RE: Kristine Aldrich

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Best regards, Kristine Aldrich

Utterly Normal

Joshua is doing so well.  He has had a couple times where we have seen quiet tears.  It is hard to see him have sad moments, but I know he needs to process those emotions. I think we would be more concerned if he wasn't showing emotions.  Most of the time, the emotions we see are delight, enthusiasm, curiosity, determination and joy.  He is a busy, active boy and has many things to learn. Most of the time, he is compliant and wanting to please us. He has pretty strong opinions and as he learns what is expected in our family, we will have our share of conflicts. He is not afraid to express his disappointments when we tell him "no" or to let the kids know when he isn't happy with something they are doing.    For now, most of the time, he really seems to want to fit in with the kids. He is very generous with his smile and his hugs. He is trying to help with chores and doing a pretty good job at it. We took him to a park on Tuesday to play soccer and Frisbee and he had a great time.  Yesterday, we took him swimming at a friend's pool. He had a great time. Yesterday morning, I observed him playing in his room for a long time.  He had a collection of lego vehicles and people and was arranging them various ways, talking in Chinese the whole time. Other than the fact it was Chinese, the whole scene was just so strangely normal.   Just like our other kids, he will have his own struggles and areas for character development and training. He may have unique struggles as he processes the hurts of his early childhood.  We can do lots of reading and preparing, but will ultimately just have to trust that God has a plan for this boy and will equip us to be his parents.   We are not super parents. While in China, when people found out we have six children now, they would frequently say what a great mother I must be.  The doctor from the orphanage, whom we had met when we received Anna and have corresponded with since then, kept telling us we are the best parents. So many times, I have felt like I should wear a big sign fully disclosing how unamazing I truly am.  Most of our friends and family reading these posts already know we really are not super human parents. All I can claim to be is willing, and quite honestly, at first I was a pretty reluctant and frightened willing parent. When we had our third child, people often asked me if it was harder to go from 1 to 2 children or 2 to 3 children. I always answered it was hardest to go from 0 to 1! I didn't grow up dreaming of being a mommy and practicing my domestic skills. I imagined climbing the corporate ladder and hiring a house keeper.  My ambitions were fairly self centered and even though I wanted to be a mother and had great role models in my own mother and mother-in-law, I was fearful. I felt so utterly inadequate when our sweet little Rachel was born!   Praise God for faithfully leading us on paths and adventures we would never dream possible!  My children would tell you my favorite chapter of the bible is Hebrews Chapter 11, "The Hall of Faith."  I love the list of unqualified candidates that God used to accomplish His purpose and the reminder that if we walk by faith, He can use us, even if we don't see the fruit in our life time.   I still feel pretty unqualified to manage a household of 8 on many days, but am thankful that God has led us on this adventure. It will be exciting to see what he does with each of these lives, in spite of my inadequacies and failures along the way. Because I didn't set out on this path or envision having all of these children, I think it has made the miraculous journey much easier for me to see. So many miracles happened along this journey to Joshua, just as they did for Anna and as they did for each of my birth children too. They all have a story.  On difficult days, when I feel overwhelmed and inadequate, those miracles remind me that God has a plan and purpose and He will be faithful to complete it if I am willing to just keep walking.   If Joshua has adjustment difficulties or adolescent difficulties, I will remember the miracles that brought us from seeing an unlikely photo to bringing home a little boy. I will remember the unlikely timing of events and God's amazing Providence that helped us to complete this adoption. I will remember that sometimes God uses a "divinely appointed mistake" to accomplish His will. I will remember that it didn't matter that the odds were against finding this boy's file, it didn't matter that China was changing the process for listing harder to place children, it didn't matter that the US was changing immigration procedures, it didn't matter that swine flu closed Joshua's province to adoption appointments or that various forces were plotting an uprising there because God had a plan to bring this boy here.  I may still have times when I feel inadequate and overwhelmed and we may have painful difficult days, but we will remember that God's purpose will prevail.  We only need to keep walking the path he puts before us.  "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Galatians 6:9) "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)   If you would like to follow the continuing adventures of the Aldrich Family,  we will be posting again on our family blog next week – JbarJHappenings. You can email me for a link.  Thank you for following our journey, praying us through and encouraging us in so many ways.  Kristine for the Aldrich Family (Pete, Kristine, Rachel, Sarah, James, Mark, Anna and JOSHUA!)

