We've been enjoying the blessings of living here for a few months. Ev, Nai Nai and I went to a place where we painted ceramics and got them back a few days later glazed and beautiful.

The weather has been really nice the past few days so the kids have played in the backyard and inside the garage with bubbles, the football and their new riding toys.

The house where we are staying at got some comforters delivered from Target. Each of the comforters were in two large boxes so along with an empty diaper box the kids have spent a lot of their time making a train out of the boxes.

We also took the kids to a neighborhood playground to run off some energy and they have decided they enjoy helping load the washer and dryer.

It's time for a haircut!

                                                                   Ian's after picture

 The boys enjoying putting the clothes in the washer and dryer for me.  I really hope they continue having so much fun and I will pass it off to them someday.

 We are very thankful for the van we are borrowing while in America.  3 carseats can be really crowded!

You have to love Oklahoma weather it is sunny and warm one day and snowing the next!

 

        Hobs and his friend B- They are about a little over a month apart in age.

 

The past few days I have felt more like we are here to stay for the next few months and with that realization I have found myself being amazed/shocked or caught off guard by things I am seeing around me as well as feeling like I am going to break things.

People are always texting, checking email, using their technology even when in a social environment. I am blown away by everyone having smart phones, i pads, and other gadgets. Everywhere I look people are using these things. Last week when we were around several people that live overseas and are temporarily in the States they said that even when hanging out with friends people are texting, tweeting, checking the Internet, playing games on their mobile devices. I guess people get bored of face to face contact and need to do other things? This is alarming to me.

When I was browsing in Target today I entered the rows of refrigerated items. I was startled when the motion detector noticed my presence and the lights in the refrigerators went on. I think I jumped... hopefully no one saw me, actually I almost started crying because I had already spent over an hour in Target and was getting overwhelmed by this point.

I forgot that we get mail daily. After 3 days of living in our house I decided to check the mail. Hopefully the mailman won't get upset with us. Our mail box was jammed full of mail.

We went grocery shopping today for the first time and took all 3 kids. They kept saying, "we want to go faster!" - we staring at all the food choices down every aisle and wasn't pushing them fast enough.

I also did my first load in the dishwasher I had to read the directions on the dish washing soap. It has been almost 4 years since I've used a dish washer.

When we were moving overseas I knew and was preparing for culture shock in our new home but I guess what I didn't realize was that I was going to have culture shock or reverse culture shock when we came back. We don't fully feel like we fit in the culture overseas and don't feel like we fit in the culture here any more. It's an interesting place to be in.

We Are in our House!

I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Not that we haven't been happy living with our family, we really have enjoyed it, but after spending 41 days living out of suitcases we were really to find some normalcy in moving into our house.

Where have we been the past 41 days?

On December 6th we flew to Guangzhou with all of our luggage for our time in America to finalize Ian's adoption. We lived in Guangzhou 6 days. Then we flew to Beijing and spent 1 night and the next morning we got on the long plane to get to America. We then flew from Chicago to Tulsa and arrived before noon. We arrived in Tulsa on the 11th of December and stayed until the 20th. From December 20th until the 30th we were in Kansas. On New Years Eve Todd and left the kids in Tulsa and drove to Oklahoma City for our friend's wedding. Then from Jan 1st until the 9th we were in Tulsa at Todd's parents house and from there we flew to Virgina for a meeting. We were in Virgina from January 10th until the 15th. And on January 15th we got back to Tulsa and we moved into our house. YEAH!

We moved into the house we lived in with Ev was a little baby and where we spent our last months before we moved overseas. Coming back to this house has brought back a lot of memories. The people letting us use the house are very good to us. We left our crib and changing table with them so that they could let other people use them if they needed. They set them up for us to use for Ian. As our lifestyle doesn't lend us to keep many things it was fun to be able to tell Ev that the crib and changing table are what mommy and daddy bought her before she was born.

When we were in the process of coming overseas other people had told us that in our line of work that it would be good to always come back to the same house if we could in America. We are really fortunate to be able to do that so far. Our main purpose was for the kids to have a constant but I think it has been good for me to come back to some familiar too. I guess it is a little hard to explain but we are very humbled to be able to stay in the house we are. And the people letting us use the house have been such a blessing to us. Not only did we move into a newly painted house but they stocked our pantry and stocked us with diapers, wipes and baby products for the next 3 years!

So what are we doing now? We are going to try to stay in one place as long as we can and just be. We were asked this morning in Sunday School, "what do you do all week?" Hopefully nothing but enjoy being a family, enjoy not doing anything for a while, relax and get renewed.

We've had Ian for over a month now!

