HOME ONE YEAR

It's hard to believe that tomorrow, May 19, marks one year that we arrived back home with little Katie. This last year as flown by. She has been such a blessing on our family. She adjusted to us so well, it's just been amazing. Katie and Marie have bonded so well as sisters. They play together 90% of the time (only 10% arguing which isn't too, huh?).

Katie is finishing Kindergarten on May 27 and she received a perfect grade card each time. We just had her baptized last Sunday. She was so excited about it. Katie and Marie are part of a cheer team called Cheer America and they just competed in their second competition yesterday. They both did very well.

As you can see from her pictures, she is a very happy, well adjusted child. I am so glad we finally had decided to adopt again because I couldn't imagine missing out on this blessing.

READY FOR FIRST CHRISTMAS

Six Months Already

It's hard to believe that six months ago today we landed in China ready to make Katie part of our family. The adoption process is definitely a leap of faith. We went into this trying to prepare ourselves for major grieving, possible undisclosed health issues, developmental issues, etc. All I can say is that our God is so good. Katie has been an absolute joy. It is so obvious that she was loved by her foster family very much. They taught this little angel how to love and be loved. I stay in contact with the foster family via e-mail and they really appreciate it. They said they miss her very much. We found Katie's file on our agency's waiting children list. This is a list of children with minor special needs. We had never even considered cleft lip/cleft palate before but when we saw her picture, we knew she was meant to be ours. We then had to prepare ourselves for speech therapy, possible hearing loss due to ear infections and all the other issues related to cleft. This little one has been nothing but healthy. Her major issue when we got home was her teeth which didn't have anything to do with her cleft situation. She has to have six cavities filled, two partial root canals and two crowns. She felt so much better when her mouth didn't hurt anymore. The Cleft Team in Cincinnati, Ohio examined her in July and said the doctors in China did a wonderful job on her surgeries. She won't need anything else for about two more years when she will need her bone graft in her gum line. Of course braces will be in her future but they are in Marie's too. Katie is growing very fast. She already is wearing size six (Marie is nine and wears size seven). It brings me such joy to see the special bonding between Marie and Katie. They really watch out for one another. They play all of the time. I asked Jim the other night "what did Marie do before Katie?" Jim and I are so happy with our family. We went to Katie's first parent/teacher conference for Kindergarten last week. She received all S's (the best you can get in Kindergarten) and the teacher said she is doing wonderful. She also sees an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher twice a week with four other children from her school. The teacher said she will be ready to graduate Katie out in February before the others since she is doing so well. Her ability to learn English has just amazed everyone she has met. We attribute this to her big sister talking to her all of the time. Katie is a very smart little girl. She is also in Cheer America with her big sister. They have cheer lessons once a week and have already marched in one parade with another coming up here in Sidney this month. Then there will be a competition. She enjoyed Halloween and dressed up as a bride. She has talked about dressing as a bride for a long time. Now that is over, she is talking more and more about Christmas. This is so exciting to think this will be her first Christmas and she is five years old. I can't wait!!

Katie starts Kindergarten!

We've been working hard with Katie all summer to get her ready for Kindergarten. This child has just amazed us. She has learned so much in just three months--like I said, it's just amazing. We truly believe that she has lost her Chinese language unfortunately. This child has switched from speaking ALOT of Chinese when we first got her and singing songs in Chinese to speaking sentences in English. She is not fluent by no means but her English vocabulary is increasing daily. I took her to her school several times and she met her teacher and seem very ready to begin school. She said the night before school started though, "I'm a little scaryed." Remember that is how she says that she is scared. When I went in to wake them for school and said today is the day, she started crying and said she was scared. This lasted for a few minutes and then she was fine. She got right on the bus with big sister leading the way. Marie said Katie did fine until they got close to Marie's school and she knew Marie had to get off the bus and she had to stay on. Marie said Katie started crying hard--so hard her face was red. Marie felt so bad for her sister that she also began to cry. I met Katie at her school a half hour later and she got off the bus and was fine. She said just "Mom I cried a littled when Marie got off the bus.". She walked right into her classroom and seemed very comfortable there. She has a good friend in her class that was also adopted from China. We are good friends with the family. Katie got off the bus after an hour ride by herself and said "Kindergarten is fun!" Thanks Goodness!!! I read Marie's homewook paper from fourth grade after this day and the question was "Would you like to attend a one room school house and if so why?" Marie answered "Yes so that I could be with my sister." This just really touched my heart. There were several other questions and every answer had Marie's sister somewhere in there. One of my favorite pictures is the one where Marie is holding her hand and heading out to the bus--SISTERS!!!

