Last night, I got to rock Jordan to sleep again. It’s one of the few things that he can accept from me and I treasure it. He is doing well on so many levels. He is also struggling on so many levels. I find myself focusing on the struggles as the day nears each end, wishing for faster healing, if not immediate.
Most of the day, Jordan needs to ignore us. I phrase it that way on purpose. Last night we had 20 minutes of laughter and giggles, the helpless breathy kind. He and Brian played, “stand up and then dive into my lap” mixed up with a few games of tickle. I LOVED this. Loved to watch it. Loved to hear it. Loved to see Jordan surrendering to family for awhile. The rest of the day, he watches us cautiously out of the corners of his eyes. He tries to drown our presence out with shaking his keys or sucking his fingers. If we hold him and try to tickle or make eye contact, he turns his head away or lowers his eyes, focusing on sucking on those ever-sodden fingers.
But things are slowly changing. I noticed yesterday that I had hardly heard teeth-grinding all day. He is sleeping through the night most of the time… no longer rocking himself and grinding his teeth through the night. He is still not too fond of being carried, but we can hold him a little longer before he complains to be let down. He is eating by spoon and doing quite well at that too. He is moving around the house a little now. At first, he didn’t go ANYWHERE. This place was downright too scary to try anything! Yesterday (6th day home), he moved from his spot on the rug to the edge of the kitchen. We’re also starting to call him our puppy, because he scoots himself the other way too, to sit or lay on Razzie’s rug in front of the fire. And as I said before, I love how I can rock FOR him in the recliner. He struggles a few minutes usually, then lays his cheek down and surrenders to the effortless rocking of this person called Mama.
I think he recognizes the word “eat.” It’s the most clear, concrete word he might become interested in, so that’s what I’ve focused on teaching him first. 🙂 As he gets more confident, I hope he will experiment with signing it himself… see what it gets him! Yesterday, the girls were making a disaster beautiful bunch of frosted cookies, so I drizzled frosting all over Jordan’s tray to encourage him to eat it. He doesn’t have any hand-to-mouth going on, so I took advantage of the “teaching” opportunity. He didn’t learn hand-to-mouth (with food) yet, but he definitely loves frosting! hehe
Jordan's not too fond of car rides yet. But then, he turns and stares right at the sun!
That's my girl!
The "Ladies Man" bib is so funny. I was using spoons to feed him frosting because I was worried he'd bite me. He kept taking them from me til both hands were full.
Falling on Papa is sooooooo fun!
Some of those giggles last night!
A great first outing - a walk around the park while Papa returns books at the library.
Videos:
Maggie jumping:
Walking at the park:
Giggles:
Sometime I need to write a blog about Anna. She is so much like me. And yet, we struggle to “reach” her much of the time. Everything is as usual here, with mostly good times, but parenting Anna is definitely something that makes me pray for wisdom. 🙂
I like dried fruit. My kids LOVE dried fruit. Dried fruit is expensive. Raisins are the most reasonably priced. I love the bulk section of Winco for finding things cheaper, but lots of their dried fruit has lots of added sugar and color… not really the healthy snack I was hoping for.
So… what to do? Pick up a dehydrator. My dehydrators came from garage sales for about $10 each. I have two of them. What do you dry on them? Anything you can get cheap or free! Any garden produce over-production.
Examples:
Too many Italian plums from our tree to eat all at once… split in half and dried
Too many pears and not enough jars… cut into slices and dried (you can see pictures of this here: http://breezysunday.com/blog/2011/09/12/too-much-fun/
Apples… put them on a peeler-corer-slicer that suctions to your counter and dry away!
Accidentally got too many strawberries… or they were a little too close to overripe? We dried them for the first time this year and they are delicious!
Blueberries…. run out of freezer space? They’re kind of like raisins
Peaches…. yummmm
I’ve found that apples and pears are the easiest to find free. You don’t have to use prime fruit. Cut out the bruises or worms and save the beautiful, delicious parts. I just picked up 7 lbs of small apples from a local farm for $2.00….. that’s less than $.30/lb. Neighbors with trees that they don’t harvest from may be happy to have you take the fruit away so it doesn’t rot on their lawn! Don’t be intimidated by worms. 🙂
I have about four gallons of dried apples, 1 1/2 gallons of dried pears, 3/4 gallons of dried plums, and a small amount of dried blueberries, strawberries and zucchini.
Because I didn’t want to throw the zucchini out. I’ll put it in soup later.
