It's hard to believe we have been home for a month already! The time has just flown by! Austin is all caught up with his classes and football season ends next week. Kailey seems happy at her new school and has already made a bunch of new friends in 8th grade. She is very helpful to me after school to keep Kaitlyn occupied while I finish up work in my classsroom. Kaitlyn continues to do very well in school and has so many friends. She is known throughout the school across several grade levels. It's so cute to be walking with her and every-other kid we come across says hi to her and wants to talk to her. The other kids are very facinated with her and want to be apart of teaching her things. She is very receptive to this and loves the attention she's getting! She is a very outgoing, friendly, smiley, funny, bubbly kid that likes to be in the center of all the action!! All her teachers say she is doing amazing and is catching on super fast. Kaitlyn mostly speaks in chopped English phrases now and we all play a lot of what looks like "Charades" when we communicate. We truly understand most of what she says and vice versa. There has only been a few times where we can't figure out what she's trying to say. We have learned more Mandarin words as well, so that helps too. Thanks Coleen for the DVD!
Kaitlyn's Arizona birth certificates came in the mail this week as well as her Certificate of Citizenship! We will pursue getting her social security card this week.
This has also been a week of emotions from Kaitlyn. As she continues to adjust, she has grown increasingly attached to Ma Ma and cries her heart out when I leave to go anywhere without her. She's going through some separation anxiety issues that have escalated over the last week. I continually reasure her I love her and will be back soon. It's hard because we just don't know much about the last ten years of her life and what she has been through. However, she started to tell me things about her "Lanzhou Ma Ma", (her foster mom for the past 2 or so years) just within the last few days. I know her Lanzhou Ma Ma didn't like coffee, but likes tea. I know she has a green couch. I know there was only a Ma Ma and no Ba Ba. She had her do a lot of housework and didn't make her brush her teeth at night. It is unclear whether there were other children in the house. I also know she had yucky feet and "bad" shoes! Over the course of an hour, Kaitlyn continued to tell me more, and then sobbed in my arms saying, "Lanzhou Ma Ma bad" and gave a thumbs down. It just broke my heart. Please pray for Kaitlyn as she works through this and for us to help her with God's love and healing power. She is safe now and has a forever family that will love her for the rest of her life!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Week Two At Home
This has been an even better week! We all feel back to normal with our days & nights - with the exception of Tanya still not falling asleep at night real well. Too much on the mind I suppose! The week started with confirming Kaitlyn's dentist appointment only to discover we have a new dentist at the office that speaks Mandarin! What an answer to prayer that was! She still didn't like getting her teeth cleaned and would not cooperate to get X-Rays or floss, but the dentist said he thought she did well for her first visit and surprisingly she didn't have any cavities they could see! The next day, we went to the doctor for a full physical. I spent about an hour with the doctor talking about Kaitlyn and then she gave her check up. Kaitlyn didn't like her pressing on her stomach feeling her organs and became a complete wiggle box. I shared our concern about Kaitlyn's gait when she walks. Dr. Hoff had her walk the halls and observed her. She agreed, and referred her to a pediatric orthopedic. We have that appointment in December. Other than that, her body checked out great, and her blood and urine tests came back fabulous!!
Thursday, she and Kailey started school (Austin went back the week before). Oh, boy were we ever excited!! She had an awesome day too! She is registered in 4th grade, but goes to a English Language Development class with K-3 for about four hours, does math with 2nd grade and has lunch and recess with her peers in 4th grade. This is how we will work things until she gets caught up and her English develops. She didn't get much attention, stimulation or an education until the last two years when she went to a foster home.... breaks my heart.
Friday, we went to school and met with the Principal to discuss her schedule. Kaitlyn called my name and showed me her arm where she had her TB test done. It was red and really swollen. Therefore, we had to leave school and go back to the doctor where she ordered a chest X-Ray Stat. Kaitlyn didn't like that too much either.... I'm beginning to notice a pattern with her. Any doctor, dentist, etc. she doesn't like too well. Anyhow, her chest X-Ray came back clean (thank goodness!) and we went back to another successful day at school!
