First Steps

I am so happy to be able to write this update on Luke-Thomas.  We were finally able to get in to see the Neurologist....wonderful news came from this appointment.  He does not think that Luke has Cerebral Palsy.  He believes that most of Luke's delays come from severe neglect in his early years.  What does this mean for Luke, well, it means that with proper therapies, a proper diet and love that can only come from having a family of his own, Luke will flourish.  I am thrilled to say that Luke has even taken his first steps without assistance.  YES, my sweet boy is walking without the walker and without holding on!!!  He is also talking and doing everything that other 4 year old boys do.  He may do it a bit slower but that is just fine with this mommy.  He will be starting physical, occupational and speech therapy through our school system very soon.  That is if he even qualifies by then.  He is just AMAZING AND DETERMINED and he has our full support.  He is a blessing to us! 

UPDATE ON OLIVIA AND LUKE

I am aware that I have not kept up with blogging.  In my defense it has been so busy here with two new little ones joining the family.  However, I know that it is not fair to keep everyone waiting for an update so long.  I know how I feel when I follow families adoption journeys.  It becomes so personal to me and I always look forward to checking in on the blogs and seeing how everyone is doing.  So here we go:
I will start with Olivia.  She came home ready, willing and able to bond with all of us.  She was thin and frail and at age 4 she was wearing a size 3 in clothes.  She has a wonderful appetite and likes most foods.  She did come home with giardia but that was quickly cleared up with meds.  In these past two months she has opened her heart and jumped into family life as if she had been here forever.  If you remember, her referral stated that she had cerebral palsy, mental retardation and an umbilical hernia.  Well, the only thing that was correct was the umbilical hernia which will be repaired next summer as per her doctor.  She does not have cerebral palsy and she does not have mental retardation.  In fact, she is a very bright little girl.  She is already able to recite her ABC's, she has memorized several songs, she is completely potty trained even at night. She knows her colors, shapes and is eager to learn everything.  She even remembers to say her blessing before she eats. She is adorable to say the least and we love her so much.  Olivia is also learning to share. Her first  few weeks home she thought she should be able to snatch toys away from her siblings even those that did not belong to her.  She has learned to chew with her mouth closed, (something I am still working on with an older brother of hers; LOL)  She no longer hits the other kids, (she learned they would hit back and she did not like that at all)  She no longer puts her hands on her hips and goes HHMMMMM when she does not get her way, she quickly learned that the only thing that earns you at our home is your nose in the corner while mommy watches to make sure you feel safe yet learn your lesson.  Olivia has come far in a short time and I know she will continue to thrive within the safety and love of our family.
Now to update on Luke-Thomas. When Luke arrived and his daddy placed him in my arms for the first time, I knew he was where God intended him to be.  I do not even know how to explain how this little boy filled a place in my heart that was reserved just for him.  Luke was so tiny that it scared me.  At 4 years old, he was in size 18 month clothes.  He weighed in at 20 pounds and was just the cutest little boy I had ever seen.  We immediately started him on pediasure with all the food he wanted to eat.  I am thrilled to say that Luke now weighs 28 pounds.  Yep, he gained 8 pounds in two months and he feels so much better and has lots more energy than when he arrived.  He has spent the past two months going to Doctors and Specialists and lots of testing.  So far I only have great news to report.  His urologist cleared him and never needs to see him again.  He was seen by one of the best Orthopedic Surgeons who said that his skeletal structure was completely normal, just tiny, and that he did not need to wear bracing on his feet any longer and that he did not need to be seen by him for a year and he will reevaluate him then but he did not expect for anything to change between now and then.  YAY!!!  He was also seen be a Gastroenterologist and had upper and lower GI testing and other than having a redundant colon, (which means he has a loopy colon) no treatment needed, he had perfectly normal results. Then he was seen by ENT and no problems there.  We have appts set with the geneticist and Neurologist and figure they will be able to give us some answers as to why Luke is so tiny and cannot walk.  Until then, we have gotten Luke a pediatric walker and that kid can get anywhere he wants to go with this thing.  He loves having the freedom to move about like his siblings.  He also has learned to walk around the couch and tables holding on.  He is such a trooper.  He is constantly smiling and singing, laughing, smiling, smiling, smiling!!!!  He is such a happy boy and we just love him so much.  He is eating great, (loves yogurt) he also can recite his ABC's, sing twinkle twinkle little star, say his blessing before his meals, put a small puzzle together, brush his teeth, play and share with siblings, and loves his Toy Story Car that was sent to him by a very special couple who reviewed his file and allowed his file to go back so that we could pursue his adoption.  He is cognitively just fine.  He has some delays but is catching up quickly and will be on target very soon.  He understands what is being said to him and is speaking English and Chinese.  He is willing to learn and is patient while being taught.  He loves cars and trucks also enjoys playing outside.  We have an area set up with mats so that he can crawl without skinning his knees if he does not want to use his walker outside.  He loves bath time, playtime, nap time, anytime!  He just loves life!!!  He goes to bed with a smile on his face and says "I wu you" every night to me.  He is happy to be home.    
Both kiddos had their baptism last Saturday and it was a special moment for all of us.  We have been blessed by all of our children and are thankful and appreciative that we are allowed to parent these precious kids of ours. 

