Tin grin

RaeAnne had braces put on Thursday afternoon.

I remember when she had to have her molars capped because they were so weak.   We were living in Texas and the pediatric dentist tried to sedate her in his office.   Unfortunately the "cocktail" they gave her to drink actually wired her up instead of making her sleepy.   We had to resort to having her put under for the procedure.   She has been a white knuckle dentist patient ever since.  

So I was really proud of her when we found out that she needed braces.    She did a great job...well, we did have one little catch.   The assistant was busy getting her teeth ready for the brackets and she was going to put some cleaner on Rae's teeth.   The tool that had the cleanser in it did kind of resemble a syringe....RaeAnne just about climbed off the end of the chair!!!

Now to pay for them for the next 30 months.   And Tessa has an appointment in February to see if she needs braces too!   Yikes!!

Things are looking up.

I think I am finally getting over the shock.   It could be because we are really seeing an improvement in her behavior and balance.   She still has the institutional rock, but we have seen a decrease in this.   She can sit and concentrate for 10 to 15 minutes at a time now before jumping up and running through the house.    She is still doing the repetitious things like saying the same thing over and over and over and over.  

Yes...I am really tired of that.

She still grinds her teeth   really L~O~U~D!!

She has gotten over being scared of the dog and cats...now she chases them and pulls their tails.   For the first time we have seen our laid back dog actually look like he would snap at her.   The one cat has bit her and the other has scratched her...she is still learning.

The pediatrician ran all kinds of lab tests on her...we are still waiting for the results and I am curious.

She still talks L~O~U~D!!    She will tone it down when I tell her Shhhhh!!

She will eat anything and everything we put in front of her.   As quickly as possible.  She doesn't complain about the vegetables!   And she has stopped going to the cabinet and whining for more food.

She still falls a few times a day.   We had her evaluated by the school district yesterday.   They think she has good potential.   She will start Kindergarten next week going 1/2 days and ride the bus home with her sisters.    If she is doing good by the end of the year, she will start all day Kindergarten after the first of the year.    We are all prepared but praying that she will not have to repeat Kindergarten.

She is ornery!   She knows the things she is not supposed to get into...but if you leave the room for a few minutes...she is on the laptop...until you come back into the room and she will slam the lid down.  She gets into the markers and writes all over her arms and legs!   She runs around and shuts all the doors!

She loves KC Wolf.   She found him in a toy box and carries him all over the house.   She hugs him and lays him on pillows.   Tonight she was covering him with a blanket.

She really likes her Daddy.   She runs over to him and lays her chin on his chest.   The other night he kissed her forehead....she turned around, grabbed his face between both her hands and turned it to hers and gave him a kiss on the lips!   Tonight she watched Kendalan and then Tessa give me hugs and kisses goodnight...then she threw her arms up in the air and ran over to me, gave me a big hug and a kiss on the lips and said  "Bye Bye!"    First kisses!



I think we will make it.  

Home

We walked out of the security area to a wonderful Welcome Home sign!   We have been trying to get into a groove at home.  The night after we arrived home, four of the girls had their awards ceremony to receive their camo belts!   They had the ceremony at Sk8away and then the kids could skate afterwards.   I used to love to skate, but now that I am old and my bones are probably more brittle, I don't think I will be doing that!   Tessa, Kendalan and Jordis decided to give it a try and they all did pretty good.   They did spend some time on their bottoms on the floor!!

Linzi had an appointment at our pediatrician's office on the 20th.   Dr. Conroy does not think that the way she walks and her balance issues are related to cerebral palsy.   She recommends that we enroll her in martial arts to help her with her balance.   Our Taekwondo instructor really got a kick out of that recommendation!

Linzi definitely has more going on than we thought.   Exactly what will take sometime to figure out.   We are not sure if she is a product of her environment or if it has anything to do with the initial diagonsis she was given in China.   She does have delays and we will be having our school district try and evaluate her and see what their recommendations are.   We are hoping that we can get her enrolled in Kindergarten or Pre-school and start helping her learn.   The more she is able to learn will be encouraging to us.   At this point we are concerned that she may have learning deficits.   However, we are praying that she does not.    It is going to be a work in progress for sometime.   She is cute as can be and has gotten over her fear of the cats and dog.   She seems to love following her sisters around, but her attention span is very short.   She has enough energy to wear us all out and fortunately she is ready to go to sleep very soon after she gets in bed.  

Almost home!

