Home at Last!

Hi everyone! I am so sorry I have not written since we have been home. It has been busy here getting used to being home and having a new baby brother! : )

As we exited the baggage area of the airport we walked a little and then we saw the crowd of people waiting for us. It was so nice to see everyone there. As soon as they saw us they were screaming and clapping. The kids were in the front holding banners and there was one big banner that Ellie made that said "Welcome home Jeremy and Seacott family!" It was so awesome! As soon as we got up to the crowd I think we were all attacked with hugs. I probably got a hug from every single person there.

Afterwards some people came back to the house and we ordered some good NEW YORK pizza. It was good to be home....... That night Jeremy slept in his forever home with his forever family. And we all slept in our comfy beds. The next day we got visits from lots of people and the same thing on Saturday. On Sunday he was the church celebrity and everyone loved him. During worship he clapped at some parts and enjoyed sitting on Andy's and Aaron's laps (Julia's friends). : ) On Monday we had to go back to school.....sadly. When everyone saw me they came up to me and asked me about the trip and I had to promise everyone I would bring in a picture of Jeremy. On Tuesday I brought in the picture and everyone loved him. At first he was my class celebrity,but now I think the whole 7th grade in my academy knows. Crazy, huh? Even my teachers love him. My math teacher thought he was adorable. She wanted to come over to play. Haha......I wouldn't mind. : )

Jeremy is doing great! He loves us and says "mama" and sometimes "papa", but not as much. We are trying to get him to say Jenna but that's not going too well...he just babbles. He sleeps through the night and plays constantly. His laugh is so adorable and we found a really ticklish spot under his ribs. He is growing in all four of his molars so he has sometimes been restless. The kids at church just love him and he is easily passed around to a bunch of people. He likes Dora the Explorer a lot, but he doesn't like Ni Hao, Kai-Lan as much. It's funny. He loves my dad and he is walking only if he holds on to something. He also walks if you hold onto his arms. He is starting to stand up by himself without holding onto anything today. That looks like a good sign. I will start updating regularly, I promise. I will also put up pictures.

I took a video.....that was my job.....while pushing a carriage. : )


Here is the video of our fans ; )



And for those of you with Facebook....my dad just added some pictures from the airport to his profile (thanks to Teresa!).

We're Home!

We got home Thursday and we have not been able to blog until today. Jenna will do a full update later today after school but I wanted to let everyone know that we got home safely. We are all trying to readjust to the time difference although Jeremy seems to be doing better than all of us. He's sleeping through the night (mostly) and is as happy as ever.



Here are some videos from Gotcha Day.

The past few days

Hi Everyone! Sorry I have not blogged regularly we have been busy here.

On May 8th Jeremy went to his doctors appointment in Guangzhou. Only my mom and dad and granma went. Every child has to go. Poor Jeremy had to get 5 shots! When he got the shot in his one arm he did not flinch. Then when he got the shots in his legs he cried a lot. And when he got the shot in his second arm he cried too. I felt so bad. Now on his little elbow he has a black and blue. I feel so bad for him.

Here are some pictures from May 8:



On May 9th we went to a shopping area called Shamian Island. It was really nice. I only went with my grandma and my aunt Titi Lu. The rest of my family didn't go because they wanted to stay home and rest. Jeremy was not feeling the greatest after his shot the day before. After the shopping me and Julia went in the pool in the hotel with Titi Lu. That wasn't such a good idea because now the day after that and today I have been having a stuffy nose and headaches....stupid pool. :) After that at 6:00 our guides treated us to dinner that they owed us from the first Sunday we spent in China. It was good but all I can say is that I can't wait to eat some good New York pizza and some milk!!

Pictures from May 9th:



On May 10th we had a choice of going to a museum or going to the Shamian Islands again. Our whole family and another family were the only ones who wanted to go to the museum so we went. The museum was really nice. It was like a museum of how life was like in Old Guangzhou long ago. It had a nice garden too. We had a good time and after the museum we went to a statue. It was a statue of five rams symbolizing the beginning of the city of Guangzhou. We got back to the hotel just in time because it started to rain.

