Some more of the foster babies.

This is the newest of the little foster babies.  Yay to the orphanage for calling our foster care organization and asking for a foster family.  Right now her medical needs are high- feeding issues and a seizure disorder.  Right now she is staying with one of the doctors who works with the orphan clinic.  She needs a more permanent foster family and we are hoping that a Chinese family will be willing to take care of her.  The woman holding her is one of the other doctors who works with the foster care program.  She is a hero to me because she is the doctor who found our little guy and got him into foster care.

Every few months, we have to take our little orphans to the clinic for an exam.  This is fun but lengthy  visit.and it's more fun to go with a friend.  We went with one of the other fostering families.  This little guy sitting next to our little guy is almost paper ready to go.  He just needs a family willing to accept some of his special needs.  He is another one that has come a long, long way through the loving care of a family.

Our little guy showing us that he can flex!

We asked our  Chinese friend who is going to take care of our little guy over the summer to come to the exam.  We wanted her to know where to take him if he got sick and to talk to the doctor about Down Syndrome.  Down Syndrome is not a well known syndrome here and we wanted to her to have a greater understanding of where he was developmentally.

I think he will be well loved by this sweet sister.  And yes, he is teething like crazy!

Waiting, waiting.  This hospital is a training facility.  First you get asked questions by a resident.  This tends to be in Chinese and English.  Then the resident examines the baby.  Then the doctor comes in and asks questions and then examines the baby.  It's very thorough and well done and we are so thankful for such good care for our little guys.

The wonderful doctor Nancy getting her hair pulled while examining our little guy. Nancy was our doctor when our little guy was in the hospital last October and she really fought for him.  She is currently the foster mom for the little girl in the pictures above.  Yes-these doctors are amazing.

 In the background you can see the other foster mom and her little guy answering developmental questions.  You can not see the Chinese resident asking the questions but you can kind of see the visiting American medical student who is there observing.  A few minutes later, the Chinese doctor who was helped get our little guy into foster care and fought for him in the hospital came in to take a look.  Then more people came into admire these two little guys.  It was a great party.

One other little guy in our foster care program was adopted this week.  But so few of them actually are.  There are times when the reality of these children really hits me and it's a heart ripping feeling.  They are all special needs in one way or another and we hope for long term families for them.

New Clothes and other matters

We've been really blessed with the amount of clothing for our little guy that has been passed on to us.  One very generous friend just mailed us a box of darling new and gently used clothes for our little guy.  He is now quite fashionable!  Thank you, Maggi!

Summer pajama's with a frog theme.

Osh Kosh B' Gosh!  Adorable

Baseball onesie.

Not new clothes but a sweet sleep picture.  We find him in almost every position now.

Speaking of new clothes...we were sitting at an outdoor cafe in Thailand when I saw this dress hanging on a rack outside a small store.  I told Elisabeth to go and look at it and she looked, liked and tried it on.  It was on sale and a bargain.  Here she is all dressed up for the high school Spring Banquet.

Cute hair and pearls.

And...to top off this post...The Toilet Restaurant.  Elisabeth's mentor teacher took Elisabeth and the other student in her mentoring group out for lunch here.  I have no words so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.  

Bullet Points

I was inspired by my friend Gillian who blogs over here to do a bullet point kind of post.

http://gillianmarchenko.blogspot.com/2011/05/10-things-about-us.html  

My mind is full of details and my concentration is nill.  I am not having deep thoughts about much.  I mostly think about this summer, google calendar and trying to see as many people as possible before we return to China.

So in no special order.

1.  This summer we will be in California, Oregon, Washington,Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and Canada.  More places will probably be added.

2.  We will fly into LA and visit Azusa Pacific College and then fly to San Jose about a day later.  I'm not sure that a college visit the day after you fly in to a country is the best idea but it was the only way to fit it in.

3.  In late June, we will fly to the Pacific Northwest and look at Seattle Pacific and Trinty Western.  In late July, we will be near Portland looking at George Fox.  There might be a Wheaton trip somewhere in July.

