Progress!

Good news: since the last post, Mason has gone to bed (both during nap & bed) for 3 days straight with NO crying.  This is answered prayer! We ended up taking the crib completely out of his room. We are curious if he had a bad experience with a crib when in the hospital for his lip or palate repair. Also we have had Mason watch Zach go to bed, so he knows that he's not the only one going to sleep. Who knows what helped. All we know is that we prayed and so many of you have been praying for this guy to have peace in his heart at bedtime. He surely has experienced that.

We went to the pediatrician today. Mason was such a trooper! He did not cry during the blood draw or the TB test. He cried just a little with the shots. He must have a high pain tolerance like Zach. The doctor does not think he has rickets. She said he's probably just very broad chested. Great news! She took some blood work to check on his nutrition levels as well.

Zach's been wearing many hats the last few days---Excited Brother, Jealous Brother and even Boss Hog! All in all he loves having a little brother around.

Zach still loves showing Mason how to do everything....

It doesn't take Mason long to figure things out! He's quite a climber!

Another note of progress: we were able to walk around our circle in the neighborhood without Mason trying to get into anyone's car! He did go up to most all of the vehicles and touch the wheels, but no attempts to get in. This is also a huge improvement just from a few days ago!

Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers. We feel God's hand upon us as we are all adjusting, bonding, and attaching to Mason.

Back to Iowa

We arrived home Friday evening, April 20th. It was great to see Zachary again. I think he grew a foot while we were gone!

Zach had all kinds of questions about Mason on the drive home. He was so excited to get home to play with him. He just shook his head and smiled when Mason would babble and point to something out the window as we drove home. "I don't know what he's talking about" said Zach.

Zach's been great at sharing and taking turns. He loves to see Mason laugh. He also loves it that Mason watches his every move. Any of you that know Zach know that Zach loves an audience. Right now Mason is intrigued with everything that Zach does.
Mason has been getting better with his eating since he's been home. Again I think this is due to Zach. He's eaten lasagna, tater-tot casserole and even grapes! This is huge progress since he basically only ate things that were white/off white in color in China!
We decided it was time for Aunt Marcia to try to get a handle on Mason's hair! She shaped it up and it looks wonderful! What a great Aunt!

After the haircut we threw both boys in the tub. Bath time has been a hit around here. Zach absolutely loves that he has a brother to bathe with. And Mason even likes Zach pouring water on his head. Let's hope he likes the pool as much this summer!

 All in all, we are trying to find a new normal in the Kragel home. Things get a bit easier each day. Mason's bedtime is still a big struggle for him--he screams at the top of his lungs til he falls asleep. We're pretty sure it's a cry of rage--that he's mad and grieving all of his losses--all of his "normal" have been stripped away. When the toys are gone and he's forced to be still, he remembers that this place and these people are not his normal. At least not yet. Please continue to pray for him to bond and attach to us securely so he will see us as his normal.

Today was our last full day in Guangzhou. We spent some time at the hotel playground in between rain showers. There's certainly no fear of this playground anymore!

We felt alittle adventurous at suppertime so we headed to a Lebanese restaurant. It was one of the best meals we've had in 2 weeks!

A lot of the other families left today because their visa appointment was a day earlier than ours. We managed to get a group photo of all the Holt families before anyone departed.

I've been thinking about some of the prayers we've seen God answer on this trip. When we were waiting for months to get our hands on Mason, one of our prayers for him was that he would be curious. That prayer was definitely answered. This little guy is so quick to get his hands on anything and everything. He doesn't miss a beat!

Thanks for all of your prayers throughout our journey. You'll never know how much it meant to us to know you were all praying. Please continue to lift us up as we travel. We will be leaving Thurs evening (going to Hong Kong) then will fly into Des Moines Friday evening. Prayers for safe travels, adjustment back to Iowa time, and for the transition both boys will have as they meet each other. 

 I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Sam 1:27

Today was a free day--no appointments. We started out the day by shopping for tea. The Jasmine Tea here is my favorite. We went to the shop and tasted several kinds. They laughed at us when we asked if they sold tea bags;) We ended up buying the other kind of tea (not sure what it's even called---not the bag kind!) so I will have to experiment with that at home.

We spent a lot of time playing in our hotel room today. This is the game that Daddy & Mason like to play from the window ledge in our room.

Mason continues to adjust and bond with us, more and more each day. He still cries some when we put him down to sleep, but less. He can now feed himself with a spoon. He likes his bath time. He will go down the slide at the playground all by himself now. He has started using some signs with us, such as "all done" and "please". And lastly, he has no qualms with going to Daddy. He's totally over that! Such big strides in a little over a week.

