3rd grade!

Josh has started the 3rd grade, and is loving school most of the time  :-).  Josh's pull-outs for reading and writing are no longer happening... the special ed teacher goes TO the classroom, along with other teachers and aides to work with all of the various reading levels.  And the greater inclusion seems to be agreeing with him  :-).  He's such a little over-acheiver!

Medically, Josh has been doing fairly well.  He currently has a 3/4" strange growth on his neck that was finally ID'd as a Pyogenic Granuloma... a hemangioma of sorts.  Wow, did it ever grow quickly!  We may yet have to have that one surgically removed.

His KTS arm, hand and shoulder are doing soooo much better with a "Josh's Salve" that I make myself... from coconut oil, shear butter, olive oil and beeswax... and 5 essential oils in it.  He no longer needs any compression wrap... yahoo!  :-)

Josh's overgrown jaw is giving his face renewed issues, now that the permanent teeth are all in in the top 1/4 of his jaw  :-(.  The 2014 annual Vascular Birthmarks Conference will be in NYC on 10/11, and we plan to meet Dr. Stavros Tombris there, from Athens, Greece, and see what he thinks we need to do for next steps.  Hope it's well worth the super long and stressful journey!  :-)

Home 4.5 years

The posts are getting farther and farther apart.  Mostly because Josh is doing rather well  :-).  And because of the seemingly escalating busy-ness of our lives!

Medically... Josh is doing SO much better!  And I credit much of that to our being introduced to therapeutic level essential oils.  With them... we prevent most bouts of strep (only one case in 16 months).  We keep the swelling down on his KTS arm even better than any compression wrap did AND it "erases", temporarily most likely, most of the hundreds of vericose veins on Josh's arm!!  Wounds and bruises heal easily and super fast with Helichrysum.  Pain levels seem to be down, as well as with the baby aspirin trials. with Frankincense and Balance.  An added benefit of having an essential oil alternative to aspirin is... no more nose bleeds!  :-)

Josh grew 1.5 inches just in the first 6 weeks of 2014 alone!  He now weighs 54#.

Josh did extensive visual testing in 12/2013.  His vision in his left. affected eye, cuts on and off  :-(.  Josh got some seriously poor scores in visual processing  :-(.  But now that better accommodations are being made, he's really taking off in reading  :-).

He's now a Cub Scout, and has been enjoying the classes/meetings and getting to see some other boys outside of class.

Math and technology are Josh's best subjects in 2nd grade.  It's fun to watch him grow, and speculate as to which directions life will take him in the future  :-).

Home Three Years Now!

Wow, time does fly quickly when you have a busy, and LOUD, household :-). Josh is almost 8 years old, and we celebrated his 3 year Adoption Day on 12/8/12.

Josh is now 47" tall, and 49#. He easily eats 5-6 times a day, but burns all of it off very quickly. He is a VERY busy young man... who still explores his world full speed ahead :-). After the gift of an iPad to our family for Rob and Josh to use, Josh has become very adept at it, through sheer persistence. His experience has made him the unofficial classroom "techie" in his first grade... he's the one the kids call when they get stuck on their computer math lessons!

We've had a couple of "former" doctors of ours observe him briefly (and not ask questions) who suggested Josh could use some Ritalin to slow him down! :-O He is a very busy guy, bordering on hyperactive (or likely full blown hyperactive to others not used to ADHD kiddos, LOL). But he can focus for hours when he wants to :-), and proves hard to distract at such times. His teachers have wisely given him a "wiggle cushion" to sit on at school, and he does very well with that.

Josh's 14 yr old brother, Rob, is hard of hearing, and thus loud. Josh is louder! I'm still guessing he has a form of auditory processing difficulty yet to be diagnosed? But interestingly enough, Josh has become less tone deaf every month, and is learning to sing on key! :-) His english vocabulary is astounding. Where he has big, puzzling problems is in categorization. It took over 2 years for him to learn the alphabet correctly by phonetic name. But once he had the phonetic names right... the school went back and started teaching him the names of the letters. And guess what? He's losing his memory of the phonetic names. :-( Josh wants SO badly to be able to read, but it's a major issue for him. A team of specialists will be meeting in January to try to puzzle out what's going on. Praying they can!

