One surgery down....

Yesterday's surgery went well. The doc said his ears were worse than he expected and that his hearing should improve by about 30%. He was very unhappy when they brought him back to the room. Poor baby cried and cried until we stepped out into the hall to go home. I guess he was ready to get out of there! Mama wanted to cry too but I held it together :)

Thank you Uncle Bobby!

Typical 2 yr old ?

Reed has been wonderful and is such a happy boy. He laughs and claps his hands when it's time to eat. He sings and talks and dances around when it's play time. He is such a joy and has brought so much joy to our hearts.

At the same time we are excited and happy; he is sad, confused and afraid. I seem to forget this at times and then we will have a night like last night that puts it all into perspective.

Last night he cried (this is no normal cry, there is no mistaking this for a hungry or sad cry; this cry is a frightened/panic/horrible cry) for about 2 hours before finally giving in to sleep. He was drenched in sweat and red faced from all the emotion. I will never know the details of his first 2 years of life, but I do know that not having a loving touch or having his physical and emotional needs met and being afraid of abandonment can certainly be traumatic and stressful enough to cause this behavior.

Imagine going to sleep one night and waking up to find out everyone that is in your life today is gone. You're in a strange place, you don't know anyone around you and the sights and smells are different. Pretty scary stuff; now imagine you're 2 years old and this happens.

Anyway, a lot of people are telling me that his actions are 'typical of a 2 yr old' but I'm not so sure. Everything we've read and been told leading up to this adoption says otherwise. So, how do we know if we're experiencing typical 2 year old discipline problems, or if these moments are related to the trauma he has experienced in his short life??

Happy Resurrection Day

first glimpse at his easter basket;

first hair cut since we've been home;

We hope you had a wonderful Easter Sunday full of many blessings!

Heartbroken

Our male husky lost his vision while we were in China. We took him to the eye doc about 2 weeks ago and he had very little vision and I don't think he can see at all now. He is such a good dog and just loves to cuddle and be hugged on. It breaks my heart because he is so scared. We have to coax him out of the dog house and he will not eat. When he was only 9 months old we realized he had juvenile cataracts and he had surgery on both eyes. About a year later his right eye lost vision, now his left eye is gone too. He is such a young dog at 3 yrs and it is just so sad.

Somewhat of a routine

• 5:15 am, hit the snooze button
• 5:30 am, jump up feeling like I'm going to be late
• 6:30 am, Tim leaves for work and I grab Reed out of bed and head off to MeMe and Grandpa's house.
• get to work around 7:45 am
• 12:00 lunch, run home- make bed, wash dishes, grab a bite to eat, fold clothes
• 1:00, back at work
• 5:00 pm, drive back to MeMe and Grandpa's house
• somewhere between 6:30 & 7:00pm, back at home
• ? what's for dinner?
• 7:30 pm, Tim gets home from work, hungry!
• 8:00 pm, Reed's bath time
• 8:30 -9:00 bottle and bedtime for Reed
• 10:00- can no longer keep my eyes open

We are so blessed to have the best MeMe, Grandpa and Aunt Dee in the world. Reed really loves speding time with them and we don't know what we would do without them.

Mama's sweet boy

Going Private

I'm struggling with the decision of making this blog private. I created the blog to hopefully educate families about adoption and that all children are God's precious blessings and of course to share our progress with family and friends.
Since our adoption process is now complete and our family life has begun, there are many feelings and emotions that I want to be able to document and hopefully gain advice and support from other families in the adoption community.
Please know that we are so blessed to have Reed in our lives and we are constantly working on showing him how much we love him and want him to be here. I can tell a change in him since I have returned to work and if you would like to pray for us; please pray that he feels secure and comforted and loved in our home and that we find the wisdom to always do what is best for our sweet son.
(if you would like an invitation to follow along, please let me know)

KISSES!

The perfect ending to an already perfect day........today we took Reed to church for the first time. He was very good, he especially loved the singing and it was so cute to watch his face light up and his mouth move with the words. Tonight we were getting him ready for bed and giving him his bottle. I sat beside Tim on the couch and we kissed and Reed stopped drinking from his bottle and puckered up for Tim to give him a kiss!! I couldn't help but cry, we've been giving kisses on his forehead, cheeks and hands but this was the first time he kissed one of us. After giving daddy THREE kisses, he finally gave me one too. He amazes me more and more each day.
We are so blessed and so thankful to the Lord for bringing our son home to us. He made the perfect match and yes, it all makes sense now.

Doctor, doctor!

This week has been filled with doctor appointments. On Monday we left home around 9 am and got back at 8 pm. It was an exhausting day and Reed did not appreciate being held down to have blood drawn so my poor baby cried and screamed until I thought he was going to pass out or vomit. I'm so glad that one is over.

Today we left at 6 am and got home close to 4- we met with an ENT, audiologist, speech therapist and plastic surgeon. He has fluid and infection in both ears which has resulted in minor hearing loss. The audiologist believes his hearing will be fully restored after ear tubes.

Overall we are doing great and he amazes me more each day. We were given some good bonding techniques at the IAC and I can already tell a difference. He is responding well and it's starting to feel like he recognizes us as more than just providers.