Welcome Home Liam

There is so much to catch up on! I will start with an overview of our week. The kids are getting back to a somewhat normal schedule. Liam is pretty much sleeping through the night. Sometimes he will wake once during the night, but I just have to pat him for a minute and he goes back to sleep. Lily is still waking once during the night and wanting to sleep with Fred and I. I think her waking and crying at the top of the stairs is what wakes Liam sometimes because he doesn't have a door on his room yet. There was one day when he wouldn't nap for me and climbed out of the crib twice, but other than that he has been taking his naps well. I have had to work out a new routine with Lily now that Liam is home, but it seems to be working well! We lay Lily down in her bed for her nap and turn on the TV while I go put Liam down for a nap. Then I go back to Lily's room and turn off her TV and lay with her for a minute...she falls right to sleep. We do this at night time too and it has work very well.
Everyone is adjusting well. Of course we have our moments when Lily needs mommy time, so I make sure I give that to her. And there are other times when my big girl, Morgan, needs mommy time too! Sometimes it is frustrating and hard to balance it all as one person, but I do my best and try to give them all what they need.
We spent most of the week at home. My mom and sister came over to visit on Monday and my mom came back on Tuesday to visit for a while. My friend Kim came over on Thursday to visit and brought us diner. Thanks Kim!! I did venture out a couple times to run errands with the little ones and all went well. The weather has been beautiful here with temperatures in the 60's so we have been able to get outside and play.

I had my accountablity group on Friday night. I have missed those ladies so much. It was great to get out of the house without the kids and have some girl time. We are planning out first women's retreat for March, so there was alot to do. You can check out our ministry at www.oaksofrighteousness.info. Liam did really well with Fred and had no "mommy" moments. Yeah! Mason had his basketball game on Saturday morning and then Lily went to my sister's house for a little girl time with her cousin Grace. You can check out pictures on my sister's blog....dawnandguyfisher.blogspot.com. I took Morgan and Liam out to the barn so Morgan could get some ride time in. It was a beautiful day and I was able to spend some time one on one with Liam. It was wonderful since we have not had any one on one time together since we met him. Getting to know this little boy has been so much fun. He is so happy and such an easy little boy to love. I am loving being his mommy and getting to know him more and more each day!

Sunday Liam was introduced to the church. Our sermon was on faithfulness and the life of Abraham, so it was a good tie in to our adpotion. I took the little ones into their class after the introduction. I stayed with them since this is all so new for our little guy. Lily still has a hard time staying by herself as well. The good thing is that they are in the same class together right now, so they will have each other for security. Sunday afternoon a couple friends threw us a "Welcome Home Liam" party. We had a house full of family and friends come by and meet our sweet boy. He did very well! It was a great time. Thanks Kim and Ashton for all your effort.

The bubbles my sister got him were a tons of fun. Liam LOVES bubbles!
This week we don't have too much going on. Lily has her follow up with her surgeon on Tuesday. Hoping for more beautiful weather, so we can get outside.

Home & Settling In

We arrived home on Saturday around 4:30 pm. The kids did great on the plane. They fell asleep on take off out of Hong Kong on Saturday morning around 10:30 am. They sleep for a couple of hours and then went back to sleep around 7:00 pm and slept until we landed in Detriot about 1:00 pm. Would have been 1:00 am on our timeclock. Fred and I did not sleep at all. The second leg from Detroit to Charlotte was a little more difficult for them. THey were both tired but we were trying to hold them out to try to get to sleep through the night that night once we were home. Here are Lily and Liam on the long plane ride from Hong Kong to Detroit.

We arrived in Charlotte to our wonderful welcome committee! It was so good to see my family and Morgan and Mason who we had missed so much.

I think Lily really missed her cousin, Grace!

And Liam took in all in...

We had a rough night Saturday night. I set up a bed in Liam's room for him in hopes that he would do okay without a crib. He did alright, but I could tell he was a little unsure of it. He went to bed fine at 8:00, but woke up at 11:30 pm. I couldn't believe it. I was sleeping in the room beside his in case he woke up during the night and got out of bed. I didn't want him falling down the stairs. I could hear him calling my name, but he wasn't crying. I went into his room several times in hopes that I could pat him and he would go back to sleep. That did not happen! Lily woke at 1:00 and I layed her down with me, but by 2:00 when Liam started to cry she was still not sleeping. So, Fred came and put Lily in the bed with him and Liam and I went downstairs and played until 6:00 am when I layed him down for a short nap. He only took and 1.5 nap and was back up.
Fred and I set up the crib on Sunday and put it in his room. He was so excited to see that crib! I was excited too, that meant I could sleep in my own bed. I held him out until 1:30 and put him and Lily down for a nap. I took a nap too! With only 2 hours sleep in 42 hours I needed it. I had to wake them up at 4:30.
That night was better. Liam slept through the night. He woke at 5:45, but at least he slept through. Lily woke up at 1:00 am and ended up in our bed. So she was up when he woke too. Oh well, it was back to a normal school day routine anyway and I would have been up at 6:00 am anyway. We got the kids off to school and came home and hung out all day. My mom and sister came over to visit for a while.
Liam slept well again last night..wahoo! Now if I could just get Lily to sleep through the night without waking up. Uggg...she is killing me!
Liam is adjusting well. He has really done so good and it had definately been an easier transition than it was with bringing Lily home. He has had an immediate bond with Morgan and Mason. It was just beautiful to watch. He will actually go to Morgan over me sometimes! WOW. Here is a picture of Lily and Liam jumping all over Mason on Sunday morning.

And he actually let Daddy hold him..

Although Liam's file said that he liked dogs and cats, this was NOT the case! He was absolutely TERRIFIED of them. So we have taken it slow. He is doing much better with the dog, but still dosen't like the cat. She doesn't come out much, so that is probably a good thing right now.
We celebrated the Chinese New Year last night with family and friends at a local Chinese restaurant. The ladies that own the restaurant were so excited to meet Liam. We had 28 of us total to help bring in the New Year. He had some traditional dishes from the soup with fish balls and fried hard boiled egg..

To the candy and watermelon seeds...

Here are some pictures from our evening..

It is great having such a good group of families that have adopted from China that we can do life with! Liam is going to have a large selection of adorable Chinese girls to choose from...lol!

Final Blog from China

On Tuesday afternoon we headed to the park around the corner from the hotel. It was a beautiful afternoon and the park was great. It was all decorated for the Chinese New Year.

The bubble guns we got there were a big hit.

Check out this statue...made us laugh...

On Wednesday we went to the zoo in the morning. It was another sunnny beautiful day for the zoo.

Liam loved all the animals and got so excited everyone time we came upon a different animal.
Today we had our consulate appointment. It was first thing in the morning and was pretty uneventful which is a good thing I guess. I did get a little chocked up when giving our oath. We brought the kids back for lunch and a nap and then headed over to the island for one last visit. It was a little rainy but not enough to keep us from walking around for a bit. Here are a few shots from our day.
Lily and Liam enjoying a snack and watching Avatar...

Here is Liam on the island with the statues...

We leave tomorrow afternoon for Hong Kong. We will spend the night there and then leave at 10:30 am for home. The kids are doing great. Lily still continues to boss her new little brother around and try to be his little mama, but I guess it will all work itself out. He won't put up with it for long. He adores hers and follows her around. I am sure he is going to adore his big brother and sister at home too. So, this will be my last post from China. Hope to post soon once we arrive home and get settled. Please keep us in your prayers for this long, dreaded flight home. Love to you all!