Meet ARIEL!!

Hi Friends!!!

I've been chosen to be an advocate for this sweet angel, Ariel. 😍 Please take time to read and SEE this sweet girl.

She was born August 2014 and just happens to be chromosomally enhanced (diagnosed with Down syndrome). She is good at following sound and pays attention. She likes to wave and clap her hands when she's happy. She gets along with other kids as well as her caretakers. She's a curious lil sweetie and loves to babble (when her file was prepared).

She is currently waiting for her family to see her and begin the process to adopt her.

Madison Adoption Associates is offering a $5k Bright Futures grant toward her adoption through their agency. If you're interested in adopting Ariel and would like more info, fill out a free application which can be found at https://madison.mysamdb.com/SAM/Fm/FamilyInformationSheet_Edt.aspx

The Down syndrome community is amazing. I have a few friends who are parents to children with DS who would be happy to answer your questions. Please feel free to comment or e-mail me!!!

1 YEAR HOME!!!

Oh my.

One year home tomorrow. And so much has happened, friends.

I apologize I didn't post an update for his first ever Family Day! We kept it on the downlow for the most part and honestly just took him out to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants for some yummy noodles.

William's doing honestly well over-all!! He still loves his nursery rhymes, and still loves to sing and dance in general. It's been hard to get him to watch anything that does *not* have music/dancing in it continuously, but just the other day he finally sat through an entire episode of Mr. Rogers, so I count that as a major win!! I'm now hopeful that this nursery rhyme and music video phase will fade to some degree (or so I hope!).

He weighs a whopping 38 1/2" tall and is about 36lbs, putting him at the 75 percentile for height/weight on the growth chart!! He was only in the 10th when he was still in China.

He's been counting to 20, says his ABCs much more clearly, says 5-6 word sentences a lot more clearly (still hoping to see more improvement in his connected-speech; imitation speech is superb though). He draws very simple people (or "Humpy-dumpties" as he calls them). He loves playing with his train set, pretending to read books, and constantly singing and dancing. He's still as hilarious as ever, loving to laugh and make others laugh. The other day I was explaining again to him that Daddy's real name is "William" too, and that's where he got his name. He held both hands out and was like "Well, look at all the Williams!!" Ha!!

He did remarkably well for his first surgery. Surprisingly, we had no regression which I expected. Whew!!

He loves to try to boss big bro and big sis around (they don't really let him though and I often remind William that Mommy and Daddy are boss and are the ones that tell them what to do). He's good about trying to be their "teacher" during the day since we homeschool. He'll demand the kids to finish their "Cool-work!!" Or  "Do your Maff (math) NOW!"

Mommy and Daddy have their own room again which has been priceless. We put William to bed, spend time with the bigs for an hour or so, then when they go to bed we retreat to our bedroom. I cannot begin to tell you how honestly thankful I am for this after almost a year of sharing a bedroom (we've had William in his own bed for more than 9 months, but shared a bedroom partially because Billy was remodeling the master). We're getting better sleep, and it's been priceless having our own space again.

We also took our first vacation as a family of 5 late September! We just spent 4 nights in Niagara Falls, Canada side. We visited MarineLand (so fun!!), went on a boat by the falls, Journey Behind the Falls, and other site-seeing. William did so well and had lots of fun and still talks about the "family twip," "water falls," and "booga (beluga) whales." When we crossed the border, William immediately hung his head out the window and told the security officer, "I'm brother!!" (well if that wasn't suspicious! Ha!).

He's also had his first Halloween (dressed up as the cutest lil doctor you've ever seen) and Thanksgiving with all his family. We're also looking forward to Christmas this year which feels like a first for him still (last year we were in-between moves, so we were at my parents' house and he was so newly home and wasn't able to really take Christmas all in).

