3 weeks post surgery: A first!

Today Ty drank from a sippy cup with the stopper in! For parents who have kids with cl/cp, you know my elation. He doesn't like to do it, but I clapped and made a huge deal, so he smiled and kept at it. And maybe someone can tell me why he insists that I hold the cup? I had to show him to put his lips around the spout. He's just used to biting on it to make the drink come out (it's a soft spout).

Anyway, 3 posts in one day is ridiculous, but this was big news I just HAD to share!!! Whoooo Hooooo! Here are some random photos from December that were on Kacie's camera. Thanks to Kacie for taking these!


Decorating a bag while we waited for a picture with Santa at the local fire station on Dec. 6th. Earlier that morning, Santa drove by our house on a fire engine with an ambulance in front blaring Christmas songs! Santa even threw candy. I love our small community!


Just lounging with Ba Ba, sometime after getting home from surgery.


Sporting my sunglasses today! What a goofball.


He loves to cuddle after the bath, and so do I! I always remember the 2 years of his life he didn't get this. It breaks my heart.

You know you have a boy after Christmas when...

I came up with six things that are very new to me this year at Christmas now that we have a boy in the house.

You know you have a boy after Christmas when...

1. You step on hotwheels at least 3x a day.
2. You can hear fire engine noises in your sleep.
3. There are pieces of a train all over the house.
4. He wants to hold a semi truck while listening to his story before nap.
5. He shows you that a bouncy ball fits nicely inside of a new flashlight.
6. Ornaments are just balls waiting to be thrown.

This was an amazing Christmas. I can't wait to see what 2010 brings!

Pictures from Christmas!

Loving the Christmas card with Santa! Did I mention that Tyson followed a guy in the mall with a white beard yelling "an-a"! No one understood, but I sure did! LOL

Gotta sport the Santa Hat on the last day of school before Christmas, excuse me...Winter Break!

Loving his new train with blocks. Thanks Tracy!

She's been asking for a "Touch n Brush" for months. This is my girl who loves made for TV commercials and products. She was very upset when Billy Mays died. She liked his yelling voice!

Gifts from Jie Jie Kacie. He wouldn't put the umbrella away!


We hope you all had a very very Merry Christmas!
Love, The Powells

Christmas Eve 2009

We had a very nice Christmas Eve with Dan's family. Here are some pictures from that night. Ty's only meltdown was when I got up to get something to eat, and he didn't want to sit with Dan, so Dan waited patiently.

Palate Surgery Follow-Up

The day started off with me getting 15 minutes from home and forgetting my purse! Ugh! 30 minutes wasted. The rest of day was good though!

I took Tyson up to Children's Hospital so the surgeon could check his palate. Basically, the palate is mostly healed except for a spot on his soft palate. This spot still has stitches and isn't healed yet. Only time will tell, but hopefully, it will heal, but the dr. wanted me to know that it may not heal. However, it's not usually a spot that gets a fistula, knock on wood! So once again, I'm asking for prayers for God to heal Tyson's mouth. If you could fit that in to your prayers of the holidays, I'd sure appreciate it. I am believing God to heal his mouth completely.

In the meantime, Tyson can now feed himself and we have one more week of soft foods, then we can start introducing regular foods slowly. Tyson is very happy about having control of the spoon again--LOL!

We then went on to visit with a family we met in China! It was so great to see them and talk about our kiddos and how much they have changed since August. Wow! Their little girl is such a cutie pie. In fact, all their kids were adorable!

Well, it's time to start gearing up for the big days ahead. Lots to do, lots going on. Merry Christmas!

Small Head Circumference and Measurements

It seems like once in a while, a month or two, this topic comes up in the China adoption community. A family gets a referral for a child who has seems wonderful, but the head circumference is small, and the International Adoption Doctor is worried about that. The family does not know how to proceed. I know this because it happened to us, and our story is buried somewhere in my blog, but rather than making you find it, I'll post it again, and probably with more detail. I am NOT a doctor or expert. This is all from my months and months of digging information and reading others' experiences.

I have seen three main categories of small head circumference. One is when the height and weight look good, but the head is small. And by small I mean below the charts. The second is that the head seems to be not growing--it was normal size, and now it is not growing. The third is when all measurements, height, weight, and head circ, are all small.

All of these can be contributed to faulty measurements. We know that the nannies in China are not going to take the time to do a precise head measurement. Sometimes, and I've seen it often, adoptive parents get good weight measurements, and get to China and their child weighs less (like us!). The child may have been weighed with layers of clothes on or even a wet diaper. And as for height, all I can say is have YOU tried measuring the length/height of a toddler? There you go!

On Sept. 19, 2008, we sent our LOI for Chang Li Chen. He was adorable! Just look at the little baldy on the side of my blog! And that is how you can fall in love with a picture.

