Happy Thanksgiving

Although we were together in China last Thanksgiving this is our sweet girls first Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A.

                                                          I love her face in this picture
 We have so much to be thankful for and she is just one of the five most wonderful things that has ever happening to us!

                                                           My two beautiful daughters

                                                            Our "H" filled Blessings
 

Fall time

It is so hard to believe that this time last year we were getting ready to leave for China, to get this sweetheart home! She has changed so much, and so have we...

Just look at this face as she takes her first trip on a hayride!!! We should all make this face whenever we do something new for the first time.

She picked her first pumpkin, and fed a goat for the first time at Bear wallow Farm. She has really come out of her box, and is learning to be a curious 3 year old.
Her physical challenges have gotten a little less challenging, she is learning to run and play with others

and her ASL, well she is taking off... Mrs. Darlene is working with her everyday, and we can't thank all the staff members at Memorial Education Center for being so devoted to our sweet little girl

(Hadley signing "daddy").
This past week we went to UC, our final appointment series before we find out if indeed our girl can get cochlear implants... Please pray this works out for the best, and we will keep you posted on the plan.

Double Dimples

Love when this girl smiles.......

Over the weekend Hadley was all smiles, football games and birthday parties. She played with cousins and watched her (favorite brother) Harrison celebrate his birthday. Whenever we light the candles on the cake she just laughs and claps! It's hilarious to watch.

Just look at her sweet smile in this picture

July update

My at how fast this year is going. Our sweet girl has been home for 8 months now (seems longer though). Hadley went back to UC on the 16th and got her hot pink hearing aids and although she is still not hearing anything they are working her nerve to learn what to do with the sound it hears. This is one step closer to getting a cochlear implant possibly. She will wear these for 3 months and then we will move on to the next step. Hadley is signing more, and more which is amazing since we have taking her out of school this summer to stay home with the other kids. It's a little better on the budget too. The past week she went back to school when the others did, and although I was a little apprehensive as to how well she would do, she has surprised me yet again. Walked straight in the room, got in the line waved good-bye to me, and off to the cafeteria she went.
This summer she got to enjoy vacation, which I posted some on our main blog but I must say our girl travels well.

We went on a cruise to Mexico, and the Grand Cayman Islands and she didn't miss anything.... So hard to believe that she wasn't walking independently and now she is running around on a cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean...

 and does this little love the water......

She loved swimming with our little friend "golden boy"

 and this little guy.

She slept good everynight...

tried new food choices, and enjoyed time with her forever family.....

love this little girl!!!!

June trip to UC

We had another day of appointments at UC with Hadley this past week. We met with a speech pathologist first. Mrs.B was great, patient and understanding. She was also amazed at how well Hadley is doing. Mrs.B is fluent in sign, and Hadley responded to her really well.  She made some recommendations for us, and gave us some pointers for the future.

Then we met with Dr.W who is a developmental behavioral specialist. What a blessing it is to meet this team of amazing doctors! Dr.W's assessment was that Hadley us catching up, maybe slightly still behind in gross motor, but overall doing well. From her stand point if and when we get a cochlear implant Hadley will be an appropriate recipient.

Then Hadley had some blood work, didn't shed one tear, tough girl. Then as we walked to the audiologist's office she insisted on walking with her oversized backpack on cruising the halls all by herself. Waving and smiling at everyone in her path. With her hotpink, sparkly sunglasses on. Everyone smiling and waving back, she is so stinking cute!

Then we met with Mrs.L the audiologist and we made our next appointment for our hearing aids, which by the way are hotpink too!!! Mid July we will go back and get them, wearing them for a few months to see if amplication will change anything. However I will say, when you hear nothing, hearing aids only amplify nothing. But we will give them a try anyway.

Socks

Our sweet heart has learned how to put shoes on.... however not her shoes! The other day I noticed she had went and put on Haven's socks and shoes and was prancing around the house in them. May I add that she didn't fall once.... and it's hard to walk in shoes twice as big as your feet when you don't have an issue with your gait. I ran to get the camera so I could catch a few shots of her....

