One Year Ago Today

One year ago today we were matched with Chloe!  What an amazingly exciting day.  I was at work when I received the email from our adoption agency.  The subject line of the email said in capital letters CALL A HELPING HAND ADOPTION AGENCY ASAP!  My heart rate soared and the excitement built as I clicked on the email that told us we were matched with a child and to call the office as soon as possible.  I think that may be the best email I have ever received.  I was in such disbelief as I listened to our case worker tell me about Chloe.  Here we had waited for almost 4 years and within a few minutes my life was drastically changed forever.  I had tried to call Kevin at that moment and kept getting voicemail.  I just kept calling and calling hoping eventually he would pick up so I could share the news.  He called back a few minutes after my call with the agency.  He told me that he had been on a business call and when he saw that I kept calling over and over, he had to tell the person that there must be something important because his wife had called repeatedly that he was going to have to call him back.  Little did he know what I was about to spring on him!  Caleb was equally excited.  He was finally going to be a big brother.  The emotions of that day were overwhelming.  It was hard to believe that there was a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes on the other side of the world that would be ours forever.  I wonder what they told her if anything on April 26th last year.  Did she know she was going to have a forever family?  Did she know she would have a Mom and Dad and big brother who would love her?  I hope so.  Now fast forward to today.  So many things have happened in her little life. She met us.  She moved half way around the world.  She has had surgery (now twice since she just had another set of ear tubes placed).  She has adjusted to a new way of life.  And she is flourishing.  April 26, 2011 changed our hearts and our lives forever.   Praise God!

The first picture we got of Chloe with our referral on April 26, 2011

Chloe now

Chloe's 2!

Birthdays last a long time at our house.  We like to celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.  And this year we had something great to celebrate.  We had to make up for the fact that she probably did not have a celebration on her first birthday.  We started celebrating her day at breakfast with pancakes.  We put 2 candles in the pancakes and sang Happy Birthday to her.  She loved blowing out the candles.  Later that evening we had cake and ice cream at the house followed by opening presents.  She seemed to have a great day.  That weekend my family came up and we celebrated again.  She got to blow out more candles and open more presents.  Finally, Aunt Joy arranged for us to go to Medieval Times and celebrate the kids birthdays with a show.  It was fantastic!  Chloe was a little fussy before the show, but the minute the horses came out, she changed her attitude in a hurry.  She was mesmerized by the show and sat relatively still for the entire 2 hours.  I think we all had a great time.   

Chloe continues to entertain us.  She has learned to tell you how old she is.  She can say something that sounds like two and holds up two fingers.  It is so cute.  I have tried to upload different videos, but the file size always seems to big.  Here was one video I was able to upload.  It is of Chloe practicing her me which was one of our homework words for speech.

Here are some pictures from her birthday.

Breakfast pancakes with candles

Opening presents

Playing with a bubble maker, one of her presents

Chloe and Caleb

I made a butterfly cake since her Chinese name means little butterfly

Grandma and the kids

Chloe with her smash cake (since she didn't get to have one at her first birthday)

Chloe and her cake

The kids playing with ipads

Medieval Times

Grandma and Caleb at Medieval Times

Chloe waving her flag

Chloe had her 2 year check up.  She has really grown since she has been with us.  We did find out that she had a urinary tract infection.  I have been feeling kind of guilty about it.  I was concerned months ago that she may have an infection.  She has had some random fevers and her urine has had a strong odor.  I talked with the doctor about it 3 months ago and he gave me a specimen container to collect a specimen.  I never did.  (That's what happens when your mother is a doctor.)  I decided I we would collect one and take it to her 2 year check up.  The urine dip in the office was clear, but the culture was positive for an infection.  She had to take some antibiotics.  She also had to have a kidney ultrasound to make sure there were no underlying problems.  She was so scared she cried for the entire test.  Thankfully everything came out ok.  So now we are good and she is healthy.  

Daddy's Girl

Chloe has become Daddy's girl.  When we first got back from China, Chloe was not interested in Kevin in the slightest.  She always wanted me to do everything: hold her, play with her, put her to bed, etc.  Back then I would tell Chloe that she was really going to like this guy and that he was staying around so she should warm up to him.  My how things change in a short period of time.  Now it is pretty much the opposite.  If Dad is around, she prefers to be with him.  It all started one night about a month ago when she essentially pushed me out of a room saying night night and shut the door in my face.  I am use to the door shut in my face thing now because it seems to happen almost nightly.  She wants Kevin to help her do everything including putting her to bed.  When I try, she starts to wave to me then leads me out of her room and shuts the door in my face saying night night and blowing me kisses.  I must say that if this would have happened with my first child, I may have had my feelings hurt, but I am much more comfortable as my role to know that she does love me.  Plus, it has kind of been a nice break.  It has been a good opportunity for me to spend more time with Caleb. 

One of the things Chloe loves to do is scare Dad when he comes home at night.  We hide around the wall by the door.  Chloe is so funny, she puts her finger to her mouth like the shhh sign so that we will be quiet.  The only problem is that on most days she has a hard time remaining quiet herself.  When Kevin walks in we jump out and yell boo!  She gets so excited and kicks her legs.  It always makes me laugh.  

Chloe continues to be busy.  She finished her first swimming lessons which I think she enjoyed.  She is loving her music class and continues to take speech.  I am not sure how to rate the progress from her speech.  I guess we will know things are good when she is speaking in recognizable sentences.  We are still trying to get her to vocalize more.  She can say Mama, no, yeah, night night, me, and pseudo words na na (which is Dada), Meme (which is baby).  But, just because she cannot talk, does not mean she cannot communicate.  She always amazes me how she can tell me what she wants without words.

Chloe turns 2 on Monday.  We are excited about celebrating her first birthday with us.  We are having a family party the following weekend.  She does not know what a birthday is, but she certainly knows presents and cake, so I know she will enjoy it. What kid doesn't?!?

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.