Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Three years ago March 12, 2006

Three years ago we were on a plane from Hong Kong to Kunming, Yunan province with our wonderful guide Mary Wong. We had our breifing and headed to Kunming where we would meet Kole that day! We thought we would have at least one more night. But no... He would be ours.


Below is an excerpt from our Gotcha day followed by a picture of our Kole three years ago.


Well, we have him here with us. Kole laughs a lot, but it is a mean kind of laugh. He likes to hit and throw toys. Then he laughs about it. If corrected he calms down and gets this oops look and I don't think I like it here look about him. He really loves animal crackers! The first night getting him to sleep was a bit rough. He did not want to take off clothes or shoes. I finally wrestled his shoes off of him and got him tucked in, He was crying and gave me a left hook to the eye. I continued holding him in bed and rubbing his head lightly while trying to calm him. 5 minutes later, out like a light. He does not like to go to bed. He has managed to create a gun out of legos... I told Boyd that this can not happen back home. It might make a few people upset. He loves his cars and just chatters all the time in a local dialect. He was acting up in the cab today and the cab driver told him to quit or he would go to jail LOL Well, Kole stopped and began behaving himself. The cab driver said he is a very naughty boy. This is a whole new experience. He is busier than either of the girls at this age. It appears that most of his palate has been repaired. He is missing a tooth so therefore his gumline was affected. It doesn't appear like there is a lot to fix or finish up. We are not sure when the palate was done. We have felt cut off from the girls and friends back home. Half the time the internet works and the other half it doesn't. The phone card our guide purchased for us is all in mandarin and we can not understand it. We are going to have her try it again when she returns. So maybe she will have it all figured out for us. When we get to Guangzhou it will be easier because more people speak English there. In Kunming it appears there are several dialects. Kole speaks one of them. The cab drivers can understand him and some of the hotel personnel. Mary can not. She tries. We just love her! Today was the adoption finalization. We had our picture taken. I have a lot of pictures, I just can't seem to get them downloaded. As soon as I can I will. I know everyone is disappointed.Guess that was something I did not get tested out thoroughly before we left. Worked on my PC just fine...Update: Finally got the calling card to work. Yeah! Heard about the tornado warnings in the area.... How awful!O.k.. Kole is a handful. We spend a lot of effort trying to get our point across and chooses not to listen. HE is happy most of the time.I will get pictures up as soon as I can!







Today, Kole is a happy kid that likes to test the boundries. He loves Star Wars and Ben 10. He loves to watch Spongebob squarepants and can still make a really elaborate gun out of legos! LOL He gets warned alot at school to not talk when the teacher is talking. He is a kindergartener this year and he can read! He is beginning to be proud of this skill and hopefully we can help him really enjoy reading. His math skills are amazing! He loves to figure things out. HE loves to be on the move and playing physically for hours. He sleeps much better now with some incidents of sleep walking and night mares. He loves playing the play station II and will do that all day if left to his own devices. He fits now. Even after all our worries from 3 years ago, I think we have done really well in adjusting to him and him to us. As for Chinese, he does not speak it and will act as if he knows none of it. His English is amazing! He is beyond some of those in his class already. His favorite food is still chocolate. Kole has gone from a 3T to a 5/6 and some 7's.


Kole this past week






1 comment:

Dawn said...

He has come such a long way. I remember those first few posts while you were in China and then right after you came home.

Isn't it funny to see how much they've grown?! EmmaLi came home 6 weeks or so before Kole, she was wearing 12-18 mo in China and is in a 5/6 now...YIKES! LOL