Updates

Ok how bad am I. It's been 2 months since the last post. So many things have happened. Mason is doing great. He's happy, healthy and loving his new life. He gained over 3 pounds and grew 2 inches since he's home. We are home 3 months already. Can't believe it. He had tubes put in his ears on Tuesday, June 16th and he can hear a lot better now. Ask me how I know that?!? He told me on Wednesday "Mommy, you loud"!!!!! He has no clue how loud I am, but I think he's getting the idea pretty quick. haha. He also went to the dentist and had 2 root canals and 2 extractions in one sitting. Poor kids had no idea what was happening to him. He has seen the cleft team and will have to have a palate revision sometime at the end of the year and will need to go to the hospital and have major surgery on his mouth. Lots of Dr. appointments. He loves baseball and soccer but his favorite is baseball. We will sign him up for the spring school team. He is registered for school and will start the 2nd grade in September. He can't wait to go to school. He loves to work with the books I picked up for him and goes through them like crazy. He is very smart. I am waiting to hear from the cleft team about speech/language therapy that he will get for July and August. I guess I have to make the call this week to them. We are just so busy right now. Joseph graduated 4th grade yesterday and Joe and LilyRose are in a wedding on Sunday. Can't wait for the month of June to be over with.

Now for the not so nice news. You all know that we were transferred to the Barker Foundation right before we left for China. Well they were HORRIBLE!!!! Our trip was a nightmare. To make a long story short, they overcharged us for the whole trip. Gave us tours we didn't request and then wouldn't refund our money. Had to pay a lot extra for the tours we did want and they wouldn't take us on others we wanted that we were going to pay for there. Told us "NO" to going to the Harley Davidson Store in Beijing, gave us the wrong boat in GZ for the cruise and the guides were just down right nasty. They were liars too. They told Barker that we took all the tours that were on our paper and that they didn't know we wanted to go to the Harley store. We saw 2 shows while in China and told Barker that we had the best seats in the house, when in truth we were in the last row at each show. They are a joke. Our amount to barker for the trip to China was $5000.00 and our service was worth about $2000.00. Guess how much we got back, $450.00. To say that I am ANGRY, is an understatement. I have been going back and forth with Barker since we got home April 3rd. Just wanted to let you all know that if you are using the Barker Foundation to be very careful. You will get cheated and your experience in China will be Horrible.

Wow, it's been a long time

Getting home from the airport @ 9:30pm
first marshmallow


first sparkler


We climbed the Great Wall of China


Mason's first HotDog


Mason loves to wash his face


Mason & Aunt Gina - first night home


Grandma & Mason first night home

I can't believe how fast time if flying by. We have Mason over a month and it feels like he has been here for 8 years. He is doing GREAT!!!!! I can't believe how well he has adjusted to our home and our family. He has a smile on his face each and everyday. Although his English is slow to come. We have so many Dr. appointments set up for the next few months and we have been to the International Specialist 3 times already. For some reason, Mason was over immunized at Kunming and the I.A.S. has some concerns. We are waiting on some blood results but all in all, Mason is doing great. I am having the worst time with LilyRose though. She is like a different child. From the minute she gets up (which is 6:45 lately) to the minute she goes to bed, she is a TERROR. I want to run away most days and it doesn't help that Anthony hasn't been home much at night as he has been working side jobs, so it's all on me. So not use to this, but I am working on readjusting my thoughts and life to having 3 kids now.

Mason is very lovable and very happy. He eats well and sleeps great. He even makes his bed when he gets up and before he comes out of his room. It's great, now if I can get Joseph and LilyRose to do that, life would be better. lol He is shy around new people, but after a little bit he's fine with them. He finally has bonded to Joseph, although he still is a little afraid of him. Sometimes when I walk by Mason, he will flinch and drop to the floor. Freaks me out to know that he has that fear of being hit when someone walks by and I am working on showing him that he has nothing to worry about. We have a long road ahead of us with that issue.

We will see the Cleft Team June 3rd. That was the earliest appointment I could get. He also has to go to 3 different Dr.'s just for his teeth, they are really bad. We are going to the ENT this Thursday so I am hoping that that works out well for him. Mason loves to go food shopping. He jumps for joy every time I put something in the cart. He loves to help pack and then carry the packages to the car. He will help put everything away too. We think Mason will be very into Soccer. He loves going to Joseph's games and will watch very closely and imitate what they are doing. Same for Baseball, but we think Soccer is his favorite right now. He loves to take showers and brush his teeth. He gets very into it and I actually have to tell him that he's done.

Mason is an awesome kid and I thank GOD everyday that he brought him to us. I am complete!!!

Don't mind my voice, I sound like I am from outer space

We are home!!!

