Home after China posts (including cleft repair surgery)

June 09, 2008
The boys have been picking at each other like crazy! We may turn out some Olympic runners at my house. For now on when the boys start their picking and fighting, they're sent out to the back yard to run laps. They hate it! lol Jaycen had to do a lap before he could eat dinner tonight and Drew had to stop in the middle of his dinner and run a lap for calling his brother a baby.



June 08, 2008
We're loving the new pool. We finally got all the kinks worked out and Glenn built a really nice deck for us to enjoy and give us access to the pool.

Kaylee hasn't gotten any real tan yet. Neither her or Jaycen. Now yesterday I got burned big time on my arms, chest and face. I think the kids aren't getting any color because of the life jackets. lol They're both doing really well in the water now. Jaycen is now out in the pool with us and splashing and hopping all over the place. He thinks he can swim because he'll get in the water now. lol We're careful to remind him he can't swim without his life jacket yet and to never get close to the water without it.

Oh gosh, I think I'm going to have to start stripping the kids at the backdoor on the way in from the pool! Yesterday there was water left on the kitchen floor and I fell hard! My arm is all black and blue today. I look like I've been beat! lol I think only my arm is really bruised because I tried to catch myself by grabbing the counter top and kinda bounced off of it.



June 07, 2008
I'm trying setting the timer for every 30 minutes today to get Kaylee and I back on track with potty training. We got out of the habit big time with everybody sick.
The timer really helps! It goes off and she knows it's potty time.



Just another crazy day
June 05, 2008
I have got to get going and run my errands and get my work done. I've been cleaning this morning. Kaylee had outgrown her toybox a few months back and had everything in a huge cardboard box, I went through Jaycen's old toybox, threw out all the trash in her box and his and moved her stuff to his toybox. He's somewhat out grown all the small toys for a box so I'm going to get him a rubbermade container to put his stuff in. We took the old toys to GoodWill.
I always try to do the GoodWill thing, I think it teaches the kids an important lesson about giving back. :)



Update on the pool
June 04, 2008
The pool people received an earfull from Glenn and me in the background fussing! lol Even with that, they still bumped us to today and didn't call us back! ERrrrrrrrrrrrrr As far as we know, they just didn't connect it right.
Finally in the late afternoon they came by and hooked it back up correctly, the original guys had done it wrong! At least it's fixed now!




Crazy pool problems!
June 03, 2008
Of course we're having ANOTHER issue with the pool this morning. When they put it in, Glenn had to go up to Lowe's, the guys said they'd be here when he got back. They put the filter facing the wrong direction and were gone when he got back. He called them and they said he could turn the filter the direction he wanted. He turned it half an inch this morning and all the hoses on the filter fell off, they never fully put the hoses on because nothing broke. We had water gushing out all over the yard! UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH They're coming out to fix it this afternoon. Needless to say Glenn and I were freaking out! :(
Mannnnnnnnn, problem after problem! It's worth it when we're in it but good grief!



June 02, 2008

Jaycen, Kaylee and I just came in from an hour and a half at the pool. It was the first time the kids had been in the pool. Jaycen was really scared and didn't really want to leave the stairs, other than the one time he let me carry him around the pool. I told him we'd be going out every day so he'd either sit on the steps every day or come in the water to practice with me. He told me he wanted a swim teacher. I asked him why he didn't want me to teach him, he said he didn't know, he just wanted a swim teacher. lol I did tell him a swim teacher would make him get in the water! lol

Kaylee was scared the first few minutes but then had a big time! She loved it! :) She had her face in the water, and was just holding my thumbs and kicking with her life jacket. Maybe she'll be a natural swimmer.

I have to say, the time in the pool today was the first time in forever that I remember spending solely with the kids and only thinking of them. My mind is usually on a million things I need to be doing. The pool is a good thing for all of us. :) Here's a pic of two of the kids ready for the pool. :)
June 01, 2008
I've been in the pool two nights now, LOVIN IT!! :)

We all still have the stomach junk, I was so out of it yesterday, the kids had me stopped at the gumball machines on the way out of Krogers, when they were done, I started freaking out because I couldn't find my keys. After five minutes of practically dumping my purse, Drew finally notices and points out they were sticking out of my pants pocket......


May 29, 2008
Glenn worked hard to build a deck for the pool this weekend but it rained so bad on Monday he wasn't able to finish so we still can't use the pool. He was really upset, I don't blame him.
Took all three kids to the dentist last week, couldn't believe it, nobody had any cavities!



May 26, 2008
Kaylee's doing well, with us both being sickly the last week (she was throwing up earlier in the week, now Jaycen has it), I didn't push potty time very much. Neither of us had the energy for it.
We got a pool! BUT Jaycen got mad at his big brother and decided to throw major clumps of dirt in it!! It's taking us forever to get it cleaned up. We can't get in it until we get a deck built. Glenn's working hard to get the deck built this weekend so we can though.



Jaycen's Kindergarten Graduation!
May 20, 2008
Jaycen had Kindergarten Graduation tonight, we were sooooo proud!!!!!!!! It was all I could do to keep my eyes dry, seeing how proud he was and how cute he looked in his cap!! Here's a pic of the kids right after the ceremony.