4.  We are looking forward to driving, Trader Joe's, new clothes, the ocean, closets and toilets that flush the first time.

5.  The sweet baby will stay with a Chinese friend for the summer.  We will miss him every day.

6.  Paul will be in China for the first seven weeks of our trip.  He will join us in July for a few weeks and then stay in the US for a while when Elisabeth and I go back to China.  

7.  We were thrilled to find lower priced tickets on Korean Air.  They are the best.

8.  Elisabeth took her AP history test last week and is at school right now taking AP English.  She has the SAT's on Saturday, June 5.

9.  The high school choir had their concert last week.  It was lovely.

Talking to one of the teachers.

Proud dad.

10.  Our little guy is teething like crazy.  Tylenol is our best friend.

Mad Skilz!

Aside from a sweet personality and almost perpetual great attitude, our little guy is getting some great skills.

His sitting has improved dramatically-he rarely falls over.   He spends quite a bit of time looking at his cards.

He can transfer objects from one hand to the other.

Right!

Hand off!

Left!  And then repeat.

He is starting to bear weight on his legs.

Look, Mom!  No support but the pillow!

Isn't his round head cute?

Clap, clap, clap your hands.....

This is our little guys favorite picture.  Notice anything about it?

Notice anything now? Anything?

(That's his sweet little friend in the background.  Let's just say he was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day).

This little piggy went to market.

Yes.....

He

can

clap!

Notice anything now???

Update on the little guy

All my children, hanging out.

So our little guy will be 18 months on May 2.  We have had him for about 8 months.  He has gone from 3.3 kilograms to 11 kilograms thanks to the "Chunk 'em up" diet of supplemented formula, good healthy food, a regular routine and a strong diet of love.

He can now clap (soundlessly) and wave.  He can sit for extended periods of time but not get into a sitting position by himself.  He can roll, scoot backwards and kind of schootch himself around the room.  He loves computer cords and is on a constant hunt for any kind of cord.  He loves yogurt, applesauce, apple juice and bananas.  He mostly eats what we eat- we just grind it up for him.  He has two teeth on the bottom, one top tooth partially through, one other top tooth about to erupt, one top molar coming in and many other teeth about to come in.  He drools a lot!

One of the biggest changes in him is that he initiates contact.  We used to make kissing sounds at him and he would kiss back.  Now he kisses at us and we kiss back at him.  He talks to us and nods his head if we ask him a question.

Over the months we have exercised his body a lot.  Now he likes to exercise us.  The pictures below may look like Elisabeth is moving his arms.  He is actually moving hers!

We are so thankful for the Father who loves him more than we ever could and we continue to pray for a future and a hope for him.

This just in....

I found my winter, warm slippers.

After freezing for a few days, I asked my helper where the slippers where that were previously in the slipper basket. "Zai nali  在那里。"  she said with a wave of her hand. This basically means "Over yonder"  "Zai nar? 在 那 儿"  (Where)? I asked。She looked at me firmly and said it was too hot to wear those slippers. I gave up.
Then as I was cleaning the cat little box on Friday, I leaned over and looked in the bathroom cupboard and there they were, wrapped up in a plastic bag.  Victory for warm feet!  Now if we could just find Elisabeth's Converse tennis shoes.
Anyway, we are back to life as usual.  Chinese class, teaching, taking care of our little guy, praying for his future, looking at colleges for Elisabeth and so on. I've been really under the weather since we returned from Thailand  and haven't done much.
 Here are a few pictures of our week.

We were all happy to be back together after ten days apart.

Paul went to a new English Corner since ours has been temporarily suspended.

One of his friends.

Our little guy continued to be fascinated by the cards we have for him.  

His sitting is better and better.

Cloth books are so fun!

Still loving the cards.

Yes, he need a hair cut.  Remember how bald he was when we got him?

Yes, he is a Gleek.

At the doctor the other day, he weighed 11 kilograms and was 73 centimeters.  Jia you, little baby.  I don't think we can call you "failure to thrive" any more.