Visiting the orphanage yesterday has helped us to connect the dots and understand Mason's perspective when he's having a hard time with a certain situation. We now realize that the tantrums he has when he sees doors that go outside are because he is longing to go out. He hardly ever got to go outside when at the orphanage. The fear he has of males is because his caregivers were all women. His fear of strangers is because volunteers/visitors hardly ever came into the orphanage, so he likely never saw anyone except for his caregivers. So not only did the visits yesterday give us a perspective of where he lived and was born, but it is helping us to understand how to better care for him.

We continue to learn more and more about our son in general. We think he may be left handed; he sure has some big feet for a 2 year old; he really likes to keep his socks on (probably wore socks all the time in the orphanage); he loves cars; he likes the in/out game (big brother still does this with various things at home). And he loves going outside.

Tonight we took a riverboat ride on the Pearl River with several other families from our adoption agency. It was a great time--fresh, cool air and amazing sights. This was the first time I (nancy) was cold this entire trip (I'm usually ALWAYS cold!). Mason actually enjoyed the boat ride--you can't really tell that though from this photo!

This is some sort of TV tower in Guangzhou. I think it's pretty famous.

 Tomorrow we have the oath taking ceremony in the morning, then we can start packing--we leave this city on Thursday afternoon. Though we've enjoyed the time here, we're ready to come home!

A glimpse of where Mason came from.

Today I had the once in a lifetime chance to travel and see Mason's orphanage as well as his finding place. The Holt guide and Lotus driver were absolutely amazing. Once in the village, we stopped several times to ask locals for directions to Mason's finding place. This is a photo of our guide asking a woman for directions.

The village where Mason was found was in an area with a mixture of farms (banana fields, rice, corn and other fruit/veggies) as well as factories.

The above is a photo of a banana tree field--not sure if he's a newly planted field or if it's one that's been flooded. I forgot to ask! All farming is done by hand--planting and harvest.

Many little shops lined the streets of this village. The people live in the shops as well as sell things. The people that work in the factories come and buy food/entertainment from these shops when they are off work.
Below is the market place where Mason was found. Likely he was left here at dark so no one could see the mother dropping him off (it is still against the law to do this). Also, it is likely that the mother/father lived in another village and traveled to this village to leave Mason, so that no one would recognize them. We talked to the storekeeper and showed her Mason's certificate which stated the date he was left here, but she did not recall the event.

This is the police station that was then called on 11-30-09. The police came to pick him up and took him to the orphanage, where he lived until a week ago.

Next we headed to his orphanage, about 45 minutes away from the village.

I got to meet the woman who cared for him the majority of the time. She was very sweet. She was concerned with how Mason was adjusting to all the changes. I could tell she had a special bond with him. I also got to see all the kids that he played with/lived with. This little one was apparently one of his favorite friends. They liked to chase each other and hold hands.

This is the room where he spent the majority of his time. They pointed out which bed was his.

The staff visited with me and the Holt guide for quite awhile, asking us questions and answering ours. They described Mason as being very curious, preferring females, and pretty much being the King Tut over all of the other kiddos. I would say those are descriptions that fit him to a T based on what we've observed over the last week.

I am so glad I was able to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to the village where my son was born and also to see the place he lived for 2 1/2 years. We was definitely well cared for and loved. I will be forever grateful to the staff at the orphanage for caring for him and to the biological parents who chose to give their son a life that they could not provide.

It's truly amazing to think about the events that made it possible for Mason to go from the village to the orphanage, then to meet us 3 hours away from that area. The drive was crazy and the world so different 3 hours from here. How much more different it will yet be once we fly 15+ hours to the other side of the world where he will eventually live in Iowa. There's no question about it--God had his hand on this little guy from day one. He orchestrated it all so that we could be a family. No human being on this earth could have made this all happen. I am truly amazed by what I saw today.

A Glimpse of Where Mason Came from

I think 1 million of the  30 million people who live in this city must be trying to use the internet at our hotel at the same time. I was almost finished with today's post but then lost connection ---right now I can only get on email. SO you will just have to wait until tomorrow for our blog post. Just wanted to post something so you knew we were still alive and doing well!

Ni-Night.

Mason--One Week Mark

It's hard to believe that it was one week ago that Mason was brought into our lives. So much has happened in the last 7 days. We've all learned so much!

