Swallow's nest

Yesterday was so much fun. We started out meeting with Rebecca, an intern, at Swallow's nest. When Caleb was first found abandoned Pam and Clay, who started it, took Caleb in. He stayed with this foster home for 2 years until the sister home, Haven of Hope, was started. Pam then transferred him there. The weather at HoH is more like Florida and easier on his body.
Back to the day....... We headed out by taxi and arrived at an apartment complex. Swallow's Nest has different apartments rented out for the different groups of kids. Rebecca, who we were with, is helping lead the home of the 2-3 yr olds that do not need around the clock medical care. Also it was the last home the other couple's boy was in. We head up and walk into a room of 8 active toddlers. Oh my word! They were beautiful, funny, smart and just plain kids. Some of them have mommy and daddy's working hard to get to them and some are still waiting. I took so many pictures and can't load them all but if you are working at bringing home one of these kids leave a comment with your email and I will get you any pictures I have of them when we return home.
Then over walks one of the caregivers with a huge smile.......En Hao??? She says. She immediately recognized him and told Rebecca she had cared for him when he was little. What a blessing to get a picture with them together. It is so clear how loved these children are. They are truly cared for with gentle, kind, loving hands and it shows.

This little guy has a family coming!

We think this one has a family! Yay!

QT is too precious and needs a family. He has down syndrome and a heart issue. He is SO loved by Rebecca his caregiver!  Update: we found out he is healthy and no heart issue is listed in his paperwork!!!

The little one in green has a family!

This little one is healthy and his special need is premie! Simple and easy :-)

Ok this little guy is amazing. We all got such a kick out of him. He is missing an ear but they said he can hear to some degree out of the other. When the caregivers talked to him he always responded. He is SO smart and such a big brother to all the kids.

While we were there this guy brought the stool to the piano and put it together. It was so cute to see the kids just sit and watch his with such interest. Then Rebecca played a song and all the kids sang or tried to...lol

And this sweet girl. ChaCha desperately needs heart surgery. Her poor lips, fingers and toes are purplish. We were told her O2 stats were in the 60s and from what I could understand because of the type of heart issue she has no one in Ch*na will touch her. She needs a family and fast. She needs to come to the states. She is so tiny and gets tired very easily. Please spread her face and pray for her. She is so beautiful and I wish I could have gotten a better picture but she was very scared of strangers.

Next we headed over to the home where those with more medical needs stay. These children just stole my heart. It is unbelievable. One of these kids has a family coming but the others still need one. I can not say enough how well cared for they are. Each place we were in was VERY clean. We saw at the first location the kids eating and they are fed very well. I want people to understand that children are in a safe place but they can't forever stay there. Pam and Clay can not keep them forever. They and their workers can only give them the love here and now but they still need a family so they can forever know love, safety and comfort. If any of these kids tug at your heart I can help you get their info for an agency to find their file.

This little girl is 7 months old. I can't remember her SN but she is so content and smiles a ton

Che Che has a family coming!!

He has the most beautiful eyes!

This little boy took to Ben and didn't want to be put down.....it was so sweet

Ok can they get any cuter! He had issues with his GI track but has had surgery! Adorable!!

We ended the day with one of these......

Rebecca had said .... Well we could go grab a bite to eat or there is a Starbucks close by........ Oh yes no questions we need to head on there. I was just telling Ben how our guide keeps telling me to just have the coffee at the hotel, it is too far of a walk, when I ask where a Starbucks is. She was not understanding that it is never too far :-)
I'll leave you with a Ch*na tip. If you need a bathroom or feel homesick head on over to Starbucks. I tell you I walked in the bathroom and there was a western toilet, toilet paper, hand soap and paper towels!! Jackpot. Now if there was one on every couple of blocks like the US I would never have to worry...lol. Really though we are loving it here. We just miss the kids and are ready to get back into a routine that doesn't include living out of suitcases or having to go to a restaurant for a meal. Tomorrow we get on a plane to Guangzhou, our last stop before heading home on the 8th.

It's official

We can finally say we are a family of 6!!!! Zhao En Hao is officially

 

Caleb Aaron Hao Prevost

Today started off at 9am meeting Cindy and heading back to the Civil Affairs office where we needed to do a red inked finger print over all our signatures and one right next to a red hand print of Caleb's. I wish we got to keep it but at least we got pictures. We then were given the document that says he is ours forever. No judge, no court, not even a question asked. We just walked over to a lady who signed it, handed it to us and said congrats and thank you for adopting an orphan. That was it! We then headed to a notary office where we signed a ton of papers. To be honest I don't really know what we all signed, kind of like when you sign for a mortgage. They just kept saying....sign here and here ...... One I do know was to state the document of adoption we just were handed was true and official.

Then back to the hotel we headed. Caleb was exhausted. He is now napping and Ben went to the gym. Tonight is a free night and we are hoping to find a restaurant to go for dinner. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Swallow's Nest. It was the first foster home Caleb stayed in and it is right here in Zhengzhou.

