Some Kids Are Just Special

Yes, some kids are special. You don't have to tell them to be protective of their siblings and family, they just are. You don't have to tell them to stand up to injustice and prejudice, they just do it. Joe is one of those kids and, God love his heart, he was just born that way. I really can't take credit for it.

Yesterday we went to a birthday party of Dennis' grandfather. His uncle persisted in making derogatory comments about Ray's heritage and wanted to know why we would want yet another one since he found out we're adopting Jessie. I responded that "you have three kids, why shouldn't we want three?" Well, he went downhill from there and I chose to ignore him, for the time being.

Later, we were discussing it in the car and Joe wanted to know what was going on. I explained that his uncle was making mean comments about his brother and sister just because they are from another country. At that point Joe did this half-scream/half-roar and declared (VERY LOUDLY) "I want to smash a house on him! I LOVE my brother and sister!" Now I just have to direct that passion into a more positive response. ;-)

I do intend to have a talk with this uncle at some point. I may have to put up with the occasional comment from people outside the family, though there have been NONE at this point, but I refuse to put up with it from within the family. And, to my knowledge, this one uncle is the only person who has had a problem with our adoption(s). Everyone else dotes on little Ray like he's always been part of the family and they all say they are looking forward to welcoming our daughter into the family.

Meanwhile ...

Joe is already preparing for the much anticipated arrival of his sister. Yesterday he saw a shirt that he just had to have. He begged and pleaded, "pleeeaaaseee!" So, now he is the proud owner of his first sister-related shirt. It says, "I wish my sister had a mute button." Oh, if he only knew how much more sisters actually talk than moms do ... Still, she's going to have to try to out talk Joe, which is no easy feat, trust me.

Oh, Yeah ...

I almost forgot! TODAY is Joe's birthday! My sweet, sweet boy ... my little protector of the defenseless turns 9 today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOE! I LOVE YOU!

He Ate It, Mikey ... I Can't Believe He Ate It!

Its true! Ray has actually eaten something that is not pureed baby food! It was just soup, but it WASN'T BABY FOOD!

He actually seems to like soup quite a bit, except for the chunky parts. Hey, we're making progress though.

We've had a couple of random incidents where he'd bit a french fry, but spit out the pieces. He's swallowed a couple of bits, but not with any consistency. He's also eaten one or two goldfish crackers according to the ladies in the church nursery, but has never eaten one in front of us.

Then there was soup.

Our refrigerator has been on the fritz for a month, so we lived out of coolers for a while until they got the frige partially working. Yes, we were keeping milk in the freezer part because the other side was too warm. No, the milk never came close to freezing. I think it was just cool enough to keep the milk from spoiling. Anyway, the point of all of this is ... we were eating a lot of soup because it was easy.

Ray took a notion that he needed to be in Dennis' lap every time his daddy started eating, even though he'd already had his meal. Then he kept grabbing the bowl and sticking his nose over the edge. Dennis finally offered him a bit of New England Clam Chowder and HE ATE IT! He wanted "Mo! Mo, DaDa!" So, Dennis kept feeding him. He ate almost all the broth from the bowl. He would spit out the chunks if Dennis gave him one though.

Since then Ray has had the broth off several types of soup. Rigatoni, Chicken and Corn Chowder, Steak and Potato ... Then, he discovered Italian Wedding soup. He wouldn't eat the meatballs in it, but he ate every bite of pearl pasta and spinach that went into his greedy little mouth. He even ate some crackers that were soaked in the broth. It seems it should be such a little thing for a baby to start eating table food, but, at 25 months, its a big deal for us. It means Ray is starting to catch up a little more. Its such a change for us from Joe who was totally off baby food by the time he was about 15- or 16-months-old.

OTHER THINGS WE'RE WORKING ON

Ray is also coming along more each day on his speech, though I still have to remind myself the doctor said he had to catch up on recognizing sound due to the past ear infections that he feels affected his hearing.

