First Family Photo of Five

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. It's nice to know I still have faithful readers after my long absents. :)

Yesterday we had our very first family photo! It's terrible, but I don't think we'd even had a snap shot with all five of us. Anyway, Walmart did a great job and we actually got all three kids to smile at the camera at the same time. Ethan did really well for the family photo and his individual one. Those were the only two we really wanted so it worked out. However, for the rest of the session Ethan decided to throw one of those terrible fits he's so good at. At least we got the pictures we wanted and the other two kids were perfect angels!

I should probably get off. My boys have now been fighting over my lap for about 5 minutes and have now passed the screaming and hitting stage and moved on the the biting stage (well, Ethan bites and Evan screams louder...)

Ok, never mind. I now have peace (as much as I can with Ethan strangling me with a hug from behind). Poor little Evan finally gave up and got his own chair. It's just one of those days...

In Ellie's Words: "Better Late Than Never"

Sorry to every one who has been begging for updates! Thanks to all of you who have thought about, prayed for, or emailed us. I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping up now. I've been amazed at how busy it's been around here! There is no way I can catch up on all the details of the past two months and have been dreading getting back on here for that reason. So instead I'm going to give a few of the high lights...and there are a lot!

Ethan: The transformation in this kid is amazing. He now understands almost everything and has many words. His temper is beginning to improve. We have even seen a change in the way he plays and his ability to play "imaginary" games with things such as dishes. He now LOVES his mommy and will cuddle with me even when he has the option of daddy. He enjoys going to Sunday School with Evan and will go without us taking him. We had been hoping to get out on a date sometime and leave him for just a few hours the first time. However, we had an emergency last night (more details in a minute) and he and Evan ended up staying with a friend overnight. He didn't even cry!! When I came to pick him up he had one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen and nearly jumped out of the person's arms to get to me. :)

One of the biggest praises we have is that, for now, he won't be needing surgery! The Neurosurgeon said he has a very large cyst between the two hemispheres of the brain but seems to be unaffected by it at this time. Although things could change in the future. So for now we wait and take him back for another MRI in 6 months.

Ethan has so many crazy expressions! Here are a few of the common ones. His actions are often very jerky and stiff as you can see in the picture to the right.

Evan: Poor little guy had a very hard time adjusting to a new brother. Suddenly most of his things became "their" things. For a while he rode around on this little car (that he hardly noticed before) and wouldn't get off even to eat without a fit. One day I opened the seat of the car and found all Evan's "precious" toys hidden inside. He just needed something that was his and only his. However, now the two are getting along very well and copy each other on everything. Evan's latest copied behavior is thumb sucking!

Evan is our little coffee drinker (decaf of course!).

Ellie (or "Elise" as she now wishes to be called): Last night's emergency that I mentioned earlier was Ellie. While running around our living room with the boys she slipped on a play cup and broke her arm! Because of the timing with dinner they weren't able to give her anesthetics until morning so we had to spend the night in the hospital and wait to set her arm till at 7am today. She was so brave! She cried when it first happened but was fine and moving it around at the hospital. The Dr. said he's seen football players cry more than her! She is now sporting a cute little pink cast!

Puppy: Yes, you read correctly. When we met a lady at the mall giving away free puppies I decided that a 4 year old girl who I'm trying to teach preschool to, and 2 rambunctious 2 year old boys, one of whom we were still trying to get to know, along with a ton of house work just wasn't enough to keep me busy! So I got my very first puppy! I have since learned that they require more work then scooping food into a bowl each day! Anyone want a FREE puppy? Just kidding.

Pictures: Here are just a few of the many pictures from the past 2 months.

Monkey Kisses

Cinnamon and Sugar Doughnuts!

This is what happened in the kitchen last time I tried to blog. The boys are great at getting into trouble together. They were so proud of themselves for eating the entire bag of left overs.

Ethan loves the snow and doesn't seem to mind the cold at all

Brotherly Love

Family Night--Baking Cookies

Ethan's idea of "helping"

Mommy's helpers...I'm running out of room in my kitchen!

Ellie teaching Ethan to play with dishes

Just looking beautiful!

Daddy Time

I'm back...

I'm so sorry for not updating while we were gone. It was a relief to me that Tyler took it over. There were so many details I would have loved to share with all of you but everything went by so quickly and I was dealing with emotions that were hard to express. I will not attempt to play catch up on all the details of the trip at this point. Once I have a chance to go through our photos I might do a post on a few highlights and thoughts I had.