This year has been so much easier in ways than I ultimately expected, and much harder in ways I least expected it. Does that make sense?? During our adoption process, I had no idea we'd have to move back to our homestate (10 hours away) just a week after getting back from China, I also had no idea of a few other life-altering events that would take place around the same time. We had already been emotionally and financially exhausted by the point we got to China. Adoptive parents will tell you China is HARD, and they cannot wait to get home. But I honestly felt China was easy compared to coming home. I dreaded coming home (I loved China and hated leaving William's birthplace, but also knew the hard ahead of us). All of that to say that any hard we experienced was *nothing* compared to the hard William was going through at the time. He was undoubtedly so very brave, braver than he (or any child) should ever have to be.

This year has been a whirlwind for all of us. Home improvements and maintenance on a house with 5 acres. Lots of swimming. Lots of bonfires and s'mores. Lots of playing. Lots of tears. Lots of fun. Lots of hugs. Lots of family. Lots of singing and dancing. Lots of jump time on the trampoline. Lots of firsts. Lots of games. Lots of heartache. Lots of mending. Lots of molding. Lots of grace. And last but certainly not least.. lots of love.

We've laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed. We danced forward and several steps back only to do it time and time again. We set sail East and winded up back West. We marched to the beat of our own drum. We flew to heights seemingly too high to fly. We prayed in ways we never had to pray before. We loved in ways we never loved before. We needed grace more than we ever needed before. And we would do it over and over again for a lil boy that stole our hearts the day he was placed in our arms in a small hotel business room in Fuzhou, China.

Adoption is far from easy, but it is always, always worth it.

What a year, William. You've stolen our hearts. You've made us smile. You've made us belly laugh. You've made us more complete. You've made us love more tenderly. Love more softly. Love more patiently. And love more gracefully. You are our little sunshine. Our little goof. Our little stinker. Thank you for all you've taught us; which is so much more than we'll ever be able to teach you. Thank you for bringing us more joy than we could've ever brought you. We love you more than you'll ever know. Just a couple months home as you were playing, you joyously said "Wiyum home. Home, Wiyum home." Happy 1 year home our lil "Wiyum." Here's to you being home a year with us, and us a year home with you. And here's to being home forever.

7 Month Update (1)

Boy, is this update overdue!!

William has now been in our arms for 7 months! Time has flown by. As you know, we moved back to Ohio a week or so after getting back from China, finally into our home a week into January and things have just been a bit crazy since then. :-)

So much has happened, so quite honestly I'm not sure where to start!

William has definitely adjusted well into our new home. We've got a great consistent routine going on which I know has helped him adjust that much more.

Some highlights so far have been first and foremost his 3rd birthday (May 31st)! We took him to get Chinese that evening, made him a cake and let him open a present from us, and then a week or so later we had a big birthday party with all our family. He had loads of fun playing on a couple small inflatables, in the pool and on the trampoline with cousins, lots of food and dessert - he definitely had a good time!!

Many ask us how his english is coming along and it's coming pretty well! He says 3-4 word sentences and occasionally even lengthier. His imitation speech is superb and copies words fairly well. He knows way more than 100 words now, so I've lost track.

Nursery rhymes and music are his favorite. Probably his favorite one is Humpty Dumpty (which he just recently drew a picture of! The very first recognizable picture he's ever drawn -- basically an oval with eyes and a mouth and sticks for legs protruding from the bottom..ha!).

He is still a jokester. He's constantly doing things to be funny, whether it's silly faces or funny gestures..he's a hoot!

He's been counting to 10 for the past few months and counts objects. He's getting much better with colors as well.

He's experienced so many firsts it's hard to keep track of! Remember him being unsure and scared of the pool in China?? Totally loves getting in one now! He's attended his first ball games, going to the zoo and seeing various animals for the first time, first time blowing out candles, first church services, first big family outings, first picnics, and the list goes on and on.

His attachment with all of us is strong. His attachment with Billy (Daddy) has improved so much since the last times I've posted! He loves his daddy. There is still some anxious attachment (having to know where I am at all times in the house - if he sees us get our shoes on or take them off he panics and makes sure his are on or off if ours are, etc). But outside of those things, he's doing as well as we could expect!