Each day she accomplishes something new, I'm so lucky to be this little ones' Momma!!!!

Baseball Games and WaterParks

 Everyday Hadley experiences something new, something she's never seen or done. New people, and new places. It's awesome watching her! Makes me see things so differently. Without blinders on. Hadley has inspired so many people, and she's not even been home 6 months yet. What a testimony our girl has already! In exactly 6 days we will be home 6 months with our girl. In these short 6 months I have learned so much more than I ever thought I would. As I type this now, she  is sitting contently under my feet looking at a book. How boring was our life before December 7th 2013? Very, and we didn't even know it.
  Sharing our adoption story is a passion for me, and I think now even so for Brian. It's not us we want people to know about, it's her, it's Christ and what he's done for us. He is the reason we get to share our life with this sweet little one.
Updates:  
School
Hadley is doing so good, school has been such a great experience for her. She is soaking everything up like a sponge. She will return to Memorial this fall and hopefully will be joined by her own ASL interpreter all year. We just met with her school faculty in hope they will be able to provide one for her. Hadley will be staying home this summer with the other little ones. Can't wait to see what they teach her. Maybe if we're lucky we can work on potty training.

Medical
Hadley goes back to UC on 6/18 for hearing aids and follow-ups with lots and lots of special doctors. We know that hearing aids might not help her enough but we will try them first. She is a cochlear implant candidate, however we know God can and still does perform miracles so anything is possible (just ask the blind man, he's seen miracles and if you don't buy his story talk to the deaf man he heard all about them too). "Our God is so big, so strong and so mighty there's nothing my God can't do for you."  there's that song too.
In July we go back to see Dr.T at U.K. for our 6 month check-up, I can't wait for her to see just how great our girl is doing. The last time she saw us Hadley couldn't even walk, now she's running.

Advocating
I don't want to get to in depth here about advocating, most all parents advocate for their children at one time or another. But, we are learning that having a child with different needs then the majority is challenging. However, not impossible. The love we share for our children is a common bond between all of us, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. Keep advocating, even when you don't feel it makes a difference, it does.....

Home life
The kids are all still doing great with our newest addition. None of them have had behavioral changes, at least not in a negative aspect. Rather a change for the better..... they are learning patience and love without boundaries. They don't seem to even notice that they're more of us. We have happy kids, that's all I can say. They enjoy watching her change as much as Brian and I do. They feel apart of something bigger than all of us, and that's living a life serving others and sharing God's true love for us all.

We took her to the water park yesterday, and she LOVED it!!!! Hadley is such a water baby.....

We couldn't be more happy with our decision to follow God's perfect plan for our family through adoption. It's not cookie-cutter perfect, there are some times when it's crazy, hectic, chaos, and you wonder if you'll survive another minute. But then the minute is over, and you think "oh, that wasn't so bad." If you are interested in adoption, sponsoring a child, or even advocating for orphans there are so many things you can do to help. If you have any questions you can call or email me anytime. I'm no expert, but I do know where to get answers/information.

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." - Mark 9:37

The Good, the bad, and the ugly....

