Out of the blue thoughts of an 8 year old...

Driving to swim lessons...

Syd:  Mom, why do people cry?

Me:  Well, you cry when you're hurt or sad or even when you're happy.

S:  Like when you and daddy cried when we got Alex?

M:  Just like that.

S:  I didn't cry when we got Alex.

M:  That's ok, I know you weren't very thrilled with Alex at first and that's ok too.

S:  You guys were happy because you finally got to go and save him.  (said with much eye rolling)

(WHOA!  Did my daughter just tell me we saved her brother by adopting him???)

M:  We absolutely did not save your brother or you!  Some families that adopt may feel they are saving a baby by adopting them, but me and daddy adopted you and your brother because you are ours.  You have always been our family!!

S:  But you didn't know us before you saw our pictures, how can we have been yours?

M:  You're right that we didn't know you before but we knew that our kids were living somewhere in China until we could bring you home.  We knew you were ours before we ever saw your picture and loved you both even more when we did see your pictures.

S:  That was cool when we saw Alex's picture, I love him.  Can I have hot cocoa when we get home?

There is sooo much that she thinks about and turns over in her thoughts before she can talk about it.  I wondered where she got the idea that we were "saving" Alex because that is certainly not how we view our family.  James pointed out that people are always saying "How lucky Alex is that you adopted him so he can get the care he needs to fix his feet."  That does sound a lot like we "saved" him from a life of crooked feet, doesn't it?  How sad that my daughter has been thinking that we are a family because we wanted to "save"  a baby.

Guess what people, James and I are the lucky ones to be the parents to 2 beautiful and wonderful kids who happen to be from China. 

We "saved" no one, we created a fantastic family through adoption!

Happy Easter Morning!

A HUGE map of the world for Syd

and a Big Wheel for Alex.

Syd helping Alex find his eggs.

I see an egg...

Chocolate money, Yum!

New puppies, Cookie and Candy.

New Plan

After researching the surgery our dr wanted to do on Alex, we decided that we didn't want to go that route before trying other options.  Our surgeon and PT (she does the casting) are both on board with trying other options and are working together with us to come up with a plan.  So one more week of casts, back into the brace for longer each day and PT twice a week (if insurance allows that many visits). 

We know this may not work and there still might be surgery in the future but we feel good with our decision to wait.    My little guy won't be in casts this summer!!!

Family Gallery Wall

 We've lived in our house for 10 years and last year I finally started painting and trying to de-80's everything. I've wanted to do it for years but always some excuse to not get started--until a good friend was sitting here at my kitchen table one day drinking coffee got up and started taking down pictures, ripping off shiny silver wallpaper and popping off paneling. 

It was easy to get everything done at that time because Alex was still taking 2 naps and slept like a rock!  I got the entire downstairs painted and it's slowly getting decorated the way I want it.

For my gallery wall I took pics of old family pictures and had them all printed in sepia tone, scrounged the house and Goodwill for frames and "stuff" and spray painted all the frames brown.  Syd helped me trace all of the frames onto paper to hang on the wall to get the set up I wanted without making a ton of little holes.  The only measuring I did was to make sure each side was the same distance from the windows on either side.  Now that I'm looking at a picture of it, I might move a couple pictures a bit but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Pictures and paper.

Baby pics, single photos and wedding pics of my parents on one side

James' parents on the other.

The finished wall with the kids on center stage.

More Surgery???

Little man is lookin' pretty smug about having 2 below the knee casts!

Because...

the skin behind his left leg is rubbed raw, so he get a break from the full length until next Wednesday.











Then one more week of casts and we see his ortho to discuss more surgery.  This surgery will be more invasive than what he had done last August.  Last year the surgeon took a tiny blade and went through the capsule around his achilles tendon and made a small nick in the tendon to help it stretch-called a tenotomy.  Then it was 3 weeks of casts and into the brace.

This surgery would involve cutting all the way through the capsule and the tendon-called a posterior release.  (I'm sure there's another name for it, but not sure what that is)  Longer recovery time in cast (6 weeks I think). 

I've posted on my 2 clubfoot Yahoo groups to try and get more info so we can go into the ortho appointment with more knowledge than just the procedure.  I want to know the long time effects of this type of surgery.  I'm worried that it might be great now, but in the long run is he going to have problems with that foot.  So far, I've had postive feedback about the surgery which eases my mind a bit. 

So, more research and hoping that his little heel will cooperate and drop in the next 2 weeks :-)

50 Years...

Today was James' parents 50th wedding anniversary so we had a surprise party with the whole family at our house.  It was a lot of fun!

Oma and Syd

Oma and Alex

Oma and Opa checking out their yummy cake!

Kids, grandkids, great-grandkids and spouses.  The whole gang!

James and his sister Diana and bother Michael.

Grand kids: 15 month old great-grand son all the way up to his 24 year old daddy!

Love this picture

When we were in China last year, we met a wonderful family who had been volunteering at Alex's orphanage.  They were there for 3 months and were able to come watch our Gotcha Day.  Well, they were in Colorado last week so we got to meet up with them so they could see Alex and Ty again!  They were amazed at how big the boys had gotten.

We were supposed to meet at our agency playground, but it snowed so McDonald's it was.  Syd and the girls had a great time playing!  They're about the same age so they really got along and Syd can't wait to see them again.

It was great to talk to them again and learn a little more about LuoHe LOCC.  We now know that when the babies were fed, they ate a BIG meal with no snack between and they were held during feedings.  No wonder he loves his food :-)  There were between 30-35 babies there with 15 nannies.  Two kids per nanny is unheard of!  The babies had A LOT of floor time, a cushioned mat on the floor, a mirror was around the room with toys hanging low so they could crawl around and play.

Seeing them again reminded me of the pictures they took with the disposable camera we had sent.  I wish I had better pics of the room and how clean and nice it was but most of them didn't come out.  The ones that did are so precious. 

Alex with one of the wonderful nannies that cared for him the first year of his life.

Checking out his new family.

Sleeping of course.

The outside yard of LuoHe.  LOCC is on the 3rd floor I believe.