Annie Oakley Is Here!

Annie Oakley visits our house often--Luci loves her rocking horse from Debby and Fabian.
John had a good tickle with Luci this morning before leaving on a 5 day trip for the Army Reserves. When we got Luci, she would not let us tickle her--we would try but she would not laugh or smile. The doctors at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham said that she had "adoptive aphasia," similar to the aphasia a stroke victim might have. Aphasia is when the body does not remember the sensations and cannot react to stimuli. Speech aphasia is very common with stroke victims. Luci was not able to remember how to react to tickling, hugging, kissing, etc. either because she was never tickled, hugged or kissed, or because she just didn't want to respond to us in fear of being left again. (She does not remember being left by her China momma, but she does remember being left by the orphanage people.)

We are so thankful that Luci trusts us enough to let us tickle her now!

Luci is ready for breakfast! We have to keep the chairs away from the table at all times, or she will crawl up and dance--which is fine, but the fall is quite a shock to her. Also, the pancakes don't appreciate it!

Memories of Del Rio

This morning we woke up to enormously loud bangs outside--our road was being repaved! This is very exciting, since we rarely see anything but horseback riders down our dead-end road.
This is our view of the road from our front yard. We are so secluded that we had no idea what was going on until we got up the hill to the road.

It only took about an hour for the men (and two women) to pave the entire 2 tenths-of-a-mile road. JT had fun being my secret camera man.

Why memories of Del Rio? I remember quite a bit of Albuquerque and the house at Lake Walk (don't know if that is spelled right). I don't remember Japan at all, although Janet has quite clear memories of that place. (ha, ha, Janet!) But in Del Rio I made my first scent memories. It is the first place that I really smelled rain. I recall the streets being paved, too. That fresh, hot tar smell had such an impact on me that every time we drive by a road project, I start my story...."Oh, wow, that smell reminds me of...," and I never get any further because the boys take up the story, " 'Del Rio, Texas, where they paved the street in front of our house and it smelled so good.' MOM!! Please don't tell that story again!!"

Mailbox!

We are now ready to receive mail at our new house. John put up the mailbox today on our busy, curvy, dangerous road, with some help from JT. It was about 90 degrees with very high humidity, so JT's job was mainly to call 911 if Daddy had problems--oh, and find strange pieces of left-over wood to keep as mementos forever.

I finally got to meet the cabinet guy today. John walked around with him in the house, measuring things. (I am too chicken to climb up that little plank into the house--there are no stairs yet. The construction guys probably think it is more manly to teeter on that little plank than use something safe like stairs.) The cabinet guy is going to make a special computer table (decorator's name: "computer workstation") with cabinets for the printer and tower. Also, he's going to make a big pantry: 24" deep, 90" high! I was hoping for 12" deep and 60" high--I went home very happy. John probably feels very poor at this point. At least it is not expensive materials. I could'a chosen the mahogany, honey.

And Tom and Karin are Grandparents! Thomas Tripp was born this week, making me the Great Aunt. Love it! I haven't seen photos yet, but I'm sure he's as cute as all the other babies born into this family. Congratulations, Connor and Kaylie!

The Boys' Rooms

We saw some progress Monday at the building site. The workers put on headers for windows and doorways. JT is standing in his room--can you see him? He's the one in the white t-shirt. This is the front of the house.
Bryan is here looking out his window, in the back of the house--he was leaning out just moments before. Bryan, don't give your momma so many gray hairs!

Rah! Rah!

I am the cutest cheerleader in the Auburn squad. Daddy bought this outfit for me the day he first saw my picture--last June! Some people, those who root for the other team, look at me and say, "Bless her heart." I think that's good. Maybe.
Did you know that the grass at the YMCA tickles? You ought to try it! It works best if you just lie down on it.
Wow, cheering is hard work! Here I am in my pink princess chair. Mommy is "Queen of Quite a Lot," and she says I am "Princess of Everything Else."

Tang Soo Do

JT studies Tang Soo Do at our local YMCA. Today was his first test, and he earned a stripe on his white belt. JT broke the board on the first try! Whoopee!

Comments

You can leave comments now--Quinét told me that this blog thingy wasn't allowing comments unless you are a member. I finally clicked on the right watchamacallit, so now you can leave a message if you want. I'd like to see your message, if it is nice! (Thanks, Dad, for showing me how to do é.) And don't I sound all computer-y with my technical jargon!

We Have Walls! Sort of.

Today was a nice day to go look at our house. Especially since it is looking more like a house! It was very encouraging to see this progress.

I met our neighbor--her name is Tree, of all things. Her husband is our contractor. Anyway, she is interested in homeschooling. I hope I didn't scare her away from teaching her own children. It will be nice to be near someone who also homeschools--at least one neighbor will understand why my kids are playing outside on a school day!

