tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56893234375304649002024-03-21T02:27:03.587-07:00The Farm Life Re:DefinedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-40173130613669441062017-08-08T05:31:00.001-07:002017-08-08T05:38:09.931-07:00One Year. <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As we reflect on celebrating the first anniversary of "Gotcha Day," trying to write one post to summarize or encapsulate our feelings seems impossible. So many moments. Countless memories. Too many emotions. Our hearts are bursting with gratitude. So, in the spirit that sometimes words are not enough, we will be brief. But one theme for the last year with Ivan seems to arise in my thoughts - Taste and see that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Only God could have brought Ivan home to us - a child that brings so much joy, sweetness, and radiance to our lives. Each day we taste the Lord's goodness when we laugh with Ivan as he jumps and sings Daniel Tiger's "Trolley song"..."Won't you ride along with me??" We see the Father's kindness in Ivan's spontaneous kisses and moments of asking for forgiveness. We see our need for God's grace more than ever as we fall short in moments of frustration. We are forever grateful for the privilege of parenthood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here's to one year as a family of three.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-34399931958068126342017-03-08T19:49:00.002-08:002017-03-08T19:49:19.157-08:00Surgery Day<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's incredible how many emotions the human heart can simultaneously experience. Following Ivan's surgery, we felt grateful, concerned, exhausted, and relieved. </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan on the other hand just felt pretty miserable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Monday late afternoon we headed down to St. Louis. We enjoyed a delicious meal at Dewey's Pizza, which we highly recommend! Ivan was a big fan of the chef who kept throwing pizza rings at the window!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We arrived at the hospital early on Tuesday and had an incredibly smooth surgery prep. Ivan was a pro and seemed fairly relaxed given the surroundings, lack of food, and new experiences. We were so grateful that Ryan was able to take Ivan back to the OR. Ivan gave Mommy hugs and a kiss and went back to the OR with Daddy and Lambie. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ivan was in surgery for approximately an hour and a half, then was in recovery for about half an hour before we were able to see him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan was pretty upset when we arrived in his recovery room. It was pretty clear he didn't feel well. It became apparent moments later that he did not like his cast...not one bit. He kept asking for it to come off. When we told him that it had to stay on for a while, he just dissolved into more tears. While it was of little consolation to Ivan at the time, Lambie came out of surgery with a matching red cast. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Due to the anesthetic and pain medications, Ivan kept drifting in and out of sleep. He was able to drink a juice box and a couple crackers...however, they later came up all over Mommy. More tears. The surgeon reported that the surgery was very successful and we have every reason to believe that Ivan's wrist will experience greater function in the coming months and years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When Ivan had calmed down, we were released and headed home with a popcorn bowl for possible future vomiting. Ivan slept most of the trip home. We encouraged him to eat a little ice cream (hospital's suggestion to relieve the throat irritation he experienced due to being intubated) and macaroni and cheese (his fave). He did eat a bit of both...but alas, both made a reappearance as we were driving...unfortunately the popcorn bowl was a bit late in making it to the scene, so Ivan's carseat caught the brunt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We eventually made it home, much to everyone's relief. Ivan was quite subdued, but enjoyed his cars and track. Ivan did eat some dinner. But I'm sure you can guess what happened next...Yep, it came back up. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ivan seemed to be about 90% of his usual joyful self today. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We've had some precious moments with him, and he continues to astound us with his grit and adaptability. Ivan jumped on his sit-and-spin this morning and twirled with one hand. He also prayed before breakfast with his usual fervor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We would appreciate continued prayers for Ivan's recovery, healing of his arm, and greater motion and function. We are appreciative of the thoughtful calls, messages, and cards from family and friends. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-79282632119673188382017-03-05T19:43:00.001-08:002017-03-05T19:46:47.012-08:006 months and counting!!!<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As with so many things these days, finding time
to complete a blog update has been challenging. Both Ryan and I have been
working on this particular update for over two weeks. We meant to share the
update on August 20, marking exactly six months home. But as they say, better
late than never...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So where to begin? It's certainly hard to believe
Ivan has been home for 6 months now. Let's see who can decipher some
things Ivan says? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">High bibe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">homem<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">good dob<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">hoomm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">boomba (this has a double meaning.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'll translate in a bit...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since our last update, we've had some highlights (in no particular order):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">CHRISTMAS</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If Ivan allowed it, Christmas would be a multi-day event, just to unwrap his presents. When he would unwrap a present, he would be enthralled with it for an extended period of time. You'd think we were twisting his arm to open another gift. :) He was also able to meet all of his cousins and aunts and uncles. This was truly a joy to see. "Jingle Bells" became a seasonal favorite. When he's in a good mood, we still hear a little jingle...especially if he picks up the tambourine or maracas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IYaqxfL-6SqMrR9pN_wPsb6LGgQeFnOH1jiQXwnK7cFcj4X1s3-lDCa2kq0lxVd3e_RikPwk3IbiKbjm94VLRD4St6WhQxUV43cHyJpVJdeFSOjlaTMHS9MIuCppgKYgqs4VSBU_X3A/s1600/IMG_2773.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IYaqxfL-6SqMrR9pN_wPsb6LGgQeFnOH1jiQXwnK7cFcj4X1s3-lDCa2kq0lxVd3e_RikPwk3IbiKbjm94VLRD4St6WhQxUV43cHyJpVJdeFSOjlaTMHS9MIuCppgKYgqs4VSBU_X3A/s320/IMG_2773.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Picking out our Christmas tree...this one was a three-fer...two larger main branches and one baby branch all coming from one stump...it seemed perfect for our family this year!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DROVE A TRACTOR BY HIMSELF</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some people would be horrified that a parent would allow their 2 year old child to drive a massive, high horsepower, dust making machine. He has mastered it though. Full of confidence and able to overcome any obstacle in his path.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzVCMMwKUa28Iz2QY5uTjrRfhMq_TTAOer71CMYUy_2rgBv1kCxDuvZPOX6dNfBzXQYTLIun9SETiAqzIK4' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He loves to pick up sticks! And pose for pictures! :)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">TRIP TO FLORIDA</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in December, Lindsey and I decided we'd try to take a trip to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We wound up in Florida last month! After our last flying experience with Ivan, we were understandably uneasy about revisiting that, but, once again, our boy was the star of the day! He charmed our fellow flyers around us, we should of known. FYI to any parents of toddlers out there, you can check a stroller or carseat for free on any domestic airline! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Once at our rental house, we took Ivan to the beach before sunset. It was pretty breezy and a little cool, so first impressions were undetermined.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The following days consisted of scooping sand into a bucket, pouring it out, scooping more sand into the same bucket, pouring it out, more scooping, more dumping, repeat.........</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He was one happy beach boy</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">POTTY TRAINING</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We are slowly making progress toward potty
training. Ivan does an excellent job sitting on the potty, wiping, and
pretending to flush. He pretty much has the process down except actually going
potty...in the potty. :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Looks like he's got it down,
eh?!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">ANOTHER FIRST<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ivan experienced another first...his first trip
to the hospital ER. In the early morning hours one Sunday, Ivan experienced a
febrile seizure. It was very frightening for all of us, but thankfully we
were both in his room when it occurred. It was discovered he had bronciolitis
and an ear infection. After leaving the hospital, we stopped at McDonalds and
Ivan ate hotcakes with the best of 'em. He rebounded from the entire ordeal
very well and you wouldn't have even known he was under the weather. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">OTHER DAY-TO-DAY JOYS</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->We can't get enough of watching our precious boy
pray with such fervor and earnestness. We pray he may always have a
closeness with and readiness to talk to Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Enjoying Ivan's affection! Ivan is a hugger,
kisser, and high-fiver. He is quick to give a kiss to Mommy and
loves wrestling with Daddy. He continues his friendship with Lambie,
BearBear, and Moose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt .5in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">•<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Watching Ivan's love for tractors and all-things
with wheels. He is instinctively drawn to anything he can drive, and loves to
ride along with Daddy on the farm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">UPCOMING<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ivan will be having surgery on Tuesday on
his left arm. He will be in a cast for six weeks, followed by a removable brace
for a number of months. We would appreciate prayers for a safe and successful
surgery, quick recovery, and great outcome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">LAST THING...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You've waited for interpretation of our
Ivan-isms...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">High vibe - HIGH FIVE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bay - LAMBIE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">homem - HOME<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">good dob - GOOD JOB!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">hoomm - PLEASE!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">boomba (this has a double meaning.) - BE
