New Pictures

Kaegan slept all night!!

YAY!! Kaegan slept all night. I jumped in bed quietly so I did not wake him and then I just layed there. I was now wide awake and missed my snuggle bug. Last night was the first night Kaegan did not fall asleep in my arms. I was so sad and tempted to wake him but did not. We all slept until 8 am. It was wonderful.

Marty felt much better today so we did not go to the Dr. He just stayed around the house and rested one last day. He plans to go to work tomorrow.

Today Amency, Kaegan and I all went to Minden to visit the family. We met up with Aunt Gloria first. Met the Men in the family at Pepe's and finished up at Bunco with the ladies. We made our rounds in town. Kaegan was so pooped. He is now sitting next to me watching Nemo. We are going to try this again tonight. It is 9 now so we will see. We were out too late so it may take longer tonight.

Tomorrow we have nothing planned but clean the house. I plan to rearrange the living room. I need to make room for all of these toys.

Update!

Thanks Brittney! Sorry I have not typed an update in awhile.

The transition is going great! The only issues we have had are sleeping and temper tantrums. The normal for 2 yr olds. The first night home Kaegan had to sleep with his shoes on. He would pitch a fit if I tried to remove them. The second night he had to sleep with his shoes and his jacket on. The jacket has only been worn for one night but the shoes another story. Mom and I went shopping all over town for kids house shoes and finally found 3 pair. (FYI: Children's house shoes are seasonal and only available during the Holiday season. This message is from BELK's, TARGET, WAL-MART and KOHL's.) Kaegan has been sleeping in his house shoes everynight. He has not asked for the jacket yet. I put it in his closet so it is out of sight.

The tantrums come after I have him dressed for bed. We have not been to bed prior to 12:00. It has taken longer to adjust to our time than it was to adjust to China time. Especially with a 2 yr old that knows no English. I have been trying different things at night like reading to him and rocking. Tonight I turned off all of the lights and put on the movie Finding NEMO. He is watching it now so we will see the results. It is only 9. I did not give him a nap today to see if that might help.

This will be the first movie that he has sat thru. Marty and I agreed that we would not allow him to watch TV until later in the transition but tonight I needed rest and am willing to try anything.

Kaegan is an incredible child. He is smiling all the time, giggling and loves to play outside. At home he is very active but when we go to new places it takes him a few minutes to acclimated. He becomes shy and clingy to Mom. After he feels comfortable enough he becomes Kaegan. A fun, smiling energetic child who is free of all worries.

He does not speak at all. We learned in China that boys normally do not speak until they are age 3 or 4. With him being in foster care we are positive that they did not work with him. The orphanages only work with the girls because they are most likely to be adopted first. SAD!! Kaegan has done well with telling us what he needs. He is fully pottied trained! He will tug on himself to tell me and has tried to say potty a few times but it sounds like pot. He did say Mommy!! Marty heard it first then later in the day I heard it. That is the only word that he said correct. We have gotten DADADADADA! That is for Daddy and PAAA for Panda our dog. Mimi, my Mom, has been called MAAAA. That is close enough for her. We have been working on the ABC's and 123's. Nothing yet. It will not be long though.

Yesterday Mom was vaccuming and when she finished Kaegan unplugged the cord and partly rolled it up and handed it to her. Then when she was folding clothes Kaegan grabbed for the fabric sheets and went to the window and started cleaning it. It appears that he has cleaned alot in his life. Marty grabbed the fabric sheets and said "That is last window you will ever clean." It is so sad to think about what he has been thru.

Last night Gigi and PawPaw stopped in to meet Kaegan. I was showing them a set of chopsticks that we purchased in China and Kaegan saw them. He grabbed at them and started to get excited. Gigi asked if he had eaten with chopsticks and I said no. I have just given forks and spoons. We decided to give him the chopsticks to see what would happen. He ran to kitchen and wanted us to put him in his highchair. Mom warmed up some leftover rice and voila!! Kaegan went to town with some chopsticks. He can put more rice on the chopsticks that we can on a spoon. I posted pictures yesterday of him eating with them. We were so amazed.

Kaegan will continue to do some amazing things and I will keep you guys updated. Now that we are almost back to normal I will blog more often. Marty is still sick. I am going to take him back to the Dr. tomorrow. He says that he feels fine but after playing with Kaegan for 30 minutes or so he gets tired and goes to sleep for 2-3 hours. I think it is just the strong medications he has been on and the stress we have been thru. I will let you know what the Dr. says tomorrow.

I am still doing great!! No sickness. That is amazing for me. I am the one that always gets sick. Mom came over yesterday and finished washing all our clothes and I got to sleep in this morning because Marty got up with Kaegan. It was so nice.

