Wednesday's Waiting Child: Jasper

Those of you who might happen to run into my husband, ask him what happened early this morning when I got up to water my sad little garden.  Here's a hint: the story involves me, in my pajamas, on an extension ladder.  Not the highlight of my day.

If you've been reading my blog for quite a while, you know that I used to occasionally post about children waiting to be adopted on Wednesdays.  I have met so many precious waiting children on this journey, and it breaks my heart that we can't bring them all home.  I've shared a few of these sweet little ones in the hopes that their family - or someone who knows their family - might be introduced to them here.

I stopped my Wednesday's Waiting Child posts for several reasons.  The biggest one being that the country we were hoping to adopt from in Eastern Europe (also the country where most of the waiting children I was aware of lived) does not allow families to be matched with their child/ren before travel.   Also, this country was going through some drastic and unpredictable changes in their adoption process, and I saw many families "lose" the child or children they had hoped to adopt.  

I am not saying that these kiddos don't need advocates or adoptive parents; they absolutely do.  I would go back and finish our adoption process there in a second if a law change hadn't closed that door.  (In fact, I might possibly still be stalking occasionally checking this country's online adoption listings.)  I just felt uncomfortable encouraging families to fall in love with sweet little faces who were not truly available to be matched.  Let me make it clear that I am not uncomfortable encouraging families to adopt from EE or sharing the incredibly horrifying  situations that many orphans face there.

That being said, the process of being matched with a child in China is completely different.  There are many, many Chinese children (close to 2,000 at the moment) who are waiting for families.  China's adoption process allows these children to be officially matched with parents long before travel.  In fact, the majority of these children can be matched with parents who have not even started their adoption paperwork.  (Yes, that means many of you.)

So, now that I'm again meeting precious waiting children that I would love to bring home, I've decided to start my Wednesday's Waiting Child posts again.  The little boy I want to introduce to you today is an absolute doll, and I'm calling him Jasper (since I love that name and Jeremy will never, ever, in a thousand years let me name one of our kids that).

This little guy has had a rough year.  He was matched with an adoptive family last summer.  In March, they decided not to continue with their adoption.  (This decision was totally personal and had nothing to do with Jasper.)  Since then, Jasper has been waiting.  Waiting for another mama and papa who have room in their home and their hearts for one sweet boy.

Okay, I can't wait any longer to show you a picture of this  little man.

I know.  I want to squeeze him too.

Jasper is four years old.  His special need is repaired meningocele (meaning that he had surgery to fix a moderate form of spina bifida).  Obviously his spina bifida hasn't slowed him down.  His file says that he walks and runs "very well".  He can stand on one foot and walk up and down stairs.

Jasper seems to be receiving very good care.  He has lived with the same foster family since he was less than a month old.  (Amazing!)  He attends school, and his mental development is on track.  Jasper likes to play outside with his foster mother, and he will sometimes recite the songs he's learned at school to her.

The pictures of Jasper in the white sweater were taken in October 2011.  I have access to his file and can share more information with anyone who might be interested.  Just shoot me an email at whatitmeans2beheld@gmail.com.

Jasper is considered Special Focus, meaning that he can be matched with a family who has not yet started the adoption process.  Also, he is currently on an agency-specific list, but his agency has said that they will transfer his file due to the special circumstances with his first family.

Feel free to share this little guy's pictures and information as you feel led.  He's been through so. much. in four short years.  It's time he came home to his family.

My Not-So-Green Thumb

My mom has a green thumb.  In fact, I think all of her fingers (and probably her toes) are green.  Flowers, cacti, veggies - they love her.  She even rescues plants from the trash.  No joke.  She's like the Plant Whisperer.

Me?  Not so much.  

 I may be like my mom in other ways, but my thumbs are not-so-green.  I've done okay with perennials.  (You know, those plants that live forever without water or attention.)  Here's the front yard that we inherited with zero landscaping.

It looks pretty decent, right?  Especially if you ignore the dying evergreen next to the front steps.  (I'm so sorry, little tree.)  Vegetables, on the other not-so-green hand, are my downfall.  Here are the veggies I was given two-and-a-half weeks ago recently.

