Journey to Luke: June 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

5 Months and going strong!

I am sure all of you remeber this picture! Our last update picture before we left to bring Luke home!

June 17th-2011 is our 5 month Gotcha Day! Cant beleive it!!!! So here is my little look back at this journey of 5 months!! Enjoy

I cannot beleive it has been 5 months since we met Luke on Gotcha Day! It seems crazy to think it has been that long. When we met Luke he was a very skinny, scared little boy that had no language and no education. Within a day of being together he started to change. Luke and I looked back at pictures of us in China and we cant beleive it is the same child in those pictures. Luke has gained about 15 pounds and grown 2 inches in the 5 months since we met him! Luke's language has grown in unfathomable leeps and bounds! I keep thinking back to when we first met and he would ask me questions and my answer was " I cant answer that now it is to hard.. later" I felt terrible but he had no previous language so we had to start with the concrete the things we could show him. I was thinking back yesterday and I cant remember the last time I had to tell him " I cant answer that now, it is too hard.." it has been many months since we had to say that and Luke's language is changing by the day. Anyone that meets Luke now would have a hard time guessing he had no language for 10 years. His signing is impressive to say the least! Luke is impressive to say the least. His personality is TOP notch! Luke is normally a very very happy boy! We have had some bumps in our road and there are things we deal with here and there but for the most part our lives have b een improved immensely by adding Luke to our family! We love this little boy like nobodies business! Our Luke Worrell is one amazing boy! I thank the Lord daily for allowing me the honor to be Luke's mommy! We love you Luke!

Our referral photos for Luke (he looks so sad!)

His 8th Birthday ( I do beleive he is wishing for his family to come get him.. it would be 2 and half more years :( sorry baby)

Always so serious and thinking

Our first glimpse of Luke on Gotcha Day Jan 17,2011

Our very skinny boy the first week we were in Jinan in our hotel room, he was already showing us the awesome boy that he is within the first few days of knowing him!

Luke and I as we were flying home to America! He must have asked me 8,000 questions on that flight!

Our first day at home with Luke (Aaron was not home yet!) Jan 30, 2011

Luke's "Deaf Alarm Clock" as he calls it.. February 2011

March 2, 2011 Luke and Tommy on Luke's first day of school EVER!!!

Luke officially has the same photo as all the rest of the kids now March 2011

April 2011 Tommy and Luke with their new haircuts

Luke becomes "The Luke-in-ator" May 2011

May 26th 2011-Luke's first time in the pool ever!

June 9,2011 Luke Spring Show for school

Me and My boy! June 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Then and Now

Dont feel this post needs to say much.. Just look at the pictures they speak for themselves!

Fu Xin Hai.... Then (our first referral picture)

Luke Worrell ...Now

Friday, June 3, 2011

Luke worshipping the Lord!

Luke has been coming along with his understanding of the Lord our God and the great sacrifice his son, Jesus Christ our Savior made for us. Our church has a growing Deaf minsitry and they are really loving and amazing for Luke to be around. Luke feels much Love and support from our amazing deafies at Victory!!!! It is so good for him to have SOOO many Amazing Deaf role models. Our church installed a floor vibration amplificiation system so our Deaf section has parts that you can stand on the vibrate to the beat of the music (Luke loves it) but this week his friend Julie sat him on the AMP and boy did that seem to kick in the spirit and Luke jumped up and started signing away. Mercy was interpreting the worship for the Deaf and she is Deaf herself and Luke was just amazed that she could do that which inspired him even more. I am praying I can get to video uploaded for you to see. Our little man is surely growing in the Lord!!!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

New Adventures and the dream of summer!!!

Well it seems our tough time has subsided and we are doing better then ever and to think it was just 2 rough weeks and the result is that all of our relationships with Luke are even stronger and way better then before our rocky 2 weeks. (that seems crazy as we were doing amazing before those two weeks and are doing even better now.) Our Agency is such a blessing and what an amazing gift to be able to call them and receive such support and wisdom from them at any time. They also helped me to get in contact with 2 families that have older Deaf children adopted from China and Luke LOVED that!!! and it was great for me to hear that our crazy things we were experiancing were not that far from the norm and just to ride out the storm and change some tactics and VIOLA it WORKED!!! Praise the Lord!

We have had some great new changes happen and one of them is that the boys are back to being BEST buds again! I sat down with Tommy and spoke to him about some of the things Luke has gone through in his life and especially in the last few months and we talked about how we would maybe handle those things if it was us and what we could do to make Luke feel that he is NEVER going to leave here and stay with us forever and that he IS a WORRELL !! Tommy is such a sweet hearted boy that he cried when we talked about Luke's past and some of the abuse Luke suffered (which is becoming more and more apparent just how badly he was treated in China) We are working as a family to try and reverse the affects of being so mistreated and praying for Luke daily knowing that Luke is starting (slowly) to understand more and more about God and Jesus (he surely knows Jesus died for our sins.. but struggles with God as how can he see me and know what I am doing when I cant see him? Good questions from a child that had no language just 4 months ago!!! The Lord will heal Lukes wounds and we are gonna Love him with all we got!!

Luke has just experianced two of his siblings birthdays recently. One was Paige turning 5 and Aaron turning 19 within a week of each other! Luke was truly loving the whole birthday thing and now cannot wait until September 22! I wasnt sure how we would handle the other kids getting presents and not him but he did real well and seemed ok with it. He is already making a Birthday and Christmas list so watch out people!!!!

We opened our pool Memorial weekend and couldnt have timed it better as we hit a heat wave and the pool was about 75 the first day we went in and 80 the second!! NICE. Luke was afraid the first day and didnt want his face wet and wanted a life jacket and nose guard and goggles and so on... he was excited but seemed like a fish out of water as he didnt know what to do. My brave resilant and smart boy had himself swimming (underwater not on the top) within an hour!!! Talk about not quitting. He was doing under water somersaults by the second day. Mind you our pool is above ground and up to the top of Lukes neck so he can stand and it is perfect for him. He LOVESSSSSS the pool!!!!!! I officially have 4 FISH children! Luke makes my school of fish complete! He loves it as much as the rest of us do and boy are we happy about that as we are water people. It is either the pool or beach all summer long for us!

I am going to add some photos of recent events! We are ready for summer but have some more schooling left. Paige is done this coming monday, Luke June 16th, Tommy June 17th and me June 20th (why is it I am last?)