Home Sweet Home

We loved getting to spend time in China and to soak in as much culture and time with China friends as we could, but boy were we happy to fly into Portland, see our children, family and friends and sleep in our own beds again! We had a tight connection in San Francisco and then our flight from Hong Kong arrived a half hour late. We were in the back of a 747, so by the time we got off of the plane, we had less than an hour to clear immigration and customs and make it to boarding our flight to Portland.  When we came around the corner into immigration, the lines were huge!  Thankfully, the line for new immigrants was empty except for one person being helped. What a joy it was to watch the immigration officer clear his paperwork and stamp our passports to mark Joshua officially becoming a US Citizen!  No time to stop for a picture with his newly stamped passport, we still had to collect our luggage, clear customs, recheck our luggage, go through security and sprint through what seemed like the entire San Francisco airport to our gate. Thankfully the luggage and security people had compassion on us and cut us to the front of the line even as they were telling us we would probably not make our flight. We were so desperate to make our flight that we literally sprinted through the airport, nearly knocking people over on the way. Poor Joshua was exhausted and trying to ask for something to eat as I carried his backpack and mine while dragging him along. He was a good sport though. I was thankful we were all in running gear!    Mark was so excited that he talked the entire flight to Portland. Pete was in a different row and was able to get some much needed sleep. He hadn't been feeling well. Joshua was awake and excited until we started our descent into Portland when he grabbed his blanket and fell fast asleep. We had to drag him awake after the plane was completely empty. I didn't know how he would do with the crowd waiting to meet us in his exhausted state. We stopped at the restroom and got him a cold water bottle. We told him everyone was waiting to meet him and he seemed to understand. He started saying all of the kids' names as we walked toward security. What a blessed sight it was to see our kids, my parents and several friends. One special friend was there taking great pictures. I'll try to download some or create a link.  She got a great shot of us walking toward security with Anna in the foreground - her feet were about 8 inches off the ground. Joshua did great meeting everyone, giving hugs and flashing his great smile.   On the drive home, he was pretty quiet and looked like he might be going into sad mode, but I think he was just sleepy and taking it all in. When we got home, he charged straight for the door and started exploring the house. I was so thankful we had sent him a photo book with labeled pictures from around our home. He seemed very comfortable.  After visiting with the kids a bit, I was exhausted and not feeling well. I hadn't slept at all on the flights. Thankfully, our older kids were able to take over while Pete and I slept. We ended up sleeping about 2 hours while they showed Joshua around inside and out and made him ramen noodles.  He had a great first day home and seemed to enjoy his new siblings, new home, new room and new toys.   Yesterday, he woke up around 4:30 a.m. I convinced him to go back to bed until about 5:00. He and I are having a hard time with the time change. I had a bad headache all day yesterday and leaned heavily on my older kids. Pete had to start working at 5:30 am and was busy into the evening. Again, I was so thankful for my older kids!  They were able to get everyone fed and keep Joshua and Anna occupied while I snoozed off and on whenever I had the chance. I felt well enough in the afternoon for a short outing. Joshua kept asking to go fishing, go skating, go ride on the four wheeler – all the things he had seen in his book and heard we could do in America. He tried riding Anna's slightly broken tricycle and a bicycle with training wheels that was way too small. I decided to go get him a little scooter. He was so excited about it. On the way back, we stopped at a produce stand. He enjoyed that very much too and we learned he loves tomatoes – just like Daddy!   He fell asleep around 4:30 on the couch and slept for 2 hours. He woke up when friends dropped by.  He seemed disoriented at first, but quickly joined in playing with the boys. Later in the evening, we had our first dinner sitting around the dining room table, finally able to fill the chair that has been empty for so long. He enjoyed every bite of the dinner Rachel made for us.   Having him in our circle for bed time prayers has been almost surreal, but very special.  He doesn't understand, of course, but sits quietly.  Last night, Pete decided to reverse our normal order and pray oldest to youngest.  Poor Mark, when we got to him, we all listened for him to pray and instead heard snores from where he was kneeling with his head down!   This morning, Joshua woke up at 3:30 am!  And, therefore, so did I…  He worked on puzzles for a long time while I worked on my "to do" list and calendar. Around 4:30 or 5:00 I asked him if he was tired and told him mommy was tired. We found the letter factory DVD for him to watch and he made a bed for me on the couch. I think he just wanted me to stay near. He seemed to enjoy the DVD. He knows pinyin letters (Chinese letters like ours), but several of them are pronounced very differently so I think this will help him.  As an example, the town he and Anna are from is Shi He Zi.  We would say "shee hay zee", but it is actually pronounced more like "shur huhdz".   When his DVD finished, he came and curled up next to me on the couch. I offered him part of my blanket and he said, "thank you" in his carefully pronounced way. He stayed there until the sun was up and then let me know he thought it was time to get up and make breakfast. He really seems to enjoy snuggles, hugs and kisses and collects many of them throughout the day. I had read multiple times how important physical closeness is for helping adopted children to bond.  I've read of adoption therapies for older children trying to overcome attachment disorders that involve trying to replicate the type of physical closeness that children would have experienced as babies and toddlers, even giving them bottles. I had wondered how physical closeness would work with a  six year old boy. I'm thankful that he appears to be very comfortable with it.  I've been told his orphanage is one of the best of the 40 orphanages my friend works with in his province. However, she also reminded us that there is no "good" orphanage for raising a child.  Children need families. We are very thankful to be Joshua's forever family.   After he ate this morning, he went and woke up Anna. I was a bit disappointed to have her up at 6:15, but it was cute to see them come around the corner holding hands. They have been enjoying one another this morning while everyone else sleeps. She is trying to convince him not to be afraid of our dog.   There is much more I would like to process and share about our journey to bring him home and the many miracles along the way. Hopefully, I can find some time to work on that over the weekend. We are so very, very thankful that we are blessed with the support of family and friends. We have been blessed by all of you in so many ways. Joshua has not only been adopted by 2 parents and 5 siblings, he has been adopted by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Complete, Finished, Done and Beginning

