Snow Snow Snow

Well we have a lot of snow! School has been closed for the last two days. Which is crazy! PJ & I grew up here and can only remember maybe one time they closed school. So we have a lot of snow. The last two days have consisted of staying inside, eating cookie dough and sitting by the fire!!
The kids ventured outside this afternoon. This was Sydney's first time playing in the snow. We had snow around Christmas time but Sydney was still in her China jet lag phase & acted like it did not exist! This time she was pointing out the window & saying "ohhhhh". The flakes were huge! Sydney only lasted maybe 5 minutes outside. She does not retain heat very well & was frozen when she stepped outside. But she is not used to cold weather at all. Hello Texas Panhandle weather! Nothing like being totally opposite of what you are used to. And yes she was bundled up in ski clothes! We need to get out tomorrow like outside of the neighborhood!! Can you say stir crazy??!!

The girls on the sled. Sydney looks like she is having fun but not really!

I think she was thinking "Mommy it is so bright out here & cold!"

Philip, Ashlyn & PJ stayed outside for HOURS! It was crazy how long they were out there. But they had a lot of fun. Not sure why Philip has his ski helmet on or why Ashlyn's hat is all crazy tall!

Sydney & her cookies! For her first time making & decorating cookies, she did great! Sydney just really licked off the red icing & sprinkles.

Have I mentioned just how much I love this girl? I still get teary thinking about what a blessing she is to me and our family. She is just so happy almost all of the time!

Ashlyn was super patient with Sydney during the cookies. Sydney dumped a ton of sprinkles on her cookies and Ashlyn acted like no biggie. I know Ash was thinking "she just wasted all of those sprinkles!" But Ash did not say anything. Great bonding moment for them.

"Pungent"

Philip & Hollywood! For some reason, Sydney loves Ashlyn's drawer of sunglasses.

Philip adores Sydney!

My beautiful girls!
Ashlyn actually requested that they have matching jammies. Sydney looks really chubby here.

The next two photos are of Sydney "posing" for the camera. Too funny!

More posing!

In Sydney's referral, it stated that she was "pungent and extroverted". I think that means ornery & super duper friendly here in the States. Because she is! She is a typical three year old. Full of life, loudness and laughter! We love that she feels comfortable to be that way with us.

I think we are all adjusting to our new life & family. Sydney is just doing great with most everything. PJ is the magic key to naptime & bedtime. Barely any tears when he lays her down. She just lights up when he comes home from work. Philip and Ashlyn just love Sydney. I'm really proud of the way they have handled Sydney coming home. At times, they have more patience than I do. They will make great parents some day. Sydney tries to mimic everything we say--which is great for her English. PJ & I went out to lunch last week. Sydney was eating chips and picked up two chips. She then said "two chips"! You would of thought that she just graduated from Harvard or something by the way PJ & I acted! I'm sure the people around us were like OK. Your child can say two & chips. Big deal. But it was a big deal to us! Sydney continues to be a big helper. I have never seen a child that can carry so much dirty laundry to the washing machine with a big ole smile on her face! And wants to do it! And not her laundry!

Sydney did not qualify for occupational therapy. Yeah! Our OT just adopted from China over the summer. It was wonderful to just sit & talk with someone that is a little ahead of us in this process. I just love the adoption community! The nicest people you could ever meet.

Sydney still loves physical therapy! She went in by herself today. This was our third therapy session. Ashleigh said she had no tears but did say "Momma" a couple of times. I sat outside the room drinking a Chai tea and enjoying a little time alone (please don't start thinking negative of me now!).

We received a nice surprise at the end of last week. Sydney's reports from Half The Sky came in. We have 5 pictures/reports of Sydney from her time in the orphanage. And at least two pictures of Sydney's nanny. If HTS was in your child's orphanage, I would highly recommend getting the reports for your child. The pictures are worth it! The reports did not give us anymore medical information. Sydney even had those chubby cheeks when she was a baby. I'll post a picture or two when someone figures out how to crop the picture!