Love this shot

Coming down the Great Wall

The Great Wall

Olympic Mascot

Forever Families - Forever Friends

THANK GOD. I have never been so happy to be in my house then I was on Friday night. I want to Thank my FCC-LI family for the beautiful decorations that we got home to. A few of my friends showed up on Friday afternoon in crappy weather to put up some really cute decorations to welcome all of us home. I just realized that I did not get a picture of the house for my blog. I hope one of you great ladies took one and can send it to me so I can show the world the love we came home too. So here's a recap of Friday, April 3, 2009.

We got up early and dressed quickly. Everything was laid out from the night before and our bags were packed and ready to go. We went down to eat that HORRIBLE breakfast and when I say HORRIBLE, I mean it. It was just gross. I think I ate dried banana's for 2 days. Anyway, we met our guide at 10 am. I was so happy that it would be the last time I ever had to see him. At least the other 2 guides we had interacted with Mason and tried to get him to talk. This guy totally ignored him and my other 2 kids like they were not even there. I wanted to knock him out. So anyway, we went to the Temple of Haven and it was packed. I think we saw 1 American family throughout the whole thing. It was interesting to me because I like History, but for everyone else it was really boring. We should have never booked this tour. Hell, we should have not booked any tours for that matter. Again, when we saw a gift shop we went in and this moron kept looking at his watch. It annoyed me. You had to see how happy he was when we were done. So we got in the van and headed to the airport. I thought my face was going to crack because I don't think I ever smiled that wide in my life. They must have taken the longest way they could to get us to the airport. They told us it was a 1/2 hour drive but we were in the van for over an hour. Our flight was leaving at 3:45 pm. We got to the airport after 1pm. I didn't say one word to them, just got our stuff and walked away. I hear him saying good bye to me and it was like he wasn't even there. Well, check in was just crazy. They made us go on a "Check yourself in" line. Well you could just imagine how long that line was because no one had any idea of what to do. Finally a young Asian mad started complaining and they had some girls come over to help out. What a nightmare it was. We finally get to our gate with maybe 40 minutes to sit and then they want to go through every one's bags. I thought some of the people were going to start a brawl. At this point we just let them do there thing and we got on the plane. I was never so happy to sit in the tightest seats and wait for a 13 hour flight then I was at that moment.

Mason loved this flight. He played video games for hours. Then he would sleep for a while and get up and eat something and play more video games. He usually gets sick on landing, but this time he was sleeping, so he was fine. We got off the plane and went through immigration. With LilyRose they took us to a room to hand the Brown Envelope but this time the immigration officer took it and opened it. I kinda freaked out, but he reassured me that he knew what he was doing. I hope to get Mason COC in about 45 days. I'll know if the guy screwed up if I don't get it. We then headed to get our luggage. Here I am thinking, "OK, we are a few minutes away from the home stretch". No, not so lucky. First off, we landed almost an hour late. Bad weather they said. Then all the immigration stuff. So we thought we were good here. We got our luggage and when we were going to the exit, the officer told us to go in to the baggage check room. The whole flight had to go. "Are you kidding me" The flight was full. So we waited on a line for an hour so that they could put our luggage through the ray machine. When it was our turn they only put 2 bags on and we ran to the end of it and it was very crowed with people who's bags were being torn apart. So I inched my way towards the door with the kids and Anthony grabbed the 2 suitcases and we ran out the door. When I finally saw my brother, he was waving and yelling and so were we. It was a happy moment for all of us. An end to a torture trip.

Mason went right up to my brother and gave him a big hug and a kiss. My brother was shocked. Mason put his arms up to him so that my brother could pick him up. So he did and carried him for a while but then he wanted to walk. We finally pulled up to my house at like 9pm. My mother, cousin Gina, my new sister-in-law and my BFF Susan and her 2 kids were outside yelling and making all kids of noise to welcome us home. It was awesome. Mason was so overwhelmed at this point. We got into the house and he was looking around and seemed to be ok at that point. After everyone left, we got everyone ready for bed and off they went.

I sat up with my mother until 1am and then went to bed myself. I was up at 3:50am and at 4am I had a meal. I was so hungry. That's how it's been since I got home. Sick and can't sleep. I can't wait to be over this jet lag. It was horrible. So in between laundry, cleaning my house and trying to make Mason feel at home, I am exhausted all the time and I know I need to make some phone calls, but give a little while and I will be in touch.

Don't forget to stop by every so often as I will still be posting here for a little while longer.

Our last post from China

Well, this will be my very last post from China. It is 7:35am Friday morning. We will arrive home to the US at 5:30pm Friday night. Love that time difference.

I want to thank each and everyone of you that has followed along and most of all I want to thank the ones who commented all the time. It was what helped me stay sane most of the time. Thank you for caring about me and my family enough that you would take time out of your busy days to drop in and see if we were ok. It means the world to me and my new son Mason will surely know how special he really is.