Josh and I flew to the 2012 Vascular Birthmarks Conference the weekend of 11/11/12 in NYC (or "big bad New York" as Josh called it). Zounds... it proved a tense trip as first Hurricane Sandy, and then winter storm Athena hit NYC! We flew out at the front of winter storm Brutus, in increasing snow, and were one of the first planes to land at LaGuardia once Athena had passed. The taxi rides were even more "interesting" ;-D. We learned more at the Conference... mainly that we have a very rare jewel in Josh! His jaw and teeth issues are so rare, we got totally conflicting opinions from 2 of the top teams in Vascular Anomalies in one afternoon! :-O They only agreed on two things... Josh will need jaw surgery in the next 3 years, and he needs to start skin laser treatments where the Port Wine Stain is thickening on his face before it gets too thick for laser. We are still praying for God's guidance as to WHO will do the jaw surgery. And Josh is scheduled for his first laser treatment at UCLA, Irvine, CA on 1/11/13. At least we don't have to fly all the way back to NYC again! :-)

And it has taken us until now to learn how to best treat wounds in Joshua's Port Wine Stain. Apparently, his is thinner skinned, harder to heal than many? A consult with a Seattle Dermatologist had him say "You've likely never heard of a very rare skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa, or the bandage that works best on it, Mepitel, but...". LOL!! Phil and I fostered sweet Julia Grace in 2001... and Mepitel was one of the products we used on her bigger wounds from her Epidermolysis Bullosa! Our pediatrician was in awe, saying it was like an aligning of cosmic forces that we had this coincidence. No...it's just another God planned coincidence we experience with our incredible kiddos :-)). Those are indeed the highlights of our adoption roller coaster lives!

Happy Adoption Day, Josh!

Home for 25 months now

Updates are getting fewer and farther between, LOL. Busy kids and busy parents!

Josh doesn't seem to have grown much in height or weight this past year, but he sure has matured emotionally :-). He now attends full-time Kindergarten... so he can firmly learn those all important letters, numbers, colors and shapes! And he fits right in with his classmates :-).

March of 2011, Josh needed an emergency tooth extraction due to an abscessed molar he hadn't even told us about :-O. Blessedly, we were already on our way to Seattle for a 6-teeth extraction in Robert's poor mouth!! So two VERY grumpy boys were in our van on the way back home. YIKES it was a long trip back!

Summer of 2011, Josh and Mom flew to Peoria, IL so he could meet Cindy's family there (hadn't yet met her 3 sisters or their families). He had a great time.

A diagnosis was surprisingly given when Josh and Mom flew, just the tow of them again, to Irvine, CA for the 2011 Vascular Birthmarks Conference... to try to learn what to best do for Joshua's ever overgrowing upper left jaw (due to the Port Wine Stain). Five of the 6 doctors in attendance said "well of course he has Klippel-Trenauney Syndrome" aka KTS! What a shock! We had previously been told he did not have that. KTS is when vascular anomalies affect one or more limbs so extensively, that it affects capillary, lymphatic and venous systems. Josh has that in his right arm, hand and shoulder. Most KTS patients (almost 90% I believe) are affected in a leg! Some sources say the KTS can also appear in the head, neck and trunk. Likely that's what's going on with Joshua's jaw.

What to do about it?? Sigh. It's so incredibly rare to find ANY surgeon that has ANY experience with this, that over 3 months later, I have yet to find one. We have placed lower orthotics in his mouth to keep the left lower jaw from turning in any further due to the pressure of the upper... but we have yet to locate an orthodontist either who has experience in this! We're praying for God's very clear guidance for all of us. This overgrowth means Josh can no longer chew on his left side of his mouth, and his speech is being impacted. He currently receives 45 minutes/week speech therapy for this.

