Christmas Photos

We had a very Merry Christmas. It is so wonderful to see the joy in the kids' faces as they experience all the excitement of the season.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours....

23 Months Old

In only one month, my sweet baby will be two years old. Sigh. How I'd love to freeze time and savor these sweet baby moments before they vanish into preschooler-hood.

Tessa is still my peanut, weighing in at just 21 lbs. She is small, but mighty. She wears size 18-24 month clothes, but only for the length. Leggings are the only pants I can find to fit my sweetness around the waist.

Language is lagging. We had her evaluated by Early On and they determined that she's at about a 10 month old level in speech. She qualifies for therapy 1-3 times per month. They felt her speech lag was probably due to the fact that she heard Mandarin for the first 7 months of her life. My mommy instincts told me otherwise, so I made an appointment to get her ears checked, even though she appears to hear just fine.

So, off to the pediatrician we went. The tympanogram revealed the problem...both ears flatlined, meaning she hears like she has her fingers in her ears all the time. Poor baby. :( The pediatrician wanted to try 3 weeks worth of sinus drops in an attempt to clear out the sinuses and drain the ear canal. Then, we'll go back and have her ears retested. If we get the same results, we'll be referred to an ENT, most likely for tubes. I'm hopeful that once (and if) she receives tubes in her ears, we'll get to hear more of her sweet voice and get a chance to listen to her talk!

Other than that, she is doing amazing. She still loves her mommy fiercely, and for that I thank God every day.

We love you Tessie-boo. :)

Redirect...

If you're an adoptive parent, please read this article from an adoptee.

Your child may grow up to be a lot like me (and that's not such an awful thing)

Fourth Best

Where's she from?
Taiwan, I say, leery of what's coming next.
She's SO lucky.

Sigh. I hear this entirely too frequently. And I KNOW people mean well. But really...IS she lucky?? Did she ask to be relinquished? Did she asked to be ripped from her foster mother after seven months and whisked away to a completely foreign land? Did she ask to be raised by white parents who know nothing about being Asian? No...she didn't.

I'd be doing all of my children a disservice if I didn't recognize that not only are they NOT lucky, but they landed in fourth best. First would have been birthfamily. Second would have been a family in their birth country. Third would've been an Asian family in another country. Fourth is us. Fourth.

Of course, I love my children and will always give them everything they need and deserve. But it is also my duty to educate those around me. My children were not saved, have no responsibility to feel grateful, and do NOT deserve to hear that they are "lucky" every time we're in public. We've come so far, yet we have so far left to go.

Fall

I love fall. The smells, the crisp air, the falling leaves, the colors...and of course apple cider and pumpkin donuts don't hurt either. :)

This past weekend we went to a local corn maze. It's amazingly large and we had a ball...ended up walking over 3 miles inside the corn! Now THAT'S a corn maze. Then we went to an orchard where the kids were able to play in a hay stack...we were hoping to pick apples, but turns out we missed apple picking season by two days. :( Oh well, we bought some honeycrisps and called it good.

Great Article...

I loved this article. It so very hits to the heart of adoption:

NY Times Article

Please do read the article. I especially liked this part:

"The miracle of adoption isn’t just the creation of a family from disparate, distant people. Adoption is a phoenix; a miracle that arises from the ashes of despair. A baby is abandoned, a family lost and a whole new world gained. Like nearly everything else, an adoptive family is born of both joy and pain."