Part 1 of Luke's Birthday Celebration

I decided to let the pictures do the talking for Part 1 of his 11th Birthday!

                                     Waving Good-bye to 10 at bedtime

                                                                 Well HELLO 11!!

 Thanking God for granting my wish last year(can you guess his wish?)  and praying for a new wish this year!

                                                           Love that face and those eyes!

                                                         Blowing out my candles!

 Cutti

                                                      Cutting the cake to serve to everyone!

 Luke's favorite interpreter came by to wish him a Happy Birthday! (he sure does love her!)

                                                        Heheh can I open this?

                                                              is it really for me?

                                                              This is toooo much fun!

                                 With reactions like this how can you not enjoy giving him things!

                                                           His new Rio game for his DS
Thursday for Luke's first Birthday here in America with his family was a huge success! We love you Luke and are SO proud of the amazing young man you are quickly becoming!!!!
Part 2 of his Bday is on my hubbys camera and I will get it on here soon! More to come!.....

Luke's 11th Birthday and his first one home with his family!!!

Well folks tomorrow is the day! Tomorrow is our first time to Celebrate Luke's Birth! He is going to be 11 tomorrow and it is a bitter-sweet day for me tomorrow to think that he celebrated 10 Birthdays without his Momma, Daddy, Aaron, Tommy, Paige and Chase and all of the rest of his family who loves him so much!.  BUT we get to turn the tide from here on out! We get to celebrate all those Birthdays together and make jokes about goofy things he has done, talk about how much he is changing, gasp at how big he has gotten (really! we are doing that this year) and just plan old rib on him for getting older! :)))))  I am so happy and proud to be Luke's mommy!

Adding an older child into your home isn't easy. Adding an older child into your life that has no previous language and education isn't easy.. but WOW is it worth it! Our lives are so richly blessed by Luke and his abundant personality, zest for life, LOVE of us!! He is truly my miracle baby! If anyone would have told me years ago that I would adopt a 10 1/2 year old child that is Deaf, I would have told them they were mentally insane! :)  Today I know many people certainly might still think or thought we were mentally insane to bring home a child so old with so many "issues", but let me tell you that having Luke here has meant many things but here are 2 things for sure.....1: Yes! Without a doubt the biggest challenge ever presented in our lives... 2. Yes again, Without a doubt, The most amazing blessing ever bestowed upon our lives!

Luke has made me see the world from a whole new perspective! Luke has made me open my heart to possibilities I thought were never possible. Luke has made me see the world through new eyes.  Luke has helped me to Love on a whole new level. Luke has helped me to see the abundant joy in the "small"  things in life.  Luke is still teaching me how to have patience like never before.  Luke has shown me that GOD has had his hand in placing Luke in our family and making sure this precious child had a future and a family that loves him immensely! Only God could match this mothers heart to an un-seen child over 7,900 miles away and make us such a perfect match for each other!.  Only God could watch over this precious little baby as his birth mother placed him on the steps of that orphanage in Jinan, China 11 years ago knowing full well that this baby whose real name we don't know, whose exact birth-date we will never know, whose actual birth time and weight and length that you see on all of those fancy birth announcements will never be known to this momma, but Our God knows and watched and protected my baby until he could come to me Jan 17th 2011 to become Luke XinHai Worrell!

So TO LUKE!  September 22, 2000 is the date on his paperwork and the day we will celebrate his birthday! Luke told me tonight that tomorrow is the first time (other then last year when we sent a few books and a car to him in the orphanage) that his Birthday will be celebrated with anything other then some food and a few staff and kids saying Happy Birthday.  He still cant believe he is going to get gifts! He cant believe we are having a special day for HIM! Tonight we made cupcakes to take to school tomorrow and I have never had so much fun making cupcakes. Let me tell you my boy can bake.. he is in trouble now that mom knows that hahah! We laughed and giggled and he just jumped up and down for joy at the thought that this magical cupcakes were being made to celebrate him! We baked them and he sat in awe as they rose and turned out so pretty! We did the icing and some sprinkles and he even practiced how to carry the case on the bus tomorrow haha!

So as I tucked my precious 10 year old son into bed, we hugged and kissed goodnight and waved goodbye to 10 and when he wakes we are ushering in 11..... I have a feeling this is going to be a stellar year for Luke!  Thank you God for placing Luke into our lives and allowing us the privilege of being his family! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!!!

                                Making cupcakes to take to school!!!

                       Breaking the eggs (he was amazingly talented at that!)

                       Never have I seen someone so excited to use a hand mixer!

 Showing him the age old family tradition of licking the beaters! He was very unsure of this tradition until he tasted the magical batter!

                                  Umm are they ready yet (30 seconds into baking)

                                                                  Still waiting......

