A Weekend At The Seashore

After a recent flight, an acquaintance exclaimed 'it must be so stressful traveling with a child!' Um...no.  I enjoy traveling and I decided very early on that my child(ren) were either going to learn how to travel well OR...I was going to learn how to cope well, either way, we were going to continue to GO and see the world. Thankfully, Isaac has always been a SUPER traveler and is generally up for any new adventure.  So, for the long weekend, we packed up the car and headed to the seashore.

Taking the scenic route via the Lewis & Clark Trial.

We made good use of our time in the car with old school Psalty The Singing Song Book cds. Isaac LOVES this song and has learned all the signs to go with it. It warms my heart that "The Butterfly Song" has spoken so deeply to him. You ARE special, Little One, in so many, many ways!



We made it!

Gotta get creative when you travel alone



View from our room. Not too shabby

 

We had loads of fun, taking full advantage of much of what Seaside has to offer:

Riding the Carousel: He asked for this as soon as he saw it!

 

Jumping on the hotel bed (shhhh...don't tell)

Eating gelato: He didn't care much for salt water taffy, but he signed 'delicious!" TWICE and gave me an 'I love you' after his first taste of gelato! Seems we'll be getting this again.

 

Feeding the seals at the aquarium: The giggle that came out of Isaac when the seal caught the fish he threw to him, can only be described as EPIC!

 

 

Swimming

This boy is a serious fish. LOVES being in the water.

Most importantly...playing at the beach

Love how he tucks his little legs in!

A fantastic weekend get away with my boy.
Already looking forward to our next adventure.

The Unexpected Testimony

(This is our May post for No Hands But Ours!)

One of the "perks" (not so much if you are an introvert) of walking the Adoption Road is the availability to share your testimony. I think it might actually be one of the questions on the Home Study Report: Are you ready & willing to share all that the Lord has done (and will continue to do) in your family with complete strangers for the rest of your days, so help you God?  I marked YES, really having no clue what that meant.  

Apostle Paul tells us to be ready "in season and out to preach the Word" (2 Tim 4:2). For many of us on the adoption journey we are prepared to, chomping at the bit even, to share our testimonies. The amazing miracles that brought our families together; the heartbreak and healing; God's faithful hand tenderly nurturing each of our adoption roads.  When we are with adoption friendly families we can nearly finish each other sentences with God's great works. There is a secret wink & a smile for families in the adoption world. We get it. We've been there and want to be encouraged and challenged by how you've been there too.

And for those that aren't on the adoption road YET, but have any flake of skin on their body that has even given a nano-second of thought towards adoption...we'll sniff you out!  It's like a weird adoption pheromone. Did you accidentally glance towards an special needs adoption brochure?? Did your stride shorten as you walked by the Adoption Info Night desk in the foyer?? Seriously, we are coming for you. You are going to hear our AMAZING story and you're about to have one of your own!

I think it's fun to share our testimonies with those that have Been There and those that are Getting There. (Not entirely easy though. I still get nervous when I've been asked to share at a formal-ish event). The excitement comes in knowing who you are speaking to and who is listening; it's a harvest ripe for the picking. You get to be a witness to the Holy Spirit moving deeply in people's hearts. It is really very cool. But I think there is a third & fourth group that 'hear' our adoption testimony I hadn't really given thought to until recently:

A few weeks ago, a sweet Korean mother signaled us across the foyer at church giving me the "we are a Down syndrome family too!" double chin bob-eyebrow rise. I was thrilled to meet another family like us, ESPECIALLY with a 4 year old boy (it was a serious kiss-fest with those boys outside the welcome desk!). We exchanged notes and when I asked if they were new to our church (it's a big church...easy to miss people), she shared this in her broken English:

  "For a long time after our son was born, we didn't know how to live a normal life. We didn't know anyone who was like us, but two & a half years ago some friends invited us to this church. We sat in the back and then we saw you and your son dancing during worship. When he fell asleep in your arms and you kept worshiping, I knew we would be OK."

She smiled sheepishly. I cried and our boys kept making out. I had no idea we were being watched. I wasn't sharing our story, I wasn't testifying, we were just being a family in God's presence (a brand new family at that time, who, frankly, takes up a lot of space during worship). We have plenty of formal opportunities to share our story, to be on display and Praise the Lord for His goodness in our unique family, but for the Holy Spirit to use us to speak to a struggling biological family when we didn't even know it kinda melted me: an Asian momma with a beautiful baby boy with Down syndrome, overwhelmed with what the future would hold for her family saw HOPE through my adoption family.  Four and a half years ago, half way across the world another Asian momma was in the same place...was there anyone to 'speak' to her then? Is anyone speaking to her now? 