So much more to say, so I'll go ahead and split this update into two posts! I'll leave you with some recent pictures!

Dec.14-19; The Big Move

Dec. 10 :: 

"Sunday was spent cleaning and packing up the rest of our items and traveling to our midpoint to Ohio. It was a rough day for sure with a little boy who wanted nothing to do with hours of driving, and it was hard on mama and big sis to feel helpless half the time (the other half we exhausted ourselves trying our hardest to keep him happy).

He woke up happy the next morning and we went to meet and eat with sweet friends who live in the area (who recently adopted a sweet boy from China also). That was so nice, and wish we had more time with them!!!

After we got back to the hotel to check out and leave and in the meantime we thought sweet boy may have sprained his arm, and while Micah locked himself out of the other room with the loose dog inside...one of his very pricey retainers was eaten...and as we tried to leave my car wouldn't start from a dead battery.

Anyway...baby boy's arm is fine and eventually we got on the road and he enjoyed the 5 1/2 hour drive that day muuuuuch better than the day before. Ms. Cosette and I should've patted ourselves on the back because we worked hard to keep him happy!

William is fine moving around and is happy. I think he's learning that home is simply wherever he's with us.

 He has also recently really taken up singing and uses a flashlight for a microphone. He's veeerrry serious about it, and really tries to belt it out! Cracks us up."

Dec. 14 :: 

"Baby boy is currently taking his nap as you see in he pic below and I'm finally able to post a quick update. (Yes - he keeps us verrryy busy!)

Past few days have gone pretty well! Sweet boy has met 5 out of 6 of his grandparents, saw his new home for the first time, attended the closing for our home, and had his first doctor's appointment since getting to the US.

The doctor appointment went...as I expected. He cried anytime doctors came near him, and didn't want anything to do with their lil antics. ;-) A group of specialists were crowded in one room, and the developmental specialist pretty much dumped a bag of toys on the floor to see what he'd do with them. As you heard me say before, he's no fan of people he doesn't know and you could probably guess what he did with the stuff they asked him to play with. :-D We go back in several weeks, and he will be put through quite a bit during that visit and I've been told he may need sedation.

He's gotten a *lot* more cuddly over this past week, especially with me. And the other day he was very upset that Daddy was leaving to go to work which was nice to see/hear!!

He at times will argue with big bro or big sis. A couple days ago, big sis was telling him that the tablet she was on was hers saying, "You can't play with this, it's mine." He points to the tablet and says with a hymph, "No. Mine. Hymph!" I admit...hard not to laugh!

He continuously copies *everything* we or the kids do, so we've had to remind the kids to be just a wee-bit more attentive to what they're doing.

He's watched Micah swoop his hair to the side, so now every once in a while he swoops his hair (what little hair he has). He's also watched Micah take out his retainers and has tried to tug on his own teeth to "take out his."

He gave me the magnadoodler and said, "Draw Daddy!" And the kids get a kick out of him repeating weird words. They've had him say, "Dorito" "Frito" and "Cheeto" a million times in a few minutes..
With all that said - his pronunciation is crazy good at times. He says apple very clearly (whereas I remember the kids saying it as "Bockle" and "Bapple" around his age). This amazes me considering that he had a significant language delay in China, and was not saying much in his native language.

He's also a lil dare-devil! He jumps off the ottoman thinking/trusting we will catch him even if we're not looking/watching. He dives off the bed head first to the floor, etc.

His sleeping at night has taken a step back. He wakes up at least once a night - sometimes I'm able to soothe him back to sleep and into his pack n play, but at times he's ended up back in bed with us. I'm pretty sure it's nightmares. Lastnight he was throwing fists, kicking, and crying in his sleep at different times. I wish so badly I could get in his head to know what he may be dreaming (or then again, maybe I don't..)."