Pears in the gallon jar on the right. Apples in the bucket and the jar on top of that. Strawberries in the pint jar on top of the jar of dried raspberries…
Now…. good luck remembering this cool idea next summer and fall when you actually have produce around.
I’ll start with Brian’s last post from Bulgaria which hasn’t been put up here yet. Then I’ll post an update about how things are going here at home:
On the day we went to the medical appointment Dmitri drove us to the hospital. He saw some highschool kids seating on the side of the road smoking. He said, “In my time they only smoked in secret. Kids today, they only know their rights, not their obligations. I don’t know maybe I sound like an old man.”
We woke up late and went down to breakfast. Dani ate two whole bottles of ground up eggs and yogurt with oatmeal (maple flavored) total, about 14 ounces. Then we wrapped up warm, stuck him in the ergo on my back and headed out. First to the super market for chocolate. We found German chocolate eggs with toys inside for the girls. Then we walked about 5 blocks to the cathedrals and the open market. We bought souveneir stacking dolls and things. The women in the market thought Dani was cold and gave us mittens and booties for him (charging us for the booties). I switched him to the front when he was getting fussing and he liked leaning back and looking at me. He was happier in the front, although he stirred whenever I stopped moving. He eventually went to sleep when I used the cover to hold his head up.
We had lunch at the hotel and he played in the room while I read web comics. He took a late nap about 3. Chevdar came about 4 and gave us the visa and papers. I had called Dmitri and he agreed to pick us up at 4:45am. ug that’s early! Chevdar and I had a brief visit and I gave him the presents for him and Elena. I was sad that we couldn’t talk more but his english is very small and my Bulgarian is non-existent. 🙂
We went down to dinner around 5 and ate with Shelly, Annikah, Meredith, and Mandy and Mark R. They were just back from their first trip visiting their two sons. It was a very enojoyable evening. Jordan was fussy but we just passed him around. We joked about whiskey and tried the hotel desserts. Mine was carrot cake and being used to Rachel’s I was dissappointed. But the tiramisu looked pretty good.
We went back upstairs about 6:30 and skyped. Jordan got a bath and dressed for bed. Then he finally ate his dinner and we put him to bed. In his crib he laughed and played by himself even after we turned out the lights and went to bed.
It was hard to sleep I was so jazzed up about going home. I woke up at midnight and thought it was time to go. Fortunately I looked at the watch and then was able to go back sleep. It was cold when we left at 4:45. I paid the bill, gave Dmitri his gift and we were off, barreling across town to Elena’s to get one last piece of paper. The airport was much busier than I guessed it would be but we got checked in fine, had some breakfast, met up with Shelly and Meredith, who are in the row behind us on the way to Munich. Praise the Lord! Our seats on the Lufthansa flights are all arranged so that we are together. Now just the flight from DC to PDX to get worked out. I am confidant in faith.
This morning I thought about the people we had dinner with last night, Shelly, Meredith Cornish, Mark and Mandy. All such brave people. Unafraid of foreign lands, unafraid of beauracracy. Unafraid of strange food, or languages. Unafraid on long plane flights with children. Unafraid of sleepless nights, of dirty diapers, of throwing up, of getting sick. Unafraid of uncaring orphage directors, unafraid of the neglect and abuse their children have endured. Unafraid of disabilities, attachement issues, of long term care. Perhaps unafraid is the wrong word. I think to be a parent is to live in a constant state of fear and worry. They are courageous. Defiant. None of us enjoy suffering, but love is greater than suffering, love is greater than neglect, abuse, hardships and all the rest. I was proud to have dinner with these people.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written: all day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that niether death nor life nor angels nor demons nor principalities nor powers neither height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Homecoming video2:
In no particular order: Jordan grinds his teeth regularly all day and whenever he wakes up at night. He usually fusses (and doesn’t put his legs around you) when you pick him up. However, he will hug your neck tight his his arm(s) and seems to like little more than snuggling into your shoulder or chest. When he wakes up at night – so far, he sleeps well until about 3am – snuggling him onto our lap in the recliner and rocking puts him back to sleep. We’re all getting up around 7am and we put him down for the night at 7pm with the girls.
Maggie is really making efforts to make friends with Jordan. She talks with him, gives him hugs and kisses, brings him toys and tonight she even settled down to read him a book! She read the book to him just like Anna reads to Maggie. She even covered Jordan up with a blanket first and insisted he keep it on. Jordan is going to have a lot of work to not be bossed around by his little big sister. (or is it big little?)
