WHAT?! NO WAY! HE'S EIGHT?!

Yes, my little boy( sorry big kid) is now EIGHT! Wow, time keeps flyng by. I still remember his first birthday with us, I treasure that day. It was also the day that he was dedicated to the Lord.

Now he is turning into a young boy.

No matter how old he is, I still want to grab him in my arms and hold him forever, but I only get about 5 seconds until he starts to complain. Oh well, I am just glad he is ours! We love you so much Micah!

And Then She was 9!

Yes, my little Sophia is now 9 years old( on 11/11)! This was the 4th birthday that we have been able to celebrate with her. This year her big present request was....  a hamster! And she got not just one, but two! We were told that this was the best birthday she ever had. Every day with you in our lives is the best day we ever had! We love you!

The Big 5 Gotcha Day!

Yes it has been 5 years since we brought our little Micah home(October 4th) but he is not little any more. It is so hard for me to believe that he is getting so big. I see him with a buch of other kids and think that he can't be with them because they are so big. But he is growing into a sweet young man. He started first grade this year and is doing wonderful. He loves school and has told me that his favorite thing is music. I already knew that because it just comes so natural to him but I am glad that he is recognizing it. I am hoping to get him into a music program this summer to help keep him busy. This summer I realized that if he is kept on some sort of schedule he does so much better. Unlimited free time just opens up the doors for him to get in trouble. We are so blessed to have Micah in our family, I can't tell you how I love this little one. Thank you Lord for your blessings.

Three Years Home!!!

Wow! It is hard to believe that it has been 3 years since we first met our beautiful daughter Sophia( On September 6th). It seems like she has been with us forever not just 3 years. Here she is today:

It is amazing how big she is getting. In fact when we went through here drawers to see what cloths fit her, she only had one pair of pants that still fit! She is now in third grade and is doing amazing when you consider she didn't speak any english three years ago. She was not too excited about going back to school this year, she just did not like any of the subjects. But thanks to a wonderful teacher and some extra tutoring she is really starting to enjoy her subjects more and even says, "I really like math!" She is such a happy little girl! We are so thankful for her!

SEVEN Already!

Yes, I am only 3 weeks late in posting but my little Micah is now 7! I keep getting older and time keeps passing by so much faster. Here are some pictures on his birthday.

This last one really threw me for a loop when I looked at it on the computer. He looks so big! I can't even use the word little any more in describing him. In fact he grew so much this winter that I had to go up in pant sizes half way through the season. Things have been going really well for him this year. It was a little rough starting Kindergarten. His behavior was difficult to manage even with doing all the OT for his sensory issues. I thought he also has some auditory sensory issues because it always took me, Russ, the teachers 3 times of saying something before he would even recognize that you were talking to him. After talking with his teacher( who has been so wonderful with him) and another close friend. They suggested that it could be ADHD. I hated to go down that path but we had him anaylized and our doctor recommended medication. Natural things were not really working for him so we decided to do medication. Oh My! What a difference it made. It took awhile to find the right one to limit the side effects but he is now doing wonderful. No more behavior chart at school. He is now the student in the class that is doing the extra things to help the teacher out. No more having to go in the school to pick him up on days that there is a substitute( because he is so out of control). And he is such a pleasure to be around. Even the principle caught up with me at a school event and said how amazing the transformation is. Things are not perfect but they never are with any child but I can now see his heart in the things that he does. It is so wonderful to see the loving child that I know he is. In seeing all the heart breaking things that are going on with Russia banning American's from adopting there, I pray for those children. The precious face that you see above is the face of what could be with so many children that are still in orphanages in Russia. Lord, You are more powerful than any ruler of this world. Please Lord help those children get into homes where they can experience Your love!

Happy 8th Birthday!!

EIGHT YEARS OLD!! Yes, our little Sophia is 8 now. It is so hard to believe that just two years ago we celebrated her first birthday with us. We love you!

Micah's Gotcha Day #4 and Update

Wow it is so hard to believe that it has been 4 years since we brought Micah home(October 4th). Each day I see a little growth here and a little there but it is not until I look back on the pictures in Russia that I fully realize how far he has come not only in size but in all aspects.

