FCC Kite Festival

Miss Twink

Spitfire and Twink making their kites.

Dash and Twink getting ready to slide.

Daddy and Twink

Jewel helping Twink "fly" her kite.

Spitfire so sad after her kite broke and flew into the water.

Here is Spitfire's kite floating in the water.

This past weekend our local FCC held their annual Kite Festival. We had such a great time and it was such a beautiful day to fly kites! The wind was a bit strong and the kids lost their kites a couple of times but they were able to chase them down. Spitfire's kite string actually broke and as you can see it ended up floating in the water.

We are looking forward to next months Lantern Festival!

It's Important To Her

So it is very important to us.

Twink has been home from China now for 21 months. We have recently noticed that she is becoming more aware of her surroundings. She seems to be soaking in everything within her sights. We have often wondered if Twink saw the difference in our family. We do believe she does.

Last week we went to a new church. We went knowing there was a larger diversity and also adoptive families. We want our children to have the diversity that a larger church would offer and this church does. When we were leaving there was an Asian family leaving a few feet ahead of us. Twink watched them until they were out of her sight. Her eyes never moved from them. Even as we passed their car, she turned her head so she could see this family. Made me wonder what she was thinking.

Then tonight, tonight at AWANA she sought out an Asian teen who just adored her. While the other girls in the circle tried to play with her, Twink wanted no part of them! She wanted the young lady who looked like her. When she was done showing off for her she went to a table where there where three Asians were sitting having coffee. She wanted them to acknowledge her but they just glanced at her, smiled and went on with their conversation. She could have picked 6 other tables to go try to strike up a conversation but nope.

See, our daughter is non-verbal at this time and is unable to tell us just how important it is to have others around her that look like her. Her actions speak louder than any words ever could. We are trying to give our daughter something she is craving. I hope all AP's see the importance of encircling their child with adults and friends who look as they do. Now I'm not saying all their friends need to look as they do but a couple would be nice. When we move, this will be of high importance to us along with a handful of other things.

Watch you child, you may learn more from watching them than you might from hearing them.

Twink will be so excited when her big brother comes home from China, as will the rest of the family! :)

Wordless Wednesday

(Click to Enlarge)

Chattering Away

I was downstairs this past Sunday and Jewel came down told me Twink was upstairs "talking" to Dad. When I went upstairs this is what I found! ;) How sweet is she?

Great Author

To follow up on a question asked in the comments in my previous blog entry, yes I did buy some great books! :)

The entire reason I went to the bookstore this past weekend was to meet author Grace Lin and to have some books autographed by her. She is a beautiful lady who is so creative and so very nice. Her mom is the one who took the picture of the two of us. :) Needless to say I bought a book to donate to charity, one for a friend and some for our family. I actually had a great time even though I had to deal with the rude customer.

Hey Lady!

Yes you, the RUDE customer from Barnes & Nobles. When I am comforting my daughter who is clearly upset about something she wants but is unable to tell me just what it is, you really should have just kept walking. I know you have no idea that she has problems with communication or sensory issues, why would you?!?! If her crying bothered you SOOOO much why did you come over to where we were? Was that dirty look necessary? I know the second one was not. Were you surprised when I asked you if you had children? I know I sure was. I bet you were even more surprise at the other customers comments to you after your snide reply back! :) I think you would have been happier to see me screaming & spanking my child rather than holding her and rubbing her back. Thankfully I had a friend that just happen to be there and fellow costumers who where just awesome! Maybe next time you'll just go to another section of the bookstore instead of looking for a reason to look at someone in judgement.

School Pictures

I completely forgot to upload the kids first day of school pictures. One week late is not bad, right? Everyone is staying very busy and here I thought life would slow down a bit. HA! I do know busier families and I don't know how they do it.

Jewel is playing field hockey again this year. We just don't know if it will be modified or JV. Seems they may not have enough girl to form the modified team. She is also learning sign language with us.

Dask is our least busy child (as well as Twink). He is not doing a sport until winter but he is learning sign language with us. I think that is enough to keep him busy. He is doing very well at it I must add. He also does AWANA one day a week.

Spitfire is playing soccer again. She seems to be doing a tad bit better and is loving it. She is not doing the sign language class but her K class does learn the alphabet and colors in her class. Pretty cool if you ask me! She also does AWANA one day a week.

Twink is just happy to tag along to a game here and there. She is not doing the sign language class either but will gain a ton from our use of it. :)

So as you can see we are not overly booked but enough to keep us hoping and one of us driving! The adoption is coming along. We are officially waiting for LOI with a couple weeks under our belt. Feels good to finally be able to say that.

Thank you to those who share some yummy recipes! I can't wait to try them.

Asian Recipes?

I am turning to all of you for help. I am looking for SIMPLE Asian recipes and cookbooks. I would also like to know what type of cooking pans and or other necessary equipment may be necessary for preparing the dishes.

We love Asian food but I have never made any at home. I would really like to start. I'd like to at least get a few dishes under my belt that I'm good at before Bebo comes home. Please if you have any ideas pass them along.

