Beach Week 2016

Thanks to the generosity of Matt's parents, we just spent a fun, beautiful and rejuvenating week at the beach with them, my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and our four nieces and nephews. The cousins playing together just about non-stop and making lifelong memories together was beyond precious. 

In the spirit of keeping it real, the week was very challenging for Peter because he was out of his familiar home environment. He was happy and content in the pool for hours on end, but being inside was very difficult for him because of his nearly non-existent attention span and his food anxiety issues. We are blessed, however, with family who love our sweet boy unconditionally. 

This was our fifth annual beach vacation and each year we take a photo of the cousins sitting on the shore. It is interesting to see how much they've grown up each year. 

We love how much these two love each other.

Bubbles on the back deck

Noah explaining the Star Wars movie to Ozzie

Sweetness

Petey enjoying time with his Honey.

Petey being read a bedtime story

As opposed to last year, Petey really liked the sand and the ocean!

~Allie

Brother, Let Me Be Your Shelter

Every time I (Allie) hear the song "Brother" by NEEDTOBREATHE, I think of my boys and what a protective, proud, loving big brother Noah is to Petey. And how much Petey adores Noah, learns from him, and loves to be around him. It especially delights my heart when I hear Noah singing the song. It brings me great joy to know that they share such a strong brotherly bond.

Brother by NEEDTOBREATHE

Excerpt: 

...Like a bull chasing the matador is the man left to his own schemes

Everybody needs someone beside em' shining like a lighthouse from the sea

Brother let me be your shelter

Never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you're low

Brother let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home...

I ain't made for a rivalry, I could never take the world alone

I know that in my weakness I am stronger

It's your love that brings me home

Brother let me be your shelter

I'll never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you're low

Brother let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home...

Petey's Big Day!

Petey attended Sunday school! This may not seem like a big deal, but it is huge! For a year, we had been working up to this day, and two Sundays ago Petey surprised us by going into the classroom on his own and successfully staying through the entire class.

A year ago, just being at church around so many unfamiliar adults was too overwhelming for him, so for months and months Matt and I took turns going to church with Noah, while the other stayed home with Petey. Then, for a few weeks, we took turns taking him to a church nursery class that matched his developmental age at the time and staying with him for the duration of the service, only stepping out once or twice for a couple minutes to see how he would react. Worse than crying, he would go sit against a wall and mentally retreat. So, we stopped doing that. Then, for several weeks, we kept Petey in the sanctuary with us for the music/singing and took turns taking him into the lobby where we could listen to the sermon and watch Petey as he explored. 

Two weeks ago, I took Petey into the sanctuary to find seats and listen to the pre-service music while Matt checked Noah into his class. Petey was not having it, so I walked him out. Instead of just walking out to the lobby, he turned down the hallway to "kids church." I let him lead the way and followed along with him. He walked to the classroom we had experimented with, looked around, left, and continued down the hallway. He stopped at Noah's classroom and checked things out. Then, he turned down another corridor to more classrooms. At this point, the leader of the kids programs saw us and asked if I was going to put Petey in a class. I told her that I was going to let him decide. Smartly, she opened the door to a class of two-year-olds where she knew the teacher would be a wonderful match for him. Petey walked in on his own, explored, looked back at me, held my gaze for a moment, and then went off to explore and play some more. After I talked with the teacher for a while about Petey, I went back to the sanctuary and Petey stayed in Sunday school! Matt went to check on him (without Petey spotting him) half-way through the service and Petey was doing well. When we picked him up, he was sitting at a little table with the other children and I could tell that he was watching the other children to gauge what to do. He had successfully navigated an art project (with one on one assistance) about creation, playground time and snack time. I was so proud of him, I wanted to shout it from the mountain tops!

We knew that the next week would be the true test, though, of whether Petey would successfully repeat the experience, knowing what he was getting into. Again, he was a champ! Here is a photo I took of him going down a slide when I popped out to check on him (again, without him spotting me). 

This is a huge milestone, not only for what it is, but for what it forecasts -- we now think he is ready to start preschool next year and have enrolled him at the same preschool Noah attends. Petey will attend two mornings per week and will be in a two-year-old class, based on his abilities. We are hopeful that he will feel comfortable there because he is so familiar with the school. And we are hopeful that being in preschool with other classmates and peers will encourage him to talk, since he is still nonverbal. We are also extremely thankful and grateful to the director for working with us to meet Peter's educational needs! 

Here are some other pics of Petey enjoying the outdoors with us:

  

 

One Year Today!

One year ago today, we held Petey in our arms for the first time and we became a family of four. I will always remember how tiny he was, and it still brings tears to my eyes thinking about how confused, scared and sad he was because he didn't understand what was going on, except that he was being handed over to people he had never seen before, who looked very different than his caregivers, and who were speaking a language he didn't understand. But I will also always remember how shortly after he finally let me hold him at the orphanage, he decided to trust me - he snuggled into my arms, let me feed him a bottle, fell asleep in my arms out of pure emotional exhaustion, sat on my lap at a restaurant and let me spoon feed him, and slept best in the hotels if he was laying on me, clinging to me. It was such a very emotional time for all of us. I will never forget the relief I felt a couple days into our adventure, when he smiled when I tickled him, smiled at the sight of us, and humorously knew to smile for photos. When he began to smile, I knew he was happy, and that made my heart glad.

In most ways, it feels to me like Petey has been our son for his entire life. He is part of me. When we think back at our time in China, think about all that has happened since then, and look at the photos that tell our story, it is amazing to think it began just one year ago today.