Since we've have Ian in our family for the past month here is a little update on his accomplishments.

When we became our son his food/bottle schedule had him taking 4 5oz bottles a day, he would get up at 5am, nap at 11am and go to bed at 7pm. Since then when we went back to our home in China he was doing really well with Ev and Elijah's schedule- they do not get up at 5am! He naturally got in a grove with them but unfortunately as we came to America we dealt with a lot of sickness and jet lag so schedules were gone. Now as we are more in a routine ( I guess you can say we are in a routine since we've been in 5 places the last month, not to mention we've flown internationally and driven to get to these places) but really considering all of the different houses, different people, different everything he has done amazing. We have some difficult moments here and there but overall he has been a trooper.

Ian has been copying more and more of what Ev and Elijah do. He likes to do his own thing at times but likes to be where they are. In the past month Ian has gotten 5 new teeth with 2 more trying to break through and I am sure is taller or wider with all the food he puts away. At his one month mark he was weaned from his bottle and does great drinking regular milk out of his sippy cup.

His first doctor's appointment in America went well and all the lab work they did on him came back normal. No lead in his system or anything other than that to worry about.

He quickly figured out how to open presents. Between our 2 families' celebrations he is pretty good at it. With my family we had a birthday cake for Jesus along with ice cream and my mom got me a cookie cake with ice cream to celebrate my birthday in Kansas. Then a few days later we had another cookie cake and ice cream for my birthday again- he loves cake, cookies and ice cream too. I think all of the kids need to go on detox from cake and ice cream!

We are really proud of Ian and all that he has made it through this past month. Next week we fly to Virgina to go to a debriefing conference where all of the kids will be in daycare all day. I am hoping Ian does well with this new twist of transition. But thankfully when we come back to Tulsa we will move into the house we will be staying in for the next few months. Yeah, I'm so ready to not live out of suitcases. Today marks day 29!!! Only 12 more to go. :)

New Year's Eve Wedding and My Birthday

The sign didn't show up very good but I love how the kids colored it. Elijah traced his hands on one sign and Ev carefully coloring in her letters. I even saw some of Ian's scribbles too.

Todd and I were able to leave the kids with his parents and drive to Oklahoma City for our friend's New Year's Eve wedding. We were excited to be able to see a lot of good friends and spend some time away with out kids!

The wedding was wonderful, the bride was stunning and we enjoyed our friend's company until midnight. After the party we stayed in the city so we didn't have to drive back that night. We got to sleep in really late and enjoyed bunch before heading back to Tulsa. We got into town about nap time so we went ahead and went to Best Buy and a few other places since we have been shopping not stop the past month to get all the good pre Christmas and after Christmas sales on our clothes and new electronics for the next 3 years! Todd dropped me off at the mall and I met up with his sister and mom and we shopped the afternoon away. When we came home I was surprised by the kids singing Happy Birthday Princess Mommy to me as we entered the house. They had spent a lot of the day coloring me banners, making party hats, making me a cookie cake and practicing singing. It was wonderful. I guess they told Aunt Kara that it wasn't a party without hats! It was definitely a fun 32rd birthday celebration.

If you want to see some more really great pictures from our Christmas check out my sister in law's blog at www.karamoseby.com !! You can see Ian smiling in her pictures. :)

A Few More Pictures

The day we drove back from Kansas the weather was really sunny and warm. The kids loved going to the play ground 2 times that day!


Ian likes to copy what Hobs does

Ian went down this slide head first. I didn't get a picture of him but he enjoyed it.

Mama Ev looking out for Ian!

Sorry our camera doesn't have a flash! I love how in this picture it looks like Ev is reading to everyone instead of my mom.

Christmas Round 2

Please can we open them!!


Ev handing out the presents

Aunt Kara getting a good angle.

Ev was even helping me open my presents

He does a good job with the drill... until he started aiming at people's heads on purpose!

Enjoying Uncle Josh's phone

I think daddy secretly wishes he got a sword too.

Ian can smile...really!

twirling princess Ev

Daddy coaching them

Ian and Todd geting some action with the foam swords

He had to take a break and eat some fruit snacks.

Todd's family waited until we arrived back in town to open presents together. The kids were really excited about it. We started off the morning with cinnamon rolls and Aunt Kara and Uncle Josh coming over. The kids couldn't wait for us to all finish breakfast it was killing them seeing all of the presents for them to open.

Ian had figured out how to open presents and how to pull treats out of a stocking with my family. When he opened new clothes he wanted to put them on immediately. It was too fun watching everyone. We are very thankful that we were able to spend this Christmas with family.