Bath time!

Rubea really loves to take a bath. She wants to play in there for an hour or more at a time.
Since she can not sit up, she has to be held. ugh........She is not easy to hold up, either. So, I got the not so bright idea that I could get her a floatie with a seat in it to hold her up, then she could float around and play in my bath tub! SHE HATED IT!!!! So, the boys decided they would use it and have fun! lol

mmmmmm.......

The cake balls I made....they tasted great! I need to practice

my *dipping* skills.

The Hunt with the rest of the Family.....

They are all so cute!

Easter morning.....

Looks like they all got an egg or two!

This STINKS!

I can't sleep!! I slept about 4 hours on Monday night and Tuesday night.
Last night I slept 6 hours. Here I am up at 5:20 am. I NEVER get up this
early....unless we have a Dr. appt. Maybe I am becoming a morning person!
LOL No, I doubt it, surely I'll get past this!!!

Ok, I need to switch the laundry.

Carla

The Name will be.....

........Nathan!!!!!

The day we were with Suda, she talked to Note about his name.
His first response was he didn't need another name. She asked him later
about a name and gave him a couple of choices. He chose Nathan.
Which, of course can be shortened to Nate...can't get much closer to
Note than Nate! For now, he is still Note.

Tonight, we asked him again....Nathan was the only name he liked!
He sure can make some faces when he doesn't like something! LOL

The rest of the story....

Mime at the weekend market

weekend market

weekend market

mmmm.....pig stomach!

Suda and Note

So, we did get our Visa Friday afternoon! We did some shopping and lounging around on Saturday. We hit the Night Bazaar Saturday night. Sadly, we did not buy much this trip.  

Good for us, though! We just didn't find much...

Sunday we went to lunch and to the *weekend market* with our friend Suda.

She was one of the Thai workers at the small orphanage Kaylea and Note

were in.It closed about 18 months ago. She was such a doll to take us 

shopping and spend time with us.It was good for Note to have that 

closure, too! She spent time talking to him and explaining a few things

to him for us. She brought a bunch of his papers, updates, pictures, etc from

CCC and then a photo album they made for him and some extra pictures

from a trip he took. We feel so blessed that so many people loved him

and had so many pictures of him for us. I know when he is older, he will

appreciate so many pictures from his past.

We checked out of our hotel at 3:35 am on Monday and headed for the

airport. Note loved the first flight to Tokyo. The next flight he couldn't 

seem to get comfortable and was a bit restless. The last flight he slept 

all the way home.  

The kids were at the airport waiting for us! They seemed to overwhelm

Note, for about a minute. He and Ethan are big buddies now.  They all 

finally went to bed about 2am. Dad let them jump on the trampoline at

midnight... ;-)  I am certain that is what wound them up for the next couple

of hours!! Note and Ethan BOTH slept in their own beds....that is a

big accomplishment for Ethan!  

Today, daddy has the boys getting hair cuts... Note is happy! 

 

We are all happy!!

Love from the Lamberts,

John, Carla, Johnathan, Emilea,

Note, Ethan, Kaylea, Owen & Rubea

We are home!

We had so many issues with the internet the past few days, so I waited until we were home.

I'll add photos tomorrow and do a real update.  

Just wanted to let y'all know we are home. Safe. Happy!!

Where did I leave off??

Master Phaken!!!
Making the little chick *chirp* I showed him once and that is all it took!!!!

At the board meeting, before he got sick....poor baby!!
Joe Cool aka Note with the Hamburgular??
His new toy...BARBIE'S friend! LOL He says he is saving it for Kaylea!! Likely story....

I wasn't suppose to be taking pictures at the Coach store, but you know me.....the Rebel! I risked my life for my sisters and daughter!! hahahaha

I think I'll share our experience at the orphanage yesterday....

We went back to take our donations and visit with Phaken. 

He is a little boy that we really wanted to adopt, but, 

realized that we needed to find a family for him, instead! 

Luckily we found an awesome family and we will get to visit him

and watch him grow up! He has arthrogryposis, the same disability

that Kaylea and Owen have! Just like my 2 he is bright and 

NOTHING stops him! 

Thankfully he is going to a home where 2 of his siblings also have

AMC (arthrogryposis) So, this is nothing new to this family either!

This little guy was so much fun to play with. We played for 2 hours.

His family is going to have soooooooo much fun with him! 

I laughed and giggled so much yesterday! 

Apparently the volunteer took him and another child to the 

developmental doctor one day.  She had another volunteer with her

to help out. Phaken had his turn with the doc, so he was sitting 

in the back of the room with the volunteer. 

