Last post from China, the good, the bad and the ugly

Its Thursday night November 20th in China. I titled this the good the bad and the ugly. Let me tell you some good. I've packed about everything, the girls have had their baths and are sleeping, and we are coming home tomorrow. Yesterday was Katies birthday and we had a little party with some families coming to our guide Amys room. My heart was so full of thankfulness to God for allowing us to be with her. For those who don't know this already we thought we would get a referral call for a 3-4 yo. Mostly because our agency had told us most families are asking 0-2 and we were asking up to age 5. So we were very surprised to find out at our referral call that our daughter was 7 months. That day I prayed and have prayed often that since we left our age open to the Lord to match us perfectly with the daughter He chose that He would allow us to be with her for her first birthday, and God answered that prayer. I am so thankful for that. Our God is an awesome God and wants to give us the desire of our hearts.

The bad & ugly seem to run neck and neck, so I guess I will put it all out there. Wednesday evening approx 7 pm Jeff starting getting sick. He was violently ill with vomiting and diarrhea all night and most of today. The antibiotic the Dr. gave us at home Jeff had an allergic reaction to, he was not allergic to this as of a couple of years ago though. We know he is dehydrated and we are doing what we know to do. He must be better for us to fly tomorrow. We are still planning on it, as if he continues and shows no improvement this could be very bad. If you are a praying person please pray for all of us, and especially Jeff to get better asap.

When we adopted Brooke her transition was fairly easy to us. She was pretty happy go lucky most of the time, well except for the flight home. She cried almost the whole time. Katie is not so happy go lucky. She doesn't like to be held, unless you are feeding her her bottle. She doesn't want to be carried, and much more prefers the stroller. She does make eye contact and touches our faces and laughs and smiles, but we know her transition to attachment to us is not as easy as Brookes was. Today when we were at the U.S. Consulate our guide was holding her while I did some paperwork. Katie was leaning to me reaching her arms and started to cry for me, that was a good sign. I brought a sling carrier with me, however that hasn't worked well at all. Alot of the time when I hold her she stiffens up, cries and kicks. We really need alot of prayer. She will not allow us to try and rock her to sleep, she will lay down and start to bang her head on the crib floor. We rub her head and whisper gently to her, "no no Katie." At this point she will stop, however we may go through this several times until she goes to sleep. We aren't rookie parents here, but I can tell you we are definitely on survival mode. I feel very sorry for the people on the plane, as when we are on the bus that is some of the worst times. She doesn't like the confinement, she wants to be free to move around and thats not possible. Katie also still will not eat any solid food, we are lucky to get a couple little spoons of baby food, and shes not too happy with that.

If you are wondering why I'm sharing these things with you, its not to whine and cry, but to share with those who haven't btdt that its not always easy, even for those who have done this before. Also to ask for your prayers. We know the power of prayer and so much need those now.

God willing we will fly tomorrow to Tokyo to Detroit. I will give a post when we have arrived home, after I spend some family time.

Love to you all,
Shannon