The head is the hardest to measure. My IA sent me directions that I was supposed to send to the orphanage. OK, sure...at teh time I had no idea how to get that done. But the directions said the tape needs to go around the biggest part of the head. You cannot get a measurement that is too big on head circumference is what I was told, assuming you don't have slack in the tape of course.

Here are Tyson's measurements. His first set we do not have an exact date on, and we have two head measurements.

8-9 months: head-40cm or 41.5cm. Now this was confusing because it is a HUGE difference. If he was 8 months and 41.5cm, then he was 0.2cm below the 5th%ile, and that I could live with and take the gamble that the nannies didn't measure right. But what if he was 9 months and 40cm, then that was scary small. His weight was 6.5kg, and his height was 63.5 cm, all below the charts.

This was all we had. We had a picture of him at what we believe was 11 months old, and he was propped with a pillow. But we also know he had just had his lip repaired, you could still see the scabs from surgery. This concerned the IA dr as well. BUT...the report looked great, and he was sponsored by Half the Sky! That meant that he was forming attachment, and in my heart I felt that if he had that, we could take care of the rest.

But still...the words "microcephally" "mental retardation" and "syndrome" kept me up at night. Clefting and small stature is very indicative of a syndrome, and that worried the IA dr. also. We just didn't know what to do.

In at the end of October we was 16 months, and we got updated measurements. His height was on the charts! Just above the 5th%ile. His weight and head circ were still below, but he had closed the gap a bit. But we learned he wasn't using words. After consulting with other adoptive parents, we decided that wasn't a big deal. But we weren't sure still. The IA doctor still sent us more literature to read, and then we got even more worried. I joined the yahoo group for microcephally and became even more worried.

We prayed for weeks for God to just make it clear, but everyday we were still in peril. My husband decided no, this was not our son. We decided we would call the agency the next day and pull our LOI. The risks were too big. I felt so guilty for even writing the LOI, and I wanted this little boy to be ours sooooo bad. What I failed to mention was we had turned away a referral a few days prior, and I was heartbroken over it. To turn away another file was devestating.

Then next morning we woke up, and my verse of the day on my email was clear answer we had been praying for: I Samuel 16:7: But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

This did not mean that we knew Tyson would be fine, it just meant that we knew he was our son no matter what.

Here are Tyson's measurements that we have on him. They are approximate in some instances. Hopefully it will help someone.
*Gotcha

Length/Height:
8-9 months: 63.5cm, below the charts
16 months: 75.5cm, 5th%ile
22 months: 81cm, 5th%ile
*26 months: 83cm, 5th %ile
27 months: 84cm, 5th %ile
30 months: 86cm, 5th %ile

Weight--it's amazing what enough food can do!
8-9 months: 6.5kg/14.3lbs, below the charts
16 months: 8.5kg/18.5lbs, below the charts
22 months: 10.5kg/23lbs, 5th%ile
*26 months: 10kg/22lbs, below the charts
27 months: 12kg/26.5lbs, just under 25%ile
30 months: 30lbs, 50th %ile

Head Circumference
8-9 months: either 40cm or 41.5cm, all below the charts
16 months: 44cm, below the chart
22 months: 46.5cm, between 5th and 10th%ile
*26 months: 48cm, 25th %ile (I measured to confirm it too and watched 2 nurses as well)
30 months: 49.5cm, 50th %ile (based on my own measurement)

One of the things to note about Ty's head circumference is that he has a flat spot that has moved up the back of his head, which could be the reason for Ty's low head circumference measurements and why they suddenly showed up on the charts.

As you can see, just getting home and eating has made a huge difference. As I like to say, Ty is a shorty. He seems to be cruising along at the 5th%ile, and that's fine. But now he's just blossoming. His gross motor skills are developing nicely, and we could see in China that this child is SHARP! Even when he was assessed for devlopmental preschool, they said there was NO WAY he'd qualify for cognitive delays. He has problem solving abilities, understands cause and effect, etc...

This is not to say every child is this way. This is our story. We trusted the Lord, and He came through! Chinese measurements are scary. They can be low or high, accurate or in accurate. I think Ty's height measurements are very accurate, as even here at home, he's on the same growth curve.

OK, this has taken me all morning to write off and on, so I hope it makes sense! If you have questions, I'm happy to help with what I can.

Gone Fishing--the game that is!

Tyson is officially back to his normal, usual self. Nap time went off without a hitch, and actually the night time wasn't bad either. Life is good.

Here's Ty playing the "fishing game".

Day 5 post surgery

Now that we are 5 days post surgery, I can honestly say that I was very prepared for the surgery, the blood, the pain, and the recovery. Thank you to all of you out there who posted your experiences on your blogs and answered my questions. The bond between parents of children with clefting is so immense, and I just love how we help each other out! I don't know how people did this before without the internet.

