Rice Painting

Have you ever tried finger painting with rice? Grace finally ate real food yesterday afternoon and again this morning. This morning her stomach was a little upset when she woke up, but it didn't affect her appetite. She ate a bowl of rice and a piece of toast and "painted" sticky rice all over herself and the table.

She is starting to bond to both of us and sleeping well at night. We are leaving for the airport in about 10 hours. Thank you for your prayers for our return home. We have some more fun pictures to post after we get home.

Do you Blu-o?

Coming Home

We are coming home early!!!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. We leave BKK tomorrow night, a little over 24 hours from now. I was so nervous about going to the Delta Thai office to change our tickets. We had one of those moments when, as Amye and I would say, we thought we had been bamboozled. The rude Delta lady last night had given me an address that was for an office on the 22nd floor of a building a little ways from here. We found the building with no problem but it only had five floors. I could feel my blood pressure rising when my calm husband noticed that there was an office tower connected to the building we were in. We found Delta Thai and got our tickets changed. It only took about an hour. The new tickets we got are almost as good as what we had in terms of flight time, especially compared to some of the deals we were "offered" last night.

We will fly from Bangkok to Seoul, then to Chicago. We have an eight hour layover in Chicago but my brother and sister-in-law live there. Those of you with young children are probably thinking we are crazy but our other options were to spend the night in Seoul, have a 12 hour layover in Vegas or come home as scheduled on the 3rd. Compared to our other options Chicago sounds great! It is kind of funny though...when Nathan and I were talking about it this morning we realized that because we have been in a tropical climate we only have warm clothes. We called Chad and he is going to meet us at the airport with coats for Nathan and I and a blanket for Grace. Grace has lived in 90 degree weather all of her life, won't she be suprised. If all goes well we will get to see Steph before she has to be at work (she works at Argo Tea in the airport) and get to have lunch with Chad and see their apartment in Chicago. This is a huge blessing because otherwise they would not even get to see Grace until May.

About Grace...today has been much better. She still has cried a lot of the time we have been in the hotel but it is more of a wimper instead of a constant raging scream. She did great in the Delta office and has taken a good nap this afternoon. She actually ate an egg at breakfast this morning which is HUGE since she has barely eaten anything since she was placed with us.

Okay, I should probably log off. I have been on the web for two long and need to let Nathan check some things. We will try to post tomorrow but if not will once we are settled back in Memphis.

Just a side note about Nathan...he has done an amazing job of navigating us around the city. For all the times that I have joked about his sense of direction (seminary friends you know what I mean) I repent. He has been my greatest blessing on this trip. My OCD has been out of control and he has been WONDERFUL.

Please pray for our flights, that we don't have any ticket problems at the airport and for Grace on the flight. I am nervous that I will have to hold her for 36 hours straight.

On a lighter side

These last couple of days have been really intense for Kim and I. We have been fortunate to receive a couple of emails from Caleb with the help of his grandparents. We were very glad to here from him. His emails helped to lighten and enliven our spirits.

From today...

Dear

Thank you for my life. Thank you for my heart and for all of my body.
Amen.

This is what Caleb wanted to tell you today. I asked him if he was e-mailing Mommy and Daddy or God. He said all of them.

From 1/24/09...

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

Thanks for mommy and daddy, thank you for getting all kinds of goodies, and two thank yous. I played basketball at Kirk's house. Thank you, Kirk for the transformer. We went to Picadilly's because I like jello. We had fishy for dinNEr. Thank God for angels, and thank you for H and other letters all the way to the end. Georgy is good after his test. Good bye. Caleb Thank you for my name.

