Mellinger Home Christmass

What a lovely Christmass in Colorado Springs this year. We enjoyed having Paxton's mom over during a week of extremely cold Colorado weather. We all did some "last minute" Christmas shopping to find the perfect gift for Grandma. All she wanted was a picture of our family, so we bought her a digital photo album with 50 pictures of our family that she could scroll through. We'll update them as the kids grow.

This was also Josiah's first Christmass. He was not sure what to do with the gifts. He was just enjoying the gift wrapping and couldn't figure out why we were telling him to rip such pretty paper. Even Lisa isn't sure this tradition is good for the environment. She is such the recycler, but Josiah quickly learned to rip up the paper and nothing was left to use again for next year.

Josiah got a kid's tool box that he just LOVED. He's definitely a pounder.

Hope is into princess stuff and enjoyed playing with her new Cinderella doll.

We continue to share the true meaning of Christmas with our traditional Advent, starting 4 weeks before Christmass. Hope still thinks she is too young to invite Jesus into her heart. "Maybe when I'm 5", is her answer. The kids in front of the Christmass tree

We've been back from China for one month

Today marks ONE month since we've been back from China. Lisa got sick the very first day back with some nasty bug that refused to leave her system for 4 weeks. It made her unable to mother a new child in the house for a good 3 weeks. Last night was the first night she didn't cough herself awake, but of course, the kids decided not to cooperate with sleep. Ah sleep: what a concept...

Josiah has settled in nicely, enjoying the various electrical outlets around the house, the noisy drawer pullers, the remote controls, the curtains, and just about anything Hope never realized was around. He learned to climb the dresser the first week, freaking Lisa out so badly that she screamed and scared everyone almost to death. Josiah buried his face in his hands and cried for quite some time, but he hasn't tried to climb since.

We've taken Josiah to get his bloods and other bodily fluids tested, and so far, he's come out without any issues. He's also gone to PT, OT, and Speech therapy. OT thinks he'll do fine. We found out that he's a lefty, like his father. In China, they probably tried to make him a righty, but now, he's doing great with his left hand.

PT: Josiah continues to fall flat on his face or forehead due to core muscle weakness, so we've been trying hard to strengthen him. He hates that. He probably didn't have much "suffering" when he was left alone in China. He looks at mom like he's being tortured to death, but we are hoping he knows that we love him enough to get him strong.

Speech: Josiah cannot put two words together yet. We are thinking that his foster family just didn't talk to him or with him. As we sit together at home, he studies our lips until he's blue in the face, yet he only manages to say "ba" and "da". He is starting to babble, so we are putting him at a 12 month old for speech, and he's now biologically 30 months. It will be a long journey, but with Hope constantly screaming at him and telling him to say it right, the journey may quicken.

Emotionally: Josiah is a happy camper. He wakes up each morning laughing and smiling. When we intentionally push him over to work on his torso muscles, he just laughs and asks for more. Overall, he's just happy. He eats like a hungry monster who has never had food in his life, so we are constantly finding that we need to buy more food, yet he still hasn't gained any weight. Lisa has given him straight butter and pork fat just to see if the fat will get into his system. We think that his cheeks are starting to fatten up a bit.

Playing in the backyard

Our pensive boy with his gashed up head from falling all the time. The band aid holds in the bloody mess from when he did a face plant in China

Our happy kids
Working on those core musclesMrs. Judy gave this owl to Josiah for Thanksgiving, and it has now become Josiah's security animal. When he cries, he looks for the screeching owl.
Here is Hope's Hooting owl. We love these, Mrs. Judy!!!Trying to figure out why his new family put a tree inside the house.

Notes from November 16, Sunday Flying back HOME

After 2.5 weeks, we were looking forward to being home, in our warm soft beds.

At 4:40 am, we woke up, packed, checked out. Victory Hotel gave us a breakfast to take to the airport: ham and egg sandwiches, croissants, boiled eggs, apples, and water. It helped tide us over as we got our bags checked in at the airport. We flew out of Guangzhou to Beijing Airport. This is where we said "Good-bye" to Paxton's mom. Her flight back to San Diego was later that afternoon.