Today he was more comfortable that I’ve ever seen him. He interacted more, made more eye contact and was generally more confident. Oh, I just love to see him have successes! I want to tell him, it’s ok! You can do it! You are safe here! You are loved here! We want nothing more than your success! But things will go at his pace. I’m so happy that we don’t have any appointments for awhile. It’s good to just be home and be family. Other than normal housework and a little paperwork, our only priorities are rest, play and “be” together.
His pediatrician appointment is the only one scheduled for now – she’ll get me all the referrals we need. Happily, I got him added to our health insurance today! Not always the easiest project. I am curious to see if he has any heart condition. He does often have blue in his lips and hands, so there is some suspicion of a small heart condition, like an unclosed hole in his heart (you can google AVSD or others if you’d like). I am honestly not worried about this at all. Not yet. 🙂 We are safely in God’s hands and there is nothing He has not planned for.
So now – pictures, then more videos! (if the videos ever finish uploading)
This isn't a good picture... he's got vaseline all over his face too. But you can see the blue on his lips and his hands are blue too, though it's harder to see. I love his dinosaur pajamas... his Donny-saur jammies!
Look at our big boy standing at the window!
When he was first home, we was not able to handle the stimulus of looking out the window. Today he crawled over and stared out the window and banged on it until we took him away!
Grammy reunited with all her grandchildren! Love this!
Jordan's about to get his hand pushed away and told that he is not to turn the pages, because she's reading to him. (or something like that)
Videos:
You can see most of his orphanage behaviors here, I think: grinding teeth, clicking teeth, repetitive motions (mostly banging those keys!), the “orphan rock” which he does on his hands and knees instead of sitting, sucking his fingers way too much. Oh scratch that, you don’t get to hear his wonderful grinding or clicking. Haha. But you ALSO get to see him using his voice again, making eye contact, exploring, observing and just generally becoming willing to interact. And he is just so handsome, how can you not watch him?
Family all together being silly around the Christmas tree
I am sooooo happy to be feeding Jordan with a spoon and not with a bottle! Praising the Lord for his goodness!
Jordan hanging out by the window – so good to see him exploring and not staying exactly where I put him any more.
Please remember Valenz, who is still an orphan and still can have hope. Please sponsor his grant. Get an ornament for your tree with his face on it… it WILL remind you to pray for him. You can give him hope.
There are hundreds of children waiting for a family. There really are millions, but hundreds of them are represented on Reece’s Rainbow. Give these children hope by sponsoring their grants. View the official Reece’s Rainbow Angel tree. View the other waiting children who aren’t on the angel tree (only orphans with Down Syndrome between the ages of 0-5 years old are on the tree). Rejoice as you see children who have families committed to adopting them. Sponsor the adopting families. I’d like to direct you especially to Vinnie’s family and to Sydney’s family.
I do still have some soap and three gift baskets left. I would love to help you with your Christmas shopping while you help Valenz find a family. Sunday school teacher gift? Stocking stuffer? Hostess gift? Mother? Girlfriend? Daughter? Click on the fundraiser link above to see pictures.
And he’s slowly losing the glazed over look! Us too. 🙂
Jordan arrives in my arms and Brian is here to wrap me in his. Am I not blessed?
Nothing fancy… just three children in the same room. This is the morning after Jordan arrived home and the girls were playing with their special new, welcome home Jordan legos:
First giggles at home – he loves standing and falling on you:
About 20% efficiency (most of it gets backwashed) – but we have a straw cup he can drink from! The expressions around the table are so funny to me. Anna has been overwhelmed by the changes, Maggie is feeling displaced, Jordan is thirsty and shutting out the world… and Mama and Papa couldn’t be happier!
Yesterday was mostly a blur for me. I feel much more alive today. Slowly doing what needs to be done… no… slowly remembering what needs to be done and I’ll do it later. We have some paperwork that needs to be sent in and stuff. One thing at a time.
Welcomed home with love on Saturday night. I love you Amy and Hollie!
Getting love and snuggles from Grammy in the airport as they were departing for home.
Three children. Three siblings. Together. At home! (Jordan is still in the clothes he wore on the flight home)
Silly kids... Maggie has experimented with copying Jordan... trying to figure out what's so special about him.
Fast asleep...
We have an awesome, enormous Christmas tree! Please come in through the back door.
Our two-year-olds.Jordan oblivious and splashing. Maggie trying to get him to play.
Most food has been by spoon.... but the chicken rice casserole was a hit even by bottle!
