One month as Brennan's mother!

I know...I know... It has been a couple weeks since I have updated!! I'm sorry. I wasn't sure how many people read this since it says there are no followers but nearly 60-100 people have viewed each of my posts!!! So...I'm guessing someone might be interested in how we are doing. But I am a writer...I have been since I was in Middle School. I even use to go to Writer's Camp. Yes...I did!!! I have written books (just never got any published so I guess I write for fun). Anyways, like I was saying before I distracted myself... Since I am a writer I can't just sit down and write a little two sentence update. Have I had time to write longer than a two sentence update? NO! I have been bonding and spending time with my amazing family and this new little bundle of pure perfection!!!

First of all...our trip home was JUST as horrible as our trip to China! I keep telling everyone that God had to give us a horrible trip because the bonding and transition with my son has been seemless!!! We got in the van to head to the train station in GZ (Guangzhou) so we could take the bullet train to Hong Kong the night before we flew out. We bought our train tickets ahead of time online before we left (never will I do that again). Since we had troubles getting TO China and we had a van pick us up at the airport so we didn't miss Gotcha we didn't pick up our train tickets in Hong Kong so when we went to the ticket counter to pick them up to leave GZ to go to HK they said we had to pick them up in HK on our way into GZ and since we didn't do that they voided them. So now I am out $150!!! Then since we thought we had the tickets waiting for us we didn't get any more money converted. So we stood in the middle of this train station with no tickets, no Yuan or Hong Kong Dollars!!! We called our guide to see if she could help (NOPE)!!! All she said was ask around. Of course we had already done that for over an hour and a half. Then I saw this group of business professionals. I walked up to them with a screaming child (he was soooo done being there and he was hungry and tired since it was past his bedtime) and asked them if they had change. Thankfully they did and they exchanged our $100 USD for their HK dollars and we bought 2 tickets to get to HK! Then we get in the train station and this lady rudely shoved my daughter out of the elevator and threw her bags in the elevator and hurt the lady next to me in a wheelchair. Then she stepped in. I went down the elevator and waited for my daughter. We almost missed the train because this lady and her husband had over 7 oversized bags and shoved them all on the elevator and shoved my daughter off once again. So we got to HK about 11:30pm (way past all of our bedtime...lol). We checked in (thank goodness I was able to get this hotel on points with my bank and booked it before I left). We arranged for shuttle to the airport the next morning and went to BED! The next morning we got on the plane and headed to Seattle!! My son became a US Citizen on Wed Oct 22, 2014. Then we flew to Detroit. My boy was such a pro for the flights. He was amazing. Then we hit problems. Since we were still flying standby there were no seats to Tampa, FL. There were no seats to anywhere in FL any time in the next 5 days!!! Are you kidding? I couldn't stay in a hotel for those days. I couldn't afford it PLUS I just wanted to be home with my kids. I missed them. So we asked them to get us as close as we could. Then there was the problem that out of the 7 people who were trying to help us they couldn't all work together and I was running from the gate (that was trying to hold a plane for us) to the help desk (that was extremely helpful) to the red Delta assistance phones. I felt like I was running a marathon. UGH. Finally we got 3 seats (they couldn't like Brennan's with ours so that was the issue since ours were round trip and his were one way) to Nashville. We got into Nashville at 10pm their time and got a rental car (excpt it took 2 hours to get a car because that is just our luck). We drove straight through to home in Tampa, FL. It was a 12 hour flight that we had to turn into 18 hours because Brennan HATED the car seat and if he was awake he was screaming screaming screaming and kicking and trying to get out. He HATED it!!! He did sleep a lot since he was on China time so that made it easier and we had to make frequent stops so he could get out and run. We met my family at the airport since we had to go there to pick up our luggage that arrived the day before us and return the car. It was so amazing!!! My children and the Sotolongo Family met us there!!! My children even made special shirts for them all to wear.

I cried like a baby!!!

We were home!!!!

Bonding has gone amazingly well. He is very very bonded and attached to me and Chelsea. He loves his brothers and sisters. We took picture books with us to China for him with several pics of everyone plus we skyped every morning. He knew everyone's name after the first few days of talking to them. (He still looks at those picture books all of the time).

Brennan was baptized along with his brother, Trevor, and sister, Arianna, on Orphan Sunday! It was a beautiful day and lots of family came to celebrate this special day with us.

My oldest and my youngest!!! How sweet is this?????!!!!!!  <3

My 3 youngest that got baptized!!1

Brennan has only been part of our family for almost a month now and I am amazed at how smart he is and how fast he catches on.

Words he has learned (including the meaning)
Mommy (Not mama anymore)

I wuv foo (I love you)
Brennan (He doesn't want to be called by his Chinese name)
Brittany, Chase, Chelsea, Andrew, David, Jose, Paige, Arianna, Ameliya, Trevor, and Carter
Backpack
Eat
Cup

Drink
Mommy Truck
Carseat
Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth, Fingers, Toes, Belly
Car
Cow

Horse
Sticker

Good (with the thumbs up in reference to food)
Puppy
Kitty Kitty meow (that's what he calls our cat)
Please
Sock, Shoe
No (not my favorite but he knows it...lol)
Yes
Bye, bye
Mommy do
Yay Brennan
Water
Hello
All done

Frozen (yes my daughter taught him that because she loves everything Frozen)

Potty

And so many many more and he is learning more every day!!!!

He will not speak to anyone who is not family which is amazing for bonding that he already knows who his family is...

He knows several nursery rhymes nd their movements too!!!

His transition has been so smooth and amazing! I lay awake at night just looking at his perfect little face. He loves that mommy gives him a hundred kisses a day and never gets annoyed (thank you son for that...lol). 

All of my children have embraced him with so much love that it is amazing to see. He LOVES to wrestle with the older boys and uses them as his own personal jungle gym...lol.

I can't say enough great things about my son, his bonding, his attachement, the transition, our love for him or my appreication to everyone reading this that shared, helped, donated, prayed, and helped us to bring this little miracle home!!!

 I love my children!!!