BACK! or DIAPER<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-81356550393872953782016-10-20T06:22:00.000-07:002016-10-20T06:22:06.818-07:00Two months home<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Two months seems like a flash, but China seems like an eternity ago. I don't know if it would be possible for Ivan to be doing any better....as I type this he's crying...so there's room for improvement at this moment...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I'd mentioned in a previous blog, Ivan has been favoring Lindsey, which is a good thing. He is saying some words like Dada and Mama, Thank you, and more. He sings songs to us like Jesus loves you, We will rock you, and the ABCs. Though you have to pick up the tune, because the words aren't discernible. He can also count to 10, but it's the same word for 1-6, then 7 is a two syllable mumble, 8 & 9 are the same word as 1-6, but 10 is an excited squeal!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He loves having visitors and being around other people. Lindsey and Ivan have gotten out and about more in the last month. We've been to church as a family 3 times now and he's done awesome every time. We do need to work on being quiet though...2 out of 3 services were good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An update from previous blogs on Ivan's car sickness. After the second car seat cleanup session, we decided to place his seat in the middle of the back seat and we also tried little wristbands (called Seabands) which have a hard dot in one spot which is supposed to push a pressure point in the wrist to ease nausea. One or both of them was successful. Ivan hasn't vomited in the car since and he wants to put the wristbands on whenever he gets in his seat now. He's likes routines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last weekend Lindsey had her 10 year college reunion in Indiana, which many of her close friends would be attending. We struggled with the decision of whether or not Ivan was ready for a road trip and sleeping in a different crib/home. He wasn't phased one bit. Played with his cousins and slept nearly as good as he did at home. Whenever we have fear of exposing Ivan to something new, we try it and he does exceptionally well. He's amazing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since harvest has been in full swing for the last month, I haven't been able to see Ivan as much as I'd like. Maybe a couple hours a day at the most, unless Lin and Ivan come by for a farm visit, which they've been doing. There have been a few times where Lin has left Ivan with me on the farm for a few hours if she has some errands or an appointment she needs to go to. It leaves Ivan in tears every time, which I struggle to understand why. We're always happy at home together, but anytime Lindsey leaves, the world is ending. Mentally, I know he is heavily attached to Lindsey, she has been meeting nearly all of his needs since we arrived home, but he sees me at home, I prepare some of his meals and bath him, change clothes, diapers, play, etc. Emotionally though it can be hurtful at times. I realize he is doing nothing intentional and we do have a lot of fun together most of the time. As I was sitting in church a few weeks ago, my mind drifted slightly away from the sermon...true confessions...I was thinking about how I wanted Ivan to desire to be with me and not be afraid of me or at least minimize the fear of being without Lindsey every moment. Time is what we need together, I realize this, it's just a bad time of the year for that to happen consistently. My mind then began to parallel those thoughts with God. He is a good Father. He loves his sons and daughters. But so many of us don't seek Him or want to be with Him. I actually think I've caught a glimpse of some of the sadness God might feel because we, as His children, don't seek Him or acknowledge Him as we should. Me included. He desires to be in our lives, just as I desire to be in Ivan's, but neither He nor I can force our children to desire our presence or involvement in their lives. Thankfully in my case, this is just a season, but in God's case, it can be eternity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some highlights from the past two months:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Helping on the Farm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Testing moisture</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of the corn</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Unloading the semi</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dinner in the field</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First solo semi ride with Daddy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Visits with grandparents, cousins, and family</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Family weiner roast</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9RL62Npx7O9rSOoM6YyM5j850oHDIvqqpVEhyphenhyphenKzNjWh4P3NVLi5aiVjxcm2N9QYkLdbnPg78UGrHIKmk9Eql0pmiwrhXKniQDoTzpDHgwibph0qOhLb1Lnhztl8EOPhaR3xgDIrlmFk/s1600/DSC_0044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9RL62Npx7O9rSOoM6YyM5j850oHDIvqqpVEhyphenhyphenKzNjWh4P3NVLi5aiVjxcm2N9QYkLdbnPg78UGrHIKmk9Eql0pmiwrhXKniQDoTzpDHgwibph0qOhLb1Lnhztl8EOPhaR3xgDIrlmFk/s320/DSC_0044.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Celebrating Daddy's birthday</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan's first haircut</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A customer-in-training at HyVee</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Time at Taylor with friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Ivan and Mommy being showered by some of Mommy's nearest and dearest from college</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-33906475992723960142016-09-06T20:05:00.001-07:002016-09-06T20:06:25.085-07:00The slow rise<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Week 2 is in the bag. Ivan continues to dazzle us with his sweet smile and giggle. Tough days are even fewer this week than last, and I think his sleep is about where it should be. One noticeable change has been Ivan's deepening connection with Lindsey. Which means daddy, who once was preferred, now gets the cold shoulder. This is how it's supposed to be though, right? Lindsey has been with him daily for a couple weeks now as I've returned to the farm. I've noticed, this week especially, that if Daddy leaves the room, or goes outside, or drives away...no big. Ivan just waves...and says, don't let the door hit you on the way out... j/k. But when Mommy walks into the next room, still within eyesight, you'd think the boys beloved toy or pet was just destroyed right in front of him. That may have been stretched, but not much. This is actually a very good sign. It shows that our little guy's attachment is growing and his connection with us is deepening. For this we are very happy. Something we've prayed for for months.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some sweet moments from this week included a gift of a teddy bear from Lindsey's friend Kristie. Ivan saw the bear and instantly wanted to hold him. Shortly after was naptime and Ivan wanted to take Bear to bed with him. As Lindsey laid Ivan down, Ivan laid Bear down next to him and pulled the sheet up that would typically cover Ivan, onto Bear. Then as Lindsey rubbed Ivan's back, Ivan rubbed Bear's back to help Bear fall asleep. Too stinkin sweet!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some highlights from the week also included visits from the grandparents. Ivan has been doing pretty well adjusting to our home and the routine we've put in place for him, but we've intentionally not had many visitors yet, to help facilitate Ivan's adjustment to us and home. We would like to thank everyone for being so patient and respecting our wishes in this, but we thought Ivan has been doing so well, it's time for Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa to make visit! In doing so we've decided Ivan may have a pretty social side also. He beamed when they came over and he had a great time! He was loving the attention and new faces, though he'd seen them before, he was thrilled to have new company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan also took his first tractor ride this week...figured why wait? I'd say there were mixed reviews. Mainly because Mommy was not a co-pilot on this ride. We worked through the tears and decided in the end that maybe it wasn't so bad. Daddy will be persistent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One undelightful event was Ivan's second car ride, while awake. Lindsey was taking me to pick up a piece of machinery about 30 minutes from home. I was playing with Ivan and he was giggling and laughing. Seemingly having a ball, just before he unloaded lunch all down his front. So two car rides this week and two removals of the carseat to clean the vomit probably means this little guy gets carsick. Not the best news when you live 15 minutes from the nearest town. We're going to try a few things to see if we can improve his endurance, but truthfully, he's probably not ridden in cars more than 2-3 times in his life before meeting us, so it could just take some time.</span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-88865359158728659842016-08-29T19:17:00.000-07:002016-08-29T19:17:00.272-07:00Week One in Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our first week at home has been all about one thing - adjustment. Adjusting our sleep cycles, adjusting our lifestyles, helping Ivan adjust to his new home, and working to develop a strong attachment and connection with Ivan (the latter three are still very much ongoing). When I think about the week in its entirety, overall the week went better than I probably expected. Of course our first few days home started with the misery of overcoming jet lag. At one point Ivan had been up from 12:30AM to 12:30PM without any sleep, just in an effort to get his sleep on track. However, with keeping to a schedule and the help of a little Benadryl (We were desperate!!), Ivan's sleep has pretty much come onto US Central Time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were awesome days. At one point I was feeling pretty excited about how fast Ivan seemed to be adjusting emotionally. I should have known better! Friday and Saturday reassured us that he is still very much in the midst of emotionally processing and adjusting. Plus he's two. And life is tough when you're two. Ryan and I must also remember that our own processing of this change is definitely affecting him as well. Staying at home during the day with Ivan has raised various feelings for me - gratitude, joy, frustration, fear, to name a few. Thankfully, the joy and gratitude outweigh my moments of frustration. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some glimpses into our past week:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan enjoying a ride in the bike cart</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan mowing with Daddy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan playing at a nearby secluded church playground</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan's first pancake breakfast</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We have learned...You can take the boy out of the noodle-loving country, but you can't take the noodle-love out of the boy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And yet another...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then there are the chickens. He loves them. They are his first feathered friends</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sadly, his affection is not reciprocated. I'm sure with time they'll come around, Ivan.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpUC9EaEe4UTni5Q8OQIbvhJcIwscOlqS68YQ46iM43C88BEYoHjElgF7uZBziyb1rt26ZUJYuUonD6CEDlUpXoym0PRedl4gdi4JA6KyuvFtabLf8FzxZrRLM0FcfZXcfaDvrEQVZeU/s1600/IMG_2045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpUC9EaEe4UTni5Q8OQIbvhJcIwscOlqS68YQ46iM43C88BEYoHjElgF7uZBziyb1rt26ZUJYuUonD6CEDlUpXoym0PRedl4gdi4JA6KyuvFtabLf8FzxZrRLM0FcfZXcfaDvrEQVZeU/s320/IMG_2045.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Come back, Guys!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On Sunday, Ryan and I decided we needed some spiritual and social input. We took turns going to different services while Ivan made the car-trip to Quincy and back, but didn't leave the car. Unfortunately, this may have contributed to the following events:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As Ivan and I arrived at church, he was starting to fuss a little and spit up just a bit. We cleaned it right up and Ryan and I switched places. However, Ivan became quite fussy as they were en route. Not once, not twice, but THREE times he threw up. Ryan pulled over and did a preliminary job of cleaning Ivan. They proceeded home, striped down, and left the carseat in the car for Mommy! ;) The least I could do. Poor Ryan can only take so much vomit. Here's what Ivan thought of the whole deal. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhADZrzc4d6w3l3Dmbu0HbMBLQTnPMxGkosCcyeOnrcRXpsGUPKIdqoZZmXCFL19RdtvtQijWDxOYxP2v9ODGGFiKMkUATTB7VZyXmpFsTQmiwjxhkmDrj5mu3E7yQMr4LDRYu6V7uxGP4/s1600/IMG_2073.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhADZrzc4d6w3l3Dmbu0HbMBLQTnPMxGkosCcyeOnrcRXpsGUPKIdqoZZmXCFL19RdtvtQijWDxOYxP2v9ODGGFiKMkUATTB7VZyXmpFsTQmiwjxhkmDrj5mu3E7yQMr4LDRYu6V7uxGP4/s320/IMG_2073.