But despite the mouth issues, Josh remains a very cheerful, mischievous young man most of the time :-). He lOVES to go hiking with Mom, and he retains his curiosity for EVERYTHING. His fave sandwich for lunch is cheese and banana peppers... hold the cheese works for him too. ;-D He's a precious, delightful boy who has fit into our family very well! :-)

"Home" for one year now :-)

We've passed the one year mark since Joshua first came "home".... on 12/19/09. And in that one year:

He has grown 3 full inches
He has gained 1.5 pounds
He has learned to print his name!
He can count to 10
He has gone from scribbling to coloring in the lines
He is adoring school (part-time K)
He seems securely attached to mom and dad
His English vocabulary has exploded
He is healthy and happy and loving life
He adores Sunday School and weekly church
He has added LOTS of life and laughter to our home :-).

We often are amazed that out of some 140 million orphans in the world, God chose our family for this "one". We wonder what his future will bring.... :-).

Happy Adoption Day, December 8

Today I finally update about Joshua's Adoption 1 year ago on December 8th in China (when he was legally declared our forever son in both countries).... and it's our oldest child's Adoption Day TODAY! Happy Adoption Day, Ryan!!!! :-) Nineteen years ago, we finalized your adoption... our first child. Wow.

December is a crazy busy time for most families, and ours is no exception. Between schools (3 kids in 3 schools this year), doctor and therapy appts, running a small farm, Phil's intensive harvest and planting season finally wrapped up for 2010, and Christmas coming.... it's hard to stop and take a deep breath! And yet we did on December 8th :-) as we celebrated Joshua with a Chinese meal, party cupcakes with a "1" candle, and a toy gift.

One year ago. Wow. After 14 long months of working towards Joshua's adoption, and wondering if it would EVER happen, we met Joshua for the very first time on 12/7 in Guangzhou, China. We were total strangers to each other, and yet we knew each other. We already loved the small boy we had prayed over for so very long. And he recognized US as the people in his photo book! He was telling perfect strangers in China "This is my new mama and baba and they're taking me to live in a foreign country!!". :-) Precocious, vocal, stubborn, opinionated, what were we getting into! ;-D We hadn't even known if he was verbal or not until we met him!!

China has one meet the child one day, and then sign all of the adoption paperwork the very next day in front of a Chinese Notary. He asks each parent "Are you happy with your choice?" My heart broke for those (hopefully extremely few!) whose potential adoptive parents have said no and returned the child! Phil and I both said "Yes, we are very happy" and I leaned over and kissed Joshua on his birthmark in case there was any doubt in the translation. :-) With a tear in his eye, the Notary mumbled "thank you for doing this" and signed the papers.

The Chinese love and adore children. Joshua was treated very well by many of the locals, and he chattered away with many of them. He was shunned by some of the local professionals we encountered, at which point he'd freeze and stare at the ground and refuse to move or look up until such person left the area. :-( Why is it that a people that seems to adore ALL of the kids, still refuse (for the most part) to parent special needs children, those with ANY blemish, or throw a label of "bad luck" on them?? I don't understand the culture enough to answer that. I do know that many that were happy Josh was going to the US were under the false assumption that we were going to "remove" all of his birthmarks, and give him a fresh start in life. Um no...that is not physically possible, currently. We love and adore our very colorful son just as God made him!! :-) I know that even in the US, there are too many people who fail to look beyond a person's surface looks, and see the REAL person inside. I thank God often that Phil and I HAVE that ability... and I pray it develops even more within me.

God looks at each of us, and doesn't see a "perfect" outer body, NOR a "perfect" inner soul. If HE can still love and adore us despite our many, many imperfections and sins... how can we not strive to learn to do the same for others?

THANK YOU Ryan, Toshia, Robert and Joshua... for the many life lessons you have been teaching us. :-) We love and adore all of you... even if we don't always show it like we should...

First Thanksgiving

It hadn't really occurred to me until just now that Joshua just celebrated his FIRST American Thanksgiving! We didn't celebrate at Auntie Mona's house as we had first planned :-(. The severe cold artic air combined with lots of snow and wind changed our plans. Instead, we celebrated with friends and family at a big church meal at 1:30pm. And then we celebrated at home with the 6 of us and 2 friends.

