Ava slept through the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Words can't describe how excited we were! This was her first night not to be awake for 3+hours during her bedtime.  

She went to bed at 7:30 last night, then woke up at 8:30. Jessica talked her back to sleep by 9:15 and she slept until 7:15 this morning!!!!  As importantly, Jessica and I got a decent nights sleep for the first time since we've been back in the States.

Other than sleep issues

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We are home!!!!

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We made it. Its 8:30 and we are in our house and all 3 kids are in bed and fast asleep. How long they remain asleep remains to be seen, I'm sure we will be awake at some point tonight. We've been told by friends that it takes 4 or 5 nights to recover from the jet lag. Tonight is night 3 and we're praying for a miracle!  Even if they wake up it will be so nice to be at our own house. 

Ava lovd her room, and was really loving the crib too, until it was time to go to sleep. 

 

Click to see some more pictures.....

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Jet Lag....The Sequel

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We were all awake by 1:00am this morning. Even though we went to bed between 7:00 and 9:00 pm. So we had a 2:00am breakfast and put everyone back to sleep at 3:00am. Zoe and Ava are still sleeping, Alex woke up at 7:00.

I, of course, couldn't get back to sleep, except for a brief nap from 6:00-7:00.

I'll be very sleepy by 7:00 tonight.

We are going to be outside a lot today and even do some swimming to keep everyone active and awake!

This is a picture of our 2:00am breakfast.

Zoo, Last Post from China, and 13 years!

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It's 7:18pm on Tuesday March 13 in China (6:18am on March 13 in Houston).

13 Years ago today, Jessica and I were married!  We celebrated by going to the Zoo.  And the zoo was amazing! So much good video that I'll post when we get back to the U.S.  Zoe even held and fed a baby Tiger!!!!  I didn't get any photos, but their is some nice video of that.  They let you get super close to the animals at this zoo, and we got to see Tigers

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Zoe and Alex have loved this!

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So how are Zoe and Alex doing? They are loving China! They want to move here and live in a hotel. A really nice hotel in a really nice, new part of Guangzhou. The part of Guangzhou we are staying in has all been built within the last 10 years. There are no motorbikes, no honking, and everything is very clean and well organized. It is the very opposite of Hefei.

Zoe and Alex have been amazingly helpful at times. They've pushed the stroller for us, held Ava's bottle (although she really prefers to hold it herself), fetched numerous items for us in times of stress, and been very loving towards Ava. It's been

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All About Ava...... Alliteration

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It's 6:10am on March 10 here in China (4:10pm on March 9 in Houston).

I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you what we know about Ava thus far......

1. She was born on 9-19-2010, which makes her about 18 months old.

2. She was born with a cleft lip and cleft palette. The lip has already been repaired and looks really good. The palette will need to be repaired after we get home. It will probably take several surgeries, but I'm not a doctor, so I'm not totally sure about that.  We have looked in her mouth while she is laughing and it basically looks like a big hole in the roof of her mouth.

3. We were told she only eats liquids from a bottle. So we started with that. Then we gave her some puffs that dissolve in her mouth and are basically impossible to choke on. She loved them!  So then

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Crowding, monkeys, and nice hotels

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It's 5:30am on March10 here in China (3:30pm March 9 in Houston) and Zoe, Alex and I are awake and being productive. I'm answering a few emails and typing this, they are coloring. My last post was brief because it was 9:00pm here, and I was literally nodding off while trying to type it on my phone in bed.

This hotel is insanely nice. Maybe the nicest hotel I've ever visited. It's huge, and it feels like

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Last day in Hefei... On to Guangzhou

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Current time in China, March 9 - 9:23am,  Current time in Houston - 7:23pm - March 8

Sleep schedule has finally normalized!!!!!  Girls went to bed at 7:45, woke up at 6:00am, that works for me! Thakns for the prayers!

We finally get a change of scenery tonight.  We have to wait for Queenie to get here with some paperwork. Check that paperwork, and then she goes back to finish off the local paperwork with the Anhui province (like a state in America).

