More of our week

David hasn't even been physically in our family for a week yet, and I'm amazed at his progress.  

My parents came down Saturday to meet him.  He took right to them.  They were of course so excited to finally meet him.

Bunny and Pappy came down to meet him yesterday, and same thing.  After a day, he warmed right up. 

We've had a good week and have enjoyed sharing him with our parents.

Does he look like he already owns the place or what?

He's readily saying Daddy.  He added "bye bye" and "Uh oh" to his list today.  He seems to understand a lot of what we are saying based on the way he responds.

Garrett has handled him well.  He's been sweet so far.  I'm wondering with the newness will "wear off" :) My sweet sweet boy.

As of tonight, going to bed has not been nearly as hard.  He's not screaming for anyone else to come rescue him.  He crawled up into the bed beside me, and fell asleep within 10 minutes.  That's HUGE compared to a few days ago when he was curled up in a ball in front of the door wanting nothing to do with me.  He is attaching quickly, and I pray daily that it is real and healthy.  He seems content as long as someone in the fam is with him.  He mostly wants to be with me, but when the kids are around he'll mosey off with one of them and play.   He loves to get out in the car.  THAT IS GOOD because we are normally out and about regularly.  Tonight we had lasagna, and he ate every bite.  Mary and Garrett were riding there tricycles around and he was content to follow them around and around.  

He hasn't napped well the last couple of days, but I guess that's toddlers, and I CANNOT COMPLAIN.  

Thank you again for all your prayers.  We've seen so many answered.  I know life is not "normal" yet because we truly have so much help.  I'm so thankful!!! I'm good with not being back to "normal" yet!!

Adjusting...and just hangin

We are settling in and thankful the jet lag is behind us!  

David has done remarkably well.  I'm amazed and thankful.  His normal disposition is happy.  He can pitch some tantrums, but that is to be expected.

The first night home he was awake an hour or so.  Last night was about the same.  He is a heavy sleeper, so he's napped well, and sleeping long stretches at times.  It's not easy getting him to bed, but much easier than the first couple of days.  

He is starting to eat more (the first few days he didn't have much interest in eating or drinking).  He's tried many new things today.  Hubs worked today and and the kids were busy with VBS, so we had alone time this morning.  He's really starting to prefer me over Allie..ha ha ha!  He was giving me kisses today looking for me all over calling me "OMMA."  He even said the words "Mommy and Daddy" if asked to speak them.  I took a video below.

He loves to be outside,

and we've taken many walks.  He loves the stroller and likes to be pushed around the house because it's already so hot.

My brother and his family stopped by yesterday, and he was a little shy for a while.  He did warm up, but we couldn't really get close enough for a good pic.  

Garrett has taken to him and cried tonight when David couldn't sleep in his room.  (I took David upstairs to put the kids to bed so that he could see a normal bed time routine, and G thought he was going to sleep there.)

We even managed to get a floatie and swim trunks on him.  He was fine with it today!  

He's more of a "stay on the edge of the pool" kinda guy, but at least we can all be there together.  

We've gotten so many texts and messages saying that people are so proud of us.  I just want to make sure that God receives all the glory for David being a part of our family.   We strongly felt God leading us in this direction...undeniably over 2 years ago.  He has given us confirmation after confirmation along the way, that He had it all figured out.  There were MANY moments of uncertainty and much uncertainty lies ahead, but my faith has increased dramatically because God keeps answering specific prayers even when I am so very doubtful at times.  It is not because of our great courage that we walked down this road.  It was shaky and wavering obedience at best.  He has carried us this far, and He will continue to walk with us.

Long road home

We made it home yesterday.  

There were signs along our street that Becky and Christy made with the kids.  We could not have made this trip with the help of sweet friends taking care of our other kids.  I'll never be able to say thank you enough:)

I didn't even have my video camera out.  Garrett and Mary were SO EXCITED to see him.  They were so sweet.  David did pretty well coming home.  He slept about 4-5 hours on the flight and didn't get too upset sitting in our laps the other 8 hours.  He fell asleep immediately when we drove home.

Even as tired as he was he did great meeting my parents and Mary and Garrett.  He likes his stroller and wanted to be in it all afternoon crazy enough.

He wanted to get in the pool but did not want to wear a swim diaper or shorts.  That was a big ole battle, so we let him have his way.  He LOVES water!

Bedtime was ugly.  He only wanted Allie and his foster mom.  He did not want me which was hard but is as I had read it might be.  After about 30 minutes of screaming on the floor he gave up and fell asleep.  I expected him up at 3am and he was.  HOWEVER, he just laid there and looked at ceiling until 4am and then fell right back asleep.  It's 9:00 a.m. and he's still asleep. (13 hours).  He must have just been so tired.  

I don't want to give the impression that this has all been hunky dory.  It is going to be very challenging to set boundaries with a toddler who can't communicate with us.  There have been multiple tantrums (which I know is normal for his age), but it is so different parenting when you constantly have to keep in mind that they don't know you or trust you.  I became overwhelmed in the middle of the night just thinking about the long road ahead.  Thank you so much for loving us and praying for us.  Our friends and family have been incredibly supportive and we couldn't have made it this far without your help.  Please keep praying:)

Friday - Gotcha Day

On Thursday, September 23, 2010, a defining moment occurred  in our family.  We signed the first document toward adoption that evening.  The process began.