Pictures from May 10th:





Today we went to the Consulate to do our oath taking ceremony. (I do not have any pictures because we were not allowed to take our cameras inside.) First the lady talked about some important stuff concerning the babies immigrating to the US and then she asked all the parents to stand and raise their right hand. Then she made them repeat the oath after her. It went very quick and after that we went to the hotel. Before the Consulate me and my dad went on a diaper search and found nothing. After the diaper search we got Starbucks coffee and it was very good. I had not had lunch yet. When we got back to the hotel my stomach was feeling a little funny, but I didnt think anything of it. Turns out the coffee (especially on an empty stomach) was not such a good idea.

You have a problem going to the bathroom? Drink Starbucks coffee in China on an empty stomach! You will feel squeeky clean! WARNING: Possibility of gas, stomach pains, and rumbling in the stomach.

Two more days until we come home.
: )

Gods Heart: Adoption

Our last Day in Nanjing: May 6, 2010

May 6, 2010 was our last day in Nanjing. We went sightseeing out on a lake and some islands. It was really nice. Right when we had strted in a trip I was in a bad mood because I had woken up too late and was rushed to get ready. When we got there the other 2 families who went to Nanjing with us got their babies together for a picture with Jeremy. After the picture a old man marched up and just planted himself right in front of Jeremy and just started staring at him and his arm. Now, you must remember I was already really mad so I got really ticked off. I hestitated at first, but then I went up to the guy and came in front of him casually and just started staring him down. I must have looked really nasty because he gave me a little weak smile that said "Sorry...." and walked away quickly. After he left I felt confident and successlful! Hehe! My dad came up to me cracking up laughing and he had to hold on to me to stand up. At first I didn't know what he was laughing at, but he told that he found it very hysterical. Ah.....good times, good times. And for the record, after that "staring contest" I was in a very good mood. : )

Friday we arrived in Guangzhou and went to the hotel. They didn't have adjoining rooms in the hotel so we got a cool suite the 5 of us get to stay in. It is really nice. It even has a flat screen tv! Oh yeah! :D

Here are the pictures from May 6th:

Finalizing the Adoption

Here are some pictures from yesterday that we took. We were not able to upload them yesterday, but we got it working again today.

Enjoy!

Tomorrow we fly from Nanjing to Guangzhou for our consulate appointment.

Jeremy Says Goodbye to his Home at the Orphanage

Today my mom and dad signed the papers saying they wanted to adopt him and after that we went to the Social Welfare Institute of Nanjing, where Jeremy lived for the beginning of his life. When we got there the nannies where sticking their heads out of the window and yelling Jeremy's chinese name: Shao Tang. It was so cute! I can not imagine having a job like that. You get so attached to the children and then they get adopted and you probably never see them again. It is very sad. My heart was breaking when the nanny from the Half the Sky Foundation (Jeremy's nanny) was saying good bye to him and holding and playing with him. It was so sweet! You could tell that she really loved him and he really loved her. I wanted to cry. And I want to cry as I type this! : (

At the orphanage we got to see where the babies slept and played and also where they played outside. We are very fortunate they let us go into the orphanage. Some orphanages don't let you so we were happy about that. When we got back to the hotel we fed him and ate lunch and then we gave him a nap. he slept for 2 hours straight and then after that we went for a walk around the hotel in the out door mall. It was fun. We bought a few things and then got Papa John's for dinner......again! : )

Tomorrow we are going sightseeing in Nanjing. I think we are going to a famous lake, but i am not sure. Jeremy is doing awesome and so are the other babies of the two other families we are with. WE are trying to put Jeremy to sleep, but he is crying a lot tonight. We do not know why. Poor baby!

Our Little Boy!

Well what can I say? Our little guy is amazing. God has blessed us again with another amazing gift.


While Jeremy was living in the orphanage he was enrolled with an organziation called Half the Sky Foundation. This organization comes in and works one on one with the kids. They give them the love they need until they are adopted and if they are not going to be adopted they are the closest thing to a really family that they will have. Besides the love that they receive they also play, excercise with them and more. It is a wonderful organization and Jeremy was blessed to be a part of it. If you want to learn more or donate to them you can check out their website. His nanny from Half the Sky made a beautiful memory book for him. It has pictures of him when he was a few months old, of him playing, his first birthday party and many more wonderful moments. The book is written in Chinese and is colored in so beautiful. Can't wait to show you all.


The girls have been so wonderful with him they are going to be the best big sisters. They love him so much and he loves seeing them play he starts laughing and he loves all the kisses and hugs they give him. It is so cute to see him laughing.


