The Boys

These are the handsome Theis men in our house (minus #1 man - Dad). The three girls are totally outnumbered and in need of another girl. The boys are doing great, everyone is bonding well.  Titus recently told me he really likes our big family.  Adam seems to enjoy everything.  A huge thank you again to all who helped bring these two boys home!  God is smiling a huge smile right now I am sure!

Home!

We are finally home.  I am so tired I didn't even think to look at the blog to see if I already post it:)
After a few trials and errors we made it home about midnight on Tue.  Everyone is settling in just fine.  Now if I could get the boys to sleep at night and not all day we will be great.  They don't bother as night when they are awake and we are asleep, but I worry if they don't try to transition it will be a long process.

They don't care for american food which we expected.  In fact they complained about everywhere we ate in China once we left their province.  I think they understand there isn't much we can do about that, and I understand the loss they have without their comfort food, but they have to transition enough to survive:)

We had a nice meeting with everyone at the school.  Titus will take a math assessment sometime this week to see where he is.  If he is on track he will  stay with Caleb in grade 9 next year.  They also decided that even though Adam is small and acts younger than his age, he should stay with his peers, so next year he will be in 7th grade but doing 1st grade work.  Not sure how they will handle that.  The only thing that will change it is if the doctors decide he needs a bone scan to confirm his age. 

Anyway, that is it for now.  We are grateful to be home and to be a family finally!  Thank you everyone for all your love and support!  The picture is of our adoption group:)

More "See you laters"

Just a few more see you laters to our friends today.  I couldn't post all the pictures because some are on Bryans phone...will post later.  The one with the handsome young man and baby is Will and his new little sister who is also from Hope.

We leave in the morning for Beijing!  We may try to squeeze in a trip to the Great wall for the boys.  We get in to our hotel by the airport at about 2 so we will see.

The boys are swimming one last time before we head out.  I staying in the room to pack them all up.  We had to run out and buy a suitcase this morning.  Who would have thought we would accumulate so much stuff in Guangzhou.  I guess 8 days here is too long:)  Bryan said if we come back again he is going to do his hair strange and take pictures for money.  Everywhere you turn someone is taking wedding photos for families.  Its hot and humid and they dress up and come outside for a daylong photo shoot!

Anyway.....until later!

Saying Goodbye to New Friends

Tonight we had to say our goodbyes to several of the families we adopted with on this trip.  Some are heading to Hong Kong for the night.  Tomorrow more will head out, some straight home, some to Beijing etc.  Since we had a later consulate appointment we don't leave until Saturday - along with three other families.  We wish we could have gotten to know them all better but as big as our group was and as spread out as we were, it just wasn't possible.  They are ALL dear to us in one way or another!  For those living in Colorado, we hope to pop through and say hi the end of July.

For those "Hope foster home" lovers, check out the precious Hope baby girl...there were two on our trip (I will post the other sweetie tomorrow). 
PS...the picture with the fat lady is to represent how I feel after eating at Lucys too many times:)

Catching Up

I am still trying to catch up on the blog with what we have been doing so bear with me. Not having a VPN has been a pain, I would totally recommend it.

Sunday we went to church on Shaiman Island. It was an English/Mandarin service. We really enjoyed it except for the hard pews :) They explained who Jesus was very well. We went on to another shop to get the boys some Bibles ($18 for each leather bound mandarin/english). The boys also wanted to buy cross necklaces :) The shop owner gave us tracts in English that explains the Gospel. We were very grateful for this.

Today we went to the zoo but I won't bore you with animal pictures. It was nice but almost 90% humidity and somewhere between 80 and 90 degrees. Adam whined the whole time about being hot and tired, but then so did I ;)

They are now swimming with Dad while I get a shower (and emails) for our family photo on the red couches. We aren't dressing up or in traditional clothing. We did not think the boys would want traditional clothing. I will post more tomorrow with our group photos.

We arrived in Guangzhou!!!!

After many attempts to post to the blog I will try one last time, if it doesn't post then my daughter in law will post for me:) We spent the last 5-6 days in Zhengzhou with the boys, getting to know each other. We had a great time with several families visiting the Shaoling Temple. Adam especially liked it. He screamed with delight at the top of his lungs when we went to the Kung Fu show! It was so funny. They asked for volunteers to come to try our Kung fu in front of the stage and Adam jumped right up but when he got to the stage they said no kids....he was so sad:( But we all still enjoyed the show. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday. The boys had their physical exams and shots this morning. Neither appreciated it (neither would I for that matter). Then we ate and went swimming. Not a good combination. Adam threw up and Titus got leg cramps. They are both fine now, inside playing DS games.

The weather here is really humid and hot, not something us Washingtonians appreciate:) BUT the sun is nice:)
The next few days are the Dragon boat festival so we won't be doing any paperwork, which is a shame, we are ready to come home. I love it here, but miss the other kids and my own home.

There is a 12 yr old boy in our group that came with his parents to adopt a little sister. His name is Will. We thought that was funny since our 2008 adoption group had an 11 yr old boy named Will too. Too bad both Wills aren't here at the same time. Caleb would love that:)

The pictures are of the boys at the Shaolin temple with Will, then sleepy boys after a long day and baby crying filled flight. The last photo are the two boys waiting for their physicals. Good thing we brought the DS's!!



Well back to getting cleaned up from the swimming pool and off to eat Thai food with our whole group. We love and miss you all!

PS...I would really love to add a little girl to our family..time to start praying:)


[I have been trying to upload the pictures...it's not working for me right now...I'll post them as soon as I can. -tiffiny]