 

Dec. 10; First PP Visit and Getting Ready for a BIG Move!

 Dec. 10 ::

"As you probably guessed - we've been pretty busy and little to no time to hop on to post an update!!
We've had packers come for two days straight, our first post-placement visit with our social worker, and yesterday movers came to move everything out of the house.

So far it's gone pretty well - we've tried to just stay out of their way and to keep in one room to another to minimize stress for our lil guy. I guess the downside of trying to stay completely out of the way is that we've had things packed that shouldn't have been...like...important adoption paperwork...😨

Yesterday we ate out for the first time with him since getting home from China, and it went well! We went to Chick-fil-a and he enjoyed his chicken nuggets and playing in the play area with big bro and big sis. We then took him to the local community center's indoor play area. We honestly keep a very close eye on him around other kids. He hasn't harmed anyone, but when you've lived in a place for 2 1/2 years where hitting happened all the time...well..ya know.

We found a couple new favorite snacks - dried edamame beans and raisins.

We've been blessed with sleep since we've been home, but he's still not getting as much as he really needs for his age. Lastnight we almost got to 10 hours with him, but with waking up around 4a very restless like the night before. He's been sleeping in his pack n play by our bed nicely (which we're happy about!), and I go and soothe him if he wakes up and whines - and honestly give him a bottle (I know, not the best thing to give a lil a bottle in bed, but this is for his comfort - not going to take that away from him anytime soon).

It's been challenging to get ready for a move! Today I've been working on cleaning the house the best I can, all while tending to his needs. I'll leave to go upstairs (he's gated in the living area), and he'll shout "MOMMY?!!!!" I yell back, "Yes, honey????" And he babbles and says again..."MOMMY!!!!" As long as I'm answering back he seems okay, but I just try to take breaks and play or love on him when I can.

On the dog...we still have a gate up. *Sigh.* But..he fed Tarsus treats (by throwing them over the gate at him) and seemed to sort of enjoy watching him eat them up (that or he was hoping he'd choke to death on one..😂

Today Tarsus snuck out the back door and went running, so the baby and I were inside watching everyone try to track him down and he thought that was pretty funny (or again..hoping Tarsus would just run and never come back!).

He cracks us up so much. He'll have full-on Chinese-baby-babble conversations with me with the most *serious* facial and hand expressions. I typically just act like I totally know what he's talking about and chat with him through it and he loves it.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Iowa after we go to church. Today as I was getting things ready, emotions flooded. So many good memories in just a lil over 2 years of time. Precious friends. :-(
We'll break up our trip to OH in two days and stay overnight in Peoria, and hoping to meet up with a sweet friend of mine who just adopted a few months ago from China as well!"

                He could only take so much smothering at this point as you can tell by his face!

                                                Like a warrior getting ready to battle. Ha!

Dec.6 - A First Real Kiss

Dec. 6::
 
"Yesterday he learned to say, "Chwonnn, twooo, WEE!" (translation:: 1...2....3!!). Today I *think* he may have repeated "I love you" but won't say for sure.

As you see in the pictures - yesterday was pants on the head, today was socks on the hands. ;-)

Lastnight a sweet nearby friend (another adoptive-mama) came and brought us dinner! It was delicious and she also brought a bag full of snacks and goodies she knows her kids have loved (she also has a daughter from the same province as William!). That bag has been heaven to William already, and he *loooves* the shrimp crackers. 

Things have gotten better with the dog...somewhat. He's told the dog off multiple times (shouting at him, stomping his feet at him, etc) - which we thought was good because it showed some bravery...at least. :-D He'd also not mind if the dog came right by the gate near him, but there were times he was definitely scared by the dog unfortunately..so it will take time for sure.

Tonight Ms. Cosette and I got away to grab dinner and to go see a movie and that was really nice because we got time together and sweet boy got bonding time with Daddy. Before the movie I offered to get her an ICEE (which is a very rare treat) and she kindly refused saying it was too much), so I told her I really wanted to get her it and it's the least I can do considering how awesome she's been. We got home and baby boy was sleeping on Daddy. His bonding with Billy is gradually getting better and better which makes me happy.

