Luke has been home 2 months now!

Luke has been home for 2 months and it has been pretty darn smooth sailing! We have had a few blips in our everyday lives and there has been a little testing of mom and dads authority but honest when I say little it has been little. Normally if I say "You are upsetting mommy" he will say "I am done" and do whatever is being asked of him. Really he has adapted better then my wildest dreams. Luke wakes up Happy and goes to bed Happy. He is truly a joy! I thought by now the "other shoe" would have dropped as our social worker warned me it would when she was out a month ago as she said "this isnt normal". Well maybe she just doesnt know my family and know that we dont do anything normal hahah! 


Dont get me wrong Luke has been through quite an ordeal in his life and he has started to share some stories of his life in the orphanage and they make me cry everytime he does... as they are scary stories and I am sure the worse has not even been close to being shared with me.  Luke was very neglected and very abused over there and how his heart is as pure and innocent and open and willing to love as he does is sometimes beyond me.   I doubt the orphanage ever thought he would be able to share the stories he has as they told us he was "mentally retarted" when we arrived in China in the orphanage. So I am sure with him being 10 and having no language they assumed their secrets were safe.... they couldnt be more wrong.  I am guessing that a Deaf child with no language and no way to tell anyone what is going on is the perfect person to abuse and neglect as who can he tell anyway right?. I pray for the many children that are still there that they are treated better then my son was. I pray for their well being and that their forever families will find them soon!

As I write this Luke is outside (his new FAVORITE place to be!) and riding his new bike (our best investment ever so paid itself off the first day we bought it!) and within a few minutes he will be jumping on the trampoline with his brother, sister and some friends. Luke has become a social bug! He has been very social with adults since the day we met him but not so much with kids his own age. Now he has friends he plays with almost daily at home and they are all trying to learn some sign language too!!!!!! When Luke first came home he would not seperate from mom or dad (not that I can blame him as he hasnt had parents for 10 years but had a million kids to play with) he would follow us around and I trampled him over a few time when I went to one spot and turned around fast and didnt  realize he was still on my tail. It was cute in the beginning but started to wear me out after a while but fortunately for me he then realized that playing with your brothers and sister surely trumps any boring thing that mom and dad are doing! Now the minute he comes home he is outside on his bike or his scooter. His brother and sister get home before him and wait with baited breath for Luke to arrive home!

I must admit Lukes arrival home from school everyday is my favorite part of the day! His van pulls down the street and I can see Lukes face plastered ( I do mean plastered) to the window with his hands waving double I Love You signs as hard as he can wave them and his smile couldnt get any bigger without his face cracking open! The van turns around up the street and pulls up alongside my house and when they open the door he is giggling and laughing and waving I love you like a mad man! The boy is truly excited to see his momma! The second he gets unbuckled he gets to the door of the van and catapults out and rockets into moms arms wrapping his legs around my waist (mind you he has gained 10 pounds in the 2 and half months since we met Luke) and he stays there for a few good minutes just laughing and hugging me like nuts! It is truly an amazing feeling the bond we all have with Luke. I would have thought it wouldnt be possible to feel so bonded to him. I truly expected us to slowly "learn" to love Luke, it 100% did not happen that way! It was love at first sight and a bond that didnt take very long to establish deep roots! Praise God for prayers being answered!

I will add some new photos and a few videos if I can. The videos might be seperate since I am not sure how to add them! Update you all again soon!

 Tommy and Luke have become the closest of pals! (Tommy crawls into Lukes bed when Luke is scared in the night and hugs him until he falls alseep then crawls back in his bed) What a good brother!

                                                                My babies!

                            Luke trying on hats at a scavenger hunt gathering for children that are 
                                                  Deaf or hard of hearing  in our area

                                                            He is adorable isnt he!

                                                                 Twins?

                           Luke on his brand new bike!! (He sure is proud of that bad boy!)

                      Tommy playing goalie for his soccer team (Luke loves to go cheer him on!)

                                  Luke took this of Tommys team during the half time break!

                                                                 Best of Pals!