Got to witness
April 07, 2008
I got to do one of my favorite things today, I got to witness to another mom about adoption! She is a therapist at Kaylee's speech therapy. It's always so neat for me to get to do this. I've never had that opportunity in person before, done a lot of it over email though. :)
If she's reading this, I really think you have a little girl waiting for you, I could see it in your eyes. :) You have that passion you need to go the distance that adoption can be and I could see the love for the child already. I saw a lot of the same drive and hope in you that I have for children. Many blessings to your family in your journey and I hope I can help with any questions you have.



letters for orphans
March 30, 2008
I see all these sites for you to sponsor a child financially and writing them but what if I only really have love to give? Is there a program where I can send letters and gifts to a particular child and follow them like a sponsored child?? I know there are many children out there my oldest son's age (11) and older that might not find a home and I'd love to be an outside source of individual contact for them, even if I can't afford to sponsor financially. I have love to give and I can afford that. :)Please write me if you know of a way we can do this. :)



new pics of the kids in the snow
March 25, 2008
http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/charlliesweb/Snow%20pics%2008/?action=view&current=910921a8.pbw



Time marches forward and we're finally getting the house changed
March 15, 2008
wow, I'm feeling completely wiped out today! I think this junk has turned in to a sinus infection, I have a lot of pressure in my sinuses and they're very tender. Yea me... oh well

Well we started the big change over last night. I was lying beside Kaylee as I laid her down for a late nap and started thinking of a way to utilize all the beds without putting anything in storage and get the boys in a room together. So I got up and started busting my butt!! I moved Drew's full size bed to Jaycen's old room (the easiest part by far), then moved Jaycen's twin size bed to Drew's room. It took forever, it barely fit out the door way and had to be moved like a puzzle to get out of one room, slid back in the same room from a different position and then slid in to Drew's room. We finally took Drew's door off the hinges. I had sweat rolling down my face! The boys helped with it all. Then we went to a mattress store, bought another twin mattress and box springs with rails. They tied that to the top of the pathfinder, we brought them home, then went to Walmart for the boys to finally spend their Christmas money for the rest of what we needed.

We bought sheets and comforters for each of their 'new' beds, they picked them out (Drew picked out camo and Jaycen baseball) a comforter and curtains for Kaylee's new room (pink princess set), plastic containers for easy storage of underwear and socks to slide under their beds, (since they're going to have to share a closet, etc), new pillow, they then bought a new game for their PS2 (that's going in their bedroom now) and a color-art set for Jaycen.

It was all very expensive but in the long run, we saved money compared to the bunk beds we planned to buy. Plus all beds are being used with this plan, no wasting there. I did consider faking a heart attack at the register when I had to write a $71 check on top of their $400 Christmas money ($189 went to the mattress set and rails) but after weighing the ambulance bill being higher than $71, I quickly wrote my check and brought all the goodies and kids home.

I'm really proud of the boys, they've worked hard with me to clean their rooms and help with the transition. They slept in their new room last night, Kaylee's room won't be nearly as quickly to be ready for her to sleep in but we plan to work today and tomorrow to get it there. With the end result of Glenn and I finally moving toward an adult bedroom again, yippee!!!!!

And I have to give Drew credit, he was dutifully his Dad's son and protested over me moving heavy furniture and told me how mad Dad would be for me doing it on my own! lol I never let that stop me before, I get on a mission and I'll get it done, no matter how I have to do it. :)

Yes, I know I'll probably be spending months of getting up over and over as Kaylee protests sleeping in a room alone but we'll slowly work through it.... hoping the full size bed will help with transition, I'll have somewhere to rock her before I lay her back down (what's she's used to when she wakes during the night anyway)
March 12, 2008
The subject of being addicted to adoption came up on another of my groups and I thought I'd share my thoughts on the matter. (Though Kaylee decided my first draft was not sufficent and she erased it before I could send it! ughhhh.... lol)
Am I addicted to adoption? Yes and PROUDLY so!
Am I addicted to the paper chase? Oh heck no! I mean there are a few joys, when you complete one task and can move to the next but addiction worthly? I think not!
Am I addicted to the wait? Oh double heck no! lol I find no joy in waiting for what I want, regardless of what it or they are. :)
Am I addicted in the attention received from adopting? Are you kidding me? For the most part, I only experienced non-friendly attention for adopting. Definitely not that.
So what causes the addiction? I'm a mom and I can not look past a child needing me without the urge of rushing to their aide, scooping them in my arms and saying 'I'm your mother now, you are no longer alone in this world!' I walk the floor endless hours of the night with my children, endure toddler fits and angry outbursts. Teach manners and words, help with homework, play nurse when they are sick, rejoice and dance with them when they learn a new task, cry with joy upon seeing love for their family in their eyes and hearing a child's voice tell me they love me. I proudly display the grade K paper from my youngest son, proclaiming to his whole class, 'I love my mommy because she hugs me'. I have days where the first words I hear are 'You ruined my life!' because I insisted on lunch being ate before playing in the snow and end the same night with the same child signing to himself how he has the 'prettiest mommy in the world'.
So, is all this addiction worthy? In my books yes. And I don't want any recovery! :)

Six months of blessings
March 08, 2008
ok nothing ever gets done the easy way, I spent a long time on this and then couldn't get the song I wanted attached to the photo show, sooooooooooooooo:

first click here and start the photo show (it takes a minute to load):

http://www.photoshow.com/members/charlliesweb/all/VB8jw3Cd

then click here and start the song:

http://www.playlist.com/node/27933268



homesick for China
March 02, 2008

I was writing a friend that will be traveling soon and realized how homesick for China, Guangzhou actually, I've become after being home six months. I thought I'd post what I missed, feel free to add your own. I'm sure the new moms would LOVE to hear our experiences. I would have loved a post like this before we traveled. :)
I can't wait to live another China trip through someone (we were in Guangzhou the whole time). It's amazing, the country becomes a part of you because it's part of your child and you almost feel a little homesick for the country after you've been home awhile. I miss silly things like the nightly strolls Glenn and I took with Kaylee for dinner and to all the shops again and again and then to Starbucks. :) Glenn signed the guestbook at Starbucks, somebody look for it!! :) I've been dying for someone to see his entry, just to have that neat connection back from the country back at home again. :) The Starbucks people are SUPER nice, plus it's air conditioned (no place else really was, though that probably won't be a problem for anyone this time of year) and has nice coushy chairs that you can use to block off children's escape, like make-shift baby gates! lol Also there's a little store, gosh I wish I remember their names! It's between the Victory (the one across from the Bank of China) and Andy's on the corner. If I'm remembering correctly, they had a red ramp leading in the store. There were two girls working there, one stood there with me for the longest time, we practiced our English and Chinese together with a children's book. :) It was very cool, something that would never happen at home. There's not much else to do on the island except shop but it was so different from anything you'd experience at home, we never really minded. I miss the relaxed strolls we took. All the stress had to be left at home for the most part so I had to learn to relax! lol Two weeks may seem long but it's probably the only whole two weeks I'll ever get away from home! lol
I look at our pics now (they scroll as our screen savers) and feel homesick for that time in our life when our lives were changing so much and such a blessing of a little girl physically entered our lives. :) We'll never be able to thank China enough for the gift of our little princess. :)