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thankfully things turned up and he was squeaky clean by today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94qunp_3P1PndmemBjo7U6kjWI0AtFuAjEoa3mX2X05MLe2amakUn0AEtU1f2r8noE5slNcqFbKhgZl7o_UbQSdRbTOImeBsE4-c7yH3hoWGAbl6M2O4C2_yT7pxNMLY8ohA877XCZdQ/s1600/Ivan+in+bubble+bath+edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94qunp_3P1PndmemBjo7U6kjWI0AtFuAjEoa3mX2X05MLe2amakUn0AEtU1f2r8noE5slNcqFbKhgZl7o_UbQSdRbTOImeBsE4-c7yH3hoWGAbl6M2O4C2_yT7pxNMLY8ohA877XCZdQ/s320/Ivan+in+bubble+bath+edited.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are knee-deep into week two at home, and we would appreciate continued prayers for Ivan's emotional adjustment, our emotional adjustment, security in attachment, and God's presence in the midst. We love you! Soli Deo Gloria!</span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-52449860762426104642016-08-21T14:16:00.003-07:002016-08-21T14:16:25.059-07:00Nocturnal...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We have arrived at home! A list of a few things we've done in the last 24 hours would be sleep, ride a train, eat, play, and cry. All these things are pretty normal in the home of a two year old, we've just decided to do them at unconventional times of the day and night. As Lindsey said a couple days ago, we arrived in Chicago a day earlier than we'd expected...pretty sure that was my fault, got confused on the international date line + flight times... oh well. So we spent our first night as three Americans in Chi-town. Ivan went to sleep around 8pm...parents felt pretty good about that...we get a wake up call from the crib at 2:00am...Jenga!! So the new family of three is playing with hot wheels and mega blocks until about about 4am when we put him back in the crib...because we wanted to be up by 6am to make our train. That resulted in a child crying in his crib until mom or dad brought him into bed with them. Fyi, it's virtually impossible to sleep with a 2 year in bed with you. He's moving all the time, rotating, pushing, whipping, squirming...and thankfully sleeping too, somehow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So the adults are up at 6, bags get packed, again, boy gets put in the carrier, we're headed out the door. We meet up with my parents and Lindsey's parents to all ride the train home together. At Union Station, I was able to reward my body with some extremely delicious hot cakes from the internationally renowned golden arches. Once on the train, Ivan did great. Of course, he was the star of the trip. Our parents were great, it was so nice of them to come up and spend time with us before we cocoon into our home together.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3rtI5f9ElB0flB4jT9jqQxQGkUOYAk0TzRn2XWUr9fL84sEkug-bRmn6q5iXMHiQXX-u_fnvVEJHxn6VdwKhBbzs1lkkleuHdOB6qrGGU3IYEgRcEnX4HIfXr1URlI9oKpmHvn5ObPzg/s1600/DSC_0077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3rtI5f9ElB0flB4jT9jqQxQGkUOYAk0TzRn2XWUr9fL84sEkug-bRmn6q5iXMHiQXX-u_fnvVEJHxn6VdwKhBbzs1lkkleuHdOB6qrGGU3IYEgRcEnX4HIfXr1URlI9oKpmHvn5ObPzg/s320/DSC_0077.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we arrived in Macomb, we were blessed to see many familiar faces! We are so thankful for you guys! We hope to see everybody again soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then it was time for our first ride in Mommy's car and a car seat... Things went surprisingly well. We made it 20 minutes in good spirits, then a touch of fuss, and then lights out.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDa8D0WdP3db-iguLthyanImcKLoKHpn75y88DQxf8QO9aGOG5syyLosDObHxASH2ZFhWc_01Y7jMhARk8ikf90W2ECUQjuU-VLWwBd0d12imjNKnbHoohMNaQDsZDlyMHxMslmLR_7hg/s1600/IMG_2002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDa8D0WdP3db-iguLthyanImcKLoKHpn75y88DQxf8QO9aGOG5syyLosDObHxASH2ZFhWc_01Y7jMhARk8ikf90W2ECUQjuU-VLWwBd0d12imjNKnbHoohMNaQDsZDlyMHxMslmLR_7hg/s320/IMG_2002.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once home we unloaded the car, put the boy down for a nap and started unloading the bags. One bag had an oatmeal explosion. Oatmeal in the clothes, in the toys, and in Lindsey's blow dryer. Around 2 we woke Ivan up, who wasn't too keen on that decision, but eventually came around. We played the rest of the afternoon inside and out. He walked in grass, for I assume the first time, and we walked down the driveway along the first cornfield he's seen up close. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgG_jDXOQSNIeGemwn5SN8mY7QbdiiospWuLPi-7iQjll-lu15kO-4gA2PKMY9uIbKhcTBMsLSNYDoWT4aOKYI3_Qm1Vy7ycdH7yd_4lB3n6-Aqfo4BcBBG2WTgF3Txf7yyL-YCQiCOM/s1600/IMG_2004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgG_jDXOQSNIeGemwn5SN8mY7QbdiiospWuLPi-7iQjll-lu15kO-4gA2PKMY9uIbKhcTBMsLSNYDoWT4aOKYI3_Qm1Vy7ycdH7yd_4lB3n6-Aqfo4BcBBG2WTgF3Txf7yyL-YCQiCOM/s320/IMG_2004.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The evening consisted of noodles, bath, and book reading. We laid him down around 7pm, thinking, we're good, we're kicking this time change thing in the pants. We'll have him on the right schedule in no time... Well, no time became 1:30am and he was awake and chipper. I finally decided I'd get up with him for a little play time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpeB7jeayLGQBJhnAHWlcvVjMk2NYuJyWb3pnQWsZH4heqG6Vr33NdkdAD6KMSm8i7-Q2s1v-x5zAN4oMg_6txvn9P0lx-IMPfEBwCOpVPzHGLhjEande3QjLirsKN5ZavVUeUR-hgwA/s1600/IMG_0829.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpeB7jeayLGQBJhnAHWlcvVjMk2NYuJyWb3pnQWsZH4heqG6Vr33NdkdAD6KMSm8i7-Q2s1v-x5zAN4oMg_6txvn9P0lx-IMPfEBwCOpVPzHGLhjEande3QjLirsKN5ZavVUeUR-hgwA/s320/IMG_0829.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A happy carpet mower at 2am.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lindsey got up a short while later and we folded laundry, played with blocks, and do what normal toddlers do at 2pm, not 2am. So around 4ish am we decided to try bed again. That was a failure initially. He whimpered and cried off and on until 5, then we decided to pull him into bed with us...you think we'd learn. It worked. Daddy was asleep, Mommy was asleep, and Ivan was asleep. Asleep so well in fact, that we woke up at 2pm. No kidding. I can honestly say I don't know if I've ever slept until 2pm in my life. But I did some thinking, since waking up Friday morning...which would have been 6pm Thursday evening in the US, Lindsey and I have gotten maybe 6 hours of sleep. Still, no excuse, and this totally blew our sleep schedule plan up for Ivan. But we'll get on the right track. Learned lesson...we'll set alarm clocks for awhile now. Lindsey did ask about that last night...I said no, there's no way we'll sleep late... :)</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-26177582046889894662016-08-19T18:18:00.002-07:002016-08-19T18:18:56.105-07:00Surprise! Unexpected pitstop in Chicago<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">About five hours from the end of our flight from Beijing (or seven hours into it), Ryan and I started to do some math in our heads. The estimated length of our flight was not adding up to the time difference we had planned. From our itinerary we had planned to leave Hong Kong and fly to Beijing for a brief layover, then fly to Chicago. According to our original planning, we would arrive at 1:20PM on Saturday. But during the flight the math wasn't adding up. We soon realized we would be arriving on FRIDAY not Saturday! Whoops! We're not sure how the original error was made, but here we are...in Chicago...on FRIDAY! Thankfully our parents were already here in order to greet us tomorrow, and just advanced their plans to get to the airport this afternoon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our first flight was alright. Ivan was a bit cranky from being woken up at 5:00AM to go to the airport. However, he rebounded beautifully during our layover and we were hopeful the flight from Beijing to Chicago would go well. My, my, were we wrong. Ivan did not like being restrained in his own seat and he let everyone know. He cried and screamed. Screamed and cried. At one point I asked Ryan if the fight was going better than how he thought it would or not. His response was "Worse". Ivan was able to be rocked to sleep when the cabin lights dimmed and remained asleep until we landed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Starting the flight</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ending the flight</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we made it through customs and immigration, we were greeted by our parents!! What a happy sight! We made it! *Sigh of relief*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So our adjusted plan is to spend the night here in Chicago and take the Amktrak train home tomorrow, Saturday morning, and arrive at Macomb at 10:58AM. We are looking forward to getting settled in at home! And not lugging around all of our baggage will be nice too! ;)</span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-42300063206328566112016-08-18T06:29:00.003-07:002016-08-18T06:33:17.317-07:00Last pit stop...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hello faithful followers,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lin, Ivan, and I have made it to our cubicle in Hong Kong for the night. Last night our boy slept a solid 12 hours again. Love it! We had breakfast, packed up our final items, and headed for the train station that would take us to Hong Kong. Ivan did very well for the first 5 minutes of the ride, then decided he needed to be out of the carrier strapping him and Lindsey together and if he couldn't get out, then he'd be sure and let everyone in the car know of his displeasure and misery. All was well. Upon arriving at the station, a gentleman with a dolly promptly asked if we'd like his help with our bags. He had no official markings of any kind and his cart was pretty wispy for the luggage we had, but I said sure, throw em on! He did however help us find our way through the station and upon arrival at our gate and unloading the bags let me know he charged 100Y for his services. 6 minutes of minor work. Keep in mind the 20 min cab ride across town just cost 60Y. I held up a 20 and said I'm feeling generous today. You would of thought I insulted his mother. At any rate, after much chatter, 90% from him, and me still offering the 20, we settled on 25 just to get him to leave. A short while later we boarded the train and made the 2 hour trip to Hong Kong. We left at noon, which is about when Ivan takes his nap, and he was still wide awake at 2:45. He had a great time playing (mostly with Lin) on the train. He did fall asleep in the taxi to the hotel, but only slept 30-40 min. He woke up in our room a short while later and never looked back. There weren't many options for food near the hotel, as in none, so Lin and Ivan had noodles and I had a sandwich from 7/11. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have to say, I think Ivan has really been coming around the last couple days. For the first week or so, he would always want to be held when in our hotel room. But if we were in the airport or in a store, he was happy to get down and run around. Seemed reverse of what you'd expect. But the last few days he's been roaming around our rooms and content to sit by himself. When we're in public, he's happy to run a few feet away from Lin or I, but then turn around and run back to us. We feel and hope that these are positive signs of a growing connection and dependence. We're very thankful parents.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So tomorrow morning we'll be up by 5 to head for a 7:40 flight to Beijing, then on home to O'hare. I fully expect some meltdowns on the plane, we'll attempt to battle them with snacks. If anyone would like to greet us upon arrival, we'll be arriving at O'hare at 1:20. We'll also be riding the train down to Macomb and will arrive there around 9pm something if that's of interest.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thank you for your prayers! We ask that you continue to pray for us as we travel home. That we could be a blessing to those we encounter along the way and that Gods light would shine through us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sorry , no pics this time... :(. But stay tuned!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-55025132164902069682016-08-17T06:08:00.000-07:002016-08-17T06:08:11.593-07:00A case of the giggles...<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today our boy shined. There was nothing
particularly special about today. In fact, it was quite uneventful. But for
precisely this reason, he was free to be himself. With almost nowhere to be,
nothing we had to, no set agenda, all three of us meandered through today,
being sure to keep the cornerstones of nap, meal, and bath times in place. And
it was delightful to see his little spirit shine. Smiles and laughter were
bountiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This morning we took our time cuddling with Ivan in