One thing I think I underestimated was the tubes in Ty's ears. I had heard how it was not a big deal, etc... and honestly, it's not. I just wasn't prepared for how agitated Ty would get with the ear drops. He hated them! Thank goodness that's over with. Part of that issue is also that I am really weird about ears. I hate ear wax, and my daughter has the worst ear wax in the world. It drives me insane, so I think God got a good laugh on that one when he created both of us. Looking at crusted blood in Ty's ears has nearly driven me off the edge of the earth. I did get some of it out, but obviously I'm not sticking anything in his ears. Supposedly it will take care of itself, and we do go back to Children's next Monday.

The other thing I wasn't prepared for, although I knew it and was told about them, was the arm restraints and what a pain in the you-know-what they are! At Ty's age, it's really hard to make him wear them. So during the day, we don't wear them. Then I cut them out of naps because I could check on him. Then it happened last night. Forget the Houdini tricks...he just unvelcroed the arm restraint enough that he got out of it. I give up. Dan and I both agree, he's not putting his hands in his mouth, so I guess if he does, it's on both of our heads. The whining and crying all night long is bad enough without the restraints, with them it's worse.

And that's the other thing. Tyson is extremely clingy and whiny. He was in a good mood on his own twice today. Once this pm playing with Kacie, and once this evening when Dan was home. Other than that, he whines and cries all day. It's brutal.

But tonight, he was back to his sweet self at bedtime after a slight melt down. HE LOVES HIS SISTER! He hasn't seen her much lately, so tonight when we were tucking K in, he wanted in her bed too. She was reading a book, so she decided she would read to him. It is so sweet! She is amazing with him.

So I knew regression would happen, and it has. And it's hard. BUT WE'LL GET OVER IT! That's what I keep telling myself. In the meantime, I'm also enjoying the excuse of just sitting with Ty in a rocking chair with a blanket.

Day 3 post surgery and recovery reflection

We are doing well! Ty is now only on Tylenol for pain control. We went all night without pain meds, and we only did tylenol this am. He is mad because I have to feed him and he can't feed himself. He also wants his regular cereal, so that has him ticked off. Last night he had pureed peas and carrots and apple sauce. This morning he had oatmeal (very very soft!) and pureed fruit. He is preferring to drink water from a cup more than anything, but I might try some apple juice later. It is actually difficult to keep Tyson calm! He keeps running and being his normal crazy self. But I know this will not last all day.

If your child is going to have palate surgery, make sure you have a good blender! I bought a new one right before surgery, and it's wonderful. I bought it at Wal Mart for around $50. It will pay for itself over and over for the next month.

I got really sad yesterday because some yogurt came out of his nose. I thought those days were behind us. I know it's the hole between his lip and nose that China didn't not repair when they repaired his lip. But I haven't seen anymore since, so I think it was only because he may have been having trouble swallowing. The dr. said it shouldn't impact speech.

By far, the hardest part by far is the arm restraints. Our surgeon told us it was OK for Ty to not wear them as long as we were watching him, but he needs them at night. We agreed for sure. But...he is a Houdini! He gets out of them! I've tightened them, tightened the back strap, etc... Last night he screamed and cried because he wanted them off. It's so sad!

His nose is still draining some blood, but it's less than yesterday. He hates the ear drops. He gets agitated. He has a lot of dried blood still in his ears.

Now call me crazy, but I think I'm already hearing new sounds. I got him to say the 'b'sound a few times, and in his babble I hear new sounds. I know he's not making them purposely, but it's so fun to hear him make different sounds. I know speech is going to be a long road, as he already has bad, lazy habits we have to break. We spent some time on starfall.com this morning, and he really enjoyed it (thanks Violet and Kevin!). We've done it before, but he was much more engaged this time. Maybe he's hearing it better?

So we're not out of the woods yet, but it's not even 3 days post surgery, and he's running around like normal for now. It's so unbelievable. Our post-surgery appointment is Dec. 21st. After that we'll know what we're doing next. Thanks for all of your prayers! We appreciate it so much.

We are home!

And it's not easy, but here we are. Yesterday, the last morphine dose was 8am, and at noon we switched to oral pain meds and tylenol. Ty quickly became his regular old self! We had to get out of the room because it was shrinking quickly, so we grabbed a wagon and off we went for a walk and to the play room. They discharged us at about 4:00pm and we were home by 7pm. I slept in his room in a sleeping bag and on an air mattress just in case he needed me. He slipped out of his arm restraints not once, but twice! He did sleep solid from 9:30-12:00, let out a little cry, I patted his back, the slept til 3:30. Then off and on til 7:30am.

He will drink a little water out of a cup, he had a few small bites of malt-o-meal, and that was it. Last night we tried everything we could think of, and he just wasn't having it. I did get him to take some tylenol, but now he refuses the pain meds. Ugh!