That night, we had some family over to play Rock Band on the Xbox. Tim, Austin and Kailey disappeared for awhile and came running out to the living room dressed like metal rock stars! It freaked my nephew, Carter, out and startled Kaitlyn for a minute until she realized who they were. Then she jumped right into singing and dancing all over the place!
Saturday, was a strange afternoon. I had to put Kaitlyn in time-out in her room for pulling Milo's (our tan dog) legs and dropping him in almost a "throwing" motion. She has been talked to many times about being gentle with the dogs. I was very firm speaking to her about this on the translator. I went back in her room and talked to her some more after about 10 minutes. She seemed remorseful and understood completely. We came back out to join the family and then I left to take Shelby (our white dog) to the groomer. When I returned a few minutes later, she seemed sad. I went in her room to get her sweater and knelt down to hug her and told her I loved her. She burst into tears. That really took me back - she never cries. It wasn't like her at all. I just kept holding her telling her over and over again I loved her. We put on our shoes together and her cousin brought me the translator and I told her, "Ma Ma loves you very much!" She burst into tears again so I just sat on her bedroom floor craddling her and repeatedly told her I loved her and everything is okay. We both got it together emotionally and came out to join the family to get some dinner. We haven't seen this side of Kaitlyn before - I know the emotion was a good release for her, but it was really hard on Ma Ma to see her so upset.
She's super happy and extremely helpful today. She disappeared for awhile and made everyone's bed, folded the clothes out of the drier, rinsed and stacked all the dishes in the sink and cleaned Kailey's room!! She likes to clean and we think this really makes her feel part of the family to help out. Austin & Kailey are liking this WAY too much!!! Enjoy the pics and video below!
Thursday, she and Kailey started school (Austin went back the week before). Oh, boy were we ever excited!! She had an awesome day too! She is registered in 4th grade, but goes to a English Language Development class with K-3 for about four hours, does math with 2nd grade and has lunch and recess with her peers in 4th grade. This is how we will work things until she gets caught up and her English develops. She didn't get much attention, stimulation or an education until the last two years when she went to a foster home.... breaks my heart.
Friday, we went to school and met with the Principal to discuss her schedule. Kaitlyn called my name and showed me her arm where she had her TB test done. It was red and really swollen. Therefore, we had to leave school and go back to the doctor where she ordered a chest X-Ray Stat. Kaitlyn didn't like that too much either.... I'm beginning to notice a pattern with her. Any doctor, dentist, etc. she doesn't like too well. Anyhow, her chest X-Ray came back clean (thank goodness!) and we went back to another successful day at school!
That night, we had some family over to play Rock Band on the Xbox. Tim, Austin and Kailey disappeared for awhile and came running out to the living room dressed like metal rock stars! It freaked my nephew, Carter, out and startled Kaitlyn for a minute until she realized who they were. Then she jumped right into singing and dancing all over the place!
Saturday, was a strange afternoon. I had to put Kaitlyn in time-out in her room for pulling Milo's (our tan dog) legs and dropping him in almost a "throwing" motion. She has been talked to many times about being gentle with the dogs. I was very firm speaking to her about this on the translator. I went back in her room and talked to her some more after about 10 minutes. She seemed remorseful and understood completely. We came back out to join the family and then I left to take Shelby (our white dog) to the groomer. When I returned a few minutes later, she seemed sad. I went in her room to get her sweater and knelt down to hug her and told her I loved her. She burst into tears. That really took me back - she never cries. It wasn't like her at all. I just kept holding her telling her over and over again I loved her. We put on our shoes together and her cousin brought me the translator and I told her, "Ma Ma loves you very much!" She burst into tears again so I just sat on her bedroom floor craddling her and repeatedly told her I loved her and everything is okay. We both got it together emotionally and came out to join the family to get some dinner. We haven't seen this side of Kaitlyn before - I know the emotion was a good release for her, but it was really hard on Ma Ma to see her so upset.
She's super happy and extremely helpful today. She disappeared for awhile and made everyone's bed, folded the clothes out of the drier, rinsed and stacked all the dishes in the sink and cleaned Kailey's room!! She likes to clean and we think this really makes her feel part of the family to help out. Austin & Kailey are liking this WAY too much!!! Enjoy the pics and video below!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Party of 5
I apologize for not doing this sooner for all of you that got addicted to reading this blog the past few weeks!! It has been a lot harder adjusting to our time zone than I thought! We've been home a week now, and we still feel like we want a nap in the afternoon!