He also gave me a first *real* kiss on the cheek, and hasn't been wiping my kisses off his as of late! The first time I kissed his cheek it was as though he thought it was the weirdest, grossest thing ever and quickly wiped it off dramatically. So yes...not seeing him wipe off kisses and giving me a real first kiss is monumental! :-)
 
Sidenote - my billfold was left in China! Thankfully it was in the lost and found at our last hotel. We've had some complications getting it shipped here and are still working on getting it back. Sadly, while pretty important, it's been the last thing on our minds.

Tomorrow packers begin to come and pack up things. I hope lil William does okay with them moving around the house. :-\ He doesn't fare super well with people he doesn't know (which is pretty much everyone outside of the 4 of us).

The next day they come again to finish up packing, and our social worker will be here to do our first post-placement visit. We've honestly got a lot on our plates, and could use prayer -- mostly for lil William through it all..our number one goal will be to make him feel as secure and comfortable as possible through each transition. I cannot wait to be in our new home and finally settled!

And about moving away from Iowa..I really haven't had time to process that (or many things for that matter). We've loved Iowa so much and will miss it."

First Two Days Home

I'm copying and pasting what I updated on Facebook during that time since it was written while things were so fresh on my mind!

From Dec. 1::

"We're home!!

We left our hotel in Guangzhou very early yesterday morning for the airport, and boarded our flight. We then flew to Shanghai where we had a connecting flight to Detroit. Then we boarded from Shanghai to Detroit around 11:30. We really had no time to do anything but get our luggage, re-check, and go through immigration and security again. Lil William honestly did surprisingly well. Of course there were times where he got restless, went crazy on tv touch screen several times, bounced in his seat, but over-all he slept a good bit and didn't cry for the most part which is pretty amazing. The main big cry he let out was on our last short flight (imagine that
), when the stewardess made us put him in his own seat and buckle him for take off and landing (he haaaaaates being strapped in). I sort of warned her he'd scream his head off, and she was trying to reassure me he'd be just fine but sure enough...he screamed. :-D The other flights let us get away with him simply being on my lap.

One of the worst parts of international travel (especially with connections) is the looooong waits to get through immigration, security, re-checking bags, etc. It's not so bad on your own, but add in a 2 year old and that makes things interesting for sure! He has done so well though considering.

We got into Des Moines around 5:30p, and went straight home. No fanfare, just went home and showed William around a tad. We're not hyping up "home" to him considering we're only here until the 12th and then we're off to Ohio. To him this will seem like yet another hotel stay. He seemed to immediately enjoy the amount of space though and started running around and acting goofy!

I need to get him on video when he's sweetly "singing" (babbling/singing) while dancing. It's pretty cute!!!

I'll post more tomorrow! And more pictures I couldn't load the last couple of days in China!!"

The first full day home; Dec.2::

"
Lastnight went worse than ultimately hoped for, but better than expected! Sweet boy fell asleep in my arms at 11:30p lastnight so I carefully put him to bed in his pack 'n play by our bed in our room, and we immediately went to bed to get as much sleep as we could in case he'd wake up mid-night. Sure enough he was up at 1:30a and very restless for 2+ hours constantly asking me to take him to the glider rocking chair to rock him, then back down to check out our bathroom, then to our bed and again and again...and again. Eventually around 4a he fell back to sleep in bed with us where we remained until 1p today! I'd say jetlag is alive and well considering we've been getting up around 6a...definitely not 1p!

We got up and William had hard boiled eggs (one of his favorite things to eat) and some warm milk. I woke up with a headache and my eyes wanting to stay shut which is unusual for me (I'm not a morning person per-say, but I usually always feel well in the morning and ready to start the day). A cup of coffee with mocha peppermint creamer has been heaven to me (I haven't had a full cup of coffee in the morning since pre-China, because in China they either give you very very little coffee or just having to handle William and forgo most of it).