On Friday, September 24, 2010, another defining moment in our family occurred.  We received a phone call that evening that Hub's closest friend, David Beasley, was killed in a car accident.  

Those two days seem as fresh to me as if they happened yesterday.  On that Saturday morning, as we prayed and grieved, we both just sort of knew that if we had a son again, that we'd name him David, in loving memory of the man who was like a brother to hubs.  He was hilarious, loyal, and loved Jesus Christ and his family more than anything on Earth.  The name David means "beloved."  I can't think of a more perfect name for our son.  

Today, June 1, 2012, we welcome David KwonHee Lee White into our family.  KwonHee is his Korean name.  Kwon means "power and authority."  Hee is a letter from his birth mother's name.  Lee is her family name.

He is such a little lover.  He readily hugged me...

...and I lost it.


We had a quick prayer service with the director of Eastern and were rushed into a waiting van.  His foster family told him goodbye...and I about lost it again.  How can two people be so incredibly strong?  They are among the most amazing people I've known...heroes for sure.  


David has not become upset in our few hours with him, except if he tries to run off and we have to step in.  He LOVES Allie.  He is bossing her around and she's just doing what he says. (That's quite opposite of normal.)  He's quite the explorer.  He's so content to discover every new thing.

Bubbles are a big hit!

He uses lots of words.  He was naming things he saw.  

DO NOT JUDGE!!! It's Baby Einstein people!

Some things are just global.

He loves to play games.  They've been talking on the phone and giggling.  

Wow.  That's all I can say.  The Lord has given us another son.  I can't wait to get him home!

This post seems quick and not well thought-out...but I've got to go play!


I know the grieving will hit him at some point soon.  Pray for him.  Pray also for Allie who continues to cough.  She's pretty exhausted.

Updated:  8:00pm. Friday.
Well...we may have our first problem.

I was trying to get him to lie down because he was so tired. He started screaming and was so upset.  He ran over to Allie and said...omma..omma.  He fell asleep in about 5 minutes.  Uh.oh.  


As hubs said,  "He's asleep and for now..she's not coughing."


We are all off to bed.  BIG plane ride home tomorrow!

Thursday

I found a you tube of the Nanta show.  (Libby if Abby hasn't seen it, you may want to take her!)

Allie just laughed and laughed.  Of course besides meeting CC, this was her favorite attraction.

We started off today at one of the bigger palaces that we missed yesterday. 

Underneath was a museum, and then after touring the palace, we went to another museum.  By 12:30, Hubs and I were both pooped.  Not Allie, she apparently is a MUSEUM GEEK.  She loved everything.  She wanted to look at every artifact, and she constantly said, "Mom, you gotta see this...you gotta see this."  We filled up our video camera of today and yesterday.  Finally at 2:00 we went to a traditional restaurant.  

The people of Seoul are so friendly and helpful.  Most of the young people speak English, and it's really been easy for us to get around on the subway and to all the hotspots our agency recommended.

We weren't expecting quite so much food, and honestly I didn't know more than half of the dishes we were eating.  

Thankfully Allie will TRY ANYTHING!

Yep...I just couldn't do that.  I don't do fish well.

Yep.  She said she liked it.  There were too many bones for her though.

We are trying to teach her Korean phrases (I'm pretty terrible at remembering them.)  It makes the people here so happy when you at least attempt to communicate.  Here was our attempt at teaching her to say, " The food was delicious.  Thank you."  

Lastly for today, we went to one of the markets to pick up some things.  We had name scrolls made for all the kids.  If you can read that, you can figure out his name.  (No, it's not chubby cheeks).

Tomorrow we will quit calling him CC.  The name is very special to us, and we've protected it all these months because of the uncertainty adoption brings.  

Here is another slide show of more pics from today....if you are still awake.

Make a picture slideshow

Some specific prayer requests for tomorrow:

CC's foster family...They will say good bye and it makes my stomach knot up thinking about it.  

CC:  Pray for him daily as the grieving / attachment process begins.

US:  Pray for endurance and patience.  It's a long way home, and the weeks and months ahead will be filled with adjustments from each member of our family.

Allie:  She's got a bad cough and it keeps getting worse.  She rarely gets colds anymore but when she does they are really BARKY.  Please pray it breaks up quick.  She'd be miserable flying if we had to fly today.

Thanks for your prayers!!

Wednesday

We headed out this morning to tour Seoul, and I took a ton of pics.  Unfortunately, Blogger is giving me fits.  Apparently I'm out of storage and the only way to verify my account is to scan several legal documents.  It's crazy and I'm a little frustrated.  I had to delete old posts to get this post to fit, so forgive me if it seems lame.  I wanted to post so many pics!

We visited a palace to start.  There was a changing of the guard, and Allie thought the ceremony was "amazing."