Friends, our adoption testimonies are AWESOME. They speak life and faith and encouragement to each other and to those not yet on our journey.  We should be excited and prepared to share ALL that the Lord has done to redeem.  Stand up and share your story to small groups or large; write your testimony down (perhaps via an encouragement ministry like No Hands But Ours), show your witness through visual media. Be actively prepared to preach God's love through your adoption story in every ripe season. But also, be prepared out of season...to be watched in the quiet moments by the listeners that hear and see the HOPE that saturates our walks through special needs adoption.  Maybe that is the most precious of testimonies...the ones we don't know we are giving to those who need to hear it most: to the biological family new to special needs who needs to know there can be success. And to the sweet birth mothers who unknowingly surround us, maybe whose heart to desperate to know her birth child is loved and thriving, somewhere; that her decision at the time was a good one for her and her child. Oh, that we can be a living word of encouragement to them: the unexpected testimony of HOPE for those we don't know are listening.

All The Ages

An unexpected frustration when Isaac first came home was trying to answer the question of "awww, so cute, how old is he?"  That seems like a simple enough inquiry: today's date minus the date he was birthed onto this earth = biological age. But his tiny, undernourished, Asian frame coupled with his extra chromosome made him look and act like a child more than half his actual age. I felt pressured to some how justify to complete strangers at Target why my baby didn't live up to the expectations of his biological age. I got over it, but it took me a while to figure out that my boy isn't just one age...he has lots of ages! 



 

He has his biological age: currently 4 1/2 years

He has his family/emotional age: currently 2 1/2 years

He has his gross motor age: about 3 -3 1/2 years

He has his fine motor age: a solid 3 1/2 years

He has his social age: young 4 years

He has his communication age: verbal = 2 years, gross communication (sign language, etc)= 5+ years

He has his physical/size age: flirting with 4Ts!

 

When you think of how far he has come in 2 1/2 years in all of these areas it is a bit mind boggling! (he was floating around 6-12months for all of those ages).

 

 

We finally got around to having our 4 year check up last week. After our traumatic hospitalization in the fall, our sweet pediatrician suggested that we cancel all non essential medical appointments for several months and let Isaac emotionally rest. That was a smart move. Without any issues, we plowed into our appointment last week and dominated those growth charts!  Isaac has grown a total of EIGHT INCHES since being home and gained FOURTEEN POUNDS.  On the Down syndrome growth charts he is in the 50% for his weight and 94% for his height. That's a TALL BOY! (On the typical growth charts he is feeling strong at the 15% and 3% respectively)
 

The list of things that Isaac can do now outnumber what he cannot. The highchair and the pack-n-play have been permanently stored away. He is sleeping in a toddler bed and playing big boy games. He helps set the table and can fold the towels to help with the laundry. He keeps up with his friends at school and is working on letter/word recognition for some pretty solid early reading skills. His jibber-jabber is taking more form and he said his first un-coached, independent, well-articulated, real sentence this week, "Ahba. IIIIIIIIIII. Wahn. EEEEEEEE(T!). Peeeeas. Tank U." Aka: Mom! When's dinner?!  (Best sentence ever, by the way! And he repeats it every time I walk into the kitchen.)  In short, he is growing. And all his ages are adding up to a pretty spectacular little boy.   I really like being his Ahba. :)

 

Helping with story time at school

Toddler bed cuteness

Playing 'the circle" game

Climbing the twisty ladder at the park BY HIMSELF!
(My friend dubbed this perfectly: Mom! I got this...but stay close by, just in case)



 

“You aren’t just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been!”
― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers

 

Mother's Day 2015

I had a fun morning snuggling the little boy who made me a Momma. He spent the weekend sick and needed extra loving...which I did not say no to! I love his soft skin and how he stares at me with a goofy grin as he is falling asleep.  l love his sense of humor and his willingness to try just about anything. I love the single crease in his palm and his double almond eyes. I even love his feistiness and determination (some days, not all the days). While there is no physical part of me that made him, I know there is a lot of me growing IN him and that makes me happy...and scared...and proud. That awareness forces me to work a little harder, play a bit longer, and pray like I never have before. Seems that seeking to be a good mom means seeking to be the Heavenly Father's daughter first...sounds like something MY mother would say.

"Thank You God For Mommy"

Totally random snap shot that I'm going to keep for his teenage years!

The boy that made me a mom.

Yesterday, we repeated our annual tradition of honoring Isaac's birth mother & foster mother by bringing flowers to the Chinese Pagoda near our house. Our hearts are never without these two women: one made an incredible sacrifice to keep our son safe; the other sacrificed herself to make sure he stayed healthy until a stranger across the world would take him forever.  We will FOREVER be linked together by the little boy that now calls me "Ahba" (momma).