We had a great last day in China. After getting things packed up this morning, we headed to Shamian Island one last time. This time, it was to meet Jacqui Shurr of Good Rock Foundation. It was such a tremendous blessing to finally meet her in person after corresponding and helping her with some writing projects these past three years. She is a very special woman. Our time together passed far too quickly and I forgot to even take a picture!  She had two new volunteers with her and it was a treat to meet them as well.   After Pete dragged me away from Jacqui, we rushed back to the hotel to get checked out. Our guide and driver met us and took us to the US Consulate.  It was a smaller group for the swearing in ceremony today - only seven families. I heard tomorrow there will be 35. They told us they have, over the years, processed over 70,000 Chinese adoptions. We weren't allowed to take cameras into the consulate. I wished I could have been able to record the Consulate Officer's words when she said, "Congratulations, your adoption process is now complete!"  What a journey it has been!    The Adoption Officer is new to her job and was very interested in hearing our concerns about the new immunization and TB testing requirements. We gave her our letter and email address.   From the Consulate, we hopped in our van for the drive to Hong Kong. It was about a three hour drive, but so much nicer than an airplane or bus would have been. The scenery was very interesting and the boys did great. Because we were the only family, our facilitators had arranged a private driver from HK and we were in a luxurious van for the drive.  We felt very spoiled. The three hour drive was worth it just to drive into Hong Kong at dusk.  It was AMAZING. The boys were squealing at the lights from the ships on the water, the huge lighted up suspension bridges, the tunnel that seemed miles long, the full moon just rising over the tops of the lighted city skyline.  I've never seen anything like it before.   Things went fine at the border crossing. Since we were in a private car, we didn't have to unload luggage.  We were a bit nervous at the China checkpoint. There seemed to be some issue with Joshua's passport. We had to pull aside while they walked our passports to another building and looked through our adoption paperwork. We wondered if it had something to do with the passport having been issued in XJ province. Eventually they said all was fine.   When we reached our hotel in Hong Kong, I couldn't help but do a HK happy song and dance. It felt like such a weight had been lifted. It very much feels like being in the west again. When we stopped here on the way into China, we didn't realize our hotel was connected to a huge outlet shopping mall. We wandered in there to find some dinner. After dinner, we went to the huge grocery store in the basement to buy ice cream bars to celebrate Pete's 43rd birthday.  Pretty glamourous place to celebrate his birthday, I think.   Joshua has done great today.  He was very excited tonight and enjoyed walking through the outlet mall with us.  He is such a sweet boy and such a blessing.  He is playful, friendly, affectionate, naughty and all boy.  He has much to learn about our family and our culture, but I think he will do fine.  We will have to extend grace as he learns what we expect and he will have to extend grace as we learn to communicate with each other.   Today I had a song running through my head. Our kids have been learning various instruments, but don't have very many songs that all of them can play together. One that four of them can play together is called El Shaddai and has a line that says, "El Shaddai, God is our strength and in Him the victory is won, it is finished, it is done..." I know it is taking the intent of the song out of context to apply it here, but I couldn't help but thinking of it. The last Sunday before we came to China, there was a song sung that said that God is the first word and the last word. There have been so many things that could have derailed this adoption from that night in January 2007 when we first noticed this sweet boy in a photo. Even this week, that has been evident again. We are reminded that nothing can thwart the plans and purposes of God.   Sorry for no pictures again tonight. The connection here is slow.  I'll post some from home when I will also have more time to reflect on all that has transpired and we can show you pictures of the newest American Citizen.  It is late now and everyone else is sleeping.   I'll end this post with some verses my daughter called to my attention last week.  She had sent an email asking me to read Psalm 27.  That Psalm had come to my attention several times over the last few months. There are many good verses there and it ends with this, "I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!"

Sad but Thankful

Tonight, Peter and I are saddened and stunned by the news out of our children's province. If you haven't already seen the news of the tragedies there, you probably will today. This is the very location we left just three days before the rioting started.  Our guide has sent us a text message and has already left town on a planned vacation in another province. We have not heard from our other friend yet, but have heard there is no internet there now. We are so very thankful that we have been spared being in the city during this tragic and frightening event.   Again, we are thankful for the many, many prayers for this boy and for us that have now been covering him and us for the past 2 1/2 years and especially during this often unpredictable trip.  There is a long list of "might have beens" that could have prevented us from bringing our son home.  Please keep praying.  We are thankful that he passed the TB screening today.  We heard of another family today that did not. We are thankful that we did not get quarantined for being near someone with the flu. Today, we met a family (for you RQ fans out there - Lola Granola...) that sat near someone with flu on their flight to Beijing. They spent 7 days in a quarantine hotel -- dad was sent to the hospital. This is the second family we have met that was sent to a hospital. Please continue to pray for our health. We cross the border into Hong Kong tomorrow by car and fly home on Wednesday. Joshua got car sick again today and we have a very long car ride tomorrow.  We have a pretty tight connection for getting through customs on Wednesday in San Francisco, so prayers there would be great too!    We arrive Wednesday at 12:43 in PDX and are coming in on United. Some of you have asked about coming to the airport.  I think Joshua will be fine with that. We may be weary, but can't wait to see our kids and friendly faces!  Not that we haven't had friendly faces here, we have been blessed beyond measure by opportunities to see friends and make new ones every day.   After Joshua got car sick on the way to the medical clinic (it was lovely to have him throwing up in the garbage cans in the middle of the crowded clinic), our guide decided she could go to the consulate without us and have us sign papers at the hotel so that Joshua wouldn't have to get in a car again so soon. We walked around Shamian, ran into Jordan (one of our favorite shop keepers) and then headed to Starbucks.  The building Starbucks has is like something out of Casa Blanca. We ordered one drink and sat on their porch in big cushy chairs under big fans and next to tropical looking plants. That is where we ran into Lola Granola and family. We didn't have our camera with us because we had been planning to go to the Consulate where they aren't allowed. We really wished we would have had it when we decided to wander off of the Island by foot to a shopping area. The walk is really amazing. We had done it last trip too. We walked several blocks through these alleys that are like something out of a movie. Crammed with venders with their products sitting on the ground - bag after bag of spices and nuts and dried lizards on sticks. It really is impossible to adequately describe, but we did soak in more culture.   Tomorrow, we will go back to Shamian Island again. We are hoping to meet up with a friend I only know through email.  She runs the foster care program that sponsored Anna and we have been in contact ever since we adopted Anna. Her organization has a charity store in Guangzhou -- my favorite shop -- A Gift From China. Their program also sponsored Joshua for camp last summer.   At 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, Joshua will have his citizenship swearing in ceremony at the American Consulate. He will officially become a US Citizen when we touch down on US soil in San Francisco.   I will try to post from Hong Kong tomorrow night. I will definitely plan to do a closing post from home. Since my body clock has finally adjusted to China time, I'm sure I'll have some quiet time for a blog post while everyone else is sleeping...   Thank you again for following our journey and for the many prayers and encouraging words. We are so very blessed.