                              Tommy, Luke and Paige with their friends on the trampoline!

                                            They sure do have fun on there!

        She was scared during the movie and Luke was there to be her protecter! (how cute!)

Our trip to the playground

Yesterday we went to the local park while Tommy had soccer practice and I took Paige and Luke to the playground.  It was obvious Luke has never been to a playground and he LOVED it! I think he could have stayed all night if his stomach didnt tell him it was time to eat! Luke is growing stronger and more brave by the day and he has gained quite a bit of weight in the month and a half he has been home, 7 lbs to be exact and he is no longer the skinny boy we met whose ribs were sticking out. Actually he has a little belly now hahah! What a joy to take to the playground, we laughed hard and he played hard and he is such a good big brother that he kept a vigilant eye on his sister when they were seperated on different activities. What a beautiful day it was!

                                             My Paige, she is such a joy!

 I am pretty sure Luke thinks he is a high fashion model with all the photos I take, he loves to pose now (oh and this pose was his idea not mine hehe... such a change as in China I had to trick him to take pictures of him!)

                                                    Luke and Paige posing for mommy!

                                                      Me and My girl! (photo credit to Luke.. he is quite the photographer!)

          Paige hanging on to her big brother as they get ready to go down the slide together!

                  Watch me go head first mom!  She is such a riot and a  gorgeous little girl!

     Luke learning how to swing on his own ,nope they didnt teach him that in China either! :( 

                                                        I think he could swing all day!

Happy 2 month Gotcha Day!

This is going to be short and sweet as I am on the run!  But I couldnt let this day go by and not post an update. Happy 2 month Gotcha day! We are still living in extreme bliss and cant beleive that it was 2 months ago today that we met our precious precious boy. Luke has become one of the most affectionate children I have ever met in my life. Which is very good as I am truly a huggy huggy smooshy kind of mom! He loves me to hold him as he leaps into my arms and wraps his long legs around my waist with a smile that is sooo big it his face can barely contain it! Mind you Luke has gained a good amount of weight in the 2 months we have had him (7 lbs to be exact!)  and I am now having a 75 lb boy jump full gear into my arms and wrap his legs around me.  Not an easy feat but let me tell you I will do it as long as I can! Luke has brought such joy to our family. His 2 brothers adore him, his sister and him get along so well and he has become her protector and he loves playing with her as well.

As of this week thanks to the improving weather Luke is now officially ADDICTED to being outside! I must admit I laughed hard the first time he broke a sweat and came in freaking out about the water pouring off of his head. Sad to think that in 10 years of his life he hasnt played hard enough to break a sweat.  That has changed and he is all about riding the scooter and now his bike. Luke and Paige and Tommy arrive home from school and bolt to the garage to get their riding gear and off they go. The have spent at least 3 hours a night after school the last few days riding and riding and riding. I love seeing the joy on their faces as they have each other to laugh and play with.

God has been so good to us! We couldnt have hand made a more perfect child for our family. Thank you Lord for these precious 2 months we have had as a fabulous family of six! We are looking forward to many many long years of joy with our new boy! Here is to many more updates and months and years to come!

 Aarons room was the "place to be" during Aarons spring break, his sister and 2 brothers miss him and his friends when he isnt here!

           Luke learning how to kick Aaron's friends' butt in the game of Melee heheh

                                                 These two have become the best of pals!

                                      Luke and Tommy heading off on their scooters!

 They love when the ice cream man comes. Luke cant beleive we have a truck that drives down the street and brings you ice cream. He says "Yea America and the Ice cream mean" hahahah

                                                        Luke learning how to ride his bike!

                           A mommy and a son together forever! (Thank you God for my gift!)

ENT and A hearing test in one day!