So now he's hanging out in the house, running around and we're watching him carefully. He hates the arm restraints! I think most kids do. Thanks for all the prayers. It's still hard to watch him bleed and put in ear drops in his yucky ears, but I know we have to do it. I know he's mad he can't have his normal food. I hope he increases his appetite more. Thanks for all the prayers.

He says, "Someday soon, I'm going to blow these bubbles!"

Pics from Ty's surgery-- some graphic

Long night! Tyson hates the arm restraints. Here are some pictures. I didn't get any pictures in the recovery area because I was by myself.

This is obviously the night before surgery, Dad and Ty playing on the bed in the hotel room.


Getting him ready for surgery.


Tuesday night after surgery in his regular room.



Wed. morning, arm restraints on. We can now see dried blood from his ears, but it's normal. He also hates the ear drops. Three drops, three times a day, for three days.

Out of surgery and doing great!

If I was grading my blog, I'd get a big fat F for pictures. They are taken, but I keep forgetting the card. I will post them someday soon, but for now, you just have to take my word for it.

It was not as bad as I thought, but I had myself pretty worked up. We got a page at 3:30 that he was done. At 3:45, the surgeon came and talked with us. He said it went better than he expected and that there was more tissue to work with than he had expected there to be. The bad news is that the lip repair in China is OK, not great. There is still a hole between his lip and nose on the side of the China lip repair, so that will be another surgery somewhere down the line.

So we walked out of the conference room expecting to wait another 1.5 to 2 hrs for Tyson to recover. Instead, the receptionist grabbed us and said that I was going to recovery because Ty needed his ma ma, and Dan was headed to the room. So off I went to the recovery room, where parents only go if needed. Well, I was needed. Tyson was sitting up in his crib screaming, blood oozing everywhere. A nurse was trying to console him, but it wasn't working. They got me in a gown and I tried to console him from the side of the crib. Well, when he realized it was me, he tried to climb over the crib into my arms. So we decided that I would hold him. I got into ready position in the rocking chair, and Tyson sat on my lap, and within 2 minutes, he was sleeping soundly--or should I say snoring. I had never heard him snore before!

Everyone agrees on two things: 1. He's doing great. 2. He's really cute! Even one nurse said, "We see a lot of kids, and we know who's cute, and HE'S CUTE!" The surgeon came and checked in again. Ty had a stitch through his tongue taped to his cheek to help him breath and for the nurses to help move his tongue if needed. Ty is doing so well that instead of taking the stitch out in the AM, the surgeon took it out before we left recovery! I didn't get pics of it, but I think Ty is happier with it out too. Tyson hates the arm restraints, so that will be interesting...more on that later.

One thing that I found interesting was that when I walked into recovery, my mind went back 8 years to when Kacie was a preemie. I can't believe how that experience prepared me for this. I knew the language, the reading of charts, the numbers, etc... the wires didn't bother me and I knew what they were all for! Wow!

So now Dan is with him in our room while I take a break. I will be with Ty all night and Dan will go get some sleep at the hotel. No cell phones in the room, and I probably won't post again until we are home. Thank you for all of your prayers!

He's in surgery now

I had some pics to post, but when sweet Dan went to the truck to get my lap top, he took the camera out and left it in the truck. So my plan to load pics didn't happen, but hey, I have at least 3 hrs to burn, so who knows...it may still happen.

The day went like this: Plan A was that he couldn't eat solids past 5:30am, then clear liquids until 9:30. Then we had to figure out how to entertain him in our hotel room until 12:00. It was an awful night of sleep. I was up at 4:50, and Ty was finally sleeping. So I could let him sleep and be starving in the morning, or I could wake him up and deal with with the sleep deprivation. I chose the latter, and so glad I did. He had a good breakfast and was finished at 5:30. Then he took a bath, and then Dan went to have breakfast and brought back some apple juice for Ty. He guzzled it down. At about 8:00 I went to have breakfast (we didn't want to eat in front of Ty in case you wondering why the separate eating times.)

When I returned from eating at about 8:20, Dan told me that the hospital called and moved Ty's surgery up! Yay! So plan B now was that Ty had to stop drinking fluids immediatly, which was fine because he had already had the apple juice by 8:00am, adn they said the eating was no problem, they just needed 6 hrs in between food and anethesia. By 9:30 Ty had fallen asleep on the bed. He was so tired from our long day and no nap yesterday, and a hellish night of sleep.

