Day 3 with Liam

We had a good day today.  Liam woke up at 4:30 am but was in a good mood.  He layed in bed with me for a while then was really up by 5.  He was in a happy mood and pleasant today. We ventured out to buy a stroller then headed over to a park here in Taiyuan.  Well, it was way more than a park. THis park has amusement rides like roller coasters, a huge lake with paddle boats, lots of sculptures, trees, people dancing and excercising, singing groups practicing, musicians practicing and performing, hacky sack playing with a badmitton net on teams, and some interesting top like toy being balanced on a string.  we walked for about an hour and a half to get around the whole park.  I imagine it is really busy on weekends and more beautiful during springtime.

We talked with Helen, our guide and she brought along a young man who is trying to learn more English and hoping to attend college in the US in either Boston or Deleware to learn economics.  I told him America is not the best place to study economics. 

we enjoyed the park and Liam slept throught the whole thing in his new stroller.  I was hoping to let him walk and play.  When she said "park" I was thinking slides and swings.  I have not been to central park, but I imagine this park to be more along those lines.  So there were no slides or swings for him anyway and it was a good opportunity for us to stretch our legs and get out of the room. 

we also ventured to another market.  It is about 2 "blocks" from our hotel.  It was the same place we bought the stroller, but I never would have found it if Helen hadn't brought us there first.  There is no front door and just green tarps over the doors.  Outside there were street vendors with baked sweet potatoes that smelled awesome.  Inside were 100s of little stores or more like cubby holes with each a selection of associated items, some with shoes, luggage, lotions, scarves, each one had a specialty.  In the back there was more grocery items with open spices and teas and various unrecognizable items to me.  Liam did well in his stroller except when Paula took him strolling while I was buying some paper cuttings.  These are traditional cuttings done by hand on this extremely thin paper.  Ive posted some pictures of them.  Some are red and some are colorful.  THey are a traditional art form here in Shanxi.

Then we were back to the hotel and more noodles for my boy!

He does not like to bathe at all, but we did get him to at least sit in the tub tonight after the 3rd time bathing.  He must have bathed but i doubt it was in a big tub.  He squats in the water and rubs his feet and his tummy, laughing the whole time.  He played with some Thomas toys in the tub and seemed to be more at ease.  He fell asleep early and had a little more disturbing night.  He had some night terrors and crying but i was able to soothe him back to sleep.  It's now Thursday morning at 5 am and he is still asleep from 7 pm last night.  This boy is 100% either tottally going or totally sleeping.  His personality is so much a joy.  i remember people commenting on Tanner having the personality of 10 adults when he was 3 and I'm beginning to think this boy has him beat even at the young age of 23 months!

God has truly blessed us with Liam.

Have a great day and more from our adventures in Shanxi tommorrow!

Amanda, Paula and Liam in Shanxi

ps, pics are of the amusement park and of course, Liam!

 

Day 3 with Liam

We had a good day today.  Liam woke up at 4:30 am but was in a good mood.  He layed in bed with me for a while then was really up by 5.  He was in a happy mood and pleasant today. We ventured out to buy a stroller then headed over to a park here in Taiyuan.  Well, it was way more than a park. THis park has amusement rides like roller coasters, a huge lake with paddle boats, lots of sculptures, trees, people dancing and excercising, singing groups practicing, musicians practicing and performing, hacky sack playing with a badmitton net on teams, and some interesting top like toy being balanced on a string.  we walked for about an hour and a half to get around the whole park.  I imagine it is really busy on weekends and more beautiful during springtime.

