Tuesday Happenings

We are one day closer to being home! Yea! And last night we slept better! It was the first time I'd slept more than 3 hours in a night. WOW! Thank you for your prayers! James skyped in with his bible study study guys and I know they were all praying. THANK YOU! Kate had a better night too. She coughed and coughed so finally I gave her some cough medicine and she slept soundly and is still asleep. Yea! Sweet girl! We ended up calling the International Adoption Clinic doctor in Birmingham yesterday, Dr. Chambers. We just wanted to go over Kate's cold symptoms and make sure we were on the right track there. Also, and I know many of you have adopted so you know about this, but Kate will alternate from being super engaged and playful to being reserved and almost motionless. We just wanted to make sure this was normal - the doc said it completely is. It's just a total shock to them to make a transition like this! We sent the doc some pics and video and she thinks Kate is doing just fine. She'll have lots of labs drawn, be tested for all sorts of genetic syndromes, and evaluated by a team of docs at the clinic when we get home (like they do for all adopted babies) just so we make sure we are caring for her the right way! But so far so good ; )

 Also, we just wanted to thank all of you for caring for our Anne and Molly while we are gone! It's really too many people to list, but we are so humbled by your love and care for them and for us. We've loved all the videoes, photos, and updates you've sent. Thank you so much. More than ever, we feel so grateful for such an amazing community! Thank you!!!

I'm gonna try to attach lots of photos and videos so we'll see how it goes... sorry if the videos don't end up working!

Below in the top two pictures, Kate was meeting Anne and Molly for the first time! So cute. Then there was an article in the China newspaper about the craziness of crossing the street here ; ) And then there's a picture of Kate eating watermelon - she can eat a LOT of watermelon!!! She loves it!

Everyone had said to bring stacking cups - apparently, children adopted from China just love stacking cups across the board! And they were right! She loves them and would play with them all day long!

She will crawl for yogurt drops ; ) By this point she was really working up a sweat! It's a lot of work having to crawl across the bed for yogurt drops and entertain your new american parents!!! We think she is just now learning to regulate her tempertaure to the way we dress her and keep the room temperature since the Chinese tend to keep rooms very hot (like 80 degrees) and children very bundled. So we're thinking that's the reason she breaks out in a sweat every now and then! Her body is getting used to this new temperature stuff!

Below is our offical adoption form! She is ours! So amazing and exciting. And you see a bag and some folded laundry - we had our laundry done! It was very expensive and if I made $70 every time I did a load of laundry, it would be fabulous! But they did a great job and everything was folded so nicely. It is all damp, because dryers are sort of new here and they use a lot of elecricity, so they don't dry things all the way. I gave Kate a little hair trim! Just to straighten out the back ; ) Sweet girl. She sits more still than Molly does (no surprise ; ) so it was super easy! Anne is easy too - but her hair is wavier so it's a bit tricky. Molly and Kate both have super straight hair. You see the pic of Kate sucking her little thumb? She does this when she is tired. And she puts the other hand right up by the wrist of the hand that has the thumb in her mouth. So sweet. And she can hold her own bottle. Sweet girl. I'm hoping they held her anyway when they fed her and that they didn't prop it up...

Ok, Wessel readers, close your eyes! This next part is going to be upsetting! We went to McDonalds! Eeek. Now, it was ONLY because at this point we are so hungry and there was no Burger King!!! Hehe. And boy, was it good!!! Not as good, of course, as if there had been a Burger King! But we have had no microwave - just a hot pot - and we've been eating granola bars, gluten free luncheables, rice bowls, PB&Js... so this was a super fun treat! We walked there with our new friends the Walls. They are so cool and they are practically locals! They can find their way around and they speak enough Chinese to get us anywhere, so it's fun to go exploring with them. Here we are with Ronald McDonald and then eating inside. Kate had her first bite of ice cream! She winced because I don't think she's ever had cold food (they don't do cold food here really) but then her eyes got really big and she opened her mouth wide open for another bite! And another, and another... James had the ice cream and was feeding her and she was mesmerized - just watching his every move with that ice cream. Hilarious! And some diaper changing and more cup playing...

Below we have more watermelon eating, some BBQ chip eating, her first ever pizza, and a big smile!

Here's a video of some cup stacking action...

Some crawling to the yogurt drops...

Drinking our bottle... with a cute little piggy in the air...

Some sweet little Chinese girls in front of the laundromat (we went with the Walls to take their laundry - we had sent ours out a different method through our guide). The little girls have clearly started English classes at school and would say token English phrases "Hello. Nice to meet you" etc... here they are saying "Nice to meet you too" in unison - so cute!

Walking back from McDonald's last night - it was probably a quarter mile from the hotel. Fun to be out at night and see more of the Chinese culture. The people are so nice and we we feel completely safe everywhere we go. I wouldn't want to walk down many unfamiliar city streets back in the states at night... but this felt totally safe! So crazy.

 

So that's everything for now! Hope everyon has a Happy Halloween. Can't wait to get home and see you all!!! We love you!