Right now Ray can say:
Doe (Joe)
DaDa
MaMa
Baw (ball)
MattMatt (his friend at school)
NiNi (the daycare director)
Mo (more)
Gogah (yogurt)
Night Night
Baf (bath)
Hello
Hola (thanks, Diego)
Daygo (Diego)
Dabo (Diablo, our dog)
Mik (milk)
Eat
Bye Byeeeee
Pease (please)
BunBa (spongebob)
No - he's got that one down pat!
Es - yes

He also tries to say "walk," but I don't think I can spellit the way it sounds.

Hey, once I write it all down, he's not doing so bad, eh?

MAJOR EXCITEMENT!

Not with our adoption, but those of friends.

Sally and Joel may be able to travel the first week of November to get their sweet little Nilani! We're all praying that these last steps through DHR go smoothly and quickly. Two other families are right there with them for the trip to India. Good luck and best wishes to all!

Nick and Susan may travel at the beginning of December to get Sam! They are just waiting to get the consulate appointment and set up their flights.

This is shaping up to be a great holiday season for us all. The first Christmas with our new little people. If only Miss Jessie could be here too, but maybe next year she can join her brothers and all of our friend for the celebration!

Whoops, I Did It Again!

Yes, I know ... Dennis is going to cut off my Ebay account, but I had to get it. ;-)

I think I did pretty good. NWT, original price $59.99 and it was less than $20 with the shipping.

Yes, I am already thinking about that first fancy portrait with all three of my precious children in it. From the looks of this dress, the boys are going to have to have tuxedos by the time I'm done.

It Has Begun ...

That's right. The shopping bug has struck, and the bug want little girl's clothing!

Went out to WalMart last night and saw the cute little outfit on the right. I could not resist getting it because I think the little fairy looks like a little Chinese girl. That's what started the whole thing ...

Late last night I found myself surfing Ebay, looking at little girl things.

Today I just couldn't take it and went over to Dillards and got the cute dress on the right. Pinks, browns, plaid and butterflies! and little Ray seems to like his new sister's clothes too!

I know I can't go out and do this a lot ... well, maybe at yard sales. LOL Dennis is going to think I'm crazy when he sees I've added the dress.

I'm worried about size, of course. I know Jessie was 37 inches and about 27 pounds in October of 2006. I'm guessing length, by the time we get her, around a 5T and around will probably be smaller if she's anything likte skinny-butt Ray. ;-)

Ok, Ray is climbing on the desk and attacking the screen ... gotta go ...

Joe's Having a Birthday Soon!

Our dear first-born child, Joe, will have his 9th birthday on the 29th of this month. Gosh, I can't believe it. Nine years of those pretty (excuse me, HANDSOME) blue eyes and that endearing smile. He's gone from 9 pounds to 125, and from 20-1/4 inches to 4 feet 9-1/2 inches tall. He's always been my big boy.

At Ray's current age, 2-years-old, Joe was wearing a big old 4T in his clothing. I don't remember his shoe size, just that they were BIG! Shoot, the day he was born his footprints extended outside the box on the little cards they gave us. Must be something in the water, eh?

What can I say about Joe? He's sweet, smart (BRILLIANT in fact), funny, compassionate, loving and knows far more about the way the world works than I ever though a child his age would. He just has this old wisdom about him, like he's been through it all before. On the other hand he can drive me (and his father) half crazy at times with all the questions and incessant talking. Its ok though, I wouldn't trade him for the world ... especially when he looks in my eyes, with great seriousness, and says, "I love you, mamma. You're the best! Well, no, God and Jesus are the best, but you're second." Hey, I'll take a back seat to God and Jesus any day of the week! Man, I LOVE that kid.

I Love this Lady

Ok, I was out surfing about and ran into this blog http://giorgiadanette.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-know-im-nuts.html

Again, I'm sure Dennis could help with the link, but ya'll can cut and paste in your browser til then.

Anyway, I just love her positive attitude and her insane (in a good way) list making! Helped remind me of a few things I need to do too ....