Fever... :(
March 01, 2008
Our little princess has had a fever for not quite three days now. It was 102 when she woke up this morning. The doctor yesterday tested her for strep, it was negative and her ears were only slightly red. They gave us a antibotic but I don't know if it will help. This may be just a virus thing. Anyway, I'm a super nervous mom when it comes to fevers... say a little prayer for both of us. :)



BIG GIRL POTTY TIME!!
February 27, 2008

BIG GIRL POTTY TIME!! Little girl has had her very own potty for not quite two days yet. I think she thinks of it like her play kitchen, a smaller toy version of what the big people have and that's totally a cool fun thing for her! We head to the potty right after lunch where she looks at my InTouch magazine (a girl's got to stay up to date with fashion and the celebrities!) and me wondering why I punish myself to have to potty-train yet another child. I could figure out a way to instantly do that, I would pay a million dollars for it! My oldest son took a year and my youngest son TWO years!!! They say girls are easier, we'll see...
So, we're sitting there and she makes a stinky as she knows it by, in the potty! We all cheer and congratulate her, we have to call Daddy to tell him the good news, etc. She stands there with this priceless look on her face like what the heck are you all so excited about??? lol I know, I first days' fluke but I'll take it! Maybe she'll beat her big brother's record of a year to train! Hey, a mom can dream can't she?? lol



Early release date!
February 22, 2008
Kaylee has been doing really well. I decided to give her a slightly early release date from her no-no's, she was supposed to be in them till Wed. but I'm letting her out the Friday before. We're watching her for putting anything dangerous to her palate in her mouth but other than that, I've put the no-no's away this morning. I'm also moving her to a soft diet, nothing crunchy but soft smooth food, letting her chew a bit, she's loving it! :)



Kaylee in ponytails
February 16, 2008

We had Kaylee's two week checkup Wed. from surgery and the doc. says the hole we've found is actually better than last week when he saw it. He thinks it's in the mucus layer and the muscles have stayed intact. He thinks it will grow back on it's own. So two more weeks of no-no's and liquid/creamy diet and we're done for this round, yea!! Little girl is going to slam dunk those no-no's when she can! lol :)
Here's a pic of little girl looking super cute in some of her first ponytails! :)



Day four-Cleft palate repair experience
February 02, 2008
It always makes me feel better to write and hope my experiences will help others so here's what I've recently learned (we're on day four post-op)
Do:
Right after surgery expect a lot of mucus with blood coming from nose and mouth, think of wearing a dark colored older shirt to be able to hold your child for hours in
Expect your child’s face, feet and hands to be swollen for a few days
Expect your child’s body weight to feel as if it has tripled during surgery when they are in recovery
Expect night terror behavior when they are still waking up (I knew to expect this and even though Kaylee didn’t experience it, I heard other children around us doing it and parents scared and not knowing how to deal with it)
Expect a cranky child for days, even with pain meds
Plan ahead to have every possible food to put in the blender and/or soft foods (for example, puddings, yogurts, jello, soups) and plan for your child to turn their nose up at most of them
Expect TONS of drooling, get ready with extra bibs; Kaylee is going through 4+ shirt and bib changes daily right now
Expect to feel as if you were physically the one in surgery, full time care of a child after surgery is exhausting
Expect your child to have the most foul smelling breath you’ve ever smelled in your life!
Expect your child to act like they haven’t napped in days..
Remember your sweet child is still there, they’ve just undergone a surgery that’s going to have them not feeling themselves for a little while but you’ll both be happy after it’s all said and done
Don’t:
Expect your child to be themselves quickly, they are dealing with a lot of pain, the overwhelming concept of a liquid diet, wearing no-no’s and not knowing quite how to deal with any of it; plus pain meds can affect your child’s personality
Be afraid to ask for pain meds that you feel your child needs, they wanted to give Kaylee pain meds orally several hours after surgery but the taste of it made her not want to drink so the next time we were due for meds, I requested it be put in her IV, she started drinking again soon after
Forget to keep yourself fed, even when your child cries wanting real food with you (if you aren’t able to eat out of their sight), you have to keep yourself fed to be able to keep your energy up
Forget to stock up on groceries for the house before surgery so you don't have to leave the house with your little one, the less exposure to outside cold air and/or possible flu/cold germs immediately after surgery the better, pneumonia is easy to get after the body has undergone surgery
Worry about bringing pj’s from home for the hospital, frequent changes might be needed due to all the drainage and drooling, don’t worry about the extra laundry for yourself to do
Expect your child to let you put them down or them to want to sleep outside your arms, get comfortable in the rocking chair and rock that baby for hours; trust me, you don’t want to let go of them any more than they want you to let go anyway




