Fast Away the Old Year Passes

As 2o08 draws to a close, I wish I had some pithy observations on the year past. But the most special blessing of the year is reading a book with his Baba and will soon need Mama's warmth to help him sleep. So all I can say is....

Happy New Year, everyone!
May the year to come
bring you your heart's desire.

Bye bye to family

This morning we bid farewell to Lao Lao and Lao Ye, the last of our house guests. I got a little misty as they left and a tear fell down my cheek. Micah looked at me, patted my hair and said, "Don't cry Mama. Lao Lao and Lao Ye going to Michigan. They'll be back."

Didn't help the tears.....

Family Christmas Pictures

It's always been a tradition in our family to take pictures of the family at Christmas. (I suppose that's not unique). Here are this year's pictures.
Micah with Lao Lao and Lao Ye (that's Chinese for Grandma and Grandpa)
I like this shot of the four of us.
My mom with her boys (and Libby!)Micah and Kurt have a special relationship.

(Looking at these pictures it makes me want a new couch!)

Updated the Mary Kay Website

There are lots of new products on my Mary Kay Website. Check it out!

Micah's First Christmas

Santa brought me a big blue truck and a toolbox! Micah's day started with presents from Santa where he received exactly what he had asked for. He was excited to show everyone that Santa had eaten all of the milk and cookies we had left out, too. After a Christmas breakfast, we went to the tree to open presents. Micah really enjoyed opening his gifts and helping everyone else with their gifts, too. We opened presents in three phases to avoid completely overwhelming him (or us!). Here is Micah's day in pictures... I'm ready for my solo.Lao Lao and Lao Ye gave me more cars for my Thomas train. We've been counting down days until "Lao Lao and Lao Ye see Micah" since before Halloween. Micah is thrilled to spend time with them.
Micah loves his new shirts!Taking a break....Phase three included Uncle Kurt - hooray!Uncle Kurt gave me more Thomas Train cars and track!Christmas is good to doggies too!

Snowflake the Elf

We've had a special visitor at our house lately. Snowflake the elf is visiting from the North Pole. Of course he must return every night to report to Santa on Micah's behavior. I'm amazed at the power of the elf! Micah is working very hard at being good each day so Snowflake doesn't have to report that he made Mama, Baba or his teachers sad that day.

Libby is a Christmas Tree

Micah was so enthralled by decorating the tree that he decided to decorate the dog, too! He told me that Libby was a Christmas tree. Nice imagination!
Libby was less than impressed!

A visit to Santa

This season has provided such joy with Micah discovering Christmas and its many traditions. We took Micah to Chik Fil A to see Santa. Apparently Santa shares Mama's love of the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milk Shake and goes each Thursday evening to indulge. We were prepared for any reaction from total meltdown to cautious interest. What we weren't prepared for was Micah greeting Santa with exuberant enthusiasm! Enjoy the wonderful pictures.
Santa, I want a big truck and a tool box!
High five, Santa!
Family picture with Santa. I couldn't think of anything more to tell Santa that I wanted. I have everything I could hope for right here.
Of course, no visit to Chik Fil A is complete unless you trade your toy in for ice cream! Yummy!

Deck the Halls

Micah's First Christmas. How amazing and awesome is that? He helped us put up the Christmas tree. He found sheer wonder in the lights and ornaments and humor in there being a tree in the living room.

During the tree decorating, Micah said, "Tree fall down." He has had an obsession with things falling down lately (usually it means that someone or something is hurt or broken). So of course we said, "No, Micah. The tree isn't falling down." Five seconds later, the tree begins to topple. Micah looks at me and says, "No, Mama. Tree fall down. Sure enough, he was right. So Mama held the tree up while Baba ran up to the attic to get the backup reserve tree stand to replace the one that had cracked. Now Micah says, "Mama and Baba save Christmas tree."
Mama showed Micah special ornaments that we acquired while waiting for him.
But his favorite ornaments are the ones that light up or play music. He plays the Charlie Brown Christmas ornaments over and over. Happy boys!
A couple of artsy shots of the tree.

Thanksgiving Day

This was Micah's first Thanksgiving and despite Baba being sick most of the week, we had a wonderful family holiday. Mama cooked all of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes with Micah at her side helping. Look at all that food! We started our meal with a chorus of "Hello Mr. Turkey how are you?" and "We are Thankful." In addition to family, friends and food, Micah sang that he was thankful for his golf cart and Libby. Micah was a good eater, trying each of the new foods we put on his plate.Playing nosies.Mama sharing a glass of wine with Mr. Turkey.Even Libby got a special Thanksgiving dinner.

