Why? and "Meant to Be"

Why do I feel like adopting Tyson was the most natural thing in the world for us? I look at him and he just fits in so perfectly. And then, why do I just feel like anyone could do this? Why do I feel so embarrassed when people say, "Wow you are amazing for adopting him," or "Wow, I could never do that!" And all I want to do is say, "No, I am not amazing...not in the least. And yes you could do it! I wish you would!"

BUT...when I hear of someone fostering kids to adopt in our DSHS state system, I just want to hug them and say, "Wow, you are amazing! I could never do that!" And sadly, that is the truth.

I hate it when people ask me why China over the US. And I can honestly answer that by saying we didn't feel comfortable with open adoption or DSHS systems. That's the truth. So I guess for people who do feel comfortable with it, I just think they are amazing because I could never do that.

So maybe that's the feeling people have when they say those things to me...yet I don't agree, and I never will. I still think I'm selfish, going halfway around the world to adopt who I hoped would be the perfect boy...and he is!

I leave you with a video of a Steven Curtis Chapman song "Meant to be" which will be in a new Veggie Tales movie. Adoptive parents, get out the kleenex. It's an amazing song.

I think as adoptive parents some of us say, "He/she was meant to be ours." I've said it too. But I've also heard that can have a negative connotation to adoptive children, as if God meant for them not to be raised with their biological families. BUT this song just says "Meant To Be"...

Listen and watch for yourself. You'll see what I mean. Our kids were meant to be, there is no doubt!

Summer Photos

Kacie and I are in the middle of this roller coaster. We had a blast at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho, but we will definitely wait to go again when Tyson is bigger.

Hot cocoa in the morning while at Silverwood, ID. We camped near the park.

The end of our camping trip in Leavenworth, WA.

He is a watermelon eating machine! And of course...must eat the watermelon on an 80 degree day with a hat.

Tyson figured out that if he pulls hard enough, he can open the refrigerator. So juice and go-gurt tubes were flying out the refrigerator. I had to put a child lock on the refrigerator to keep him out of it.

Kacie taught Ty to make brownies today, and they had to wear their hats. You can tell what Ty had on his mind!

1 year stats--what a wild ride!

Here is Tyson on Adoption Day: Aug. 2009


This will probably be my last measurement update for Tyson. Clearly, we are out of the woods for growth-related issues. I still find it amazing that he has grown so much in just one year--it's almost super human!

I remember our referral and the 11 months leading up to bringing Ty home, the lack of updates, and just being worried all the time--yet knowing that this was the path God chose for us. I could have turned down this file, being scared of what was to come, but we decided he was our son no matter what. And OH LITTLE DID WE KNOW what God had in store for us!

Tyson is now 38 months old--That is 3 years, 2 months. If you'd like to see my other posts where I commented more on growth-related issues, they are:

http://powellfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/2009/12/small-head-circumference-and.html
This above post I talk a lot about our worries with head circumference.

http://powellfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-stats.html

*Gotcha
BOLD==One Year since Gotcha/Home

Length/Height:
8-9 months: 63.5cm (25 inches), below the charts
16 months: 75.5cm 29 3/4 inches), 5th%ile
22 months: 81cm (31 7/8 inches), 5th%ile
*26 months: 83cm (32 3/4 inches), 5th %ile
27 months: 84cm (33 inches), 5th %ile
30 months: 86cm (33 7/8 inches), 5th %ile
33 months: 90.8cm (35 3/4 inches), 22 %ile
38 months: 96.5cm (38 inches), 49th %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
33 months: 33.5lbs, 75%ile
38 months: 37 lbs, 91%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)
33 months: 50.3cm, 81st %ile
38 months: 51.3cm, estimated 75th to 84th%ile (no charts after 36 months)

Here is Tyson one year later, Aug. 2010, meeting Garfield at a theme park.


Theme park...that seems appropriate because this last year has been ONE WILD RIDE!

1 year ago, we met Tyson

Today marks exactly one year since Tyson entered our lives, or that we entered Tyson's life. However you look at it, all of our lives were forever changed on that day.

Looking back at this year, the only word that captures it is miracle.

Then: 26 months
22lbs, almost 33 inches. Tiny.
Walking was wobbly, no running or jumping, climbing or pulling himself up.
Sat in a high chair.
Repaired cleft lip, but unrepaired palate
Hearing loss.
Afraid of our bed.
No English.

