3/24 Shamian island, One week with Chu

We went to the island today which was gorgeous. I did a little shopping. Shane did a lot! True story. 

But most importantly, It's been one week sense we met Chu! 

I'm going to be very honest...

Chu came to us very much like a newborn. Yes, he could sit up and he could walk about 5 steps but he was like having a doll that you could position. 

If you sit him up, he stayed. If you layed him down he stayed.

 He wouldn't look right at us either. Kind of passed us. I even asked another adoptive parent if they thought Chu was drugged. 

You would be standing holding him and he would all of a sudden go back like he didn't have energy to sit any longer.  And we didn't hear one sound out of him for hours. If we sat him down he would cry silently. 

Until I bathed him. Or totally left the room. (Bath room break) Then he whimpered a low quiet cry. So for his first bath, I rushed and dressed him in his Jammie's. I handed him a block and he fell asleep with it in his hand. 

He would cry silently if we sat down with him. He would wake up at 3:00 and cry for two hours. 

Just yesterday, Shane admitted he had been worried on Gotcha. 

But there were things we KNEW. God sent us. He was ours. He would die without a family. 

We knew that this was no different then giving birth. If I gave birth to a child with delays we would love and take care of that child. We knew God expected the same for this boy and expected us to step up. We expected the same of ourselves. 

So he became an official Atwood. 

The next night after his bath he rolled to his tummy after I layed him on the bed. Ahh... He moved without being told! 

He decided that if mom put him down this look would get him picked up. He was totally right! 

We got our first smile the next morning. Just an itty bitty one. 

Little by little we've started to see more of the true Chu. 

We gave him Chocolate. He observed where we hid the chocolate. (Little smarty) He knows what suitcase these are stored in and if that suitcase is unzipped he gets to it and pulls out the chocolate bag. He empties the bag one by one and then fills it again. Until there's just one left. He packs that one chocolate all day long. Has gone to sleep with it in his hand. 

We bought him a package of cars and he  put some under his arms. I don't know if he was worried they would be taken away but it was so cute. He feel asleep that night with a car in his hand. 

He plays peek a boo. He likes to unpack things and repack them. He's very tidy. 

He makes hats look good! 

He's the cutest monkey ever! 

He sucks one finger when he's tired and while he sleeps. 

Here's the chocolate again. 

Questen and Chu hiave become brothers. He obviously looks at us! 

He doesn't like giant stickers on his shirt. 

He has the cutest smile. The cutest giggles! We've seen a touch of mischief too. Like he reached over and took a peice of sausage off of my plate. And when I said Hey. He giggled and laughed. 

At one week we have went from Laying all the time and no eye contact to this. 

-He's up to 10 steps with no help. 

-Can go from sitting to standing without help. 

-He has started taking off clothing. Today he took off his socks and shoes and thew them on the ground. Lol

-He will put his arms in when you dress him. 

-He's still drinking a bottle and can down it in 60 seconds or less. 

- He turns his head to the side if he doesn't like what your feeding him. And he remembers it. He studies the food for his approval before opening his mouth

- He points to things he wants or likes. 

- He copied my clapping at the Shaolin temple. 

- We say Babba and he looks at Shane. We say Questen or ga ga and he looks at Questen.  He looks at me for momma. 

- He has mimicked three words, mine, Chu, and Ma ma. (Aww...be still my heart... Precious boy) 

I have to ask myself...

What if we let money stop us? 

The paperwork was so overwhelming at times, what if I had thrown my hands up and said no more?

What if I would have let Satin convince me that I wasn't a good enough mother? 

Because he sure tried! 

What if we let the fear of travel and leaving our children stop us? 

What if we let the unknowns consume us? 

What is we hadn't been patient enough and gave up on the wait?

What if we hadn't already decided to stay faithfull and except what ever we got on gotcha day? 

What if we would have panicked and said no? 

We would have missed this!

"I never said it would be easy I said it would be worth it." 

THIS IS SO WORTH IT!!! 

We still have a long road ahead of us. 

I'm sure he will grieve more. 

Transitioning home will not be easy. We may have sibling rivalries. 

We still need to know what all were up against medically. 

We have to live through jet lag! And that's no joke! Lol

He's worth it! 

There are millions and millions of children worth it! 

3/21, 3/22, 3/23

3/21- Planes, Trains, and automobiles... We've done them all. On this day it was a plane. 

We went down an escalator in the airport to the downstairs terminals. 

We were sitting and waiting when a very nice American lady walked up to us and asked if we had just adopted. As our conversation continued, I found out that she has three Chinese girls herself and she's a volenteer for Maria's big house of hope and I think Show hope. These Forster homes do amazing work! Amazing! So, there's a reason we ran into this lady. I don't know what yet, but I have a good feeling...

