Alyson Dreams

And here we are...

2009-07-14T21:05:00.002-07:00

We have finished our third day at the John Tracy Center in LA.; 18 more days to go. I have teasingly called it "deaf toddler boot camp" and have found out it is really "deaf toddler parent boot camp". We have a team of audiologist, speech therapists, and other related professionals working with us to make sure we as parents are up-to-speed on Aly's auditory and verbal needs and that we are her best advocates and cheerleaders. We are being supported to be very hands-on in her development. After only two days, Aly is doing amazingly well wearing her cochlear implant processor and hearing aid (new as of last Wednesday) all day. She is even asking to have them put on. K-sister is in a class/camp for grade school-level hearing siblings. She too is having fun and learning a lot. If anyone has a hearing impaired child under the age of six, I would highly recommend this program. The three weeks at JTC will make a huge difference for all us individually and for us as a family. Below is a recent picture of Aly. She is such a fun, loving, funny, cute, and stubborn little girl. Being deaf/profoundly hard of hearing will not define who she is; it will be one more culture that she will work into her personal web of life.

Lalalalalalala

2009-07-14T21:05:00.001-07:00

And the time has finally come. We are on our way to Lalaland to see the wizards of the John Tracy Clinic and to visit the magic kingdom of Mickey Mouse. R-dad and Uncle-W are driving the girls down to LA, and K-mom is flying down two days later. "Deaf toddler boot camp", here we come.

And Life Goes On

2008-10-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

Boy, time flies whether you are having fun or not. In our case, the tragedy that was Alyson's hearing loss diagnosis has become part of our everyday lives. Aly had little to no discomfort after the surgery, other than the head bandages which were removed within a few hours of getting home. After a week of bedhead (not getting the surgical site wet), her life returned to normal until the beginning of September, when her implant was activated. We know she is "hearing" sound (although we don't know how much) because she turns her head when we speak to her and is much more verbal. When the processor's program is not working for her, she lets us know with a scruchy face cry. The fine tuning of the implant will take about a year. Our biggest problem now is keeping her external equipment all in one piece. Aly likes to pull it apart and leave it in different places, and we are talking about expensive pieces.

Aly continues with physical therapy and has begun to take a few steps on her own; well make that steps and a dive. This is a very big deal because her balance was negatively impacted by the ear malformations. She has also started early intervention (with a focus on speech and physical therapy) with our local ESD. We hope that Aly is in a mainstream classroom by the first grade.

We may find ourselves in LA for three weeks this summer at the John Tracy Clinic, where we will all (K-sister included) attend deaf-related classes. K-mom is taking an ASL class, and Aly is starting to use them. She doesn't like the signs for "if you throw it, it goes away."

R-dad has been amazing in getting Aly and K-sister to all of the places they need to go. K-sister is in a new Mandarin program and is really blosoming. K-mom enjoys her new job (most of the time, which is to be expected.) And life goes on.

More pictures are on their way. We hope you and your family are doing well. Give us a call or send us an email when you have a chance.

One More Step Towards Hearing

2008-07-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

Aly is home from the hospital after cochlear implant surgery this morning. The doctor decided to do one only side, after reviewing the results of the first implant and the formation of the second ear. We will know in about a month (when they start to program her implant) how much hearing the implant will give her.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and good wishes.

Aly, K-sister, K-mom, R-dad

As Time Goes By

2008-07-26T17:48:00.001-07:00

We have been home six months, so here are referral, in-China, and home-six-months pictures of Alyson. Enjoy!

Our Dreams for Alyson

2008-07-26T17:18:00.001-07:00

We have been on quite a rollercoaster since coming home with Aly six months ago. The ups have been as high as the downs low.

K-mom's job was eliminated the last day of her family leave, and she started a new job (doing what she loves) two months later. Unemployment put a dent in our finances, and we were together as a family for almost five months.

And our NSN (non-special needs) DD (darling daugher) was diagnosed in late May with a serious special need, congenital hearing loss. She is deaf on the right side and profoundly hard of hearing on the left. Aly remains the amazing little girl she always was, and our path with her has taken a sharp turn to places yet known. She will have bilateral cochlear implant surgery this Tuesday, so we ask for your good thoughts that the surgery is a success and that she is able to hear with the implants.

So, our dreams for Alyson are that she leads a normal and (un)eventful life and that that she hears us say "I love you" (and says it back.)

Two Sisters

2008-02-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Thank you for being so patient for more pictures.

As you can tell, we have two beautiful girls. We have been home three weeks and all (for the most part) is going well. Alyson is catching up on her baby skills, and K-sister is a great Jie Jie (big sister.)

K-mom and R-dad are still adjusting to two kids, finding that the work and the fun are exponential rather than multiplied.

One Week Down...

2008-02-01T11:11:00.001-08:00

We are finally getting over the time change and the illnesses that followed us home. K-sister went back to school today, and we are all going to pick her up and to show off the baby. Alyson is still asleep, so it's time to do all that wake up/change/dress/feed stuff.

It will still take us some time to get into our new family rhythm. K-mom is off work until the end of March, so we will have a lot of family time together over the next several months.

Our friends and family have been very supportive during this transition. Thanks! We hope to bring Alyson to church on Sunday. K-mom plans to download and post a few pictures later today.

We are home!

2008-01-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

The US State Department and CDC, in their infinite wisdom, allowed us to travel home within 24 hours of a medical exam clearing the children of the chicken pox.

