6 days home!!!

Gosh, I know, I know... Everyone is dying for updates....

YES, we made it home safe and sound. Jesse Yong did GREAT on the very long flights. What a trooper! When he got tired on the 11-hr flight and couldn't get comfortable in the seat, he scooted onto the floor and slept there. No pillow or blanket or anything. Slept solidly for 5 hours! :)

The last hotel we stayed at had a mildew/mold issue that gave us both mild sore throats the last 3 days in China. Unfortunately, between the flight home, the pollen in the U.S., the climate change between the U.S. and China, the extreme jetlag, and the enormity of adjusting back at home (did you catch all that?) I ended up getting really sick. Laryngitus, a major head cold, chest congestion, the whole nine yards....

Ugh. I can't tell you what a BUMMER it was to be so completely out of it and trying to see family and even just a few friends for the first time, feeling like my head was a big balloon...and mute to boot. Not only did I feel like crap but I couldn't eat anything or sleep for three days & nights. Hence the lack of blog updates and returned e-mails.

Anyway, back to the important things:
Jesse Yong is doing absolutely, incredibly, awesomely well. We are in complete amazement. Honestly. Jason and I agree that Jesse's doing better than we are as far as adjustment/readjustment. To be plucked up from an orphanage (a very... hmmm... inadequate orphanage [for the sake of diplomacy]) and traipsed all around China civil affairs offices for a week and then packed onto 20 hours worth of plane rides, and then plunked down into a new home, with a new bed and a new dog and all sorts of new faces....

So here's a few snippets of things we are amazed at:

• He has great table manners (especially considering the lack of quality/quantity he'd experienced up till now). No hoarding, no grabbing off other people's plates, no wailing and demanding stockpiles of food on his plate....
• He will try any new food at least once (huh...that's more than Jason is willing to do most days. Unless it is some form of meat byproduct.)
• He pretty much sleeps through the night (after about the 3rd night) and willingly goes down for a nap
• He doesn't experience night terrors
• After all his hullaballooing about taking a bath in China, he was completely nonplussed about getting in a bubble bath here in the States. Go figure.
• He LOVES going to the playground -- we spent an hour and a half there yesterday with my sister and her girls. He couldn't get enough. He literally grinned, laughed or smiled the ENTIRE time. It was such a joy to watch him have so much fun!
• He laughs and smiles all the time. It's like watching him literally blossom before our eyes. What a joy!!!
• He is very very very smart. We don't understand how he can grasp so many new concepts instantly, considering the conditions at the orphanage and how much he must have languished there. One small instance: having never seen a door lock, he already had it figured out the first night (both the doorknob lock and the deadbolt).
• He wants to take apart everything and try to piece it all back together again on his own. (i.e. he took my earring and tried to use the post as a tiny screwdriver to take apart a miniature time piece).
• He has emotionally bonded with both Jason and I, and is definitely a fan of his Mammy & Pappy and his Auntie Rachel and Uncle Pete. We are VERY excited for him to meet his Hendrickson grandparents this weekend!!!
• He doesn't freak out or get overwhelmed when we go to new places (just gets shy)
• He mimics English and already has a few words down
• Speaking of which, he understands what we say to him or ask him to do, and he remembers how to do it later on (putting on his shoes, going to the potty, getting into bed, going for a ride...)
• Today he saw a water fountain for the first time. His cousin Abby showed him how to use it. He immediately got up there and tried it. He was very surprised when he learned that water came out of it; then he found a discarded water bottle under a table, walked back over to the water fountain and proceded to fill it up. All grins and so very proud of himself.
• He loves to figure out how things work. Not so interested in playing with things, per se, but more analyzing their purpose (i.e. taking pens apart and putting them back together, watching the hinges and latches of gates so he can figure out how they work...)
• LOVES the digital piano at the house. Has figured out which buttons are rhythm and which ones are "demos" that will play songs for him. Figures out how to stop and start and change things along the way. Also has figured out how to turn down the volume when Mama asks, so that he can keep on being able to play.