You know what we were thankful for :-). Soooo many things including a new son!

Joshua has now been home 11 months and has grown 3 FULL INCHES in height!! But he has only gained 1#, LOL... it's getting harder all the time keeping those jeans up :-). He has gone from scribbling when coloring to doing beautiful inside-the-lines coloring. His use of a scissors and glue is improving, as is his vocabulary. Letter recognition seems slow... but he now has J-O-S from his name.

Joshua's #1 request for a Christmas gift this year? A toy kitchen! The kid LOVES to eat!!

Joshua's oldest brother, Ryan, moved into an apartment with friends 4 weeks ago... "CHANGE" is the one constant in our family and in life! Joshua sure misses seeing him daily... as do we all! But we are also thankful Ryan has this opportunity to grow. :-)

Starting Kindergarten at Long Last!

Joshua has GREATLY been looking forward to attending "big" school! Two weeks ago when I had him help me pack his school supplies into his brand new backpack, he said "Thank You, Mommy, Thank You!". :-) Then he said it dozens MORE times for the following 3 hours! Why?

We recently learned that orphans are considered bad luck in many of the schools in China. Children with facial disfigurements are also considered bad luck. :-( Parents there don't really want their child sitting next to a bad luck child in school! Somehow Joshua seems to know that?

I had toyed with the idea of homeschooling him this first year, both to keep working on attachment, and to get to know his learning style better. But nooo.... this is a child who wants too much to be able to attend a real school! ;-D How humbled we are that WE have the opportunity to do this small thing for him.

Joshua did successfully have minor surgery on 8/26. And outside of 2 scrapes that tried to go into skin breakdown in his Port Wine Stain area, he has been VERY healthy the 8 months he has been in the US so far :-). We're waiting to hear on a second opinion on his Port Wine Stain complications later this month, but are VERY thankful that he is doing so very well right now :-). He is delayed in fine and gross motor skills, but then most orphanage kids seem to be.

And so hubby and I wind down for a much needed 3 day weekend after a longggg 5 days of getting 2-3 kids up and off to school on time, and 1 up and off to work a couple of those days. This year, we have a child graduated from HS 3 months ago, one just starting HS, one in 5th grade, and Joshua in K. We're never bored here! ;-D

Six months already!

We brought Joshua home just six months ago. Wow. The time has flown! He has grown 1.5 inches in height, but still weighs the same... he's a VERY active young man. He speaks lots of English now, and still asks for more words and names of things. He keeps us laughing lots with his sense of humor and mischief too!

We just got back from a second trip to Seattle Children's to have him seen by the other specialists he has been referred to. Lo and behold, although several thought Joshua had Sturge-Weber Syndrome, he does NOT at this point in time. Alleluia!! Yes he has many vascular malformations inside the skull, in the neck, and down one arm and hand, but there's no evidence any have penetrated into the brain, and that's very, VERY good news :-).

We have to wait until the full team meets in Seattle to help us come up with a plan for Joshua.

As we neared the end of our appointments in Seattle, Joshua started begging "I want to go HOME, Mommy, please Mommy?" :-). He was quite excited to see our home as we pulled into the driveway! And that's wonderful to see in him.... that he does feel like this is "home".

Hard News? God has answers/support

Last week, after being told repeatedly that noone can understand Joshua's Chinese, Cantonese or English (he can understand!), we had his speech evaluated. He scored moderately severe :-(. BUT his prognosis is great. :-) And so he had his very first Speech appt today with Robert's old ST! She said Joshua is not only quite imitative, but she thinks he's extremely bright! When she tried to get him to say "port" and showed him a boat going into a port, he pointed to his cheek with the Port Wine Stain and said "port". Hmmm... he's been listening in on our conversations!

I sure pray his future is as bright as his promise is now :-).

Because... this kiddo does not just have "mild" Sturge-Weber like I was hoping and expecting :-(. The doc has yet to finish his report rating it and sending all the info to us in "English" but the radiologist noted quite a few abnormalities in the brain and neck. One of the freakiest to me at the moment is that Joshua has no left jugular vein?! God is His Perfect Timing connected me with a Sturge-Weber support group and delayed our receiving this MRI report til today. Guess what the group has been talking about the last 2 days?? Yep... missing jugular veins. Wow.

