Yes, we know we've been bad about posting

Howdy!
We are surviving, and alive. We have had to carry Acer everywhere, even if we're not moving we have to have him up on our shoulders. This is, of course, exhausting holding a 30 plus pound child up on your shoulder. We even have to do this in the middle of the night when he wakes up, at that time my life is measured in moments, I count to two hundred for each position as I transition him from being way up on my shoulders to lying down in bed.
Thankfully this is not bothering the small of my back where I usually have issues, instead it sends the middle of my back into spasms. This is an odd blessing, but it still enables me to walk, and the small of my back pain immobilizes me. Don't think I've asked Bill where his sore points are, I'll have to do that. Though I think with his being sick, he just aches all over poor guy.
Bill is fighting some bug with antibiotics, I'm trying to dodge it, and Acer has the occasional run of snot not & gooky cough but it hasn't developed any further than that. We do need to keep our room warmer than either Bill or I like it, but if it keeps him from hacking, we'll sweat it out (literally)
Yesterday we were supposed to go to a local village to see what life is like but instead we decided to stay here & try to rest. We were letting Acer be nekkid butte boy, when I noticed his parts weren't centered properly. A little later that spot really started swelling and we put in a call to our guides while they were at the village (thank heaven for cell phones) As soon as they came back, they came up and confirmed what I was worried about, that it was a hernia. Mary, our local guide, got in touch with the head of the local urology department and he skipped lunch to come over to check him out. He tried to put it back in (while we had to hold him down, and he cried heart wrenching sobbing screams) He was unable to manually fix it there so both Mary and Dennis (our guide for the whole trip) went with us and the Dr to the local hospital. the Dr used his clout to get us dealt with right away & Acer's hernia was temporarily fixed. We have a compression belt for the trip home, but for now we're under instructions to keep him from crying and watch that spot carefully.
He's feeling a lot better now and is able to sit normally, not splayed out.
Evidently the orphanage knew about this, but we weren't informed. I could have kept better check on that area. Oh well.
We had a good night's rest last night, Acer only woke up twice and Bill & I each took one turn to get him back to sleep.
Please continue the prayers, especially now that we've added a new concern to the mix.
All for now, I actually have to go do yet more paperwork - yeah me!

Donations made it!

Howdy!
Yesterday we gave Acer's orphanage the remaining two suitcases of donations, One had been given to our agency's local unit where they care for children after major surgery, or as a hospice. So many people gave donations it was incredible to us and to the SWI officials we gave it too. For those who gave money, the conversion rate is about 7.5 to every US dollar, they were very pleased as they are trying to build a new center.

Heather's view

Howdy all!
Today we are celebrating our first bit of 'good news' this is an euphemism for poo, or number two as it is also known. This is an odd but huge step forward in the bonding process. It means he's getting more comfortable around us. He even took me to the bathroom, walked to the toilet and clinked the seat. Me bring the observant person I am, quickly figured out that this must be the meaning of the phrase he'd been bellowing at the top of his lungs. The problem with what he says is that according to both Mary, our guide, and Mrs Li, the assistant director of the orphanage he is already multi lingual. Mary used the word several and Mrs Li said many. This is great, except that it makes translation by our guides Mary & Dennis that much harder as they have to listen & then attempt to switch him into a language they know. He already knew 'I Love You' and we have taught him the word for Cheerios. (this is important as he wasn't eating until we brought them out)
Gradually we are learning his personality and can't wait for him to really open up into the happy little guy we've seen glimpses of.
The most heart breaking thing for me is the phrase that Dennis translated for us yesterday, "the orphanage didn't want me". Evidently the SWI had taken him back from the family and kept him for some unknown number of days before they brought him to us. He must have thought he was going to stay there forever, this place where he had visited so frequently, then they put him in a car a drove him for hours to meet with us, betrayal!
As I've gone through this past few days I have to say that both Bill and I feel a sense of 'This is right' about it. It makes the bad times; the soundless crying in his sleep, the loud crying and yelling as we don't understand what he needs, the physical ache from holding him standing up or walking (we do use the Ergo for long trips) accidentally getting him so mad he pees on the bath rug; and the good times, seeing him curled up like a little frog with me in the tub, and watching him sleep nekkid, sprawled out on the bed with his head on Bill's shoulder while Bill slept, the first night when he said 'I love you' when he was talking while half asleep,all these things together add up to the 'This is right' feeling. Yes, we'll have days of hell to start (and I'm sure in the teen years too) but we'll get through. There is the phrase 'to whom much is given, much is asked' Bill and I are so blessed, that this doesn't seem like much to ask at all.
We haven't taken many pictures lately, I think we're going to do some sight seeing tomorrow so we'll taken more I'm sure. It's always interesting to travel here, Bill says the driving makes M-59 look safe and boring to drive on.
On the Heather personal front I have been blessed with good health this entire trip, no bad tummy or nausea or travel sickness, please keep those prayers coming our way.

It's Official!

Acer is now our child legally in China and the United States!

We returned to the adoption center, and this was very traumatic for him. It was a place that was familiar to him, and the deputy director was there and so was the director of child services. Both of whom he knew very well. And they gave him an ice cream bar. This nearly undid all the bonding that I thought we had done, but now I don't know. He has only had 1 bottle of formula today, but he did have nearly a half pound of cheerios. Now we have to see what happens tonight when we go to bed.

We have found that the only guaranteed method of getting him to sleep is to put Heather and him into the tub and they take a bath. He then will fall right to sleep curled up on Heather. I'd post a pic, but it's not appropriate :)

In there he sleeps like a frog. It's very cute.

Day 3 awaits.

PS: We ate breakfast, but that was the only meal so far today...

We've Got Him!

We got Acer!!!!!!! We picked him up this afternoon a little after 3:30, and the first thing that he said in english was "I Love You". Everyone melted at that, as we were the first that got their child. Acer was the only one that was at the building when we got there, and all the other families said "Bring him in!" After he said that, he is able to speak quite a bit of Chinese, more than we expected, so it is hard, because he is telling us what he wants, but we cannot understand him. As I write this, Heather has just gotten him to sleep. I know it's early, but I hope that he will be able to eat dinner, and then we will try some more to bond.
Mom and Acer their first experience!