Here is a picture of him when I got to take him out of the orphanage for the first time:

Here was last years Gotcha Day picture ( Year 3):

And here is Micah this year:

Oh he is just so big!

Since I last posted about Micah we have been on a vacation to Hilton Head where I am convinced he will be a surfer boy( even if he is from Ohio). He loves swimming and is so strong that we are putting him through closses year round this year to see if he can advance enough to be on a swim team next summer.

Then there was our Chirstmas Trip to Disney and Legoland, where he got his Lego license to drive.

Then there was his 6TH BIRTHDAY! So hard to imagine that my little one is 6!

We got him a mini trampoline to help with his Occupational Therapy that is going very well. Once I was ablt to get with someone who knew what to do with Sensory kids and with some trial and error, I could swear that the OT exercise are like magic with Micah. He can start off acting out of control and end up a totally different child!

Then we went backto Florida over the summer to visit Universal Studios. It was hot but it was fun. Here is Micah and the others with a Marvel Character.

And then there was the First day of Kindergarten:

He could not wait to go to BIG school like his siblings. I has worked with the school regarding his sensory issues and they were great. His teacher has Sophia and is just great with Micah. After only 4 days of school, the teacher decided to put a behavior chart together to help Micah with his behavior in the class. That day Micah came home so excited to show me his new behavior chart and that he was the only one in the class to get one! He was so excited. I just had to smile. He has been doing very well with his behavior and has some rough days but is really learning how to behave at school and around other kids.In fact I got to be in the class on a normal class day this week, helping out the teacher and he did not stand out at all because of his behavior. What a praise!

One of his favorite things to do is sing. His favorite song, which he sings ALLLLLLLL the time, is the Star Spangled Banner, how priceless!

And here is one of my favorite pictures of my little scallywag! Snaggle tooth and all!

It is such a blessing to have Micah in our family. It is a struggle some days but the joy is so great on those good days.

Our Prayer for Sophia

Since I finally have updated a few things on my blog, I did not want to erase the prayer we were praying for our Sophia back in August 2010 as we prepared to travel:

Dear Lord, we lift up Sophia Xin Yan to you. We pray that even though she may not even know about You, that Your presence and peace will be upon her. That You will give her an understanding of what is to happen along with the strength and courage to walk through this next step in her life. I pray that You will make Yourself known to her and that her trust in You will bring her the peace to get her through this very difficult change in her life.

In Jesus' saving name we pray - Amen

Gotcha Day 2 Years Ago!

Oh My! It has been a really looooong time since I have posted. Life is so busy and writing is one of my least favorite things to do. So even though I still won't be posting much, I do want to keep track of the "big" days for those of you who know us and for the kids to look back on someday. So Since Sophia's Gotcha Day was last week (Sept 6) I figured I would start with her. Here is the picture of her 2 years ago on the day we first met her:

Here she is on her Gotcha Day 1 Year later:

And here she is this year, Gotcha Day Year 2:

Oh she is turning into such a young lady. She is not my little girl any more.

Highlights for Sophia over the past year and a half are her 7th Birthday:

Her dedication at church:

Getting her new bike:

which she now rides without the training wheels. She was very persistent on learning to ride without training wheel and practically taught herself.

Then there was her first time visiting Disney World. Oh she has been wanting to go there ever since she saw pictures of it.

Then there is the first time she got to go to the beach and see the ocean:

Then this summer we went to Universal Studios.

What an amazing two years it has been. It seems like it was not too long ago when we first met her and had to struggle to communicate to her. But at the same time it seems like she has always been with us. She loves to talk, almost too much. Is learning so much and doing great in school. Has made many friends and is dealing so well with her medical issues. She loves being here and is comfortable enough to let her hair down and test the waters, if you will. She makes mistakes and will lie to "save face" which we are still working on. For those of you who have biological and adopted kids, there are things that your biological kids do that they "get" from you. Whether it is the ability to do math well, the love of reading, loving to be outside all the time... What I think is so great is how God gives you a connection to your adopted child too. For Micah and I it is our love of music. For Sophia and I it is our love to clean and organize. If I ask her to do something like clean out her toy box, Oh she gets so excited. One day I was wondering what she was doing in her room, she had been there a long time. She said "organizing my drawers"! What 7 year old would willing choose to do that? My daugter, that's who!

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!