We're just taking it very slow today. William is playing with stringing beads while the kids watch something on the tv (very thankful the tv is high and out of his reach unlike the last hotel's!).
Billy has already installed cabinet latches, outlet covers, and doorknob covers (we thought we'd just keep a close eye on him seeing we only have a week and a half...but...yea..;-)
 
New words are "Thank you, Mama" and others that he tries to repeat. And words he will be using for a while are "NO" in Chinese which sounds like "Boo-how" but he says it like "Bee-yow!!!" It took us a while to figure that out sadly. He's learning gentle touch more and more which is something we've worked on since day one. Throwing things has gotten better, but just this morning he played with left-over egg yolk from his boiled eggs and tossed those (so we have a lil ways to go!).

The time we traveled to China was *perfect* for weather. Absolutely comfortable. But it honestly does stink to get home to such cold weather when we'd love to take a stroll to the park, play on the trampoline, etc. It'll make our attempted cocooning a little harder being stuck indoors (harder as in...cabin fever big time!). We'll see if he'd like to go out still, but he isn't used to such cold. Even 65 degrees and a lil wind in China was cold to him."

The Rest of Our Time in China

This is a terribly late update, and for those of you who've kept up with our blog and who we left stranded since the last time we posted, you have our biggest apologies!! I've been meaning to sit down at the computer (something I don't do anymore) and update this blog, and today I decided I'd try to do exactly that.

Looks like we left off on Nov. 27th when we visited Shaiman Island!

Nov.28th came and we visited Guangzhou Zoo --- I'll go ahead and just paste what I wrote in a personal Facebook post that day (and I apologize for sloppy writing - I had to quickly do what I could since we were busy with William!):

"Today we went to the zoo and William wasn't terribly amused except at some monkeys where he made cute monkey noises at them. 😊

We're struggling with bedtime routine, but being in a hotel room combined with a toddler that isn't used to so much stimulation will do that! Bedtime in his case is basically when he's so tired and finally just falls to sleep on the bed and we very carefully put him in the pack N play. He doesn't take naps really, so by the time bedtime rolls around, we honestly enjoy the break, as much as we love the lil guy. Last night we fed him and got him to sleep and bed, and ordered Papa John's and enjoyed that while watching Jurassic Park on a very low volume. 

We only have two full days left and I can't believe it!! Most can't wait to get home, but I could stay here longer. Our stay in China has flown by far too quickly, and I would love to take in Williams birth country and culture more. I already miss China as I talk about leaving.."

Then that day came and went and here is what I posted on our last day in China::

"Yesterday was a big day and we went to his visa appt at the US Consulate here!! We get his visa today. 😄😂

Last night we went on an evening cruise with other families here, and it was so nice. Lil William seemed to enjoy it compared to other things we have done.

He's doing pretty well, and did better at breakfast this morning (we're pretty sure he's never sat in a highchair before being with us so that's been a struggle, except today he cooperated!).

Another highlight is that he will willingly lay down to be changed now and seems comfortable.

He's gotten more comfortable out in public and today he snuck out of his stroller and started walking to explore! Normally that wouldn't be a good thing except in his case, it is because he at least feels comfortable enough to do so whereas before he felt safest in my arms or just in the stroller.

I forgot to mention that we finally got him in the bath! At first I thought he'd have a breakdown, but it helped to have sis in there (in her swimsuit). He loooooved it!

Today we went to a beautiful park nearby our hotel (seriously beautiful). It had an adult exercise park and ping-pong tables. And everywhere you go you see elderly doing stretches, yoga, or hacky-sack.
The vegetation and landscaping is the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Today is our last day in China, and I hate to say goodbye. I really do. I love it here. I'll now dream of bringing William back one day and will look forward to sharing with him what I know and remember about his birth country/culture."