Kaylee's home
February 01, 2008

We got released after staying overnight. I'm so tired!! I did that half alert sleep the night in the hospital and last night Kaylee had spit out some of her pain meds (meaning it wore off early and I couldn't really know how much she spit out to give it to her again early) so she was awake and fussing, she ended up in the bed with us at 12:30 and kicked in her sleep the rest of the night. That and all the emotions and I'm wiped out! She's honestly doing really well though. She's eating pudding and liquefied soups of every kind you can imagine. She doesn't like drinking out of a regular cup very much so fluids aren't constant like she's used to but she's getting enough. She can get into most anything like usual with her no-no's. I try to give her a break from them every so often and keep a close eye on her. We thought her incision would be down the middle of her mouth but it looks as if they made the cuts on the side and stretched the right side over to meet the left. The stitches are down her left side. He said her cleft was wide and her palate was short so she might need the lengthing surgery if she still has a lot of trouble with speech. I've devoted most of the day to her as I promised her I would. We took a two hour nap this afternoon. She's causing trouble now that I took a minute to update everybody. lol :)
Wanted to update everybody but she's not going to let me be on here long.




surgery tomorrow
January 29, 2008
Kaylee is having her cleft repair at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in the morning. She had a little cold over the weekend, not anything too bad. She's had the occasional cough the last two days so I'm hoping they won't postpone when we get in there. I figure it's best to just give them a heads-up and let them listen to her chest and make sure they feel comfortable still. We're ready to get this surgery over with....
My sweet little girl is going to be one cranky princess for a couple of weeks without her favorite foods. :)
Please keep us in your prayers. Thanks.




Five month reflections
January 25, 2008

Here we are, knocking on the door of Kaylee being physically with us for five months! It's so hard to believe, it's gone so fast!! I can certainly say five months with her has gone a heck of a lot faster than five months of waiting for her! :)
What all can I tell you about this sweet child? The one patting me on the arm and stopping to give me a quick hug as she runs by. :) She has truly been a reward for a hard fought journey! I wouldn't change a thing about her, even that hard-headed nature that just got her in trouble for playing in the dogs' water AGAIN, we've lost the fight of protecting our years and years of cd collections... we have crayon art on the walls, have given up unloading the dishwasher or dryer without help, everybody in the house knows who 'piggy' is and there is an all-out search involved at bed time if he's been left away from her bed, though I protest, my drink, the remote control and my cell phone are brought to me the second I step away from them, we all know she has to throw her own diapers away and put her own dirty clothes in the hamper, she's tough as nails and they weren't kidding when they described her as fearless!!!! She climbs everything, falls, brushes it off and climbs again. She loves changing her shoes at least eight times a day, loves to pick her own clothes out for the day, and knows she has the entire household wrapped around her finger. :)
A good example of the impact she's had on us all; I had a big day of researching to do this week so Kaylee went to visit with Grandma for the day. This was unexpected so the boys didn't know ahead of time. I picked Jaycen up from the bus, expecting his six year old mind to be more concerned with playing games than noticing his sister wasn't in the car. I was wrong. He said with fear, Mama, where's Kaylee??? His older brother was worse. He came in the house, said something like 'oh, is Kaylee up from her nap?' Then looking around, 'Where is she???', bless his heart, his face lost all color as he panicked waiting for me to answer. Her brothers love her very very much! :)
Daddy's Christmas wish was for Kaylee to finally be able to say Daddy and she did it, right at Christmas. :) He'd been practicing with her every day since we got her and she never even tried until she said it. Now she melts his heart daily with it. :)
I don't think I could even describe my love for her with mere words... :) She is a blessing to our lives and we all love her dearly. :)
PS: Please keep us in your thoughts andprayers as Kaylee has her cleft repair surgery this coming Wednesday, the 30th.



random updates
January 12, 2008
I'm a little concerned about Kaylee's size. At the doctor's the other day, she was 26 pounds and 32 inches tall. She was 24 pounds when we brought her home. She's gaining healthy and I know she's grown in height because she's outgrown some of her 18 months jeans. I like putting her in cotton pants now because they don't crawl down her butt as bad as jeans do. Anyway I asked the doctor if she was a healthy size considering the adoption, being Chinese, etc. She told me she didn't have any of the Chinese children growth charts there but I could look them up. (Personally I think they should add that to their office since we're one of many adoptive families going there but anyway...) So I get home and look it up, she's in the 5-10% percentage for height and weight for her age! She's really tiny even for her background. She's robust, full of energy, I can tell you she eats good. I just remembered looking at FengHong's growth averages for the same age as Kaylee and she was bigger than her. I'm sure she's fine, just would like to have a doc. tell me she's fine! lol

Doc. appts for this week, Tuesday afternoon the TEIS developmental girl is coming out to the house to make sure she's on target for development. Kinda excited to meet her, she's an adult with cleft lip/palate and I can hear a slight difference in her voice. The speech lady told me that this girl LOVES working with cleft kids, understandly so, so I'm sure she'll make sure Kaylee's exactly where she needs to be. I haven't heard back from the speech lady but I think they had to do the developmental assessment also to see what all she qualifies for (not positive about that). Then Thursday we have our first appt. with the pedatric cardiologist about the mumur. I'll be glad to get that out of the way and not worry about listening to her breathing and making her slow down when she gets really hyper, just in case. Then the following Monday morning early, we have our first cleft visit. We're going to be very busy the next week and a half!

Everyone's doing really well around the house, we HAVE to get the boys' rooms situated though and get Kaylee in her own room, she's waking up at the tinyest sounds and it makes it hard for three of us to be sleeping in the same room and Glenn and I to not wake her up. Plus the boys will come in there over and over to ask this or that. I can't hardly get her down for naps at all any more. We've got to buy bunk beds, that's our biggest opstacle right now to changing the rooms around.