I Loved It!

Yesterday, John and I met the "windows and door man" at McDonald's Play Place to pick out our windows and doors (duh!) for the new house (no, he did not have life-sized samples--we looked through brochures). The kids played while we talked.

Luci did something she had never done before. Another girl caught her attention, and they jabbered at each other for a minute or two. The other girl walked toward her momma, and Luci walked towards me, saying, "Momma! Momma! Momma," pointing at herself and then to me. She was letting her new friend know Who Her Momma Was.

I loved it.

Growth Charted

These two photos show Luci's growth since September. In the first, you can see the handle in the high chair and a little bit of hair. In the other, she is tall enough to cover the handle and there is quite a bit more hair. We think the application of spaghetti has helped with the hair growth, and that Luci is getting her nourishment through osmosis, as not much actually gets into the mouth.

Mother's Day

Who wouldn't love this package for
Mother's Day? We think Luci looks more and more like us every day. What do you think?

Soccer-May 13

JT once again is doing a really good job for his team! The last season, they lost every game, but this one has been much more fun. JT's team won the first two games (JT had 6 goals all together!) and today it was a tie--JT made both goals for his team to keep the tie. Woo-Hoo!

I embarrassed Bryan because I yelled encouragement from the sidelines to all the players on JT's team, but mostly to JT. Most of you know that I am LOUD. Personally, I don't see what the problem is. Luci has picked up on the cheering and is pretty good at cupping her tiny hands around her mouth and yelling, "Go! Go! Go!" Funny, Bryan thinks that is cute.

I am also thrilled that this soccer season (there are 3 every year!) I have some extra money to spend and I ordered a package of game shots--the photographer follows JT around the field with a super-duper camera. JT will end up with about 10-12 action shots showing him as a super-duper player. This year he is really loving soccer, so the timing is very good.

Water in the Basement!

But this time, it is ok. The construction crew has finally started on the framing, and got as far as the basement walls (one long hallway to help support the first floor) when BOOM! severe thunderstorms hit. John got these photos right after the worst of the storm hit. On the news late last night, the weather man said the worst damage in our county was in Greenhill--where our new house is! I guess I'm glad that more of the structure wasn't up because that might have been damaged.

Can't you imagine playing pool with the boys? The area on the right will be our pool room/exercise room area. And I don't mean swimming pool, although that's what it appears to be today. 'Way on the left you might be able to make out our storm room--"Safety Susan" likes that part of the basement!

P.S. A nice note: John has been home from Afghanistan for two whole years now. It seems like just yesterday we were rejoicing at the airport! Time really flies.

New Trick

Luci has learned to sew! No, not really. I was checking email and heard something...it was Luci climbing up to change the spool on the sewing machine.

I thought I made it safe, and went back to put this photo on the blog. But no! Luci figured out how to scoot the chairs back up to the table and got into Bryan's leftover breakfast, and was very sticky with the remaining pancakes and sausage. That boy knows better. Now, I should teach myself some new tricks and baby proof even more.

Word Cloud

This is a word cloud of this weblog.


I think it's pretty neat. If you want to create a word cloud, here is a site:

http://www.snapshirts.com/custom.php

Picnic

We had a picnic with our local Families with Children from China (FCC) group tonight. It was at a local park and the kids all had fun. There were 14 families there with about 16 Chinese girls all together. Luci had a ball and was the only girl I saw that actually got dirty.

Luci loved the swings--they are designed for handicapped children and are weighted so they are hard to tip. My favorite 2 photos are those with all three kids sitting together. Oh, and add the one with JT standing between Bryan and Luci, and Luci hanging from the bar, and Luci in the big swing.

Cutie Pie

Luci had fun today wearing a very girly dress. My good friend Diane picked this out for Luci last fall, and now it finally fits. It is a size 12 months outfit. Luci is still so tiny!

We are working on getting some bangs growing next. I think her high forehead makes her look really Chinese--sort of the "Chairman Mao" look. My, how he would turn over in his grave if he knew this family's politics! (I know my parents wonder about us now....)

JT is in the background, trying to get Luci to stand up for her picture.

Half a Lifetime.....

Half a lifetime...what can happen in half a lifetime? The world has changed at our house! Luci became part of our family when she was 9 months old. She is now 18 months old. Luci found a forever family. Luci found love. Luci found two big brothers who would give up anything for her. Luci found a daddy who does not mind at all "starting over." She found a mommy who is really tired from not sleeping but doesn't mind too much because Luci is home. Luci found a home that has everything she ever could need--a nice bed, lots of food, lots of toys and lots of love. We found out that God is so much more generous than we ever imagined. We found out that love really does expand and grow. We found out how our parents, Olen & Elrino and Charles & Audrey, could love the big families they had...even though the names sometimes got mixed up. We found out that the money does stretch when it needs to. We found out that we really did need a little girl around here. The boys learned that Luci is another word for Love.

