Just a few more!

Also in October, Nanny and Papa, baby sat so Lisa and Kevin could go to her 30th High school reunion. Boy, has it really been that long! We enjoyed the night out. They also let us go to eat by ourselves again another night while we were there. It was wonderful! 

The other picture is of Andrew in front of our Christmas tree. He helped us decorate and rearrange a few ornaments. Of course, we hung all the unbreakable at the bottom of the tree! He really has had a lot of fun this season. It's been great fun to watch! He really loves all the lights and keeps pointing to all the "yights" as we go buy them. 

Catch up!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. It's been a crazy fall into winter. These are just a few of many pictures I could post.  After Andrew was released from the hospital in September we went to Lisa's parents and Kevin and all worked on the barn. It needed new siding. We stayed for about a week and got that done and spent time with family also. It was great to have the extra help with Andrew at the time. A great title for my Dad and Andrew's picture would be "I want to be just like Dad!" He got Kevin's tape measure and is measuring the siding. Andrew spent his first Halloween at church as a Dalmation. Thanks for the costume Janice! Isn't he cute! My sister, Nora and her husband, Gary came to visit and Andrew had fun popping her bubbles! Andrew is also starting to love books. He has fun sitting in his rocking chair and looking through the books and asks us to read to him. Lisa's Aunt Nora wanted to give him  a love for reading and periodically sends him books. In late November, Andrew and Lisa went to a holiday festival at a friend's church and he met Santa for the first time. I think he liked the balls on the tree more than anything else! 

I'll post a few more pictures in a bit!

Christmas from Grandpa John and Grandma Nancy

Andrew had so much fun opening his first Christmas present. We filmed it for his Nebraska grandparents so they could see him opening their present. He really loved it!  Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas! We sure did! We are so blessed to have Andrew in our lives this year. He is really starting to blossom. May God richly bless you all.

Hello everyone, this is daddy's first attempt at adding a posting. So please excuse the bad grammar and spelling (it might be edited later by mommy).  Andrew helped decorate his first Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He did a very good job of being gentle with the ornaments and like to stand back and say wow. It's hard to believe that we are going to be celebrating our 1st Christmas with our son.  Four years ago I finally got to celebrate as a married man, now I get to as a father. God truly blesses.

Andrew's 1st Snow in US

Hey ya'll,

The snow was almost gone last Friday before Kevin got to video Andrew playing in his first NC snow. He had fun regardless! Will update more later. Love to all and Happy Thanksgiving! We are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for-especially the gift of Andrew!

We're Home!!

We finally were released and arrived home around 3 pm . Andrew fell asleep on the way home and went back to sleep when I put him in his crib. He's still asleep so we took a nap also. We'll keep everyone posted. God bless you all.

Just a few more!

Here' s some of his running around the unit pictures.  See he does look like he feels better!

Needed Peace/Better Days, Yeah!

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40: 28-31

Wednesday and Thursday nights were really hard. We had not gotten much sleep since he woke us up at 3 am early Wednesday am before surgery. I think we may have had 6-7 hours of sleep since then. My soul was tired and weary. I was comforting him the best I could and sometimes we know we just aren't enough. Kevin brought me up some coffee and breakfast. I went out to the lobby and ate and drank. The Lord brought the above scripture to my mind while I was out there. I began to fell refreshed. 

When I got back I checked Leslie's blog to see how Susannah was doing. They just got back from China. Susannah was in the hospital when Leslie and Charlie got to China to pick her up. She was very sick and needs surgery real soon. She had a heart cath on Friday and will be having open heart surgery on Tuesday morning the 30th. Please be in prayer for her and the Irwin's and their sons. Getting back to Leslie, I was so touched by her entry. She had been reading Psalm 139 and God also used that scripture to touch my soul. Leslie has such a heart for God and God has given her a real gift of expressing herself. He has used her to reach others for Him. She has non-believers looking at her blog and hopefully will begin to ask questions . My soul was definitely refreshed and I was renewed with energy. (Check out their blog for more details. Click on the button that says "Praying for Susannah"). Thank you Lord for all the prayers lifted up for us and for the Irwins. 

