Samuel

I was so excited to get Samuel's adoption announcement in the mail today. I took a picture of Alana holding it. She was really excited to see his picture, but was confused about the little girl in one of the photos. I explained it was Samuel's mei mei (little sister).

I am hoping that we will meet up with Samuel and his family next summer at the CHI annual picnic. Although we may head to TN to visit before then. Samuel has the sweetest smile -- it slowly spreads across his face and makes your heart melt. His announcement is so darling Nancy!

Back to Normal

Things are settling down here. Victor's Aunt Linda returned to Michigan yesterday. Everyone was sad to see her go. Collin had a really rough last couple of days at school though and I think having company just disrupted his routine too much. He still will NOT sleep past 7 AM, no matter how late he is up the night before. He even had to eat lunch in the Principal's office yesterday his behavior was so bad. Sometimes I am just at a loss as to what to do. We put him to bed very early last night, so maybe today will be better.

I did get good news yesterday -- there is a group Chinese class that is willing to let Alana sit in! It is a class for 6 and up, but because of her background and my willingness to sit in on the class, they are willing to let her try next Sunday, 9/9. I am so thrilled! Thank you Meg for letting me know about this class! Maybe this will be better because I can sit with her this first semester. At the other school, I would have been in the same building but in a different class room. I may still switch her to the other school in January, just because she would be with kids her own age. I was really hoping to have some playdates with other little girls her age that speak Mandarin . I'm going to join a KC group called Families Blessed with the World's Children. It is for families with internationally adopted children, but most of the families have Chinese children. Maybe we'll meet some more girls her age at their get togethers.

Entertainment Books

Just and FYI that Collin is selling Entertainment Books for his school. If you are wanting to buy one and don't know anyone else selling them, let me know. They are $20.

Long Day

Wow -- today was a long day (and it is only 4:30 in the evening)! Alana had an appointment in the International Adoption Clinic at Children's Mercy this morning. I dropped Collin off at school at 8:15 and was checked into the clinic by 9:15. We finally finished around 11:00. That was after scheduling hearing and vision screening appointments. They also ordered some lab work to be completed on Friday. They found a piece of paper in Alana's right ear and tried unsuccessfully to fish it out. We ended up having to go to the ENT clinic at 12:30 to have it removed. They also gave her a TB test. They had to get someone to help me hold her still while the nurse gave her the small injection. She was screaming her head off! She is just so tired of doctor's appointments now. It seems like every doctor she has seen has ordered some blood work or given her immunizations. She used to be excited to see the doctor, but this morning she just kept telling me "no doctor". Luckily we should have a two-month reprieve after this week.

I took Dylan and Alana to Fritz's at Crown Center while we waited for Alana's ENT appointment. Dylan hasn't been there in a while, so he loved the trains. He would jump every time the train whistle went off though. Loud noises always startle him. Alana went crazy every time the trains passed. She LOVED it! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures.

We went back to Children's Mercy to have the paper removed from Alana's ear. The nurse took down some information in case they weren't able to remove it in the office and would need to take her to the operating room. I about fell out of my chair! Luckily the ENT was able to remove it quickly and easily. It looked like a piece of a sticker or something. I have no idea how she got that in her ear. I figure either she stuck it in there or Dylan put it in there. He is definitely the one who likes to put things where they do not belong (remember his treasure chest -- the floor vent?). I've always figured that I would have to take him to the doctor for something stuck in his nose or ears, but I hadn't suspected Alana would have that problem. Maybe she was copying Dylan one day. Anyway, the paper was removed and everyone is happy now.

The Plaza

We had a busy, but fun weekend. I hope everyone had a great weekend too! Victor's Aunt Linda arrived from Michigan on Thursday night and Victor's sister came up from Springfield for the weekend. We took them down to the Plaza and Crown Center on Saturday for a little sight seeing.