Was the adoption expensive?

Since we hope to promote adoptions of other special needs kiddos from the US or abroad, I sure don't mind talking costs or logistics. Paperwork-wise, this one adoption had a LOT more paperwork and hurdles involved than all 3 of our domestic adoptions combined! But between our state agency, Lutheran SS, and wonderful guidance of our international agency, Holt, and the prayers and encouragement of many, we completed the course and brought this special one home :-).

The adoption process isn't totally over until the 1 yr post adoption reports are done and turned in. But hopefully most of the expenses (and paperwork!) are in. This adoption cost over $30,000 since we had the extra expense of having to go backwards and clear our 18 yr old child at one point. That figure does not include taking our 18 yr old on our trip to China with us.

But between a Holt grant, wonderful donations (THANK YOU!!), and a future expected adoption tax credit, our remaining cost will be under $5000. And then between a fundraiser we held here, the selling of a couple of items, lots of skimping by the family, and an extra productive market garden summer of 2009, God provided ALL we needed to bring this young man into a family of his own :-), plus enough to let Ryan travel to.

Was it worth it? It was to Joshua GuanYan :-). THANKS again to all who participated in bringing Joshua "home" whether by prayer or donation of time or money. God used a lot of people to open the door for this little one... and we can't wait to see what God's Plan for his life is :-), and how the ripples will spread from here.

Officially Adopted (again)

It's been quite a paper process and a wait, but Tuesday morning, 3/23, Phil and Joshua and I appeared before a local judge and had Joshua's adoption in China officially recognized. :-) Paperwork has now been sent off for a new birth certificate and his Social Security number. He became an official US citizen the minute he was processed through Immigration in Seattle on 12/18/09, but it's quite a long paper trail STILL to get through all the post adoption details. I think we'll finally be done in December 2010 if all goes according to schedule!

Joshua is learning more English words daily :-). He's very schedule oriented, and gets upset when family members don't arrive or get picked up "when they're supposed to". But he's usually a cheerful, LOUD, playful, loving, exploratory young man. And he's still very, very busy and keeps mom hopping all day long!

Joshua, Ryan and I went to Seattle for several medical appts from 3/12 through 3/17. Joshua had a long (1hr 20 min!) sedated contrast MRI. He does have Sturge-Weber Syndrome, which was no surprise. But we don't have the full report yet as to how severe or mild it is. We see no signs of it (can cause seizures, autism, MR) other than possible ADHD ;-D. Joshua needs to go back out in June for a baseline EEG to check for hidden seizures, and other appts. [it is SO fun to get a kiddo up at 3am for EEG's while IN a hotel room and then try to keep them awake yet quiet!]. So far, his only special need will surely be for speech therapy... there are some sounds his mouth can't seem to make (yet) due to deep Port Wine Stain in a jaw. But maybe, hopefully that's it! :-)

Settling in?

Life is still a roller coaster with a new, loud, VERY busy little addition to our already busy household. But I think we're all starting to settle into various routines here and there? Joshua is quite eager to learn all he can, as fast as he can. Sometimes that's great! (using American toilets, brushing teeth, changing clothes, knowing when the kids leave for school and come back). Sometimes not so great. (putting his story books with my paperwork, helpfully throwing ANYthing in the garbage, seeing if headphones work in electric outlets, turning lights on and off all day, feeding cookies to the cat, etc). We're blessed to be getting the 2 and 3 yr old stages all in a 5 yr old package, LOL!


Our autistic 11 yr old is still having the hardest time of all with the new changes in his life. Sharing Dad, and any toy, are the toughest parts for these 2 boys :-}. But we all have more and more fun moments also, as pictured here, of Joshua, Robert and Ryan. :-)



Joshua has far fewer crying spells now that his bad teeth are fixed. He even likes ice cream now! (wouldn't eat it pre-surgery). All other surgeries and tests will probably be postponed until we go to Seattle unless he worsens. We're scheduled to go in March, but it will all depend on the weather and roads at the time since I (Cindy) will be the one driving (Phil has teaching commitments), and there's quite a few mountain passes between here and there!