bed, eating cheerios, and Face-timing family. At breakfast we met another
adoptive family, far more seasoned than us with eight children (most adopted)
already at home. Then we played in our room before taking a stroll around the
island and playing on a playground. Ivan loved running around and playing
around the other children. There were many groups of adults dancing,
practicing Tai Chi, and singing around the island park. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After lunch and a long nap, we headed out to what's commonly known as the Pearl Market to pick up a small item for me. We had been there previously with our group and guide, but I had decided later what I really wanted - a small pearl charm to add to a necklace my parents gave me right before our trip here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Upon returning to our hotel, Ivan continued to savor just playing with us in the room. At 4:30PM we met our guide who had Ivan's visa and passport along with some immigration paperwork ready for us. We can officially head home!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the small walk back to our hotel from meeting our guide, we noticed Ryan was being not-so-secretly included in the selfie of a girl walking just ahead of us. Ryan noticed too, and as she was taking the shot he gave a big wink! ;) The girl was caught and just started laughing. We offered to get her picture with Ryan (who as carrying Ivan) and she and two friends excitedly accepted! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was more noodles for dinner, playing, then bath time. Before bed Ryan kept throwing Ivan in the air. Sweet boy can't get enough of it. And I think Ivan liked it too! ;) Here's a peak -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tomorrow morning we pack up and start the slow journey home, via Hong Kong. We are excited to get home and settle Ivan in. </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-75697376880343363562016-08-16T06:21:00.000-07:002016-08-16T06:21:39.360-07:00Consulate Appointment and a Break-through<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This morning was our consulate appointment. This allows Ivan to get a visa for his Chinese passport to come to the U.S. Eventually this process will result in Ivan receiving a social security card as well. Unfortunately, no cameras or electronics were allowed in the consulate, so we don't have any pictures of the experience. However, we did have the opportunity to talk to many other adoptive families as well as get to know an American couple who are in Guangzhou doing ministry and teaching English. They were at the office filing some paperwork (non-adoption related) and we hit it off! We found out they were being considered to foster two special needs children that were in one of our agency's partnership orphanages! Small world!! Our meeting felt providential. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the drive home (aka our hotel room), Ivan fell asleep and was out for a solid two hours. When he awoke he was a little fussy because he didn't get a full lunch in prior to his nap. Once his belly was full, he was jovial once again. In fact, he helped me have a break-through of my own...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In my entire life, I cannot recall eating a Cheerio. Ever. My parents may dispute this statement, as they may remember events which occurred prior to my conscious memory. However, to my knowledge I have never had one donut of rolled oats. In fact, many may be surprised to find out that I have had a (nearly) lifelong aversion to Cheerios. They smell weird. I don't even really like touching them. I know...very strange. This really is my only aversion in life...but when it comes to cereals, I'm a little quirky anyway. I don't like most cereals and I NEVER have milk mixed with cereal. Perish the thought! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But today Ivan gave me a bit of my own medicine. We had one session of Exposure Therapy. Yes, I was faced with my greatest fear...having to not only touch but EAT a Cheerio. And friends, I can say with a glad heart, that I overcame that fear with the help of my two-year-old son. When your precious, smiling, dimple-clad boy offers you a Cheerio, you just can't turn him down. And here is the proof...please forgive the weird cameral angles as Ryan was covertly trying to video this interaction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As you may have noticed, he also learned to high-five today, which he does with vigor! :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The rest of the afternoon was laid-back playing in our room and in the hotel's playroom. It was nice to see that during a less hectic afternoon with less stimulation, Ivan seemed to thrive. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Both Ryan and I are feeling the pull of home more strongly these days. We have one more full day here in Guangzhou before we pack up and head to Hong Kong on Thursday. Early Friday morning we fly out and head home! I can honestly say, however, that I will miss China. Not so much the difficulty finding food we want to eat, or all the honking, or all the stares (this could be a blog post all its own!). But it's been absolutely wonderful to spend so much time with Ryan...seeing him all day for over two weeks straight has never happened before in the course of our relationship. And this is where we met our first baby. Besides that, the people here are beautiful and industrious, and I find the culture very intriguing. China will always hold a special place in my heart. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-27228037675416975672016-08-15T16:38:00.002-07:002016-08-15T16:39:57.838-07:00The Ebb and Flow<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The absence of yesterday's post was primarily due to the exhaustion both Ryan and I felt. Yesterday (Sunday) pretty well wiped us out. We had a nice time with our Madison group (two other families plus us). We did a little sightseeing and shopping in the morning. Visited a pearl wholesale market along with some outdoor venders. Fun fact, supposedly 90% of the worlds pearls originate in China. You can verify that on your own. In the open market we saw some pretty interesting items for sale. Live scorpions, turtles of all sizes, shark/fish/sting ray things, dogs, cats, birds, plus the hundreds of vendors selling spices and odd soup ingredients. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmW5P6v6EozIfcG0ITfPoFkE8zH9DTbM-XJiDizQNYtTejE4PQzh9yhloDFr4FuMuBMB4F_3JBXUA72CWIH2htPAS8etP_c6srTO7puWOcAnUNHe2lu-R6NyYqmh_IhGauhN_kOTYZA0/s1600/IMG_0800.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAmW5P6v6EozIfcG0ITfPoFkE8zH9DTbM-XJiDizQNYtTejE4PQzh9yhloDFr4FuMuBMB4F_3JBXUA72CWIH2htPAS8etP_c6srTO7puWOcAnUNHe2lu-R6NyYqmh_IhGauhN_kOTYZA0/s320/IMG_0800.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">turtles</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCyhzsn_VIg956Dhw06Ck36XKsm2h6urSftZ6lQjxRxccynZe4OhztYgF50GfjxUrZXNbl3Q4xBdKyf8c3A1vbjtwWLfovXWKTEu5btrjnkFkcO0YmvillkT27JbgjPd5TlfdMQVNGoYo/s1600/IMG_0803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCyhzsn_VIg956Dhw06Ck36XKsm2h6urSftZ6lQjxRxccynZe4OhztYgF50GfjxUrZXNbl3Q4xBdKyf8c3A1vbjtwWLfovXWKTEu5btrjnkFkcO0YmvillkT27JbgjPd5TlfdMQVNGoYo/s320/IMG_0803.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">tiny scorpions</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk4pBUQLdUFcuj0BXcI5yxfisNf_2ZmmAz1A9Tm7-PLLxITX7Hj3fMvuEohSvES7Vtx6cAk4Myd3cKXIle-Px_RYik_ZYP7Gpdr9xAGkE_QzphyphenhyphenlJS5CuJnImgjO9doyaPpMfyagtp64c/s1600/IMG_0801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk4pBUQLdUFcuj0BXcI5yxfisNf_2ZmmAz1A9Tm7-PLLxITX7Hj3fMvuEohSvES7Vtx6cAk4Myd3cKXIle-Px_RYik_ZYP7Gpdr9xAGkE_QzphyphenhyphenlJS5CuJnImgjO9doyaPpMfyagtp64c/s320/IMG_0801.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sting ray type things</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7mxi4AW0jUEniHZcQwwcBNvta9DQ3T1WzPMnAPKrbLXj0YN9xDf6T1ZJAp2I6vKSq0gSWAoPks5dinJO7_fghQ9fFexj_QOSuEusc02G0X-q3BweXc5iFRKQ0cC2Qj1pPDpMc_dIPcyE/s1600/IMG_0805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7mxi4AW0jUEniHZcQwwcBNvta9DQ3T1WzPMnAPKrbLXj0YN9xDf6T1ZJAp2I6vKSq0gSWAoPks5dinJO7_fghQ9fFexj_QOSuEusc02G0X-q3BweXc5iFRKQ0cC2Qj1pPDpMc_dIPcyE/s320/IMG_0805.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan was having a great time. He was running around with the other kids in the group and walking along the sidewalk having a blast. But this new momma and daddy overlooked the need to make sure Ivan didn't get super hungry. So at a little after noon, with only a light breakfast in his tummy and his nap time already past, and just as our group was in the cutest little store, Ivan began having a serious meltdown. When I say meltdown, I mean nuclear. I'm sure the many Chinese families we passed seriously questioned our treatment of the child. By the grace of God, the area we were visiting in Guangzhou was two blocks from our hotel, so Ryan and I split off from the group and headed for our room. We eventually recovered, fed our boy, had a nap, and regrouped. We tried a small outing that afternoon back to the same shop two blocks away and Ivan again started to meltdown. We returned to our room and he was very content just playing with mommy and daddy. We decided we would try to run out to get dinner. Alas, we looked at several different restaurants before finding one that seemed like it would have food we could eat and by then it started raining. Ivan was doing well, we put in our order, the food came out and shortly thereafter meltdown #3 began. Thankfully, he and I stepped out of the restaurant for a few minutes and regrouped. It turned out to not be too bad. Ivan has taught us to be prepared with food and drink at any moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Monday brought about a fun plan to go see a Safari Park (zoo) in Guangzhou. Sure seemed like a great idea... Ryan, Ivan, and I had a good morning, had breakfast and spent a short time in the playroom in our hotel. The driver picked us up and as we headed out, there was a fight going on in the street, police were involved, people were shouting, some were being restrained, very scenic. So we pressed on. We picked up the other two families we'd been with the day before and headed to the zoo. It was a choppy ride. Our driver seemed extra vigilant in the stopping fast and accelerating fast department, even if we were only moving one car length in stop and go traffic, which was most of the time. Didn't help anybody with motion sickness. Alas, we arrived. We all agreed we needed to reconvene at 2:30 because naps were already being surpassed. As we were buying tickets, Ryan had Ivan in the carrier and he began getting fussy again. We started walking and it was escalating...becoming very reminiscent of the previous day. Ryan made it to a quieter spot and was able to calm him down some and he soon fell asleep. Which kind of stunk, because we went to the park so he could see some animals. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAemjZwpY8O3MCVRka1kFCQQePDTQkRNAFnQq9L8fErGEBVE6un3nUwo5kpBhGpDwg6tgsODmvsxAZTD9af-lBAsckXDX2gLK1E0x-TwvtoT1EPaUsqFgCqHWGd7O-SPcC8G4PvxThJo/s1600/IMG_1864.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAemjZwpY8O3MCVRka1kFCQQePDTQkRNAFnQq9L8fErGEBVE6un3nUwo5kpBhGpDwg6tgsODmvsxAZTD9af-lBAsckXDX2gLK1E0x-TwvtoT1EPaUsqFgCqHWGd7O-SPcC8G4PvxThJo/s320/IMG_1864.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But Ryan and I pressed on. We can prove to Ivan in later years that he was there, even though he didn't see most of the animals. There was a trolley ride that would take you around a different area of the zoo to show you many of the big animals. Ryan and I decided to do that, but on the way, it started to rain. It was starting to feel like a big failure of a zoo trip. We paused for 10 minutes or so then pressed on to the trolley.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once boarded on the trolley, Ivan began to wake up, and we were ready with snacks! He was the Cheerio king and could care less about the lions, tigers, giraffes, hippos, geese, wolves, etc... just cheerios, hardboiled egg, and a milk box. But he was having a good time with us, regardless of his interest in the animals. The trolley ride redeemed the zoo for Ryan and I.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We reunited with the group and headed back to our hotels. Ivan and I stayed in the room while Ryan ran some errands. He picked up a pizza for us and I made noodles for Ivan, who absolutely devoured them. It was really funny to see how excited he was for each bite!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All in all, I think we are getting a taste of the ebb and flow that most parents experience. Some days are great! Some days aren't. But we are extremely grateful for each moment and day with precious Ivan. I try to remind myself that even the crying and meltdowns are a blessing...it's in the meeting of his needs in these moments that he learns he can truly rely on us and trust us. This also parallels so much of our relationship with Christ. It's during the challenging, boat's-a-rockin', at-the-end-of-my-wits times that we relinquish control of our lives and experience actual reliance on Christ. Which is a beautiful place to be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">PS This post was written on Monday night but wasn't able to be posted until this (Tuesday) morning. This morning is our consulate appointment! </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-75873342483016448212016-08-13T06:14:00.000-07:002016-08-13T06:15:26.588-07:00Guangzhou<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We arrived in Guangzhou last night (Friday) around