Alana and I were supposed to start our Chinese language classes this afternoon, but I received a call on Saturday morning to let me know that her preschool class was cancelled. I guess they didn't have enough teachers this semester, so they cancelled the preschool class. I went ahead and dropped my adult intro class, so now I am searching frantically for another school or tutor. I found out KU offers a parent\child Chinese class starting in couple of weeks. I may end up doing that -- it would be better than nothing. I will probably also try to find a tutor and I'm trying to find someone in the area with a recently adopted child who can still speak Mandarin. I'll probably need a little luck with that one!

Paperwork

I'm still buried in paperwork related to Alana's adoption. I received her birth certificate in the mail last week. The next step was to apply for her social security number. That was amazingly painless (I was in the office for 5 minutes) and I should receive her card in 7-10 days. I can also apply for her passport now. Collin's passport just expired, so I think I'm going to go ahead and get passports for all three kids while I'm at it. I found a website called www.epassportphoto.com that will help you format a digital passport photo for free. I'm going to mess around with that today. I'll post again later if it is successful.

Alana has also had a couple of doctor's appointments this week. She had to have blood drawn and receive her second round of immunizations (they are giving her all the shots again). She did amazingly well with them all and has tolerated the immunizations so much better this time (she was sick for 48 hours after the first round).

Victor's aunt and sister are in town this weekend. I'll try to get some pictures to post soon!

Alana's Baptism

Alana's baptism was yesterday and we had a get together at our house afterwards. We want to thank all our friends and family who joined us in celebrating her special day. We appreciate all of your love and support!

It was an exhausting week leading up to Alana's baptism, but we somehow made it through. Dylan has a sore on his tongue that made him incredibly fussy. I took him to the doctor on Friday, but they think he just bit his tongue. It is painful for him to eat and he isn't sleeping well at night, but he has no other physical symptoms. It does seem to be getting better, but it has been almost a week since this whole mess started.

Alana had the best time on Sunday. She loves being the center of attention and getting to wear a pretty dress was icing on the cake! She watched video of Dylan's baptism, so she knew what to expect. I explained that they pour water on her head and that it doesn't hurt. She saw Dylan cry in the video, but she told me that she wouldn't cry -- and she didn't! When it was her turn she just leaned back and was smiling the whole time! The priest had a great time talking to her and even held her for a picture.

We ordered Chinese food for Alana's party and she was in heaven. She sat and ate during most of the party! I also made her a couple of cakes. I made a Welcome Home cake with her Chinese name (Xin Yi) written along the side and a cross cake for her baptism. She has been counting down the days until she got to eat those cakes!

Busy Weekend

We had the busiest weekend, but it was so much fun! My brothers, Brian and Dominic, came into town on Friday. I took Collin and Alana over to my dad's on Friday night so Brian and his fiance, Cara, could meet Alana. As you can see by the picture -- they all got along great!

Then on Saturday morning, Victor's mom, her husband, George, and Victor's sister, Colleen, all came into town. I was able to visit with them for a little while before heading back to my dad's house for Brian and Cara's couple's shower. The shower was such a nice time and and it was so great to see all of our family, our neighbor's growing up, and Brian's friends come out to celebrate. I baked and frosted the cake below, but my brother, Dominic arranged all the flowers and made it beautiful! Brian and Cara take the cutest pictures. I've seen proofs of their engagement photos and they are adorable!!

First Day of School

My baby is in second grade already. Where does the time go?? We met his teacher on Tuesday afternoon. She seems really nice. I'm disappointed that none of the little boys he was close to in kindergarten or first grade are in his second grade class (there are four second grade classes at his school). Collin is so social though that he will have a couple of new best friends before I know it. It just takes time for the other kids to get used to him and to understand him though. Some kids are much more patient with him than others. I'm very excited for this school year, but as you can tell I'm a little nervous too!

Knees

Alana has the sorriest looking knees I've seen in quite a while. She falls down ALL the time. She has some doctor's appointments coming up and I'll probably mention it then. I just think she isn't used to running around freely. She couldn't even go up and down stairs by herself when she first came home. I carried her a lot on China or she rode in a stroller, so I didn't notice it so much then. Maybe I should just start making her wear knee pads all the time?

