Surgery Milestone

Jack's surgery was uneventful, just the way we had been praying it would be. He seems more irritated with us that we won't let him get down to play toys. We had hoped he would just go back to sleep. Not the case, he is way more interested in playing games with Emerson at the moment. In fact, he is all smiles with his sister - playing a version of 52 card pickup where Emerson hands him cards and he throws them on the ground.

Thank you, Dr. Bob, for all you have done for Jack. You are a Godsend to our family.

And Jack's NEW journey begins....

Yesterday was the first phase of the second half of Jack's journey. Yes...he has made it safely home to us from China...but his little feet need some correction. Enter...Dr. Bob!! Hallelujah! We've had our first appointment (including a house call!) and you can see phase one below. Jack's little feet in the first picture are clearly pointed inward. XRays showed good news as the correction is not nearly as severe as it could have been...but we'll be in casts and enduring surgery nonetheless. Jack is currently in casts as seen below...below the knee so he can still crawl (PTL!) They are heavy for him but he is figuring out ways to keep mobile. He can still pull himself up and put weight on his feet but he can't really walk around furniture like he could without the casts. No worries...he is not crying because he is in pain...he was irritated that I was making him sit still for the picture. :) Next step? Surgery on Dec 31st. His heel tendon needs lengthening in order for his heel to sit flat as it needs to. We are in Dr. Bob's capable hands and in the Lord's loving arms. Please continue to pray.

And...finally home with Emerson

Emerson was waiting for us with intense anticipation at the airport. It was SO good to have her with us again. The pictures are from our front yard as we arrived home and from our first church service together as a family. What a very Merry Christmas!!

18 days in review

BEIJING: (Dec 2-5)
Holt orientation at the hotel. Sightseeing included rickshaw tour, Tiannanmen Square, The Forbidden City (Emperor's Palace) and Olympic Plaza.



KUNMING (Dec 6 - 11th)
What great memories of our time with my brother and family. The cousins enjoyed their time so very much. We got to do some great sightseeing (including the Wild Animal Safari Park...remember the lion feeding event??).


We also saw the Dinosaur Valley Theme Park (real excavation site in southern China with archeological discovery of dinosaur bones).


Visited the kids school and toured the orphanage.


Celebrated Christmas with Steve, Marlene, Ashlyn, Brayden, Mikayla and Sydney. Amazing, amazing, amazing.


Oh...and did I mention we got to FINALLY wrap our arms around our baby boy??? He, too, is amazing. God is good...all the time. We had several meetings during our time in Kunming to finalize the adoption (Hallelujah!!) and to file for a Chinese passport for Jack.


GUANGZHOU (Dec 12 - 19)
Happy Birthday to Paul!! We celebrated very quietly. (some might say not at all). But our hearts were truly focused on Jackson. We enjoyed seeing glimpses of his personality and watching him begin to accept and even love us. He is just a gem. The smile is contagious...and appears to be never-ending. He has warmed our hearts immensely.

We spent this last week in Guangzhou near the US Consulate in order to file for a US visa for immigration into the States. This included piles of paperwork, a medical evaluation with lots of immunizations (yuk!) and a final oath taking ceremony. Whew! This was the last set of hoops before heading home!!


All in all we spent our week in Guangzhou with 19 other HOLT couples each adopting from different provinces. They became our family and our friends and we wish each of them the best on their family journeys.

The REAL Story behind the blog

Well....I guess now that I'm home I can express openly our experiences with the communist government in China. We felt very safe the whole time and saw just a few episodes that reminded us we weren't in the good ole' USA anymore...the biggest issue by far was the censorship of the internet. I just didn't do enough homework before we left.....apparently nearly all social networking sites are banned in China (no Facebook, no YouTube, no BlogSpot) Just one way the government can control exactly what information is disseminated. So, that's why we weren't able to post updates nearly as often as we'd hoped. Special thanks to my brother who was able to help us access a US connection to get full access to the internet for the few days we were there with him.

There's No Place Like Home....There's No Place Like Home...

Well.....I am typing this from the comfort of my own living room. Praise the Lord!!! My brain is mush (jet lag is a killer!!) but I wanted everyone to know we are safe. I will sort through our 400+ pictures tomorrow and give you a visual review of our trip..it was AMAZING!!! For tonight, I'll just post two of my favorites....Jack at his best.

Please pray for Jack's feet. We are blessed to know a fantastic orthopedic surgeon who actually made a house call (its nice to have friends, eh?)....we may even be looking at casts as early as tomorrow. Dr. Bob was very pleased with the condition of Jack's feet.....the Lord continues to bless us with more than we could ever ask for!!

Lions & Tigers & Bears....and chickens?!?!? Oh MY!