So we reported to the hospital at 10:45am. We went back to the little room, and I had to clean Ty with this thick pad to prevent infection, put a gown and socks on, and wrapped him in a blanket. I think 2 nurses, 2 surgeons, and the anesthesia team talked to us all at different times. Ty was very subdued, as I know he was confused and very tired. He just melted on Dan's lap. I brought his Winnie the Pooh and his Cars blanket. Surprisingly, he wanted the blanket. The anesthesia team had me give Ty a med called versed aka "Happy Juice" on the yahoo cleft group. In about 5 min, Ty was actually more alert, but sort of in a drunken state. The team came back, and they picked Ty up, and then the screaming and crying began. He reached for Dan, he reached for me. The anesthesiologist assured me that he won't remember that. Well, I wish I had some happy juice because I know I'll remember it. It broke our hearts! What was going through his little mind? Ugh!

After about 45 minutes, our pager went off and we got the update that the tubes were in his ears with no issue and they had started the palate repair. At that point, Dan and I went and had lunch. And now, we wait.

Surgery started at about noon. It's a 3 to 3.5 hr procedure with a 2 hr recovery. We cannot see him until after recovery. The extra recovery time is for breathing/airway. So the earliest we will see him, I'm guessing, is 5:00 or 5:30.

I will post before surgery pics whenever I decide to run out to the car! Thanks for following along and for all the support. I appreciate it soooo much!

Surgery tomorrow

We had our pre-op appointments today. Overwhelmed is a good word to use. We check in at 12:15, and the surgery is scheduled to start at about 1:30, with tubes first, palate afterward, so about 3.5 hrs total. Dr. is concerned about the wideness of Ty's cleft. So we'll see how it goes!

In the meantime, we are in our hotel room trying to keep Tyson busy and off the telephone.

Surgery: Already? or Finally!

Wow, what a quick week. On Monday I woke up sick, and I suffered through the day. I stayed home Tuesday, so Wednesday I returned to work in a panic, realizing I needed to be prepared for my sub. Thursday night we had pictures taken. Today the sixth grade at my school made the 2.5 hour trek to Seattle to see The Nutcracker. All that to say...I am exhausted.

I still have some work to correct and a few loose ends to wrap up at school. Dan starts a new 12 hr shift tomorrow, working 6am to 6pm. I need to get Kacie ready to stay anywhere from a few days to a week at friends' houses. But most importantly, I need to get myself prepared. I can't believe Ty is finally having his palate surgery on Tuesday, December 8th. On one hand it seems like it came out of nowhere after this crazy week. On the otherhand, I had hoped it would happen sooner. For example, "aw-nos" is his word for "McDonalds". Yes, we have Americanized this kid! He needs this surgery for his speech. I will try to post before during and after, just as people did for me. Ty is also getting tubes in his ears. So in January he will start private speech therapy, and hopefully we'll see some gains and improvement over the next 6 months. I love how he talks now, but going to Kindergarten saying, "Go go ga low no no gow la la" isn't going to cut it. It sure is cute though.

His new thing is to tell us "No" using the word, with a head shake. He has also spent the last three days with Dan at home, and we can see a huge difference in his connection with his daddy. This is a huge step. Dan's schedule changed again, and he now works 4 days, then has 4 days off. Great schedule!

Enjoy your weekend! I can't say I will enjoy it, but I will make the most of it! Enjoy a few more pictures!

Picture Day!

Or should I say night? Tyson did amazing. He really enjoyed himself. Just that we made it through and didn't break the camera, I'm happy. Here are a few photos! More to come when I have time to load them and rotate them.

New List!

I heard there is a new list out of sn kids for China. I got an email from an agency that I was in contact with, and they have photo listings of about 5 boys who need homes. They are ADORABLE, and of course I am in love with two of them.

One is Jun Jun, DOB 1/17/07 and he has repaired cleft lip and repaired cleft palate.

The other is Pan Pan, DOB 6/1/06, repaired cleft lip, unrepaired palate (sounds like another little boy I know!)

This agency wants families to be paper-ready. If you'd like more info, email me at djkpowell and I'll tell you where you can see pics. I am not associated with this agency, except that they let me join their yahoo group because they used to work specifically with Changzhou, and when I matched with Ty from the shared list, people were really surprised. But through this list I met some cool people and learned more about Changzhou. I am not sure where these boys are from, but oh, if I could....you know I would! :)

Ty loves to decorate!

Kacie grabbed my Flip Camera and recorded Ty as we were getting Christmas decorations out.

Jump Tyson Jump!

Today Ty finally caught some air under his feet. I bought this little trampoline on Friday, and it's paying off already. Jumping is one of his gross motor goals. He'll get there! For now, it's just so much fun to play with Jie Jie on.

