First Night

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Our first night we went out for dinner. And what was for dinner you ask..... Indian of course. We have had about everything here. German, Italian, Thai...Lots of Thai. Tonight was Indian. Very good. At the end of the meal they bring you a bowl of warm water to wash you fingers. Miles was the only one using fingers. Here you can see him standing on the table. You are correct I did say standing on the table. We all stood on the table, well ok I'm just kidding about that. After dinner we went back to the hotel and tried an evening swim. Miles, not to fond of that. He just wanted to drink the water. All the pools here are infinity style pools... very cool. Joe and Ali you should put a pool in like that.
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"Go ahead..... I dare you to take my fries!"

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more from day 3

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Day 3 part 1

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The social workers brought Miles to the hotel at 11:00 this morning right on time. We were given a bag of his clothes and toys which came from his foster mothers. We took Miles up to our room and played. After he was fully warmed back up again we gave Miles a bath. Miles had alot of fun. Sarah had alot of fun picking out his clothes for the day. (Ali I'de go into details but I can't really recall all the specifics, but he did wear Max's black Nike sandals). We thought we would Americanize Miles for lunch. We went to McDonalds. Much cleaner and better service than US McDonalds. Miles had a chicken nugget happy meal. Miles loves the fries. O ya, I don't think we've talked about this yet. When ever Miles does not like a certain food, or has food in his mouth but sees something better, or just doesn't want to finish what is in his mouth he simply opens his mouth and pushes the food or drink right out. Yes.....He did it today. With food and drink. I wore the drink on my shorts and Sarah got food on her. We are going to go swimming this afternoon, but wanted to get some photos posted.

funny story

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Ok I (TJ) have to tell this story. Sarah and I kept cracking up over this all last night and this morning. She's sitting next to me to censor what I might say so it possibly wont be as funny. But here goes. Yesterday we decided to take our clothes to a small laundry company outside of our hotel (the hotel charges more). Before we left the room she had all our dirty clothes sprawled all over the floor taking inventory. I ask "what are you doing, lets just throw it in a bag and go". She says she is "making a list" (her and her lists) because she wants them to read her inventory list and give us a price (price bargaining here is on everything) on the laundry. She also says "I don't want them going through my dirty clothes in front of me on the front counter".

She's so modest. Well guess what........ We walk into the store a (barely one toe inside the door) and our bag is grabbed and it must of been if not 12 possibly a 100 little Thai women shred our bag apart and DUMP everything out on the counter. You would have thought it was a poker game and the clothes were chips on the table. Hands coming from every direction grabbing - sorting - counting. And guess what our clothes were dumped on the front counter. Now as we are given a price (1,000 Bahts) or $30.00 we say no. Now these people are holding our skivies. One lady had a pair of my boxes clenched tightly in each hand. Our clothes were now hostages. When we said no that's too much, their grip on my skivies became tighter. I actually saw the little Thai ladies knuckles began to glow with white. Fear began to overcome me and my knees were weakening. But this challenge of commerce was quickly becoming a dual of Bahts and laundry. We would prevail. We began negotiating. With a room full of woman holding our dirty stinky clothes (did I say it's hot and humid here. We are sweating a lot) We negotiated to 700 Bahts. We left the store and laughed. Just what we didn't want, our clothes being dumped all over the counter..... is exactly what happened.

now for the rest of the story...............................................


We go back late that night. The store looks closed however a light was on. The glass window is now covered with newspapers. We step up to the door and see 2 women. They opened the door. One lady being the fierce negotiator (did I mentioned she breathes fire and has eyes of a dragon???) recognizes us and goes to retrieve our laundry. Trying to get all the way into the store front and out of the rain, Sarah steps onto a mat to dry the bottoms of her flip flops when the second lady quickly notifies us that Sarah is standing on her bed. "Your bed?" we respond. So what does Sarah do. She takes off her shoes and still remains standing on her bed?....... Her bed was in front of the counter. Isn't that where we should stand??....???... We got our clothes and left. We laughed about the whole incident. So everyone be careful. If Sarah comes to your house and stands on your bed with her shoes, just let her know, she will gladly take off her shoes and continue to stand on your bed. :)

