Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!  I guess we are starting a new tradition and celebration in our house, Chinese New Year.  I had been working for that last couple of weeks on a menu for our celebration.  Last weekend we went to the local Asian market and picked up some supplies.  I had read that Chinese dumplings are an important dish for Chinese New Year.  Caleb and I practiced making them last weekend and we perfected them for the dinner.  We ate Chinese dumplings/potstickers, chicken fried rice, a chicken noodle dish, sweet and sour pork and Chinese almond cookies for dessert.  We also decorated the dining room.  We invited some friends over who adopted a little albino girl from China 10 months ago.  Unfortunately, in addition to being an albino, she has some significant neurologic issues that were not disclosed to them until they were in China.  The officials in China tried to talk them out of adopting this child.  I could not imagine how hard it would be to go over and then not come back with a child.  They already considered her their daughter from the day of her referral.  She was 2 when they got her and she was not sitting or eating solids or walking.  She was only content when she was left alone and did not like being held.  The doctors here now think that a majority of her issues are due to neglect.  Although she has made significant progress in 10 months, they still have a long way to go.  This family helped us prepare before our travel to China.  They shared their stories with us and gave us some great pointers before we went.  They have a son close to Caleb's age that is very similar to Caleb.  They seem to have similar personalities and picky taste buds, so it was nice to get some eating tips from them for Caleb before we went.  They also prepared and gave us a note to open every day while we were in China.  It has been fun developing our relationship with them and so seemed very appropriate to share our first Chinese New Year together.  Below are some pictures from our day. 

Caleb making Chinese dumplings

Chloe making Chinese dumplings

Our Chinese dumplings

The dining room decorated

Chloe

Chloe

Mom and kids

Dad and kids

The group at dinner

Katie

Chloe

Katie and Chloe

God bless these children and all the orphans in China and around the world.  I am so thankful God placed these children in our homes.  What a blessing they are to us!  Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year!

Christmas was great!  We had a wonderful time celebrating with family.  Chloe loved opening presents and then would love what was inside them.  We had a pretty busy Christmas.  It started Saturday morning at our house.  We got up and had a nice breakfast.  Then we opened presents at our house.  I think Chloe really enjoyed it.  Then we went to our 4:00 church service and then off to Kevin's parents for Christmas Eve dinner with the extended family.  Unfortunately Chloe did not sleep well that night.  After being up and down all night, she woke up at 5 am and was hungry.  Just when she finally fell back to sleep, Caleb came running in to wake us up and tell us that Santa came.  Needless to say, Chloe was a little fussy that morning!  I figured for sure she would fall asleep during church but she did not until the last 5 minutes of the service.  Then what do you do?  We woke her up and put her in the car and headed back to Kevin's parents.  She made it through lunch and of course opening some presents which I think put her in a better mood.  Then she took a much needed 3 hour nap and after that she was her happy self again.  We headed to Austin on Christmas evening to spend time with my parents.  Chloe is not always a huge fan of her car seat.  About 1/2 way there she started to cry and pull at the car seat harness.  The crying went on and on.  I would say it lasted at least 30 minutes which seems like an eternity when you are in the confined space of a car.  But at last we made it to Austin.  We had a nice time there with family and of course Chloe liked opening presents.  My brother's family got her a toy set with a hair dryer and curling iron etc.  She loved the blow dryer and went around the room fixing everyone's hair!  It was a great first Christmas with Chloe.

Chloe opening a present

Caleb opening a present

Getting ready for Christmas Eve service

Thanks Santa!

Thanks Santa!

Chloe fixing her hair

Chloe fixing Tim's hair?!?  What hair?

Our social worker came over to do our 6 month post placement report.  Yes, it will be 6 months that we have had her on January 26.  I really enjoyed sharing our Gotcha day and trip to China with her.  We shared some of our videos and pictures.  I got a little teary eyed watching the video of when we first met Chloe.  Still melts my heart.  I think Chloe liked watching the videos too.  This was the first time that we had shown them to her.  It is really amazing the progress Chloe has made and how she continues to adjust with such ease.  But what is more amazing is how different she looks.  I am posting a couple of before and afters.  What a transformation.

