Small Accomplishments, Huge Joy

Last week we met with Reagan's IEP team to discuss placement plans for next year.  It's pretty obvious to Dan and I that she is not ready for 1st grade.  Reagan has made huge strides this year but we feel that if she were moved up to 1st grade she would be lost and constantly trying to catch up.

I have lost a lot of sleep worrying about what was going to happen next year.  I spoke with many friends and friends who are teachers about the possibility of Reagan repeating kindergarten and they all told me the same thing....it's not going to happen and to get ready to fight for the repeat.

I started contemplating homeschooling and looked into private schools as I just don't have the fight in me.

But last week's meeting had an unexpected outcome......
We met with seven people: her specialists, her teacher, and school administrators and they were in all in agreement- BEFORE Dan and I even mentioned what we wanted to see happen next year- that Reagan should repeat kindergarten!  There was no fight.  I couldn't believe it.  It's unheard of for a child to be receiving the type of services that Reagan is receiving and in kindergarten to be held back.  God is good.

Reagan's teacher has five skills she would like to see each student perfect by the end of the year:
1.Write their first and last name without backwards letters and capital letters and lower case letters where appropriate.
2. Know and say their phone number with area code
3. Know and say their address – house #, street, city, state and zip
4. Know and say their complete birthday
5. Tie their shoes independently

Reagan is working on making her S not look like a 2 in her last name but the girl is so close.  I know that she will get it any day now.

When I need some quiet time all I have to do is get out scissors, tape and paper and Reagan will entertain herself for awhile just cutting and taping paper.  Yesterday was one of those days and so I got out the quiet time supplies.

She came over and tapped my shoulder and said, "for you" and then handed me a folded and taped up letter with MAMA written on it!  She wrote Mama all on her own!  I have tears just writing this down.  I learn daily that there is much joy in the littlest of my girl's accomplishments.

She is far from knowing her phone number, birthday and address and to be honest, she most likely will not know them by the end of the year but she knows Mama.  And that is huge.

(When I told her that I could not wait to show Daddy what she had done she asked for help writing Daddy on it)

This week

This week we celebrated that our Savior LIVES!

Easter weekend also included Bonich's nineteenth birthday.  She was able to come home for a long Easter weekend and celebrate with us her last full year as a teenager.  She went back to school on Monday but only for three more weeks.  We are in the home stretch of her first year of college coming to an end. 

Mason's Chinese class started it's spring term this week.  Mason does not want to speak Chinese and when he was being tested to determine what class to put him in, the instructors thought he didn't understand or was unable to speak it because he would answer them in English or he would just give them blank stares so the evaluation ended with him being placed in the preschool class.  It doesn't seem to bother him that he is in a class with kids half his age and size.  I struggle with whether or not we are doing the right thing by making him go to class.  I feel like we are darned if we do and darned if we don't.  I don't want him resenting us or his heritage by making him go but I also never want him to think that we didn't help foster him keeping part of his Chinese culture.

Reagan discovered this week that if she removed the lenses from her sister's 3-D glasses they became the perfect reading glasses. 

Out with the White. In with the Yellow.

Mason recently had his very first taekwondo belt test.  He tested for his yellow belt.  To say he loves taekwondo is an understatement.  It has been the perfect fit for our boy, he lives for his class days.  

I was nervous for the test.  I had no idea what to expect.  This has been a whole new experience for us.  I was not concerned about him doing his forms correctly, it was knowing Korean vocabulary, our address and phone number that worried me. He's only been in taekwondo for a little of over eight weeks and to be honest, we did go over the Korean vocabulary but not often.  I didn't realize what a big part of the test it would be.

Mason had nowhere the nerves I had.  When I asked him how he was doing and if he was nervous as we were driving to the studio he asked me, "Nervous for what, Mama?" 

The nerves did start to set in as soon as the instructor started quizzing the students on the Korean vocabulary.  I could see the nerves in his face and heard it in his voice but soon it was on to forms and we were all very relieved.

The last part of the test was breaking a board with a bad habit written on it.  His board said, Saying I can't. This was his favorite part of the whole test.  He broke it very easily and the smile on his face was priceless.  I wish I had gotten it on camera but I was so caught up in the moment I forgot all about taking pictures.

He passed!

Tears, Screams and Pink Earrings

The day was here.  Reagan was finally getting her ears pierced!
Her entourage was complete. Cousins Jack and Hudson hadn't planned on coming for the big event and really didn't even want to come but they were very good sports.

It started with smiles and she was calm.  Way calm.  

Looking back I should have realized that it was the calm before the storm.
She knew exactly what earrings she wanted and took no time in choosing pink flowers.
She concentrated on Katrina's, the ear piercing specialist, every move.  She didn't want to miss a thing.

And from there the rest of the appointment got a little crazy.  The first ear was done.  Well, done in meaning the earring was in but the gun that put the earring in was was still somehow connected and Katrina was having a difficult getting the gun away from Reagan's ear.  And then we had the start of a major meltdown.  And I mean major.

When she finally did get the gun away from her ear I saw the look that Reagan can give when she is thinking, over my dead body.  It's not a good look.  We call it Reagan's Death Glare.  I knew that getting that second ear done was not going to be an easy task.

Katrina tried to move the gun to Reagan's right ear but Reagan was having none of it and decided to yell "NO!" for the whole store to hear.  Katrina took a step back and let me step in.  I was internally panicking.....do I take my girl home with just the one?  I just signed my life away with all those ear piercing forms stating that I would pay in full no matter the outcome and so I basically  just agreed to pay $54.50 (I'm sorry, I'm cheap....what can I say) for one ear and or earrings that she won't be wearing for who knows how long.  I was at a loss as to what to do.

