Please Pray...

for a sweet lady friend and her 7yr.old boy that she just brought home from India. This has been nothing but a nightmare situation and I am crushed for N(the boy) and S(the mom). They have been home just over a month and N has had a few seizures and some very extreme behavior. She thought they had discovered that his behavior was because he had not had any medication since leaving the orphanage and it was more like someone going through detox. S, was told that he hadn't been taking any meds and had no seizures for quite sometime but...N told their Hindi speaking Pediatrician that he was still taking meds everyday back in India and if he did not he always had seizures. Someone did not give them the proper information on his medical report! :( The seizures I know are really scary but they can handle, the hard part right now is that his behavior is completely scary. She has had to call 911 a few times because she can't tell if he is having a reaction to medication or he really has a serious behavior disorder. I can't list everything but you get the idea of the stress and frustration they must be going through. Please remember them in your prayers and pray for peace in their home and for S's heart as I can't imagine the emotions they are all going through.

Some Days are Better than Others...

**Edited** Rejoicing that Adia's adoption was finalized last week. So thankful to close that chapter of the adoption process...God is good and faithful!



That sums up how life has been the last several months. It is hard to believe Adia has been home over 5 months now. The first 2 months home seemed so easy compared to the months following...WOWZERS! In the back of my mind I knew it was to good to be true but was still hopeful that we wouldn't have those more serious struggles. But..the honeymoom is over and life has become quite difficult. I am not talking about attachment and bonding, I believe those things have gone really well. It's the reality that we brought home an almost 3 year old that is a super strong willed toddler, figuring out her new life and also being diagnosed with significant hearing loss. Yep, you read it right our sweet girl hears only about 20-30% of what is being said. This explains so much and I am sad that we knew nothing about it. I am hopeful that her shrieking fits will come to a hault once she can hear what a God awful sound she is making. Haha, I can dream right? :) We have had to make several trips to our local childrens hospital for the developmental testing, Hearing procedures etc... Adia seems to be doing pretty well considering she can hardly hear. Most of her results showed her at the age of a 2-2.5 year old and fine motor skills at 3 yrs. old. We were very pleased with the results and know everything will improve very quickly once we get hearing aids. Our insurance does not cover hearing aids(another huge stress)and they cost thousands of dollars. We are very THANKFUL to have Adia in early intervention for speech and physical therapy. This program has hooked us up with temporary hearing aids in January that we can use for 6-months until we can buy our own. Our audiologist gave us a great way to explain her hearing loss. She said its like reading the news paper with only vowels for words...everything else is all jumbled. :( It just breaks my heart but I am sooooo excited to see the difference in our lives after she hears at 80%. Her language is not horrible, so I can't imagine how it will take off in the next couple of months.

Other than our stressful visits to the doctor and getting Adia the services she needs, volunteering at the older kids school and being a taxi cab life has been good. We are definately having more better days than not right now and it makes my heart happy. We have also had two great weeks at church, the weeks before that not so great. Adia is just a doll and has a smile that melts everyone's heart. It's hard for people to believe she can be such a challenge when she is a charmer to EVERYONE else she meets. We are blessed to have her as a daughter and I wouldn't want anything different.

We've had our adoption video done for several weeks and I haven't had time to figure out how to post it. I love it!!! We watch it all the time and still cry everytime. Hopefully soon I can share it with you. I am still reading everyones blog and following on FB but responding is a challenge. Please know that I do pray for all of our journeys and am thankful for the friendships made. Hopefully someday I will be able to blog more frequently. For now, some days are better than others and I am just doing what I can.

Here are a few picks from the last several months. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Family pyramids after our Thanksgiving feast...fun times!


Halloween 2009= skeleton, leapord and a goth girl.

Adia turns "3" with all her cousins

Summer 2009-RECAP

WOW, I can't beleive I let over 2 months go by since a blog update. As I sat to reflect on the last two months and all we have done I quickly realized why. We have been crazy busy enjoying many firsts with Adia. Life this summer has still been wonderful for the most part with a couple weeks being extrememly tiring and stressful. I will say, that I am thrilled school is starting this week and I can't wait to get back on some sort of schedule. The older kids are definately ready to get back in school and have been asking for a count down the last few weeks. What perfect timing for Adia to come home, the kids had the whole summer with her and I know it was extremely helpful for their bonding.

