Carmen Leolani White: Jake is in the House!!!!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Jake is in the House!!!!

Aloha Everyone,

Where has the time gone. Oh yeah....we went from not have a two year old to having one literally over night. We have not had a moment since bringing Jake back from China to give you an update and post more photo's.

What a strange, strange trip it has been.

The days of being in China, touring the Great Wall and seeing the sites of Beijing were blown into a million pieces the day we laid eyes on Jake.   He has rocked our world in all the right ways, making himself at home as a proud, new member of Team White.

It has almost been 4 months since Jake was drafted to the team and it feels like he has been with us forever.

Heather and I, did the best to prepare ourselves for the reality of welcoming a 21 month orphan into our family. Advice from books and on-line, spend a lot of time focusing on the negative aspects of our situation. Pointing out the disillusionment, confusion, abandonment issues that a situation like this could have understandably impacted a small child.   As they say....prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Well....I am so happy to report to all of you...that we are experiencing the "best" - big time.   Jake is such a little smoochy, snuggly, lovey boy. He is quick to laugh and absolutely adores his big brother. He is sleeping, eating well and doing all the things you would expect from any 2 year old.

We are also happy to report that his health is excellent.   A recent full medical assessment of Jake revealed that the work on his cleft lip and pallet in China was excellent. And..although we were told he was hearing impaired this has turned out to not be the case. Jake certainly has a tough road ahead of him, including more surgeries and speech therapy but he is in excellent health. As the doctor said to us....."He should focus on just being a happy little boy".

Below is series of images of the rest of our trip to China and more recent images of Jake and the family. You will notice, there are not too many "tourist" pictures. It just wasn't that sort of trip. After meeting Jake, we embarked on a series of busy days of paperwork and official business combined with a lot of bonding as a new family;

Jake's first plane ride to Guangzhou.

Hello Four Seasons Hotel Guangzhou. Took as little while to adjust to the floor to ceiling windows on the 91st floor

Did I mention 91st floor.

Heather: "Those windows aren't going to fall out are they?? Chris: "NO!!!"

Incredible Buddhist Temple. One of the oldest, and most important temple in South China

A very special and rare chance to meet the leader of the temple and one of the most revered Monks in China. Of course......he walked right up to Trevor out of hundreds of tourists. That's how Trevor rolls.

It does not show it in the picture but many people were crowding around absolutely amazed that the leader was taking this rare time to reach out to boy.

Oh...and..an invitation to sit with him. Our Chinese guides had never seen this before. This was clearly an extremely special moment unfolding.

Oh Trevor. You are one special boy.

Ancient art. Stunning!!!

An ancient family temple. One family built this in the 1300's to provide a fortress and place of worship for their entire family. It was incredible and in perfect condition.