Has it really only been two weeks? It seems so very much longer than that. Jeremy and the family are blending together. Jeremy has started with more words lately - this morning he asked, "Jeremy, drink please" when he wanted juice with breakfast. He also knew ever too well that what he rec'd from his Sunday School teacher was "chocolate" - she gave out early Easter treats since she will be away next week. He wanted to eat it right away lest someone else get it, but mean Momma put it in the bag - his pout didn't last long at all, though.
What a kid!! This week, as he was full of himself, giggling and all, he grabbed his socks and proceeded to put them on by himself .... something I had been doing for him all along .... he caught me staring at him as he carefully opened each sock with his toes and stretched them enough to get his foot in and them pull them up with his other toes ... he realized what he was doing and grinned broadly as I commented, "you stinker!" One more thing that he actually CAN do on his own! :) I will get this one on video for sure! I think for his birthday or someday soon, I will have all the church kids/families over and we will all get our hands wrapped with duct tape and try to do all the things Jeremy does all by himself!!
He also thoroughly enjoyed going outside everyday this past week as the weather warmed into the 40s and 50s, melting tons of snow and ice. We chipped ice each day to reclaim the driveway and sidewalk edges that had been encroached upon since December. Jeremy grabbed a small shovel in the garage and proceeded to help in any way he could. By Friday afternoon, his stumpies were really chapped, hot and red - poor thing. He would wear gloves for awhile, but can get a better "grip" on things with his skin and the damp gloves/mittens would come off. We lathered those stumpies up good this weekend and stayed inside most of the time letting them heal.
It is really neat to see the 4 youngers split off differently on different days - Nate and Jeremy were outside on Friday, while Sarabeth and Juls truly enjoyed girlie time playing just dolls inside. But them Jeremy and Sarabeth will team up to do something totally different. They are all not "jockeying" for position quite as much anymore, unless they are really tired. They all enjoyed helping make cupcakes on Friday, cracking eggs and pieces of shell into the bowl, and icing and decorating them was even more fun!
Jeremy freely gives hugs and smooches .... especially when he is "sucking up" for something! "Puleeeeease?" he says repeatedly when he wants something that another child has - he is learning that sharing is part of being in a family.... of course Juls is STILL learning that!! Jeremy and Mommy have a special goodnight ritual of kisses on each cheek, butterfly kisses to each eye and a nose rub ... something I have done with each new child when they have come home - it gives us "up close" time and Jeremy easily says, "I love ooo"!
He is tolerating our food, but makes sure he has fruit at every meal .... that at least tastes the same as it did in China - a banana is always a banana! I have bought 5 times more apples, bananas and oranges in the last 2 wks - of course if one asks for it, everyone wants it. Sooo we are definitely getting more fruits in our diet now! I have found Yo-J is very similar to the Wahaha that the China kids love to drink - unfortunately it is not the cheapest drink on the market! Jeremy also loves ice with every drink usually - probably was a real luxury for him in China and now it just pours out of the refrigerator door! WOW!! And "bean chillin" .... ice cream is frequently asked for - in a cone, in a bowl, with and without jimmies. This place must seem like a resort to him!
We are so very thankful that we took yet another leap of faith in bringing this remarkable child into our family! He goes at life full steam ahead and just amazes us every day. He does get corrected here and there which usually brings wet eyes and a dropped head ... but it doesn't last for long. His "okay" is clear as a bell, even when I know for certain that he has no idea what he just said okay to! We are blessed, he is blessed .... what more could we ask for?
Thank you, Lord, for yet another small life to nurture and train - may his life be used mightily for Your Kingdom and the furtherance of the gospel!
Mary
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Settling in
We are home for 4 days now and Jeremy is settling in to his new family. He enjoys playing with the other children, and their toys! I suspect he and Nathan are going to have some mighty fierce battles before too long. Jeremy is very inquisitive, likes to look everything over and push buttons to see what happens. He likes Lego's and anything electronic. For several years now we have had the children using starfall.com, which is an excellent/fun program for teaching reading and phonics. Jeremy already points to the computer and says "Starfall please!"
There have also been times of grieving, as everything he has ever known has been taken away from him, and he's been taken to this faraway country where most people don't look like him, and nobody speaks in a language that he can understand, and it's soooooo darn cold outside compared to anything he's ever experienced, and he misses his friends in China, and the food is NOTHING like what he's used to, and...............it goes on and on. Everything is going exactly as anticipated, and as with the other children we've adopted, Jeremy will have these grieving periods which will gradually diminish in frequency as he realizes the love that's being heaped upon him is a "forever" kind of love. Keep him in your prayers.
Attached are a few pics of things since we got home.
John
"I think I like my new brother" says Juliana!
