December 31: Day 14

We have reached our half way point! 2 weeks down, and 2 weeks to go. The kids go back to school on Monday and I go back to work, so it will be interesting to see what next week will look like for John and our family. 

We took John to Sky Zone today. It is an indoor trampoline park. He really enjoyed it! We got a 1 hour jump pass, and after about 30 minutes he was sooo tired! I am sure he has never done anything like that before, and his stamina is not the same as most 11 year old boys. It was a little hard trying to explain the rules to him through the app, but he did OK. He wanted to play dodgeball with my older boys, but it was really hard to tell him the rules for that game. He got out 3 times but never left the court. HA! I wonder what he was thinking when he saw a bunch of kids launching balls at each other?

Click here and here for a little bit of jumping action. 

Thank you to Seth and Olivia for the passes. They all had a great time!

 He jumped in this foam pit over and over again!

Ready to leave, but all smiles! He put his arm around Matthew for this picture. Not many peace signs for this kid anymore. 

John really loved building a fire the first week he was here, so Rick took him out to do that again today. It was too cold for me to go outside, so I got a picture from the comfort of my deck. 

We ended the night with a movie. He has been asking to watch Big Hero 6, so we thought tonight was a perfect night to do that. He got out of the shower and saw the kids on the floor with their pillows and blankets. He got so excited!! He ran to get his stuff and was smiling from ear to ear. It really is the little things that we take advantage of in every day life. It is hard for an English movie to keep his attention, but this movie has gotten several giggles out of him. 

Today was the first day that we did not eat out for lunch or dinner. John tried hard though. He got on the app several times... McDonalds? Pizza Hut? Burger King? Taco Bell? We kept telling him no, that we needed to eat at home. He is a persistent little booger, and he never gave up. I told Rick that I completely understand his desire to eat out. This is new to him, he enjoys the food, and he wants to experience as much of it as he can. I did the same thing when I was in China, but the food choices weren't as tempting there. :) So, for dinner we had fish, and I made little fish sandwiches on buns. He made his sandwich... he put salami, fish, raspberries, cheese, and ketchup on his sandwich. AND HE ATE IT. No wonder this kid doesn't like my cooking. I totally forgot the salami/fish/raspberry combo in my weekly planning! Then after that, he ate a plain bun with BBQ and ketchup on it. He also had leftover KFC and a bowl of noodles, which is the first "chinese" type of food he has had since the first few days he was here. He really ate a lot today. I told Rick I feel like his cheeks are filling out a little bit. I guess fried chicken 24/7 would do that to a person. I went back and looked at his pictures from the first few days we met. He looks different to me now. He looks happier. His eyes are brighter, his smile is bigger... he just looks like he is full of joy. I really hope he is enjoying himself. 

We are hoping that 2016 is an amazing year for John. We hope it is the year he not only finds out about a family, but actually gets to settle into a forever home. Happy New Year!!

December 30: day 13

Rick had to work again today so it was another day hanging around the house. It is a bit challenging to take 5 little kids, and a curious 11 year who doesn't speak English, out in public. He was very content to play minecraft with the boys, so I took advantage of the down time and got some much needed work completed. I can't believe our crazy life starts again on Monday when the kids go back to school and I am back to work. I did promise him KFC for lunch, and that's about all it takes to make him happy. 

So, a funny story about his obsession with KFC. Remember, we put an iPad in Chinese for him so he could read and navigate it. He got on google and searched KFC. (He loves to search and read about different things) He found an article about KFC in China, and how the chickens were recalled for reasons that I will leave off this post. He kept making sounds while he read it, and looking at me like "you have to read this!" He took my phone, captured the image and changed it into English for me. Let's just say his little Chinese heart was broken about his beloved KFC. We talked about how things are a little different here and that would never happen in the US, and that it was probably all fixed in China. He agreed, and he happily ate his KFC for lunch. But I could tell his fire was gone... or perhaps it could also be because he has eaten fried chicken for every meal for the last week. I don't know, just a thought. Through the app and a little bit of charades, he told me that tomorrow he would switch to Taco Bell. Lol!!

This is when he was letting me read the article he found.

