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.