Andrew's is starting to be and look more like is busy, playful self. He's been waking the halls, riding in the wagon and driving the little police car around.  He found his freedom this morning when they disconnected his IV and just left it capped. He's been running in the halls and riding around the room. We found the resource room and sat and read a few books while we were oiut and about. We still don't know if we're going home yet. He's not quite eating 75% of his normal. We're giving it a few more hours to see. He's definitely not hurting as much. We probably can go to plain tylenol today. Please continue to pray for the eating and drinking and some rest for us all. We also need wisdom in caring for him.  Saturday night was a much better night. He only woke up a couple of times. Yeah!

We continue to pray for all our AWAA families and their children, those who continue to wait to get their children and referrals and all those children who wait for their forever families. We also pray for Andrew's Chinese parents who gave him up. 

Off to Brenner's Children's Hospital-September 24, 2008

You've heard the song, "A Long Day's Night". Well it was a long night's into day and into night! Andrew woke up at 3 am and did not go back to sleep until about 5 am when we were getting up to take our showers. We hit the road at 6 am and go to the hospital around 6:40. We had to be there at 7. Why we're not sure. My mom and dad came up for the surgery. We really appreciated the support. They helped keep Andrew occupied while we waited and us occupied while we did the same through the long morning.They didn't call us back until close til 8 am. We then went into holding and waited there for about 30 minutes. We had to resign a permit for the circumcision. The surgeon had not brought it with him. Andrew played in the play room and drove the police car around in the holding area even after receiving his happy juice, Versed. My son was driving while impaired. He was driving all over but keeping it pretty well controlled. He tried to run into the wall a few times! Dr. David came by to check on him and took him on back to the OR with him driving the car and her pushing from the back! We really like her! They inserted his tubes first, then Dr. David got to work on his palate. The OR kept us posted on how things were going and who was doing what when. It took Dr. David longer than she had anticipated because it was so wide a cleft. She was pleased with how things went. We'll hope for no fistulas.  The urologist then got to do his thing and Andrew rolled into recovery around 12:40 pm. I got to go back about 10 minutes later. Andrew woke up very unhappy. He was sqwalling (sp)! They gave him pain medicine and I was holding him and walking or rocking him. They finally gave him something to relax him and that helped. Praise be to the Lord! We finally got to go to his room after about 2 hours.   Kevin and I took turns holding Andrew through most of the night. Morphine and tylenol together seemed to work best. He's really starting to not like the sight of uniforms. Hopefully that will not be the case when he sees me in my uniform later! The days have been long and interesting getting him to eat and drink. He has to be able to do about 75% of what he normally does at home and can only eat soft foods or liquid. We're having to feed him with syrings and not spoons to add to the insult and he can't use his sippy cups!

The day before the big 3-September 23, 2008

Hey everyone! I'm sitting in the hospital room on night #4. Just trying to catch up some. The 23rd was a hard day for all of us. Kevin had a lot of running around to do and was taking care of his aunt and uncle's dogs and cat, so he was running over to let them out and to feed them. I had one of those insane days before your off at work days. I was so glad to get off! Enough said. We didn't get a lot of rest before entering the hospital. Andrew had fun eating about everything he could get his hands on. He must of had an idea of what was coming on. I had bought a box of 100 calorie baked cheetos to take to work. I got one cheeto out of all the 6 packages in there. Kevin got 1 or 2 packs and Andrew got the rest over the next few days. I think he had 2 packs on Tuesday! Thus the orange cheezy face! Gotta love that face. I could just eat em up! I am so blessed. We have lots of people praying for us and we greatly appreciate them.

A few more Dedication Sunday Pics!

Dedication Sunday-September 14, 2008

Proverbs 3:5-6-

"Trust the Lord your God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

 This is the verse we chose for Andrew's dedication. It is also my life verse. I had started doing a word study in the Bible to choose a verse. This verse, however seemed perfect to both Kevin and I. We know there are many others that are appropriate for the occasion but this seemed so right and the one that God, our Father, chose for him. 