9:30PM. Our guide, Richard, met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel,
The Victory, on Shaiman Island in Guangzhou. First order of business was
putting Ivan down for bed. He was tired and went down quickly. Unfortunately,
our room was a frigid 20 degrees Celsius...that's 68 degrees fahrenheit...and
Ivan woke up frozen. He spent the remainder of the night keeping us toasty in
bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This morning (Saturday) we met our guide and
another family to go complete Ivan's medical exam and complete paperwork for
our consulate appointment. Ivan really had no taste for the doctor nor
the TB blood test. To do the paperwork we went to the other family's hotel
suite and they generously shared their milk boxes (like a juice box) and snacks
with Ivan. In the midst of his water and juice boycott we discovered he LOVES
milk! Great! By the time we put him down tonight he had five of them! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This afternoon while Ivan napped we enjoyed Subway
subs on our room's balcony. Then we headed out to a mall our guide had told us
had good restaurants. We eventually found it, via an outdoor market selling
dried snakes, starfish, and sea horses. We picked up more milk boxes at
the grocery store and then had dinner. We chose dinner at a Mexican
restaurant. Funny enough, they gave us plastic gloves as an accompaniment to
our meal. Ivan became enthralled by the plastic glove and we are pretty
sure he may have a future as a lunch lady..err man. ;) The day ended in the
best way possible - Ryan joined Ivan in the tub and Ivan developed a love
(rather than his former hatred) for bath time! It really was a precious thing
to watch Ivan splash and play with the toys instead of sob. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All in all, today was a pretty simple day, but probably one of Ivan's
best so far. He definitely has a preference for Ryan at this point, but that
makes this Momma's heart happy! We have also noticed he is slightly less
clingy, and is more willing to walk short distances from us, then quickly
return back to us. This is a hopeful sign from an attachment standpoint. He
also had a couple instances of being overwhelmed/overly tired and melting to
the ground. We know that developing a secure attachment is a marathon,
and we aren't yet to the first mile marker. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Enjoying the play area at the airport in Nanjing</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Both my boys sporting their Case IH shirts at the airport</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At the medical exam</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My future lunch gentleman ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We finally learned to enjoy bath time! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just Ivan and Daddy</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-55683477017520523652016-08-11T08:07:00.001-07:002016-08-11T08:07:17.340-07:00More tears than smiles<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the last post stated, we're learning about Ivan. The learning doesn't stop there though, we're learning how to be parents, which can lead to some unique situations, at least for us.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I believe where we last left off, Lindsey said we were going to a little play place type area in a neighboring hotel yesterday. Ivan was just ok when we left. He was a little fussy, but provided a lot of cuddles to start the morning, very much enjoyed by Lin. For whatever reason, Ivan wasn't wanting much to do with me yesterday, so I missed out on the cuddles, but he made up for it later in this story. Upon arrival at the play place we found some tubs of wooden blocks, which turned out to be the jackpot for our guy. There were a few other kids there playing, which worked out good. Ivan interacted very well with them, other than he seemed to hoard the blocks, which I think is fairly normal for 2 yr olds. His mood improved a lot while there.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv0GDNEvkmozpwSXwXnhmBggojhxLW-Irvo9oIeJeaJDjvcby92Aq-9GeIMFU5YSM_lZEQPWWeBRbJ-F3S05zrOoLBfd-3vprezi7m1OPpDMLVcCCPo_OYRHo64QoOzoFpK_GhI0NJpys/s1600/IMG_0723.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv0GDNEvkmozpwSXwXnhmBggojhxLW-Irvo9oIeJeaJDjvcby92Aq-9GeIMFU5YSM_lZEQPWWeBRbJ-F3S05zrOoLBfd-3vprezi7m1OPpDMLVcCCPo_OYRHo64QoOzoFpK_GhI0NJpys/s320/IMG_0723.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After our block fun I treated my wife once again to the internationally acclaimed golden arches double quarter pounder with cheese. There were no disappointments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We returned to the hacienda and Ivan went down for a nap. When he awoke, Mr. Cranky pants was present. He just couldn't get it together so we watched a Daniel Tiger, which helped slightly. We're currently in a town called Nanjing, which has a lot of river canals and waterways. Apparently it's known as the Venice of Asia...but don't take my word for it. We decided we'd take a river cruise. It was a pretty ritzy boat, it even had a bucket in the back if you needed to relieve yourself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We chose to have some forced bonding time with Ivan in the baby carrier strapped to me and it actually went pretty well. He seems to do well when we're out and about moving around, which is a blessing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We then went to a local restaurant for supper and had chicken dumplings and noodles. The dumplings taste like chicken noodle soup. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We headed back to the room and Ivan needed a bath from all of the sweat he and I shared while bonding. The temps have been in the 90's every day here. That's where things took a turn for the worse. Bath time was not enjoyed by anyone, least of all Ivan. Then we moved to book reading time, which was fair, then bedtime, which really went south. He laid in bed for 45 minutes, which wasn't the norm from the previous two nights, and then around 11pm started crying, and crying, and crying. Lin was able to calm him for a while. He would drift off, then wake up balling again. We finally decided I would sleep a bit, then we'd switch off. So at some point in the night, we switched and he drifted off for quite a while. We slept in the same bed the rest of the night, which I'd imagine was a first for him. I doubt he's ever slept outside a crib before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So that leads me to Thursday morning. We had to be ready in our hotel lobby by 7am because we were visiting Ivan's orphanage today. Nothing helps a family get ready by 7 than having a rough night sleep, eh? We made it, but our little guy still wasn't too chipper. We piled into the van for our 3 hour drive. Once on the road, Ivan got happy. He was babbling and playing and would switch between Lin and I ever 45 min or so on his own. No carseats in China. A couple hours into the trip, Ivan was eating some crackers as a snack and washed them down with some water, then he snuggled onto my shoulder and relaxed nicely. I thought...this is great! Well, about 10 minutes from the orphanage, Ivan leans back and looks at me, then has a big burp...I said, "I bet that felt good"....then all the crackers and water chased that burp up! Covered my shirt and ran down onto my pants, front and back. I thought, yeah, this should make a good impression.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgenHaHgAW95Fs9KEXHa_C9lspYXm50VJRh_BxfXdextWlz9GfOM7TsUoGfuYYMdfypYUezSNcMly6d1PjznkOYyiT9ni2g4fBRWU2UzrWG8_4eIQmS5HsBCmtIqxYZsrV7dz8dIGmE2FI/s1600/IMG_1754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgenHaHgAW95Fs9KEXHa_C9lspYXm50VJRh_BxfXdextWlz9GfOM7TsUoGfuYYMdfypYUezSNcMly6d1PjznkOYyiT9ni2g4fBRWU2UzrWG8_4eIQmS5HsBCmtIqxYZsrV7dz8dIGmE2FI/s320/IMG_1754.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once at the orphanage, we met the vice director and a few other officials who show'd us around the complex. Very nice facilities and play areas for the children. We saw Ivan's crib and the rooms we'd seen him in from pictures. He was hanging onto me the entire time we were walking around. He never seemed upset and did smile a few times, but he gave no indication of wanting to hang around. We walked to another building on the orphanage grounds where we met the director of the complex. He was a very nice man, I think someone who cares deeply for the welfare of the children. While talking in the conference room, Ivan was becoming more restless and fussy again. Lindsey tried to console him and I tried, all while the orphanage staff are talking amongst themselves in Mandarin and looking at us. Yep, those Americans sure know how to take care of a toddler... thankfully, we left shortly thereafter, took a picture of the front gate to the orphanage, which is where Ivan was found, and went to lunch.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrD4iDzuueAXOwG6cNLHi6-ZqZ3evvaCcGwtsBKs9g3lgzBZtt0cg9JK_MFGsBH4rBzFdx8lY3gHvfPwdbt_SR6x-I2l0J2fXrWQR-Y9gOoEfHGT9zkoCic2iM7kpw1OD1gNkAdecodwI/s1600/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrD4iDzuueAXOwG6cNLHi6-ZqZ3evvaCcGwtsBKs9g3lgzBZtt0cg9JK_MFGsBH4rBzFdx8lY3gHvfPwdbt_SR6x-I2l0J2fXrWQR-Y9gOoEfHGT9zkoCic2iM7kpw1OD1gNkAdecodwI/s320/IMG_0768.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lunch was good, Ivan ate like a champ and was chipper the whole time. We headed back to Nanjing and Ivan fell right asleep, which was great, it was his nap time anyways. When Ivan awoke as we neared the hotel, he was back to the cranky side again. We couldn't figure out what the deal was, but started to wonder if he was getting backed up. We were in our room for an hour or so and his displeasure was increasing. We gave him a fruit packet of prunes...and about another hour later he had some very hard nuggets come out. The poor guy was whipped. We took it easy and decided to go get some supper. Dumplings for the boy and Pizza Hut for the parents! Ivan and I went to the Hut to order while Lin went a block the other way to get some dumplings. We were having a great time at our table, then the fussing started again. I'm sure every parent has been in that situation, but he was the only child in the restaurant and the crying started. Yep, everybody look at the super large white guy with the Chinese boy. So, we headed to the bathroom. He cried it out, and only after that I realized there was some poor sole in the only stall in there squatting over the hole in the floor. We pulled it together, headed back out and the tears flowed again. By God's mercy, Lin had arrived and came to the bathroom to rescue us. We had some pizza, Ivan barely ate anything, we decided to forego his bath tonight and we're hoping for a better tomorrow. Come to find out, the Pizza Hut fussy spell were from more hard nuggets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Overall, I'm very glad we visited Ivan's orphanage. It gave us a very good understanding of the routine of his life. He's experienced a lot in the last 72 hours compared to the very sheltered life he's had. One very consistent positive sign he's shown us is his constant desire to be near us. Whenever he's feeling sad, which has been often lately, he turns to us for comfort.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tomorrow, we'll fly to Guangzhou in the early evening, which is where we'll be until next Thursday. Thank you for the many prayers, we have certainly felt them! Please continue to lift up Ivan, that his little heart can learn to rely on us and trust us, and that we're past the constipation.