TATATATATATATATATATATATA

FINALLY, TA !!!!!!!!!!!

Do I need to say more..............
Will update with the itinerary when the kids go to bed tonight.

I am Blessed 

LOA

It has been a GREAT DAY!  Just got the call that Luke's LOA is finally here!!!!!
Signing it tomorrow, sending in with I800 next day and our angels will be home soon.
I am one happy mommy today :):)

Update on Luke-Thomas

I was extremely surprised to receive an update on Luke yesterday.  Look how beautiful my son is :)  Our family received LOA for our daughter Olivia last month and was told that Luke's would be here in the next week or shortly thereafter.  YIPPEE!!!!  My babies are coming home soon.

Our Journey to Luke

The meaning behind the name and how we came to know that he was our son:  Simcha Luke-Thomas

To start you have to understand that adding another child to our family at this point in our lives takes a great deal of faith and trusting that we are doing what "Our Father" is leading us to do. 

Joe and I came to the decision that we would only adopt one child, a daughter this time around, our beautiful little girl Olivia Hope.  Weeks went by after making that decision and one evening I started looking through the yahoo groups and came across a post about Luke.  (I had previously stopped looking at the special needs children because it was so heartbreaking to see the faces of the children.)  but against my better judgment I went to the Orphan's Wish site and saw his sweet face and read the information they had written about him on their blog.  I loved the description of him and how they called him Mr. Happy.  I had a sudden sense that this was my child.   But NO, Joe and I had decided on a daughter, just a daughter, not two children.  I could not get Luke out of my mind that evening, I prayed to God to allow Joe to know of Luke without any mention from me if he was meant to be our son.  That feeling was there though, the same as with my other children, I knew with each child that they were mine.  God would have to lead Joe to Luke though.  The next morning I awoke with Luke on my mind.  Still I refused to say a word about him to Joe, I had to trust that God would show Joe the way to Luke if he were meant to be our son.  That morning after the children had gone out to play and our youngest was down for a nap, Joe and I were sitting and talking catching up on the previous week.  He was telling me about work and I was telling him about the kids and things they had done while he was working, when all of a sudden there was a silence. Joe looked up at me and out of the blue said "If we adopt a son, we will name him Simcha"  WHAT!!!  I was kind of in shock.  I said "Joe, what do you mean"  He said again, "If we adopt a son, we will name him Simcha"  Okay, why are you telling me this..... I then felt that this might be the sign from God I was waiting for.  I sat and told him about Luke...I told him all I knew and that he was called Mr Happy and what a joyous child they said he was.  I told him that I was not going to mention Luke to him unless I had felt that God was leading him to Luke as well. Without speaking Joe got up and left the room.  I was not sure what he was doing.  After a few minutes he came back to me and said "Luke is our son"  I then asked what he had been doing.  He told me that he went and looked up the meaning of the name Simcha.....it means JOYOUS and HAPPY!!!!!!  For us, this was that sign from God.  Now Joe felt what I had felt the previous night, Luke was our son. It became so clear to us and that is when we started praying for God to lead  us in finding a way to bring Luke home.  At that same time, we also started reviewing the files of other little boys because we knew that Luke's file was not available, another family was reviewing it and his file was with a different agency than the one we were using to bring Olivia home.  So many obstacles were against us.  With every file we reviewed we found son after son who we thought were precious and would fit within our family.  BUT, God kept nudging and we knew that nudging meant we would wait this out with Luke.  Surely, God would not have led him to us in this way if he were not meant to be our son.  So we waited, we prayed, we waited some more then the most incredible thing happened.....I got the email :  SEE UPDATE JANUARY 22ND POST