A Bunch of Pictures

Let's see what we have here. And one day I suppose I will learn how to put a caption by each photo ...

We have a pitiful photo of little Ray on the day he had tubes put in his ears. Poor little man, he had no idea why he was in that ugly green dress. The nurse came in and gave him some sort of liquid medicine to make him loopy before the surgery ... and boy did it ever. I could tell the instant it kicked in. His little head swung around and up, his hand shot into the air and he started wiggling his fingers in front of his face. THEN he fell over backward and started laughing. This continued until the time they took him back to surgery. Keeping a drunk baby from leaping of a gurney is definitley and adventure!

Then, we have a picture of my boys, Mutt and Jeff. Not sure which is which, but, as you can see, there is a big difference in size and general appearance with these two. Its a huge change for us having little bitty Ray, who at 2 years is wearing a 12 month size on bottom and an 18 month on top when, at the same age, big brother Joe was wearing a 4T.

Finally, the day Ray attacked! He really just wanted to watch Joe's video game screen, but Joe kept moving it away from him. I really can't blame Joe. Who knows what might happen if Ray got his little death grip on the top hinge of the player?

Official Wait Date

Ok, I am counting the official start of our wait for Jessie as march 21, 2007 which is the day we faxed our LOI to our agency. I guess I didn't realize that was over 6 months ago. Man, I should be ashamed at how long it took to me to get our dossier together. Yet, at the same time ... it took our doctor's office from August 1 until Sept 12 to get our paperwork completed on our physicals. AND, as I said somewhere (maybe to someone) now seems to be ther right time. At the very least it is giving us time to make sure Ray is fully settled in before disrupting his world with another child.

Shoplifting

Dennis did such a good job with this one on his personal blog that I'm just going to give you the link.

Story

BTW: I don't know that I know how to make the link active. Ya'll may have to cut and paste.

Update: Ok, Dennis helped me with the link thingie ... it works now.

What are the Chances?

Yes, this is a foolish question because its only about 10 months til Jessie's next birthday, but ...
What are the chances that we'll at least find out she is ours before her next birthday? Well, we have a positive response to our LOI, but we still have to clear the dossier test ...

I know. We JUST turned in our paperwork. We've not had our home study. The "fortunate" group of us who get the DHR lady with the M-Z cases typically get to wait at least 3 months for her to get to them. then it takes about 90 days (sometimes more) for our CSICS office to do their thing. Then there is the wait for DTC, Log-in and all that. I just don't have the experience of working backward like this on a SN adoption to know how fast or slowly it may go once our dossier gets to China. I'm actually assuming that we will end up having to do at least the China portion of our dossier again by the time the US side gets through all they have to do with it. Not really expecting to be able to get Jessie by her next birthday, but wouldn't it be awesome!

It took us (what seemed) forever on Ray's adoption (NSN program). We decided to adopt in Oct. 2002. I think we finally got our papers in to our agency in July 2003. Our first choice of country fell through and we switched to China. Resubmitted all new documents and were logged in on Sept. 12, 2005. (Ray was born on Sept. 6, so we feel we jumped the gun on our first attempt and God held us back until OUR child was born.) We finally got our referral for Ray on Jan 3, 2007 and completed the adoption in China Feb. 28.

It's a Boy! Finding Out About Ray.

By the way ... as we all know, the vast majority of children adopted through the NSN program in China are girls. When we did our paperwork we requested a girl between the ages of 3 and 6, but also stated that a boy would be welcomed.

About 3 or 4 months before we got our referral I started having dreams about our child. In EVERY dream he was a boy. I never once dreamed about a girl. I would catch myself looking at boy names on the internet (a lot of good that did since hubby ended up picking Ray's name, LOL). I'd be looking at little boy's clothes in the stores. I asked our agency director about the possibility of getting a boy. She said, "no way, you're getting a girl." And she stuck to that story every time I asked.