Gotcha Day

Now

I am excited to report that Chloe's speech therapy was approved through our insurance.  She started her speech today and will go weekly on Tuesdays for about an hour a session.  She did great.  She is such a smart and social/interactive girl.  She was really trying to do what was asked of her by the therapist.  Caleb is going with and he brought a note pad today to take some notes about the therapy.  How sweet!  I cannot wait to see the progress of her speech with some formal therapy.

Chloe has really adjusted to American life.  She has quite a busy schedule.  She is taking swimming lessons and is going to start a music class tomorrow.  She also likes going to story time at the library.  I can't wait to see what her interests will develop into as she gets older.

Somebody pinch me... is all of this for real?

Wow, it is still hard to grasp that we have a daughter.  We waited sooooo long but then it seemed to happen so fast.  Sometimes it doesn't even seem real.  But it is real and it is awesome!  I still cannot figure out how we could be so lucky and blessed.  Chloe is just so perfect.

I am so excited about Christmas this year.  I am reflecting on Christmas and how the gift of a child can have such an amazing influence and impact on people's lives.  God gave the world the gift of a child, His son.  A gift that has changed my life forever.  This year God gave me another gift of a child, my daughter and she too has changed my life forever.  I am forever thankful and grateful for that.  I hope I can continue to remember that as I go through all the activities of Christmas.  Praise God for his goodness.

We have been super busy at our house with the hustle and bustle of Christmas.  Caleb and Chloe went to see Santa and let's just say that Chloe was terrified of him.  At first I think she was a little intrigued, at least from a distance. But then the girl in front of us started to cry when she got to Santa and that seemed to upset Chloe. Chloe did ok walking up and talking to Santa but when we tried to put her in his lap, she would have none of that!  Maybe we are asking too much of her to go through so many first time experiences in such a short time!

Chloe has her speech therapy assessment on Thursday.  A couple of weeks ago we had the Early Childhood Intervention come out for an assessment.  If she qualified, they would come to the house for speech therapy.  To meet their criteria you have to have at least a 25% deficit.  After about 2 hours with her it was determined that she is a normal toddler.  Her motor and socialization were right on target and even her speech only had a 23% deficit, not quite enough to qualify.  It is really amazing to me that a child with a cleft lip and palate and only hearing English for 4 months could do so well.  She is such a bright little girl.  I really enjoyed watching the assessment.  Chloe was so interactive with them and she showed me some skills I did not even know she had.  So I guess the good news is Chloe is pretty normal.  The bad news is we will now have to drive to Fort Worth for speech therapy.  So we are off to the children's hospital clinic for another assessment on Thursday.  She continues to progress on her speech.  Although still not saying a lot of words, she is really trying to mimic what we say.  I can't wait to see the progress with some formal therapy.

We continue to cross paths with strangers who have adopted children from China.  Just yesterday I met a man who has adopted 2 girls from China.  It is so fun to share stories.  Chloe has been such a conversation starter on numerous occasions.  When we first came back, many people would stop us and share their personal story of someone they knew who had a cleft lip repair.  They would be encouraging about the amazing results and some would even show us pictures.  We have also talked to many people who have adopted.  Kevin and I tend to be to ourselves in public places, but Chloe has given us the opportunity to open up and share.  I guess I am now the one showing off the pictures of amazing results. 

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  I guess that goes without saying.  What an awesome year.  It is still so hard to believe she is here!  We feel so blessed.

The past couple of weeks I have had a lot of frustration.  We were suppose to receive Chloe's certificate of citizenship within 45 days of our arrival home.  We did not receive it.  So, a few weeks ago I called USCIS to find out how we could get that sent.  The person took down all of the information and said they would get back with us in 15 days.  I called back a couple weeks later and gave them the reference number they had given me from the first phone call.  The lady on the phone said they had no documentation or paperwork on file for her and that we needed to call the port of entry and see if they had her paperwork lying around from when we came through customs and immigration at the airport.  Are you kidding me?  They wanted me to call the Los Angeles airport and see if they had paperwork lying around that was 3.5 months old!  Although I thought completely ridiculous, I did what I was asked to do and guess what? They did not have her paperwork.  Big surprise.  I also sent a couple of emails to see if that would be helpful.  I have been completely upset by the process.  Our adoption agency told us they had never heard of this happening before and therefore did not have advice on how to handle this problem.  Then miraculously the day before Thanksgiving, her certificate of citizenship came.  What a wonderful thing to be thankful for.