One year ago today....

There have been two messages on our answering machine that have been there for the past year. I can't bring myself to erase them.

First message:

Hi, this is Pam with CCAI with the waiting child program. I'm going to try to reach you on your cell phone....

Second message (caught when answering machine picked up just before Baba got to the phone):

Mama: Hi (kinda misty)

Baba: Hi (rushed and out of breath)

Mama: Hi. Are you ready to be a daddy?

Baba: Uh, what's happening?

Mama: Ha ha. You're a daddy. (sob)

Baba: What are you talking about honey?

Mama: We have a son.

Baba: How do you know that?

Mama: My cell phone rang and it was CCAI and...

Baba: Are you serious?

Mama: I'm so excited. His name is Wei Jian Tong. He was born August 27 of 2005.

Baba: Is this Karen?

At 6:23 pm on Novemer 29, 2007, my cell phone rang and in an instant our lives were changed as we were connected with this sweet little boy. Baba was the first to open that blessed email with Micah's file. This is the face he saw:
Today I can barely remember a time when I didn't know our Micah. Memory is sweet that way.

To all those parents waiting to be matched with your child, my heart goes out to you. I hope you can take comfort in knowing that once you've met that child, the wait melts into misty memory.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!!! We are blessed beyond measure!

Give more money, Mama!

Micah and I went shopping at Kroger yesterday. (We had to buy more Veggie Tales Snacks!) As we were coming out of the store, we heard the familiar bell ringing that tells me that the Salvation Army was asking for holiday donations. I told Micah that the money was to bring Christmas to people who don't have as much as we do. That we are so blessed that we need to share with those people. I grabbed a handful of coins for Micah to put in the kettle. The man greeted Micah warmly and let him ring the bell. Then Micah put each and every coin in the kettle "for the people," he said. As we left he kept saying, "give more money, Mama." It's so neat to see him developing a heart for people in need.

Nine Months Together

Bath time in China...
Nine months later....

Well, it hardly seems like it, but it's been nine months since that cold day in Tianjin when Micah wandered into that conference room and into our hearts and lives. The personality he showed that day has not really changed. He is cheerful and playful, except when he's not happy. Then you don't want to be around him. That was true in China and is true today.

Micah's language is impressive to me. He knows so many words and uses them to talk constantly. His speech continues to improve. He has speech therapy three times a week at the elementary school. He LOVES his therapist and I think that is the key to the progress he has made. He is able to say H's, and P's fairly consistently and can say K's, W's, F's and T's when the mood strikes him. Those take quite a bit of concentration for our little guy. We've made very little progress on B's despite working on them every day.

We are having him blow bubbles to work on his breath control (we want it out the mouth, rather than out the nose). So now bath time is bubble time and he'll let us know if we forget to get out the bubbles. Micah's first name for himself was Nuh. For a long weekend he was MayMe. Now he is Nicah. We're still having problems with the M sound when followed by the hard C.

We are starting to make the transition to solo sleeping. (Are there enough hedge words in there?) It's going to be a long road. I am trying to use an approach that is consistent with the reason we were co-sleeping in the first place. Mama or Baba still lay down with him at night until he is asleep and then he sleeps solo until he wakes up. He will ususally come get us or climb into our bed at that point. We're not there yet, but we're taking steps.

Fall Fun

Fall has fallen in Georgia. We spent Saturday afternoon cleaning the garage. Micah decided that playing in the leaves was much more fun. We were easily convinced to join him and took turns raking and jumping in the leaf pile. Even Libby got in the act, running through the leaves and being showered by Micah. These are the moments we dreamed of while waiting for our boy.

Knit 1, Purl 2

I've been on a knitting kick lately. I'm just starting to branch out into patterns and shaping, but mostly still knit square things. My goal is that no one in the family will be scarfless. Here's Micah modeling the scarf Mama made him.

I've also knitted some fuzzy scarves and baby booties to be sold at the Sigma Beta booth at the Shakerag Craft Fair next week. Watch out or I'll knit you something too!

Thank you Uncle Kurt

Look what Micah got - a belated birthday gift from Uncle Kurt. A big fire truck with working lights and siren and a hose that squirts water. And a cement truck that really works. Thank you Uncle Kurt!Firefighter in training.