Our first 2 weeks at home

It has been a while since I posted. I guess you could say I have been busy. Bryce and I are becoming quite a team. He is definately getting settled in. He still hates to go to bed at night or go down for a nap. I dont think it is due to sleeping alone, I think he thinks he will miss something. We settled right in and had his jet lag under control in about 4 days. He now sleeps through the night. He is eating anything and everything. In China he hated carrots, not in the US!

Bryce attended his Clef Clinic at Childrens Mercy this week and is scheduled for pallet surgery on September 15. The will repair the pallet only at this time and any reconstructive surgery will take place when he is older. He has slight hearing loss due to fluid in the ears, he will have tubes put in during the surgery. We will begin speech theropy soon after he heals.

My mom stayed with me until Thursday of this week and really bonded with Bryce, he loves Grandma. I almost through-up when she left thinking about being alone. Bryce and I are doing just fine.

We visited Des Moines where Bryce met his aunts, uncles and cousins. He loved meeting his family and warmed up to everyone quickly.

Bryce helped me put together his new dresser that his aunts and uncles bought for him. He is quite the little helper.

Bryce also loves his dog Sabrina and frequently shares he bed.

We are home!

We arrived at the Kansas City Airport at 9:35 on Thursday night and were greated by my mom, sisters and BFF Shari. Bryce has a long trip but was a real trooper during the long 12 hour flight from Hong Kong and the 7 hour lay over in San Francisco.

We spent a lot of time walking the isles of the plane and showing off to the other passengers. The poor little guy got only 3 hours of sleep in 24 hours.

Bryce loves his room and his dog. Now we are working on getting through the jet lag and on his Kansas schedule.

Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes during this journey. I will continue to add photos as I have not yet has time to upload them.

We made it to Hong Kong!

August 11, 2010
We made it to Hong Kong and to our hotel around 7pm tonight. Slight setback, the hotel didnt have our room reservation. We did get a room and are settled in for the night. Off to the States in the morning.

China Update #3

August 8, 2010
Well, we have died and gone to heaven. We arrived at the White Swan Hotel in Guangjho on Friday night at 1:00 am. It was a rough night for Bryce but he was a real trooper. The hotel is full of families from all over the US who have adopted children in China, it is nice to be with others who know what you are going through.

Yesterday the kids all had their physicals and visa photos taken. Bryce weights 30 pounds and is 32 1/2 inches tall. Big boy! Today we went to a jade shop and the Chin Family Temple. Very beautiful.

Tomorrow is a stay at the hotel day. We will swim and go to the play room. We have purchased Bryce's traditional Chinese outfit and will have a photo taken with the other kids in our group on the famous Red Couch in the lobby of the hotel.

One sad story, one of the families with us in Beigjing went home without their child. After the baby's physical exam, is was determined there was neurological issues and the childs life expectency was short. We were devistated to hear the news and pray for them.

On Tuesday, we go to the American Consulate for the oath taking ceremony. On Wednesday we pick up Bryce's visa and head to Hong Kong for our flight out on Thursday.

Looking forward to getting back home.
Love you all,
Shelley, Bryce and Kim

Hi all

The past two days have been a whirlwind. We started off Tuesday going to back to the Civil Affairs office to complete the adoption registration. The other families had spent the first nights with there new children and seemed to do fine.

We had a miss-communication with our guide Kathy and ended up missing lunch. On thing for sure, you have to keep yourself fed during this process as it is fast moving and draining. I had my first melt down and requested we eat McDonald's. I don't even eat McDonald's in the States but I couldn't eat anymore rice.

After that we made the 5 hour trip by van with our guide Kathy and our driver Tian, to Wenzhou City where Bryce lived to apply for his passport. What a crazy drive. The traffic here is wild. Bryce was pretty restless but made the trip. We rushed to get his photo taken, we rushed to meet with the officials to order his passport then we rushed to visit his orphanage.

It was so great to see where he lived his whole life. The nanny's were very warm and of course hated to see him go. Apparently Bryce is very popular (spoiled) at his orphanage. He is a charmer. When we arrived all of the nanny's and administrators came to see him one last time. We found out that his nick name is "Pounds" which means "Big" in Chinese. The minute we entered the facility, he was off with his nanny's to revisiting his room. They told us that when he moved from the infant room to the toddler room, he would sneak back up to the infant room, he would sneak back up to the infant room for a bottle from his favorite nanny. He was definitely loved.

Bryce slept very little on the ride back, he was very fussy so we stopped to let him walk around. He is a sweet loving child who loves kisses on his cheeks.

Today we rested. We took a walk around a lake and saw the Lotus Flowers in bloom. Very hot but a nice morning for a stroll.

Love you all and thank you for all your prayers.

Shelley & Kim

WE HAVE BRYCE!

Hi everyone,

We met Bryce this morning and he is all boy! He was a bit skiddish when we first met but after a couple of hours, he warmed up to us. He is very quiet at first and prefers to study his surroundings then cry. We took him to the grocery store today and he really started to open up when we bought him a ball (one of his favorite toys.)

We came back to the hotel and he took a 3 hour nap. He had ridden a train all night from his town and had been up since 5 A.M.

After he ate some wonton soup and rice, I gave him a bath, which he liked. He got on his clean clothes and the play began. He really opened up, played peek-a-boo and blew us kisses. He's a ham.

Tomorrow we go to his town of Wenzhou City and complete his visa, we return to Hangzho on Wednesday.

We miss home and american food! It's a long way to go for weight loss program.

I will get some pictures up after we get back home due the fact that I can't download any pictures.

Love to all and thank you for all your prayers.

Shelley and Kim

We survived an excruiatingly hot day of touring yesterday. We flew to Hangzhou, Bryce's home province today and met our guide Kathy. She is great. She got us checked into our hotel and will come back at 5:00 tonight to take us grocery shopping.

Will will pick up Bryce tomorrow, Monday at 9:00 A.M. We will bring him back to the hotel to spend the day with us. We then meet Kathy at 3:00 and drive 5 hours to his town in Wenzhou City to complete his passport and visa. It has to be done in his home town. We will stay overnight and come back to Hangzhou the next day.

More to come!