Now: 38 months
Almost 37 pounds, 38 inches
Walking, running, jumping, jumping off of curbs and steps, climbs and pulls himself on everything and anything
Sits in a regular chair (he refuses a booster seat!)
Palate was repaired 12/09, and it was successful
Two sets of ear tubes, hearing is normal
Crawls in our bed every morning.

Those are just a few of the changes. Overall, he is a happy, healthy little boy. There have been moments where I didn't think I could do this, but God always shows the light at the end of the tunnel (or end of the day=bedtime!), and gives me nothing I can't handle. Overall, it has been a blessing to be Tyson's mom, and I can't wait to see what is to come in the next year!

I hope you enjoyed our Family Day video!

This face...

...is swollen. He has very bad reactions to mosquito bites, and he was bit and the entire right side of his face (the left that you are looking at) was so swollen he looked like he had the profile a Peanuts character, most likely Pig Pen since this child seems to have dirt surrounding him where ever he goes!

This was at a theme park in Idaho called Silverwood. He was scared at first, but he loved the merry-go-round. He called it "Horsies go up and the down".

I love this face! I could look at his little cherub cheeks all day long, swollen or not!

Tyson-ese: Speech and words

Some might find this insensitive, and to that I say when you have a child with a speech/language delay, you have to find some humor. So we have dubbed Tyson's speech as "Tyson-ese" and the official translator is none other than big sister Kacie! Here are just a few of his words and their meanings.

Kay-Kee: Kacie, his sister. This is a huge improvement from "Ay-ee" as it contains actual consonants!

Be-mere Be mere!: Come here Come here! He struggles with words that have CVC patterns in which the first consonant is made with the soft palate and the second consonant is made with the front of the mouth. He also cannot make the "h" sound.

Pup: cup

Mammick and Mo-wee: Maverick and Molly, our pugs

wa-were: water. If you slow him down, he will insert the "t" sound.

pweeze: please, but I do notice the actual word once in a while now.

women: swimming He really struggles with the s sound.


OK, so those are just a few examples. Many words he says very well, others sound slurred, but the success story here is that we can actually FIND patterns of errors! Rather than his speech just being one big mess, we can actually identify things to work on. The progress is so exciting, and hopefully soon we will no longer need the translator for Tyson-ese.

Would he have been adopted?

I will be going down memory lane over the next few weeks, along with my typical rants and thoughts. We just spent some time camping, and I did not take my lap top, which of course means that I had A LOT of time to think.

Tyson had only been on the shared list for about 8-10 hours when we locked his file. Little did we know how truly small his measurements were and what this could be a red flag for. We did learn later, but with faith and courage, we persevered and continued, and it was the best decision ever.

I have always assumed that if we hadn't locked his file, someone else would have. I thought this up until last week. I have been looking at the shared list, and I still see little boys on this list with cleft lip and palate, and they have been on there for some time. I am making a huge judgment here, and I know it, so it's just one theory. My theory is that there must be something in these files that is keeping these kids from being adopted. Sometimes there can be things in files that are hard to interpret or disturbing, such as Ty with his low measurements. Is that why those boys are still on the list, or is it that there aren't enough people willing to adopt boys? After thinking about this, I will no longer assume someone would have locked Ty's file, and I am so glad we did. Others may have looked at those measurements and said, "We can't do this..." because the reality was that he could have had serious medical issues, learning disabilities, microcephaly, growth problems, mental retardation... all of which we know Ty does NOT have. But the "what ifs" were there.

A year ago today, my mom was driving us to the airport where we would spend the night for our early flight to China the next day. Today--one year later--, we just returned from a 5 day camping trip, and as I type this, I'm sitting in the hall watching Ty in the tub, as we try to find his natural skin color under all of the dirt and dust! He's all boy, there is no doubt! I'll post pics as soon as I get them loaded.

He's just like the other kids--swimming

Tyson started swimming lessons last week. I found a session where Kacie can swim at her level in the big pool and Ty can take lessons at the same time in the small pool. It is a two-week daily session called "Pike" for beginning swimming/water adjustment for 3-5 year olds. The biggest issue for us was that I am not in the pool. He has a swimming teacher! And that is what Tyson now calls swimming."I swimming teacher!" he proudly exclaims!

I kindly explained Ty's situation to another teacher before I knew who his regular teacher was. Once I saw Christy ("swimming teacher"), I told her that trust was a huge deal for Ty, and for this session, if he'd just get in the water, I'd be tickled pink. I didn't want him forced underwater yet because he needs to build trust for future lessons. Christy has been more than amazing!