We talked with Helen, our guide and she brought along a young man who is trying to learn more English and hoping to attend college in the US in either Boston or Deleware to learn economics.  I told him America is not the best place to study economics. 

we enjoyed the park and Liam slept throught the whole thing in his new stroller.  I was hoping to let him walk and play.  When she said "park" I was thinking slides and swings.  I have not been to central park, but I imagine this park to be more along those lines.  So there were no slides or swings for him anyway and it was a good opportunity for us to stretch our legs and get out of the room. 

we also ventured to another market.  It is about 2 "blocks" from our hotel.  It was the same place we bought the stroller, but I never would have found it if Helen hadn't brought us there first.  There is no front door and just green tarps over the doors.  Outside there were street vendors with baked sweet potatoes that smelled awesome.  Inside were 100s of little stores or more like cubby holes with each a selection of associated items, some with shoes, luggage, lotions, scarves, each one had a specialty.  In the back there was more grocery items with open spices and teas and various unrecognizable items to me.  Liam did well in his stroller except when Paula took him strolling while I was buying some paper cuttings.  These are traditional cuttings done by hand on this extremely thin paper.  Ive posted some pictures of them.  Some are red and some are colorful.  THey are a traditional art form here in Shanxi.

Then we were back to the hotel and more noodles for my boy!

He does not like to bathe at all, but we did get him to at least sit in the tub tonight after the 3rd time bathing.  He must have bathed but i doubt it was in a big tub.  He squats in the water and rubs his feet and his tummy, laughing the whole time.  He played with some Thomas toys in the tub and seemed to be more at ease.  He fell asleep early and had a little more disturbing night.  He had some night terrors and crying but i was able to soothe him back to sleep.  It's now Thursday morning at 5 am and he is still asleep from 7 pm last night.  This boy is 100% either tottally going or totally sleeping.  His personality is so much a joy.  i remember people commenting on Tanner having the personality of 10 adults when he was 3 and I'm beginning to think this boy has him beat even at the young age of 23 months!

God has truly blessed us with Liam.

Have a great day and more from our adventures in Shanxi tommorrow!

Amanda, Paula and Liam in Shanxi

ps, pics are of the amusement park and of course, Liam!

 

End of Day 2 with Liam

Baby boy just fell asleep.  He is such a sweetie.  He woke up from his nap in an extremely calm mood. 

He seems to be attaching more.  He is already calling me momma which is pretty amazing. 

He soo loves to eat.  We stayed in the room and ate some ramen noodles for supper.  He started when he heard me crunching the bag with the biggest ear to ear grin.  By the time I had the noodles wet with hot water and stirred and brought to him he was clapping ecstatically!  After just about every bite he would giggle and clap.  This boy loves some noodles!

 

The strangest thing happened prior to the noodles.  I had not turned on the TV since we got him yesterday and i turned it on to check CNN and then turned to HBO.  HBO had some movie about  a dance competition and Liam sat down and got this gazed look on his face like he was mesmerized.  I wonder if he spent a lot of time in front of the TV?  IT was just very strange because when Tanner came home he acted like he had never even seen a TV or knew what to do with it.  During the show I gathered Liam to take a bath and he started screaming "lee lee or lay lay"  I'm not sure if he was hollering for the TV or not?  I'm going to have to ask Helen tomorrow what he could be referring to.  Very puzzling and strange. 

 

He went easily to sleep so I got to do this and post some pics of the sweet boy, enjoy!

 

Adoption Day for Liam

We were up at 3am and Liam was up by 4am.  We were the first to breakfast and off to the CIvil Affairs office for another fun day of 2+ hours in a crowded room full of babies!  Actualy there were 4 families and it was not that bad.  We learned today that Liam apparently has tapped into some eternal life force that keeps him going and going and going!  We have taken probably 100 pictures of this little man in the last 36 hours and the only ones not blurry are when he is either sleeping or eating b/c any other time he is just not ever still! 

He fell asleep on the ride to the Civil Affairs office and slept quietly for about 20 minutes and I got to do our paperwork first.  Then he woke up and roamed around the room for another 2 hours while the other families completed their portions!  He moved furniture, threw every block and toy item in his bag, ate another 1/2 container of Gerber puffs, played with all the other kids' toys while they were either busy with their parents or not looking. Closed the door about 50 times, and stood on the window sill hollering at the busses and cars that passed by.  He likes to hear them honk and usually hollers and points at the window when he hears a car horn. 

