Home one month!

Wow...I'm not sure if it feels like we've been home a week, a month, or a year. On one hand, it seems like we just got back from China. Yet on the otherhand, we've done so much in the last 4 weeks, it feels more like a year! But mostly, it feels like Ty has always been here, and that is great!

Our issues with Tyson are becoming less about adoption and more about just being two. He is learning as many signs as I can teach him. I wish his little fingers could do more specific signs because he's trying to say his colors (the only understandable one is yellow) but I can't understand him, and he can't make the signs either. So I was asking him to give me a certain color and showing him the sign, but we were just being too silly and having fun. Yesterday he gave me the sign for shoes, and so I told him to go get them, and he did, and he wanted outside. He walked to his stroller, so off we went on a little walk, and I taught him the sign for bird, and we looked for birds. Today when we walked Kacie to the bus stop, he could hear them, and he was making the sign for bird! Amazing... but everyday is like this.

Bed time is getting better, but last night was a regression. However, I think we overcame it. In fact, after he ate lunch today, he grabbed my hand and walked back to his room with me and told me "Night Night". He knows, after lunch is nap! Granted, he cried when I put him in bed, but he knows the routine and accepts it. I'm sure that's how it was in the orphanage.

Speaking of orphanage, let's talk about that. I'd really like to know how the orphanage and the doctors "missed" Tyson's second cleft in his lip. I'd like to know why that red mark does not show up in referral photos. It's not there, at all. But in all my early photos of Ty from HTS, even before lip repair, the red mark from the microform cleft lip is there. I'm baffled.

Tyson has gained almost 5 pounds since being home. He is now running. In fact, this morning he chose to run with his sippy cup in the kitchen (water is always available to Ty) and he tripped and the cup cut his gums. I picked him up and didn't know it right away until after holding him for 30 seconds while he screamed, I pulled him away and saw blood all over his lips and blood on my shoulder. No worries, I got a washcloth, cleaned him up, and three minutes later he was playing again.

Tyson is now walking in public...wait no...running in public! He really likes the long hallway at our church. As we were waiting for Jie Jie (Kacie) to get done with her Wed night Kids' Church, he was running down that hall laughing with delight. My friend Lori was teaching and her door wasn't shut all the way....THUD!! All doors close when Ty is around. Does anyone have any insight on this? Is this an orphanage/adoption thing, or just a kid who really likes to close doors?

Last Sunday we had Tyson's baby dedication. This is when as parents we dedicate Tyson's life to God and we vow to raise him with Christian values and beliefs. It is so nice to know that we have a church family right there backing us up. In the pictures on stage are Dan's mom and step dad. On the floor on the left is my group that meets every week on Sunday nights and my friend Lori, and on the left are my good friends as well. All of these people have prayed for us and with us, and we consider them church family. As you can see, Tyson went to Pastor Doug for a second...and that was about it. But the good news there is that Ty wanted his daddy. Ty is going to both parents evenly now. For those parents out there who are going through what we did in regards to Ty choosing one parent over the other, we know it's hard. But our experience has shown that it does work itself out.

We have been blessed beyond words with the addition Tyson to our family. "Ty Ty" "Ty-man" "Tyson the Tornado" all those fun names--they are all the same little boy. He's funny, smart, cute, stubborn, adventurous, and loving. He's all we ever wanted, and I tear up when I think about how this could have all played out, but God gave us a little boy. A typical little boy...who could ask for more?