Okay, my brain is fried so I'll end now and start getting dinner ready. Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch. Thanks for understanding that so many factors are in play right now --I will come to visit my coworkers very soon, I promise. I will schedule play dates with all our breath-holding friends soon, I promise.

The enormity of becoming parents overnight, and (for me) adjusting to not getting right back into the swing of normal things (like my job), and not sleeping, and being very sick have all added up. But we're coming around and feeling more human by the day.

Oh, and I'll get some new pictures downloaded and posted for you all.

Have I mentioned what a BLESSING this little guy has been?!? We are so thrilled and so in love and in amazement each day at his brilliance in so many aspects... What a happy kiddo! And what blessed parents!

China earthquake

Many of you have e-mailed us, asking if we are near the earthquake that struck yesterday afternoon. About 10,000 people have been killed and many are buried under tons of concrete and steel.

Fortunately, we are in the far southern province of China (Guangdong province) in the city of Guangzhou. I put its approximate location on that smaller map so you could see where we are right now.

The earthquake was in Sichuan province (shaded in yellow in the first map above). The capital city is Chengdu. That area is more in the middle of China.

However, the effects of the quake registered in Beijing (pretty definitively) as well as all the way down to Vietnam. I'm guessing that if we had been in Xi'an - or Beijing - we'd definitely have felt it. Xi'an is about midway between Beijing and Sichuan province. (Although my China geographical skills are still sadly lacking.)

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We leave tomorrow morning at 5:45 for the airport. We'll be incommunicado by the end of today (Tuesday), as we have to pack everything tonight to be ready first thing tomorrow.

We'd appreciate your continued prayers for the very long flight home, that Jesse Yong would behave well, have plenty of things to keep occupied, and maybe sleep for a while.

Dim Sum for lunch

We had authentic -- but we were wimpy and kept it innocuous -- Cantonese food for lunch today (i.e., minus the dog, cat, and chicken feet...and turtle).

It was delicious. And for the four of us, it ran a whopping total of $22. Can't beat that with a stick.

Here's what else was offered on the menu... (I won't mention the various things we saw on ice as we walked in)

















And my personal favorite for the church family back home:

Random photos

Yes, we tried to trek all the way up. I got vertigo at about the third circle. Jason and Jesse Yong made it up to Level 5.

The Hendrickson fam in front of Sun Yat Sen's memorial in Guangzhou.

The "real Guangzhou" (non-touristy) where people work hard in their little markets to earn a living.....
.....selling things like crabs, starfish, turtles, and - of course - scorpions!

We LOVED this part of our trip!

Comparative Religion

Here are a few more random pieces of our adventure these last two days, in no particular order of importance.

We visited two different Buddhist temples here in Guangzhou, one yesterday and another today. Everybody was getting ready for a celebration of Buddha's birthday today. So people were bringing/buying offerings for the Buddha.

If you look closely you can see little pieces of paper inside the mouth of these dragons. These are prayers of the people for the Buddha. People also toss coins into the lip of the fountain, hoping that their wishes/prayers will be granted if the coins land and stay.

Incense offerings were EVERYWHERE, food offerings, peanut offerings, you name it.

Here is what you'd expect to see walking into the temple:

Here's what you might NOT expect to see as you walk into the temple and see the various offerings (I've circled it in white for you; the picture quality wasn't the greatest, sorry!):

That's right, folks. Diet Pepsi. To the left is an "orange offering" and to the right is an "apple offering." Smack dab in the middle is soda.

I guess even the oblations are modernized.

And what is young Dang Yong pointing to? No, not the Pepsi. My boy isn't into that sugary nonsense (...yet). No, he's noticed the fruit offering. Apples. He LOVES apples. He promptly threw a fit, wanting one of Buddha's pieces of fruit.

For a minute there, I thought he might pull a Mama and duck under the rope and pull one from the pile and start mawing. But we were able to distract him long enough to get outside the temple and stop by a fruit stand to get him his own.

Here's what it's like in the traditional Buddhist temples. It's as if you've stepped back in time to a simpler age, a life free of the trappings of modern society.