So last week Hadley had an MRI and ARB performed at UC Children's. I was out of town on business for school, so Brian and Mom went together to be with our sweet girl. Brian called me to tell me that Hadley was doing great, I must say how thankful we are for the amazing staff that worked with her. They had everything done in a few hours and were back on their way home in no time. The audiologist did tell Brian that the ARB results showed severe hearing loss (as we had suspected), not exactly what we wanted to hear though. I guess deep inside I wanted the previous test obtained in China to be wrong. For a moment I allowed myself to cry, no one was watching, just me standing outside my classroom. I had to ask myself "why are you upset Jennifer? You know she can't hear, this isn't new information?" Still it hurts.....I just want her to hear!!!
    Flash back to last November, actually the week prior to our travel. I was standing in my room looking at the suitcases trying to come up with the best way to get everything packed, my phone rings and I see it's AWAA (our agency). They wanted to talk to Brian and I together about new information on Hadley. Praying she was okay first, and then worrying that they were going to stall our trip I didn't know whether to faint or puke. They told us that recent testing had revealed that she has a severe hearing loss, and they need us to reassess our feelings towards a child with a hearing impairment. Our assessment was short, we told them that the fact that she has a hearing impairment doesn't change the fact that she is our daughter, so let's get this show on the road and get our girl home. In this moment I questioned my ability to parent a child who is deaf, not my ability to love her or care for her. Down deep inside fear started to creep in and left me pondering if I would be the best parent for her because I don't know how to sign, would I fail her?
   After returning home, Hadley began to flourish in so many ways. God gave me the confidence that I needed in my ability to parent a child with hearing loss, I set my mind to learn ASL and provide Hadley with every resource available. My daughter will have her needs met, whatever it takes! Hadley's school has been diligent in meeting her needs, and I must say that they all love her so much! It makes me smile everyday when I see the little kids run over and greet her at the door, most of them signing "good morning Hadley!". Makes me wonder "are we teaching her or is she teaching us?" maybe it's both.
   On Wednesday, they called with Hadley's MRI results. I'm not going to give all the details about Hadley, we are protecting her privacy. I will share some of the bits and pieces because I want you all to know, and just maybe it will help another family or child in the future. Hadley's injury (brain bleed) was indeed caused by abuse. More than likely repeated abuse, and probably an injury of being forcefully shaken. Her hearing loss is indeed a result of the brain injury, and is permanent. I have grieved for my daughter's hearing loss since the first day I found out. Now, I'm just MAD!!!!!!! MAD is actually an understatement!!!!! I am furious!!!!!!!! I'm furious that my daughter can't hear because of another person's actions, that someone used force to shake my daughter so severely that she bleed in her brain..........With that being said, I also know that I will forgive that person, not now, but when I'm ready.... I will love Hadley so much that she will know that we will never let anyone else ever hurt her. We will teach her that we are forever!!!! She was born to be ours and nothing will ever change that.
      I am thankful that we didn't know about her hearing loss in her original file, because fear of raising a child with a hearing impairment would have scared me away.... I'm sad that I felt that way, but it's true. Sometimes fear scares us from meeting new people, going to new places, experiencing many different things, and living our life as God has planned for us to. I have learned in the past 5 months that I'm stronger than I thought, and living inside my comfort zone is really not living at all......

It's April.....

My I did a horrible job blogging through the month of March. Let's see here where should I start????
let's start with Hadley's medical updates shall we? We returned to UC Children's in the beginning of March to meet with Hadley's ENT team (and I mean TEAM) this is just one of the many things to love about UC it's a interdisciplinary team effort to treat each child with the best care available. We met with her ENT MD Dr.G (for short) and as soon as he walked into our room he asked "when was your gotcha day?" I quickly responded by stating how impressed I was that he spoke "adoption lingo" and he said "well I have 2 adopted children myself" coincidence? I think not... Just an example of how detailed God really is in orchestrating his plan for our girl.... he did shed insight on the next few steps we will be taking in getting Hadley to hear and talk as soon as possible. Next step MRI of head, ear and an ARB while she's asleep for the MRI. The earliest appointment not until 4/25 which just so happens to be the same time I will be at Frontier attending Clinical Bound. Not happy about that, but my mom said she would go with Brian, so it will be okay.
   Next update...... FOOD.... our girl is still eating like a bird, with very little things on her menu. I have researched this topic and it can take months to get children to eat better. It's hard to tell what's a normal 3 year old and what's just Hadley. But, our Chinese doll loves spaghetti..........

She's also doing so good at school and with all of her therapies.... Couldn't be any prouder of our girl!!!