What Momma has been learning in the last week: a lesson on love. We'd been waiting for this little guy for what seemed like a very long time. In my little mind, I guess I thought that once we finally met we'd magically fall in love. Hmmm.

God's been using this experience to teach me about love. He reminded me in Matt 5:46 that "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?". Mason is just learning to trust us...he has not come to the place that he can love us yet. But as his mother, I am called to love him. It's easy to love when I see those smiles and hear his giggles--you know, when things are magical. But what about all those other times? What about when he's tantruming because we won't let him get into a stranger's car? What about when he's screaming because he does not want to go to sleep? What about when he has a lost stare on his face when I hug and kiss him? God's word tells me to love--especially when it's hard. A dear friend reminded me that love is patient, kind, and not self seeking. Self seeking---wow, I think I was/am guilty of that one--seeking Mason's love and approval so I could feel better about being a mother.

 As I sat down to write this blog posting, I received this verse in my email: "At that time we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:8b-9 PH). Learning to love and trust in God. Those are my major lessons learned this week.

 

What about Mason? He's learned so many things this week. I will just list the ones that come to my mind readily:

• who his mom and dad are
• what mom and dad look like, smell like, and sound like
• that people have changed his name to Mason
• how to throw a ball
• how to go down a slide
• what American food tastes like, including pizza, Kraft cheese slices, McDonald's fries, oatmeal, yogurt, bread, apple juice, bananas
• how to build towers with squeaky blocks
• what it feels like to take a bubble bath
• how to fall asleep in a hotel room, on a chair
• how to take a bite off of a loaded spoon
• how to say Momma, Daddy and apple in English
• what it feels like to ride in a stroller
• what it feels like to be carried around by Mom or Dad
• that it feels good to be tickled sometimes

 What about dad?  Today, an older, friendly Chinese gentleman came up to me in the street and started asking questions about Mason. At one point he asked if we had biological children and I said no.  A sad look came over his face and he said something like, "What a pity."  He meant to be empathic but his empathy was completely misplaced.

My boys are "my boys."  If he knew their personalities, their giggles, their eyes, their spirits, etc. like I do, he would know that the only possible response to our family is to celebrate and thank God for leading us down this road.  If I had a chance to do this all over again, I would do it the exact same way with the exact same people.



Looking forward to the days and weeks to come!

Mason--Day 6

After a breakfast we decided to walk back to the park we had gone to a few days ago. The park was much busier than last time since it's Saturday today which means most of the kids were not in school. We thought it would be a good idea to let Mason walk around to burn off some energy.

Once we let him out of his carrier, he had a mind of his own--telling us when to stop and when to go with the tug of his hand. We knew it was trouble when he saw a parked car at the park. He is fascinated with cars, trucks and vans. He walked right over to the car and wanted to get in! There was no talking him out of it--thus the tantrum came on big time. Remember what I said about the park being extra busy? Well, we had all kinds of eyes staring at us, wondering why 2 white folks were making a Chinese toddler cry his head off and flail his arms & legs. Thank goodness we had packed some Cheerios. They worked as a mighty distraction so we could quickly leave the park and get back to the hotel!

We had a few other chances today to capture Mason's 2 year-old strong-will personality. Check this out:

The head-shake is not the only communication we've seen/heard from Mason. He's jabbering in his toddler Chinese language more and more each day. He has started imitating a few English words at times, such as apple, Daddy, Momma, ball. He's a little sponge, soaking it all up.

It's quite a journey we've been on. We wouldn't change a thing even if we could.

Mason--Day 5

On today's agenda was Mason's medical check. Since we forgot to take photos, a narrative will have to do! Mason weighed in at 13 kg (28.6 lbs). He "passed" the in-depth hearing exam they did with the squeaky toys on each side of his head:) The medical doctor answered some of our questions regarding the shape of Mason's chest. It is possible that he has rickets due to lack of vitamin D most of his life. His ribs are pushed outward, but he does not seem to be in any pain. We are also wondering if he has some affect on his pelvis bones. We will certainly have to get it checked out more once we get home. Prayers for his bone growth & strength would be appreciated.

It appears that Mason has had his cleft palate repaired. We do see at least one small hole at the front of the mouth that did not close up during his surgery. We will be seeing the Iowa City cleft team in May, so they will provide guidance in that area.

Other than that we had a low-key day. We all got a good nap in---maybe too good--Mason's not wanting to go to sleep now! After our naps we played inside at the hotel's playroom.