Although this trip was not what it should have been, we are so happy to finally have our son and we would endure this torture again and again just to have Mason. He is pure joy and we love him dearly.

We love you all!!!!!!

The Bird's Nest & Great Wall

Great Wall


Joseph inside the Birds Nest


The Birds Nest Olympic Village

So, you all know that we didn't want to go to the Forbidden City and lost our money for that tour, but we went to The Birds Nest first this morning and paid to get in. It was really cheap but Joseph was so excited to be inside the Olympic Stadium. It really was a great feeling knowing that only 7 months ago, the United States won lots of Gold Medals here. After we were done with the Nest, Anthony told the guide that we wanted to go to the Harley Davidson Store. Well, you would have thought that we asked for a million dollars. The guide told us that the driver was not happy to take us there and that the agency told him "NO" we couldn't go. It was the only place Anthony requested to go on this whole trip. So, Anthony told him he really wanted to go that we would only be there for 20 minutes tops. So the guide said he had to call the agency and ask. He was on the phone for the longest time and when he was done this is what he told us. "If you really want to go to the Harley store, you cannot got to the Great Wall or the Acrobat Show". I thought Anthony was going to blow his top. Can you believe that everything we asked of them they told us NO. They gave us tours that we didn't want and wouldn't give us what we wanted. We lost so much money on this trip. They RUINED our trip. Not the part of getting Mason and bonding as a family, no one could have ruined that, but they made this trip unbearable. I hate them for what they did to us. Adoption House was the best agency ever. We had an awesome experience adopting LilyRose from start to finish. We all can't wait to get home.

We then went to the Great Wall. You had to see Joseph's face. It was priceless. He kept telling me that it wasn't that big and then it came into view and his mouth dropped open. Pictures do not do it justice. So up they went. LilyRose and I didn't get very far, so we waited for them to climb up and take pictures and then climb down. It was very busy there today. Lots of people from all over the world were there. We were trying to figure out what languages we were hearing. Once they came off the wall, we wanted to buy a few things and the guide was getting huffy. We were only there for about 2 hours. Can you believe that he was rushing us. Well, I can tell you that we took our sweet ass time, Lisa style. We got back to the hotel and had Pizza Hut and we have to meet the guide at 4:30pm for the Acrobat Show. I hope the kids like it. Then tomorrow morning we are going to the Temple of Haven. Anthony and I did not go there on Lily's adoption, so we will all be seeing it for the first time together. I hope we like it. After that we will go straight to the airport. WHOO HOOOOOO we are coming home!!!!!!

More pics later

We just got back from the Acrobat Show and it was great. We all enjoyed it very much. Joseph is still trying to figure out how all the girls got on the bike and didn't fall off. Mason was in awe. He never saw anything like it and was just blown away. It was great being able to give him all of these first and being able to see him enjoy it. There is so many more things that he will be amazed at, and we all can't wait to see him experience them.

New Pictures

Officially Siblings




Samuel, Joseph & Mason - Swearing Ceremony






Mason getting a haircut






Hand carved Jade Pagoda






Our Family Red Couch Photo



Our New Friends - Hey wheres Mick?!?






Our Red Couch Picture






All the kids we had in our group of friends

My Family

How cute are they?!?

My 3 kids - River Cruise

Mason at Lucy's

We are in Beijing

We just arrived in Beijing. I am so glad that we are almost on our way home. This trip was so different from LilyRose's trip. More on that when I get home.

So our time on the Island was awesome. I know that I have not posted alot on this trip but the Internet was not free at the White Swan. The White Swan is a beautiful hotel, and we met so many adoptive families that we hung out with for the 4 days we were there. It was great. We did not do a lot of shopping but Joseph did. It was so peaceful. So are you ready for the dirt? When we were doing our paperwork on Saturday our guide Dave said to me that something was not right with our home study. He told me the agency did not approve us for a Special Needs child. He said we might not get Mason's Visa. So, ok it's freakin' Saturday. He then told me not to worry. So I didn't. I went and enjoyed myself with my family.

Monday I sat in the room for an hour while Dave went to the Consulate. I really didn't think anything would be wrong since my home study went to 3 different agencies and to the CCAA. Well no such luck for us. Dave called and told me that the Consulate wanted an addendum stating that the agency approved us for a "Special Needs Child". Well I almost died. It's 12:30pm in China but 12:30am in the states. So my nightmare began. I emailed my SW and emailed a friend of mine to try to call the agency in the morning to get this update. I was sick to my stomach at this point. So after 5 emails the kids wanted to go and eat lunch. So we went to Lucy's. We had our lunch and hung out and walked around. We talked with so many people. Then we went to Jordan's. When he saw Anthony, he jumped up and said to him "I remember you, the Tattoos". We talked for a long while with him and got some stuff and then walked more. When I got back to the room I was going to send an email out and to my surprise, my SW wrote me back a few times. She happened to be up when I emailed at 12:30. She sent the addendum to me and I thought everything was ok. Dave said we could print it out at the business center when we got back from the boat. We then got ready to go on the boat tour. We were all prepared for the Pirate Ship and the boys were really excited. Well, I told you what happened with that. Joseph was very disappointed with that one. The boat was pretty empty and it was a nice cool night and Mason had a blast. He was never on a boat before and it was well worth it for me to see his expression. I would endure this torture of a trip all over again just to see Mason's face light up at all the new things he has seen so far. He is an adorable boy and I have to say he is a mama's boy. Always makes sure I am close by. Always calling mama, mama. I LOVE IT!!!!

