Update

On November 5th Steve and I will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary.  I am so blessed to be married to my best friend.  He is a wonderful husband and also a wonderful father.  I can not believe how much have changed in that time.  The most wonderful change is the adoption of our 3 wonderful kids.  I am amazed how they fit into our family so perfectly.  God is good.

I now have a mini van.  I fought for so many years not to have one and now I love it.

Jade has made so much progress these past 8 months.  Last month Jade we officially diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.    We were told that she had intelligence delay but she was greatly misdiagnosed.  She is so smart and very determined.  Every week she has Speech, OT and PT.  She is also going to be getting a brace for her right leg in the next couple of week.  She has doctor appointments and test going on a lot.  Next week she will be going for a MRI.  

All of Jade's therapist are amazed by her progress week to week.  She wants to do everything by herself.  She is not going to let anything stand in her way.  I do not think that we would have chosen a child with CP, but we are so blessed by her everyday.  I can not imagine life without her.  She bring so much joy into our home. She steals everyone's heart in just seconds.  Every morning she climbs into our bed and cuddles with her Daddy and Mommy is the only person who can rock her at night.  We love her so much.  (She has Grandpa completely wrapped around her finger.)

Abram is our little big boy.  He is still smaller than Jade.  He has gone and seen an endocrinologist and everything is fine, he is just little.  We have done some test to try and get a more accurate age and we think that China was off by a year.  We are looking into officially changing his age to 6.

We have started school with him and he is doing great.  He is also learning so many words.  He loves to talk and even has some silliness in him.  He and Elias get along great and love playing together.  Abram loves being in this family and is my little cuddler.  I love everything about that boy.

Abram loves life.  He is a ball of energy and loves to have fun.

Elias is Elias.  He is so smart.  Homeschooling him is fun and easy.  He loves to read and he is starting to enjoy learning, even though he will never admit it.  When we got the van he asked if we were going to adopt 2 more kids since we had 2 extra seats in the van.  He loves to run and play and has started gym and swim at the Y.  Soon he will start his 3rd year of soccer

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Here are just some fun pictures.

A very late update

I know that it has been awhile since my last post.  Well what did you expect, I am now the mother of 3 kids and I homeschool :).  I love being a mom. It is the best and hardest job I have ever had.  God has blessed this family so much and even on the worst of days i am thankful that God choose me to be the mother of these three special and wonderful kids.

Elias is great. He will officially be done with 3rd grade next week. I can not believe how hard her has worked the past couple of years to catch up with school work.  As with all kids we have some issues to work on but I could not have asked for a better kid.  He is a bright shining light.  He loves to help people and make people happy.  He is a wonderful big brother.  Both Abram and Jade adore him.

Abram is so very smart but soooooo very stubborn.   Today he said all of his ABC's by himself.  He is asking so many questions and is just wanting to know more English (except with school work where most of the time he fights me tooth and nail).  He is so proud of himself because he is able to do so many things for himself.  I am not sure that he has ever been treated his age because of his size before us.  He can brush his own teeth and take a shower by himself.  I know that this sounds odd that a 7 year old could not do it before but it is hard to do things you never been taught before.  His laugh is addicting and him smile could warm anyone's heart.  He is into cars and all things that move.  Abram has also became Grandpa's little buddy.  My Dad called us and asked if Abram could spend the night.  He did very well over there without Mommy   :(.

I think that the hardest thing about adopting older kids is that instead of 5 or 6 years before they stop needing a lot of help and taking care of it is only 4 or 5 months.  I love adopting older kids.  I love that Elias can tell me story's of Taiwan.  Or that walking through Wal-Mart Jade can show me a snack that her China Mama use to give her.  But I do not like that I have missed so much. When I get to heaven I am going to ask God if I can watch my kids' life before I was their Mama.

Jade is the strongest person I have ever met.  She works so hard to do the littlest thing.  But she does it whit such happiness.  Jade has two moods, happy or screaming.  Most of the time she is happy.  Jade has made so many leaps since she has been home.  She can climb steps by herself and a few times she has even taken steps without holding onto anything.  Not very often but that is still huge.  She "runs" (walks fast), jumps, and dances all while cracking up laughing.  She can sing most of  "You are my Sunshine" and has started learning her ABC's.  She is such a good helper also.  She helps with laundry, dishes, putting things away, and cooking.