Sunday

Today we enjoyed another day with Mei Ling and her friend, Kai Qing. We had heard about a church on the island that had a bilingual service, so we headed there this morning.  I'm so glad we did.  Half of the songs were English and the other half were Chinese, but even in another language, it was so good to hear God's praises sung.  The first English song they sang was There is None Like You.  It has a line that says, "suffering children are safe in your arms…" and I got so choked up. Several times during the service, I was trying to keep my emotions in check. Mei Ling seemed to know the words of the Chinese songs and I found out later that she had learned them from her cousin and grandmother. Kai Qing had never been to church before.  I'm so glad they came with us. The church had a little book store and we picked up some Chinese worship music. Joshua really likes listening to music – especially Hillsong, so we tried to find some we thought he would enjoy.   After the service, a woman came to speak with me and asked about our boys. She told me she works for a clothing catalog and asked if we would have time for her to use Mark in a photo shoot.  I asked how long it would take.  She said about four hours, so even though Mark thought it sounded fun, it didn't seem like a good idea. The church is on Shamian Island and we have seen photographers taking pictures there every day. Today, we saw some newly married couples having photos.  We also saw some models dressed in strange costumes.  We heard from Mei Ling that there is a movie star staying in our hotel. I guess there were lots of young girls gathered in the lobby talking about him. Around mid night last night I had heard a lot of commotion and had wondered if there was a fire alarm we hadn't heard about…I think it was just excited fans.   We took Mei Ling and Kai Qing to lunch at Lucy's Diner.  Around the time we finished eating, another huge storm rolled in. We were soaked, even with umbrellas, before we could get in a taxi. We took the taxi to a shopping area and an electronics store thinking we might find a cheap camera for Joshua, but they were all too expensive. The electronic store was crazy and the whole area was about what you would picture in the busiest part of a city of 10 million people.  It was overwhelming.  We decided to take a taxi back to the hotel to let the boys rest and swim while Mei Ling and Kai Qing did more shopping. Joshua got car sick again, but perked up after resting in the room a while and wanted to go swimming.   Mei Ling called us later and asked if they could take us to dinner in another shopping area they visited. We met them there and they took us to a "home style" restaurant like her mother would cook.  It was a unique restaurant. We were seated upstairs where we had to duck to walk to our table. The food was very good and not something we would have ever ventured to try on our own.   The size of this city is hard to describe. I have to imagine it is like being in New York without being able to read the street signs or recognizing any landmarks. I'm attaching a picture out our hotel window – it looks like that in every direction. I'm also attaching a picture of the boys in the area we were tonight. Mei Ling had just negotiated a good deal on rubix cube type toys for them, so they were oblivious to the crowd and bright lights.   Mei Ling told me it is difficult for her to keep up with my English over the phone, but that she can understand me in person when she can see my face and hand signals. I've learned a few useful Chinese words and phrases, but am a long way from being able to converse. We communicate with Joshua with a Chinglish, improvised sign language method. I think Pete and I could take on anyone in a game of charades by the time we get home from this trip!   Tomorrow we go have the TB test checked – it looks good to us. Then we go from there to our consulate appointment to turn in all of our paperwork. Our guide, Rosa, wants to take us around in the afternoon. Tuesday, we will pack our belongings and head to Shamian again to meet up with another friend, then go to Joshua's citizenship appointment at the consulate and board our van to drive to Hong Kong for our flight home on Wednesday!

Fourth of July

It didn't really feel like the Fourth of  July here.  I don't think we saw another American today. No fireworks, but we did have some big thunder this afternoon.   This morning, our exchange student from four years ago, Mei Ling, flew into town from Chongqing with a friend of hers.  We are so excited about seeing her again. We so loved hosting her and have considered her an extension of our family ever since.  We spent several hours today at the Guangzhou zoo.  They have a very nice zoo here, complete with a Panda.  It is much less expensive to go to a zoo here. We got all six of us in for about the same price as one person at home. We don't have a ton of pictures of the boys today. Shortly after we got to the zoo, Mark took over our camera and Joshua had Mei Ling's camera.  They each took pictures until the cards were full!  We left when the tremendous thunder storm came rolling in and soaked us even with umbrellas.   Joshua tired quickly and his leg was sore from his shots. The only food we found at the zoo were big bowls sort of like cup of noodles in mysterious flavors or ice cream.  Pete, Mark and I had ice cream and the others had the noodles. Joshua was digging into his noodles for quite a while before we noticed he was sweating terribly, his nose was running and he was halfway through a second water bottle.  It finally occurred to us perhaps his noodle dish was very spicy.  Mei Ling asked and confirmed it was way too spicy for him.  However, true to form, he was eating as fast as he could handle the heat. We asked if he wanted one not so spicy and he nodded emphatically!  He finished every noodle in the second bowl.   Food is a really big deal to him.  At breakfast the past two mornings, he has wrapped up some food to take back to the room. Hopefully, he will soon understand that we always have food for him.   Tonight we went to a good Chinese restaurant.  Mark FINALLY got to have the whole roasted duck he had heard was famous in China. It was only six us dollars and was quite a sight with the head and all. We've found that eating at Chinese restaurants is far less expensive than western food restaurants.   Joshua has challenged us with a few things when we know he understands us, but so far, he seems to understand and take correction and direction pretty well.  He was limping and complaining a lot about his leg until he figured out that meant mom would try to give him more ibuprofen and he has been "fine" ever since. He has a good sense of humor and I think that helps all of us in many ways. I kissed his forehead several times this morning to make sure he didn't have a fever.  As I was walking away from one set of forehead kissing, he came back and gave me a good long hug.    I'm missing my other kids terribly.  It was so good to hear all of their voices this morning. They all seem like they are doing well and getting to do a lot of fun and special things. We so appreciate the people watching our kids, property, dog, goats and chickens. Rachel told me she is amazed at how people are bending over backwards (apparently some quite literally) to make them feel comfortable and loved.   Sidenote -- today was Anna's finding day 5 years ago.