More and more doctors appointments are coming and going. Luke went back to Dupont yesterday to see the ENT and an Audiologist.  Luke has had many severe nose bleeds since we have been home. My upstairs is starting to look like a murder scene and Thank you to a good friend who gave me a secret way to get a TON of blood out of our cream colored upstairs carpets.  I put a humidifier in Lukes room as he seems to be stuggling to adjust to our heating system here and that helped for quite awhile and we had a week of no nose bleeds and then they came back with a vengance. Let me tell you it is scary to wake up with someone leaning over your face while you are sleeping and blood dripping all over your face while you sleep, scared me to death! Poor Luke he is just seeming to get used to them, but dont know if that is a good thing or not.

So off to the doctors we went.  The ENT said Luke has MANY little blood vessels that are crazy close to the surface and look very agitated. He is pretty sure it is from the changes in his environement, having spent 10 years of his life in a buidling with not much in the way of heat and maybe some allergies as well but that is hard to say at this point. So we are keeping with the humidifier and he gave us an antibiotic ointment for Lukes nose and hopefully that will help. We will go back in a few months when we stop using the heater and the weather changes and becomes more humid (this is NJ after all and we have plenty of summer humidity).

After that we hit the Audiologist for Lukes hearing test. Luke is so darn cute ,but he gets soooooo nervous when we go to the doctors that my heart breaks for him. He was so afraid he wouldnt "do good" on his hearing test and we would be mad at him or send him back to China. That breaks my heart that he even would think that. I told him we dont care if you hear anything or hear everything we love you for who you are and we think you are perfect the way God made you!  That said he decided it was safe to get his hearing tested. He had 3 different kinds of hearing tests done yesterday and they all showed what my husband and I knew already, the boy hears nothing. No matter what the frequency or Decibel level he has no response. I knew that already from his lack of reactions to any sounds at all..... and my hubby, his daddy doesnt hear much (well almost nothing) but my husband can hear our HUGE German Shepard bark when he is in the same room with him and Luke doesnt hear that so I suspected that he didnt have any hearing at all.  The Audiologist asked if we wanted him sent for an MRI and we said no, we are happy with the results of the hearing test. We really just needed it for the school as we dont care what his hearing loss is. Luke says "So can I hear?" I said what do you think? He said "Nope I am Deaf, just like my dad!" With that he gave the biggest smile ever! I told him that is right you are Deaf just like your daddy and God made you both PERFECT!   So we are done with the Audiologist, told them no further tests until our school demands a new audiogram down the road (and they will) other then that we are done with Audiology, no hearing aids, no cochlear nothing, just a beautiful boy that God made perfect the way he is and we dont want to change a thing about him.

School update. Luke is doing amazing in school! He is picking up things so fast it is crazy! He was funny on Monday when he came home with his first ever Library books, he was so proud of his books and couldnt wait to show them to me! Ofcourse the one is about DOGS heheh Luke is a crazy animal lover, he lives to talk about animals (one reason why him and Paige hit it off so well as she is OBSESSED with Animals and now her new brother is too!) and the other book was how to draw animals. We found out while visiting Lukes school that he has some really good artistic talent that we knew nothing about. The boy can draw! But funny thing is he does best when he has a picture to look at, not so good when drawing from his own mind.  But he has a hidden talent! I am wondering how many more hidden talents and abilities he has. It is truly amazing to watch the many layers of Luke open up and see what else he has hidden inside.

Lukes Language is skyrocketing! We can have all kinds of great converstasions now and I am starting to be able to explain many abstract ideas to him now too, although some are just to hard to explain still, he surely is progressing gorgeously and his ASL (American Sign Language) is so amazing to see! The boy is a natural signer! He signs like he has been doing it for years, not just less then 2 months! 