Even though we didn't have any fun adventures today, he was perfectly happy hanging around the house. We played some games, the wii, and just hung out. We got a call from his chaperone that is staying in Nashville. She doesn't speak any English, but she has a translator there if I have any questions. They talked for several minutes, and in that time, John's face went a little sour. He looked upset. He was biting his lip, and his eyes looked a little glazed over. I have never seen him look upset! After a few minutes, he handed me the phone and I talked to the translator to see if everything was ok. I told her he was upset, and I wanted to make sure the conversation was ok. He told the chaperone that he is having a great time and that he is very happy. Then the chaperone talked to him about leaving. She told him that in a few weeks, she would meet him at the airport and fly back to China with him. That either reminded him of the scary day in the airport when he didn't know what was going on, or he just doesn't want to think about leaving. Either way, it broke my heart. He speaks so fondly about his time in China, but I think the truth is, he has really enjoyed this taste of family life and he will miss it.

Still happy about his KFC. He is really proud of his new sauce creation- ketchup mixed with barbecue sauce. He puts it on everything!

Some friendly wrestling. He loves to mess with Rick!

So I had an epic host-parent fail tonight. I decided to rent a movie because that is something our family enjoys doing. I grabbed the movie "Pan" because I thought it would be just like Peter Pan. Well, it wasn't! It starts out with a boy being abandoned by his mother and living in an orphanage. It has several scenes of boys living in a special home. Ugh!!! I felt awful! Thankfully, he couldn't understand it and he was mostly paying attention to the iPad. I kept watching John to see if he was paying attention. There were several scenes that had some fighting, and I could tell it was getting to him. He finally got up and put his headphones on to listen to music. I kept encouraging him to go downstairs and watch football with Rick, but he wanted to stay with us. So much for a PG movie in the family section! When I put him to bed, I told him that movie was scary. He said that's why he put his headphones on to listen to music. I felt horrible, and definitely learned my lesson. I'm thankful he's the type of kid that is so laid back, he can let it go. I told him if he gets scared tonight to come and get me. He assured me (with a smile) that he was not scared and everything was fine. 

Hopefully tomorrow we will be off on more adventures. Devastating news about your favorite restaurant and a scary movie was enough for today!

Thankfully he was more interested in this iPad than that awful movie!

This is your face when you get devastating news about your favorite restaurant.

This is your face when you realize it is perfectly fine to still eat it in the US!

This picture is just funny and it has nothing to do with this post!

Is it just me, or do you feel like his smile is starting to explode out of him? We love this kid!

December 29: day 12

I'm typing this update from my phone so I will apologize now for any typos! John was up bright and early this morning. Thankfully, Rick was up getting ready for work so I didn't have to get up. We spent the morning playing at home. He is loving minecraft so that is keeping him interested and occupied on these early wake up days. 

This afternoon we ventured out to the movies to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. I was a little worried that he wouldn't like it and would want to go home. It would be awful to watch a movie in another language. I got him a giant tub of popcorn and a Sprite and I think that was the ticket to success! He laughed at many of the parts and it kept his interest. He was tired at the end, so you will see he isn't too thrilled in the picture. 

We rushed home to meet a family that was coming over to see John. I think he is getting used to meeting new people. He no longer drops his head or acts shy. He will walk up, shake hands and say "nice to meet you!" We spent the evening playing Monopoly and ping pong, then had some pizza and went to bed. It was another great day with a very special boy! 

He told me today that he misses China, but he likes the US, too. He speaks fondly of his life in China. He is a very happy kid, and is obviously so loved. I showed him a calendar and we crossed off all the days he has been here and then we counted how many days until he goes home. Like always he said "ok" and then smiled. He is such a sweet kid. A little later I saw him counting the days again. I can only imagine how hard it is to be in his position. 

John LOVES to tease me about UK. I reminded him we have a game in 4 days. He said "no, no UK" and leaned back in his seat and pretended to snore, as if UK was the most boring thing ever. Ha! He has a great sense of humor. I know he will love the game. He just likes to get a reaction out of me! He told us last night that he doesn't like UL or UK... That he supports the Gators. As in the Florida Gators. What?!?!? That hurt. It was almost as bad as saying he was a Louisville fan. Ok, not that bad, but close. When I took him on a tour of my school last week, he saw the Gator stuff in our school library. We have a few of those obnoxious Gator fans in our school! I guess that is why he decided to pick the Gators. Rick and I got a big laugh out of it. We both looked at him like "are you kidding me???"

I have noticed that he is picking up some more English phrases. I say the same things every day (good morning, are you ok, are you hungry, is that good) and he doesn't need the app anymore to answer those things. He told me today "bathroom" and "I'm hungry" in English. I also love the way he says Andrew's name. He says AND-A-REW, but he drags the "rew" out. It is so stinking cute. 