The doc was asking the other child questions (you know, 

to see what they knew) and Phaken is sitting in the back of

the room giving the answers before the other child had a chance!!! LOL

We have just been hanging out for the past 24 hours. We had to cram so much in

the first few days, I think we wore Note out. He has been tired. Plus, he is still not

feeling well. But he is a trooper! I think we'll head out to the night bazaar again

tonight. We need to do some shopping!

Until tomorrow........

Carla, John and Note

He melts my heart...

Immigration and visa paper work.......
Joe cool.....while we are making copies.......
Playing with his gum......ugh........
Night bazaar.........
Daddy and Note.....(he tries to dress like daddy!)

.......everytime I hear him say *mama* He has such a timid little vioce! 

I am sure it will not last, but for now is very sweet. 

He giggles at everything, too! Or, at least he is today.

I forgot to mention before that he vomited several times yesterday 

in the taxi on the way to the embassy. After all of our running around 

we went back to the hotel and slept.  He seems much better today. 

We are done with most of our work.We just need to pick up the VISA! 

Apparently there was a *malfunction* with the internet and the email 

to D.C. did not make it...so we did not get the Visa today. 

Hopefully...tomorrow. 

Especially now that we finally have a ticket for him.

Oh, and of course we will be going back to the orphanage tomorrow to take 

CANDY to the kids and of course the donations. 

But, handing out candy is the BEST part! 

I could do that every day!! It is so much fun to play with the kids.

I will get to visit 1 on 1 with my favorite little Phaken. 

We tried to get Thailand to allow us to adopt him and Note at the 

same time....until we were approached about Rubea. 

We knew she was meant to be ours, so we told them we would

only be adopting Note. We didn't have much of a chance anyway. 

However, my very dear friend is adopting him and she sent me to 

Thailand with a complete wardrobe for this baby, complete with a 

memory card for my camera to fill with pictures and video. 

So, we will be meeting him tomorrow around 10 am.......LORI!!

(give Leo a hug from us...we are thinking of him!)

Ok, boys are restless, so I guess we are off to do some more shopping on the streets!!

Good Night from Bangkok!

We are still here......

Tuesday after the posts and pictures I graciously provided, we took Note to the hospital for his medical exam. This is required for the Visa back to the U.S. We were waiting and started talking with an older gentleman from Austrailia. Turns out, he was a volunteer at the Viengping orphanage where Ethan *Fong* is from! He remembers him and has lots of pictures to share with us when he gets back to Chiangmai!! WOO HOO!! He couldn't believe how different he looks now! He was such a nice man. I got caught up on all the gossip in Chiangmai! For those of you know who Brooke is, she is doing great!! That was so nice to hear. Of course John and I are really wanting to move there in a couple of years when he retires! Better start preparing now.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was our board meeting....of course Note (the offical spelling) being so old, we were next to last! Ugh....it was hot waiting. No A/C in an office building just sitting and waiting! Until our turn to meet with the board...then it was FREEZING!!!! Of course, they want to know WHY we want another child, what our plans for school for him are, plans for me working, what is going on with Kaylea and Ethan, who was keeping them, etc.... This time they did NOT ask us if we would be willing to adopt another Thai child. I guess we are done here! Now 2 countries won't allow us to adopt...that SHOULD tell me something!! lol

For those of you who have or are adopting.....I got us completely through the immigration/visa process on my own!! Go Carla!! That is no easy feat. If you will be adopting from Thailand, I will be writing up step by step instructions, complete with addresses in Thai. I will be selling them for $1000. let me know if you'd like a copy!! Ok, just kidding, I'll happily mail them to you for FREE!!!

I need to sign off now and head over to pick up my prize...the VISA!!

We'll post pictures later on this afternoon when we go chill at Starbucks!!

Yes, Girl, I will get you a Bangkok mug.......we got ours 5 years ago, but they still look the same.

Enjoy......
Carla

More pictures....

By his bed at the orphanage.
He isn't really sure what to think......
Playing video games at the Tesco Lotus, last night!
This morning...looking at a magazine!
This one is for MY EMMY GIRL!!!!

Now that I found a place that works......I am working hard at catching

up!!!! Enjoy!!

Let's try again....

The sign in front of the orphanage.







Hugs from one of his Nannies.

I am having trouble trying to get pictures to upload......grr......

So, we came down the street to my FAVORITE Starbucks in Bangkok (Lori, they have tons, you'll be right at home). I am using their intertnet, we'll see if it works anybetter! LOL

I can post now!!

I finally figured out the Thai on blogspot! Thanks Lori for posting for me yesterday!

Not is doing GREAT!! He is so much fun!! It is nice having one a little older. He can eat

on his own, brush his own teeth, WALK ;-), etc...you get the picture! He always has a smile.

