This is real life

We have officially been home for 6 months!  Many people ask what life is like now with 3 boys and our best response is that it feels “normal.”  We are so thankful that our transition home has been so smooth and so far the boys are blossoming and doing so well.  Here are few highlights and firsts that we have experienced over the past 6 months. 

October saw many simple firsts.  Disa was home from work and Gibson returned to pre school so Cavin and Caffrey had a lot of attention.  They took trips to the grocery store and did a lot of playing.  Cavin also was introduced to solid food and had a lot of food firsts.  Caffrey also enjoyed a lot of food firsts as well.  Both boys loved their first visit to the park where Caffrey was the adventurous one and Cavin explored cautiously.  The month ended with the whole family attending the Fall Remix Retreat, which was their first ministry event and first real public outing.  As children of a High School pastor this seemed like a natural time to introduce them to the ministry.  Halloween happened to occur while on the retreat so they had their first opportunity to dress in costumes and receive candy!

  

November began our life out as a family of 5.  We introduced the boys to church and restaurants and just did “normal” life together.  Disa was still home with the boys so a lot of life was spent playing and exploring at home.  Blair had the opportunity to take the boys on their first zoo experience.  They also experienced helping in the kitchen to prepare some of our family’s traditional Thanksgiving food. 

December was mommy’s last month home with the boys.  They were invited to a Birthday party which included their first experience with inflatables.  Caffrey being the more adventurous one enjoyed this while Cavin preferred the bubble machine more than the inflatables.  This month included making of gingerbread houses and attempting our first Christmas photo.  Family visited near the holidays and the boys loved the visitors, presents, and Christmas decorations.  Trips at night were very entertaining as they included lots of excited oohs and ahhs at the bright lights.  Both boys quickly figured out the opening of presents and loved spending Christmas day playing in their new pjs.  After the holiday we took our first family trip to visit Blair’s grandparents in Florida.  A highlight from the trip was the golf cart rides with great-grandpa.

January, Disa went back to work and the boys started preschool!  Our morning routine became a little more chaotic as Gibson now had to leave for school early with mommy. Daddy had to get Cavin and Caffrey ready and to school on his own.  This made for some tired evenings but it seemed like everyone was in a good rythym after a few weeks.  Our biggest first came near the end of the month when we got our first big snow.  The boys would have had snow in China but we are pretty sure they never got to play in it. 

February had one first, Valentine’s Day.  It didn’t seem to make much impact on the boys other than they got a little extra candy.  Again we attempted to take a picture of the day, but we still struggle to get all 3 boys to smile at once.  We also celebrated Chinese New Year with the traditional red envelope gift.  Gibson understands getting money but Caffrey said, "Daddy's money."  Cavin seemed more excited about the envelope.

March started off with a party.  Cavin turned 3!  He enjoyed his cupcake and having us sing to him.  In the middle of the month we all traveled on our first mission trip to the Bahamas.  This is the 3^rd trip for Gibson so he was an excellent tour guide for Cavin and Caffrey.  We took 20 high school students and 3 leaders to serve at Camp Bahamas.  The boys did much better on the short flight and were very flexible on the trip.  They got to experience their first time at the ocean but mommy and daddy were so busy supervising that they didn’t get any pictures of the momentous occasion.  Another first came as the boys experienced their first Easter.  They loved egg decorating, but again we struggled to get all boys smiling/posing for the holiday photo.  The month ended with another celebration as Caffrey turned 3.  He loved having a whole day dedicated to him and he spent most of the day saying, “My Birthday!” 

Again we can’t express enough how thankful we are that these past 6 months have gone so well.  We thank all of you who have prayed for us and continue to pray for our transition.  We truly can see how God has been a part of this journey all along!  He is to be given all the glory for this journey!

We are alive!

We imagined a lot of things that might present challenges to us as we entered back into the US and began our life as a family of 5 but we never could have prepared for what we experienced these past 2 weeks.  Jet lag got us the first 3 days, all though we were prepared for that.  But day 4 we were hit with illness after illness.  Blair began battling a kidney stone and infection that landed him in the ER. All boys had the nasty cough and cold crud.  Then Disa and Blair both got upper respiratory infections.  Gibson battled a fever and a nasty stomach bug that has bothered him on and off for a week.  We are now ending with pink eye.  One of those alone with our jet lag would have been a challenge (probably not pink eye) but all of them hitting at the same time just about did us in.  However we are so thankful to the many people who prayed for healing, brought us meals, stayed with our sleeping boys while we were in the ER, brought medicine and groceries and the list goes on and on!  We had planned to blog a few days after returning but are just now having enough energy to do so.

Friday afternoon we began to feel like we were on the mend and so we did get to do some "normal" family activities.  We went to the grocery store and got haircuts.  Then today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked to the park.  Many have asked how the boys are adjusting but with so much of our energy focused on our health it just hasn't left us much time to process that.  Considering the 2 weeks they've just endured we feel they are doing pretty well.  They are enjoying American food, playing toys and are back to a regular sleep schedule!

Here are a few pics from the last few days as we finally got to enjoy regular things!

Chillin in the car!

Shopping with Mama

Happy eater!

Happy eater!

Park fun!

Oops!

Cheese!

Hi!!!!

How we roll!!

We've come a long way since our first bath in China!

