Day 5 & 6- Tough Stuff

Well, the honeymoon is over.

I must be honest, the past 2 days have been hard  torture.  Probably some of the hardest days in my entire life.   And Liam's life.

I know fellow adoptive parents will "get this", but many of you have asked so here goes.   Liam is grieving.  Hard.  Keep in mind, he's lived his entire life in an orphanage, then he's pushed into the arms of complete strangers who look weird, smell weird, and speak weird.  He's been dealing with it as best as he knows how.  Literally crying NONSTOP for 5 hours at a time. Throwing stuff.  Trying to bite us. Smacking us away. Yup.  Fun stuff.

If you are a parent and have ever experienced colic in a child (which I have personally), I feel like it's 1000 times worse. 

How are we handling it?  Well, not so good.  We're grieving in our own way, too.  I've boo-hoo'd my eyeballs out multiple times.  My head is throbbing, I'm starved for some good food, and beyond sleep deprived.  Stressed out, torn in multiple directions and emotions I've didn't know existed.   And I've never craved spaghetti and meatballs like I do now.    (random, but true...)

So what is a girl to do?  I cry.  Then I hug my girls tighter than ever.  And then I hug them again.  And cry some more.  Drink some caffeine to keep me awake, hug Joe, and repeat the process all over again.    It's working for now and all I know to do.  It doesn't help that we're living in a 300 sq. foot non-air conditioned prison cell hotel room where NOBODY understands English.   More fun stuff.

Yesterday, we went to the Henan Museum with our guide to check out the history of the province.  It was nice to be outside of the walls of the hotel.

  


With our guide, Cindy. 

On our way home, we requested to stop at Pizza Hut.  After bath and a (smaller) temper tantrum, Liam finally passed out and slept for over 8 hours straight.  Praise God!

So, you would think that after a nice long sleep and a good breakfast that we'd be a-ok, right?  Not so much.  He's literally screamed at the top of his lungs for 4 and 1/2 hours this morning.  My nerves are shot.   After we packed our bags, we shut the lights off in the room, and the 4 of us all laid down on the bed with Liam screaming bloody murder in his crib.   We started to pray and then busted out in song.   What a sight!   Joe, Maddie, Audrey and I laying on the same bedd loudly singing everything from praise and worship songs to Prince's "Raspberry Beret" (at Audrey's request, of course).

Then something strange happened.....   there was silence. 

He fell asleep!  Miracles never cease!  Rice Family karaoke to the rescue!  Who knew??!!

In less than an hour we check out of the hotel, run to pick up Liam's passport, and head to the airport for Liam's first plane ride to Guangzhou where the U.S. Consulate is. That's where we go to get his medical appoinment tomorrow and apply for his U.S. Visa.    The great thing is, the hotel where we are staying at has A LOT more American familes there (we are the ONLY ones at this one), a McDonald's and Starbucks very close by, and it's our last leg before we head home-sweet-home. 

I couldn't have made it thus far without 5 things:

1)  The girls being here with me.  Their hugs have been the air I breathe.
2)  A husband who has more patience than should be legally allowed.  I simply adore that man!
3)  My adoptive friends back home who have given me cyber hugs and mulitple Facebook instant messages at all hours of the day. Their love and reassurance has been priceless.
4)  The many, many prayers coming from across the ocean, kind emails, wall posts, etc.   We feel the warmth of that prayer blanket. Thank you doesn't seem like enough to all of you!
5)  Instant coffee.   Enough said.