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.