Morning Trauma and Afternoon Delights

Sorry for double posting – hope I'm not boring all of you… Today, we were very briefly part of what is left of our agency's travel group – for the 30 minute ride to Shamian Island. The boys were up so late and still on Xinjiang time, so we barely made it to breakfast in time to catch our bus with them.  When we got to Shamian Island, we were dropped off at the medical clinic with both Guangzhou guides and the other two families went shopping. They leave tomorrow for Hong Kong, so it will just be us again.   The medical clinic was traumatic.  Joshua did great through all of the examinations. It was a similar, frustrating experience as we had with Anna in that the doctor's didn't know how to describe his special need. Four doctors took turns moving his arms and fingers around despite our explanations. We finally wrote out "arthrogryposis amyoplasia" and it looked like the senior doctor went to look it up on his computer. Then we had to deal with the TB test and shots. I was a very unhappy mama about the whole thing.  It is SO not right. I've already written all of my congressmen and I think I will do it again. We are only the second family (the first from our agency) that has had to do the TB test. The other family probably has not had results read yet. They checked to see if he had the immunization since that can cause a false positive. He has no record of the shot, but since he didn't come to the orphanage until he was older, he may have had it when he was born. We are just hoping there is no reaction.  They do the test by poking a syringe into his little forearm.  It took a long time and he cried through the whole thing. They followed that up with three shots. He screamed, fought, argued and had to be held down. They couldn't do the shots in his arms because of the missing muscle and had to do it in his leg. I was so angry, but they told us we had no choice.  Afterward, our guide told him how unhappy mommy was and that I was going to write letters to our government about it. He seemed to understand. I had some ibuprofen with me and convinced him it would be helpful if he took it. He didn't really want to take it, but he seems to trust me and I'm thankful for that. To add to our troubles there, he lost his Joshua pendant there too when Pete took him to the restroom.   Thankfully, he was a happy boy again as soon as we left the clinic.  We had a truly delightful afternoon on the Island.  He enjoyed visiting the little shops.  We visited the Charity store that supports Good Rock Foundation. GRF sponsored Anna's foster care and sponsored Joshua at summer camp last year. We also found Michael's shop. He has moved since last time. His wife was there and we saw pictures of his little boy who was just a little younger than Anna last trip. We got a chop for Joshua. A chop is a stone stamp that is engraved with his English and Chinese name. It is beautiful and cost about $7.  He LOVES it.  He seems to really like his English name. He has me write in on all of his things. When we were at the medical appointment, he was writing his Chinese name for our guide. I wrote down his American name and she asked him if he knew what it was. He said, "yes, that is my English name". When we weren't watching, he took the pen and copied underneath it. Maybe I need to attach that picture…  He is very smart. We are amazed how quickly he is learning English. He keeps slipping in English words here and there – we've especially noticed he likes to do that with Chinese people.  I'm glad he is learning so quickly, but hope that doesn't mean he will refuse to speak Chinese once we are home like so many children do.   We enjoyed the Island so much. We stayed on the Island last time, so we have many nice memories there. It is very hot and humid here, but there was a nice breeze near the water which gave it a very tropical feel.  We ate lunch at Lucy's Diner – pretty much a requirement for any adopting family. We met a nice family there.  They are from California, adopted 5 years ago and moved to Guangzhou 2 ½ years ago to teach English. Joshua put away a ton of food again. After finishing all of his food, he ate half of mine too!   Yesterday, we were able to have our guide explain to him about why it took so long for us to come for him.  He told our guide yesterday that he knew last year that he was going to be adopted and come to America. We explained that we had to do many papers and that we couldn't send anything to him until we had some of them done and that we came on an airplane the first day they said we could come   We took a lot of pictures today.  Joshua wanted to take some pictures and ended up taking many, many pictures!  When we got back to the room, the boys went with Pete to the pool while I went to complete the rest of our paperwork with our guides. As I was getting ready to go out the door, I gave both boys a kiss good bye.  Mark said, "Zai Jian!"  Joshua said, "Zia Jian! Good Bye!" then ran to the door to give me another hug. It was so sweet and reminded me of my James who has always had to give me one last hug before I go out the door.      Mark is doing great.  He is finding food to eat and has discovered he loves cooked broccoli – something easy to find here. When we were leaving breakfast this morning, we discovered they serve Sushi, so he's hoping to have it tomorrow.  Breakfast has been included at all our hotels. One thing I love about China is veggies, rice and noodles for breakfast – much better than American breakfast, in my opinion. When we were driving today, Mark was paying close attention to the many run down looking apartment buildings. He was very concerned about it and starting making plans to come back when he is older to repaint and rebuild apartment buildings for poor people. He asked if I knew how to help him make a website to get people to help him. Mark has been a patient brother. Today, when they got ready for the pool, Mark put on a different swimming suit and it had fish on it. Joshua asked if he had one like it, but didn't. He clearly wanted to wear that one, so I told him he'd have to ask Mark.  Mark readily switched swimming suits with him.  I was proud of him.  I was also proud of Joshua when he said, "Thank you Mark." I've heard him say "thank you" and "sorry" several times unprompted.   We have had a couple small battles of will, but so far they have turned out okay. We know things could change any time, but so far, he seems to want to make us happy. He seems to know how to be charming. Last night, at dinner, he charmed the woman at the next table out of some of her grocery purchase (a small carton of milk).  When he gets into trouble with us, he always flashes a big grin. That smile has probably gotten him out of trouble in the past. We're endeavoring to try to teach boundaries, in spite of the million dollar smile. He seems to understand much of what we say, so pretending not to understand won't work for very long… He doesn't have too many naughty moments.  Even though he seems very mature, he is really just a six year old boy and the challenges we've seen are really pretty typical (running ahead., touching things in stores, going in and out of the door when we've told him not too, etc.).   Because he is from the same orphanage as Anna and has the same condition, people always want to know how this happened. We have learned to give an abbreviated version of their amazing stories, but even in brief, it reminds us again and again of the amazing grace of God.