You have to give me props for putting them next to hose where they have an ever-so-slight chance of being watered.  But, they're not in the ground...and half dead a tad underwatered.

(Don't hate me, cucumbers.)

Here's the cute little garden that my amazing husband composted and tilled for me.

A whole seventy-two square feet of nutrient-rich topsoil.  I know that sounds like a lot, but it's really just a fancy way of saying 9'X8' or not real large in garden terms.  I asked Jeremy to make it a little bigger, but he's apparently noticed what I do to tomatoes.

I'm sorry, little Sweet Cherries.  I really am.

 This morning I decided to change my ways.  I got up early, assembled my sad little collection of veggies, and voila!

I give you seventy-two feet of just-watered topsoil and sixteen survivors - ahem - plants.  You're all invited to my place for chips and salsa in August.

Well, maybe...

Li'l Dude's Happy News

DISCLAIMER: I really need to stop blogging after 11:00.  Consider this my apology for any incoherent mumbling or typos in the following post.  Must. Go. To. Sleep.

Since being matched with our older son in December, we've been able to learn quite a bit about him and his orphanage.  We got to send a vicarious hug when an adoptive mama stopped by his room while picking up her little boy in March.  That same amazing mama has given us six pictures of our son, tripling our photo collection.  I'm even part of a Facebook group of parents who are all adopting from Li'l Man's orphanage.  

Unfortunately, we haven't had the same luck with Li'l Dude.

We still have just three pictures.

And, cute as they are, three is just not enough.

We know he turned one in March, and that he has a blood disorder called thalassemia.  We've tracked down an awesome pediatric hematologist (Dr. O) who looked at Li'l Dude's file for free and assured us that he is 100% prepared to treat Li'l Dude's thalassemia once we get him home.

After reviewing Li'l Dude's file, Dr. O was pretty convinced that Li'l Dude has a less severe form of thalassemia (called thalassemia minor or thalassemia trait).  More serious thalassemia is treated with blood transfusions.  Depending on the severity, those transfusions can be infrequent (as needed or every few months) or scheduled regularly (as often as every two weeks).  When we said yes to Li'l Dude, we knew we needed to be prepared for his thalassemia to fall anywhere on that continuum (no transfusions or medication needed to transfusions every two weeks and daily chelation therapy).

There is currently a blood shortage in China.  Because of the shortage, some children with thalassemia are not receiving the transfusions they so desperately need.  Within the last month, an adoptive family lost their little girl just weeks before they would have been given permission to travel and bring her home.  Two other families arrived to pick up their children and discovered that their hemoglobin levels had fallen into the 4's - low enough to send them to the ICU here in the States.

Even though Li'l Dude's file looks good, we have been working to get an update to make sure that he is getting transfusions if necessary.  When we were first matched at the beginning of March, we requested an update but never heard anything.  Two weeks ago, we requested another update through a different contact.

Last Monday we got an email saying that Li'l Dude's orphanage is unable to give us new information because of a law change in China.  But...they agreed to answer a few of the questions we had included in our update request.

We learned that Li'l Dude likes toys that make sounds.  (Uh-oh.)

We learned that he can stand on his own and walk with help.  (Yay!)

We learned that he is outgoing and likes to play with other children.  (Hopefully he likes to play with crazy dogs, too.)

Best of all, we learned that Li'l Dude has never had a transfusion.  This is awesome news!  The fact that Li'l Dude is growing and healthy without transfusions means that he probably does indeed have a less severe form of thalassemia.  We have every reason to hope that he will never need a transfusion and that the wonderful Dr. O won't become our BFF after all.

So, while we still don't know much about our Li'l Dude. we are oh-so-happy for these little bits of information.  And I guess that obnoxious cute little talking Elmo shouldn't go in the garage sale pile after all.

My Li'l Princess

When I promised to blog every day for the rest of May, I didn't realize we'd be getting home way past my bedtime every night (or that I'd have to type really quickly to finish each post before midnight).  Yawn!  