Now it is 9:30 and guess what!!! Kaegan is asleep.....

OK. I just put him in bed next to daddy and he did not wake up!! YAY!!!! Looks like Nemo is our new bedtime story.

I am going to get some ZZZ's while I can. Talk to you tomorrow.

Pics from home!

A few pics in China

One well, One to go

Kaegan is a new child today. He has been smiling, giggling, playing with everyone and kissing Mommy. Marty on the other hand is still sick. He says that he feels like the medicines are trying to fight something but have no idea what to fight. We pray that he is better tomorrow.

Marty did play with Kaegan today. Kaegan was missing his Daddy. I have had them separated because we had no idea what each one had. Kaegan learned how to ride on his tricycle, played ball with Daddy and fed himself supper while sitting at the table in his Kiddie seat.

Now I am sitting in bed not tired at all while Marty and Kaegan are both knocked out asleep. Kaegan put up a fight tonight. He did not want to go to bed. I did not allow him to take a nap today because I wanted him to stay up in order to sleep thru the night. He has been on China time just like me and we both need to get adjusted. I was determined to win the battle with him going to sleep so I carried him up to his room and did what I have been dreaming of for a long time. I rocked him to sleep for the first time. He was so tired that he was out in 5 minutes. I continued to rock him and just said our prayers. It was a moment I will never forget.

Please pray that Marty is well tomorrow. He is determined to attend church and see our friends. We miss everyone so much. I will post new pictures of Kaegan in his new home tomorrow.

Home at Last, Home at Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Home at Last!

We are finally home!!! We unfortunately did not return home on Wednesday as planned. Oh how we wish we could have made that grand entrance into the Shreveport Airport and see the smiles and tears of our family and friends. A moment that I have been looking forward to quite sometime. I know that you guys were excited about meeting us and many of you showed up at the airport. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your love and support throughout the past few years with the adoption and especially the prayers over the past 2 weeks.

It is obvious that God had other plans for Kaegans entrance into the USA. To clear things up I will fill you in on the details. I mentioned in an earlier blog that Kaegan will become a citizen of the US once we arrived in Dallas. Well...., Kaegan became a citizen after we stepped off the plane and into an ambulance.

Yes, that is correct. The day started when Marty woke at 5:00am. We dressed, got Kaegan dressed and headed out the door to the airport. We said our goodbyes to our guide and new friends and the loaded up onto the plane to Tokyo. The flight was 4 hours and Kaegan did a wonderful job. He played with his toys during the flight and sat quietly like a perfect little angel. Marty and I slept when we had the chance. We had a 4 hour layover in Tokyo which was quite boring. We tried to find something to eat but nothing sounded good. Kaegan began to get cranky and we ready to just get home.

It is great having a child because we are now the first to board planes. We had plenty of room in the overhead compartments to put all of our junk. It is much harder to travel with a child and all of the necessities than I thought. All was well at this point and we were excited to get off the ground and head towards the USA.

Each of us had our own seats which was convenient up until Kaegan began to cry at top of his lungs and his lips began to bleed due to the dried up sores on his mouth. I had no idea what to do so I grabbed him and layed in my lap just like I do at night as he sleeps. He did well for a few minutes at a time but continued to cry for the entire trip. This began after 30 minutes of being in the air. We still had 9.5 hours to go and I was already miserable.

Marty is another story. He threw up about an hour and a half into the flight. He stayed sick the entire flight. I now had Kaegan screaming and crying at the top of his lungs while drooling blood out of his mouth, Marty sick and a plane full of people that are trying to sleep but can't because of Kaegan. I finally got to the point where I did not care.

We had a very nice flight attendant. She constantly checked on us and even had the captain page for a doctor in order for to get some Tylenol for Kaegan. FYI: Only a doctor can open the first aid kits on airplanes. A flight attendant cannot give you any over the counter medications.

After what seemed like an eternity for me, we were 1 hour outside of DFW. Kaegan still crying and Marty still sick. Marty had only thrown up once but now had fever and so did Kaegan. We know they had fever because the flight attendant checked them both. She asked me what my plans were with them once we landed and I mentioned that my Uncle and his family were at the airport waiting to meet us and Kaegan. I told her that we would have them take us to the ER before our next flight and if needed we would stay the night and drive home the following day. She said "ok" and I thought that that was it. Shortly afterwards she asked the two ladies sitting next to me to get their things and move to the other side of the plane because we were about to land. The flight attendant then came over to Marty and me and said, "The captain has contacted CDC and there will be paramedics at the gate waiting for us to arrive. Once we arrive the captain will make an announcement and the paramedics will come on board and escort you to an ambulance that will than take you the ER. This will allow you to get the help for your baby much quicker." Marty and I both said ok, Thanks!