It is weird getting use to the fact we have five in our familly now. When we eat out, we now have to say "Party of 5". Kaitlyn is doing exceptionally well. She's adjusting very well to our household and now loves our dog, Milo. She carries him around like a baby, wraps him in a blanket and wants to sleep with him! Big attitude difference from the last few weeks!! Kaitlyn is also very helpful. She likes rinsing the dishes and stacking them on the counter, making everyone's beds in the morning and keeping her room in order! Austin and Kailey love the fact she likes doing the dishes! Her balance has improved and she's able to stand in 3 feet of water unassisted now. Before she was this floppy fish in the water!! I don't think she ever had the opportunity to be in water other than a bathtub in the past. She has an English vocabulary of over 50 words now and her receptive language is much higher. She understands most of what we tell/show her. We continue to work on "school" stuff and she knows just over half the letters and is learning to count from 11-20. She still refuses to do math problems though! She continues to test her boundries on occasion and sometimes will do things to deliberately get a reaction from us. Those are what we call "Kaitlyn Moments" and our travel group will know exactly what we mean! However, she is doing much, much better than she was in China!!
We went to school the end of last week and registered her. She was thirsty so I showed her the water fountain. Of course she looked at me like, "What am I supposed to do with that?!" I showed her how to take a drink and then she tried it only to get water all over her face and up her nose! It was pretty funny and yet another reminder of just how much she has to learn. We toured the school and went to a lot of classrooms where she felt like a celebrity! She's pretty excited about starting school Thursday!! She will be registered in 4th grade, but will go to a K-3 English Language Development class for most of the day. She will join her 4th grade class for lunch, recess, specials and math (however she will start with 2nd grade math until she catches up).
We went downtown and applied for her Arizona birth certificate today. After two hours of waiting, she will get one in the mail in about 3 weeks. Then we will apply for her social security card & we'll be good to go for our taxes this year!! Tomorrow is the dentist and Wednesday is the doctor! Pray it goes well!
It is weird getting use to the fact we have five in our familly now. When we eat out, we now have to say "Party of 5". Kaitlyn is doing exceptionally well. She's adjusting very well to our household and now loves our dog, Milo. She carries him around like a baby, wraps him in a blanket and wants to sleep with him! Big attitude difference from the last few weeks!! Kaitlyn is also very helpful. She likes rinsing the dishes and stacking them on the counter, making everyone's beds in the morning and keeping her room in order! Austin and Kailey love the fact she likes doing the dishes! Her balance has improved and she's able to stand in 3 feet of water unassisted now. Before she was this floppy fish in the water!! I don't think she ever had the opportunity to be in water other than a bathtub in the past. She has an English vocabulary of over 50 words now and her receptive language is much higher. She understands most of what we tell/show her. We continue to work on "school" stuff and she knows just over half the letters and is learning to count from 11-20. She still refuses to do math problems though! She continues to test her boundries on occasion and sometimes will do things to deliberately get a reaction from us. Those are what we call "Kaitlyn Moments" and our travel group will know exactly what we mean! However, she is doing much, much better than she was in China!!
We went to school the end of last week and registered her. She was thirsty so I showed her the water fountain. Of course she looked at me like, "What am I supposed to do with that?!" I showed her how to take a drink and then she tried it only to get water all over her face and up her nose! It was pretty funny and yet another reminder of just how much she has to learn. We toured the school and went to a lot of classrooms where she felt like a celebrity! She's pretty excited about starting school Thursday!! She will be registered in 4th grade, but will go to a K-3 English Language Development class for most of the day. She will join her 4th grade class for lunch, recess, specials and math (however she will start with 2nd grade math until she catches up).
We went downtown and applied for her Arizona birth certificate today. After two hours of waiting, she will get one in the mail in about 3 weeks. Then we will apply for her social security card & we'll be good to go for our taxes this year!! Tomorrow is the dentist and Wednesday is the doctor! Pray it goes well!
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