I'll leave you with some facts about Caleb----

**he can steal anyone's heart

**he loves, loves talking to himself in the mirror....it is so funny

**his skin is crazy dry and he itches it all the time :(

**he loves books

**he will eat everything and anything

**he favors daddy over mommy most times

**his laugh is contagious

**he gets tired super fast with any activities and sleeps SO sound

** he is so funny when he imitates me dancing or I just look that crazy when doing it

Facts about Ch*na

**kids 3 and under wear split pants and just squat in the middle of the sidewalk to do their business.....they don't wear diapers under them. We saw a little girl today it just blows my mind.

** there was a rooster just walking around the sidewalk to town.

** everybody smokes and all the girls wear skinny jeans with boots

** in ZZ motorcycles drive on the sidewalks. Even our guide said it was just plain crazy. Oh also if there isn't a place to park on the street...no problem...just pull up on the sidewalk and park

** no yield signs or stop signs in Ch*na. I tell you every time we get in the van or taxi I say a prayer that we make it safe and don't kill anyone ..lol

** you won't go 30 sec without someone beeping at another car or bike or person walking.

** because there are too many cars in China every day they assign 2 numbers. If your license plate ends in one of those numbers you can not drive it. The day of the week your number is changes every 3 months.

** people just hold their infants/ kids in their lap on motorcycles or in the car. Their are no car seats and no one uses seatbelts or helmets. By law seatbelts only have to be installed in the front seats.

** you don't tip at restaurants and you all pick a dish which is put in the center of the table. Everyone takes some food from each dish.

Thursday we are going to the Henan Museum to learn specifically about his province. We love learning all about Caleb's heritage but at the same time I am ready to be home. Love you Nathan, Katie and Ana!!!

 

"gotcha" buddy

So I don't know if I can ever explain the feelings today but I will try.

At 9:30am we set ou with our guide to catch a taxi and head to the civil affairs office. There was 15 families, most who we have already met, waiting in the same room for the dirctors of the orphanages to arrive with the children. We get no warning at all and in walks 4 caregivers with 4kids. Some of the guides call family names and some parents recognize their kids right away. Let me tell you was that emotional seeing them meet their little ones and some of those little ones being handed over to what to them is a total stranger. All us without kids start snapping away trying to get what we can for them

Then our guide calls me over to sign some papers and as I sit down I look over towards the door and I see him. Seriously up to that point I was doing fine but when I saw the back of his head I just started shaking. All I could say is Cindy's name and just start pulling her his way. I looked at Ben to let him know he was here and couldn't hold it in. Know I promise or at least I think :-) that by the time he saw us I was composed!

The transition to our arms could not have been dreamed any better! That boy is finally ours and we are never letting go. He loves to laugh!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we were told he loves glasses and trust me he does. He was mister cool guy the whole time. Really just too cute!

We then headed back to the hotel, took a bath which he loved, woke up MiMi and PaPa to Skype, had pizza for lunch which he also loved and now him and daddy are napping. Ben just said before it can only get worse here on out because today was PERFECT!

 

Thanks for everyone's prayers. They have meant the world to us.

Nathan, Katie and Ana we miss you and love you lots!

1st day in Zhengzhou.....

Yesterday we started the day by gathering up all our belongings and heading to the train station. Ok let me just say there were more people waiting in that room then all of Winneconne it seemed like. Tons of people. Thank goodness we had seats assigned and it wasn't push your way to your seat. While we were waiting I told Cindy (our guide who was also riding the train with us and is our guide here in Zz) that I thought I should try to use the restroom before the 5 hr trip. She agreed and off we went. Now let me just say when your guide tells you to roll your pants and then looks in a stall and says.....ughhhh I do not want to go here. Do you think you can hold it until we are on the train???........the best thing to do is run the other way. I decided I wanted to check if there was a western toilet because I figured that was going to be tons better then a squat toilet on the train. OH MY WORD......RUN. No way no how was I using it. So off we go to wait to board the train. Once on I figured I'll go use it before the train is moving. No go. The doors to it don't unlock until the train is moving. Well I had my first experience with a squatty potty on a moving train. And to all those coming behind me they really are nothing to fear. Some tips.....bring travel kleenex because they don't supply toilet paper in bathrooms, bring travel hand wipes because many don't have an area to wash your hand, hand sanitizer for everything and roll your pants before going in.

The trip was long but I loved it!

We got in and Cindy led the way out of the train station. I would suggest if you are coming and taking the train to bring tie tabs to put on the zipper of your backpack. That way no one can unzip if from behind, people are so crammed in you would never know. We headed out of the tunnel and onto the streets from the train and oh my Lord.....crazy traffic, people everywhere. I have to say it is very odd to have everyone who walks by you just stare like you are an alien of some kind.

ok so we are having trouble uploading pictures so I'll add more if we can get them to work later.