Aldrich Family Grand Bazaar

Thursday was our trip from Xinjiang Province to Guangzhou.  Before leaving, our guide, Wendy, took us to the Grand Bazaar and our previous guide, Sunny, met us there. No car sickness this time!  Urumqi City boasts of having the largest Bazaar in the world.  We must have only seen a fraction of it, but it is pretty amazing. On the car ride, our guide told us that the Uighur people like big families (they are allowed more children). When a family has no children, they say the home is like a "tomb", but when they have many children, they say it is very exciting and happy like "The Grand Bazaar".  So, we decided the Aldrich family is A Grand Bazaar family.   It was fun to have our two guides meet each other. It turns out they were both born in the same area on the West side of the Tian Shan mountains. Their parents still live there. I think they will become friends.   We were concerned Joshua would be nervous about the flight, but he was SO excited. You should have heard him squeal when we got through security and he could see the airplanes through the windows.  Airplane is a Chinese word that I know, so I knew that was what he was shouting as we walked out of security.   He was very excited about being on the big plane – we were on a newer Boeing 777, so it was much nicer than the last flight we took between Xinjiang and Guangzhou. We had four seats together in the middle section.  Thank you Lord! We had picked up some movies in Chinese at the Grand Bazaar and the boys watched them on the flight. Joshua loved the food on the plane. I have to say, it was the most amazing airplane food I have ever received – we were stuffed.  China Southern Air – for those traveling to China.   When the second movie ended and we started descending, he started having that distant look again. He wouldn't make eye contact when Pete, who was sitting next to him, tried to talk with him. Nothing to say, didn't want anything except a piece of gum I offered to him. When we landed, we got off as quickly as we could and I let him hold my hand and take the lead. Getting to set the pace as we zoomed through the moving sidewalks really cheered him up again. I think he was taking lessons from our taxi drivers…  Note to Rachel – it was comparable to you taking Lacey for a walk…    He was a happy boy when we got to the hotel and wide awake. When we came in the room, he decided to declare which bed was "Joshua's" and which was "Mark's". It was sweet though, before bed, he pushed their beds together.  We ended up going to KFC and he delighted in dipping anything he could again. We met a nice woman at the next table who wanted to practice English, I think, and was curious about Joshua.   I have lots of pictures from today (Friday ) so I'm going to do a separate post…  p.s. for anyone technically challenged like me – if you want to see the pictures larger – just double click.

Ready to Fly

I'm not sure if I will have time to post again when we arrive in Guangzhou tonight - so I'm doing a second post for Wednesday...  They boys had a great time at the pool again.  There were some other children there swimming. I guess local people can buy a swim pass there. Mark and Joshua were playing with the children when I got there and having so much fun. There was a boy there who was being very helpful with Joshua. Turns out he is 11 years old and has been taking private English classes for three years, so we had a nice conversation.  Very sweet boy. Curious about us and Joshua. He told me that Joshua told him his parents had died. We don't know if he really believes that or if he just said that because it was simple - I kind of think that is the case. There was a little girl there that wanted to know if I could speak any Chinese, so I demostrated a few of my phrases and counted in Chinese. They were all impressed with my counting.... He told me I speak better Chinese than most Americans, however, I don't think that is saying too much.   We had such a huge blessing last night.  Sunny, our delightful guide from last trip met us for dinner. She had been our lifeline here last time around and spent seven full days with us when we adopted Anna. She is incredibly sweet, is great with children and teaches English to tourism students at the University. Joshua started looking a bit distant again last night as we left for dinner, but he warmed up quickly to Sunny. We were able to communicate with him about many things during dinner. A NOTE for Grandpa Dean -- yesterday afternoon he had seen fishermen at the park and said he wanted to go fishing and to go in a boat. He expressed this wish again at dinner and we told him he has a Grandpa that likes to fish too.   Sunny was able to explain to him about our travel to Guangzhou and that we will stay there several days before we go to America. I was concerned he might think Guangzhou was America. Now I think he understands -- he didn't before. Sunny took us to a Kazaak restaurant that was close enough to walk so we could avoid another taxi ride. Joshua and Mark both enjoyed it immensely.  One of the pictures shows Mark diving into a specialty dish of the Kazaak people - horse meat.  I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Sunny treated us to dinner and ordered about 10 dishes.  A funny thing happened. After she first ordered, the waitress told her we needed to order even more food -- what???  Turns out we were seated at a 6 person table and after 9 pm you are required to order at least 300 yuan worth of food for that size of table (about $40 us dollars) and it turns out our 10 dishes plus drinks only totaled a little more than 200 yuan (about $30) -- so we ended up squishing into a 4 person table and all was well!!  We had tried to pay for dinner, but Sunny had snuck off to pay earlier.  When it was time to leave, there was a ton of food left and Sunny wanted to pack it up to share with her roommates the next day.  Joshua grabbed the bag of food as we left.  Sunny complemented him for his help, but I told her I suspected he thought we were going to take that good food with us - since he is really into food.  She talked to him about it and turned to me with her hand on her chest, "do you know what he told me?"  I thought he probably told her he wanted to save it for later. Turns out, he told her he wanted to take it to the other children at the orphanage.  So, now we are all tearing up...  She told him it was too far away, but that we would help him send some things from America to his friends at the orphanage.  We went from there to an Ice Cream shop - great delight again.  We took our Ice Cream to Dicos where there was more room to sit and ordered some fries. Joshua asked if he could have a piece of fried chicken too.    It was such a treat to have Sunny's company and translation.  She plans to meet up with us today and accompany us to the airport. She really wants to see us off. Hopefully, our other guide won't mind. We are trying to talk Sunny into coming to visit in America one day. I know Rachel and Sarah will smile when they read that.