Black Friday shopping with 2 kids and one rude comment

I didn't hit the super early sales because there was really nothing I wanted that bad, and I had Kacie and Ty, as Dan not only had to work at 6 am, he got called at 3:30am to come in for 2 hours OT. I like to shop Black Friday not just for Christmas items, but to actually clothe myself and my family. I like to hit sales, and doesn't everyone? But I live in a small town where the only stores I am remotely interested in are JC Penny, Big 5, and Wal Mart. Not that I like these stores, it's just that those are my options! Normally I would drive the 45 minutes to the next bigger city to have all the choices one would wish for, but since we just drove the 1hr 10 min one way for Thanksgiving yesterday, I didn't want to put them through another car ride.

So at 8:30, off we went to JCP because Kacie needed a winter coat. I bought her a coat at the beginning of the school year, but it's not as warm as she thought it would be. But also, I needed a new coat! I haven't bought a new coat in (drumroll.........) at least 6 years. Yep, it's time. We put Tyson in the stroller (still the one from China which is a total piece of garbage at this point), and off we went. We successfully found what we were looking for, and more. We always get to this time of year and I realize that Kacie doesn't have enough long sleeved shirts. Ty was in teh stroller about an hour. He pulled down one coat rack! So scary.

We got some dirty looks because Ty likes to let out a yell that sounds like a growl. It's something that I am just used to. I know he is just trying to get my attention, and the sounds are totally cleft related. Well, we got some dirty looks at JCP. I just smiled. But one lady had the audacity to scowl and ask, "How old IS he?" as if he was too old to making those sounds. I just smiled and proudly declared, "He's 2yrs 5 months, but he has been in this country for three months and has a wide open cleft palate." She clammed up and was very embarrassed, as she should have been. Another example of how Ty does not look like he has special needs, but it's also an example of how people can be so incredibly rude. I tried to handle it with class, but I don't think I need to tell perfect strangers his life story. I think I summed it up well.

Then we drove over to Big 5 and I thought Ty would do fine without the stroller. Uh...what was I thinking? I bought a 40in jogger trampoline for Ty to bounce on to get his legs moving and jumping. Kacie was trying on shoes, and what was Ty doing? Taking her old shoes and replacing the display shoes with her old ones! When I stopped that, he then put her old shoes in the new shoe box and ran around the shoe department laughing with delight! I couldn't get out of there quick enough.

Finally, off to Wal Mart, where my mom was shopping. Carts are a good thing, and Ty likes to ride in them. We decided to try having my mom take Kacie and Ty around the store so I could buy a few things. IT WORKED! I think it helped that we had Thanksgiving with my mom yesterday. Ty is really loving "Ama" now. That was pretty cool, and I actually accomplished something. Finally, we finished our day with lunch at McDonalds, the only place we don't have to listen to Kacie complain about the food. That girl gets pickier by the day!

Kacie went on home with my mom for the weekend. Ty and I had one last stop to make. Our friend's daughter is home from college. She left for college the day before we got home with Tyson. We had a good visit, but it was way past naptime. Ty finally went down about 1/2 hour ago. Phew!

Now to tackle the mess I call my home...yuck! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

We are thankful today and everyday!

As I was falling asleep, I tried to think of a way to convey what I am thankful for in a not-so-typical way. The best way I can do it is to emulate a great children's book called "Q is for Duck".

P is for wet. Why? Because last night as we were coming in the house, Tyson found a Puddle to stomp in and get all wet. As I stared horrified, Dan said, "There's your boy!"

R is for Ma Ma. Why? Because Ty's new thing to say to me is "Ma Ma! RAININ'!" (It rains over 100 inches a year where we live).

M is for toys. Why? Because there is a constant Mess of toys in my house!

T is for AFV. Why? Because we have found a Television show the whole family can enjoy, even Tyson: America's Funniest Home Videos! He oooooh's and aaaaah's at people. I guess stupidity is a universal language.

R is for bedtime. Why? Because in the last few times, Ty lets me Rock him before bed.

All of these things and more bring tears to my eyes and joy in my heart. I am truly thankful that God is good to me and my family. I am thankful to China for allowing us to adopt Tyson. I am thankful to the US that he is a citizen. I am so thankful that he is in good health and is a bright little boy with a smile that lights up a room. I am thankful that he is with us to get the medical attention he needs (surgery in 12 days!). I am thankful for the hugs and kisses he gives, the little games he plays, and the energy he brings to our home.

But of course, I can't forget Kacie, who started her life on tubes and a breathing machine. A 6lbs 9oz 35 week preemie who was so sick with respiratory distress she couldn't maintain her own body temperature and eat/suck/swallow on her own. (Her lungs were not developed when my water spontaneously broke) My little baby who received monthly shots to keep her healthy, who endured pnemonia at age 3. He lungs had about all they could handle. AND NOW? She is FULL OF LIFE every moment of the day. She hops around the house, so excited for the holidays. She loves Jesus and is a great big sister. She has a ton of friends and a caring and nurturing heart.

So with that everyone, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Back to work!