Many families are reaching out to ask about John. It is awesome to be apart of this. I can't wait to see the family God has picked out for John!! We are hoping and praying his file will be locked before he returns. It will certainly be easier to say "see ya later" than good-bye. We adore this kid!

December 28: Day 11

So sorry I was not able to update last night. I am pretty tuckered out these days and decided to hit the sack instead of the computer. Our day started out bright and early with a game of Monopoly at 6:00 am. He found the game in our game cabinet and said it was one of his favorite things. I asked how he learned to play, and he said "I use to have it in China, but now I do not."

6:00 am Monopoly game...fun times

I had to go into work for a few hours, so Rick held the fort down. He said they had a blast playing together. They like to take the app, and Rick "tries" to say Chinese phrases into it, but it always comes back with something silly. Long will laugh and say our phones are crazy. They played with Legos, the flying helicopter, ping pong... you name it, they played it. 

When I got home from work I could tell everyone was going a bit crazy from being inside all day. (we had rain, again!!) So we decided to go out to eat and then bowling. We ate a steakhouse where you can throw the peanuts on the ground. Long loved the peanuts and he was collecting a nice, neat pile in front of him. I said "Watch this!" and threw them on the ground. That rocked his world. He couldn't believe it! Sorry to the future family who adopts him, takes him out to eat, and then has to deal with him throwing his leftovers on the ground. You won't believe what he ate. Chicken! He eats chicken for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Can you imagine? But he loves it, and I am all about fattening that kid up. Keep the fried chicken comin'!

Before we left the house to go bowling, we lined all the kids up like bowling pins and acted out what we would be doing. First of all, I hate to brag... but my kids did an awesome job falling over at the perfect time. It's like they were born to be bowling pins. Then we realized he might think that we would actually be doing this with humans, so we found a video to show him instead. I know, genius, right?He had a blast bowling! Oh my stars, I wish you could have seen the first time he got a strike. The joy in that boy was awesome! He started jumping up and down and celebrating. I tried to capture some on video, but every time I did, nothing happened. Then when I put it down, he would get a strike or a spare and celebrate again. Of course! I think he had a great time. He was all smiles. He said that it was his first time bowling.

The bowling crew. My mom was also there, but she took the picture. 

Long: professional bowler

Action shot

He didn't go to bed until 9:40. Awesome, right? I was so hopeful we would get some sleep. But, I heard him up and ready at 6:30 am. Doesn't he realize that he is a pre-teen and he needs to be sleeping until noon? 

It was a fun day! Long also got to meet another cousin. He meets everyone with a smile. This kid is awesome! Oh, I also wanted to mention that Long has a new love for Minecraft. He learned how to make a house. He says, "Mommy, mommy... dis good?" He is always so proud of himself. I am glad he has given up the Chinese websites for Minecraft. One more important thing to note... his English name is John! I meant to post that days ago, but this sleep deprived mama forgot. He told the translators when they came last week. He loves to write his name and he also loves to use his name! I am not sure if he picked this name, or someone gave it to him, but I love it!

December 27: Day 10

We had a busy day today! We started out with church this morning, came home to eat lunch, and then headed out to Rick's parent's house. It is about one hour from here. We told Long where we were going and how long it would take us to get there. I never know if the app translates things appropriately. I guess it is better than nothing. I would hate to be in a car and have no idea where I was going or how long I would be in there.

Long was really sweet with our extended family. Long is more of a quiet, laid back kid, so I'm sure he was somewhat overwhelmed with the craziness. I really think he likes things calm and quiet... which is hilarious because our house is never those 2 things! We opened our presents, ate dinner (chicken, again!) and played some games. Like always, he was so well-behaved, sweet, and obedient. Here are a few pictures from our day.

One team this family agrees on... BENGALS

He was excited to play pool

Some of our cousins

Hanging with Rick

Long with Rick's parents

He crashed on the way home, but it was close to 9:00. He told Rick that he goes to bed at 9:00 in China, and wakes at 7:00. Alright, buddy, let's get on that routine here!  

One thing about adoption that has always haunted me, is learning more about my daughter's past lives. We were fortunate to get countless pictures, and we have very good records (and friends in China) that can tell us a lot about our girls. We have tons of information and stories from 9 months on with both of our girls. But those first 9 months... even those first few hours. What were they like? I know we will never have answers to those questions, so I stopped asking a long time ago. But now I find myself doing that with Long. Gosh, 11 years. What has his life been like? Clearly he is happy. Clearly he is well taken care of. But his daily life... those past 11 years. What have they been like for him? Does he feel loved? Does he realize how smart he is? I find myself wanting to ask him so many questions, but it really isn't my place to do that. Our job right now is just to love and advocate for him. I am hoping one day soon he will have a mom and a dad that he can not only share his past stories with, but also his goals for the future. 