Sharing continued

Sharing is definitely the biggest issue in our house right now. I know it will get better eventually, but some days are easier than others to deal with. Alana is just terrible about sharing with her brothers. If I buy or give her something, she will ask\state 10, 20 or 30 times that it is for her. If I give something to one of the boys and she doesn't get something there is a loud UUUUGGGGHHHH with shoulder slouch and pout. If she has a toy that Dylan wants to play with, she will NOT let him touch it. There will be yelling, screaming and she will run around the house to keep him away from it. Sometimes she fills bags or buckets fulls of toys and hides them. If Collin or Dylan happen upon the stash and she sees them, she will cry and whine up a storm (never mind she wasn't playing with the toys). If Dylan has a toy that she wants however, she will hover over him and continually touch\play with the toy while he is playing with it. I wouldn't mind this if she weren't so adamant that he not even breathe on a toy she is playing with. I guess I just needed to vent a little today. We've had foster kids who were this bad at sharing in the past, but we were able to correct the situations a little faster due to a common language. We could point out to them the double standard they had (which didn't usually help). We also told them that is they didn't share their toys, Collin and Dylan wouldn't share their toys with them. This usually got the point across rather quickly. I haven't resorted to this yet as I don't know that she would understand what I'm trying to teach her. I'm sure we'll have to go there in the future though.


Here is a picture I just took of Alana hovering over Dylan and a toy that she wanted to play with. She tried putting the hat on him and taking the dog, but he screamed. So, she just sat next to him and followed him around the house until he moved on to something else. I just noticed as I was typing this that she has moved on to his new activity. Dylan is drawing at the kitchen table and Alana headed in there with the dog to sit by him. She grabbed the paper and pencil, but gave it back when I came in the room. Dylan tried to touch the dog and received a loud NO and she swung it away from him. Does the fun ever end? I'm going to get all this on video soon because I know it won't be this bad forever and someday it will be funny (especially when she is older and brings her boyfriend over to hang out).

Weekend

We had a pretty nice weekend. I hope everyone else did too! We had Dalton spend the night on Friday. That was hard on Alana because Collin and Dalton would go off to play and she wasn't always included. I will focus on finding some friends her age after Collin gets back to school.



Here are some more photos of Dylan doing yoga. I can't get enough of his downward facing dog pose.


On Saturday night, we went to an outdoor theater production of Beauty and the Beast. Victor's Uncle Chuck and cousin Clara were part of the cast. We had such a great time and Collin thought it was SO neat to see Chuck and Clara in their costumes after the show. He also got to go backstage for a little while and meet some of the starring characters. It was a really great time.



Can you tell that Collin was a little tired the next day though?



On Sunday evening, I finally checked for Tony's obituary (since we hadn't heard from Remi) only to find out the visitation was from 4-6 on Sunday. I was able to make the funeral this morning though. It was nice to see Remi and his family. It was amazing how little everyone had changed. I don't even think Remi grew since I last saw him 7 years ago. He is probably only 1 inch taller than me and we were the same height in the heels I was wearing! Remi did fill me in a little more on his baby boy. The baby is already over 7 pounds now and should be discharged from the hospital next month. They named the baby after Remi and they said he looks exactly like him as well. We are planning to get together with Remi sometime in the next few months, so I will have pictures to share soon. It was a very difficult funeral to go to. You just never think someone so young will lose their life. When the priest talked about Tony it sounded as if he hadn't changed one bit. He talked about what a polite boy he was and what an amazing smile he had. I cried so much during the mass and kept feeling haunted by thoughts of what more I could have done. I wish we would have kept in better contact with the boys. I'm so sad that I didn't get to see the young man he had become.

Before the funeral, I took Collin to the dentist. He was cold, so the hygienist got him a blanket. His new Star Wars Mickey came along for the ride. My child is something else!

Home to Sad News

We arrived home safely yesterday afternoon. The flight went pretty well. It is just hard to travel with a 2-year-old. The older kids watched movies and ate snacks with no issues, but Dylan is a whole other story. He did reasonably well though considering how tired we all were.