Oh FYI Luke is starting to play with Tommys friends now when they come over, we have discoverd Luke is in Love with our trampoline! The boy cant get enough of jumping around like a crazy man on there, he is hysterical to watch! Now he will go on there with Tommy and a few friends and they will play for hours and jump and laugh and of course since they are boys,tackle each other heheh.  Luke is funny for if one of Tommys friends tackles tommy Luke will run over and be Tommys protector and tackle them back. (ofcourse they are just playing and Tommy is a football player and a wrestler so it is all about contact sports in my house) Tommy thinks it is amazing that Luke wants to protect him and it makes me cry when I look out at the window and see Luke jumping on the trampoline with Tommy, Paige and 2 of Tommys friends and Luke is laughing so hard and playing so hard and you can clearly see he is having the time of his life. I cry not out of sadness, but out of Joy for knowing that Lukes horrible past of neglect, suffering and the feeling of being all alone in the world are over. Luke is so full of joy and laughter and never ending smiles that it is obvious to us that he feels safe and happy here. If we even mention China he gets terribly upset and tells me that China is over and he will never go back! He signs "me, you, daddy, Aaron, Tommy and paige are family forever"  Yup he is right, we are family forever and I Praise God for saving this precious little boy for our family, for knowing that he was perfect for us and that we are perfect for him! Thank you God for blessing us so!!!!!!!

Luke showing the boys his famous "take down" that Tommy taught him for wrestling!

                                                     I love watching them play together!

Trying to add more photos but they are onmy iphone and for some reason wont save to my computer... I am working on it!

Many first for Luke and a few BIG ones!

Please read all the way down as his 1st day of school is down the bottom!

Most people will not understand all the fuss over an alarm clock, but this is no ordinary alarm clock......... This is a Sonic Boom and Luke is in Heaven with it. His "Deaf only" alarm clock as he calls it! His clock has bright strobes on the front that flash when his alarm goes off and a disc that goes under his mattress that will vibrate along with the light flashing to wake him up. He is so excited to have his own special alarm clock. Watch the pictures and see for yourself the joy one alarm clock can bring!

                                                  This is my "Deaf Only" clock!

 The clock has bright strobes on the front and the disc goes under his mattress and vibrates his bed. He LOVES it!

                                            Feeling the disc vibrate to wake him up

                        The strobes are so cool but the disc is what really wakes him up!

                                                         Yahooo Deaf alarm clock!

                                                    Luke and his brother Tommy

        My new gang... Aaron, Luke, Tommy and Paige!  Love my kiddos! My well meshed group of 4!

                                               Luke took this of his pal, Chase

                                            Tommy and Luke taking pics of each other!

                                                         He is so darn cute!

                                     Luke taking a pic of his sis, whom he loves!

                                                        Paige taking a pic of Luke

                                                        We love each other

                                                          Ahhh my Lukeie!!!!

                                                                   Momma and her boy

                     He is such a sweetheart!  My new cuddle bug, snuggle bug, love bug!

                                                      Poppy and his Luke!

                                    Pop, Luke and Tom ( a few of the awesome men in my life!)

Luke had another HUGE 1st today. Luke went to school for the first time today! He was very nervous this morning when we were getting ready but we got him there and daddy and I stayed with him for his first day. We stayed a half day. Luke worked so hard and did such an amazing job that this woman has realized she underestimates Luke and ultimately the Lord. Luke was so proud of himself and so proud of his work and he is soooooo excited to be learning that he couldnt stop grinning and couldnt wait to get home to tell his brother and sister all about his day! Luke is walker much taller then his 4'8" frame today as he is bursting with pride and his momma is too! We took him to get some celebration ice cream when he was done school as he did so well. Tonight he did homework with his brother and they encouraged each other and were both so excited to sit togethe and do their homework that my heart is just bursting with pride at how well they did! we had a few struggles last week with some jealousy issues with Tommy and Paige but they were very short lived and all is back to bliss! We are doing amazing and cant beleive how well things are going. Luke was so tired from his first day of school that he started asking me at 6pm if it was bed time hahah. He did make it until 8:15 and then finally gave in and crashed in bed. I beleive Luke is going to prosper in school and his true genius is going to shine through very quickly!

                                                    Lukes 1st day of school (backpack buddies!)

                                          Good Luck on your first day my brother, I love you!

                                          Yahooo going in to my new school for the first time!

                                                               Luke's 1st cubby

                                   He is so excited he had a place to put his stuff that was all his!

             A welcome home hug from my sister after my first great, but long day of school!

          The boys doing their homework together, they are good encouragers of each other!