We are home and finally back to a routine...of sorts. I'm trying to get used to having three kids. It has been interesting with two 2 year old boys who don't always agree that all of Evan's toys should be Ethan's now but do agree that they should be the only one held while mommy is busy. Also, four out of five of us are only just now getting over the jet lag.

Ethan is beginning to warm up to me now. If Tyler manages to sneak away while Ethan is busy we can usually avoid a huge crying session (In Vietnam Ethan used to cry until he intentionally gaged himself and through up. We have learned to keep his fingers away from his mouth!). He now will laugh and play with me if Tyler's not around. He will even come to me with his arms out for a hug or to be held...it's wonderful!

Ethan understands English very well for only being with us about 2 weeks. He also has his first English word! He started saying "bye" and waving to us. :) But I think my favorite thing he says is "cho" (s?). This is his Vietnamese word for aunt. This is what they called the caretakers in the orphanage and now he calls me it all the time (and Tyler which is pretty funny). I love that he has a name for me and I keep thinking "I'm more then your cho...I'm your mommy. I love you and will always be here."

It's been a rough two weeks and often discouraging. I have had to reexamine why we are doing what we are doing. I have had to seek the Lord for strength as I try to reach out to this little child and support Tyler when he is tired. But in the past few days God has blessed me with moments that warm my heart. Just now I went to the other room and Evan came up beside me. I reached down and messed with his hair. Feeling the funny bumps on his head I looked and realized it with Ethan grinning up at me with his sweet smile. Sitting back down at the computer Evan reached up at said "mommy" so I picked him up. Immediately Ethan, who was standing there said "ma" and also reached up. At the moment I am enjoying the warmth of Ethan's little body as he's cuddled up on my lap looking at a book...life is good. :)

Back in the States

Hey everyone, Tyler again. I apologize about not updating for several days. We left for Hanoi on Monday, but when we got there our reservations at the Hanoi Hotel had not been confirmed, so we had an interesting evening of trying to get rooms for everyone in our travelling group. It all worked out, but we had to spend a significantly larger amount on a room that first night than we had originally anticipated (double the amount).

We then had to switch hotels, and the internet at the second hotel wouldn't allow me to access blogger. So, that's why I didn't post.

We received Ethan's visa on Wednesday, flew out Thursday night, and are now back in the states fighting jet lag. Actually, Ethan is fighting it, and therefore so am I. He woke up at 5 this morning and wouldn't go back to sleep so we went to go check e-mail. After 1 1/2 hours he fell back asleep and I am wide awake. Oh well. Time for some coffee.

We'll update with more details about the rest of our trip and some pictures, but I think we're going to try to recuperate a little bit first.

God bless

Details, details...

Tyler here again. Ok, ok, I get the hint. You all want details. Well, let's start from the beginning.



Day 1, Monday: We arrived in Vietnam and were picked up by one of the CHI representatives. We had about 2 1/2 hours to get cleaned up (I believe that is the best shower I have ever had.) and then get to the orphanage. We finally were able to see our son Ethan Loc Scott Larson for the first time. Ellie immediately ran up and gave him a hug. We will get video of this up eventually. Our internet connection was pretty slow yesterday, but I'll get them up! Misty was able to feed him his final meal at the orphanage. We didn't have as much time as we wanted at the orphanage, but were able to meet some of the children in Ethan's room. (Again, pics and video to come!)

During our return trip to the hotel Ethan sat on my lap. He has yet to desire to leave this location. He threw up on me as we were about to get his picture for the visa. That night we put in a video for Ellie and ordered room service. Oh how adventurous we were... hamburgers and fries. :-)

Day 2 Tuesday: We took the picture for the visa at a place across from the Rex Hotel. First time crossing a Vietnamese street... wow. That afternoon we had our G&R or Giving and Receiving Ceremony. It is at this point that Doan Phuc Loc officially became our son. Truly an exciting time, but short. We had to sign and print our names on 4 documents and that was it.

We have found an incredible coffee shop in the area. Actually there are three of them in this chain within a few blocks of the hotel. It's called Highland's Coffee. Those of you who know me know that I really like coffee. Misty has become addicted to it as well. We were very pleased to find out about these places. My new favorite drink is called Ca Phe Sua Da. It's an iced coffee that is very strong, but is sweetened with sweetened condensed milk. If you like it hot it is called Ca Phe Sua Nong, which is also very good. If you enjoy a STRONG cup of coffee try a Vietnamese style of drip coffee. Very strong, but the flavor is wonderful! If you ever come to visit us back in Kansas I'll try to make some up for you. I'm going to pick up the cups for it this evening.