We'd gone ahead and decorated the room for a girl. Mint green walls with white butterflies stenciled all over ... A frilly white dresser with carved roses ... a blue bedspread with butterflies ... you get the picture. Very girly!

Then, the call came on Jan. 3, 2007. I remember it clear as day. I'd been waiting for my turn all day. Pat calls everyone in alphabetical order when the referrals come in, being a "U" we were last on the list. I think she finally got to us around 2:30 or 3:00 that afternoon. I answered my cell phone at work, set on a very loud siren sound just for the agency, and heard Pat's voice, "Laura??" "Yes, Pat??" "Laura, you're not going to believe this." "It's a BOY, isn't it, Pat!" "Yes! And there's something else ... he's only 16 months old!" I feel pretty sure everyone in the building could probably hear me talking. I have a tendency to get very loud when I'm excited. I absolutely could not sit still. Anyway, Pat was sitting at the ready to email me the photos of our sweet little boy, but I made her wait until I could get hold of Dennis and get him to his computer so he could see about the same time I did. When I got him on the other phone and told him we had a boy he hollered out to his co-workers "IT"S A BOY! I'm a daddy!" then we got to see his adorable little face. Three photos that were all obviously taken on the same day. But, gosh, wasn't he just the cutest thing! We both immediately started sending his photo out to all our family and friends. Its one of the times I really wish my mom had a computer. She had to wait 2 days for the envelope to get to her.

When we got the referral packet, and our letter of acceptance, we didn't even give our pediatrician time to wait on the translation of the medical for review. We signed our papers and sent them right back in. Ray was ours and it didn't matter to us if he had a problem we were unaware of at the time. I can guarantee this little man was worth every minute of our long wait. All told, over 1,500 days from the time we decided to adopt until we met our little guy for the first time at the SWI in Beijing, China. Definitely worth every minute. ;-)

Brothers Waiting on Their Sister

Just a quick post today to show our two handsome boys. One is a photo we included in the little album we sent to Ray's orphanage. We had a (then current) photo of Joe and Ray's referral photo to work with at that time.

The family photo is us now ... well about a month ago really. Look how much the boys have grown! No, I don't know why it popped to the front since it was loaded second? This is the photo we included in our most Recent dossier to get the boys' new sister, Miss Jessie. We hope that all will go well and we'll eventually be able to post photos of Jessie too. I have referral photos of her, but since we are working backward, and the dossier hasn't made it to China for approval yet, I'm not sure I can post them yet as being our daughter.

I just realized Joe is wearing the shirt he got in China. He picked it out at the silk factory we visited in Beijing ... after I'd already paid for our selections. So, we had to make one more purchase. Its been a good one though. He wears that shirt at least once a week, twice if I do the laundry early.

We sent Jessie's LOI off shortly after we got home with little Mr. Ray (Ray Ray or Ray Bob depending on our mood) and did get word from the agency that they had received a positive response from China for us to adopt Jessie. I don't know if it the official LOA though. Doesn't seem like it would be at this stage. Ok, it has to the the PA (Preliminary Approval) that the agency received. yes, our second adoption and I still don't know what all these abbreviations stand for!

Right now, I'm waiting for the agency to let us know if we have trouble with a BMI score. One of us (who is rather sensitive about the matter at the moment) has a score of exactly 40. I also had a little problem with our police clearance. The notary scribbled over the date she signed the paper. who wants to bet a nickel I have to have that redone?

Ok, and one more photo ... I bet this pops to the very front too. I'll figure that stuff out later. This one is of Ray and our friend Sally (who is also in the process of adopting with her hubby Joel) at Ray's 2nd birthday party. Sally makes the neatest baby blankets. She gave us one just before we went to get Ray and it took me this long to realize that the "people" in the planes and hot-air balloons are actually PANDAS! Now that is a pretty cool detail that I should have picked up on right away. BTW: Ray Ray loves his "Sally blanket" and it HAS to be in the crib with him each night.

Ok, I'm supposed to be working so I'd better get back to it. More later ...