My oldest daughter

Kylie turned 5 about three weeks ago.


She is one of my precious angels.





After trying to have a child for about 2 years and enduring at least two miscarriages, she is what became of our infertility treatments.





I can't believe it has been 5 years. I have to be honest, I think she is one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen.





She is starting pre school in about two weeks and she CANNOT wait!!!!

The earrings were a gift from dad. She doesn't have her ears pierced but she thinks she is a big girl and needed to wear them in her pictures.

Que the angels and glorious light from Heaven!!!

Our fingerprint appointment is on 9-26-08 at 8:00 in the morning!!! Praise GOD!!!!!

We are getting SO CLOSE!!!!!

Noah will be home so soon!!!!

a second post in two days...

UUGGHH,

I am a special education teacher, and I love it! There is never a dull moment during my days and my days are never the same.

I spend my days working with kids that need more help than just general education and making sure they are getting what they need.

What is this post about? Kaycee and her educational needs.

Kaycee has bilateral microtia, her ears are not formed on the outside. She has a mild to moderate hearing loss. She hears clearly - when things are yelled, you hold her ear to your mouth and talk at a louder than normal level, or she has her hearing aid on.

The first 24 months of her life, she heard muffled sounds, including 18 months of nothing but Chinese.

Kaycee needs a little extra in her educational setting.

So what exactly is the problem? We are having a hard time getting her into where she needs to be.

We live in a very small town in rural Colorado. We don't have an audiologist, school nurse or anything else like that at our school. We have to share these specialists through our BOCES - Board of Cooperative Education Services.

We have three deaf and hard of hearing preschools within driving distance, one about 35 miles away, one about 50 miles away and one about 65 miles away.

Of course, the one that is 35 miles away is closed to out of district students, as is the one that is 50 miles away. The only one that is accepting students from out of district is the one that is 65 miles away.

UUGGHH - here is my 2 year old, soon to be 3 year old. She has about 60% of her language by using sign language. The rest of it is oral and pointing, asking and the worst part - frustrating...

So we wait for the big transition meeting for Kaycee. To decide what to do with her preschool.

No matter what, some part of this is going to go away from the table not happy.

Unfortunately, I am a part of all of the parts...I work with everyone that will be deciding Kaycee's fate.

I got some really good advice from one of the experts that I work with...

Loyalty is something that should be taken with a grain of salt. The school can rebound from whatever is decided. BOCES can rebound from whatever is decided. But Kaycee won't be able to rebound from whatever is decided. Whatever is decided will affect Kaycee for the rest of her life.

Talk about pressure!!!

Just think, next is the decision about surgery!!!

And just think, when Noah comes home, we get to do the same thing for him!

An update on the adoption front

We received an email from our agency yesterday. All of our paperwork has been sent to the USCIS! WOOHOO!!! This means that we have to wait about two weeks for an invitation to be fingerprinted, then after that it is another waiting game for our fingerprints to come back from immigration.

Then, we send all of our paperwork to the state to be certified.

Then, we send all of the certified paperwork to our agency and they send it to the Chinese consulate to be authenticated.

Then they receive it back, and SEND IT TO CHINA!!

Seems simple enough. Shouldn't take too long.

Did I mention that it could take up to 3 months to get our fingerprints back from immigration?

Then did I mention it would be another 2 weeks to get things certified?

Then did I fail to mention it would take up to another month to get things authenticated?

HHMM, another 4 1/2 months?

I pray this is the absolute worst case senario...

Who is this??

Just look at our little guy, he is getting so big. I can't believe how tall he looks. Doesn't he look like he will just fit right into our family?

He is 24 pounds and almost3 feet tall. According to my research, he is in about the 45 percentile for size, on American charts. A little small, but really for Asian, not too small.

It also sounds like he is getting potty trained, and he has a vocabulary of 3 words. He understands a little more than that but as far as vocalizing, 3 words is it. But apparently there is hearing, that is wonderful!

Come on paperwork!!! He is waiting for us!!!

Craziness abounds!

As is usual - it is crazy in our household - we are preparing for school...

Jacob will be a sophomore this year:
getting his driver's license - so he drives everywhere - we have to keep track of his hours...ugh
basketball just ended, football will be starting in the next two weeks and then we are off on the never ending - except for two weeks in the summer - sports seasons
he just went in for his physical - he is 6' tall and weighs 153.2 pounds - he was very concerned because he lost 2 pounds...again, ugh!

Nathan will be in 8th grade this year:
he just finished his rocket for 4H, we shot it off yesterday, this is the fourth year he has done a rocket and it was by far the best launch he has ever done
Nathan just finished softball - they got 2nd, now he waits until the first day of school to start junior high football - there will be a new coach this year :( so he is a little concerned about that...
Nathan is about 5'4" so he is starting to be able to look me eye to eye - you can tell he is liking that.
Kylie will be in preschool this year, or pretty school as she calls it
We bought her her PE tennis shoes - anyone who is from out here understands what this is all about - and she is so excited. But she can't figure out why she cannot wear them...so she just carries them around.
John will be in preschool too - just not as long.
He could really care less about the whole thing. Preschool to John is just a word, although he does love to play with other little ones that aren't his sisters. He probably does need the influence of other little boys - he wears a lot of high heels, pushes strollers, and likes pink...you get the picture
Kaycee will also be in preschool - we just haven't figured out where yet...To make a REALLY long story short - I would like to have her in a program with other deaf and hard of hearing kids...but we aren't getting there yet - with the resources we have - not to mention the nearest one is about 1 1/2 away from us....
Leonard is going to be starting his graduate degree on September 2. He is nervous and excited. He will actually be getting a dual masters - organizational management and project management. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? I am very proud of him.
And of course, me - I will be in my 9th year of teaching - ugh 9 years. Anyway, I am still in grad school too - I have 19 credits to go...39 down...I am tired, VERY tired!!! But oh well......

It is kind of funny actually - we are ALL getting ready for school this fall, we will all be in school from 2 years old to, well, me who is somewhere around 29-39 years old.

continued

Computers...uugghh!

Anyway, now with the I800 - it takes up to 2 or 3 months to get the appointment for fingerprints, get our fingerprints, then wait about 2 months to get approved.

THEN we send all of our dossier to our agency (after it has all been notarized) then they send it to our state to get it certified, then to the Chinese consulate to get it authenticated. All of that can take maybe 1 or 2 months, depending.

SO - when will we have our paperwork to China? I thought maybe it would November - now I think that is hopeful! Our LOI went in May - really we only have until August to have few problems. If we take until November, we could have a "bumpy road" according to our agency. After November? Who knows, it would be horrible to think about...

All while a little boy sits in China, no language, no hearing, and no family.