he so cute - nah-rak mak

Today we met him. We held him in our arms. We comforted him and played with him. We fed him and watched him fall asleep. It was perfect. The beginning was heartwrenching, cause he would get to a whimper and then look at us and get this bewildered look on his face and start crying again. He was afraid of the way we looked. He'd let himself calm down in our arms and then look at our faces or our hair and cry. After a while we got him playing. He liked to be in Ben's lap best. We had some wonderful smiles and laughs that weren't caught on video. He liked when i'd repeat his actions (like pounding on the window the same amount of times as he had or bending backwards and stretching) and he'd laugh and laugh. He is so beautiful. We held his little hands and rubbed his little belly. After lunch we brought him to our room and he fell asleep on our bed while we rubbed his back. he is amazing, cuter than i ever dreamed of, and already smiling and laughing with us. here's a couple video clips.

Hi everyone. We are here. We meet Solomon at 10:30 tomorrow morning, which is Sunday morning, which is 10:30 Sat night there in Austin and Memphis, 9:30 in Ogden.

We are staying at a nice place, took a crazy ride in a tuk tuk today and went all over town for less than $1.00. We thought the driver was so great, then came back to our hotel and read in the guidebook 'beware of tuk tuk drivers who offer to take you around for 20 baht an hour, because they will take you to tailors and gem stores for which they hope to get a commission.' which is exactly what he did. But we didn't buy anything there.

Here's a pretty awful story with all the gory details. The flight was rough because i got terribly sick about an hour before we landed in korea, headache, fever, vomiting again and again. As i was in the bathroom throwing up, they announced on the intercom that certain serious influenza viruses were spreading in korea and if you have any flu like symptoms, you should contact airport health department for possible quarantine. When we entered the korean airport there were masked employees handing out a written quarantine statement saying the same thing. I hid my airsickness bag under my jacket and ran for the bathroom, which was blocked off with yellow rope that said, 'keep out - quarantine area.' It even had a guard at the door who crossed her arms in a X accross her chest. I was trying not to get worked up, trying not to believe i had the swine flu, and trying to hide the fact i was sick from airport personnel incase they quarantined me in Korea. i found another bathroom that was simply "closed for cleaning." Finally an open bathroom. Then transfering through our security checkpoint to get to the bangkok flight, i threw up (in an airsickness bag) right as it was my turn. all the employees were masked and there was warning:flu signs everywhere, but they let me through. i was so scared that i would not be able to hold my new baby. i was crying and praying hard. i slept at the gate, and woke up fine. no fever, no headache and no nausea. i've been fine all day today, holding down two meals. thank God.

we meet our son tomorrow and i can hold him and kiss him and be his mom. we only have from 10:30 til 2:30 tomorrow with him. monday we have from 10:30 til 2:30 and then go with him to visit his foster family.

we are excited and ready.

love to all,

jessica

Here we go.

We are so close. It's a whole different feeling now. We are no longer waiting, we are on our way. We leave Wed, spend the night in Dallas, leave for Thailand on Thursday. We meet him on Sunday morning. We get to spend most of the afternoon with him on Sunday, a little more time with him on Monday. One of those days we will be able to visit his foster family. Then he is ours forever on Wed. We'll be updating this blog a few times throughout the process. We get to go to an island on friday, a little bungalow on the beach and get to know our little one. Then we come home on Oct 3rd. It's really going to happen. We are so excited.

Love to everyone.

Thanks for all your love and prayers.

jessica

More Pictures & A Little bit of Hope

Hi everybody! We got word from the US Visa dept and the Thai govt. that we are approved to travel. We don't yet have a date, but it could be August. (or maybe September.) WE are so excited and feel tremendously blessed. We are moving down to Austin TX on July 24th. Ben has received a fellowship at UT Austin to get a master's in creative writing. How cool is that! There will be many huge changes in our lives in the next few weeks.

New Pictures

Hi everybody. WE have new pictures of our beautiful little boy.

Our Beautiful Little Boy

Hi Everyone. We've just been blessed with a healthy baby boy.
His name is Solomon Thanapat Roberts. He is in Thailand with a foster family.
We will be able to go to Thailand sometime this summer and bring our baby home.