Our flight from Beijing to San Francisco was 12 hours. Our flight to Colorado Springs was another 2 hours. Josiah slept well on the plane, but Hope slept maybe 3 hours. The parents tried to sleep in between Hope's excitement, but it was very difficult. We were exhausted by the time we got home at 5pm.

Thank you, Matt and Arlene, for picking us up at the airport with the "Welcome Home, Hope and Josiah" sign. We did notice that you'd forgotten the parents' name, but we forgive you...haha!!! You guys were such a refreshing sight!!!!

Notes from November 15, Saturday Guangzhou

Last Day in China

AM: We enjoyed the last morning together strolling around, talking about life, seeing the fishermen's wharf (they sold crab, fish, mantis shrimp, lobster, eel, and alligators). Paxton's stomach was too sick, so we didn't get a chance to eat the in-season crab that was cheap cheap cheap....ahhhh another time.

PM: Lisa's parents packed and left China to fly back to Taiwan. It was a fast good-bye, bittersweet in so many ways. We hope to see them next year. They told us they will come to us when we are desperate. We will wait for the snow to melt before telling them that we are desperate and want them with us!!!

Fish, anyone?
Dried lizard...yum!!!
Live scorpions for medicine. Makes you strong (or dead if they get ya!)

Notes from November 14, Friday Guangzhou

AM: Visited the Yue Dynasty King's tomb that was unearthed in 1985. 15 other servants and concubines were buried with the king. Hope found this fascinating, to see the bones of a thousand + year old emperor and his concubines. Initially, we were telling her that these 15 servants were sacrificed, but we later found out that they volunteered to go into the tombs. Eck! What a way to go...

PM: Ate Western food at Lucy's Bar. It was odd to eat Western food again, after almost three weeks of Chinese food. We had pizza, chicken, soup. It was by far the most expensive meal we had for these simple entrees.

Notes from November 13, Thursday Guangzhou

AM: Strolled around Shamian Island, found some more bandages to paste on Josiah's forehead. We thought about pasting his entire head with bandages, to prevent further head bonkings, but we felt that strangers may think we were a bit too weird.

PM: We had our CONSULATE APPOINTMENT where we went to the US consulate with 40 other families to pronounce that we are who we are and we promise to take good care of our newly adopted child. It was fun to see 40 newly adopted kids running around. Some were happy and beating up other kids. Others were still freaking out about their new experience and crying constantly. Josiah was just looking around, curious as ever while Hope was being bullied by another kid nearby. The parents just sat there, waiting for their kid's passports so they could all go home to the US.

Notes from November 12, Wednesday Guangzhou

AM: Headed out to go check out the local shopping scene. It was the middle of the morning, and the streets were crowded like Black Friday. Thousands of shoppers out, buying who knows what? We ended up buying some shoes for Hope and Josiah for $3 each. For lunch, we at shrimp wontons, fried egg noodles, congee, and rice noodles for less than $5.

PM: Cruised down the Pearl River for 1.5 hours. Paxton and Lisa took advantage of 10 minutes of alone time on top of the cruise ship while the grandparents watched Josiah and Hope. Little did we know that Josiah was screaming bloody murder when we left. He's attaching fine.

Our neon boat in the back!!!

Enjoying the river. No one else was on our level, so we had such a peaceful family time.

Notes from November 11, Tuesday Guangzhou

am: Paxton headed to the airport to pick up his mom, while Lisa et al went to Carrefour (a superstore like Walmart) for some shopping. We ended up just being a lot of food: soymilk, yogurt, noodles, chicken, rice, pancakes, dim sum, meatballs. All for just 7 USD. We brought it back to our hotel room and had a mini-picnic.

pm: Had dinner at 广州酒家 (guangzhoujiujia): chicken, shrimp and broccoli, braised tofu, pork and taro, pork stewed soup, tender beef with various mushrooms. Even Paxton's mom ate and ate. As we were leaving the restaurant, Josiah didn't listen to Paxton tell him to not move. He proceeded to fall three steps and landed on his head, again. But this time, he managed to split it open really good, letting blood gush everywhere. Ugh!!! He was screaming and crying and bleeding. Good thing we could put heavy pressure, water, and ice on his head. After much swaying, he calmed down. Paxton had to hiss at a few Chinese looky-loos to get them to go on their way.