We got home yesterday afternoon to a very sad message on our answering machine. Maybe some of you remember Tony and Remi -- the two boys we fostered so many years ago. Well, Remi called to tell us that Tony died on Monday. He was at a party and playing around with a gun and shot himself. We called Remi back right away, but it is still taking time for this news to sink in. We loved those boys so much. Tony was the sweetest, happiest, most adorable little boy. He made friends so easily and made us laugh every day. He was truly a joy to be around. He was so smart too and I remember thinking that he could be anything he wanted to be when he got older. I envisioned him as president or an astronaut or something. I never in a million years pictured his life ending so young. At least one of us will be attending his funeral service. They will either be having it this weekend or early next week. Here are some pictures of Tony from almost 8 years ago when he was 10 years old.

Remi also told us that he is now a father. His baby was born in March, but was very premature and is still in the NICU at KU Med. I didn't get any more details because I was still in shock over the news on Tony. He is supposed to call us back with the funeral details and I will post more information when I have it.

Last Disney Pictures

We are off to KC tomorrow morning. We had a great trip to Florida even though it was HOT and the parks were very crowded. It was actually more crowded on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week than it was Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Go Figure! We are saying we won't come in the summer again -- spring and fall have much better weather and smaller crowds. Of course I always say that after our summer Florida trips (this is the third one).

Alana did great riding all the rides. We ended up putting her on the Tower of Terror a couple of times at MGM. It was the only ride that really scared her, but she was fine afterwards and would say yes when asked if she wanted to go again. (Of course she answers yes to any question she doesn't understand.)

Collin and Dylan had a great time as well. Collin loved the Rockin Roller Coaster at MGM best and rode it about 10 times during our stay. He also rode Expedition Everest 5 or 6 times, Splash Mountain twice, Space Mountain three times, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 4 or 5 times. He is a roller coaster junkie just like his dad!

In case you are wondering, the last "character photo" is my dad who is in town on business. The kids were so excited to have dinner with him tonight while we were still in Florida.

I can't believe that Collin starts school already next week. We'll find out early next week who his new teacher and classmates are. It will definitely take us a week or two to adjust to the new schedule, but it will be nice to have a regular routine again.

Epcot and MGM

Alana's getting brave

We are having a great time here at Disney World! The kids are sleeping a little better (although it seems there is always one that won't sleep or wakes up early). They didn't go to bed until 12:30 last night and were still up by 7:30 this morning. We like to get to the parks when they open at 9:00 anyway. We went to Animal Kingdom this morning, but I don't have many pictures. Collin rode Expedition Everest three times (twice with dad and once with mom). Victor also took Collin and Alana on Dinosaur and Kali River Rapids. I was sure that Alana would be scared on the Dinosaur ride (there is a huge T-Rex that comes out of the dark towards you). She loved it though. She has come a long way already this week from the little girl who was scared of the The Little Mermaid show on the second day. She seems to have no fear now! We are going to go ahead and try her on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Magic Kingdom. Maybe later tonight! I'm not sure about the Tower of Terror at MGM though. We might save that for the next trip. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe (Alana's first time). She was a little concerned about the monkeys near our table, but she just looked at our reactions and followed along. I'm so impressed with how well she is handling all of these rides and shows. Sometimes I have to stop and think about what the last 3 1/2 years have been like for her -- never leaving the orphanage -- and it is amazing that she is taking everything in stride like this. We wouldn't have come if we thought she couldn't handle it, but she is doing better than even we expected!

Here is our townhouse and SUV that we are renting for the week and a picture of Victor and the kids at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom.

Fantasmic

I posted these pictures yesterday, but thought I would add some text today. We've had a lot of late nights and early mornings here! Friday evening we did go back and catch Fantasmic at MGM. We all love that show and Alana did as well. They shoot these walls of mist and then project video on them. I tried to take a picture of that, but it is hard when the images are always moving and it is dark. There are also characters and fireworks during the show. The kids all loved it. Maybe if the weather holds out we will try to do it again.

