Hello all. All is well here at the Pleune household. We are doing well and adjusting to being a happy family of four. Max has had an irritating skin problem that just won't seem to go away. We went to a skin specialist yesterday and she prescribed a cream that she thinks will help a great deal. It has some steroids in it and should help. Although the steroids might help, it looks like it might hurt his chances of entering the Tour De France this year. Dave Roberts, could you fill in for Max? We just love our new family. Everyday seems to bring new things. Everyday Max seems to understand more and more. He mimicks us now very well and seems to be taking right to the whole English thing. discipline is a regular thing now. As with any 2 year old, he can be a little naughty. mostly it is just him touching and playing with things that he knows is a no-no. A friend of ours from our church invited us to a Chinese New years celebration this past week at a local church. There were a number of Chinese adoptive families that were there. It was so fun. It was a potluck with all authentic Chinese dishes (way different than the Americanized version). After dinner we enjoyed some programming for the kids. Esther and Max had a ball. it was truly a unique experience that we hope to attend again next year.

We would love to hear from you or look at your blog. Please leave a comment for us and let us know how you are doing. If you have a blog, let us know what your address is. It is really easy to leave a comment. Go ahead and try.

Love,

The Joes 4

Greetings from the momentarily quiet of our own West Olive home. We arrived home safely, though a bit haggared from the journey. So thankful to be home and we were greeted with enthusiasm by various family and friends. Esther and Maximus traveled very well, though well for a 2 year old includes hours of exhaustive attempts at entertainment on a crowded airplane. We were all relieved to land on Grand Rapids.
Our homecoming was great too. Maximus seem to feet comfortable here and is having fun exploring all his new things. He loves our company and is happy. Until bedtime. We are struggling to get him aquainted with our time zone. And Max only sleeps a few hours at a time. Please pray for his transition and a comfortable and safe blessing over him in the nights ahead. At times it's hard to comfort him without the help of a lot of language yet. And without some knowledge of sleeping quarters and his bedtime habits at the orphanage, we all feel like we're missing something and just want him to not be afraid or anxious. He does continue to understand more and more every moment though.

We ventured to Meijers on Friday for a bedside railguard and clothes and few other necessary items, like, I don't know...food. We thought it important that Max was introduced to one stop shopping right away and experience the penny pony ride.
Needless to say, we are settling in and plan to keep up the blog in the days to come, blessings and stay tuned.
The Joes

Greetings from the momentarily quiet of our own West Olive home. We arrived home safely, though a bit haggared from the journey. So thankful to be home and we were greeted with enthusiasm by various family and friends. Esther and Maximus traveled very well, though well for a 2 year old includes hours of exhaustive attempts at entertainment on a crowded airplane. We were all relieved to land on Grand Rapids.
Our homecoming was great too. Maximus seem to feet comfortable here and is having fun exploring all his new things. He loves our company and is happy. Until bedtime. We are struggling to get him aquainted with our time zone. And Max only sleeps a few hours at a time. Please pray for his transition and a comfortable and safe blessing over him in the nights ahead. At times it's hard to comfort him without the help of a lot of language yet. And without some knowledge of sleeping quarters and his bedtime habits at the orphanage, we all feel like we're missing something and just want him to not be afraid or anxious. He does continue to understand more and more every moment though.

We ventured to Meijers on Friday for a bedside railguard and clothes and few other necessary items, like, I don't know...food. We thought it important that Max was introduced to one stop shopping right away and experience the penny pony ride.
Needless to say, we are settling in and plan to keep up the blog in the days to come, blessings and stay tuned.
The Joes

Hi all, it is time for us to come home. Amy and I are packing up all of our stuff and we will rise and possibly shine tomorrow morning at 3:30 am. We have had a great time. The people of China have been very good to us. We arrive in Grand Rapids on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 pm. Northwest Flight 464 from Detroit to Grand Rapids. Please don't feel like you have to be there for us. Thank you all for following us on our trip and for all the support and prayers. Your kind words have been so special for us. We have many pictures and stories to tell. Love you all,

