Prayer Request

I want to ask you all to please pray for my friend Heather's brother, Lyn. He is in the US Air force. He was serving in Iraq and suffered a stroke. They have taken him to Germany. The email I received from her states that the doctors said that his speech is affected a little but everything else looks ok. I believe he is in his early 40's. He has a wife, Peggy, and two children. I know there are prayer warriors out there. Thank you.

Pictures of our two Rugrats

Here are some pictures of Hannah and Ethan together. Hannah is doing well with him. She tries to help him with different things. If he needs his mouth wiped she will run to help him. She is jealous of him though. If one of us is playing with him or tickling him she runs over wanting us to do the same to her. Things are going well. It is still hard to communicate with him but getting better. I'm trying to teach him some sign language to help with this. He is starting to understand us with certain things.

Our lab Zoe loves him. She has already given him two kisses on the mouth. Ethan does not like it too much. He has to get used to her. I think once he does he will love her.

We went to my Dads (Palpaw) for Thanksgiving. It was just us and them. It was kind of lonely without my sisters there. It will be good to see them at Christmas. Ethan loved the Thanksgiving meal. MaryAnn (Dads wife) is from the Philippines. She cooked one traditional dish for us. It was a sour pork. Ethan loved it. One good thing about Hannah wanting the same things as Ethan is we can get her to try different foods. They have their Christmas tree up. Ethan really liked it. I wonder if we should even put ours up this year. I do not have the energy to continue to tell him no do not touch while it is up. :) Hannah has started telling us what she wants for Christmas. She isn't really asking for too much. Christmas will be fun this year.

OK, I just heard this loud thump outside. Our lab has started laying in the swing that we have out on the patio. It hits the house when she gets out of it. She is such a baby.

Thank you all for your prayers while we were in China. Enjoy the pics.

We are Home at last.

Sorry that I have not posted in a few days. Our week of internet at the White Swan ran out on the 16th. That was the day that we had our oath ceremony at the US Consulate. It was very emotional. Gwen and I were standing beside Sandi during this time. I wish you all could meet this sweet lady and her little Hannah. I am so thankful to God that He moved the hands of the US government so that she was able to return home on her original schedule. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

We left China on the 18th at 8:30 in the morning. Can I just say that security at the Guangzhou airport has gotten crazy. You have to fill out two forms in order to leave their country. One is for departing and the other I believe was a quarantine form. Then we went through security. They put our bags through the x-ray machine and searched them. Then before we could get on the plane they checked them again at the gate. It was crazy. We also had to go through security check in Tokyo airport before catching our connecting flight. It all made me want to go hunting for Osama myself and take care of him. Anyway.

Ethan was ok on the flights home. He did cry on the long flight when we tired to get him to sleep. I had to hold him until he fell asleep. I was not having to do this back at the hotels. Most of the time he would let us know when he was ready for bed. He is a wiggle worm in his sleep so I was up making sure he did not fall out of the seat. By the time we got home and in bed I believe I had been awake for 30 hours straight. Needless to say I did not feel great on Monday. I am feeling much better today though.

Today we went to the Social Security office to apply for his card. It is nice to be in a small town now. We walked into the office and checked in. Before we could sit down and get comfortable they called our number. We were probably there a total of 15 minutes. It was so nice. The lady was surprised at how quick I was at going to get this taken care of. Greg had called the insurance and mailed them the papers they need to get him added.

Ethan's first doctor's appointment is November 30. We will see about getting the name of a specialist for his cleft palate. I am going to ask for one at our local children's hospital here in the area. We also have our first post placement appointment with our SW next Wednesday.

Our house has changed so much with a little boy in it. Hannah is doing great with him. She will help us with him. She was holding his hand when we were out today so he would not run off. I meant to get a harness for him while we were at Wal-mart but forgot. I will have to go back sometime soon. I don't really want to get one but the boy does not care about running off from us. I really think it is just because he is very curious about everything he sees.

I have not gotten pictures of the two of them together yet. I will post some pictures later after taking some. We have to have six pictures for our post visit anyway. Well, I am going to go for now.