As you can see, here in China it is still "old world." Here the monks still adhere to the simple, monastic lifestyle, free of materialism and the decrepit consumerism that plagues the modern man:

Sigh.

In celebration of Buddha's birthday today, they burned the Shaolin Temple down.

At least it seemed like that's what they were doing, based on the dangerous levels of smoke we were breathing in as we walked through the courtyard. Everyone and their brother bought incense (many the size of bottle rockets).

It made both of us more than a little sad to see the huge mass of people worshipping something that they themselves don't understand and can't explain. Our guide said that the majority of the people shrug their shoulders when she asks them what this all means.

Oh, I forgot to show you.....this is what Jason called the "Christmas Tree of Buddhas" for sale. People (many people) buy their own buddha so they can worship at home and not have to come to the temple.

The Dark Underbelly of Adoption...

I know, Emily and I have already posted twice in the last couple of hours, but as the three of us sat around our hotel room this afternoon, looking for something other than old hat games and books, and Chinese television (wow, it's really cheesy) to distract us, I realized there's something Em and I have never told you all. For that matter, maybe no adoptive people have ever talked about it.... It's embarassing and hard to admit, but we feel we owe you the truth, and it's this.



Lions aren't the only creatures with the propensity to eat their young.



Now, I'll explain...



Emily and I were sitting in Lucy's, a western style restraunt here in Guanzhou, which specifically caters to Americans, as there are about 6000 of us who travel to this city every uear to adopt. It was about an hour ago, which made it 7pm our time, and it was hopping with lots and lots of Americans with their little Chinese "bundles of joy". Well, some were bundles of joy; others were bundles of 150 decibal sirens, blowing out the eardrums of more peoples than a Kiss concert could ever accomplish, and without amps to boot. Lots of crying. Lots of screaming. Lots of parents at their wits end. We all thought we'd come here to China and adopt a little one and them, bam! everything would be fine. Somehow, the kids would all, regardless of mental processing abilities due to age, be rejoicing and thankful, looking forward to their new lives to come.



Ha. Ha. Ha.



We look at things with rose colored glasses sometimes. There are a lot of things we don't think of. We don't realize sometimes that there is trauma, and it doesn't go away after the first night. We don't take into acccount that we're still jet lagged, and as such, are not as "capable" to handle things as we could be otherwise. We don't take into account the week to three weeks before the adoption that we spend in country, every thing we do is a small challenge, either to our language, or our cultural, or our patience skills. These small challenges add up. Struggling to order food from someone who doesn't speak English very well, calling the front desk of the hotel with a simple question that take 5 minutes to communicate, having your child insist on something which you don't understand, only to have a local laugh and say 'he doesn't like the water' and look at you with a mixture of pity and humor....these all add up. Every adopitve parent here just wants to go home; back to a place of comfort and control. We're all strung out.

Here's another secret we'll let you in on.... If we're having such a tough time with so much, then why do we have so many positive posts, you're wondering. I'll tell you: we're manic right now.... Everything is so crazy and overwhelming that any moment of peace or normalcy, and I mean any, is a breath of fresh air and cause to celebrate. "Look, Jesse didn't scream when we washed his hands! Woo Hoo! Let's post a blog and tell evrybody how great this is!!!

Let me tell you what it's like to sleep at night with our new son....very easy. Sounds good, right? Well, sometimes not so much. You see, when we put Jesse down for the evening, it's about 7:30 or so. We turn off nearly all the lights, lie him down, crawl into bed ourselves and 'pretend' to sleep. Well, we last for about 5 minutes, then read for about 5 minutes, then we're out too. So we go to bed around, umm say, 7:45 latest. We're emotionally and mentally drained, so the dropping off part happens quick. Then around 1 am I'm wide awake. I try to sleep and the rest of the evenings is full of wierd dreams, and I mean wierd. I'd tell you about them, but if any officials found out about my very odd subconscious, they'd yank my liscense to adopt, or whatever the heck official parental standing I have. Emily tosses and turns, shivers and sweats the night through. So yeah, we sleep quick, but it doeasn't last. Come morning-time, Jesse is wide awake, and Emily and I are like extras from some Cesar Romero living dead movie.