What we DID NOT expect was Lisa's parents and Paxton's mom taking Hope away from the mini-ER to go shopping. We thought they got lost. So here we were picturing a bleeding son and a kidnapped daughter in the middle of China. We spend a good hour walking the extrememly busy streets looking for them. It was a nice hour of sheer panic. All we could really do was pray hard that we were WRONG and that God had this all under control, and that Hope was not abducted, Grandma was not lost in the middle of thousands of shoppers, and Lisa's parents were fine.

Josiah was stirring and making the head wound bleed more, so we decided we had to leave the busy streets to go back to the hotel. When we got back, we found Lisa's parents giving Hope a bath, Grandma in her room, and everyone worried that someone was lost or in the ER with a dying son.

So, in the end, the Lord took over, and we let out a HUGE sigh. Just sitting the in middle of the street with unfamiliar faces staring, a screaming child, and no money, no passport on us left us quite uncomfortable.

Here's the poor kid, all bandaged up...

Notes from November 10, Monday Guangzhou

am: Met 6 other AAC families who had adopted from other provinces. We took a group picture, then went to get the "medical exam" for all of our new children. The physician said he heard a possible murmur but it was nothing to be concerned about. I guess it's something we will have to check on when we return home.
Visited a playground nearby, letting Hope and Josiah run about. Josiah kept falling down, bonking his head over and over again.

pm: Visited a great restaurant: 表妹 (biao mei). We had a whole chicken, a whole goose, pumpkin curry with seafood, shrimp in cucumbers, and fried rice. Definitely one of the best meals in town. While we were waiting to eat, Hope leaned over and bit Josiah right on the cheek, leaving some nice teeth marks. Sibling rivalry begins!!!

Notes from November 9, Sunday On to Guangzhou

am: Packed up and said "Goodbye" to Changsha Hunan
pm: Flew to Guangzhou. Dropped our luggage off at Victory Hotel and looked for a good place to eat. Lisa's parents were scoping out the town for the best places to eat. They asked every taxi driver where to find "物美价廉“ (wu mei jia lian) restaurants = restaurants there are not only good but good prices as well. We were a bit too tired the first night, so visited a nearby restaurant that served us pigeon, mushroom soup, fried tofu, turnip cake, and fried beef. The service was slow and the food wasn't good, so we didn't go back.
We put Josiah down at 8pm, and he just talked and talked until he suddenly gonked out at 8:30pm.

Notes from November 8, Saturday Changsha, Hunan

We headed to Lisa's great great grandmother's grave, which still remains outside of Changsha. By next year, the grave will be removed, and the land will be razed for construction of factories. Lisa's mom still remembers in the 1940's running in a dining room so large that 100 round tables could fit into the room. Relatives confirmed this memory. They owned a large piece of land and built a wonderful mansion on the land. This large house included 2 stone lions in the front, a big red door, fish ponds, 2 rivers, fruit trees, ducks, chickens, pigs. There were more than 100 rooms in that house, three main living rooms in the center with three courtyards in between the living rooms. The last living room was for the worship of ancestors. To the sides of the living rooms were the living areas where the various extended families lived. The rooms had carved beds and silk embroidered linens. Toilets were red wooden chairs with a hole. Pots were filled and emptied outside with the pigs. Kids were home-schooled. in 1949, Communism came and the estate was slowly destroyed. By 1958, the entire mansion was gone, divided into smaller lots of land for the farmers. Lisa's relatives had to buy back only a small fraction of their own land to build a small decrepit house, which is what is there today.

All that is left of the land that the emperor gave Lisa's great great grandfather is a very dirty house, pigs, chickens, green soupy ponds, and the smell of stench.

We visited 5 gravesites of past relatives, lighting incense and firecrackers, bowing to pay respects, but no worshipping-whew! They shared many stories of the past during this very memorable day.Paying respects to Lisa's great great grandmother

Lisa's great great grandmother
Mom and child enjoying a fresh pomelo

Josiah managed to get his own pomelo

Notes from November 7, Friday, Changsha, Hunan

Bad stomach day for parents and kids all around. I tell you! Don't be eating donuts in China!!!