Balloons, Bonding and Taxi Rides

We had a great day yesterday, but for some reason, Joshua became withdrawn and quiet at dinner.  He had done the same thing at the end of dinner in the same restaurant the night before.  Last time, he stuffed himself and then became quiet. This time, his countenance changed right after we sat down.  He wouldn't speak to us or to the waitress who saw what was happening and tried to speak with him. He didn't want anything to eat or drink.  After the broccoli arrived (which he devoured the night before) and he showed no interest, I decided perhaps I should just take him back to the room. I wasn't sure how he would feel about leaving with just me or if we would have a scene in the restaurant, but as soon as I got up and said, "Let's go" he took my hand and walked out.   There had been a few quiet tears in the restaurant. When we got back to the room, he went and sat on the bed. I grabbed his blanket, wrapped it around him and just held him and told him it was okay to be sad.  I don't know what, if anything, he understood of what I was saying, but the tears started to really flow for a few minutes. I didn't know what else to do but just hold him and tell him all of the people that love him. After a while, I got him some tissue and held him some more and sang a couple songs that I always sung to my babies (or toddler in Anna's case) when I rocked them – Jesus Loves Me and Amazing Grace.  Those songs are pretty deeply ingrained in my kids.  Sarah sang Jesus Loves Me to Joshua the first time we called her.  Anna sang it to him today.  Mark wanted to sing Amazing Grace while we were here.   Joshua was very quiet, but he allowed me to hold him and I think that was good.  After a while, I went in search of the photo albums and on the way, found packages of balloons we had brought with us. They are those balloons used for making animals.  I sat next to him and started pumping one up.  He started looking sideways at my work, then wanted to blow one up himself.  We ended up blowing up several balloons, making some creatures that could only exist on a foreign planet and finally had a balloon sword fight with the helmets I had attempted to make out of the balloons.  (I really needed my girls here to help make balloon art – I'm the least qualified person for such a task!)  By the time Pete and Mark arrived, we were ready to ambush them with our balloon swords.   This morning, we had another fun breakfast, called all of the kids (after I figured out where they all were – I had lost track but they were all at our house with both sets of grandparents, my sister and her boys!) and then set out with our guide to Red Hill Park. The boys had a great time again. We had a little balloon misadventure at the start. There was a midway type game of shooting lasers at balloons.  The sign said .4 yuan and our guide said it would be about 1 yuan for both boys to play (remember – there are 8 yuan to one USD) so this seemed really cheap and we said, "okay". So the boys start blasting away at the balloons.  I'm watching two employees stand there with a big bag of balloons replacing the popping ones as fast as they could go and thinking – boy this seems like a lot of work for them for one yuan….  After the boys had been blasting away for a few minutes I signed for them to stop.  We had a big shock when they told us it was .4 yuan PER SHOT….  Between the two boys, they had taken about 500 shots before we made it clear to these employees that we wanted them to stop.  SOOO, when you see the boys in the pagoda picture holding stuffed parrots, please admire them since it cost about $30 for those two parrots!  Yikes!  A good lesson learned for us and our guide.   We enjoyed visiting Red Hill Park – note to my girls – it was MUCH cooler this time. We actually got rained on for a bit. The park is at the highest point in the city, so you can get a good view in every direction.  The pagoda in the picture is filled with photos of the city and a history lesson for Urumqi city (pronounced either "ooo-rooom-chee" or "wooo luh moo chee".)  The city is considered a young city since it was established a mere 200 years ago.  It is smack dab in the middle of Asia – as far from an Ocean as you can get. The photo I'm attaching shows the main highway that sits where the original Urumqi River was diverted away. This is part of the Silk Road. Anna and Joshua are actually from Shi He Zi (pronounced Shir Huh Dzah) about a 3 hour drive away from here. Shi He Zi used to be a military headquarters. After the cultural revolution, they sent the surplus soldiers there to work as farmers until they might be needed as soldiers again. At the peak of Red Hill Park, there is a small, but tall pagoda that was built 200 years ago. There was a story about a dragon in the river. When the water would flood, they thought the dragon was angry and the city leader had the pagoda built to subdue the dragon…not sure how that would work…but the river still floods…   After leaving the park, we caught a taxi with the intention of visiting the Grand Bazaar for which Urumqi is famous. We had planned to have mutton shish kabobs and rice pilaf.  However, the drive there was a bit crazy. Seriously crazy.  Truly, it felt like something out of a movie – picture pedestrians darting to both sides as your taxi careens through alley ways and between cars driving both directions within an inch or so of your car… when we became completely stuck between cars our driver started shouting out the window at the other taxi driver who apparently violated some mysterious crazy cab driver etiquette…  (Sorry mom and dad – promise we won't do it again and we're all safe J) Anyway, before we reached the bazaar, Joshua started to get that withdrawn look again…well it turned out he was car sick.  He told our guide his stomach was upset and he didn't want to go to lunch (who could blame him), so we asked the driver to take us back – now he was careening even faster…along the way, Joshua threw up all over the back seat. Thankfully, we had stopped at our hotel to drop off the parrots and pick up a jacket for him – so that caught most of the fallout.  Before we got back to the hotel I had him and the cab cleaned up with my trusty supply of wet wipes. (Sarah, I thought of you and that tram ride years ago…)  This is the second time Joshua has felt car sick – the amusement park rides today probably didn't help much.  Prayers for a smooth flight tomorrow would be greatly appreciated. Flying will obviously be a new experience for him and I think our flight is 4 or 5 hours.   When we got back to the hotel, Joshua slept for almost 2 hours, but woke up feeling much better. Pete got some num bread and fried rice (they have their own yummy type of rice here) and Joshua had something to eat and seemed quite content. Pete and Mark went out to the street vendors to buy an outfit for each boy to wear tomorrow since we figured out it cost less than laundry at the hotel. We attempted to find a place to do laundry today – another long story – We're trying to hold off on laundry until we get to Guangzhou!   The boys are off swimming again, so I'm off to see how they are doing.  Thank you again for all of the prayers and encouraging words. One more week in China to go…it will be good to get to Guangzhou tomorrow and meet up with some of the other families from our agency.

