HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY?

What?! It is Micah's 5th birthday already?(Well it was on Monday, I have been late for everything lately). Where has the time gone. It is amazing how big he is getting. He still acts like a two year old at times, going through a "MY WAY ONLY" phase right now but I am hoping that he grows out of it soon. But that smile gets him out of a lot of trouble.

The scratched nose and brused tooth is the result of a nose dive into the sidewalk. That boy is so tough.

I just had to take a moment to say hey to all. I have been completely absent from blogger world for awhile, I don't even check my friends blogs much any more. But I have to say that it is good business that keeps me away. Out of the blue 7 weeks ago, we decided to move and now we are the owners of TWO homes. One we are preparing to move into( hopefully soon) and the other we are trying to keep in perfect order as we showing it to sellers. The best way to keep your house looking "show ready" with 5 kids and a dog...... clean the house while the kids are at school and don't come home until bed time!

Sophia is doing well as we approach almost 8 months with us. We have started physical therapy, which she does not like much. But other than that, she is a very happy little girl. All the kids are excited to move but Sophia was not too happy at first. The new home was vacant when we looked at it and even though she like that she would have her own room, she was not happy that she would not have a bed, or toys or a table to eat at! After some explaining, she was then ok with the new home and very excited. You have to constantly remember their perspective on life from their past. We tend to go on with day to day life as we all get comfortable with our family, but there is always the past that reflects how you see the present.

Blessings to you all!

A Few Milestones

Hello all! It has been awhile but as you can guess, I am kind of busy. Things have been going very well with Sophia's adjustment. She is going to school full time and loves it. She even comes home and continues to practice her writing after her snack. That is probably why she is doing so well. She is getting close to getting up to grade level in her reading, which is amazing since 6 months ago she could not even speak english.

Speaking of 6 months ago. Sunday was 6 months since we first met our Sophia. She has come a long way, it seems like she has been with us so much longer than 6 months.

I have a video of her reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. A few weeks ago she probably did not have half of the words correct but I recorded her this weekend, it was so cute I had to post it.(Sorry I could not figure out how to rotate it an frankly didn't have the time to research it)

Health wise she is doing wonderful. We have her on medication which is really able to help her control going to the bathroom. Her MRI's of her spinal cord are inconclusive so we are just making sure she doesn't get worse with her incontinence and walking. We are now going to try to focus our attention on some physical therapy for her walking.

Another milestone this weekend was on March 5th. Micah has now been WITH us more than he was without us. WOW, it is hard to believe looking at him now that he spent the forst 2.5 years of his life in an orphanage. Oh there are things that come up that are definitely from his life in the orphanage but he has adjusted so well. Here is a picture of him before our court date in September of 2008 and here he is now:

And here are the two little buddies playing. They play together great, when they are not fighting.

Well, that is the quick update for now. Take care all!

Have a Blessed Christmas

Sorry I have not posted in forever. Life as you all know is busy and I have been really trying to focus on the top priorities in my life and the computer and posting on down on the list. But I could not miss this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Things are going very well. Sophia is adjusting well. SHe still has periods of grieving but the last question she asked about China was if she could go back and forth to live in China and then with us. It was hard to explain that that was not an option but I said to Russ that at least she wanted to be with us too!

We have had many medical appointments. The urologist put her on meds to reduce the pressures in her bladder and now we are working on a schedule to Cath her. It was horrible the first time I had to do it but we both are pros at it now. We are trying to figure things out to get her to be dry during the day but it is not going as quickly as I would like. I need to do some more research but with Christmas coming, it has not been a good time for reading. We also had an MRI to check out her back and get a baseline. But unfortunately, the doctor sees a thinning of the spinal cord and thinks there is a build up of fluid that is putting pressure in the spine. So right now we don't know what we have in store for Sophia except for more tests and appointments.

Sophia has been doing wonderful in school and wants to start the ELL program that would allow her to go all day. However with the start of cathing and the new unknowns about her back, we are going to hold off for a little while to see what happens.

We have had a wonderful morning and there is much more for the day so I nust be going. Here are some recent pictures and my gift to you from God's Word:

Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Psalm 95: 6-7a

A Little Boy Wants a Family

Isn't he adorable? No we are not adopting him. But I am hoping that there is someone out there who will.

I am advocating for this little who so wants to have a family. He has been in a group home in Beijing. He is 5 years old and was born with meningocele in his lower lumbar. He can run and walk but has incontinence with bowel and bladder so he wears a diaper. That is about the same description we had on Sophia one year ago and now she is home with us and we are so very blessed. His file is with Holt. You can check it out at

http://www.holtinternational.org/cgi/photolisting/display.cgi?ID=B10_28&Index_re=0

I have been in contact with a volunteer at the home, Lisa. He is the last of the children left from when she first arrived 4 years ago and he so wants a family. Can you imagine seeing other kids for the last 4 years finding their families and no family has come for you? His needs are so managable.