Yesterday, we went to Magic Kingdom all day. We split up in the morning and Victor and Collin rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain. I took the little ones to Fantasyland and we rode Peter Pan, Snow White, Winnie-the-Pooh and the Teacups. We met up and rode Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Jungle Cruise and then took off for lunch. We went back that evening and caught some more rides and the Parade and Fireworks. Alana loved everything. Victor also took her on Splash Mountain for the first time. I was afraid she wouldn't like the big drop at the end, but she LOVED it! She and Victor got soaked, but she couldn't stop talking about it and wanted to go again.

Lots of Character Photos!

I'm happy to report that today has been a MUCH better day! The sky is blue and the sun is out! We went to Epcot this morning and were able to ride the new Finding Nemo ride, get pictures with lots of characters, Victor, Collin and Alana rode the Soarin ride, we had breakfast with the Princesses, and saw Turtle Talk with Crush (so cute). Alana loved all the characters -- especially the princesses. She was most familiar with Mulan since I was able to get that for her in Mandarin. She has also watched Cinderella in Mandarin a few times and was dressed like Cinderella today, but Cinderella wasn't at the breakfast. I have been teasing Collin about this princess breakfast for a while. Threatening to take pictures of him with the princesses and show them to his friends -- that sort of thing. He would get really upset when this happened. However, at the breakfast he was all about interacting with the pretty girls. He was showing off his big muscles and getting lots of kisses on the cheek, which he proudly displayed afterwards. He wanted to be in every picture -- it was hard to get pictures of just Alana with the princesses. We got some video that will work great at blackmailing him when he is older. It was a lot of fun. I'm not sure where we will go tonight. Maybe we'll try to catch Fantasmic at MGM since we missed it last night.

A Rough Start

Well, it hasn't been the best trip so far. It has rained pretty much since we arrived here. You just get tired of being out in the rain after a while! Especially when you are hauling three children. We went to MGM this morning and Victor and Collin took off for the roller coaster. Collin ended up riding the Rock-N-Roller Coaster 4 times and the Tower of Terror 2 times. I took the little kids shopping for a bit (and broke a glass), to see the characters (who left before we got up to them due to the rain) and to The Little Mermaid show (which was cancelled due to technical difficulties). We rolled with the punches and went to the Playhouse Disney show instead, then back to The Little Mermaid, and then Beauty and the Beast. We left for lunch and naps after that.

Speaking of naps. I can't get Collin to sleep to save my life. He woke everyone up this morning and woke everyone again at nap time. Alana has been so cranky and tired. I hope he starts letting others get the sleep they need soon!

We went back to MGM tonight and it wasn't raining for a change! We went to the Muppets 3D show and Victor took Collin and Alana to the Backlot Tours ride while I stayed in the bathroom with Dylan. Collin and Victor rode the Star Tours ride and then we went back to the condo and put the kids to bed. All the kids have been having potty issues (the joys of traveling with three small kids) and I'd had enough. We were hoping to go to Fantasmic tonight, but since Dylan was out of diapers and Alana had peed all over her clothes -- it didn't happen. We are hoping for better weather, but we watched the Weather Channel and it looks like the rain is here to stay for a while longer. We are going to Epcot and the Princess Breakfast tomorrow, so hopefully it will be a better day. I should have lots of good pictures tomorrow.

We're in Florida

We're here! I'll post more in this blog entry later. We are off to MGM this morning.

**Update

We got here safe and sound yesterday morning. The trip went as well as can be expected with three kids. Victor sat with Collin and Alana and I sat with Dylan. Dylan did OK during the trip, but he was ready to get out by the time we got there. He kept telling me "All done Mommy." We went to the Magic Kingdom last night. It was raining lightly when we got there, but the rain picked up more and more during our stay. We were able to ride quite a few rides despite the weather. Alana's first ride was It's a Small World, then Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie-the-Pooh, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Dumbo and Peter Pan. She loved everything except the Snow White ride. It has never phased our boys, but she was a little scared and snuggled up next to her dad for protection.