Notes from November 6, Thursday, Changsha, Hunan

Icky weather, not conducive to a stroll around town. So, we just headed to Wa Er Ma (Wal-Mart) and bought loads of books and Disney Movies in Mandarin for the kids. Josiah is slowly attaching to us, showing us his very stubborn streak. He had his first poopy accident at a restaurant called: "Daytime Donuts". I think this place made our stomachs sick for a week. Never go to China and eat donuts.

In the afternoon, we headed to the pool for some more water fun. Both kids were having a blast in the water. Josiah was so small that he started to shiver after 30 minutes, so that ended the fun. We stayed in the rest of the evening, eating crackers and fruit.

Notes from Journal entry: November 5, Wed

10am: We took a van to Josiah's orphanage in Heng Yang. We drove about 2.5 hours to get to the orphanage, getting lost a few times, as the orphanage was in a secluded area away from the city. We saw the place that Josiah stayed the first year of his life, meeting the nanny that took care of him. They told us that we were unable to meet with his two foster families that took care of him before us. This made us very sad, but we understood that it would have been a bit difficult to get to the homes which were not near the orphanage. We later saw pictures that showed an extreme rural home. They did take us to see the place that Josiah was abandoned: a Mother-Child hospital.

Josiah got a chance to say "goodbye" to everyone, and we had a chance to take pictures of this chapter of his life. We aren't sure if Josiah was neglected or taken care of with minimal supervision, but we can give Josiah's past, present, and future into the Lord's hand. We don't know why he's had to suffer so much. We hope we can help him feel secure and loved. We are sure that Josiah will need PT, OT, and Speech Therapy.

We got back at 7pm, exhausted, but glad for the trip. We had hoped to see Hope's foster family and orphanage director, but they were unable to come. We hope that we can come back in the future for her sake.

Josiah's first nanny at the orphanage

The building that Josiah stayed at the first year of his life

Where Josiah was found: the Mother-Child hospital

November 4, Tues, Changsha Hunan

Today, our Adoption becomes finalized.
9:15am: We head back to the Civil Affair Office to sign away our lives. While there, they wanted to take a picture of just Hope and the parents (no Josiah), so we left Josiah with Lisa's parents for a few seconds. It was the first time we'd ever seen him freak out. He started crying and clawing his way to us. Supernatural attachment????
12pm: We headed to a famous local restaurant called 辣椒炒肉 (la jiao chao rou) or meat with spicy peppers to have authentic Hunan cuisine. Josiah ate up the entire table, learning quickly to sign "please" and "more". Guess he was pretty hungry!
6pm: Headed to ANOTHER relative's house for food. Yes, we've gained about 10 pounds each with all the food they've stuffed down our gullets. But it was neat to meet all of these relatives who have lived in China all these hard years. One uncle shared about his dad during the Cultural Revolution. He was a school principal, so they sent him to a village far away to hit the school bell every day. That was his only job for 10 years. He was not allowed to use his intellect for anything else.

Here we are at the Civil Affairs Building, waiting to finalize the adoption
Lisa's parents enjoying Dolton's delicious buffet breakfast

Josiah Day, November 3nd, Monday

7am: Enjoyed a buffet breakfast with Lisa's parents. We had not seen each other for over 2 years, so it was wonderful to have them join us on this leg of the journey. Lisa's parents made friends with everyone they ran into, thus giving us the edge on where to go for food and other fun things.
10am: We went to the Civil Affair Building to await that special moment of meeting our child for the very first time.
10:30am: Mr. Xie carried in Josiah, who was indeed a peanut of a kid. He wasn't crying, just quiet, looking at everyone. We slowly approached him, giving him time to get used to us. He didn't cry, but he did have a shocked kind of look.
12pm: We headed back to the hotel to adjust to having just added a new child into our family. We would just play a bit with Josiah, letting Hope get used to having a brother. For lunch, we all went out to a local hole in the wall for noodles. Josiah ate everything.
5pm: We decided to see if Josiah would like playing in water, so we all went for a dip into the pool. He LOVED it, laughing the entire time. Hope was enjoying all of his laughter, and we even got a few laps in between watching the two kids!
6:30pm: Another cousin took us out for dinner, so we ate loads more of the local Changsha flavor. No dog meat this time. Both kids were pretty exhausted from being together for the first time, so we headed back to rest while Lisa's parents went partying. They actually stayed up to midnight at a local Karaoke Bar. Who knew? The first night, Josiah, slept quite well, though he peed in his clothes and pooped right before any of us woke up. Good thing we were prepared for this toilet training and brought some extra pull-ups.