If you want to find out more infonformation about him you can contact Holt or my friend Lisa at ajrassi@gmail.com. They have more pictures and are wanting to help in finding his forever family. Please pass on this information to anyone who may be considering adoption and pray that his family finds him soon.

Sophia's First BIrthday with Us!

What a great day we had. Our Sophia is now 6 years old( it took us a little while to convince her that she was turning 6 because in China they are 1 once they are born so in China she would have been 7. But she trusted us that in America she was turning 6 and seemed fine with it). It was so nice to know that even though we missed the first 5 birthdays plus her birth, we will miss no more. Sophia has been counting down to her birthday and has been very excited. She had an idea of what was coming because both Russ and I have celebrated our birthday's since she has been home but they were simple compared to what she was going to have. We had a party on the weekend with my parents, brother and his family. There was cake, ballons, and presents and she did great. The only thing that was too hard for her was the sing 'Happy Birthday". Once we all started singing, she tried to hold a stiff upper lip but started to cry. I think it just reminded her too much of her foster family. So needless to say, no more happy birthday singing.

Thursday was her actual birthday and along with more presents and dinner at a Chinese restaurant, she got her ears pierced. Oh she was soo excited about this. She has been asking me since we were in China and I kept holding her off until her birthday to see if this is really what she wanted. Since she does not have much continence towards pain, I was concerned that once she felt any pain, she would break down cry and pull away, causing more pain. So all day we talked about it and I was up front that it would hurt but only for a little bit. I kept asking her and she still wanted to do it. So later that evening, we all went to the mall and she got her Hello Kitty earing. Aren't they so cute. They fit her to a tee. She did fairly well but the anticipation was what really got her. She had tears rolling down her face and I kept asking her if she wanted to go but NO she wanted those earings. So I held her in my lap and we had two people do it at once( they were great). Once it was over, I think she was surprised that it went so quickly and that the pain was gone.

We then went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. This was she could pick out what she wanted. Once she finds someone who speaks Mandarin she takes the opportunity to catch up on all the talking she can. She talked about how she really likes her new family(yea) but that she worries about her foster family and how they are doing. She tries so much to take care of everyone that I am sure at times she feels guilty( like when we were singing Happy Birthday) about enjoying her new family. I have told her many times that it is ok to miss them and be sad and I know there will always be those feelings, it is just helping her get through them.

We had to tip the waitress a nice tip because Sophia was talking her ear off. They poor girl was being so nice to listen and talk back even though she was trying to keep working the other tables - like I said, our little girl likes to talk, watch out when her english improves. So here are a few pictures to leave you with.

Princesses, Buzz, Secret Agents and Clone Troopers, Oh My!

Trick or Treat was a great time for the kids. It did not take long for Sophia to catch on. The funniest thing is that we explained that once we were dressed we would go get candy. So once she was dressed, she went over to our bowl and started taking the candy out of it! She loved going door to door and ran around with the older boys as Micah and I lagged behind; Micah like the candy but is really more interested in talking to people - such an extrovert. Here is a picture of 4 of the kids. Olivia went with her friends as a princess! Finally after how mayn years, she dressed up as a princess.

Sophia had a great first week at school. She is always a little hesitant going to school in the morning but oh so excited when I pick her up. I am ever amazed at how she just continues to pick things up. Today she started a sentence with Can I.... Usually it is Sophia..... We have been working on learning site words from school and some of them are me, my, I... How do you explain to her that they are the same but different? But she is picking it up. What was really great is that on Friday her class had a field trip to a pumpkin patch. Micah and I also got to go and we had a great time.
And then there was the Jack o Lantern carving... I think the picture explains it all. I love living new experience with the kids!
And then today, we lost another tooth! So we are officially wanted our two front teeth for Christmas, but as you can see, one is on it's way.

We have some tough moments at times but I would not consider them anything different than what we would go through with your biological kids. Things have finally calmed down a little from sports and we are getting to spend more family time together. We watched Up the other day and it was just fun watching Sophia and how she would react to things.

We are getting ready for her birthday in 10 days! Wow it was almost one year ago when we first saw her picture and now she is with us and fitting in so well. We have been so blessed by God and are so thankful for every little thing.

First Day of School

Tuesday was the first day of school for our Sophia. She did wonderful! She was excited to go and nervous at the same time. Whe she got to school she has to place her name in one of two places, Yes I Like School, No I do Not Like School. She said she liked it a little bit. Once she got going in the class, I stepped out and the teacher said she did wonderful! There is a little girl in 1st grade that speeaks Mandarin and the Principal will be introducing them to each other. That will be wonderful for her. They also live in the neighborhood so hopefully play dates will be in her near future.

When I went to pcik her up, I asked her if she liked school a little bit or a lot. She said a lot!

I am so happy for her!