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-126030287421789062016-08-09T19:12:00.002-07:002016-08-09T19:12:41.084-07:00Much to Learn<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As with all areas of life, you don't know how much there is to know until you start learning. For instance, many people think of farming as a simple occupation. However, upon closer observation, there is nothing simple about picking the right seed variety for the soil and weather conditions (but who really knows what June/July/August will be in April and May??), selling your corn/soybeans/other crop in an ever-changing (and recently declining) market, and knowing how to tear apart a tractor to fix the one part and then put it all back together again...and it runs!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We have also found this to be true of parenting and to a greater degree, Ivan. Sure, we had our ideas. As a counselor, I have learned much from my work with families. And I have been amazed at Ryan's intuition as a parent. Absolutely blown away. But we have had much to discover, and still do, about our boy and how to parent him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But here is what we have discovered:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He is a world-class cuddler (All hearts rejoice!!!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He loves to share Mommy and Daddy's cinnamon swirl bagels</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He's open to eating most things but shows particular affinity for noodles, bagels, rice cereal and seems to enjoy mixed fruit packets the least</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He loves music</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He is curious and observant</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">His stress-response is to freeze (we saw this slightly during our first meeting and much more so during the adoption ceremony yesterday/Tuesday morning)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He has his daddy's affinity for building things - he can build a world-class mega blocks tower and then fit in the back of his dump truck!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">His left hand is where he holds his extras; usually extra cheerios or bagel pieces!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He's got dimples which could melt the hardest of hearts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He doesn't love water...swimming or bath time (see below)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He has a sweet and joyful spirit...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">EXCEPT for diaper changing, which he loathes most of all</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He seems to be grieving more since the adoption ceremony yesterday morning; but we paradoxically find this hopeful as it means he had love and care at his orphanage worth missing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He is a great sleeper...he slept a solid 11 hours the first night and 12 hours last night with only one wake-up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He readily receives cuddles for comfort...something we are immensely grateful for</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And there is so much yet to learn...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some of the highlights from yesterday (Tuesday - adoption ceremony day) and this morning (Wednesday morning):</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2hoSDJwY4x1WdZRsarnR81l9LYWVmflG1AeP71kQzlB4WnuKNDtYyQQBUbgjpaO-fGz4uVK8HCBId3Ra1Yb3fkUCqLV6kbUFxTiR1nNEHe_Y9Zei9XCPqkQwFYn2Kqs7AEG5QHU1Go4/s1600/IMG_1722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2hoSDJwY4x1WdZRsarnR81l9LYWVmflG1AeP71kQzlB4WnuKNDtYyQQBUbgjpaO-fGz4uVK8HCBId3Ra1Yb3fkUCqLV6kbUFxTiR1nNEHe_Y9Zei9XCPqkQwFYn2Kqs7AEG5QHU1Go4/s320/IMG_1722.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Morning cuddles yesterday (Tuesday morning) - what a delight!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLNINBQ8SRDrP8R133LPOHEyeUuwkwn0mp0rw3UhjGuCEvFBvaR6BVjzl8cg2aRnxmTj-8FmrAkNbcNYG2jruLqD90EnQDxumjG7xMd2RmXZn7gufSsByIBc8JB-InqeC6WngF53v5WDY/s1600/IMG_0697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLNINBQ8SRDrP8R133LPOHEyeUuwkwn0mp0rw3UhjGuCEvFBvaR6BVjzl8cg2aRnxmTj-8FmrAkNbcNYG2jruLqD90EnQDxumjG7xMd2RmXZn7gufSsByIBc8JB-InqeC6WngF53v5WDY/s320/IMG_0697.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the adoption ceremony yesterday - each of us, including Ivan, gave a right thumb print in red ink! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He seemed to struggle quite a bit seeing the orphanage workers (they were administrators - we mistakenly originally believed they were his nannies). Sweet boy melted to the ground a couple times. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgNk9GQQ_d98zOSfHaVSxAYnsnPlsLudpoK1h8gbSHZJ2N6DsyZx-KYw4iQUxxhTHR_WxiGxTv-i4t4xAAIZyF3wKykfU2Vlz6SBaidKtOgPdpcm6Q6I9XC4aTHvjz6AIH9eBJvzrd2o/s1600/IMG_0705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgNk9GQQ_d98zOSfHaVSxAYnsnPlsLudpoK1h8gbSHZJ2N6DsyZx-KYw4iQUxxhTHR_WxiGxTv-i4t4xAAIZyF3wKykfU2Vlz6SBaidKtOgPdpcm6Q6I9XC4aTHvjz6AIH9eBJvzrd2o/s320/IMG_0705.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then there was swimming. The first strike against the experience was the pool's requirement of swim caps. As you can clearly see, Ryan's didn't fit. The second strike against the experience was the MASSIVE blowout which occurred upon our arrival at the pool during our charades-correspondence with the pool attendant. The prunes had done their job. We dropped our stuff, signed that we would we would return, returned to our room for a diaper change which Ivan thought was the end of the world, then regrouped, returned to the pool, dawned (sp?) our swim caps, and jumped in. Ivan was not so much of a fan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This morning Ivan was less smiley initially, but was still generous with cuddles. Today we plan to head to an indoor play area nearby and have lunch at McDonalds! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We would appreciate your continued prayers. If we sound like a broken record in this regard, it is because we know God answers prayers...we have seen God's faithfulness and we are so encouraged by His heart for Ivan and for us. </span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-28283660258757757852016-08-08T06:01:00.000-07:002016-08-08T06:03:24.137-07:00Gotcha Day!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's THE day! The day every parent anticipates. The day that you know is coming, but it doesn't really feel real or possible. The day that doesn't officially have a specific title or name. It's the day you become a parent. How in the world does that happen?! You go from doing your own thing, caring about when you're hungry or tired and being fairly self centered about it, to being fully responsible for the life of another person who is completely dependent on you for their needs. It is crazy how that transition can unfold.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To get everybody up to speed...Lin and I had the final sleep in day that we expect for who knows how many years...it was nice. We watched the same weightlifting competition 3 times in a couple hours where a chinese guy lifted over 370# for the gold medal...apparently China is excited about their weightlifters. Yahtzee!!! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Got ready to go to the bank to exchange some bucks. When we arrived there, a shady fellow wanted to exchange our money for us...in the bank. Apparently it was legit, but still seemed odd to Lin and me, so we gladly waited the 30 min for our turn at the window. All went well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I took my wife out to a gourmet lunch, just for the two of us at the golden arches. After last nights peculiar beef and potatoes that was hot enough to peel paint off a car, a double quarter pounder with cheese sounded pretty amazing. And it was!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A short while later our driver met us at the hotel lobby. It was time. We were a little early, but nothing major. We arrived at the Civil Affairs office around 3:10, but it didn't open until 3:30. I looked around and saw the closed door, with no chairs outside, then I heard a gasp from Lin. I turned and looked down the hall and saw a little boy with two nannies next to him. We recognized him immediately. Then we didn't know what to do, our interpreter wasn't there yet and there weren't any officials there...is it ok to see him? Is it like seeing the bride before the wedding? We didn't ask twice, kneeling next to him and the nannies, you would have thought he was on a photo shoot as the new centerfold. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He didn't seem scared of us, but his caretakers were also very close still. We played in the hallway for a few minutes before everyone arrived, then we entered the office and started signing papers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan seemed content to sit on Lindsey's or my laps, but he was sure to look around for the nannies while doing it. After about 30 minutes of more signing and information confirming we set out for the supermarket. Picked up a few things and headed to the hotel. While back at the ranch there was a little ball through and truck dumping...my personal favorite, then it was supper time! A deliciously bland cup of rice cereal was on the menu and he ate it like a champ! We mixed in a little fruit packet at times which also seemed acceptable, though not as desirable. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJ6pFqOcereiSJaskcf-Db91Wk_FiY3sRFseW5vfqepHBuDJMvP9Sxln2Vw1EuG1axlOstIzBFf9KOV_ex-SLZjclllB21IfZt2MkjUwX9tLEScE2OrgLeo9XU0lpolmHfsSlHL0wAiM/s1600/IMG_0598.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJ6pFqOcereiSJaskcf-Db91Wk_FiY3sRFseW5vfqepHBuDJMvP9Sxln2Vw1EuG1axlOstIzBFf9KOV_ex-SLZjclllB21IfZt2MkjUwX9tLEScE2OrgLeo9XU0lpolmHfsSlHL0wAiM/s320/IMG_0598.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Bath time was next...it went as planned, he was the one who got wet and soapy. There were a few moments of close tears, but all hearts rejoiced in the end. A couple books were read and the eyes were getting heavy...but not as effortlessly as we'd hoped. He never fussed, but I think was just very curious of his new surroundings and people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tomorrow morning we'll go back to the civil affairs office and sign the final papers. He is a beautiful little boy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It still is beyond words to me how God has orchestrated this whole encounter. He knew Ivan would be our son. He knew the prayers we'd pray and how He would delight in answering them. God is faithful and He is real!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcVA2WYAIHMAiZ8sJytfmlAW615WpxPAbGsjtA_b6NWfbj-BJtajwGHiDdSj2TT_Oyl8ZsrnvzG1adisWGMIlWv0mxKzxr1kkIErnE99141xXe_t7tjPHVU0Y4_Jv3KiVvBfxiUO_0OFc/s1600/IMG_1718.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcVA2WYAIHMAiZ8sJytfmlAW615WpxPAbGsjtA_b6NWfbj-BJtajwGHiDdSj2TT_Oyl8ZsrnvzG1adisWGMIlWv0mxKzxr1kkIErnE99141xXe_t7tjPHVU0Y4_Jv3KiVvBfxiUO_0OFc/s320/IMG_1718.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-31916039781408906342016-08-07T18:08:00.001-07:002016-08-07T18:08:28.491-07:00Today's the day!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is hard to believe that the day we have been anticipating for a year and a half is finally here! As with so many good things we anticipate, we are experiencing some nervousness with our excitement. We cannot wait to kiss Ivan's precious cheeks and hear the sweet music of his laughter. But we know these first few days may be challenging as he adjusts to us, and as we get a crash course in parenting. But we have a strong sense of God's orchestration and planning on this day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We will not meet Ivan until 3PM today. This morning our plan is to relax a bit, prepare toys and snacks to take with us to meet Ivan, and I plan to workout this morning to burn off some of my nerves. We meet our guide, Denise, at noon to get lunch, exchange money, then head to the civil affairs office and meet Ivan! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yesterday we arrived in Nanjing via the bullet train from Beijing. We had a lovely morning yesterday at the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing. I would compare it to Central Park in New York. It's very large and beautiful. Yesterday morning it was flooded with walkers, runners, and tour groups - all at 6AM! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi76dbnT3VisjbVtgmHrTsmHvyP6iNCYqvV4Q1TGpSiJlPiDFe3-B_F4JBwLvIHZuPPRkJQ5ucVJCAEO7xlfX74OeSg3qeK9C4F9weWdwbLoQrbFhKpn7_6jW-1t_te6kG46mNM77_uwI4/s1600/IMG_1662.