Christmas :)
December 25, 2007
We had a good Christmas, the kids loved everything, Kaylee is constantly playing with her shopping cart and kitchen :) Jaycen loves his gameboy and Drew was such a little gentleman, he spent hours putting his sister's kitchen together instead of playing with his Christmas stuff! We were so proud of him! :)



The loss of a child
December 21, 2007
We lost a child we had listed with UAHH. The loss of this child, Abraham a child that passed away just a few days short of his second birthday in China; has truly spoken to me. These children really don't have anyone speaking for them if we (we as in fellow moms and dads, agency workers, advocates) don't.
My heart cries for a little boy I never met. I cry because what I want most in life is to bring more children home and see them happy. Losing Abraham means one less child to see that joy in. I know he's in a happier place now so I guess my tears are from the frustration that his life was not spent in a mother's arms or on a daddy's shoulders but instead waiting for what would never come for him.Blessings to the ones that show these children love until they have families, their hard work is easy to go un-noticed until you realize they were all a child had.I hope some good can come from his passing, I hope his story touches a family's heart that wasn't quite ready and helps them to push past those last thoughts holding them back.A 'Match' in heaven is probably the best 'match' a child could receive but I pray we don't have more 'matches' in this manner. I pray these children find 'matches' with families here.

I pray this child's loss will encourage us all to work harder for these children. To show them love by advocating for them until their forever families appear. Whether we advocate by posting about the children, praying for them and/or volunteering with groups to bring them home; it all matters. If you're doing something, you are helping! Don't let good intentions be too little too late. Make the effort today and don't let the loss of Abraham go by un-noticed. Advocate for the children still waiting for their homes. Let's make Abraham proud as he sits by God, now seeing everything with his eyes for the first time. Let God show him we are working for his 'brothers and sisters' left behind.
Blessings, Charlotte Temple



watch this! lol
December 15, 2007
OHHHHH MY GOSH this is too funny!! Too bad there could only be four elves, shucks, mom had to sit this one out!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1425120415




Bubba's birthday
December 04, 2007
Today is Kaylee's brother Jaycen's 6th birthday. She helped me carry balloons and cupcakes in the school for his class. Ok, she rode in the stroller and I balanced everything. Getting down right scary what I can balance pushing that stroller! lol Kaylee loved the kids and kept pointing at her brother and squealing. :) The kids were very interested in her and kept saying 'what a cute baby'. Big brother is having a big time with his balloons while Kaylee's taking her nap right now. :)



trimming the tree
December 02, 2007

Little girl helped decorate her first Christmas tree this weekend. She LOVES the lights and we have tons of trouble keeping her off the tree. It's so neat to see the wonder in her eyes though! :)



Picture perfect punishment
November 27, 2007
My family's out-smarted me! They're making me get my picture taken with them! Acccccckkkkkkk ekkkkkk ughhhhh (sorry, hair ball from the idea of having to get my picture taken)lol :o) For years now I've successfully avoided organized pictures involving myself. Hubby and I've been married seven years this January and we've never had a professional picture together. That means my youngest son and now Kaylee have never had a picture with me professionally either. You can start to see the artillery for their out-smarting me, huh? Of course my mom and hubby's mom have sang the 'it's all we want for Christmas!!' song for several years now, I've been sneaky and had the boys pics made and presented them with those instead and gotten away with it all till now...
Today, I think I'm smart, I tell hubby, it's your day off, I ask one simple request. Take Kaylee in her Christmas dress and have her picture made. He comes right back at me 'What about the family picture?!?' I respond, ok, I'll tell you what, we're knocking on the door of December, if you can get an appointment for us all today, I'll do it, if not, you go on and take Kaylee before Christmas is over. Needless to say, THANKS A LOT SEARS! ......
SO, think of me as I go have my picture taken... did I forget to mention I have a bump on my chin right now the size of a volcano??? ugh......



A special project
November 24, 2007
I have felt so led to help other children come home since we've gotten home with Kaylee. At first I thought maybe we should look at another adoption, then reality check hit, of course we couldn't afford that now, our family now needs to bond and have time for that security to build in the current family, all kinds of reasons...
A friend suggested I look into helping other children to channel these whispers from God. I'm so glad she did. I volunteered to join a group of fellow adoptive moms that work to bring hard to place Special Need children home from all over the world. The group is www.untilallhavehomes.org Those that know me, know I can't ever do something just simple, I have to add my own twist. My twist this time is an idea I really feel God Himself gave me as a task to complete. I'm compiling a list of Special Needs (SN) with medicial definitions, treatment information and most importantly, family input from families living with these Special Needs in their homes. How many times have children been skipped over because people hadn't heard of their SN and figured if they hadn't heard of it, it must be horrible and beyond what they can handle? My list is to quiet some of these misconceptions. To provide an introduction, right along side these children available for adoption.
I’m very excited and hope this makes some of these SN not as scary because potential parents haven’t heard of them. If you'd like to help, I need your input! :)
Here is what you can do to help, please answer the following questions on my little survey below:

1. Please describe your child’s SN, just the name is ok, I’m trying to add medical definitions for the meanings.2. Tell me what life is like on a daily basis with your child's SN? 3. Things new moms would want to know, is there daily pain or care for the SN?4. Are there aspects to this SN that you did not expect? 5. Did your doctors expect other SN's to accompany this particular SN?6. What is the long term prognosis your doctors told you to expect with this SN?7. From a mom's point of view, how has your child's SN affected them on a daily basis?8. If your child is old enough, have they expressed their opinion of their SN?9. Finally, to give encouragement for potential new parents: Can you give a statement to comfort a potential/or new parent to a child with this SN?

I’d really like to add contact information for volunteering families that wouldn’t mind speaking to interested families, so please tell me if I have permission to publish your email address or an advocate website with my list.
If you'd like to add to the list, please copy the above questions, answer them and email them to me at charlliesweb@yahoo.com




I'm so proud of my boys!!! :)
November 17, 2007
I have to brag on my boys! I'm so proud of them! They have been through so much with us this last year, pursuing Kaylee's adoption, doing without extras to save for the adoption, us fundraising left right and center, doing without their Dad and I for two weeks while we went to China and then having a new little sister that lives up to every expectation of a normal two year old little sister. Keeping all this in mind, here's what happened tonight.