Then we fly to Guangzhou. Ava's first flight, let's hope she prefers flying to driving.  The flight is about 2 hours. While in Guangzhou we will be staying at The Garden Hotel, looks pretty nice, but I'm betting the room will be a bit smaller than the very nice set up we have here at the Holiday Inn Hefei. Good news is that the weather is about 20 degrees warmer in Guangzhou. Right now, it's 39 here in Hefei, and 59 in Guangzhou. More pictures are below, but first, some more...... China observations....

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Not the zoo! And some thoughts on being a celebrity

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So our guide (her name is Queenie) decided to throw out another option instead of the zoo this morning. Because it was 39 degrees and a bit drizzly she offered to take us to an indoor playground at the fancy mall. Big Win! The playground was super fun, and the older girls needed somewhere to run around and let off steam. They've been couped up in hotel rooms for too long. This was perfect.  Then we had a pretty good meal in the mall, and made it back just in time for Ava to take her 1:00pm nap.  Added bonus, it was only a 5 minute car ride to the mall.  Did Ava cry the whole way?
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Sleeping in until......4:30am

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Yes!!!! How weird is it to be excited that your kids slept in until 4:30am? We are stoked. They slept 8 hours (still not enough) and made it til 4:30. A 3 hour improvement over the past 2 nights. Praise God. It's currently 5:45am here (3:45pm the precious day in Houston).

Perhaps we can get them (and us) to sleep til 6:00 tomorrow??? Too optimistic?

In Ava news.... She is sleeping in our bed with us and man she is a wild woman. Rolling around like crazy in her sleep. In fact I'm laying in bed with her as I type this and she seems to be dreaming about break dancing. I'm looking forward to heading to Guanzhou tomorrow and hopefully getting a legit crib for her to sleep in.

Today is our last day in Hefei and we are heading to the zoo. Why don't we just come home you ask? We are waiting here for her passport, which we pick up tomorrow. Then we head to Guanzhou to take care of all the paperwork with the U.S. Consulate there. I'm sure I'll post pictures later today.

Ava is learning a lot

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Ava can't walk, and hasn't ever eaten real food, but we are working on both like crazy right now.  Because of her cleft palate anything she eats might get shot out of her nose, so that is an adventure. It also has to be really small, so we are sticking to mashed banana and yogurt right now. The noodles at lunch (very small) were a moderate success. She is doing great, and we've had a lot of laughs today, much better than yesterday. Thank you for the prayers.  Keep praying for sleep normalization.

 

From the land of the crazy sleep schedule

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It's 5:52am here. I've been awake for 3 hours. I think Alex has been awake for longer. We just finished watching. The rest of Mary Poppins from yesterday and part of Toy Story 3. Now they are coloring as we wait for Ava to wake up. Strangely, Ava has been up and down all night too. This scares me. I think i mentally need at least one kid to sleep normally so i don't feel totally out of sorts. We were able to keep the girls awake until 8pm last night but it didn't get us back on a nor,al schedule, obviously. However, I think it was a step in the right direction.

Ava hasn't been quite as fun and laugh a minute as she was in those first few hours. She has cried some, played some. She definitely checks everything out, she is very curious, but she doesn't seem all that interested in people. She rarely gives people much of her attention. She is more into things. While Jessica went to the store we did play with the always entertaining multi-colored cup stack last night and she interacted with me and the girls a little more. I'm sure her little brain is going through a lot with all this change, so please continue to pray that there would be a strong personal connection developing between her and all 4 of us.

Thank you again for all of the incredibly encouraging messages. It has been extremely meaningful to us. Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly sing Jessica's praises for being so awesome during all of this. She is making this happen. Without her I would have already died from anxiety.

Later today we are going to visit Lord Bao's temple.

Also, happy iPad 3 announcement day for you tech geeks ( like me). Although, technically it's still tomorrow for you.