Saturday, December 6, 2008

Call Number One

China's Waiting Child program is a work in progress. It has become increasingly popular as the wait for a Non Special Needs child continues to grow. Ryan and I first looked at our agency's Waiting Child program in the spring of 2007. At that time, prospective parents could look at a list (pictures and medical conditions included) of children available and if a child looked like they would be a good match for your family, you could request to review that file. So, Ryan and I looked at our agency's list and found a baby girl with a large birthmark on her chest and requested to review her file. Several other families made that same request for that same child and we were not selected (I later found out that this particular little girl had in fact been very popular and was adopted by a family through our agency - her birthmark was cancerous). Fast forward to the Fall of 2007. Our agency changed their process for Waiting Children. Instead of having the ability to request a file, families now had to fill out a Medical Conditions Checklist. Our agency workers would then take these checklists and use them to match families with Waiting Children as they became available. We filled out our checklist and submitted it sometime during the last part of October 2007. I had read on websites, etc. that families should expect a 6-12 month matching time for special needs adoptions. For whatever reason, I was unsure that we would even be chosen for the special needs program. I guess because we had not been selected to review one child's file, I was not confident that we had what our agency was looking for to adopt a child with a special need. Anytime I would voice this concern to Ryan he would always say "if it is meant to be, it will be" and I could tell he truly believed that. So, imagine my surprise when on a Thursday night, December 6, 2007, I got into my car and noticed that I had a voice mail on my cellphone from our agency. It was an agency representative (the same representative that I had spoken to previously and told her to have a good holiday season - the same one that stated she hoped to be talking to me again before the holidays were over) and she simply stated that she had a question about our Waiting Child application. She asked me to return her call at my convenience. It was too late to call her back on that day. As I drove home, I thought about what kind of question she could possibly have, I tried to remember exactly what I had written on our app so I could elaborate if that was what she was looking for, and then I finally came to the conclusion that it was a good thing that they were at least looking at our application. With that, I arrived home, immersed myself in homework with the boys, dinner games, bedtime routines and did not think about the agency call again until I awoke on Friday, December 7, 2007.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Drama

I experienced something today that was bound to happen eventually with one of my three children....a full blown, everyone looking our way, tantrum. I honestly do not recall either of the boys ever just throwing themselves down and screaming while everyone watched in a public place. Mason-Kate did just that. It was over a cough drop of all things. We entered the grocery store (I am like Norm from Cheers, everyone knows my name at our local grocery store...the managers, the deli people, the bakers, the cashiers, everyone) and went immediately to the pharmacy to get Pryce's second antibiotic (first one not working - sigh). While waiting on the prescription to be filled, I grabbed a bag of cough drops. I opened the bag and gave one to Pryce. Mason-Kate wanted one too, of course. They are hard and she can't have one. I offered her other things but she insisted on having a cough drop and I insisted that she would not have one....the rest is blurry. There was screaming, there were tears, there was the arching of the back, the wailing for "daddy", there was the falling on your knees without even bracing yourself with your arms - this was done not once but twice so I am sure future knee surgery will be in place, there were strangers staring, staff offering cookies and bananas and coloring books, and all the while I stood there thinking "what in the world can I do to make her stop???"....finally it occurred to me to take her out of the store and that did it, she stopped. The term "strongwilled" does not even come close to describing her. Now that I have calmed myself, I am smiling because I am proud of her personality. I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is her will that got her where she is today. She had to fight, she had to be determined or she may not have survived.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Catching Up



As I type this, my little Pryce is fast asleep on the couch (it is in the middle of the afternoon)....he has been so sick yet such a good little patient, as always. Of course I am worried about him. He has been sick now for 10 days, fever and all. The only positive thing that I can say about his sickness is that I have had fun spending time with him. And he hasn't lost all of his creativity....he decided yesterday that he was going to make our oversized chair a "jet". Colin came home from school, thought the idea was great so they turned our den into an airport. Never a dull moment. On a holiday note, we welcomed "Matthew" the elf into our home again this year. Every night he flies away to the North Pole to give his report to Santa on who has been good and who needs a little work. The next morning, Matthew finds a new spot in our home to watch over the day's activities. He is such a sneeky little guy and finds the trickiest places to hide. The boys love waking up to see where Matthew has hidden himself. Such fun. With MK, I have been slowly trying to warm her up to the idea of Santa. She will tell you he says "ho, ho, ho" and laugh but when you try to get her to even play with a stuffed Santa, she backs away and says "NOOOO". So, our Santa pictures this year will be most likely with my two precious boys all smiling and my scared little girl screaming. Tis the season!




Monday, December 1, 2008

Too Much TV

You know your child is watching too much tv when he puts a "Twin Draft Guard" as one of his items on his Christmas list. I walked into the den yesterday to find Colin running over to grab a pencil and his Christmas list. He then proceeded to write very fast as the infomercial on the "Twin Draft Guard" was showing. So I asked him what exactly he was doing and he told me he was asking Santa for this draft guard so that we won't have to pay our heating bill. Supposedly this draft guard keeps all of the heat inside. That is all Colin needed to hear and he was sold!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Sick Bay

The boys have been sick. MK was sick one night, one time and never missed a meal - very fitting for her. The boys have been sick since Thursday night, Pryce even started complaining on Tuesday.....in a way, it has been nice, we have done NOTHING. We have been watching way too much tv, eating whatever the boys want (junk pretty much) and drinking "bugjuice" (grape Gatorade and Sprite mixed together - Ryan finds this disgusting but the boys believe in it). Random pix below....MK donning her "I'm Big On The Pig" shirt given to her by the Freehof family. She was born during the Chinese Year of the Pig; Colin and Finley resting together - Colin clearly doesn't feel well and Finley is recovering from Thanksgiving; and wouldn't you know that the children were all three pulling for the Clemson Tigers during yesterday's hideous football game versus my South Carolina Gamecocks. For those of you who know us well, you know that Ryan (and his entire family - mom, dad, siblings, etc.) is all Clemson and I (and my entire family - mom, dad, siblings, etc.) am all South Carolina. November proves to be a trying month in our marriage every year. There is little communication during football season when South Carolina and Clemson are involved. Neither of us seem to have nice words to say about the other's team, so we choose not to say anything at all. Having said that, my children were all so excited about the game and they did make us laugh when they came down all decked out in their Clemson Tiger attire.