This was the king's throne room.

This was the ceiling of the throne room.  Again, I had to keep the photos I had already uploaded, so I couldn't pic anymore that I liked better.

We also visited the Korean War memorial.  It was a huge place.  Allie liked all the planes and ships.  

There were press people running around, and we saw a sign that the King of Sweden would be there today.  We didn't see him though!

We are pretty pooped.  Hubs is sleeping well because changing from nights to days is no big deal for him.  I'm still waking up at 3a.m.  Seems silly to change it at this point, but he's running us ragged!  We really do need to see as much as we can though.  Seoul is beautiful, and we took so much video. One day CC will want to see it all. 

Night night!

After a good night's sleep, I decided I could stream a slide show.  My handy dandy sisnlaw suggested I try using photo bucket to link my pics.  With her and hubs help, I got that to work, so I'll be able to post.  I'm so mad at google.  Who needs legal documents scanned to buy $2 worth of storage!! ARRG.

This slideshow created with Smilebox

....And I forgot to do captions, but I'm out of time.  Oh well.  

Last night we went to see "Nanta."  Allie LOVED it.  In fact she's still asleep from a very long day.  It was a show kind of like the American "Stomp," but it was quite a bit more comical.  The cast consisted of 5 chefs.  I wish I could describe it better, but I may let Allie tell you about it.

We are going to take it a little slower today.  Tomorrow will be a BIG BIG day.  

Tuesday

I don't even know where to start...

I didn't sleep well because Allie was wide awake from 1-3.  I was wide awake too!  We finally fell asleep again, and then I woke right back up, going through my mind about this morning.  For months, I've imagined today.  I've wondered if he'd look at us and start crying.  I've wondered if he would be terrified.  Not knowing his personality except through snippets of updates, I and many many many friends and family have prayed that he would not be an anxious child by nature.  He will be anxious in the weeks to come because of his circumstances, and for that we STILL need lots and lots of prayer.  

However, what I learned today was that, by nature, he is not at all an anxious child.  He's quite the opposite of anxious.  In fact, he reminds me a lot of Garrett and Allie...oh goodness...poor poor Mary.

This incredible organization facilitates adoptions from all the agencies in the U.S.  The director shared the history of ESWS, and I'm so impressed and thankful for this mission.  They have homes all over Korea to support special needs children and adults.  They over see the care of  countless babies who are waiting for their forever families.  That care is outstanding.  These babies are so loved and taken care of during their "wait" and I'll never have the words to express my gratitude for that.

The taxi dropped us off here, and we decided to go to Dunkin' Donuts....the best cure for an anxious stomach. 

Upon arrival, we were taken to a small room, to finish the FINAL paperwork...well for now.  The reason the chair is empty is that our case worker jumped up because she heard CC walk in the room behind us.  She ran out and very informally invited him to come see us as we waited to finish our documents.

I didn't even have my camera ready because I wasn't expecting it!  He had on those squeaky shoes, so he bounced right over to us.  He looked at us very curiously, and then just stared at the ground.  He wasn't afraid. He just didn't like the attention.  I was just stunned that I was sitting there looking at him because it happened so fast.  I wanted to tackle him, and I knew that would not be good, so I just sat there with tears in my eyes...Tears of disbelief that God had given us this boy.  

As soon as he appeared in the door way, he was whisked away for us to finish, and hubs and I just grinned at each other!  What a relief..he didn't run away!  

We walked upstairs to the room where we had seen him in his videos.  It was so surreal to have watched him play in this room on video, and now to be walking in there to see him.

He LOVES that room.  He immediately sat in the little tykes car and began honking the car like we'd seen him do 6 months ago...on video.  He laughed and grinned.  There was no reservation in his face.  He obviously doesn't mind meeting new people.

THERE HE IS!!!

His foster parents were INCREDIBLE!  I so wanted to take their pics, but it's not ok to post their pics.  She had brought videos of him when he was little, 2 photo albums, a zip drive full of pics, his hanbok, presents for our kids, and a handwritten letter to him to read some day.  I forgot to have the translator read it, and I've got to have that done before we leave!

They've done such an excellent job with him.  He obeyed their requests readily.  He bowed when we walked in; when he was asked to put his shoes back on at the end, he ran right over and sat down for them to dress his feet.  I was able to ask several questions about his routine, and the foster mom repeated several times..."He's a good boy."

About the hat!  Apparently, he's been wearing it for months. They took it off of him to show us his beautiful hair, and he grabbed it and put it back on!

He was reaching for balls and toys and throwing them at Allie.  He really took to Allie.  He would go down the slide, counting the steps as he went, and then ask her to come slide too with his gesturing.  She can't wait to see him again.

Finally...a couple of videos!

I caught this as he was leaving.  It's blurry because it was quick.  He didn't really want to leave, and he had a fall on the ground fit when he walked out.  He wanted to play some more!

We won't see him again until Friday, and on that day, we will leave Eastern with him in our family forever.  

I almost forgot!  It's Pappy's birthday!!! 

Happy birthday Pappy.  WE LOVE YOU:)