There we got on a tram that took us to an airplane. It was outside. We walked up into the plane got settled into our seats to hear that our flight would be delayed 30 minutes. Okay? 

Before the plane left the runway, suddenly there was water everywhere. 

I cringed as I realized that it was Chu's pee. Sometimes this cutie pie won't have a wet diaper all day then he pees a gallon. So it was lovely to fly two hours with my pants and shirt sleeve wet. 

I know what your thinking... At least, it wasn't poop. Well, I've spared you those stories but we have had, at least 5 blowouts.  

The plane was hot and smelled like cigarette smoke. The stewertests were beautiful and very nice. Surprisingly, 

The good was great. 

We made it to Zhengzhou where our new guide was waiting. 

Our new guide is Elsie. She's darling and sweet. 

She guided us up to our room where I swear angels were singing as we opened the door.  The air conditioning fairies were doing there job and we are in heaven at our hotel room at the garden. Love it!!!

This is the view from our room. 

3/22- We had Chu's medical check up today. 

First, they took his picture. Which turned out pretty cute for no smiles. 

Then they do weight and height. Chu is 14 pounds. 

Then a doctor looked him over. 

Then they draw blood. This is where momma wanted to go all gong foo on them! 

They take you baby in a room with the door shut and curtains closed. 

You know how Chu cries silently? He screamed bloody murder. 

But they didn't flag us for anything. We will find out on Tuesday if he passed the TB test. Which he should. 

We ate at Pizza Hut that night and it was so so good! We may have been desperate for American food but it was the best pizza we've had. 

3/23- 

We went to the six banyan temple. 

It's this really cool structure behind my cute boys. 

Here are some of the Budhas we saw. They were huge. Look at the people bottom left to see how big these statues are. There were many people bowing, lighting incense, and leaving food/water/ fruit/ or flowers as offerings. It was very interesting...

Then we went to the Chen family museum. It was mostly Chinese folk Art and I loved it!!!

3/20 Shao Lin Temple.

And everybody was Gung Foo figh-ten

They were fast as light- nen....

 

Today we went to the Shaolin Temple

It's about a 2 hour drive from Zhenghou. 

It's a temple for Budism. This is also the place Gung Foo was invented. 

These Pagodas are where the famous/ wel known monks are buried. 

This was before we left Questen is in his Just Kicken it shirt and Chu is in his Kong Foo shirt. I bought it off the internet not knowing I made a foo paw. 

Mandarin Chinese say Gung foo instead of Kung foo. 

So my boys were really really popular there. So popular the teenage girls were surrounding them asking for pictures. 

At one point Q was surrounded by 8-10 girls. Older girls. "You so cute" they would say. "I take you home?"

Then one girl said, "I kiss you" and before Questen could answere she did. Bahahahaha... Questen got his first kiss in China at the shaolin temple, in front of his mom. 

One of the original monks climbed to the top of these mountains. Lived in a cave for 9 years. According to our guide. He studied the animals like monkeys, tigers, snakes, birds and I think bugs. 

Wa la! Gung Foo

Here's some little guys exercising and playing. They're from one of the many boarding schools. Little boys start school at 5 and only come home for Chinese New Year. 

Of course, Shane had to check out the sword shop. Lol

He sure wanted to buy one but we couldn't get it home. 

More kids practicing Kung Foo and man! They are good! 

We all laughed and said Chu would be an awesome monk with his Zen like nature. Which caused me to ask... Where do monks come from? 

I assumed that the kids from the school would ask to be a monk. 

My guide said, sometimes monks picked out of Orphanages. 

This made me really sad. I've seen where these kids come from. Monks live with no luxuries, very little food, no family to love them. It's a very hard life. These kids need a chance to be loved. 

This was my View on the drive home. 

Best view ev-er! 

3/19 free day- Walmart, Chu pictures at the bottom.

We had nothing to do this day. It was the day after the swi visit and we hadn't had a down day, at all. We were exhausted. I'll let the pictures do the talking but will tell you about the smell. As your first come in, all their fresh meats were right there. It was a very fishy smell. 

Then upstairs it was the housewares section. Shane said, "well this finally smells like Walmart. Well actually there Walmart smells like kmart. " 

Questen says, "what? Are you teasing, like they really have a smell? 

I take a big wiff and yup it was definitely Kmart. Lol funny but true. Chinese walmarts smell like Kmart when it doesn't smell like fish. 

Cute bakery on the way back to hotel. The cake wasn't sweet enough, though. Lol

Zhengzhou has scooters not bicicles. 

I got this face today when I set him down. 

Kid takes after baba and needs some chocolate. 

Aww... Precious baby tucking cars under his arm. I guess he figured if he held them no one would take them. 

He's fallen asleep twice with trucks in his hands. 

Profile of some giggles. 

We heard our first giggles on this day. 

He's so sweet.