About Me

My name is Tracy and I am married to an amazing man, his name is Thomas! We are a busy family that is always on the go between church, school, work and sports.... we are not a sitting around kind of family. We have 4 amazing children and are working on bringing home Elias to make 5. My hubby is Deaf and I am a sign language interpreter,we are very involved in the Deaf community and are excited to be adding another Deaf member to our family. Our kids, Aaron-19, Luke-11, Tommy-10 and Paige-5 are anxious for their new brother to be home. This is our second adoption and we are learning more everyday to lean on God, this journey is already strengthening our faith! We are working on learning how to turn everything over to God and know that He has a perfect plan and all will happen in His time! Good things come to those who wait.

Friday, February 18, 2011

One month ago yesterday

Yesterday was officially one month with Luke. Our one month "gotcha day" celebration! I cant beleive it has been a month. One month ago yesterday Tom and I waited patiently for our son to come to the hotel lobby and meet us. We were nervous and excited at the sametime.  "what if he doesnt like us?" "how are we going to be able to communicate?" "what about all the baggage we are sure he has being a 10 year old that has lived in an orphanage for so long?"... all this and more was rambling through our brains... then in a quick second.... there he was.... Looking scared and trying to be calm.  He was even more handsome then any of his pictures and way taller then we thought. The staff from the orphanage didnt say anything to us... they just pushed him our way and had us sign a few papers, then said goodbye to our son (they didnt even make eye contact with him and none of them signed) withouth even looking at him ........ and they were gone. With not a word of advice about our son, a note of his habits, a hint of what to expect, NOTHING. ... that was it, he was ours and they were done with him.  We had a few moments of trying to sign with him in Chinese sign language (we were told he knew it) and our guide was trying to communicate with him in writing Chinese (we were told he could read it) and after a few minutes we decided he might be too nervous and shy to communicate so we would just wait and see what happens. We sat for awhile filling out A LOT  of paperwork and Luke just kneeled on the floor next to me trying to see what was going on with the papers. I kept trying to sign with him and he would just look away.  He came with 2 pockets stuffed full of candy and he just kept opening them and eating them nervously as he watched us fill out papers. Not too long after that we were off and running to go get pictures done for his passport and for our adoption registration papers. Luke would smile with us but signed nothing, he preferred to hold the guides hand across the streets and that was fine with me as long as he held someones for it was a suicide mission just to get ones self across the street without getting hit by a car!  After pictures we went into a plaza to get some lunch. Our guide tried again to communicate with Luke in writing and we tried again with sign and it was getting pretty apparent he didnt know Chinese sign language or how to read or write in Chinese.  So we did what any family would do... we started signing to him in ASL (the language we knew) he immediately started to try and figure out what Tom and I were saying and couldnt beleive that we could communicate to each other with our hands and that we knew what things were called.  His first sign he learned was candy.. .that was easy, I pointed to the huge amounts of candy in his pocket he then handed me one and I signed candy. He signed candy and got so excited that he knew what it was called. After that dad paid for the food and he gestured to know what the paper in dads hands was called (money) so I showed him the sign for money.. so his first two signs were candy and money hmmm interesting start, but after that he wanted to know what everything was called and I couldnt give him signs fast enough. The boy was STARVED for language... he was also starving for food as he ate enough food for a few people and was still hungry ahahah.

It is now one month later and Luke is still learning sign language at a rate that is sort of insane. The language he has at the moment is not consistant with what research says about latened language learners and it is obvious to all who meet him that Luke is one bright boy.  My school district said they feel he is very gifted and when he catches up with language there will be no stopping this boy!!! Luke is demonstrating the ability to learn things after being shown only one time and he remembers it after that and uses it correctly. He is a very gifted little boy, just not an educated one.  It is sad that he never received a language or education in China but we are working to fix that for sure.

