Adjustments

Here is Robbie's announcement that we had made. My wonderful friend Sam at www.MyTrendyDay.com did them for us! Thank you Sam!!!

We have been home now with Robbie for just over a month and wow what a change we have seen in this kid.
He is adjusting so well. He is a different kid than when we first brought him home.
He is still sleeping in bed with me but is actually sleeping all night and the rolling has gone from hours at a time to very little!!! Yeah for that!
He is a very happy little boy and even though he wants to still be held a lot it's getting better as he doesn't need to be held all the time! I can even walk out of the room without him crying!
He is doing very good and we are so happy for that.
Makenna is adjusting to life with a brother as well and even though they have had their moments, as all brothers and sisters do, she has been a wonderful help.

It was a rough month getting everyone on the same page, and we have a way to go, but we are very happy to be at the point we are at now.

One month since Gotcha Day

A Real First Birthday Cake!

"I Love Cake!"

Silly kids!


We have had Robbie for one month today!
Now we have defiantly had some challenges but things are getting better day by day.
I think he has realized that we are home and are no longer traveling nomads. LOL
He still has some sleep issues and doesn't like to be left alone but those will come in time and as he trusts his surroundings more. We have defiantly turned his life upside-down in a few short weeks!

Robbie started walking on March 6th and now cruises all over. He still doesn't like our dogs to be too close but he enjoys being outside and playing in the sand box. We are very thankful for this early spring weather and the chance to be outside a lot.

Makenna is a great big sister. They have their moments as all siblings do but she has been a great help and loves her brother so much.

We were blessed to have family over on Sunday. Maxx and Heidi were home from Montana and we got everyone together to meet Robbie and share in a some cake and ice cream in celebration of his first birthday. We were not able to let him dive into his cake in China, but at home it was another story. He loves cake!

We thank you all for your prayers, help and gifts you have bestowed on our family since we have been home. It has all been so wonderful.

More Photo's

We are home!!!

We are home!

Wow does it feel good to be back in your own home!!!

It was a very eventful trip home.
We took off from Hong Kong at 11:30 am on March 2nd. There were 2 other families from our group on our flight and one family that we saw at the China Hotel that was with another agency.
Robbie fell asleep at take off and slept for about an hour. He did really good on the plane. We had a row with an extra seat in the middle and this made all the difference in the world. We had many poopy diapers on the plane but we managed ok. The plane had an issue with it's sound system and only half the plane could get the audio for the movie. This affected our seats and we could only get one music station on our headsets and it was an 80's station. I think we were slap happy at that point and did lots of laughing at what was being played. Since the audio is controlled on your arm rest, this is also where the reading lights are controlled as well. So we had no lights. This in turn made them keep the bright cabinet lighting on for the whole flight!! I had a window seat so the bright lights were blaring down on me, and Robbie, so needless to say we got very little sleep. I think Robbie only slept for about 4 hours of the whole 14 hour flight!!!
United did give us a card to go online and redeem a "goodwill" choice for the inconvenience but I have yet to go on and find out what they are offering to us. I am sure it's not much.

We finally arrived in Chicago at 11:20 am on March 2nd. We made it through immigration and customs pretty fast. We found out that the flight we were scheduled to take at 5:30 pm had been canceled so they booked us on the flight to leave at 2:30 pm. At this point we were so happy to just be getting on an earlier flight home it was awesome.
Till we got to the gate... We got a quick snack and got Robbie to take a bit of a nap. Soon they were saying that the plane was going to be delayed coming in so that was going to delay our take off. They pushed us back to a 4:30 take off. Ok not so bad, until they changed us to another gate and told us there was lightening in the area and they shut down the airport a couple of times for about 15 minutes each. This delayed our flight even more. Finally the plane arrived and they said it would be really quick to get everyone off and get us loaded on after they did the safety check. The flight crew was ready and waiting so we were getting ready to board...and they found an issue and had to call in maintenance.
Wonderful!
Pretty soon they said they needed to go and get a part so we would have to wait. Finally at just before 6 pm they canceled our flight!! We were not happy about that!! At this point we had been traveling for over 24 hours! Andy my family was already at the airport waiting for us to come in. They told us we would have to go to United customer service to be re-ticketed. They had canceled a lot of flights at this point and the line was very long. While we were waiting in line Derek was calling rental car places to see if that was an option for us. After waiting in line for an hour we finally go to the desk. There was noting direct to CWA. Their options for us were to fly to Minneapolis and then wait on standby for a flight to CWA or we could fly to Appleton later in the day on Saturday...NOT! Well we didn't have our luggage and we only had limited supplies for Robbie so Derek told the guy that wasn't going to work for us and so we went to the Avis rent a car where Derek had a car on hold for us. It's only a 5 hour drive from Chicago to home.
On our way to the rental car we were talking to a woman who was supposed to be on our flight and found our that she could only get a flight to Appleton the next day and was going to miss a funeral that she was flying to her sisters to attend. Turns out her sister only lives 15 miles from us so she hopped in the car and rode along.
Robbie was not to happy about his first car ride in a car seat, and it was an infant bucket type to boot. Since he was so tired he gave in and slept once we got going on the road. It was snowing but the highways were pretty clear. Derek is a good driver so I was not worried about it and he had our extra passenger to keep him awake, although he was so upset at this point there was no way he was going to sleep.
We stopped at a Taco Bell as we had been craving this our entire trip. We left the airport at 8:15 pm and pulled into our driveway just before 1 am. It felt so good to be home!!!

