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.