Final China Update

I can't belied that we are actually typing this, but its our FINAL update while in China!!!!  The last few days have been filled with appointments, sightseeing, and down time at the hotel.  We discovered a park near our hotel and have visited it a couple times.  We also ventured out into the city in taxis and actually made it where we wanted to go and back to the hotel!  We found Shamian Island and loved the feel of Savanah Georgia that it had.  We will probably go back again Friday morning.  Today was our US Consulate appointment and all went well.  Now we just wait to receive the boys' visas and we are free to leave with them!  We leave for Hong Kong Sat am and stay there over night and catch our plane to the US Sunday morning.  Its hard to see all the other families leaving already, but we are just thankful that we got to come in Sept so a few extra days doesn't seem all that bad!  The boys continue to get to know us and we are getting to see more of their personalities come through.  We can't wait to be back home and feel like we can start living every day life as a family of 5.  Here are the last few pics we have from this week.  We would ask for your prayers as we prep for the 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago.  We aren't sure what to expect from them, but prayers for rest and few diaper changes would be much appreciated!!! Also, please pray for the jet lag for all of us.  We know it will take several weeks to get completely back on schedule, but quicker would be great too!  We will post once we get back home and keep everyone updated on their progress.  Thanks again for all your support!!

Caffrey's hat choice!

Cavin's hat choice!

Fish Watching

Gibson's hat choice!

US Consulate Day

Med day done!

We have now been a family of 5 for a whole week.  As a family we've now traveled on a bullet train, taken a trip on an airplane, had many long bus rides, taken a river boat ride and as of today survived the dreaded medical appointment.  We were so thankful that the medical stations went fast and the boys were mostly happy until the blood draw for the TB test.  Of course Blair was waiting with a camera to capture their pitiful crying faces as the nurses brought them out to us.  The cries didn't last long and our afternoon was filled with plenty of fun and even Starbucks for mom and dad!  We now wait in the hotel room tomorrow for the results of the TB test and pray we don't get called back for a chest x ray.  Then the next day we have our consulate appointment and then wait 48 hours for the visas to arrive so we can travel home.  We are thankful now to say with each day that it is our last Monday, Tuesday, etc.  Again we thank all of you for your prayers as we near the end of this portion of our adoption journey.

Sweet and Sour: The Past 60 Hours

The much anticipated Gotcha day was on Monday and we were so anxious to become a family of 5.  We had no idea which boy would arrive first and were excited to see Caffrey was already waiting for us.  The pictures are on our camera and so we will have to post the actual reunion another time.  He was scared and cried most of the time we were there.  Cavin arrived about 20 minutes later and began making friends with the american children and didn't shed a tear.  Once all the initial paperwork was signed we were able to go back to the hotel to begin bonding.  The rest of the night went really well and the boys enjoyed playing with the few toys we brought with us.  Gibson did great keeping them entertained.

Day 2 with our boys was busy with a trip to sign and receive official adoption certificates for both boys.  This 2 hour adventure was followed by a trip to get Caffrey's passport photo and paperwork started.  When we returned last night we were exhausted but extremely excited to hear the boys asking for us to hold them and calling us mama and baba already!

Day 3(today) has been filled with challenges.  We had to wake the boys at 6:30 to be able to take the bullet train to get Cavin's passport started and to visit his orphanage.  The boys did well on the trip to the city but on the way back the early wake up and the fact that they both missed their nap made for a restless ride.  Once back at the hotel it was too late to put them down for a nap and so we did our best to keep them busy by visiting the pool.  Neither were huge fans, but they tolerated the water and even started splashing toward the end.  Since both boys were tired we didn't want to venture too far from the hotel for supper so we ate at the hotel's italian restaurant.  This was asking too much from our sleepy crew.  Many tears and tantrums later we did finish our pizza and got back to the room for a very early bedtime also filled with tears.

We are so thankful that our only trip tomorrow is here in the city to visit Caffrey's orphanage.  We should not miss naps and should get much needed rest.   Living out of a hotel in a foreign city with children who do not speak your language isn't ideal but we know this part of the journey will soon be over.  Please pray for needed sleep.  Overall we are so thankful that both boys seem to be bonding to us well.  Gibson too has been phenomenal and does all he can to make sure the boys are happy!    

Here are a few pictures we've taken with our phone.  Both boys have great personalities and their smiles just melt our hearts!

Bedtime stories with BaBa

Cavin's Nanny

This guy is a ham!!

Mommy's All American Boy

Bullet train to passport office

His bedding/nametage were still there just in case we decided no

He loves Daddy's sunglasses

Officially a Benefield

Officially a Benefield

Breakfast with Mommy

Beijing adventure

Wow!  That's about the best word to describe the last 4 days.  We had a long day of travel to get to Beijing (almost 24 hours from the time we left home until we arrived at our hotel in Beijing).  Even though it was long it was a smooth trip.  We even ventured out from our hotel and had our first local meal-Pizza Hut.

The next morning we met up with our travel group and began touring the city.  We visited Tiananmen square, the Forbidden City, took a ricksha tour of Old Beijing and ate lunch with a local family.  In the evening we were exhausted and on our own but we did find a Starbucks and walked around a shopping mall.

Today we got an opportunity of a lifetime, and walked on The Great Wall.  After climbing for about 2 hours we stopped at a Jade showroom.  Then we ended our afternoon with a acrobatic show.  We were so worn out we decided to skip dinner, walk around and take in the local food at the street vendors, and just pack up for our early flight in the morning.

Below are a few highlight photos from our last few tour days.  Thanks for all those who are continuing to pray for us.  We are so close to meeting our boys and are getting very anxious.  Our next blog will include pictures of our boys in our arms.  We can't wait to post those pictures!