WOW! Is all I have to say. It was terrible. The plane landed and the made his announcement. "Passengers, this is your Captain speaking, It has come to my attention that there is a medical situation at the back of the cabin. In order for paramedics to assist the situation CDC has requested that all passengers remain seated with seat belts fastened until further notified." At this time I began to get nervous. The paramedics arrived on board and began taking pictures of Kaegan's mouth and chest. By this time he had broken out into a dark rash. The paramedics were sending the pics to CDC during the quick examination. All 3 of us had to put medical masks. They began to ask us question after question about Kaegan and his medical history. I got so annoyed with them that I pulled my mask down and looked the gentleman in eye and said with loud, deep, tone "I have had the child for 8 days! I have no idea!" This was such a Xanax moment but I had never taken one and I did not how my body would react to it so I did not take one. Looking back I probably should have.

In the meantime, the captian makes several announcements:
1. If you are a passenger seated in rows 34-38 please see one of our flight attendants and fill out a form from CDC.
2. If you have had Chemo or have a low immunity please see one of our flight attendants and fill out a form from CDC.
3. If you are pregnant or think you might be pregnant please see one of our flight attendants and fill out a form from CDC.

CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!

At this point I am going nuts on the inside. They told Marty and I to grab our stuff and that we could now be escorted off the plane. I grabbed Kaegan and Marty grabbed the carry on bags. Kaegan is on a roll. His has blood streaming from his lips, his face is red and the screaming is very loud. As we were exiting the plane every eye was on us. It was horrible.

Marty exited the plane and I began to take a step off and gentleman grabbed me and said "No, you may not exit until we are notified by CDC." I am now holding Kaegan and standing one step from being off the plane. There are 6 men in black uniforms watching my every move. They quickly opened a hidden stairwell and told us to follow them. It was sleeting and raining so I was holding Kaegan while holding on to a gentlemans back as I walked down the steps. There was an ambulance waiting for us. We all got on board and headed to the hospital.

I borrowed the paramedics cell phone to call mom to tell her that we would not be arriving in Shreveport and fill her in on a few details. My parents and Marty's both got into the car and drove straight to Dallas. No one had any idea what was going on. Especially Marty and me. I asked the paramedic if she thought that all of this was necessary and she said,"Your child and husband both have a temperature and they have both come from China. We must treat this situation as a worst case scenerio." After that comment I began to think, Bird flu, Sars, oh my goodness and that is when I just about lost it. However, I took deep breaths and continued to stay strong.

We arrived at the hospital and they rushed us into the ER. We were placed in a glassed in room that could be sealed off. They immediately began checking on Kaegan. They ruled out the things that I thought of and decided that it may be the measels. Thankfully it was not the measels. The Dr. said that Kaegan had a virus of some sort and gave us antibiotics.

My Uncle and his family arrived at the hospital. I saw them thru the glass in our ER room. I ran to the door and it was locked. I told the Dr. "That is my Uncle I need to go say Hi and get a hug." The Dr. replied, "No! You have been quarantined and may not leave this room until notified by me!" I said," You have got to be kidding me?" I did not know whether to cry, scream, laugh, hit the man or pass out. I just wanted to be held by someone in the family.

After 30 minutes or so, the Dr. said that Marty and I were probably just tired after being awake for 28 hours and no food. We would have eaten but a fish dinner on an airplane isn't exactly a safe meal. Not to mention the smell on the plane.

They did not examine Marty but gave us meds. for Kaegan and released us. I finally got my hugs and we headed to my Uncles to spend the night. Our parents each met us there as well and we spent the evening staring at Kaegan as he continued to cry. He did sleep well that night. Which is very surprising. Marty is still not feeling well at this point.

All of us woke up and headed to Shreveport on Thursday morning. When we arrived home we were greeted with signs and posters placed around the house, gifts, sweets and pictures of Kaegan in different places. The house was also spotless. It had been cleaned. Kaegan was not too excited to be greeted by our dogs so we put them in our bedroom while we showed Kaegan his room. He still does not feel well so He really didn't care too much about his room. He just wanted to sleep. The family hung around a little while and Amency and Chad stopped in to visit. Our parents left and Amency ended up spending the night to help me with both the sick ones. Thankfully I had a doctors appointment for Kaegan set up for Friday. Marty said he was beginning to feel better. He fell asleep on the couch and Kaegan, Amency and I all climbed into my bed. It was a long night because we are now on China time not USA. I was wide awake until 4:00am. Kaegan did sleep. Not all night but a good portion of it. Amency was a huge help for me. I thank you sis!!