                                                           Icing up the cupcakes!

                            Got them all ready to take to school, colored sprinkles and all!

A quick update on Luke in School!

Praise God Luke is doing SO AMAZING that it is actually INSANE how well he is doing!! We LOVE his school, LOVE LOVE LOVE his teachers!! He is making a lot of friends and the kids like him! This momma had scary dreams that her son would not really fit..even in a school where he should fit the most. His having no previous language or education for 10 1/2 years has really been a huge deficit for him and his social skills are pretty atrocious.. That being said.. Since Luke started school on Sept 6, only 8 school days so far, the changes are just unbelievable!  The biggest change is Luke is HAPPPPPPYY! He has always been happy but for a few months we have been having a ton of struggles and lots of behaviors that were umm, less then desireable to say the least. His behavior had plummeted over a few months to that of a 2 year old throwing crazy temper tantrums. For the moment ALL of that has gone away!! ALL OF IT!!!

Luke is happy happy happy and LOVES his school and cant wait to get there every day! He cant wait to come home and give me a blow by blow description of his day and I do mean Detailed!!! I get from the second he got off the bus at school until he gets home in crazy detail. I would say Luke has demonstrated about 75 new signs last week and plenty more this week. He is using all the new signs he is learning from his teachers and he is learning just from being IMMERSED in a Deaf community and culture everyday!!!He is learning sign from his teachers, aides, principal, administrators, all the students, even the cafeteria workers sign and Luke is loving it!!  You name the staff member and they sign.. His life is changing so fast right now it is giving me whiplash to watch! We are so proud of our very very smart boy and so so happy we didnt give up the fight to put him in the Delaware School for the Deaf, where we KNEW he would sky rocket and trust me HE IS!!

Luke's first day of school at the Delaware School for the Deaf

AHHHHH Just about 7 months of fighting has come to an end and Luke officially started his first day at the Delaware School for the Deaf! As many of you know it has been a long hard battle to get Luke placed at this school and I have DEFINITELY aged over this time period!!!!

We had an IEP meeting last week as an initial review to see if Luke would be accepted to the school and YAHOO he got accepted!!!! We still have some kinks to fix but all is pretty good! My school district is pretty darn adamant that Luke be placed in 5th grade (which is where his age would put him) and mom is pretty darn adamant that he NOT be placed in 5th grade. My school is not budging on this issue but, DSD has respected moms wish and put him in 4th grade against the districts demands. Problem being his IEP still states 5th grade... But hopefully we can resolve this issues once and for all at our 60 IEP review and after he has FINALLY been evaluated. Luke has been here for 7 months and has not yet been evaluated..... pretty nuts! He has evals set up for the end of September with the NJ specialized Child Study team for Deaf and Hard of hearing children..... So I am hoping this all helps get his placement where it belongs. It would be SUPER hard to put him any lower then 4th grade as Luke is now the Jolly Green Giant and is a super duper tall boy for his age and he just keeps on growing! Amazing what food and love can do for a child! He is now almost 4 inches taller then when he came home! We have gone through many different sets of clothing as he continues to grow.

Luke went off to his first day very excited (obvious by the fact that he woke me at 4:30 am this morning) and was ready for school at 6:30 when his bus comes at 7:20. He was very nervous too. It didnt help that his "signing" aide on the bus knows NO sign language, but hey she came prepared and brought paper and a pen.. ahhh really.. he cant really read yet!

         Dressed and ready to go for my 1st day of 4th grade at DSD!!

                     Looking SO different from 7 months ago. our BIG BOY!

                                                   Yahoooo DEAF SCHOOL!!!

Luke left on his bus and I left for work and we were both nervous, yet beyond excited for him..

Will he fit in with the kids there? Will he understand what is being taught?
But at the sametime we KNOW he is going to SOAR at this school. I told Luke that going to this school means his future is WIDE OPEN and he can do whatever he wants to do with his life and be whatever he wants to be. As of now, he is still hoping to be a police officer in our town.. we shall see how long that lasts!

I received several updates from staff at DSD during the day and a picture too! Luke had an amazing first day! His reports from his teacher were GLOWING.. of course that made this momma glow and know all the more that this school is where Luke belongs!

Luke came bounding off the bus and in the door and ripped open his backpack and couldnt wait to show me his papers and tell me some of his day. He did say that it was hard to remember too much that went on today as he was very nervous and overwhelmed (very expected). But he did say he LOVES it and LOVED his school, his teachers, his new classmates!  We are so very proud of him today! He showed his teachers he is a hard worker and a very smart boy with a ton of potential! I cant wait to see what this year brings!! YEAHHH Luke!!

                              Luke giving a 2 thumbs up for his new school and his first day!