Vacation

Vacation is a wonderful thing. The children (and the adults!) had a great time at the beach....Colin and Pryce spent their week riding the waves, playing football, watching too much tv and eating lots of special treats. Mason-Kate loved the ocean. She was not afraid at all to walk into the crashing waves and she loved to lick my shoulder to taste the salt (yummm!). She is not fond of the sand. She loved sitting on my lap and eating her daily snack of chocolate pudding while she watched the children playing on the beach. So, in a nutshell, that was our week....the pictures tell the rest of the story.

We started off the week trying to get some pictures of MK on the beach....

As you can see, she became quite tired of all the pictures! Enough, already!

MK taking it all in from the wagon; The boys riding some waves.

Playing with cousin Emma



Come here and gimmie a kiss.....

You can see (and hold) all kinds of interesting things on the Garden City pier.

All this vacationing stuff is wearing me out.......

Long Update, No Pictures....

It will not be news to most of you that our week has been, yes, BUSY! I thought for sure things would be slower this week with Colin and Pryce in church camp but, alas, that has not been the case! Because we have spent so much time on the go this week, I thought I would use this post to talk about our time with Mason-Kate. On June 17th we will celebrate 3 months with her! WOW! She has grown so much physically and emotionally. Her hair has grown probably an inch, her feet have grown a centimeter or two, her little legs have gotten taller and her eyes have remained those beautiful brown eyes! She is trying to speak....she repeats apple (ahhh-pullll or sometimes ahhhh-llll), she says hi and waves bye, she says "ni-ni" for goodnight, she sings in the car and babbles when she is being entertained at home. She is walking all over, no longer afraid to walk across the room to a toy that she may want to play with. She has gotten her first molars (so sad that she can't put them to use yet!) and she has a somewhat repaired palate. She loves to show off her nose, eyes and her little belly as those are the body parts that she knows at this point. She is quite the little shopper as long as I am either holding her or she is free to walk holding my hand....I have also discovered that she loves the buggies that are offered in some stores, she prefers this over her stroller. We purchased our first official pair of pink shoes this week....mary jane style crocs, light pink and just adorable....she marveled at them for a long time....then she decided to see how it would feel to walk with them on. Lets just say that it is somewhat hard for a one year old to walk when bending over and staring down at their feet! She will take anything that remotely looks like a phone, hold it up to her ear and say "hi". She has now decided that we can compromise on the stair climbing issue....she will sit on the first stair with a toy or two and play. As cute as she is, she does have her "dark" side, the side that I don't mention a whole lot and the side that only presents itself under certain circumstances. One example of this is expressed at mealtime. We will give her a bottle, she will inhale it, she will put her hands up beside her face and do a two syllable sound for "all gone", we will tell her "yes, all gone" and she just flips, literally. She goes from this sweet, cuddly little angel to this irate, screaming animal in no time at all. I know, I know, you are saying to fix her more....we do, but the time between bottle one and bottle two is LONG. Then there are the moments when she is told "no"....oh my goodness, that does not go well at all. And then there are the visits to the doctor....those are the worst! In fact, we visited yesterday for an ear check-up. Mason-Kate loves the waiting area....she will walk around and say hi to everyone, she points to the other children and smiles, she just really doesn't mind it at all until they call her name to come back. Horrific describes the next 45 minutes we spend behind closed doors waiting on the doctor. Very frustrating from my end as there isn't a thing that I can do but sit there and let her scream. Yesterday she just kept pointing to the door to leave....she got louder and louder when I repeatedly told her that we could not leave. About 15 minutes into our wait, I called Ryan to vent and he asks, "Did she already have her shots?"....shots, what shots? I had to enlighten him on the fact that there were no shots involved, she was just screaming like that because she was at the doctor. It is amazing, though, how she turns it off and on like no other. No sooner had we gotten into the car did she start singing and talking and pointing to the things we passed in the car. When we arrived home, she walked inside and yelled for Colin and Pryce who of course came running to her....she then gave them each a kiss and proceeded to play happily the rest of the evening. Oh, and on a celebratory note, her ears are both CLEAR. Yippee for that. I think had the doctor said they were still infected after all of that, I would have asked for my own prescription. So, that is our MK 3 months post Gotcha Day. She is proving to be quite a mess, but a sweet mess at that! Meanwhile, the boys have been quite dillusional the past several days. They seem to think that they need a BMX dirtbike. They have woken up each morning to tell me of yet another dream they had of themselves riding on their new dirtbike over mounds of dirt and never falling. Ryan and I sat down to discuss this with them one evening. We basically said there would be no dirtbike due to lack of funds needed to purchase the dirtbike. Problem solved, Santa will bring it. HMMMM, still lack of funds. Also on their minds this week has been swimteam. Their first meet was cancelled due to inclement weather. Very disappointing. On Thursday, though, Ryan and I watched proudly as the boys both stepped up to their diving stands with confidence, took their dives and swam their individual events. To have that courage is awesome! As I was kissing them goodnight later, I, once again, told them how proud I was of them. Colin looked at me and said "I was proud of myself!" That means the world to me.