"Wow, it's never this cold in China, but look at all these neat playthings!"
There have also been times of grieving, as everything he has ever known has been taken away from him, and he's been taken to this faraway country where most people don't look like him, and nobody speaks in a language that he can understand, and it's soooooo darn cold outside compared to anything he's ever experienced, and he misses his friends in China, and the food is NOTHING like what he's used to, and...............it goes on and on. Everything is going exactly as anticipated, and as with the other children we've adopted, Jeremy will have these grieving periods which will gradually diminish in frequency as he realizes the love that's being heaped upon him is a "forever" kind of love. Keep him in your prayers.
Attached are a few pics of things since we got home.
John
"I think I like my new brother" says Juliana!
"Wow, it's never this cold in China, but look at all these neat playthings!"
Saturday, March 1, 2008
JET LAG!
We're home at last and going thru the rigors of jet lag. We arrived on time at Minneapolis yesterday afternoon at approx 2pm-- after a scare leaving China. We were delayed boarding the flight to Tokyo by about 30 minutes, and then just as we were about to be pushed away from the jetway, the pilot came on and said they were being held by Air Traffic Control for 1 hour. So, our 8:30 departure became a 10am one. We had a 90 minute planned layover in Tokyo, and we just used up all 90 minutes of it sitting on the tarmac in Guangzhou! Thankfully we had a great tailwind enroute to Japan and the scheduled 4 hour flight was slightly shorter than that. One thing I HATE about the airport in Tokyo is that when you arrive on an international flight, you deplane, go up an escalator, GO BACK THRU SECURITY and then back down the escalator and board your connecting flight. Like I picked something dangerous up on the plane from China!! Again though, God was good to us and there were no lines at the security checkpoint, AND when we went back down the escalator, our departing flight's gate was right there and we didn't have to trudge thru the airport looking for our gate. At the gate, the "Final Call" was flashing for our flight to Portland. We were the last to board before the doors were shut and we were off to Oregon. In Portland, we cleared customs and Jeremy became a citizen of our great country! We connected to our Minneapolis flight and I (John) tried to get some shut-eye, as I knew I had a 2 hour drive after we landed.
The Cox's met us at the airport, with all of our children. They all were very generous with their hugs when we entered the baggage claim area and you could tell they missed us greatly. Jeremy was very shy with everyone at first; he also wasn't feeling too well. He puked twice on the flight to Tokyo and again once on the flight to Portland. No warning was given, he just let fly all over himself, the floor, a blanket, Mary..... you get the point. By this time, we were exhausted, having been up for 24 hours-- our wake up call in Guangzhou was at 4:30am, which was 2:30pm the previous day in Iowa. We arrived in Minneapolis just about 24 hrs after the wake-up call.
We drove home, ate fried chicken and french fries from the Barrel Drive-In and were ready for bed by 8pm. Jet lag quickly reared its ugly head as even though exhausted, we slept poorly and were wide awake in the middle of the night. Finally at 4am today, I got dressed and came out to my chair to read a little and watch the news. Jeremy soon joined me. I've forced myself to not nap during the day today, and as I sit here blogging at 9pm, I've been up for 19 hours. I hope to sleep better tonight.
Jeremy is feeling better and is enjoying exploring the house and all the toys. He went out with Sarabeth, Nathan, Juliana and Daddy to play in the snow today and really enjoyed sledding down the little hill on the side of our house. Now, it is bedtime for everyone. We will blog again and include some new pics soon.
John
The Cox's met us at the airport, with all of our children. They all were very generous with their hugs when we entered the baggage claim area and you could tell they missed us greatly. Jeremy was very shy with everyone at first; he also wasn't feeling too well. He puked twice on the flight to Tokyo and again once on the flight to Portland. No warning was given, he just let fly all over himself, the floor, a blanket, Mary..... you get the point. By this time, we were exhausted, having been up for 24 hours-- our wake up call in Guangzhou was at 4:30am, which was 2:30pm the previous day in Iowa. We arrived in Minneapolis just about 24 hrs after the wake-up call.
We drove home, ate fried chicken and french fries from the Barrel Drive-In and were ready for bed by 8pm. Jet lag quickly reared its ugly head as even though exhausted, we slept poorly and were wide awake in the middle of the night. Finally at 4am today, I got dressed and came out to my chair to read a little and watch the news. Jeremy soon joined me. I've forced myself to not nap during the day today, and as I sit here blogging at 9pm, I've been up for 19 hours. I hope to sleep better tonight.
Jeremy is feeling better and is enjoying exploring the house and all the toys. He went out with Sarabeth, Nathan, Juliana and Daddy to play in the snow today and really enjoyed sledding down the little hill on the side of our house. Now, it is bedtime for everyone. We will blog again and include some new pics soon.
John
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