A few photos from today

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Day two with our little guy

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Our time with Miles for the day has already come and gone. We met him in the lobby with his social worker at about 11:00. He came right to me (Sarah) and we then went out for an hour of shopping. He immediately went straight to the little toy trucks that you can sit on and started scooting around. His favorite "word" is "vroom vroom" (car engine noise) which is perfect for us since we can understand what that means in Thai or English! We then ate lunch and he sat very content on my lap. I still think he prefers TJ to hold him and a couple of times during our time with him he reached out to him to hold him. We then came back to the hotel and brought him to our hotel room to play for about half and hour. We played with bubbles...I think he thought they were pretty neat...although, he kept trying to take the bottle away...to take a try himself. At 2:30 we had to return him to Mo so he could go back to his foster Mother's home for the last time. She said she would meet us back here tomorrow at 11:00 instead of 10:30....she said she wanted to give his foster mother a little more time with him in the morning to say good-bye. My heart aches for her because I know this will be hard for her. You could see in her eyes and mannerisms how much she cares for him.


Tomorrow he will be ours for keeps! We will post more then. Take care everyone and we will "see" you tomorrow!


(for Ethan and Gracie)

Hi Ethan and Gracie. We miss you so much and will be home in 5 more days. We can not wait for you to meet baby Miles. He will love you! He loves to play and you will need to show him your toy room and his new bedroom when we bring him home. We will call you tonight before you go to bed. We love and miss you.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Pics of the Day!

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Today we met

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What a most busy day for us. Here's the play by play. Sarah and I met another couple (Mitch and Margaret) in the Lobby last night and again this morning. Everyone, I think was feeling a little nervous and anxious. The other couple are Christians and we all prayed together in the lobby before the big moment. We believe the Lord answered our prayers because today went very well. We went to a room and got some instructions by the head social worker. Her name is Mo. Then we watched a video about Holt (I don't think any of us really were paying attention, the only thing we could think of was the moment to come). The children were to arrive around 10:30, but as the video was finishing they called and said eleven. As you can imagine we were disappointed and even more anxious. Then eleven was drawing near and we found out it would be more like 11:20. Oooohhh the wait. We were all setting up video cameras and getting still cameras ready. It was getting intense. Then..... the door open and Mitch saw one of the kids, but the door was quickly closed. .......... "What are we waiting for" we were saying!!!! "Come on!" We couldn't wait any longer! Just as the door open I hit the record button, but my vidoe camera had been sitting for so long it went hay-wire and shut off.. "O-no! I'm missing it" Dog gone it!!!! O to get it back on. Finally, only a few moments were missed. There he was (by the way Miles nickname is Deo (Day-O). It's Thai for one. It's not so different from the name Sarah and I call each other.. do (pronounced due)(something we started in highschool). Everything seemed fairly natural. Miles or AKA Deo, was very warm to us. We played. He loves cars and balls. We threw balls and rolled hot wheel cars for about and hour. At one point he just walked up and sat on my lap. Miles did that 3 times actually and to only one other person his foster mother later in the day. I'm so special. Miles had quite a connection with Sarah as well. Sarah played chase and he laughed and played along. Around noon we went to lunch in the hotel. Miles sat on Sarah's lap the entire time. He ate rice and shrimp (expensive taste). He stayed seated the entire time. When Sarah's plate of fries came he ate them up as well. We think he's gonna be a good eater. After lunch we went to the pool in the hotel. Mo said he loves the water and to play in it. We saw that for sure. He's a good fit for our family. I'm sure Ethan and Grace will show Miles the ropes when it comes to the water. After the pool we went to our room. Miles bounced on the bed. Miles kept following me around. I think he needed a male influence. What a cute little guy he is. Around 2:00 we headed out to were his foster mother's home. I must say in the living area, the floors were very clean. We took our shoes off before walking up the steps that resembled decking steps. There was a sad moment when the foster mother began to tear up. I felt sad for her. I can tell you with all honesty that she has done an excellent job of preparing Miles. After the visit we headed back to the van (steering wheel's on the wrong side). By the way just as a footnote. All the painted stripes on the road here appear only to be helpful suggestions. The drivers squeeze and go anywhere that they feel. It's a bit unnerving when a car is in your lane and only 3-5 seconds away from heading head on and neither vehicle yours or theirs speed up or slow down. They just figure they'll make the pass in time. They typically do.

Anyway where was I.... O ya a little friend came out to play with Miles.. It was cute. Most of the people that live in this 6-7 community area are related somehow. Now we're back. Tired and Hungry. You all know how Sarah gets when she's hungry so I'm gonna wrap this up.

We will meet up with Miles again tomorrow around 10:30 a.m. for 4 hours. Then Tuesday he's all ours. See you on the next blog

Something for Ethan & Grace