We are spending our first Thanksgiving in Vail, Colorado.  Chloe thought packing was a lot of fun so she jumped into Kevin's suitcase and we pulled her around the house.  She loved it.

Having fun on the plane

Kevin and Caleb up on the mountain

Caleb and I on the mountain

Caleb skiing with poles

Chloe having fun in the snow

More playing in the snow

Chloe has really enjoyed the snow.  Caleb has done great skiing.  He took a couple lessons and even graduated to getting poles!  We have had a great time spending time together as a family. 

Photos

 Chloe at the beach



Having fun in the water

 Building a sand castle

 Having fun with brother

 She liked riding on great grandma's walker

 Having fun at the State fair

 Feeding an animal at the State Fair.  She was not afraid at all.

 Dressed up as a black cat

 Hedwig the owl

 Our happy Hedwig

 Harry Potter and Hedwig

 Ge ge and Mei mei



Chloe's Adventures

Chloe had her first trip to the beach a couple of weekends ago.  Kevin's grandmother lives near Galveston.  She had not met Chloe, so we took a 5 hour road trip to see her.  Kevin and I were a little concerned about how Chloe would travel in the car.  After short distances she gets fussy about being in her car seat.  We decided to travel at night with the hopes that she would sleep.  She did sleep some on the way, and overall did great.

Chloe loved the beach and loved being in the water.  I couldn't believe how comfortable she was in the water.  She was not afraid at all.  Her and Caleb had a great time playing in the sand as well.  This is kind of a funny story about her.  I was sitting on a towel just watching Kevin and the kids.  A lady walked by and from the back Chloe thought it was me.  Chloe started to follow the lady down the beach.  Then when the lady turned around, Chloe burst out into tears because it was not me.  So sweet, she does love her mother.

We made our annual trip to the State Fair.  Chloe had a blast.  I definitely think she fits in great with our family.  She was able to hang with us for the 7 or 8 hours we were there without getting fussy.  And of course, there is lots of eating at the fair which she enjoyed too. She had her first carousel ride.  She was a little apprehensive at first, but by the end she had stopped holding onto me and was holding onto the horse.  There were lots of animals which she enjoyed.  At the petting zoo part she loved feeding the animals and was not afraid one bit.
Halloween was also a lot of fun.  Caleb dressed up like Harry Potter.  He wanted Chloe to be Harry Potter's owl Hedwig.  Not exactly the girlish cute costume I was thinking of, but if that is what Caleb wants, I could go with it.  When we first got the costume, she would only have it on for a minute and then would take it off.  But with time, she really liked the costume and even took a nap it in one day.  Chloe loved trick or treating.  The first house we went to, Caleb and his friend said "trick or treat" and got candy in their pail.  When Chloe saw that, she got down and held out her pail too.  She immediately wanted to eat it.  For the night she ate a package of pretzels, fruit snacks, smarties and 3 lollipops!  I think she would have eaten more if I would have let her.  That girl does love to eat.

She is also doing great at church.  Tonight was the first night that she did not cry when I dropped her off at the nursery!  Wow!  Even when Caleb was that age, he would cry when I dropped him off for almost a year.  We still are amazed at how adaptable she is. 

Chloe has been such a blessing in our lives.  When I reflect back on the whole journey it amazes me.  Kevin and I felt like God was calling us to adopt a child from China.  We went out on faith to be obedient to that calling.  The waiting was not easy and the bumps in the road were frustrating, but the outcome has blown me away.  What I have learned from this experience is that if you follow what God calls you to do, you will be blessed beyond what you could even think imaginable.  It may not be easy or immediate, but if you stay the course, the pay off can be better than you ever dreamed.  Chloe is an absolutely amazing child.  So smart, funny and sweet.  For those of you that have spent any time with her, I think you would agree that she fits in perfectly to our family.  There is no way that it would be humanly possible to pick such a perfect match.  I am so thankful that God paired us together to be a forever family.  

Photos

Chloe playing with the microphone

At the Zoo

Looking at animals

Laughing at the animals, having a good time

Too much fun. She wore herself out!

Sunday dress

So cute!