The Pleune family,
Joe, Amy Jo, Esther, and Max
The Joe's

Hi All,
It's Tuesday afternoon here. (mOnday late-night for you) and we sure are receiving multiple reports of snowfall. WOW! Is it starting to break up yet, I wonder if our plane will make it in if it continues.
We finished our paperwork for Max's visa yesterday. 2 hours of filling out forms. Amyjo did that while daddy and Karen kept the natives from getting restless. whew! two hours and a lot of money later, we recieved the call this morning that all the papers got the stamp of approval, so we can expect things to go smoothly tomorrow at our embassy appt. We will be interviewed as a family as to our reasons for adopting a boy with special needs and our intentions as parents with regard to this child. It should all go fine..if not, I trust Esther will charm them, as she has everyone this trip. People continue to be quite enchanted with her and Lauren too, wherever we go. Yesterday at the park, Esther took a bubble machine we bought and had a mob of young brightly dressed children chasing her to pop the bubbles. This went on for at least a half hour and through two bottles of bubble solution. It was really sweet to see a bunch of chinese children and Esther in the middle of it. I couldn't help but smile, as she is just like her dad, loves a crowd and is more than able to command its attention.
Joe pulled off a ping-pong game with a local guy at White Mountain yesterday. And this morning
he met up again with some hackers (hacky-sac) which are very popular here. Amyjo still wants to join up with a tae chi class. Down by the river on the walk, there are always people exercising this way in small and large groups. Old and young, just out in the park doing their daily exercise. Who needs a gym.
We are all ready to come home, though we're not as anxious since we are all together here. I can't imagine the trip without Esther. What an excellent decision.
There is a couple here who has been detained because their little girl has chicken pox. The government won't let them leave. They have been quarantined in their hotel room since they arrived and have had a miserable experience here in Guangzhou. We all feel so bad for them. Please pray for William and Dawn Sciokowski.
So later this afternoon, we will hit a shopping mall and take advantage of Chinese prices on all the things we've come hoping to score on. Can't wait! More later.

Oh, OK, yes we arrive in Grand Rapids airport on Thursday at 2:30pm, and anyone who would like to come to welcome us is invited to be there. We will be exhausted, as we will be repeating Thursday by then, but we will be so excited to see everyone and we will have our best traveled face on! We love you. and if you can't come, we love you anyway and you will meet our precious Maximus soon enough.
Love,
The JOES

He did not like his physical examination at all! Who does? Good news! His heart sounds good.
When we get home, we will se if it looks good. please pray for his heart. Thank you
A fun little park close by
The daughter of some friends we have been hanging out with a lot. Jenna
Out on the town at a restaurant


Our coordinator Jane is teaching the girls how to count to 10 in Chinese as we wait to get into the ten o clock service at church
The girls here are adorable
A beautiful mountain park we were at today. temp was 76
On the cable car headed up the mountain
This experience has been very cool! We are going on a crusie tonight on the Pearl river. It takes off right by our hotel. We are doing great! Thank you Angie for the great advice. Max's skin is looking better. Amy is also doiung better. Lauren and Karen are having a ball and feeling healthy.

Anyone can post a comment on this blog now. I have fixed it. Thanks so much for all of the kind words. We love you all. We are nearing the end and soo looking forward to beginning life at our home. Will blog soon.

Joe P

Hey all, I think I have fixed it so that anyone can comment on this blog. Give it a try once more. it should work now.
Thanks,
The Joe's

Greetings from the White Swan Hotel. Apparently the four-star experience of Guangzhou. It is very beautiful, with ornate artwork and hand carved sculptures out of wood and jade everywhere. There's a big waterfall in the lobby and great ponds with chinese giant goldfish. Kinda pricy though, we bounced down into the dining area and found that to feed our now family of 4 would cost us $60 american dollars. Yikes! we've been averaging about 12. So we quizzed the nearest american families (which are everywhere here in Guangzhou) and found that Lucy's is the place to dine. American-like food and hollywood posters all over the walls. Joe says his hamburger had the essence of china in it's flavor, but we do think it was beef. We laughed when we saw blueberry cheescake on the menu and just had to see it. It turned out to be a round mix between jello and cheese with little red fruit bits and seeds in it. MMMM..... We told our coordinator that we will try and send some Michigan blueberries to her if we can.