I had never heard of the name Simcha but we both believe that is the name God chose for us to give Luke.  So we are naming him Simcha Luke-Thomas Church.  We will call him Luke, and  the name Thomas is after the husband of the couple who had Luke's file with the other agency.  This family found me through an amazing set of circumstances and reached out to us.  They love Luke very much and  will remain a part of our families life.  They are both a part of our journey, the path to Luke and we want that recognized. 

So that is our story:):):)

PRE-APPROVAL

Pre-approval came today. 

This is our son...............LUKE!

We are naming him Simcha Luke-Thomas, he is three years and we are beyond thrilled that he will be joining our family.  He will be our tenth child, 8th son, 6th child adopted from China.  He will be coming home with our precious daughter Olivia who is also three years old.  So happy to finally be able to share our joy. 

OUR SON'S FILE

FILE IS LOCKED!   LETTER OF INTENT HAS BEEN SENT.  WAITING FOR PRE-APPROVAL
As soon as I have PA, I will post a picture of our beautiful son.  I am so thankful to God for the opportunity to parent these precious children.  I love my kids so much!!!!!!!

IMPOSSIBLE ITSELF SPELLS I'M POSSIBLE

UPDATE

I was contacted the other night by someone I have never met.  Her email brought me to tears...they were tears of pure JOY.  She did not know me nor I her, you might say she found me by pure chance but I say God led her to me, and a bond was formed instantly.  You see, we both bonded over a little boy who lives in China.  This little boy needs a family, we both wanted to be that family.  She had this child's file, had been praying for this little boy for months and had talked to many Doctors on this little boys behalf to learn more about what his life would be like once he is home with a family.  This child would be the first for her and her husband if they adopted him, he would be our tenth if we did.  She and her husband came to the decision that they would step back and allow us to have his file.  I know how very difficult that must have been.  To love a child and let them go so another family could adopt them.  We too, have been praying for this little boy.  God led us to him and we truly believe with all our hearts that he is our son.  Due to this unselfish act by the other family we are now able to send in our Letter of Intent for this child.  I plan to keep in touch with the family and let them see how this little boy is growing and thriving when he comes home.  For the time being, I keep in touch with her and share about our family now.  I want her to know and have the comfort that this child will be loved unconditionally for his entire life.  I want her to be able to see him grow and share in his happiness.  You see, I too, fell in love with a little boy years ago who we were unable to adopt.  God led me to the family that was adopting him and that mom has allowed me to watch her son grow and thrive even if it is only through pictures and her blog.  In fact, we named our son Daniel after her son.  It just felt right. 
So, we may not always understand which path we should be on, but I choose to follow God's lead.  He has blessed me so much.  

DTC

DOSSIER TO CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Immigration Approval

Today it came....Immigration Approval  I-797 for not one but 2 precious children from China!!!!!  :):):)
Now to get all this paperwork to my agency and soon to be DTC. 
Still praying for the same little boy to join our family.  Will know something by next week.  My agency will be asking for his file then. 
To be continued...........