Blessings and Challenges

To explain the day in one word I would say it has been LONG. We woke up this morning and Grace started having diarrhea. She had two dirty diapers before we went downstairs to get breakfast. Nathan and I had an argument about what to do for her. We had our visa interview at 8:30 AM so we had to leave our hotel for the Embassy by 8:00. We called the social worker to let her know that Grace was sick but that we would be at the interview on time. She suggested that we take her to the "hospital" (which was fortunately just a doctors office) after our interview. I would have not worried too much about her upset stomach except she has had a bad cough for two weeks and kept pulling on her ears. Anyways, our visa interview went very well. We were called quickly and had the NICEST man who processed our visa. For all who were praying for her visa approval today we have her visa and passport! Thank you for praying. More about picking up the visa below. So where was I? Oh, so after the visa interview our sweet social worker (and new Facebook friend) went with us to see the doctor. The doctors office was very nice. The doctor gave us new cough medicine, some Kaopectate and a prescription for her cough/ears. I was SO glad we went to the doctor. I would have hated to get on the plane to come home with her ears bothering her. Especially since we cannot explain her ears popping to her. After the doctor's office we came back to the hotel and ate lunch. Grace slept with her head in my lap in the booth seat that we had. (She has done that for the past two days every time we eat.) She took a short nap before we headed to see if her visa was ready. We found out today that she actually becomes a US Citizen when we enter the US. It sounds like we should have already known that but both of our social workers told us differently. After we had the visa in hand we headed back to the hotel to try to change our plane tickets. This was an unbelievable experience. It took us 45 minutes on the Internet and 2 hours on the phone to even come up with an option. We almost had tickets for 1:35 AM Friday (just a few hours after we were on the phone). Just as we were about to book them, call our parents and pack so we could head to the airport the lady on the phone told me that she did not realize that Grace and I have paper tickets. She said that there was nothing she could do to help us change a paper ticket but to give us the address of where we need to go here in Bangkok to have them changed. You would think we could go to the airport but there is not a Delta counter at the airport here. I actually started crying on the phone with the lady because I was so frustrated. She gave me this random address and told me we would have to go there tomorrow to try to change our tickets. The good news is that we have tickets held (whatever that means) leaving here at 1:35 AM on Sunday (Saturday night). The schedule is not quite as direct as our original tickets are/were but we get home two days earlier and we have a brief layover in CHIGAGO. Chad and Steph be sure you read that. We will forward our itinerary once we have it...if we have it...and maybe we can meet you at Argo Tea. It is only a three hour layover and we pass through customs there but even 30 minutes face to face would be sweet. I'll get Mom and Dad to let you know when we know more.

I did not mention yet that the whole 2 hours I was on the phone with Delta Nathan was on the terrace with Grace SCREAMING. She has attached to me and has been livid with Nathan tries to do anything with her. Fortunately I think that finally she might have bonded with him a little bit tonight. I mean the child has been crying for most of the past 50 plus hours...eventually she has to give up right? I am glad that she has bonded to one of us but am trying to figure out how to respond to her wanting to be held all the time. She does okay when we are out but when we are in the hotel room she pretty much screams all the time. Hence we have been on the go constantly and are all exhausted.

In the event that any of you are still reading here are the things we would love prayer for:
1) Tickets to get home as soon as possible. We know that the Lord knows what is best for her in terms of time here before we leave but it kind of feels like we are just going from shopping center to shopping center letting her walk around. I am ready to have more than one room to live in. (That statement just made me miss the Snaders!)
2) Praise the Lord that we got her visa and passport! She has about 25 pages in her passport making it thicker than Nathan's and mine.
3) For health for Grace. Her stomach seems to be better tonight but we have had trouble knowing whether to give her formula or not. She still has not eaten any solid food with us (since Tuesday). The social workers told us that she has not eaten on any of their outings but would "binge" once she got back to the foster home. Because she is not getting any other food we decided to still give her formula and just dilute it.
4) For Grace to bond with Nathan. We have been praying through out the day today that she would "give up". She has so much fight in her!
5) Praise/prayer in regard to finding the Delta office here. After I got the address from the Delta lady today I just sat wondering how in the world we were going to find this random place. I got out the map we have been using and just asked the Lord to help us if it was his will for us to get home early. I looked down and noticed in tiny print the exact building I was looking for. Turns out it is on the Air Train line and should be easy for us to get to.