We had dinner at the Western restaurant last night and had some chinese noodle, wonton soup and indian chicken curry which were all decent meals.  Liam ate his and started in on my curry. He is not sh about eating at all.  Later he fell asleep around 8:30 after getting to see his daddy and brothers and sisters for the first time.  He liked the computer keypad immensely.  We decided to sleep when he sleeps and were done by 3 am just in time to get up and ready before he got up at 4. 

This boy eats constantly.  He ate 2 packs of oatmeal before we ever went to breakfast, ate egg, dumpling, watermelon and cantelope, a whole yougurt and some of my toast.  That was all before the 1/2 container of Gerber snacks at the Civil Affairs office.

We found out today he was living in a foster home with an older couple in their 60s who did not have any other children in the home. Apparently they devoted their full time attention to Liam and he is continueing to desire this.  He is a little bossy and when he wants something points with his finger on the table as if to say "and put it right here".  

At lunch today I shared my noodle with him but he did not want cut up noodle from a baby spoon.  He wanted noodle from my plate to be fed with the fork.  I can see a power struggle coming on :)

He cried quite a bit for his nap today and even threw a little temper tantrum.  Eventually I won and he took his nap and is currently still sleeping. 

This afternoon we may venture out to a little store a few doors down to check out some Liam snacks since he is going to be depleting our stores quickly!

I've added a few pics from today to let you see him in action!

Have a great day and more tomorrow from Taiyuan.  We will be going to PinYao market for a little sightseeing of the ancient areas there and hopefully take some pictures and get some souveniers.

Amanda and Paula and Liam in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China

 a still shot, literally

 

happy adoption day Liam!

with the orphanage director

wonder what i could get into out there!

Liam Day

We have Liam.  He is such a cutie pie.  We picked them up at the Taiyuan office and were there at 2:30 waiting.  Helen brought him in and he was crying.  I sat him down and he threw most of the toys down, then we got out the snacks and he was in happy land.  Love those Gerber sweet potatoe pufs, mmm mmm good!!  He is playgul and sweet and such a great personality and was smilin from almost the beginning and already saying momma.  We found out today he has ben with a foster family up until just 2 days ago.  He is a giggler and a laugher and an eater.  So far he has eaten in 6 hours an entire container of sweet potatoe puffs, 1/2 a serving of wonton soup and some rice curry and chicken.  He must have a hollow leg somewhere to put it in.  He oohs and ahh with every bite of food like it is the most satisfying thing he's ever tasted.  He is such a Ham!

He loved the nesting blocks we brought for him and once he got more comfortable enjoyed throwing them as well.  He is also a little mimicker which is why he is already saying "more" and "bite" in English after just a few hours.  We were playing and I put one of the nesting bins on my head and made it drop and then he did the same and laughed.  He has obviously been well cared for and loved and we are thankful for his foster family.  I'm sure their hearts are breaking as he has lived with them at least 1 1/2 years and it would be impossible to have this child in your home and not fall totally and madly in love with him!

We got to skype with dad and the kids at home and he laughed and giggled for them.  All the while shoveling in the sweet potatoe puffs!

Right now he is trying to stay awake despite being increadibly sleepy. 

I think he will fit right in with out crew and fill the role of Di Di or litle brother well as he more than likely will end up being the boss!  He is easy going and increadibly happy.  I don't think I could ever have imagined a child from an orphanage being this happy and well adjusted, but again, that probably says a lot about his foster family.  We go to the Civil affairs office tomorrow and are told to prepare some questions and I hope to find out as much as we can about his foster family. 

Paula took a bunch of pictures and videos both at the civil affairs office and back here in the room.  We also took some video which I will try to put on our dropshots which is www.dropshots.com/alacomb tonight.  Being not incredibly computer savy, I make no promises but i'll try.  Paula's camera needs a cord we do not have so wel'll either need to shop or figure something else b/c my camera is acting weird and not keeping any charge on the battery.

i did take a few pictures with my phone and they came out ok so at least you get to SEE him in real life.  We'll work on the rest tomorrow and the video.