One surgery done! :-)

Joshua's surgery ended up being at 9:30am yesterday. He did great pre-op with the wonderful help of a translator explaining everything to him :-). His eyes are GOOD... no sign of glaucoma at this time. A huge PTL!

And the dental repairs went according to plan. He is now sporting 2 stainless steel caps on repaired molars that will eventually fall out. He's now cutting TWO new molars on that same side of the mouth. Ouch!

But he way overreacted to either the anesthesia or the demerol or both :-(. He went into recovery by 10:30am, but was still not breathing well enough (O2 kept falling into the mid 80's) on his own to go. And he was very depressed... tears were rolling down his little cheeks by 2pm. He was not talking, not interacting, starting a fever, and not even trying to take deeper breathes :-(. But Phil had the wonderful idea to get him up and walking. That perked him up :-), and they let us walk over to the doctor's office at 3pm for a couple more tests he needed. We didn't get home until 5pm. EXHAUSTING day! They wanted him back this morning for yet another test - but we're all too wiped out. It'll have to wait til Monday.

So great news that ended with really depressing news. Joshua now needs an even longer, more painful surgery in the near future, and it needs to be done 150 miles away from home. He's REALLY struggling with the aftereffects of yesterday's meds still today, and we know we probably have no choice but to do this all over again soon. So Phil and I are pretty down today also. In the midst of this morning's chaos and distractions, one of the children had a nasty medication mixup, another had an anxiety attack, so... we're praying for a much better afternoon, evening, and tomorrow for this family! ;-)

Thanks all!

Heading to Surgery Friday

We are waiting, waiting to hear back from our local hospital as to when Joshua's dental surgery will be this Friday. The dentist is guessing it will be the first surgery at 7:30am. If all goes according to plan, the eye specialist will examine Joshua's eyes for glaucoma and visual acuity just as Joshua goes under sedation, and then the dental repairs will be done.

Joshua's blood work and stool tests all came back normal! :-) His China TB test was within international standards, but a repeat TB test here was positive :-(. His lung xrays are clear of TB, so we're waiting to find out if it was a false positive, or he has latent TB that needs 9 months (!) of medication to prevent a possible future outbreak.

Joshua also had a contrast CT scan of his head, and did GREAT with the help of 2 volunteer translators coaching him to "hold still" :-). The great news is there is no sign of Sturge-Weber Syndrome calcification in his brain :-). The bad news, is there are anomalies that suggest mild Sturge-Weber :-(. We won't know much more until we can get him to Seattle for a contrast MRI that's read by a specialist. PTL they have an awesome one there, and we're already booked to see him in March. But the anomalies make this mom a bit anxious about Friday's surgery sedation! Please help pray Joshua sails through this surgery easily and recovers quickly? Thanks!

Happy New Year!

As midnight approaches on the last day of 2009, I'm reflecting on all of the changes for us in 2009. And that makes me wonder what 2010 will bring! The Adoption Roller Coaster ride is settling down (3 post placement visits to go yet, and legal paperwork to finish up everything). But life with 4 children will be anything but settled ;-).

There hasn't been much to report yet from Joshua's pediatrician visit. Blood was pulled, and stool samples turned in, but we don't yet have the results? A CT scan and/or MRI will need to be done, eventually. And a chest xray was done (continuous mild cough) and showed NO calcification in the chest, PTL :-) ( a risk with his birthmarking on the chest and back). But there is fluid at the tops of both lungs. Joshua started antibiotics yesterday to hopefully get rid of the fluid IF it's bacterial? He still seems pretty healthy otherwise :-).

The pediatrician approved the sedated eye exam and sedated dental surgery for 1/22/10. I don't know if "I'm" ready though!