We were driving back from my mom's, it's an hour drive and we always have lots of time to talk. I thought I'd take advantage of the time and explain to the boys that I'm starting to volunteer with an non-profit organization to bring more children home. I realized after I'd said that sentence that they were both quiet, Jaycen spoke up first. 'A boy or a girl this time?' and then Drew, 'I can help you fundraise this time!' It just brought tears to my eyes!! I quickly explained that I wasn't bringing children to our home but I was going to be working really hard to bring children to their own new families.

After all they've been through the last year, about to give up their individual rooms to share so Kaylee will have her own room (until we can afford to build another room), everything and their first responses at thinking we were going to adopt another child was acceptance and offering to help. I am soooooooo proud of my family!!! :)



Play group with the homeless
November 12, 2007
Ok so I get an email from a local agency that I will keep un-named for the fact this play group might not fairly represent the agency in whole. I think oh, how cool, this agency is local and would hold local get-togethers (since ours was out of state), it's at a convenient time, only a thirty minute drive, I could take the kids to play and I'll get to know some local adoptive families. Right.......... sounded like a good concept. Our adventure starts with the normal taking forever to get all three kids out of the house on time so we leave ten minutes late. No problem, I'm still keeping my cool, even though Jaycen (the 5 year old) has had a TOTAL meltdown refusing to finish his dinner and crying because he won't get to have any snacks at the play group (because of said not finishing dinner). Drew (my oldest, 11) does a great job at his first try at navigating and reading the mapquest directions for me, we only get mildly lost, making us another 5 or so additional minutes late. We find the church by accident, I slam on the brakes and slide into the turning lane just in time to turn into the church. We then shuffle every one out of the car, (did I add we've had suspicion of a dirty diaper for the last five minutes of the drive), venture our way to the door, only mild complaining from the boys for the rain we're walking through and the almost getting totally lost and not attending play group from getting lost. We pass people leaving a School Board meeting, still cool, that makes sense to hold at a church. We open the church, there's mattresses on the floor, mom starts getting nervous at this point. The kids are whining about wanting the snacks provided for the occupants for the mattresses on the floor and us still not being able to find the play group. We walk through the mattresses on the floor (me now cursing myself for choosing this outing and praying the kids don't ask me why the mattresses are there). We round several corners and finally find the play group! Hooray!! Of course the suspicious dirty diaper has to be changed first, I instruct the boys to play with the train set outside the bathroom door and whip in the door to change Kaylee, I'm almost instantly knocked out by the smell of the bathroom, ohhhhhhh my gosh! I didn't want to even lay Kaylee's head down on the paper towels on the changing table. We get done (of course she wasn't dirty by the way), walk out and experience the most unorganized form of a play group/adoption meeting I've ever seen. Ok, here's my soap box time. This group consisted of approx. 3-4 other children, not counting mine (I stood immediately out coming in with such a large group of children, no I didn't pick up extras, just my three), and probably 5-6 potential adoptive couples. I mean, maybe my expectations were too high, I expected a semi-organized not-so-formal meeting with someone from the agency mildly keeping the conversations going, perhaps papers explaining adoption to potential parents, snacks for kids (HELLO PLAY GROUP/CHILDREN usually involve snacks???), maybe pictures from families that have traveled and/or contact info. for families that enjoy talking to new potential families, etc. I expected things and/or people to encourage adoption. All my suggestions above didn't happen. It just struck me, if this is what is done to encourage potential adoptive parents in our area, kids don't have a chance! I could go on but I won't... SO, it's time to go, now we must make our way through option A-through the homeless people now starting to lay down on the mattresses on the floor or option B-outside around the entire large church to our car and chance coming up on an individual waiting for an idiot picking option B with three children. We chose option A. We make it through the mattresses, once again I have to thank God the kids didn't ask anything, other than whining about the snacks for the homeless people again as we walk by. We hurry everyone in the car and thankfully have an uneventful trip home. I'm all for helping the homeless but I think holding that and an adoption play group at the same church, with little outside lighting wasn't a good idea. Phew, we made it through this one but we won't be doing that again any time soon.....



Turkey season, Temple style
November 08, 2007
Today I got to do one of those things I normally wouldn't have been able to do when I was working away from home. Jaycen's school sent out turkeys drawn on poster board and asked families to work with the kids to decorate them. Kaylee, Jaycen and I went in the backyard and collected fall leaves, then we crushed them all up in a bag, colored the head, beak and feet of the turkey, put glue all over the body of the turkey and then went back outside and poured the crushed autumn leaves all over the glue. It turned out cute and the kids loved doing it. I of course am sneezing up a storm now, fall leaves are a huge allergen for me. lol Oh well, the kids loved it and it was fun hearing Jaycen amazed at watching me cut the turkey out and telling him my ideas for how to decorate the turkey. :)



Social Security day
November 05, 2007
Kaylee and I went down to Social Security today finally (we've had her Certificate of Citizenship for three weeks and every day I've found something more pressing than getting down there until today) to apply for Kaylee's Social Security card. After waiting in a room crammed full of people for an hour (Kaylee was excellent I might add, thank you Lord!!), we finally got our number called and made our way to the window. The lady starts looking at our stuff and says oh, you'll have to have this translated first! I'm like, huh? It said bring her adoption certificate and passport, I brought both of those AND her Certificate of Citizenship to be extra sure!