Jie Jie

Yu came to our house for the first time last Saturday. It was a good visit. She and Luci found their hometowns on our big map of China. Yu wanted Bryan, J.T. and Luci to call her Jie Jie (shjay shjay)--"big sister" in Mandarin. I thought that was really sweet, since she is an only child.

Yu's name brought some giggles, too--I told John that I needed to take Yu back to U.N.A. and he kept saying, "Why do you need to take ME to town?" Not YOU, Yu! Yu was in the hallway, laughing.

We learned some important Mandarin phrases. Mi Lao Shu was the most important so far. It means, "Mickey Mouse."

Our next visit is a week from now. J.T. has another soccer game, so I'll get to introduce Yu to the joys of being a soccer mom.

Soccer!!

J.T. was the star of his first YMCA soccer game today! He made 4 goals in the first half (the first goals of the whole game, and his team won!). He is so happy!! We are proud of him. His last team was not as successful, and he feels great about this season.

Luci was on the sidelines yelling, "Go! Go!" We take our camping chairs to the game. We got Luci her own chair, and it is, of course, very girly and pink. John got almost as much exercise as J.T. by chasing Luci off the field at regular intervals.

Update on the Basement

The workers are putting up the cement blocks for the basement walls today. They accidentally dug too much for our basement--it was originally going to be just a half basement, but the guy with the backhoe dug a full basement. (I am glad for the error!)

Starting next week is the basic framing of the house--it will actually start to look like a house! For some reason the end of the house with our bedroom, bath, our closet and garage is being made two feet wider (another thing I am thankful for). I've asked John to see if the laundry room wall can be moved the two feet so the extra room can go there instead of the bath and our closet. It would be very nice to make the laundry room also a mud room, or at least have a nice place to put shoes and sports equipment--and maybe some big kitchen appliances, like my bread machine. If it's not a load-bearing wall that I want moved, it should not be a problem.

Nice living out in the county where we don't have the stricter city code to live and build by--it's possible to have the house plans be more fluid and changeable, which is so convenient.

Also--assuming we will be in that travel trailer for a month or so until the house is finished, I am planning to make a part of the basement into a tv/game area for the boys, since their precious video games won't fit into the trailer. I was elevated to "great mom" status for that announcement this morning.

Love You!

Luci has learned those magical words, "Love You!"

Wednesday night she said them to Daddy, and to big brothers Bryan and JT. But not to Momma! It sure will be sweet when she finally does say them to me. The boys spent all day yesterday trying to get her to say, "love you," to me, but no dice.

How Did We Come Up With the Name for this Blog?

There is a really wonderful book called, Just Add One Chinese Sister by Patricia McMahon and Conor Clarke McCarthy, illustrated by Karen A. Jerome. My sister-in-law, Karin, sent it to us when Luci came home (it is also from Tom, my brother, and their children , but I know Karin picked it out!). It describes our family so well. The question in the book is, "How do you become a big brother? Just Add One Chinese Sister." There is even a red-headed boy in the story, and we have one of those, too. Check out the book sometime, you will like it, too...but have a hanky nearby.

We Can See the Finish Line!

We are at that wonderful point in the school year when we can see the finish line and actually taste summer break. The boys have just a few more lessons in Science and History/Geography on CD (Switched on Schoolhouse) to do, and those are done without Mom. Bryan has a book to finish reading (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and quizzes on it, and that's all! Hooray!

Now I can focus on getting curtains ready for the new house, and packing up school things that we won't need until July...and trying to remember exactly where I put them!

The grand plan right now is to live in a travel trailer behind our new home until it is finished. This will
1) give the dogs a time to get used to our new address,
2) give the builder time to see us often and consider does he really want to drive this sweet family nuts by prolonging the building time, and
3) let us do a good unit study on insects (yuck I hate bugs).

In the latest edition of The Old Schoolhouse, there are several unit study ideas on insects. One of them does not require teacher mom to actually touch any bugs, so that's the one we will be doing.

Luci Vivian Minjie

Luci has been the biggest blessing to our family...she is a wonderful little girl. We were expecting a 3 year old with many attachment problems, but got a 9 month old angel. No complaints with that!

This year has brought many changes...1) Who's the baby of the family now? 2) How long will that nap last, can we get our lessons done?! 3) When will that new house be completed? 4) Can we go back and get another little angel?

Answers to the questions: 1) sorry, J.T., it's changed; 2) not long enough; 3) who knows? and 4) NO! we are getting too old for this, and there's only so much money in our world.