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi76dbnT3VisjbVtgmHrTsmHvyP6iNCYqvV4Q1TGpSiJlPiDFe3-B_F4JBwLvIHZuPPRkJQ5ucVJCAEO7xlfX74OeSg3qeK9C4F9weWdwbLoQrbFhKpn7_6jW-1t_te6kG46mNM77_uwI4/s320/IMG_1662.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ryan at the Temple of Heaven</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioU-OeJX6TalptcTGQZ8GTIPiMQJzS79rJxDTxLnkRZ2d4lVatGSGnW-Tx2quJ7RdE2GBbEpIlH8CeycHBy3SBephldoK-h51rAQ5jymIVATk_WIitasbnfVVuaSMUWSQxtl2vhn6KOOA/s1600/IMG_1669.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioU-OeJX6TalptcTGQZ8GTIPiMQJzS79rJxDTxLnkRZ2d4lVatGSGnW-Tx2quJ7RdE2GBbEpIlH8CeycHBy3SBephldoK-h51rAQ5jymIVATk_WIitasbnfVVuaSMUWSQxtl2vhn6KOOA/s320/IMG_1669.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This gentleman roped Ryan (literally) into a game. The older man threw the fabric loop over Ryan's head, then cam over and put his head in the loop, too! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A Tai Chi group at the park</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNw88zh4wKcfkqUZ1W03W8rCe5aBghVaWIV-QsAtD6FVUpBcnwqpbDicl8_bj1DGiZ8lNbEs5GaAwZKhWuOq1jQhP_Nt41Ec_wKmb9Sg1jqcHdgBSAB1YcNfN9LrjU3wzzKFyRo1584I/s1600/IMG_1690.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNw88zh4wKcfkqUZ1W03W8rCe5aBghVaWIV-QsAtD6FVUpBcnwqpbDicl8_bj1DGiZ8lNbEs5GaAwZKhWuOq1jQhP_Nt41Ec_wKmb9Sg1jqcHdgBSAB1YcNfN9LrjU3wzzKFyRo1584I/s320/IMG_1690.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our train from Beijing to Nanjing</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we arrived at Nanjing we settled into our hotel and walked around the area. Our hotel is located near the Confucius Temple area in Nanjing - a beautiful outdoor area with lots of shopping and restaurants. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmL-5ZaAIvNwhtC8l80MFk81bBPdF4FdVkmW2keRYR-ocd6pt0LBXBHRMigvaCSktc8CJYaU4Z0GE3TIoWohEY58QnIczFgpqteBpXVfauwh0Lgv4Od8GaWbLNrvGdUoabCNO1XYMqpe4/s1600/IMG_1693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmL-5ZaAIvNwhtC8l80MFk81bBPdF4FdVkmW2keRYR-ocd6pt0LBXBHRMigvaCSktc8CJYaU4Z0GE3TIoWohEY58QnIczFgpqteBpXVfauwh0Lgv4Od8GaWbLNrvGdUoabCNO1XYMqpe4/s320/IMG_1693.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Area around the Confucius temple</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We had quite a time last night deciding where to eat. Like many American tourists - there is a tension when it comes to choosing a dining experience. On one hand, we're in CHINA! So we should take advantage of this and enjoy local cuisine. But on the other, here in Nanjing we are finding most restaurants don't include English on their menu, and we don't particularly want to end up with Duck's head between our chopsticks (I saw duck's head in multiple food vendors as we were walking around). Around our hotel there is a Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and KFC...a familiar temptation. We decided to go local, and wandered from restaurant to restaurant looking at menus, hoping to find one with English. We finally found one with English descriptions - The 70's Restaurant. Funny enough, none of the staff spoke English so ordering became a game of charades. It took three rounds to get our order correct, but our smiley waiter persevered. We had beef with mashed potatoes and sweet and sour pork. However, this was not Grandma's pot roast and mashed potatoes. But it was delicious (and scalding) in its own right. The waiter used the menu to shield me from the bubbling gravy as he stirred it! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very hot beef and potatoes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All in all, we're doing very well! Please continue your prayers on our behalf - today is a big day! Please pray that despite the challenges, joy and peace supersede, and that God is glorified. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-73660963161435313672016-08-06T04:35:00.001-07:002016-08-06T04:37:21.249-07:00Beijing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We hit the ground running this morning (Saturday here) with a whirlwind tour of the major sites in and around Beijing. Because we only had a day, we chose to go to Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Mu Tian Yu portion of the Great Wall. Here are a few highlights from our day:</span></div>
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Ryan's height earned him something akin to celebrity status. Here he is being photographed by numerous people, alongside a group of guys who wanted their picture with him! And selfy sticks! We have never seen so many before!</div>
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Outside at Tiananmen Square</div>
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Hiking the Great Wall! It truly is an incredible place! </div>
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Although I don't have a picture of it here, we took a toboggan ride to the bottom of the wall. We were literally sweating our faces off, so it was a great alternative to walking. </div>
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Tomorrow we take a bullet train to Nanjing and get ready to meet our guy! Prayers appreciated! We love you! God is good. </div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-32453850458874589772016-08-03T16:15:00.001-07:002016-08-03T16:15:14.123-07:00On the night before...It feels like we should have "Leaving on a Jet Plane" playing as a soundtrack, "All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." Miraculously our bags are pretty much packed and our to-do's are dwindling.<br />
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Adoption paperwork packed. Check!<br />
Beijing forecast checked. Check!<br />
Nanjing forecast checked. Check!<br />
Snacks packed. Check! Double Check Check!<br />
Chicken chores allocated. Check!<br />
Toys for Ivan packed. Check!<br />
Toys for Ryan packed. Check!<br />
Bags weighed. Check!<br />
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We're ready to go! We leave tomorrow to fly to China to pick up Ivan. It seems so surreal. We'll have a whirlwind tour of Beijing before training to Nanjing to pick up our guy! We'll be there for about a week. Then we'll fly down to Guangzhou, be there for about a week, and fly home via Hong Kong. We'll be flying back home on Saturday, August 20th. We will fly into O'Hare and take the Amtrak to Macomb that night. A few friends and family have asked if they can meet us at O'Hare or at the train station in Macomb to see Ivan - and anyone is certainly welcome to come!<br />
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We hope to post pictures and updates as we go...so stay tuned!<br />
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Please keep us in your prayers. We know that Jesus is the Chief Orchestrator of this trip and our family. Please pray specifically for peace, joy, confidence, attachment, protection from the enemy, and safety. We are so thankful for our family and friends! You have faithfully walked through this journey with us. Thank you, also, to the family and friends who will be taking care of our house and chickens! :) <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-17027023642276253482016-06-26T17:00:00.000-07:002016-06-26T17:00:45.570-07:00Interruptions<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like many people, I often find interruptions quite annoying. From the mid-sentence interruption to the timid driver interfering with my speedy progress to work in the morning, I don't take too kindly to what my nephew calls "Good opportunities to practice patience." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As many have the opportunity to do, I've had much time to reflect on our adoption journey. Pondering the timing of it all, the enormity of God's plan and orchestration, the mystery of complete strangers becoming family members forever, Jesus' love and goodness...among other things. And as I've done so, a theme of interruption emerges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After we were married, Ryan and I had our neat and tidy plan to have a strapping pack of biological children and then to adopt from China once we had the "parenting thing down" (I'm sure all seasoned parents are laughing at our absurdity). It was a nice idea. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But God interrupted our plan with His. *HONK! HONK! Insert massive Mack truck of God's plans intercepting my Fiat-sized plans* Two years and many tears into our plan not working, He showed us the time was right to start the adoption process. (<a href="http://farmliferedefined.blogspot.com/2015/03/exciting-news.html" target="_blank">You can read about that here)</a> He knew from the beginning that for Ivan to join our family, we would need to start the paperwork at the right time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As my reflections continued, I thought about how this so closely parallels how Jesus brings us into His family. He was willing for his perfect existence with the Father to be interrupted...astonishingly so. To leave Heaven, come to earth, and <i>to be with us</i> and make us part of <i>His family</i>. To die on the cross to pay the penalty of the wrong things we do. Why? "For the joy set before Him..." (Heb. 12:2). While we are OVERJOYED with the anticipation of meeting Ivan, He counted it a <i>JOY</i> to endure torture (and more) so that our sin might not keep us from being part of His family. While Ryan and I have endured many ups and downs and financial costs, would we be willing to endure torture, ridicule, and worse to bring Ivan home? This is a sobering thought. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what does this type of love require? How do we respond to the God of the Universe who has said, "I want to make you my son or daughter?" (CLUE: He's looking for something more than pen pals.) He's looking for us to accept Jesus' sacrifice as the full payment for all the wrong that has kept us from Him (and would lead us to hell); To joyfully accept His invitation to be His child; For us to follow His Son's example of loving God and loving others; To honor our Father's name in all we do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Friends, if you haven't accepted His offer, please consider getting on your knees tonight to do so. Because He isn't looking to make pen pals, He's looking to make sons and daughters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">~1 John 3:1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">But to all who did receive him, </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26046A" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26046A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">who believed in his name, </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26046B" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26046B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">he gave the right </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26046C" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26046C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">to become </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26046D" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26046D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">children of God. ~John 1:12</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">SPOILER ALERT...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Adorable little Asian fella coming your way...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4d8EjbUFIQOGG4lEfRLNsD_SzV5A0l1q8daTOkqMHvE-9EAVgyCtxTNaS21UPpBSzMLZeq6RQ-lL3K9hROiTtvpcQflAn78uqN3XImWaT_Tbl_l8UCXKFq5pXNVbiO28Hdogwzs-I0Wo/s1600/IMG_7403+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4d8EjbUFIQOGG4lEfRLNsD_SzV5A0l1q8daTOkqMHvE-9EAVgyCtxTNaS21UPpBSzMLZeq6RQ-lL3K9hROiTtvpcQflAn78uqN3XImWaT_Tbl_l8UCXKFq5pXNVbiO28Hdogwzs-I0Wo/s320/IMG_7403+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-73810969683211082682016-06-05T19:28:00.002-07:002016-06-05T19:28:43.971-07:00The time has finally come...<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance...[God] has made everything beautiful in its time." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">~Ecclesiastes 3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">~Psalm 126</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Friends, it has seemed like a considerable time that we have been waiting...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Waiting for the fulfillment of many prayers for children...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Waiting to learn the identity of the child in China God put in our hearts over a year ago...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Waiting...