It seems as though many people are touched by Long's story. It has been awesome to see so many people advocating for him. I told ya, once you learn their names, hear their stories, and see their faces, you just have to do something. We are so thankful for the outpouring of support we have seen. One day he will learn about this, and that there were thousands of people sharing his story and praying for him. Just think if we continued to do this for the other ones left behind. We could all make such a difference if we worked together for these little ones. 

December 26: Day 9

We really didn't do much of anything today. He was up at 6:00 (boo!) and didn't nap all day. We just played around the house all day. Oh, and then we watched this little basketball game...

I can't remember the score. Anyone? Anyone?

Long watched a little of the game, but he would NOT put on a red or blue shirt. I don't think he wanted to choose sides, because he didn't want to hurt our feelings. He did get to eat McDonalds for lunch so he was a happy dude. 

He was excited to get this in the mail today...

KFC!!!! He said, "is this all mine?!?!?"

Thanks to the sweet friend that sent this to us. I love that you would go out of your way to do something for him. Hugs to you, Patrice!

That's it for today! 

December 25: Day 8

Merry Christmas!

Long had a great night! He actually slept all through the night and didn't get up until 6:45. I was relieved! I woke up at 6:00 and couldn't go back to sleep. I kept expecting him to show up at my door calling "mommy..."

We waited for the rest of the kids to wake up, which wasn't much longer. All the kids, including Long, ran in to wake Rick up. He thought that was funny. He kept saying something in Chinese and giggling. 

We put the kids in a horseshoe shape and made them take turns opening gifts. Long went first, of course. He LOVED his first gift of Legos. I knew he would! It had a transporter and a few trucks. He was super excited. He was very patient and calm while the others opened their gifts. He ended up getting 3 packages. A pair of pajamas with slippers, some new clothes, and the Legos. He got hot wheels from Hannah, and he LOVED them! He got so excited to see 2 hot wheels. Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

The best part was when he opened his stocking. His favorite thing from all of Christmas was a $5 card to McDonalds. You should've seen his reaction. He asked me if he could use it in China, and I told him no. I told him it only had $5, and we would use it tomorrow. He was sooo happy! Santa also put a pack of gum in there. He loves to chew gum, so this also made him really happy.

Santa brought all the kids a ping pong table. He didn't show much interest in it this morning, but tonight he had a blast playing with it. So many giggles. 

We went to my parent's house to do Christmas with my side of the family. He got another package there. We ate lunch and hung out for a few hours. He has played non-stop since we got back from their house. He built his entire Lego set and was so proud of it! At first he didn't want to open it because he wanted to save it to take it back to China. We told him we would put it in a ziploc bag for him to take back. He was worried about everything fitting in his backpack, but we told him he would get a new bag to take back to China. 

He was able to stay up until 9:15. We were happy with that! Hoping and praying that he will make it through the night with a reasonable wake-up time. He played hard today!

Today was by far the best day we have spent with him. I feel like his personality just exploded. He smiled and laughed all day. He just seemed so content and comfortable. Not that he was unhappy the other days, I just felt like today was different. I hope this will be the new normal. I would love to see more of this young man's personality before he leaves. What a treasure he is! I'm telling you, you can't spend 5 minutes with him and NOT fall completely in love. He is such a cool kid. We told him that tomorrow is a BIG day! Red vs. blue. We will see what he decides to wear. I am sure it will be red, because he loves to see me throw a fit when he cheers for red. I am quite the actress, you know. 

Merry Christmas!

His very own Lego set!

We sure do love this sweet boy! 

He worked so hard to put his new set together. 

The excitement... gum and a McDs gift card!

Ready to open another gift at my parent's house

Just a little fun in our homemade photo booth

I have the aging booth app on my phone. It turns you into an old person. OH MY GOODNESS... the laughter. He thought it was hilarious!

He also got a kick out of this! This picture makes me laugh every time. He has such a great sense of humor!

Videos

I thought I would do a post showing some of Long's personality. He is shy in public (and often times confused about where he is and why I am introducing him to so many people, I think...) so it is hard for people to see his personality shine through. I thought these were some good ones.

Click here to see him on the tractor ride. 