Sentences

(Picture taken by Snapshot)

Twink went to full day school for six weeks this past summer. She received all of her therapy there and did some really fun activities. Her speech as of right now is our biggest concern. On average Twink has maybe 5-10 words she says on a daily bases. She can repeat about 50 words on command or out of the blue. So when we receive her progress report home from her speech therapy teacher and it basically stated they were doing play therapy, I was not impressed. I called our former ST and she confirmed it did not sound like a promising report. Given it was summer, I'm hoping it was a time to get to know you.

During the three week break between school Twinks vocabulary has taken off. It is funny because I was preparing to talk to her developmental doctor about her lack of words. Just about the point where I start to become really, really sad our baby girl surprises us. I was beginning to think maybe that neurosurgeon was right. Maybe she wouldn't ever talk. Then the Lord steps in and shows me that he is in control. Unfortunately, I forget that at times. Boy did he show us! Twink is using sentences. You see, this is what usually happens when she receives a week long break from school. For whatever reason, she has a burst in her language. Here are a few examples of what she has started saying

I hungry
I wanna eat
I wanna go
I wanna it
thank you

This was all with in one week! If you look at the sentences, these are statements to questions we ALWAYS ask her. Whenever she is upset we ask "Do you want ......?" In fact, I didn't even realize she was telling me she was hungry! It took Jewel and Snapshot telling me! Most of the time she is telling us this while whining. I'm not sure if it is easier for her to produce the word structure and to get it out while whining or if that is just her domineer.

We did talk to her developmental doctor at her appointment last week about her speech. She said that children with apraxia take a long time to gain speech. (We knew this) They gain the speech, they loose it and regain it again. We have seen this first hand. It is heartbreaking and frustrating at the same time. She did tell us that she does believe that Twink will be speaking by second grade. Are we placing all of our eggs in this basket - NO! Does it give us some hope -YES! We will not give up and will work very hard for our girl. I've joked that when she does finally start talking I want to send a video to her former neurosurgeon with a message. Never Say Never!!

We did receive a note home from her ST yesterday and it stated that if we would like daily communication to place a notebook in her backpack and she would write in it. Can you guess what I put in Twinks backpack this morning?!?! ;) I do miss our old ST she was the BEST.

Oh and I will have picture of back to school of all the kids as their first day was yesterday.

More on Vacation

(These are all the states we traveled through this summer)

Phew, I actually have a minute to sit and write before I'm off and running again. This week has been full of dentist visits, Twinks developmental doctor visit and Friday all the children go in for some sort of immunization. Not to mention everyone is gearing up for school next week. I can hardly believe ALL the children will be in school ALL day this year.

We packed up the car (yes we drove) and headed to our first destination. Well it was a lay over because we could not or should I say did not want to drive the full way the first day. We made great time! We arrived at Snapshot's house Friday afternoon. We had such a wonderful time! Princess was torn between playing with Spitfire and Twink. She really wanted to play with Twink at times but Spitfire would over rule that choice. It was great to see Twink and Princess play together. They ran around chasing each other and squealing. It was once pointed out to me that Princess was following every move that Lia made right down to her holding her hand and arm the way Twink held her affected arm. It was very endearing. Snapshot took some AWESOME pictures of the kids. The two in the previous post are ones that she took. ( Oh and no I am in NO way a professional photographer. I do have a really great friend who IS a professional that gives me really great tips though! ;) ) It was hard to say good-bye but we are planing to see the family again next summer at our house! Thanks for showing us all around your great state and feeding us yummy food!

Here Twink is pouring water on Princess!

Snapshot and Twink! She was trying to lay in the water.

We then went to Florida to visit our friends from our old church who moved a couple of years ago. We miss them more than words can explain. Before anyone ask, no we did not go to Disney World. We are adopting again! One must save as much as they can, at least we do. Hence the reason we drove all over the east coast! LOL We ended up going to the beach one day and it was a steady rain! Well the beach was ours for as far as one could see. The water was warm and the kids had a blast! I wish I could have taken a picture of Lia. She actually went in the ocean and LOVED it! Thanks Tim and Becky for everything! Praying we'll see you next summer.

It took forever for Spitfire to jump in but once she did she didn't stop!

Our last stop was at my friend Jeanette's house. She and Jeff were kind enough to let us stay over night as we passed through the state as we headed home. We have talked for the last three years but have been unable to meet so it was wonderful to finally meet her and her family. Please keep them in your prayers as she in Jeff are traveling to China to bring their daughter Sara Beth home as I type. Thank you Jeanette and Jeff, I KNOW we will see you again. :) Unfortunately I did not take any pictures while I was there but next time I will.

I have some great news about Twink but will share in another post! hehe

Twenty Months

That is how long it's been since the girls have seen each other and joined their forever families. Look how much they have grown! Funny how they sat down in the same exact setup as they did on that Red Couch in China. It was very sweet.

The day of the Red Couch photo Twink was not very happy we were doing photo's. Princess reached out, touched her leg and Twink immediately stopped crying. The day Carla took the picture at the cabin, Twink patted the door frame next to her for Princess to sit next to her. Princess immediately went and took her position.

These girls had such a great time together. I'd love to gather our entire travel group for a reunion at some point! That will take some work.