So to bring this to a close it has been a long and tiring day but we are very grateful for the Lord's provision for us in the midst of these challenges. Despite the screaming we are attaching to this little girl and just loving the way God has grown our family. We are missing Caleb like crazy and are so excited that we are a little closer to getting home!

Tears of Tiredness

As I write this entry Grace is asleep in the hotel room with Nathan. Today has been again very tearful for her yet it seems she is not as angry. She seems more tired than anything else today. She slept through the night which we did not expect because the foster family has still been giving her at bottle at 1 AM every night. She woke up about 5:30 and cried again for the first couple of hours of the day. She seems to be attaching to me more than Nathan which is a little hard for both of us. It means she wants me to carry her a lot of the time. Heidi, I have been thinking about you because the baby to mommy weight ratio is about the same as it was for you and Dasia at this age. We met our social worker in the lobby this morning at 8:00 AM and were back here from our Department of Children Services meeting by 10:45. It was at this meeting that we signed our agreement to adopt. It is a little confusing but this document is basically what will be used to make our adoption final in the US. The Thai side of the adoption however will not be finalized until about six months after it is in the US. Confusing for those of you reading I am sure because it is a little confusing to us.

Tomorrow morning we go to apply for Grace's visa and if all goes well we should be able to pick it up in the afternoon. Please pray we will get it tomorrow. The next hurdle will be to get our tickets changed. We have been told that after we pay the change fee ($100 per ticket) it should be no problem. That is as long as there are sky miles tickets available. The planes here were much emptier than any other time I have traveled so I am hopeful.

We have been watching the weather in Memphis and are sad we might miss the snow. It is 102 here today! Feels like Memphis in August.

I should run just in case Grace is awake and screaming. We will try to post again tomorrow. I'll try to include a couple of pictures as well. Thanks for following our journey. As Caleb told my mom yesterday our family is now 4!

Monday

It is actually Tuesday AM here in Bangkok. I have about five minutes to post before Grace gets here with the social worker. This is the only picture I am posting from yesterday because they all look the same. We met Grace at 10:30 AM and spent the morning with her and the social workers at the department store down the street. She warmed up to us after a little while at the department store. When we returned to our hotel we were supposed to take her up to our room for about an hour and a half. This picture was taken in our room. She screamed the whole time with the exception of about two minutes. She is very smart and understands (as best we can tell) what is about to happen. She did reach for us a couple of times yesterday. Once she actually came to Nathan...to give him her shoes and her bag. It was obvious she wanted to go home. Laurie D, THANK YOU for preparing us for this.

Yesterday was extremely hard but we expected for it to be. She will be placed with us in just a few minutes permanently. There are several things we would like to have people pray for. Obviously for her adjustment. She is so mad and is fighting as hard as she can. I told Nathan this AM that at least we know if anyone ever tries to kidnap her she will fight them like crazy. Please also pray for my headaches. Several friends have been praying for me about this for a few weeks. I think I had a migraine yesterday afternoon. After a lot of sleep last night it was still lingering this morning. I really want to be attentive to Grace's needs and it is going to be incredibly difficult if I feel like I did last night. Nathan is much better. Thanks for praying for him as well. Finally we have been told that we should have our Visa by Thursday afternoon. If so we are going to try to come home early. Please pray we get the Visa and an earlier flight out. I think it will be easier for Nathan and I to meet her needs once we are back in our "element".

A couple of other things I did not mention. We finally got to talk to Caleb last night. After three different phone cards and multiple tries we found a way to contact him. I am so grateful for that. We miss you like crazy Caleb! (Mom, I will try to call you tonight. I heard that you and Betty met on Monday to make the switch with C.) The Lord answered our prayers for Grace to be loved and showed favor and attention. She has been so doted on that she is spoiled rotten. I don't think anyone has ever let her cry. That makes me a little nervous!!! At least she has been loved. The last random thing is about her eyelashes...again random. They are literally an inch long. I have never seen eyelashes so long!

Okay, I feel like this post is random and quick. It probably expresses my anxiety! We will try to post more tomorrow and will let people know if we are headed home early.