Showered with Love

Wow, that week flew by. Brooke got a good dose of Naomi last week and now Jo-Jo is back home from camp. The two busiest families I know added to their already over-flowing schedule by hosting a family shower for Naomi. She made out like a bandit and has a wardrobe like a princess until she is 2. We have been so enormously blessed with Naomi already and now our friends and family have put the cherries, sprinkles and whip cream on the sweetness of life. She has advanced with leaps and bounds. I wouldn't be shocked if she started walking this week. She stands by herself barely hanging on to anything. My persistance of getting her into one two hour nap instead of two one hour naps is succeeding. Now if I could just figure out her potty schedule. It's been hit and miss. She is still doing great, hasn't had any problems with adjusting to foods or lifestyle. She just goes with the flow. She has learned the word "no" and actually is obedient when she hears it. It is so amazing! She learned how to rap dance this past Friday at the FlowFest in Lansing and puts her hands on her head as if she is saying "oh no". She will get her first camping experience this coming weekend with the Freedom Center Family Reunion campout on Friday. I'm sure she will love it. Hopefully we won't have the stiffling hot weather we had this weekend.

Naomi went boom boom and got an oww-y

We sent Jo off to camp today. She is going to get so filled up with Jesus! She was looking forward to this so much. It's the same camp she went to last year and has been yearning to have the closeness she had with Jesus ever since. Naomi and I bid her farewell and later that day Big, Big Sister, Brooke came over and spent the day with us. I am so loving having Brooke around more. I'm sure she is probably bored silly with us but I just love having her in our presence. Poor Naomi took a dive on the wood floor in the kitchen and got a little goose egg on her forehead. She was half sitting and half standing with her legs spread eagled and fell forward. She does this little move all the time but usually falls on her bum which is no big deal. This all happened just as Daddy was getting home. We iced her up and she got some Daddy lovin' and was all good. Brooke and I snuck out to see Mamma Mia at the theater and Daddy put Naomi to bed after her lasagna dinner. She is doing so great. Everyone asks how she is adjusting and it seems like a funny question. It has been such a natural transistion for everyone that it seems odd to even consider that there should be an adjustment time. Today she learned how to wave "hi", double-handed of course and I swear she said kitty cat. It is hard to believe that she couldn't roll all the way over 3 weeks ago. Now she is standing barely holding on to something. She is such a joy and so easy going. God prepared her heart for us and ours for her so it's as if she has always been with us. I guess there's no need for adjustment when God's got his hand on the situation. The only adjustment has been in the amount of time it takes me to get out of the house! She's making friends with all the animals and we are making progress on getting a schedule in place. Life is good.

Worshipping with Jeremy Horn now that's the icing on the cake!

Nothing like getting to worship with Jeremy Horn and his band. Naomi and I dodged the orange cones, zigzagged on the Z bridge and made it to Bay City in time to catch Jeremy Horn performing at a church in Bay City. They have been performing all over Michigan this past weekend and I was in Georgia so I was pretty excited when I heard they would be in BC on Wed.. Naomi seemed to enjoy the worship (but who wouldn't). They are headed up to the U.P. to perform all weekend then will head home (Memphis) and get a month off so Jeremy can enjoy his new little one that is coming soon. It was so good to see the gang.
Jo made a birthday cake for Naomi since we didn't really get to celebrate because everyone got sick. It was a whole day ordeal but as you can see in the picture it is quite the cake! Naomi is suffering with teething lately and didn't sleep well. Hopefully that tooth will bust through soon.

Rub a dub dub, 3 Sisters in the tub!

There's no place like home!

Sorry for the break in blogs. I wasn't able to get online in Georgia. After 23 gruesome hours on an airplane we finally made it to Georgia to spend the weekend with Mike's family. Not without issues though. We missed our plane to Atlanta from Detroit because we had to go through customs. Which probably wouldn't have been a problem except Naomi wasn't a citizen UNTIL she went through customs so we had to get in the "visitor" line, then we were told to get in the "blue" line, then we were told we were suppose to go to the "US citizen" line - then the "blue" line... We could have made it IF we didn't have to RE-CHECK our luggage. To top it off in the rush and confusion I left a bag with some fragile fabric kites that I was going to decorate Naomi's room with on top of the stack of luggage to be checked. We realized as soon as we got to the gate of our "Re-scheduled flight". Mike went back and they were no where to be found. :(
Naomi did pretty good on the flights. She couldn't get comfortable to sleep even though we bought her a seat to give us more room. Brooke was on the flight that we were suppose to be on for Atlanta and ended up having to wait for us in Atlanta with Papa, Nana & Jo-Jo who came to pick us up.
On Saturday the whole Fellabaum clan headed for Lake Lanier Islands Resort. Our niece, Natalie, was having her 10th birthday party/sleepover there so we got rooms too so we could hang out in the pool and have cake with her. The big bonus for the weekend was when the Post Family from Blairsville, formally from Fenton, joined us so they could meet Naomi. For those who don't know, Terri Post and I have known each other since we were in elementary, which was just a few years ago.
In true Fellabaum fashion, someone ended up sick, actually a few did. One was my daughter, Jo-Jo. At first we thought it was from too much junk food, jumping around and laughing too much (all sounds like good stuff to me so I don't know why it would make you sick). Then Zack, our 3 yr. old nephew, spent the whole night "sick". Poor Lori, all the stink was in her adjoining rooms. Sunday was spent with most of the gang sacked out on any available flat surface and Mike wasn't feeling so good either. When we left for our flight on Monday Jane was sick and Ryan called us at the airport to let us know that his daughter, Ashley, was now sick. Somehow, Naomi, Brooke & I avoided the plague.
It is so great to be home! I let out a huge Woo Hoo when we finally pulled away from the airport in Flint. Naomi is still trying to figure out when to sleep and eat but she's doing great. She is experiencing a lot of "firsts" and every moment has been a blast. I will be posting more pictures as soon as I can find my camera. It has gotten lost in a pile somewhere in the house.

Guangzhou slide show

Almost home

Today's the day. We get sworn in. One of the families that we have been going to dinner with the last few evenings were sworn in yesterday and left today. They are actually from Lake, Michigan. They had quite a scare and had to go to the hospital yesterday. Their daughter got bumps all over her. Which in the states would not be a big deal. Parents might even wait a day or two to see if they developed into anything else but since they were leaving today they had to make sure it was nothing serious. If it were chicken pox or something infectious they would quarrantine them for two weeks to the hotel room. They turned out to be mosquito bites (strange since I've not seen a mosquito here). At customs you have to go through a heat sensor to make sure you are not running a fever. Officials also do a quick physical check of the babies. They got a doctor's note stating that it was bug bites so that they didn't get detained. They shared their horror story at dinner last night and we all started to envision what it would be like to be quarrantined to the room for another 2 weeks. You can imagine the conversations. So now we are all paranoid of being near anyone that might be sick. One of the parents came over to us at breakfast to tell us about a table near them was overheard saying that they had a virus going through their group. It was probably just food stuff but our friends got right up and left.
Now that it is finally time to go we are discovering it is a little bittersweet having to leave. It really has been an interesting experience. We have enjoyed the company of our new friends and hope that we can keep in touch with them. We will be going to say goodbye to Judy today too. We have to leave for the airport at 5:30 AM.
I'm looking forward to a nice cold fountain pop with ice and Mike is anxious to get a good cup of coffee.