Three Months Since Gotcha Day!

Boy it's hard to believe that tomorrow, August 9, it will be three months since Katie walked into our hotel room and entered our lives. We are one of the very fortunate families to have had such an easy transition. Looking back at her Gotcha Day pictures, we can see how scared she was, but she was so brave. She is doing absolutely wonderful and her English is coming along great. She will be starting Kindergarten in just two more weeks. She is nervous about this since big sister goes to a different school this year. Yesterday I took her to her school and we walked around and she saw her classroom. This made her feel much better. In the last month, Katie had major dental work done (six cavities filled, two partial root canals, and two crowns). Thank goodness they put her under so she doesn't remember any of the work that was being done. She also had her cleft team appointment in Cincinnati Childrens Hospital. This went wonderful. The doctors said she will not need her bone graft in her gum line for about two more years. The doctors could not believe how well she was speaking English after only being home eight weeks. The speech pathologist said her speech was wonderful but she has just a little nasal sound on her S words. She is going to retest her in six months. We've also been in touch with Katie's foster family. They somehow got ahold of our name and address and had sent us a package in June for Katie's birthday. I then in turn wrote a letter to them and sent with many pictures of Katie's birthday party. Just this week, we received another letter from them. They are so happy for Katie. It is obvious they loved her and cared for her very much. We now have their address, phone number and guess what--they even have an e-mail address they sent. Now I can e-mail pictures to them. The girls are getting a long so much better. I really saw a turning point at around two months. They rarely fight now. In the first month, Katie would get upset about not getting her way and would cross her arms and pout and cry but I haven't seen her do that in a long time. She is still a little cautious around Daddy. I think it's because he is big and has a deep voice. Here is a little girl who used to be very nervous riding her bike or hated getting splashed in the face in the swimminig pool. Now she rides her bike just fine all by herself and practically lives under water in the pool! The company where Jim works sent the employees and families down to Kings Island (an amuzement park) three weeks ago. She had a ball riding the rides. About two weeks ago she stopped needing Mommy to lay with her until she went to sleep. It's a wonderful feeling knowing she trusts us. Just in the last week she has started calling me Mother. It is really cute. We were at an anniversary party with a lot of people and I walked away from her thinking she was with her sister. I heard her calling "Mother, Mother". I went over and she said, "Mother where were you? I was calling Mother! Mother! and I was scaryed" (that is how she says scared) She is just too darn cute I tell you. We have sure been blessed with a wonderful child. I am so thankful for our entire family.

Katie's 5th Birthday Party

We had Katie's birthday party on Saturday and she had a lot of fun. She received so many nice presents. She continues to do just absolutely wonderful. People cannot hardly believe it. She is speaking more and more English every day. Marie and Katie are also getting along much better now. We've been home six weeks now. Katie never threw temper tantrums but would have several crying spells with her arms crossed when she didn't get her way. This hardly occurs anymore.

A Month Since Gotcha Day

It's really hard to believe that it has been an entire month since Katie walked into our hotel room. She is really thriving in her new family. Katie has definitely attached herself to me. I have not been anywhere without her for a month now. I need to start getting her used to me leaving for awhile so she can see mommy leaves/mommy returns. She is not rejecting Jim but is a little more reserved around him. When he's not around though, she is always asking where daddy is. She said her first whole sentence in English this week. When Jim went back to work at lunchtime on Thursday, she said, "Mom, Daddy gave Katie a kiss." She is saying new words in English every day. She still calls Marie Jie Jie (big sister) unless she is mad at her and then it's a loud "MARIE!" She doesn't speak much in Chinese anymore already. However, when she is by herself in the bathtub playing, I'll hear her speaking Chinese. I've had friends tell me it's hard going from one child to two and I can see what they mean. My energy is totally spent by the end of the day. Mommy has definitely been the entertainment for both girls since we've been home. It's been a blessing to be able to be home with them for awhile. I only have one more week though and then back to work. Katie eats almost anything we give her. It was funny the other night we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant. I asked her what she wanted and she said "cheeseburger". We all laughed at that. We put up a small pool for the girls and she is loving it. Next week we have to take her to the dentist on Wednesday to get her cavity filled and then she has her immunizations for Kindergarten on Thursday. It will be a rough couple of days for her.