Journey to Luke: 02/18/11

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!