One Month Home with Sydney Hope

One Month Home! Hard to believe. Sydney is doing great! We barely can remember what our life was like before her. All of us are doing great. Wow--emotions were crazy there for a couple of days (mine especially).
The weather has been very warm here so Sydney is getting a ton of park play time. She is not scared of anything at the park. Really freaks me out sometimes! Sydney has been coming into church with PJ & I (we actually go out into the cafe to watch the sermon). She raises her hands during the praise & worship music--love that!! It is so cute.
I posted last time about Sydney's tests--blood & stool stuff. Everything came back normal. Thank you to everyone that sent us comments or emails! We go back in at the beginning of February to go over all of the tests with the doctor. I think we might have to get a couple of shots too :(. Physical therapy went great last week. Sydney LOVES it. We will go once a week for at least 3 months. Sydney also has an occupational evaluation this week. We do not think she qualifies but we feel like early intervention is always best!
I know that I keep posting this BUT if you ever thought/think about adopting--DO IT! There are so many orphans (143 million plus) in this world that need a forever family.

Love that smile! It lights up the room.
PJ calls this the "babysitter". Sydney will sit in this basket for a very long time. She just sits & plays with her toys. Ashlyn attached the rope to it. Both of the kids pull her around in it!

Kids hanging out before bedtime.

Happy One Month Gotcha Anniversary

I know. My post is late by two days. Sorry! Hard to believe that Sydney has been with us for a month now. PJ & I were talking about how the time from referral to travel seriously felt like 5years! But the last month felt like 7 days!!
The "big" kids & I watched parts of the Gotcha day video today. In the video, Sydney just sat in my lap barely moving for a really long time. She is practically running through every room in the house now and very rarely sits still. Love how she is changing! Her favorite show is "Kai Lan" but she calls it "Ni Hao". She will only watch that show & a little bit of Fresh Beat Band. Sydney loves Chris Tomlin's song Sing, Sing, Sing. She raises her arms up & jumps around. Too cute! Sydney loves to wear Ashlyn's school backpack & a bright pink headband down in front of her eyes & walk around the house. She is pretending to be Ashlyn! Ashlyn wears her glasses to school & her backpack. Too cute! Ashlyn & Sydney are doing a little better with their adjustment. It will just take time.
The big question (& honestly the MOST ANNOYING question for me) is--does Sydney know any English yet? Yes she does. But she knows A LOT of Cantonese because that is still her native language and ALL she ever heard til 5 weeks ago. We would love for Sydney to be fluent in English but that is just not possible. Wonder how much Cantonese I would know if the situations were reversed??? Probably not much. I'm sure you can tell that I'm tired of this question. I wish people would focus on something else--adjustment, sleeping, eating, health, schedule, anything.
Sydney is sleeping about 7pm to 7am and takes about an hour nap after lunch. We still have little problems getting her to sleep but they have improved since last 3 weeks home. She is still eating almost everything. Loves anything yogurt related. We feed her noodles almost every day because she loves them! And corn. Sydney can put away the corn.
That brings us to Sydney's health stuff. Our stool sample came back normal (yeah--no parasites.) The pedi did mention to us during our visit that we might redo the stool samples a couple more times to just make sure. I posted on the previous entry that Sydney's blood work did not come back as expected. Stool sample did not reveal anymore information. So Sydney & I went back for more blood work on Friday. It was really sad. She cried big ole tears. PJ & I are trying to not jump to conclusions or stress about all of this. God already knows "our plan". I think we just expected everything (health related) to be normal. Sydney looks very healthy and even a little chubby in her tummy (which we love!). So not hearing that has been a little difficult to grasp. Hopefully, the results will come back this week.
Our eye appointment went great. The doctor (who was wonderful with Sydney & very calm) said he could not see any damage from the orphanage/foster eye injury. Sydney did fantastic during the exams and drops but we had this awesome tech in there with us (Thanks Aunt Melissa). Another checkup in 6 months. We start physical therapy this week. And then Sydney is watching Ashlyn getting her teeth cleaned this week also & then she goes in next month.

Now for updated pictures!!!

Philip & Sydney playing the Wii. She really just loves the control thing. Philip is wonderful with her! The adjustment has been very easy for them. But Philip is a pro when it comes to sisters and Sydney had a foster brother who is 10 years old. I love that they have this cute little bond.
Look at the mess behind her! She loves playing in the "other closet". The girls have two walk-in closets. So we converted one to a little kitchen thing.

