I have a few minutes while Abbie sleeps and Adam and the boys are at the hotel playground, so I thought I'd add a few more last minute thoughts from China. The following paragraphs will be a little disjointed and choppy, but I just want to get a few quick stories down.
The pagoda I posted pictures of in the last blog was 6 or 7 stories high. We hiked a couple of floors up to the main entrance, then took an elevator up to the top floor. As soon as we walked out of the elevator, Adam saw how high up we were and started to feel faint. (He has a severe fear of heights.) Then he saw the boys running towards the middle of the interior of the pagoda, which had a railing and was open to below. He completely froze and almost passed out. I looked over to see our guide, Sissi, grabbing him by the arm and marching him inside to sit down. He was completely white. The only other time I've seen him like this was when he passed out in the delivery room as Brayden was being born - but that's another story. Anyway, after a few minutes of his head between his legs and measured breathing, he was feeling a little better, but we started our descent through the inner bowels of the pagoda shortly thereafter so he'd completely recover.
Gavin has decided that he is a "Chinese people" since we are in China. We'll be sitting at the breakfast table and he'll proudly announce, "I am a Chinese people now!"
Angry Birds is quite possibly the best invention ever. It has been a life saver on this trip. Enough said.
Abbie continues to have middle of the night wakings (usually from 1:00-3:00 AM) and they're heartbreaking. She will cling to us with everything she's got. She's quickly comforted by Adam or me, but as soon as we lay her back in her crib, she grabs our arm, hand, or anything else she can and holds on for dear life. We've tried co-sleeping, but it is worse. She's a thrasher when she's in bed with us and it's not a peaceful experience for anyone.
I'm so, so, so glad we brought the boys with us. It's been amazing to be here as a family and I know I'd be missing them like crazy if we left them at home while we traveled. They've really done amazingly well. Gavin has been homesick and asking when we're going home quite a bit, but he does that when we go anywhere. He's just a home-body and that's OK. When Abbie fusses (usually when she's trying to reach for a snack or if she's tired and almost ready to conk out), Brayden will start singing, "You are my sunshine..." to her. It's beyond adorable. All three of our children are so lucky to have each other as siblings.
My parents have been so helpful. We've been delighted to share this journey with them and their help with the children has been a huge relief. My mom is flying back to Chicago with us to help for a couple of weeks and my dad flies back to Oregon from Hong Kong (his flight departs a couple of hours after ours tomorrow morning).
Thank you for following along as we welcomed Abbie into our family. It has meant so much to know that people are praying for us and enjoying the early moments of our new family along with us.
Abbie is awake - time to sign off.
No comments:
Post a Comment