On Monday, I went back to work. Considering that Dan was off hunting, I'd say the work part of it went rather smoothly. But in Dan's 9 days gone, we lost power, had 2 storms, I locked myself out of the house, and so many other typical issues that go along with murphy's law. But the work week was good. I have a nice class, and I just love seeing my colleagues again. However, the nights with my kids go way too fast. I hate that. I feel like I pick up the kids from daycare, make dinner, clean up, and soon it's bedtime. That I don't like at all.

If you haven't heard the new song "Heaven is the Face" by Steven Curtis Chapman, I highly suggest you try to hear it. He and his wife have adopted 3 little girls, and one went to heaven in a tragic accident in May of 08. It is a beautiful song.

So here are my kiddos relaxing on the couch this week. I'm just amazed at how God chose these two to be brother and sister.

Tyson before lip repair

I figured out how to get this into a jpeg and thought some people might like to see it. China did an amazing job on Tyson's lip repair. This picture was taken 4-10-08, and his surgery was 4-21-08. This was a picture I received in my recent HTS report.

The paperwork stated that Tyson has a left unilateral complete cleft lip and palate. However, there is a red mark on the right that is another microform cleft that we didn't know about until we got him home. But if you are waiting for a child with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate, here's what it may have looked like before repair. Our doctor here is very happy with the repair that Ty had in China.

HTS Reports! And brag on Kacie

Today I had reports from Half the Sky in my email in box! They are PDF files, and they said they have more that are not digital and that they will mail them to me! I am so excited. I have 3 new pictures of Tyson that I didn't have before, and I have quarterly translated reports from Fall 07 to Spring 09. Amazing! THANK YOU HTS!!!

If you are considering adoption and your child is being supported by HTS, I cannot tell you what an amazing organization this is. If I can figure out how to turn pdf files to jpg, I will post a picture of Ty before his lip repair. It's truly incredible what a great job they did on his surgery when you see how wide his cleft lip was.

I also had a conference with Ty's teacher. It was nice to sit and chat. Most of the things on the checklist I already knew he could/couldn't do, but he's making good progress. So many things he cannot do due to his cleft (blow bubbles, drink from a straw, etc...) I guess yesterday he was misbehaving a lot, but part of that is just seeing what he can get away with. Over all, I'm very proud of his progress in his 2.5 months home with us! I think people forget it's been that short amount of time!

Now I have to brag on my daughter...

Today she came home and told me that as recess was ending, she saw what looked like a wet gift card envelope When she picked it up, she realized there was a gift card in it! She immediately turned it into the office. The student it belonged to was older, but she came to Kacie's class and said thank you to Kacie and told her it had $50 on it! Kacie was shocked, and now she understands why we don't take valuables to school. She felt good about doing the right thing, and I am proud of her for it. It's nice when you try to instill values in your kids and you see your work pay off by their personal choices.

Loving my kids today! Well, I love them everyday, but today my heart just swells a little more! Thank you God for my kids.

Pics from 11/12/09

Tyson was enthralled by Kacie's DS (the same DS she left on the plane in China that i pulled off a miracle to get back!). He climbed on top of her to get a good look! For some reason after his nap, he likes to just be in his diaper. So we just go with it!





And then there was dinner. He had way too much fun with teh mashed potatoes. :)

Times are changing

I haven't blogged in a week, which means sadly, we haven't done anything very exciting. But we are about to have some new beginnings. Three months ago today, we were boarding a plane to China as a family of three. Since then, we have brought Tyson into our lives and have gone through all the typical international adoption transitions. We are finally finding our "normal" as a family of four.

I am a planner. As a teacher, I like my lesson plans to be done a week in advance, and I will make changes as needed. As a mom, I like the family calendar all written down a month in advance. But even the best laid plans change.

I had planned to have the morning to clean the house while Ty was at preschool (I am well! Now I have to make up for all the cleaning I missed while sick). Tomorrow he was going to daycare, and I was going to go to school to make lesson plans for next week. But I got a call that I could get Ty the H1N1 vaccine on Friday. Well, time to change plans! So I went to school and got as much done as I could. And when I dropped him off at preschool today, I told the teacher it would be the last time she would see me, so we made meeting time for tomorrow as well to see how Ty is progressing, so more on that tomorrow.

Times are changing, and we are finding our normal life again. No more waiting for letters, no more wondering how Tyson will fit in. No more of being scared of leaving him at daycare or preschool. I have prepared him the best I can, and things are going well. Part of me wishes I could stay home longer, and part of me can't wait to get back to work!

He has special needs?

This is a common question we get. "How did you get a boy from China?" Fair question...very fair question. I can't help but smile because I know where this is going. My answer is usually something like this, "Well, Tyson was adopted through the special needs program." Then there's a pause...then something like this is said: "He has special needs?" And I just smile, and I go on to talk about Tyson's cleft lip and palate.