Luke is still a joy that is unbeleivable.  He loves being part of our family, he is happy from the moment he wakes until the moment he goes to bed. He gets along with our children amazingly well and his behavior is better then his siblings!  Luke's sense of humor is unbeatable, the boy is whitty and charming. Funny thing is my paperwork on him says he is shy and introverted.(sad they didnt even know him after taking care of him for 10 years) I have never seen a more social person in my life! When we took him to church for the first time and Pastor introduced him to the congregation he stood up front on the stage and raised his arms like he was Rocky Balboa.... (trust me I heard the Rocky theme in my head)  Giving everyone the "hello" sign  and waving and  the "I love you sign" and ofcourse the famous Chinese "Victory" sign (quite fitting for my church since the name of it is Victory). Luke charms all who meet him. My school district is in love with him ,as the director said, "we are smitten with him and know he has amazing potential".   My school district is working very hard with me to try and come up with an education plan that is best for Luke and we dont have too many options in this area so it isnt an easy thing to do, but my district is bending over backwards for Luke. (pretty amazing since that is not the norm).

Luke is right now on the road with dad to go pick up Aaron (his older brother) he is so excited Aaron is coming home from college today that he can barely contain himself. He adores Aaron and is so excited that he counted the days until it was Friday the 18th and then he counted the hours until it was 11:30 and time to go get his brother!!!!!!

We took Luke to Dupont in Delaware to the International Adoption Specialist for a once over and she said he looks amazing, his language should not be where it is ( Thank you to all who are praying for Luke as we know this is the work of God) and that he looks so happy and well adjusted that she cant believe it has only been a month.  She ofcourse warned us that at some point our "Honeymoon" will end and Luke might experiance some problems dealing with his move but all in all she thought he looked amazing. Luke is 4'8" and 71.5 lbs. He has gained 5 lbs in the one month since we got him and I am very curious to see how he will grow now that he is eating like he eats.. (the boy needs his own refrigerator). ( I do believe his legs are hollow and that is were all the food goes). Our specialist gave us referrals for a lot of other doctor appointments but all are needed. I have no hearing test from China on Luke and school wont admit him without a hearing test anyway, so audiologist here we come, ENT too, Opthomologist just to check those eyes out as his language is all visual so better make sure those eyes are working good, they seem to be but it doesnt hurt to check, a genetics doctor (down the road to see if there is any reason they can see why Luke is deaf and something maybe he might want to know if he has a family down the road) and of course a dentist.  Brushing wasnt well done over there and the water has no flouride so you guess what a 10 year olds teeth might look like after that, plus candy is always given out in the orphanage... so we got work to do there....

We are so blessed to have Luke as our child and member of our family. We are truly in love with this little boy and the joy he has added to our family is amazing.  We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and the honeymoon to be over and to start having issues but so far Luke has been just amazing. We couldnt ask for anymore then he does. Oh and I added him to the chore chart I have for my kids as he loves to do chores and he is loving the idea of having a chart. The boy likes to be organized and neat and loves to help out anyone in the house that needs it. He is in love with our huge German shepard and has our dog, Chase sleeping in the room with him and his brother at night in between their two beds. ( I was afraid he would be horrified of our 135 lb king shepard). Luke took the dog on a walk with is brother and sister the other day and asked me if that could be his chore from now on as it was soooo much fun, he also is the one to feed the dog every morning and night.

Thanks for following along on our journey and praying us through this adventure. We have so much joy and love in our home and we cant wait to keep everyone updated on how things progress! Thank you for all of your kind thoughts, words, love, support and prayers! We couldnt do this without all the support we have had and all the prayers, so many people praying for us and our family and Luke non-stop, trust me we know  you are all praying, we feel the results of God answering everyones prayers (including and especially our prayers). I will update more soon!!!!!!

                                      Happy Valentines day to my sweethearts!
                                 Luke couldnt believe they actually got gifts!
 Oh HOLY MOLY.. Lukes face is priceless.  The kids got the new Shrek movie! (Luke watched his first ever movie with us that night, curled up in mommas lap in a chair together!)
 A cool game and helps with sign language as you have to describe the people and figure out who your partner picked as their person, very cool game helps with language skills a lot too!
                                           Luke with his little skateboard guy!
                                       Tommy with his Ryan skateboarder!  He loves this guy!
                                                          Brotha's!
                                               oh oh oh what did we get?
                              Laser tag remote control cars (they play with them a TON!)
        Luke got his first haircut in America and was thrilled he could pick how he wanted it done!
                                                     Do I look good or what?
               This is the same camera shy boy that hated having his picture taken one month ago
      Luke's serious face...... heheh he is still cute as heck when he is trying to be serious ha
                                     Luke and his dad with their new haircuts!
                                                 Cheese , dont I look good?
                                                         Daddy, Luke and Paige
                                  daddy with his little girl and our Luke!
                                                      Kisses for my daddy!
                               Me and My girl! (love this little girl to pieces!
                                                                Luke, me and Paige
                                             The boys, minus Aaron as he is at College.......
                                             I have some handsome guys in my house
 Dad picking up the boys for a huge Bear hug hahahah. Luke and Tommy couldnt stop laughing for 10 minutes
                                                               Paige on slipper day at school today
                                        Paige falling over trying to hold up her cool slippers for a picture
                       Luke to the rescue to help Paige lift up her slipper feet for the photo heheh