Our wonderful friends had a huge sign hanging in our yard that said "Welcome Home Dombeck's" Mom and Makenna were staying at our house and Mom got up when we pulled in the yard and met us at the door.
Turns out our wonderful friends had done more than hang a sign in our yard. We were welcomed home to new countertops and sink in our kitchen!!!!! So unexpected.
I literally stood in the kitchen with my mouth hanging open. I couldn't believe it!! It looks so awesome!! A Huge Thank You to Jerry and Carrie for that one!!!

Makenna was asleep in the living room as she wanted to wait for us to get home. She woke up and we were finally a family of 4!! We stayed up till about 3 am then headed to bed. Derek was still wound up so he didn't sleep too much. Makenna woke up at 8am and couldn't wait for her brother to wake up so we finally got up at 9:30 after a few visits to the bedroom from her.
Derek then went to bed at 10am and slept till 6 pm.

I think we are starting to get back on track with things. Robbie is having some sleep issues and is up every couple hours or so. He has been up 3 times tonight in the past 6 hours since he went to sleep. Hopefully he will get on track and start to sleep all night.

We want to extend a huge THANK YOU!!! to all our amazing family and friends for all your prayers, love and support you have given us on this journey to bring our son home!!

Now for Chapter 2 as we start our lives as a family of 4.

(Sorry I don't have any pictures, I will try to get some up in the next few days)

Train to Hong Kong

We are all packed and ready to get on the train.
In a half hour they will come and get our bags and then in an hour we will go down and check out. We will get on the bus about 4:30 to go to the train station.
Another cool, cloudy, rainy day today so no outside time for us.
We had a very low key day today. We went went down to breakfast about 9 and chatted with some of the other families and then came back to the room, played for a bit and Robbie and I took a nap.
Once nap time was over I started to pack everything up. Not an easy task but I think we have it all in and the stuff that we need tonight on the top of one of the suitcases so that we don't have to unpack too much when we get to Hong Kong.
Robbie has had about 4 messy diapers today. His pour little butt is red. I was glad I brought the Butt Paste. I hope he is done with this before we get on the train and then the plane. I think we have given him more fruit this week than he has ever had. He is not sick, no temp, and he is not acting sick in any way.

Next stop Hong Kong!

FYI

Just an FYI for those of you who will be around us when we get home.

One of Robbie's favorite things to say is "da"
We have learned that in Chinese this means "hit"
We do not want to encourage this word so if he says this to you please do not repeat it to him. As we made the mistake of doing this early in the week. And be aware that is word may come with a swinging arm, especially if he is upset or not liking what is going on. If that is the case please just grab his hand and firmly tell him "No!"
We have been working on this all week and it is getting better. But we wanted to give everyone a fair warning and try not to encourage this from him.
We have found that a lot of these children have some aggression to work out.
Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter.

Consulate Appointment

Group Photo from today: Missing one family


Today we had our Consulate Appointment (CA) to get Robbie's Visa.
We boarded the bus with 9 other families and headed to the USA Consulate. We had to go to the 4th floor of the building and go through security. I forgot I had my blackberry in the backpack and they found it and took it from me. They gave me a number so that I could pick it up when we came back out. I have not turned it on since we left the states and forgot it was tucked away in a pocket. Sorry there are no photo's from today as they do not allow camera's in the consulate.
We waited in a room, they had some toys for the kids, and then when there were 12 families there we all stood, raised our right hand and took and oath for our kids. We then got called one family at a time to the window and handed them the packet with all our child's info and passport. Once we were all done we headed back to the bus and that is it. They will pick up his passport, with his visa, tomorrow afternoon. They will also give us a brown envelope with all his info that we will turn in to immigration when we land in Chicago. Robbie will officially be a US Citizen when we hit US soil!
When we got back to the hotel we had a group photo. For some reason one of the families was not there and one family only the Dad came as the little girl was ill.
We have a wonderful group of families and it was really awesome to go on this journey with them!
It rained all day today. It was a bit warmer but very cloudy and it got foggy as the day went on. I can hardly see the buildings across the street right now. We were hoping to go the park today but that didn't happen. Still better than all the snow I hear you are all getting at home! Derek is happy for that as it's coming up on the full moon and he is ready to do some coyote hunting.
This afternoon was really low key. We took a family nap and then went and found some supper: once again McDonald's. Derek and Robbie are in the tub as I write this and we are going to meet our friends from CA in the lounge for one last night of drinks and snacks.
Tomorrow we have most of the day free. We have to have our luggage packed and outside our door by 4:30 pm tomorrow afternoon and then they will take us to the train station. Our train leaves at 6:15 pm and it's a 2 hour train ride to Hong Kong. We will stay overnight at the airport hotel and then our flight to Chicago leaves at 11am on Friday. We will "time travel" back to the USA as we land in Chicago at 11:16 am on Friday. We have a long layover in Chicago but this is due to the fact that we have to go through customs and immigration. Our flight to CWA leaves at 5:30 pm and we should land at CWA at 6:30 pm on Friday March 2nd! Hopeing the snow stops by then!
It's going to be so nice to be back home!!! As one of the Dad's said today "It's going to be nice to get in my car and drive where I want, when I want and get what I want" I couldn't of said it better!
Please pray for safe travels for us and that Robbie tolerates the long plane ride ok!!
This may be my last post from China and I am not sure what tomorrow night will bring for us.