Next we headed to the hotel that we had a room booked for or at least we thought we did. Now I do not understand Chinese but I do understand a questioning look, searching tons of papers and the computer and Cindy saying something and then just turning to smile at us. Yep no room booked for us. Oh wait they found one in are 3 which is in a different building. Ok fine off we go to enter a Holiday Inn. No not staying here we are to be at the Crowne Plaza along with all the other adopting families. Long story short about an hour later we enter a smoking, 100 degree temp room at the Crowne Plaza. The air conditioner doesn't work so we figure we will just open the window to cool it off. Well then it's time to leave and the darn thing won't shut......really. I haven't eaten since 7am and it is now 5pm and I am starving :) not a pretty sight for me. On the way out we learn there is a trick only housekeeping can shut it so we go off to eat. Cindy found us a great restaurant and Ben and I had a quick 101 from her on how to use chopsticks since when she asked for a fork for us there was none in the whole place...lol. Ben did much better then I did but I didn't starve and we both managed to get enough into our mouths to make us full!

We headed back to the hotel to get everything ready for tomorrow. Into the room we head and yep you guessed. They shut the window and turned on the heat!!!! So I call down to explain it is too hot and then send us a guy who tells us there is no air conditioning just open the window. I asked him what is the trick to closing it. He looked at me like I was crazy and just shut it. Ok easy enough. Bed time rolls around and Ben and I try to shut it. 15 min later lights out window unlocked.....I really don't get it. It looked so easy when he did it but I wasn't about to call down again....lol. We figure we are up too high for anyone to get in and Cori yes the word ...adventure....has been repeating itself in my head over and over for the last 24 hrs :) and it's working.

 

I'm actually typing this Monday morning here and we leave in 1.5 hrs to go get our little guy!!!!! We will post again when we can.

Also sorry about typos and layout of these posts. We are doing this off the Ipad and it looks different after we hit post sometimes and I am not rereading before posting. It just is taking too long.

walmart -

 

Zhengzhou meet the Prevost's

We made it to Zhengzhou!! The five hour train ride was not what we expected. It was good but we,expected to see some great scenery in China, but instead passed by many many very poor villages. Makes you really appreciate how good we have it. Be on the lookout for pictures tomorrow. (if we can get online, it has been a challenge to say the least. At 8 pm Wisconsin, USA time on Sunday we will be meeting our boy for the first time. So excited, nervous, anxious, and just about every other emotion has been felt thus far into our journey!

That's all for now!

Ben

Great Wall, Jade, and Tea!

We had a blast today. I now get why people love China. We are in a groove and over jetlag so we could completely enjoy everything around us.

To start the day we headed to the Jade Factory. It is amazing what they can make out of one stone. We watched how they used a tool and carved away to make jewelry, bowls, figurines and so many other objects. I will admit I have fallen in love with jade jewelry. It is absolutely gorgeous!

Happiness Ball. There are three balls inside each symbolizes a generation in the family.

Gold fish - Chinese people love them for their beauty.

Budda! They compared me (Ben) to a budda at the shop, big belly and smiling a lot!!!

A dragon carved from jade.

Next to the big budda!

We then headed to the Great Wall. All I can say ..... AMAZING!!! We can not even start to fathom how that was made by hand. The pictures do not do it justice. From each tower you can see beautiful mountains. It is something I will never forget. The towers themselves are also unbelievable. The emperor would pick men whose job would be to live in the lookout towers and warn him if enemies were coming. This job was for life. They could never leave this post except if they died. There was 2 to 3 men per tower. Each tower had 3 levels. 1 st or lowest level, usually underground, stored the food which was brought to them by donkeys and camels. 2 nd level was for sleeping and 3 rd was the lookout. During the day if there was danger they would light wolf droppings ( yep that must have smelled just great and how would you like the job to walk around and gather it...lol). This caused very thick smoke you could see back at the palace. At night they lit a fire.

So how did the climbing go? Well we made it to the 3 rd tower which seemed to be the spot. After that one the crowd thinned out quite a bit. I will admit though it took Ben pushing me to go from the 2 nd tower to the 3 rd and a 5 yr old girl passing me up ;-)

Juli getting started and the great scenery!

Looking back on what we've accomplished up thus far!

What lies ahead!

Taking a quick photo break!

Looking back again!

Logjam on the wall. Lots of people until you get past the third tower!

We made it to the 3rd tower!

We ended the day with a lesson in tea. It was so interesting. I can not tell you enough that here in China there is truly a reason in everything they do, make or drink. We learned what teas to drink for beauty, sickness, cleansing of your body and more. It was so fun to sit and try all the different drinks.

Tea tasting!

Tomorrow we head to the train station with destination Zhengzhou! We get Caleb Monday morning 10am China time which I believe is 8pm Sunday night at home.

 

Here are some other sites of the day. Oh and let me tell you the traffic and driving is NUTS! On the highway I asked as we are weaving in and out...do cops ever pull people over for speeding? Oh sure they said but the speed limit is 100 mph so we are fine. Yep my heart dropped. No seatbelts and going that fast are not my cup of tea but we are back home safe and sound! Also it is crazy how many people are out riding their bikes about 3" away from cars driving down the street.

Each detailed is carefully colored using paint and pipettes.

These three wheeled carts are everywhere!

Busy corner!

Yellow and blue double decker bus, for you Nate.

 

Thanks for your continued support! We love hearing your encouraging thoughts and comments. 28 hrs and he will be in our arms!