Ya'll!

   Yup. 'Ya'll' in a Chinese accent.
   We've been working on rearranging bedrooms this week, while school is closed. I know everything on adoption says not to do this, but we thought it was best in this case. Preston and Henry now have the basement bedroom, and I have the upstairs. There is a lot less squabbling this way, because there is now a wall between the boys. Not to mention that their old room was pink. It was all kind of disorienting for Henry. He relies heavily on schedules, and panics if we have to so much as change the laundry routine! Of course, that's perfectly understandable, and the past couple of days have gone better then I thought they would. He either likes or hates his new room, depending on his mood and how he will get the biggest reaction at the moment. I think he really does like it, he just doesn't want to let on yet :)
 

I'm Back!!!

   Yeah, I know. I'm a terrible blogger. It's been a ridiculously long time since I last wrote, but I'm hoping to get back on track.
   I'll start with Christmas, since I'm sure a lot of you are wondering how that went. First of all, I think they did celebrate Christmas in China to an extent. According to Henry, they had a Christmas tree and one of the older boys would dress up as Santa. But (the communication is still a little tough, so a lot of this is just patched together) there didn't seem to be any gift giving, and he certainly didn't know the story behind it all. I could tell you how happy he was, but I think a picture is more appropriate :)

   I think the thing that helped him understand Christmas the most was our church's live nativity. That was when it sunk in all of a sudden. He turned to Mom. "This Jesus birthday?"                                            

He handled Christmas morning very well. He was very grateful. Every time he was handed a present, he would say, "Oh my goodness! More? Too much!" He didn't protest to mush though, this just seemed to be his way of saying thank you :)

English :)

  It amazes me how fast Henry is picking up on English. Here are some vocabulary highlights:

1. "I is Henry" (We have tried and tried to fix that one, but for some reason, he won't change it)

2) "Mommy cooking yummy" (He says this a lot. He isn't picky AT ALL. The only thing we have discovered that he doesn't like is macaroni and cheese)

3) "Lillybilly" (This is supposed to be little bit, another one we are working on)

4) "How are you, Henry?" "Blessed".

5) "Alli, you, me, twenty work (makes the sign for money) go China, say 'Hello Henry Teacher!' teacher say 'Ni hao, Henry!' Me say: 'Chinese, I don't know. English.'"
  Over all he is really funny and eager to please.

 Painting faces on the fourth of July

A little monster :)

Update

  Sorry about the lack of updates here lately. But I'm sure you can imagine how hectic it has been here lately. Henry is picking up on everything really well. He started school this week. After much debate Mom and Daddy decided to send him to public school. I worried him all day, but I knew Preston and Daddy and all the other kids from church would be looking out for him. Daddy said he started out in tears but ended up laughing. His ESL (English Second Language) is really good with him and you can tell he has already won everyone over :)

Home At Last!

   Oh. Wow. I never could blog in China, so I have A LOT of catching up to do.
   Day One, May 31st: We were NOT prepared to go! We got our travel approval two hours before we left. I was up until eleven or so the night before we left, trying to make sure I was completely ready. We got up a little before two in  the morning and stuck everything in the car to take off. I wasn't tired then, because I was so excited! Preston and Mama slept the whole way to Roanoke, though. Our first flight was the best. It was from Roanoke to Detroit. It was still early and everything was pink and misty. It was also my first time flying. The plane from Detroit to Beijing was much bigger, but we had a lot less room. Everybody was packed in like sardines. We had a joke going, whenever we passed the First Class, or Sky Priority or whatever they call it, one of us would say "Oh, look at all the happy rich people! Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?". Ha. After thirteen hours of nonstop movies and junk food, I wasn't feeling so great. The plane was too dark and crowded. As soon as the plane touched the ground, I was in the lavatory throwing up. Yep, that was my first impression of China. Finally it was time for our last flight, Beijing to Hangzhou. We met our guide, Mr. Wan. He reminded us of my grandpa, Pop, so whenever we talked about him in our hotel room we called him Pop. Daddy also nicknamed him George. I don't know why. I guess he just looked like a George to Daddy. Mr. Wan's (or Pop's, or George's, or whatever you want to call him) English was very good. He was really smart. He knew all about plants, and history (Chinese and American). We got to our hotel and crashed, but we woke up before five. The time in China is exact opposite from here, so while it was 5 am there, it was 5 pm here.

   Day Two: On our itinerary this was marked as "rest". That's exactly what we did! We woke up and ate, went back to our room, and crashed. We slept through lunch and ate supper at the hotel. Of course, we hardly slept that night.

   Day Three: We went to West Lake part of the day, slept the rest.

   Day Four: Free day. We walked around some. As in we walked around the West Lake. West Lake is considered to be the best natural beauty in China. It covers three square miles. We rented a little tiny motor boat and went out on the lake.

    Day Five: Gotcha Day! Henry was supposed to meet us in our hotel lobby at 11, but because of the long drive from his orphanage (about five hours) it ended up being more like 1. He walked in with his vice director of the orphanage and two other people (I don't really know who they were). He took one look at us and burst into tears. The vice director was very kind. You could see how much she loves the kids. He hardly ate at all the first two days, and was very quiet.

   Day Six: This day started out like the day before, with Henry mostly crying. After lunch we finally got a translator on the iPad to work. I've heard Google Translate is mostly unreliable, but I guess it made sense to him because he has been smiling ever since!
  Day Seven: From then on it was good. Henry was all smiles...

Written From the Detroit Airport

Lots of miracles since yesterday!  The travel approval came middle of the day, the visa came at 3:30, and finally at midnight we got our consulate appointment - 2 hours before leaving for the airport!  Much much celebration going on!  Now we are in Detroit at the airport, after a 5 hour layover we will fly to Beijing then on to huangzhou - should be in Henry's province by tomorrow afternoon. Pretty much everything that can go wrong has gone wrong since the beginning of this adoption --- and yet look how far we have gotten - all by the grace of God!  THANK YOU for all the encouragement and prayers - because the odds have been stacked against us since the beginning but we feel like thesis going to happen!
There are a lot of little birds inside the building and Daddy and I were feeding them but Mom told us to stop. There's also this red train running through that looks really cool :)
I want to put pictures up but the iPad is being very difficult. I will try again soon but may have to wait until we get home. I hope not :(
Will post more when we get to Beijing.

Getting Ready!

   We have our Travel Approval!
   We fly out a 6 tomorrow morning, meaning we leave here at 1. I would write more but we are really busy and I need to get some rest. Also I don't know if I will be able to post in China, but I will put up a lot of pictures and write some very long posts as soon as we get back.