A SON

Yes, another son.  This will make 8 boys for us.  :)  Oh, how my mommy heart loves these boys.  We have found the little boy who we wish with all our hearts to join our family, we now have to wait and see if his file goes back to the shared list.  If it does, we will be right there to lock it in and move forward with bringing him home with our daughter Olivia Hope.  We found him quite by accident and the story behind how we knew (or think we know) he is our son, will have to wait until the end of January when we find out if he is our boy.  Well, finding him was not actually an accident in our minds.  We believe that God led us to him and as soon as I can, I will share that story.  For now, we pray, we wait, those are the only choices we have. 
Another tidbit for anyone wanting to know a bit more about us....we were DTC for a non special needs daughter in July of 2006.  At that time, we had one daughter from China who we adopted NSN in 2005.  God had other plans for our family.  If we had waited in the nsn line we still would not have our daughter home.  Instead, God had bigger plans for our lives.  While sleeping one night in 2006, God shut out every sound I have ever heard and pronounced that he was the all powerful.  At that moment, I knew I needed to listen.  Very shortly after that night, I saw the face of a baby boy in China who I knew was my son.  God blessed our family with that little boy and we traveled to bring him home during the Christmas Holidays in 2006.  We made it home on Dec 23rd and our son was baptized on Christmas Eve.  I could not imagine that I had been so blessed.  I never thought when I was younger that if I trusted in him that he would make all my dreams come true.  God wants to do that for all of us.  He blessed me at age 30 with a 4 year old son, then at age 34 with the adoption of newborn twin sons, then ten years later with our 1 year old daughter from China.  One year later to be bringing home a son from China was just beyond my wildest dreams.  Except, my dreams as a child included being the mother to ten children.  I always saw that as my life, so did God. 
Two months after bringing home our 5th child, God blessed us with a newborn who we adopted domestically.  Could it get any better than this?  Yes, you see while we were waiting to bring home our little boy from China, I saw the face of a very sad, pitiful looking, 6 year old boy from China who desperately needed a family.  God nudged, we took a chance and sent in our LOI and China said YES, we could adopt him.  All of this prior to traveling to bring home Gabriel.  Then while in China adopting Gabriel during the Christmas Holidays, we met a little boy with dwarfism at our son's orphanage.  This little boy came to me and pulled at my pants leg and giggled.  It was just the sweetest sound I had ever heard.  When I turned to see who it was, my heart skipped several beats.  I was looking at a child who I knew at that very second was my son.  Oh, boy, how to tell my husband.  We were in China adopting, already had 4 children and preapproval for our son Joshua in China.  How could this be?  Well, I have given up trying to figure it all out, I just knew he was ours and somehow, we would be bringing him home one day.  We promised him that.  So back to Feb, of 2007 and our beautiful newborn son we adopted, (who by the way I found out about on a China Yahoo Group)  NO, he is not Chinese, he is biracial.  God had a hand in that as well.  (Thanks, Karen)Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork followed and we were finally able to bring home our son Joshua from China in March of 2008.  He was our first out of birth order adoption.  Then after years of more paperwork and in God's time, we brought home another child out of birth order, that little boy with dwarfism in May of 2010.  Ping is 9 years old.  Trusting God's timing is not always easy, but it is the best way.  Thinking he would be our last, it came as a surprise that God had more children for our family.  So now at age 50, we will be bringing home another daughter and son from China.  I could not be happier.  Oh, did I mention that I married a reluctant husband.  God had other plans for him.  My husband, he is just the best.  :) 

Not just one more!!!

Joe and I have decided to bring home two children this time around.   Our agency has given us their blessing and we should have our Immigration Approval in the next week or so.  We are actively looking and praying and hope to have a beautiful face to put on our site very soon of another precious angel who will have a family.  Our family! :)