Click here to see him chasing chickens. (hey, don't judge... we live in Kentucky, it's a sport around here)

Click here to see some ping-pong action. Rick crawled under the trampoline to get the ping pong ball, and the boys didn't know he was going to come up with that giant ball. Long thought it was funny!

December 24: Day 7

Merry Christmas Eve!

This post won't be long, because Santa called and needs a little bit of help getting things ready. Little buddy woke up at 4:00 am today! Ugh! I told him to go back to bed because it was the middle of the night. He played Legos in his room until 6:45, when I woke up to him in my room saying "mommy, mommy..." again. Getting him adjusted to this sleeping schedule has been so hard! He played all morning and was in a very good mood. 

When it was time to get ready for Christmas Eve service, I showed him his new shirt and tie. He loved it! Normally he would wear his coat 24/7, but when we walked into church... he didn't want his coat. I think he wanted to show off his new outfit. He dozed in and out during church, and a few times in the car, but he really never had a full out nap. We went to my parent's house to eat dinner, then came home to make cookies for Santa and put out our reindeer food. We were trying so hard to keep him awake! Once we finished all of our festivities, we told him he had to help the kids clean the basement. Of course he obeyed willingly, and jumped right in to clean. But just like a car running out of gas, we saw him start to fade. I think he fell asleep while he was putting a toy in the bucket. Poor thing! Rick took him up so he could shower and then put him to bed. He was asleep at 7:30. Yikes! Here's hoping we make it through the night!

A quick funny story: Long found a dog hair on one of his socks and wanted to change just that ONE sock. Ha! We have 2 black labs and dog hair is apart of our identity. I'm surprised it took him a week to spot a hair on himself!

He had a big smile on his face all day today. He seemed really happy. I hope he is able to enjoy Christmas day, and not get too overwhelmed. 

A few posts back, I wrote about what it means to advocate. I wrote about what would happen to Long if he was not adopted. Well, we have friends in China right now adopting 2 precious boys. They made the hard decision to go back to the orphanage to see what life was like for one of the boys. The orphanage trip is really hard because it is SO heartbreaking. But sometimes it is necessary to understand where these kiddos came from, and to help answer questions they might have about their life as they get older. The dad wrote this on Facebook, and his words went right through me. I cried because I could picture it. I knew exactly what he was describing, and it broke my heart. Here is what he said:

Visiting the orphanage was one of those life changing experiences. My heart is so grieved for how many orphans there are - 800 at the that orphanage alone. By mistake, we exited out where the aged out boys live. These are boys who are over 14 years old and can never be adopted because China won't allow it.

Our Chinese guide hurried through the atrium as the 10-20 boys came swarming to her. They spooked her a bit I think. I lagged behind with Ryle and stood there for 2-3 minutes and told Ryle to take it all in. I told him, "Look around. Look at their faces. Smell. Look at the boys drinking from a pipe outside. This is it for them. Apart from Jesus, they have no hope in the world." That realization hit me very hard - I wept. Right there in the open in that place.

Very sobering day. 

How I wish that every child could be adopted before the age of 14. How I wish there were no more orphans. Thankful for the hope that Jesus brought when he was born, and believing that He has a plan for Long's life!

Merry Christmas!

He is so handsome, and equally as sweet!

Making cookies for Santa. 

Time for reindeer food! It is amazing what he can understand through the google app!

Reindeer food!

Long with my parents. He told us what they are called, but none of us could say it.

At church- I think Long was over the picture taking at this point. I love that all of my family pictures from this season will include Long. God willing, I hope to fill that spot with a different kiddo each year. 

December 23: Day 6

I can't believe we are nearing the one week mark in this journey! In some ways it is flying by, in other ways, I feel like he has been here forever. Today was a laid back day to play at home. Rick's co-worker gave our family 4 tickets to the UofL game and it didn't start until 7:00 pm. We knew if we did anything during the day, little man would be tuckered out by 7:00. 

He had a great night sleeping and woke up at 7:30 am. He didn't want anything I suggested for breakfast... but he did want popcorn and swiss cake rolls. I kept telling him NO, but then I stopped and said to myself, "Why in the world are you saying no to this child?!?!? Feed the kid a swiss cake roll!" I am so happy I had that conversation with myself, because he really enjoyed that little bit of heaven for breakfast. He also had his leftover KFC, smothered in ketchup, and a donut that my mom brought over.

Long is interested in my camera, I guess because I am always using it. He took some great pictures of my dogs. I will post his photo shoot in a later post. 