Our first shot of Josiah, looking quite pensive. The bumps on his head were from a heat rash, and possibly from tripping all the time.
We figured food was always a good way to a guy's heart. We were right!
Family of four
Hope wanted to join her brother in being a baby, so we got two cribs.
Josiahs LOVED swimming!!!

Notes from Journal entry: November 2, Sunday

Last day in Beijing

7:30am: Got up and went out for a nice breakfast of salty soymilk, sweet soymilk, beef noodles, and fried Chinese-like donuts. YUM!
10am: Packed up, took a taxi to the airport to fly to Changsha to meet up with Lisa's parents before picking up Josiah

5pm: Got into Changsha, went to the Dolton. Wanted to take a nice shower, but Lisa's parents had met up with a relative who wanted to take all of us out for dinner, so off we went to eat: dog meat, bamboo, fried cheese, smoke pork, fried fungi, seafood congee, etc. YUM, except the dog meat was a bit on the spicy side.Here we are, at the Royal Dolton. Hope is taking a rest, after all of our crazy travels, and we still haven't met Josiah yet!

Notes from Journal entry: November 1,2008, Saturday

8:45am: The china tour group with Grandma Avril left for Xian, and we stayed an extra day in Beijing before heading off to Changsha.
Morning: relaxed, shopped around the hotel, visited Bei Hai Park.
Afternoon: found a hotel closer to a friend's house, but the hotel was booked, so we looked all over for a cheaper place. By God's grace, I ran into a expat who sent me to a nearby youth hostel. We stayed in a small room for just over $30, but we had to walk a bit to get to the restroom. I just pretended we were camping, and everything was OK.
Evening: Met with some friends living in Beijing. It was such a good time, to talk, eat good food, watch their children play. Hope enjoyed watching "Clifford the Big Red Dog" in Chinese.

Bei Hai Park: Lots of buddist statues. Still, very pretty indeed, even though the wind was blowing like crazy. The winter storm was coming to Beijing.
We met this man in the park doing water calligraphy. After each poem is written in water, it slowly dries away. He explained this very famous poem to us by 王之涣, leaving a deep impression in all of us.
白日依山尽
黄河入海流
欲穷千里目
跟上一层楼
Our $30 hotel room. No window, but at least the bed didn't have bugs...

Notes from Journal entry: October 31, 2008

Another frenzied pace:
5am: Woke up because Grandma Avril couldn't find her passport. She'd given it to Paxton the day before and had forgotten.
6:40am: Breakfast
8am: Jade market
10am: Great wall. Hope and Lisa climbed to the third tower while most of the other tourists went shopping instead. Paxton stayed with Avril to make sure she wouldn't do more than she could handle. The steps are steep and one fall can end a nice tour trip. Hope wanted mom to climb to the fourth tower, but mom said forget it. It took four days for Lisa's legs to recover from that climb.
Afternoon: Checked out the 2008 Olympics buildings: Bird's Nest, Water Cube. That was really cool. Paxton had wanted to jog around that area, but he'd bruised his toe in a really bad way and had to forgo this goal.
We also visited the Temple of Heaven, the place where the emperor prayed to God for good crops in the coming season.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Hope, again, fell asleep on the bus.

At the bottom of the Great Wall, Badaling

Hope, showing off her ability to climb like a Tiger!!!