I will try to post on here more often.  This month has been crazy and it is only the 13th.  We had a storm where we lost power and while that was happening I sprained my ankle.  Steve has been working crazy hours because someone at his work broke his ankle.  We are doing pretty good in spite all that. Things will get back to normal someday.

Our Crazy Life

I can not believed that three months ago we were on our way to China.  It seems like a lifetime ago. I can not believe how much the kids have changed and attached in this little amount of time.  Steve and I got to go out on a fast mini date last week.  My parents came over and spoiled the kids while we went to the movies.  I think the kids handled it better than we did.  But it was nice to get out and spend some quality time together.

Elias is back into school work completely.  I read to him a lot for school work and he enjoyed that extra time he gets with me. He is also in his 3rd year of soccer and it is so amazing how far he has come.  He is getting use to having a brother and a sister.  He is still nervous around Jade because when she gets excited she still falls and it scares him and make him feel bad.

Abram is such a sweet boy.  He is learning some English but he wants to learn more. He gets frustrated sometimes when he knows he needs to do something but doesn't know what.  It breaks my heart when that happens.  He is also such a little trooper.  A couple weeks ago he had two of his teeth pulled and did not even flinch.   A few weeks ago someone at church, who speaks Chinese, told Abram that we were his family forever.  Ever since then his personality is starting to show more and more.  He is a fun, silly and sweet boy.

Jade is paying me back for anything I ever did to my parents.  She a a great girl but she is ALL girl.  She loves to laugh and dress up.  She gets so excited to go to church because she gets to wear a dress.  She is such a strong little girl.  She has to try so hard in everything she does, but she wants to do everything by herself.  We have met with her PT and are excited to start working with her.  We are still waiting to hear from her OT.  She has started jumping.  She has to hold onto something but both feet are off the ground.  It took her awhile to teach herself how to do it but she wanted to do it so she did.

She made the bracelet.

This week we decided to change the kids room.  It worked out better than we could have ever imaged.  The boys have more room to play and the bunk beds are gone and they have their own bed.  They both love having their own bed and space.  We like Jades new room because we can use the closet for storage and keep her out.  She has enjoyed getting a new room just because it is different.  The kids worked hard changing the rooms but they also had fun playing together.

Life

Things have been going great. We are back in the routine of schoolwork with Elias and we are slowly getting in the routine with Abram. Abram is smart but stubborn. I think it helped him survive in China. Jade is jealous that I am spending time with the boys so she has started to learn things just by hanging around the boys while they are doing school work.

With the weather getting nice we have been going to the park more and more. Even with Jade walking and getting around better it is a workout for Steve and I. Abram loves to climb so we are there to spot him. Jade is such a daredevil. She assumes that we are always going to catch her. Elias is just enjoying being outside. The other night we went to the park and had a picnic (something Elias always wanted to do).

Every morning Jade comes into our bed and cuddles. Abram and Elias sometimes come in and cuddle too. We love having our kids home.

We have started taking both kids to the nutritionist. Abram is starting to gain weight (not in a bad way). We went to the dentist this week also. He is going to need quite a bit of work done on his teeth, but he was so brave. He sat in the chair and opened his mouth and did not move. We were so proud of him. Next month he goes back to have two teeth pulled and then two more appointments after that.


The kids are still continuing to bond with us. They do not like strangers making over them. It has really started making Jade upset when people try to interact with her. They both are still adjusting to all the changes. We continue to be sensitive to what they can handle.

We went to Wal-Mart the other day and get the kids some sun glasses. We also HAD to get Jade a purse. She was trying to carry mine all the time (and it is not light).

The kids are also enjoying our yard. Abram has already learned to ride his bike my Dad got for him. He can ride it really good on the deck. He needs to build up some muscles for the driveway and yard.

Elias is showing Abram how it is done. And Jade loves to swing.