Jeremy's little arm does not seem to stop him at all. It is amazing what he can do with his arm. Please pray for him he seems to have a bad cold and cough and a low grade temp. (not that you would ever know it because he is just so happy and does not complain) He also likes to suck and bite on his middle finger and his nail has fallen off. We are putting some antibotic cream on it and hope it will look better as well. He is 22lbs and has some chunky legs so cute you wanted to just eat him up.


What an amazing experience as we walked into the civil affairs office and we all saw our babies sitting there with their nannies. We really did see the face of Jesus at that moment and experience spritual adoption in the flesh. Words just can't express the emotions of that beautiful moment.


What a joy it was to see the other two families that we are with receive their beautiful baby girls. I am so thrilled for them. One of the little girls is a month older than Jeremy and was in the same orphanage as he was in. In the book that I was telling you about that the nanny made for us, the little girl and Jeremy were in each other pictures they were buddies which is so sweet. I love the way God takes care of every detail.


Well we will be heading to the orphanage today looking forward to seeing where Jeremy spent the first year of his life. We will share more on that tonight. We fly out of Nanjing on Friday to Guangzhou where we will meet up with the other 16 families in our group and meet all of their children. I am so looking forward to that. We will be in Guangzhou until the 13th when we head home!


Love you all and can't wait to see everyone : ) Janet

Gotcha Day!!!!!

WE GOT JEREMY TODAY!!!


He is sooooo cute! As soon as we walked in, my mom recognized Jeremy. He was wearing an orange hoodie with blue over-alls. When we went over to Jeremy and started talking him, he reached out to my dad for him to hold him. It was so cute! Then Jeremy reached out for me! I was so happy. After that he went to my mom and then Julia. My mom and dad had to sign a few papers and then we went to a supermarket.

The supermarket was huge. It was like and everything store. It had every type of thing you could buy. From groceries to flat screen TVs to clothes. It was like a Walmart, but bigger. We bought a bunch of stuff there. It had a bunch of different types of meat that looked really gross and it had snakes and turtles for sale for you to eat! It was very sad. I like turtles! Anyway, after the supermarket we went back to the hotel and we played with Jeremy for a while. Then we gave him a bath and he loved it! He was splashing his little arm all in the water. It was very cute.

Jeremy is so silly! When he burps he laughs and his laugh is so cute! He is such a good boy. He doesn't cry at all really, but he has a bad cold. His chest is all congested and he has a juicey cough. Poor boy! :-(

Tomorrow we are going to go the the orphanage that Jeremy lived in before now. We are so excited! That is the day we will be giving the nannies their gifts and everything else. We are so excited!

I have a video of when we walked into the Civil Affairs Office to get Jeremy but it won't upload onto blogger so as soon as we get home I will put it on the blog.
:D

Our First Day in Nanjing

Today we left Beijing at 12 o'clock and landed in Nanjing at 1:30. When we got to Nanjing we met our guide at the ariport and then she took us to the bus. We took the bus to the hotel we are staying at. It is a nice hotel. The lobby is very pretty and there is a piano sitting in a fountian. It is very cool. (Oh and by the way, there are little cute goldfish in the fountian.)

Once we got to Nanjing and settled into the hotel, our tour guide showed us around a little outdoor mall right outside our hotel. There where various types of stores and there was a McDonald's. YAY!! Anyway, after that we went back to the hotel and hung out for a while. My aunt found an indoor pool so she went swimming for a while. Since there are two other familes traveling with us, they came down to our room and we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant in the outdoor mall. We had a little trouble eating there because no one there spoke English! One lady in our group only speaks a little Cantonese and the people in the restaurant speak Mandarin so that didn't help us. So we had to use our hands to try to tell them what we wanted to order. The lady's husband brought a little book with Chinese words and when the lady couldn't figure out what we were trying to tell her he would use the book. What was very funny was the fact that we either ordered more food than we thought we did or they misunderstood us because by the end of the night we had a ton of food that we didn't even eat! It was so funny. The food just kept coming out and they would keep bringing it to us. It was never ending! : )

After dinner, Mommy, Daddy, and I walked to a nearby mall (not the outdoor mall) to look for a Pizza Hut or something along those lines. We eventually found a Papa John's and took out take out for Julia and I. It was very good. I never knew I would be so happy to have Papa John's! : )

Tomorrow is the big day! We are excited, but it still doesn't feel real. It feels like it's just a story. Everyone has probably felt the feeling before. We will video tape when we get him and post it on the blog tomorrow. We can't wait! : )

Beijing Photos

Beijing Sightseeing: Day 1 and 2

Hi everyone! Sorry I have not blogged for a while, but this part of the trip consists of very busy days. When we arrived in China on Friday the 30th, we went to the hotel after waiting for some other families. After we got to the hotel we ate dinner and went to bed.