By this time Kaylee is standing on the counter in her little dress, I had my hands on her legs to steady her so I started tickling her legs to make her laugh, hoping her cuteness might get us worked through. Then she leans remotely close to the hole in the window so I say oh Kaylee, are you waving at the lady?? Kaylee being Mama's girl and knowing what mom's thinking (let's get the heck outta here and not come back! lol), quickly puts her hand through the hole and starts waving at the lady in her famous two-year old wave. It worked! LOL

Ten minutes later we walked out with our paper that we'd have her card in two weeks, leaving behind a room full of people that for the first time that entire hour, probably wished they were the one waiting with a two year old! :)




just a day
October 25, 2007
Had to keep my youngest son home from school today, he's got a little flu bug. Kaylee didn't like him being sick one bit, she's mad with Jaycen for being home and not playing with her like normal. lol Poor Jaycen's like why is she bugging me today??? lol
Right now she's screaming and running to go tell on me for taking her drink away when she didn't put it where I told her and spilled it instead! lol She's something! She slams all the cabinet doors when she's mad! sheeeeshhhh LOL
I tell ya, she is somethin!!! lol She don't put up with nobody messing with her the wrong way! lol I don't worry about her wandering off to play with the boys cause I'll hear her if anybody gets too rough! She might not be able to talk yet but she gets her point across! :) She's such a little survior! All that time trying to get her here, I thought, wow, God must really have something special planned for her life to have all this take place to get her here, now I see that we had something special planned for us. :) I've never met anybody that could tell me so much with their eyes. It's amazing how expressive she is with them. :)

My guys are so taken with her as well, Jaycen today was worried that this attorney at work had spent too much time looking at him and Kaylee I guess, he piped up when the guy was leaving, telling him not to take his Kaylee! LOL




Gosh little girl is getting big!
October 24, 2007
Kaylee is getting so big! Not even six weeks ago when we got home, she couldn't reach the top of her highchair to get her drink down, now she puts it up on the tray herself and can reach to get it down too!
She's so funny, she has to change shoes a million times a day. She's all about her fashion, she loves for you to tell her she looks pretty. She pulls on her hair wanting it to be long so she can brush it like I do mine. Her favorite stuffed animal is her soft pink piggy. It's not quite half her size, perfect for her to wrap around at night and that flat piggy face is perfect for kissing (which she has to do over and over when she gets in bed, along with hugging him and saying awwwwwwwwwwww). :)
She loves dolls now, she was a little afraid of them when she first came home, now she first has to take every diaper off to make sure it's a girl. Then we start over and over of her taking the diaper off and me putting it back on. She'll do it until the tape won't stick. Her big brother taught her how to hold the dolls, feed them and carry them around in her purses.



another update
October 16, 2007

The kids are doing better with adjusting to not having my sole attention. We're really working hard with Jaycen to help him start getting back to acting his age. He's doing a lot better, still a few under-age melt downs but better. Drew's accepted that his not doing his work at school has cost him his good grades (and games at home) and says he's working hard to bring his grades back up. Kaylee's got a little cough right now but we've had a little 24-hour virus going through everybody at the house so its not surprising for her to have been up coughing last night. She's such a joy though, we couldn't have asked for a better child! She can melt your heart in a matter of seconds. :) She can be acting up and in the middle of it, run to you to give you a kiss so she's not in trouble! lol Little tease! lol :)

Everybody keeps asking me how I am, me?? LOL Me is a mom with three kids, there is basically no me left, for a little while atleast! lol I'm loving it but am trying to keep a balance to atleast watch a tv show for myself everyday so I don't lose myself in the sea of kids. :) If the money situation was better, I'd probably go shopping. :) I love this time of year and Hobby Lobby has wonderful potpouri and fall decorations I bet. Fall and Winter are my favorite times of year. I love the upcoming holidays. :)




updates
October 07, 2007

We've been home three weeks tomorrow. Kaylee's been sleeping all night almost a week now. Big relief there. I've had to turn into 'kicking butts and taking names' mom to my other two. I came home to grades slipping (the oldest in middle school his first year, apparently had been taking advantage of mom being pre-occupied with the impending travel to get Kaylee and then us being gone and was hiding test papers from me) and our five year old reverted back to a three year old, crying at the drop of a hat for any old non-reason and even throwing himself on the floor to have fits?!? Mean ole mommy's back in town now though. I did the unthinkable, took the PS2 out of the living room completely until all grades were C's or above and the five year grows back to being 5 (I have to suggest this to people, it really has an impact! lol) I've also been brought back to the reality of trying to make sure each child gets the mom attention they need, a good bit harder with three than I realized it was going to be.

Kaylee is rooming with us, something that we thought would be just a couple of months, then we'd move the boys in together and have her in her own room. I think it's going to be quite a while longer than we thought though. She's sleeping all night now but only with her toddler bed directly by my side of the bed and being able to constantly look up and make sure I'm still there. She's about six months behind behavior wise (not bad I think, she could be much further behind) so I don't feel like she's going to feel comfortable enough and we won't be able to verbally explain what's going on enough for her to feel comfortable by herself for quite a while.

I get the energy to type emails and then take forever to reply back when people answer me, sorry about that.

Anyway.... there's my ramblings on for today. :)




A chance to reflect
September 28, 2007

Wow, I've been a mom to three now almost 4 weeks (this coming Monday). I can't believe it, it's happened so fast. This has been my first real chance since getting home to sit and reflect on my feelings and how I feel about adoption now that I'm a BTDT (been-there-done-that) mom with adoption.
So, how do I feel? Omg, I can't tell you how beautifully blessed I feel!! My daughter is truly the daughter I waited my entire life for. I love her and feel her as my own flesh and blood. She couldn't possibly be more my child in any way.
I love all three of my children equally, not one more than another. That makes me feel good, I worried I might be more partial to Kaylee after the fight to bring her home but being a two-year old, she has a special way to remind Mommy she's a normal kid, just like the other two. :)
I wanted this memory in writing, before it has a chance to fade any more. As much as I love all three children the same, the best memory in my life now involves my daughter. My favorite memory is looking across the room and seeing her walking to us, our first sight of her in person. Everything else in the room faded out, there was only her. I recognized her face instantly. Another worry I'd had is that I wouldn't recognize her from only pictures. I did though, without any hesitation or doubt and immediately. My first words spoke were 'there she is! She's walking to us!'. I was filled with awe that was indescribable. To use a phrase from an old song, 'did you ever see a dream walking, well I did'. That fits what I felt perfectly. A year's worth of tears, prayers, hopes, disappointment and joy, came to life with a toddler's bewildered look and walk across the room.
Do I still find myself an advocate for adoption? Now more so than I could ever describe. I have truly been blessed by God to have our daughter join our family and I dearly thank Him with all my heart for this beautiful little girl. :)