The first day, he cried. Fortunately, I know the teacher from working with her 6 years ago, so she scooped him up and took him to the pool. He observed the other kids sitting on the bench, and he did it too. Then the teacher took him for his first "swim", and he was smiling ear to ear. He cried a little on day 2; day 3 no tears, but teacher still had to pack him to the pool. By day 4, he was a pro and walked in on his own, no tears. Now he just tells me where to sit. The teacher told me if I'm not watching him, he gets mad and says, "Mama look!"

But the biggest thing I noticed that first day was this:


Remember, this is a class of 3-5 year olds, and Ty just turned 3. Naturally, he's going to be smaller than the others....or is he? LOOK! He's sitting on the bench with the other kids. He's taking part in a group activity. He's not being naughty (OK, the lifeguard has talked to him a few times, but that's it. Hey, that little girl has curly hair, of course he has to pull it gently to see if it bounces!), and he looks to be the same size as the other 3-5 year olds. He looks and acts like any other kid.

And that's what I got out of it. He may be different from other kids, but it is nice to see him starting to blend in more and do what other kids his age do. It brought tears to my eyes. God reassured me we are on the right path, and I praise Him for his guidance this past year.

And as a swim report, Kacie has moved to the next level! Ty will be a pike for awhile, and that's OK. I'm just so beyond proud of him for even getting in the water with someone different and watching him progress in his independence.

Enjoy the photos!

Getting ready to do "pencil point" with his arms to go back to the bench.


I guess I shouldn't use the flash at the pool--pics turn out dark. But you can see his smile, and that's what's important!


The last 5 minutes of class is free time, and you'd think Kacie would go play on her own. After all, her brother drives her crazy! But oh no, they seek each other out immediately and have so much fun!

Tyson and the Purple Marker

Do you remember this story, the little boy named Harold and his purple crayon? Well aren't I lucky...I have my own real-life version. It's called "Tyson and Purple Marker" Notice the nice vertical design on the left of Tyson. Nice...



Well...I've been meaning to paint my kitchen anyway...

Camping at Lake Quinault

We spent last weekend camping in the area that I grew up--beautiful Lake Quinault. This area is in a temperate rainforest, proven by the average of 12 feet of rain per year. It can get very depressing and many people struggle to live out there for this reason. And for those of you who are Twilight fans, it is only 70 miles south of the REAL Forks, WA. My parents still live in this area, and Dan and I lived out there for five years but decided to move when Kacie was 2. It is a remote area, and after going to the same school (K-12 in one building) for 12 years, then I taught there for 6 years, I was ready for a change. But, it's a gorgeous place to visit, and on top of it being a gorgeous weekend (you have to endure the rain to get the beautiful days!), there was an all school reunion and I got to reconnect with some old friends.

Here we are setting up our campsite. We got a sweet spot near a waterfall, and Kacie had so much fun climbing down the bank to the creek.

Kacie and Tyson at our camp site. My parents came to visit us both Thurs and Fri, and mom brought us a wonderful dinner on Friday night that we didn't expect, complete with chicken, potato salad, chips, watermelon, and lemonade. Thanks Mom!

The Quinault River, which flows into the lake. This site is where our friends used to live until the river changed course and literally took out the ground below their house. They had to relocate to the family barn (which is gorgeous...but still...it's a barn) until they could move their house to new property. The river literally flowed under their house!

I know it's a blurred pic, but here is a cow elk we saw on our ceremonious "drive around the lake". It's one of those hick things we used to do when bored, but honestly, it's an amazing drive into some beautiful old growth forests where you will usually see elk if you go early in the morning or just before dark. We went before dark, and we had already passed the normal places we see elk, but then I spotted about 7 of them in the forest, and we were able to pull over and enjoy them for about 5 minutes. Kacie thought it was amazing...Ty wouldn't stop talking and finally he scared them off. Oh well...

Most of the drive around the lake is gravel road. I love it!

A rare photo of me (I can't stand pictures of myself) and Ty having breakfast, made by Dan! He always cooks the breakfasts when we go camping.


As you can see, I grew up in a slice of heaven. You endure the gray skies and rain for days like these. For me, I live over an hour away...close enough to take advantage of those sunny days, and I certainly need to do it more often. It is a pleasure to share this area and these memories with my kids. I hope they will continue to visit the area when they grow older.

As for us...next stop is Idaho and Leavenworth coming soon!