This moment has been ordained from the beginning of time. God had his perfect plans for each of us. His plan for Kevin and I started long before we even began the adoption process. He chose us as His children long ago and we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. He chose for both of us to spend time on the mission field where we developed a heart for those who do not know Him in other countries. When I had prayed for a husband, I prayed for a man with a heart after God's heart and a heart for missions. I was blessed with a man with far more than that. He picked the perfect one for me. He is a great father, my best friend, my soul mate. We were friends for 1 1/2 years before we began to date and were married a year later. At our church, we have to go to a marriage class before we can be married at Westover. We were assigned a mentor couple that we met with to discuss different areas about marriage. God knew then that we would be adopting from China. Our mentor couple was David and Elizabeth Chen. They grew up in China! They have been so excited for us and even prayed with Andrew in Chinese when we returned home! We have another couple, Jamie and Karen, in our small group who are in the process of adopting from China through the same agency we used. God as also placed many people from our church in our path there that have adopted from China, Korea, and Guatemala. 

He is such an awesome God and we are so blessed. Please forgive me for being so lengthy. We waited so long for this day to come. Andrew has been with us for almost 6 months now! Our pastor and his wife wrote a recommendation for us when we were going through the mountain of paperwork for our dossier so it was extra special that he was there to pray for him at his dedication! Unfortunately, Andrew wouldn't let him hold him. He's gone to him before but not this time. Andrew pointed at the big screen in the sanctuary when he saw himself up there. He also clapped his hands above his head when we walked off the stage (everyone else was clapping for us).

We had my parents and Kevin's, aunt's and uncle's, a nephew, cousins and friends all there for the happy event. We later celebrated with lunch at Elroy and Nancy's. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. I had made a train cake with Nancy and Kris's help to decorate. Andrew loved it! So did the other kids! 

I cannot even begin to state all that is on my heart and how blessed we are. I know this has been so long but I had to share how God had orchestrated this moment from the very beginning. I have tears of joy right now as I think about it all. Thanks for allowing me to be so verbose!

Andrew finally meets his Nebraska Grandparents!

Andrew finally got to meet his Grandpa John and Grandma Nancy (Kevin's folks) on September 10 in the Raleigh-Durham airport! I had to work so I wasn't present for the sweet union! Kevin said when he pointed to his folks, Andrew took off running and gave them great big hugs! They have been a joy to have. We last saw them in February when we went out for a short visit. We had our RA at that time but not our TA. We knew we would be traveling to China soon to pick up their new grandson. Time flies when you're having fun and are so blessed! They have really enjoyed playing  with him and reading to him. Grandma Nancy taught him how to crunch ice! She was crunching some and he decided he wanted to try it! The last picture is all of us except Grandma Nancy at Mimi's Cafe the last night they were here. We had asked Kevin's, aunt and uncle, Nancy and Elroy, to join us. Elroy is Grandpa John's little brother and they live here in Greensboro. Andrew played the piano or should I say banged on the keys while Grandma Nancy played and sang. She really enjoyed the extra company at the ivories. Grandpa enjoyed playing with Andrew as he played with his train and trucks. Thanks for all you helped us to do while you were here and for letting us sleep in on Monday morning! It was the first time we had slept so late in a very long time, pre-Andrew if I remember correctly! We love you guys! We look forward to Andrew meeting his Uncle Gene, Kevin's big brother, in October! Hopefully, we'll make it out to Nebraska before too long so Andrew can meet more family and all our wonderful friends there! Go Huskers for football that is! Don't tell my Dad, he might have a fit! He knows I'll always be Carolina Blue, thru and thru. So Huskers will have to stand aside if Carolina ever plays them! For a Tarheel, I will always be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a chocoholic already!

Chocolate facial and hair mousse anyone! Andrew's had plenty of practice as you can see here! I'm sure he'll volunteer to give you one! The list starts here!

Paying homage to the Husker's! (With a twist of Tarheel on the side!)

Climbing the ladder to successful sliding!

My little daredevil!

Mom and Andrew at Tree's B-day celebration!

 

It's been a long time! Milestones!

                                                     So sorry everyone! It's been a crazy summer. Andrew's into everything and keeps me really busy. We've had a number of milestones to occur in our lives since we last updated you. June 27th was my 48th b-day! Sometimes I feel all of 48 and more and other days I feel like I'm 20 something! Just depends on how the days gone and how much sleep Andrew has allowed me! LOL! We celebrated at PF Chang's for my birthday. (Picture of me and Andrew outside). Andrew enjoyed his lo mein and me the marinated lamb. We all had a enjoyable time with our friends and family!