The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube of the China 2008 Olympics
The Temple of Heaven

Notes from journal entry: October 30, 2008

After a layover in San Fran, we flew 12+ hours and landed in Beijing China. We got to Joy City Hotel at 4pm on October 29th, found a fast food joint and ate spicy tofu and curried beef. Showered, hit the bed at 6pm. Later on, Avril, Paxton's mom joined us from another flight.

Here we are, after having flown close to 20 hours

October 30:
6:30am: woke up and ate a nice western-styled buffet breakfast, met our American tour group. Ugh! What a horribly fast paced tour. In one day, we saw the Summer Palace, a pearl market, a buffet restaurant, the Forbidden City, the Hutongs (old houses of China), and ate a Peking Duck dinner. We didn't get back to our hotel room until 8:30pm. Hope fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel.

In front of the Emperor's throne at the Summer Palace. Avril is on the left.

The summer palace temple. Lisa climbed this in 1990, but now, you have to pay to go up there. Lisa had hoped to make Paxton climb this thing, but alas. The tour guide said no time.
At Tiananmen square. Lots of soldiers were marching around, practicing their march, we guess.
Inside the forbidden city. Lisa had hoped to see the well where the Empress Cixi stuffed another concubine in a jealous rage, but again, the tour guide said no time. Hope was interested in the many inside stories of the concubines, but we guess it will have to be another time.
They took us around the "Hutongs" or older homes of Beijing in these rickshaws. We met an older gentleman inside the hutongs who told us about his two sons and wives and children who also live with him inside his home. It was a bit battered and old, but at least, he had a standing home, not a flat like about 99% of the Chinese living in Beijing

Notes from Journal entry: October 28, 2008, Tuesday

3am: Woke up. Packed up last minutes stuff: pj's, toothbrushes, etc. Ate Raisin Bran.
3:30am: Told Hope that we were going on the airplane today to pick up her brother. She asked if she'll get a lollipop during the airplane ascent. We said yes, and she smiled and promptly got up and dressed for the journey.
4:30am: Shannon Chesebro (what an angel) took us to the airport.
5am: At the Colorado Springs Airport. In less than 15 minutes, we were checked in and through security. Can't beat this great airport!
6am: In the air, to San Francisco, then off to Beijing for a few touring days!

A very chipper child at 4am.

Somewhere between the USA and Beijing China

Leaving in less than 24 hours

Our luggage is packed, itineraries checked and rechecked, people contacted. I believe we are ready to go! If not, well, we can still wing it.

Please be praying for our journey. It will be quite full. We will be with Paxton's mom in Beijing to tour the familiar sites. Paxton's mom is 81. Pray that God will keep her healthy and protected from harm.

We will break off from the China Tour, and Paxton's mom will continue to see the sites. Paxton, Lisa, and Hope will fly to Changsha and meet up with Lisa's parents there. The five of us will go and pick up Josiah on November 3rd. Please pray for that pick up. I'm sure Josiah will see us and cry up a storm, but we will be ready. Hope said that she will go hug him and comfort him.

We have to stay in Changsha to get Josiah's adoption paperwork done. While there, Lisa's parents have relatives that still live there, so we will go see them. We will also see Hope's orphanage people and Josiah's orphanage people. It will be filled with emotion, I'm quite sure.

After Josiah's paperwork is done, we will fly to Guangzhou, and visit the US consulate to get Josiah's passport and visa done. While there, we will eat loads of good dim sum. At this point, Paxton's mom will finish her tour and rejoin us. That will be 7 of us. Please pray for reduced stress and joy in the journey.

If we can get a hold of a computer, we will post more on the blog. But if not, then this will be the last post before Josiah's pickup. We will of course, catch you all up when we return.

Thank you all for your prayers. We do feel them and realize how important they are, even if they are short ones. We feel HIS power at work in our lives and our activities. We know that he goes before us and He is the ONLY one who brings us the peace that passes ALL understanding.

Our Father has already been there!!

Last week, we discovered that Christian workers live where Josiah was born, and that they have prayed over him from the very beginning. Here is the very first picture taken of Josiah, the day that he was found. What a comfort to know that our Heavenly Father has been watching over this little one and that He continues to keep him safe.

We leave in 5 days to pick up this little peanut.