Looking at Petey on Gotcha Day and looking at him today, it is amazing how much he has grown, in so many ways:

Baby in China to Big Boy at home:

I took the first photo the last weekend of May 2015 at a local farm where the kids like to play. I took the second photo this weekend. What a difference a year makes:

 

~Allie

One year (almost!)

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a year since Peter became ours.  In some ways, it seems like he's been with us for much longer but in other ways it seems like just yesterday that we held him for the first time in Jinan.  As we approach the first anniversary of Gotcha Day, I've been thinking about what that day means and how we will celebrate it, both now and in the future.

We know adoptive families who treat Gotcha Day like a birthday, a true day of celebration.  And in many ways Gotcha Day is just like a birthday, the day that their adopted child has been reborn into their families.  But we know other families for whom Gotcha Day is a low key affair due the memories of grief, trauma and loss that are stirred by remembering the circumstances that brought these children into our lives.

I don't really know how we will celebrate Gotcha Day in the future, especially as Petey grows in awareness and starts to ask the questions that are sure to come, questions for which we have no answers.  But for now we are grateful that he is part of our family and we hope that he is as blessed by our family as we have been by him.

~Matt

Keeping the beat in music class

It's official (again)! Plus, an update on the life and times of Petey.

While our adoption of Peter was official when we received the adoption decree in China, and he became an American citizen when we touched down on U.S. soil in Chicago, we have now completed the process with our state declaring Peter's adoption so that he can be issued a birth certificate. Just another step in the post-adoption paperwork, but a noteworthy step to have completed. 

It has been a while since I've written an update about the life and times of Petey. He keeps quite a busy week for a three-year-old. Because he responds very well to music and really enjoys it, we enrolled him in a weekly mommy-and-me music discovery class. He recognizes the songs we sing and dance to as familiar, and particularly enjoys when the teacher breaks out the instruments and he can play the drums.  

Petey still has weekly speech therapy. The best part of it is the ideas, inspirations and homework that I come away with in order to continue working with him on a daily basis. Because he has been in speech therapy for eight months and is only able to say one word, I have incorporated sign language into my communication with him, at the advice of the speech therapist. There are about 70 signs that I use when talking with Petey, and over the past several months, he has learned how to consistently and accurately do 8 signs. I'm so proud of him. His receptive language has also sky-rocketed in that he clearly understands pretty much everything I say to him, which is evident in the way he responds, reacts, and follows instructions. All that to say, the sign language has helped him learn English because 1) he is a visual learner and having something to see as well as hear has been beneficial, and 2) sign language utilizes the language center of the brain and encourages cognitive growth in that area. Regarding the one word he does say -- it is Mama (be still my heart!), which most often sounds like "mum-mum." 

Petey now receives weekly occupational therapy, as well. He has a blast during OT because it is predominantly physical play -- rolling on a yoga mat; using an exercise ball to do "push-ups," roll and bounce; pulling himself on a roller scooter; and doing exercises while on his tummy -- all aimed at strengthening his core, neck and shoulder muscles. He also works on fine motor skills such as pincer grasp to pick up small items, learning to scribble, and improving eating with a spoon. 

And with the beautiful weather that accompanies spring, we spend several hours of most days playing at various playgrounds in the area. Big brother Noah is a huge fan of the outdoors, so that suits him just fine during his non-school hours!

Blessedly, Grammy (my mom) came to visit for 12 days a couple weeks back and the boys had a ton of fun with her. Noah kept saying that he didn't want her to leave. "I want Grammy to stay until we go to Heaven," he would say. None of us wanted her to leave! 

Here are some photos of the boys and Grammy:

~Allie

The most important day in the history of the world!

What an amazing joy it is to celebrate Christ's resurrection. It fills my heart with gladness to know that our boys are able to celebrate the most important day in the history of the world: the day Jesus rose from the dead and conquered our sins, so that through faith in Jesus we may live in relationship with Him in this life and in Heaven with Him for eternity! 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." ~ John 3:16

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

We are blessed to have Grandma (the boys' great grandmother) living nearby and so much a part of our lives:

Easter egg hunts are so much fun! Noah has had me hiding Easter eggs all over the house and yard, over and over and over again. He loves the thrill of the hunt! Here are photos from our neighborhood's Easter egg hunt. Petey's age group went first and he was so cute slowly and carefully picking up individual eggs and gently placing them in the basket. Noah's age group was up next. Since the eggs in this hunt were largely strewn about the lawn, Noah cleverly approached it as a race, running from place to place to pick up whichever color egg he decided he wanted next.

Happy Easter!

~Allie

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Sshin-nyen haoww! 

That's the phonetic way to say 'Happy New Year,' directly translated as 'New Year goodness,' in Mandarin. While the Chinese New Year actually begins Monday, we had fun celebrating today: 

2016 is the Year of the Monkey. The monkey Noah is holding is actually the toy he greeted Peter with the morning they first met face-to-face. There are many Chinese New Year traditions, including wearing red, hanging red lanterns, and eating dinner with several generations of family around a round table. We were blessed to celebrate with Matt's parents, making it three generations around our kitchen table. The kids are wearing Chinese noble hats from our local Chinese market. We purchased the red lanterns on Shamian Island, China, with Peter back in May. 

As much as our family enjoys food, this blog post would not be complete without a picture of our mini-feast. It included Chinese barbecue pork (tastes like candied meat), tofu with peppers, Chinese eggplant and bok choy, all from our local Chinese market and all absolutely delicious. Here is a picture of Peter outside the market this afternoon when Matt took him along to pick up our goodies:

It is fun learning about and celebrating Petey's Chinese heritage as we add these customs, practices and observances to our family traditions. We look forward to adding more Chinese New Year traditions next year when the boys are older.

Sshin-nyen haoww, friends!