Before we left to get Liam, I was telling Paula about the new Veggie Tales movie "MEant to Be" and the Steven Curtis CHapman video for his theme song. We puled up the video and watched it.  I got chill seeing all the adoptive families with their babies especialy since many of them were just lik we were about to experience with Liam. 

Have a great day.  Know your prayers are anwered and Liam is beyond anything we could have hoped for and already such a joy!

 

in Taiyuan Shanxi China, Amanda & Paula

We are in China!!

Good morning or good evening, depends on how you look at it!

We made it to CHina. Our flights all went well and were all pretty empty so we got to stretch our legs a little!

Our first flight to Dallas was quick and a very short layover left us running for our connecting flight to LA.  In LA we had what ended up to be about 10 hour layover which was not exciting.  For any transfers through LA, you should keep in mind to make extra time though because we had to leave one terminal and walk outside about 1/2 mile to another terminal and go through security again.  I can't imagine doing this on the run to catch a connection.  They don't have any tram or train like many other airports.  We arrived in Bejing around 5 am their time (3pm at home) and it was cold.  Another short layover, had to pick up our checked items, recheck them and again, through security.  I got through fine and Paula got the pat down and 3rd degree for her liquids.  We made it to our plane with only 2-3 minutes before boarding for Taiyuan. 

The Air China flights were very nice with comfortable seats, so I would definately recommend it.  The flight here was also a little empty so we got 3 seats for the 2 of us and a window seat!  Not that you can see through the blackness, but was nice anyway. 

On arrival in Taiyuan, we were here a little early and our guide was not here yet.  We got a little nervous, but after a bathroom trip and a few minutes pondering how to get to our hotel Helen, our guide showed up.  Note to others:  bring a paper with the directions or a note saying "Please take me to XYZ hotel" with the address in Chinese is probably a necessity.  We have it for our two other hotels, but I dont have anything with Shanxi Grand in Chinese so I would have been in a bind if Helen hadn't shown up!

After settling in, I went to the bank with Helen to exchange money.  She says banks here are open everyday and most people do their banking on the weekends.  People for the most part are off on Saturdays and Sundays, but many jobs require you to work.  We went through the 3rd degree at the bank with them scanning each bill with two different machines.  Some of the bills had to be approved by management.  Helen showed me a $20 USD that someone gave her the bank would not accept because there was a stamp from a US bank on  the face of the president.  She said the bank here will accept it if the stamp is on the back, but not on the front, good to know.  When I was at our local bank getting my crisp bills just a few days ago, the teller was a little miffed that I didn't want the bills with writing, stamps and other imperfections, but good thing we were so careful with the bills!  I'd hate to get over here and have unusable American money. 

we are using Skype which did not work at first.  The first few times I called home, Ro could not hear me.  I could hear him, but he could not hear me.  I also have a subscription which lets me text him and cost about .10$ a text.  So i sent him a few text then called and let him tell me he got them.  I called again at 3am our time (1pm at home) and got a good connection, so I think maybe the connection was just bad the first time. 

Well, the part one of the days we have been waiting for is tomorrow (today for us) in about 7 hours.  We will get Liam Hui Dong LaComb and meet him for the first time at 2:30 today.  Keep us in your prayers and we'll post some picture (hopefully) by tomorrow morning US time!! 

Amanda & Paula in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China!

Li Bai

One of my favourite Chinese poems. We have. Blanket made for Tanner with this recurring print. Chinese and translation below. About a man who sees the moon and longs for his home far away.


Chuang qian ming yue guang
Yi shi di shang shuang.

Ju tou wang ming yue,
Di tou si gu xiang.

Before my bed
There is bright-lit moonlight
So that it seems
Plop
Like frost on the ground:

Lifting my head
I watch the bright moon
Lowering my head
I dream that I'm home.



- Amanda & Roland