K-mom was stressed to the max, trying to rearrange the travel plans; R-dad was our rock and did all of the packing; K-sister just wanted get home to "Brown" blanket; and Alyson was not sure what she was getting herself into.

The trip home was long and uneventful. W-uncle, who traveled home a day before us (on our original schedule) had a four hour delay out of Norita (Japan.) The one-day delay in a strange way worked out well for us.

As we are more awake, we will write more.

Coming Home Delayed

2008-01-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

We will NOT be returning home to Portland on Thursday, January 24, 2007, as planned. We are being delayed in China (from a few days to ?) by the US government because one of the babies in our group has been diagnosed with the chicken pox. We should know more on Wednesday afternoon (China time) about the wheres/whens/whats.

As soon as we know when we will be traveling, we will be posting the information on the blog, so stay tuned. At this point we do not need your assistance. We will let you know more as we do.

I gotta tell you... we really want to come home. We hope to see you sooner than later.

Love,
K-mom

Home Sweet Guangzhou

2008-01-21T20:29:00.000-08:00

This has been an amazing trip, but we are ready to come home.

We got to Guangzhou on Sunday and are staying at the White Swan Hotel. Prices have certainly risen in the last four years, and there are fewer adoptive families and more Chinese on Shamian Island. We did a boat trip on the Pearl River last night and were amazed at the endless development (and neon) along the river. We continue to fight colds, intestinal problems, and back problems. We hope we are on the other side of all of these problems.

The people on this trip are great, and all the children are beautiful. Today is our consulate appointment for Alyson's visa, and tomorrow is the swearing-in ceremony at the consulate. We lost the wheels off one of our suitcases, so we had to buy a new one (of course for all of the shopping we are doing too.) We look forward to being home and seeing you soon.

If you plan to meet us at the airport on Thursday morning, please make sure you check the arrival time so you are not left at the airport for a long time.

We are excited about bringing our new daughter home. K-sister has been a great big sister.

On Our Way To Guangzhou

2008-01-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

We are on our way to Guangzhou in several hours to complete the US visa work for Alyson. The last several days have been very cold, and cabin fever has set in. We have split up the group and done different activities (orphanage, temple/museum, bookstore, etc.). There was snow on the rooftops yesterday morning, and it is very foggy today. Hopefully it will be much warmer in Guangzhou. The C's have had a rough week between sickness and sore backs. We really look forward to getting home. Alyson continues to be a happy baby.

Here She Is...

2008-01-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

In Need Of Cable And Driver

2008-01-14T22:37:00.000-08:00

We have not been able to download pictures because we do not have the driver for my camera and a USB cable. We will get a picture from one of the Holt people and post it later today.

On Monday, we went to get the adoption registered and to the police station to apply for Alyson's passport. The adoption is complete and Alyson is ours, through thick or thin.

On Tuesday, we (the girls) took a trip to Wal-mart, to buy diapers, a watermelon (K-sister's choice), and drinks. It is currently snowing and raining in Nanchang, so we are encouraged to put as many layers on the babies as possible. I was told today that it only snows once every five years here. Of course, it had to do it while we were here.

We are now just hanging out in Nanchang, where we get Alyson's Chinese passport, and then we move on to Guangzhou. The Holt staff has been great.

Until later today when we post THE picture.

Wow wow wow

2008-01-13T06:50:00.000-08:00

We are now the proud parents of two beautiful girls from China. We traveled from Beijing to Nanchang today and met Alyson about 4:30 PM. K-sister is a proud big sister and wants to do everything. K-mom and R-dad both have sore backs, so we are glad we bought the Ergo; think the BMW of baby carriers. Alyson is quite the chubby baby (20 pounds) and very cute; she has the most amazing laugh and giggle. She, like many of the girls, has a respitory infection, so we have already seen the doctor.

We are so glad that L. and W. made the trip with us. They will make awsome god parents.

We know, we know... you want pictures. We are really tired right now and are heading off to bed. We promise we will post pictures tomorrow.

We would like to thank all of you (and you know who you are) who helped us get here today. You are the best!

We Made It To China

2008-01-12T00:55:00.000-08:00

The trip was long, but uneventful. K-sister was great. We left Wednesday at noon PST and arrived Thursday at 9:30 PM Beijing time. We have toured the last two days and will fly to Nanchang to meet Alyson on Sunday. When we have more time, we will post pictures of the Great Wall, etc.

I have a big favor... if I sent you an attachment version of our itinerary, would you please send it to my comcast account? I need a copy with Alyson's name on it, and of course, the version I have has her name off the page.

Getting Ready

2008-01-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

We meet our daughter on Sunday, 1/13/2008, in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, PRC.

We plan to update our blog while in China with pictures and posts. Although we will only be able to update the blog in China, your comments are welcome, and we will read them when we get home.

Alyson, ready or not, here we come!

Next Stop China

2007-11-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

We have accepted our referral and now start all of the paperwork, planning, and packing that will get us to Alyson, hopefully before the end of 2007.

Pictures!

2007-11-07T13:24:00.001-08:00

Here is Alyson. We look forward to her becoming a part of our family.

It's a girl!

2007-11-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

We have waited almost 23 months for news of our new daughter in China. On November 5, 2007, we received our referral for an eight month old girl (DOB March 2007) from Jiangxi Province. We will post pictures on Wednesday.

We hope to travel to China in 7-9 weeks. Our next adventure is just beginning.

Waiting

2007-10-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

We have waited and waited for Alyson to join our family. And we continue to wait. With a LID of December 7, 2005, it appears our wait is coming to an end.