Beach Bums

Last year we spent our beach vacation interviewing adoption agencies by phone in the afternoon and sitting by the water dreaming up names for our new son and brother. We promised ourselves that if at all possible we wanted to work our timeline so that by our beach vacation in 2014 we would have our Davis with us. 

He is home. 

And this is calling our names. 

Catch you on the flip side. 

Since We've Been Home

So we've been home in the USA for 3 weeks and so far I haven't written a single thing about the stuff we've done since we've been back in Ocala. Today is catch up day. 

Davis has been exploring new foods. This is peanut butter crackers that Wesley cut up for him and fed him in his high chair.

We made a trip to Staples for a  new office chair. And afterwards had dinner at Mojo's new location on Grand Opening Night. Davis liked the fried pickles (once they cooled way down).

There's been lots of time for all of the boys to play in the yard together. Davis catches rides on his trike from everyone and sometimes, he takes other things for a ride on his bike.

We dropped off Parker for a week at church camp in Leesburg. It's the Warren W. Willis youth camp that both Daryl and I attended as children/youth and where I served a summer in college as a counselor. We met Uncle Daniel and Aunt Dawn and the cousins (who were all attending camp as well) at Ramshackle Cafe for lunch on the day of registration and then went over to settle them in. Things that made us feel better about leaving him for a week: he;s completely familiar with the camp layout from Clergy Kids, two of my summer camp counselor friends from years ago now help run the place and also know Parker from Clergy Kids, plus we had pastor friends serving as the middle school worship leaders (the Sanders) and the elementary worship leader was my mentor, Debbie McLeod.

The cousins all attending camp together - Kayla, Micah, Bethany and Parker.

Miss Mary was a high school camper from our home church in Seffner. I used to teach her older brothers in Sunday School and Wednesday night church when they were toddlers!

Cabin 6A2 - Parker is ready for fun!

Introducing Davis to our friends the Sanders - Chris and Charissa.

There have been nightly baths with lots of fun toys. We're working on keeping the water inside the tub!

There was Davis' first trip to Brick City Park just down the road from our house. We rode the big slide together a few times and then he mastered it all by himself. He was not a fan of the baby swings. In subsequent trips we've discovered he likes the big swings, while on someone else's lap or swinging gently by himself.

Davis and I stepped out for lunch at Latinos Y Mas one day with the MODELS and he got some snuggle time with Aunt Eunice. 

Someone has been adjusting to life in a car seat - there are no seatbelts usually beyond the front row in vehicles in China and no car seat laws. In fact car seats are just hitting the market there. Davis is definitely making it work for him. 

Wesley has finally gotten old enough to attend YMCA camp. He's been earning lots of beads from the teachers for Faith, Respect, Responsibility,  Caring, Honesty, and Integrity. He also earned camper of the week for the Kindergarten class one week.

When we went to pick up Parker from camp, we met up with Uncle Daniel's crew again and went to brunch at Wolfy's afterwards in Leesburg. But before pickup, we got to sit through the last session of praise time. When we finally got to see Parker, he was hoarse from having so much fun at camp and even sporting a Badge of Honor (bruise from disc golf!) 

With Parker's cabin counselor Brandon before heading home.

Someone missed his brother.

One big happy family again on one of the famous camp rocking chairs.

My mom, or Grandma as she is known in these parts, came up for a visit too. We're glad that she has the flexibility to do that now that she's retired. We hung out played at the house, did a little shopping at Target, took Grandma to Mojo's for the first time (and she liked their fried pickles too!) and then this is where Wesley took his afternoon nap. The big boys got to spend some time with her in the afternoon following camp before she headed home.

There have been a few other not so fun things. Jet lag was brutal for about 4 days. Everyone except Davis has had at least one day of the stomach bug; we'll spare you pictures of that for everyone's sake. The Honda Odyssey went in to the dealer two different days for a recall on the ignition switch and a warrantied part that was broken in our airbag system. The washer at the parsonage died (stopped spinning the water out of the clothes) and so after a Saturday trip to the local laundromat last week, this is my new best friend. 

