Hi everyone from China! It's our last day and we are planning on taking it easy. We are finally finding time to post and now have a way to post from China, I guess better late than never. We are having great time but are ready to come home! Caleb is doing great and is a different little boy than what we saw a week ago! He is definitly a two year old. He is shaking his head no and pointing at what he wants so we are beginning to communicate with him.  We are happy he is coming out of his shell and is acting like a two year old, for the first three days he did not cry at all.  I think he was in shock and trying to process everything. He has alot of personality and we are having fun playing with him. He loves, loves to eat and are slowly trying him on different foods, at the orphanage all he ate was formula or congee.

China has been a great place to visit, we will have lots of pictures and stories to share, once home and settled I will post more pics and stories about our adventure. The Great Wall was amazing and the shopping was an interesting experience. Vanessa you would have been in your glory. The food here has been surprisingly good for the most part. Some foods I would never have again but others were great. Although some nights we have ordered room service or walked down to the corner and got some pizza.

We are looking forward to going home and getting Caleb settled in.
Mom check your email we will try to send pics that way as they are not going on this way. If not everyone will have to wait!

Love Kari, Bernie and Caleb

a little update... just talking with the MacDonald's and all is well with them. They had a busy few days.. the Great Wall was amazing !!! She had Caleb in the carrier and walked up to the second level, it was a very difficult.walk , they had a nice clear day , so the view was great,  they had a bit of rest and Bernie carried him down. Alot of Chinese people were interested in Caleb, and they had lots of pictures taken , were able to give some N.S. and Canadian pins out .Then were off to a few factories to check things out. Caleb is doing great, loves giving hugs, eating good and is usually happy, except in the tub, they found out he has great pair of lungs !!
 Today are are going to The Summer Palace, then maybe come back to hotel and take it a bit easy..They are starting the count down for coming home...Ya !! Grammie MacLeod

   The MacDonald's send greetings from China, We were just talking to them,Friday 9 :30 pm here and Saturday 8:30 am, there: so I will  post an update... All is going really well for all of them..They left Guangzhou for Beijing, last night vey late, so by the time they got settled in the hotel, it was early morning. They are pretty tired this morning, Kari was feeding Caleb and getting ready for a trip to the  Beijing Zoo. All the paper work is done and Caleb is now their's forever...:-)  Kari says, he has lots of smiles, a few giggles, he is smaller than they expected, he is wearing the 18-24 month and the size 2, just swim on him.. he loves his stroller and his books and picks the words up from the page and feeds them to his Dad, so cute !!and for the Mom's-- has an outie belly button ! !
  Kari said the shoe shopping in Guangzhou was a crazy time, there were hundreds of shoe stores, you picked out what you wanted and they were ordered from a warehouse, an hour later a guy arrived on a bike loaded with shoe boxes..with most of them the wrong shoes.. however, she was able  to get a few pairs.
  Tomorrow they are going to The Great Wall, a Jade Factory, a Cloisonne' Factory and the Olympic 2008 grounds.. a busy day.. Hopefully, her or I can update in a few days.. Grammie MacLeod !!
  

These pictures  we re ceived today.

Hi MOM and DAD Things are great today we had our first smiles and now he is always smiling! It is amazing to see the differences in just one day. He is still drinking his bottles but we have also tried other soft foods scrambled eggs were a hit but not baby pears. He went to a dept store today like a walmart just like in the pics mom, crazy we bought a stroller diapers and snack food for us! Went to a great restaurant tonight they had tanks of fresh fish and cooked them in minutes and then we ate them, we even tried turtle! It is amzing to see all of the babies and how they are changing they are adorable and are slowly coming out of their shells. I think we may give him a bath today. He likes to suck his thumb and pull his ears when he is tired. He loves to play with his toy trucks and has even thrown them across the room a few times. He is adorable but it has been crazy becomming a new parent in a foreign country and eating out and sight seeing every day, but it has also been amazing. Sometimes we still can't believe we are here and now parents of a beautiful baby boy!Tomorrow we are going show shopping and then to get his chinese passport. We signed all the paper work today and he is now officially ours. China is amazing and we feel like we are in a different world so many people, smells it is so different but interesting. We get stared at alot esp when in a group! Mom if you want to send out a mass email or blog you can just send this out.I think blogger .com is banned. Proabably will not be able to email in the next few days as the couple whose computeter we are using is going away for a few days. I may try the hotel computer but it is all in Chinese , bu will try. Love you! I am sending you pics I know you are waiting for them!
KLM

