The Road To Ren

Our adoption journey to our son Ren William.

Musings by Elaine and other Blitherings. This blog was origonally intended to document our China adoption journey to our son Ren. Now we are home and this blog is about our family. I would love to have you sign my guest book.

Scroll to bottom to see slideshow pictures.

Monday, May 25, 2009

We Are Still Here! (and random pictures)

We are still here! Although after not blogging for over a month I wouldn't blame anyone for not being here to read this blog, LOL! We have been running non-stop since we got home from China and it has been nice to get away from the computer for awhile after being glued to it during the adoption process.


So what have we been up to? Well since we returned from our trip we were home for one week traveled to Ohio for another whirlwind week (while still jet lagged) bought a house, returned to Ohio 2 weeks later to close on it and then came back and started the moving process. I would not recommend doing this after just returning from a 2 and a half week adoption trip with a new 3 year old but we survived (somehow), thank you God.


To say we have been busy is an understatement. Ren has been amazing through all this and is the sweetest little boy imaginable. He has transformed from the little boy we knew in China. China was rough for him (and us), but now that we are home he is the happiest, funniest and most affectionate little guy! Eden who had an easy time in China, came home and realized Ren was here to stay and her life turned upside down for awhile.


I can now say they are pretty much inseparable :-). They still have the normal sibling spats but are really working things through now. They love playing together most of the time ;-).


Ren's transition has been really easy. For those of you adopting I want to write an adoption tips post soon. For now some of the details you might be interested in are at 3 and a half he has picked up English really fast. He still is speaking Chinglish but also sentences in English! He is learning phrases instead of just words like "I don't know", "hang on", "I see you", "come here". He really resisted English while in China and the first weeks home and wanted us to learn Mandarin LOL! Once immersed in English he listened for awhile and then just started using it! He loves action movies and Star Wars is his favorite. While watching Star Wars he insisted that Yoda was a baby camel. I will never look at Yoda the same way again, ha ha ha!


It took about 2 weeks for him to totally transition to EST and now sleeps through the night. He sleeps really well and still takes an afternoon nap (YAY)!


I have not seen any attachment issues since we have returned. In fact having him here has pointed out some issues we need to continue to work on with Eden. This is a good thing though, and only helps us to help Eden work through some stuff.


For anyone adopting from Wuxi SWI, I would like to say that I feel they take wonderful care of the children and it is a wonderful facility. I was wondering how much they really worked with the children and if they had much pre-school. I think they did seeing how much Ren already knows. I would like to say that Ren was in foster care during the weekends and maybe nighttime. I think this made a huge difference for him. I found out that he went home with a young single girl who took a liking to him. I do not know all the details. What I do know is that there is NO organization that sponsors foster care at Wuxi SWI. Foster care there is strictly on a volunteer basis and there is no funding for it. I believe that people ask to foster children they have a special fondness for and the SWI allows them to foster them.

Ren and Eden at Grandma G's house


Eden in dance class







Bathtub fun


We took Rachel, Eden and Ren to the C*le Br*ther's Circus and had a blast. Eden and Ren rode the ponies and loved it.








Here is the human cannonball getting ready to be shot out of the world's largest cannon at and I quote "at 16 G's" !!! hmmmmm I think he would of been shot out of the tent at 16 G's.






Sneak peak at the new house. We weren't going to buy new construction, but we got a builders incentive percentage rate of 3.8% !!





My snuggle bunny



Rachel has been home from college before she goes to Uganda. She has been a huge help through all the craziness here. I have been helping her get set for her trip and bought her some gear for her trip. I couldn't let her go gorilla tracking in her Chucks!! Here is a picture of her in her jungle attire. (OK maybe she won't be wearing all this he he he he). Follow her trip on her blog HERE.

6 comments:

shelley said...

Thanks for the update. I put Rachel's blog on my faves so that I may follow her trip. How exciting for her.

Great house....looks like just enough room for a Texas family to visit. HEE HEE Glad to know maybe things are slowing down. Loved the pics of Eden...we are thinking about dance class for Claire...she loves to do it so much. We are doing about the same on the homefront...some days good (no fighting)and some days not so good. We are still making progress everyday. Kevin is now using 2 words together....makes communication so much easier.

Missing you terribly

Flamingo said...

hey! so glad to hear from you and know that things are going well!

yao yao is doing great...i thought she took a nap until today when i hear her up there screaming ,
"i want out". lol

i would love to see the transformed ren. i do agree that wuxi provides excellent care. i still see some "issues" with yao yao, but i'm starting to lean that the majority of them are from her being a somewhat strong willed 3 year old:) that girl's reports were right...she is stubborn:)

Wuxi Mommy said...

It was so great to see an update from you, Elaine! I know your life has been crazy for the past 6 weeks, but we were all glued to the computer when I saw that you had an update on your blog! We miss you all so much and can't wait to see you. SuSu still asks to see Ren's picutres every time I pull up my blog, and she even remembers Eden's name! We're absolutely blessed beyond words with SuSu in our family, and are amazed every day by how easily she's adjusted. We've set the dates for her testing in Cincinatti for the week of July 26th, and if we can somehow swing a visit to your beautiful new home, we just might do that! Praying that your move goes smoothly and everyone adjusts well to the new town. Miss you!

Cindy said...

Boy you have been busy!!! Ren and Eden look so cute!!! Glad all is going so well and good luck with your beautiful new home! :)

Bill and Toni said...

Wow - life sure is busy for you guys!! Praying it can slow down some soon. Thanks for the updates on the awesome life God is leading you guys in. Loved all the sweet pictures and also the cool ones of Rachel in her gorilla gear!! Congratulations on your new home, but we'll be very very sad to see you go. Hey - we were at the same circus - which night did you go? Thanks for the pictures of that too, because our 3.5 yo Alex fell asleep just before the elephants and the cannon... of course the 2 things he would've most loved.

God bless you guys and let's do get together before you move away (whatcha up to this Saturday night?)
Toni and crew

sara said...

It is great to have an up date! Please keep us posted on your new address. I don't know what i would do without the yearly Christmas cards!
it sounds like things are crazy...but good.
Good luck with your move!