Yippee for Barney

Finally I have found a show that Mason-Kate will sit and enjoy watching so that I can put myself together in the mornings. She loves Barney! Thank goodness! That has literally been my biggest challenge since Mason-Kate arrived. She does not like for me to just put her down to play so I either have to ask the boys to help or let her big brown eyes fill with tears while she miserably cries until I pick her up. So, hats off to Barney! He has saved our day!

Imagine

This week has been full of imaginary play in our home! I just love watching the boys go from being bored stiff to being immersed in their own creative play. It started early this week when I asked the boys to please entertain MK for a moment. They decided to open their own business, a dumping site. Mason-Kate had the pleasure of being a "dumper" for their company. Mid-week they went back to one of their old games of Narnia. My mother gave them each a sword (I promptly had them sawed off at the top to avoid an unfortunate injury) and they have battled the creatures of Narnia for several days now....the playset in the backyard is the castle, one side of the house is the wardrobe entrance, the other side is the wardrobe exit....thankfully the boys are battling on the same side so we haven't had a sword injury to date. They have summed up their week today by being Kings....they have even built thrones around the house to "rule" from. In between all of this, they have opened a book store and they have become used car dealers (hmmm, could it be that the talk of buying a new car around here is getting to them???). Imagination is a wonderful thing....in fact, I have begun to use that as a coping technique myself. I just imagine that there is someone out there who knows the answers to all of my questions (this stems from the fact that I have called two state agencies today and neither one has had a concrete answer to what I have asked - again, hmmmm), I imagine that MK does not cry EVERY time that I choose to put her down, I imagine that my house is clean despite the boys clothes/toys are on the floor, etc., etc., etc. Imagination, it is a wonderful thing! On another note, Mason-Kate continues to amaze us. I visited a toy store with her this week. She immediately started "uhhhing" for me to get this one toy on the shelf for her to play with. I sat there in amazement as she proceeded to push and pull this toy as if she had played with it before....this particular toy was not one that was easy to figure out yet she knew exactly how to operate it....so, of course, I wonder, did she play with something like this in China, possibly her foster mother had one? Not sure, but she sure knew how to work it. I have also figured out that she does not like to have people in her space. I have noticed in the past month or so that she will literally swat at people like flies when they get too close to her. I am not used to this. The boys were and have always been so friendly to people, strangers included. I continue to try to mold their friendliness in a safe way. Mason-Kate, on the other hand, may need to be unmolded somewhat of her stranger fetish. I am also learning that sometimes it is just best to let her cry versus me trying to fix everything that is wrong in her world. After her surgery, I carried her most of the 24 hours of the day for about a week. She would still love for me to do this. I can't. This makes her mad. So, now I know that when she arches her back into a perfect "U" shape, there isn't really anything I can do to better things for her...she is just mad and she needs to cry to make it better in her mind. On the other hand, if she sits compliantly and then cries when I walk away, she genuinely needs to be held and comforted. She has also begun to call (really yell) for us and the boys. She will yell "Ma Maaaaa" or "baaa baaa" for the boys or "gaaaa" for daddy. Her little (or should I say large) personality continues to emerge. Mason-Kate's palate is slowly healing. She does have a hole that we do not expect to heal on its own due to the location and size. It is not huge but it does go through every layer of her tissue. She has adjusted well to her liquid diet and remains a healthy girl. "Little lady" describes her best at mealtime. Drinking is sometimes messy so she has begun to lean into me when she needs her face wiped off....or she will politely mash the napkin all together and pretend to wipe herself. She is quite the little fish and is just as happy as a lark floating around the pool in her float. The biggest laughs we have gotten this week have been from playing chase....she loves a good game of cat and mouse! Until next week....

Pryce had his last T-ball game this week. MK liked to hang out in the dugout...

MK enjoying a nice hot day at the pool

Oh, the People We Meet

One of the things that I have enjoyed most about our adoption journey has been the people that we have met along the way. It is amazing to me how circumstances will bring people together. That has happened to us countless times since we began our process two years ago. One such encounter happened in January just prior to our travel to China. We had to get refingerprinted in Atlanta and it was there that we met a couple who was just beginning their "paperchase" phase for international adoption. Ryan and I spent sometime talking to them in between our fingerprint sessions and we all just hit it off. They sent MK the cutest dress once we arrived back home....today she proudly wore it to church and then proceeded to do a little photo session when we arrived back home. She is very fond of the camera as long as it is focused on her! So, Ashley, this post is for you so that you can see a smiling face when you are feeling discouraged about the "wait". It is well worth it! And, oh the people you will meet along the way....for us, it has come full circle. In the beginning, we sought out people who had already adopted from China. We loved to hear their stories. It provided us with the hope that we needed to continue forward. Now, we have our beautiful baby girl and we hope to provide that "hope" and encouragement to families who are out there waiting.