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But finally the time has come to celebrate! Friends, we have been matched and finally know the precious little soul waiting for us half-way around the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Without further ado, we are over-the-moon excited to introduce you to our son, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan Daniel Wood</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4gkC01LkCY8Zl0Dt5an-Ws3rfja3PYpCm5aCpdqzD0FMBVe8E3O6KsH2c40Y3vXRf6IlfPs0MHtDtLct-zAd2qY5MBNODvvM-1IPrlxlkRuO7fNliGydE566_1VqyS59Wl-e4etHSvE/s1600/IMG_7400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4gkC01LkCY8Zl0Dt5an-Ws3rfja3PYpCm5aCpdqzD0FMBVe8E3O6KsH2c40Y3vXRf6IlfPs0MHtDtLct-zAd2qY5MBNODvvM-1IPrlxlkRuO7fNliGydE566_1VqyS59Wl-e4etHSvE/s640/IMG_7400.JPG" width="356" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ivan is 25 months old and is said to be happy and cheerful! Ivan is my paternal grandfather's name. It also is a Russian form of the name "John", which means "God is gracious" or "Gracious gift of God." We feel the meaning is fitting! Daniel is Ryan's middle name. It is our hope to travel to China sometime around early August to bring him home! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Until then, please be praying for his heart, for his upcoming transition, for our transition to parenthood (we hear it isn't just a walk in the park!), for his birth parents (who I'm sure think of him daily), and his current caregiver to whom he is close. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-10795810953929452872016-01-24T20:10:00.000-08:002016-01-24T20:10:33.208-08:00Not too much of an update...Being on the tail-end of January, Ryan and I have often reflected in the past couple weeks how we thought we would be preparing to travel to China in the coming days. As with so many things, the timing hasn't turned out how we anticipated. We continue to wait to be matched, and once we do know the identity of Baby Wood, we will travel approximately two months later. <div>
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Our only update is that we have opened our criteria to include a young boy in addition to a young girl. We had previously expressed preference for a girl, merely because we were concerned for the plight of girls and envisioned a girl when we started the process. Historically, the majority of children adopted from China have been girls. However, in recent months and years, this trend is shifting dramatically and there is a significant need for boys to be welcomed into loving homes. Because we don't feel strongly called to a specific gender, we feel like broadening our criteria puts more control in God's hands. Ultimately, we just want the precious little one God has planned for our family. </div>
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Please continue to pray for our little one waiting across the world for us, for his/her caretakers, his/her birth mother and father, and for us. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-90439155790351520882015-11-01T18:24:00.001-08:002015-11-01T18:24:26.451-08:00Adoption Update<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As for all farming families, this fall has been a busy one for us! Combine and tractor wheels started rolling early in September. Dry conditions allowed nearly non-stop harvesting for six days at a time for weeks on end. (Thankfully Ryan and his dad made the choice long ago not to work on Sundays). Simultaneously, we have been working to prepare our dossier to be sent to China. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While we have become accustomed to "Adoption language", not long ago we were unfamiliar with the terms describing its various steps. To clarify, a dossier is just the compilation of important documents, including medical records, financial statements, home study reports, and the like, that adoptive parents submit to the country from which they are adopting. I'm not sure every country is like this, but the Chinese process is one in which nearly all documents have three levels of verification - locally notarized when the parents/other officials sign the forms, certified at the Secretary of State's office in the state capital, and Authenticated at a Chinese Consulate or Embassy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here we are at the Secretary of State's office in Springfield, Illinois. See that little gold seal on the top left of the paper Ryan is holding? That's right - that's our seal of certification. (The seal certifies that the notary who notarized the document is indeed a state-approved notary.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Next we sent our documents with a courier to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to be authenticated. I believe the Consulate is basically verifying that the documents are in order and have been certified and notarized appropriately. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once returned to us, we made copies and sent them off to our agency to send on to China!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Below we were organizing our documents in order to send them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On September 24th we over-nighted them to our agency - Madison Adoption Associates - in Delaware. We had great hopes that we would be "DTC" (Dossier To China) before September came to a close.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2lSbTkt6d-BIz8yJK-p_zqbSRHGDrSWW5IcBaWhPbSjRlbYrZ1i99G_ZeiHpY99jBVAIdm3_Rqib2GRWJyPiDkTW238hfS_kX7iWBhJ4MeGggbVEzhm3Ivi2rWWkegeqpDh2-LYep74/s1600/Dossier+send-off.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2lSbTkt6d-BIz8yJK-p_zqbSRHGDrSWW5IcBaWhPbSjRlbYrZ1i99G_ZeiHpY99jBVAIdm3_Rqib2GRWJyPiDkTW238hfS_kX7iWBhJ4MeGggbVEzhm3Ivi2rWWkegeqpDh2-LYep74/s320/Dossier+send-off.JPG" width="213" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This ended up being somewhat in vain as the Chinese National Day celebrations did not allow our documents to be sent until later in October. For those who may be interested, "National Day" is a misnomer. It is actually National <i>week</i>, as the observance lasted from October 1st to October 7th. Who wouldn't want a government-recognized week-long holiday?!? Yes, please. Sign me up. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During that hiatus, we did some celebrating of our own - Ryan's birthday was October 3rd! Birthday cinnamon rolls for all!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZldRyv68IXa4yQPmcqWP12N3KA9lXd4sC2z8syB4xItjPr2_iUZbNdVcKJ-c-0VPRxfNgVruW070AqgsuhtJtUSE-LCf9zR0umyfGwDBEpLV_XqpTlOHjMgvSaxa4BHKPmyz6Eao66I/s1600/DSC_0449.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZldRyv68IXa4yQPmcqWP12N3KA9lXd4sC2z8syB4xItjPr2_iUZbNdVcKJ-c-0VPRxfNgVruW070AqgsuhtJtUSE-LCf9zR0umyfGwDBEpLV_XqpTlOHjMgvSaxa4BHKPmyz6Eao66I/s320/DSC_0449.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's my strapping man working hard later in the day. Being the birthday boy doesn't exclude you from work!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKA56ZE-buanlp0qduahh5MNlXsiXiuYMEoOf3vpsaXT37amGnO5RCys826Gyqu_3qa0tIgIKKErVbOxXmm2EQGx_rbmKDBUkas2pbRy_g2Po_2dPk1e4OnhC12TSPod9XFeDFDIDyMsM/s1600/DSC_0454.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKA56ZE-buanlp0qduahh5MNlXsiXiuYMEoOf3vpsaXT37amGnO5RCys826Gyqu_3qa0tIgIKKErVbOxXmm2EQGx_rbmKDBUkas2pbRy_g2Po_2dPk1e4OnhC12TSPod9XFeDFDIDyMsM/s320/DSC_0454.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our Dossier was logged into the Chinese system on October 13th! This is commonly referred to as LID (Logged-in Date). While it felt somewhat anticlimactic since it was over two weeks after we had sent our dossier off, being LID is the light at the end of the proverbial [paperwork] tunnel. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So where do we go from here? We wait. But it's the good kind of waiting. The next step for us will be receiving a referral. While we don't know when we'll receive or if we'll accept our first referral, it's so exciting to anticipate learning our child's identity within the coming weeks and months! It's our prayer to be matched by Christmas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Through this process we have been so incredibly awed by how God is at work and how He has moved known and unknown people to support this adoption. Leave it to Him to do so much more than we ever dreamed or hoped! We are immensely thankful for the outpouring of prayerful and financial support from family, friends, and friends of our family and friends. To date, we have received some form of support from over 75 individuals and families, not to mention a number of businesses which contributed to our Amazing Race. We've had family/friends organize fundraisers on our behalf. To each of you we would like to say two things - First, a huge "Thank you!" We thank God for you. Second, please keep the prayers coming! While it feels like we're in the 7th Inning stretch, the real journey begins when we travel to China and bring home Baby Wood. We'll keep you posted until then...</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-15565955491218746732015-06-10T18:54:00.000-07:002015-06-10T18:54:07.212-07:00Amazing Race FAQs<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. What is the Amazing Race - Adoption Edition?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Amazing Race - Adoption Edition is a local take on the show, The Amazing Race, aired on CBS. On the TV show teams of two race around the world doing challenges at each place which reflect the culture and community of that location. The Amazing Race - Adoption Edition is a local spin on the race. Expect challenges and tasks at sites around the Quincy or Hancock county communities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. How much physical activity will the Amazing Race include?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Amazing Race is NOT a running race. Let me repeat - the Amazing Race is not a running race. You can expect some physical activity, but the amount of running is up to you. If you want to win the race, expect to do some running. If you're out for a fun afternoon and you aren't concerned about where you finish, expect some mild to moderate activity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. We would like to do the race, but $100 is more than we would usually pay for a day's activity. What should we do?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We realize $100 is not a small sum. We encourage teams to obtain a sponsor or sponsors - consider what family/friends, or even a business, who might like to sponsor you! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. How long with the race last? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Teams who are racing quickly can expect the race to last approximately 2 hours. Teams who plan to take their time can expect about 3 hours. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. What do the proceeds of this event go toward?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The proceeds of this race contribute to the adoption expenses of adopting our child from China. International adoption involves a number of expenses, including care of the child, agency fees, travel costs, and medical costs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6. We will be gone the day of the race, but we would like to contribute to your cause. Is that possible?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It sure is! Donations can be made out to the Ryan and Lindsey Wood Adoption fund and sent to Marine Bank & Trust in Carthage, IL. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5689323437530464900.post-77301987667398578762015-05-30T09:25:00.001-07:002015-05-30T10:04:37.068-07:00The Amazing Race - Adoption Edition<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That's right, Friends! You can take part in the Amazing Race, and help us with our adoption from China! We are hosting an Amazing Race fundraiser in Quincy on June 27th and in Hancock County on June 28th! All proceeds will go toward our adoption expenses. (For more info on our adoption, see the previous post). We would love for you to join in the race! You can print off the attached flyer and send the bottom portion in with your registration! </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you experience difficulty printing the flyer below, you can access it at the following link as well: </span><br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-xRy-BAJw4PbmdlUGR5TXRGbWc/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-xRy-BAJw4PbmdlUGR5TXRGbWc/view?usp=sharing</a><br />
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<iframe height="700" src="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-xRy-BAJw4PbmdlUGR5TXRGbWc/preview" width="580"></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08429743522358983200noreply@blogger.com0