Of course at the orphanage, he wouldn't have much to do with us. Now that we are on our

own, he is holding our hand, trying to communicate, and playing. He is loving watching

cartoons. He and Ethan will get along great!!

We are in Thailand FINALLY!!!  The trip was LONG!! It started out leaving an hour late from San Antonio. Then with bad weather in MI, we just made our flight in Detroit only to sit on the runway for over an hour. It may have been longer, but we passed out. I have no clue how long we were in the air before I woke up! We had headwind on the way to Japan and were a couple hours late. We RAN....LITERALLY RAN to our plane....then sat on that runway for an hour! I fell asleep again and slept through that take off!! LOL! We were due into Bangkok at 12:05 a.m. We finally landed about 1:30 a.m. and made it to our hotel at about 3:15 a.m. Of course I still had to wrap all the gifts and be ready to leave the hotel at 8:30. Finally about 5:30 a.m., after much needed showers, we got to bed. I slept about an hour and got up, ready to talk to the kids and eat breakfast. We left the hotel about 8:30 and caught a taxi. Of course, we forgot all the gifts and had to go back! We made it to the Social worker's office at exactly 9:30! Then we went to the orphanage.......

We now have Not with us! He was very shy and nervous at first. We visited his room and passed out some gifts. Then the driver of the orphanage brought us back to our hotel. When we got out of the van to go into the hotel, HE GRABBED MY HAND!!!! It was so sweet!! I was shocked. He holds my hand now all the time. Of course we have only had him 4 hours, but he is great! Smiles a lot and is very agreeable, too! He isn't much bigger than Ethan. In fact, his hands are smaller :-) He ate a fruit roll up in the room, he was confused as to what it was!! We just finished lunch! He ate it ALL!!!!! He is probably going to eat a TON like Ethan!!

Lori, we have an appointment to go back to the orphanage on Friday morning to visit your "Thai guy". They gave me a brochure with the address so we could show the cab driver. There is a picture of him in there! I grabbed an extra one for you! I'm nice like that....sometimes!

I am not going to add pictures at this time, I don't want to down load them to this computer. So, we'll grab the lap top and take it somewhere we can get Wi Fi and I'll add some pictures. Things here are the same as the last 2 trips!

The social worker laughed at me this morning when I asked her if I could adopt 1 more!!! LOL! I'll take that as a NO!!!!

Much love from Bangkok~

John, Carla & NOTE!!!!!

12 hours to go...

Ok, we are down to 12 hours until take off. We still need to pack our bags ;-) We do have the donations and Not's bag packed! AND, we still need to make one more trip to Wal-Mart. We forgot to buy some almonds to take to friend there!

We are so excited to be on our way! The kids want us to bring them back a Tuk-Tuk!! I doubt we can get one back on the plane! I'm willing to try. CHEAP transportation!

Science Fair Projects....

I am shocked that my kindergartner, 1st grader and 2nd grader

are all 3 required to participate in the Science Fair at school.  

I don't think I EVER participated in a Science Fair.  

Probably a good idea though, since I caught my hair on fire 

in 9th grade!  

So, we cheated and all 3 kids did the same project.  

They checked to see what sinks and what floats.

It was funny to hear what they though would float!!  

They had lists to choose from and on one list it had *Texas Symbols* 

and *Maps & Globes* as a choice for a science project.  

I have no clue how you make a science fair project out of 

one of those two subjects! ;-)  

I'll post pictures of their boards when they finish....

We got an email tonight....

....from a volunteer in Thailand. She has gotten to know Not over
the past year. She has kept us in pictures and updates over the
past year, too! She has been such a blessing to us. Tonight she
tells me in the email that "Not is sooooo excited that we are
coming and that he can't wait!" Music to my ears! I have been
concerned that he, at 11, may not want to be adopted.
My cup runeth over.........

Why did you NEED me??

That was the question of the night at the dinner table.
For weeks now, Owen has been trying to figure out
this whole adoption/family/where kids come from/etc.
He wanted to know where MY mommy and
daddy got ME from. Then where did we get Rissa
from, etc.....

So, tonight the question was *Why did you NEED me?*

I love it!!!!!!!

He came up with his own answer, though!
He said *You just want a big family?*

Not's 11th Birthday!!

Well, since Not was not able to be with us yet on his birthday in

January, we held a little party in his honor! I changed the

header with some pictures of that time.

We will have big celebrating to do in a week when we finally

have him in our arms!!! It is hard to believe that he

will be with us in just about a week. It is now Monday morning

in Thailand!!! Who's ready to go???? WE ARE!!!!!!!!