Hi all, I'm ( Kari's Mom/grandmother,now!!!)updating Kari's blog for her, until hopefully she can do it, little problem with China blocking the blog... They were up very early today, and after a bus ride,a plane and another bus ride, arrived in Guangzhou... and shortly after, received Caleb..She said it was mass confusion, as alot of other families received their children at the same time... He is just beautiful...quite but taking everything in, looks like his picture, he didn't cry, but was so sad and his eyes had big tears... his careworkers just love him so much,Four of them came with him.They are back in their hotel now and getting him ready for bed and all is well, he likes his squeaky shoes !! What a wonderful day for them..

On Our Way!


Well, bags are packed (thanks to Mom and Dad) and our journey begins. As some of you know this journey actually began about three years ago when this was just all a dream and seemed like it might never happen or at least not for a very long time. So those who have been along for this ride since the beginning we would like to say thank-you for all of your support and encouragement along the way. Your helped us get here today.


We would also like to say a very big thank-you to all our family and friends for all of your support, well- wishes and interest in this journey over the past few weeks. It has been an amazing time since that phone call at lunch in December. We both feel very blessed that you are apart of our lives and will be soon a part of Caleb's life.


So we're off, talk to you from China!!!!

What's New!

I finshed my last day of work for about nine months.

We have been busy getting ready, and I really am going to tackle packing sometime today.

We recieved Caleb's Canadian Citizenhip after two days of contacting the MP.

I've updated our intinerary to show what sight seeing trips we will be going on.

Can't wait for Mom and Dad to arrive Tuesday!!

I am posting a letter that I have seen posted on other blogs that gives an idea of what Caleb will be experiencing over the next while.

Dear Family and Friends,

As we prepare for the arrival of our son, we have learned that while decorating the nursery and stocking up on baby essentials is important, even more important is the emotional health of our child. In his short life, he child will have gone through more changes and life altering experiences than most adults could handle. Imagine how much harder the changes will be for him. While he may not consciously remember the events, he will still experience immense loss, including feelings of grief and trauma. He's already experienced the loss of a birthmother and will soon experience the loss of familiar and comforting caretakers as well as the sights, smells, and language of his birth country. His world will turn upside down. He will struggle with feeling safe and secure and he may lack the ability to trust that we will meet his needs.

We have prepared to meet his emotional needs so that he does learn that we will always take care of him and we will always keep him safe. In order to form a strong and healthy attachment we will allow him to regress so that he has the opportunity to go through all of the emotional stages with us despite his chronological age. Although it may appear that we are spoiling him, we have learned that it is best that we meet every need quickly and consistently. Until he has learned that we are his parents, we will need to be his primary caretakers at all times. It is essential that we always hold him, feed him, and do all of the nurturing. You may wonder how long this will take, but the timeline is different for every child. We will have to just follow his lead

We have all been waiting anxiously for our child to arrive but he has not been waiting for us. He may show his grief and confusion in many ways and we are prepared to help him through it and prove that we are a forever family and this truly is his last stop.

We know that we have the best family and friends and we thank you in advance for your support and understanding.

Kari and Bernie

2 Weeks To Go!!

We have been picking away at our packing and are just waiting for our Canadian Citizenship papers to arrive. We have contacted our MP to hopefully speed the process up.

Here is our Broad Itinerary

March 18 Thursday - Fly to Toronto and stay with Shawn and LeHoa.

March 19 Friday - Fly to Beijing

March 20 Saturday - Arrive in Beijing

March 21 Sunday - Rest (Caleb's BD!)

March 22 Monday-Fly to Guangzhou- Gotcha Day We get Caleb!!

March 23 Tuesday- Family Picture, Formal Adoption Proceeding's

March 24 Wednesday - Administration Activities - Visit Chen Jia House

March 25 Thursday - Administration Activities

March 26 Friday - Return to Beijing

March 27 Saturday - Group Pictures- Beijing Zoo

March 28 Sunday - The Great Wall, Jade Factory, Cloisonne Factory, Olympic 2008 grounds

March 29 Monday - Summer Palace, Silk Factory

March 30 Tuesday - The Pearl Market, The Indoor Market

March 31 Wednesday - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Goodbye/Birthday Party

April 1 Fly Home!!





Guangzhou