Adia continues to do really well and surprise us everyday. I think this girl is brilliant, she has learned a huge amount in her 2 months of being home. Her language is improving everyday. She has about 20 english words and uses them quite a bit. This girl never stops talking and I mean NEVER! She also has about 5-words in sign language. She has such a wonderful spirit about her. She is really happy most of the time...minus those couple of weeks where we had continuous wining 15 hours a day and I wanted to cry. She brings a HUGE smile to everyones face as she greats them with a wave and a HI! She is also known for always blowing a kiss and saying MWAH to anyone and everyone as we leave somewhere. We are blessed by this precious girl in so many ways and can't believe she is actually home. We are always saying how it seems she has always been here with us. She was a perfect match for our family...Only God can do that!

We are still fighting Giardia and have been given another new medicine to start tomorrow. They are hopeful this will finally kill any parasite. It will be so nice to change a normal diaper and be able to start potty training. Afterall, my girl will be 3 October 26th. She is a great sleeper at night but naps have become a little problem. She has only been sleeping about 30 minutes for naps, UGH!!! I do have to lay down with her to get her to sleep and sometimes this can take up to 2-hours. I have really been struggling with this the last few weeks because I don't have 4-hours of my day to spend laying down trying to get her to sleep. I'ts not fair for the other kids. Last week I started laying her down at nap and letting her fall asleep on her own and she has done pretty well. She only cries for about 1-2 minutes and she is out. This has been a huge relief! I don't mind laying down at night because Eric is home and able to be with the other kids. If anyone has ideas please let me know????!!!

We started our adoption finalization a few weeks ago and should be done with that in November. We also had our first post-placement visit this last week. It went really well and Becky was thrilled with Adia's progress. She said if she didn't know any better she would have thought Adia had been home 6 months or more. :) I was thrilled with that statement. The other kids were not on their best behavior that night which was quite frustrating but thankfully Becky has been with us several other times. Nothing like going to show her the kids bedroom and finding horrible graphic pictures that my son had put on his door. Animals with blood coming out and a few pictures that he had drawn of swords and guns...YIKES!! Not Good! My 6-yr old is a very talented artist but... We are going to our agency picnic next Sunday which will be soooo fun. I am really looking forward to meeting some other families that have adopted from the same orphanage. A few weeks ago we went to the India Festival and had a great time. We were able to meet up with April and her family which was a real treat. I made a conection with an Indian christian church that is about 30 minutes from our house. I visited with them and they spoke to Adia in Hindi and she loved it. We are hoping to start going to their congregation once a month to develop realationship and have Adia be a part of their community...SO EXCITED!

OK...I wont ever take that long to post again and if i do I will just try and catch up with pictures. Happy Fall to everyone!

The good life with LICE!

Well, today marks the day that we have been home for 3 weeks, WOW! I must start off by saying I am in AWE everyday at the amazing gift we have been given in Adia. She brings pure joy to our family. We have had an absolute blast with her...she is always laughing and being silly. She has so much personality in her little body, it always surprises us. We are adjusting to life with three kids surprisingly well. Adia couldn't of been more of a perfect fit for our family and life. Thank you, God! Life has been slow but good and I am looking forward to getting out and doing more next week. The older kids are getting a little restless. Oh Yeah, we also have been infested with LICE. I think Adia must have had it when we came home and gave it to me and Kaylin. It is disgusting and I am very tired of dealing with it. We are hopeful we will be done with the nasty bugs by the begining of this week. It makes it really hard to go anywhere or have anyone over but maybe thats been good. I have done soooooo much laundry in the last several days trying to kill anything that might be lingering. My hair is so thick, it takes 1.5-2 hours to go through it...EVERYDAY and then I have to pick through Kaylins and try and get Adia to sit still for a few minutes to get her nits. NOT FUN!!!!! In fact I am so mad at myself because I had heard of this happening to other people and I was going to take stuff with us to treat while in India and I forgot. Bummer for us!

We have taken Adia to the doctor to start some tests etc...I think she is fine but just want to make sure. She has had blow-out diapers since we came home so we are also testing for parasites. I can't wait until we figure that out. I was always lucky with my other children to never have that happen, not now I get 2 a day and I mean it gets everywhere. Her eating is still a bit of a challenge. We just keep trying new things and hoping she will like something else soon. She loves to color and draw and play outside all the time. The weather has been really nice so we spend most of our day outside. She loves bathes so we decided to let her try a little pool and she had so much fun splashing around.