Well...we are absolutely loving every minute with Jack and my brother's family here in Kunming. Monday was all about paperwork (adoption was FINALIZED!!) We went to get Jack's chinese passport picture and he was appropriately dressed in his OSU beavers outfit. Its adorable. Monday afternoon we went to a local park where the kids played on the playground and we rode a few small carnival rides. Jack just watched and soaked in all the action.

Tuesday was our visit to the wild animal park. That is a literal translation of the experience. For instance, Cole fed a live chicken to a tiger. (p.s. that was AWESOME!!) We saw bears, lions, pandas, black bears...all about 3 feet away from us behind a very rickety (if any) fence. We also saw the zoo animal show which included a goat walking a tightrope with a monkey on his back.....and a black bear standing on his hands twirling things on his feet. Apparently there is also a gig where a full size lion rides on the back of a not-full-sized horse....but, alas, it must have been the lion's day off. Great picture opportunities. Jack loved it...he babbled and talked and giggled and laughed all day long. Paul wore him in the baby carrier and he was perfectly content.

Food has been great. No one has been sick in the slightest. Last night Steve treated us to a traditional "hot pot" dinner (kind of like The Melting Pot in Portland??) Boiling broth at the table and you cook your own meat and vegetables with your own sauces. Really, really yummy.

Jack continues to be very active, but has adjusted so amazingly well. He already refers to me as Mama and Paul as Dada. He bonked his head on a table and immediately came to me for comfort so those are huge signs of bonding. We are so amazed at the Lord's blessing upon us. We continue to get more and more than we could ever ask for. This is truly an indescribable experience.....but we can't wait to describe every minute of it for all of you when we return to you!! Please continue to pray. Keep him from illness, continue to help him experience our love and bring all of us home safely.

We'll do our best to post at least once more this week while we have access.....it is likely we won't be able to post at all in Guangzhou next week.....computer online security has definitely been more of an issue than we anticipated. Love you all!!

Sorry we've been out of touch...

Well, its been a bit more challenging than we anticipated to be able to access the blog here in China. ...anyways....none of you care about that. What you do care about is the 16 month old toddler we are now chasing around our hotel room! Jack is a bundle of energy. He came to us without hesitation at the Civil Affairs office Sunday afternoon. He was quiet for just a moment....until Cole and Elise started making funny faces and playing peek-a-boo. Then, just 2 minutes after he was in our arms, he was smiling and giggling and laughing. The pictures attached are some of the VERY FIRST ONES we took with him. (We've taken probably 100 since then...but these are still some of the very best). He eats anything we put in front of him and I have yet to hear him cry. (Don't worry...I'm not living in any illusion....I know his time will come). He fell asleep in Paul's arms in the van back from the Civil Affairs office and when he awoke he was very quiet and seemed a bit overwhelmed. But, several hours later he is wild and crazy again. He crawls EVERYWHERE and does this funny hopping thing on his knees. Its hard to explain....you'll just have to see it to believe it. In fact, he's VERY fast at getting around (Paul just announced that he is too old for this!!)

We had dinner at my brother's and all the kids are great entertainment for Jack. He is VERY social...and we are thoroughly in love!!!! I don't know how consistently we'll be able to post....thank you for your prayers. We have felt surrounded. We will have hours of stories to tell about the small miracles and blessings God continues to pour upon us!! Keep praying....we are truly blessed.

Well....we aren't quite there....

To all of you who prayed for smooth travels....pray harder!!! It is after midnight on Thursday night and......we are stuck in Tokyo. Our flight was cancelled due to mechanical failure (after we sat on the runway more than 3 hours)...we are fine. We are in a local hotel in Tokyo and we have a rescheduled flight to Beijing Friday morning. We will miss our tour of the Great Wall but....oh well. The kids traveled well....we are exhausted. I will let you know when we actually hit Chinese soil.

Its the Final Countdown!!

The bags are packed, the kids asleep, flights confirmed, passports ready....to say that the past nine days have been somewhat unreal is the grandest understatement I've ever made. A friend from high school is in China (exactly a week ahead of us) celebrating with her beautiful 2 year old daughter. Before she left she talked of "compartmentalizing" her emotions in order to get everything prepared for the trip. I would have to thoroughly agree. Paul and I both had loose ends to tie up at work, we needed to finalize arrangements for Emerson, book and confirm international flights on a very short timeline.....while at the same time emotionally acknowledging that we are in the very last days before meeting our fourth child. Wow. So, as we board the plane tomorrow...we feel your prayers. They have sustained us for 14 months....and they most definitely have sustained us for the past nine days.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us in small, tangible ways. I couldn't possibly list the names of all of you. But you are appreciated and I believe that many of you have acted as the hands and feet of Jesus toward our family in these past weeks. We are thrilled beyond measure with the opportunity to bring Jack home. Thanks for celebrating with us. We will post more information as soon as we get to Beijing!!