We had to wake up early because we had to get to the airport to pick up our luggage. Because of the chaos at the airport we were not aloud to pick up our luggage any sooner than Friday morning. All of Kaegans medical records were in the luggage and I needed them for his appointment. Marty woke feeling terrible so I called my Mom to come help me with Kaegan and Marty's mom to help me with Marty. I got Marty a Dr. appointment at 10:30 and Kaegan's was at 11:00. We got our luggage and made it to Kaegan's appointment on time. Marty made it to his appoitnment as well.

The results: Marty has Strep Throat and Kaegan does have a virus on his lips and a bad ear infection. Marty received 2 shots and meds, Kaegan received more meds but no shots. We arrived home and Marty was asleep and Kaegan slept pretty much all day.

Later this evening Jeremy, Rhonda and Tyler come over to see their newest family member. Kaegan began to feel a little better. Jeremy even got Kaegan to giggle and laugh. It was so good to see him smile again.

Around 9:00 the house was empty of guests and it was just Marty, Kaegan and me. Marty has been in the bed all day. I checked him and he said he felt like he needed to go the hospital. I called Eric a friend of ours and he just picked up Marty and took him to the ER.

Now it is just me and Kaegan. Kaegan is asleep and I have time to update the blog. As you can see, it has been pretty crazy around here. I am still feeling fine and have had no panic attacks. The Lord has a huge shield of protection over me right now and I can feel it. I am so thankful for that.

It is now 12:30 am and Eric just called and said that the Dr.'s have tested Marty for Strep, the Flu and Mono and all test were negative. They have no idea what he has. They are giving him some more fluids and then they will be home. Isn't this crazy!!!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that I walked into the formal living room earlier this afternoon and noticed a huge water spot on the ceiling. The upstairs toilet has been leaking. The carpet is stained and their is now a hole in my ceiling. The water has been leaking for quite some time now. We have some construction in our near future.

Please pray that our family gets healthy soon and that I do not get sick. I am ready to introduce my son to everyone.

All Packed Up and Headed Home!

The Oath Ceremony was great. We all dressed up in our outfits and traveled down to the Embassy. Marty and I raised our right hands, recited the Oath and Kaegan was confirmed ours. I tried so hard to hold back the tears. I did very well.

Kaegan is beginning to feel a little better. You can see in the pictures that his lips and face are infected. Now it is 8:00pm and his lips and cheeks already look much better. Kaegan has been playing around and walking in his squeeky shoes. He is almost back to the Kaegan we saw a few days ago. YAY!!

I have posted pics from today. It was very hard to get some good ones so these will have to do. I hope you guys enjoy them.

I am finished packing, Marty is reading his Bible and Kaegan is alseep. I am not too far behind him. We are looking forward to seeing you soon.

We should be arriving in SHV around 6:30. I know that everyone is anxious to meet Kaegan and we are anxious to see each of you. We hope to see you there. C U in the USA!

Our Last Day in China!

YAY!! We are finally here at the last day. Kaegan is suppose to be taking a nap right now but daddy decided to feed him some banana bread so he is wide awake. He will fall asleep shortly. I just hope he rested well for the Oath Ceremony. We meet at 2:40 today for the final step. For the Ceremony Marty and I purchased oriental shirts to wear and Kaegan will be wearing an outfit that was given to him by Sharon Foster's sister-in-law. It is precious. After the oath ceremony we will take the famous "Red Couch" photos. There is actually no meaning behind the "Red Couch" photo. Laila (our guide) said that Americans just enjoy taking them. It gives them an opportunity to take pictures of their groups. We will take pictures with Steve and Kim Wannamaker. They are another couple who are with our agency. We have become very close over the past few days. It is going to be sad to say bye to everyone.

Over the past two weeks Marty and I have met some incredible people. This morning we ran into the Pirkles. They are the couple that share the same "Gotcha Day" as we do. We were so excited to see them. I wish we could have spent more time together here in Guangzhou. Relationships have began a world away from home. These relationships will last forever because we each share a common bond that is so unique to each one of us. It is incredibly amazing.

Kaegan slept a little better last night. He only woke 3 times and needed some loving. His lips on the other hand looked badly infected and his cheeks had broken out again. Yesterday Marty took Kaegan to the hotel physician and he gave him some medicine for his lips and something else that is a thick liquid and has herbs for Kaegan to drink. Marty and I both agreed that we would use the medication for the lips but wait until we get home for Dr. Rich to check him out. If would not drink it I was not about to make Kaegan drink it.