On July 9th we all had a surprise b-day party for our friend Teresa for her 50th! We met a Yancey House and did it up right! Happy Birthday Tree!( She's the one with the tiara and sceptor!)

The end of July we went to my parents and celebrated  my sister Nora's birthday and Andrew being part of our family for 4 months!. We are so blessed! It's now almost 5 months! We got a picture of my Dad and Andrew, the 2 Carolina fans! Dad graduated from Carolina. (That's the picture with the proud Papa holding the "kid" in the Tarheel outfit).

Andrew now even enjoys brushing his teeth! He's learned to climb the ladder at McDonald's so he can go down the slide. He's even climbed all the way up one of them to go down the really big slide! He's becoming quite the daredevil! He started turning somersaults while we were at Mom and Dad's.

He started play and speech therapies this week and did really well. My little one graduates and moves up to the 2 yr old class this Sunday. He's been having a really good time in the toddler room. He was even starting to join in at circle time. He had really good teachers and we really appreciate all they did.

I'm going to be joining the MOPS program at church this fall We had orientation Tuesday night. My good friend Karen is my table leader. We're going for a play group this Monday to get  to know the rest of the Moms at our table and let the children get to know each other before they start Moppets. 

Andrew's been learning a lot of new signs lately and is starting to enjoy the DVDs of Baby Einstein and Veggie Tales more. We've also enjoyed watching the Olympics in Beijing! It has brought back a lot of memories for me. Some day I hope to return to China and show him the country he was born in and that gave us the joy of our heart! We have definitely seen more of the Great Wall than we did the day we were there. No snow and fog to block the view! Definitely looks warmer. We remember T. square, the Forbidden City also on that cold drizzly day. It was warmer the day we went to the Summer Palace. The whole city looks beautiful and I remember it fondly. Wish we could go back and be with all our dear friends and share it all over again with our new children! I miss you all dearly! We continue to pray for you all.

We will be dedicating Andrew at church on September 14 before he has surgery on the 24th. We'll have family and friends here for a big get together. We're hoping Kevin's folks will be able to be here from Nebraska! That's plenty for now, Andrew will be waking up soon and I still have a lot to do. Will try to update more regularly.

Love to you all!

Lisa

Just a few more!

Andrew mowing the mulch and pine straw around the garden while I cut fresh herbs for Mom and Dad. He's a great little helper!

Here's another picture of my little TARHEEL!!  GO HEELS!!

 His new favorite thing to eat is oatmeal cookies. Take care everyone!

Lisa

Happy First Father's Day, Kevin!

We had a busy Father's day weekend. My sister, Nora and her husband, Gary, came for a visit. Nora and I had an appointment on Saturday afternoon while the guys kicked back and ran errands.  We started off Sunday morning with homemade honeybun cake for breakfast. We enjoyed a nice home cooked dinner for the guys (grilled ribeyes, fried potatoes, and a salad)  before they headed back home. After they left, the 3 of us headed off to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. Andrew and I gave Kevin a family membership for the year. We can go anytime we want as much as we want. We took in the African section. Next trip we'll go to the North American and Sonoran Desert exhibits. Boy was it hot! It was 91 and we didn't have a dry piece of clothing on after 2 hours. I think that's all we could've handled for the day. Most of the time was spent in the shade. Thank you Lord for that! We are truly blessed and Kevin is an AWESOME DAD!! Always knew he would be!  As you can see in the pictures, we spent a little time in the garden picking herbs to send to Mama and Daddy with Nora and Gary. Andrew didn't quite know what to think of the bronze elephant we were sitting on. He cried the whole time. On the way home, we stopped at Zeko's for pizza to take home to eat. They gave Andrew a piece of pizza dough to play with while we waited. Kevin finally made it to the zoo. He's been here since August 2001 and has been wanting to go since he arrived in NC. We finally made him happy! Happy Father's Day to our Dad's and all our friends who are Dad's!

Lisa