We got back to the hotel a little after 8pm and I went to the business center to print out the update with Dave. Was on there computer no more then 3 minutes and I got charged 50 rmb. It's not a lot, but it just made me laugh. So now I go back to the room and I am not feeling well at all. Anthony took the kids to the Arcade, but Mason did not want to go. He knew I wasn't feeling well and he wanted to stay with me. We both got our pj's on and we watched some tv. He asked if he could lay on the bed with me. He just wanted to cuddle like he saw Joseph and Lily do with either me or Anthony. I was so happy that he finally asked. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time. Then my phone rings. It's Dave the guide. Well the update wasn't signed or notarized. So back on the computer to email my Sw and the agency. It's now after 9pm China time. Then all of a sudden, I got sicker then sick. I was throwing up until 4 am. But in between I got my update exactly like it was suppose to be. Family Focus went above and beyond for me. Can't say the same for Barker. They faxed it to the Consulate and also emailed it there too. I got an email and so did Dave. So we were covered all the way around. I finally went to sleep at 5am.

Tuesday was a great day with Mason. He finally started saying some English words. Can't understand him to well, but he got his point across. We packed up all our stuff so that we wouldn't have to come in to early that night because we were going to dinner with a few of the families we became friends. We went and got Mason a haircut and it was so cute to see his face. He had no idea what the lady was going to do and when she first started buzzing, he made the funniest face. What a trooper he has been with all the new things that are happening to him. We then went and got some Red Couch photos with all our new friends and then got ready for the Swearing In Ceremony. Now I knew I would cry because we both cried when we went for Lily. I had no idea that I would be bawling when it was done. We met the 2 other families at 2:45pm and got on the bus. We got to the Consulate at 3:45 and the ceremony started at 4pm. Dave said he didn't hear anything from them at all so we assumed our paperwork was good to go. We got a seat in the front row and waited. Well when it started, the lady talked about somethings and then said that she wanted to read some names of returning families. All of a sudden she said our names and congratulated us on our 2nd adoption trip. What a huge surprise. Everyone was clapping after each family name was read telling us how many adoptions the family did. Hey Vicki V. I was thinking of you and figured you would get a standing ovation. How great would that be?!? Then we raised our right hand and took an oath and it was done. I was really crying hard at that point. I mean it was finally REAL!!!! after almost 2 years, 2 agencies closing on us and all the bullshit from Barker, Mason is really ours. So yes, I let all the tears and frustration flow at that moment. It was all so worth it. MASON IS WORTH IT.

We got back to the hotel and we asked Pat and his new son Samuel to go to dinner with us and he agreed. We also asked the other family in our group and they met us there. We went with Christine and Roger who adopted Ellie and there 3 daughters and Mick, Joanne & YuNa. We went to Lo Dulce Vita restaurant. It was really very good. Good food and good friends and all our children. Who could ask for anything more. Then we walked home as a group and stopped at Starbucks. Vanilla Iced Latte, mmmmmm. It was early, so we were going to go to the Arcade but it was closed so we went to playroom and hung out and the kids played. It was relaxing. Went up to the room at 9pm and by 10 pm we were all in bed. Mason and LilyRose were out before they hit the pillow. It was a great end to a nasty start.

Now for Beijing, The hotel is in a crappy part. Barker gave us 3 tours tomorrow. The Forbidden City in the morning, The great Wall in the afternoon and the Acrobat show at night. Are they NUTS!!! I have 3 kids and that's too much. I didn't asked to go to the Forbidden City and when I first saw it, I called Barker and told them we didn't want to go there and they basically told me "to bad, that's what we gave you". I have to pay for something I don't want. Never heard of that. So our guide was late getting to the airport. We stood by ourselves for 10 to 15 minutes before he got there. Not a good start as far as I am concerned. He could care less too. When we told him we are not going to the F.C. he kept telling me "no money back to you at all". We are going to the Birds Nest and the Harley Davidson Shop and then to the Great Wall. The guide told us we can go into the Nest but we have to pay for it. OF COURSE WE DO.

Anthony just went and got McDonald's for us. This is the first time here we got it. It wasn't like home, but when you are hungry, anything taste good. I will post pictures later tonight.