Guess What? Stephanie and Jimmy Pirkle are both doctors! YAY! This morning at breakfast they looked at Kaegans lips and gave us some medicine. Stephanie said that he should feel better soon. Sure enough she was right. We went shopping and had a wonderful morning. Kaegan loves to ride in the stroller so we walked alot this morning. Walking is very good for us right now because we have eaten so much rice and noodles we need to walk the weight off.

While we were shopping I noticed that Kaegan face was turning red so I asked him if he needed to go potty. He of course said nothing because he has no clue to what I am saying. I walked back to the hotel to see if he needed to go and when I began to remove his overalls he began to squeal and scream. I finally got his clothes off and placed him on the potty. Kaegan then used the restroom and was shaking while pooping. I just hugged him as he went potty and told him it was ok. His stomach of course had been hurting. When he got off the potty I noticed that he had pooped a little bit in his pull up. When he noticed that I saw his pull up he went nuts. Screaming, crying, turning bright red! I just calming grabbed him and held him close. I told him that it was ok that he went potty in his pull up and just kept repeating to him that its ok mommy still loves you, its ok baby, its ok. He calmed down and then I was able to redress him and all was fine. My poor baby. What has he been thru? I will never know but I do know that he will soon know that he is never going to hurt again. I pray that he will soon be able to communicate more to us and open up to our love. He is still closed off a little but I think that most of that is due to him not feeling well.

I do know that when we get home things will be tough at first. We will have to redo the past two weeks all over. This time I pray it is easier for Kaegan.

Well, I am going to try to nap for now. I will post this evening when we return from the oath ceremony.

Guangzhou

Well, here we are at our final stop on this incredible journey. 5 flights down and 3 more to go. Kaegan did exceptionally well on the plane ride to Guangzhou. He sat quietly and played with the toys in his back pack. The flight was only 2 1/2 hours. We just hope he does that well on the next 3 long flights.

We have actually been here for two days. I am again updating the blog late. I apologize to all the Kaegan junkies. This place is paradise compared to where we just came from. We can see outside and have lots of restaurants to choose from. I have eaten chicken tenders with french fries and Marty has had Spaghetti with meatballs. We also found a deli near the hotel that the best banana bread in China. Kaegan loves it too.

We were told that this place is very sunny and warm. Not this week apparently. It has been raining since we arrived and the weather is cold. Not as cold as it was in Taiyuan but still our coats are needed.

The first day here we had Kaegans passport picture taken and had the medical exam. Kaegan did very well for both. I posted a video of the exam yesterday. There were actually 3 stages to the exam. I did not post the 2nd one because my baby had to get naked. The 2nd exam was also were the doctor checks his heart. For those of you who do not know, Kaegan is a Special Needs child. He has a heart condition. The doctor in the exam could not find the murmur that the report says he has. She had 2 other doctors come in and check and still they found nothing. It is possible that the murmur is gone and all is well. We will have him checked out in the USA on Tuesday of next week.

After the exam we headed to complete more paperwork. We are getting closer to coming home and finalizing everything because I have no more blank forms and we are just about out of money. Believe it or not that is a GREAT sign. We are ready for you guys to meet our angel. He is adorable.

The night before last we did have our first scares from Kaegan. He did not sleep at all. He would wake up unexpectedly, screaming and crying. It scared Marty and I. We have not seen this side of him at all. Not even signs of it. I checked his temp and there was no fever so I grab him and layed him on my chest as I do when he naps. He would fall right back to sleep but shortly afterwards he would wake again to the same thing. We had a little training on night terrors so this could be what he was experiencing. We planned to attend church yesterday morning but instead stayed in the room all day with Kaegan. He was tired all day after no sleep and was not very playful.

This morning he is much better. Last night we had a few terrors but I was better prepared. This time I immediately grabbed him and placed him on my chest and then there was no noise. 5 minutes later he would roll off of me and fall back to sleep. There were several times that he would cry for about 2 seconds and reach for mine and Marty's hands and hold them as he would fall back to sleep. It is so precious. Marty and I would just pray that his fears would go away and that he will soon realize that he is safe with us. We know now that he is just checking to make sure we are still here. It is so hard witnessing this but it is a stage that we are prepared for. I can not imagine what is going on in that little head of his. Today, he is much better. Right now he is down stairs eating breakfast with Daddy. I had to stay in the room because our guide is at the Consulate finalizing the paperwork and I need to be here in case she calls for questions.

Two more days!! Tomorrow we pick up Kaegans VISA and recite the Oath at the Oath Ceremony.

Wednesday we fly home!!!!! YAY!! We have had a blast here in China and getting to know our son. We can't wait to share him with you.