Life is good and we are so happy with our girl home.

Picture Post

Life after India

Holy cow, I never knew how difficult it would be to get over jet lag. I am really struggling and still having tummy problems. I am soooo thankful for my husband who has been Super Dad and very helpful. Everyone seems to be doing pretty well except for me. Adia still seems very happy and laughs and plays all day long. She is a very busy girl. I am still her least favorite person. I am not sure what that's about but it's kind of hard when she prefers everyone but me. I can't make a toddler let me hold her while she is screaming etc...What to do??????? Any suggestions would be great. I am sure it will get better over time. She is very independent and plays by herself but loves to be with older kids. Our kids LOVE her and are having a blast. She is eating pretty well, I have started mixing everything with rice and then she will at least try it. She loves yogurt, fruit, graham crackers etc... She takes a 2-hour nap in the afternoon and goes to bed around 9pm. She has been getting up around 5am which is way to early for our family but it is so light out she can't sleep anymore. I think we are going to look into getting some blackout shades for in our room. I am not a morning person and 5am everyday is not good!!!!

I better go and clean something since she is napping...pictures to come later today.

Home at last!

We are home and just trying to get adjusted. I am having a really hard time sleeping since we have been home. I've only gotten 3-4 hours a night. Adia is doing wonderful!!!! She is such a happy girl and loves her brother and sister. She did great on our flight home, Eric had her belly laughing for the last 30 minutes of our flight. She has a great laugh! I will hopefully post some new pictures soon. We had an amazing homecoming to lots of family and friends. We are a happy family of 5.

Headed Home!

Well, today is our last day in India, we fly out tonight. We are really excited to get home to our kids and our own home. Adia hates our hotel room...she screams and cries every time we come back to it for a LONG time. It is very sad! I have had a really upset stomach for the last couple of days and am not feeling real great. We are going on a Delhi site seeing tour today before we go to the airport. There are so many beautiful monuments in India. Adia loves her dad!!!! much more than her mom! I have had to put Eric's belt and shoes on for him so he did not have to put her down...FUNNY GIRL! Prayers for a safe flight and that we all sleep well.

Cheryl

So in love...

with our girl. Adia is a doll and we had such a great time meeting her this morning. She was very shy when we first came in to see her. She was eating lunch and when Eric and I knelt down beside her she just got up and left. It was funny! We just sat on the floor while all the kids were playing and tried to include her as much as possible. We had brought a few books (she loves to read) so she slowly was warming up and we would look at books with her. She is VERY busy! Did not stop moving the whole time we were with her. She is also very smart. She did not speak the whole time we were with her but hopefully as she gets more comfortable that will come. By the end of our visit we even got a few smiles. She hugged me goodbye and shook Eric's hand...so cute! The kids at SOS Childrens village are all wonderful. We loved playing with the older kids too. The girls loved me taking pictures of them and then looking at my camera after so they could see. They would giggle forever about the same picture. V-jay the orphanage director is fabulous!!!! We really enjoyed our day with her and her daughter. They treated us to wonderful chinese food and it was so fun to sit, chat and share stories. This evening we are going to go and do some shopping at a local market. Tomorrow is our Embassy Day and we have to be at the orphanage to pick up Adia at 9:00. I am praying everything will go smoothly, we'll see! We are really enjoying our time in India and I feel like we all have adjusted pretty well. The driving is still scary but we are already used to it.

Kaylin and Blake we are going to try and call you tonight. We miss you guys so much and talk about you everyday. You are going to be so in love with your sister. She is so funny and very tiny. Oh, ya! we put on the white beaded slippers(from Amelia) for her at the orphanage and she would not take them off, she loved them and wanted to take her nap in them...So Cute!

Our trip to Agra

We just got back from a great day in Agra. Our driver is wonderful in the crazy traffic but it did get really scary a few times. We visited the Taj Mahal, Red Fort and a Duty Free market where we learned how they made gorgeous marble decorations. It was neat to watch some of the process of how they were made. We ate at two YUMMY Indian restraunts. The drive to Agra and back is 8 hours. So we are really tired again and looking forward to a good night sleep. The heat was sooooo HOT today it took an hour for us to cool down in the car. We have so many great pictures but are unable to get them to load, hopefully tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our big day to meet our precious Adia. We are really excited!!!!! She will not be coming with us tomorrow because they want to transition her to us. Hopefully on Tuesday! Please, pray for our day tomorrow!