Yesterday we went to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tian'anmen Square is the center of Beijing. There is a monument to all the soldiers that have died in war. There is also a building to honor Chairman Mao, who the Chinese people respect very much. After that we visited the Forbidden City. This is where the emperors lived for about 500 years. To get there we had to cross a street. This was another adventure because we had to go through a tunnel under the street. It was wall to wall people. I've never been so crowded in my life! Inside the Forbidden City we looked at all the beautiful buldings and the beautiful garden.In the Forbidden City there were bathrooms and when we were about to walk in ladies from our group were standing outside looking disgusted. They said there were trenches and it wasn't a flush system! It was just a hole in the ground. And on top of that there were no stalls! Ew! So we didn't go into that bathroom and Titi Lu found a bathroom with toilets. Then we went to lunch. After that we went to the pearl factory where they showed us how to make pearls and how to tell if they are real or fake.

Today is the best part of the trip so far. It is very exciting and funny and full of adventure and gross things........WARNING: PREPARE YOURSELF. So this morning we went to a church (it was in English) and after that we went to the Jade factory where they told us how to determine which piece of jade is better and the different types of jade. After the jade factory we went to lunch and we didn't eat much! : ) After lunch we went to the Great Wall and this is where the adventure begins..........

The first thing that happened while traveling to the Great Wall was the traffic. There must be no driving laws here in China because people just drive wherever they want! I am surprised there was no car accidents! There was so much traffic because in China it is a national holiday (the Chinese Labor Day) where they get the weekend off. The Spring has been a cold one and this weekend the weather is warm so it seemed like everyone wanted to go to the Great Wall. So, instead of it taking us an hour to get to our destination it took us 3 hours. It doesn't sound that bad, but some of us had to pee. : ) So, (this is funny) a guy in our group had to pee really, really badly. The bus was traveling really slow so he got out of the bus and went out on the side of the road to pee. As he got out of the bus and went further out, the bus started going faster and the guy was being left behind. Soon enough the whole bus was looking out of the back window of the bus laughing hysterically and video taping it. Meanwhile his wife is having a panic attack. So, he eventually caught up and when he went into the bus everyone clapped. It was so funny!

Then before that I think Julia had been saying she had to go to the bathroom for a while. After he came in she was already saying she had to go, but there was no where for her to stop and pee. So soon enough she was crying and crossing her legs that she had to pee so badly. I also was starting to feel the urge and I was like "Oh no!" Eventually after 3 hours of sitting in the bus we saw the Great Wall in the distance. When we got a little closer, Maggie, the tour guide, told the bus driver to stop and we all got out. As she led everyone to the Great Wall, we found a police station and went in to find a bathroom. Daddy was carrying Julia. Maggie asked for the bathroom and the guy pointed and we ran there. When we got to the bathroom, it was the potties that you have to just squat (it is basically a hole in the ground with a flushing system) so I was like "oh no", but Julia had to go so we went into the stall. I told her to take off her pants so she would not get herself wet so she did that and then I went too. Surprisingly it was not that bad, but I prefer a toilet. So after we went, that problem was solved and everyone was happy again. A couple in our group was supposed to fly out tonight at 8 but because of the traffic they had to make it tomorrow.

The wall was awesome! It was so huge. We climbed up as high as we could before we had to return to the bus. There were so many people there. The views were great and it was really cool to actually be on the Great Wall of China.

After we climbed the Great Wall, which was amazing, we were going to go to the bathroom before we went on the bus and experienced that whole fiasco again. Problem was that the bathrooms where disgusting! The floor was wet with like an inch of pee, water, and whatever other disgusting things. The toilet paper was everywhere and the trenches where overflowing. In the actual toilet it looked like diarrhea was on the toilet and even the Chinese ladies were disgusted by it. It was so gross! It looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a month! Yuck!!

In China this week everyone is like a super star. People come up to you and ask you to take a picture. It's so funny! They are so happy when they take a picture with you. It's like they think your so special! Haha....

Tomorrow we will fly to Nanjing and on Tuesday we will get Jeremy. I will post more tomorrow. : )
Jenna