6 month post placement visit

Today is Ellie's 6 month post placement visit. We have two visits with our social worker. One at her office and then one at our house. Today Jeff and I will be going to her office with Ellie. I have typed up all of her medical/therapy appts since she has been with us and it totaled 3 pages! I have a couple more to add as she will be seeing the developmental pediatrician this coming Monday and then has her 6 month follow-up at the IAC ( International Adoption Center ) the following Wed. It is amazing how the time flies! Ellie is really doing great. I will be approaching Boone County about helping us pay for speech services over the summer next week so if you could all pray that is goes well that would be great. I would love to see her continue to improve in speech and really think she needs more than the 1x/week that our insurance will cover. But speech is pricey and we can't afford to cover it out of pocket and with school out she will be missing the additional 2x/week that she currently goes. We also have to have 5 pictures for the social worker for our 6 month visit. 3 of the pictures are just of her and then 2 with the whole family. We don't have the family pictures yet so we need to get that done...either by setting our camera up ourselves of having someone take a few of us. None of our family pics are that great as Ellie is either trying to get down or crying in most of them and we don't think that we be a good picture to send back to the Chinese govt!

No shopping for her...

So Ellie really hates to shop. And coincidentally right now I really don't like to shop with her either! None of us are real shoppers in this family unless you count Jeff, who definitely likes to shop for clothes. For me it is just pure drudgery even though I try to have a good attitude about it. But Ellie just seems to hate being in the cart..anywhere in it. Not in the front, nor back nor with her sisters in it with her. However take her out of the cart to let her walk and you might as well have not even gone to the store. So I needed to do a few things today as I am leaving this afternoon for an overnight women's retreat. All two hours of what I needed to accomplish were very painful for us all as she hollered and cried and cried some more and then threw fits. I am pretty sure everyone in every store that we went to were aware of us. Of course Ainsley doesn't appreciate Ellie's cries of misery and has to chime in her own. It is at these times that I have to remind myself why in fact I LOVE my children so much. They're cute when we aren't shopping, they do cute and funny things, and they often they give me hugs and kisses and say I love you in their own way. This is what I have to remind myself of when I shop..if only I could have taken a picture of them both!

Things are moving along

It seems that things move along quickly and I just don't make the time to post. Things have been going well for us here but very busy. I am adjusting to having Ellie in speech three times a week which has been good for her but quite a bit more for me to add to the schedule. It isn't very far to travel as the additional two times a week are at our elementary school only 5 or so minutes away. But it means I have to be home early to get her down for a nap because speech on Mon and Tues is from 3-3:30 and she still needs a 2 hour nap. We have notice a big improvement in how many words she is attempting to imitate which is really good. She is still not saying two words together but any improvement is always good. Physically her gross motor skills are getting better though I think we may invest in some knee pads that she must where everywhere as she is constantly falling. We are so amazed at the progress that Ellie continues to make and we can't believe we are hitting the 6 month mark. The social worker that did our homestudy will be back in our house in a few weeks to do Ellie's 6 month follow-up that we have to do for China. What an amazing 6 months it has been! We can't imagine life without her now:) Her hair is longer, her social skills are better and she has attached really well so far. We are so thankful for our new little addition.
Here are a few new pics of Ellie





Mackenzie and Ainsley are doing well also. School has been going well for both of them and it is so fun to see Ainsley growing up a bit. She has been easier to live with in the last month or so and has overall been doing a good job with Ellie. They still get on each other's nerves at times but they also play really well together too which has been fun to see. Ainsley LOVES preschool and I think is looking forward to kindergarten next year. We just registered her and she will be screened sometime in August. Mackenzie is of course looking forward to summer vacation as am I for a break! But she will be excited about second grade too I think. School has been going well for her and I was finally able to get on her last field trip of the year to the Boone County Arboretum. We had fun and I enjoy getting to know the kids in her class. I volunteer once a week in her class and I really enjoy that time with the kids. I could never be a teacher but volunteering is fun:)
Here are some pics of Mackenzie and Ainsley





Jeff and I are doing well. We were able to get away on an overnight while my mother-in-law was in town and that was great. Work has been busy for jeff but we did manage to repaint the main bath and put up some paneling. We also managed to buy and assemble a new bedroom set for mackenzie from IKEA. I love that store! Hopefully in the next week or so I will takes some pics of the bathroom and her room once it is completely done. Here are a few pics of Jeff and I

Some recent pics of the girls finally!

Here are some pics from Easter. Unfortunately I didn't get any of all the girls together:(

Sorry for the long wait

So I haven't posted in a while. I have been reading all of my friend's blog that I follow regularly but just haven't made the time to download my photos from the last few weeks so I haven't wanted to post. But I figured that it has almost been a month and I just need to post. Hopefully I get myself in gear with the pictures as we have a few really good ones. In the last few weeks, Jeff's mom has been in town, we got away for an overnight just the two of us and Ellie has had many therapy sessions. It seems like the weeks have flown by with just the normal day to day stuff. The girls had a great time with their Grammie I. in town as they always do and Grammie had a great time with them too. It was nice to hear from another source that Ellie has indeed made progress in the last few months. There are times when it seems so slow that we forget she is making progress. But Grammie said she saw a big difference between Christmas and now so that was good to hear. Ellie continues to have speech 3 times a week. Once privately through the speech dept of one of our local hospitals and then twice through the school. I love her private speech therapist. She has been great with Ellie and Ainsley has fun too. Physically she is coming along with her gross motor skills, but it is her speech that we are most concerned with at this point as she is developing speech VERY slowly. But we all love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her. She is completely a mommy's girl but does have a pretty good time with daddy too. She and Ainsley have started to warm up to each other and are doing better together too.
Jeff and I had a great time away while Jeff's mom watched the kids for us. It was nice to just have some time away. We went to a fantastic restaurant overlooking Cincinnati on Sat night and then stayed at a hotel in downtown Cincinnati. We of course used our time without kids to make our FIRST run to IKEA. A new IKEA opened in West Chester, OH and I wanted to check it out. We had a fantastic time and were really glad that we didn't have the kids as the place was a zoo! However we got some fantastic ideas for new furniture in Mackenzie's room and decided that a second trip with the kids was in order. Since then we have actually made 3 trips, twice with all the kiddos and then once with just Ellie. We have now finished Mack's room and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Nothing much on the walls so we do need a bit of decor but the furniture looks good:) I will have to take a picture soon.
I have also managed to purchase a new pair of running shoes, get injured, take time off from running, see the podiatrist and start running again...all in the span of time that I haven't posted! Isn't that amazing? I am feeling ok now and am waiting for a new gel padding thing to come in to the podiatrist's office. Apparently I have bruised a bone at the base of my big toe which is a common running injury. I find this fascinating as I have been running on again off again for a lot of years and have never managed to hurt myself. I hope this is not an indication that I am getting old;)
That is pretty much it from our side of the world. Hopefully I will be better about posting in the next few weeks.