And there have been doctor visits galore. Daryl had his first - at Shands in Gainesville for his ear. His hearing has not improved with the healing of the hole in his eardrum. It's time to do something about it and so he is scheduled for surgery on August 21 (which means he has another preop appointment in early August and postop appointment set for in September already). We had hoped to show Davis that the doctor's office could be ok - but when they cranked Daryl back in the chair just to examine his ear, Davis was not a fan of anyone doing anything to his Baba. And I had an appointment too; another followup for the abdominal/back pain that sent me to the ER back in April. While Grandma and Daryl stayed with the boys, I saw the OB/GYN to rule out an ovarian cyst and I have to go for an ultrasound in August. 

Davis also had his first appointment with our pediatrician, Dr. Okonkwo. He did great with the vital check, the finger prick for the iron test, the stethoscope on his chest, and even the doctor checking his left ear.  But when he got to the right ear (the one he holds for comfort/sleep) he was not a happy camper and didn't appreciate anything else that came after, including the four shots he needed for vaccinations that they do not give in China. Then yesterday we had to take him for the start of the routine bloodwork they do on all international adoptees - they managed to get 8 vials of blood out of our little guy with Daryl holding him. We still have stool and urine specimens to gather and another blood test later that can only be done at the county health department, but we decided that was enough for this week.

Chilling out before the blood was taken.

So that's what has been happening in our neck of the woods for the rest of July. The Adventures just keep coming! 

One Month Post Placement Visit

In talking with my mom on the phone last week, she mentioned that she was really enjoying reading our blogs about China - that she felt like she was there with us - but that she really wanted to hear more about how Davis was actually doing!

Yesterday was all about how Davis was doing. We had our very first post-placement visit with the social worker, Debra Hewitt, who did our homestudy last year. China requires 6 post placement visits and updates to be filed on a regular basis for the first five years after you have adopted a child (1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years and 5 years).


Monday will be five weeks since we first met Davis and today marks 3 weeks of being back in the USA. 
He is doing so incredibly well in terms of his transition and in terms of attachment and bonding. We have been very blessed in that regard. We are so thankful for his foster family in China. They were a tremendous answer to our prayers. We know that their love and care and attention over the last year is one of the reasons that Davis is doing so well with us. They not only helped stabilize his health (he was very emaciated when he went to live with them), but he learned how to be part of a family with his foster parents and foster siblings, and we are reaping the benefits of that. He is healthy and happy and seems at this stage to be very well-adjusted. He loves to give smiles and to laugh. If you were to eavesdrop on our house these days you would hear little feet running on the wood floors and lots of giggling and laughter.

One of the things that you have to be concerned with in adoption, is how your new children relate to your family and to strangers. Davis seems to be very clear that we are his people. He doesn't run indiscriminately up to strangers in crowds, or call strangers Mama and Baba. If we are with him in a crowd, he looks to us to see if other people are ok. 

He eats well. There are a few things he doesn't like, but by and large he will eat pretty much anything. In China, he ate a lot at every meal, snacked in between and often carried around his snack container for a sense of security. That has really tapered off in the last week or so, although we make sure that he knows food (including healthy snacks) is always readily available for him. Some of his favorite foods right now seem to be bananas, carrots, turkey hot dogs, meatballs, cheesesticks and ravioli. Always the drink of choice is water, but we manage some milk in with the morning cereal.

He's a great sleeper. He sleeps from about 9pm until about 7:30am. He takes a daily nap, anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours. It never takes him more than about 10 minutes to fall asleep when Daryl or I lay down with him. He crosses his ankles and rubs them together, rubs/holds his right ear and sucks his upper lip and he's out. When we were in China he would let us lay down on the bed with him to fall asleep - but you couldn't touch, just be there. Now he snuggles tight as he falls asleep.  If he gets tired while you are out doing something else, he will fall asleep and he can sleep through just about anything. If we are out and about, his ear is also his comfort when he is starting to get a little nervous/upset and he kicks his shoes off too. But those things are showing up less and less. 

His obsession with cars has only increased since coming to a house where two big brother were also obsessed with cars. We have 200+ matchbox cars plus monster trucks and other kinds of vehicles in this house. Cars plus a small Chugggington train set, Little People airplane and truck plus Legos are his go-to toys. 

He's got great fine motor skills and his gross motor skills show improvement every day (he was a four months past his 2nd birthday when he started walking with the foster family). We see more running and jumping and climbing, and just today, walking backwards. He's not quite tall enough yet to reach the pedals on his tricycle, but that's where it is handy to have older brothers. They just push him around on the tricycle in the driveway! He thinks his brothers are pretty silly and lots of fun and he loves to have them chase him around the house or play ball in the yard together. They are also pretty handy to give good speedy rides in the grocery cart or in the stroller through a store.