Thank you for your prayers. Max has been going to bed at 8 and getting up at 2am, and then again at 5:15am ready for his day. Needless to say, our days begin early here. Esther seems to be handling it well. I was feeling very run down and sick yesterday when I arrived here. But one steamy hot bath and a cup of nyquil along with prayer, tylenol and two oranges has perked me up again. I was needing a full nights sleep,and last night Max and all of us slept from 9pm to 6:30 with no wake ups. Thank you Jesus!

This morning was Max's Medical examination appt. He needed two different doctors to look over his scar and listen to his heartbeat, but he tested clean, and apparently has a wonderful big head. Beginning at 8, the clinic is full lined with families and their adopted children. Everyone looks so elated and sparkly, and I think Wow, what a thing, adoption. Everyone wins. All the perfect little faces that have just been given a name. (at least a name that means something more than 'year of the monkey') And I think, yeah, this has God design written all over it. We are so happy..and overwhelmed too, but so happy and humbled to be part of this piece of God again.
I used some of my rash creme and salve on Max's skin,and Joe and I both thought it looked alittle better today. And his congestion seems to be lifting too. It's sunny here so we're hoping any cold will just bake right of him.
Also a personal note of mine. Maximus loves his daddy. They rough and tumble all over the place and he just laughs and can't get enough. If daddy puts his arms out Max will just come a barrelling into them and giving five's is a favorite too. He's content to be with either one of us and that is so great. Many of the children only really bond with one parent this quickly.

More later...
the Joes

A great buy. We bought this little roadster right away and it has been priceless.
This kid loves to go fast and play hard
A roller skating rink on top of a multi level mall. Pretty cool
Many hours spent in hotel room. You really learn to make the most of every cubic foot!
Out on the town as a family!
Please don't spit any food on my head. He always has food in his mouth. he is an eating machine.
When he is up, he is up! But when he is down-He is soooo down. 2 hour naps are no problem.



Hello all, we had a big day of travel today. We packed up all our stuff and said goodbye to Hangzhou, China and our good friend Mae (Adoption coordinator) We flew two hours south to Guangzhou. Flight went just fine. Max really seemed to like it. He slept the last hour of the flight on Amy's lap. It was quite a big deal to move the whole family from the hotel to the airport and then from the Guangzhou airport to our current hotel. We are very tired tonight. Got to Guangzhou and it was T-shirt weather. 70 degrees! Yahoo. We call him Max now all the time and he is learning so much. He knows how to put his own socks and pants on. He is very smart. He can be a little naughty and we are already working on that. might as well start right away. Max loves water (baths) he loves food and many different kinds, especially scrambled eggs and noodles. He smiles and laughs a lot and always seems to want to have a good time! He is constantly on the move and I am developing eyes on the other 3 sides of my head. He is learning new words every day. He is very smart. he mumbles some chinese (we can tell) He is very sweet and loving and adores his mother already. We are bonding as well. he always has to know where we are. Esther is constantly having to tell him to leave her stuff alone and protect her turf. She loves him very much and they have a ball together. Esther has to sit by him at every meal and wants to push him in his stroller all the time.

We could use some prayer for a couple of things. Max has a pretty serious skin problem. It looks like a form of scabies. A very red and scratchy rash kind of thing. We will be taking him to the medical examiner tomorrow morning. it seems to bother him a little, but not too terrible much. Also, Amy has come down with something. She had some serious aches today and her throat is sore. headaches are a part of it too. Please pray for them. Karen and Lauren are doing great. We pretty much spend a lot of time together. We are having a ball.
Tonight Lauren and Esther got Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches for dinner and loved them.

Well, we will post more tomorrow probably. Thank you all for the great posts and emails to joep@rivershores.com We have really loved hearing from you all. We haven't had much time recently to respond to them all so please forgive us. We do read them all though and love it!

We will keep you posted on Amy and Max's condition.

Love,

The Joe's family.

PS We are 11 hours ahead of you if you are eastern standard time. Se we just got done with our Friday. We just wanted to let you know that it was a great day and we think you will love it!

Bye