"Air Passage"

I am writing this particular post so that I won't forget the conversation that I had with Colin last night. Colin is 8. He has never been one to fall down and get right back up....especially when there is blood involved. He can be somewhat dramatic (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree). Last week Colin fell not so gracefully off of his bike at a friend's house....several bandaids later, he decided that he could walk well enough to get home. During the week, the wounds have done their best to heal forming pretty scabs over his knee and elbow. Last night at Pryce's baseball game, Colin fell not so gracefully again, this time taking the pretty little scabs off and leaving two fresh wounds on his body once again. Now, I was not there when this occured....I was off having some "me" time playing Bunco with friends. During one of our transitions, someone said "a phone is ringing, whose is this?"....mine, of course. The caller had hung up but they had left me a message....it was Colin and the only word I could understand was "sorry" through all of his tears. Given our recent history of shaky phone calls (Ryan's wreck call) and the fact that Colin was crying hard in his message, I panicked and started dialing frantically to see what was going on....of course, no answers on either the cell phone or the home phone! Unbelievable! So, I begin to dial again....then the phone rings in the process and it is home calling me. I practically yell "hello" in the phone in my own panic.....then, I hear the pitiful sobs. It is Colin calling to tell me how horrible his summer is going. In between sobs he explains to me about his fall and how he is bleeding profusely and how he doesn't want anymore bandaids or any medicine and he doesn't want to take a bath because the water will sting.....then he says "the two worst things in my life happened today....one, my 'air passage' got blocked at the pool and two, I fell...." At this, I had to smile.....the whole "air passage" comment was just too much for me. Colin has such a serious, old mannish side to him....how many 8 year olds would state that their "air passage" was blocked?! He makes us laugh without even trying and that is one thing that we love most about him! So, I had to write this post for me....so that I will remember that serious little boy who was convinced the world was crashing one day when he reopened old wounds and got his "air passage" blocked at the pool.

***Note: Colin swallowed water too fast at the pool today while playing ball with some others. He came to me and told me he was choking....he was talking, breathing was happening and he went on to play after I assured him it was all good.

School's Out For Summer!

Next week my mother will walk down the halls of her middle school for one last goodbye. She is retiring after 30+ years of teaching. I honestly never thought I would see the day but it is coming fast and she is not looking back. Summer for her will be all the time now. She deserves a good, long break doing everything that she wants to do....of course, we are all a little selfishly excited to have her all to ourselves....with seven grandchildren to account for, she will be kept very busy! Congratulations Mom!
In other news, my good friend Sandi and her sister, Tammy, were able to visit us over the long weekend. Sandi is a friend for life. I have not visited with Sandi in 5 years yet we sat and talked like we had seen each other just last week! She had a huge impact on my life growing up.... Sandi was the friend who always made sure I kept both feet on the ground, she always knew what to say and when to say it, and she always listened before giving advice. The boys were so excited to meet a friend of mine that knew me when I had brown hair! The children all got along well and we hated to see the visit go by so quickly! We also made a trip to visit the grandparents. The faculty and staff at my mother's school held a reception in honor of her retirement. The highlight of the party was visiting Gran's schoolroom. On Wednesday, the boys and I visited a little water park. My niece and sister joined us and the children had a grand time welcoming in summer with a little splash party.....the pictures tell the story. On Thursday, an early intervention speech therapist came to do an evaluation on Mason-Kate. To my surprise, the speech therapist told me that Mason-Kate is really not delayed at this point. She says many of the appropriate sounds, she points to objects when asked where they are on a page, and she will try (sometimes) to mimick what we say. However, Mason-Kate does qualify (thank goodness) for speech therapy services due to her cleft. So, they will begin services in a few weeks and hopefully come every week. Mason-Kate continues to make us laugh. I think the funniest, yet saddest, thing she has done this week was pretend like she was eating pretzels out of a bag I was holding....she would pretend to put her hand in, pull it out, open her mouth, pretend to put something in, chew and then just laugh at me because I was laughing at her. One day we noticed that the house was a little too quiet and we discovered that MK was no longer playing in the spot we had last seen her in....we went straight to the stairs thinking that she was on those for sure....nope....we turned around and there she sat with Finley....they were both beside the back door, MK had Finley's leash and she was trying her best to get it on him. It is funny....many people are just now meeting Mason-Kate for the first time. People continue to comment on how lucky she is or how they admire us for taking on the challenge of a special needs child. She is lucky....she has parents who love her and will do anything possible to care for her....she also has two brothers who adore her....and she has a dog who can't get enough of her attention. BUT, we are the luckiest of all.....by having the opportunity to adopt her, she has given us the joy of becoming parents all over again, she has given us the opportunity to have another child, she has given the boys a sister, we now have two more arms to wrap around us for a hug, we have another sweet little face to kiss goodnight, but mostly, we now have another child to love and she is the one we have dreamed about for years,....it is truly a win-win situation.

The family at mom's retirement party; Future teachers at work

MK showing off her pretty dress, then saying "Enough, Already!"

Pryce and Katie Beth; MK and Emerson

Fun at the water park with Emma