Playdough Jesus?

Ok, really??? this has been sitting in my blog "darft" for a year??? For some reason it's not showing up that it ever was published, sooooo, here ya go- about one year later! (I'm publishing it on 3/13/15!)

As I begin this blog entry, David and I are sitting in a small room while Chan is having a MRI. I'll probably not finish this entry in one sitting either. Honestly, it's the first time I've been without my new shadow since March 16. I looooove my shadow, but if you know me well at all I need me some space at times. 45 minutes to breathe by myself is nice although I didn't expect to cry when I saw my son's eyes close 5 seconds after the sedation went into his vein. He's SO brave! Praise the Lord We are able to communicate through translation apps on our phones to prepare him somewhat of all these doctor appointments, xrays, MRI, etc.

Can you even imagine all the changes he's gone through in the last six weeks? Unbelievable. Truly. He's simply amazing.  New family, friends, language, food, smells, car seatbelts, culture, address, clothes, doctors, dentist, immunizations, blood draws,, xrays, MRI, church, home, routine, toys (well, he never had toys that I saw when we visited his foster family), and "school" (although he's home just trying to adjust he does love him some iPad school!)...EVERYTHING IS NEW!  Did I mention how brave he is?!?

Family fun...after doctor appointment for me (another normal CPK- about 7 months in a row! Woohoo!!)

Chan's first egg hunt

Some dear friends hosted an Easter Celebration/Welcome Home party for Chan and two other sweet kiddoes who've just been adopted in our church.  It was a great time and so fun to see him begin to mix it up with new friends. He even played his first baseball game...hit the ball the first time!

This is our fourth year for our CHUBBY BUNNY tradition with Rachel- how many can we stuff into our mouth (without throwing up?!).  David won this year.

Resurrection Sunday morning

Chan with his best buds...Parker and Aubrey. I'm really thankful these guys have stepped up and made Chan feel so at home.  They have been great friends to him!  They've downloaded translation apps, blown up stuff with him (and David!), played hours of wii & nerf blasters, sat with him at church, and the list goes on!

And our neighbor and friend, TJ, has done much of the same.  He blessed him with a bike and spent his Saturday with him!

Audrey An and Anna...and when Chan is with them we affectionally call them the Chinese delegation. Love them!

My Abigail is growing up!

So this is the exciting part of this post! Chan came RUNNING upstairs shouting, "Look, Mama! Jesus!" Ok, wow!  I wish I had a better picture, but it was so detailed (from the "King of the Jews" sign, fingers, feet- and I wonder if he purposely mixed the playdough to make it look like blood?). He initiated this piece of art after he found and watched the Jesus Film (the long version) on the iPad earlier the same morning! Folks, this is a GREAT reminder to me that you never know what our kids are absorbing (the good stuff and the bad stuff). Thank you, Lord, that Chan is soaking the great stuff in like a super sponge right now and protect him from yuck of the world! This what it's all about, people!

This is one of my most favorite gifts- love it! My aunt sent Audrey An a bilingual bible when she came home from China. AA has enjoyed it, but she never read it in Chinese. Chan has been taking hers to church. She just sent Chan a similar bible (which he DOES read in chinese!) along with a worship cd in Chinese and 100 bible verses (in Chinese and English).  The bible came with a follow-along audio cd, and he's already listened to the first 8 stories!

It's been a very busy few weeks since we've been home.  Not only have we all even trying to adjust to being a family of five, overcoming jet lag, assessing what he can/can't do "school wise" and find our new normal... I have had doctor appointments as well as Chan as I mentioned.  We received the  results late Friday afternoon for his MRI.  I have to admit, I was relieved and somewhat encouraged by some of the things we learned. We are learning that his issues are not congenital and somewhat correctable but have were caused from his environment (we suspected but weren't sure).  Again, simply unbelievable.  Unbelievable since we already see a change since he's had good nutrition and clean water.  We will be seeing yet another specialist on Monday and hopefully that will yield us some more answers to a pretty much unknown medical history. This is one of the risks one takes when saying yes to a call from The Lord to international adoption.  He's held our hands each step of this journey, and He will continue.  Is it scary at times? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. 

Chan is sharp as a tack. He taught himself to ride a bike this week, and I bought him a golf club, baseball mit/ball/glove/bat yesterday to go along with every other kind of ball that have now found a place at our house. He's Observant. Creative. Detailed. Athletic. Artistic. Determined. We've seen some of the grieving process, but it has not been over the top to date.  The toughest relationship in the family us between Chan and Audrey An.  Interesting. That's another post! I've seen him skip over all pictures and videos of his foster family to just a few days ago flipping through looking at them.  I even got brave enough to ask him if he missed China. He said yes, but he also said he liked being in America with his new family (and even said it with the grin!).

Loving having a boy.  So different but different kind of fun. Chan's learning, I'm learning...we are all learning! So extremely thankful to God for being patient with me in this process. And a process it is!

as you can see...I started this on Thursday, and I'm obviously not still waiting on a MRI to finish on Saturday night!