut me down and slam me in a chicago overcoat, or 2) the whole world is new and you can't wait to see what this day holds for you. (don't worry, Stacy isn't on the giggle juice, this is Paul posting :P)

For Solomon, I'm guessing it's more likely to be #2 (but we're still keeping our eyes out, we don't want to end up in a Chinese clubhouse). They told us that his schedule was to wake up at 6, nap at 2, bed time at 8. But he's waking up at 4am, nap, what's that... and going to bed at 9. I know it can't last (he has to sleep sometime, right?), but he sure never seems to run out of energy! It's exciting to see Solomon so happy! While having lunch with the orphanage director, there were a couple of things that Solomon says frequently that we wanted to understand what they meant. The most common 2 phrases that he says to us is asking us to hold him and then saying "Let's go!"

So somehow Stacy managed to talk about day 4 without ever mentioning that we got on a fast train going 250 km/h. How can you forget to mention that?! I didn't believe them so I clocked the speed with my gps and sure enough, it went 250 km/h, cool stuff!

I'm going to post a couple of videos of Solomon. In case anyone wasn't sure yet if he belonged in this family or not, there's no doubt after watching these silly videos of him having fun :D Oh yeah, we went to a museum of some old dead guy, saw some lady make some tea, and took a walk thru the park. Solomon was so tired he kept dozing off all day long and we ended the day with him finally letting Stacy hold him while he fell asleep. It was a good day!

VIDEOS AND PICTURES HERE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/?saved=1

Day 4 - Trip to the orphanage

We received the most amazing gift today...the gift of being able to visit Solomon's orphanage. He has lived with these children and nannies since he was found shortly after birth. For whatever reason, we were given permission to visit...not many families are given this gift. The entire staff was WONDERFUL! They were so friendly and welcoming!! The director has an amazing heart for these kiddos and was soooo kind to us. She showed us where he slept, introduced us to his room mates, allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted, AND specifically allowed us to meet our friends precious little girl, Emma. They should be traveling soon to bring her home.

It was an emotional trip for all of us!!! We had our guide tell Solomon several times that he was not going to stay there and that we were just visiting. He was nervous but did okay until his room nanny took him out of my arms and took his to his bedroom. As his little buddies were hugging him, he began to cry and reach for me...of course I swooped him up and held onto him tightly...made this mama cry, too!! They kept asking him if he wanted to stay and take a nap..let's just say that did NOT make him happy.

Solomon had 3 best friends...with Zhu being his very best friend (the little guy that we've been trying to find a family for). As soon as we walked into the room, Zhu was squealing and hugging Solomon...it was so precious. Broke my heart at the same time!! His 2 other buddies followed us all through the orphanage saying they wanted a mama, too. UUGGHH, talk about heart wrenching!!!!!!!!!! They are all precious, precious, precious!!!

We had a sweet time with the orphanage director at lunch. She wanted to take us to lunch and spend time getting to know us...it was a very special time!! She is a very neat lady! She took us to see the outside of the old orphanage and showed us a store where a former orphan now owns the store. The orphanage gave him his store and money to start his shop...amazing!! We also learned that one of Solomon's teachers that we met at the orphanage was actually the director's daughter that she adopted many years ago. How cool is that!!!

They kept asking Solomon several questions..."Do you want to take a nap in your bed?" "Do you want to stay here?" "Do you want to eat here with us?" and he would shake his head very seriously NOOOO. They would all giggle and say, "He was with us for 4 years and only with you for 4 days and he chooses you..."

It was a very long day but we believe it was a wonderful day for closure and a wonderful opportunity for us to see where our boy has lived his entire life and meet the people who have cared for him.

We are still in awe and blessed at all the Lord is doing and has already done...it is very hard to articulate how full our hearts are...all Glory to our amazing God!!! Our sweet boy is truly a miracle and gift from our Father!!!

PICTURE HERE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/?saved=1

Day 3...I think :)

LOL...I'm not sure what day we are on...I'm slightly jetlagged :)

Few things first...PLEASE, please be praying for our kiddos at home.  I guess our 2 babies are having a really hard time!!  We were very worried about leaving Cana and she is struggling greatly!!!

Yes, we did take gotcha video but are unable to load it from the camcorder so that will have to wait until we are home...sorry :)

Oh..we are getting all of your precious comments on facebook but we can't access fb to comment back so know we are reading them and cherishing them!!!  So, feel free to comment here on the blog...we just love reading all of your comments!!!

Solomon continues to amaze us with how well he is doing!  He is such a happy little guy.  He is also a very busy little guy.  He loves to see how EVERYTHING works...it's a whole new world to him and he is enjoying exploring!!!  They tell us that he takes a 2 hour nap everyday but we don't believe it...LOL...he doesn't have time to slow down and rest :)  He is sleeping great at night.  Ohhhh, his precious little voice..it's so sweet.  He talks non-stop

And boy oh boy is he a daddy's boy.  He absolutely LOVES Paul.  Mom's pretty coo but he adores his daddy...it is so beautiful to watch him interact with daddy.  We are so blessed that he is attaching to both of us and I am so excited to see my prayers being answered...I prayed specifically that he would latch on to his daddy :)

He LOVES playing ball...looks like we have another baseball player Papa Jim :) Get you mitt ready!!


We are off to do some sightseeing today.  Here's some more pictures and a little video of our giggly guy..he was watching this video this morning and he couldn't stop laughing and talking...it was hilarious! The first picture is my favorite...we just discovered he sucks his thumb when he sleeps :)

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/?saved=1
Video here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9350232@N08/4965141771/