Home one week
September 22, 2007
I've had trouble this last week adjusting to having a two year old again and getting the entire family adjusted together. Our youngest son's had a horrible time between us being gone for the first time in his life, his first full weeks in Kindergarten and now a new sister. The child had huge black circles under his eyes when we came home (he never does that and the only thing I can think is that he wasn't sleeping well while we were gone). He's gone back to crying and throwing himself on the floor. (This started before we got back so it's not copying Kaylee) It's been breaking my heart but the only thing we've known to do to help him has been reassuring him verbally and with hugs and coming down hard with correction when he acts up and throws himself on the floor. He is better now than he was last Friday when we got home. Our oldest son on the other hand (the one we thought would be having the hard time and enjoy ignoring both his sister and brother) has come out of his loner shell and is having a blast with his sister! He carries her around, plays with her, looks for her if she's not following him around. It's the total opposite of the reactions we expected. I've had a huge amount of catch up work this week from my job. So bad that Kaylee starts throwing a fit when I come to the computer (and I've only been coming here for work this week) Yep, she knows how to make mommy feel guilty! lol I'm feeling better with the 'adjusting' this morning. I went through this with both boys too. I always go through a 'resentful' (for lack of a better description) phase with a new child until I can sleep all night again. I always take good care of the kids through this phase but feel over relied on, overwhelmed with the new responsibility, I guess that's a better way to describe it. Kaylee's sleeping better now (I think last night might have been her first night not waking up, which resulted in me sleeping probably 13 hours! lol), she never had trouble sleeping in China! ugh... lol I have eliminated straight milk from her diet until I get her sleeping all night for atleast two weeks, then I'm going to try her on it again. She had that liquid yogurt stuff right before we got on the planes and that's when her fits during sleep started, kicking her legs really hard, constantly bending her body over frontwards (like you would double over if your tummy was cramping), twisting and turning in her sleep. She had three glasses of milk the first full day home (she loves it) and had a horrible time sleeping that night as well, more of the kicking and fighting you as you tried to comfort her. The longer the period of time since the milk was cut out, the better she's sleeping. It might be the comfort of being more used to home now but we didn't have this problem at all in the hotel and she slept in her crib there with no problems whatsoever (but no whole milk either). Guess that sums up our first week home. :)




WE'RE HOME Daddy Journal
September 15, 2007
Well we finally made it back home last night around 8:30 pm. Kaylee was a little angel on the plane from China to Tokyo and only fussed a little bit on the flight to Detroit when she would wake up from short 20 minute naps she wouldnt know where she was and got scared. The flight from Detroit home was a different stiory poor baby screamed 45 minutes of the hour long flight.
I personally blame this on the fact that we were delayed and missed our flight by the complete incompiotence of Detroit international airport, US Customs and Immigration especially Agent Salazar and the TSA. When we landed in Detroit we had over 2 hours to change planes more than enough time. Well after waiting in a line of three famlies we flew with for 2 hours while Ms Salazar proved why government jobs are so cushy she dissapeared for a good 45 minutes. When we said we would miss our flight. Her response oh well North West will get you on a new one. I tell ya what after witnessing the way these agents treated people from other countries was insulting and embarassing to say the least no wonder Americans are sometimes thought of badly in some parts of the world. Now as an "American" family arriving "HOME" to their country with their 2 year old daughter we were treated like criminals we had our luggage x rayed and "sniffed" 6 times at 6 different locations in ONE airport. All this while sorry to say it Muslim "looking" people soar through without a single check because we aren't allowed to "profile". Well I don't recall an American family with a 2 year old in a stroller commiting terrorist attacks. Sorry but when made to feel like a criminal I vent ALOT. Now by the time we finally boarded our flight little Kaylee had been pretty much awake nearly 24 hours so she let the world know how tired she was. I don't blame her a bit.
My mother in law picked us up at the airport in Nashville and we headed home to find a beautiful banner (thanks Jill) Welcome Home Kaylee in english and Chinese. Our boys could hardly contain themselves. After a wirlwind of presents and stories we all went to bed and after a few hours in the most incredible bed in the world I got up and headed to Krogers for Bacon and Eggs sorry Victore but no matter how hard ya'll tried the bacon and eggs sucked lol. Had morning coffee in my new Guangzhou Starbucks mug and thought of the Posey's and the Kennedy's we miss you guys all so much. Kaylee loves her two BIG brothers and follows them everywhere and they love her too. It makes a Dad smile seeing his family finally complete. Kaylee is an absolute blessing and I find myself just staring at her wondering if it's all real if any of this was real. Just a couple weeks ago I was walking throu the old market and having Pizza Hut with Jerry Posey in Guangzhou China and today I'm trying to recover from jet lag while my girls nap.
Hopefully the articulate member of the family my beautiful wife Charlotte will update with something more than my rant of the week with something more substantial and some new pics as well.
China we thank you for allowing us into your amazing country and culture and allowing us the gift that you have given us in Kaylee Kathleen the most beautiful girl alive. The people of China were wonderful hosts to us and I will never forget that.
Last but not least I want to thank our guide Bob. I have nicknamed him Lightning Bob because he seemed to have connections everywhere and when we thought we'd be hours we were done in 15 minutes usually. Bob thank you so much. If anyone is travelling to Guangzhou and has Bob as a guide tell him we said hello and thank him again from us.
Glenn aka daddy.