Joshua has been fairly happy, healthy, curious, and fun most of the time. He's had spells of grumpiness the last couple of days also. Teeth? Antibiotic? Growing? We'll have to learn more Chinese and he'll have to keep adding to his new English words. :-)

THANK YOU ALL for your part in bringing Guan Yan home :-).
Cindy and Phil

First Pic of all 6 of us together at last :-)

Eye Appointment

The eye appointment today was a bust. I didn't know enough Chinese to help get Joshua to look at the eye chart, and he didn't/couldn't name the pictures he saw (or didn't see?) on the eye chart. And everytime the doctor shone a light in Joshua's eyes, he shut them tight :-}. So doc sent us home with a practice eye chart. And we'll practice the light in the eyes part also.

Joshua is at high risk of glaucoma where his Port Wine Stain birthmark covers the one eye. The doctor said he'll need that eye examined every 6 months for the rest of his life! He wants to sedate him at the hospital to get a good exam. :-( So the sooner we can teach Joshua how to do these exams, the better!

So we don't yet know if he's in the early stages of glaucoma in that eye. BUT he definitely is not in the middle or end stages of it :-). And that's a huge praise right there!

Joshua saw his first snowfall today, but he didn't like the flakes falling on his head ;-D.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Pictures and Dentist

Some say they missed word as to where to go to view pictures? Try www.calledtoadopt.shutterfly.com and password guanyan. I have many more to load :-), but between really awful jet lag and sheer busyness unpacking and trying to get ready for Christmas, I haven't yet had more time to use Ryan's laptop and load in more pictures (our main computer is definitely dead).

Joshua had what was likely his first dentist appointment today. By doing everything at the same time as big sister Toshia, he was able to see what she did first and then immitate. He did so well! :-) He even held still enough for 2 good bite wing xrays out of 3 tries!

He DOES have one new permanent front tooth... just an extremely early teether for whatever reason? Most children don't lose their front teeth until age 7. Joshua is not yet 5. While his teeth are badly stained, only 2 molars have cavities! Yahoo!

Unfortunately, those 2 molars are horribly decayed :-(. He'll need to be sedated at the hospital and both teeth capped after repairs. Since they already hurt him (he whimpers during every tooth brushing in that area, poor guy!), we'll have to do this ASAP. We're booked for 1/22/10 right now.

Off to the eye doc tomorrow. His physical will be next Monday.

Joshua didn't feel very well when he got up this morning, and had lots of spells of crying and tantrums this morning... the worst morning since we met him. Poor Robert cried along in sympathy. We unfortunately know too little Chinese to know what was wrong, but after the dentist, he took a FIVE hour nap. He's been back to his normal cheerful self since, PTL! Please help pray he stays healthy, and that his teeth don't bother him too much until we can get them fixed. THANKS!

We are Home!

Phil, I, Ryan and Joshua all made it safely home yesterday afternoon :-). PTL!! I'm sorry I didn't post right away. We were wayyyy beyond tired. Everyone was in bed and sound asleep by 7:30pm, LOL. Some by 6:30pm. We are definitely "off" though. Phil was up at 4am. Joshua, I and Ryan got up at 4:40am, though Ryan was able to go back to sleep. Hopefully we'll readjust soon :-).

Joshua loved his 3 airplane flights home :-). And he laughed and chattered excitedly to look outside at sunrise this morning and the see the MOUNTAINS out our windows :-). He has been busy exploring EVERYthing... even the inside of my file cabinets, LOL.

Phil is gone right now meeting his brother, Bruce, 150 miles away to bring home Robert. It will be a dream come true for me to have all six of us safely home. :-)

Joshua cried and cried when Phil left. And he had cried and cried when I left earlier to run a quick errand 2 miles away. Attachment is going well!

It is SO wonderful to be able to access everything freely again, including this website!

My computer, with all it's emails and email addys, failed to fully start when we got home :-(. So if I haven't emailed you directly, please forgive me. I think we'll have to wait for our wonderful Costco rebate in February to get a new computer here at home up and running :-). PTL the old one lasted JUST long enough to get all the paperwork and emailing and printing done we needed to do pre-adoption!!

THANKS again SO much for all of your prayers for this adoption and trip :-). We sure felt them!