Day 3 Wednesday: That morning I kept the kids while Misty went to apply for a Vietnamese passport for Ethan. She also had a short meeting. That afternoon we went to a Vietnamese hospital for a medical checkup. That was an interesting experience. The lobby of this hospital was under construction. This means that there was dust and debris everywhere. Combine this with it being an open room with no glass in the windows created a very, um, interesting hospital atmosphere. The doctor did a pretty quick examination. He told us that it was "unlikely" that Ethan has hydrocephalus. He gave us some reasons for this, but couldn't give us a reason for his larger than normal cranium; and then jokingly said that he will be "The next big scientist of our day!" Joking about his large skull and brain. ;-) We won't know for sure about the hydrocephalus diagnosis until he has an MRI, so that is still one of our major prayer requests.

That evening we ate at a restaurant along one of the rivers here in Ho Chi Minh City. This was very good. We ordered roast duck that had excellent flavor especially if you dipped it in the accompanying sauce. Difficult for the kids to eat though.

Day 4 Thursday: We took a quick tour of Ho Chi Minh City, specifically to "China Town". During this trip we visited a Buddhist temple. Interesting, but I will expound on my thoughts on the temple from the perspective of a pastor on my blog.

We took the kids swimming that morning and Ethan surprised me with how much he loved it. He really enjoyed the pool. I was also able to visit with an Australian who has been living here for 6 years. He came to Vietnam after 9/11 for a three month contract, but has stayed for 6 years because he just enjoys the people and area. We ate in one of the hotel restaurants. They were a little more pricey than other places around here, so we'll eat elsewhere from now on.

We had more coffee at Highland's that afternoon and Ellie ate a really good banana cake. Because of the time and Ellie eating, we forgot to have supper. We began to regret that at about 9:30 that night. Note, Ratatouille is not a good movie to watch if you're hungry. Too much food involved. It's a good thing there's a free breakfast buffet in the hotel each morning.

Day 5 Friday: We had our CIS interview this morning. It was a long wait to get in, but the lady conducting the interview was very nice. After asking Ellie if she was the big sister, Misty jokingly replied, "She's just some kid we found on the street." Mary Ann, the lady doing the interview said, "That's the wrong thing to say in this office. It's what we're trying to get away from." I'm glad she said that with a smile on her face. :-) Misty also said that she's really enjoying Ho Chi Minh City and would like to stay here longer before we travel to Hanoi. Mary Ann said, "I can arrange that. You'd be amazed at what I can arrange." I, however, would like to stay by choice rather than being forced to.

We ate our lunch today at, you guessed it, Highland's Coffee. I took a break from coffee and had a smoothie. All smoothies and juices in the restaurants around here are made with freshly juiced fruit. I also had the Singapore Style Fried Noodles. This was very good, even the squid tentacles. Mmm, tasty. Actually, it was really good. The beef had a great taste and the squid tasted like bacon. I actually thought it was bacon until I took a closer look. We did some shopping after that and now the kids are sleeping while I type a really long blog post.

Busy, Busy

Hello again, Tyler here. We apologize about not updating but we have been very busy lately. By the time we get back to our room we just fall into bed. It's been a lot of fun.

For those who are adopting and haven't travelled yet, be warned that your child will most likely bond with only one parent at a time. This has happened in our case. Little Ethan has bonded quite well with myself, but will have little to nothing to do with Misty. We knew that this was a possibility so she is fine with it. We're both glad that he has bonded to at least one of us. No bonding at all would be a very difficult prospect for our future with him.

We are doing really well though overall. I'm dealing with some kind of allergic reaction to something. I don't know from what or where, but a swollen lip isn't really a fun activity. :-)

Misty and I are both enjoying the traffic in Vietnam. It is just crazy. Much different than our home in Kansas where there is very, VERY little traffic.

***I'm working on a video which I will post here once it has finished uploading.***

We'll also try to post a video of what it is like to cross the busier streets. It's a lot of fun, but can be quite scary as well.

We were able to go swimming before lunch today. We weren't sure how Ethan would like the pool because he had never had a bath while living in the orphange. He loved it! As long as I'm carrying him, it seems like he'll try about anything.

Ellie is really enjoying the trip, but I'll let Misty post more about her later on.

I'm going to get going and take a nap while the kids are asleep. Misty went to the store down the street and should be back soon. Hopefully it won't be so long between posts.