But, I am determined to stick with it.  Tonight you get a quick peek at an impromptu photo shoot with Li'l Miss from earlier this week.  (You know, cuz dressing up like Cinderella and taking pictures in a cornfield is what you do when your super fun tia is visiting.)

If you're my friend on FB, you've probably already seen these.  Take a minute to scroll down to the very bottom anyway. You haven't seen the last picture, and it's the very best one.

And, just for fun, here's what was waiting for me on the table when I came home from grocery shopping this afternoon.  

Love notes from my three year old melt. my. heart.  

(And it's totally okay that she called me "Moo".  I still get it.)

Tomorrow I've got more really good adoption news to share.  Hopefully it will be posted before 11:59.  Good night, everybody!

One Amazing Day

Today has been a giggle-filled, golf-cart-driving...

...sunshiney, pole-casting...

...memory-making, fish-catching...

...no-shoe-wearing, slip-and-sliding...

...all-around-amazing day.

We Have Initials!

Initials are crazy important when you're adopting from China.  Your whole adoption process can be summed up by little sets of letters: DTC, LID, LOA...

Since we applied to our agency's China Waiting Child Program in November, our process has been sadly lacking in any initials that are actually meaningful.  Instead we've been CIPC (Covered In Paper Cuts), OOIA (Obsessing Over I-800A Approval), and TNTCFO (Trying Not To Completely Freak Out).  

But all that changed this month.

I planned a super cute post to share our big news with you.  You know, one that had Li'l Miss holding up adorable letter signs or drawing our new initials in the sand or something equally endearing.  

Didn't happen.

So...here's the not-so-cute-but-still-super-exciting version.

We are DTC (Dossier To China) on May 2.

Wait for it, there's more.

We have an LID (Log-In-Date) of May 17.

If you're really interested in our timeline, you can go here to see all the thrilling details.

And, since I completely failed on the cute picture to share our news, you get these instead.

 

 Yup, that's our older son, grinning and showing off his walking skills.  (That's also him blinking, but you take what you can get when you have exactly nine pictures of your child.)

By the way, although he's totally rockin' the lavender floral print, we're going with boy clothes when he gets home. :)

Playing Catch (and Catching Up)

Li'l Miss's new favorite thing is baseball (or base-ket-ball, as she says it).  Last month her cousins got her started playing wiffle ball in the backyard, and now she can't get enough.  Our little red wiffle bat is getting quite the workout these days.

So...in honor of Li'l Miss's new favorite hobby (and because my sister was visiting and we needed to prove that Podunk, Midwest is every bit as exciting as SoCal), we decided to take her to her first baseball game.  (We heart minor league baseball at our house.  Where else can you sit one row behind home plate for $9?)

Here are Li'l Miss and Daddy, ready to cheer for our team.

We ate popcorn.  We got sunburned.  We sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".  What's not to love?

After the game, one of the players reached into the stands and gave Li'l Miss a ball.  (See why we heart minor league baseball?)   We got to take the ball out on the field for autographs.  Li'l Miss L.O.V.E.D. it.  She asked every one of those gigantic baseball players to sign her ball and her new shirt.  (You know, cuz you get lots of new stuff when your aunt is visiting.)  Of course, she wouldn't pose for a picture with any of them, so you get this instead.

Tia (my sis) and my little baseball fan, chillin' in the outfield after the game.  (Have I mentioned how much we heart minor league baseball?)  If you closely at Li'l Miss's shirt, you can see some of the autographs.

By the time we headed for home, Li'l Miss was totally worn out.

Somehow she mustered up enough energy to wake up for a little of this.

All in all, it was pretty much a perfect day.

Want a little taste of it?  Here you go.  

On another note, I've been pretty much MIA in Blogland.  But, I am back, and I have lots of fun news to share.  So, in the spirit of catching up, I am going to post once every day for the rest of the month of May.  I promise, by May 31 you'll be totally caught up on Li'l Miss, our crazy life, and our adoption (or you might just be really sick of hearing from me).


Stop by tomorrow for some big adoption news (and pictures!).