Introducing...

Sorry for the delay in getting pictures posted, with the Easter weekend things here were a little crazy. I will be posting pictures from the festivities later this week. But for now, it is all about Drew. As you can see by his birthday he is only 24 days younger than Mylee. I always thought is would be so much fun having twins, I'll keep you posted on how it all works out.

As you all know by now Drew is living in Beijing and is part of the New Day Foster Home there. Shortly after sending in our LOI for him, I contacted NDFH by e-mail and introduced myself and explained to them that we had just sent in our LOI for "Jeremy" (that is what is name was at the foster home)> Anyway, the staff there are incredibly nice and so helpful. Within 24 hours after e-mailing them I had responses about how they were so excited that Jeremy was getting a family. I was also told that as soon as we got our PA to let them know so they could set up weekly phone calls (more on that in a bit), let us know where to send care packages, and the name that we would be giving him so they could begin calling him by that name. This story of ours just keeps getting better and better. Never in a million years did I think that we would be able to have contact like this with our son who is half way around the world.

Anyway, more about Drew. He was actually born in Hohhot Inner Mongolia. He lived in the orphanage there until he was 7 months old which is when New Day took him to live at their foster home. After several life saving surgeries, he was placed with a foster family this past December. Drew is described as a character, full of laughter, and very excited about getting a family. He was telling everyone yesterday that he was getting a family and showing them our picture. As you can see from the pictures, he has the most lovable, kissable, squeezable cheeks I have ever seen. I simply cannot wait to get him in my arms.

As for the phone calls, we will be able to call Drew every week on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. which is 9:30 p.m. China time. Last night was our first call to him and not only did we get to call him, but New Day got SKYPE so we were their very first SKYPE call. We could see each other, and they could hear us, but their microphone was not working, so we could not here them. So, they had us keep SKYPE up and call using the phone which worked well too. In our first care package to them we will be sending a microphone for back up in case the new one they get stops working. He was pretty shy at first, but once he figured out what was going on, he became quite talkative. He sang his ABC's to us, and when asked where his eyes, nose, ears, etc. were he was able to point them out. He was able to tell us that is favorite color is yellow. He also kept calling us Mama and Baba and blowing us kisses. There were times when he would get so excited he would start kissing the phone as well. About half way through the conversation he yelled something in Chinese which was translated for us. He was saying "buy me toys!" So, we showed him a pack of cars that we were sending and he seemed very excited about that. We talked to him for about 20 minutes before he had to return to class.

Once the call was over, Lauren (one of the interns) got on the phone to talk to me. She said that Drew is very smart and loves to raise his hand during class to answer questions or give them new ideas. Since he just turned three, he doesn't know very much English, but now that he is three he will be taking English class twice a week.

Enjoy the pictures, I am off to work on a list of things to send him and his foster parents. I think the post office is going to get to know me pretty well over the next few months.

I almost forgot, the director from New Day sent me a video of Drew when he found out he was getting a family. The girl he is with is Lauren, she is the one I talked with on the phone last night.

Thanks again to everyone for leaving comments, or e-mailing us about this incredible journey we are once again embarking on. It is with your love an support that we are going to make it through this. And we are very excited to have all of you follow along to see His plan played out




















My Montage 4/13/09

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com