We are home!!

 We are home!  Ethan did SO well on the flights.  He slept for most of two of them including the long one which was a huge blessing.  The kids were so sweet!  They had made a welcome home banner for Ethan.  They were so excited to meet their brother.

 Ethan's big sisters absolutely adore him.  They want to help feed him, carry him around, etc.  And he's loving all of the attention from them!

 I am so happy to have my whole family together under one roof!

1 Week as a Hines!

Happy 1 week as a Hines, Ethan Si Lee!  We celebrated Ethan's first week as a Hines by going to Shamian Island here in Guangzhou.  It's such a sweet little town that sort of resembles Charleston.  We also found a little shop where all of the proceeds benefit orphans with special needs so we did some shopping there.

So thankful for a relatively smooth first week with Ethan.  Praising God that this time next week, the whole Hines clan will be together again!

 

 

 

 

Chen Clan Ancestral Hall

 Today our guide took us (along with some other adoptive families from our agency) to the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall.  It was beautiful!  Ethan, however, was not interested in art or in listening to our guide speak for long periods of time.  :-)

 For lunch, we went to the dumpling place again.  Apparently, we've been coming so much that they decided to roll out a red carpet for Ethan.  HA!

 Then tonight, our sweet boy played himself to sleep.  We are enjoying our time in China, but I'm so ready to get home to Brian and the other children.  We leave on Friday!

NOTE:  I'm attempting to update the blog whenever I get a second but I'm going back and forth between today and catching up from days past.  So make sure you go back in time to read the other entries.  By the end, there *should* be an entry for each day we are in China.

First Bath!

Ethan got his first bath last night!  He wasn't so sure of the water at first, but by the end he really liked it.  When you are 23lbs, you get to take a bath in the bathroom sink!

Tonight, we went to Joanna's apartment.  Then we went to visit the Navis family that also live here in Guangzhou.  Turns out, Joanna teaches with the Navises!  Such a small world!  We had dinner there and they had toys so it was good to keep Ethan entertained.  Fun to have several connections here in China!

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast and New Shoes

Our hotel comes with breakfast every morning and it's delicious!  It's a breakfast buffet and they have all sorts of international foods.  Ethan is loving the hotel breakfasts, too!  His favorites so far are hard boiled eggs, watermelon, and drinkable yogurt.

The shoes Ethan came in from the orphanage were several sizes too big.  So tonight, we went to Aveon to get him some new shoes.  I think he likes his new shoes!

 

 

Day 2 with Ethan

 Today was a pretty busy day.  We had Ethan's medical appointment this morning.  He weighs 23lbs!  The doctor said his lungs sounded good which I was glad to hear since he's been in the hospital with pneumonia so much the last several months.  Tonight we had an adoption dinner that the hotel puts on every Tuesday night.  It was a nice dinner and they even had live music.  It was great getting to connect with some other adoptive families.  We got our first smiles from our boy today!!

Gotcha Day!

 We have our baby boy!  Ethan Si Lee is legally our son!  He was very hesitant to leave his nanny but played with me a little and let me feed him some snacks.  He didn't want me holding him at all when we were in the civil affairs office, but once we left and his nanny was out of sight, he was okay.  He was very somber all evening but didn't cry.  He decided that he loves squeezy pouches of baby food! He downed several!  We were told that the orphanage would give us enough formula for while we were here, but they only gave us one bottle.  So Christine and I braved Aveon again tonight in order to buy formula.  It was quite the ordeal.  Christine had to get a ticket, pay for the formula, show the attendant her ticket, then get the formula.  The reason?  Formula in China cost $45!!  Ethan and I waited outside.  Thankfully, he seems to like the Ergo.  In our last update, the orphanage said he goes to bed at 10:30PM.  Christine and I both thought there was no way, but sure enough....after about 2 hours of walking the halls of the hotel, he finally started getting sleepy at 10:30PM.  But he slept through the night!  We tried putting him in his crib, but he wanted nothing to do with it.  (Maybe because he's been in the crib the last four months straight)?  So he slept in Mama's bed.  Already love this little boy so much!