And sometimes the other person says, "Cleft lip and palate is special need?" And so I explain the physiology of the cleft, the surgeries he will need, and the effect on speech. I also talk about the numerous dr. appts, etc...And then people often say, "But there's nothing else?" "Not that we know of, " I reply. And then they look at Tyson, and just say, "Wow!" and usually they go on to say that they never considered clefting as a special need.

In ways, don't we all have special needs? I think that is one of the biggest things I have learned through this process. I remember way back in my sp. ed course work in college, which I didn't see relevance in back then, learning that any child or person with a special need is a person first! I learned more in that class than all of my others combined. That one lesson is the one that has stuck with me my whole teaching career and how I look at and deal with people. And with Tyson, I see Tyson. I see a beautiful little boy who never stops talking, boundless energy, and into everything. Dan made the comment tonight, "We are so lucky he's not an octopus because I can't imagine how many things he could fit in his hands and arms!"

Here's another one I like, and it's been a lot more lately. Tyson's palate surgery is December 8th. I am going back to work, but only for three weeks, then I'm off for the surgery. So I say, "I'll be back to teaching for three weeks, then I have to be off again for Tyson's surgery." Then the person says, "Surgery? Why does he need surgery?" I reply, "He still has a cleft palate." People don't even realize Tyson has an open palate. Others didn't even know he had this special need! Some people think cleft lip and palate is only a cleft lip because that is what they see.

Dan and I both agree: it might say on paper that Tyson has special needs, but special needs does not define our son. We both see Tyson for the person he is, who just happens to have a cleft lip/palate. For people who know he has the cleft palate, it is something they may or may not think about. But once you meet Tyson, you forget all about it.

However, I think it is an important need to educate people about cleft lip and palate. It is a facial deformity, and in our superficial society, people tend to look at people with an unrepaired cleft lip as ugly, scary, etc... This was true the first time Kacie saw a picture of a child with unrepaired cleft lip. Kacie said, "Oh, what is wrong with him?" I educated her, and I said, "Look at his eyes, aren't they beautiful?" And the more she looked at pictures, the more she wanted to see more pictures because that was her way of identifying with her new brother, even though Ty's lip was repaired. She has learned that God creates us all differently, and we need to celebrate and appreciate those differences.

With that said, clefting is a need that needs to be repaired, not only for the self-esteem of appearance, but the formation of speech and eating issues. No, it's not so much fun when Ty loses a noodle out of his nose, but it is what is. We clean it and move on. That's it. But I cannot imagine that happening as a school aged child, teen, or adult. Yet all over the world, people deal with this because there is no way to afford the surgeries that are needed.

We are also asked why we chose cleft lip/palate as a special need for us. I'm not going to say it was an easy decision. One day, I'd say yes, the next day I'd say no way. But after turning down a referral, I knew clearly this was a correctable need that I could help a child overcome. As a teacher, I can help with the speech side of things and I understand the early intervention process. Cleft lip/palate is not, I repeat, NOT a minor need. Ty will need surgeries for a lot of things: palate repair and tubes in his ears, gumline repair, nose and lip reconstruction, jaw reconstruction, etc...and that's if all goes well. But it is a correctable need.

But here's what it comes down to. Tyson's birth parents, for whatever reason, had to make the heart-breaking decision to allow someone else to parent him. God chose us to be Tyson's parents. And so we are...and oh yeah, he's going to need some surgeries,... OK, we can do that. But when he's not having surgery, he's bugging his big sister while she talks on the phone, and he wrestles with his daddy, and he loves on his mommy, and he eats like horse, and he plays like a child should play. I was talking with my friend the other day about Ty and his personality, and I couldn't come up with the words. Finally she said it best..."He's Ty Ty."

Yes he is, he's Ty Ty. Our Ty Ty, that God blessed us with the privilege of raising as our son. So how did we get a boy from China? We opened our hearts and minds to the possibility of adopting a boy with special needs, something many people are not open to. And when we opened our hearts, God filled our home with more laughter and excitement than we could have ever dreamed. I know not every adoption works out this way, and we have a long ways to go; but for now, I cannot imagine my life without Tyson in it. He has special needs, sure, and we'll deal with them when we need to. In the meantime, he's just Ty Ty, a little boy who came half way around the world to live with a family who will love him through all life's twists and turns.

Halloween

When he first tried on the costume, he hated it! But then he decided...it's not that bad.




When the big night came, he was ready to trick or treat! Kacie was a cat (who had to wear orange and black striped tights because "plain black is so boring!" I love her!) and Ty was a lion, and I'm guessing the head part was itchy or hot because he kept it off. Nevertheless, he was so adorable. He couldn't say trick or treat, but he had the right intonation so it came out, "uh oh eh!" Everyone loved it! And then of course his thank you is, "Ah oooo!"