Love this picture! Have you guys heard the new Steven Curtis Chapman song? Heaven is the Face? He mentions in that song how Maria had dark brown eyes that disappear when she smiled. Thats our Sydney. We think very highly of the Chapman family.

Can you tell this girl loves her noodles? She even gets out the pot & noodles to cook them at lunchtime. What a great helper!!

My beautiful girls!

Back on Schedule?

The kids went back to school on Monday. At times, I felt like the Christmas break was the longest 2 weeks of my life. Everything was "new" with our family & we were also exhausted for the majority of it! I also knew that our new family of 5 really needed a schedule. So I woke up early on Monday, PJ went & worked out (Go PJ!) and then the kids decided to wake up at the crack of dawn & totally mess with our new morning schedule!! Whats up with that??!!
Sydney was not sure why the kids were getting out of the car & we were driving off. I was really teary for some reason seeing them walk into the school. The reunion after school was so cute! My kids love each other. Sydney does this cute kiss thing where she makes the MMMM sound & puckers her lips--cute! Philly even lets Sydney kiss him (don't mention this to him!)
I also went back to work on Monday. Of course Sydney came with me--we have only been home 2 weeks! I always brought the other kids to work with me til they went to school. We have a nice playroom & friendly atmosphere with people that love our kids! It was really nice to be somewhat normal back at work for the day. I did not work today & really missed being outside of the house. I think Sydney does better too if we are not couped up in the house all day.
So Ashlyn came home from school with strep yesterday--yeah 1st day back. PJ & I knew she was close to getting sick. When she gets exhausted, she gets sick. Another reason why we need our schedule back! So the girls had their first "fight" today. I think it was a combination of Ashlyn not feeling well & Sydney being her spicey self. I thought it was funny but really tried hard to not express that to the girls. I made them hug each other & we went on.
Sydney has several doctor appointments coming up this week & next--eye & physical therapy. The doctor's office did call today with preliminary blood test results that were not what we expected. Other results will be back on Thursday at the latest. Not sure what is going on but we are trying not to stress & jump to conclusions. Trusting in God's plan.
Also, thank you for all of the sweet comments & emails from my last post. I really appreciate them.

Attachment

I think the majority of us going through adoption mainly focus on the attachment of our child. In our example, how will Sydney attach to us. And we think of ways to maximize this attachment. We read every article/book, google it, read 50 family's blogs, talk with adoptive, etc. I think Sydney is really attaching well to us and her siblings. PJ & I have really been focused on how everyone is attaching--the kids to Sydney, Sydney to the kids, family members, the dog, etc.
What about our attachment to Sydney? We absolutely adore and love Sydney. Sydney Hope is a gift from God. But the real attachment and "feelings" did not come on December 7th/Gotcha Day. Or in China. They are coming more and more every day.
I only want to post this for future families or current families in the same stage as us to understand that this is NORMAL. Or at least I think it is normal. Please do not think negatively about us. I try to be honest on this blog & not sugarcoat this experience. I love blogs that tell the "real deal".
A couple of days were rough this week. No details now but I was feeling like I was an awful parent. Talked with my hubby, read an email from a travel mate (Thanks Nancy K), had some quiet time/pray and realized--I'm a great normal mom.
So parents--take some time for yourself. And reflect on how far your children have come & also yourself. Don't forget about taking care of yourself!
(my sweet hubby surprised me with a massage this week. wasn't that so sweet of him! it was nice to relax and think about how far our family has come. takin' care of my family & myself.)