I hate to bribe but I had no other choice.  I offered candy, ice cream... whatever it would take to get that second one done.  With every offer Reagan yelled "NO!".  I started sweating. I honestly did not expect this.  Reagan has had umpteen blood draws, shots, has been poked and prodded and only had one meltdown during all those procedures.  The piercing should be nothing compared to all that, right?

I told Katrina I was sorry that I did not see this coming.  She smiled and said "it's ok, I've been kicked, hit and the screaming has been way louder than her."  Kicking and hitting?  Could that be next?

I conferred with my sister in law who was with me, thank goodness.  We decided I would hold Reagan and hold her arms down and Lisa would hold Reagan's head.  It was horrible.  I felt was if I was torturing my daughter.  I mean it's one thing to hold your child down for a blood drawn or shot but for earrings??  People were staring and I felt as if they were thinking, what kind of mother puts their child through that?  She must be one of those pageant moms.

But Katrina being the professional that she is had the second one done in no time and the gun had no problem this time.  When it was over I think Reagan and I were both in a bit of shock.  She didn't say much and I could barely sign the receipt I was shaking so badly.  

The little girl who was waiting to have her ears done after Reagan saw the whole ordeal and told her mom she didn't want to do it after all and they left the store.  It was that bad.

Hours later Reagan was showing off her ears to anyone who would look.  She's quite proud of those pink earrings.

When I see her admiring her ears in the mirror I'm thinking (& hoping) she's already forgotten the tears and screams.

He wasn't finished

When we first arrived back home from China last July I thought never ever in a million years are we going to adopt again.  I was exhausted.  I was stressed out.  I was so out of it.  I didn't even want to talk adoption talk, read blogs or look at waiting children.  I was so done.  But you know what?  God wasn't.

The stirring started in October.  I remember standing at my kitchen sink washing a pot and thinking that if God wanted this to happen again I'm on board but God was going to have to work on Dan by himself.  There was no way I was going to bring this up to him.  My man was flat out stressed out.  We had a lot going those first few months...transition, medical appointments, more transition, dropping our oldest off to college (out of state mind you) and well, you get the picture.  It was a tough couple of months those first few months.

It was on a trip to the coast just me and my guy that I saw and heard how his heart was starting to change.  It had been about month since I had that talk with God in the kitchen and I hadn't said a word to anyone.  Dan said the words about one more.  My first thought was really?  Really, God?  Really?  Yeah, it was more of a question rather than, Really?!!!!?!?!!! 

I don't want to bore you with all the back and forth details that have taken place over the last four months.  Mostly we have been praying and confirming that we were on the same page.  We went up and down but the stirring never went away.  It became very clear to both Dan and I that God wasn't finished with growing our family.

And so I introduce to you, Noelle Hope XiaoXu.

 She just turned 8 on February 28th.  She is waiting for us in the Shaanxi province of China.

She has scoliosis and is post op for cataracts and has had lens replacement.

Thanks to Bonich we are very familiar with scoliosis.  The cataracts/lens replacement will be a new special need for us.  The part that concerns us the most is that she has lived in an orphanage since she was three months old....WAY TOO LONG. 

We are hoping to travel by the end of the year to bring our girl home.

6

One year ago I got the email that she was going to be in the operating room on her birthday having valve replacement surgery for her heart.

My heart was broken reading the email.  I wanted to be there.  To hold her.  To comfort her.  To love her.

 One year later she is here and I get to hold her.

 Love her.

 And celebrate her.

Reagan Joy Qingqing, you are without a doubt pure JOY!

Happy Birthday

The Countdown.....

is on.

Her birthday is in exactly seven days.  She will be six.

 There will be balloons, cake and of course a few too many gifts but the real celebration will take place in fifteen days.... 

She's getting her ears pierced.  We are waiting until her big sister gets home for Spring Break.  It's such a big deal that no one in the family wants to miss this big event.  Reagan has been asking to get her ears pierced since September.  I have struggled with whether or not to do it.  We almost had them done for Christmas but decided against it.  Bonich and Kanika came to us with their ears already pierced so I didn't have to decide when to have them done.  When I was growing up ten years old was the magic age of when my friends and I were allowed to get ours pierced.  But Reagan doesn't ask for much, if anything.  She does however, constantly ask get her ears pierced.

And so my girl will get them pierced.  In exactly fifteen days.

 

In other ear related news.......
Some of you have emailed asking about Reagan's hearing.  I am so sorry to keep y'all hanging.  Blogging does not come easy for me.  I know, really?  Reagan became officially aided on January 10th.  In less than forty eight hours we saw her language expanding.  She was stringing new words together.  No longer was she saying "mine" it had became "that's mine" or "it is in my room" rather than just pointing upstairs.  The part that is taking longer than I expected is her articulation.  Her speech therapist said it will come but it will take time.  It is really difficult to understand what Reagan is saying at times and I know it is far more frustrating for her.  She has conductive hearing loss, it's not permanent and it is easy to repair.  At her one month check up just a few weeks ago at her hearing test we had quite a surprise.  Her hearing had improved both with the aides and without!  We were told that sometimes that will happen but it is not common.  She still needs the aides but it was so encouraging. The only thing missing from those sweet ears are earrings.....