He's getting more and more comfortable in the house. Yesterday morning he woke up and instead of yelling for one of us to get him from his bed, he got down by himself (it's a twin bed very low to the floor with bedrails) and walked out into the living room and crawled up on the couch. He's also figured out that the "meow meows" love to hide under the bed in our room and he will wiggle on his tummy and hold up the dust ruffle and yell for them to come out. Joe of course is still in hiding while any little person is awake, but Mary frequently comes out on the couch and lets us work with Davis on petting her gently. 

In terms of language, Davis' primary language is Cantonese. We had been told he only was speaking about 15-20 words; he seemed to be speaking 3-4 word sentences in his native language when we picked him up. He also understood and knew some Mandarin. We are working on English with him. Nothing like being immersed in it all the time to pick it up! He is at a great age for this and repeats pretty much everything we say. With regards to language there is receptive and expressive language. Receptive has to do with how much you hear and understand; expressive has to do with how much you can say (or express). Receptive language comes first and he is picking that up very fast. He understands the meaning behind much of what we say and can follow simple directions about getting dressed, picking things up, putting things away. He runs to greet Daryl with a hug and a smile and loud shout of "Baba!" when he comes home and he waves bye-bye and blows kisses in the mornings when his brothers leave for camp. His expressive language is coming along too: Mama, Baba, Wesley, Parker, Grandma, Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Hi, Bye-Bye, Cat, Car, Ball, Banana, Milk, Go, More, I Love you, Bath. But language isn't really a barrier - he's a toddler, and like any toddler he communicates very well by pointing or by dragging people by the hand over to what he wants/needs help with. And of course his brothers have taught him some other things to communicate -  giving high fives and fist bumps! 

So that's a little bit about how he is doing. We think the picture below really sums it all up well. The brothers were hanging out with Daryl watching the Rays game the other night. 

Another Wonderful Homecoming

The "Welcome Home Davis" party was set up for 10am at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house. There were 35 of us to celebrate: family, folks from FUMC Seffner and First Presbyterian Brandon (where Grandmommy works) and other friends. Family included Uncle Daniel's crew, Grandmommy and Granddaddy, Grandma, Grannie, Uncle Nam and Uncle Kelly, Uncle David and Aunt Barbara, Aunt Diane from Sarasota with her son Robert and his fiance' Alicia and their daughter Charlee, and also Aunt Jani. Folks from church included Joan Sampere, Jerri McClamma and her daughter Lynn, Sandy Naugle, Kathy Kranendonk, and Tim and Kelly Black and their boys. Tim is the assistant pastor at the church where Grandmommy works and he and his wife are adopting a little girl from China; they hope to travel before the end of the year. Other friends we were glad to welcome were Aunt Jani's best friend Terrye Shirley and her daughter Grace (who was adopted from China a few years ago) and Chris (a friend of Nam and Kelly's that they invited because he speaks Mandarin). 

There was lots of great food and great visiting. Davis did really well with the people and with the food as long as he could reach the chocolate donut holes! 

We laid out a lot of our souvenirs from the trip 

all over the pool table for folks to look through. 

Davis got some play time with Grannie and 

we got our first four generation picture with Davis included. 

We got some snuggle time with the youngest member of the family. 

Baby Charlee Emma was born in May. What a precious angel! 

  

Here's her Mommy and Daddy hanging out with Davis. 

 

There was lots of playtime on the floor with cars......

Snuggle time and playtime with relatives....

And even some wonderful "Welcome Home/birthday" gifts for Davis. 

Here he is meeting Cookie Monster....and playing with his new Truck book. 

He also got some clothes, cars, DVDs, other books and we got an Asian cookbook! It was a wonderful day of love and laughter and fun! We are very thankful to Aunt Dawn and Uncle Daniel for putting it all together and to everyone who came out to celebrate with us and meet Davis. 

After folks started leaving the cousins migrated to the chairs to watch TV and play games together. Cousin Micah got some snuggle time with Davis as well. 

Eventually we packed up the van one more time and headed north to Ocala. After two 5 star hotels and a night at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house it was finally time to introduce Davis to his new home.