Let's Go!!!

Today we are seeing a lot more of Joshua's personality.  After his good, long night's sleep, he awoke happy and ready to go.  He was pretty quiet yesterday, but today he woke up in a chatty mood.  Very energetic and trying to talk with us even though he knows we don't understand.  He is also trying to learn more English and imitating things he hears us say.  His first new English phrase was "Let's Go!"  At first we didn't understand it and it sounded more like "let's geeyou", but by about the 20th time, it was very clear.   It has been fun to watch this little boy delight in new experiences. The first event of the day was heading to the breakfast buffet.  Mark is only able to eat hard boiled eggs, but had some cereal bar before we headed down. Joshua had a great time picking food from the buffet.   After breakfast, we walked a few blocks to The People's Park – a huge city park.  We attracted a lot of attention on the street today.  If we were an oddity with my blonde hair and Mark's red hair yesterday, we were utterly puzzling when we added a Chinese boy today. The park was very interesting.  There were people gathering around in various places singing traditional Chinese songs, there were also older men playing interesting instruments, people in street clothes joining into traditional dances, people aged 5 – 80 using various exercise equipment and people playing some card game that looked like it required each player to hold half a deck of cards.   Joshua was so excited to arrive at the park.  He and Mark gave the exercise equipment a try and that was fun, but there was sheer delight when we found the little amusement park.  It was somewhat like an aged Oaks Park or traveling carnival type rides. Joshua was SO excited to see the rides.  The first thing he wanted to ride was a little train. He had the biggest grin.  He had a great time in a big play area and then we found a mini car track.  He was shaking he was so excited. He and Mark played a couple bumper car type rides.  On the first one, Mark slammed him a bit too hard and he bumped his knee.  He wanted to stop, but shook it off and was fine.  We kept playing around that area until Mark bumped his sore finger and it started bleeding again.   The boys were a huge mess by the time we left. It is actually cool today (in the 70s) because a big storm came in last night.  It dumped quite a bit of rain and it was muddy at the park. They came back and had showers and we were finally able to convince Joshua to change his shirt. As we had started out to the park, I had written :"Joshua" on his water bottle.  It had rubbed off during the morning. When we got back to the room, he brought his bottle to me with a pen and asked me to write "Joshua" on it again.  It was a blessing to see that he understands and likes his new name. He is also able to say it much more clearly than yesterday.   We went back to "Dicos" for more chicken, fries and dips.  After lunch, Mark wanted to go to the pool. We weren't sure what Joshua would think, but he was game to try. The pool required swim caps and also that we pay for a third person (I guess only two per room can swim free???)  While Pete and I were figuring that out, both boys hopped into a shallower water area. Joshua's head went under water for a few seconds before Pete got into the pool and Joshua decided he was done with the pool.  He and I sat and watched Pete and Mark play in the pool for about 20 minutes before he started looking for his swim cap to join them in the pool again.  It was amazing to see him jump back in the water with Pete. He started just having Pete hold him in the water, but by the time we left the pool, he was jumping in by himself, putting his face under water, trying to imitate Mark's swimming and having a water fight. It was a truly amazing sight to behold. He was again, just delighting in the experience. His laugh was making me tear up because it was just so amazing for me to see.     There was a man giving swim instructions to children at the pool.  He was pretty funny. He came to ask if Joshua was Chinese and where we were from.  When we told him "America" he went and found a flute (doesn't everyone take their flute with them to the pool?) and started playing the Star Spangled Banner and other patriotic American songs until all of his students arrived.  He asked about Joshua's arms and then told us it was very good that we adopt him.  It was nice to hear that after all of the puzzled stares today.   We just came back to the room for another round of showers. Joshua asked if he could have a bath – more delight.  Now the boys are fighting (in a friendly way) over a bag of popcorn – so utterly normal!    This morning, during my quiet hours, there were so many things I was pondering.  I kept thinking of the song that we have on the other blog that we called "Joshua's Song".  The real name is "When Love Takes You In" by Steven Curtis Chapman.  There is a line that says, "In a moment was has been is lost in what will be…" We are enjoying getting to know this little boy that is now part of us.  We know he will come with his own unique traits and challenges. Today we are seeing a strong and brave little boy who is able to delight in his world and it is a joy to see.