Visit with the Doctor

Today was Sydney's first visit with our pediatrician. Sydney was great during the visit (& really all day!). She went right to our pedi--mainly because he was holding his laptop. And she is all into pushing buttons on it! (sidenote--our house was not as "toddler-proofed" as we thought!) Sydney is in the 71 percentile in weight and 27.55 in height (yes the .55 matters!). That is on the US charts! So we were so excited! Honestly, we did not think she would be on our charts. Especially since Sydney is a preemie and considered special needs. So yeah!! Sydney has only gained 1/2 pound since we left China (total 1 1/2 pounds). I think this was mentioned before but Sydney's eating has really slowed down. But when you gorge yourself--you pretty much slow down. Our pedi is curious to see how much she grows height wise in a year. He has read studies recently how China is lacking protein big time in their diet. So we are supposed to push protein in her diet. And also yogurt type foods for parasites and other stuff.
Which brings me to the stool sample. Ugh. Seriously. I have to get a stool sample from a 3 year old. Suggestions would be great. We tried in the office,but since Sydney only used a "squatty" for the first 3 years, it did not happen. Lets just say that the "catcher" is in the wrong place for her. So we will try at home. Good times?? The sweet nurse said we can just put it in the frig because they will not be open til Monday. Ok yuck. PJ said we could just put it out with the deer meat. Yuck again!
Her "special need" is not there. Nowhere to be found.
PJ & I also took her for blood work today. Really sad. Sydney did not cry at all. I was a little teary myself. She is a trooper. The sweet ladies in the office were so concerned with finding a good vein (without scar tissue??) and not bruising her. I wondered what Sydney thought about the tests & the people involved today. I'm sure she thought --why are they being so nice to me?? Which just breaks our hearts to think about what she has been through.
We will have several appointments after the first of the year. Sydney will go to a pediatric eye doctor for her eye injury and also a physical therapist. We go back to our pedi in one month to just check on how Sydney is doing & go over her blood work and other tests.
No shots today. Thank goodness. But we do have several before our 4 year old check up. I'm still pretty p**sy at our government over the whole shot thing. Why did Sydney need to get those shots? It is ridiculous. Sydney was basically given the 1st round of MMR (should of been started at 12-18 months), 1st round of Hib (should of been given at 2 months!!), 1st round of Hepatitis B (1-3 months) and Chicken pox (12-18 months) on the 11th of December--when we were in China. Why can we not wait to immunize our kids til we get home? This is ridiculous. I want this changed for future children & their families. Enough of my venting FOR NOW.
Overall--Sydney is doing great. We have been blessed with wonderful people who truly care for our children.

As I look back to this time last year, I'm shocked at how our lives have changed. We were not
even logged in yet in China. God has blessed our entire family. I'm still without words that God has given us this sweet outgoing little girl. Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us! Happy New Year to all of our dear friends & family! Love all of you.

Does It Feel Normal Yet?

We get this question a lot! Sydney is doing great. She is no longer gorging herself like she was in China. Once the kids get up from the table, she is done with eating. So, they are hanging out awhile after eating. Philip & Ashlyn have been wonderful with their little sister. Both of them always want to be touching her or talking to her.
Ashlyn has had a few tears over the last couple of days but we think that is normal. She was the baby, the only girl, had her own room for over 6 years, and the list goes on and on! But overall, Ashlyn is doing great with adjusting.
Sydney's English is coming along. We are really working on Sydney saying those words. Not pushing her--it will just help us communicate more effectively with her. She can probably say 20 ish words and some phrases. We are thinking what language development special need?
Sydney is a great helper! She wants to carry dirty clothes to the laundry room (you should of seen the big kids faces the 1st time!!), get the dry clothes out, carry her dishes to the table & she LOVES the vacuum!
Sleeptime is a problem or more like falling asleep (bs/she sleeps almost all night). Sydney cries, screams, throws fits during naptime & bedtime. We were on our last "whatever" yesterday. Sorry--I try to be honest on this blog. This has been the hardest thing so far. But tonight--sweet big sister decided to lay down at the same time. You would not believe the difference. Sydney still threw everything off the bed except for her blanket. But she covered her head up and fell asleep. No fits, no screams & barely any crying. Ashlyn stayed in there for maybe 5 minutes. Big relief for us. Not sure what will happen tomorrow at naptime?? But at least tonight was better. I would love feedback or suggestions or anything. I know this is temporary. And know Sydney has been through A LOT!
Sydney has her first doctor appointment on Thursday. We are curious to see if she has gained any weight since China. And also to see what her "special need" really is??? If it is anything but we are not seeing it.
So to the question of normal. We are not at normal yet. But we are getting closer every day!

Christmas 2009

We had several days of celebrating Christmas with family. It was a wonderful time! Sydney was not sure about the presents. She pretty much opened the first one & then just played with it for awhile. Philip & Ashlyn are adjusting well with a new sister.
All of us have mainly been hanging out in front of the fire because we have snow! It was actually a white Christmas this year. Sydney did not seem impressed with the snow. She looked out the window and then went on with her day.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas weekend!

Thank You Sheri, Dave & Riley