It's been so fun to watch Mason come out of his shell. We are now seeing some typical 2 year old behaviors--like wanting to do things for himself, shaking his head no when ask him to do something, and even messing with all the buttons on the hotel phone and alarm clock. We will rejoice in those blessings----yes, we are calling 2 year old behaviors "blessings"!!!

Mason--Day 4

What a difference a day makes!

Mason woke up this morning and decided that Dad was A-OK. 

So Daddy took the opportunity to get some quality bonding time in. First at breakfast..

Then around Shamian Island while Momma went shopping...

Then it happened--the smiles started coming........

And coming........

And then the giggles.....

Eph 3:20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Mason--Day 3

Making progress! Today we started with a walk in Liuhuahu Park. Mason didn't really like going to the park strapped to dad, so he walked the rest of the time. Mason doesn't like dad to carry him, so we are working hard to build that trust.

Stopped for water break in the park. It doesn't appear as though Mason knows how to drink from a sippy cup, so we've had to do some experimenting. At breakfast this morning we figured out that he can feed himself from a bottle. And we bought a little water bottle for him to use on the road. So we're finally getting some fluid in him!

 Here is the big progress for the day. Remember the playground he wouldn't go near? He went down the slide about 10 times today. After watching some of the other kids play on the playground, he decided it might be worth a try. Got a few smiles on the slide and dad got to pick him up and put him on the slide.

After all of that sliding, we needed a Cheerios break. Much to our surprise, Mason decided to share his Cheerios with dad--by putting them directly into his mouth! Nevermind that a few of them had already been in Mason's mouth first.

We Skyped with Zach and grandpa and grandma this morning. Zach is doing great and having a lot of fun on his own adventure while we are in China. He had some really great questions about what we were eating and doing every day and if Mason could tell him some Chinese words. I'm sure he could, but none of us would know it.

So encouraging to see the resiliency and tenacity in our our little family.

Mason--Day 2

We had a busy morning--breakfast, grocery shopping, then the adoption finalization appointments. When we came back into our hotel room, Mason completely melted down. Of course we don't know exactly what's going on in his mind, but if we had to guess we think that he was realizing that he's not going back to his "home"--he was missing his "normal". There wasn't anything we could do to console him, so Momma just held him and let him cry......he cried himself to sleep. Here he is in the make-shift bed (chair).

He slept a few hours and woke up a bit happier, but still very serious & cautious. We headed outside to a small playground at our hotel. It had several small slides and a few swings. Based on his reaction, we don't think he'd ever seen a playground before. He wanted nothing to do with it. He pulled Momma away when she tried to get him close to it. If other kids came to play with it, he watched them very closely, but still didn't want to get on any of it.

Instead we walked around and around outside. We must have done 40 laps out in the 1,000% humidity:)  He was a little man on a mission, pulling Momma wherever he wanted to go. Notice he's pulling only Momma. He won't let Daddy carry him or hold his hand. He does like to play cars or blocks with Daddy. He even lets Daddy feed him and change him. But not quite sure if he should let Daddy hold him.

By the very end of the day, we think we saw a few half-grins. He's makin' us work hard for 'em though.

 Keep bein' strong & courageous, Mason. Remember, you are an overcomer. You've already overcome so many obstacles. This seems like another obstacle in your way, but we pray that your heart will soon be at peace.

April 9, 2012--Mason's Day

Finally, the day we've been waiting for. Our minds raced with questions as we walked toward the Civil Affairs building with our guide, Joyce.

Many families had already received their child before we arrived. We got word that Mason was already there. Then I saw him walk out with the orphanage director. We walked toward him, but he didn't move. He resisted only a few seconds while Momma scooped him up. After just a few minutes he starting making consistent eye contact with Momma & Daddy.

Then we got out the Cheerios. He patiently took out just one piece at a time.

He held tightly onto his black car and package of cookies (both given to him from the orphanage) as he ate his Cheerios and played with toys that we brought. He kept a hold of those two items for hours--even when we got back to the hotel.

He was content sitting on our lap and checking out his surroundings.

At supper time, he preferred his cookie over the pizza we ordered;) He wasn't too fond of bath time, but we made it super fast and now he smells baby sweet! And bedtime---let's just say that he wasn't so fond of the crib. He is now fast asleep in the chair next to the crib.

What a busy day for Mr Mason. He sure was strong and courageous. Thanks for your prayers. Tomorrow will be another one full of "firsts".

And to our Zachary: mom & dad love you, stinky face. Can't wait to see you so we can tickle your collar bone!