It has been an adventure...sometimes not one for the faint of heart.   Linzi shocked me when we first met her.   Her reports were off..so much so that I would say they were completely wrong!   She was/is much more delayed than what we had even expected.   They said that she was basically independant.   That was a stretch of the truth.   They said she could go up and down the stairs by herself, that is true IF you have a long time to wait for her to do so.   She has very poor balance.   I can now see why she had bruises in her updated referral photos...she falls a LOT!   I have developed much stronger arms from holding her hand and keeping her from falling most of the time.   When she runs around in our room..she falls many times a day.   She can almost fall over her own shadow!  No joke!   She is very head strong and wants to do things herself.   She did not know how to use silverware or chopsticks.   She has learned to use a spoon to shovel food in her mouth, she is working on the fork.   She can not eat without making a total mess...kind of like a toddler.   When she plays, she does things over and over again...in a repetition pattern.   She says the same things over and over again.   She does remember doing things and will repeat those to our guides.   She has no where to go but up from here.   She is very loving and quite the tease.   She is super cute and was super spoiled by her nannies.

 

First day with us....

 

Yesterday...the difference a few days makes!

We are in Hong Kong at the airport Marriott.  Tomorrow morning very early we will board the first of several planes which will finally bring us home to Kansas.  

Looking forward to the rest of her sisters meeting her and ready to get unpacked and things put away!!

Leaving on a jet plane!

Our Travel Approval is here!   That means that I will be leaving for China on November 1st.   ZoraLin and I will be leaving KCI at 1:50pm flying into Detroit with a 4:47pm arrival time.   After a few hours hangin' in the airport there (which is a pretty nice place!) we then hop on a Delta Boeing 777 at 10:20pm which arrives in Beijing at 12:15am on November 3rd.

We meet Linzi Rose MingShan on November 5th!!!!   We will travel to Tianjin to her orphanage where we will meet her.    We stay in Tianjin for at least a day and I am hoping maybe two days.   I really want to visit the Prince of Peace Children's Home and Philip Hayden Hands of Hope Wall while we are there.

Then we will go back to Beijing until the 8th when we fly to Guangzhou to finish up the adoption.   I will be posting at Journey to Me while in China as I don't have a VPN or know how to use one!   We will be arriving at KCI on November 18th at 4:30pm.   Home for my birthday and Thanksgiving!!  And what a blessing it will be!

RaeAnne was just a little mad that she is not going to China this time.   This is the reaction I received when I asked her if she would miss me.

Guess not!

The girls do not have school Friday or Monday.   I am not sure if the teachers tried to cram more work into the shorter week, but Kendalan was exhausted tonight.   She crawled up on the couch and I told her a couple of times that she needed to go to bed.   The next thing I knew I looked over and found her and Oreo sleeping together.  I think maybe Kendalan had been admiring her pretty fingernails when she fell asleep or maybe showing them to Oreo!

Little Miss Kendalan is just as beautiful sleeping!   

It finally happened!

Kendalan lost her other front tooth yesterday!   She is still pretty cute even without them...but of course, I am biased!!

We saw Tessa's cardiologist this week and her echo was good news.   The aneurysm has not changed in size!  

And on the adoption front...our Article 5 was picked up from the US Consulate in Guangzhou Tuesday.  Our agency think that we will travel in November!   Yay!!  Linzi Rose MingShan will be home for Christmas!!

Blankees

I have been cleaning or you may call it rearranging things.   Many years ago after suffering some water damage to things that were stored in our basement, I became a Rubbermaid kind of gal.    By that, I mean I had everything stored in Rubbermaid containers.    And I do mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.   And because we didn't have any children.....yet.   I was very anal in my storing things.   Every container was itemized!   There was a index card on the outside of the container that was kept inside of a ziplock baggie.    Everything was listed.

We moved from Edmond, KS to Wichita and my things were easy to find and my containers kept the bugs, the moisture, and the stuff clean!   I bought containers that were all the same size and they stacked so easily.

Then we moved to Keller, TX.   All was well until Mark took a job back in our home state of Kansas.   Not only did I have to leave a job that I loved!!    When the movers came to pack...unbeknowst to myself...they took things out of my itemized, well kept, well organized containers and packed them into boxes!     They then stacked all the containers together...with the ziplock baggy still hanging on the side.    Ackkkkkkkk!!   Did they have any idea of what they had done to me??!!    I have never gotten over that.    I have never been able to get my life back to organized as it was.   I am again trying....please pray for me!

I hope to have a garage sale for a few hours Saturday morning.   I need to move out some clothes that we have an abundance of.    I am calling it the mostly $.50 cent sale.   Just about all the clothes will be
$.50 each.

So the point of this post...other than to make everyone think I am really anal...I am.     During my re-organization plan I came across a blanket that I had made for RaeAnne before she was home with us.   I have one of those names that you can never find spelled right on many things.    Our daughter's have the same problem.   Especially RaeAnne and ZoraLin with our play of capitals in their names.   So when I found this great site for crochet blankets with your child's name throughout the blanket...spelled right.   Well, I just couldn't resist!!   That blanket has been put away.   I know why have it if they can't use it.  I didn't want it all snagged up...sorry!    So RaeAnne was snuggling with her blankee today and now I have a couple of others who want to know where is their blanket??

This is the company Blankees and I will probably be ordering a small one for each of the girls.   Oh the things we do for our children!!   Let me count the ways I love you....