tubes tomorrow

Our ENT called this morning and had a cancellation for tomorrow. So Hamilton is getting tubes at 5:45 in the morning. He has mild hearing loss and fluid in his ears. Apparently, this is common for children with a cleft. Please pray it goes smoothly and safely.

The pictures are of his first trip to the zoo. We went with our neighbors. Alice, Amelia, and Eli. Eli is getting a brother from Hamilton's orphanage in China soon. Hamilton loved the zoo and has been talking about monkeys all evening. He saw more animals than monkeys, but zeroed in on the monkeys. He loves to be in open spaces where he can run. 

First Day at Church

Here are pictures from Hamilton's first day at church.  We took him to the service with us and then I went with him to a 3 year old sunday school class. He did really well. He sits as long as there is music. But of course is not interested in listening to a story, because he does not understand. He sat better in church in China. But it was fun for him to meet more people who have been praying for him.

Tomorrow, we go to the ENT to schedule his surgery for tubes. He already has an ear infection, so we are anxious to get the tubes soon.  Then next week we go to the cleft clinic and general surgeon. Too many doctor visits for the little guy!! 

We have had a great day today! I think we are all feeling less tired and grumpy. Bill and I are also getting a little more used to life with teenagers and a 3 year old. It is action packed for sure!

Halloween

Hamilton loved Halloween. We dressed him up in his traditional chinese attire. Our neighbors, Lydia, Alice, and Amelia, also dressed in chinese costumes. They were so cute! We ate pizza with our neighbors and then went to around 10 houses for candy. He figured it out pretty quick, but would stop every time he saw a ball. He got a little mad at trick-or-treaters who came to our door, because he thought I was giving away his candy. 

update

We are settling in. The time change and sleeping with a three year old have really been tough this past week. We went to the International Adoption clinic Monday. We were there 4 hours! I think we will now know for sure that Hamilton is completely well. We met with a counselor, speech pathologist, doctor, and had an ultrasound and 5 vials of blood taken. Needless to say, he was not too happy about the blood. He had obviously had that done before. He recognized the band that goes around the arm and began screaming. The appointment went well, though. They said he is attaching very well. They are more worried about trauma and stress from being put in a new home. They said the busyness and hitting are from trauma or stress. The busyness helps keep his mind off of it. Typically kids are either withdrawn or busy. We are glad to have busy. We also are stuck with the family bed for a little while longer. We are hoping he bonds quick and can move to his own bed sooner versus later. Last night we slept with his head on one of us and his feet on the other- very nerve racking, but he has to be touching someone! I especially enjoyed the couple of nights that he chose Bill over me. 

Bill asked that I make a disclaimer over the dryer photos. We were in the room with him when we took the pictures. He has not gone back to the dryer since, but uses the den curtains to hide behind when he wants a quiet spot which isn't very often. He loves to be in the room with us. Will and Elizabeth are huge helps when they do not have too much homework. 

Life has been so busy, we have not had time to update. I hope to add pictures this weekend. 

First Day Home

Hamilton had a great day today. He played outside a lot and took a very long nap. After dinner Elizabeth went looking for him. She could not find him, and then saw him sitting in the dryer in the laundry room. So we had to send pictures. 

pictures from homecoming at airport

Our US Citizen

We are finally home! We had a very long day yesterday. We left our hotel at 4:00 pm October 21 Us time and landed in Birmingham at 6:15 October 22. 26 hours flying with a 3 year old went very well. He slept a good bit. The main fits were during take off and landing because he did not like the seat belts. China does not require them for cars, so he is not used to being strapped in. We flew 4 hours from Guanzhou to Tokyo, had a 1 hour lay over, then 12- 13 hours to Atlanta. We talked our way into bulk head seating!!! It was great. However, our flight from Tokyo was late, so we missed our connection to Birmingham by 5 minutes. I was so tired and frustrated, I got little angry with the receptionist. In Atlanta, we went through visa check, immigration, customs, re-check baggage, and security. Then had to wait stand by for 2 flights, but we boarded the second one at 6:30 which was only 2 hours later than our original flight. The man at customs was so kind! He said I am not sending you through the baggage check line because of the baby. 

When we landed in Birmingham, Bill, Will, Elizabeth, Jim, Jami, Brooks, Linden, Laurel, Dear, Sophie, and Dionne were waiting!! Elizabeth had been at a football game, so she had on her cheer uniform and pom poms. Guang Guang started waving at everyone when he heard them cheering. When we got to our house, there were probably 50 or so people waiting for us in the street cheering!! Guang Guang started clapping. He loved the attention! He did great. He stayed in my arms for a little while, and then got down and started playing with all of the kids. He played basketball, soccer, and football in the front yard with tons of children. I will send pictures of this out later today. I need to download them. 

We ate dinner around 8:30 and put him to bed around 9:30. He slept with Bill and me because he is used to the family bed. I guess we will work on that next week. I realized that he has not seen a house before. People in China live in apartments for the most part. They are typically one or two bedroom apartments. Our house is not big, but we thought he might be scared. He woke up at 11:00 and 3:00 crying and officially woke up at 5:45-- not too bad. He woke up happy and talking to BABA, dad, for the first time. He has been playing outside with BaBa and Jie Jie (Bill and Elizabeth) this morning. He spent an hour playing in a puddle!! We will try to give another update tonight.