I can't believe Christmas is in just a few days! We are so not ready, but that's ok. Priorities have shifted somewhat this Christmas. We did let the kids draw names so that each kiddo could go to the dollar store and pick a present for a sibling. Long was pretty happy that he got to buy something for Andrew, but he was not happy about the fact that Hannah picked his name. I promised him I would help pick it out and that it would be something he liked. He seemed to understand what we were doing, which was pretty cool. Thank you, google translate! :)

The limited iPad time is going really well. I tell him he gets 1 hour. All of the kids get them out and put them away at the same time. I do let him play the computer a little bit and also the DS. I feel like we have a good agreement on technology right now. 

Long seemed to enjoy the basketball game. Rick said he clapped and smiled when the music got loud and the lights went off. He would cheer when they scored a basket. I love that he gets to experience stuff like this when he is here. Rick isn't the best about remembering to take pictures, but here are a few that he took.

Did you notice that I got through this entire post without making one negative comment about UofL? I'm not gonna lie, it was hard. And to see that precious boy, and 2 of my babies wearing red Cardinal shirts nearly crushed my heart... but I'll be alright. GO CATS!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Please continue to pray for Long. That he will understand the craziness of the next few days, and continue to feel at peace about being here. I feel like sometimes he gets sad, and I am sure he is missing his home in China. Today I asked him if he was OK (he looked a little down...) and he said no. I asked why, and he basically said he didn't want to talk about it. He perked up quickly, but it made me feel sad for him. I am sure he is homesick, but maybe he is thinking about other things as well. Maybe he is wondering when a family will be a permanent thing for him. Whatever it is, please pray for his little heart to be content. We love him dearly, and we are so committed to standing by him to finish out this race.

December 22: Day 5

We had a great day today! Long woke up sometime before 5:30 am, but he stayed in his room and played Legos. Timmy woke up and found him, and Long asked for "mommy." Timmy brought him to our room at 5:30 and Rick got up with him so I could sleep. The boys spent the morning playing Legos, building the marble set, and playing the Wii. We also taught him how to play Uno. I think he got it, but he didn't really understand the concept of taking turns. 

Rick's sister gave us tickets to the Kentucky Derby Museum (Thank you, Christa!!!) so we decided it was the perfect day to visit. We tried to explain to him what we were doing, but I am not sure he understood. He seemed to enjoy it, and I think the point about horse racing and Kentucky was clear to him.

It's a Christmas miracle! Thanks to KFC chicken, Long is now up to 270 pounds. Ha, ha. That would be Rick in the background pushing on the scale. Homeboy weighs 65 pounds, with about 300 layers of clothing on.

Long saw Rick carry Matthew like this, so he wanted a turn.

We were going to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory, but we decided Long should pick where we eat. You won't believe what he picked! KFC! He was equally excited today as yesterday. He picked out an entire bucket of chicken, you know...the one intended for a family of 4. Yeah, he though he could eat it all himself. We did let him have 4 pieces, but his eyes are definitely bigger than his stomach. I finally had to tell him he could take it home, he didn't have to finish it all in one sitting. He seemed relieved, because I think he was near the popping point.

We saw this sunset on the way to the Lights. He said "picture, picture" because he wanted me to take a picture. I guess this is something he wants to remember!

We spent the afternoon playing at home. The Tyler family gave us a ticket to see the Lights under Louisville. Thank you Tyler family!!!! We popped some popcorn and packed some drinks and headed out to see the lights. We were one of the first ones there, so we didn't have to wait long. We told him we would drive under ground and see Christmas lights. He seemed to really enjoy the whole thing! When I passed out the popcorn, all of the kids said "thank you, mommy" at different times. In the cutest little Chinese voice he said, "thank you, mommy!!" It was darling. I don't think he understands what "mommy" really means. He just knows that is my name to the children, so that is what he calls me. I can't wait until the day when he has a mommy, and he will understand what that means on a whole new level! He kept saying "picture, picture"" in English because he wanted me take pictures of what he saw. I think he really loved it. 

He fell asleep in the car around 7:00 and I got worried we would have another noodle party at 1:00 am. But when we got home and washed up for bed, he seemed to perk up a bit. He played with the boys until 9:30 pm and then went to bed easily. I put an electric blanket on his bed. He slept all the way through the night until 7:30 am! I woke up to him in my room saying "mommy, mommy..." 

He is such a sweet boy. He is always so happy, and so obedient. We are so incredibly thankful for this experience. He is a blessing to our family!