Please, don't take any of this the wrong way, we are having the time of our lives, but things can be difficult. When we look at all of the other paretns though, two things go through our heads: one, we're glad we're not the only people in this boat, and two; we could have tings a lot worse. Jesse really is adjusting great; he's very happy and curious, and is growing closer to his mommy every day. We are blessed to have such a great son, and we know it, and those are the things we most want to convey to everyone, but sometimes, it's also nice to vent. So thank you all for taking the time to read this, and I know we've said this before, but we really do love and appreciate the support you give to us: it helps us more than we could probably let you know.

All right, I'm going to bed now, probably to dream about crazy Brazilian dolphins dancing to Aerosmith, but don't tell anyone...

Saturday in Guangzhou

So, by now you realize that we have successfully maneauvered from one province in China to another province in China -- with a 4-year-old -- via airplane. J and I were scared to death about how Jesse Yong would be on the flight yesterday. But he loved it! Wanted the window seat so he could see better.

We're still concerned about the LONG LONG LONG plane ride home. Hopefully he'll be OK using an airplane toilet (ack!!!). Plus hopefully he'll sleep for a good chunk of it. I'm hoping we have enough to entertain him. He does like just watching the clouds out the window, so that can eat up some time! ;)

Jesse Yong is responding to his new name. We mix it up for him and he seems OK with it.

He is really starting to like me more and more. Asks me to sit next to him and do things for him. Likes me to play with him. Today we went to the park and I showed him how to play on some of the toys. He LOVED it. And I love getting less of the evil eye and push-aways.

I have to say the adjustment seems to be going more smoothly. We've gone through huge swells of stress and anxiety and bewilderment, but it seems to be evening out a lot more. THANK YOU for the prayers and well wishes. You can't even imagine what a support it has been to us.

We are sooooo ready to be back in America! What a very, very, very long trip. This last leg of the journey is better than we expected, though, and we're enjoying it more than we thought we would, so it will end up being a pleasant end to our adoption journey.

To all of you who have been writing encouraging words via our blog or e-mail: Thank you! It's a lifesaver! We look forward to seeing many of you again soon. It's hard to believe we leave for home in just a few more days....

Finally.....

I know, some of you are thinking: 'Jason and Emily must be almost done with their whole China adventure; I wonder if the Chinese government will actually let them leave with a child...Don't they know those two (at least Jason) barely have the maturity of third graders themselves???', but actually the reason for the title of this post is this:






















The Amercan Northwest meets the Chinese Southeast....



For the last two weeks, I have been dragging my behind, trying to stay awake on a diet of chinese food and mostly green tea...not bad tasting, but for a caffiene-hardened westerner like me, most days I feel like I've been shot with a tranq gun: but not any more!!!



I've only had one 24oz. Venti Americano since arriving at this, our last stop before coming back to America, but the day is still young, and we've got three more daye here, so I've plenty of time to become a short time regular. Speaking of which, my cup no longer runneth over with caffinated goodness, so I'm off for another...


Oh, alright, here are some more pictures of Jesse; if that's all you care about. The three of us are doing great, by the way, and we can't wait to see you all again and share our adventures with you in person.

"FISHIES!!!!"

One of Jesse Yong's favorite things to do is walk the coi fish pond in the back courtyard of our hotel. Yesterday while I was at the orphanage, Jason took many a trip outdoors to trek the pond. Many, many trips. It's rather difficult to keep a 4-year-old occupied and entertained. He keeps pointing to Baba's shoes and leather sack to let us know he wants to GO!

So this morning the three of us took a few walks around the pond together and I snapped some pics for everyone to enjoy. I realize I'm prejudiced, but come on. What a cutie!

He mimics a lot of our English words (or attempts to) but nothing sounds close yet, except "Bye Bye" and "Fishies!!!!" [Although Mama is quite familiar with all the Chinese negatives and has even begun to differentiate the various levels of the Evil Eye.] :)

Some new pics...

Wow! I realize we've neglected to give you any new pictures. So here goes:
It's amazing what bubbles and being carried on Baba's shoulders will do!