9 comments:

China Dreams said...

Looks, and sounds, like it has been a great month despite your early jaunt to the hospital.

Ruby

debra said...

Wow , glad that Luke is doing well.. I flew to China and picked my 2 boys 6 and 7 years old . my 7 yrs old son Jonathan had very bad teeth like brown and black.. I am not kidding . I was shocked and my mind first thing when Jonathan will arrive USA and go to dentist see if the dentist can fix it.. yessss best news dentist told me that he can pull baby teeth out and start all over, I am relieved it .. so right now he is handsome with white teeth.. I am so happy for ur other kids accepted Luke and get along..I enjoyed ur journal and it reminds me my kids. U make me tempt to get another one ,hhahah

Myra said...

it's so hard to believe it's been a month...TEARS~~ really...Love Luke, love the updates!

Aus said...

Kinda hard to believe it's been a month already - and ya know taht it's really hard to believe that it's going this well - couldn't be any happier for you guys!

hugs - aus and co.

JulieM said...

OK so just totally caught up on your blog! How crazy that you ended up in the hospital and had surgery just days after you were home. Eric had that happened on a business trip in Florida so just went to the nearest hospital and had it removed. I am glad you are doing better. I had tears running down my cheeks and I read about Luke and saw him with all your kids. Oh you can tell he is "home" and loving everything about. What an amazing little boy and what a huge God we serve! I love how God has picked the perfect little boy for your family! He just fits!!!!
Blessings my friend
Julie
Say hit to Tom and Luke for us!

Shayron said...

Seriously, you need to put "TISSUE ALERT" in the title of this post. When I was ten, my family moved from Seattle to northern Virginia, and it was intense culture shock for me. I was trying to remember how it felt to be ten years old, and, wow, if I had gone thru all that with NO language, un-thinkable. Luke must be exceptional in many many many ways. Kudos to you two and your kids for being Luke's "way of escape". My heart is full full full of joy from reading your post, it's a tale of a life redeemed, a beautiful picture. May Abba Daddy pour every blessing and every provision on you all.

Your friend, Sharon

Anonymous said...

Love your updates! You have a beautiful family!

Stacy said...

I LOVE reading your updates on Luke. What a wonderful child. You are all so blessed to have each other.

Keep the updates coming!!

Stacy

Annette said...

What a precious update! It's awesome how well Luke has adjusted and how perfect he is for your family! God is so amazing!!

Our little boy!

Our little boy!
Opening up my care package from my family!

Curious what he is thinking!

Curious what he is thinking!
Checking out my Family for the 1st time ever! (this pic is of my new Brothers and Sister!)

His first reaction after seeing us

His first reaction after seeing us
This is my Forever Family!

Some goodies from the care package

Some goodies from the care package
Some of my new books

This picture makes me cry every time I see it!

This picture makes me cry every time I see it!
My 1st picture of my mommy and daddy! They say I love to look at my pictures again and again!

Studying our faces....

Studying our faces....
Checking out my new family again!

Look at that face!

Look at that face!
Checking out my new books

Aaron's Graduation

Aaron's Graduation
We are so Proud!

Xin Hai's name in Chinese!

福新

Fu XinHai

Xin Hai

Xin Hai
Isnt he the cutest ever?

Aaron's Senior Prom

Aaron's Senior Prom
My handsome Son, Aaron

Aarons prom

Aarons prom
Paige, Aaron and Tommy

My Family

My Family
The Worrell Family

Our Precious one

Our Precious one
Xin Hai in 2008 - so precious! Love that smile!

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